“Little children (believers, dear ones), you are of God and you belong to Him and have [already] overcome them [the agents of the antichrist]; because He who is in you is greater than he (Satan) who is in the world [of sinful mankind].”

1 JOHN 4:4 AMP

When we hear this verse, we often think it sounds cliche or just like a pep talk or something from a fairytale where the hero must prevail over evil. It sounds great, but is it true? For my life? For everyone?

As a Christian, it is just about the truest thing out there! We have been programmed over the years by religion and media to think that good vs. evil is what it’s all about, that these “forces” are equally opposing. THAT is a lie! Satan is but an angel, one that couldn’t cut it! Heck, psalm 8 says that man, us measly humans, were made just a little lower than the angels. If we know where we are in the “food chain” as it were, then we can imagine that Satan is not much more powerful than a man alone. Here’s where it gets good… When you become a Christian and you have Holy Spirit residing inside of you, you are no longer man alone. You now have all the power and authority that comes with the name of Jesus backing you! You become “super charged!”

Phil 2:9-11 says, “…God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW [in submission], of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess and openly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (sovereign God), to the glory of God the Father.”

He that is in you is truly greater than any opposition you can encounter at any point in your life. Remember that when the enemy comes knocking and trying to sell his lies. Remember that when you are feeling knocked down and out by the issues of life. Remember that in any battle you face, whether spiritual, physical (some sort of illness or lack that would try to make itself seem larger in your life than the God who resides inside of you), emotional (depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, etc) or financial.

No matter what you face, remember that the God inside of you and the authority in His name is so much greater. You have the victory because HE has the victory and lives inside of you and through you!

In a lot of ways the Thanksgiving holiday began different than how we celebrate it today.

With New Years, we look forward to the coming year. We make plans and resolutions for a better tomorrow. Today, we usually use Thanksgiving as an opportunity to spend time with family, to have a day off from work and to start our shopping for the soon coming Christmas season. If we hold to a little more of the tradition, we also use Thanksgiving to reflect on the last year and all the blessings it has held and forward to what next year might bring.

As children we never had a care in the world. We were blissfully ignorant to all that is wrong in the world. We had never experienced anything “bad”. That made this last part of the Thanksgiving celebration a lot easier. It was easy to see light and life, joy and goodness in most things. As we’ve grown, though, we can sometimes find it more difficult to see the things we have to be thankful for. Our eyes have now been opened to the things wrong in the world, both through experience and just learned understanding and basic education. As we get older, we experience and accumulate more hurt and pain, more grief and loss. It becomes increasingly more natural to see the negative and hurtful things in the world and to be hurt by those things. It becomes more difficult to shake off the things that happen to us or the losses we go through along the way, to get back up when we get knocked down. It’s no longer second nature for most of us to be happy or to be positive. It becomes a fight, an active choice to be that way to line a life of Thanksgiving.

Here’s the cool thing though. Not only on Thanksgiving, the day that serves as our reminder to be thankful, but every day we do have a choice about being thankful or not, about being positive and happy in the midst of trial or heartache. We can choose to see the good in ANY situation and be thankful for whatever it may be, for where God is taking us through it all, for the journey.

There will always be something to be negative or offended or hurt about. There will always also be something or someone to be thankful for. It comes down to our mindset and choice to recognize those things, though. It’s up to each one of us how we see the lives we live. We can make excuses or we can make our minds up to be thankful no matter what.

Psalm 9:1

I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

Phil 4:6-7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Psalm 106:1

Praise the LORD.Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever

1 Thes 5:18

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus

Phil 4:8

Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].

I leave us with that on this sixty something degree, beautiful November day of Thanksgiving. In this coming year, let’s be more purposeful and intentional with our thanks to God and our thanks for all He has given us, even if it was born out of hardship. Let’s seek out the good in any and every situation and watch the God of peace transform our lives one day at a time, one moment at a time. There is much to be thankful for… not just on Thanksgiving…if we’ll only open our eyes and choose to see more clearly.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pursue Jesus. Love People. Transform the world.

God has this amazing plan for the world, a plan He has had from the beginning of time. The plan only began with Jesus. It continues through us to completion. How cool that we get to play a part, and no small one at that.

Throughout His 33 years, Jesus went around sparking interest and teaching people how to teach about Him and live like him. He went about loving people from every region and place.

“Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.”

Matthew 4:23-25 NIV

He never planned to be a one man show though. Because of and through His great love, He attracted followers, people who would emulate all that He was. People followed and pursued Him at all costs. They left family and fortune and tradition, all for the cause of Christ. Jesus set up churches filled with individuals carrying the flame of His Holy Spirit with the purpose of spreading the truth of His existence and how it impacts the world by word of mouth, person to person, individual to individual through relationship.

The hope of the world is the local church, the family that it is.

The Bible tells us in Matthew 28:19-20 that we are to make disciples (followers and family members of Jesus) of all men.

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.””

Matthew 28:19-20 NIV

So how do we make disciples? What does that look like? It looks like talking the talk and walking the walk. It looks like opening our mouth and living our lives in such a way that it attracts people to Jesus, just like Jesus did. Then, it means teaching them to do the same.

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!””

Romans 10:13-15 NIV

So what attracts people to something? Meeting a need! True religion! Relationship! LOVE!

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

James 1:27 NIV

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NIV

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”

Matthew 25:35-40 NIV

After Jesus showed the ultimate act of love by sacrificing His very life, ascending to the Father and sending His Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us, He then asked us live a life that looked like His. He asked us to pursue Him, to love people and to transform the world by His love shown through us.

His plan is relationship, both with Him and with others. His plan is love, to be loved by Him and to love others.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”

John 14:12, 16-18 NIV

Do you realize how special a name is? Do you know that it is prophetic and speaks things that be not as though they are? Do you know that a name holds great authority?

The fact that you have a name signifies your existence and importance. What that name means continues to shape who you are and become as your name is called over and over again each day. This is why I was very careful in naming my little man. I listened to God as he guided me to the name that HE had for Wyatt (meaning strong in war). As Wyatt grows, I will continuously be prophesying his strength in the battles he will face and I will raise him to know the strength of his God who he can gain his strength from.

Jesus’ name has the ultimate authority because of what He did when He conquered death, hell and the grave (meaning the Lord IS salvation).

We sign our name to things (as we become adults) and it holds authority. Certain things can only be done if certain people sign to them. A credit card or drivers license is only valid if signed. This is because of the authority your name carries. However, your authority is limited, especially in the spiritual. Jesus’ authority is supreme in all. He said when He left this earth that He was giving US the authority to do things by HIS name, to do things according to His will by His name.

Do you realize YOU now hold the key to everything and have all of the power needed in the authority of Jesus’ name that you have access to?

Wow! Let’s quit living defeated lives and start standing in the authority of the name given to us to be used for the glory of God and to accomplish His will in this earth! We have the power to do whatever it takes in Jesus’ name!

Ugh! So much of the time life feels like you are stuck between a rock and a hard place and like that rock and hard place gets bigger and bigger and closer and closer together!

We want out of this place, right? How do we get out? The only way is to break through either the rock or the hard place, right?

So often we sit around waiting for our breakthrough, that moment of relief and reprieve, the moment life is no longer “hard” but becomes easy. Well, guess what? Breakthrough isn’t easy either!

The very word says it all… BREAK-through. You can either be broken by the rock and hard place or you can break through them. Either way there WILL be a BREAKING.

So, ask yourself this question: which will it be? Are you ready to break through? Are you going to put your hand to the “plow” and put your hope, trust and faith in the God who breaks through or will you remain in fear and hopelessness to be broken by your circumstances, those rocks and hard places? Will you allow God to “break” you “through” those circumstance in order to put you back together properly or will you let those rocks and hard places finish the job of crushing your broken by life spirit?

“The One who breaks open the way will go up before them; they will break through the gate and go out. Their King will pass through before them, the Lord at their head.””

‭‭Micah‬ ‭2:13‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood.” Therefore the name of that place is called Baal-perazim.”

‭‭2 Samuel‬ ‭5:20‬ ‭ESV‬‬

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:12‬ ‭ESV‬‬

There are a few ways that we can know God. We can know Him specifically and we can know Him in a general or overall way. One doesn’t necessarily mean more intimately than the other. It’s almost more about which way the situation demands.

“There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, But its end is the way of death.”

PROVERBS 14:12 AMP

This verse doesn’t really seem to apply to what I talked about above, but it so does! When I think about SPECIFIC ways that I know God, what I know to be true of Him and have seem Him do over the years or in the Bible, I can look at a particular situation and find it hard to reconcile my current reality with the God I know.

However…

If I know God in some broad and generalized and overall type of ways, I can always reconcile Him to being good, and good all the time!

““For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.”

ISAIAH 55:8 AMP

Take a situation my brother is currently in for example. He decided to move to a new house to get out from under some of the financial burden he was currently in about 10 months ago. Being a child of the Most High, we all assumed his old house would sell quickly and at a profitable price, causing him to come out ahead rather than just getting out of an extra financial burden. Isn’t that what should happen? I know God to be Provider. I know Him to bless beyond measure. I know Him to prosper His children. I know Him to cause His children to have favor. These are all specific things I know, even from previous experience of my own to be true of God. These are MY thoughts about how this situation should play out. And, these are my thoughts BASED on my knowledge of and relationship with God, nor just my worldly expectations.

My brother has yet to sell his house. The goal of moving was to get out from under a financial burden and instead, he has been saddled with TWO house payments over the last ten months! That doesn’t add up to the God I know! Some people would question if my brother is really in God’s will or not. “His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi (Teacher), who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”” JOHN 9:2 AMP It must be something my brother is doing wrong. He must be lacking in faith. He must have some impeding sin in his life…maybe… maybe not!

The very next verse goes on to say, “Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but it was so that the works of God might be displayed and illustrated in him.”

JOHN 9:3 AMP

God always has a plan! He ALWAYS takes care of us, even if (mostly when) His way of doing so doesn’t fit in the box we expect it to! Whose to say the person who God has my brother’s old house for isn’t quite ready for it for one reason or another? What if the bank is the hold up? What if that person has some situation keeping them held back from the right timing. What if God is working on some part of character in my brother regarding trusting Him? All sorts of things come into play in all sorts of situations that we can’t account for and will never think of. We only think of us and how our situation affects us. We can’t think as far reaching as God can.

So…

We tend to look at God and box Him into specifics and He is so much more than that and so much more capable than that! When we find ourselves in situations that cause us to question who we KNOW God to be, the main thing we have to do is stay connected to God. Bring those questions to Him and let Him guide us to the other side. In the midst of those situations we may not be able to SEE God working, but if we KNOW that He is, we can get to the other side of it and look back and see Him all over in it! And, as a bonus, we will have grown in character and trust in Him along the way, obtaining tools and arms for all the battles down the road.

Don’t box Him in by specifics. Just trust that He’s got the overall! You WILL see it all line up to the good God you know in the end.

“HE WHO dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand]. I will say of the Lord, He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God; on Him I lean and rely, and in Him I [confidently] trust!”

Psalm 91:1-2 AMPC

Some of us say that we want Jesus and all He has to offer, but do we really?

“And a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years and had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed by anyone, Came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His garment, and immediately her flow of blood ceased.

And when the woman saw that she had not escaped notice, she came up trembling, and, falling down before Him, she declared in the presence of all the people for what reason she had touched Him and how she had been instantly cured. And He said to her, Daughter, your faith (your confidence and trust in Me) has made you well! Go (enter) into peace (untroubled, undisturbed well-being).”

Luke 8:43-44, 47-48 AMP

Here is a woman who had a flow of blood that would not stop for over 12 years. That would make being in public difficult, especially because in those days, the time where a woman was bleeding she was considered unclean and was an outcast. She knew she was not only embarrassed to go into public with others likely already knowing who she was and what her struggle was and everyone likely able to see it as well, but was not allowed to be in public. Going out was a great danger to her. She knew the other “healers” of the day had not been able to heal her and would not accept her.

STILL she pushed her way through the crowd if to only touch the hem of this Jesus’ garment. She risked it all- what was left of her status, her freedom, her very life!- to receive a touch from Jesus. When she received that touch, her immediate response was to tremble and fall before Him in reverence and give all glory to Him for what had been done for her.

Are you willing to risk it ALL for a touch from Jesus? How deep does your desire go to know and be known by Him? How desperate are you for all He has to offer? Desperate enough to risk losing a friend/boyfriend/girlfriend who doesn’t want you changing your lifestyle or going to church or giving your time and talents to something more than selfish gains? Desperate enough to swallow your pride? Desperate enough to forgive and look past some things?

I sure hope you are! Don’t let anything or anyone stand between you and what God has set before you! Go after Him with all you have and be ready to be blown away with what He can do in a moment with a heart/life that is after His, with only the touch of “the hem of His garment.” #DoYouEvenLifthimup

I post a lot of encouraging things for the Christian. If you aren’t one, this is your invitation to become one.

Here’s the deal. God created humans for communion, relationship with Him. I have a son not for the purpose of a tax credit or some other benefit, and I put up with all of the stress of raising him for the hope of a real relationship shared with him one day. God did the same with us.

Long ago, the first man and woman created by Him gave up that perfect and beautiful relationship for knowledge of something that the devil tricked them into desiring, the knowledge of good and evil. Man obtained the ability to choose evil and became tempted on a moment to moment basis to do just that.

We have continued in this inherited trait throughout the ages. We continually choose things over relationship with God. Because we inherited this knowledge of good and evil, we are incapable of having relationship with God without the sacrifice He provided for us, Jesus. We will always be tempted to choose evil over relationship with Him and will often give in to that temptation.

God knew this. He knew that He was perfect and holy and that as long as we weren’t, the humanity He created for the purpose of enjoyment through relationship with Him would be far from Him, not perfect, not holy and incapable of living with Him.

He still loved us despite all this! So… He created a way for us to have relationship again. His name is Jesus. He is our perfect sacrifice. He bridges the gap. He died in our place to “cover” us, to cover our sin (where we have missed the mark, not been perfect and holy, not chosen goodness over evil in every situation) so that God could see us as holy and perfect and be accepted into His home to live with Him and have relationship with Him all the days of our lives.

All that to say… If you want this relationship, if you want to be close to the only person who can help you live this life and direct you through all its craziness, then all you have to do is simply believe and choose once and for all to accept Jesus as your covering, repent (turn from the way you lived life before, without relationship with Him) and choose to live in relationship with Him (talking with Him and considering Him, consulting Him) for good. Best choice you’ll ever make!

Here are scriptures to explain it from God’s Word, the Bible.

“BRETHREN, [with all] my heart’s desire and goodwill for [Israel], I long and pray to God that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a [certain] zeal and enthusiasm for God, but it is not enlightened and according to [correct and vital] knowledge. For being ignorant of the righteousness that God ascribes [which makes one acceptable to Him in word, thought, and deed] and seeking to establish a righteousness (a means of salvation) of their own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the Law [the limit at which it ceases to be, for the Law leads up to Him Who is the fulfillment of its types, and in Him the purpose which it was designed to accomplish is fulfilled. That is, the purpose of the Law is fulfilled in Him] as the means of righteousness (right relationship to God) for everyone who trusts in and adheres to and relies on Him.

But the righteousness based on faith [imputed by God and bringing right relationship with Him] says, Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into Heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; Or who will descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ up from the dead [as if we could be saved by our own efforts]. [Deut. 30:12, 13.] But what does it say? The Word (God’s message in Christ) is near you, on your lips and in your heart; that is, the Word (the message, the basis and object) of faith which we preach, [Deut. 30:14.] Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Christ) and so is justified (declared righteous, acceptable to God), and with the mouth he confesses (declares openly and speaks out freely his faith) and confirms [his] salvation. The Scripture says, No man who believes in Him [who adheres to, relies on, and trusts in Him] will [ever] be put to shame or be disappointed. [Ps. 34:22; Isa. 28:16; 49:23; Jer. 17:7.] [No one] for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord over all [of us] and He generously bestows His riches upon all who call upon Him [in faith]. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [invoking Him as Lord] will be saved. [Joel 2:32.]”

Romans 10:1-4, 6-13 AMP

What could have you more bound than death itself?

“When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.””

John 11:43-44 NIV

So Jesus offers freedom from those old “grave clothes,” those reminders and bondages of your life before Him, your life when you were dead and headed for Hell in sin. The thing is, we have to take those clothes off. We may be free in FACT by the blood of Jesus and our ability to apply it to our lives, to cover our sins and wash us clean. The actual APPLICATION of that freedom, however, comes in our CHOICE to REMOVE those grave clothes.

So this is being free, the getting free, the first step. What’s the next step? How do we STAY free?

The next step is coming to the wedding feast that Jesus has set before us to be united with Him forever, to be made one with Him… and coming with not grave clothes but “wedding clothes.”

““But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.””

Matthew 22:11-14 NIV

We are all INVITED to this feast, have the opportunity, have been given the choice to apply the blood of Jesus in our lives and link up to Him to do life His way with Him. The CHOSEN part comes in us actually putting on the wedding clothes (Jesus blood) and applying His sacrifice and honoring it with our lives as we follow Him.

Let’s trade those grave clothes that keep us bound to sin and death and STAY FREE by putting on those wedding clothes that bring freedom and abundant life!