Tag: #Ecclesiastes3:11

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Healing Fire

A few weeks ago, our Lord revealed a Word to me about His fire coming to touch people across the USA. He revealed that so many would be healed and delivered in churches, in families and in unexpected places that it would be undeniable by unbelievers—both the churched and unchurched.

We know that God heals daily and in more ways than one. Holy Spirit revealed that this would happen right in front of people’s eyes to the point that it would prove pivotal for an entire denomination that doesn’t typically practice healing today.

Our Lord revealed that people who have used wheelchairs for decades would walk again. And even as I wrote this devotion, He revealed to me that He will even touch those with down syndrome.

Shortly after revealing this Word, Holy Spirit directed me to Acts 3, especially verse 16 (TPT), which says, “Faith in Jesus’ name has healed this man standing before you. It is the faith that comes through believing in Jesus’ name that has made the crippled man walk right in front of your eyes!”

This key verse offers us insight:

First, the name of Jesus reveals His identity, which includes Yahweh-Rapha, The Lord Who Heals. The man believed that the name of Jesus contained all that he needed to be made whole. So, the man stood in faith in his heart for all of who Jesus was before he stood physically. He came to know, even more, the glorified Jesus, who restores all things (Ac 3:21).

Secondly, this restoration happened right before people’s eyes—the very ones who denied and killed Christ (Ac 3:13-15). Oh, what an undeniable witness and wake-up call this was for these onlookers.

Interestingly, too, is that the vessel from whom the restoration flowed was Peter, the one who received restoration from Jesus directly after denying Him three times (Mt 26:69-75, Jn 21:15-19). Peter had been empowered by Holy Spirit in the Upper Room and was especially compassionate to reach those who denied Christ because of what he himself had walked through.

So, Peter boldly professed the gospel to this crowd, urging them to repent so their sins would also be removed and that “times of refreshing” would “stream from the Lord’s presence” (Ac 3:19).

Our Lord set it all up perfectly purposed so that the man who received his healing was moved to the Beautiful Gate to showcase Jesus. In so doing, God set the stage for those who denied Him to receive their wholeness before the man received his (Ac 3:2). God used the man to reach others alongside Peter and John. The man received his miraculous healing and instantly became a voice of evangelism through worshipping God (Ac 3:9-10).

We can see that every step of this process was divinely strategic. When we consider that God makes everything beautiful in His time, according to Ecclesiastes 3:11, we can clearly see that our Lord perfectly timed the repositioning of this man around the 3 o’clock temple sacrifice, when there would be a crowd and when Peter and John were about to enter the temple.

Acts 3:2 TPT says, “As they came to the entrance called the Beautiful Gate, they were captured by the sight of a man crippled from birth being carried and placed at the entrance to the temple. He was often brought there to beg for money from those going in to worship.”

The Word “Beautiful” in this verse means timely and seasonable (Strong’s #5611). It means “an hour, the time of fulfillment” and “fully developed” (HELPS Word-studies). It means “beautiful in timing, hence fruitful.”

It was God’s time for this man to flourish and bloom as a witness to others, who also needed redemption from Jesus.

Peter and John saw with spiritual eyes what Holy Spirit highlighted to them. It was a captivating appointment, where the power of grace (represented by Peter) and the power of love (represented by John) met faith (in the man) that stood the test of time.

This whole scene is an expression of who Jesus is and the finished work He did for us at the cross. Acts 3:20-21 TPT says He is “the chosen one for you.” He is The One who “must remain in heaven until the restoration of all things has taken place, fulfilling everything that God said long ago through his holy prophets.” The Word “restoration” here specifically means the “restoration of perfect health,” (Ac 3:21TPT study note).

I believe we are at the forefront of a time of flourishing in divine health. I believe we will see stories like this one in Acts 3 happen on a multiplied scale. I believe it will spread, like the wind-powered fire it is, across the USA.

So, Lord, let Your fire fall for Your glory. Help us to go out in Your power to heal this nation (Mt 10:1, 7-8). In Jesus’ Mighty Name. Amen.

You can read the Word Holy Spirit revealed to me here.

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

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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.

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Fire Arising – Part 1

I’m seeing fires that God started years ago, through individuals, now ignite others. Godly passion and wisdom rising through them in a new framework—streamlined, hyper-focused, targeted to make impact, like a pinpointed laser. 

Transformative, like lightning.

Whatever is thought, happens.

Whatever is spoken, happens. 

This fire is expanding as God breathes on it.  

Evil cannot stand against it as His glory-filled women and men run to fulfill their assignments with Him.

2 Samuel 10:12 NIV instructs us to “Be strong and let us fight bravely for our people and for the cities of our God. May the LORD do what is good in His sight.”

Those whom God tempered behind closed doors against all kinds of false fires—by coming into His truth, avoiding strife, standing their ground, asserting the fruit of self-control and remaining in God’s Word and glory—were made ready to emerge now. 

They are God’s Ruths, Esthers and Deborahs.

His special forces developed in the secret place.

His purified, enlightened and transformed ones (2 Co 3:18).

His baptized with fire ones (Ma 3:11), made more beautiful for such a time as this (Ec 3:11).

His prepared and proven ones who carry divine purpose and power beyond themselves (Ja 1:3).

They let God do the work in them that He knew needed to be done.

They believed God, humbled themselves unto Him and received their divine exaltation (Philippians 3:14).

They came to know higher as their inheritance. 

Luke 17:21 AMPC says, “…behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].”

Ephesians 2:6 AMPC says, “…He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”

2 Corinthians 5:20 TPT says, “We are ambassadors of the Anointed One who carry the message of Christ to the world…”

So, these good stewards—these Ruths, Esthers and Deborahs—are now ready for sudden shifts, pivotal moments that make history and set (establish) legacy that glorifies God for all time.

These frontline leaders have been trained to not jump the gun but remain in unison with God, synchronized with His power and authority for greatest impact. 

To “be ready” means to remain in a prepared state. To be pre-set, one command away from go time, like a runner in a ready position at the starting blocks. 

To “be” means to live, as in ready mode, filled with the resurrection life of Jesus, that enables them to take their rightful position—ascended and enthroned to rule over lesser things. To “be” means to “occupy a place or position,” (Dictionary.com) as in continuing to belong to God—spirit, soul and body—and remain where He has called and assigned them—dominating by His glory.

“Ready” means to be “completely prepared or in fit condition for immediate action or use” (Dictionary.com). It means to be “willing.” To be “prompt or quick in perceiving, comprehending, speaking, writing, etc.” To be “prompt or quick in action, performance,  manifestation, etc.” It means to be “inclined; disposed,” and “in such a condition as to be imminent; likely at any moment.” It means to be “immediately available for use.” To be “present or convenient.” To be “equipped, completed, adjusted, or arranged, as for an occasion or purpose.” 

God’s Ruths, Esthers and Deborahs operate and remain in ready mode to act on a moment’s notice when signaled, synced with the new thing God is doing.

Their hearts are filled with the light of Christ that extinguishes darkness.

They press through fear, full of courage to go and make a difference for the better wherever God commands them to go. 

They know God is with them and that they are favored by God to win through faithful obedience to His Spirit.

They mirror Christ’s image as in 2 Corinthians 3:18 AMPC, which says, “And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”

2 Corinthians 4:6 AMPC says, “For God Who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts so as [to beam forth] the Light for the illumination of the knowledge of the majesty and glory of God [as it is manifest in the Person and is revealed] in the face of Jesus Christ (the Messiah). [Gen. 1:3.]”

Are you one of these glory carriers?

If you aren’t there yet, you can become one as you surrender your life—your will and ways—to God daily and let Him ready you by His transforming light.

He offers us an open-door opportunity.

Join me next week for Part 2 of Fire Arising.

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

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Surrounding Wisdom – Part 2

God has been delivering His people out from under clouds of darkness into His marvelous light to declare His praise (Ro 13:11-14, Lk 11:33-36 TPT, Ep 5:8-21, 1 Jn 1:5-7).

Psalm 71:15 AMPC says, “My mouth shall tell of Your righteous acts and of Your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is more than I know.”

God has used the longsuffering many endured in previous seasons to develop wisdom in them, posturing them for longstanding for the benefit of others (Ps 72:17).

1 John 1:7 TPT tells us, “…if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.”

God’s chosen will continue to grow in His wisdom as Jesus Himself grew in wisdom (Lk 2:40, 52).

These wise ones can attest to Psalm 84:11 TPT, which says, “For the Lord God is brighter than the brilliance of a sunrise! Wrapping himself around me like a shield, he is so generous with his gifts of grace and glory. Those who walk along his paths with integrity will never lack one thing they need, for he provides it all!”

Drawn to the Spirit of Wisdom, like wise men, God’s chosen get to share His wisdom: their new gift of life, how to live it and its “powerful moral result” (Tyndale Bible Dictionary).

And, as these wise ones go forth, The Spirit of Wisdom shields them, enlightens them and provides for them.

Wisdom can be defined as “the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action;…discernment, or insight” (Dictionary.com). Some synonyms are: good judgment, clear thinking, discernment, solidity, understanding, balance, prudence, knowledge, foresight, intelligence and caution (Thesaurus.com). 

Wisdom is a gift from God. It is protective, powerful and creative as part of the nature of God. Wisdom can come through experience, revelation or both. It equips the saints of God with an advantage. Even the otherwise disadvantaged can be set on high by knowing and acting in The Spirit of Wisdom.

The word “surrounding,” as in surrounding wisdom, means “the act of encircling or enclosing” (Dictionary.com). Some synonyms are: girding up, encompassing, throughout, insolating, protecting and neutralizing (Thesaurus.com).

1 Corinthians 1:24-25 MSG tell us that “Christ is God’s ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny…Human strength can’t begin to compete…”

“The gospel of Jesus Christ was both the power of God and the wisdom of God,” since Jesus is the life and the way—God’s truth (Tyndale Bible Dictionary). 

1 Corinthians 1:30 TPT says, “For it is not from man that we draw our life but from God as we are being joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. And now he is our God-given wisdom, our virtue, our holiness, and our redemption.”

Part of God’s good news is that He “will make holiness bloom” (Ps 132:18 TPT)!

The Lord is blooming holiness for those who have humbled themselves in a Job journey, remained faithful in the transformation process and come out as pure gold—full of His glory, shinning brighter than ever, grateful (Jo 23:10).

Psalm 66:10 TPT says, “O Lord, we have passed through your fire; like precious metal made pure, you’ve proved us, perfected us, and made us holy.”

1 Peter 2:9 MSG says, “…you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you—from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.”

As the Lord highlights His especially radiant ones, others will see them in a new light. Relationships will be reconciled more deeply, because others will be drawn to Jesus in their hearts with His hand upon them (2 Co 5:20). 

Many will come to The Lord, as He makes everything beautiful in His time (Ec 3:11).

James 3:13, 17-18 TPT offer strategy and truth forward. They say, “If you consider yourself to be wise and one who understands the ways of God, advertise it with a beautiful, fruitful life guided by wisdom’s gentleness. Never brag or boast about what you’ve done and you’ll prove that you’re truly wise…the wisdom from above is always pure, filled with peace, considerate and teachable. It is filled with love and never displays prejudice or hypocrisy in any form and it always bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness! Good seeds of wisdom’s fruit will be planted with peaceful acts by those who cherish making peace.”

1 Corinthians 1:31 TPT reminds us that “…If anyone boasts, let him only boast in all that the Lord has done!”

I believe it’s time for true justice and prosperity to reign and that we will see an increase of wise rulers take their seats in the land (Ps 72).

In Jesus’ Mighty Name. 

To God be the glory. 

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