Author: jma47

Choosing Righteousness

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Our hidden thought patterns manifest openly through our words and actions. Our heart is designed to be a reservoir of God’s word, hidden to keep us from sin. Psalm 119:11 says, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”
 
No one ‘makes’ us put anything in our heart. It is always our choice. We can choose to obey God’s word or reject it. We are not robots but living hearts, created for communion with the Lord of Lords.
 
He gives His righteousness to those who believe. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Amazing grace! Isaiah 61:10 says, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness…”
 
This is who we are. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are covered with the robe of His righteousness. We are a living testimony of the One who died for us.
 
As my friend, Tom Griner, just said: we need to speak out of who we are, because that is where the anointing is. Not some canned speech, but a walk of righteousness that sets us apart as His.
 
Here is one of my favorite verses that helps me monitor my steps. Psalm 85:13 says, “Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make His footsteps our pathway.”
 
David had a great prayer that I have made my own. Psalm 25:4-5 says, “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”
 
Unrighteousness, according to Romans 1:18, says that it suppresses the truth. Who are we? Truth seekers. David had a faith-statement. Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
 
One who walks in righteousness (conforming their thoughts, purpose, and actions to God’s will) has a seeking heart–a heart that follows hard after the Lord. Their heart thirsts to spend time in intimate communion. There is a burning desire to emulate the Lord by walking in truth.

Practicing Righteousness Part Two

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Here is a great illustration to better understand the word to conform. Watch in your mind. See a potter sitting at the potter’s wheel. The clay had been softened and kneaded with water.
The potter takes the lump and centers it by consistent pressure until the clay is yielded under his hands. Not until then. It is the centering that allows the vessel to be formed perfectly as the potter deems.
The Lord centers us through our everyday situations, through our hard trials, and through adversity. He uses every aspect of our lives to conform us to His will in thought, purpose, and action.
We practice righteousness through our thoughts. The moment we are tempted to sin is the alert-signal we need to re-center our thoughts on the Lord.
Let’s take anger. The moment I am tempted to be angry, I have two options. One is to dialogue in my mind about what is making me angry until I react. Another is to act out one of my truth verses. Proverbs 29:11 Amplified says, “A (self-confident) fool utters all his anger, but a wise man holds it back and stills it.”
When the temptation to be angry seeks to pull me away from walking in His righteousness, I bring that thought captive by holding it back and stilling it through the NEXT thought. The next thought centers me on the Lord. Ephesians 4:26 says to be angry and sin not.
We practice righteousness by applying the truth of God’s word. To entertain the temptation increases the enticement. Speaking truth in our heart and walking in it during the moment of the temptation, captures, arrests, annihilates, destroys, and obliterates the temptation. Exclamation point!

Practicing Righteousness

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We practice something so that we can become proficient. What does it mean to practice righteousness? First we must consider what it is. I love the Amplified. It says: conforming our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will.
 
Here is a verse that brings us to real time. 1 John 5:17 says, “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” All means without exception.
 
Therefore our thoughts, purpose, and actions that are not conformed to God’s will are sin. Did you hear that? Then how do we practically apply this to our every day life?
 
Here is an example. You are feeling impatient. To carry that out into sin would be to react in your flesh: hurt others with your words, behavior that would not honor the Lord, like burst out in anger.
 
At that moment of temptation to be impatient, you recall a verse. I like to think of Luke 21:19 which says, “By your patience possess your souls.” Here is another in James 1:3, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.”
 
Each time we are tempted to sin our faith is on the line. Are we going to believe God? That is faith. When Abraham and Sarah were too old to have children, he continued to believe in the face of that impossibility. He aligned his will to God’s will. Maybe he remembered what happened when they were impatient and Ishmael was born.
 
We practice righteousness when we wrestle down the temptation to sin with truth from God’s word. We proclaim that truth and walk in it rather than turn into and embrace the temptation.

Holy Spirit Our Leader Part Two

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John 15:15 says, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known to you.”
 
Friends! Think about your closest friends. I love quality time with my friends. That is exactly what our quiet is like with the Lord. His love language is love. He leads, corrects,  nurtures, nourishes, encourages, sustains, and supports all through love.
 
Think about this verse in connection with our Friend sharing from His heart with us. It is one of my favorites. 1 Corinthians 2:10 Amplified says, “Yet to us God has unveiled and revealed them by and through His Spirit, for the (Holy) Spirit searches diligently, exploring and examining everything, even sounding the profound and bottomless things of God (the divine counsels and things hidden and beyond man’s scrutiny).”
 
It is in our secret time with our Friend that He will share such profound truths from His word that it can stagger us. I’m often speechless. Wow! I never thought of that, I’ve never read it, I’ve never heard it spoken!
 
If you love to hear secrets, then your quiet time is the place. He loves to share His heart with those that are close to Him. There is nothing He doesn’t know, or can’t do, or can’t reveal. He is Everything. John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…” As you read this, think about what it really means to you to be chosen by the Creator and loved unconditionally. It will buoy your heart and put a spring in your step 💜

The Holy Spirit Our Leader

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John 16:13 says, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth…” Verse 14 says, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”
 
1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”
 
The key to following the Holy Spirit is to be led. To be led speaks of attentive, sensitive, watching, alert, and focused. Galatians 5:16 says, “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”
 
We saw in the journey of the children of Israel lots of flesh. They looked back and complained. They compared what they had in the past to what they didn’t have at the present. They totally forgot the bondage and only focused on their fleshly wants.
 
Yesterday I read 1 John. I noticed the word practice. 1:6 says, “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” 2:29 says, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.” 3:7 says, “Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.”
 
The Amplified describes righteousness as conforming our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will. All flesh is our will. Therein lies the root that tugs constantly. Our flesh wants its own way. Here is the question to ask yourself: who is leading me?

Joshua The Leader Part Two

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Joshua was part of the children of Israel from the time they left Egypt until Moses died. Then he became the leader. He heard all the complaints. He was there through all the scenes.
 
All their complaining was for naught (as is ours). The Lord took care of every need (as He does for us). Joshua 21:44-45 says, “…not a man of all their enemies stood against them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand. Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.”
 
Joshua 23 was his farewell address. It was a reminder of what would happen if they forgot the Lord. Verse 11 says, “Therefore take careful heed to yourselves, that you love the Lord your God.”
 
He told them that if they clung to the remnant of the nations, that the Lord would no longer drive them out. They would become snares and traps, scourges in their sides, and thorns in their eyes until they perished from the land.
 
Chapter 24 he reviewed their history and how the Lord had delivered them. Verse 15 Joshua declared, “…as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Verse 16 says, “So the people answered and said: Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods.”
 
We find out in Judges 1 that they did not drive out all the inhabitants. Joshua, the leaders, and all that came out of Egypt died. Judges 2:11 says, “Then the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals.”
 
1 Corinthians 10:1-11 is a recap as an example for us, written for our admonition. Verse 12 says, “Therefore let hm who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
 

Joshua The Leader

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In Exodus 33 Joshua was called a young man. Only he and Caleb lived out of the 12 men Moses sent to spy out the land. We know Joshua was at least 20 years old. There were in the wilderness 40 years.
 
Joshua was with Moses when the Lord explained how the children of Israel would become corrupted. No wonder the Lord assured him, as the new leader that He would be with him.
 
In Joshua 1:5 He told Joshua that no man would be able to stand before him. Verses 6, 7, and 9 He told him to be strong and very courageous.
 
The Lord affirmed his leadership again in Joshua 3:7. It says, “And the Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.”
 
Do you remember in the Song of Moses? They sang prophetically that their enemies would hear and be afraid, and that fear and dread would fall upon them. That is fulfilled in Joshua. I don’t know how the word spread but even the kings from far away heard and came out against the Israelites. Time and time again Joshua and the men of war destroyed them.
 
It was Joshua’s role to assign the various land for each of the 9 1/2 tribes. 2 1/2 already gained their land on the other side of the Jordan.
 
Here is a note on Caleb. It gives us a time line. Joshua 14:10 Caleb said that he was 85 years old. Verse 11 says, “I am as strong this day as on the day that Moses sent me; just as my strength was then, so now is my strength for war…”
 
Joshua 18:3 says, “Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the Lord God of your fathers has given you?”
 
Great question for us. What areas of our flesh have not been brought under the control of the Holy Spirit? What stubborn habits exist? What behavior is just plain pride and self-seeking? It is time to go in and destroy the enemy’s strongholds and possess that land for the glory of the Lord.

Moses The Leader Part Two

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I want us to think about Moses just before he died. The Lord told him and Joshua how the children of Israel would be. Deuteronomy 31:16 says, “…this people will rise up and play the harlot with the gods of the foreigners…they will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them.”
 
Then the Lord instructed Moses to write a song and teach it to them. Then He inaugurated Joshua. Verse 23 He told him, “…Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore to them, and I will be with you.”
 
Moses gave them a final blessing in chapter 33. Then he went up to Mount Nebo. The Lord showed him all the land. 34:4 says, “…I have caused you to see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”
 
Verse 7 says, “Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished.” Verse 10 says, “But since then there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”
 
What can we learn from Moses? He endured the complaining of the children of Israel and their rebellion forty years! One time he reacted in his flesh and openly disobeyed the Lord. That disobedience caused him to forfeit God’s promise to take them into the promised land.
 
The fleshly reactions of others are not an excuse for us to react in our flesh. The Lord has called us to walk in progressive sanctification. We are not to go backwards into our old man manifestations, but forwards as new creations in Christ.
 
2 Timothy 1: 9 says, “Who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
 
Ephesians 5:15-19 says to walk circumspectly, redeem the time, understand what the will of the Lord is, be filled with the Spirit, and make melody in our heart to the Lord.” May we honor and glorify Him in all that we say and do. We are His witnesses for this time in our history – let us be about His business.

Moses The Leader

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I have just spent three books reading about Moses as the leader of the children of Israel. At the end of Deuteronomy, he was 120 years old. He had three sets of 40 years. The last 40 was about the exodus of the children of Israel. The number of men, 20 years and above, was an army of 603,550.
However, when Moses sent 12 spies into the promised land, 10 came back with a bad report. Numbers 14:36-37 says, “Now the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made ALL the congregation complain against him by bringing a bad report of the land, those very men who brought the evil report about the land, died by the plague before the Lord.”
Verse 33 was God’s pronouncement on all those who were the original 603,550. It says, “And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity, until your carcasses are consumed in the wilderness.”
The children of Israel were on the edge of going into the promised land. They forfeited it because of their complaining. The result was wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.
Moses endured a lot of flak as he led the children of Israel through the wilderness. In Numbers 14 the Lord was ready to wipe everyone out and start all over with just Moses. Verses 19-20 are the results of Moses’ intercession.
They say, “Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now. Then the Lord said: I have pardoned, according to your word.”
That was then, this is now. It is our time to intercede for our nation and the nations of the world. Complaining displeases the Lord (Numbers 11:1). Intentional intercession is the call of the day. We, of the nations, are in dire straits. There is only One who can intervene.

The ‘Do Not’s’ Part Two

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Here is a well known double ‘do not’ in Ephesians 4:26. “Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” If you go to bed angry, you will get up angry. It is a heart issue that needs to be resolved with forgiveness.
 
The 10 commandments are a list of do nots. They are character monitors. The beatitudes help us understand the Lord’s way, so they are the ‘do’s to follow.
 
Psalm 19:7 says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Verses 8-11 continue to speak of the power of His word worked into our lives: rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, they produce the fear of the Lord, explain His judgments. They are more desirable than all riches, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. They warn us.
 
Therefore it is essential that we make the daily reading of His word our priority. It is not enough to just read, but to observe so we can implement His instruction. His word is applicable to every aspect of our lives.
 
I’m proofing “Victorious Living: more than a conqueror.” Last night I read this: as we work His word into the fabric of our heart, it secures us when faced with strife. Strife is an evil invitation to enter the fray. Do not let that happen. Immediately arm your mind with truth.
 
We have the resources. We are not left without recourse. The Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth we need to navigate successfully through today’s challenges. Trust Him and follow with a humble heart.