Tag Archives: christian
Bitterness vs. Forgiveness
To Whom It Concerns
(#105 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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If you want me to suffer, suffer I have. If you want remorse, you have it. If you want me gone, I will leave. If you want me to be erased from your mind, time will do so. If you desire pain upon me, I have felt its touch.
And for you:
If you ever suffer, I will be there for you. If you ever have remorse, I will remind you that repentance is good. If others cast you away, I will take you in. If no one thinks of you, I will call you often. When you lose, I will help you regain. When pain comes, I will pray for your comfort, and that you may embrace the renewal.
I will always remember you, for I am you. I will always forgive, always hope, and I will always extend my love to you. You said we were brothers, a brother I will be.
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the scum of all things until now. (1 Corinthians 4:12-13)
Encouraged with Hope
This New Desire
(#103 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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There is a new desire birthed in me, forged in the valley of humiliation, to become a servant who leads with a heavenly purpose and passion for only His will. This new desire is that every move and every thought are in alignment with the advancement of His good things. I am seeing a vision with new perspectives radically shifted and renewed. I have this hope, this new-found dream in which anxiousness is replaced by vigor and integrity. I am still bound in the natural, yet experience freedom. I am truly free for the first time. Yes, I thought so before, outside this valley, yet now I see. I am reborn. Even though I am a captive of man, I am experiencing a powerful surge of rebirth in the spirit. My temperament is reserved, yet, I am prepared to burst into newness. He will do it. Yes, He will do it!
Oh, and He spoke to me. He spoke so loud and clear. “Those who hope in Me will not be disappointed.” (Isaiah 49:23)
Like a thousand trumpets, He spoke. All my hope is in Him (Psalm 39:7). The prison in which I sit is the womb. Oh, His word is life. It is all that matters. I have been perishing and I must rise again to fulfill this new desire. The day of reconciliation will come. Restitution will come. Rebirth will come. Life I say, life!
It’s there, this new dream. Let it be Father. Let it be so. Yet, for these new dreams placed in my heart, dreams of things to come, I shall set them free knowing they can only come true if You remain my One desire. They shall be released to You, Father. You will retrieve your son from his captors. Only You can do it. Only you can. Your sons and daughters are meant to soar like eagles (Exodus 19:4). Oh Yahweh, we hope in You.
I say to Yahweh, “You are Yahweh; apart from you I have no good thing.” (Psalm 16:2)
Psalm 139 God Knows Everything
Psalm 139 Prayer
(#101 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“You hem me in behind and before, and You lay Your hand upon me.” (v. 5) Oh how I love the thought of it, like the thought of a newborn snuggled in blankets. Protection Father, Your strong arms carry me and protect me. You are always here to guide, always watching over me. I need that Father, the touch in the core of my soul that brings warmth and comfort.
I have these pictures in my mind; pictures created by faith. I love that my days are numbered (Job 14:5) and not one shall be missed. Nothing shall happen to me that was not ordained by You. Nothing shall enter that was not allowed. I need to know these things. I need to feel, to consciously grasp, Your love. I have this longing in my heart, this desire that burns inside me, a desire to feel Your love. I yearn for my mind to be enveloped with Your love, so that all of my thoughts are permeated by You.
Must I work to feel it Father? Am I working too hard? I only know what I have attained up to this very moment. Anything new must come from You. Please bring something new Father, more love and a deeper understanding. I want to feel Your thoughts towards me, thoughts numbered like the grains of sand (v.18). I want to feel them all.
I need to know what I am. Take the words off this page and place them within me. Teach me how to receive Your love. Remove all that keeps me from the fullest measure. Come Yahshua; grant me this new dream, this dream to know You completely. I come in faith and ask for a new thing, a fresh thing: new comfort, new love and new thoughts that bring Your truth into clarity.
Look To Yahweh
If Today
(#100 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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If today I Am not your everything,
Then what will you hope for tomorrow?
Your plans to prosper in the material world,
Only strife and wounds and sorrow.
My Word is your tutor; it has not changed;
“I must be your all!” it claims.
If you’re looking for answers in some other place,
Only disappointment and frustration remains.
So many I see running in circles,
Looking for that MAGIC PILL.
The longing they feel was placed there by Me,
Which only My Kingdom can fill.
Among you I sent My son in the flesh,
And the flesh is what He crucified.
Yourself! You talk… of His death,
Yet, your carnality you claim is justified!
“Not of this world,” is My Kingdom,
Your quest to reverse this…useless.
I will never let this world appease you,
Expecting it to satisfy…fruitless.
The contrite and the humble hear My voice,
My love, their heart’s conviction.
They wait before Me every dawn,
“This way, walk in it!” MY PRESCRIPTION!
It’s never that I Am not attainable loved one. It’s your process of attainment that hinders you. How long will you attempt to process a Spiritual Kingdom with human intellect and understanding? (Proverbs 3:5-6) It is trust by faith that brings a sound mind, and the trust and the faith are spiritually imbued. This is why I must continually ask you to literally get out of My way, to decrease; so that My Spirit alone can take charge of your mind, to increase. (John 3:30).
Stop believing the lie, that there is anything about you that would embrace any patterns about Me. Did not your brother Adam (the 1st) set a firm enough example for you? He started perfect, yet he still failed! (Genesis 3:12) What you fail to realize is that any effort, whatsoever, achieved by your “self,” will always fail. If it were not so, why would I have let you murder My Son for your inabilities?
I Am your life and in Me you have everything you need (2 Peter 1:3-4). If you search for Me other than through your humble decrease, and adaptation to My never-changing patterns, then you will miss Me. And when you miss Me, you will naturally default to reliance on old things that seemingly bring comfort; the fleshly things.
I Am what you long for. I made it that way! If I had not done so, all you would produce are strife, wounds, and sorrow. Look to Me and be saved (Isaiah 45:22). Look to Me and for Me, not for things from Me!
Garment of Praise
Garment of Praise
(#098 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Father, I come in need, and the need is great. I come to inquire of You Father. I have learned to rejoice and praise You in the midst of my suffering; the suffering has not ended. Most of the songs I know and sing to You are about Your love towards me. How I long to sing new songs, songs of my love for You. I know they will please You as they are being birthed from the deep waters within my soul.
My prayer Father, my earnest desire is to learn what it means to wear a garment of praise. I want to be clothed in such a way that Your presence and power are magnified. How shall I wear it? What does it look like, this garment of praise? I am now convinced that offering songs of thanksgiving during immense suffering is how we clothe ourselves with this garment. I have faith that this is the pattern You created, the one You desire us to follow. What does it look like, this joy in the midst of trials? You rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, [living as having already] received the goal of your faith—the salvation of your souls. (1 peter 1:8-9)
I need Your help Yahshua. I need Your help Holy Spirit. Please clothe me in what pleases You: new songs, new garments, new melodies, and new words. You pick; You decide. Lead me to Your will as I listen, look, and wait for You. You know my needs; this confession affirms it. I will wait and hope for my new garment. I will bow before You and wait. I will wait for new songs in my heart Father; songs about You.
Yahshua was sent:
“To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of Yahweh,
that He may be glorified.”
(Isaiah 61:3)
One This I Do
One Thing I Do
(#097 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it [the mind of Messiah]. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which the Mighty One has called me heavenward in Yahshua the Messiah. (Philippians 3:13-14)
Yes, Paul understood, and his journey to Damascus was his place of revelation (Acts 9). It is the same “light from heaven” that is available to knock you off your “donkey” (stubborn religious pride). All of your energies should strain towards this one goal. This one goal, if achieved, fulfills all other goals. This is Matthew 6:33 (Seek first…) obeyed in all of its fullness. This is the race towards perfection: perfect oneness, perfect speech, perfect unity, and perfect peace. It is a violent “rooting out” of all that does not conform to this one goal. The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12) The process is a precision analysis and dissection of all that is not of Yahweh, which then moves us toward maturity (the unoffendable mind).
Yes, Paul understood this revealed gift, this unchanging pattern. This is the superior pattern that girds up all other patterns. It is the quest for Messiah-likeness, or in other words, the mind of Messiah (1 Corinthians 2:16). For righteousness is nothing other than right thinking. It is a call that requires all your attention; your face set like a flint (Isaiah 50:7-9). This should be your one overarching purpose for living after you have come to “know Him” (Philippians 3:8, 10).
The goal is to gain understanding, but not just any understanding. The goal is understanding with wisdom; wisdom to navigate on the way to the finish line; wisdom to know that if anything gets in the way, it is not your problem. You just simply hand it over to Yahweh! Understanding and wisdom together, intimate knowledge which comes with a guide. Oh, that it would manifest in even greater measure. Keep your mind stayed on Yahshua, set like a flint. You are almost there; the finish line is in sight. Victory!
Humility
My Choicest Flock
(#096 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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That suffering one, he’s Mine. That weeping one, he’s Mine. That rejected one, he’s Mine. That scared one, he’s Mine. Have I not told you, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick?” (Luke 5:31) I do not care about natural ability. I am focused on the heart (center of intellect, mind) and the issues of spiritual transformation. The transformation from foolishness (ego driven mind) to wisdom (righteousness driven mind) is what brings Me glory. Those who come to Me “sick” are a perfect fit, for who would be left to come if not the sick?
Your heroes are nothing to Me. Your famous too, do not impress Me. Your wise, all of them devoid of true wisdom. I Am not impressed at My dust in its natural state. A broken and contrite spirit is what pleases Me (Isaiah 66:2). From the old creation to the new, that is the transformation project I like. My characteristics of greatness are humility, peace, wisdom, and joy in the spirit, not like what man values. Fallen man would rather celebrate money, status, and praise from other men.
If these words bother you, you are probably in danger of being devoured. Yes, if you leave the flock I cannot watch over you. Wolves and lions wait for you, and they have a taste for you, as you have been feeding them for quite some time. My flock knows its Shepherd. My flock would never leave My care; they would be afraid to leave My care.
View things as I do. Understand My wisdom. Desire My righteousness as opposed to worldly values. I can only bless what I approve, and I stand in opposition to your fleshly desires. Give in! Succumb to Me at all cost. You could not possibly perceive what I have planned for you; it’s more than you could ask or imagine. If you would taste even a morsel from the table I’ve prepared for you, you would dine with Me and never eat from the pig trough again.
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself, he said, “How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” (Luke 15:15-17)
Bearing His Yoke
Bearing His Yoke
(#094 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young. Let him sit alone in silence, for Yahweh has laid it on him… Though He brings grief, He will show compassion, so great is His unfailing love. (Lamentations 3:27-28, 32)
I wake up alone, no wife by my side. I hear the voice of my children, but only in my mind. Yes my Father, this yoke is different. This one is not easy. This yoke brings me so far from light, locked in with no direct sunlight, no direct SON light. I must work my way back. “Let him be filled with disgrace,” (v. 30) You said. Certainly, all Your words come to pass. All of what I thought represented freedom is gone. “Lock down,” my captors cry out. The doors shut. I am confined. My dwelling is no larger than a pantry closet. I am alone, in silence.
Your word says, “Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked shall be brought down by calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16) Slowly, I rise. The enemy tries ever-harder to keep me down. Does he know You will not let me fall Father? Have You revealed to him that I shall not be put to shame, or condemned? Does he know that his minions will soon be at peace with me? Does he know I am one of Yours?
All of this pain, betrayal, and loss; “It is good,” You say. [I] know that in all things [You] work for the good of those who love [You], who have been called according to [Your] purpose. (Romans 8:28) Therefore Father, I will trust in You, for where else can I go? May I rise Father? Have I learned my lesson; this life lesson? Shall I bear more? I will do as You say. “Rejoice in Me alone, in Me alone.” These are Your words.
Trust God’s Path and Plan For Your Life
My (Your) Soul
(#089 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Show me the way I should go, for it is to You I lift up my soul. (Psalm 143:8)
And when I lift my soul (mind, will and emotions) to You Father, I leave it with You. I realize that taking back my soul leaves me with too many roads to travel, too many choices. This so easily removes me from the narrow path. How many times have I asked you to lead Father, only to change directions to serve my own desires? No more Father. No more I say! My own way leads to too many dead-end roads, too many accidents.
I have this vision Father; I see myself offering back to You the Spirit You gifted to me. I am longing for You to take back what is Yours and never let go. Never let it go anywhere, other than where You desire. Take over. I hand you back this Spirit in me, never again to alter its course in my own “self” desire. I want to be led in a way which overcomes the flesh mind so only the Spirit man can shine forth. Father, surround me with Your Spirit bubble. Immerse me completely!
Whatever you say Father, I will do. Every encounter, every decision, every plan of action, I will submit to You. Tell me what to do and it will be done. And Father, I do realize that at times I must step forward before You will speak. In these matters I will make a plan and proceed slowly, giving You full authority to change my course at any time. To You Father, I lift up Your (my) soul.
Humble Yourself
Arm of the Flesh
(#088 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Listen to Me, My precious little one; I would like you to consider My servant Mosheh (Moses) as an example of My absolute providence. I brought him up as a prince only to have his crown stripped from him. He would be a shepherd at the age of eighty, “an alien in a foreign land.” (Exodus 2:22) It was then that I called him to his true purpose, his created purpose. After forty years in exile My plan would begin, truly begin. Why did I strip him of his princely garb? Yes, he murdered, but I always knew he would. It’s what caused the murder that had to be removed. The arm of the flesh had to be removed, the desire to do anything other than what I purpose in his, and likewise, your life. If you pretend that whatever you want to do must be My will, you will wander in the wilderness. To get out, you must stay close to Me; you must stay connected.
The byproduct of the removal of the arm of flesh is humility and meekness, heavenly humility and meekness. From a murderer to the testimony, “What if they don’t believe me or listen to me?” “What if they say, ‘Yahweh did not appear to you?’” (Exodus 4:1) Please realize that the humility that I placed in Mosheh will also be placed in you. He would no longer be a man with murder in his heart. Now ready, prepared for every good work, Mosheh, a different man cries out, “O Yahweh, please send someone else by whose hand You may do it.” (Exodus 4:13) He was no longer supremely confident in his own ability. He was now a servant ready to be used. It was at this point that My chosen vessel was truly ready.
Know this My child; the talents you have are from Me. Have people noticed your attributes, the things that make you good at what you do? I will not waste those talents I placed in you. I will just make sure they are used for why I created you. If you are wandering in a foreign land right now, you might just rejoice. For it is here that the arm of flesh will be taken away and your new life brought to you. You do not need to wait forty years, however. Submit to Me now and enter your destiny My child. It is your precious predestined purpose.