For we are laborers together with God; ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

We as Christians are to work in conjunction with God. We labor with Him to get the job done, but are able to do it only through His power and ability. God has given each of us a very unique personality, talents, and gifts to accomplish what He desires to further His Kingdom work.

There is no other person exactly like you and He has a special plan for your life, but you will never be able to accomplish that plan with your own abilities and in your own power.

John 15: 5

I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

The only way for the branch to bring forth fruit is to be attached to the vine; otherwise it will quickly wither and die. We have all seen branches that have been cut off in the process of pruning around the house. In a few short hours the leaves are limp and shriveled because they have been cut off from their source of life.

When we labor with God by being attached to the vine we will be able to use God’s ability and power to handle whatever comes along.

He has a plan for you no matter your job or everyday circumstances. There are people who need a touch from God in every walk of life and God can use you exactly where you are now. You just need to be a willing vessel. You can work alongside God to build His kingdom no matter what secular job you have.

If you will commit to let God use you in whatever way He chooses, you will be surprised at the open doors you will have and how many people you will be able to minister to.

You are totally unique and God has a specific plan for your life. Surrender yourself to His Will and you will marvel at how He will choose to use you.

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It is true that he is relentless and will never give up looking for the tiniest of openings to try to devour you. But God provides a way for the Christian to walk in victory each day.

It is one of the simplest things to do, but also one of the hardest in terms of actually doing it day after day.

All you have to do is keep your eyes on God and the truths that are written in the Word of God. If you do this every day, you will be such a powerful influence for the Kingdom of God that Satan will be very threatened.

Exodus 15: 25 – …there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them.

I will give you the summary of the rest of the chapter and what God showed me. It’s not that you don’t already know some things, but God just has to sometimes give you a crystal clear word picture so that you come away changed forever.

**********

God had delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians in an awesome way. The majority of the 15^th chapter (vs. 1-21) is about the celebration they had because they were so blown away at what God had done.

I’m sure we all would be celebrating if we had seen the sea part and we walked directly through it on totally dry land with the water heaped up on either side. What an awesome thing to see!

Then almost immediately God would let them go through a test because He wanted to show them His Greatness and also how much He loved them. They walked in the wilderness three days without finding water, and when they did come to a drinking place, the water was very bitter and undrinkable. They called this place Marah because the water was bad.

You can imagine that the Israelites, all 2 – 3 million of them, were not in a very good mood by this time. In fact, they were all probably almost to the point of a riot.

Since Moses was powerless to do anything else, he fell on his face before God and cried out to him with an extremely passionate plea. The Hebrew word “cried” means to shriek, or to proclaim. Wouldn’t you have done the same if you were in his situation?  I’m sure he had more than once thought about his safety and well being with this angry mob.

When God saw that Moses was sincere in asking, He showed him what to do to solve the problem.

Vs 25 And he cried unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,

The statute, or principle and the ordinance, or right was this:

That in all seasons of need and seeming impossibility the Lord would send deliverance straight from above, and that Israel might expect this during their wilderness journey.

The statute is for all times the principle of God’s guidance; the ordinance, the right or privilege of our heavenly citizenship.

But He also ever “proves” us by this that the enjoyment of our right and privilege is made to depend upon a constant exercise of faith.

Taken from Bible History of the Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim

So many times I have thought of problems or hard circumstances as things that are really bad, but have seldom thought of them as things that could be used to make me build character or grow stronger as a Christian.

The last four words of the above quote “constant exercise of faith” really opened my eyes to the fact that sometimes God allows hard things to come into my life just because He wants to make me into a stronger Christian who will make the choice to depend on Him no matter what comes my way. He loves me more than anyone else ever could, and wants me to have such a close relationship with Him that I know His Character – which is He always wants the BEST for my life.

In turn, that means that I totally believe that whatever the Bible says is true, and I won’t entertain thoughts of anything less. No matter what Satan might want me to believe, I only believe what God says, knowing that He will be responsible for bringing to pass what He has promised.

Vs 26-27 (this continued from verse 25)

And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statues, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and three score and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

God wanted to show them that He already had a wonderful plan in mind to meet their needs even before they encountered the problem. All they could see was a vast desert stretching before them and a pool of bad water; God saw the whole desert from above and knew just how far they were from wonderful shade and already knew exactly how He would handle the problem of the bitter water.

I have wondered if He made the water bitter just to teach them an awesome lesson they would not forget about His ability to always take care of them even in the worst of situations.

The next time you are faced with a “wilderness experience” remember that God already knows exactly where your deliverance will come from and when it will happen. Trust Him with everything in you and then let Him work supernaturally on your behalf to handle whatever problem arises!

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I wish so much that I had realized this much earlier in my Christian life.

It is so easy to look at troubles and trials as really bad things, or think that God is mad with you or punishing you for something. In the book of Job, Job’s friends came to the conclusion that he must have done some horrible sin to be going through such terrible trials.

I am seeing more and more that God does initiate things that are out of our control so we will be put in a position of desperation to trust in Him. When we absolutely can’t do it for ourselves, it is only God who will be thanked, praised, and worshiped for what He has done to miraculously bring about an answer to our problem.

The more you study the Bible and learn about God’s Character, the more you will know you can trust Him with every detail of your life. He will always have something better and more complex in mind than you can ever imagine. He always sees the “big picture” and knows exactly how your part will fit into the piece of the puzzle.

I’m certainly not saying that this is an easy way to live, because you usually can’t physically see how everything will turn out. But the way you respond to God’s call reveals much about who you think He is.
Make the choice right now to walk in obedience to Him even though you may not be able to see the end result beforehand. It will be a magnificent ride!

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God just wants to be able to use you where you are planted right now. In the course of an ordinary day at work, you might have many opportunities to minister to others that you are not even aware of unless you are prepared for the important job of ministry.

It seems that there are at least a million ways to waste time and look as if you are really working – at least, convince yourself that you are accomplishing a lot of good things.

I decided to keep track of how I spent my time each day and found that even though I thought I was pretty disciplined, there were many areas where I could improve. It is hard to sit down and take a frank look at your habits because “pride” tries its best to get in the way of real and productive change.

It is not the easiest thing in the world to be able to concentrate for a long period of time without your mind starting to wander (BELIEVE ME I KNOW THIS FOR A FACT.)

I want to share with you something that has worked for me in the past and still helps me to stay disciplined:

Before you start a big project make up your mind that you will not be distracted by anything, but will ZERO in on what you are doing until it is finished. You can even break up a huge project into several smaller projects with a time line for each. Give yourself a certain amount of time to do each project and then take a short break to do something else that doesn’t require such intense concentration.

Discover how you work best and concentrate on improving that until you really are disciplined to get maximum work each day.

We all need times of rest and relaxation where we can kick back and enjoy the day or a few days without feeling guilty, but that shouldn’t be our normal daily activity. Those times should be like dessert, and when they do come we can enjoy them much better because we don’t have to feel guilty that we are wasting time.

Even Jesus had to get away every now and then for some “down time” to get refreshed and rejuvenated for the important work ahead. Totally enjoy your “down time” but then get right back into doing your very best for each thing you do during the day.

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, you need to set an example for others to see that you are different and every job you do is ultimately for God and not man. Just that one thing will make a huge difference in your work habits.

When you know that God is your ultimate boss, and He will be the one that measures your performance, you definitely won’t want to cut any corners or waste time doing meaningless things. You might be able to fool your boss or someone else close to you, but you will never fool God. He knows your innermost thoughts and attitudes. If you treat everything as extremely important because you are doing it for Him, you won’t have to worry about doing mediocre work.

Let God be THE BOSS each day and see how much more disciplined you can be.

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People get frustrated and burnt out when they do things that are not what God has told them to do.

But… when you are in the center of His Will, and even if you are not a creative person, the Holy Spirit will pour ideas into your mind that you would never think of otherwise.

The Holy Spirit has led me down some roads recently that I would have never thought of going down on my own. When I look back on what has happened, I can say that the experience has been awesome; however I feel as if I have stepped into the unknown (which I have) and in some ways I still do not see the end of the path. I can absolutely say one thing, though – I HAVE NOT BEEN BORED!

I must say that even though I might not know exactly where I am going, God always does and I can count on Him to lead me down the right path.

Being creative is not a natural gift I have ever had, and I have always been amazed at people who have great ideas that pop into their head at a moment’s notice. I generally struggle to come up with one idea that turns out to be mediocre at best.

I have truly been amazed the last few years at how the Holy Spirit has given me guidance to do things that I truly would never have given a single thought to doing on my own.

I encourage you to start asking God to show you the next step in what you are to do, and take it; no, you probably won’t be able to see the end result at first, but you can trust God to lead you step by step in the right direction.

Get to the point that you consider obedience to Him the top priority in your life. Don’t choose to stay in a “comfort zone” and miss the awesome things God wants to do in your life.

I am continually amazed that God would choose to use me for anything at all, and I wish I had a much greater faith to believe for things that would be totally impossible without intervention from Him.

I think of how many times I have tried to go in my own direction, and traveled far too long down the wrong road before God finally had to close a door to get my attention. The things I was doing were not bad, but were good things that were keeping me off track in getting God’s Best for my life.

There really is a huge difference in getting God’s Best and settling for just “good” – even “very good”. Satan will offer you “very good” to keep you from getting God’s Best.

Decide right now that you will not settle for anything less than being in the center of God’s Will for your life. It is an awesome place to be!

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If you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small.

The Message version

If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

This verse is very powerful to me, because I can think back on many instances where a person has gone through a huge crisis of some sort. Some have handled it with dignity while others have completely fallen apart and never fully recovered.

Adversity comes in many forms, and sometimes what we think might be a terrible thing might turn out to be something we can look back on and see how God wanted us to run to Him and let Him handle it in His chosen way.

God has dealt with me about walking in His Strength each day instead of trying to do everything in my own strength. I have found that trying to fit everything into one day that I feel God wants me to do is totally impossible without His supernatural help and guidance; but when I tell Him first thing each morning that I will never be able to get everything accomplished without His help, He somehow supernaturally gives me the strength I need to do it.

When you are walking in His will for your life, you will find that He tells you to do things that you will never be able to accomplish in your own strength. God purposely places things in your life in order to help you to grow stronger and tougher as a Christian.

He even told some of the great men and women of the Bible to do some things that were downright hard. If they hadn’t trusted in a mighty way they would have probably been devoured by Satan.

God wants you to find out about His Character. Once you know even a few truths about Him, you will realize that He always has your best interest at heart and wants the absolute best for your life. He can see exactly how everything will work out, and wants you to rely on His sight and strength to work through you to accomplish what He desires.

If He tells you to do something hard, it is because He sees great potential in you and wants to develop it and use you in a mighty way for His Kingdom.

God sometimes puts you in a tough situation to teach you to lean on Him with everything in you. The next time things look impossible, claim Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

You will be amazed at how much more you can accomplish with God’s supernatural help. Try it and be amazed!

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…God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him.

I John 4: 18 AMP

There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection].

Fear – Phobos

To be put in fear, alarm or fright, exceedingly, fear, terror

Love – agape

Affection or benevolence, love feast – the highest kind of love

Perfect – teleios

Complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character). Completeness, of full man, perfect

Casteth – ballo

To throw, more or less violent or intense, arise, cast out, dung lay, lie, pour, send strike throw down

Out – exo

Away, forth, outside of, literally or figuratively

Torment (punishment) – kolas is

Penal infliction, punishment, torment

Perfect – teleioo

To complete, accomplish, consummate, consecrate, finish, fulfill

This definition different from the first perfect

It’s funny how you can read a verse for years and suddenly God opens your eyes to an aspect of it you have never seen before. The Bible speaks of love in several different places, and I always thought of it as being nice to others and trying my best to love them regardless of the way they treated me; but the Bible says that God is love and if we want His blessing on our lives we must truly love others.

Some people just seem unlovable or it makes us totally uncomfortable to be around them. It might seem much easier to stay away because things might get messy if we try to love them enough to help them change their lives instead of just applying a bandaid to the wound.

If we have “no fear in love” we won’t be afraid to go the extra mile in loving another person who doesn’t seem very lovable. Jesus went out of His way to eat with Zaccheus, who was a dreaded tax collector. Everyone disliked him because he gouged them by burdening them down with extra taxes, which made their daily lives extremely hard.

But Jesus knew that it would be well worth it to spend time with Zaccheus, because his heart would be radically changed. Zaccheus eventually more than made it right with everyone he had treated wrongly.

Jesus died on the cross for the most terrible and evil person on earth, and had a huge amount of love for them. He was not afraid to get His hands dirty to try to help even the worst of them, and He was able to do it because of a bold, fearless love that was so great it could change lives.

Jesus could see the heart of others and He knew who was ready for and needed help. He was not afraid to reach out to those people, but He also had God’s power on Him so strongly that those around Him were changed and healed. Many heathen people were changed dramatically because they knew He was genuine and truly had the power they were so looking for to change their lives. They recognized that His teachings were radically different from what they had been hearing from the Pharisees and Saducees. I also repeat this and want you to understand that Jesus knew who would be open to receive help and those are the ones that He spent time with.

The more the Holy Spirit takes control of your life, the more you will be able to discern those people who will be open to change, even if they don’t realize it at first. You will be able to love them with a true love, see them in a different light, and show them Jesus through your actions and deeds toward them. The Holy Spirit can truly change your attitude and heart towards another person if you will let Him.

I John 4: 20-21

But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: Love God and love each other!

Dake’s reference bible says this is the “acid test of a born again experience.”

By no means am I advocating that you should be a doormat for another person to trample on as they would like. Loving with a God kind of love and having the leadership of the Holy Spirit are instrumental in dealing with a person who constantly tries to belittle or take advantage of you.

Jesus knew when a person could be helped and he didn’t just give a handout that would help them on a temporary basis. He gave them something that would last long term to help them become a strong Christian; then they could in turn help others.

If you will follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit, you won’t get ” taken” by another person. He will show you exactly how to help them, even though it might not be exactly what they would want.

Doing things in the above way will ensure that you will truly be able to help others, and also ensure that you won’t be taken advantage of so much that you will get burnt out and give up on helping at all.

Instead of turning away from people who are hard to love or be around, ask the Holy Spirit what He desires your actions to be; then let Him change you into a person who can glorify God in every circumstance into which you are placed.

Doing things in this way will keep you from getting “burnt out” on helping others who would only take advantage of you and really don’t want to change.

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The Holy Spirit gave me this thought and it has affected me in a powerful way. Every day it is possible for you to make several different choices as to the direction you will take for the future.

Some choices are huge and others are tiny, but they propel you in one direction or another. It is easy to think that just one day won’t make much of a difference because it is only one day among the thousands that will make up your entire life.

Many times when you are older, you can look back to one decision that you made that might have started you down the wrong road, and it may have taken you years to get back on the right one. An example would be the first time you tried alcohol or drugs.

It truly is possible for one small action to change your life forever. Just saying YES or NO one time can have very powerful consequences – whether good or bad.

God gave us the Bible specifically so that we can have a guidebook to know how to live and so that we can have the best life possible. He wants you to live a life of peace and joy even in the midst of problems or persecution, and that can only be done through living a life for Christ.

When the next temptation comes your way to make the wrong decision or put something off until another day, think about the fact that what you decide to do will ease you further along a road, but which one will it be?

Will you be able to look back a year from now and see progress or will you have lost ground? Each day’s actions are much more powerful than you can ever imagine.

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It does take a lot of energy to pour out your heart to God in prayer because you must get everything out of your mind and concentrate only on Him. Most of us are so busy “doing things” that this is not an easy feat to accomplish.

Many times we think that we don’t have time to pray or read our Bibles, but the truth is we ALWAYS have the time to do what is most important to us. We think that we must be busy all the time to lead a productive life, but many times that is just a way of keeping our minds occupied so that we don’t have to deal with the most important things. AND we have learned to be professionals at staying busy at things that aren’t nearly as productive as we would like to think.

There are thousands of articles that have been written on how to pray, but this one is written from the perspective of getting your life in a position that you can always be open to pray however the Holy Spirit leads you and to be ready to do it at a moment’s notice.

God wants to work through His Children in order to accomplish what He desires. What an awesome thing it is to be chosen by Him and be open to hear Him when he speaks.

Many people will never be able to get past their own selfish thinking enough to walk in obedience to God. You don’t have to watch many advertisements or television shows to get the impression that life is all about “ME” and what I want. It is easy to be compassionate every now and then and go out of your way to help someone, but to do it on a regular basis is not nearly as easy.

Being a great “prayer warrior” does not mean that you have no social life because you choose to lock yourself in your “prayer closet” all day praying. Unless you are old enough to retire, you must either have a job yourself or live with someone who provides you a living. We all have to at least make enough money to buy essentials for our everyday needs.

But I do have good news about how you can be a prayer warrior for the Kingdom of God and still live and function well in this world.

It is God’s desire for you to live to the utmost in your everyday life, and you can do it with an attitude of prayer. Then any time the Holy Spirit lays a person or problem on your heart, you can instantly be to the point where you can pour your heart out to God.

You can’t always go to a place of solitude and stay there for two hours, but you can pray an intense prayer for the person or situation right where you are at the time.

There are other times when God might wake you up in the middle of the night to pray urgently for a particular person or situation. You might be called to intercede on the other’s behalf until you feel a peace that things are going to be fine, no matter how long it takes.

God wants you to be so familiar with His Word and His Character that you can stand on the Bible and its promises with everything in you. He will give you the strength you need to do whatever it is He has called you to do.

Make the choice to read the Bible first thing each morning and ask the Holy Spirit to open your mind to see the truths it contains. God wants you to be ready to be used by Him at a moment’s notice.

Living in an attitude of prayer is a wonderful thing to God because He knows that your life is open to him to use whenever He chooses and in whatever way he chooses.

The next time you feel that God has laid an urgent need upon your heart, pray with everything in you. You may be the one person who will be able to intercede for someone and really make a difference – and you might be able to do it from halfway around the world without knowing that person at all or the full impact that your prayer might have.

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-Samuel Johnson-

Habits can be good or bad, and we tend to develop them without thinking about it much of the time. Good habits are just as easily developed as bad ones, though it might not seem that way.

No matter what wrong habits you have established, God can help you have the power to overcome them. You don’t have to be consumed by a bad habit that you feel can never be changed.

Satan wants you to think that you will always have to live a defeated, powerless life, but you don’t have to listen to him. He is a liar and it is his desire to always keep you in bondage so that you can never be used by God.

I certainly cannot say that it will be easy to break a habit or stronghold that has been there for years, but it is always possible to accomplish it with God’s strength. If you ask for His help, you will be amazed at how much extra strength and power He will give you to fight the battle.

Don’t be held in bondage any longer by the chains of a bad habit!

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