I Don't Deserve Him

I was awakened this morning at 4:27 am. The house was quiet. I sat up in the bed and adjusted my eyes to the darkness. Why was I awake?


I made my way into the kitchen to get a glass of water, stopping off at the couch to recline. As I lay there I was comforted by the words of this song: Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so.


I started to sing it aloud in my faint and sleepy voice and after a few times through the chorus, I could feel His presence. A melodious and satisfying presence of an almighty God who brought confidence in the midst of doubt; He attended my soul. 


My mind can not comprehend, the God of this universe who spoke the world into existence, longs for my fellowship. He delights in me. He wages in the spirit on my behalf, "sitting at the right hand of the Father making intercession for His children". 


I knew at that moment, it was God who woke me up.


The same God who walked on water, healed a woman with the issues of blood, turned water into wine, gave sight to blind Bartimaeus and raised Lazarus from the dead has comforted, shielded, and protected me and mine. He turned my crooked paths straight and resurrected my life. I am more than confident in His plan for the future, because He has never failed me yet and because...He loves me!


He is amazing, all powerful, omnipresent, omniscient, supreme, deliverer and my strong tower. He is my peace, my hope, my confidence, my security, my everlasting Father, my redeemer, yet also my friend. 


I recognize the enemy is continually on a mission to keep God's children distracted, defeated and hurt. He is angered when in the midst of turmoil and persecution we stand in confidence in God's love. He despises lips that profess, "God is good", when the outside circumstance threaten to destroy. Yet I am here to declare to the enemy I shall never forfeit my right to praise my Lord. For He has brought me too far. He's answered too many of my prayers. He's made a way when there was no way. He is my rock and all that I am is because of Him.


Every moment in His presence keeps me yearning for more and everyday that He moves on my behalf, my confidence is heightened. He's so intoxicating I am addicted to His love. I just can't get enough of Him. He satisfies my soul with good things and everyday I am reminded of His love for me. No, I definitely don't deserve Him but I'm so glad He's mine!

written by: Polly Herrin

Take Note of Jezebel!

article written by Francis Frangipane 

Francis Frangipane says: (When referring to 'her', take note the Jezebel spirit can just as likely be found in the male.)

We first find her in the Old Testament in I and II Kings she attempted to combine the worship of Israel with the worship of the idol Baal. The letter in Revelation 2:20 was written to the church in Thyatira, which forewarns us that the spirit of Jezebel resides in the church. “But I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel…”

Jezebel’s greatest fear is that people will embrace repentance. Jezebel despises true repentance and will sit week after week in a pew, participate in weekly worship services yet never acknowledge her sins of jealousy, idolatry, divisiveness and manipulation. Jezebel hates true repentance and therefore will buck and blow against sermons that promote repentance. When one truly lives in repentance they are submitted to the Holy Sprit’s influence and are submissive to the God ordained authority of pastoral leadership who govern them. The opposite of repentance is rebellion and the bible calls “rebellion as of the sin of witchcraft” ... When entertaining and participating in witchcraft you open the door to all types of evil. It would have been better for such church pew sitters to entirely leave the body of Christ than to remain, siding with the spirit of division, rebellion and strife.

Here is a warning for those participating in such behavior.

Proverbs  6:16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood (slander/abortion), a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man(woman) who stirs up dissension among the brethren.

Jezebel works against true repentance by forming small allegiances to her cause. Her self-righteous account she may even make public often using scripture verses to credit her campaign. Her resolve is to refer to only those scriptures that focus on love, grace and compassion overlooking new testament writings to the churches that warn about this type of misaddressed teachings. God does not and will not tolerate Jezebel according to Revelation 2:20-25 or those who tolerate or partake in her campaign.

Take a look at Proverbs 6:16 again. Do you participate in any of these behaviors? Do you associate with people who do? 

The second point about Jezebel's character is: Jezebel’s worst enemies are the prophets, particularly those who preach the truth. This spirit is on a mission to destroy the works of the real prophets of God, because she doesn’t want the “light” to be illuminated on her and bring exposure to her wicked counterfeit deeds. Her ultimate goal is to control and manipulate. She would take a dagger to the heart of a true prophet and slay him cold. She is on an ambush to destroy his ministry yet this attempt would obviously be too noticeable, so instead she masks her intents by deliberately assassinating the character of real men and women of God. The body of Christ must be reminded there was only one perfect prophet and His name is Jesus Christ. The prophet may be imperfect but the message is always perfect.  Again, her attempts to discredit the prophets revolve around gaining allegiance from others or by using public slander and gossip to promote her cause. Be warned, God says much about tolerating her actions against God’s anointed:

I Corinthians 16:22 “Do not touch my anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm.”

Revelation 2: 22-25 I have given her (Jezebel) time to repent… and she did not repent.  Therefore I the Lord will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts.

§  When God referred to adultery In Revelation 2:22-25 it wasn’t just sexual adultery but spiritual adultery within His church. Those who encourage and participate in her practices of rebellion, witchcraft, idolatry, slander and divisiveness.

§  What is a sickbed? It could simply be an image of affliction. Or it could be literal sickness that Jesus would allow.

§  We know from passages such as I Corinthians 11:30 God can use sickness as a way to chastise us when we are in sin.

§   “I will kill her children with death” – all men are not killed with death.

A Jezebel spirit will always mask her desire for control by hiding from true repentance, giving a form of godliness with ulterior motives to belittle, critique and slander true prophets of God just as she did in I and 2 Kings. Her ways can be concisely observed. Be on guard against her, for she is wickedly dangerous and “tolerating her” doesn’t come without consequences.

One final note, a Jezebel spirit can often be found in those who try to associate closely to the Prophets of God and leaders in the church. This should be more cause to pray prayers of covering for the leaders, priest, bishops and pastors of your churches. Regardless how long Jezebel has been allowed to operate, her days are numbered.

Just Remember!

Do you feel desperate, overlooked, anxious, worried, forgotten, or defeated? Well take a note of this, “what you feel is not always real!” The enemy is good at using our emotions and feelings to obscure the perspective of our current situation. Regardless of what you are going through this very day, no need to give in, or give up! As a child of the most high God, you just need to Start Remembering!  

I want to take a moment to remind you who He is! He Is:

Jehovah God, who changes not! (Malachi 3:6)

Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider! (Genesis 22:13-14)

Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer! (Exodus 15:26)

Jehovah Rohi, the Lord our Shepherd! (Psalms 23:1)

Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace! (Judges 6:24)

Jehovah Elohim, our mighty God! (Genesis 1:1)

Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is present! (Ezekiel 48:35)

Jehovah Gmolah, the Lord of recompense! (Jeremiah 51:6)

Jehovah Roi, the Lord who sees! (Genesis 16:13)

Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner who protects and defends! (Exodus 17:15)

Friend, He is the God of the impossible and there is nothing that God can not do for you.

He placed every star in the sky; spoke light into existence, changed water into wine, and healed a blind man with mud. He walked on water, fed 5,000 with 5 barley loaves and two fish and with the words “get up” the widow’s dead son came to life. He gave sight back to blind Bartimaeus, and just at the touch of his clothes the women with a blood issue was made whole. He spoke to the demon possessed and made them free and with authority He commanded the grave to give up Lazarus! Yet, He has numbered the very hairs on your head and delicately formed you in your mother’s womb with a purpose to fulfill. His plans for you are good and He has prepared eternity (heaven) to prove it!

 Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

To often our vision of God is clouded and lost by our current circumstances. I hate to admit that I have been guilty of loosing my perspective of God during trials and tribulation; it’s easy to do. However, we must be diligent to encourage ourselves in the Lord daily and continue to feed our minds with the word of God. When we allow negative thoughts and mindsets to lay dormant we open our lives to the enemy to come in and wreck havoc.

The bible tells us in Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” According to Crudens Concordance, the word heart is used in scripture as “the seat of life or strength; hence it means mind, soul, spirit, or one’s entire emotional nature and understanding. It is also used as the center of an inner part of a thing. Therefore, one would be right to use 'mind' in the place of ‘heart’ in this passage.”

In other words, to guard your heart is to guard your mind, for the heart includes the mind. The enemy loves to play mind games, but we don’t have to accept his invitation to the game. Instead allow the word of God to influence your thoughts, words, actions and reactions and align yourself with His authority!

Oh how I love Him. He deserves our praise without reservation for He is incomparable, all-powerful, mighty, deliverer, strong tower, and faithful ‘til the end!

Prayer

Father I recognize that “Although we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. In Jesus name, We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient unto you!” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

Silence The Negativity

I once worked with a girl who rarely saw the positive in anything. She was very creative and talented, but her negative attitude shadowed any of her good qualities making it very hard to see her "self-proclaimed"positive attitude. If the copier broke she would curse the day as unproductive. If someone asked her to do something at the last minute, which was part of the requirements of her job, she would huff and puff publicly, spending the entire time complaining and putting down that person to everyone else in the office. One time she broke her pencil and I heard her curse all the trees in the world as being useless, (Okay so maybe with that comment she was trying to invoke some laughter from the rest of her co-workers, but it didn't work.) She not only vented her negative opinions all over the office, she posted them openly on her social venue page for others to read, making it visible for all of our customers and the participants who supported and funded our place of business. I secretly hoped our boss would open up a social network account so he could witness first hand the corruption and put a stop to it. But it didn't happen that way, her negative attitude continued causing so much destruction it wasn't long before she was privately given the option to move to another career endeavor or be fired.


Our world is consumed with negativity. Don't believe me, turn on the television and watch the latest Presidential debate forum, or the hundreds of campaign commercials bombarding our air way time. They never argue important issues, they use their time to assassinate and discredit another's character. From the workplace to the White House negative attitudes have infiltrated the atmosphere, they threaten to  overshadow spoken words of kindness, a positive influence in the face of accusation and a good deed reciprocated.

Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God.” (I Corinthians 15:33)

The scripture doesn't say evil company could corrupt good habits. It doesn't say, evil company has the possibility of corrupting good habits. It's emphatically states that "evil company corrupts good habits." I find it amusing that the next word Paul speaks is "AWAKE"! I presume he knew we would not take the previous sentence seriously enough, so he challenged us to wake up and possibly re-read it again.

So, why is it necessary for us to avoid atmospheres that initiate and tolerate negativity? Tommy Tenney said: "Avoid critical and negative attitudes first because the bible warns us to and secondly because eventually, without notice you become the product of your environment".

My environment greatly dictates who I will become. Statics prove that we are most influenced by those we spend our time with. 

I'll close with an example: My husband and I served as youth pastors many years ago and we knew of a family, who to our knowledge had not experienced any life tragedies or disappointments. As a matter of fact from our observations, we would consider them very blessed in their health, their relationships, their finances, and most every area of their lives. Having so much blessing upon their lives, one might conclude this family would have reason to be optimistic, thankful, kind and joyful. However, just the opposite was true. To this day, the mother is one of the most negative and critical people we have ever met. She could find something wrong with anyone and everyone.

When her girls were teenagers we saw on numerous occasions  the negativity spilling over into their behavior and talk. One particular event, we happened to be seated at the same table with this family. From the moment we took our seats the mother and her two eldest daughters complained about the food, the decorations, the quality of the paper goods and I wasn't surprised when they openly degraded the speaker. Their negative remarks were expressed so loud, others close by began to turn and take note, giving the look of disapproval in our direction, but that didn't stop them. I remember asking God to hurry along the event so we could leave; I was concerned someone might associate us being like them, because we happened to be seated at the same table.  When the night finally ended and we were in the car for the drive home, my husband turned to me and said, "We will never allow ourselves to be in the position to sit with them again, even if it means we have to be rude and get up to find another seat." I agreed and although we hadn't participated in the negativity we felt ashamed by their behavior and embarrassed by their rudeness. 

The bible says, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks". If the mouth is always sarcastic and negative, certainly the heart is tainted too.  

Negativity and sarcasm have no place in the believers wardrobe. The bible says in Colossians, "to put on love..." 

On the drive home that night, my husband warned,  "You know Polly, unless those girls separate from that environment it's doubtful in ten years they will be any different than their mother. If they continue to be in the environment with negative and sarcastic attitudes, they will attract the same kind." 

Many years later, I am saddened to point out his observation was correct. Unfortunately their negativity has increased and they now take pride in their rude, calloused and rebellious behaviors, publicly encouraging the behavior. 

Our Heavenly Father never talked negatively, condescending or rude to others. His attitude wasn't haughty, prideful or arrogant. He didn't use perverse speech or crude jokes at the expense of others. It is difficult to even attach His name to these characteristics, yet many claim to be a Christian and have no resemblance of Him. What a shameful disgrace! It's time for the church to arise and be the church, silence the negativity with the spoken word of God and live our lives to reflect Christ.   

Prayer

Lord we open our lives, our homes our churches, to your presence. Wean out the negative and critical spirits that corrupt the environment for you to flow freely, scatter them to the wind! May your church reflect the image of your son Jesus. May our words and actions be pleasing to you and may the fruit of our lips bring forth praise, blessings and encouragement. Give me your discerning wisdom to recognize those people who have become instruments in incubating negative and critical environments that I might  flee the very appearance of evil. May I not help to sustain this environment by my complacency but use me to be an active force behind it's elimination! And may the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable unto you, Oh Lord my strength and my Redeemer!
Amen