Tag: Bondage

Where’s Your Focus?

Forty years of wilderness wandering plagued the Israelites because they listened to the report of ten spies instead of God’s promise to give them the promised land. They had experienced God’s miraculous works for their deliverance, yet still, rather than believing God’s promise and facing their enemies with faith, they were caught up in human deception and discouragement.

The giants occupying their land were huge and the enemies were strong, the challenge too dangerous, the risk too great. They refused to move out and take possession for fear of their lives.

They wept and wailed through their night with bitterness! They complained and grumbled about their plight! Why did we leave Egypt? We’ll die in this forlorn land! Shouldn’t we just go back? Wouldn’t it be better? Be safer? Wouldn’t it just be easier back in captivity? Those unfaithful, unbelieving, grumbling Israelites twenty years and older never made it into the land of promise because God saw to it that their unbelief would not be honoured.

Oh, the wilderness wanderings we face when we focus on deception instead of truth. When we focus on the giants instead of the promises; when we rebel instead of trust!
You know it don’t you? The wilderness of rebellion, unbelief, deception and despair? Does your old slavery and bondage to sin just seem more comfortable, easier, and safer than trusting God for deliverance? We need to move on out and take what God has promised through trust, while He still gives opportunity. Courage is found when we take God at His word and trust him even though the giants are many and the tasks impossible.

I wonder who we hear? The reports of people or the Lord’s promises to us.?

1 Corinthians 10:11
“For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
#soulnotestoself #soulnote

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Accepting Loss


Raising four kids over my many ‘mom’ years has taught me some interesting and valuable lessons about forgiveness. I’m still learning lots on the subject, but I’ve realized it isn’t about the other person or the offender at all. No ~ As selfish as it sounds, It’s about the “me, myself and I”, before the Lord, in the situation, and His power and His strength in us, giving us the ability, to accept the loss or the hurt, regardless of how deep it may go! You see, beautiful one, We have to get closer to God in order to forgive and accept any loss graciously. Simple ‘acceptance’ releases the chained weight of bitterness that binds and tugs around the ankle! Simple acceptance of whatever it is that’s gone down, is like a key clicked in the lock that sets us free of the offense! Yeah, simple, straight forward acceptance! It’s the only way! Only in acceptance of the loss, can I ever ‘begin’ to heal in the whole healing process. Let me tell you ~ It won’t be instant, it never is, but just as time heals a surgery, a wound, or a broken bone; the broken heart, the pain of offense and the hurt of loss also heals with time, if we’ve accepted the loss before our Lord who lost His life at the hands of the angry mob. What did He do? He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They weren’t asking but He accepted His brutal treatment and ultimate loss of life on the cross and all for us, who are so undeserving! So must we ask God to forgive them and “accept” our lot and our loss. You see, when we accept the loss, it can’t get any worse so, what does it matter? It’s done! it’s over! It’s happened and we can’t change it! So we accept it and we learn from it! We forgive and we are forgiven over and over and over again in this life and each time we must move on, hopefully a little smarter and a little wiser in our journey!

Think of it this way! Have you ever forgiven your kids, even when they haven’t asked? When they’re young, we do don’t we? And in their child-like simplicity they forgive us when we fail them in their little worlds, so big to their concerns. It’s all in a days work and just a valuable part of training in kids-world and parenting. However, as they get older with their own minds and rebellious behaviors, it becomes a little more “adult like” difficult and chances are they’re not asking because they don’t care. So, rather than harbor it, holding it against them for the rest of their life, ~ we have to accept what they’ve done, forgive and let it go, or we’ll be the losers really. Yeah, sadly maybe ten times a day or more and always with the knowledge of another day tomorrow with most likely more of the same scenario. Remember the offender seldom asks nor do they have the ability nor power to heal and if we depend on the offender for our healing we may take the bitterness to our grave.
~k

Matthew 18: 21, 22
“Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

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God’s Promise? Our Obedience?

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Deuteronomy 6: 4 , 5, 6
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. And you must commit yourselves, wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.”

The Israelites stood on the verge of the land God had promised to them. He was soon to bring into a land already established with large cities they had not built. Living accommodations, richly stocked with produce they had not grown and cisterns they had not dug ~ Verses 10 -13. They were not to forget their God in their land of plenty. They were not to allow their wealth to distract them from their God who rescued them from slavery in the land of Egypt. They were to fear Him and serve Him with wholehearted commitment. They were to commit to His commands wholeheartedly, for He alone and only He was worthy of their worship. They were to love Him with their heart, soul, mind and strength, or, their intellect, will, emotions and spiritual and physical being. They were to live, sleep, breathe and digest His commands as they talked of them, taught of them, slept on them, rose with them and wrote them over doorposts and on gates through the custom of the mezuzah attached to door frames of houses and buildings. When passing through the doorways they were to touch the mezuzah to show respect and dependence for the Scripture. They were about to prosper at the gracious hand of their God but not without their obedience to Him.

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January Frost 2011 059 softened
Where are we today? Some remote place where God seems distant and ungiving? Maybe a land of compromise? Maybe a land of plenty has distracted us from His gracious hand. On a scale of one to 10 where does your obedience fall? Peer through that opaque veil and catch a fresh glimpse of God once again. Try giving adoration to the only one worthy of your worship, and reestablish your priorities as you enter into your promised land to take possession of your fullness of life in Christ.

As true believers then, Let’s be challenged to stamp God’s commandments on our hearts in wholehearted commitment to our God, the only one worthy of our praise. Let’s be challenged today, to live lives of holiness as we strive to love Him with our whole selves: our intellect, will, emotions and our spiritual and physical being. He has promised abundant life in a spiritual land of plenty, and called us to a life of obedience, therefore, we must live, sleep, breathe, teach and digest His commands as we respect and depend on His Word for His promise of abundant life even amidst the difficulties. He didn’t promise a bed or roses, nor an easy life, but He did promise to guide us through the hard places and to bring us out of bondage into glorious light.

♥.•´¸.•*¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`• ♥k

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Will The Real Enemy Please Stand Up?


  • If only we could only grasp the fact and come to a full understanding that while in the heat of our battles our struggles with one another are not really with one another at all, but with the enemy himself in the unseen dimension of spiritual forces. In the middle of discouragements, anxieties, power struggles, deceptions, and all the horrendous battles we face, it’s the old enemy and deceiver who has gained a foothold and is doing all in his power to bind us in our strongholds of selfishness, pride, resentment, bitterness, anger, strife and unforgiveness. He knows how to render us ineffective and will target us in our weakest moment and at our weakest point. We must be on guard, alert to his strategies, ready to take our stand and stand our ground against him. It’s crucial to daily wrap ourselves in the full armor of God. To stand on God’s righteous Truth, grounded with peace, clothed and protected with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and God’s all powerful Word; the sword of the Spirit. Notice, there is nothing for our back. A good indication that we are not to run from the problem by protecting ourselves with lies or calling judgement on others. Rather, we are called to simply stand firm in God’s confidence, trust Him, make the right choices, do the right things, and watch Him deliver us into victory.

    Christ out-witted the strategy of the Prince of the power of the air, milked the serpent of his venom, out-thought the thinkers, out-fought the fighters, outclassed the mighty and asserted His universal Lordship. Jesus Christ is Lord; Sovereign and omnipotent. Ruler and King of Kings.

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    Let’s raise the banner of God’s sovereign majesty and fly His victorious flag, high for all to see…His victory is our victory! Let’s claim it for our lives for it’s through His victory that our marriages become stronger, our homes become happier, our families become more stable, our children more secure, our churches more spiritually alive and personal lives more solidly grounded, more mature in the faith. Put on that full armor before you face your day, remember His faithfulness and His promises and step out under God’s banner of victory!

    Ephesians 6: 10 – 13

    “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand and after the battle you will still be standing firm.”.

    Psalm 91: 1, 2, 4a.
    “Those who live in the shelter of the Most High, will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. He alone is my refuge, my place of safety. His faithful promises are your armor of protection..”

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