Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “anticipation

Nourish the Dream

Moses was nourished in his father’s house for three months (Ex.2:1). Anything marked for the purposes of God must be nourished within us and given ability to stand. Giving ability to stand is in the basic meaning of nourish. “By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict (Heb.11:23).” That dream God gives is no ordinary dream. Feed it. Nourish it. The false report may say, “Oh, but it is so skinny and frail, it’s almost dead.” Nourish it. It will come back strong. Someone may say, ”Oh, but there may not even be an ember left because the original fire was built so long ago.” Patiently and persistently stir and feed the fire. It will come to flame again.


Lines Falling in Pleasant Places

This is the day the Lord has made so…
I will rejoice because the Lord has caused the lines to fall for me in pleasant places, I have a good heritage and He is working by His Word and His Spirit to deliver me from the limitations of any negative portions of my heritage. “The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Yes, I have a good inheritance.” (Ps.16:6)


(Melissa Gabler)—With one word God intends to align what has been out of line.  With one word He intends to right the wrongs.  With one word he intends to do what He had in mind all along. This word “radical” has become my one word declaration over many situations and people. It’s one word, but it says it all! Right here in the middle of some of the most chaotic days of most of our lives, God says one word — one very loaded and life-changing word.  It might seem like the end of all things, but fear not.  We are about to see the radical that has been happening behind the scenes. We might think we have seen radical happening already. Nope, we are about to see radical for real.  Isaiah 55:11 (His word will accomplish what He pleases) is a truth that we will see manifest in our day.  How so? Radically.  No need in any of us trying to figure out how, for whom, or even when. God’s radical is a steam engine barreling down the track building speed. Let’s just get out of the way. To you and your family I say, “radical!” To the United States of America, one nation under God, I say, “RADICAL!”


Don’t Reject the Midwife of Your Dream

Dreams and visions are relentlessly attacked by the enemy until: (1.) they are mature and defeat him or (2.) we relinquish them. Relinquished dreams are no threat to our enemy at all. That is why God raises up midwives who will not sell out to Pharaoh. There is indeed One more desirable and more powerful than Pharaoh. Because God prepared God-fearing midwives, Moses (the offspring of God’s wise planning) was protected, kept alive and led Israel out of Egypt to the promised land.

God is ALWAYS FAITHFUL to raise up midwives to keep His offspring (promise) alive. Be sensitive to recognize them and not drive them away for they will help birth the baby of deliverance for your life. A midwife may be a prophetic word, a song in the night, a teaching or a compassionate person who may have no idea whatsoever that they are the midwife sent by God to help give birth to your deliverance.  
(From Marty Gabler’s book “Sheep Have Short Legs”)
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Radical!

(Melissa Gabler)—Recently I was praying over a situation and all I heard loud and clear was the word “radical”.  I could get behind that! Yes, radical change in this situation.  I began to speak “radical” into my concern.  It was one of those kind of things, however,  that just kept rolling around and growing inside of me.  It just felt like it meant more than I was currently grasping.  It also felt like it was for more than just that particular situation. So, I looked the word up in the Websters 1828 Dictionary. 

Check this out: Radical: 1. Pertaining to the root or origin; original; fundamental; as a radical truth or error; a radical evil; a radical difference of opinions or systems.  2. Implanted by nature; native; constitutional; as the radical moisture of a body. 3. Primitive; original; underived; uncompounded; as a radical word. 4. Serving to origination. 5. In botany, proceeding immediately from the root; as a radical leaf or peduncle.

Well, oh my! Radical is a much stronger word than I thought it was.  Basically, what I see in these definitions is that radical means going back to God’s original intent.  So, when the Holy Spirit says “radical” He fully intends to take the current situation and put that person, family, business, region, etc. back on track with His original intent.  


God’s Will, Our Dream

God’s will birthed in our spirit is given us as a dream (not necessarily the night time sort but a great desire) or vision. Our receptive spirit is the “womb” God uses to develop and grow that will. The “offspring of God” will despoil the enemy and render him impotent and that is why Pharaoh wanted to destroy all the male babies. It would be through one of the male offspring (the planning and product of God) that God would leave Egypt empty handed and utterly defeated. (Excerpt from Marty Gabler’s book “Sheep Have Short Legs” –Click on Book tab at top of page.)
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To Pierce an Atmosphere

(Kathy Gabler)—Jesus demonstrated how to pierce an atmosphere.  He did it when He acknowledged the woman with the issue of blood.  His acknowledgment, without condemnation, pierced the atmosphere of traditions that limit life and steal destiny.  He pierced the atmosphere that was filled with the fear of death when He spoke to Jairus of his daughter saying, “Do not be afraid any longer; merely entrust this to Christ, and she will be made well.  Jesus’ words pierced the atmosphere and served as a heads-up to the prince of the power of the air over Jarius’ region.  That atmosphere filled with unbelief was about to shatter.  The stronghold of experience and natural limitations was crumbling, bowing to a Higher order.  Jesus set the rules of engagement in Lk 8:51 “ When He came to the house, He did not allow anyone to enter with Him, except Peter and John and James, and the girl’s father and mother.” Then He pierced the powers-that-be again, “He said, “Stop weeping, for she has not died, but is asleep.”  The first blow shook every power of darkness lurking in the smothering, toxic air, and then He delivered the second blow in verse 54, “He, however, took her by the hand and called, saying, “Child, arise!”  


Issues and Hearing

As the people of God assemble today, may the Lord enable them to step beyond issues that would otherwise hinder their hearing the truths of His Word. May issues not be considered or guarded as the Word of God is spoken. May those issues not be a screen that the Word has to get through before the Word can be considered for repentance and/or growth. May personal issues, and issues with others who are present in the meeting, take a back seat to the life and delivering power of the Word of God.  Psa 81:13 — “Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!   14  Speedily then I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.” (Amp)


Find the Quiet

In the last two months, I have been in several conversations with upset and anxious people. Hearing their circumstances makes me understand their distress, but mid-conversation I hear again the instructions I heard that morning to “stay still” and “stay thankful”. I want to say to them, “I know it is a challenge when you are anxious and “what-ifs” are erupting in your thoughts and shooting holes in every hope that raises its head, but find the quiet stillness of confidence in God.  Then be thankful that opens the door to Him and He is already on the doorstep.”


Light Shine in Midst of Darkness

Prayer & Declare—I ask of You, Father, that Your light would so shine in the midst of the darkness of this culture that people would turn from the deeds of darkness and follow Your Son in light. Make their darkness abhorrible to them in the presence of Your redeeming light. I declare that the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, overcomes darkness today even as He overcame the deep darkness of the Gadarene demoniac and that we shall see many turn to Him while gladly abandoning their sad, empty darkness.  “Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (Jn.8:12, NKJV)


Guard Attitude and Gratitude

(Kathy Gabler)—Our faith and trust in God is our stand of agreement that opens the earth and the circumstances and the day and the moment to Him. Basically, Father told me to guard my attitude and my gratitude, and I learned the surest way to do that is to make trust a priority every time a contrary wind stings my face. My confidence in Him cannot be passive nor frail. It must be a deliberate daily decision. Thankfulness too is a daily deliberate decision. For me that decision starts when I remind my soul that He is good and He is in the moment.


No Weapon Formed

No weapon formed against you shall prosper (Isa.54:17). This is the reason why:  No matter the size or type of weapon, it is soooo inconsequential in comparison to your God. Everything He is and everything He can do overwhelms it and engulfs you and the weapon. “For [in comparison with the Lord they are so weak that things as insignificant as] the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool. But My rightness and justice [and faithfully fulfilled promise] shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations.” (Isa.51:8, Amp)


Stay Thankful

(Kathy Gabler)—Stay Still had been only the first instruction. The second was, Stay Thankful.  That seemed somewhat of a contradictory challenge because it involved facing the troubling again that I had turned from to get still.  Sometimes we can simply walk forward and leave past conditions behind, but this time I had to go back to find where I had exchanged or laid aside my, ‘Thank you, Lord’.  Genuine thankfulness required that I go back and find God’s goodness and mercy and presence and purpose there among the unanswered prayers and unchanged issues.  This time I could not wallow in my emotions but rather stand separate from them and find God in the mix.   I gathered the truths out of the rubble.  Even in the unchanging daily grind, He was there and aware because He is God.  He was looking out for me during the struggles and fears because His love for me is constant. He had good plans for the outcome of each concern because He is good.  He would never leave me to Trouble’s threats or whims because He is faithful.  I had to look again to see Him there, and to see Him there reminded me that He is aware and He is good and He is faithful.  That made me thankful.


Aim for the Bullseye

The enemy knows that if he cannot kill your dream, it will do him damage. The Egyptians made the Israelites’ lives “bitter with hard labor” and the “Egyptians used them ruthlessly”. (Ex.1:14) Pharaoh also came up with a plan to abort the possibility of deliverance. His plan for the midwives was to slay all promise and even hope of deliverance. He wanted them to stay at it, be vigorous, don’t let up, slay them all. I am reminded at this point of Jesus’ words “the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy (Jn.10:10).” The enemy quietly made a deal with the midwives to go about their destruction as quietly as possible – hopefully unnoticed (cf.Ex.1:16). The devil wants you to die in quiet desperation, preferably completely away from spiritual help and fellowship. He wants your dreams and visions to die unshared, unvoiced and most definitely…. unfulfilled. Just as a sheep is ever searching out life-sustaining grass, it seems that we are ever searching out God’s will. God’s plan is ever to reproduce Himself in us. That’s why He gives us dreams and visions. He puts a “bullseye” out there, aims us at it and desires we move in obedience toward the center of the target. (From Marty Gabler’s book “Why Sheep Have Short Legs”.)


Our Confidence is His Portal

(Kathy Gabler)—Our complete confidence in Him is like a portal for His entry and workings in our life, and that pleases Him. Recently, the Lord illustrated this vividly for me. I awoke from a nap hearing the Holy Spirit say, “Kathy, your confidence in me becomes my access to you and your situation.”  Immediately, I saw a cylinder around me.  It was bright white in its interior circular wall.  Although I could only see so far up into the distance above my head, I knew the cylinder stretched into the heavens.  The corridor seemed to be a straight shot from me to God and I had a knowing that it passed right through second heaven without interference.  Being in that cylinder was like being in a gigantic artery from my heart to His, and the artery had no plaque build-up, fear or doubt or unbelief that could block His supernatural flow. The vision convinced me that my complete confidence in God forms an unhindered path for Him into my life, and confidence filled my being.  Stillness seemed definitely doable.  


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Edification in Prayer and Word


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.