Your Journey to the Heart of God
You are invited to come on an amazing journey uniquely designed and different for each person, designed to heal any wounds in your heart.
136) A Love that Puts Us Back On Our Feet
Consider the power of the resurrected Jesus; the Jesus who never tasted or even thought of defeat. This fearless power of Jesus is where intimacy comes from, the resurrected Jesus.
Do we know this Jesus or do we just think about the crucified Jesus? Do we only think of Jesus as the Lamb who was slain, as a man who walked the earth? Let us now focus on the power of the resurrected Jesus and how that power can affect our daily lives.
I believe that it is through the powerful, resurrected Jesus that we experience true intimacy in our lives. The essence of intimacy is our ability to experience God through our relationships with others. It is the link between God, ourselves, and another person. Jesus Christ Himself is the focal point of intimacy. Through Jesus, God has shown us the building blocks that we need to create a solid foundation of intimacy, namely: compassion, caring and concern.
Compassion
I would describe compassion as, ‘the quality that allows us to see depth in another person (the natural results of sin: anger, unbelief, fear, etc.), and still love them. A general rule for compassion is that whatever compassion we show toward others, we must first have for ourselves.
In order to give something away, we must first possess it ourselves. If we do not have compassion for ourselves, it is impossible to have it for others. This is because we become so busy judging ourselves, that we rob ourselves of the ability to experience the intimacy that God would have for us. We can ask God to help us experience His compassion for us so that we may share it with those people around us.
Caring
A good way to understand the concept of caring is to think of it as the opposite of self-concern. It is the ability to think of the needs of others before our own. (read more)
137) How To Be Happy
Most people do not know how to be happy because they have the wrong impression of true happiness. The world tells us to go after anything that will make us immediately happy. The Lord, however, wants us to do what pleases Him so that we will have lasting happiness.
The world offers us many things to make us happy, such as new house, car or clothes. Once we acquire all of these things, though, we find that we are still not really happy. People become exhausted (and eventually bitter) trying to become happy.
God never meant for us to find happiness in the world, but in Him. That is because the world’s happiness is temporary, and the Lord’s happiness is eternal. We should not live to be happy, but instead, live for Jesus. Happiness in the world means that our lives belong to us, and we can do whatever we want. Happiness with the Lord is giving our lives to Jesus and being happy and content in Him.
If we try to look beyond ourselves and make someone else happy, we will actually be happy longer. This type of happiness can come in many forms, but the most important one of all is love. We can bring the love of Jesus to others and fill the void in their hearts. Some of the reasons why people are not happy are because:
– They do not understand what true happiness is and they try to find it in things instead of Jesus.
– They are self-centered; they love themselves rather than others.
– They chase after what makes them feel empty and lonely; they follow their flesh and desires rather than focusing on pleasing the Lord.
– They do not know the promises of the Lord; they do not know what they already have. (read more)
138) Walking in the Wilderness
Nehemiah 9:19; Psalm 78:19
God calls us to be His own and He always puts us in the wilderness before he uses us.
How We Get Through the Wilderness:
– Know there will be a wilderness. This means He loves us. If he didn’t put us in the wilderness this means He couldn’t use us.
– There is no path in the wilderness, so we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. The more we look at Jesus the more we become like Him.
Why God Puts Us in the Wilderness:
– God puts us in the world so we become tough. It’s a tough world.
– To make us brave. We become brave by facing our adversary & tough circumstance.
– To give us wisdom. We need to be wise to God’s ways. We can use what God has given us. If we don’t go to the wilderness there are too many distractions. God gives us wisdom to survive.
– God makes us in love with Him. He wants us to yearn for Him more, which creates a need for Jesus.
– Then we need each other.
– So we can know who we are, and find out what we are made of. God wants us to know we are champions.
– So God can make us a winner. The world tells us what losers we are, and that there is always someone better than us. When we are in the wilderness we need to not panic. We become confused when we panic and we become open to more of satan’s lies.
– We learn about the ways of satan so we can defeat him. Compared to eternity we are only in the wilderness a little while.
– It may take a long time to get through the wilderness. So, God gives us assistance to help us get through the wilderness. Settle in. Have a brother or sister help you. Jesus will help us, so settle down and look at Jesus. Don’t get restless or rambunctious. God will begin to show us a way. (read more)
139) How To Control Our Tongue
– Ask the Spirit of God to quench our burning tongue. We need to be burning for God, not being burned by our speech.
– Wait and seek God. If we cannot say something good, do not say anything at all. Wait on the Lord before you speak.
– When you correct a person, correct the action and not the person.
– Use silence as a tool of communication. Our words tend to be urgent when we are angry. Jesus however, often used silence to get His point across; He was the best conversationalist in the universe.
– Make your words welcoming. This means that you are willing to listen for a while if someone likes to talk. It also indicates that building a relationship is a possibility at that moment. Welcoming words are an invitation to more openness and disclosure. Body gestures and important part of our speech. We need to ask the Lord to help our gestures and our speech to say the same thing. Our gestures either validate or invalidate our speech.
– Depend on God to give you the right word at the right time. Our tongue can run straight to the devil if we do not depend on God. In Luke 12:12the Lord tells us that He will give us the right word at the right time.
– When you are angry, pray first. What do people think when you walk into the room? If our tongues speak love often enough, then our minds and bodies will follow.
When talking to others is difficult, we can ask ourselves:
– Is the person you are talking to blowing off steam?
– When someone speaks to you, listen first then ask God what you should say. We are aware of our opinions and usually quick to speak them. (read more)
140) That Our Love would Abound
In order to build relationships and have our love abound more and more”, we need to desire the Godly affection of Christ Jesus, an affection that is the pure and perfect love of God. When we have the pure and perfect love of God in our relationships then Jesus is exactly in the place that He is supposed to be; right in the center.
You see, it is not just you loving me and me loving you; it is Jesus in me loving you, and Jesus in you loving me. The more Jesus that we have in our relationships, the more power and life we have.
There are powerful things that we can do to build existing relationships. At this point, we may want to ask ourselves if we are willing to go the extra mile with someone. Many times, we do not spend enough time just being with someone. People need different things at different times; the only way that we will know what they need is to put in the time with them.
Sometimes we will need to run with them, other times walk, and even to sit. Whichever it is, let us do it with the godly affection of Christ Jesus. He will make our relationships into what He wants them to be. His power will come into our relationships and transform our lives.
Some of the enemies of relationships are feelings of inadequacy, anger, and unforgiveness. Some “power words’ that are tools in building spirit filled relationships are persistence, prayer, and forgiveness. Keeping these in mind, I would like to discuss some of the pit falls, or enemies, of relationships which are jealousy, resentment, bitterness, and fear. (read more)
“Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. Quotations and/or reprints in excess of one thousand verses, or other permission requests must be directed and approved in writing by Zondervan Bible Publishers.” All verses are NIV except those that are otherwise noted.
The Eagles Cry 