A Wonderful Future

Psalms 37 : 35 - 37, I myself have seen it happen: a proud and evil man, towering like a cedar of Lebanon, but when I looked again, he was gone! I searched but could not find him! But the good man-what a different story! For the good man-the blameless, the upright, the man of peace-he has a wonderful future ahead of him. For him there is a happy ending. TLB

As a believer in Christ, do you concern yourself with knowing and obeying the principles contained in God's Word? When we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, He delivers us from the sin nature, but we are the ones who must choose to live according to His commands. He desires, and even commands, that we live according to His will so that He will be able to bless us.

If you find that obeying the Word of God is burdensome or laborious, but in your heart you love God and seek to please Him by your faith, then you may need to have your mind renewed. It's very true that God desires for His children to prosper and live in His peace. It's also a fact that we have an adversary who doesn't want us to know God in the same way that Jesus does.

In order to renew your mind to think like Jesus thinks, you must first develop a hunger for the Word of God. The Word of God is the only source on earth that has the power to renew our minds so that we are able to see as God sees and to think as He thinks. Before we follow instructions, don't we first need to know what they are? The psalmist wrote that a blameless, upright person who seeks peace has a wonderful future ahead of them. Don't you desire to enjoy a wonderful future? If so, then we must become willing to know the Word of God and have our minds renewed by the Word so that we may inherit the promises of God through obedient faith.

Christians tend to blame their problems on Satan, but, for the most part, he only preys on our spiritual ignorance. It is our responsibility to use the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit within us to crucify self and form a hunger to know and walk in the Word. We all have a choice to make once we become a Christian. We can live our new life in bondage to the flesh, or we can live it in victory over our flesh by choosing to live by faith in God's Word. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that those who choose to live in the power of the flesh can't please God, but those who, through the Holy Spirit, crucify the flesh nature will please the Lord. 

If the flesh nature has you feeling like you're a victim of circumstances instead of being more than a conqueror in Christ, then you will need to get in the Word and remain there until your mind becomes renewed. God never told us to "TRY JESUS." The Word tells us to ABIDE IN CHRIST as His children. God wants us all to have a bright future, but it will only happen if we abide in Christ through faith and obedience.

Abiding In His Peace,
Pastor Asa

Restoration Takes Time

Joel 2 : 25, So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the crawling locust, the consuming locust, and the chewing locust... NKJV

In Genesis chapter one, God is restoring what was previously destroyed by Satan and his fall. Many of us have been taught that this is the account of God creating the earth. In Genesis 1:1, we're told that God created the Heavens and the earth in the beginning. Later, in that same chapter, God told man to REPLENISH the earth. 

Genesis 1 : 28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth... KJV

The purpose of today's devotion isn't an attempt to try and convince you to believe something differently than what you might have been taught. Today's word goes much deeper than a theological debate over terminology. Whether you believe God was in the mode of creating or restoring, the fact remains the same. It took God six days to make earth a place that was conducive for man to exist. 

The Lord wants me to point this truth out to you so that as a believer, and  especially as one of His children, you will know and understand that restoration takes time. I know that sometimes we like to think of God as a "being" that can snap His fingers and poof, "there it is." If this is your heart's view of God, then Satan will use that mindset (or point-of-view) against you. Our God isn't a "poofer," but He is the Creator God, who works through the power and confines of His spoken Word. The writer of Hebrews teaches that Jesus (God) is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The writer also reveals to us that God upholds all things by the word of His power.

 God set a principle in motion in Genesis 8 when He stated, "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." NKJV

When God was ready to restore the earth and place man over His creation, He operated through the power of His spoken word. Throughout the Bible, the Word is described as being "The Seed of God." These principles that I am sharing with you today are to give you a better understanding about the ways of God. When God does "a work" in the earth, then know that He is bound by the principles that He has set in place to govern the universe. We know that God operates through the spoken Word that has gone forth from His mouth. However, He also operates in seasons. Just as a farmer waits on springtime before he plants the seed into the ground, God operates in seasons  (Ecclesiastes 3) 

Here is the reason why I am writing today's word to you. Are you going through a season of loss...and as a believer in Christ you're waiting on the Lord to restore what has been stolen from you? In today's passages from Joel, we read where God promised to restore the YEARS that the enemy has stolen from us... but know that restoration can take time.

Before God caused any life to begin to appear on the earth, He first placed things in their proper order. He spoke structure into existence that would govern the earth before He released the Word to bring forth life on the earth. Restoration takes time because God first must place structure in our hearts and lives that will allow life to exist and continue unhindered. As Christians, if we don't know the ways of God and how it takes time for Him to carry out His promises in our lives, Satan can cause us to doubt the faithfulness of our God. When God's people don't know the ways of God and why He doesn't just "snap" His fingers, then they must resort to waiting (or being patient) under the test of their faith.   

James teaches us in his epistle to count it all joy when we fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience. He goes on to say that when patience has done her perfect work, we will complete, entire, not lacking. Today, if you're waiting on God to bring restoration into your life, know that it will take time, but it will come. Be careful that you don't give up on God and fall back into a life of unbelief. There are examples of those who lost faith and missed their hour of visitation or salvation because of unbelief. He remained faithful even though some in the Bible gave up. 

I Don't Want to Miss Him,
Pastor Asa

This Could Be A Trial

Galatians 5 : 5, For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. NKJV

Today the Lord has directed me to write to you on the subject of waiting on God for your breakthrough. Throughout the Word of God, we're instructed to wait on the salvation of the Lord by faith. The Lord has already done everything in order to see to it that we are blessed, but sometimes we're required to wait for a promise to be manifested by faith. It breaks the heart of God when His people give up on His faithfulness because He doesn't always come in our time frame. God knows that our spirit is willing, but He also knows that our flesh is weak.

God was indeed faithful to the entire nation of Israel during the wilderness experience, but in spite of His faithfulness, they continually doubted Him. Instead of learning through their past experiences of seeing the faithfulness of God, they would murmur and complain against Him when He didn't respond on their terms. Occasionally, they would become so rebellious that they would rise up against Moses in opposition to God's will for them. 

If we should allow unbelief to rule our hearts during difficult times, it will grieve the heart and Spirit of God because it shows Him that we don't really trust Him. To avoid grieving the heart of God or His Spirit, who leads us through this wilderness experience, we must trust Him with our entire heart. If we will trust the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our own understanding, and allow Him to direct our paths, then He can (and will) deliver us from our enemies and trials.

In today's scripture, Paul mentions three components that must be active in our heart if we're going to see the righteousness of God and experience the manifestation of His promises in our lives on the earth. We are to operate through the Holy Spirit while waiting on the Lord to reveal His salvation on our behalf. God has given every believer the Holy Spirit; He will endue us with His power to endure until the victory is obtained. Secondly, we're to wait. When the Word of God commands us to wait on God for our breakthrough or deliverance, it is with the understanding that we are actively waiting while standing on the Word (Ephesians 6). This reveals to Satan and your flesh nature that you have HOPE in God because you TRUST God more than your flesh nature that wants you to doubt God.

The very reason Satan had the power to deceive Eve was that she didn't know the character or heart of God. You and I have seen the faithfulness of God in every situation, but sometimes we can find ourselves in a new circumstance that challenges our knowledge of God. When this occurs, you must rely on God's faithfulness instead of your lack of knowledge in this particular situation. Even if you can't see God's hand at work right now, it doesn't mean that He has forsaken you. It can mean that He is doing a new thing in which you're not yet familiar, and it can cause you to doubt.   

Today, if doubt is trying to convince your heart to give up on God's Word, and you're growing weak in your faith, then take another breath and decide not to be moved by Satan's lies. Remember, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead also dwells in you and will give you strength to gain the victory, but you must be willing to lean on Him. Remain engaged in the good fight of faith until God brings you victory in this area of your life. 

Do I like everything our family is going through? Absolutely not! Am I allowing these trials and discontentments to cause me to waiver in my faith? Absolutely not! I've experienced the faithfulness of God in our lives as a family and as a church, and this has convinced me of one thing (or perhaps two things). Satan is a liar, and God is faithful to His Word. The only other component that has to be brought into this scenario is our faith in God and His Word. When we continually stand in faith, the Holy Spirit can strengthen us daily until our faith becomes sight. The Lord will come, but will He find us waiting? Don't STOP! Keep STANDING by faith.

The One Who Called Us Is Faithful,
Pastor Asa

Some Things Take Time

Psalms 25 : 1 - 5, To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You; let me not be ashamed; let not my enemies triumph over me. Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed; let those be ashamed who deal treacherously without cause. Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day. NKJV

Do you find it difficult to wait upon the Lord to come to your defense? As I was seeking the Lord about today's devotion, He instructed me to write on the subject of waiting on God. When you're engaged in a spiritual battle that has manifested in a natural situation, it's tempting to want to step out ahead of God and miss His moment of deliverance or breakthrough.

The enemy will use natural events to maximize pressure against us in the hope of getting us to respond to him in our strength instead of waiting on God's strength. We know that God has promised us that He will cause all things to work together for our good. If we know this, then we must remind ourselves of this promise when we are faced with the mounting pressures that can push us into acting on our own. Over and again, we are instructed to wait upon the salvation of the Lord and not be moved by Satan's attacks.

You and I both know that God could arrive on the scene of a storm the very moment it occurred, but He doesn't always. Sometimes, He allows us to wait on Him, so He can accomplish more than just getting us out of "hot water." Here's the key: When we wait on God through faith, it is our faith that gives God an opportunity to make an impossible situation become a miraculous event. Do you remember when God instructed Moses and the children of Israel to be still at the Red Sea even though Pharaoh and His army was on their heels? When they decided to be still, it gave God the time needed to roll back the waters of the sea and allow them to cross on dry land. Could God have already had the waters parted before they got to the shores of the Red Sea? Yes.

This tells me that there is something even greater going on when we decide to wait through faith on God's delivering power to come on the scene. He is building us in our faith so that we aren't moved by the threats of Satan's attacks against us. This brings us to the point of today's word. All Christians are in the midst of a process called conversion. Jesus told Simon Peter that Satan had asked to have Simon so that he could sift him as wheat. After Jesus shared the request of Satan to have Simon, He told Simon that when he was converted, he would be able to strengthen his brethren.

The conversion process is at work in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and He is transforming us into the image of Christ. As long as we remain submitted to the process by waiting on God's timing and not jumping out of the oven prematurely, He will continue to strengthen, encourage, and build us up in our hearts. Be careful that you don't allow the fear of facing a trial cause you to move without God's direction. By doing this, we can abort the process in our lives and disrupt God's plan to deliver us without repercussions. God only thinks good thoughts toward us and has good plans for us. He wants to prosper us... not harm us, His children. We can reciprocate that love through trusting that He knows best.

If you're being pressured today because of adverse situations, then ask the Lord to strengthen you to wait until He shows up. Think of it as if this is Christmas Eve, and God has some gifts waiting for you, but you must wait until morning. Sorrow may endure for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Lord, Am I Done Yet?
Pastor Asa

False Hope Spoken By False Prophets

2 Thessalonians 2: 1 - 4, Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come. Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. NIV

For over two thousand years false prophets have been misleading and deceiving people about the return of Christ. Paul had to write a second letter to the believers in Thessalonica to warn them against the reports that they had heard about the Day of Christ having already come and gone. He qualifies his argument about the eminent return of Christ with two immutable facts.

Note: Whenever someone teaches you "A WORD" from the Word of God concerning subjects such as eschatology, look for more than one Bible reference. Jesus tells us plainly to let every truth be established by the witness of two or three in the Bible. It proves helpful that there are four distinct and different gospels that establish truths concerning the validity of Christ. Anyone can take "a word" out of context from the Bible and make it say anything they want, but true principles, that are forever established, are confirmed in the Word of God by more than just one prophet.

Back to the teaching: Paul warns the believers against false predictions concerning the return of Christ, and then he gives us two different signs that we must look for when considering the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. He taught that there would be a massive falling away of people from the faith before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 24, that lawlessness shall abound, and it will cause the love of many ("Christians") to grow cold. 

Matthew 24: 8 - 13, All these are the beginning of sorrows. "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. NKJV

Paul is only confirming the warnings of Jesus in his letter to the church. Take notice that false prophets will seize the opportunity of people turning on one another in the faith. As a personal note from a pastor, I have seen Christians, who refused to obey the will of God while He was dealing with them, turn their hearts toward offense, and begin to spew bitterness toward leadership and other believers as an excuse to justify their disobedience. When schisms are created in the body of Christ because of blatant disobedience, it opens the door for the enemy to come into the midst of the people to sow discord and lies. Jesus and Paul both agree that when there is a falling away by Christians from the faith, it gives place to falsehood. 

The next truth that Paul mentions to establish the season of Christ's return is the rise of the Anti-Christ. Jesus gives the details surrounding His second return. He tells about false prophets arising while, at the same time, people are departing from the faith. Although we are seeing a resurgence of false teachers in our day, and even though we're witnessing the love of many grow cold... who used to walk in the faith, both sheep and leaders, we haven't seen the rise of the Anti-Christ to prominence. So when you hear "another" false prophet or voice rise up and say that the "rapture" is on a certain day, PRAY!!! They're a vain attempt of the enemy to mislead and hurt lost people who don't know the TRUTH. Trust is the key when it comes to people believing and accepting Jesus as their Savior. The more voices rise up and say Christ's return is going to occur on a certain day, the more this has the potential to harden lost hearts to the truth concerning Jesus' return. 

In the words of Paul, "Don't be easily unsettled or alarmed by some false teacher or report." Let's guard our hearts with all diligence and be prepared for the DAY that Christ does return in the clouds to receive us unto Himself. Didn't the angels scold the disciples for gazing into the heavens as Christ ascended? We mustn't become distracted by false rumors or false hope, but we are to keep our eyes on Jesus. "Occupy till I come."

Occupying,
Pastor Asa

Breaking the Stronghold Of Isolation

John 8 : 29 - 30, And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him." As He spoke these words, many believed in Him. NKJV

When God created us, He said that it wasn't good for us to be alone. Although the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, were created in the image and likeness of God, they were not created "self-sufficient." Had God created us as self-sufficient beings, there would not have been any need for man to have a companion. Nor would there have been any need for God to show them what to eat while in the garden. Furthermore, if God had created us as self-sufficient beings, we would not have needed Him. However, this is exactly the lie that Satan perpetrated upon Eve's ignorance about God and about herself. 

Satan convinced Eve that she didn't need God to become "like God" or become "self-sufficient." When he swayed her with his lies about God, it caused her to reject the commands of God and to partake of the forbidden fruit. What was the result of listening to the lies of the serpent? They became alienated from the life of God. Now let's review this for a moment. God created man with certain needs, and one of them is companionship with others. Knowing this, Satan followed God's original plan with his own agenda to separate us from the SOURCE of life, God, and ultimately from one another. God's goal is for us to be one with Him and each other, but Satan's goal is to isolate us. Satan first separated us from God through sin... preventing us from becoming one with each other. As a result of the fall of man, we lost God- consciousness. This simply means our conscience has been defiled with sin, and we are now sin-conscious. 

We see this sin-consciousness in the Garden of Eden shortly after they had partaken of the tree of knowledge. God came to Adam, but he and Eve hid themselves in the midst of the trees because they were afraid, and they were naked (self-conscious). Before the fall of man, Adam was neither frightened, nor was he ashamed. Therefore, we can conclude that as a result of sin (resulting in sin-conscience), we are separated from God through guilt, shame, and fear.

Now that we have been redeemed from sin and from the curse of the law as believers in Christ, how do we break the stronghold of isolation? You might tend to think that the stronghold over us would have been broken off of our lives at the point of salvation, and you would be correct (to a degree). In Christ and through His shed blood, the curse of sin has forever been broken off of our hearts and lives. Our spirit man has been regenerated, but our minds still need to be renewed. This is why Paul teaches us in Romans 12 that we must have our minds renewed so that we're not conformed to this world. It is through the renewing of our minds that we become transformed. This process doesn't happen overnight or with a one-time encounter with God. Remember, the JUST shall live by FAITH. We're not only saved by faith, but we're renewed daily by faith through the life of God dwelling within us.
 
As Jesus was preaching to the Jews in our opening verses, He told them that He was not alone. Isn't it something that Jesus was preaching on "spiritual isolation?" If He thought it important enough to mention to the chosen people of God, shouldn't we also take notice? As Jesus preached about the Father being with Him, He qualified (or gave the reason) why the Father had always been with Him, and He attributed it to unfailingly doing those things which pleased the Father. Now, remember that Adam didn't please the Father and became isolated from the life of God. The Last Adam, Jesus, obeyed the Father, and He knew or was cognoscente that God was always with Him.

In the following verses, Jesus is sharing to those who believed on Him that day. He made a very powerful and important statement to the Jews. He said, "If you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed." This tells us that we're not complete at the moment of salvation... although we ARE made complete in Christ. Salvation is the "beginning" of the restoration process of bringing us to a completed state in Christ. After Jesus told them to continue in His Word, He went on to say that they would come to know the truth, and the truth that they knew or experienced would make them free. If you truly want to break the stronghold of a guilty conscience and the feeling of being isolated from God, then you must live your new life in and through the Word of God. As believers learn and live the Word of God daily, it empowers us to break free from the stronghold of isolation and purges our guilty conscience. As the stronghold is broken, you will regain a God-consciousness. This is a very important principle for Christians to know and understand. 

Why did Satan want man to become separated from God in our minds? He knew that we would become weak and vulnerable to his vicious lies and attacks against us if we walked around with a guilty conscience or unworthy attitude concerning God's goodness. Furthermore, Satan wanted to disrupt and uproot us from inheriting the promises that God had spoken over man in Genesis 1. God had given us dominion over the earth so that we would cause it to become fruitful and bring an increase. God wanted us to REPLENISH the earth, but Satan wanted it to be destroyed. This is the reason he attacked Eve's faith in the garden. Satan didn't want mankind to have spiritual authority over him. He used the power of sin (creating fear in us) to make us feel unaccepted and unworthy of walking with God. 

Today, if you feel as though God has abandoned you because of circumstances that have occurred, then know that it is the stronghold of isolation. Satan uses this weakness of feeling separated in our minds to try and prevent us from stepping out in faith and challenging our feelings. One thing you and I as believers have that Adam and Eve didn't have is "Christ in us the hope of glory." This is the only sign that we need to overcome any stronghold that sin has placed on our minds from our past life. Today, submit this stronghold on your mind to the Lord and ask Him to guide you out of this pit of isolation. Once you pray the prayer of faith, you will begin to think differently. See yourself with God as the victor and not the victim. Finally, stay in the Word, in the fellowship of believers, live your new life according to the principles of God's Word, and in the liberating power of the Holy Spirit. "Whom the Son has set free, they are free indeed."

Walking with God,
Pastor Asa

Walking With God

Hebrews 4 : 8 - 10, For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. NKJV

We demonstrate our complete trust in God by our obedience to His commands.

 I have written many times about God being with us, but today I want to discuss us walking with God. Enoch walked with God, and God took him, so he wouldn't see death. The writer of Hebrews tells us, "By faith, Enoch walked with God." Every day that you and I keep the commandments of God and ignore human fears, lusts, and weaknesses, we are literally walking by faith. As we walk with God by faith, we're resisting the temptation to allow our hearts to lead our lives.

As we continue to walk with God through our obedient faith, we will become sensitive to the presence of the Holy Spirit with us in a very real way. Now let's digress for a moment. The Israelites struggled constantly with a lack of confidence when it came to trusting the truth that, indeed, God was with them. Why did they struggle with this issue, yet Moses didn't struggle? Moses walked with God, but the Jews refused to obey God because of hardened hearts of unbelief. Psalms 103 tells us plainly that Moses knew the ways of God, but Israel simply knew the acts of God. We can only know the ways of God by obeying Him through our faith. 

Now let's get back to your "MOUNTAINS." Whenever the Israelites would run into a life-threatening situation (like a lack of food or water), they were immediately ready to turn their backs on God, but this wasn't so with Moses. Remember, Moses walked with God through obedience, but the Jews hardened their hearts to His voice. You see... unbelief blinded the Jews to the consequences of walking contrary to the ways of God, but we see what unbelief does to a person once calamity hits. It causes them to feel as though God has forsaken or abandoned them. Moses never struggled with these feelings because HE WALKED WITH GOD! If we obey, through faith, then we are walking with God, and when trouble comes, we won't struggle with the issues of unbelief...which causes us to feel as if God has forgotten about us.

Once you get past the point of struggling over whether or not to obey God's way, then you have begun to enter the rest of God. You will know when you have entered into His rest when you can have complete peace in the midst of a horrific storm. Instead of retreating in unbelief because of the adverse winds, you will be still until you see the salvation of the Lord. Are you just a Christian, or are you a Christian, who is daily walking with God? Jesus tells us in John 8 that He was never alone because the Father was with Him. He said, "I do always those things which please my Father."   
 
Hebrews 10 : 36 - 39, For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: "For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul. NKJV

Amen and Amen,
Pastor Asa