Daily Devotions

Posts tagged “transforming power

The Strain of Faith?

KATHY GABLER—Many times through the years I remember straining to have faith.  I do believe that started when I was about eight years old.  I was watching Peter Pan and was straining “to believe” so that the fairy Tinker Bell’s light would not go out.  (I don’t think it’s happenstance when Disney distorts your theology, it’s a goal.)  That childhood experience put a subtle twist in my understanding of faith that became a misbelief for years.  Then when I heard the Scripture that “without faith it is impossible to please God”, that intensified my struggle to get to faith because it was coupled with the drive to please God!  These were unseen battles going on in my soul but they created tangible stress in my life.  And that stress continued for years until I stopped to consider this question:  Is there such a thing as the STRESS of FAITH?  The short answer is “NO.”   Since stress indicates we have not come to the rest of faith, stress is actually a sign of not-yet faith.   The rest of faith comes with alignment with God’s will and word, not our straining efforts.


Preserved in Purpose

MARTY GABLER—As the people of God assemble today may the people of God all worship Him and call on His name in one accord. And may they find, as they go through the week, that they are preserved in their person, their family, their job and their purpose. Ps.31:23, NKJV — “Oh, love the Lord, all you His saints! For the Lord preserves the faithful, And fully repays the proud person.”   v.23, EXB — “Love the Lord, all you who belong to him [loyal ones; saints]. The Lord protects those who truly believe [are faithful], but he punishes [repays] the proud as much as they have sinned [those who act with pride].”


Prayer Concern for our School Children

MARTY GABLER—We are concerned for our children today, Holy Father. We pray that, where earthly fathers have failed, You reach out Your protecting Hand and speak with Your guiding Voice to the children and Youth of our nation. We pray that Your Presence would be known on our school campuses through the believers that are on site and that Your Holy Spirit would strengthen and give wisdom to the teachers and school officials for the appropriate education and safety of our children.   We declare that the hand of the Lord is moving in behalf of our children and that no spirit or enemy that has designs on harming or destroying them shall succeed. We declare that no weapon formed against this generation will prosper. We declare an awakening of the righteous purpose of  Almighty God in this generation that they might live righteously, courageously, and effectively to Your glory.  “I do not ask that You will take them out of the world, but that You will keep and protect them from the evil one.” (Jn.17:15, Amp)


Ask for Insight and Understanding

MELISSA — This passage is a perfect tool for this time: Proverbs 2:3-6, “make your ear attentive to wisdom and incline your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding;” Ask for insight and understanding and you will begin to awaken to the fear of the Lord. Then you will understand how to navigate through what is at hand and what is to come. This is our opportunity to demonstrate the Kingdom of God and leave an effectual legacy centered in the fear of the Lord. I’ve heard so many times over the last couple of years that revival is coming. Yes, revival is coming, and it will come through awakened people bowing their knee to the Almighty God. (Come to DREAMS VISIONS PROPHECY Sept.13-14,2024 and worship with Melissa and the Grace Worship Team. She will also be speaking Sept.13 at 7pm. No Fee. All info for DVP2024 is at martygabler.com/dvp2024/)


Obedience to the Will of the Father

KATHY GABLER—Jesus exemplified that His first obligation was obedience to the will of the Father.  Opinions, emotions, traditions and minions can quickly bind Christians with a sense of obligation that has nothing to do with obedience or the order God can bless.  A vivid example of this in my mind is how often I’ve seen Christians feel obligated to tolerate all behaviors, without confrontation or rebuttal.  I’m not sure how the mindset developed that being non-confrontational is being holy, but there are no rewards for it in the Bible.  Jesus did not tolerate the attitudes or arguments of the Pharisees. He spoke very directly and at times did not even bother with diplomacy.   If tolerance is an obligation that is not first based in timely obedience to God, it is more likely coming from guilt or self-righteousness.  At that point, toleration falls into the category of good works and is an attempt to sanctify our own soul.  Of course, neither tolerance nor any other good work can cleanse the soul if it is not obedience (1Peter 1:22).  As Jesus demonstrated, a mature son lives his days discerning the Father’s heart and keeping obedience in priority to any other assumed or imposed obligation.
(Kathy will be speaking at DREAMS VISIONS PROPHECY which is September 13-14 at Grace Willis. No Fee. For all information go to martygabler.com/dvp2024/)


MARTY SPEAKING AT GRACE WILLIS 8-11-24

CLICK ON THE BANNER BELOW FOR MORE INFORMATION:
MPG at Grace Aug2024


Relationships and God-Appointments

MARTY—God had spoken to David years before he met those guys in 1Chron.12. But relationship with them played a major role in bringing him to the throne. David was not able to get into his God-appointed position without those important relationships. Rom.12:4-5 shows us that we cannot prove the will of God by ourselves but only in relationship. Rom.12:4-5, Amp — “For just as in one [physical] body we have many parts, and these parts do not all have the same function or special use, 5 so we, who are many, are [nevertheless just] one body in Christ, and individually [we are] parts one of another [mutually dependent on each other].”


Self-Sabotage

KATHY—Yes, the devil and self-sabotage are two different things.  However, the devil LOVES stoking the flames of self-sabotage! All we have to do is let our fears and concerns fall out of our mouths like kindling for the enemy’s threatening bonfire.  So many times we make the devil’s job so easy.


When the Enemy Defends the Threshold

KATHY—When harassment and affliction and irritations and attacks reach their peak, the enemy is defending the threshold of promise. He fights dirty and he is persistent. He will start fires and battles just to distract us and delay us, hoping we will get exhausted or lose direction or miss God’s timing. May we remember these wars are about character issues even though evil and circumstances seem to be the problems. The key to prevailing is to agree with God and His word. The strategy to prevail is to submit ourselves to God and trust Him. That breaks down to our daily behavior. We cannot ignore godly counsel. We cannot make our decisions based on how we feel instead of what we know to be true. We cannot mouth our discouragements and frustrations and fears, (thereby giving them strength through agreement). We cannot forget His principles and try to survive by our zeal or stubbornness. We dare not exchange the promise of God for a bowl of relief as Esau did.


Forming and Shaping Us

As the people of God assemble today, may awesome God more fully and completely do His work of forming and shaping so He may use each of us as a building block to form a well-built dwelling for His mighty Holy Spirit to abide in and work out of. “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Eph.2:22, ESV)


Your Thoughts and Musings

MARTY—May the Lord bless your thoughts and your musings so that you receive insight for victories in every area. ”I will also muse on all your work, and meditate on your deeds.” (Ps.77:12, LEB)


Bloodline Iniquities

MELISSA—The Kingdom is within our grasp but there is something that can hinder us from grasping it fully and that is bloodline iniquity. Our bloodline affects our lives and our future and we need to purify it so that we can grasp the Kingdom and be the increase of it in the days ahead. I heard it put this way, ”Iniquity is not just a sin that we ask forgiveness for and that solves the problem. Iniquity is an entire body of sin and evil that gets rooted. Iniquity corrupts the whole structure of our thoughts and behaviors and it infiltrates bones and organs.” Sin and evil really stuck out to me in this quote and helped me understand the depths of iniquity. It‘s not just sin because not all sin is wicked. It‘s sin and evil compounded with intention. We are talking about decisions, actions and agreements in our lineage, in our family history that gave the enemy a foothold in our lives.


God’s Hand Moving

KATHY—I have been seeing God’s hand moving behind a curtain on a stage.  That has kept me anticipating the curtain rising in my understanding.  Little by little an expectation has grown in me that we are about to see many things the Holy Spirit has been adjusting, rearranging, developing, redeeming, restoring and maturing.  I don’t think there will be some colorful, feel good, fairytale play behind those curtains, rather a stage set with details that bring clarity and a God-perspective that equips us, literally showing us another way to think and perceive and prevail.  I have a feeling the curtain will rise on insights that adjust our mode of operation and strategies and change our outcomes.


Holy Spirit Rewires Us

MPG—We are dealing with a major problem: We are wired wrong! The enemy evidently has caught many of us with our theological hands tied up in the chains of unbelief and the cords of emotion. While he caught us bound up (We did it to ourselves spinning around in perplexity and anguish.) he rewired us.
He connected a heavy duty wire on one end to our emotions and connected the other end to our tongue. Now every time our mouth opens, our destiny is determined by our emotions.
BUT there is a Master Craftsman called Holy Spirit who loves to tackle rewiring jobs. He was dispatched by the Home Office with 2,000 years of quality service to “lead and guide us into all truth” and to make known to us what we have in Christ Jesus.
BUT the only place He does rewiring jobs is in His workshop: Word of God Rewiring, Inc. He is continually advertising: Come to the Word. You don’t even have to do the calling. He is calling YOU: Come on in and get rewired.
(Marty will be speaking at Grace Church Willis 8-11-24.)


Going Back to God’s Original Intent

MELISSA—Radical is a much stronger word than I thought it was. Basically, what I see in its 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. With one word He 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.


Anxiety and Timing

KATHY— Remember those restless nights before an important day when you were afraid you would not hear the alarm so you tossed and turned? I think we are sometimes driven to anxiousness by the possibility of missing God’s timing. But if we learn to think of His timing as a process rather than an hour, some of the anxiety subsides. Phil.4:6-7, Msg — “Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Kathy will be speaking at DREAMS VISIONS PROPHECY 2024 
on Sept.14. NO FEE. Grace Church Willis,TX.
CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR ALL INFO: martygabler.com/dvp2024/


Hearts Never Wilt

MARTY—As the people of God assemble today may they radically praise, worship, preach and prophesy of the righteous order of God coming into the heart of this nation. May their hearts never wilt because of the unrighteous and the plans of the unrighteous but know and trust that “we are receiving our rights to an unshakable kingdom [and] we should be extremely thankful and offer God the purest worship that delights his heart as we lay down our lives in absolute surrender, filled with awe.” (Heb.12:28,TPT)


READ “THE BALL IS IN OUR COURT” by Kathy Gabler

Read the July-September quarterly SEEC Magazine with articles by Marty, Kathy, Melissa, Jim Hodges, Larry Burden, Dr. Greg Crawford and others.

CLICK ON THE MAGAZINE COVER TO READ:
CvrVol28Iss3_500


Once and For All

MPG–Shouldn’t we make up our minds once and for all? If we are having to make up our minds every morning or every time we pay bills or every time we watch the news or some religious prophecy show, then our minds are not made up. 

Let’s make up our minds about God and stand and having stood continue to stand (Eph.6:13). Is He the God who kept Noah and his family in an ark of safety? Is He the God who opened the Red Sea, rained down manna from heaven and made bitter water sweet? God is just waiting on somebody to make up their mind today! 

Is He the One who provided for Hagar in the wilderness and supplied food for a widow and her household in the middle of a famine? And weren’t they provided for throughout the entire famine? Is He the One who returned sons to bereaved mothers and shut the mouths of lions and quenched fiery flames? 

Has He changed? (James 1:17) Has He changed His Name? His address? Has He changed His mind about covenant or redemption? Has someone usurped His throne? Will that ever happen? Then why would God’s people wallow in perplexity or anguish? 

If God is the God of the Word then why are churches, church people and ministries filled with stress? Why are so many homes broken? Why are so many lives broken, so many hearts, so many bodies? Maybe it is because too many people have not made up their minds about God, about His Word and about being determined to stand on the Word of God no matter what their emotions are telling them. 

We must be the people of the Word – not the people of the latest news broadcast, not the people of the latest twist to end-time prophecy. We must get back to the Word (not talk programs), not to prophecy magazines, not to curiosity inspiring personalities with predictions and the latest statistics. 



Putting on Jesus

MELISSA—A practical way to pray is by putting on Jesus: Romans 13:11-14 “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.  But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”  – Back to the above mentioned side note, you “put Jesus on” through relationship and the prayer that flows from that relationship hits the target because it comes from His thoughts and ways which stand above anything happening here! (Isaiah 55:8-9)


Worn Out on the Way

KATHY—I sat at lunch with a friend who is a real trooper in the trenches.  As I listened to her heart after God, the thought came to me, ‘The only thing that can stop her from getting to God’s intentions would be getting worn out on the way.’  I made a decree over her, “This year, you will be quick to discern the difference between obligation and obedience.”  The enemy cunningly lays snares for a compassionate heart to distract them by the needs of others while they’re on the way to a God-mandate.  If distraction can deplete our energy, hell can hinder the purpose and timing of God.  We must be wise this year and budget our efforts as diligently as our pocket books.  


May Weariness Dissipate

MARTY—Don’t you just dread those times in life when it seems that every step you take is uphill? May the Lord grant that seasons of weariness and relentless opposition over your life break and dissipate like the morning mist.  (Isa.54:17, Amp)  “But no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall show to be in the wrong. This [peace, righteousness, security, TRIUMPH OVER OPPOSITION] is the heritage of the servants of the Lord [those in whom the ideal Servant of the Lord is reproduced]; this is the righteousness or the vindication which they obtain from Me [this is that which I impart to them as their justification], says the Lord.”  We are praying you discover daily that absolutely no weapon formed against you is prospering.


The Intensity you Feel

Melissa — It’s happening folks! The intensity you feel right now is an evil agenda being de-throned.  God has not, and will not take His hand off of this nation! We are a blessed people, and we GET to be a part of His Kingdom invasion.  Come. On. Now. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts“ is accomplishing a miraculous transformation in the United States of America.  Does it look like what most of us thought a miraculous transformation would? Probably not.  Does it matter what we thought it should look like? Absolutely not.


Discernment

KATHY—There are five different words translated “discern or discernment” in the Old Testament. Their meanings include “to scrutinize or look intently at so as to recognize what is going on, an experienced gaze, to hear intelligently, to separate mentally (or distinguish), to be cunning, to diligently direct, to feel, to know by seeing, to perceive or to discover.”  Discernment by dictionary definition means to separate or distinguish, to see or understand the difference or to make a distinction.  In 1 Cor 12, another dimension is added to the meaning of discernment.  In this setting, discernment means “to judge the purity of something, as in to detect any mixture in its source or motive.”  When discernment comes as a gift from God, as in I Cor 12:10, it is God enabling us to separate or distinguish the difference between the human soul and the supernatural at work.  This discernment gift includes understanding the mental disposition of someone.  It also enables us to see the distinct differences between the Holy Spirit and angels or demons at work in a situation.  Discernment, whether it is a keenness developed through experience or a gift of the Spirit of God, is an awesome weapon that is both a beneficial and essential resource for the days ahead.