Devotions for God’s Family – 1

2 Kings 7:1–2 (ESV): But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the Lord, Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” 2 Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”

This whole story has the making of an amazing movie, or at least a mini-series. So we’ll have one!

The story opens with a conversation between Elisha and the captain. Not just any scene, pushing on one side of the door to Elisha’s house are the people inside the house and Elisha is pushing with them. They are trying to keep people out. And on the other side of the door pushing with metal clanging and loud orders to give way, is the captain of the king and his men. The king gave orders to kill Elisha because Jehoram (the king) is fed up with Elisha’s God.

The men inside the house are trying to save the life of Elisha and like an old crusty prophet, while they are pushing and taunting each other, Elisha sends a salvo, a prophetic word. That word is what you read just a moment ago.

What an opener. What is going on? Why the anger and death squad? Who knew that Elisha had a house in the city of Samaria? By-the-way, stay with me because the mini-series ends with Elisha and the guard too.

In any good mini-series there is character development and sub plots, we have those too. Let’s get to the characters so that you will recognize them as we progress in the story, knowing them also helps with the application of this passage of Scripture into our today.      

All the characters are set:

1. Elisha, God’s prophet: God’s word, God’s voice.
2. The king Jehoram, the devil.
3. The captain, doing what the king tells him to do: broken religious system. The enemy at work in the church. Those who knowingly lead broken religion.
4. Lepers, those prompted by God to do something. Church people, that’s us!
5. People of Samaria, hungry. This is also us, stuck in the broken religious system, starving.
6. The Syrians, the enemy. The world. The enemy at work in the world.
7. God, God.

If you want the full effect, read chapter 6:24 all the way through chapter 7. Read it in a translation that is more like a novel, that speaks in current vernacular.

So, the stage is set, let’s stop here and pray as we prepare for God’s message to come to us. We see the characters and we are wondering what this will mean for us over the next week?

Lord, what do you have for us through this passage? Whatever it is, we receive it as it comes from You. We open our hearts and minds to truth. Father, we want to learn and in learning to grow up into mature christians. We do not want to stay infants who cannot handle meatier things. As deep calls to deep, Lord we are called to understand more of Your heart and in turn integrate truth into our lives. God, we do not want to be hearers only, Lord we want to be doers of Your word. Thank You Jesus for making all of this possible.

Devotions for God’s Family – 2

2 Kings 6:30–31 (ESV): When the king heard the words of the woman, he tore his clothes—now he was passing by on the wall—and the people looked, and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body— 31 and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

So, we have our characters, a little background and we are ready to go.

Samaria had been in a famine because of the siege laid against them by the king of Aram. This was one of the worst times for the people of Israel. The people were so hungry they were eating their own children. The head of a donkey was 80 pieces of silver and a cup of dove dung was 5 pieces of silver. There isn’t a worse picture in scripture painted of the ravages of famine and starvation, but that is what the people were facing.

Jehoram was king in Israel for a short stint (12 years) during the time of Elisha, and he was an evil king. The enemies around Israel were mounting because of the weakness that the people of Israel displayed. God’s hand of protection had been lifted and the people were greatly distressed.

This king’s dad was notorious for his evil, you may remember him, Arab and his wife Jezebel. It can be clearly seen that unless evil is dealt with in the current generation, the next generation is going to most likely be worse. I have heard it said and maybe you have too. What one generation does in moderation, the next generation will do in excess. Man, are we seeing that in our time!

Jehoram tolerated Elisha while he went about his evil life style. He didn’t want to outright attack Elisha, that might incur the wrath of God. Up to this point he wanted to stay in God’s kingdom living the way he wanted to live without submitting to God. In other words, he wanted to use God’s kingdom and his people for his own benefit.

The king lived with a sense of entitlement as king’s often do. He felt like the kingdom was his. That “if” God was there and real, or cared, then they could co-exist; Elisha’s God and me. It is as though Jeroham blessed the region (in his own mind) by allowing this ancient and archaic religion to go on. Until such a time that it no longer served a purpose.

Jeroham, like so many people and religions too (because they are thought up by people) have no problem co-existing with the one true God, Jehovah, until the bottom drops out. Then people do one of two things and rarely stay in the middle. They repent and get right with the one true God, or they grow angry and blaspheme the one true God. Here are two examples of people who grow angry and curse God because of bad things happening to them. One that occurred and one that is yet to occur.

Job 15:25 (ESV): “Because he has stretched out his hand against God and defies the Almighty.”

Revelation 16:10–11 (ESV): “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.”

Back to 2 Kings 6 & 7. Jehoram and his captain represent a religious system that is filled with people who are starving. The people of Israel although rebellious are still God’s people. In the same way, the church is also adopted into the place of being God’s people, here let me show you.

1 Peter 2:9 (ESV): But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Therefore, we can learn some things from this situation that the people of Israel find themselves walking through. You might be thinking, “It is hard to imagine, how could this represent the local church of today? And pastor, the insinuation that the Devil (Jehoram) and his captain are in the church, what is that all about?”

Rest assured friend, the Devil is either knocking on the door of the church or well seated in the church. It is crazy to me that many people believe there is some kind of spiritual cosmic filtering system at the church building that prevents the Devil from entering. Far from it! The church building is one of his favorite places to visit.

If the Devil had access to the throne room of God, then I am sure that he has access to our gatherings. In the gatherings he has a great opportunity to spread his filth in the form of misguided religion to a lot of people all at once.  

Revelation 12:10 (ESV): And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

Here is another passage that reveals the truth of what I am telling you. The Devil does indeed want access to the local church platform, whether that is a small group or the church pulpit. He will take what he can get and exploit it.

1 Timothy 4:1–3 (ESV): Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the  insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

(The specific demon’s doctrine [or teaching] is of course a bad thing, the other is that teaching contrary to God’s Word was found in the church in the first place.)

Guys, you might want to keep the devil out of church, not me. I want people to feel the presence of the devil and be alarmed by it, rather than not recognizing his presence and continuing to be deceived by him. We don’t glorify the devil by giving him airtime. We want our worship to be pure and our pursuing of God passionate, so that the things of the devil are exposed and dealt with for what they are. The light reveals what is in the dark.

I expect the church to have fallen and starving people in it. I expect the church to have a dicey side to it as we are attempting to take the freedom Jesus offers to people who do not have it.

I don’t expect people who do not have Jesus to act like they do. However, in the church I do expect the people who do have Jesus to not act like they don’t. In the church we need to be ready for the world to come into where we are and be ready for our trek out into the world.

1 Corinthians 5:9-10 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.

1 Corinthians 5:12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?

If we can’t find anyone who needs freedom, then one of two things are happening. We are either deceived and clueless to the presence of the enemy or we are in heaven and we don’t know it.

Religion is acting like everything is ok, putting on a show for others to see, going through the motions when on the inside you are starving. Jehoram was walking around in his palace and overhears two people fighting over the corpses of their children, which one they were going to eat first.

Because of sin and rebellion against God, the people were in a very bad place. People like to blame God and others for the predicament they are in. It is a wise person who can take account of their life and lay blame to themselves first, before the finger of accusation is lifted toward others.

The king couldn’t take responsibility for his sins, he believed it was Elisha’s God that was causing all the problems and pain. That’s why he wanted to kill Elisha. Do you think that our troubles are because of a current or former president, some member of congress, or Hollywood, or sports figures, music industry, media? None would even exist if we didn’t want them.

Don’t point to the king of the land, your parents, your offender, your boss or whoever it is that you think needs to feed you peace. Release all of these or whoever else you put in the hot seat.

If you can take responsibility for your life right now, you can get better and become a well fed follower of Jesus. All these other entities cannot give you peace, Jesus can and will if you will go to Him humbly and ask for the peace that only He offers.

The most joy and person can feel is on the heals of repentance. Knowing that you are right with God, knowing He is your provider, knowing He promises to bless you and care for you all the days of your life. Knowing He has a plan and a purpose for you in this life and the next. Knowing He has the power to make all things right in your life according to His will. Knowing He gives you the power to live victorious in this very day…what are you waiting for?

Are you going to trust the king of this world, what he promises and how he makes you feel entitled to things? And then he doesn’t deliver and you get angry at the world and God? Well, he is in rebellion to God and delivers to you the opposite of what God gives, all the while promising to you it is better than what God gives. He is already cast down, defeated and is doomed. Stay away from him.

Lord, comb through our lives and help us see what you see in us. How easy it is to point a finger at the wrong we see when You God are standing next to the broken things in us, trying to draw attention to the things that we hold onto that are not of You. We ask that You would help us take our eyes off of the world and look at you as the source of peace and life. Jesus You told us that You are the Way, Truth and Life – we agree with You and ask that You would transform our lives day-by-day. We surrender to Your will. Thank You Jesus for making our transformation possible through Your great sacrifice.

Devotions for God’s Family – 3

2 Kings 7:3-4 Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.”    

The plot thickens when we pan in to see 4 lepers at the gate of Samaria and they are perplexed. If they stay on the outskirts of the city, there is no possibility to eat, all the food is gone and they will starve. They decide to head out to the Syrians army and try their luck there.

They believe that if they are killed by the enemy, at least they won’t starve to death in Samaria. Now mind you, the voice of God had spoken, a prophetic word was given by Elisha, that tomorrow there was going to be plenty to eat. They had not heard that word from Elisha, they were simply following the instinct that God gave them to eat.

As a matter of fact, we see this in the second scene of this drama. The king had sent a murderer to take the head off of Elisha’s shoulders, because the king was tired of waiting for God and wanted to lift the head of the voice of God…the prophetic voice of God to God’s people, mind you. And those who were in Elisha’s house held the door closed so the murder couldn’t do his deed. That is where Elisha told the king’s captain that tomorrow there would be food for everyone.

My hunch is that the captain went back to the king to report what Elisha had said and then out to the gates of the city.

Can we stop for a moment? God’s people are presented in two forms. There are those inside the city and those outside the city. Those who were feeding off of a dying system and those who at great risk and peril went out to find new food. Both are hungry because God made them to eat so that they could live.

In our application, these two groups represent the church of today. We have a majority of people in churches today who are buying dove dung, eating off of dead donkey heads and starving to death.

2 Kings 6:25 And there was a great famine in Samaria, as they besieged it, until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and the fourth part of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver.

I sound super harsh, even judgmental, it’s not meant to be though. And yet it was a reality then and it is a reality today. Jesus says something very similar to this.

He speaks to a condition in all of us and our churches. He speaks to the condition of self-sufficiency. We have all that we need so we push Jesus out of the church.

Revelation 3:17-18 (ESV): For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

I even think there is a lesson for us by looking further into what was available for the people of God to eat. They were eating dove dung and the head of a donkey.

Well, it is ironic that the the dove is the universal sign of the Holy Spirit. Not sure how that came to be except that we find the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove in the gospels.

I think sometimes we treat the Holy Spirit like a vending machine. We put in our worship coin and then He is supposed to give us a word, miracle or some sign or wonder. And on the other side of the road are those who have completely cut off all moving of the Holy Spirit from the church at all.

His heart’s desire is to change our character and lead us on into truth. His hope is to form the church, motivating all of us to step up into faith and lay hold of the calling placed in us by Jesus at our spiritual birth. Signs and wonder are big to us, but a very small piece of what the Holy Spirit does in and through people.

Signs and wonders are meant to aid us on the journey, not to be the journey destination and at the same time, we need the working of the Holy Spirit or we won’t accomplish anything of lasting value. We are growing into Jesus. All of the dimensions of Jesus are important. According to John, the mission of Jesus, which becomes our mission, is to destroy the work of the devil.

1 John 3:8 (ESV): The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

All of the aspects of Jesus that He showed to us in His earthly ministry are what we are growing into; apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher. Each of these are designed to destroy the work of the devil. Each of these carries the capacity for miracles, signs and wonders, and are the chief pursuit, not the propagation of miracles or the exclusion of them.

When we come into the house of God, we come wanting to be transformed, changed into the character and heart of Jesus through the working of the Holy Spirit in us.   

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are vital and crucial, they are necessary, and I believe and celebrate all of them. However, the fruit of the Holy Spirit is the foundation of the gifts. Famine has come into a person if all you are doing is looking for some sign or wonder and you do not first desire the Holy Spirit to change you, your character, heart and behavior.

Equally as damaging and dung filled in the church of today is the notion that the Holy Spirit doesn’t move and do anything, He doesn’t do miracles or express the heart of the Father through signs and wonders in our day.

We have to be careful what we are offering to the people of the church today. How hungry are they for the things of God, how hungry are they for a fresh encounter with God? They are starving. They would like to sink their teeth into the meat of God, and all we have to offer them is…well, something else that isn’t biblically sound.

In the church, let’s not be those who deny the Holy Spirit’s presence and let’s not be those who worship the Holy Spirit to the exclusion of the will of Jesus and the Father’s desire to see our character and heart shaped by the Word of God because we are miracle chasing.

Lord, we receive the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We asked to be filled with the Holy Spirit right now. Holy Spirit we receive Your work, commanded by Jesus that You would lead and guide us into all truth. We submit to You as the One sent by the Father – have Your way with us, whatever you want to do. Lord, work on our lives that we might be acceptable vessels for Your presence. We praise You this moment, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Devotions for God’s Family – 4

I want to get to these 4 characters soon, these lepers play an important role in the story because they represent the second part of the church that exists today. But before I do, I want to reflect on the other food item offered that represents the modern day church in 2 Kings 6 and 7.

The head of the donkey.

2 Kings 6 says that a donkey’s head was selling for 80 pieces of silver. The city was so famished that people were willing to pay a fortune for the head of a donkey.

I could travel down the road of why the donkey was chosen by the author the way that the dove was. And if the donkey in known for what comes out of his mouth (hee-haw), and how stubborn it can be sometimes, maybe this represents the pastor… Hahahahaha! Oh my, I will laugh about that one all day.

But here is the thing that I want to call your attention to that maybe isn’t so funny. The head was severed from the body. The head was offered as food, a dead donkey head. So, two things were obvious. The head was separated from the body, and all to obvious but equally as important is that the body was separated from the head.

The head represents leadership.

Listen church people, God put leaders in place for a reason and you can’t have any kind of meaningful movement or accomplishment without the head. And in the same way church leaders how are you going to accomplish your God given directives if you are separated from the body?

A congregation however small or large it is, matters not; the people who make up the rest of the body parts have to be behind the donkey head. They must go forward with where the head is leading. And at the same time the head has to be with the donkey body.

I have talked with pastors who are frustrated and bewildered as to why congregations “Won’t do what they say.” They are curious and flustered as to what they need to do to get the people to go the direction he wants to go. I wonder about this leader and how connected he is to the true needs of the congregation. People are starving and to them he is an expensive dead head.

And at the same time, I have seen congregations that wonder about the direction of their pastor and they continue to frustrate the move of God because their immediate and only answer to the pastor’s vision is “no.”

God places a leader in the midst of people to offer a direction. It would be very frustrating if the congregation resists and fights the leadership. It is all too common. Remember that submission starts with disagreement. There isn’t any submission in an agreement – two parties joining together for a common purpose, that works in some circumstances.

In a church, like with any biblical leader, there will come a time when the Lord gives direction and agreement isn’t an option, there is disagreement on where to go, or how to get to where you as a congregation have to go. A disagreement ensues… and this is exactly what needs to happen. Yes, I just said that.

The opportunity for submission is now present. If I am submitted to you, then we can disagree and I will follow your lead, because I am submitted to your leadership. How many people believe that a church is all about living in agreement with each other…far from it!

Do we live in agreement with Jesus? No! Well we want to, but the truth is, there are parts of me that do not. I do not live in agreement with Jesus, I live in submission to Him! I do agree with Jesus, but in the matters where I don’t agree, I submit to His leadership in my life. And as Jesus places church leaders in our life we are to operate in the same way.

My flesh disagrees with Jesus, but my spirit wholeheartedly is submitted to Jesus. So, I bring my body into submission to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 9:27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Depending on how you look at the poor donkey, the body is separated from the head and the head is separated from the body. The result of that will be starving people. So, church leaders, stay connected to the people.

Shepherd… be followable.

Congregation, follow and support the good things that God is leading you to through the ministry leader.

Father, thank You for the tender mercies and gentle guidance that are ours through Jesus. Like sheep, we wander and attempt to decide for ourselves what we want and what we need. You have declared clearly who we are and what You want for us. Our understanding is so limited and we consistently think about what makes us comfortable in an uncomfortable world. We even attempt to change the nature of the church to fit our desires. Forgive us Lord and help us to see what and who we are by Your design and let us rise up into our calling and purpose for this time.

Devotions for God’s Family – 5

2 Kings 7:3-5 Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there.

I really like these 4 guys!

Not because they are leaving the church – that is not what is represented here. They went out and became the vehicle that God used to bring good things to the church. A prophetic word was given to Elisha by the Lord for the king. Jehoram didn’t believe it, he even made up a reason why he wouldn’t listen to the Lord, which happens a lot today.

But the real hero’s of this story are these 4 outcasts. Lepers as they were, God used them to bring good things to the house of Israel.

I don’t believe that these men represent a broken and sickly aspect of the church. I believe they are a great representation of all of us. People who are dying to this world and yet hungry enough to find real food.

They are humbled by their circumstance and real enough to recognize that they have some bonafide broken places. God made them human and that means that they get hungry, acting in the simplicity of who God created them to be, they look for food, just as we do.

The lepers are outcasts in the religious system of the world because they don’t look good. They have an unfixable condition that doesn’t make us feel good to look at. There was no place for them in their world and no place for them in the world where they thought they should be.

I once heard a person say to me, and I like sharing this with others when the time is right, “We are all just beggars showing the other beggars where the bread is.”

That really sums up these four men. You see, God’s remedy for the famine had been solved through divine intervention as God shows Himself powerful and mighty by directly dealing with the enemy’s presence.

If you look at the text you see that the lepers left for the enemy camp at twilight and the enemy heard the chariots, horses and great army at twilight. In the physical these men were simply looking for food, presumably walking to their death and in the spirit the Lord gave them ground-pounding and earth-shaking capability.

When Jesus says – I am sending you out like lambs amongst wolves… He means it.

Matthew 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves…”

Also…

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Just because you can not see with your physical eyes the things of the spirit, know that there might possibly be an entire army raging before you on your behalf to scatter the enemy as you with simple faith step out to do what God leads you to do. God was the one who led these lepers to find food.

God chose the lowliest of the religious world to point the way to provision. Let’s all stay lowly and humble and see ourselves for who we really are. And follow the basics of our faith, trusting God for the rest.    

Sometimes the church gets stuck. Sometimes the leaders don’t know what to do. Leaders see starving people, and sometimes they don’t know how to proceed inside the system they have built. Rest assured God has a remedy. He has food for the church. What none of us want though, is to deny or disbelieve the powerful provision that God has because of the voice through which it comes. What is so beautiful is that God always sees the plight of the people and He wants good things for the people who call Him God.

Sometimes we fight against the voice that God chooses to bring provision.

The king had a serious problem, an unfixable problem really.

Do you know what a conundrum is? It is an unsolvable problem. Here is one for you. What if I said, “You cannot trust anything I say.” Would you believe me or not? [You have to believe what I am saying to believe that what I am saying isn’t true – makes your head hurt right?]

Well, king Jehoram was embarking on a conundrum, an unsolvable problem. He promised by God he was going to silence the voice of God.  

2 Kings 6:31 “…and he said, “May God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today.”

In his own deception, he thought that he was doing God a favor when he was actually acting against the interests of God. May it be that you never find yourself in this place, and when (not if) you do, you have the where-with-all, humility and wisdom to say, “I am sorry, Lord.”

That condition in the king actually prolonged the agony and starvation of the people. Please be teachable, please be humble, because God will whisper in the most unique of ways to you, but if you can not hear, those who depend upon you will starve at your hand. If you see hungry people, don’t be quick to point a finger at someone else as the reason like king Jehoram. Start with introspection and see if the problem first lies within you.

Jesus told us plainly to leave the speck in your brother’s eye alone and work on the plank that is in your own eye. If Jehoram had done this, the story would be different.

Matthew 7:5 (ESV): You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The end of the story is Elisha and the captain of the king. You remember the guy trying to beat down Elisha’s door. Justice is in the hand of God.

2 Kings 7:17–20 (ESV): Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. 18 For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” 19 the captain had answered the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.

Whoever stands in the way of God’s provision for his people (enemy) will be trampled in the name of Jesus.

Genesis 3:15 (ESV): “…he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This passage makes sense, right? This is a prophetic statement regarding Jesus’ heel coming down hard against the head of the devil. Jesus tramples the devil.

1 John 3:8 (ESV): The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

Romans 16:20 (ESV): The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

These passages describe a modern day picture of those (enemy) who stand in the way of God’s initiative being trampled by the people of God.

The enemy is defeated. He has lost. Jesus has won the victory at the cross. We are blessed to be the children of the most high God. He has won the victory for us and no evil can stand before him and live. He makes a way for us all and as lepers to this world we live and breathe by His power and He goes before us to crush the head of the enemy and make a way for our provision.

Praise the name of Jesus! Who can stand against our God, no one! Who can raise a fist to Jehovah and succeed, no one! Who in power can establish his own rule and work against God, no one! No one will succeed, only Jesus will.

Live it out! Go on and move by faith for the provision of God lies before you, not behind you.

What a drama! A perfect picture of the power of God at work for His people.  

Lord, thank you for Your mighty way. You are powerful and full of grace and mercy! Great are You oh Lord! You are worthy of praise and glory. Who can stand against You? By faith we see You and believe everything You say. Lead us Lord, guide us Holy Spirit! Let the enemy fall one after another in front of us, let us walk on them as though they were a road, scatter them like they are bugs. Fill us with boldness to seek out spiritual provision as we plunder the remnant of the enemy in our day. Thank You Jesus for making this possible.

Blessings

Pastor D