Who God Is » God

Have All The Strength You Need When Adversity Comes Your Way!

WhoGodIs — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 22:05:51 +0000

Proverbs 24:10

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!

Some Profound Things My Cats Have Taught Me!

WhoGodIs — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:55:49 +0000

My cats hear me walking in the house and immediately start to scratch on the door to tell me they want to be fed, especially if it has been a few hours since they last ate.

The thing is, even though I might have just fed them, if I start out the door a few minutes later they still rush up to me hoping that I will have something better to give them than what they already have.

I live in the country, so my ‘food disposal’ method is the cats, not a machine. They absolutely love the leftovers of real food and are more than happy to dispose of it any time they can get it. They stick up their nose at dry food that comes from a bag even though it is one of the really good brands, but will eat it if there is nothing else.

I have noticed, though, that many times they will be in the process of eating a “scrumptuous” meal (real food scraps) and when I open the door they will immediately run to me hoping for something better. As far as they know they are already eating “king’s fare” so I started to wonder why they would abandon what they had in hopes of getting something better.

Then I started to think about how many people, both Christian and non-Christian, live their lives each day. They are like the cats, constantly searching for something better than what they have now, even though what they have now might be totally awesome.

Many times we are so “future-oriented” that we don’t take the time to enjoy the blessings of today. We only look forward to something that we think is better that might happen tomorrow.

God wants you to walk in and enjoy exactly where you are at this moment. He has great things in store for you TODAY but if you are concentrating on tomorrow or the future, you will never receive those great things.

God works in a way that is foreign to most of us even if we are Christians. He usually gives us one piece of the puzzle at the time and expects us to carry out that instruction before He gives us the next piece.

We tend to want to see the whole picture at once and then want to have the option to choose whether we will accept or reject the assignment. From Gods point of view, He already knows how everything will turn out and just wants us to get to the point that we will trust Him to work everything out for the best.

That is not an easy thing to do from an earthly point of view, so we must start to think from a heavenly point of view.

God truly always has your best interest at heart even though you might not think so at the time.

Make the choice right now that you will give up your own plans to follow God wherever He leads. It will probably be something different than you ever thought you could do, but you definitely won’t be bored when you look back on how things have turned out.

God loves people and cats!

Obedience and Misunderstanding

WhoGodIs — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:08:49 +0000

I have found that every lesson that God desires to teach me is not always pleasurable. I have learned much from my valley experiences but I certainly thank God that I don’t have to stay in the valley all the time.

Being a Christian for most of my life, I knew that God expected me to read the Bible and obey what its words told me to do. At first I used the excuse that it was just too hard to change, but God didn’t let me get away with that for very long. If He could send His totally Sinless Son to die for sins that He had not commited, how could I possibly tell God that I wouldn’t be obedient to what His Word told me to do.

God expects obedience from His children, and He expects us to obey whether others understand or not. His way of doing things is much different than the way man thinks they should be done. He can see the big picture and has an awesome plan for each child of God. The only problem is that many times since we can’t see things through God’s eyes, we think that what He tells us to do doesn’t make much sense.

I Corinthians 3: 19

For this world’s wisdom is foolishness (absurdity and stupidity) with God, for it is written, He lays hold of the wise in their [own] craftiness. And again, the Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the [humanly] wise and recognizes how futile they are. AMP

I Corinthians 1: 27 – 29

For God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.

And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,

So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God. AMP

So according to the above verses, even the smartest people on earth don’t have a clue how God thinks. He has everything totally under control, but many times it doesn’t look that way from where we are standing.

Here are two examples from the Bible where God promised victory, but in a way that no human would ever think about.

JOSHUA AND JERICHO

When God told Joshua that He would help Him win the victory over Jericho, I’m sure it never entered into his mind about the way it would actually happen.

In verse 2 He told Joshua that He had already given Jericho to them along with its king and troops. Now all he had to do was follow the instructions God gave.

Here are his instructions from God in verses 3 – 5 from The Message Bible:

March around the city, all your soldiers.

Circle the city once and repeat this for 6 days.

Have 7 priests carry 7 ram’s horn trumpets in front of the Chest. (The Chest was the Ark of the Covenant.)

On the 7^th day march around the city 7 times with the priests blowing away on the trumpets.

And then, a long blast on the ram’s horn – when you hear that, all the people are to shout at the top of their lungs. The city wall will collapse at once;

Then all the people are to enter, every man straight on in.

Who would think God would actually choose to fight a battle with the singers going first and just walking around a city? It certainly never would have entered my mind.

MOSES AND THE RED SEA

The Israelites had left Egypt and had started their trek into the wilderness when they came upon the Red Sea. How would so many people and animals be able to cross it? So God came to Moses with a plan.

The path they had taken hadn’t caught God by surprise at all. In fact, He had led the Israelites there in order to reveal to them His Glory and show them that He would always take care of them if they would just follow Him and put Him first in their lives.

Exodus 14: 1 – 4

God spoke to Moses: Tell the Israelites to turn around and make camp at Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. Camp on the shore of the sea opposite Baal Zephon.

Pharaoh will think, ‘The Israelites are lost; they’re confused. The wilderness has closed in on them.’

Then I’ll make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn again and he’ll chase after them. And I’ll use Pharaoh and his army to put my Glory on display. Then the Egyptians will realize that I am God.

…..

So… God had already thought out this plan and wanted to also show the Egyptians that He was the ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD. I guess sometimes it is hard for us to see that we are not the only ones God wants to deal with. He died for every person in the world and wants them to see who He is.

In order to do that, we have to ask God to let us see things through His eyes, not just look at things from our own perspective.

There are many more instances in the Bible where God told people to do things that made absolutely no sense to them at the time, but when they obeyed they saw the wondrous Glory of God give them victory before their eyes. They could excitedly talk of these things to their children and granchildren.

Joshua and Moses were ordinary people just like you and me. The defining moments in both of their lives were when they decided to take God at His Word even though His plan of action didn’t make complete sense to their physical mind. They had both gotten to the point that they had seen enough of the Character of God that they could trust His plan to bring forth victory in spite of them not understanding how it would work.

They had problems and struggles just as we do today, but somehow they got past their own SELF and the fleshly needs that went with it and consecrated their life to God to live and walk in obedience.

Don’t try to make things work out your way any more. Give your problems, trials, struggles, and everyday life to God and let Him work it out according to His plan. Who knows what He will tell you to do, but I can pretty much assure you that you won’t be able to guess which way God will handle things.

Life certainly won’t be dull if you will set your heart and mind to walk in obedience to God!

No related posts.

Don’t Sink During a Big Storm of Life!

WhoGodIs — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 21:22:29 +0000

Stop telling God how big your storm is. Instead, tell the storm how big your God is.

-Anonymous-

If you are striving to move forward in your Christian walk, Satan doesn’t like it and will try to hinder or even stop your progress. He will look until he finds a weak area and then will try to make you feel as if you are in a huge storm with monstrous waves that are about to sink you.

In a monstrous storm a good captain steers his boat as straight as possible head-on into the coming waves so that he can go up and over them. If the boat is sideways when the wave hits it will capsize and sink beneath the surface of the water.

We all go through times of testing because God wants to see what we are made of and wants to use the testing time to make us into a stronger and more mature Christian. It might seem like punishment, but God has a purpose for everything we might go through. Most of us will have to admit that our greatest growth as a Christian has come during our heaviest times of testing, even though we certainly don’t want to volunteer to go through it again.

Matthew 14: 28-31

And Peter said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.

And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

But when he saw the wind boisterous (strong,) he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

Peter was a very passionate and courageous person, and in his later years grew into a very strong Christian who did a mighty work for the Kingdom of God. He was a risk-taker and spoke before he thought about it, especially before he became a mature Christian.

When Peter saw Jesus walking on the water towards their boat, he probably thought it would be an awesome thing to do himself and spoke before he really thought about it. He did walk a few steps, which is much better than many of us would have done. Most of us would not have even gotten out of the boat.

After those few steps he started to notice the churning sea around him and grew afraid of drowning. He started to look at the waves instead of Jesus.

The only way you can make it through a big storm is to keep your focus on Jesus and keep on walking toward Him (keep your boat headed straight into the storm and never let it turn sideways.) If Peter had done this, He would have eventually touched the hand of Jesus and would have reached his destination safely. All he had to do was have tunnel vision to Jesus and not look at what was going on around him.

So it is in real life – you cannot let yourself be consumed by the storm and huge waves that might surround you; look at Jesus and continually keep taking steps toward Him. Before you know it, you will have reached out and touched His hands and will have made it through the intense storm.

None of us would deliberately choose to go through a storm, but we can have the assurance that our Heavenly Father is there with us each step of the way leading, protecting, and ultimately giving the victory!

God Can Turn Interruption Into Opportunity!

WhoGodIs — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 20:37:35 +0000

There is a story told of a Mr. Guthrie in England who lost his way one night on a moor. His companions went on without him. When at last he was able to rejoin them, he showed them that it was a blessed piece of providence that he had lost his way.

This was his story:

I wandered across the moor till I came to a little cottage where was a sick and dying woman. The priest was just administering to her extreme unction, and when he went out I went in. She was troubled in mind, I told her the gospel, and she believed in Jesus. I found her in a state of nature, I preached the gospel to her until I saw her in a state of grace, and when I came away I left her in a state of glory.

==================================================

When your day is planned to the minute, it leaves no extra room for an interruption which might become an opportunity to do good for someone else or tell them about Jesus.

During the three years Jesus ministered on earth, He was interrupted many times by someone who had a great need. Many needed physical healing, and some just wanted to get to know Him on a more personal level; still others had a life that was so miserable they somehow knew He could make it better if they could just get to Him.

We find in the New Testament that the people would sit and listen to Him teach for hours and even days. They cleared their agenda to be in the presence of THE ONE they knew could change their life.

I certainly don’t want to minimize the importance of getting alone with God and having a quiet time with Him each day. You shouldn’t have so many interruptions that you have to spend every moment dealing with them and then have no time for fellowship. Jesus made it a point to get away by Himself at times so He could fellowship with the Father.

But we as Christians should always be open to any opportunity to let our light shine for Jesus. What seems like a distraction to us might be the catalyst that enables another person to turn around and go in a different direction that will eventually change their life for the better.

Remember that God’s open door can sometimes look like just an interruption if you are not tuned in to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

If you are tuned in, though, what a wild ride you will have. Life certainly will never be boring.

No related posts.

What Does it Mean to go from Faith to Faith!

WhoGodIs — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:26:09 +0000

Romans 1: 17

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith.

I can’t remember how many times I have read this verse over my lifetime, but this time I have seen something I have never seen in it before – the righteousness of God is revealed from “faith to faith.”

Hebrews 11 is known as the Faith Chapter of the Bible. Many people of the Old Testament are listed as having a faith that God was pleased with. If you have not already read this chapter, please take the time to read and absorb it.

Verse 6 of the same chapter says that “without faith it is impossible to please him…”

I have never thought of it in this way, but since faith pleases God it makes perfect sense that He will relate to His Children in this way. God is omniscient and omnipresent, so He can be everywhere, hear every prayer, and meet every need all at the same time.

He sees the big picture of how everything fits together and knows exactly who He wants to use for particular tasks. When He chooses YOU for something, it is because He knows you are capable of handling it and are the best person suited for the job.

When God tells us to do something that is way out of our comfort zone, most of us tend to look at all our faults, flaws, and shortcomings and tell Him that He must have picked the wrong person because we can’t imagine that we would ever be capable of doing something of such a great magnitude.

From my own experience, I have found that the times of my greatest growth are the ones where I have been the most out of my comfort zone. I know I can trust God with my life even if I don ‘t always know the direction He is taking me for a time.

So when you have completed one task of faith, He has another one for you to start. The next time you feel you are being stretched to the faith limit, remember that is how you grow as a Christian. Then remember that God wants to stretch and grow you so that you can be used for His Glory. When you think of it that way, faith doesn’t seem quite so hard.

It is a simple matter of believing that what God has said will come to pass. Try it and see how your life changes for the better.

Faith: The foundation for real things!

Are You Obtaining the Prize?

WhoGodIs — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 21:05:36 +0000

I came across an awesome passage in the Bible. I have read it several times, but the Holy Spirit has been dealing with me in this area of my life so these verses really made a huge impact on me. Some of you are probably dealing with the same thing, so I thought I would tell you what the Holy Spirit has shown me.

It is not always an easy thing to run the Christian race victoriously, and sometimes it is even downright hard. God doesn’t always tell you to do things that are popular or fun, but expects you to walk in obedience to His direction.

It is walking in this kind of obedience that you start to see the REAL Character of God. And as I have started to do that more and more, I don’t want to go back to the way I used to be even if what He tells me to do is hard.

I Corinthians 9: 24-27

24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we an incorruptible.

26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I not as one that beateth the air.

27.But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

In I Corinthians 9, Paul is talking here about running a race. He gives a comparison to athletes who train for the Olympic races in Greek and Rome. He talks about how disciplined they must become if they expect to win. Even today’s Olympians start training right after one Olympics for the next one four years away. They have rigid diets and exercise programs and do a lot of self-sacrifice for their dream of winning the gold medal.

When Paul told them “run that ye may obtain,” he meant seize, possess, take eagerly, apprehend to win. To obtain means to have your eye on winning at all times, not just placing second, third, or barely making it through the race.

Paul says that the athletes competed for their own glory. They received a crown made of vines that would eventually dry up and die. They would eventually be forgotten even if they were the greatest in their time, but things done for The Kingdom of God will last forever.

Verse 26 – The boxers warmed up for their fight by punching the air with their gloves. They didn’t have a contender so it looked like they were thrashing around not getting anything done. Paul wanted to use this particular phrase of “beateth the air” to get his point across.

Verse 27 – “keep under my body” means to strike under the eye with the fist, make the eye black and blue, to treat with harshness, severity, or cruelty; to subject oneself to self-denial and rigid discipline that all the corrupt passions might be removed

subjection – to reduce to slavery, subdue an enemy, to conquer, to obtain complete victory over

So Paul was telling the Corinthians that it is no small feat to obtain and keep the victory over Satan for the Christian life. It takes discipline and self-restraint to live a life that is holy before God. You can’t just go along with the crowd and expect to be victorious. You must take a stand and make the appropriate sacrifices just like an athlete who wants to win the gold medal. They have their eye on a very real prize at the end of their hard years of training just like the Christian who can look forward to the prize of living a victorious life here on earth with the ultimate prize of Heaven.

Even though I am not overweight, I still have to watch what I eat. I don’t know about you, but many times I want to eat even when I am not hungry. I will stand in front of the cupboard and try to find something, which usually ends up being junk food.

In the United States junk food is everywhere and very easy to obtain, so I have to make an effort to eat a balanced diet each day. It is easy to grab something quick rather than take the time to make a healthy dish that would be much better for my body in the long run.

After a few years of struggling with this issue off and on, God started to reveal to me that I need to take much more seriously the words of I Corinthians 6: 19-20:

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

*************************************************************

I have no idea what areas of your life need to be kept “under your body” and in “subjection,” but God knows every detail and what He wants to do to help you win the prize and receive an incorruptible crown. Ask Him to show you areas in your life that need to be brought into subjection and determine to go forward with Him even if it makes you uncomfortable. God has your best interest in mind with everything He wants to accomplish in your life.

Don’t stand in His Way!

No related posts.

What Does It Mean To Abide In Christ?

WhoGodIs — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:44:07 +0000

I have been reading the first few verses of John 15. The Holy Spirit spoke to me in an extraordinary way that I needed to do an in depth study of what it really means to abide in Christ. I am at a place in my life where I want less of me and more of God to be what others see in me. I don’t want to do things just for the sake of doing them, but want every single thing to count for something in the Kingdom of God.

I took some time to really study the first five verses of John 15 and listed the meaning of each key word in another website I have called Blueprint for Victorious Christian Living. Please take the time now to click on the link in the previous sentence and study these verses as I did.

I have realized that in the past I have only partially understood what the Bible talks about as “abiding.” Jesus is the one and only true vine and it is the job of the Father to take care of and defend the branches on the vine so they will produce the best fruit.

The vine, or main stalk, yields the proper juice and nourishment to all the branches, whether large or small, but all the nourishment must pass through the vine first.

Some of the branches might be very large but not producing much fruit and sheltering other smaller branches so they cannot grow well. These large branches still receive nourishment even though they don’t produce much fruit, but they absorb a lot of energy from the rest of the vine that smaller branches could use that are already producing fruit. For this reason God must prune as much as is necessary and needful in order to keep the vine healthy, even if it means cutting off some large branches.

For much of my life I have looked at pruning as a bad thing, or felt that God was punishing me for something I either did or didn’t do; but as I have started to really understand these verses I see that God only has my best interest in mind when He changes things or cleans up my life in certain areas. Sometimes I am not even aware that I need to change, and I might have a large branch in my life that I think is important, but in actuality is covering a smaller branch that God wants to grow and develop further. His job is to continually tweak and purge the branches so they give off the sweetest fruit.

To truly abide in the vine is to become united with Christ in every area of your life: your interests, desires, and feelings.

It is a union of friendship, love and dependence; a union of weakness with strength; of imperfection with perfection; of a dying nature with a living Savior; of a lost sinner with an unchanging Friend and Redeemer. (Barnes Study Notes)

Verse 4 starts out “Abide in me, and I in you…”

The Greek meaning of this verb means to remain as one, not to become another or different and is in the Imperative Mood, which expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding (Jesus.)

So Jesus commands His Children to get to know Him so intimately that total obedience and dependence are a natural way of life.

The vine itself sends out juices and sap in accordance with the growth and fruitfulness of the branch. So the tighter you are connected to the vine, the sweeter and better the fruit you will bear.

The next time you feel you are being pruned, don’t think of it as a bad thing like I have done in the past. Think about it in the context that God loves you so much that He doesn’t want you to be just a ho-hum, boring Christian. He wants to get rid of the things that are weighing you down, and replace them with ones that are productive and will bring glory to His Kingdom.

What a way to live! You certainly won’t lead a boring life!

No related posts.

Is Your Life a Sweet Smelling Savour to God?

WhoGodIs — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 01:55:45 +0000

The gospel of Christ is full of life and energy to everyone who will absorb its words and walk in obedience to them.

In Ephesians 5: 2, Paul describes the crucifixion of Christ as an offering and sacrifice that was a “sweet smelling savour” to God.

If anyone comes into a room wearing perfume, it is immediately picked up by the nostrils. From that point, the nose decides if it is a wonderful, delicious smell or one that is loud, irritating to the eyes, and obnoxious. Either way, the smell of the perfume quickly permeates the room and for a few seconds your thoughts are completely absorbed with it.

God gave to Moses rules the Israelites must follow when they brought the sacrifice for their sin before God. If they did not follow these rules, the sacrifice would not be pleasing to Him and things would not bode well for that person who presented it. God meant business when it came to the Israelites walking in obedience to Him because He had miraculously brought them out of Egypt and fed and cared for them each day for many years.

I Samuel 15: 22

Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.

Even the smartest person has a very small mind when compared to the All-Powerful God who created the universe and everything in it. No human has the potential to see the “whole scope of things” and how everything will fit together to bring about the plans of God.

He has an awesome and unique plan for your life that will make it a “sweet smelling savour” to God’s nostrils.

God wants your complete obedience - NOT a religious act, doing the same old same old humdrum stuff, doing things in the same way and knowing it doesn’t work but doing it anyway because you don’t know anything else to do.

He wants you to walk with Him each day and be prepared to do what He says. Believe me, just doing this will make your life ENORMOUSLY more productive in doing things that really count for the Kingdom of God.

He will continually amaze you at the things He is able to accomplish through you if you let Him. After you get a taste of doing things His Way, your old way of doing things won’t seem so appealing any more.

What Kind of Prayer Describes You?

WhoGodIs — Wed, 26 May 2010 22:36:06 +0000

Christians like microwave-type praying.

Our God desires marinating-type praying.

-Peter Lord-

More and more God has been dealing with me about my prayer life. I know that sometimes I just feel a burden on my heart about a particular person or situation and pray a passionate quick prayer; then I feel a relief and am able to go about my daily business knowing that things will work out.

But more and more God has been laying on my heart situations that need in-depth prayer and showing me that it will take many prayers to give the victory.

I want my life to be such that God can use me in either situation.

I challenge you to examine your prayer life and see into which of the above categories you fit most. Let God do a work in your life regarding prayer and He will put give you more and more discipline to pray for victory in harder areas.

Learn to make prayer a vital part of your everyday life!