Month: October 2022

(An excerpt from Pastor’s Book, “How to Make Your Life Count for God”)

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, Only what’s done for Christ will last.-  C.T. Studd

I do not even remember the first time I heard that line, but through the years this quote has been a reoccurring theme in my life. You get involved in a lot of little stuff that you think is so important but one day your life will all be over and they will be having your funeral service.  It will happen to all of us if Jesus tarries.  That is why I want to make my life count for God.

If the Word of God says something one time it is important.  I noticed that all four Gospels tell the story of a woman who poured expensive ointment on Jesus.  The account in Matthew 26:6 – 13 says it this way: “Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat. But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying, To what purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have been sold for much, and given to the poor. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? for she hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her.”

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

Now, the prophet of God returns to the Shunammite woman’s home and if there was any doubt about the child’s condition, 2 Kings 4:32 says, “…the child was dead.”  Maybe you are thinking he was just ill.  No, the Bible says, “…the child was dead.”  I want you to see the progression of faith in the face of disaster.  The child is dead.  The mother puts him in Elisha’s room, shuts the door and runs to the prophet of God.  Here comes Elisha now and he goes into the room and shuts the door.

There is something about this shutting of the door.  In another story, Elisha told a woman with only a pot of oil, “And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons…”  We could take this to mean shut out unbelief, shut out what people think, understand, or misunderstand.  Shut the door and pour.  Sometimes the problem is that we leave the door open, so we have many distractions, voices, and choices entering in.  Sometimes, you just need to go in the room, shut the door and get alone with God for yourself.

Now the prophet of God shuts himself in with the dead child. There is something else that happened right after he shut the door.  Elisha prayed.  Oh, the power of prayer!  Elisha prayed unto the Lord.  This was not a casual prayer.  This was a prayer of total involvement.  Many people today do not know how to pray like that.  They know how to whine, or how to cry, or to tell somebody how bad things are.  You must know how to hit the deck, get on your face before God, open your Bible and put your finger on a promise of God and say, “Father, this is what the Word says.” Then you pray until God gives you the assurance in your heart that everything is going to be all right.  It is the only way that things are going to change.  The prophet lay upon the lifeless boy and prayed, and life returned to the child.  The prophet said to the woman “take up thy son.”

Take up the promise of God that you considered dead. Today, you can take a new grip on your faith.  You can purpose to take back what the enemy has stolen.  Get back on the Word of God.  Let this be your day of renewing your grip on your faith – your faith in God’s Word and your faith in God’s promise.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

While Peter was willing to fight for Jesus, he also failed to stand up for Him.  So many of us have said, I will never deny Him.  “Oh, yes, I will stand.  Oh, yes, you can count on me, Lord,” and then an hour later we have just blown it all.  That is what I call short-haul faith.  You know what God is doing in the Body of Christ?  God is getting rid of this short-haul faith; the big explosion, big grandiose confession that says, “I will go wherever you want me to go,” but then refuses to actually follow through.  God is putting some staying power in the Body of Christ and we are not going to blow up on the short-haul anymore.  We are going to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Instead of failing and falling, God is putting a new strength, a new depth into the hearts and in the lives of those that will trust in the Lord.

Yes, prophet of God, I may have problems at home, but let me tell you what I have in my heart.  I have safety and wellness.  I am happy.  My family has good health.  We are prosperous.  We have favor.  We are at rest.  We are whole.  Everything is going to be all right.  Listen to me today.  It is not what is happening around you, it is what is happening on the inside of you that makes the most difference.

(Excerpt from Pastor’s book, ‘How to Get a Grip on God’s Promises”)

There are some very interesting things that this woman did.  When they brought her child in from the field and the child passed away, do you know what she did?  She picked up the child and walked straight to the room that she and her husband had built for the prophet of God.  She ran to the investment that she had made in the Kingdom of God.  Do you have such an investment? When the storms of life come can you run to that investment and say, I may not understand what is going on, but I have an investment in God’s Kingdom.  You make an investment in good times and God is going to help you in the difficult times.

What do you do when the pressure is on?  Your first response many times determines the outcome of your situation.  What it looks like at the beginning of a challenge is not the way it has to remain.  If you put seed in the ground before the storm, then your harvest will be ripe when you need it.  Just like this woman, you can have confidence in what God promised.  She picked up the lifeless body of her son and walked right into the prophet’s chamber and laid him on the bed.   Did she fall down beside the bed and weep and scream and carry on?  No!  She walked out and shut the door.  She postured herself in faith for a miracle to be manifested.  Is she outside the door, mad at God and mad about what happened?  No!  She went to her husband and said I am going to see the man of God.  Give me a young man and a donkey that can help me move quickly.

She did not run away from her problem; she ran to the source of help.  There was no hesitation in her spirit; she was not going to let go of her manifested promise.  She never told her husband that their son was dead.  She just moved in faith.  When her husband began to question her actions, she said, “It shall be well” (2 Kings 4:23). That word well is translated from the Hebrew word shalom which literally means peace.  So when the husband said, “Wife you do not just run off without any explanation. What is going on?”  She said, peace, “…it shall be well.”  She was telling her husband that she knew what to do. Everything is going to be all right. She knew her son was dead, but she just kept saying, “…it shall be well.”

Do you know where we usually miss it?  We miss it in our initial response to the situation.  In that moment we have a choice; we can choose to believe God’s Word or we can just align ourselves with the circumstances.  If we do not guard our faith, life will chip away at it until it is gone.  Usually when our faith wanes our peace wanes.  If you can have the kind of peace this woman had in the midst of a tragedy you are going to make it.  If you can have peace when the bottom has dropped out, you are coming through.  If you can have peace when the doctor’s report is very negative, you are going to be all right.  The night a devastating tornado destroyed our church building, Joy and I were absolutely overwhelmed for a few moments.  But we decided to get a grip on the promise of God for our future. We began to proclaim that we would come out stronger than before and that God would get the glory for the victory.