Devotional

@divegeester said
Blah blah, blah blah
Blah de blah,
Blah.

Here endeth the devotional.

@divegeester said
Hey romans1009 looks like your the “king of the red thumbs” in your own thread buddy.

Good work 👍🏼

@pb1022 said
Oh, gee. Grown men giving red thumbs.

And to think men half your age fought in wars and did constructive things for their country and communities while men like you spent their days trolling an Internet forum and giving and counting red thumbs.

See a contrast there?

@kevin-eleven said
You are so not leading by example.

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.”
Colossians 1:17–18

- FEBRUARY 6 -

THE SECRET OF DAVID

Have you ever wondered why God called David “a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22)? What made him so special, and how can we also be a man or woman after God’s heart?

I believe David was special because he got hold of something that was of the greatest importance to God’s heart. He got hold of a divine thought and objective in God’s heart and made a vow to God in the wilderness to bring back the ark of the covenant to its rightful place among God’s people in Jerusalem (Ps. 132:1–5). Because David placed such importance on bringing back the ark, God considered him a man after His own heart.

For more than twenty years, King Saul had left the ark in a hilly place called Kirjath Jearim (1 Sam. 7:2). So David made it his passion to bring the ark to Mount Zion in Jerusalem, for the Lord had chosen Zion (which represents God’s grace, as opposed to Mount Sinai, which represents His law) as His dwelling place. God Himself said of Zion, “This is My resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it” (Ps. 132:14).

When you understand the typology of the ark of the covenant, you will see that bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem is the same as bringing Jesus Christ back into a place of prominence and making Him and His finished work the center of all our teaching and preaching and lives.

This was the secret to David’s blessings. He pursued the ark of the covenant and God called him a man after His own heart. Today, you too can be a man or woman after God’s own heart. You can pursue Jesus and bring Him back into the center of your life. Make Jesus the centerpiece of every aspect of your life.

When Gillian from New Jersey and her husband started doing this, not only did it make their relationship stronger, but one blessing after another came into their lives. Round about the time they were introduced to the gospel of grace through my television broadcast, Gillian and her husband were struggling to conceive after being childless for all eleven years of their married life. They had tried all means, including in vitro fertilization, and Gillian was finally told that between her system being “so messed up” and her husband being diagnosed with a low sperm count, diabetes, and other diseases, they could never have a child on their own.

“But we watched you every morning,” Gillian told me, “and as we listened, we got a better and better understanding of God’s grace. Your sermons always teach us to put Jesus in the center of our lives, and so we started doing that. We began to believe that Jesus has paid the full price for us to have whatever we need through Him. We would see Him and His finished work in our relationship with each other and in our challenges.”

Well, as Gillian gave the Lord center place by giving heed to the hearing of His Word, she heard me speak in one of my sermons of an anointing to have children. She shared, “Instantly, I believed it and received it into my spirit. Pastor Prince, I am now six weeks pregnant. What medical science could not do, our beautiful Savior did! Praise the Lord! Not only that, but God has also been increasing my business to the extent that I need new equipment now, and I have no doubt He will supply it all. We know we are truly God’s beloved.”

What an awesome testimony! My friend, like Gillian and her husband, make Jesus, His finished work, and His grace, the center of everything in your life. Make Him the center of your marriage, family, career, and finances, and allow the fullness of His blessings to flow in your life today!

This devotional is taken from the book Reign in Life—90 Powerful Inspirations for Extraordinary Breakthroughs.

“If Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! . . . But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”
1 Corinthians 15:17, 20–22

- FEBRUARY 7 -

OUR UNSHAKABLE FOUNDATION

The apostle Paul proclaims Jesus Christ is risen from the dead in today’s scripture! And because He is risen, you are no longer in your sins. Jesus’ resurrection is the living proof that all your sins have been completely and totally forgiven.

Our forgiveness is not contingent upon us and what we have or have not done, so no one can boast that they earned their forgiveness through their own efforts. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).

Through faith in Jesus’ finished work at the cross, we have received the gift of salvation. When something is a gift, it means that you cannot work for it, earn it, or merit it. A gift is lavished upon the recipient by the giver, and Jesus gave of His own life to ransom yours.

But Pastor Prince, I don’t deserve forgiveness.

You are absolutely right. We deserved punishment for all the sins we have committed and will commit in our lifetime. We deserved death, but Jesus took that death for us and gave us eternal life. He took what we deserved and gave us what we didn’t deserve. That is why we are saved by grace—His unmerited, unearned, and undeserved favor—through faith.

Now, always remember this: How are you saved? By grace through faith. How have all your sins been forgiven? By grace through faith. How have you been made righteous? By grace through faith. This is your unshakable foundation, built upon the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Don’t allow any teaching to diminish the cross of Jesus in your life and make salvation, forgiveness, and righteousness things you have to work at in order to maintain and keep. You received salvation, forgiveness, and righteousness by grace through faith in Jesus’ finished work, and they are secured by His obedience to the Father at the cross:

“Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

—Romans 5:18–19
Righteousness is not about right doing. Righteousness is about right believing. You are made righteous in God’s eyes when you believe or put your faith in Christ and His sacrifice for you. It is through Jesus’ obedience that we have been made righteous and justified from all our sins. Justification is our Lord Jesus removing all the guilt and penalty of sin and proclaiming that we have been made righteous by His shed blood.

Beloved, when you are buffeted by the voice of accusation and condemnation over your failures, believe and learn to declare that you are saved, forgiven, made righteous (justified) by grace through faith in Christ. You’ll see His favor, wisdom, power, and every benefit of His finished work released into your situation to turn everything around for His glory.

This devotional is taken from the book Glorious Grace—100 Daily Readings from Grace Revolution.

@PB1022

You’re quiet Skippy, did you pick up a forum ban today?

@divegeester said
@PB1022

You’re quiet Skippy, did you pick up a forum ban today?

@pb1022 said

I noticed that marathon argument from this morning got deleted.

@divegeester said
The thread started by Executioner Brand entitled “I’m not a racist” got deleted because of his abusive posts and others which were alerted such as yours about brain trauma and accusing people of being mentally ill.

“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness.”
Psalm 30:11

- FEBRUARY 8 -

COME AS YOU ARE TO JESUS

My friend, you are favored and accepted by God today because of His unmerited favor. Even if your life is a mess, He can take your mess and make it into something beautiful. Come to Him just as you are.

Years ago, one of my church members suddenly stopped coming to church for a long time. I met up with him to find out how he was doing and to see if everything was alright. He was very honest with me and told me that he was going through a lot of problems in his marriage and that he was now addicted to alcohol. Then, he said this: "Let me get my life right, then I will come back to church.”

I smiled and asked him, “Do you clean yourself before you take a bath?” I could tell from his expression that he was taken aback by my question, so I told him, “Come as you are to the Lord. He is the bath. He will cleanse you. He will get your life in order for you and He will cause every addiction to lose its hold on you. You don’t have to use your own efforts to clean yourself before you take a bath!”

I am glad to share that this precious brother soon returned to church and Jesus turned his life around. Today, he is happily married, blessed with a beautiful family, and is one of my trusted, key leaders. That is what the Lord does when you come to Him as you are and allow Him to love you into wholeness. He will make all things beautiful in your life.

There are many people today who are like this brother. They want to get their lives together by themselves before they come to Jesus. They are under the impression that they need to make themselves holy before they can step into God’s holy presence. They feel like they are being hypocrites if they don't sort out their lives first before coming to church.

Nothing could be further from the truth. You will never be able to make yourself holy enough to qualify for God’s blessings. You are made holy, righteous, and clean by the blood of Jesus Christ, and it is His righteous standing that qualifies you—nothing more and nothing less.

So stop trying to clean yourself before you go to the Lord. Come to Jesus with all your mess, all your addictions, all your weaknesses, and all your failures. God loves you just as you are.

However, He also loves you too much to let you stay the same. My friend, when you come to Jesus, He becomes your “bath.” He will wash you clean, whiter than snow! Jump into the bath today and allow Jesus to make you perfect, righteous, and holy in God’s eyes!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days Of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.

@divegeester said
@PB1022

You’re quiet Skippy, did you pick up a forum ban today?

You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.
Psalm 91:13

- FEBRUARY 9 -

AUTHORITY OVER THE ENEMY

Do you know that as a believer in Christ, you have authority over the enemy?

It is true that the devil is the god of this fallen world (2 Cor. 4:4 NASB), who “walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). But we, as believers, are not called to cower in fear like the people of the world, for God’s eternal Word proclaims that “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

In Christ, we have authority over the devil and all his cohorts. In Christ, we have authority to tread upon the lion and the cobra. The fowler’s snares shall be foiled and the hunter shall be the hunted. Our role in this increasingly dangerous world isn’t to be passive and indifferent, waiting to be devoured by the roaring lion. We are endued with power and authority to hunt down the roaring lion!

The Bible records the account of how Samson was in the vineyards of Timnah when suddenly “a young lion came roaring against him” (Judg. 14:5). Now, what would you do if you were suddenly ambushed by a lion?

Psychologists tell us that there are essentially three possible responses that are instinctively triggered when a person is unexpectedly thrust into an extremely dangerous situation—fight, take flight, or freeze. While most of us would probably either take flight or freeze, Samson instinctively rose to fight: “the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand” (Judg. 14:6). Now, that’s taking authority! The hunter came at Samson but found itself the hunted!

Sometime later, Samson passed by the lion’s carcass and saw a swarm of bees and some honey in it. So he scooped out some of the honey and ate it. It was from this experience that Samson came up with this riddle, “Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet” (Judg. 14:14).

There is a beautiful picture here for all of us. Instead of being eaten by the lion, Samson obtained something sweet to eat. What is the spiritual truth for us today? Out of every evil and negative thing the devil throws at you today, God will make something sweet for you. Your giants will be as bread to you. God will turn every bitter adversity into sweet honey for you!

This devotional is taken from the book The Prayer of Protection Devotional—Daily Strategies for Living Fearlessly in Dangerous Times.

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”
Psalm 23:1–4

- FEBRUARY 12 -

UNDER THE CARE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD

If we’re honest, we all have some measure of wrong believing in our lives. Just ask yourself, “Have I often felt anxious, worried, or fearful that the worst would happen to me and my loved ones?” These negative, exhausting emotions are merely flags that indicate what we truly believe about ourselves, our lives, and God.

When we are fearful and worried all the time, we are living as if we don’t believe that we have a strong and able Shepherd who is tenderhearted toward us, who leads us to good places, who protects us and lovingly watches over us. So if worrying or being fearful seems to be your natural default mode, what you need to do is to keep hearing and learning about how much God loves you, and how precious you are to Him.

That is why the way out of constant worrying is not a matter of just thinking positively; it’s birthed out of knowing you have a personal and intimate relationship with a loving Savior who watches over your needs and tends to you as a loving Shepherd. The more strongly you believe that He is taking care of you, the more it will change your thoughts and feelings, and the less you will fall victim to unhealthy emotions and behaviors.

Today, if you need freedom from a bad situation, see Jesus, your good Shepherd, leading you out of it by His Word that brings life and illumination. The psalmist says it this way: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). In The Message translation, it says, “By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.”

My friend, the Lord wants to throw a beam of light on your path today. Whatever you are struggling with presently, no matter how insurmountable your challenges appear, when you start believing right, things are going to start turning around for your good!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Right Believing—Daily Readings from The Power of Right Believing.

It is good to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness every night.
Psalm 92:1–2

- FEBRUARY 14 -

START YOUR DAY WITH JESUS

Do you know that God has promised that no weapon formed against you shall prosper (Isa. 54:17)? Now, He did not promise that weapons would not be formed against you. He promised that even if weapons were formed against you, they would not hurt or defeat you.

There are all kinds of weapons formed against humanity, especially in these last days. Just think of the many kinds of deadly viruses, sicknesses, and diseases in the world. When you turn on the television and watch the news, all you seem to hear about are wars, unrest, disasters, financial collapses, violence, unemployment, famines, and new strains of deadly viruses.

It is amazing how many people wake up in the morning and the first thing that they do is grab the newspapers and read bad news before heading to work. Then, just before they go to bed, they watch the news!

Now, please understand that I am not against reading the newspapers or watching the news, or watching television for that matter. But I want to encourage you to start your day with Jesus instead, practicing His presence, acknowledging Him, committing your plans to Him, and trusting Him for His unmerited favor, wisdom, and strength for the day.

Remember to be like Joseph in the Bible. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man! Your success does not come as a result of you being updated about the latest virus or you being cued in to the latest disaster. No, your success will come as a result of your being tuned in to the presence of Jesus in your life!

There are many people in my church who start the day each morning by partaking of the holy Communion, not as a ritual, but as a time to remember Jesus and the power of His cross.

They look to Jesus for His strength, receiving His divine life for their physical bodies as they partake of the bread. They renew their consciousness of their free gift of righteousness purchased by the blood of Jesus on the cross as they partake of the cup. What a way to start the day!

I have also come to realize that the last thought before you go to sleep is very important. I have tried this before and you can try it too—go to bed thinking about Jesus, giving thanks to Him for the day.

You can also meditate on one of His promises, such as the one found in Isaiah 54:17. Just say, "Thank You, Father. Your Word declares that no weapon formed against me shall prosper!” Most times, I wake up feeling rejuvenated, energized, and refreshed even though I did not sleep for many hours.

Conversely, if I go to bed with what I have just heard on the news swirling in my mind, I could sleep many more hours than usual, but still wake up feeling fatigued. Sometimes I even get a headache. Have you been there before? Well, you don’t have to experience that again.

Sandwich your day with the presence of Jesus. Start the day with Him, enjoy Him during the day, and end the day with Him on your mind!

This devotional is taken from the book 100 Days of Favor—Daily Readings from Unmerited Favor.