Successful Ways

When God is with us in our endeavors, we succeed. This awakens fear in our enemies and love in those we lead. 

David is an example. 

1 Samuel 18:14-16 NIV say that “In everything he did he had great success, because the Lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he led them in their campaigns.”

So, the key to success is submission to God. Where’s there’s faithfulness, there’s a powerful synchronicity in relationship that includes honor and grace-favor.

Proverbs 3:3-4 TPT say, “Hold on to loyal love and don’t let go, and be faithful to all that you’ve been taught. Let your life be shaped by integrity, with truth written upon your heart. That’s how you will find favor and understanding with both God and men—you will gain the reputation of living life well” (Strong’s #7922).

We simply cannot lose when we trust and obey God.

Joshua is another example. He was known for his careful obedience. 

God’s instruction to him was “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall read [and meditate on] it day and night, so that you may be careful to do [everything] in accordance with all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will be successful” (Jos 1:8 AMP).

The Word “successful” (Strong’s # 7919) here means to be prudent, to gain understanding, which is to build Godly wisdom, insight, discernment and intelligence. 

Right now, I’m seeing God bring a trail of in-road connections that will support us through some big shifts just in front of us. These connections will help us by warming and strengthening our hearts for new levels of work beyond. 

God is revealing His truth and promises in ways that will get through to us. He’s helping our attitudes along by perfecting us. He’s making us into sharp, swift instruments as we continue to align with His Word. 

Ephesians 4:22-24 TPT are key. They say, “And he has taught you to let go of the lifestyle of the ancient man, the old self-life, which was corrupted by sinful and deceitful desires that spring from delusions. Now it’s time to be made new by every revelation that’s been given to you. And to be transformed as you embrace the glorious Christ-within as your new life and live in union with him! For God has re-created you all over again in his perfect righteousness, and you now belong to him in the realm of true holiness.” 

He is fashioning us to flourish even more. He is changing our anointings.

We’ll find a new boldness that’s rooted in His true strength and power. Gone will be the hard-heartedness of our pasts. As un-resolve continues to be uprooted, no longer will we attract more pain.

Since we become what we behold, Holy Spirit will cause us to release residual falsehoods that once kept us bound. 

Where the enemy intended to bind us by blinding us, the curse will be reversed when we come into more of His truth. Former wounds will be bound and wholeness will prevail.

Where truth is restored, integrity is restored. Wisdom becomes a joy as we are reset to succeed in areas where God can trust us with more. 

This kind of deliverance is, in itself, a type of success, where we prevail over that which once hindered us and our inherent promises by driving out ungodliness and taking possession of what God says is ours (Strong’s#3423). 

We see this in David’s mission and in Joshua’s, where they constantly overcame that which tried to overcome them. 

They built victories into their lives by first dwelling in it.

Willing to lay all down for His Kingdom, they were made strong in our Lord. They understood that their blessings came with persecutions (Mk 10:30). Yet, they were still faithful.

They depended on God for unique strategies that grew them to know Him and honor Him more. They fought their way through opposition and fulfilled their uncommon purposes with these divine strategy. 

They understood God’s priority and timing. They knew when to rise and where to establish. They knew what to accomplish and how to endure. They knew how to take a stand (Strong’s #6965). And they trusted God to lead them. 

They learned along the way by reaching for God to lead them beyond themselves. They experienced incremental successes that led up to the fulfillment of God’s big promises. And we can do the same. 

So, pray with me if you will…

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for being with us along our journeys of rebuilding (Ne 2:20). Thank You for making us successful, for enabling us to dwell in Your victory and for causing us to advance and prosper (Ne 1:11; Strong’s #6743). Show us Your ways, Lord. Give us Your wisdom and help us receive it and apply it all along Your paths for us. For Your Kingdom’s sake.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name, 

Amen.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.

Give Away: Challenge To Victory – Part 1

“What did I do to deserve this?” was the question Holy Spirit brought to my remembrance two weeks ago. He reminded me that, nearly two decades ago, these were my words to Him as He began to lead me through a ten-year, ten-month season of tribulation.

But God didn’t just bring this remembrance to my mind. He also brought a corresponding revelation for right now. In other words, Holy Spirit redefined this now rhetorical question. He was doing a new thing with an old thing.

In a flash of understanding, He revealed the answer to this question for this season to be “nothing,” meaning I have done nothing to deserve the great blessing of His recompense that He is now about to flood into my life.

Holy Spirit helped me to know, beyond a hint of doubt, that His goodness is not based on anything I’ve done—good or bad.

And, friends, this is not just for me.

God loves to give good gifts to His children (Mt 711). His transformed ones are on the cusp of outward multiplicity like they have never experienced. I’m talking about shock, awe and wonder of God’s unconditional blessings beyond what they have never known. I’m talking about the blessings of God that cause them to gasp as our Lord presents His finest, serendipitous, dream-come-true gifts to them in tangible form.

The Word I believe Holy Spirit revealed to me is this…

Painful, undeserved experiences and times are now coming full circle as God continues to deliver His inwardly transformed ones into His manifest goodness of recompense, reward and justice. These gifts will be hundredfold as described in Mark 10:30 and illustrated in the “Book of Ruth.” These blessings will be so over and above what they can think or imagine, they will wonder, “What did I do to deserve this?”

Where they were blindsided by the enemy in past times, and even tried to cover up the ugly parts, God worked the whole time to restore their foundations and erect a holy fortress for them that would prove serendipitous forward. As they continue to walk with Almighty God, they will now be blindsided by His gloriously beautiful and undeserved recompenses for every time they were blindsided by the enemy (Psalm 37:4-6, 61:2-4, 91:1-2).

Where their deeds were once returned on their own heads in the past, the renewed minds of God’s conformed ones can expect to receive a different harvest this time (Ob 1:15). Their deep inward transformation is now producing outward beauty. And some of their best rewards will be unexpected, as God gives them something over and above what they can share with others.

God is completing their mourning-to-dancing and ashes-to-beauty cycles in tangible ways as they continue to walk with Him by faith in His glory. What once felt like a Joshua and Caleb story of battle after battle, our God is giving the dominion of Jericho to them in a physical, manifest way. And it’s just the beginning. God has enabled them to claim victory after victory and will now do it manifestly, as His insight in them comes into physical sight. This is the beginning of His expanse of goodness restored in their lives (Ge 1).

God is giving them the things of old made new with promises that reflect His character and ways, satisfying them in abundance as they have kept their eyes on Him. Examples may be inherited land, restored houses, family members coming home spiritually and physically. God reuniting former things in new form for new beginnings.

It’s time for the beautiful and appropriate blessings of Ecclesiastes 3:11 to begin to manifest. The Amplified version says, “He has made everything beautiful and appropriate in its time. He has also planted eternity [a sense of divine purpose] in the human heart [a mysterious longing which nothing under the sun can satisfy, except God]—yet man cannot find out (comprehend, grasp) what God has done (His overall plan) from the beginning to the end.”

Now is a time where God’s conformed ones will receive a string of profound, life-changing, breakthrough, manifest, unconditional covenant blessings as a result of receiving the overflow of His grace upon grace, as in John 1:16 TPT, which says, “from the overflow of his fullness we received grace heaped upon more grace!”

These blessings will happen “on the heels of the other,” as described in Amos 9:13 MSG. “So fast your head will swim…you won’t be able to keep up.”

As God’s conformed ones find themselves living in the evidence of a state of “only God could have done this,” they will be positioned in new, highlighted roles as witnesses of the goodness, the victory and the glory of The Lord God Almighty.

Friends, it’s not finished until it manifests.

Pray with me if you will…

Dear Lord,

Thank You for getting Your people unstuck and receiving Your manifest blessings by Your grace of transformation and manifestation. Thank You for Your good gifts that You give to Your children. Thank You for revealing Your true character in the process, by showing us that it’s only by Your grace that You enable us to receive Your beautiful gifts. We, Lord, are eternally grateful beyond what we can adequately describe. Thank You for helping us to remain in You as we continue to walk with You into blessings we cannot contain for Your glory.

In Jesus’ Mighty Name,

Amen.

Friends, join me next week for Part 2 of Give Away: Challenge to Victory.

This devo was graciously re-posted by the Salem Web Network, which includes iBelieve.com.