Category: Self-Care

Blogs for self care

The Revelation of God

In the book of John chapter fourteen and verse six, Jesus said, “I am the only way (to God) and the (real) Truth, and the (real) Life.” AMP version.

As the Way, Jesus is our salvation, for there is no other name given under heaven for men to be saved. That would mean male and female. Amen!

As the Truth, Jesus is “the revelation of God” and He reveals this to us in John 14:6, by giving us His testimony!

His testimony was given to comfort His disciples and for all people through all times.

He started this comforting in John 14:1, “don’t let your heart be troubled, you believe in God and trust in Him (have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and) believe also in Me!” AMP version.

Trusting in God is the most comforting thing we can do, and trust is to believe the truth.  Jesus is the Truth based on His own testimony. So by trusting God we also believe in Jesus and fulfill John 14:1. Amen!

It’s our responsibility to hold onto our trust in God, and our belief in Jesus (the Truth).

I wrote this statement down the other day while studying the Word of God and it went like this, “your head will trouble your heart if you allow it.”

We have a revelational ability that we need to deploy when our head tries to make us wonder, this revelational ability is “faith”.

Faith comes by hearing, which is hearing the Good News about the Christ. Amen! Romans 10:17

One of our responsibilities is to attend and be involved in a Bible ministering church. The Good News about the Christ was revealed to Godly men throughout the Bible, and is absorbed by our hearing and receiving it with an open heart.

To truly hear the Word about the Christ we must get out of mindfulness and open up our spirits!

Remember our head will trouble our hearts if we allow it.

Let’s enter into the prayer and worship before the sermon when attending church services, this opens our hearts so we can truly hear.

Mark 4:25 in the Passion Translation says, “For those who listen with open hearts will receive more revelation. But those who don’t listen with open hearts will lose what little they think they have.”

This is the responsibility I was talking about; in this verse “you” is the intended subject.

It is up to us to shut out what’s going on around us, calm our mind, which is a form of comforting that’s in God’s revealed Word. We listen deeply and intently, with an open heart.

The revelation of God is a “must-have” to live a victorious life.  Mark 4:25 says, if we don’t listen with an open heart, we don’t receive any revelation and we lose what little we thought we had.

This back and forth, this gaining and losing only causes us to doubt in Jesus.  Who is our only hope at knowing the Way, operating in the Truth, and living our best life both now and eternally. Amen!

You see, doubt is duo (or double) which always leads to confusion and faithlessness.  Trust is assurance and always leads to confidence. Our confidence is based on our dependence and our relationship with Jesus Christ.

I just brought up another one of those words that we as a people kind of struggle with, “dependence.”

Dependence is relying on another.  In life, many of us have been let down by the people that we trusted, even those close to us. I will actually venture out to say that all of us experienced this letdown at some point in our lives.

You see no matter how great the revelation may be, no matter how intelligent we become, no matter how much knowledge we possess, it will never take the place of a “revelation from God.”

Besides ourselves, God is the only One who knows our spirit!

He made us and therefore we must look to Him to meet all our needs, and that is according to His riches in Glory, by Christ Jesus.

This is Philippians 4:19, a verse that God revealed in-depth to me while I was studying it, and pondering its meaning.

The verse reveals God’s heart in His giving to us, Jesus! Amen!

The revelation went like this, “Jesus Christ became the “way” for God to get riches to us from Glory!

God had all these riches for us, His people, stored up in Glory.  He needed a “way” to get them to those of us on the earth. So He sent His only Son to deliver us from the bondage of sin, and to open up the riches of Glory to us so that He can lavish us with all His Goodness! Wow!

What a great and awesome Revelator, this God of ours. If you know Him, endeavor to get closer, if you don’t know Him, pray this prayer; we can all affirm or reaffirm our faith.

Thank You, God, that the revelation of Your Word is very near to me, it is in my mouth and in my heart. By faith, I confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all and Lord of my life. He has all power, majesty, and authority of You, my God. I believe in my heart that you God raised Jesus from the dead; I also believe in my heart that what you are revealing to me right now is Your saving grace. I confess with my own mouth that you, Jesus, are my Way, my Truth, and my Life, and I thank You for the exchange from death to life, in Jesus’ name.  Amen!

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you like this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content, Acts 4:12, Acts 10:43, 1 Timothy 2:5, John 17:3, all of John 14, Romans 10:9-10, and John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life”.  Amen!

Faith, Surrender, or Striving?

I recently read a quote from a prominent Christian preacher, it went like this; “Faith is a result of surrender, not striving.”

The faith movement in our country says we must, fight, confess, and do, do, do; sounds a little more like striving than surrender, so I spent some time looking deeper.

Surrendering by definition is to, “give oneself up to the power of another, or to yield to another.”  It has to do with submitting ourselves and giving place.

The definitions are Biblical and are what we must to do in order to be saved and to serve God. Amen!

Striving on the other hand is to, “make a great effort to achieve or obtain something.”  Is our faith in our actions, or is our faith in God?

To be an effective witness or ambassador, (which is a representative of another Kingdom) requires us to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us and that my friend is “yielding.”

Living by faith means to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Believers must appropriate daily, to live as Christians by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that believers must trust the Spirit to empower them in specific instances, such as; temptation, being faithful, and sharing our faith.

Surrender teaches us this daily spiritual interaction and faith requires an act of surrender by those who accept Jesus Christ. Wow!  So, at this point, I am definitely leaning towards surrender, how about you?

Most people including Christians get stuck on this surrender word.  We want to keep control, which leads to striving and not surrendering. Hold that thought!

I believe faith comes in stronger when we trust God and quit striving.  Yes, we fight to hold onto the Word God has shown us, but sometimes that doesn’t require a lot of confessing and work, sometimes we just need to get quiet and surrender.

Meditation helps us surrender.  Claiming, fighting, and striving can lead to confusion, and let’s be honest, clarity from God comes when we get quiet in the Word and surrender ourselves to Him. Amen!

Something great happens when we truly realize that He cares for us and that He will take our striving and replace it with peace and rest.  This is the most contentment we can ever gain. Glory to God!

For most of us, it takes mind renewal to be able to surrender to God, cast our cares over onto Him, and then patiently wait for God to fight our battles. All the faith giants in the Bible did just that. Amen!

Yes, they fought some outstanding fights of faith, just as we have and will, but in the end (and the reason they are in the Book) is because they relied on God and they submitted to Him.

It is our job to cry out the Word, and then God goes into action.  We surrender to Him, and He causes our enemies to surrender to us while we patiently trust His love.

Here is another quote God gave me, “We will never enter into God’s rest without patience and surrender”; this quote was given, “by faith.”

You see “by faith” will never stop being how we receive from God, but striving isn’t faith, surrendering is!

God’s system is already victorious; all we need to do is quit fighting Him!

Sometimes we get mixed up on who or what our faith is in. Our faith should not be in our confessing, although it is necessary; our faith should not be in our works, although they are necessary.  Our faith should be in God, Who always causes us to triumph. Amen!

Here is a statement that is pretty bold, but I believe to be biblically correct, “To be led by the Spirit, you must surrender to God!”  This statement is also true, just because we say what someone else says or follow someone’s ministry doesn’t mean we have surrendered anything to God.

It is our heart that God is after and until we surrender our heart to God we are bound by the enemy.  Faith working through love will get us our breakthrough from striving to surrender. Amen!

It takes greater faith to surrender than it does to strive, and striving will never produce salvation, but surrendering will! That is the exciting plan of God, so we surrender ourselves under God’s mighty hand and He will exalt us in due time! Amen! That is 1 Peter 5:6.

God wants our hearts; He wants to lead us by our spirit.  For Him to have this place in our lives we must do and say what Jesus said, “Not My will, but Your will be done”. Jesus lived to only please the Father, as we surrender, we will too.

So I will end with this; keep confessing, keep doing the things of God, keep claiming the Word, but always surrender your heart, soul, mind, and strength to your good Father God, “First.”

I surrender all, how about you? And yes I say this, “by Faith.”

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content, Acts 1:8, Proverbs 23:26, Galatians 2:20, John 12:49, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Ephesians 4:23, Matthew 11:28, Ephesians 2:8-9, Mark 11:21-22, Romans 8:14-17, and, Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever surrenders his life for My sake will find it”! Emphasis added.

Measuring Your Value

I will start with the origin of the content first, and it is found in Romans 12:3, “As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning; be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.”

Often times we put a value on ourselves that may be above where we are actually at. If we truly measure ourselves based on God’s system which is faith, we really would not be able to think of ourselves more highly than we ought.

We should see ourselves the other way, which is God’s way and that is to place the value of others above ourselves. So why do we seem to think of ourselves as being above others?

Here is what I believe to be the straight answer; Pride. I will now delve into our escape from it.

Pride not only devalues others, but it also keeps us from accepting and walking in God’s system of values, which He said is a measure of faith, and walking in accordance with it, was one of them.

Our only escape from pride comes about by truly applying Romans 12:2 to our lives, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Our mind is where we are bigger than we really are.  By being puffed up we lose sight of our inner man and we override our longing to please God.

Does our pride keep our spirit from growing in the things of God? You can answer this question for yourself.

If we can admit that we are figments of our own imagination and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, we can increase in abilities that are way past our puny little pride! Amen!

Just think, if we professing Christians could get past ourselves and join into the body of Christ – that each of us is supposed to form – the Gifts of the Spirit would abound in our midst. Hallelujah!

We would be able to glean from one another instead of judging one another.

Yes, “pride is the judgement tool of the devil.”  I have never heard this statement before, but I believe it is from God to us.  I also believe God is encouraging us to change the way we think.  Once again, “pride is the judgement tool of the devil”.  Let’s look at this more closely.

Pride—a high and inordinate opinion of one’s own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the “mind” or as displayed in bearing or conduct.

Wow! You want to know what is wrong in our world today. It’s “pride”, the root of supreme thinking.

We as Christians can change the way we think by truly seeking and applying the Word of God to our lives.  Then, by the Word of God, equality happens and it happens according to God’s plan; which is each of us needing the other. Amen!

Judgement—the process of forming an opinion (wonder whose?), then estimating value, and pronouncing a decision.

Tool—a device used to carry out a particular function; (the devil uses his division tool with excellence, just look around you at all the divisions in the world).

Devil—accuser of the brethren, supreme evil, the Liar.

This defined breakdown shows us that as we give ourselves a place above others, we form an opinion of others based on our high view of ourselves, so naturally, no one measures up.

We use a device, our mouth, to cut ourselves and others off from Godly abilities that are only found in humility.

When we partner with the devil and start accusing and passing judgement we become the judge and the jury, pronouncing sentence before we have all the evidence.

In our minds we convict before we get any spiritual guidance from God, we are quick to speak out and become an accuser of the brethren.

Wow! We really do need to change the way we think.  Change what we are allowing in our lives so that we can become instruments of God, not accusers with the devil. Amen!

As we seek to honor God and His Word, our judgement becomes less and less.  As we see God’s vastness we realize that we truly are just a vapor, and without God we are nothing.

With God we can truly be ourselves, which is our inner longing from before time began.  Honoring God, lifting people up, and unifying the body of Christ. Amen!

A unified body of Christ is the most powerful thing on the earth and above the earth.

No weapon formed against it can prosper; no plague can alter its direction, no devil in hell or on earth can accuse it.  When God is for us nothing can stand against us.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made into a whole body.  Oh how I long for wholeness! You?

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content, Romans 12:3, Proverbs 3:7, Proverbs 16:18, 1 Corinthians 4:7, 1 Peter 5:6-7, 1 Corinthians 12: 12-27, Isaiah 54:17, and Romans 2:1, “You therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgement do the same things!”

The Word Manifested

In Matthew 14:28-29, when Jesus said come to Peter in regards to walking on the water, the Word manifested under his feet to allow him to walk on the H2o.

In John 14:21 Jesus says, “Whoever has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. The one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love them and show Myself to them”.

The word ‘show’ in this passage is translated as ‘manifest’ in many other translations and texts of the Bible.

John 14:21 was the first scripture that I remember coming alive to me.  I had an inkling in my heart about things pertaining to God while driving home from church one Sunday.

When I arrived at home, the TV was on a Christian channel and the Pastor was saying the exact thing I was pondering about in John 14:21.

I had confirmation about the things of God, through the Word of God, by a Godly minister.

Jesus is manifested through Godly people and by the Spirit! Amen!

In 1 Corinthians 2:10 we see this truth, “but it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.” Amen!

Having a revelation and conformation from the Word of God through the Spirit of God to our spirit is one of the grandest happenings we can have this side of heaven.

God reveals deep secrets to us to either strengthen us in the Gospel or help us in our weaknesses.

But the fact that we have a glimpse of the manifest presence of Jesus is astounding to me and should be our daily quest.

I am not saying these manifestations will occur daily, but if we stay continually in God’s Word, day by day, we open up greater opportunities for a foretaste of life with our Heavenly Father! Amen!

You talk about joy unspeakable, when we have a manifestation of Jesus in our lives, 1 Peter 1:8 says, ” Jesus whom having not seen, you love Him, though now you see Him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory!”

“By faith” we receive the Word of God about the Christ.  “By faith” we believe in Him, “by faith” we love Him (Who we haven’t seen, but have perceived), “by faith” we keep His commands and by this, the Father then shows His love for us and Jesus manifests or shows Himself to us! My, My, My.

You talk about power when the manifest presence of Jesus comes to you, and the Holy Spirit is moving in you, the power of God is present to do whatever is necessary in our lives and sometimes we don’t even have to ask! He just does it because of our faith and His love!

When His love finds us in faith, Godly explosions happen.  These Godly explosions can knock lack, right out the door, blow sickness and disease right off of us and clear the way for the light of God to manifest in our lives, and allow victory to always come.

1 John 5:4 says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Amen!

This scripture came right after God was telling us to love Him and keep His commandments.

So to become a whosoever that John 14:21 started out with, and to become a whatsoever that overcomes the world as in 1 John 5:4, we must know and keep God’s Word. Amen!

You see His manifestations will be in direct relation to His Word. I can say from experience, “Stay in His Word daily, love Him, and His manifest presence will take your life to levels you haven’t even imagined.”

The good news is that we don’t have to accomplish a set of guidelines to receive from the depths of God’s love.

Although we do need to believe in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in Glory, we must love God’s Word, and stay under God’s authority by obeying what He shows us.

Then faith starts coming by hearing and hearing more about the Word of God, He manifests Himself in our open and willing hearts and we see more and more about the future. Amen!

We must keep our Bible open and the right things going in our eyes and ears.  When we do this, Jesus shows Himself strong on our behalf in every area of our life.

I’m a whoever – He’s talking about me.  I’m a whoever – it must be me!

This is a song that we sing sometimes at church, it’s very heartfelt and amazing when Jesus taps you on the shoulder and calls you by name, He changes us from whomever to forever. Amen!

Jesus loves us and when He manifests Himself in our lives, our water opportunities also become, walkable.

Let the Word of God dwell in you richly and look for Jesus to manifest Himself in your life. He loves us with an unexplainable love.

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

If you liked this content, please consider signing up for my newsletter to receive emails directly.

Scriptures of encouragement and content, Matthew 14:28-29, John 14:21-23, 1 Peter 1:8-12, 2 Corinthians 5:7, Isaiah 65:24, all of 1 Corinthians 13, 1 John 5:4, Romans 10:17,Psalm 27:13-14, and, 1 Corinthians 2:10-12 in the Passion Translation, “But now God unveils these profound realities to us  by the Spirit. Yes, He has revealed to us His inmost heart and deepest mysteries through the Holy Spirit, who constantly explores all things. After all, who can really see into a person’s heart and know his hidden impulses except for that person’s spirit? So it is with God. His thoughts and secrets are only fully understood by His Spirit, the Spirit of God. For we did not receive the spirit of this world system but the Spirit of God, so that we might come to understand and experience all that grace has lavished upon us. Amen!