Daily Devotions

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Dates and Groaning

Dates, predictions and signs come and go in every generation and during and after the book writing and prophesying and after the hubbub, fear and debates subside, creation is still left groaning for the manifestation of the sons of God. For many, these things are not about Jesus, they are about events. We must get back to a Christocentric message and lifestyle (one in which Christ is central, not just a ticket out of here). ”[ The Centerpiece of All We Believe ] So, my dear Christian friends, companions in following this call to the heights, take a good hard look at Jesus. He’s the centerpiece of everything we believe, faithful in everything God gave him to do.” (Heb.3:1, Msg)

Faith is Stand of Agreement

(Kathy Gabler)—Faith is the key to His pleasure (Heb.11:6) because faith is how we receive the deposits of His love or the changes His will causes or the manifestations of His Original Intent in our lives.  It brings God pleasure for people to experience His good will toward men and His beauty for ashes and His making the impossible possible.  Our faith and trust in Him is our stand of agreement that opens the earth and the circumstances and the day and the moment to Him.  So, our complete confidence in Him is like a portal for His entry and workings in our life, and that pleases Him.    

Rest in Safety

As the people of God assemble may they encourage one another to hope in the Word of God and the God of His Word. May they be reminded of the unfailing Word of God and find rest in safety and fear none. “And you shall be secure and feel confident because there is hope; yes, you shall search about you, and you shall take your rest in safety.” (Job 11:18, Amp)

Year of Extraction

(Melissa Gabler)—First, I would like to warn you of the graphic nature of this article.  It may cause unpleasant pictures in your head while reading.  So, read at your own risk! What has the beginning of this year been about? We are in a Drawing Salve season. The reason drawing salve works is that it softens the skin around the splinter, or whatever else is in there, and this then enables the body to more easily eject the foreign object.  This is something that the body does naturally anyway, but by moisturizing the area and using anti-inflammatory agents you simply encourage this to work more quickly before the wound closes over it. At the same time it can encourage blood flow which will also help to create pus and as the pus is ejected from the body so too will the foreign object.  That stuff has to come out! This year of extraction also includes our being extracted from captivity with all the bells and whistles God installed!  

Our Value to God

(Kathy Gabler)—Hebrews 11:6 also says that “without faith it is impossible to please God.”  Our stillness may be challenged if we misunderstand that part of the scripture.  We must understand that pleasing our loving Father is different from pleasing others.  Pleasing God is not the same as pleasing the boss or pleasing a task-master or pleasing a judge or pleasing the powers that be in the human realm.  God is not affected by humanness, and He is not so shallow that pleasing Him is about emotions or preferences or moods that humans or Greek gods seem to be fraught with.  Neither is pleasing God a matter of our worth or value to Him as is the case in a master-slave relationship. (Sixth excerpt from Kathy’s article “Trust Gives God Access” Vol.22Iss3)

Engaging His Design

2019 is the time period the Lord has made (Ps.118:24). We will rejoice because the Lord has made it in keeping with His purposes and plans. It is a time period that we may not thoroughly understand nor have a complete grasp of. Yet, the times are in His hand (Ps.31:15). Throughout 2019 we will continue to rejoice because the all-wise God is not behind the times nor even trying to catch up. He has already stepped out into tomorrow and bids us come and partake in His worthy enterprise and we will engage His design with energy and expectation of the extraordinary. May the Lord grant you every enabling blessing for His Kingdom purposes in 2019. 

Standing Strong

(Kathy Gabler)–Trust is not refusing to think or just being purposely passive.  It takes deliberate effort not to teeter-totter in the contrary winds of circumstances or emotions.  In order to stay in the steadiness of trust, we must choose to ease down from uptight stress or climb up out of the mulligrubs of disappointment.  If you picture a sure-footed stand on either side of that middle balance-point of a seesaw, you can see that standing strong and keeping your head straight (not leaning to our own understanding but trusting in the Lord with all our heart, Pro 3:5) involves a bend of the knee while you counter the ups and downs of life.  The effort is outward, but the rest from threats and what-ifs is inward.  So at the very least, stillness that comes from trusting God can bring us to physical healing just because it brings relief from stress.  Trust is being still because you know He is God, and trust works in tandem with faith to experience God’s will being done.  I believe we can see it in Heb 11:6, Anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.  We believe He exists because we have faith in His word, and trust is our confidence that He can be approached and will respond.  Sometimes I think our trust in God is shaken because we don’t see the results we thought faith promised.  At those times, being still and refusing to be shaken may boil down to holding on to God more than what we thought He said or what we thought He meant. (Fifth excerpt from Kathy’s article “Trust Gives God Access” Vol.22Iss3)

The God-Cloaked Answer

(Melissa Gabler)—(Melissa) Have you ever had times when a revelatory nugget pops up, then within days you hear the same nugget from other sources? That’s been happening as of late and I’m learning to pay attention to those! Following is one such instance that has been not only ringing in my ear, but answering some of those seemingly unanswerable questions.  While in conversation this was quoted to me from a book, “God hides some things for specific times so that the enemy cannot destroy them.” That stuck with me, and a couple of days later I read a quote from someone else that was expressing the exact same thought! Well, that really hit me between the eyes, especially because these came from trusted sources.  It was an “Are you listening?” moment. 

The God-cloaked answer is not about God withholding an answer because we don’t get it.  This is not about Him being mean or cruel.  He is indeed right the opposite. “It is because of the Lord’s lovingkindness we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.” Lam. 3:22-23 (AMP).  This makes me cry.  Our God is so faithful to sustain us through these battles to our answers.  In fact, His goodness NEVER runs out! This scripture tells us they are NEW EVERY MORNING! There is new strength and grace to be set free right now.  Y’all, He NEVER gave up on plan A which is the John 10:10 abundant life.  We choose to live plan B simply because we don’t have a grasp on His love and true intent for us.

A New Place of Trust

(Kathy Gabler)—It took a few weeks for me to realize that in order to stay still I had to get to a new place of trust in God.  I had to willingly and actively keep trust in the cross-hairs of my awareness.  I began to picture trust as that middle point on a seesaw where you are neither up nor down.  In that place, circumstances cannot get you uptight in high anxiety with your whole body stressed and straining, nor can the situation cause you to hit the bottom in despair or discouragement or depression.  Trust is a place where you do not live by what you SEE or SAW but by confidence in God and His steady, unmovable faithfulness.  From that early morning conversation, I had learned that I would have to stay alert and rein in my thoughts in obedient follow-through daily, if not hourly.  (Fourth excerpt from Kathy’s article “Trust Gives God Access” Vol.22Iss3)