| ............ | A Word In Due Season June 2024 6/3/24 EMBRACE YOUR DESTINY Scripture: Hebrews 11:13 "... having seen them (God's promises) afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth ..." This chapter of Hebrews lists some of the incredible saints who walked in faith and a brief comment about their great accomplishments. They were persuaded of God’s promises and embraced them. They even confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims, not allowing their affections to be tied to this Earth. Yet, if you go back and read their stories, you will find that even though they acted in faith, they still had their own personal conflicts and flaws and experienced their own individual valleys and mountains. There was Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Joseph, to list a few. None of these individuals were perfect even though they journeyed intimately with a perfect God. There was even a harlot named Rahab that was listed among these great men of faith. God's Word always forces us to deal with the dimensions of truth and the truth is that God is moved by faith. When we look in the mirror, we see the reflection of ourselves; our lack of education, our lack of ability, and our limited resources. God really does not care about our lack. He looks at the same image and sees great potential. Instead of seeing our lack of education, He sees His knowledge, His understanding, and His wisdom flowing through us. He sees His strength as being greater than our disabilities. He sees no problem with our limited resources because He is Jehovah Jireh and is able to provide everything needed. God looks at our image and discerns a spirit that is longing for His will and purposes and a vessel that He can possibly work through. He sees our soul that is waiting for His measure of grace to be poured upon it so that we can do the things that He is calling us to do. Each journey of faith begins with the first step. Noah began gathering the wood for the ark and securing the first boards together. Abraham packed up his family and left his country. Isaac sowed his precious seed in the ground in the time of famine. Moses lifted his rod and performed signs and wonders in the courts of Pharaoh, and Joseph stayed faithful in unjust circumstances. Like these men, God waits for us to take our first step of faith regardless of how foolish it may seem. What is He saying to you? When He speaks, you must take your eyes off of where you are right now and get the vision of where you need to be. You must accept the challenge to go further with God than you have ever gone before even though there may be adversities, conflict, and valleys along the way. You must be aware that the devil's warfare is based upon your potential and that he fights accordingly. However, there is no problem that God cannot solve and no dream that He cannot fulfill. When God gives you a promise and shows you your destiny, you must embrace it with total faith and take your first steps towards that journey's end. +++ 6/4/24 GOD’S SPIRIT WILL RAISE A BANNER Scripture: Isaiah 59:19 "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." This is a rich promise for those who are in a place of struggle with the enemy. It declares that regardless of how hard the enemy attacks, God is going to be there to raise up a standard, or banner, to let the enemy know that God is on the side of His people. It is like the flag of a country that is raised in a place of battle when its forces have conquered and taken command of the territory. When the Lord lifts up a flag in the spirit, the enemy has to recognize that God has conquered and is in control. The devil has to give up his ground and bow to the presence of the Almighty God. Several years ago, I faced floodwaters that were coming towards my home. As I prayed about the situation, God gave me this scripture, that when the flood came in, He would raise up a standard against the enemy. I became very excited because for some reason, I thought that I was not going to experience the flood. However, over two feet of water entered my home and brought much destruction. In the aftermath of the storm, I questioned God about His Word to me. He then reminded me that He never said that the enemy or flood would not come in, but that when it did come in, He would raise up a standard. I had misinterpreted His Word to me. The Lord did fulfill His Word to me and He did raise up a standard against the enemy. At the end of the ordeal, I came out better because of the help that He provided for me. The restoration of my home was better than what my home had been originally. The Lord took away the old and replaced it with the new. It is easy to misinterpret what is involved in the Christian walk and think that because we have given our life to God, we are exempt from all trouble and strife. In reality, the battle gets worse because we are now working against the devil and not with him. As we face daily battles with the enemy, his main objective is to kill, steal, and destroy. He deceives us into thinking that he has conquered us and tries to convince us that we are in his power and control. He places doubts in our minds and tells us that there is no way out of our situations. Yet, we can believe and thank God that when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will raise up a banner. God lets the enemy know that He is in control and declares, "This far and no further." God raises a banner in the midst of all of our temptations and calls it "A Way of Escape" (I Corinthians 10:13). He warns us that in the world we will face tribulations, but He tells us to be of good cheer and raises up a banner with the words "I Have Overcome the World" (John 16:33). In Psalms 34:19, He tells us that the righteous will suffer many afflictions, but God raises up a standard in front of the enemy that says "The Lord Delivers." Even in the valley of the shadows of death, His Spirit raises a banner and promises us "No Fear of Evil" (Psalms 23:4). God never promised there would be no problems, but He did promise solutions! God is there for you so trust in Him to raise up a banner that is appropriate for your situation. +++ 6/5/24 WHEN GOD BLESSES Scripture: John 6:9 "There is a lad here, which has five barley loaves, and two small fish: but what are they among so many?" Jesus gave His disciple, Phillip, an impossible task. He asked Phillip where they could buy enough bread to feed the multitude that was following them. Verse six says that Jesus asked this question to prove Phillip, for Jesus, Himself, knew what He was going to do. Jesus had a solution before He ever presented the problem. I am sure Phillip must have panicked as he explained to Jesus that they did not have enough money to buy food for the 5,000 that needed to be fed. Another disciple, Andrew, spoke up and said that there was a lad there who had five loaves of bread and two fish. This was the only resource available. Andrew recognized that it was nothing in comparison to the need and asked, "What are they among so many?" We often face similar situations in our own lives where our needs are greater than our resources, whether it is in the material, physical, or spiritual realm. We receive our pay at the end of the workweek but cannot seem to stretch it to meet all of our needs. Our duties and responsibilities call upon us but our energies are not quite sufficient to meet the extra demands. God calls us to serve Him in a special way and our abilities are lacking. We look at the challenge before us and it appears to be an impossible task. It is like trying to feed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. We ask as Andrew asked, "What good is the little that I have when the need is so great?" This same story is also related in Mark 6:38-44 and gives further insight into what Jesus did concerning the need. First, He organized the people and instructed them to sit in companies of fifty. Jesus then took the five loaves and two fish and looked up to Heaven. He did not look to the natural, but to God the Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. He had confidence that if God could create bread and fish, He could certainly multiply it. After Jesus focused His thoughts upon God, He blessed the bread. When He blessed the bread and fish He was asking God to do something supernatural. When all was finished, the 5,000 were fed and there were twelve baskets of fish and bread left over. This example should speak faith into our hearts when our resources and energies are lacking. First, we must put things in order the best that we can and then look to Heaven for our solutions. Regardless of how little we have to offer, we must ask for God's blessings to be upon it because He is our source and He still knows how to multiply. When God blesses, He turns our lack into abundance, our weakness into strength, and our emotional distress into joy. He gives us beauty for the ashes of our lives and expels the darkness around us with His light. The Lord meets all of our material needs according to His riches in glory and He empowers us with His anointing, which drives away our spiritual lack. This is just the beginning of what happens when God blesses. +++ 6/6/24 HOPE AGAINST HOPE Scripture: Romans 4:18 "Abraham, against hope - believed in hope." God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15:5 and told him that his seed would be as the stars of heaven. This seemed an impossible promise in the natural because Abraham was 100 years old and his wife, Sarah, was ninety. Yet Abraham chose to believe God's promise and hoped even though the situation looked hopeless. He refused to limit God to the natural possibilities. Paul, recounting this incident, said that when everything looked hopeless in the natural, Abraham believed anyway; "he hoped against hope." Abraham refused to consider the frailty of his own body that was a century old or to limit his faith because of what he could not do for himself. Instead, he chose to focus on what God had promised and what God could do. Because Abraham did not waver in unbelief, his faith grew stronger and increased. He waited many years and went through some trying times but God's promises to him eventually were fulfilled. Through it all, he had continued to believe and hope when there was nothing tangible to hold on to. Many of our life situations find us in this same place, a place of no hope. In the natural, there is no way to fix the problems that we have encountered. There is no medical solution for our healing, the restoration of our relationships is out of reach, and our financial circumstances are out of control. There just seems to be no possible hope. Yet, we are not to consider the negative circumstances or the doubts that plague our minds when they contradict God's Word. Instead, it is the time for our faith to arise and take hold of God's Word, which makes a provision for every need that we will ever experience. In Romans 15:13, Paul said that God could so fill you with joy and peace by the power of His Holy Spirit that you would overflow or just bubble over with hope. If you want to have the Abraham kind of hope that hopes when there is no hope, look to God. He is your hope and He will never fail you. +++ 6/7/24 GOD'S PRECIOUS MEMORIALS Scripture: Acts 10:4 "Your prayers and your alms are come up for a memorial before God." Have you ever tried to talk to someone, but knew in your spirit that they were not listening? Worse still, they may even cut you off right in the middle of your words. Even though you had something important to share, no room was given for you to exchange your thoughts and express your opinions. It was as though your concerns were of no importance or even nonexistent. Communication of this sort is frustrating, but we can rest assured that this is not the type of communion that we experience with our Father God. Our prayers and the words that we address to the Lord are very meaningful to Him. As we speak, He listens with the intent to hear. As the Lord considers our words, He does not forget or disregard them, but keeps them before Him as a memorial. Just as we listen to the simple words of our own children or grandchildren, God listens to us. How often have we kept a card or a scrap of paper that had the words "I luv you" or something similar scribbled in crayon as a special memorial of a child's love and adoration for us? Those words were a personal treasure to our heart. God feels the same about the words that we offer to Him. He is not so much concerned about the eloquence of our communication as He is the condition of our heart and our love for Him. Our words are precious to Him and He looks at our earnest and honest intent. It is written in Revelation 5:8 that He takes our prayers and saves them as memorials in golden vials. Then the angels mingle our prayers with incense and offer them upon the golden altar that is before God's throne. Regardless of how simple our words might be, God loves and appreciates them. As our prayers ascend unto God, they become as sweet odors in His presence (Revelation 8:4). Sometimes we may think that God has forgotten our request, but we soon discover that although He is rarely early, He is never too late. Our need is ever near His heart and He always answers right on time! God keeps our words and our expressions safe, whether they be praises or petitions. When we make our thoughts and needs known unto God, they are placed in a golden bowl near His throne. They remain as memorials before Him until the appropriate time that He desires to respond. Then when the fullness of time comes, our sovereign God reaches into the golden bowl and pulls out our prayer. Then to our utter amazement, He answers our petition when we least expect it and in a way that we had never considered. So never give up on your prayers because they are a memorial before God. When you prayed, God listened, God heard, and your answer is on the way. +++ 6/10/24 GOD'S PRECIOUS MEMORIALS Scripture: Acts 10:4 "Your prayers and your alms are come up for a memorial before God." Have you ever tried to talk to someone, but knew in your spirit that they were not listening? Worse still, they may even cut you off right in the middle of your words. Even though you had something important to share, no room was given for you to exchange your thoughts and express your opinions. It was as though your concerns were of no importance or even nonexistent. Communication of this sort is frustrating, but we can rest assured that this is not the type of communion that we experience with our Father God. Our prayers and the words that we address to the Lord are very meaningful to Him. As we speak, He listens with the intent to hear. As the Lord considers our words, He does not forget or disregard them, but keeps them before Him as a memorial. Just as we listen to the simple words of our own children or grandchildren, God listens to us. How often have we kept a card or a scrap of paper that had the words "I luv you" or something similar scribbled in crayon as a special memorial of a child's love and adoration for us? Those words were a personal treasure to our heart. God feels the same about the words that we offer to Him. He is not so much concerned about the eloquence of our communication as He is the condition of our heart and our love for Him. Our words are precious to Him and He looks at our earnest and honest intent. It is written in Revelation 5:8 that He takes our prayers and saves them as memorials in golden vials. Then the angels mingle our prayers with incense and offer them upon the golden altar that is before God's throne. Regardless of how simple our words might be, God loves and appreciates them. As our prayers ascend unto God, they become as sweet odors in His presence (Revelation 8:4). Sometimes we may think that God has forgotten our request, but we soon discover that although He is rarely early, He is never too late. Our need is ever near His heart and He always answers right on time! God keeps our words and our expressions safe, whether they be praises or petitions. When we make our thoughts and needs known unto God, they are placed in a golden bowl near His throne. They remain as memorials before Him until the appropriate time that He desires to respond. Then when the fullness of time comes, our sovereign God reaches into the golden bowl and pulls out our prayer. Then to our utter amazement, He answers our petition when we least expect it and in a way that we had never considered. So never give up on your prayers because they are a memorial before God. When you prayed, God listened, God heard, and your answer is on the way. +++ 6/11/24 COMPASSION VERSUS FAILURE Scripture: John 4:6 "Jesus was weary with His journey and sat on the well." It is hard to imagine Jesus being weary and thirsty, but He was. This natural situation caused Him to be in the right place at the right time so that He could minister spiritually to a very special woman. While His disciples went into the city to buy food, Jesus sat on Jacob's well and waited. His waiting had a purpose. He was not waiting for a multitude. He was waiting for one person. Finally, a woman of Samaria came to draw water from the well. Jesus was a Jew and was to have no dealings with the Samaritans, but when the woman came to the well, He disregarded the traditions of men and yielded to the will of God. He made time for this woman, and even though He knew her failures, He had compassion upon her. As Jesus began to talk with the Samaritan woman, He exposed her failures. He knew everything about her and approached her sins with tenderness and compassion. She had been married five times and the man that she was presently living with was not her husband. They were just living together. Yet, Jesus looked far beyond her faults and saw her needs. He recognized her thirst for God. He knew there was something deeper within her broken and scarred heart than men could see. Jesus asked the woman to give Him a drink of water and when she responded, He offered her living water. He told her that the living water that He could provide would be able to quench her thirst and that she would never thirst again. Jesus was not speaking of natural water and natural thirst, but of the Spirit. The water of the Spirit quenches the thirst for the things that are of the flesh. Just as Jesus waited by the well that day, He patiently waits for you so that He can minister to you, one on one. You are important to Him whether you realize it or not and His love for you may be more than you can even believe. Jesus usually ministered to the multitudes. Who would think that He would make time for one Samaritan woman who was living in sin? Yet, He did and He loves you just as much as He loved the Samaritan woman. The Lord draws you to Him by His Spirit so that He can impart the Living Water to you. When God imparts the Living Water, it will drive away those ungodly things that you thirst for and struggle with such as impure thoughts and desires, lust, jealousy, and covetousness. As the Lord ministers to you, you will find yourself overflowing with new life and you will know that His compassion is far greater than your failures. +++ 6/13/24 MYSTERY OF INIQUITY Scripture: II Thessalonians 2:7 "For the mystery of iniquity does already work." A mystery is a secret. It is a truth that is closed for the present and can only be opened or comprehended by revelation. There was a mystery going on in the Apostle Paul's heart and soul that baffled his intelligence. He personified the strife of two natures within himself; the Adamic nature that he was born with and the divine nature, which he received through his spiritual new birth in Christ. He described this struggle in Romans 7:19 as he was moved by the Holy Spirit. He said that he did not do the good that he wanted to do, but instead he did the evil, which he did not want to do. In his inner man, he found delight in the law of God but the members of his own body warred against his desire to be obedient to that law. Does this struggle sound familiar? It is no surprise, for the closer that we get to being in the center of God's will, the harder Satan fights against us. As long as our physical body is tied to this world there will be an unseen battle raging within our spirit, for we are no different than Jesus, the Apostle Paul, or the other New Testament saints. In all of our lives there lurks an underlying current of evil oppression. It is like an unwanted houseguest or a mouse in the pantry. We do not want it there and we do not want to deal with it, but we cannot ignore it. Something has to be done to rid it from our presence and we are the ones that must do it with the help of the Holy Spirit. God allows nothing in your life that He will not use for your good and for the benefit of His great and wonderful cause. Jesus passed this way before you and He understands your struggles as He was also tempted by the devil, yet He remained without sin. However, He knows that, like the Apostle Paul, you do not always do the things that you want to do and that sometimes you do the very things that you do not want to do. Jesus is touched by your feelings of discouragement as you experience disappointment in yourself. He continually prays that your faith will not fail even though Satan desires to sift you as wheat (Luke 22:31). God is doing great and mighty things and He wants you to be a part of it. As He enlarges your vision and stretches your borders, He wants to impart a revelation that will help you understand this mystery of iniquity so that you can move forward and fulfill His purposes. The Lord desires that your heart be filled with peace concerning the temptations that you face and that you realize these challenges are just part of the battle. God is on your side and He wants you to have victory over sin. Even though the mystery of iniquity does work, if you submit yourself to God and resist the devil, the devil will have to flee from you (James 4:7). +++ 6/14/24 GOD'S SPECIAL PLACE Scripture: Genesis 40:14 "Think on me when it shall be well with you, and show kindness, I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house." Joseph was being held prisoner along with Pharaoh's baker and chief butler Both of these men had a dream, which they shared with Joseph. Joseph interpreted both dreams and told the butler that he was going to be restored to his post. He pleaded with the butler to remember him and also to mention him to Pharaoh when this event happened. Yet, the butler forgot to befriend Joseph even though Joseph had graciously interpreted his dream for him. Finally after two full years, Pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret. The butler remembered Joseph, who was still in prison, and recalled his divine gift of interpreting dreams. He mentioned the accuracy of Joseph's interpretations to Pharaoh and Pharaoh sent for Joseph to be brought out of prison. When Joseph was able to interpret Pharaoh's dream and give him sound counsel, Pharaoh recognized Joseph's wisdom and discretion and made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. From time to time, we acquire items with the intentions of using them for special occasions. Because we have designated their use for a special time, we usually put them in a special place to save them for their season. God did the same with Joseph. He knew exactly where Joseph was and could have delivered him out of the prison at any given moment, but the Lord kept Joseph hidden in the darkness of this special place until Joseph’s appointed time. When the time was right, God moved suddenly in the life of Joseph and called him out of the depths of darkness into the light of his destiny. What would have happened if the butler had remembered to mention Joseph to the Pharaoh two years earlier? If Joseph had been released from prison, he may have went back to his homeland. He surely would not have been in the place where Pharaoh could conveniently find him in order to move him into God's new place at God's appointed time. Joseph had already been in bondage for about fourteen years when God chose to leave him two more years. God may have needed those last two years to instill the finishing touch in Joseph's life in order to prepare him to be ruler over a multitude of people. Sometimes we do not recognize our own personal prisons as special places. We struggle with the darkness of not understanding why we cannot move forward and we become embittered by the difficulties that we face. We grow impatient because the time of our deliverance lingers and we often move out from under God's covering. We try to get others to help us and we make a way of escape for ourselves, which is not in God's perfect plan. We may have been in a marriage that God intended to mend. We may have borrowed money to settle a debt when God had another plan that would have saved us a large amount of interest. We may have tried to accomplish ministry on our own terms by going out before our time, prophesying our own words, or attempting to use gifts that God had not yet imparted to us. Wherever we are and regardless of the darkness and difficulties that we face, we must remember that God knows exactly where we are and that He has His own reasons for keeping us hidden. If we wait for God’s timing, we can rest assured that our season of deliverance will come. At the appointed season, the Lord will take us out of our special hidden place and move us into our destiny. +++ 6/17/24 CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE Scripture: Genesis 1:26 "God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." God created the heavens and the Earth and called light into existence. He made the sun, moon, and planets and placed them in their appropriate positions. He also scattered the stars across the heavens according to His own divine pattern. He created the mighty oceans and formed the seas and then filled them with enormous amounts of water that cannot be measured. He divided the lands, formed the mountains, and dredged out the rivers. He also created all of the animals and brought plant life into existence. Then as a finishing touch, He created man and woman. God commanded life into everything that He made. Yet, the creation of man was different. When God created man, He said, "Let Us make man." God the Father called for a divine council with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, and all were included in the creation of this special being called a man, who was formed from the dust of the Earth. Another thing that was different about man was that he was created in God's own image. None of God's other creations could lay claim to this high honor. When we began to understand why we were created in God's very own image, it is a very sobering thought. God wanted someone like Himself that He could commune with on a personal basis. He wanted someone that had the capacity to love and worship Him in spirit and truth, even though all nature cries out with praise to God. He also designed His most special creation to have His own attributes and to show forth His likeness. God created man with the capacity to be holy as He, Himself, is holy (I Peter 1:16). That may seem like a far stretch to most of us, but God created us to be filled with His Spirit so that we could display His image of holiness to a wayward world. We are to be like a healthy tree and manifest the fruits of His Holy Spirit. When others look at us they are to see God's image of love, joy, and peace. As His witness, we are to display His image of patience, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. When others encounter our presence, they should experience God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness because Christ is within us. God's image of wisdom that comes down from above is to rest upon us and we are to be His light to a darkened world. We must acknowledge and respect God's work in us and understand our constant responsibility to be His image in the Earth. Everything that God is, He has designed us to be also, for He created us in His own image. +++ Copyright © 2024 Mary Padgett Ministries. All Rights Reserved www.widsonline.com |
.............................. | ||