Self-Care – Page 5 – Ask Jerry Mercer

Harden Not Your Heart

Do you ever get a feeling in your heart that things are heading the wrong way?

Having that feeling is a built-in guidance system that if followed will lead you away from harm and allow you to have and follow God’s witness.

And being a follower of God, or someone that God is drawing to Himself, you don’t want to push that feeling aside; it is our spiritual warning system alerting us of present or future danger.

The danger is that if we push these inner alerts or knowing’s aside continually we become calloused to them, and callouses become hard and lose their feeling.

We need these inner feelings to have the ability to follow God; if we harden our hearts and become calloused we lose our sensitivity to the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

When we have hardened ourselves against our inner man (our conscience) we have cut ourselves off from God’s help.

There is no grace available to a hard-hearted, rebellious person, and hard-hearted leads to hard-headed or stubborn. In this condition, a person cannot find God’s grace or help and they would not be open to the inner gracious leading.

God’s grace is our help and it comes in the form of an inner leading, a guidance system that leads away from evil and toward good.

As we open ourselves up to the inner witness, our heart becomes pliable and God can work with them as with clay. Molding us into the witness He created us to be, reaching out to the people around us with a message that is vastly different from the message that the world is sending.

Worldly, selfish people have become so hardened against everything and everybody around them that it is very difficult to decipher what they are for or what they are against.

God loses His ability to mold and shape those that are continuing to harden themselves against the truth and if we follow in that direction we will end up broken because God intended us to stay moldable, softened, with the ability to deliver His message, lovingly and full of grace! Amen!

Peter the Apostle of Jesus spoke about this in Acts 15:7-9, “Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles so that they could hear the Good News and believe. (I will pause here for effect— so we could hear the Good News and believe, ponder that for a minute.) Now continuing with the scripture, “God who knows people’s hearts confirmed that He accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He gave Him to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for He also cleansed their hearts through faith! Amen!

God knows the condition of our hearts and so do we. I repeat so do we!

If we continue to harden our hearts against our inner knowing of right (our conscience), we remove ourselves from God’s help and start down a path that leads to a heart condition that might not be curable.

If God turns His grace from you and He hardens your heart, then you will follow evil, right into the Red Sea, and perish as the Egyptians did.

If God blinds your eyes and hardens your heart you can’t see or understand and have no way back to grace – John 12:40. So it is imperative that we follow God’s Word and God’s Witness very closely, staying in tune with our spirit; not allowing ourselves the pleasure of picking and choosing our stance if it goes against God-given directions.

If it bothers the inner man and goes against our conscience, we must cut it off immediately, never pushing down the inner witness, but always pushing away the evil that is trying to get us to compromise what we know to be right.

God placed this Witness inside of us for our good and His glory, so I will go back to the earlier statement I made, “God knows our hearts and so do we.”

Let’s let our hearts be our guide, casting down imaginations, arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” Amen! 2 Corinthians 10:5 NKJV.

What are we thinking on today and where did the thoughts come from?

Let your heart overrule your head because in your heart is where true life is found. Proverbs 4:23.

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; Jeremiah 16:12,

1 Timothy 4:2, Acts 15:7-9, Jeremiah 18:1-8, Exodus 14:17, Joshua 11:20, and Proverbs 4:20-23 NKJV, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; for they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” Amen!

Be it unto us Lord, just as you have said!

Faith Does Not Go By What We See

As we search deeply into what we are really seeing, as we look past what is just taking up space around us, we see the things that really affect our faith.

What we are giving the most attention to will definitely rise to the forefront of our seeing, and what we meditate on will become our focus of direction and translate into faith.

When we focus on God’s written Word it causes our doubts and unbelief to be changed into faith and gives us a foundation that leads to inner proof.

Proof leads us into a list of action words that become a part of our spiritual life and they include: Faith- what I believe about the Word of God and will hold onto. Trust- what I have experienced in the Word of God and what I believe about His character. And, Witness- a confirming, a guide, an assurance, and a revealer of the truth verified. Amen!

Revelations increase faith, praying in the Spirit increases faith, hearing from God through His word and receiving confirmations assures us that our faith is working and the Witness is real.

As we have more and more experiences in the realm of faith we can start basing our life choices on these experiences and stop many of the bad choices that we have made in the past.

Our character becomes the controlling factor in our decisions and as we listen to that inner man we will always be in the right place at the right time.

When we put our trust in God and His Word, we allow our character a better path and we get a holy or pure Witness.

Having an inner cleansing allows us to make life choices based on the consciousness of a pointed or guided direction. To stay on a course of Godly character we must take in the Word of God, give it place, and allow the Word of God to transfer to faith!

How again would the Word of God transfer to faith? By hearing, by meditating on, by applying, and by making changes to what we believe when the Witness shows us the truth of the Word.

The transfer takes place because of an openness to receive the truth, and a willingness to receive the truth as written, then an open heart to align ourselves with that truth.

We let our faith that realized the truth, align our character to the newfound understanding of God’s word.

We immediately put it into practice, because faith realized without a quick implementation becomes unbelief very quickly.

We must apply our heart and mind to receive the Word of Truth and believe that God had us in mind when He breathed the scriptures into an understandable solution for a devolving world. Amen!

When we are open to and willing to allow God’s word first place in our lives, He then sends the Witness, and the Witness, or Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth. He makes a way for the Word of God to transfer into faith.

At this point we truly “walk by faith” because faith is the foundation of our character; we develop into a strong and courageous disciple of faith.

A disciple is someone who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrine of Another. Let’s spread the doctrine of Truth which is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Amen!

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

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Scriptures of content and encouragement: 2 Corinthians 4:18, Galatians 2:20, James 1:18, Colossians 3:17, Matthew 28:19-20, and Romans 1:17 TPT, “The Gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness-a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. And it moves us from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. This is what the scripture means when it says: we are right with God through life-giving faith!” Amen!

Be Always on the Watch and Pray

There is an urgent plea being sent out to all of us, all of us believing for a life hereafter. Jesus Himself said, “Be always on the watch and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36.

I don’t know about you but that verse is sobering to me. Being able gives us the power and resources to stand and an opportunity to do something to make sure that happens.

If we look at the thoughts right before this statement, Jesus also said “Be careful”, or your hearts will be weighed down with drunkenness, weighed down with the cares of this life, and weighed down with carousing, which is the activity of drinking alcohol and enjoying oneself with others in a noisy, lively way. Luke 21:34-36.

Wow, Jesus must have seen right into our times and knew what would be happening, as the norm, for the majority of the people on the planet.

I don’t know about you but I don’t picture the Son of Man hanging with a bunch of drunken rebel rousers, do you?

He said we need to be watching and praying and it seems most are watching and participating. Participating would be enabling those around us to be part of a function that will end in a trap. A trap has an entry but no exit, this sounds like being caught at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jesus said to pray that we would be able to escape, and a trap has no exit, so I guess eluding the trap would be our best way of escape. Amen!

If we are not partner to the carousing and drunkenness, to begin with, we allow ourselves and those around us a way around the trap.

If we stop worrying about what people think and start applying what Jesus said, our lives will be a witness instead of enablement of error.

I believe, all that is about to happen will be in direct relation to what is happening; because all that is happening is being allowed by the world and the world in the church. Jesus also had this view of our life and times.

We all must stand with and for Jesus like never before, stand together as a family of believers, stand as one another’s in Christ Jesus. If we don’t stand together now, standing with Jesus is just a figment of our imagination, another sobering thought.

Thinking about what Jesus said should be what we dwell on. Do you remember the ole WWJD days; the “What would Jesus do” days were unfortunately just a saying on a wrist band. We need to get real about what Jesus said. Amen!

Standing before the Son of Man is not going to happen with a bud light or a glass of wine in your hand. I know what you’re thinking, but remember what Jesus said about drunkenness and carousing. It hinders your ability to make the right decision in a critical situation, which is what is happening right now in our world.

If Jesus said to pray that we may be able to escape all that is about to happen, it must be worse than what is already happening. I know, sobering again.

Our ability to stand is based on our ability to remain in an upright position, sure-footed, supported by our need to please Jesus and that my friend – takes faith.

Look around you and identify who will be standing and who won’t. Get close to and hold onto those who have a solid foundation. Jesus said that the trap is set for all who live on the face of the whole earth. What a powerful statement!

If we do as Jesus said, we watch and pray, Jesus will show us how to avoid the trap. You see, the enemy of your soul is setting the trap hoping to catch you looking like everyone else in the world that is falling for the bait, and being trapped.

If we look away from all that is pulling us toward the world’s ways and look to Jesus, He will be the Author and Finisher of our faith. As we keep a watch over our hearts, He will strengthen us, as we pray and seek answers from the Word of God, He will deliver us, and we will be heeding the firm warning that He gave us, “Be Careful”.

Let’s be careful to give place to what Jesus said, read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, with an open heart, looking closely at… “What did Jesus Say”? Asking ourselves what is He saying to me? You see, on that standing day it will be very personal and I want us all to be able to say, “I’m with Him”.

Say on, Jesus, I’m listening!

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

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Scriptures of content and encouragement: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But I will leave you with a beautiful translation of Luke 11:36 – listen carefully.

“Keep a constant watch over your soul, and pray for the courage and grace to prevail over these things that are destined to occur and that you will stand before the presence of the Son of Man with a clear conscience”.

This truly is Amazing Grace!

By Faith We Understand

As we look in the scriptures we see this truth that says; “By faith we understand” (Hebrews 11:3), understand what, we may ask?

Is understanding a core competency to our living a faith-filled life?

Since we are taught in the scriptures to walk by faith, live by faith, and now understand by faith. How are we to set out on our faith mission?

We are also taught in Proverbs 3:5, to lean not on our own understanding, so how does that fit into our mission?

I believe we must get past the mental to even understand what faith is, and how to use it.

The entirety of Proverbs 3:5 is; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding.”

So we must lean on our trust in the Lord, lean on the revelation of the Word understood, not on our mental understanding.

This leaning into the Lord would allow our faith to be in His understanding, an understanding of the Word for every situation in life, and it would give us an internal picture or focus, instead of a mental or head understanding.

As the Word of God takes root in our heart, we are to have faith in that, by faith in our heart we understand the Word of God.

When we have faith to understand the Word, we now have faith to respond to the Word, a subsequent action to a received understanding.

By faith we understand the Word of God, by faith we understand the love of God, by faith we understand the love that God is! Amen!

We need to hear God’s Word, see God’s Word, and keep God’s Word in our hearts, because God’s Words are “life to those that find them and health to one’s whole body” Proverbs 4:22.

Understanding by faith also allows us to be more and more fruitful, because whoever hears the Word and understands it will produce a harvest, a harvest supplied by the Word sown! Amen!

A seam splitting, barn busting, spirit quaking harvest of the bountiful Word of God, unlimited in scope and reach.

Understanding faith gives you the full capacity to stay lush and green, stay full of fresh air, stay deeply rooted in the Word, and be carefree and productive.

Have you seen the High Striker game at a carnival? Where you swing a big hammer striking the base causing the puck to fly up the rail, hopefully striking the bell? This is how the Word of God increases our understanding strength, we keep “practice swinging” by reading and listening to the Word of God daily, and then when our time comes we can swing a mighty hammer, knocking strongholds off of ourselves and our family members.

We win the prize that God is calling us up to in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “It is written; I believed; therefore I have spoken. Since we have that same Spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak”.

The prize is won by having the same Spirit of faith that says, I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, I am with the Spirit because with Him is my freedom, I am alive to Christ and dead to sin. I am above and not beneath! Amen!

By faith, we understand from our hearts that all of God’s promises are true. By faith, we understand that things seen don’t necessarily reflect the things that are not seen. So we fix our understanding on things above the natural senses, we set out to understand more about what we don’t see.

Faith is the evidence of things not seen, so we understand before we see, I will say that again, “we understand before we see”. We need to jot this phrase down because it came into understanding by faith. By searching through God’s Word and writing about His wonderful character, deeper understanding comes up from within.

You see God’s Word is deeper than the superficial ink and paper we see in the Bible, the more faith we apply to get understanding, the more comprehensive God’s Word becomes. By more comprehending of the faith, we get more comprehending of God’s grace.

To truly find God’s grace we must truly understand God’s Word and not only His Word, but His character, His workings, His ways, and His will.

I pray that a fresh filling of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom would fall on all of us. Let’s get under the Word today, so it has a place to land.

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

If you like this content, pass it on to a friend. If you haven’t yet, please sign up for my monthly e-newsletter.

Scriptures of content and encouragement: Hebrews 11:3, Proverbs 3:5, Ephesians 3:16-17, James 2:14-26, 1 John 4:16, Matthew 13:23, 2 Corinthians 4:18, and Hebrews 11:1-3: Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Amen!