Tag Archives: Suffer well
Broken Cisterns Equal a Broken Life
What fills us? What drives us? What helps us? The only answer we should have it, it’s not about what we want but what Yahweh wants. We must learn to deny ourself and follow Him.
Broken Cisterns
(#019 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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“My people have committed two sins [evils]. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of Living Waters, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)
Am I not I Am who points out transgressions in order to save you? Am I not I Am who sent My Son so that you would return to Me in repentance? Consider this before you readily entangle yourself with the world’s delicacies. My Son was sent to manifest My desire and to redeem a people unto Myself. This could only be done through a demonstration of My power (Ephesians 1:19-20). And, it is only by that power that you can overcome your disobedient choices to continually eat from My forbidden tree, the carnal desire for “free will.”
Stop! Listen! Think! Remember! It is I who draws you back to Me (John 12:32). It is I who chose you (John 15:16). Are you really so dull of mind to think you can fill your own cisterns and be satisfied? The abundance you long for, what will truly fulfill your soul’s desires, can never be “self” generated. I will ultimately dismantle anything that does not align with My will. The vessels I fill have no leak and no lack, and do not desire more than I freely give.
Loved one, I cannot be housed in unclean vessels. Dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14) will be your reward apart from Me, nothing but whitewashed tombs (Matthew 23:27). How joyful you were the day I found you. Now, you must count the cost of every thought and action (Luke 14:25-33); this is what I require from My children.
I call Heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live. (Deuteronomy 30:19) Stop trying to fill your own cisterns; they can never hold Living Water. Instead, choose life.
We Don’t Trust God. We need to Follow Him!
We Don’t Trust You
(#017 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Every thought, every desire, and every action that does not conform to the will of the Father can be sized up in one simple statement. “I don’t trust you Yahweh.” “How can that be,” you ask? It really is so simple that a child will understand. Whenever you decide to go your own way, a way other than the Creator’s, you are saying that your way is better than His. It sets a very dangerous precedent and makes the undeniable statement that you ultimately don’t prefer His will over your own. Sin is always the verdict when this mindset prevails; it is a mindset that proves your lack of trust in Him.
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares Yahweh, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) If you could go forward in time and see what the Father has planned for you, certainly you would not choose your own path. You would not attempt to alter His plan. Every sin does just that. It alters or delays the speedy and bountiful result that He has planned for you. Yes, for followers of Yahshua the Messiah there is mercy and grace. However, you can choose the forty year journey or take the direct route and arrive in eleven days.
Repent! Realize that anything other than complete trust in the will of the Father alone is a sinful lack of faith. Sin always extends your journey and delays your arrival to the destination you so desire. Take time to seek His face (Matthew 6:33) and He will always reveal His perfect plan for your life. Yes, you may have to set out on your journey by faith, not knowing exactly how to get to your destination. However, your obedience to take the first step will be rewarded.
He is not like a man that He should lie to you (Numbers 23:19). His hope and future is what you were created for. The ability to reach your dreams in life is only limited by your recognition that Yahweh put them in your heart (center of intellect) in the first place, and your lacking faith that He will fulfill them. Delight yourself also in Yahweh, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4) Delight yourself; Yes, it means to be soft or delicate toward, or in other words, to possess a soft heart toward Yahweh. He placed those desires in there and when your heart is soft (delights in Him), then He fulfills them. This is His plan; it cannot change. Only your heart can.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
If But Your Garment
What physical object in your life brings you comfort? There should only be one. See this video and learn what that object should be.
If But Your Garment
(#015 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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Father, you gave me a measure of faith (Romans 12:3), and the directive to grow in the grace and knowledge of Your Son (2 Peter3:18). Your Son promised that He would not only be the author of my faith, but also the perfector [finisher] of it (Hebrews 12:2).
Heavenly Father, I have sought You without ceasing, often with tears. Yet, I’ve remained locked in the prison of my mind. Today, I again surrender all that has mentally crippled me, and I humbly ask the perfector to redesign my thinking. Yahshua, I present my life as a living sacrifice; transform my mind (Romans 12:1-2), so that I might see and not just hear You (Job 42:5). Transform my fleshly understanding into spiritual perception.
Why have I held onto these thoughts that keep me bound? I have attempted to surrender these things in the past, yet they remain. Has the prison of my mind actually become a safe place for me, like a child’s favorite blanket, which embodies the fragrance, texture, comfort, and security of what is familiar? Have I become comfortable in my prison, afraid to come out? In faith that possessing Your sound mind is my destiny, I again give You permission to take this blanket of fear and replace it with a touch of the hem of Your garment (Matthew 9:20), the garment of praise (Isaiah 61:3)
Remove my false comforts and save this child who is frozen in time, stuck seeking security from his favorite blanket. I will not go back there again. Yahshua, I declare that, from this day forward my mind is renewed, and my only security will be the hem of Your garment. And Abba, if I try to hold the old blanket tight against my chest, rip it from me.
“I know that You can do everything,
And that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You.
You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
Listen, please, and let me speak;
You said, ‘I will question you, and you shall answer Me.’
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear,
But now my eye sees You.
Therefore I abhor myself,
And repent in dust and ashes.”
(Job 42:2-6)
In the past, I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. But, today my faith is perfected; I feel His garment.
When you deny Yeshua, Rooster’s Crow
Rooster’s Crow
(#014 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
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And again Peter denied it. And immediately a rooster crowed. (John 18:27)
Every time you doubt, a rooster crows;
Every time you rage, a rooster crows;
Hold a record of wrongs; a rooster crows;
Boast; a rooster crows;
Strife, a rooster crows;
Bitterness, a rooster crows;
Envy, a rooster crows;
Wrath, a rooster crows;
Fear; a rooster crows;
Anxiety, a rooster crows;
Lust; a rooster crows;
Pride; a rooster crows;
Unforgiveness, a rooster crows;
Every time you sin, a rooster crows;
Your present denial that this is true… and a rooster is crowing.
Your choices and emotions speak loudly to Yahweh. Your predominant mindset tells the story. It says that you don’t really believe what His Son did for you, at least not the fullness of it. You can accept that He is your redeemer, that He secured a place for you with His Father in eternity. But, that He is ruler over your life here on earth, and that He has empowered you to resist sin, this you have not truly apprehended. Rather, your life testifies that you believe there is a way to prosper outside of His will? Oh, recognizing this is not easy to stomach, but submitting to His rulership in this life is just as necessary as in the life to come.
Yahshua has been exalted above and made ruler over all things in heaven and on earth (Philippians 2:9-11). He sits at the right hand of power (Matthew 26:64), at Yahweh’s throne of Majesty (Hebrews 8:1; 12:2), and has been given all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18), which, of course, He passed on to you (Luke 10:19). Notice it says, “In heaven AND on earth.”
The power to live righteously here on earth is your inheritance. You have been endowed with the same power the Father used to raise His Son from the dead (Ephesians 1:19). When you live in anything less than the pure life He has given you as an inheritance, you deny the Son. Yes, just like Peter, your denial manifests in the life you live and the decisions you make. And your life is speaking to all who are watching. Are you preaching “Jesus” while roosters are crowing all around you?
As far as east is from west beloved; that’s how far removed your transgressions are. (Psalm 103:12) There’s nothing to earn in regards to forgiveness, but much to learn about your gratitude for it. How do you live because of it? Receive the gift; His resurrection is your resurrection (Colossians 3:1). And if so, live as the new creation you are (2 Corinthians 5:17)!
The rooster crowed after Peter denied Yahshua three times (John 18:15-27). Later, Yahshua silenced the rooster by asking Peter, also three times, “Do you love me?” “Yes, Master, You know everything; You know that I love You,” Peter affirmed each time (John 21:15-17). Yahshua already knows everything; but you can demonstrate your love for Him by allowing Him to kill your crowing roosters. And after they are dead, don’t ever use His power in you to resurrect those “fowl” birds again.