As the people of God assemble today, may they lift their voices, their hearts and hands and sing thanksgiving unto the Lord God for all His beneficent blessings toward us. For God is good and greatly to be praised. “[ A Song of Praise ] Come, let us praise the Lord! Let us sing for joy to God, who protects us! Let us come before him with thanksgiving and sing joyful songs of praise.” (Ps.95:1-2, GNT)
Babies cannot defend themselves. Yet, a powerful king could not destroy the baby Jesus. (Matt.2:16). This world system could not touch even one tiny 
baby Who was the embodiment of the Kingdom of God in this earth (compare Mk.2:12). Rome had conquered the world but it didn’t know what to do with a carpenter from Nazareth (Lk.23:4). Demons opposed Jesus yet He walked about freely demonstrating the Kingdom of God (Lk.11:20). When crucified, they set a guard on His tomb but could not prevent the power of the rule of God over death. The rule and authority of God to finish what He started is unstoppable. We are praying you discover daily that the power of God is finishing what He started in your life.
Short Term or Long Term—As long as there are a people who feel they have their “ticket stamped” to go to a “much better place,” there will be no reform of what they deem to be merely an exit platform. If the departure platform is somewhat rickety, people will just try to stand still and hope the 
train out of there arrives soon. With such a view, no one reforms or rebuilds the platform; they simply grip what is available to grip and hope to be off of it as soon as possible. The emphasis today upon the sudden coming of the Lord isn’t about Him, it is about us. The religious pundits pounding their pulpits exclaiming the quick return of our Lord are getting hearty (and well financed) “Amens!” in response to their promises of sudden escape from recent disappointments and prognostication. With that consideration, the interesting irony is that we literally cheer our Old Testament heroes who stood to the last man for the saving of a God-ordained nation.
(This is the fifth excerpt from Marty Gabler’s article “What is Going On?“. More excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)
In spite of the angle of descent of morals and values, in spite of what the state of the union looks like, we stand on the brink of a destiny that our 
forefathers never imagined (Jer.33:3)—But it will require moving from being observers to acting, require shifting and transition: it’s the “violent” action of Matt.11:12 which means “intense exertion.” It is not violent in the sense of doing persons harm but in the sense of putting forth “intense exertion” in opposition to things that oppose God’s purpose. We must oppose darkness like opposing a rattlesnake trying to crawl up in our bed. We must do it for the King of Kings and for a generation. We are praying you discover daily that your intense exertion is gaining ground against darkness. (Marty’s Daily Discovery as heard on TEXAS PRAISE RADIO at the bottom of the hour 24 hours/day. www.txpraise.com)
What, Where, Why, How, When — What we need more than better politicians is an awakening move of God. Where we need that move of God is in the Church. Why we need that move of God (perhaps it might better be labeled a reforming move of God) is because, having lost sight of our purpose in 
the earth, the Church is bemoaning and reacting rather than decreeing and acting. How the move will come is determined by the resistance from those He is attempting to move upon, i.e., the types of circumstances in which they will be willing to hear from God. There are numerous creative circumstances in the Bible that were allowed to develop to awaken purpose in those who eventually became Sunday School story heroes. But then, their goal was not to get to heaven. It was to stop the giants and the systems that dared defy the Lord of Hosts. When God moves, we must be ready to yield to a paradigm that allows His government to reform us before we inadequately try transforming a nation. (1Pe.4:17 “judgment begins in the house of God”) After not preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom (the rule of God, not just a get-out-of-hell-free message; Matt.4:23; 9:35; 24:14) and Kingdom culture for 200 years, we are crying out in our nation for a political figure to legislate morality to produce a culture that doesn’t destroy itself and shed innocent blood. (Matt.5-6 is Kingdom culture)
(This is the fourth excerpt from Marty Gabler’s article “What is Going On?“. More excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)
God’s Word is in you. It is a seed. A seed does not exist just to hide in the ground. A seed will sprout, push up out of the ground, grow a stalk and put 
out leaves and blooms so that it may produce fruit, and that fruit is meant to be of benefit to others. God’s Word is a seed in us and it is growing in us (Lk 8:11). A seed cannot stay as it is, it must increase (Jn 12:24). God’s Word is working in you to improve you and increase you to bring forth good fruit. Col.1:29 “…His mighty power works in me.” (Col.1:29, GW) We are praying you discover daily the Word of God working powerfully in your life.
(Marty’s Daily Discovery as heard on TEXAS PRAISE RADIO at the bottom of the hour 24 hours/day. www.txpraise.com)
What we need more than better politicians is an awakening move of God (at least)… in the Church, then the nation. God will never share, with mere political parties, the power He has designed to be exercised through the Church. “Politicians are not to be looked to for complete social reform… The 
Church has been losing influence in America because it has been relying on politics to stop the moral and spiritual decay in society. Politics will not catalyze the change; it is simply a reflection of the environment. If the environment is rooted in Christian values, the politics of America will be rooted in Christian values… The spiritual revival and renewal of Christian faith needed in America will never originate from Washington. Once the spiritual climate changes, Washington will be changed. If the American Church thinks her salvation […] comes from Washington and a God-fearing president, then her hope is rooted in a counterfeit… God’s Church is not dependent on elections; it is dependent upon His Word, which declares, ‘… I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’” (Matt 16:18) (Dennis Lindsey) If we are not careful, we can just get to looking around and saying, “‘Such and such’ is what’s going on” and forget that God is at work.
(This is the third excerpt from Marty Gabler’s article “What is Going On?“. More excerpts will be posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.)
As the people of God assemble today, may they be assured of God’s peace that passes all understanding and seeks to dwell in their hearts by the power of the risen Christ. May they realize and embrace the unity of the Body of Christ and the strength of oneness in our Lord as they boldly make prayers unto God for the salvation of our nation. “Confuse the speech of my enemies, O Lord! I see violence and riots in the city,” (Ps.55:9, GNT) “Felix, who knew Christians didn’t go around starting riots…” (Acts 24:22a, Living Bible)
“This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Ps.118:24) On this passage Clarke basically says that since the Lord has called us to triumph, this is the day He has appointed for that purpose. He seems to be claiming it for himself, as should we—this time period, this season, even this very day is the day of our triumphing in Christ. This is rejoicing for what the Lord had done for the nation. V.23 “This is the Lord’s doing.” Now, as then, mere man does not have the answers for our nation. Let us lift our voices to the throne of God that we may rejoice in what Jehovah has done in our nation. Rejoice and be glad!
Hopefully, we will not shrink back and think we can opt out of choosing to respond to our Lord’s “Come on” (Matt.14:29). If we refuse to cooperate 
with God’s intent stirring within us, there will be repercussions. For one, not moving forward in God’s direction can leave us to simply become a victim of our present circumstances instead of changing them. For another, we get cheated out of destiny and fulfillment that would make our lifetime bring glory to God. For another, we suffer the consequences of disobedience, (which are too varied and numerous to list here.) Believe it or not, just like it was hard for Jonah to fight cooperating with God, it is not easy for a son to ignore or defy the cry of a son’s heart.
(This excerpt is from the article “Bid Me Come” written by Kathy Gabler.)
Beside Still Waters With Marty Gabler
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