This morning when we woke up, our new day began.  New mercies, grace, and wisdom. Yesterday is our past.  We can approach our day fresh, not dragging the weight of yesterday behind us.  That was then, and this new day is now.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us to lay aside every weight.  The children of Israel gathered fresh manna each morning.  Nothing was to be held over for the next day.  Those who didn’t believe that, quickly found out because what they held onto stank.

Great reminder for us.  Each night we are to lay aside our cares of the day.  To give our frustrations, disappointments, emotional upheavals, etc. to the Lord.  What we go to sleep with on our mind, will greet us in the morning.  That is why meditating before we go to sleep is so powerful.  It fortifies our spirit, and allows us to wake up refreshed and joyful.

Psalm 3:5 says, “I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me.”  Psalm 127:2 says that He gives His beloved sleep.

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

IMPURITY: DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS

James 1:6-8 says, “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.” 

Double-mindedness is a character flaw of inconsistency.  Inconsistent means: erratic, changeable, unpredictable, variable, varying, changing, inconstant, unstable, irregular, fluctuating, unsteady, unsettled, uneven. The Lord desires wholeheartedness.

The impurity of double-mindedness weakens our faith.  It divides our mind.  It causes us to be drawn in two separate ways.  When doubt plays in and wars against truth, our heart is divided.  Affirmations unite our heart with truth and increase our faith.  They feed on God’s faithfulness.  Psalm 37:3 says, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.”

1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”  Steadfast and immoveable are great faith words that anchor our mind, will, and emotions.

In Colossians 2:5 Paul commends them for their steadfastness of faith.  Then he says in verse 7, “Rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”  Hebrews 6:18-19 says, “…we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.  This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.”

He is our Steadfast Hope.  Nothing can shake our faith when we are anchored in Him.  It is when we take our eyes off Him and focus on our impossible circumstances that it makes us double-minded.  The enemy of our soul does everything he can to make us doubt.  Truth is everlasting.  It never changes.  Therefore truth in our inward parts will ground us in our faith.

Trials purify the inconsistency in our character.  It is dross that must be removed.  We may chafe at His way, but it is perfectly designed and orchestrated.  He knows exactly what circumstances will draw it to the surface.

IMPURITY: PRECONCEIVED IDEAS

Psalm 78:41 says, “Yes, again and again they tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.”  How do we limit God?

In 2 Chronicles 14 king Asa has an army of 580,000.  The enemy had 1 million men.  Verse 11 says that the Lord delivered them with a mighty deliverance.  Verse 13 says that they were broken before the Lord and His army.

Asa faced another army.  This time he did not rely on the Lord.  The Lord asked him why in 2 Chronicles 16:8.  In verse 9 He said that because he didn’t rely on Him this time that he would have wars.  Asa created his own future adversity.

It is a great example for us in fresh trust.  Every adversity has its own deliverance, trust, grace, and wisdom.  Our God is not limited.  He wants to present Himself in a fresh way in each situation. 

David is a great example of fresh trust.  In 2 Samuel 5:19 David inquired of the Lord.  The Philistines had deployed themselves for battle.  The Lord told him to go up for He would doubtless deliver them into David’s hand.  In verse 22 the same scene plays out.  Yet David again inquired of the Lord.  This time He gave him a different instruction.  Verses 23-24 says, “…You shall not go up; circle around behind them, and come upon them in front of the mulberry trees.  And it shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, then you shall advance…”  David had no preconceived plan.  Each time he inquired of the Lord for fresh instruction.

Our preconceived ideas are dross in our faith.  Preconceived means: an idea or opinion formed before having the evidence of its truth.  He wants us to look to Him to reveal Himself to us in a fresh revealing.  Our expectations are to be on Him, and not what He might do based on past deliverances.  Each time we can ask Him what He wants to be for us in our present trial or adversity.  He is waiting.

He delights to show Himself strong on our behalf.  Each adversity is a new opportunity to trust Him, and have our faith purified and strengthened.  David understood where his expectation was to be.  Psalm 62 was written by David regarding waiting on the Lord in adversity.  Verse 5 says, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.”

j marilyn adams ~ February 11, 2016

I put this on my facebook, but wanted to share this with you also.

March 8 my dad will be 95. Yesterday he spoke at our rest home church service. He went through Psalm 107. When he got to the part about the waves (verses 23-30) he told about the ship he was on during the war. It was the largest American ship at that time. There were 11,000 troops aboard. He was in the bow. The storm was really bad. The ship would lift, lift up and up until it felt like it would go over backwards. Then it wound go down, and down until it felt like it would go to the bottom of the ocean. He said they were all so sick.

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

IMPURITY: SELF-FLESH

1 Corinthians 13:1 says that if we do not have love, we will sound like clashing cymbals.  That is a rather raucous-sounding illustration.  Yet it perfectly describes how our flesh talk sounds to our hearer. 

Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”  When I think of the word “corrupt” it takes me back to a situation in my life.  We owned an apartment complex.  When the tenant moved out, we were horrified to find what she left behind.  Her closet was filled with clothes that were thrown on the floor, that her cats had used as a cat box.  The stench was gagging.  We had to hire a man to pitchfork her clothes through a window into his pickup to be taken to the dump.  They were unsalvageable.

Have you ever said things that created an unsalvageable situation?  Have you wished you could have taken back your flesh words?  Have you ever slammed someone’s character through your clashing cymbal words?  What flows into us is what flows out.  The things hidden in our unconscious trickle into our thought process.  Our thoughts always precede our words.

How do we overcome the things that are hidden?  We don’t consciously remember them.  We cannot recall them to our mind.  Our unconscious was designed by the Lord to be filled with His word.  We have corrupted His design by stuffing unresolved issues.

He has a higher way.  The way out and into victory is through the cross.  How much do you focus on God’s love for you?  Is it foremost in your thoughts?  Recognize afresh what His love has done for you.  What we think is how we act.  His love for us is consistent.  There is never an ebb or flow.  In everything and in every way His love remains the same.  To be a channel of His love to others is our highest calling.

As we implant His word, it causes the hidden to surface.  Truth overcomes anything below it.  One of the reasons we hide things is so we don’t have to process them.  Those hidden things feed our flesh, and cause us to defend them through our fleshly reactions.

FAITH PURIFIERS

We know from 1 Peter 1:7 that trials purify our faith.  He has yet another way.  Impurities weaken our faith, but His implanted word strengthens it.  There is no fruit for Him through our flesh, but our tested faith bears much fruit that glorifies Him.

When we are serious with the Lord, and fully desiring to have the impurities purged, He will give us His higher way.  It may surprise us.  It may catch us when we least expect it.  Our fleshly reaction is the key.  The reaction is Him flushing out the hidden, like a hunting dog flushes out the hidden fowl.  Right in that moment is the release.  He has exposed a root.  All we have to do is to ask Him to bring the hidden root to our consciousness.  When He does, we need to confess it as sin.  Proverbs 28:13 says, “He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.”  To confess is to humble ourselves.  His mercy and grace rush in to help us overcome.  We are no longer victims but victors!

Confession is the first part.  The second part is to renew our mind.  We need to change the flow into our thought patterns by implanting His word in our hearts.  We then become a channel of truth, and a partaker of His nature.

James 4:1 Amplified says, “What leads to strife (discord and feuds) and how do conflicts (quarrels and fightings) originate among you?  Do they not arise from your sensual desires that are ever warring in your bodily members?”  Note the words “originate” and “arise.”  They describe something from within.

Life is filled with difficult people.  There will be relational clashes, harsh words, death words, and things that will trigger reactions.  We live in the tension between our flesh and our spirit.  Galatians 5:17 says, “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”  If we walk in the Spirit, we will be led by the Spirit.

The Lord has made a way to live in peace.  Romans 12:18 says, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.”  How do we live in peace when others create strife?  It depends on what is in our heart.

2 Corinthians 2:14-15 says that through us He diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.  We are His channel.  What we channel depends on what is in our heart.  Is it the murky water of bitterness and unforgiveness, or is it the channel of pure water others desire to drink?

j marilyn adams ~ January 28, 2016

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

IMPURITY: IMPATIENCE

We are partakers of God’s divine nature.  Impatience is the antithesis of God’s nature of Patience and Longsuffering.  Antithesis means an idea that is the direct opposite of another idea. 

Salvation redirects our disposition.  Salvation by grace through faith empowers us to be Christ-like.  He is the Transformer.  That is why He invites us to put on His yoke so we can learn from Him.  Matthew 11:29 says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  It is an opportunity to submit to Him and be led by the Spirit.  Putting on His yoke is not a one time thing.  It is constant submission.

Impatience is a lie of the enemy.  It is a fiery dart to pull us off course.  When we are being led by the Spirit, there is no consideration for our flesh.  That is what Romans 13:14 means.  It says, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.”

We “put on the Lord” by entering into His nature.  The moment we feel impatient, we do a divine exchange.  We exchange pride for humility.  We capture our thoughts of impatience by meditating on His nature of Patience and Longsuffering.  In that moment of the exchange we stop the progression our flesh would have taken.  We course correct.

Impatience is an impurity that undermines our faith.  James 1:4 Amplified says, “But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be (people) perfectly and fully developed (with no defects), lacking in nothing.”  If we give ground over to impatience, we will stop the work He is doing to purify our faith.  We will lack what He wants to provide.

As we continue to submit to the Lord we learn His ways.  A team of oxen is made up of a strong leader to train a younger ox.  The Lord is our Leader.  He will teach us how to partner with Him, thereby glorifying Him through our lives.

In our moment of impatience, we have a choice.  Do we want to give in to our flesh (pride), or do we want to grow to be more like Him in humility?  Impatience is the dead-bolt of pride that blocks grace.  Humility throws the door wide open to allow Grace to come in.  We have no power to endure our trials without grace.

j marilyn adams ~ January 14, 2016

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

IMPURITIES DULL OUR WITNESS

What is in your heart? 

David asked the Lord to examine his heart.  Psalm 26:2 says, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.”  Zechariah 13:9 says, “…refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested…”  The word refine refers to that melting process to remove impurities from precious metals.

Our faith is refined through fiery trials.  Job 23:10 says, “He knows the way that I take, and when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”  The Amplified says, “…I shall come forth as refined gold (pure and luminous).”

Is your witness dull, tarnished, blocked, or does it express the character of Christ?  Psalm 34:5 says that they looked to Him and were radiant.  When He looks into the gold of your life, does He see His own reflection?  We live in glass houses.  Others are watching our lives unfold through our trials to see if what we say is lived.  Is your messenger the same as your message?

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego had their faith in God tested by fire.  Their faith held, and the Lord revealed Himself to them in the midst of the fire.  They were brought out of the fiery furnace and examined.  Daniel 3:27 says, “…they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them.”  Isaiah 43:2 says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.  When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.”

The Wycliff manuscripts were the kindling for John Hus’ burning at the stake in 1415.  Nero lit his gardens with human torches.  In 1956 five men were killed by the Aucas, yet it opened the door for the salvation of that tribe.  In 2014 twenty-one Egyptian Christians were beheaded.  What will happen today?  We don’t know what the future holds for us, but we do know Who holds our future.  It is all about faith.

The early church was persecuted.  In Acts 1:8 the words of Jesus are written.  It says, “…and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the world.”  As Stephen was being stoned to death he said, “Look!  I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).  Paul fulfilled the Lord’s word to Ananias, “For I will show him how many things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:16).

Here is a line from the old hymn ‘How Firm A Foundation’, “The flames shall not hurt thee; I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.”

God has a high purpose in our trials.  Romans 5:3 Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.”  Our thanksgiving releases His joy gift within.

John 15:11 Amplified says, “I have told you these things that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing.”  His joy gift remains.  Yet, our complaining, bitterness, unforgiveness, refusing to release unresolved issues, etc., suppress that witness of joy.

Isaiah 12:2-3 says, “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; for Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation.  Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”

John 7:38 Amplified says, “He who believes in Me (who cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Me) as the Scripture has said, From his innermost being shall flow (continuously) springs and rivers of living water.”  What flows continuously from your inner being?

Matthew 12:34 says that out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks.  Our thoughts control our brain, and our brain controls our body.  Therefore our thoughts in our trials are the key to releasing that joy gift reflected to glorify Him.

Trials refine our faith.  The lies that the enemy has hidden through fiery darts are designed to undermine and overthrow our faith.  The enemy-implanted questionings, doubt, fears, and unbelief must be silenced.  The hidden unresolved issues that are buried in our unconscious will be exposed.  As we embrace our trials, His deep work is accomplished.  The hidden dross will rise and be skimmed off through His divinely orchestrated and impeccably timed trials.

Our Rock-strength witness comes through the implanted Word of God.  When we hide His Word in our hearts, it is the discerning key in our faith that will quench the fiery darts of the evil one.

j marilyn adams ~ January 14, 2016

For the past few days I have been meditating on Jesus’ words in John 17:24.  It says, “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”  His desire was that we would behold His glory.  In verse 22 He said, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.”

He wants us to be one with Him.  He wants us to see His glory.  It is all too amazing. Ephesians 5:17 says, “Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  His will and His desire is the same.

John 15:7 says, “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 Amplified uses the words: abide vitally united to Me, and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts.

What is your inmost desire?  Is it to be one with the Lord?  Do you desire such a deep intimate communion with Him that nothing on this earth can rival?  If so, then your desire has united with His.

We behold His glory through His Word and it transforms us in the deepest part of our being, our bone marrow.

 

 

Last night I was meditating on the Lord as Infinite.  At times I felt like the sides of my brain were pushing out.  The Lord is beyond our human understanding.  Words like boundless, and unfathomable, limitless, etc. cannot be perceived in human terms.

Neither can we understand His workings.  Job certainly didn’t.  I like to remind myself frequently of James 5:11.  It says, “Indeed we count them blessed who endure.  You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord–that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”

In 1977 I fell head first into a six foot ravine.  It caused a severe brain injury and left me bed ridden and unable to work for six and one half years.  I didn’t remember that I fell until 2 1/2 years later.  I just thought that my health was failing.  I asked an artist friend to draw a picture of me on a potter’s wheel with the Lord’s hand on my head.  I wanted to remember that He was at work.

This morning I went to the hallway and took a picture for you.  Perhaps it will help you in your own trial to remember that His  hand is constantly on you.  He is fully engaged in your life.  He is conforming you to His image that He might be glorified.  He has an end intended.

(this is really a masterpiece drawn by Betty Kinnier.  The shading is stipple for you artists)

 

 

 

 

This morning I woke up with 2 Chronicles 16:9.  Then I looked at verse 8.  The Lord is reminding them that in another situation of adversity they relied on Him, but this time they didn’t.

2 Chronicles 14:9 says that they faced an army of a million men.  Asa had 380,000.  Verse 11 says, “And Asa cried out to the Lord his God and said, Lord it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who had no power; help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on You and in Your name we go against this multitude.  O Lord, You are our God’ do not let man prevail against You.”

In this present situation Asa made a treaty with Syria.  He opened himself to wars.

These two accounts reminded me again how each situation requires fresh trust.  Each one of our trials has its own deliverance, trust, grace, and wisdom.  We are never to rely on His past ways because He is Ever Present. He wants to show Himself strong, or reveal Himself to us in a new way in this present situation.  We can ask: what do You want to be for me right now?  He delights to give us a fresh revelation of Himself.