“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 NKJV
RELATIONSHIP:
Do you already have a relationship with a powerful God who cares about your every need because He loves you? Did you know my God can communicate with you and protect you – He has a plan for you to prosper if you just submit to His will and let His plan play out in your life!!! God wants a relationship with you and has already made a plan for your life. He loves you so much He sent His son to this world, to die as a sacrifice for your sins and rise from death with victory over sin and the ability to have a personal relationship with you.
Do you want to know truth? Be able to discern lies? Know how to figure it all out in these confusing times and have peace? The Bible says Jesus is the truth. I have experienced it and it has changed my life. I was once a hot mess of sin, promiscuity, drug and alcohol use and so much more. But I was lost and when I could not find my way, or find a truth, I numbed it with bad choses. When I found Jesus, and truth – I found peace and deliverance from those things.
If you want a relationship with God without truth you will get the counterfeit, hypocritical Christianity that has kept some of you away for too long. You need truth and relationship. You need to be honest with yourself and God (including honest repentance) and God will reveal truth to you. It becomes the two way, interaction that your relationship with God is built on. This is why Jesus is called the truth, because he is our only way to the Father.
“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10 NIV
Here is a prayer for you to pray:
Jesus, I believe you are the way, the truth, the life, and the only way to the Father. I believe you are the son of God, you came to Earth and lived. That you died on the cross as a sacrifice for my sins, and rose again so that I may be saved from my sins and be able to get to know you. I declare: Jesus, you are Lord!
Therefore, I confess that I am a sinner and I ask that you forgive me of my sins and come into my life. Help me to turn away from my sins and transform me into what you have lovingly created me to be. Help me through a real personal relationship grow and accept your will for my life – that I may live in your blessings. Please walk with me, and talk with me – I accept a relationship with you and with our Father God, through you. In the name of Jesus I pray ~ Amen
BIBLE READING:
Dear Heavenly Father – Please give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of who you are, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Open the eyes of our understanding, please, so we may know the hope of our calling and the vast sovereignty and power of the grace of the cross. Please do not let us miss out on what you want and need from us today. Lord, I pray that your word prepares us and not scares us! We forbid the works and influences of fear over your word and our sound mind. And please keep us and bless us and shine your face upon us and pour out grace over us and give us peace! And we pray for the peace of Jerusalem! Thank you! – In Jesus name we pray, Amen
Today’s reading is the First Book of John, chapter 4 (embedded below for your convenience in the NKJV).
Love for God and One Another
4 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess [a]that Jesus [b]Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Knowing God Through Love
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Seeing God Through Love
12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
The Consummation of Love
17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love [c]Him because He first loved us.
Obedience by Faith
20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, [d]how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.
MEMORY VERSE CHALLENGE:
Colossians 4:2 –
“Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving”
STUDY/DEVOTIONAL:
Happy Thanksgiving!!!
I know most of you are not from the USA – but here I am in New York State, USA and today it Thanksgiving. We have taken the universal harvest festival idea and made a national holiday to thank God for a good harvest. In our modern world, all that remains of this original concept is a huge feast.
Once a long time ago, families harvested together and took part in the feast together. Now family is obliged to visit and make nice regardless of pain, hurt, dysfunction and inability to harvest together. Normalized dysfunction is still dysfunction, it doesn’t really matter if it is normal. Many people have had to make rules of engagement to keep healthy boundaries. As the family unit has fallen apart. These are all signs of the attack on the family unit. And I cannot fix something in my generation that was begin 2 or 3 generations ago with people who are now dead, but their dysfunction is carried on ignorantly in darkness. If you cannot bring it to the light to be dealt with – love and healing for the people and cast out the demons, then nothing will change. We all say we want God to move, but when He starts to and He isn’t doing what we expected, we say “Not like that!” and shut Him down. It will not look like we want.
Besides the people end of things, there is the spiritual end of thing and false doctrines and false teachers and prophets who have brought in corruption – or maybe it came in by humanism or modernism or some other antichrist spirit parading around as an ‘ism.
Today, is going to be a tough day for many.
Lord Jesus, thank you for a day to be thankful and help us keep our eyes on gratitude to you and not on the distraction of this world. Thank you for each of our families and we know you can work all the pain and hurt for your glory and we give to you our portion. Help us to also own our part of the mess and apologize and bless others. We give you permission and even ask you to go before us. Be seen in each of us. And work through us. Let us sit down in peace, love, forgiveness, healing and most of all thanksgiving! Now Lord Jesus, we dig into the word for your help for today – we ask for your voice to speak clearly to us. We thank you for it. In the name of Jesus we pray ~amen
We ask for His help and today He gives us how to spot the corrupted, false spirits and love to people. Then John moves on to point 2 which is love and point 3 which is love and well – Thank God for Love! I think it is pretty clear that we must love today.
“1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.”
Last week I went to a Christian Conference and there was deliverances that happened at the conference. Glory to God. It was a great time. The speaker took this verse literal! So as part of a test to see if you are demonized (under the influence of demons, strongholds, etc.) he asked if there is a demon in you to answer and confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and is of God as well as other similar questions. Besides being able to participate I was able to watch as well. So I saw MANY people freed. One man leading a prayer team asked the question in his own words and NOT word for word as everyone else did. The answer was not a simple yes or no – it was a quote from the Bible:
“You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” James 2:19 NKJV
Sneaky little gremlins, aren’t they. They thought they could hide behind scripture. Luckily, the prayer team realized it was there and cast it out.
They believe and could answer that they believe – but every question of confession, they could not confess Him. Pay attention at the table today – in your life and in your church. People you do not see often can appear to be living righteous – but they cannot maintain a lie. God has woke you and I up so we can now see clearly through testing the spirits. No discernment needed, but if you have that gift it is even better.
“4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
Some of us are going into the den of wolves – or are inviting over a hungry pack of wolves. I will be the only believer at my table today and God is miraculously feeding people who have burned bridges due to addiction and sin, and have no place to go. Pray for me. However, there will be more in my house for me than against me! There will be companies of angels at the ready.
And you – there are more with you than against you. Jesus alone is enough because He has overcome the world – but our God is a God of exceeding abundance and therefore we also have our company of angels!
“5 They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. 6 We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”
First let’s address today. Today is probably not a day to be chatty if you are surrounded by unbelievers. If you are surrounded by believers, you might still want to be reserved and pay attention. You will learn a lot about waling in the spirit when you pay attention to these spiritual clues. John tells us to pay attention to them, how people speak and if they accept or reject you.
Next up – Ever been completely misunderstood when you are in the flow of the spirit? I have. To spare them embarrassment I ask someone to translate me, as if I was not speaking English correctly. The truth is NO ONE can accurately interpret because they CANNOT hear.
I once went to a church where every time I spoke no one understood what I was saying or they couldn’t hear me. It was surreal and literal. My friends would try to interpret for me – never worked. I soon learned that they were not of God. It was a very sad thing.
I once went and visited a church, and I could not hear one lady. It was weird and I pretended to have a hard time hearing everything – It was just that one person. Pay attention. “By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error”.
Thankfully the answer to it all is LOVE. Knowing God who is love and loving through God.
“7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
That is a great few verses to hold onto when around non-believers. Testify of God’s love in your life and how it can change theirs. But the truth is – only the hearts that God has prepared will understand and be changed. Most will not hear.
“12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
And when we testify and share Jesus – we must do it in deep love. Love that we are walking in and living in. It cannot be faked.
“17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.”
It is love that draws people to God – not fear of heal. Do not use the enemy’s tools to fight for souls!
“20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.”
And own you part – if you hold unforgiveness, hate, resentment, etc. against your brother, sister, mother, etc. you need to own your trash and clear that up. Make it right today if you see them or hear from them.
You and I came here for the Love and Grace – do not rob others of it and make them think your God is NOT what He says He is. God will deal hardly with you if you misrepresent Him. So today I will focus on showing love and not speaking too much. What is your strategy?
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I also wanted to remind and inform all of you, that instead of writing a book on fasting (since it is the topic I get asked the most about) I have created a Facebook group that is designed to be interactive and give you all the Bible verses on fasting, all the types of fast, and how to fast. In the group are specialist to help us along the way, like the creator of The Fasting Protocol (fasting for health and weight loss; which is part of fasting and important to know about – He can also speak to fasting in a healthy manner). The group is new and other experts are invited, I am hopeful they will join. So let’s join the group and see what we will learn about prayer and fasting. Here is the link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/509149707741862
Thank you for reading in 2022 – a Year of Wisdom and Salvation
May the God of peace keep you and bless you. May you stay focused on Christ and covered in grace. Walk in wisdom.
Maranatha ~ Come Lord Jesus!
If Not For Grace 