Your Worship and Warfare Move God’s Heart!

This title of this email gripped me to ponder the very words… Our worship and our warfare will move God’s heart… How can we move God’s heart when we are in worship and we’re doing warfare….In reading a transcript this week on this I am convinced that the enemy is working against every believer to destroy their walk with the Lord, he is the master deceiver and he brings delusions of every kind to the body of Christ. Take time to seek the very heart of God today and see where the Lord would have you minister… 

Some questions to ponder…

Are we in fellowship with other believers?

Are we spending time in having intimacy with the Lord?

Are we being restored or helping to see others be restored to Him?

Are we praying for revival, deliverance and healings in lives that are broken?

Are we walking together in unity with a common purpose and goal?

Are we returning to God’s ways and become the soldiers and lovers He has called us too?

Isaiah 59:19 “So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him and put him to flight.

John 4:23-24 “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”

As believers in Jesus Christ we can trust the Lord and turn to him in hard times. God cares for us and he is Sovereign in all. No matter what hard times we are facing its so much better to place our trust in Him. Do you yearn for the courts of the Lord? Do you cry out for His mercy for all? Do you praise Him in the midst of the storm? Take a moment to get before the Lord today and praise His Holy Name, be established in His ways!!!

Psalm 84:2-4

My soul yearns, even faints,

for the courts of the LORD;

my heart and my flesh cry out

for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home,

and the swallow a nest for herself,

where she may have her young—

a place near your altar,

O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.

Blessed are those who dwell in your house;

they are ever praising you.

Selah  (meditate on this)

Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made. (Philippians 3:15-16)

Is there a decision you need to make or a problem you need to solve? Have you been wrestling with making the right choice? When something is unclear you can always go to God. Ask Him to make it plain for you.

As His child, your Heavenly Father delights in you coming to Him in prayer. He wants to be the source of our wisdom; He wants to guide and direct us. If you will seek Him - His guidance and directions - He will answer you and He will make it plain. Just ask!

Blessings,

Joyce

“O God, don’t stay away.

My God, please hurry to help me.

Bring disgrace and destruction on my accusers.

Humiliate and shame those who want to harm me.

But I will keep on hoping for your help;

I will praise you more and more.

I will tell everyone about your righteousness.

All day long I will proclaim your saving power,

though I am not skilled with words.

I will praise your mighty deeds, O Sovereign LORD.

I will tell everyone that you alone are just.”
(Psalm 71:12–16)

What to do when you’re facing trouble, opposition, tough times? First, ask for God’s help, presenting your current needs. Second, persist in the hope of his help. Third, praise God for who he is. Fourth, focus on what he has done for you in the past. Fifth, tell others about God—his goodness and his mighty deeds, especially in your own life. This will put you in a position for receiving the help you desperately long for. Take these steps, and take hope!

—Diane Eble, author of Abundant Gifts: A Daybook of Grace-Filled Devotions

Blessings,

Joyce

Sometimes it’s really easy to go into grumbling, complaining and criticizing mode. “I hate my job!” “This commute really sucks today.” “These food prices are so high.” And, the list could go on and on.

I was reminded not too long ago that my grumbling doesn’t change anything. As a matter of fact, it just makes things worse. If I spew out a lot of negativity, I begin to focus on that negativity. It will affect me and I could infect others, too.

The Bible talks a lot about our words and the power of our tongue. One of my favorite scriptures is:

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. (Ephesians 4:29)

Consequently, since it is one of my favorites, it’s the one the Holy Spirit usually brings to the front of my mind when I start grumbling, complaining and criticizing about the things going on in my life. He also reminds me just how blessed I am.

I know I need to cultiivate a grateful heart. That’s probably something we all have to work on one time or another. If nothing else, it gives us one more thing to add to the prayer list.

Blessings,

Joyce

Dear Lord; move in my heart, Spirit, and help me to pray in heartfelt honesty.

Have we taken the time to write a love letter to the Lord? Journaling with the Lord can be quite refreshing and bring an awakening to one’s spiritual growth. Spending time on our knees in prayer is of the utmost, but all too often not enough time is spent as the cares of the day are before us. Thus journaling helps one to focus and refocus if needed.

This week find a quiet space and begin to journal that love letter to the Lord. It will bring a cleansing and help one to be refreshed as thoughts and the meditation of a heart is pondered. Truly it is rewarding to look back and see where the Lord has brought us from and where the Lord is taking us too. He loves us so much and has written a love letter for the one who is willing to love Him back.

Praying that we are moved by the Spirit of the Lord in times of need and want, in times of thirst and hunger, in times of fullness and plenty…

 1John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

Romans 8:26 -27 “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.”

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10)

So often, we get into the habit of spending our prayer time focused on asking God to do this or that. We go before Him with our lists of needs, wants and desires and expect Him to deliver them all. Our Father welcomes our petitions, but He also wants to have a personal relationship with us. The kind where we don’t do all of the talking, but listen for what He has to say.

Are you spending time developing your personal relationship with God? How much time do you spend in real conversations with Him? When you’re having a conversation with someone, you allow them to say what’s on their mind and heart. God wants that, too.

Today, go before the Lord wih no agenda, no lists and no requests. Be still and listen for His quiet voice. If you listen, He will speak. Maybe not audibly. Maybe you’ll feel His presence. Maybe you’ll feel a sense of peace. Maybe He will direct you to a particular scripture. No matter how He does it, if you take the time to listen, you will clearly hear the Lord and His will for your life.

Blessings,

Joyce

By Richard L. Mabry, The Upper Room

So it was, as the multitude pressed about Him to hear the word of God, that He stood by the Lake of Gennesaret, and saw two boats standing by the lake; but the fishermen had gone from them and were washing their nets. Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!”

For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men.” So when they had brought their boats to land, they forsook all and followed Him. (Luke 5:1-11 NKJV)

Jesus’ suggestion to the men who who were to become His disciples was much more than a favor done to repay them for the use of their boat or a hint about catching fish after an otherwise unproductive day. The fishermen were tired, aching for rest. Can’t you just imagine them saying, “Go out again? And into deep water?” The miracle that day wasn’t only the glut of fish they caught; it was also the willingness of Peter and the others to heed Jesus’ command. Their readiness foreshadowed the devotion to Him that would characterize the rest of their lives.

When we Christians concern ourselves only with the contentment we find in our own salvation, we are like unproductive anglers fishing too near the bank. To truly follow Jesus may require us to launch out into “deeper water,” to get in over our heads. Whether by an act of kindness, a word of witness, or a whispered prayer, our lives and actions each day can model the active Crhristianity to which we, like those first disciples, have been called.

Dear Father, help us to recognize and obey Your leading in our lives. Help us to go deeper. Amen.

Blessings,

Joyce

John 14: 15-21

Life is full of choices and every day we can choose to make positive life changing decisions. Do we choose to be happy or miserable? We must decide where we live, work, eat and travel? We can choose to follow after God today with a heart completely devoted to serving and loving Him, or we can choose to follow after the ways of the world?

Jesus Christ spoke (v. 16) of the helper (Holy Spirit) He would leave with us and leave in us, and that He would not leave us as orphans. In a world lost in sin, many are left with the feelings of being an orphan, but we can rise above this as we choose Christ? Once we choose to accept Jesus Christ and receive Him as Lord and Savior, it becomes a life time journey. We learn to use our gifts and talents in service to others. What a liberating choice this is; true freedom found in Christ. We are always looking to making choices around us rather than choices that change in us. Spend a moment today thinking about your character and if these choices are characteristic of what God wants them to be?

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.