Category: when you feel His call in your heart

What do you feel?


Have you ever wondered aloud about how God might feel about the state of the world today? What do you think He would say if you could ask Him? You know what? You can. Prayer is powerful and He does listen to all of them, but He also answers you back. Sometimes you will get His answer by the Holy Spirit and sometimes it will come to you by reading the Bible.

God’s Word is powerful and to the point in many ways which most of us don’t pay much attention to. Usually, it is because we don’t read it. Most people who go to church read scripture when the pastor tells them to and most of the time they only read the verse which he reads. So, how are you going to know how God feels about any subject if you don’t read what HE says about it?

I know there are some Christians who do read their Bibles regularly and it would be great if everyone did but the condition of our world and our society just doesn’t bear the evidence which comes from doing so. If we are going to ever have a world which reflects God’s kingdom, then we need to live every day as if we want to be a part of His Kingdom.

Truly, life is hard at times but with God on your side it is bearable. Don’t turn away from the love of God because He never turns away from you. So, how do you think God feels about the times when He really would like to hear from you…about anything but you’re too busy? You don’t have time to pray to God or you don’t feel the need. God is not a man and He is also not like us with our selfish ways. He is our Creator and He is holy, so we are to strive to be more like Him.

But in our culture and our society, most of us tend to place Him in a box or we try to squeeze Him down to our size, to be more like us so we can relate to Him better. What if God were like you or your best friend? What if He were more like your enemy? Then how do you think the world would be?

Thankfully, God is not like us!

He is perfect and holy and cannot look on sin in any form, so He can’t be like us. Jesus was more like us because He was born of a woman but He had the nature of His Father, God. It is that nature which makes a difference between us and Him. Human nature can be good but it has to really try to do well most of the time. It is easier to do bad things. When you give your heart to Jesus and learn to live like He taught His disciples to do, then those bad things which were easy are not so easy anymore.

Seek Him out while there is time to do so because none of us have been guaranteed a certain number of days. We don’t know when our last day will be, so seek out the One Who can make your days better and lead you into eternity.

Come…


Jesus sought out disciples with a simple request, “Come, follow Me”. Sometimes He chose to say it a bit differently depending upon which disciple He was seeking but essentially it was just “Come, follow Me”. Even today when He touches us and we feel His call in our heart and our lives the request is still “Come, follow Me”. Why is it so simple? Because, when you are speaking to a child, that is what you say and we are all His children.

So why are so many of His children, who claim to be Christians and followers of Jesus, NOT following Him or His teachings? There are so many who do know of Him because of things that they have been taught by parents or in Bible school or Sunday school but are they truly followers of Jesus? Do they know Him as their Savior and Lord? Even the demons in hell know Who He is but they don’t serve Him. Satan knows Who Jesus the Son of God is and can quote you every scripture which points to Him from either the Old or the New Testament but he doesn’t serve Him nor will he ever.

One day every knee will bow to Jesus as King and Lord but not all of them will do it willingly, especially Satan. God knows this to be true and there are many people in the world today who will not ask Him to be the Lord of their life, not because they don’t need Him but because they are too proud. They look at Christians and weak because we submit our lives to Him willingly. Do we fail at serving Him? All of the time! Many of us “lose our religion” on multiple occasions during one day but we are forgiven and all we have to do to claim it is confess and ask for His forgiveness.

Will we fail again tomorrow? At some point during the day, we will. We won’t do it willingly or on purpose but at some point, we will think a thought which we know we shouldn’t. God knows we are human and that our will and ability to serve HIm can only be accomplished through the strength which we get from Him! Because, trying to live the life of a Christian is impossible without faith and without Him in your heart and a mind which has been washed in the Word of Truth and by His saving grace.

Being a disciple of Jesus is an ongoing process because it is a life of surrender to our Risen Lord and Savior. Submitting our will to Him every day, reading His Word and studying it is something which we do because of His love for us. This is the love which sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay for our sin debt, every one of us, just for the privilege of being His. We don’t become Christians just by our decision or by anything which we do. We feel God’s touch in our heart giving us the faith which carries us from today until tomorrow and then the next day and the next until we know that we NEED Him in our lives. When we come to that point we will know and seek Him out!

I pray that you will seek Him out for your own salvation because one day soon I will be gone and this site will only have enough information to point you in His direction. Seek Him while you can because when the “world order” is taken in by the man who claims to be our Lord, many people will follow Him but they are on the wrong side. God wins.

Amen

God is still in control!


The sun is still shining and the moon is still in its orbit. If they had actually been around 4.5 billion years, the moon would be a bit farther away from us than it is. There has been some research into the stars in our galaxy and the number of supernovas which have been counted and it doesn’t add up to the number which would be present if the amount of time suggested by the Big Bang is true and correct.

The universe was designed by God to support life and God is Life. Regardless of how out of control your life may feel at times, our Creator is still watching over you. Specifically, if you are a Christian and believe in Him for your salvation. Now, I am not saying that God doesn’t care about His creation outside of those who are Christians because He does. But, He knows which person will give their life to Jesus and which ones will not. That doesn’t mean that He chooses which people will be saved and which ones won’t but it does show that God knows your heart and which choice you will make.

There is a big difference between knowing which direction you will take and forcing you to take it because God will not force you to make one decision over another. Consider that the decision to follow Jesus is one based on faith and on the grace that you realize you have been given. Each of us who have given their hearts and their lives to Jesus knows the love which God has poured into their lives because of the gift of salvation. In the Bible, you can read about the depth of God’s love toward us and know that returning that love is not enforceable, it is made by decision of those to whom it has been given.

Giving love back to the Author of Love only makes it better and makes us feel His love for us even more. Sometimes it is a small gesture of love toward someone you may not know well. Sometimes it is a prayer or a hug to a friend who is going through a hard time. Being the hands and feet of Jesus in a world that is truly DESPERATE for the Love which He embodies is the kind of mission and ministry which all of us should try to be a part of. Sometimes it is only through prayer that we can make a difference or even through a post like this one which may bring hope to someone who feels that they don’t have any.

Each person who is a Christian knows someone who isn’t or maybe they have been away from the church for a long time. Invite them to church or to a Bible study, have coffee or hot chocolate ready to warm them up on a cold night. Because it is the little things that most people notice about us who follow Jesus, not the big show of the service or how beautiful the sanctuary is. Jesus didn’t preach in a beautiful church. Most of the time it was in a field or even at the beach and He was sitting on a boat. It was the love which He showed toward those who had little or none in their lives that got the most attention.

Are you His?


I ask this type of question because people, in general, don’t believe in God or the prophecies in the Bible. While it is true that there are many in the world who claim to believe in God, the “God” which they believe in is just a generalized idea of the real God and Creator of the universe. Even Satan knows Who God is because it was God Who created him! My question is in reference to your salvation or lack of it. Are you His and do you truly know Him?

The most important part of this is does He know you? Your eternity depends on the answer to that question. Granted, your soul is eternal and if you do not choose to serve Jesus and accept Him as your Savior, you will be in eternity one day but your eternity will be in punishment. Why? Because you have refused the offer of grace and mercy when it was offered to you.

I truly pray that more of you who read this will seek Jesus as your Savior because that is the ministry which I was called to. I was called almost ten years ago to be a voice telling others about our Lord and Savior, hoping that the Holy Spirit would draw at least some of you to Him. This is not a light nor easy ministry because there are so many who truly need salvation. I am not able to go to those places which this medium can reach, but I do pray that He will reach you.

God does love each of us but it’s up to us to love Him enough to ask Him into our lives and our hearts. He doesn’t force us in any way to come to Him because love and devotion cannot be forced, they must be given willingly and humbly by those who know that they don’t deserve the grace that they have been offered. The most well-known verse from God’s Word says it all:

John 3:16

Amen!

Gifts of the Spirit


In Galatians 5:22 Paul writes this: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.

If each of us who are living as Christians has these fruits which are evident in our speech and in our lives every day then others will see them and know that we belong to Christ. So, how can we show these fruits to others? Notice the very first one is love, without this in your heart which Jesus placed there because He loved you and me first none of the other fruits will grow in your life at all.

The second fruit is joy and it is expressed not by being happy all of the time but by knowing the joy of being loved by God! Knowing this there is nothing in this world which can get to you and get you down. Oh, there will be days and sometimes weeks when something or someone will get you down but if you will start your day with a prayer and thank God for another day to serve Him then He will lift you up!

God will not allow you to have a really bad day if you start it with Him first! Just as the Feast of Firstfruits blesses the rest of the harvest when we bring our “firstfruits” to God, beginning the day with Him does the very same thing. Thank Him for another day to serve when you wake up, or soon after, and the rest of the day will be blessed. Does this mean that nothing will go wrong if you do this daily? No, it is not a guarantee of a perfect day every day, but it is a step in the right direction.

Peace and patience come with the other gifts and fruits but never, ever pray for patience! You will learn the lesson but you will not enjoy it. The peace which we know through Christ is the peace which we have knowing that our future in eternity is sealed! Kindness is a fruit which goes along with love and patience and all of the other fruits which the Spirit gives to each of us when we are made into “new creations in Christ“. Of course, even as believers, we are still at war with our “old nature which has passed away“, even though it (our old nature) is conquered in Christ it still is used by Satan to try to make us stumble and fall and doubt our salvation.

All of the fruits of the spirit are available to us but every believer will not show all of them. Some will have one or two, some will show all of them as they mature in their salvation through prayer and learning from God’s Word. Just as God gives us gifts through His Spirit, He also gives us our fruits of His Spirit so that others can see that we belong to Him and want what we have. So, if you are a child of God, seek out your gifts and your fruit and give some away to others. Amen

Walking with Jesus


Each of us who answer His call has to learn how to do this. The Lord does give us an idea of how to do it, but it’s up to us to figure it out. It does take reading His Word and learning from it and this is a lifetime process. Some people think that going to church gives them the key to heaven or maybe reading the Bible gives them a special place in heaven. Those actions have no real bearing on your eternity although they do help you to be the person that you are supposed to be in Jesus Christ those actions do NOT save you!

Faith in Jesus and believing in His atonement for your life, your sins and all of the words and things which you have done or said in this life. The Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart and you become a new creation from that moment on. We become more like Him by turning away from our sinful lives and truly following Him daily. God called you to be His and it is His call on your life which allows you to be saved because He gives you the faith and the grace to become His child…but only if you answer that call by accepting it and moving toward Him and away from your old life.

But…what if I don’t want to give up my old life?

Then it is likely that you won’t accept Jesus’ call on your life! It is a sad position to be in from an eternal standpoint. If you have felt His touch in your heart and you know that you are a sinner and you need Jesus as your Savior, yet you love your sins and your “regular” life more than you feel the need of salvation…it is very possible that you will just walk away from Him. What would’ve happened to the church if the disciples had turn away from Jesus? There wouldn’t be a church today.

Could Jesus have found other disciples? Of course, He could have but it would’ve been very different from the ministry which He had with the original disciples. People are very different and shepherds or other disciples would have learned from Him in different ways from the 12 which He chose. Even His betrayer would’ve been different, but God knew which men would follow Him and the ones who did were the disciples which were needed.

God knows our hearts and our usefulness to Him, not because He forces us to be His disciples because gratitude and love cannot be forced in any way! We serve God because He loves us and because we love Him in return for everything that Jesus did for us. But, our life with Jesus brings with it a responsibility, and that responsibility is to grow in our faith and our spiritual strength as we go through this life with Him.

Reading the Bible and praying for the Spirit to teach us the meaning of it as we read is part of our life and our walk with Him. It is not really an option and it gives us the ability to resist the temptations and the “fiery darts” which are sent our way as we live in service to Him. If you don’t grow and learn from Him in your daily walk with Him and in reading His Word, then you will be overcome at some point when temptation or trials come your way.

Amen

A successful life


Can you live a Christian life today and be a success? Yes, if you live according to the Word of God. We are to renounce our “old ways” of living and turn our eyes and our hearts toward Jesus and living His way. What does that mean exactly? Here is what God told Moses during the Exodus from Egypt beginning in Deuteronomy 10:12-13

12And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?

Some of you might say to me “But that’s in the Old Testament, we don’t have to follow those rules now!” Why not? God hasn’t changed. It is only our perception of Him which has changed. We try to make Him into a “politically correct” god but He is God and He doesn’t change…not for you or for me or anyone else in the world!

In order for us to be forgiven and live a Christian life we are supposed to live according to His Word and follow Him every day of our lives until our death or until He calls us to Himself. It is not negotiable and He doesn’t conform to our ideas of Who He is! Until we realize that there will be many standing in that day saying “Lord, did we not prophesy in your Name?“

Make sure of your relationship with Jesus now while there is a chance because if you are one who is saying those words in His Presence and He says, “depart from Me, for I never knew you.”; it will be too late to change anything about your salvation or lack of it at that time.

Make sure of what you believe and in Whom you believe.

Life after life


If you have ever been to a church and heard a sermon or if you heard one on TV, then you have heard of the life to look forward to after this one. Have you given your heart to Jesus? Salvation is available for you if you will give your heart to Him. So, what will you do with your life here that will take you into eternity? Your own “righteousness” will not do the trick, just as Jesus told the Pharisees and as it was told in the Old Testament, “your righteousness is as filthy rags“.

God doesn’t want us all to go to hell, but there are those who will not accept Jesus as their Savior. God knows who will and who will not give their life and their heart to Jesus but it is not set in stone. When you feel the touch of His Spirit in your heart and you feel that you need Him in your life, don’t turn away from Him. Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross and we are able to be saved from the punishment which comes from refusing to accept the gift of salvation.

Granted, your punishment in hell is not just for refusing salvation but that is the main one which will send you there. Any sins in your life which aren’t covered by the blood of Jesus with your acceptance of His gift of salvation will be paid for in hell. But if you decide to give your heart to Him and confess your sins then your eternity is guaranteed in Heaven with your Savior.

Your salvation is available to you when God touches your Spirit and brings you to that place where you truly know that you need Him. You can’t just decide to be saved or ask Jesus into your life, He touches your soul and draws you to Himself. I pray that all who read this will seek Him in a church or in the Bible and come to the realization that you need Him in your life.

Make sure of Whom you believe


In 1 John 4 it says these words:

1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us, but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

When you are committed to being and living as a Christian there is a part of God’s Spirit which comes to live inside you. He or She is the Holy Spirit. All of us who are His and belong to Him have a part of Him, as Jesus called Him-the Comforter and He is living in your heart (soul). God’s grace and mercy have been poured out in your life so that you can believe in the One Who has saved your soul, but it is God’s Spirit Who teaches you and helps you to understand His Word.

Without faith, we can do nothing in God’s Kingdom and without His Spirit, we would understand very little of God’s Word. We could read it every day but without His teaching and giving us the meaning of it for our lives the Bible would be just a book of stories and nothing more. For many years before I truly committed my life to Him I read chapters in the Bible and read along with the pastor at church but until I accepted the Holy Spirit into my life it really didn’t make sense.

Jesus’ sermon on the mount was just a bunch of blessings given to those who were looking for the Messiah until I looked at it from His point of view. God loves each of us and He wants the best for you and me. That doesn’t mean that He wants all of us to be rich and wealthy with no struggles, however. God’s best may be our eternal home with Him, not some fancy house with a mortgage here for us to struggle to pay. The same goes for all of the other “stuff” which the world around us sees as symbols of our success.

Seek God and His Son, Jesus, for your salvation because the time which each of us has is very short compared to eternity. Each of us has an eternal soul and you will spend eternity somewhere so make sure of your destination while you can.

Do you need healing?


In many ways, we all need healing in our lives. Whether it is a spiritual healing or physical healing or maybe even both, many of us do need healing on one level or another. So, where do you go to find this healing and how much will it cost me? Well, physical healing from some diseases can cost many thousands of dollars but healing for your spiritual person doesn’t cost you anything at all!

I don’t know how to heal your physical body and I’m not going to claim such a thing but your Lord and Savior, Jesus, can heal you spiritually and physically if it is His will to do so. Sometimes He does both and sometimes He will come into your life and heal you spiritually but you still have to live with the physical ailment that you had before. Many people seem to look at this as a type of curse from God when their physical problem isn’t solved when they accept Jesus as their Savior, but even Paul had to live out his life with a “thorn in his side” because God told him that His grace was sufficient for him.

Healing, whether it is spiritual or physical, takes a lot of faith in the doctor or in God. Salvation heals your soul and that only comes through Jesus and believing in Him as your Savior. That belief can only come through faith and even that is a gift from God by His grace given to each believer! We don’t choose, on our own merits, to be saved or to finally give our hearts to Jesus…He chooses us by His Spirit touching ours through a sermon or the witness of a believer. When we find that we can’t do this without Him, then we seek Him out and give our heart to Him.

That is where our spiritual healing comes from! We don’t do it, no preacher can help you do it or bring you to Jesus unless you are called by the Holy Spirit first. We are not exactly predestined to be saved, but God knows who will accept Jesus as their Savior and who will not. You can call that what you want to, but it is God’s knowledge of us which is at work. Some say that every person who is “predestined” to be saved will be saved whether we tell them about Jesus or not, but if that is true why did Jesus tell His disciples to go into the world and preach the gospel to all who would hear it?

It that were true about predestination then what is the point of telling others about Jesus and His atonement for their souls? The point is that people need to hear about Him and what He did for them so they can be saved and live into eternity with Him. If we don’t fulfill our calling to let people know about the grace of God and the salvation offered to those who will hear it, then we are responsible for their spiritual condition and we will answer for it in some way, at least in my opinion.