Self-Care – Page 2 – Ask Jerry Mercer

Living a Prepared Life

What is a prepared life and how do we live it? This is a question we all should ask ourselves.

This question has intrinsic value to our natural ability to have a hope of success and a hope of a succession life!

A life that continues and has successive stages as from glory to glory, or growth to growth would lead us to a preparedness that is sustaining and unending. Amen!

The value we place on different aspects of life will cause us to follow after our hoped-for inheritance.

Those with a natural value will always be thinking of how to please their elders while looking at the possibility of inheriting their goods.

Spiritual people on the other hand are all the time looking to Godly elders for wisdom and an inheritance of goodness on how to live a prepared life.

What or who we subject ourselves to will define our succession process as we move from season to season in our lives, I’m not talking about spring, summer, fall, and winter, but about a span of time characterized by certain circumstances.

As we subdue our own will and gladly become subjected to God’s will, these seasons will cause us to grow from spiritual harvest to spiritual harvest.

1 Corinthians 15:28 in the AMPC Bible says, ” However, when everything is subjected to God, then the Son Himself will also subject Himself to the Father, Who put all things under Him, so that God may be all in all ( be everything to everyone, supreme, the indwelling and controlling factor of life”). Amen!

As we are preparing and readying ourselves for the coming seasons, a refreshing will come from God and will subject us to right standing with Him.

As we live a prepared life, one focused on the inheritance of eternal life, and move our focus off of temporal things, we grow in righteousness (which is right standing with God).

Righteousness becomes the main avenue a prepared life travels down; we keep our eyes on the road to avoid the ditches, which are located on both sides of the road. You see being extreme is not a new concept, it is veering off the center of a given point, I would say, “hardening your heart”.

Have you ever been on a temporary road or seen the sign that says, “road ends”, following on would lead to a ditch or possibly a drop-off? Staying at the center of our being keeps us grounded. Amen!

Ephesians 3:16-17 says it best, “I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith”.

Staying on God’s path and walking in righteousness was prepared for us before the foundation of the world, and is time tested and true to lead us to a well-prepared and ready life.

Being well-prepared is pleasing to God because without faith we can’t please Him, but with our faith and preparation, we can be well-pleasing to Him now.

“Now faith is”, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen!

As we live our lives and go through the seasons willingly accepting the changes that God brings to us we are being prepared for His use, “by faith”.

Being a vessel fit for the Master’s use is to be sought after more than gold or houses or anything this world has to offer. Amen!

Our usefulness to God will be highlighted by our spiritual accomplishments, not by our worldly possessions. God needs people reaching people!!!

As we ready ourselves for the Master’s use, spiritually fit, mentally strong, and powerful in faith, we will accept the things we cannot change while all the while keying on the thing we can change, “ourselves”.

As we change, others around us notice, and as long as we continue like an edifice higher and higher we are completing the call of Jesus Christ which is to, believe in Him and make disciples of those we can reach.

Jude 20-22 in the Message says, “But you, dear friends carefully build yourselves up in this most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit, staying right in the center of God’s love, keeping your arms open and outstretched, ready for the mercy of our Master Jesus Christ. This is the unending life, the real life. Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take a wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven”.

As we hold fast to the Word of God, it has the power to ready us for the unending peaceful life.

Ready means to be fully prepared, I was in a church service one morning and a little lady looking to be about 80 years old stood up and belted out, “you don’t have time to get ready, you need to be ready”.

She was talking about preparing our entire life for that one moment when, either Jesus comes back for us, or we go to Him. Amen!

Living a life of preparation will have us ready and joyfully shouting, “I’m ready”!

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

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Scriptures of encouragement and content: 1 John 2:17, 1John 2:29, 1 Peter 5:5, 2 Timothy 2:21, John 1:1-5, Romans 8:4-6, and Luke 21:25-28 TPT, “Expect to witness amazing and perplexing signs throughout the universe with the sun, the moon, and the stars. The raging of the sea will bring desperation and turmoil to many nations. Earthquakes will bring panic and disaster. What men see coming to the earth will cause the fear of doom to grip their hearts, for they will even see the powers of the heavenly realm shaken! And at last, when you see how the Son of Man comes–surrounded with a cloud, with great power and miracles, in the radiance of His splendor, and with great glory and praises—it will make you jump for joy! For the day of your full transformation has arrived.” Amen! So be it with me!

How is Your Breakthrough Coming?

I wrote this phrase down a few months ago, “God is the God of our breaking through, not our peeking through!”

We shouldn’t be peeking around the corner to see how things are going; we should be looking expectantly for our breakthrough, “by faith”.

Our breakthroughs come as we are following God and His leading. God will lead us to the breakthrough and His best is found on the other side of it.

We must get real with any obstacles to realize our breakthrough. We must settle our fears before we start the following process, as we will need faith in God’s Word to pursue God’s leading. Amen!

Breakthrough by definition is to have an offensive assault, moving beyond obstacles, and along the way make an important discovery.

The opposite effect is obtained by peeking through, which by definition brings up a very interesting word: Furtive—attempting to avoid notice or attention, typically because of guilt or unbelief. Wow, this would be no boldness to go to the Father to intervene on our behalf because of our lack of faith.

So the timid or sheepish would be peeking through instead of breaking through, while the persuaded one would confidently breakthrough.

Remember the old “breakout game”, and how easy it was to score once you broke through the initial wall, it multiplied immensely not just a little, right?

The God of our breakthrough has this same superseding effect when we get past the natural obstacles and trust God to see the other side of our breakthrough.

On the other side is always a “wow” moment. I use the word “wow” a lot so I thought I would take the time to define it—a) expressing astonishment or admiration. b) strong pleasure and enthusiastic approval. Yep, this is exactly how I feel about God and His provisions. Amen!

I am always expecting to see what I am looking for with my faith.

We must see the other side of our breakthrough as we pursue it, this truly pleases God. Faith pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who approaches Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Amen!

In writing this blog I just noticed that we are the ones that are to do the approaching. If we are waiting for God to break us through, we could be waiting a while! It’s time for us to take that step of approaching.

A breakthrough must be pursued to have our desired outcome.

The opposite of approaching God and receiving the breakthrough would be halted by fear. Could it be we are not trusting God enough to bring us through or are we in unbelief because of our guilt and disobedience?

We must first deal with and be honest about the fear and unbelief. God knows our hearts, so to get past the peeking through we must allow God place in our hearts and by faith receive the power of God to breakout and breakthrough. Amen!

We know when our breakthrough is happening because it makes some noise! We hear things in the spirit that are breaking the fear and unbelief off and empowering us to take the other side and stay there!

When we are fighting the good fight of faith we at times will need military tactics, we need to lay and guard some perimeters, perimeters that we won’t cross and the enemy can’t. Amen!

The “armor of God” is not just for our defense. We must have the belt of truth buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, the Gospel of peace fitted to our feet, and the shield of faith as our great wall of protection. And finally, after we have placed the helmet of salvation on and are all dressed up we need to start wielding the sword of the spirit, which is the “Word of God”. Amen!

We use this to cast down imaginations and pull down strongholds that are preventing our breakthrough.

You see a true breakthrough will always include a victory in the battlefield of your mind!

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Wow!

As we take those unbelieving thoughts captive and allow the Word of God to change the way we think, we become transformed and reformed by the renewing of our minds.

We then understand God’s will and we realize that He always wants us living on the other side of our breakthrough, our faith increases in Him and we understand where and how we fit!

When you can’t see through the peek hole, BREAKTHROUGH!

Our perfected life is always lived by following the God of our breakthrough. Amen!

Never peek through when the power is always present to breakthrough.

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; Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 30:21, 2 Timothy 1:7, Hebrews 11:1-6, 2 Timothy 4:7, Ephesians 6:11-18, Romans 12:2, and always praise before your breakthrough:

I’ll praise before my breakthrough

Til my song becomes my triumph

I will sing because I trust You

I will bring my heart

I will lift my song

My breakthrough always comes!

Signs and Wonders

Signs and wonders, these miraculous occurrences always point to a warning, instruction, or encouragement from God.

All signs and wonders that have any credibility will show us a message or miracle from God and will shine light on Jesus.

A warning is not usually well-received, but it should be. A warning is as much God’s grace as a blessing. Amen!

God sends us warnings to get us back on track, back on His path. Today’s world has many voices and opinions that are jockeying for our attention and influencing our choices.

Life choices have life consequences and God’s main goal is that we would all follow His Son Jesus and enjoy eternal life, which is why He sent Him.

If we look closely, Jesus is an example and a warning. He sets the example of freedom from sin by His walk, talk, and physical reactions to situations.

He sets an example of bondage or a warning by telling us what fear and conforming to this world will produce. Don’t conform to this world is a definite warning.

Romans 12:2 urges us in this warning, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Amen!

So there is a pattern of this world and a pattern in heaven. Let’s let Jesus be our pattern of eternal encouragement and a sign of our future in heaven, with Him.

As we continually renew our mind with the word of God, we instill a warning system that if followed will produce for us a wondrous victory.

The Bible in Proverbs 16:25 gives us a stark warning if we fail to follow the pattern of heaven, “There is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.” Let us heed this warning and overcome this worldly pattern by clinging to the Truth. Amen!

As we open up our hearts and minds to the wonder of God’s instruction, we become imitators of God and open to the signs of the Holy Spirit. By the Spirit’s leading, we become catalysts of God’s spiritual universe.

A catalyst would be someone who speeds significant change, by definition.

Glory to God! You talk about a game-changer. At this point, we truly become world changers, and we can start this change, right smack dab in the middle of our families and circle of friends.

2 Corinthians 5:17 talks about creation changers, you and I are called to change creation, starting with ourselves! Amen! It says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here”!

Did we miss the greatest sign and wonder we will ever experience? When we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we re-created creation! Wow!

No wonder all creation is waiting for the sons of God to be identified, we are creation changers. Amen!

As we are instructed by the Word of God we see the miracle of salvation. Embrace it!

The encouragement of reading the preceding words of this blog is a sign and wonder from God. God is the great Encourager and by our operation, according to His pattern, we become gift-givers.

Gift-givers operate in the gift God gives them. When we all have a unity of the faith and operate in the Gifts of the Spirit we see signs, wonders, and miracles more commonly.

Don’t look at the word common as diminishing the Gifts; it actually becomes the community in which the Holy Spirit can work through His people to help lift them up as well as love one another.

We should be seeing signs and wonders, frequently, and as we heed the warnings from God and cling to the instructions from God, we will bask in the encouragement of God. Glory!

As awe comes on every soul, many wonders and signs will be done through us! That is Acts 2:43, paraphrased.

Let’s choose to reverently submit to the Word of God, Jesus did!

Herein lays the proof of the enlightenment. Hebrews 5:7 says, “During the days of Jesus life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the One who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His…..Reverent Submission.”

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 12:2, Proverbs 16:25, 2 Timothy 2:15 ESV version, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Acts 14:3, Acts 2:43, Hebrews 5:7 and Romans 8:18-21, “That’s why I don’t think there is any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile the joyful anticipation deepens.” Amen! The Message translation.

Today? Or Tomorrow? You Choose.

Let’s take a moment and break these two days down.

Today is the day of grace, the day of glory, and possibly the day of judgment, Christ’s coming. Amen!

Tomorrow is when fools repent, tomorrow is satan’s today. He doesn’t care what good resolutions you have made; if you only fix your thoughts on tomorrow.

Today is the day of our salvation 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “For He (God) says, in the time of My favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, and now is the day of salvation!” Amen!

I don’t believe tomorrow has a “now” because now means: at the present time or moment, so you will only get today’s “now moment” today.

We don’t even know what tomorrow holds, but we can know Who holds tomorrow. In Isaiah 40:12 God gives us a vision of Himself as the “holder of tomorrow.” “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?”

What stands out to me is that is Isaiah is asking questions. I believe that if we answer these questions based on the foundation of our heart, therein lies the choice; Today? Or Tomorrow? You Choose.

I love that God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us the ability to choose. He wants us to receive all that He has planned for us today and realize the future we have in Him for tomorrow, “by faith.”

As long as we understand our need for salvation (preservation from destruction or failure) and understand the urgency of it, then our joys of today become our rejoicing tomorrow. Amen!

You see, our illusion of something besides salvation is our very present danger, and by accepting God as the truth, that becomes our liberation from ignorance.

God has never held anything from us, and He only wants good for us.

He’s not dangling a carrot or twisting our arms; He has set our life in motion from the beginning of time and has given us a free will.

By choosing to believe and answering Isaiah’s questions with, “My God” we pass the today test and are guaranteed un-ending tomorrows.

In the book of Joshua, Joshua makes a great statement about our entire focus so far. Joshua 24:15 says, “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served or the gods of the lands you are living in. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” Amen!

I have seen parts of this verse on plaques in people’s homes, but “today” I have a greater understanding of what it means.

I also choose to serve the Lord “today”… You?

Our choices today affect so much of our life and time. Let’s make it a point to think before we react. Think before we commit. Think before we allow, and think before we join in. Pausing today and choosing to stay on God’s side will dramatically affect our “tomorrows”.

James 4:14 says, “How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.” Amen!

In early 2020 we saw firsthand what the difference a day can make, one day no Covid-19, the next day, and days ahead, a pandemic.

I also saw firsthand that God is the only one that can fix it, and keep us through it.

We can be assured that if God is with us, nothing can come against us!

He is calling on us today, let’s be wise and choose Him back!

Remember tomorrow is when fools choose.

I will end with this wonderful scripture found in Romans 8:31-32. “What then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all—how will He not also, along with Him graciously give us all things?”

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: 2 Corinthians 6:2, Isaiah 40:12, John 7:17, Joshua 24:15, Proverbs 16:9, Romans 10:9-10, James 4:14, Romans 8:31-32, and Hebrews 11:1 in the Passion Translation, ” Now (or today) faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen. Amen! (or today) was an added emphasis.