We cannot consistently step forward while looking backward.  Forward motion requires single-minded pursuit.  We don’t look back to what was, but live in the now of what is.

1 Timothy 6:11 says, “But you, O man of God, flee these things, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.”  Psalm 34:14 says, “Depart from evil and do good, seek peace, and pursue it.”  Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

Pursue is an action word.  It requires attentiveness, being alert, and watchful.  It means to be aware and not complacent.  I want to make sure that nothing pulls me off course.

Peace is irrevocable.  It is a gift of righteousness.  To seek peace and pursue it means that I need to wrestle down any thoughts that would disturb my gift of peace.  For example, someone does something that causes anger to rise up within me.  Listen to this: that act of their part just revealed a hidden unresolved issue in my heart!

Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of spring the issues of life.”  Our unresolved issues rise when we least expect them.  They spring out unexpectedly.  Don’t get sidetracked in an angry exchange.  Instead of reacting, we should rejoice that the Lord has just revealed something that we buried.  It’s time to get set free!

One of my constant prayers is for the Lord to reveal the hidden in my heart.  I was a stuffer.  There are things buried that I don’t remember.  He is faithful to set us free, when we have enough truth hidden in our heart that will keep us grounded.

John 14:30 Jesus says, “…for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has no hold on Me.”  Jesus had no footholds, no hooks, absolutely nothing for satan to use to pull Him off His course.  That is what He desires for each of us.

Stay the course!  Luke 9:62 says, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”  Walking consistently with the Lord requires undivided attention, single-mindedness, and wholehearted pursuit.  Let go of your past to pursue peace in your present now.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lord taught me something very significant that I want to share with you.  I fell into a hard trial January 2, 2017.  It was right after I had typed 35 short ebooks and published 27 of them in 7 1/2 months.  Three of us were working to compile seven of the ebooks on forgiveness.  I was looking for duplicate verses when everything stopped.

Through this injury I could not see clearly, read anything, drive, work on my computer, think, process, or make decisions.  My emotions were flat line.  How do you not think?  If I tried, my brain would fatigue.  The Lord would bring a phrase from Scripture to my mind.  I would stay in that thought for hours.  Then He would give me another phrase.  As long as He brought it into my mind I could stay in that thought.  Here is an example: my life is hidden with Christ in God; You are my Steadfast Rock that cannot be moved, I am right now being strengthened in and by and through Your word, etc.

We are so prone to dialogue in our minds.  Our flesh loves to rehearse what has happened.  It is a futile pursuit, but a very effective tactic of the enemy to occupy our minds.

When we enter into trials, one way to remain steadfast in faith, is to rehearse God’s word.  His word is all-powerful.  Hebrews 4:12 says that His word penetrates to divide between our soul (mind, will, emotions) and spirit, and that it discerns our heart.

His hidden word is truth that has penetrated into our very soul.  It is truth that we know experientially.  It is His truth that has set us free from past areas of bondage.  We lean on that truth, we speak it in our hearts, and it governs our actions.

 

Consistent trust is an essential part of endurance.  There is a Greek word that I refer to often from Hebrews 10:26.  It is hupomone.  It is the word for endurance.  The verse says, “But you have need for endurance (hupomone), so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.”

The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance says that hupomone means: constancy, perseverance, continuance, bearing up, steadfastness, holding out, patient endurance.  I call it barnacle faith.  We cling to our Steadfast Rock with refusal to let go.

Our heart capacity increases as we continue to trust in our difficult circumstances.  We remain in His power that continually undergirds and strengthens us.  We remain steadfast as we rehearse the truths of His word.  He grounds us spiritually, emotionally, and physically to Him.

We remain as we encourage ourselves in the Lord.  Mark 4:17 says of the seed sown on rocky ground, “And they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.  Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble.”

We have a persistent adversary that wants to destroy God’s word within us.  He can’t because it is Eternal.  However, he consistently wars against us.  What happens when we fall into trials?  Our faith is tested.  It is purified so that we can stand in barnacle faith. We hold our door shield of faith up to quench every fiery dart he throws at us.

Trials also test our trust.  When we are suddenly immersed into hardships, do we lean on our own understanding, or let go of it to cling to Him?  Do we bury our emotional pain, or release it to Him?  Do we resist the work He is doing, or embrace it?

If you are in a hard trial right now, I encourage you to gather some personal intercessors.  They will be your ambush against the enemy.  Ai was defeated because of an ambush behind the city (Joshua 8:3-22).

Psalm 18:-16-18 is my personal testimony.  It says, “…He drew me out of deep waters.  He delivered me from my strong enemy, from those who hated me, for they were too strong for me.  They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support.”  The Lord gave me eight on call personal intercessors.  They prayed for me while I clung to Him.

We are called and equipped to endure.  His word in us is the anchor of our soul.  We are God’s display of His manifold wisdom.  Ephesians 3:10 says, “To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.”

This morning the Holy Spirit spoke these two words, ‘indefeatable hope’ as I started my quiet time.  Almost immediately phrases from hymns marched across my mind.  The first: …fastened to the Rock which cannot move, grounded firm and deep in my Savior’s love.  I’m sure you can recall some also.

Our hope is in the Lord who created us for a love relationship with Him.  That love can never be taken from us.  Our hope is as sure as His eternal love.  Romans 8:38-39.

I want to encourage you through these anchor verses.  Anchor verses hidden in our hearts secure and ground us in our trials.  Hebrews 6:19 says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.”

1 John 3:3 says, “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

Romans 5:2 says, “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”  Verse 5 says that now (present) hope does not disappoint.  It goes onto say, “…because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Are you discouraged?  It is the enemy of your soul’s weapon against your faith.  Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Until the day He takes you home to be with Him, He will work IN you through your adverse circumstances.  Nothing is in vain.  May He anchor you in His promises.

Psalm 62:5 says, “My soul, wait silently before God, for my expectation is from Him.”  Titus 1:2 says “In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.”  This verse secure my heart.  God cannot lie.  It’s impossible!  Therefore His word is true, backed by all that He is.

Here my verse that sums up my quiet time.  Psalm 119:147.  “I rise before the dawning of the morning, and cry for help; I hope in Your word.”  We have a living, active, present hope in the One who rose from the dead.  1 Peter 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

I painted this last night.  Great reminder.  Encouragement is an investment of the heart.

 

 

 

 

 

David asked the Lord to increase his heart’s capacity.  Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

When I bought my mobile there were huge old shrubs in front that housed countless spiders.  I had my landscaper tear them out and create a capacity for something new.

The Lord desires to reveal Himself in new ways through every situation in our lives.  He wants to lead us into the uncharted territory of His preplanned purposes.  He wants us to embrace Him through those changes.  It requires faith and trust.

What debris is cluttering your heart?  Things like bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, lies of the enemy that you have believed, fears, griefs, etc. all decrease our heart’s capacity to be single minded and wholehearted.  Anything we bury becomes debris that diminishes our heart’s capacity to trust.

Buried things keep that part of our heart clogged up with unresolved issues.  They section off our heart into fragments.  Isaiah 61:1 says that He came to heal the brokenhearted.  Those whose spirit was crushed through life’s circumstances.  Hearts that are walled off because of buried emotional pain.

David had another prayer.  Psalm 86:11-12 says, “Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.  I will praise You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify Your name forevermore.”  David was asking the Lord to unite His heart to embrace the Lord’s way.

Here is a prayer for us: Lord, I ask You to clean out my heart.  Create a place for the newness You desire me to walk in.  Increase my capacity to dwell in Your word, and to hide Your truths in my heart.  Truths that will help me remain steadfast in my trials and adverse circumstances.  I want to follow after You with pure desire, and  wholeheartedness that will bring glory to Your name.

 

 

 

This morning in my quiet time I was thinking about how the Lord thinks of me.  He is Ever Present.  He is All Knowing.  Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights is his way.”

I like to picture this verse as the Lord literally placing my feet into each step as I take it.  The second part of the verse is amazing.  He delights in placing my steps, and helping me walk on the paths He has pre-charted.  He always goes before us.  He prepares the way long before we walk it.  Job said that He knows the way that I take.

Psalm 139:14 says, “How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!”  Verse 15 goes onto say that they are more than the sands of the sea.  Imagine with me, taking a handful of sand.  Now, try to count how many grains of sand you are holding.  The Lord’s thoughts are of you, and me, and all of His children individually.  They are constant, consistent, and never distracted.

His thoughts are precious.  He delights in us!  Jeremiah 29:11 says that His thoughts are not evil (negative) but peaceful, and designed to give us a future and a hope.

I wrote Psalm 139:5-6 in my journal.  My friend texted me these verses this morning.  They are from the Passion Translation.  I want to share the wording with you.  “You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭139:2-4‬ ‭TPT‬‬

Verse 6 in the Amplified says, “Your (infinite) knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high above me, I cannot reach it.”  His infinite thoughts about each of us bring Him delight.

The challenge comes.  How much do you think about the Lord?  Is He constantly in your thoughts?  It gives new meaning for me to Proverbs 3:6.  It says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing God’s word.  When we make a faith declaration, we are proclaiming God’s word over our circumstances.  Faith is standing in what is already established for us.

Mark 11:22 says to have faith in God.  Period.  He is our object of faith.  Therefore, His word is our weapon of faith in the face of the impossible.  We bring our state into our standing, through faith declarations.

I’m putting in the parenthesis to underscore what I’m saying.  Ephesians 4:1 says, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk (state) worthy of the calling (standing) with which you were called.”

1 Thessalonians 2:12 says, “That you would walk (state) worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory (standing).”  Verse 13 says, “…you received the word of God…you welcomed it…as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.”  The Lord uses His word (standing) to transform our state.

2 Timothy 1:9 says, “Called us with a holy calling…according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began (standing).”

It is all so amazing.  We stand because He died for us.  Titus 3:5 reminds us that it is certainly not because of our works.  Apart from Him, we are nothing and we have nothing.

Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  Righteousness is conformity to God’s will.  Do you hunger and thirst to walk in the center of His will?

The promise is that we will be filled when we pursue His righteousness.  I love Jeremiah 31:14.  It says, “I will satiate (fill to the full) the soul of the priests with abundance, and My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the Lord.”

Here is another favorite verse.  Psalm 107:9.  It says, “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”  Psalm 27:13 says, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

The Lord is constantly orchestrating the events in our lives to keep us in His purpose.  Ephesians 1:11 says that He works all things according to the counsel of His will.  Psalm 34:10 Amplified says, “…they who seek (inquire and require) the Lord (by right of their need and on the authority of His Word), none of them shall lack any beneficial thing.”

He orchestrates every aspect of our lives for our benefit.  Joseph is a great example.  Sold as a slave, imprisoned wrongfully, released and set up as second to the Pharaoh.  Psalm 105:15-16 says, “They hurt his feet in fetters, he was laid in irons.  Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”  After the test came the benefit.  Joseph lived the trial without knowing the outcome.

Joseph encapsulated his trial for his brothers.  Genesis 50:20 says, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

From Joseph’s first dream, to the moment he stood before his brothers, we recognize God’s process to Joseph’s maturity.  Joseph continually chose to conform his thoughts and actions to trust God’s faithfulness.  His faith was severely tested, yet he came forth as gold tried in the fire.  Your trials are God’s plan to culminate it all to your benefit.

Romans 8:28 says that He works all things according to His purpose.  May the Lord use your present circumstances to help you gain a broader perspective.  He IS working things in your life for your benefit that will have eternal fruit.

Orchestrated benefits two days ago: Two folks, who lost everything in the Paradise CA fire, were eating lunch.  He moved to a mobile park in Red Bluff.  She moved into our mobile park.  The restaurant is just outside our north entrance.  If they still lived in Paradise they would not be going to this restaurant.  He led two folks to the Lord, prayed for the owner, and prayed for the waitress.  He is a 97 year old retired preacher.  They lost everything material, but had the joy of watching two folks give their heart to Jesus.

The Lord reminded me of a way satan entraps us that I haven’t thought about in a long time.  Galatians 3:1-2 says, “O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?  This only I want to learn from you.  Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

Our salvation is by grace through faith.  We maintain our relationship with the Lord by grace through faith.  It is not our works represented through our self-effort.  We don’t ‘earn’ anything because it is all ours at salvation.

Colossians 2:9-10 says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”  That is our standing in Christ Jesus through His death on the cross.

Think about the cross.  1 Corinthians 1:18 says, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  His grace is our empowerment.

Paul finished his course well.  Will you?  2 Timothy 4:7 says, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”  The enemy of our soul hates our faith.  He will do anything to distract us.  His goal is to destroy our faith.  The Lord uses our trials to purify our faith so that we can finish our course.

Mark 4:19 gives us three ways that choke God’s word so that it becomes unfruitful.  The cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things.  We can avoid satan’s hidden snares by intentionally keeping God’s word hidden in our heart.

John 15:4 Amplified says, “Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you.  (Live in Me, and I will live in you.)  Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me.”  We maintain our relationship with the Lord through being vitally united with Him.

Verse 5 says that apart from Him we can do nothing.  Abiding in Him is being, not doing.  Abiding is devoid of self-effort.  The Lord graciously defeats our self-effort.  He uses our defeat to redirect us into His way.  He course-corrects us from walking in our self-flesh to walking in the Spirit.

Self-effort is one of satan’s effective tools to pull us off course.  How do we know if we are walking in self-effort?  Words such as these are a dead give-a-way: I can’t, I’ve tried, I’m trying, I try to, I’m failing, etc.  It is not “I…” but grace only.  He will empower us to finish our course.  May you glorify the One who died for you.

Philippians 1:6 says, “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  It is essential to remember that we are a work in progress.  Our trials in life are training tools as God works His purposes in us.

Hebrews 12:11 Amplified says, “For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness–in conformity to God’s will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God).”

Hebrews 13:21 says, “Make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and every.  Amen”

His ‘working’ is His resurrection power enabling us to do His will.  Ephesians 1:19 says, “And what is the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”  It is speaking of the same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is working in us as well.

Ephesians 3:20 again speaks of His power at work.  “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”

Here is the process.  Isaiah 32:17 says, “The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.”  The Lord continually works His righteousness into our lives.  I liken it to a potter crafting a vessel on a wheel.  First the potter takes the hard dry clay.  Then begins to work water into it to soften it.  Once is it malleable, it is placed on the wheel.  Through consistent steady pressure it is centered.  Until it is centered it cannot be formed into a vessel.

Our trials ‘center’ us on the Lord.  They bring everything into sharp focus on Him.  Trials help us realize afresh how we are absolutely dependent on Him.  The squeezing, the pressure, and the pain are all part of His work to conform our thoughts, purpose, and actions to His will.

We are complete in Him.  That is our eternal standing that was established at the cross.  He died to set us free eternally.  Romans 5:2 says, “Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Here is another verse on standing.  Ephesians 1:13 says, “In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”  Sealed for eternity.  Nothing, and no one can break that seal.

Our state is our walk with the Lord.  It fluxes, ebbs, and flows according to how receptive we are in His righteous work of centering.  We walk in the flesh, or we walk in the Spirit.  The Holy Spirit encourages us to be steadfast, immoveable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord in 1 Corinthians 15:58.

As we stand in the promises of His word, we are strengthened to resist the temptations to veer off His chosen path into our own pursuits.  I encourage you to stand and to keep standing in the wake of the enemy’s volley of fiery dart temptations.  God’s promises are backed by His character, His attributes, and His power.