Daily Devotions

Archive for December, 2021

Where is This Coming From?

Melissa—A reminder for 2022: don’t forget that a lot of what you are dealing with personally, whether it be physically or emotionally, may be the war in the atmosphere.  We have the authority to say “peace” because we are His agents.  When our Lord told the storm to “be still” the atmosphere listened.  We carry that same authority and it is our job to change the atmosphere during our lifetime.  So, the next time you are dealing with something personally let your first reaction be to remember there is so much more going on around you than your eyes can see.  Ask, “where is this coming from and how do I need to deal with it?” You may simply need to say, “Peace, be still.”


End Well to Begin Well

We must end this year well in order to go into the new year well so that we can end the coming year victoriously.  We must determine to get rid of the old and get hold of the new.  It may cost us money, time, effort and purposefully applied energy to finish a season.  We may actually have to sit down, think and make a plan.  Finishing a season is very important because it disheartens the enemy.  “The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul. It had taken fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard the news and all the surrounding nations saw it, OUR ENEMIES TOTALLY LOST THEIR NERVE. THEY KNEW THAT GOD WAS BEHIND THIS WORK.” (Neh.6:15-16, Msg)  Maybe if we finish something, we won’t have so many enemies breathing down our neck all year.


Literal or Symbolic?

Free Roof BirdsKathy — Communication is complete when that information or meaning is received and understood. The Holy Spirit has unlimited ways to communicate with us to be God-aware because there’s communication incoming. For example: Literal means “real with no hidden meanings and nothing to be de-coded”.  What you see is what you get.   For example, if you dream birds are covering your house and the dream is a literal message, you need to find ways to keep birds off your roof before you have a mess.  The dream would be a heads-up for your benefit in future.  Symbolic means not real and a detail represents something other than itself.  In that case, the birds aren’t really birds but they represent something else in the air or atmosphere or surroundings.  Landing on your roof top or your high place would be your head and/or mind.  So the message would be to guard your mind and thinking from something in the atmosphere trying to land and have presence or influence in you.


Vigilant Change-Agents

Melissa — Yes, it has come to this: Be vigilant – keenly watchful to detect danger; ever awake and alert; sleeplessly watchful. Let me go ahead and say, this is not a “you deserve a spanking for allowing the world to go down the toilet” post.  Rather this post is aimed at being an alarm clock to wake up God’s sleeping giants to war! Is that you? Well, you’re the one reading this right now, and that is NO COINCIDENCE! So, here’s your wake up call, you beautiful heavenly-Change-Agent, you! What is a heavenly Change-Agent? It’s one who makes a difference wherever they are because they carry Heaven in them.  When I say Heaven, I mean one who carries the original intent of God wherever they go.  What is God’s original intent? Heaven on earth, a Kingdom without end (Luke 1:31-33).  The difference between our Change-Agents and the ones making the news right now is that we cause life, healing, peace, hope, restoration—not death and destruction!  


Grow Strong in Spirit

This is the day the Lord has made (Ps.118:24) so….  I will rejoice and be glad and grow strong in spirit and be filled with wisdom in it. Jesus was born with purpose and so are we. From the beginning, He not only grew physically but in His spirit and in wisdom for what was to come. One of our major goals for our children in 2022 should be to see them filled with the Spirit and to train them in godly wisdom.  “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of God was upon Him.” (Lk.2:40, Amp)


Miracles and God’s Enabling

Kathy — Miracles are begun in grace and perfected in glory.  They start with God’s supernatural enabling and come to complete manifestation through His intent and purpose and timing.  As I wait on God, I shall continue to pray for miracles this Christmas season because the coming of the Christ is still in effect as well as God’s goodwill toward men.  May His presence and power and purpose and timing change your life as His goodwill touches the earth again.



SEEC Magazine December2021/January2022

SEEC Magazine Latest Issue   Volume 25  Issue 4 __ August/September 2021
*** Our 25th Year of Publication! ***
Marty and Kathy Gabler invite you to read this issue for your edification.
CLICK ON COVER BELOW TO READ:
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Hope in the Face of All That is Contrary

The Christmas story is the story of hope — hope in the face of all that is contrary. Christmas time is a great time to use for the purpose of remembering, memorializing the fact, that when God says, “I will….”, then God will. He will move mountains, seas and people. In Josh. 2:11 the fact and realization is that our God is able to move anything or anyone in heaven or in earth to accomplish His purposes. He is able to move in the life of an obscure girl who had no credentials or evident reason for expecting to be part of an earth-shaking, history-shaping event. Her qualities and integrity (evidenced in the writings of both Matthew and Doctor Luke) helped to place her in the middle of the road where an unprecedented moving of God was progressing like a steamroller and changing history as man had known it. That change was taking place through a small handful of individuals and not through some large and varied political orFree Merry Xmas military movement. From all that we can find concerning this person called Mary, precious few people even knew of her qualities and integrity. It would seem that Jehovah was about the only One who saw and might very well have been the only One who noticed. And by the time she was discovered to be with child, she would have been disqualified by any who did happen to notice. Had it not been for dreams and angels intervening by Divine directive, her own husband would have done away with her.
When God promised Abraham a son it would appear that it was long deferred. Abraham most likely thought that the son which was promised was his immediate son. However, that promised Son was the One through whom the world would be blessed, the One who would be called the Christ. This Son of promise proved to be coming at the great distance of some 42 generations and about 2,000 years. Though it be long and arduous by our standards, God Jehovah is faithful in all and brings about detail for detail that which was foretold long before it was realized in this realm which we call reality. Delays do nothing to weaken the promise of God; for in what seem to us to be delays, our all-wise and provisional Father is preparing a people who will walk out His fulfillment rather than being caught unawares and overcome by His fulfillment. As we learn in the New Testament teaching of our Lord, the new wineskin must be prepared for the new wine or it shall burst and the wine and its value lost.
It is interesting to note M. Henry’s observation on this one point: “This son of David, and son of Abraham, who was to be the glory of his Father’s house, was born when the seed of Abraham was a despised people, recently become tributary to the Roman yoke, and when the house of David was buried in obscurity; for Christ was to be a root out of a dry ground.” From such a studious observation we could readily come to the conclusion that the performance and provision of our God comes when circumstances would place upon it the heaviest it has to offer. Ease and convenience are not the components or the ambiance of fulfillment. The Christmas story is the story of hope — hope in the face of all that is contrary.


Divinely Positioned

Kathy — Growing up on Abraham Avenue, Zacharias, Elizabeth, Joseph and Mary had no idea how they would fit in the plans of God & the history of man. Amid all their lessons in history & prophecy from the Torah, they had never pictured themselves as key players in the greatest story ever told. However, their lives were divinely positioned for the plans of God. God intends your life to be spent to His glory. (Jer.29:11)


A Heavenly Phenomenon

The birth of Jesus, Savior of the world, was announced in terms supernatural. The pronouncement & the experiences of those involved in the broadcast cannot be explained in mere natural terms. Not only did angels appear to Jewish shepherds but a heavenly phenomenon caught the attention of learned Gentile observers and drew them to the City of David to worship One whom they would hail as King of the Jews. (Acts 4:12, Amp) ”And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved.”

What’s it Gonna Look Like?

Free MangerMelissa — I was praying over a situation, sometime back, for which I had no answers and could do nothing about.  As soon as I prayed I heard, “Now, let go of all of your ideas of how this thing needs to be worked out and let Me have it.” As we head into Christmas and a new year may we lay down every weight, worry, and preconceived idea of what the will of God should look like in our current situations and leave it in the capable hands of the One Whose birth we are celebrating! Have a very Merry Christmas and may you find peace unspeakable in the decision to trust the One who already set us free.


Pursue Understanding

Kathy — When He does get our attention and communicates, we can be confident that He wants us to pursue full understanding.  The process I described of coming to see clearly concerning the number 1111, is just one example of how to search until you get to clarity.  I honestly expected that particular search to lead to a symbolic insight, yet it turned out to be a literal number of a chapter and verse.  Then that literal number became a symbol of encouragement for me, (and it still is every time I see it.)  I’m emphasizing the difference between thinking literally and symbolically because one of the biggest reasons we misunderstand communications in dreams or visions is that we think details are literal when they are symbolic, or visa-versa.  That kind of  misunderstanding can then leave us totally confused and missing the point. (3 of 7)


God’s Word

Free Bible PathAs the people of God assemble today may they require all that concerns them, all that they fear, all that they are considering and making decisions over to be brought under the scrutiny of the holy Word of God. May they have the faith to embrace Holy Scripture no matter what comes and let their paths and considerations be guided thereby.   Jn.17:17,NKJV—“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”   Matt.24:35,TPT—“The earth and sky will wear out and fade away before one word I speak loses its power or fails to accomplish its purpose.”


Where we Stand

While we are weighing all these issues that are challenging us today, we best begin with a firm decision on where we stand for life’s answers and guidance. Do we just embrace the present, loudest, demanding narrative or do we require all entities, all viewpoints and all persons to be measured by the ruler of the Word of God? 2Tim.4:3-4,TPT—”For the time is coming when they will no longer listen and respond to the healing words of truth because they will become selfish and proud. They will seek out teachers with soothing words that line up with their desires, saying just what they want to hear. 4 They will close their ears to the truth and believe nothing but fables and myths.”  I heard it said recently that “truth sounds like hate to those who hate the truth”. The prophecies, philosophies, doctrines and narrative (in every area of life) that are so abundant at this time must be, first of all, held up in the light of the Bible, not just simply assimilated into our thinking and practice. It is apparent that the unchanging God of heaven and earth requires that His people hold to His Word, the Bible, and insist that all other things and people be measured by its standards and principles. The following Scriptures are very clear on that matter. 2Tim.2:15-”rightly dividing the word of truth”; 2Tim.1:13-”Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me…”; Rom.16:17-”…watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”; 1Jn.4:1- ”…do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits…” [How do we “test the spirits”? By putting them and their words and their actions up against Holy Scripture. If Scripture does not embrace them and their words and actions, neither do we.]; 2Pe.1:20- ”…no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation.” (Part 2 of 8)


In the Midst of Hurried Frenzy

Melissa — For several weeks after Holy Spirit told me, “Your life is about to change drastically” He would remind me what He told me and I would get excited. Well, the day of “drastic” came… suddenly. Simply put, it called for a sudden and drastic change of location. Let’s just say, this was not the “drastic” I was hoping for. In the midst of the hurried frenzy Holy Spirit would once again remind me that He told me this was coming. It really did help, but I had to let it help. I had to choose to get past my disappointed victimhood and find peace in the fact that God is right in the middle of whatever is going on right now. I have to admit that I did not just settle into that place of peace in the midst of God shifting things. The disappointment turned into a bare-knuckle battle daily. I had to calm myself and take a firm stand on the Word of God. (Part 2 of 7)


Communication Through Numbers

Kathy — The Holy Spirit has unlimited ways to communicate with us to be God-aware because there’s communication incoming. For example, a couple of years ago, I kept seeing the number 1111.  It got my attention so frequently that I could not help but wonder why. For months I noticed it everywhere, on TV, billboards, addresses, digital clocks, in a dream, on a license plate, etc.  So I pursued an understanding of its significance.  At first, I considered that it might be a time or date, but that never jelled.  I asked the Lord for wisdom.  His wisdom is defined in Strong’s Concordance as “sage advice, the act of interpreting dreams and the ability to discover the meaning of a mysterious number or vision”.  In answer to my request, a thought I’d not had came to me and sent me on a search of the eleventh chapter of every book of the Bible, and I found the answer in Luke 11:11, “Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?” Suddenly I understood the Lord was letting me know that particular scripture was a telegram for me.  He was reminding me that He is my Father and He knows my heart’s desire and petitions.  Beyond that He was letting me know that He will answer my long-term petitions and His answers will not be a disappointment!  So then, 11:11 was an awesome communication from my Father that lifted my head and heart.   (Part 2 of 7)


Toward Understanding Prophecy

Some have prophesied that a terrible judgment is coming upon our nation and the church will not escape it because of its various and sundry neglections of duty and its corporate and individual sins. Others have prophesied that the church has come into its finest hour and that a great awakening is imminent, the likes of which have never been seen. Some are very angry while others are quite elated and expectant. Some believe that one set of prophets have totally “missed it” and that those prophets should be reprimanded in a public forum and they should each give an apology to the church world and the world in general. There are people who are apologizing for being born a certain gender or a certain race or for having two bathrooms in their house instead of just one. Is it just me or is it possible that there is an unbelievable amount of irrationality in society that is irrationally demanding actions and policies that it has no reasonable right to demand? There are entities and individuals trying to answer questions that no one ever asked while using every aspect of politics and legislation to further their agenda. It all leaves us with the need to carefully weigh for ourselves what needs our attention and what needs to be placed in the category of “nonessential”.  (In my posts over the next week or so I will be posting on the subject “Moving Toward an Understanding of Prophecy” (Especially with everything that is going on).


Drastic Changes

Melissa — I don’t know of anyone who is not going through something right now. Whether it be physical chaos, doors shutting, relational tensions, or the currents of life, there seems to be something of a strained nature going on everywhere you look (I won’t even list the nation’s woes). There is such a vast array of things happening but each thing is very personal to the one facing it. A couple of months ago the Lord told me I had been stationed in a particular place as a watchman but that season was almost over. Hmm, OK. What does that mean? Then about a month later, as clear as can be, I heard Him say, “Your life is about to change drastically.” After I heard this I got so excited deep down in my core but my soul, not so much! My soul went a little crazy, “WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!!!!” I had to calm myself down knowing that God is not the type to give you a mysterious clue that your life is about to fall apart and I had to stand firmly on Psalm 37:23—“The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.”


Transferring Information

Kathy — The meaning of communication is “transferring information or passing along meaning”.  Communication is complete when that information or meaning is received and understood.  One dictionary put it like this, “A line of communication connects people and places to purpose and function.”  The Holy Spirit has unlimited ways to communicate with us.  When He is transferring God-glimpses or God-insights or God-moments or God-downloads or God-deposits or God-discoveries, He may use dreams or visions or prophecies or events or experiences or people, etc.  It might be just a nuance, a momentary feeling or a passing thought that signals us to be God-aware because there’s communication incoming.  Or, we can be prompted from a memory or a conversation or the words of a song or an ad in a magazine or a number on a door!  I’m talking about when unique details ping our radar and they are meant to get our attention so we’ll look for incoming insight.  


Become Aware of Potential

As the people of God assemble today may they become aware of the potential in one another. May each one look beyond the other’s faults and each of our eyes be opened to the other’s potential. May Holy Spirit help us to see potential today that we were not aware of before. May we begin to speak to that potential and encourage one another and minister words of knowledge, words of wisdom and words of release.   Phil.2:3,NASB–“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves;”


Picking up Old Prayers

Free Praying KneelingIn coming days we will be allowing Holy Spirit to stir our memory, our compassion, our passion, our stewardship. The stirring of Holy Spirit will challenge us and direct us to pick up prayers from the past that we have laid down and no longer pray.  The various reasons, the discouragements and impatience that have caused us to just lay them down will begin to fade like the morning mist and we will again sense the burden/urgency, love and compassion we once did.   1Thess.5:17—“pray without ceasing”.   1Pe.3:12,TPT—“For the eyes of the Lord Yahweh rest upon the godly, and his heart responds to their prayers. But he turns his back on those who practice evil.”   Acts 17:16, KJV—“Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.”


Fear Dumping

Melissa Gabler —The Holy Spirit prompted me to ask for a season of “Fear Dumping”. Then I saw a picture of a chronic cycle just about at its start over place, but this time there was a button readily available to be pushed called “Fear Dump”. When we make the choice to push that button, all of the fear driving that cycle will be dumped causing that cycle to end! A season of fear dumping is upon us, PUSH THAT BUTTON! “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2Tim.1:7, NKJV)


Go For It

Kathy — Whether your part is praying, giving, teaching, rescuing, speaking out, building, tearing down, taking on a project, starting a business, infiltrating the government mountain or media mountain or whatever else you see Him doing, GO for IT. Doing what the Father is doing is not about little shepherds facing big giants, it’s about DAVIDS facing GOLIATHS! Hear the difference? Participating with what Father is doing is not a matter of helpless pawns in a political machine, it’s DANIELS in the lion’s den! Doing Father’s business is not spiraling into despair, it’s NOAHS building the future through hell and high water. Doing what Father is doing is not slavery to the work-a-day world of business and finance, it’s MOSES’S leading in a path to a God-promise and a God-future. Doing Father’s business is not being puppets obligated to perpetuate traditions that do not display God’s power, it’s JOSIAHS born to start changing history by the age of eight. We have to SEE the difference to LIVE the difference, and we have to LIVE the difference to walk out what our Father is doing in earth as in heaven.


December is for Hearing the Noise of Heaven

The month of December is for hearing the noise, the sounds of heaven. (“Thy Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”) When the angels announced the birth of the Son of God to the shepherds in Luke there were heavenly sounds that caused great joy and praising (Lk.2:19-20). The shepherds praised God for all that they had heard and seen. In Revelation angels are making the sound of “holy, holy, holy!” ceaselessly day and night. In Isaiah 6:3-4 angels cry out to one another “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts” and it causes the posts of the doors to shake. There are sounds of music and singing in heaven, and it appears that God Almighty is the one making the most noise! “The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing” (Zeph 3.17). The disconsonant sounds of earth that generate troubled hearts should be drowned out by the redemptive, healing, joyful, hopeful sounds of heaven all through December. Joy has a sound—joy is a sound. Those sounds can be released into the earth by those who pray, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.” Let us prepare our hearts to hear sounds of heaven this month. Perhaps we should praise as the angels and the shepherds until our very souls (and those around us) are shaken like the posts of the doors in heaven! Peace on earth, good will toward men.