It’s another Monday morning, and you’re back at your job after a wonderful weekend. Physically you’re behind your desk, but your mind is still clinging to the freedom and pleasures of the past two days. You like your job, or maybe you don’t like it, but most miss the days off. So you hang in there because by the time you go home Monday night, Saturday and Sunday will be just a memory!
Now, work and labor are a good thing. It’s how we survive and prosper. But how we carry out that work is equally important. What do our co-workers see when they observe us at work? Are we enthusiastic? Impassioned? Committed? Or do we simply go through the motions, doing what we have to do to collect a paycheck?
“Work with enthusiasm, as though you were working for the Lord rather than people.” Ephesians 6:7 NLT
As Christians, we are to work in such a way that separates us from the rest of the world. Our attitude must be entirely different by being positive and infectious. They must see a difference in us because we work from a supernatural perspective knowing that the natural will be taken care of. Remember, our focus is set on things above!
As your work week begins today, don’t forget that the eyes of your co-workers are on you. Do you show them Jesus on the job or someone else? Will they want what you have, or will they just see more of what they see in the world? Let’s show them the best way!
Prov 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.”
On this day we celebrate what no other nation on earth celebrates – the peaceful transition of power between political parties. This is the heritage of this great nation and our forefathers! Let us celebrate this day, that God has looked upon this land and determined that in such a place we could have liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Let us remember today that President Trump, who has brought hope and connects with the needs of hurting humanity, must have our prayers and strength for the difficult challenges he faces now and will face throughout his presidency. May his wisdom rest in the counsel of the ALMIGHTY!
People who encounter Jesus have not changed much in 2,000 years. Unless they are trained to understand the truth, they begin to just stand and wait for a gift from heaven instead of using the gift of righteousness that has already been given to them (see Rom. 5:17).
They stand in churches and wait for a sermon to inspire them. They stand in schools and wait for an education to anoint them. They stand in seminars and wait for the free gift of a prophetic word to call them out. But there is a real danger in waiting. It is the main cause for the failure of the Church structure today. Inactive people find themselves in a very destructive mode.
If you ask a beekeeper when the most dangerous time is to deal with a hive, he will say that it’s when the bees have stopped producing honey and the hive is full. Thousands and thousands of bees swirling around with no work to do causes great agitation. They begin to look at the beekeeper and each other as enemies.
That’s when they begin to sting.
Churches that have lost the larger purpose of outreach begin an inward-spiraling cycle of backbiting, scorn, and criticism. This is destructive to the church and the very people they are called to work with.
The angels are still crying out to people, “Why do you stand here waiting? There is no gifting better than the one you have: to be blessed with the indwelling presence of Jesus Himself. There is no training better than what you have: to be led by the Holy Spirit within. There is no prophecy better than what you have: to declare over your life what Jesus has already done for you, and who you are in Him!”
There is no need to wait for what God has already given. However, there is a need to believe in yourself, and that you are gifted by God Himself to carry out His purpose for your life.
John Wesley, founder of the Methodists, said, “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.” Prayer is the GOD-MAN vehicle for carrying out His will. We might say it this way, it seems as if God needs a person to agree, to be in harmony with His will, in order to act.
Now that God is in us, Jesus turns this privilege of agreement over to us by saying, “if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by My Father” (Matthew 18:19). You are harmonizing your words. You are saying the same thing together with another individual. This prayer now becomes a PERSON to PERSON vehicle fitted together through the power of agreement, the consistency of our words and the like-mindedness of our asking.
Some time ago we held a “Festival of Music & Miracles” in Karaganda, Kazakhstan. There were two elderly women present in the meeting who had been friends for many years. One of the women had eyeglasses with very thick lenses. She told me she had not been able to see anything without her glasses for forty years. The other woman said that she had suffered with pain in her legs for almost twenty-five years and could not walk without a cane. Both women listened as I shared this principle of agreement Jesus teaches us in Matthew 18:19.
At the end of the meeting they said to each other, “Okay, we are agreeing in prayer and asking You, God, to heal us. We believe that what You said is true, and if we agree, You will heal us right now. Father, in the name of Jesus we agree that our eyes and legs are made whole! Amen.”
It was such a simple but powerful moment of commitment as suddenly both of them were healed! They started shouting right away, “I can see!” “I can walk! My pain is gone!” You could not miss the joy on their faces. They stood out like two beacons of light in a very dark corner of the world. Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them”(Matthew 18:20).
“God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10 KJV).
Can a name really have power? If I were to tell you that Bill Gates, Microsoft genius and one of the world’s wealthiest men was ready to give you $1,000 worth of computer software, would you doubt his ability? Of course not, because globally the Gates name is synonymous with computer software. Even internet cafes in the most remote parts of the world have computers with Microsoft windows software. The Gates name has power in the software industry.
Jesus’ disciples discovered that His name had power in another realm. Two thousand years later His name remains synonymous with healing. I encourage you to speak the name of Jesus. We can boldly declare, “Sickness and disease, in the name of Jesus, you must leave!”
I remember traveling to Mexico and working with the Oaxaca Indians in the remote mountain villages. After many days of outreach the time came for a brief break from our activities, so we headed to the city for a day of R&R. I awoke the morning of our city adventure with the room swirling around me. I couldn’t believe it…I had food poisoning! I finally had the opportunity to relax and WHAMO! I was fighting horrible symptoms.
Over the years I have learned that when symptoms attack my body, I begin speaking. My flesh wanted to be sick and stay in bed. But I got up and started declaring, “I am healed by the stripes of Jesus! I thank you Lord. You are touching me with Your healing power – right now! And body, listen to me… “By His stripes I am healed!”” (Isaiah 53:5 emphasis mine)
I declared His Word not once, not twice, but for nearly an hour. Suddenly, faith arose in my heart and as quickly as the symptoms came they disappeared.
Several years ago while driving across the farmlands of the Southern Ukraine we stopped to purchase fuel. Our team leader would not heed the sticker that said our car required high-octane fuel for high performance and we proceeded to fill the car up with the cheaper gas. Fortunately for us, our car had a special shut off valve and after driving just a few miles the car shut down. We were so glad that our Russian team was familiar with siphoning gas and we were able to transfer this fuel to another car and walk back to the station for a new container of the HIGH-OCTANE gasoline. Reality set in for this team—there was no substitute for the real thing!
In our lives, let’s remember, time spent with God is time spent fueling your high-performance engine with the most efficient, cost effective, eco-friendly power source available! Lord, we ask you to inject us with your heavenly fuel today!
“The Spirit is a help to our feeble hearts… And we are conscious that all things are working together for good to those who have love for God, and have been marked out by his purpose” (Rom 8:26a, 28 BBE).
“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose” (Romans 8:28 AMP.)
WOW! I get excited when I read this passage. God is a partner in our labor working things together for us! What a pleasure it is to trust in Him, knowing that He is working behind the scenes on our behalf.
Recently in prayer I heard myself saying, “God, YOU are my partner and I have total confidence that You are bringing in the resources, people and establishing the plans in Your time frame!”
There’s a lot of change surrounding each one of us due to difficulties in this natural world; however, in this time of transition we use our faith and our passion to latch on to God’s will, and to the wealth that is available for transfer into the hands of those in the kingdom of God!
We are not down and defeated without hope or alternatives, BUT WE ARE UP, EXPECTANT AND DREAMING OF NEW POSSIBILITES IN CHANGING TIMES!
I was fortunate to enjoy an afternoon in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. When Michelangelo painted the chapel, he did not do it freestyle, just splashing on the walls and ceiling with whatever colors he felt at the moment. No, first he constructed a model of the room and made detailed drawings of each corner and each figure, so his work would not appear distorted when viewed.
Jesus is our model. As we go out representing Him, we must look more closely at Him. Why do people have a distorted image of Jesus? It is because we are the only image they see! That image can bring life, love, joy, peace, and healing power to every person on the earth. But if we do not represent Him accurately, people will not see who He is.
Let us understand Jesus not as just another nice spiritual man, but as the living God. And let us not see His Kingdom as something to be looked forward to, but as something to be experienced now!
We must take one more step to untangle ourselves from the system of thought that denies power to us today and makes us spectators, rather than players, in the arena of life. What will get us out of the bleachers so we stop acting as observers, critics, and reporters and start making life happen now?
The wonderful facts of Christianity raise us from nobody to somebody, from simple to wise, from weak to courageous. These unmatched facts become living realities in a person when that person hears and chooses to believe them. What makes us like God and not like robots, is our ability to choose!
We can choose to see wonderful days ahead. We can choose to expect good favor coming our way. We can choose to anticipate everything lining up in our lives as we rejoice in our Maker.
The alternative is to live in fear. We can choose to fear that the economy will go down and take us with it. We can choose to fear that the doctor’s reports of cancer, heart disease, or a thousand other diagnoses are the final word. We can choose to fear tomorrow and fold up.
Or, we can spread our wings of faith and exclaim that everything will work out! The facts of our faith put us in the realm of God. Jesus said, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).
