Jesus Transforms Her

When do you want to live?

Today I had the concept in my mind of "enjoying life". Many times we may think that we are enjoying life but in actual fact we're not, We are too fixated on the destination and in turn we're not being present in the journey. We think things like "ill be happy when I have x amount in my bank account" "ill be happy once I can afford to eat out at this restaurant" " I can't wait to have my own house and car" "I need a man/woman in my life" " I can't wait till I can clear my cart". We can't see that our fixation on the destination is entangled in our everyday desires. We are constantly living in the future and don't get me wrong, its good to have goals, dreams and aspirations and to look forward to a brighter tomorrow. But the problem comes when you're living in tomorrow today. Fantasizing constantly on where you're going instead of where you are, not fully living in the now.

There's a popular caption that people put under reels and pictures that "life is for the living" but can living really be classified by material possessions,holidays, gadgets and just all-round surplus? This is a very secular worldly way of looking at life. Living for other people and not for Jesus. Being set apart as a child of God means that "life is not for living" but rather "life is for living for Jesus." He died so that we can have life abundantly in Him(John 10:10) and when we don't live in Him we are robbing ourselves of true life. True enjoyment of life which only comes from living in union with Him(John 15) and not a holiday to Paris.

The worlds view of "living life" focuses on self and gratifying the flesh, God didn't say tomorrow has its own worries just for people who worry about what to eat and wear in the sense of poverty/lack, but also those who worry about what they'll eat and wear in terms of surplus. Psalm 37 though lengthy says it beautifully that we should be grateful for the life God has given us now. Finding joy and enjoyment in Him and not in what lies in our future nor in what other people may be doing or what they may have. Let us try viewing life and how to live it from the viewpoint of the creator of life and not the world.

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Seed-time and Harvest Hey Friends, The other day I found myself watching a video on YouTube of a time-lapse in which a plant was growing from seed form to when it gives vegetables or fruit, and the changes that occur over time to the plant as and how long it takes. This intrigued me so much that I went on to the channel,...

These past few weeks the Holy Spirit has been teaching me a lot about work, and how it's a Kingdom Principle. So I just want to share some of the lessons that I got. Firstly it is good to be hopeful, to be prayerful and to be faithful, the Bible even says in Hebrews 11:6 that faith pleases the Lord. A few verse before this in Hebrews 11:1 it explains what faith is it says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." So ultimately faith is good, but faith is simply not enough.

James 2:26 says that "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Now if you read the full chapter for context you will see that it speaks on faith and showing you believe in God by what you do for Him and this is how many people use this verse saying that we must have things that we do for the Kingdom of God that justify our belief in Jesus Christ, its our moral responsibility as believers to do this. But the Holy Spirit revealed another way that this verse can be understood in terms of what you're believing God for, what you're praying for, and what you're trusting God to do in your life. We all know what our prayer points are whether it's financial breakthrough, for God to change your life, for a good job, a baby, marriage, healing, you name it. We pray it! But do we back up that prayer request with action? Do we back up our faith with works? We possess the faith required for it, faithful that God will do it for us, fix it for us but we forget that faith merely brings the thing we believing God for closer. Receiving it requires work.

See God is not a magician, He requires action on our part to recieve from Him whatever we are believing Him for, and the action starts with just seeking Him (Matthew 6:33). But beyond seeking there is a work required on our part, a collaboration with the Holy Spirit. Priscilla Shirer says "God doesn't place the blessing in your hand but puts it within your reach." So God responds in two ways to the work that we do:
(1)Work before prayer
This involves doing the work before and God blessing you after you've worked by multiplying and overflowing. Genesis 26:12 when Isaac was living in Gerar, He sowed in the land and that year He harvested a hundred times as much as He had sown, because the Lord had blessed Him. He continued to prosper and became a very rich man. The keyword here is sow, planting seed, God blessed the seed he sowed and He got more than he had expected. God blessed the work that Isaac did. And let's not forget that Isaac is the promise child so even God's chosen have to work. Had Isaac not sown, what would God have blessed?
(2)Work after prayer
This involves doing the work after God has answered you. This includes God showing you the vision like Noah and building the ark based on what God says. Exodus chapter 16 the famous story of Manna from heaven, after the Israelites complain in the desert that they are starving Moses brings their request to God and God tells them that food will rain down from the sky but Exodus 16:4 says that " the people must go out everyday and gather enough for that day." Verse 8 Moses mentions that God will bring bread and meat in the morning but we realize in verse 23 that the Israelites must bake and boil what they collected. So God brought the bread in raw form and this is proven by verse 31 where the manna is described as "a small white seed". So in essence even though God gave them an answer, their blessing, their miracle, they still had to work. They first collected the manna, grinded the manna seed, baked and boiled it into bread.

So there is always work involved when it comes to receiving from God, you must work and toil the land but many of us avoid this principle from God. We wait passively for our breakthrough and shy away from putting in that work. Bishop T.D Jakes says that "God hides the table in the tree." He gives you the vision, gives you hands and strength to cut the tree, shape the wood and build the table. Deutoronomy 28:12 "Bless the works of my hands" Proverbs 16:3 "Commit your works to the Lord, And your thoughts will be established." I could quote scripture all day where God details how we should work! And that is what He will bless.

So even our prayers must be shaped in a different way. Don't just pray for harvest but bring forth seeds you've sown or ask God where you must sow your time, efforts, resources and allow Him to show you the vision. Either way you need to work because he blesses the works of our hands.

Desperate times call for desperate prayers.

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