Daily Devotions

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Give Careful Thought to Your Priorities

KATHY GABLER—Hag 1:5-9,  “The LORD Almighty says “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” This is what The LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.  Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.” (NIV)    The instructions were clear: “Give careful thought to your priorities.  Don’t decide your day according to your problems or your feelings or your circumstances.  Order your life according to my wisdom and honor.”  He was telling them to think differently so they could change their world.

An Invitation to Come Up

MARTY GABLER–When God says: For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 55:9), He is not attempting to get us up under severe condemnation, He is offering an invitation to come up to where His ways and thoughts are so that we can know those ways and have those thoughts. Why would He do otherwise when going up to His ways and thoughts will bring glory to His name and cause the Kingdom to advance in the earth? He is saying that we are not quite there yet but just keep coming. He called Abraham up on top of the mountain and instructed him to “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. (Gen 13:14-15) Abraham had to get his eyes off himself and off his immediate failures and limitations and off the economic condition of the surrounding nations and off the hurts he received in his relationship with Lot. He had to lift his eyes to the Word of God, to the promises of God. Look up from where you are and get your eyes on the victories of the risen Christ and… what you can see, your children will inherit (Gen 13:15).

Take the Time to Pay Attention

MELISSA GABLER — What do I do when these prophetic things occur?  Here’s where I start: TAKE THE TIME TO PAY ATTENTION.  Remember, this life is meant to be EPIC. Take time to act, pray, speak it/declare it, write it down or simply agree in that moment. If it’s not obvious what to do, ask God for instruction. You may need to hold on to it for future reference.  Don’t get impatient and jump into action if the action is not clear.  That could lead to an unpleasant outcome.  He could be training you in that moment, getting you ready.

Contaminating Mood or Conversation

KATHY GABLER—I remember once that a spirit of depression came into the house. It was almost visible like a cloud of fog. Marty and I both noticed the plaguing presence and realized neither of us were down or worried so that we had generated such a downer-atmosphere. (One sign you are dealing with a spirit is they are irrational and cannot be explained through logical processing.) That spirit had come in trying to contaminate the air to influence our mood or conversation so that we would give agreement to legalize its presence and agenda. This is why the air is a crucial battlefield. It is unseen, yet present, so we must learn to discern and pick up on what has blown in. When we are conscious of these things then we can counter them. If we don’t discern it, we can add to the toxicity of the air because we allow our moods or thoughts or words to just go with the flow. That is coming under the influence of the air and that is agreement that empowers it’s agenda. We have to discern and refuse to agree through our reactions or words or moods.

The Hands That Hang Down

As the people of God assemble today, may they lift up and strengthen the hands that hang down and are tired; may they strengthen the knees that are weak and trembling from heavy loads and stress. May many leave the meeting and go into the coming week with strength and encouragement from their brothers’ and sisters’ words and prayers.
“Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness. 4 Tell everyone who is discouraged, “Be strong and don’t be afraid! God is coming to your rescue, coming to punish your enemies.” (Isa.35:3-4, GNT)

Most High is Involved in Current Events

MARTY GABLER–This is the day the Lord has made so…
I will rejoice because the Lord God Most High is actively involved in current events. He will not overlook or ignore unrighteous ploys and will not allow ours or His enemies to prevail. (Ps74)
“Yours is the day, Yours also is the night; You have prepared the light and the sun.
You have established all the boundaries of the earth; You have made summer and winter.
Remember this, O Lord, that the enemy has reviled, And a foolish people has spurned Your name.
Do not deliver the soul of Your turtledove to the wild beast; Do not forget the life of Your afflicted forever.
Consider the covenant; For the dark places of the Land are full of the habitations of violence.
Let not the oppressed return dishonored; Let the afflicted and needy praise Your name.” (Ps74:16-21)

One of Those Defining Moments

KATHY GABLER—When I heard “and the moment before” it was one of those defining moments that declares God is in charge and that He has the last word on all that concerns me.  (The fact that He takes time to define a moment in our life is a shot of impacting love.)  Those defining moments bring a clarity that pierces every other influence we may be under.  The subtle snare is how easy it is to come under the influence of a thought, an emotion or an atmosphere and be in agreement before we even realize we had a choice not to.  Recently, I realized this as I was packing to leave for a few days of meetings.  The phone rang and the host pastor mentioned something in passing that really had nothing to do with the meetings, but it bothered me.  My excitement for the trip was slammed.  A slammed, emotional state is an open window for an unwanted wind of influence to enter and preside.  Of course, we can choose not to allow the influence over our mood or our day, but emotion can swing from excitement to dread so quickly that the will does not get involved until it too is under the same influence.  Then once the mind is under the influence of a negative atmosphere, it is amazing how your whole world is suddenly mulligrub grey.

May Good Things Spring up Out of You

MARTY GABLER—May good things and giftings, and words of encouragement and enabling spring up out of you in this season like a spring that is beginning to flow. May all the debris of uncertainty and past failures and criticisms blow completely away as the good things flow unhindered to bless others. Get into the Word of God and let it speak more loudly to you than the voices that would remind you of your history.  Be reminded that the former things are cast into the sea of forgetfulness.  The forgiveness and enablements of Jesus Christ override past failures and insure future victories.  ”The good man, from his [inner] good treasure, brings out good things…” (Matt.12:35a, Amp) We are praying you discover daily God’s forgiveness in your life.

How do You Know You Are Hearing God?

MELISSA GABLER—How do you know if what you are hearing is God? Well, does it line up with His Word? For instance, murder and adultery… not God! Also, He trains you to hear Him. “The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.” (Proverbs 2:12)  Sometimes we train ourselves to ignore the prophetic lifestyle because we “don’t want to be weird”.  This really is an epic life we are meant to live—not fairytale or fantasy, but epic.  Why epic? Epic is quite unlike fairytale or fantasy that denote magic, rainbows and butterflies, and other-worldly superhumans. “Epic” denotes work, grit, fight, humans living their destiny and winning.  So, don’t ignore His training.  Don’t ignore that relationship.

The Lord of This Moment

KATHY GABLER—One day, sometime back, I sat down at the piano and began to let worship rise to the Lord Jesus. Needing His most-desired intervention that day, I began to spontaneously sing out of the conviction of my heart, “You are the Lord of this moment”. That worshipful, prophetic declaration that day at the piano was also a cry from my heart for a moment of comfort and quietness that would shut out all the noise of need and concern and “what-ifs.”  The awesome Spirit of my God did not miss nor ignore that heart-cry.  If desperation had my ship listing, His four-word echo set me aright.  If anxiety was smothering, His words brought me a deep breath.  If time was threatening, His words turned the clock back.  If I feared I was at an unchangeable end, hope took me back to a new beginning.   He was reminding me that before circumstances piled up, before dysfunction developed, before trouble troubled, He had seen it coming, and He had the table set for me before my enemies even got there.  When I said, “You are the Lord of this moment” and He echoed, “And the moment before,” it was a powerful reminder that His provision is there before the problem.

You may read magazine articles by Kathy Gabler at this link: martygabler.com/magazine/