On Monday, we talked about the following statement made by our pastor last Sunday.

Movement in the natural leads to movement in the supernatural!

The sermon was based on the story of Peter walking on water told in Matthew 14 and other examples of the people of God being required to take action before the supernatural was revealed.  Pastor gave us three lessons we can learn from this passage.

1.  We need to get out of the boat. If we don’t go after the dream that God has placed in our hearts, we will always wonder what would have happened if . . .

2.  There are some things in life that are worse than failure. Being paralyzed by doubt and fear and not even trying is a far worse fate than trying and failing. Pastor also mentioned that obedience to God’s will does NOT always guarantee success. We all know of folks who have been committed to ministries that have failed. We may never understand God’s plan, but we can be sure He has one. We don’t have to understand . . . just obey.

3. The best place in the world is in the center of God’s will - wherever that is.  Pastor added that he used to say the center of God’s will was the safest place in the world, but he doesn’t say that anymore because we are not called to be safe but to be obedient.

Obedience will cause us to take risks . . . to move in the natural. Note, though, that we are not to just jump out of the boat at any old time. We must be sure our eyes are on God, that we are walking specifically in His will.   

God mentions dreams 117 times in the Bible. He uses dreams to plant things in our hearts. We, then, need to nurture these dreams.

Dreams lead to Decisions. Decisions lead to our Destiny. Don’t give up on your dreams. Ask God to renew or confirm them in your soul. If you don’t have a dream, ask God for one. Then EXPECT to walk in His strength and wisdom and you pursue what He has for your life.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

Yesterday, in church, our pastor spoke on Matthew 14 where Peter walked on the water. We’ve probably all heard pastors preach on the fact that we need to “get out of the boat” if we want to see a miracle from God. Our pastor restated this in such an inspiring way: “Movement in the natural often leads to movement in the supernatural.”

Peter had a desire to walk on water. As he stepped out of the boat in faith, Jesus performed the miracle.

And there are other examples in the Bible that speak of moving in faith. Think of the lepers who approached the Arameans during the time of famine. When the lepers reached the city, there was no one there because the Arameans had run when God caused them to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army. 

Think of Jehoshaphat, king of Israel, who faced a vast army. God told him to “march down against them.” God even told Jehoshaphat where the enemy was hiding. No doubt, the idea of facing an army many times the size of the Isreal’s army was frightening. I wonder if Jehoshaphat asked God to confirm His direction. What is important, is that Jehoshaphat obeyed and “as they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” (2 Chr 20:22-23).

Would that have been a cool miracle to observe or what?

 But think about each of these situations. The person(s) had to first look fear in the face and choose faith. Choose to believe God when He said, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you” (2 Chr 20:17).

God puts desires or dreams in our hearts all the time. What do we do with them? Do we look at the impossible and remind ourselves that God is a God of the impossible? Or do we push the desire or dream deep within, believing that it would never work for us.

What are we afraid of? Failure? We’ll talk more about that on Wednesday. Until them, take some time to consider the dreams you have or have had in the past. Could God be asking for your obedience in the matter? Requiring it? Expecting it? If we truly want to walk in complete obedience to God’s will, do we have a choice as to whether to take risks and pursue our dreams? Could someone else’s miracle depend on our obedience? Lots of things to think about. I’d love to hear what you have to say.

I’m back from vacation. On the way there, my laptop crashed. I built both of my websites on it, so I now have no way to change them until I’m able to load the sites onto my desktop. But, for some reason, I can load them under documents, but not under the Coffee Cup software that runs them. This technology stuff is fascinating, but also extrememly frustrating. If I could take a few courses and learn all about websites, I would. But my friend, the expert, says you’d have to take many courses because what I need is not encased in one course but spread into all different types of courses.

I’m so glad I found the following quote a few weeks ago. It has helped me keep good perspective with all this bother. It’s by C.S. Lewis from his book Trials: God the Sender.

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s own or real life. the truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life - the life God is sending one day by day.”

So, as you go about your day, think about this quote and “in everything, give thanks!”

Thanks so much for visiting the blog. I hope God has encouraged you in your emotions, thoughts, and body.

I am going on a week’s vacation. Take some time to look over past posts. I’ll see you again on Monday, August 18. Be Blessed!

A friend of God waits on God, longs to be close to God, and is not a friend of the world.

There are many characteristics of a friend of God, but I will finish with just a few more. A friend of God believes. trusts, and obeys in God.

Let’s look at the story of Abraham offering his son, Isaac, on the altar. The story is told in Genesis 22. In verse 2, God tells Abraham, “Take your son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.”

Early the next morning, Abraham obeyed God and took off with Isaac, the wood for the offering, and two of his servants. “On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you’ (vs.3).”

Why did Abraham say we will come back to you? Was he planning on ditching the idea of sacrificing Isaac on the altar? I don’t think so. Remember that Abraham was already over one hundred years old. I doubt he would bother to trek up the mountain if he wasn’t going for a purpose. If he were going to back out, he could have done so at the foot of the mountain.

No, I think Abraham planned to carry out God’s command completely, but in his heart, believed that God would make a way out where there seemed to be no way out. And that’s exactly what God did. You probably know the story. Just as Abraham took the knife to slay his son, an angel of the Lord called out to him, telling him not to lay a hand on the boy.

God’s exact words were: “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (vs.12) Abraham looked up, saw a ram caught in the thicket by its horns, and sacrificed it instead of Isaac. What a test!

But something new in the story caught my attention this morning. In the beginning of the experience, just after God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, God told Abraham to do it ”on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” Hmmm. God knew which mountain would have a ram caught in the thicket. What if Abraham had set out to obey God, but didn’t listen for direction and ended up on the wrong mountain. Completely different ending to the story, huh?

So let me add that not only does a friend of God believe, trust, and obey God, but a friend listens closely for God direction. This goes back to waiting on God. We live in such a fast-paced society. So many of us are goal-oriented. Once we have a task before us, all we care about is finishing it so we can move on to something else. I’m sure Abraham could have built an altar to obey the Lord without walking three days in the hot desert. But he listened. Completely. Verse 4 says, “on the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.” How did he know? The Bible doesn’t tell us. Did Abraham just sense it in his heart or did God give him a sign? We don’t know. But we do know that the Bible clearly points out that Abraham saw the exact place.

So how does all this make one a friend of God. Read James 2:21-23. “Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness’ and he was called God’s friend.”

Abraham  was on his way to sacrifice his only son. Can you think of a worse experience? Talk about hopeless! But he believed, trusted, listened, and obeyed God, and God came through. God made a way where there was no way. And He’ll do the same for you.

Abraham was called God’s friend. Let’s examine our hearts, words, thoughts, and actions to see that we, too, believe, trust, listen, and obey God. It’s so worth it.

Proverbs 18:24 refers to the Christ’s friendship. “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” That friend is God!

We’ve talked about two characteristics of a friend of God: he/she waits on God and he/she longs to be close to God.

Today we will talk about a third characteristic. A friend of God is not a friend of the world.

James 4:6 says, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit He caused to live in us tends toward envy, but He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ ”

Let’s pick that apart a bit. First we’ll look at the context of this passage. James is addressing the issue of fights and quarrels among God’s people. In verse 1 and 2, he says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight.”

We must examine what our hearts are set on. What means the most to us in our daily lives? What stands in the way of our relationship or friendship with God? Is it television? Work? Church activities? We must remember that all good things are not God things. What may be okay for one Christian may not be for us.

Friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Yikes! I didn’t say that; the Bible did. Let’s take some time, today, to examine how we use our time.

Are we so caught up in the daily grind and cares of this world that we can’t find time to spend with our Friend, Jesus? If so, we need to re-evaluate our priorities. And believe me, I’m speaking to myself as much as I am to anyone else. Life is very busy. But I don’t just want to be a friend of God, I want to be a BEST FRIEND–to give the relationship my best! How about you?

Remember the promise just a few verses later in James 4. “Come near to God and He will come near to you.”

Yesterday we began a short series on what it means to be a friend of God. Think about the best friend you’ve ever had-someone you could talk to openly , could cry in front of without shame, and who you could trust to keep your confidence. God longs to be that kind of friend for us, plus more. He longs to fellowship with us daily-moment by moment, really.

The pastor at church Sunday asked how many of us kept a running dialogue with God all day long. Good question, huh? Oh, that we could be that aware of His presence at all times.

The first characteristic we talked about was being willing to wait on God. Not wait on Him like a waiter waits on a table, but wait on Him like stop running ahead of Him in our own strength. How are we ever going to abide in the shadow of His wing when we’re ten feet away? No protection there. No comfort in hard times, no shade in the heat of daily circumstances.

The second characteristic I’d like to write about is that friends of God long to be close to Him. Remember the time Joseph wrestled with the angel of God and walked away with a limp? We can be sure that when God touches our lives, we will be different!

James 4:3 says, “Come near to God, and He will come near to you.” The choice is ours. He is waiting.

In closing, let me pray for you as Paul prayed for the Ephesian people. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:17-19).

I’m sure many of you have heard or sung the praise song I Am a Friend of God.

I just love that song. The thought of being God’s friend brings such joy, peace, and hope.

Yesterday in church, our pastor spoke of the characteristics of a friend of God. I thought we might cover these characteristics the next few days.

A friend of God learns to wait on God.

In Genesis 15, God promises Abraham a son. Verses 3-4 say, “And Abram said, ‘You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.’ Then the word of the Lord came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from you own body will be your heir.’ ”

However, in Genesis 16, Sarai convinced Abram to sleep with her maidservant, Hagar, and they produced a son named Ishmael.

Thirteen years later, the Lord reconfirmed His covenant with Abraham and promised that Sarai would have a child. Abraham was 99. Sarai was 90.

Sarah had gotten tired of waiting. What a perfect example of the way we often try to make things happen instead of waiting on God. Waiting goes against everything in our culture. Life rushes along, usually dragging us with it. We succumb to the pressures of all we have to do, striving to beat deadlines and to get ahead–or simpy caught up. So often, our relationship, or friendship, with God takes second place to everything else.

But  Hebrews 12:1 cautions us to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

So, we say, we’re definitely running the race of life. But is that the race the Lord has marked out for us? Proverbs 3:5-6 says ”trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” When we trust in God, He will make sure we’re running the race He has marked out for us. 

Isaiah 30:18 says, “the Lord longs to be gracious to you; He rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for Him!”

The pastor of the church explained that he likes to walk fast–to get things done. But his wife walks slowly, enjoying the surroundings. He said that his wife is always at least three steps behind him. This drives the pastor nuts. He doesn’t like to slow down. To wait. But bottom line, he realized that if he wanted to walk with his wife, he would have to slow down.

Good, huh? If we want to walk with God, we have to slow down. Take some time to evaluate our busyness. Set some priorities. And put God first. God longs for a relationship with us. Let’s take His hand and walk with Him today.

God will always provide all that we need! 2 Kings 2:9 says, ”When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, ‘Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?’

‘Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,’ Elisha replied.”

We once knew a man named Herman Wilkerson. This man strongly believed in prayer. One day, he attended a missionary service. After the service, the missionary confessed he was hungry and had no money. Herman invited the missionary to his home for dinner, knowing full well there was no food in his house for a proper meal. But Herman prayed, and when he got home, a stranger was knocking at his door.

“I accidently hit this turkey with my car,” the stranger said. “I’m just passing through so I can’t use it, but I thought maybe you could.”

In 2 Kings 2, we read the story of Elijah being taken to heaven. Just before he goes, he asks Elisha, “What can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

Prayer is the most powerful thing we can do for others. What a blessing it would be if every time we prepared to leave someone, we asked, “How can I pray for you before I go?”. We would be communicating three important things. We care. We are listening. And we know Who holds the answer. Let’s take our faith one step further. Let’s pray.

Thank You, Father, for caring and for listening to my prayers. Please remind me daily to bless others as I lift up their concerns to You in an attitude of faith and love. In Christ’s name, amen.    

Are you one of those Christians who unconsciously believes you have to earn God’s pleasure? I fight that all the time. We believe our worth is wrapped up in our works. We fight the belief, but it’s hard to get rid of it altogether.

When we read our Bible and have our prayer time consistently a few days in a row, we begin to feel like God loves us. When we get busy and miss our devotions, we feel guilty before the Lord.

Read today’s quote and think about it all day long. God doesn’t want our works. He wants our fellowship. It’s all about relationship.

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.” Hudson Taylor