Tag: #John17:4

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Faithful Harvest – Part 1

What have you been believing God to manifest in your life? What desire of your heart? What promise?

A few weeks ago, on Resurrection Sunday, my mother surprised me by handing me a set of antique flatware that was important to my heart. It was her and my father’s first set as a married couple. Yes, they were inexpensive, and some pieces were missing. But its sweet sunflower pattern was like gold to me, because it was the flatware I remember setting the table with when I was a kid on countless evenings, while Mom cooked dinner.

Over the past couple of decades, I wondered where this flatware was. Mom had bought new utensils and thought the old ones had gotten lost. But it kept coming up in my heart, because the matter wasn’t settled for me in my soul. God knew where it was the whole time: in Mom’s attic. And He watched over it all these years until it was passed on to me.

As I looked through the giftbag of flatware Mom handed to me, I saw that some pieces were missing. At some point, she remembered that they had disappeared years ago, during camping trips, after she repurposed the set to our family camper.  

I believe God sometimes highlights moments like this in an effort to illustrate what He’s doing in our lives-at-large, during particular times and seasons. So, for me, this situation goes beyond handing down heirlooms. I believe it’s about faithfully bringing complete restoration of the natural and supernatural inheritances that we hold dear in our hearts.

It’s about regaining what was once lost (or thought to be), and rebuilding to extend legacy—30-, 60- and 100-fold.

It’s about purposed redemption—past, present and future—and the honor of recompense.

In these ways, God faithfully expands His Kingdom from within us to beyond us.

This kind of gathering—or harvest—of what we’ve waited and hoped for involves receiving specific quantities of specific things to further fulfill purpose. 

We find this Biblical harvest precept in 1 Peter 1:9 TPT, which says, “For you are reaping the harvest of your faith—the full salvation promised you—your souls’ victory!

This precept is predicated on Hebrews 4:3 TPT, which says, “For those of us who believe, faith activates the promise and we experience the realm of confident rest!”

So, friends, we can rest in our Lord as we trust Him and move forward with Him during this faith-driven harvesttime, knowing His redemptive ways will prove faithful.

We see this faithful living and purity of heart in Ruth’s life, even after she lost more than half of her husband’s immediate family and before God brought her to Boaz.

Ruth’s story is a reminder of Psalm 126:5-6 NLT, which say, “Those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”

Historically, we are in the midst of Ruth’s harvesttime right now. 

As her story goes, Ruth stepped into her new beginning, her unknown, depending on God in her heart. She experienced God’s rapid increase of manifest blessing through her good work: from 30-fold, as she gleaned barley leftovers behind the harvesters (Ru 2:2, 3, 7). To 60-fold, after Boaz invited her to come closer, where she gathered an ephah (two-thirds of a bushel) (Ru 2:14-17). Then to 100-fold, when she married Boaz and was well-provided for, as she co-owned the fields with him (Ru 3:1, 4:10).

So, Ruth’s kind of harvest required actions of faith, maturity, right timing, increasing quantities and completed work (Ru 2:23). 

Just like in Ruth’s life, as we sync with God, we can experience rapid increase of benefit through the harvest-work He has laid before us until the promises of our faith are made manifest (Jn 17:4). 

By the way, those missing pieces of flatware aren’t missing anymore. The very day Mom handed me my inheritance-gift was also the day Holy Spirit led me to complete the set by finding and ordering the missing pieces online.

And it’s just the beginning.

So, friends, what pieces are missing in your life? What will God shift in your favor to bring a redemptive recompense? What will the two of you faithfully complete as you keep a holy heart and co-labor with Him in His way? 

Pray with me if you will…

Dear Lord, 

Thank You for Your mercy of redemption to restore what was once lost. Thank You for enriching me, by Your grace, for my benefit and that of Your Kingdom. Thank You for bringing me to a place of confident rest to believe for and receive the harvest of my faith as I actively co-labor with you to completion (He 4:3, 1 Pe 1:9). Thank You, Lord, for giving me eyes to see and a heart to obey as I “…keep coming closer and closer to you, Lord Yahweh, for your name is good to me. I’ll keep telling the world of your awesome works, my faithful and glorious God” (Ps 73:28 TPT)!

In Jesus’ Mighty Name.

Amen.

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

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Ascended Mountain – Part 2

Ascension Day commemorates Jesus’ ascension to Heaven on the 40th day that He ministered to His disciples after His resurrection (Mk 16:19, Lk 24:51, Ac 1:9-11). This Holy day is usually held on a Thursday and will be officially celebrated in several countries this year on May 13th.

Ascension Day is not an official federal holiday in the U. S. But many Christians, especially Catholics, are faithful to acknowledge and celebrate it.

It is a wonderful time to thank God for the invitation and provision to live an ascended life with Christ on earth and beyond. Of course, this kind of life is done in active submission to His gracious Spirit and Word by faith.

Recently, our Lord revealed to me, during quiet time, that He has many of His proven leaders on the mountaintop right now, who have been prepared secretly and are now ready, willing and able to fulfill divine assignments with Him. These are assignments that have been revealed and promised years ago and have felt like a long time coming. 

God has come alongside these high-performance individuals, who went deep with Him in intimate devotion during past years of intense persecution, to help them hit their mark and go long in this now season of super-abundance to help others.

These transformed, titan-like leaders, who were developed by God in the hidden place, are now refreshed, filled and equipped by Holy Spirit to be launched farther into their destiny to impact nations with His explosive grace-power.

Think miracles.

Think Great Commission with the power of Holy Spirit at Pentecost, which was given 50 days after Jesus’ resurrection (Ac 1:8, 2:4; Mk 16:20). 

Are you one of God’s titan-leaders?

Dictionary.com defines a titan as “A person or thing of enormous size, strength, power, influence, etc.” or “… a two-stage, liquid-fueled…intercontinental ballistic missile…designed for launch from underground silos.

Interesting, too, is that titan is the root word for titanium, a lightweight and noncorrosive metal alloy used in the production of strong, heavy duty, high quality aircraft and ship parts, as well as in surgical repairs for fractures (Dictionary.com). The scientific sign for titanium is “Ti,” which has an atomic number of 22.

The number 22 is also the Biblical reference for personal revelation.

So, by coming more into God’s truths, God’s titans have been delivered from issues that once weighed them down to then help others take up their positions to soar and sail through their God-ordained missions of life. 

Think Peter, who received and preached Christ’s truth to the point of seeing miracles manifest after denying Jesus three times (Ac 2-3, Jn 18:15-27). Because, like Peter, these leaders have been made lighter and freer in Christ, they are able to express and lead others into the true power and authority of God by sharing His Word and Spirit to free them from any catch-22 disorder so they can move onward in life (Ac 3:1-10).

Isaiah 22:22 AMPC says, “And the key of the house of David I will lay upon his shoulder; he shall open and no one shall shut, he shall shut and no one shall open.”

Just as Nehemiah was given permission to return to the land of his ancestors (Jerusalem) to lead a supernaturally-powered rebuilding of city gates and walls with God as an act of worship, so too will God use His titans to complete projects that have weighed heavily on their hearts (Ne 2, Ps 122:3 MSG). 

God is sending them out to work, produce maximum value and finish jobs for Kingdom’s sake (Jn 17:4).

I love what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:4 ESV, which was that “…he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but…we will live with him by the power of God.”

So, friends, the way to this higher power is through humility. 

Throughout scripture, we see that high places point to God meeting His appointed leaders with provision for miraculous work.

Acts 2 reveals the story of Pentecost, which occurred 50 days after Christ’s resurrection in the Upper Room, 10 days after His ascension and on the same day that Moses received God’s written Word on two tablets after he ascended Mount Sinai 1470 years earlier (Ex 24:12, 31:18).

Acts 2:2-3 in the TPT version say, in reference to the Upper Room experience, that “Suddenly they heard the sound of a violent blast of wind rushing into the house from out of the heavenly realm. The roar of the wind was so overpowering it was all anyone could bear! Then all at once a pillar of fire appeared before their eyes…”

Friends, what Kingdom assignments will you fulfill by God’s miraculous dunamis power of atomic proportions (2 Co 13:4, Strong’s #1411)? What strategies has our Lord revealed to you on your mountaintop sanctuary as He has equipped you with His very life and breath for your assignments (Matt 4:4, He 4:12, Jn 20:22)? 

Whatever it is, go forward in Him and with Him to do the work of His Kingdom, always remembering that Jesus is alive and is the same yesterday, today and forever (Jn 17:4, He 13:8). His faithfulness reaches to the skies (Ps 108:4).

As His titan-leaders, if we remain submitted to our Lord, we can’t miss, even as we launch out into “the remotest places on earth” (Ac 1:8 TPT, 2 Sa 22:22).

This is God’s reward of expanse in Kingdom-building (2 Sa 22:20).

And for all of this, we thank You, Lord. In Jesus’ Mighty Name. Amen (2 Co 1:20 NLT).

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