Month: October 2023

Which do you trust more: God’s Word or man’s interpretation of it?

Man says, “God’s promises are ‘yes’ ‘no’ ‘maybe’ ‘not yet’.

God’s Word says, 2 Corinthians 1:20—for all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

Man’s says, “God took your child because He needed him or her more than you did.” Or “He’s growing your faith.” Or “He’s testing you.” Or “He’s teaching you something.” Or “We don’t know why God took your child. But He has a reason.”

God’s Word says in:

John 10:10—The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

You know who the thief is, right? It’s our arch-enemy the devil!

God’s Word says in:

1 John 4:7-8—Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know god, for God is love.

According to the Oxford Dictionary online—Love means an intense feeling of deep affection.

According to A Close Look at the Meaning of God’s Love in the Bible⬇⬇ this word “love” means:

The Hebrew word for God’s Love is “khesed” which means more than just affection…it’s also a loyal commitment to be generous to that person for the long run. In Exodus 34:6 God calls Himself “compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in “khesed” and faithfulness.

“Khesed” has also been translated as “steadfast love”, “goodness”, “kindness”, “loving kindness”, “faithfulness”, “love”, and even “loyal love”.

Let’s think about this logically

Would you, as a parent, kill your child’s beloved pet because he needed to learn a lesson…or it was punishment for something bad your child did…or they needed to see your love in action—to learn that sometimes cruelty can really be love…or just to teach them some unknown lesson that will reveal itself over time?

Sounds pretty ridiculous, doesn’t it? I’m pretty sure that such an act would be considered child abuse.

And yet, we don’t hesitate to attribute child abuse, cruelty, or other such atrocities to our God, Who IS Love! Does that make any sense to you????

1 John 4:7-8—Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

Exodus 34:6 “And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love (“khesed”) and faithfulness.”

John 10:10—The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

2 Corinthians 1:20—for all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

When you look closely at the 4 Scripture references above—what do they tell you about our God? Will this God have favorites and say “yes” to blessing your neighbor…but “no” to you or worse still…that wonderful 😖 “maybe” that He supposedly uses?

Will He steal, kill, or destroy your dream, your child, your spouse, or something else He’s given you—just because …? Or is that the trademark of the enemy?

John 10:10—The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

I think that as Christians, we really need to start questioning what we’ve been taught to believe when it doesn’t line up with what God’s Word says. It’s time to start asking questions like—Is this the action of a God Who IS Love? And if it isn’t then we need to find another explanation for what we’re experiencing.

Remember: He isn’t just a God Who does Love. He’s a God Who IS Love! It is His very nature! He can NOT do anything that isn’t Love!

If what we believe doesn’t line up with what a God Who IS Love would do—then it’s time to rethink what we believe—till it lines up with what God’s Word says!

What do you think?

John 15:7

If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.

The word translated as “ask” is translated from the Greek word “aiteo” = to ask, beg, call for, crave, desire, require.

The word translated as “what” is a compound word in Greek “hos he ho” = which, what, that… and “ean” = whatsoever, whosoever. Together they would mean a definite whatsoever you desire.

The word translated as “desire” from the Greek “thelo” = have in mind, intend, purpose, desire, wish, love, like, take delight in, have pleasure, determine, choose, prefer.

The word translated as “done” is the Greek “ginomai” = to become, to come into existence, begin to be, come to pass, happen, be performed, finished, be made. This word is used with great latitude—literally, figuratively, intensively, etc.

Ask whatever you desire

So, Jesus is telling His disciples that if we live IN Him, make our home IN Him, take up residence IN Him…and His Word lives in us—we meditate on it day and night (Joshua 1:8) make it a part of who we are and how we think… then we can ask, desire, require whatsoever we have in mind, purpose, desire, take delight in! AND it will come into existence, come to pass, be performed, be made for us!

Wow! Do you see what God’s Word is saying here?

When we delight ourselves in the Lord, when His desires have become our desires, when we take pleasure in Him and desire to be obedient to His Word in and for our lives—THEN we can ask for whatever we desire and it will be done for us.

This is not a “maybe” people! This is a plain and simple and undeniable “WILL be done” for us.

When our hearts are aligned with God’s—then our desires become the same as His desires! In what world would we ever think that God wouldn’t want to fulfill His desires in us…and through us to others???

How can we know?

But how do we know if our desires are the same as God’s desires?

Psalms 37:4 tells us to

Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.

“Delight” from the Hebrew “anag” = to be soft, be happy about, take exquisite delight, make merry over. The dictionary defines it as “to very much enjoy”.

Does this describe your relationship with the Lord, or the desire of your heart? If you can say yes to this then you’ve probably already noticed that your dreams and desires are changing. Your taste in what you watch or read or how you spend your time is changing.

The more I started to desire to be with the Lord, the more I found myself hungering for a closer relationship and a better understanding of Him…the more I found my tastes changing. I became fussier about what I watched on TV, what I read, what I spent my time talking or thinking about. Slowly, but surely, my tastes began to change over time.

The more you find yourself hungering to know God more, to understand His ways better, to draw closer to Him, to receive and understand His love better—the more you know that you are delighting yourself in the LORD!

And when you do that His desires unknowingly and increasingly become your desires and you can be guaranteed that He will give you the desires of your heart! Then you will be able to “ask for whatever we desire and it will be given to us”.

And honestly…think of it…what loving parent doesn’t give their child their heart’s desire if it’s at all possible for them to do so? How much more will our Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask of Him! (Matthew 7:11)

Abide in His Love

John 15:9-10

As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

You are to abide, to remain, to tarry, to not depart, to continue to be present, to live IN Jesus’ Love for you.

You are to attend carefully to what Jesus has commanded you, to guard these commands, to keep an eye on them, to prevent them from escaping.

You are to prevent them from falling out of your understanding and knowledge, from falling into disuse in your life. You are to be keeping them in a fortress where they can’t be stolen from you by the cunning lies of the enemy!

Our commission

You are to keep doing those commandments of Jesus—and as you keep them you’ll be living in His Love—because Jesus was all about LOVE! To do His commandments is to LOVE on others. To pour out His LOVE to those around you. LOVE activates you. LOVE sends you to work in the fields and reap the harvest of souls. LOVE commissions you to be Jesus to all those around you. To…

“Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:15-18)

This is what your life is to look like. This is how you LOVE like Jesus LOVED while He walked the earth!

When Jesus left He sent you the Holy Spirit to live in you. To make you all like Jesus. To turn you into His little brother or sister who continues His work that He was doing while He walked the earth.

That is your commission. That is the Father’s desire for you. And that is what the devil has stolen from so many of our hearts…mine included…for so many years.

It makes me sad😞😫😭 to realize just how many of my years were wasted chasing the things of this world—when our God, our Abba, our Daddy—has something so vastly much better for all of us to do!

Don’t let my mistake be your mistake. God has so much good instore for you and to do through you! If your heart is hungry to know more of this amazing God of ours…leave me a message. I’d be happy to share what I’ve been learning with you!

We are all brothers and sisters IN Christ! Let’s start working together to share the “to good to be true” gospel of Jesus Christ!

So what on earth is Agape Love?

Agape Love is God’s amazing Love for us. Strong’s Concordance defines it as an unconditional, undeserved, unearned love that’s poured out on us regardless of whether we’ve done anything good to deserve it or not. It’ s given by choice and will and isn’t based on feelings or emotions of any kind.

God’s Agape Love gives us the right to call the devil a liar every time he tells us we aren’t worthy or deserving or good enough to earn the Love, the Agape of God! Agape isn’t earned or deserved! Instead Agape Love floods our lives and minds…simply because God has chosen to pour it out on us.

1 John 4:8 – He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

There’s nothing that this Love won’t do for us…simply because of the fact that it’s unconditional… without even the tiniest filament of a string attached. It’s offered freely and not based on anything we do, have done, or will ever do–whether good or bad!

Do you see that? There isn’t anything…not one single thing that you’ve done or will ever do that will make you more, or less, deserving of God’s Agape Love!

Pause and think about this for a minute or 60. God’s Love for you is completely unconditional… completely unearned… and completely undeserved. That means that we don’t have to earn it or deserve it or faithful and correctly complete a bunch of rules to have fulfilled all the conditions…

It’s FREE!

It’s UNEARNED!

It’s UNDESERVED!

That’s truly an amazing and comforting understanding! It means that His love never changes…it doesn’t wax hot and cold like ours so often does. His Love is a steady flame the burns the same for us…day in and day out!

Nothing. Nothing. NOTHING we do or don’t do will alter His Love toward us even one teeny tiny iota! Now STOP and think about this for a moment or many moments.

The God of the Universe Loves you with a never-ending, never-changing, everlasting love! How amazing is that?

There’s nothing you and I can do that will cause God to reject us and stop His love toward us. We can stop loving Him, we can do something terrible, we can do something excessively stupid, we can turn from His face and waste our days on useless stuff…and STILL He will NEVER reject us or stop loving us!

If this isn’t an awesome thought then I don’t know what is!

God’s never-ending Love for us is incredible! We should never stop being amazed by it! This Love gives us ample reason to stop regularly and simply worship Him!

How can you stop and thank Him, right now, for His incredible, abundant, and everlasting Love for you?

I was thinking about stumbling blocks today…you know those lies that the devil uses to trip us up and cause us to doubt God…or to question His love for us?

What’s a “stumbling block”?

A stumbling block is any circumstance that causes you difficulty or hesitation… that causes you to doubt God’s love for you!

Stumbling blocks are lies from satan that depress you, make you feel badly about yourself, make you question your faith…anything and everything that stands between you and a close relationship with your loving Heavenly Father!

Stumbling blocks are lies from satan that depress you, make you feel badly about yourself, make you question your faith…anything and everything that stands between you and a close relationship with your loving Heavenly Father!

Our Father is a loving Father…but more than that He IS Love! This word “Love” comes from the Greek word Agape which is defined as an unconditional love, the highest form of love, the love of God for man and of man for God.

What is Unconditional Love?

Do you know what it means to have unconditional love?

Simply put it’s Love without any strings attached. It’s offered freely. It isn’t earned or deserved. It isn’t based on what we do or who we are…it’s based on Whose we are!

It’s based on the Fact that God is LOVE! Nothing more…nothing less.

God IS Love and therefore He loves us and always will! Nothing we do can stop His Love for us. We can’t earn it. It isn’t based on what we do or don’t do. God’s LOVE just is!

We are children of God. Made in His image. And we were bought back from the devil for an extremely high price…the beating and bloodied body of Christ, crucified for us so that His blood and brokenness could pay the price for our sins and our healing.

Just as it says in 1 Peter 2:24…

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.

Stop and think about this for a moment! How often have you felt unloved by God? How often have you wondered whether God could still love you after what you’ve done?!? How often have you judged yourself unlovable because all you can see is the truckload of sins you have to your name? How often have you felt unworthy of His love—felt like there was a wall between you and God?

Do you see the lies here? Can you spot the untruths? Do you see how the devil has used your fears, your doubts, your feelings of unworthiness to beat you over the head and convince you that it’s not possible for anyone, not even God, to love you?

God is good! The devil is bad!

When you look at your unloveliness, your sin, your failures, your shortcomings—can you believe God loves you? Or do you feel that it’s impossible for God to love you?

Does it make you feel good to feel unloved by God? Then who do you think is the source of that bad feeling you have about yourself?

Still not sure that God loves you unconditionally? Check out these verses…

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Zephaniah 3:17

The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.

Romans 8:37-39

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isaiah 54:10

“Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet My unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor My covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

Psalm 136:26

Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

God’s Love NEVER stops flowing toward us…NEVER! Not even when we don’t deserve it! His Love endures forever. It’s unstoppable!

If you are struggling to believe that God’s Love for you never ends and never changes please DM me. I used to feel the same way—so I know what you’re going through! I’d be happy to share what I’ve learned and help you to find your own security in God’s incredible love 💞 for you!