Daily Devotions

Latest

Last One Standing

Perhaps we could paraphrase Joel 2:25 like this:    “I will restore the years swallowed up because you did not realize the significance of MY purpose and destiny in your life.  The circumstances were forces  that mountain_peakI used to change you,  to build character,  to build strength, to complete a work within you and to bring about the right timing and conditions for My purpose in you.”  

Of course, when you are eating locusts without the honey, pulling crispy, creepy locusts shells out of your hair and swatting them away from your nose, eyes and ears, you wonder if you will be naked and half eaten or even be able to see the Redeemer who is coming.   If you dared open your mouth you would ask for His ETA.  However, that is the time to let the last line of Job 19:25, echo through you, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth.   He will have the last word and He will be the last one standing in our behalf.  So, let’s dare to trust Him to keep our accounts and wait for Him to show up as our Redeemer.

(This is the last excerpt from “Wait For It,” an article by Kathy Gabler in the August/September 2013 issue of SEEC Magazine.)
To read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013, click on this link:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,
Marty & Kathy Gabler

Outliving A Siege

The last sentence in Joel 2:25 says,  My great army which I sent among you.   That tells us that God sent the army of locusts, the swarm of circumstance.   Did He send them to ultimately rob, kill and destroy His people?  Castle siegeNo.  Interestingly, through those times that it feels like we are helpless and chaos is king, our Redeemer is watching and working behind the scenes and at every intersection.   Even during a siege there is a redemptive factor at work and, whether we realize it or not, the conflict is working something out of us and into us.  Overcoming a locust season is an opportunity for sons to build muscle and maturity.  Coming out with both is a redeeming result of difficulty.   Outliving a siege positions us for redemption of our purpose.  Matured and muscled, we are then equipped to embrace every opportunity restored, every resource restored, every potential restored, every strength restored, every harvest restored, every energy restored and the years lost in the difficult, building process.   

(This is the second excerpt from “Wait For It,” an article by Kathy Gabler in the August/September 2013 issue of SEEC Magazine.)

Melissa Gabler and the Grace Worship Band
Worship songs from Concerning The Kingdom Conference 2013
Click here for “Our Father” worship music: http://martygabler.podomatic.com/entry/2013-03-21T10_26_44-07_00
Click here for spontaneous worship music: http://martygabler.podomatic.com/entry/2013-03-21T10_33_09-07_00

Your Redeemer

locustA redeemer is one who delivers, avenges or ransoms as needed, one who buys back what was lost.  Think about all that can be lost to us, like lost opportunities, lost resources, lost potential, lost strength, lost harvest and lost energy (to list a few).   Our Redeemer can even buy back time, He said so in Joel 2:25,  “And I will restore to you the years (I will make up to you for the years) the swarming locust has eaten, the locust larvae, and the stripping locust, and the cutting locust. . .”  This scripture does not only say He can restore the years, it says He will.   He will make up for those times that no matter how many bugs you killed, they kept coming.   He will restore those years it took to fight and endure the swarming  circumstances.     He will make up for the time it took for circumstances to consistently strip away your strength and hope.  He will make up for all those mornings when the sunrise woke up the dread in your soul again and circumstances continued to devour your day and your future.    He will make up for the months and years that opposition smothered you and circumstances robbed you through changelessness. He is, indeed, your Redeemer!

(This is the first excerpt from “Wait For It”, an article by Kathy Gabler in the August/September 2013 issue of SEEC Magazine.)

Click on this link to read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,
Marty & Kathy Gabler

 

 

Out Of The Ashes

The only place your gift (or hope or dream God has put in you) will do no good is under the ashes of hurts, self indulgence and neglected vows. If there is anyone not AshesJPG1wanting that gift stirred, it is not God. God enables (1Tim.1:12) and motivates (Rom.15:13;Heb.12:2-3). No pleasure nor morbid sense of humor can make Him call someone, give gifts to them and then turn around and pummel their dreams into powder.

I doubt Joseph’s dream had been completely forgotten or buried under the ashes of unfulfilled years. He had a dream from God and it kept him alive and kept him going in the pit, in prison and in pressed service in a foreign land. The vision did not die but actually came to greater dimension than he had originally imagined!

Nothing is birthed and the flames of gifting fade away when we take our focus off “God said” and place it on our inner doubts and struggles. Those doubts are fed by the detractor and those he enlists. What God promises, He also performs. The “how” of it is not our concern. It is God’s and it is no problem (cf.Heb.11:3). Cf.”Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart (Ps.37:3-4).”

(This is the last excerpt in a series about “Yearn To Burn” from Marty Gabler’s book “Why Sheep Have Short Legs.”)

 

Speak Into Our Lives

You, O Mighty God, are not subject to political schemes, monetary declines or medical limitations. You are above all those limited strictures.  Father, by your awesome Spirit, speak into our lives where we have high wallforgotten your desires and purposes and have concluded, like Abraham in Gen.15:3, that we will not have an heir, and certain things will be and other things will not be. Holy Spirit, come and breathe upon the Word of God in our hearts that we may call upon Him so that He may show us great and mighty things. Come and witness to us today what shall be and what you shall grant by your power from your throne. We must know what we do not now know that the glory may be to Your Name.

“Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, fenced in and hidden, which you do not know (do not distinguish and recognize, have knowledge of and understand).” (Jer.33:3, Amp)

Click on this link to read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
Featured article:  Apostle Jim Hodges, “The Corporate Anointing”

We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,
Marty & Kathy Gabler

 

Yearn To Burn

The air was bone-chilling cold. The fire had gone out and it seemed useless to pick up the stick and stir the ashes which looked so lifeless. Yet, when I began to stir around in the ashes, sparks began to fly, fireembers were exposed to the air and they began to flame into life. The embers that came to life had not been apparent before I stirred up the ashes. I added some small twigs and in a short period of time, after feeding the fire with some larger pieces, I had a full-grown fire to warm myself.

Paul urged Timothy, “Stir up the gift of God within you (2Tim.1:6 KJV).” There was no impassioned plea for Timothy to sit quietly by until a holy stick-bearing angel came and stirred up the fire. Actually, the imperative is to do just the opposite: “[You] Fan into flame the gift of God.” This phrase was used in the common vernacular of the time to describe the rekindling of a fire that had been allowed to die down through neglect (W.E. Vine).

(This is the first excerpt in a series about “Yearn To Burn” from Marty Gabler’s book “Why Sheep Have Short Legs.”)

Melissa Gabler and the Grace Worship Band
Worship songs from Concerning The Kingdom Conference 2013
Click here for “Our Father” worship music: http://martygabler.podomatic.com/entry/2013-03-21T10_26_44-07_00
Click here for spontaneous worship music: http://martygabler.podomatic.com/entry/2013-03-21T10_33_09-07_00

 
 

God As Witness To Promise

praiseThere are blessings, signs, wonders and miracles about to happen in our lives, our families, our churches and our nation because God was witnessing of it before you and I were ever born—for His Name’s sake. We will not fall backward from promise in our confession. We will not say as Abraham, “Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.” (Gen.15:3). Because He who is Witness responds “This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.” (v.4) We will not see promise from afar or second-hand. We will see it with our own eyes and give Almighty God praise.

Click on this link to read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,

Marty & Kathy Gabler

 
 

Be Not Bedraggled

That depreciating disparager is a thief and has come “only to steal and kill and destroy (Jn.10:10).” His goal is to steal away a word, a hope, a dream or a vision that God has given. He would love for you to think it has been canceled or, at the very least, that you will have to settle for something less. You end up CARFAX 250bedraggled, talking like, “It’s not going to be what I originally expected it would be but ‘many are the trials of the righteous’ and I’m just glad to know the Lord.” The detractor spirit finds many an ear willing to listen, willing to believe and willing to act on the altered information.

The thief will get us preoccupied with other people’s views of our relationship with God or their opinion of the likelihood of God’s promise coming to pass in us. He wants us totally dismayed with the time period between promise and fulfillment. Such a spirit readily points out failed relationships and failed attempts “to be a part of” so it appears that there is now a “blemish” on our calling. His memory works overtime reminding us of failed or unheeded opportunities. Hence, the implication of our being unworthy or unreliable as participants in any divine purpose.

If the detractor cannot knock you completely out of the race, he wants the wind and confidence knocked out of you so that your performance is hindered. It would be somewhat like a high performance racecar driver pulling in for a pit stop and saying, “Don’t put much gas in the tank and don’t put on any new tires because I don’t deserve it the way I’ve been driving.” Cf.”For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ (2Co.1:20).” Never stop saying “Amen” to what God has said.

(This is the third excerpt in a series about “Don’t Settle For Anything Less” from Marty Gabler’s book “Why Sheep Have Short Legs.”)

 

Beware The Detractor

The enemy of your promise does not have to completely destroy that promise. If he can’t get it all he’ll be satisfied with stealing a vital piece of it. That is the job of the detractor spirit. A detractor is graffiti-spray-paintsomething that takes away. It steals away pieces and takes away value from the whole making it incomplete, not fully functional, not fully serving its purpose. It is like a motor not running on all cylinders.

A detractor takes a spray can and paints smudges on a beautiful statue and vulgarities on a clean wall. A detractor draws a mustache on an exquisite painting. If someone notices a lady and says, “Isn’t she beautiful?” the detractor responds, “Yes, but her nose is too big.”

That spirit has a way of making things or people look and sound unattractive, unworthy or unuseful even though they may have legitimately been at one time. It devastates or, at the least, depreciates. It loves to make the promise of God appear difficult or unattainable. We just need to realize though, that if God promises, He is the One who brings it to pass. Beware all detractors that get in the way of God’s moving toward fulfillment. He performs that which He promises (Rom.4:21).

“and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” (Rom.4:21)

(This is the second excerpt in a series about “Don’t Settle For Anything Less” from Marty Gabler’s book “Why Sheep Have Short Legs.”)

Click on this link to read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,

Marty & Kathy Gabler

 
 

Don’t Ignore Tired

 If we are tired and ignore tired and do not resolve tired, we can slide into weariness. Then our attitude is affected. Like in an airplane, the wrong attitude will change the final outcome.  Attitude that is off a few degrees will influence our decisions and choices, causing them to miss the mark by a ignoringfew degrees.  That can lead to disappointment, despair and even desperateness.  

Recognize the first signs of tiredness and take a break for rest.  It is during those times the Holy Spirit can redefine “well doing” if necessary.

If you get to the “weary” phase you can miss the harvest, you can miss the good results simply because you have lost focus and are not looking. 

“And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.” (Gal.6:9, Amp)

(Kathy’s “Thought For Today #3”)

Click on this link to read the latest issue of SEEC Magazine * August/September 2013:  https://martygabler.com/magazine/
We pray that this issue of SEEC Magazine is a blessing to you,
Marty & Kathy Gabler