October 2

“Prisoner of hope”. Wow – that really hit me today. Thinking about it… a prisoner is one who is captive, one who is held behind bars and is limited by his captor. He can’t come and go as he wants because of the prison that he is in. He doesn’t have the key to get out because only the jailer has the keys to the prison – it’s like he can’t get out.

Hope is not our thinking of “I hope it happens”, like you are wishing something. Hope is a surety that something will happen. So when these two words are put together with of, which denotes possession, it is a great picture of where I want to be. To be locked up in surety sounds wonderful to me. It seems like I am too often locked up in “wish” or “doom” and not enough hope. I have got to find that prison and check in! What do I have to do to be sentenced to that jailhouse? Whatever it is, I will find it and commit whatever act I need to in order to be incarcerated by hope.

October 1

Just coming back from captivity is enough to over joy anybody who has reckoned their captivity. BEFORE any prosperity was returned, the opportunity for prosperity and blessing was given and that fact gave the people joy. Humm… apply it!

I am claiming Psalm 128. It isn’t new to me, but it sure seems like it! I do fear the Lord and I am standing on the promise of blessing and prosperity – my heart is filling with faith this morning! My wife will be fruitful and my sons will be olive shoots – birthing other olive trees – around my table!

September 30

Give thanks to the Lord huh?! That requires a heart that can look to its rescue rather than to its trouble. In Psalm 116 it says, “I will sacrifice a thank offering to you.” To me that means that I will give the offering before and after the deliverance. God increase my faith by convincing me of your great love for me!

In Psalm 118 it says, “In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?” There definitely has been some anguish in my heart of late - trouble of great proportions. I can’t say that I am totally free from it yet, but I am crying out to the Lord. I know He will answer. This Psalm is filled with hope – filled with confidence – in the Lord! I so need to hear God’s answer and to reach out and receive the fact that He will answer me! He will set me free. I think it will happen in the present circumstance and God will come through for me, but more importantly I think freedom will come to my heart. There is a testimony that is brewing – but it ain’t easy!

September 29

How much do I really tell my kids? I think I tell them about all the miracles that I have seen and know about. I think I do share with them about God’s greatness and how He comes through time and time again. What I am challenged with today is the fact that I don’t work a lot of bona fide miracles. I want a life a miracles, like Jesus! Should I expect less? Answer: I do expect less. Reason: If less happens then I am not disappointed.

When the Spirit gets a hold of me, I cannot help but desire more miracles, a walk of miracles, a flow of miracles, a miraculous life! It is something that I want desperately if I let the Spirit have my total life. I want miracles and common to be in the same sentence. There are many reasons for this, the greatest being to bring glory and honor to the Lord, but there is another in my mind; so your children see the glory of the Lord and come to expect it as normal living. They in turn will teach their children and so on.

September 28

Again I am reminded of what God really wants. Honestly, I don’t think that I am that far from some of the mistakes of the Israelites. O.k., maybe that is a little too harsh of a judgment, but it does seem that I have to be reminded again and again what is important to God and it isn’t religious service or church service or Christian disciplines. It is the weighty measures that flow from His heart, and the fact that He deeply desires them to flow from my heart. Taking care of the widows and the fatherless, (think about the single moms and the boys with an every 6 month dad) administering justice and mercy has always been what Jesus wants of us. I think fasting is easier than mercy because true mercy means your heart is fully engaged and pouring out, even vulnerable at times. It’s the heart that flows into action, not action because we can discipline ourselves to be good little Christians.

September 26

This is a worthy passage to ponder and let God speak to us about its meaning to us.

Haggai 1:5-11 (NIV)
5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.
8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord.
9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house.
10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops.
11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”

September 25

Zerubbabel started building the temple after the work had stopped and the prophets of God were with him – helping him. There is nobody that is exempt from getting their hands dirty and building the temple. Prophets were supposed to minister and prophecy, but here we see them joining in the physical labor. May I never think I am above any task that God gives me, and may my heart desire to join the labor force instead of exalting myself.

I noticed the reply to the question – what are your names? We are servants of God! They banded together in unity without distinction. They were one – period!

September 24

Daniel, after getting “slain in the Spirit”, or something like that, gets another vision. Did you notice what happened to his friends who didn’t see the angel did? They ran away because they “sensed” a fearful thing (really in was awesome/fearful – that is a big difference from sensing you life is about to end fear). So Daniel was overcome by the angel’s presence so much so that he fainted. Why is this so debated in the church today? If an angel’s powerful presence can make a man of God familiar with visions faint – face down, how about when the Spirit of God shows up in a “heavy” or “more tangible” way? Then Daniel was trembling – again, why do we debate this? Trembling when in the presence of God or when one is overcome by God would seem natural to me.

God encouraged me with this truth. Daniel sought out truth from God (about the vision) and God answered immediately. When we seek God’s truth, he will give it to us. Daniel’s answer was delayed and so is ours at times, but God wants to reveal things to us! The trick for us is to “set our minds to gain understanding and humble ourselves before our God.”

I can’t leave without saying this – “when He spoke to me, I was strengthened..” Think about it.

September 23

There is this fine line between human choice and divine influence. I think it is a blurry line for the most part. Today’s reading is clear – again – that God has influence! Here is an ungodly king of an ungodly kingdom (they worship many gods but remain ungodly because only the one true God can make you godly), and “the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus…” A revelation of God was obviously given to Cyrus and he acted on it! Have you given up on Obama? God could move his heart too! There is nobody, and I mean nobody beyond God’s influence. My tendency is to understand the wickedness of the human heart and think that everyone is Pharaoh and only hardens their hearts against God, but even Pharaoh finally gave way.

God, keep in my mind your great ability to change people – everyone – and have them carry out your desires. I don’t have to understand why some don’t seem to God, I just want to have faith in your greatness and your ability.

September 22

“Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom.” So God said to me as I read, “Terry distinguish yourself among men with exceptional qualities and character.” Being distinguished doesn’t happen while you are within the group, it happens outside the group, when nobody, or everybody is watching. It is a practice, a lifestyle of action which brings about character. Exceptional qualities… Qualities that are within me that need to be exceptionalized! That means two things; First I must strengthen my strengths and second I must use them as God gives me opportunity. I told the Lord I am nearly 50 and how could I become exceptional so as to be identified and promoted? There isn’t enough time for that. He reminded me that I had nearly half my life left and that was PLENTY of time.

September 21

When the fingers appeared and wrote on the wall the king was pale and terrified. When God moves miraculously, people are shocked out of their comfort zone and may even become pale within their souls! The miraculous speaks like nothing else – it testifies so strong, that God himself recounts His miracles as proof of His provision, love and care. My point is this, I need to be a miraculous person – a worker of miracles – a “pray-er” of miraculous happenings! My testimony MUST include miracles. I can’t boil down the message of the Kingdom to words, preaching and good doctrine and empty it of its power to transform and skew the “normal” function of matter with miraculous interposition. In other words – the power of the Gospel includes supernatural stuff, and if I don’t do it, then I weaken the power of the Gospel.

September 20

There is a simple truth illustrated here. God knows the future! You can say He lives outside of time or He knows what will happen – whatever! He knows the future! So if I want to know the future, then I have to ask Him and then be still enough to listen. I think that is my problem, and many people’s problem – we are not still enough to hear Him who knows the future! God isn’t going to tell us ALL of the future, but He will tell us the things we need to choose NOW to bring about the BEST future.

Then there is a whole other dimension of this truth – revelation of the future. It shouldn’t be as scarce as it is. We, the children of God, who are more than servants BECAUSE God tells us what He is doing, (and he doesn’t tell servants what is happening, only to go do certain things) we are the ones who should have the knowledge of the future to bring glory to God. What I am talking about is the prophetic ministry and the lack of it in the church. God is willing to reveal things – It edifies people, it brings Him glory, it expands the Kingdom and it can’t be done without His supernatural intervention. That my friend is a great place to be, relying on Him.

September 19

One of man’s major problems (and mine since I am a man) is that he soon forgets God’s miracles and all of the things that God does for him. It is the first step to disobedience. Once you think you made it on your own, or can make it on your own, you are on your way or have been captured by pride – and nothing good comes from pride. That is why I instituted the “answer sheet”. It is our declaration of God answering our prayers and requests. I hope to have thousands of them hanging on a wall at church to remind us that it is God that is great and worthy of all our lives!

There was one more thing that caught my eye/mind. Because the spies didn’t believe the promise (that God would give them the land even though it looked as though they couldn’t prevail against the inhabitants – again the focus is on what “we can do”) they despised the land. Did you get that? They didn’t believe the promise of the Lord so they despised the very thing promised. We would do well to meditate on that principle.

September 18

Our own bows won’t deliver us. Why? Because they haven’t! That is the blessing of being in a pickle – the realization that your own strength isn’t enough. So I guess I have lived a pretty blessed life then, because I have been in many pickles. My own observation of people is this, in one way or another, God keeps revealing himself as the only deliverer. Some people, like myself, seem to have had multiple areas of destruction or near destruction to wake us up to this truth. Why? Ahh… I remember the book of Job and think I will refrain from questioning the Almighty.

My prayer is just that I would trust, that I would know my source, that I would never lean on my own understand that is apart from Him who is my Everything.