Minus the Condemnation!

Romans 8:1 - Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

Have you ever had a day that one thing after another seemed to not go as planned? Your "To-Do List" piles up with unchecked boxes, glaring out at you the undone nature of each item! The check-list person in you begins to feel guilty about the list, replaying in your mind whether you could have done something different.

Frustration.

Guilt.

Condemnation.

Well friend… I'm hear to remind you that condemnation is from the enemy. Today is a new day! Allow the condemnation the enemy is trying to get you to accept be washed away. Remember that when you became born again, the blood of Jesus from the cross washed away that condemnation. Romans 8:1 reminds us that for those of us in Christ Jesus, those of us who are born again, there is NO CONDEMNATION!

So today, start anew! Have a fresh new start! Like a blanket of snow before it is touched, while it still sparkles and glitters in the light… allow your day to start anew. Lets wash away the undone checklist and start new today.

One thing I like to do before my day begins is ask one question. "So Father, what should I do today? What should be on my list?" Sometimes my list is short. Sometimes my list is long. But at least I know when I ask, not only have I acknowledged Him so He can direct my day but in doing this it's also a way of applying 1 Peter 5:7, casting my cares (including my schedule) on Him. He cares for me! There is NO condemnation! I refuse to allow condemnation to come down on me because I AM IN CHRIST! What a great feeling! What a great reminder! When a day does not go as planned, I can cast it on the Lord and start anew, start fresh. Cast the day, my list and plans on the Lord and start new minus the condemnation!

#198 - A Tactic of the Enemy: The Wife!

*blowing breath out*

Whew. *wiping brow* It's been a full morning already. The first 2 hours of being awake was heavy! And that was even before getting into my quiet time! My husband is so smart. We talked a lot this morning, I reviewed some notes that I recently took, and overall... it was just a pretty emotionally full morning. I believe that today's devotion is going to impact you. If anything, connect some dots on some very important things to do.  We are going to take a "field trip" from our Proverbs 22 chapter of today, and jump  back earlier into the Old Testament. Let's get started....

2 Chronicles 26:5 (talking about King Uzziah) - He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the things of God; and as long as he sought (inquired of, yearned for) the Lord, God made him prosper.

2 Chronicles 32:31b (talking about King Hezekiah) - ... God left him to himself to try him, that He might know all that was in his heart.

Proverbs 31:11a - The heart of her husband trusts in her confidently and relies on and believes in her securely... 

This is going to be full. I'm going to do my best, with the direction of the Holy Spirit to bring it all full circle.


First of all, if we look at the beginning of Proverbs 31:11, we see that it is talking about the heart of the Proverbs 31 husband. His heart trusts in his wife. His heart is confident in her. His heart relies on her. His heart believes in her. She is not how some would view as the "weaker vessel" or as the "lesser of the two," she is VALUABLE and he is relying upon her.

Let's take a trip back to the beginning. In the Garden, there were Adam & Eve. How did the enemy infiltrate mankind? He got to the woman. Satan chose his tactic to get to Eve, the wife, to bring down mankind. His plan worked, in the short-term (obviously Jesus came back and gave us a way to Victory! Praise the Lord!) I heard an amazing woman of God say last night that she noticed when SHE was not on her full game, it was very quickly after that she would notice her husband would come off his game. If the enemy is successful in getting the wife down, getting the wife distracted, he has the potential to get the WHOLE mission of the couple off course!

As we peek into 2 Chronicles 26:5, it tells us that as long as King Uzziah sought the Lord, inquired of, yearned for the Lord, that because of it, GOD made him to prosper. Marry that with the lesson from Adam and Eve. It becomes SO MUCH MORE important for WOMEN to stay in a position of SEEKING THE LORD! It ultimately makes it a key in why the Lord makes us to prosper. YOU, woman of God, like in the beginning of time are a target. Like it or not, you have a bulls-eye on your back. Just ONE of the tactics of the enemy, if he can get to the woman, he has potential of disrupting the whole mission. Whether that be through strife, discord, discouragement, busyness, focusing on the unimportant... whatever it is, the tactics have been set out by the enemy.

The Woman's Responsibility: STAND GUARD! GIRD YOURSELF with the Word and with strength. Serve, give, love people. Pursue your calling. Don't delay. Distractions can cause you to get off course, be aware of what is taking your time. Be aware of your heart. Pursue the Lord! Pursue deeper revelations into the Word. EXPECT to get clarity. EXPECT to be directed. Like King Hezekiah, God wants to know your heart. What are you putting into your heart? What is going in? Is your heart getting purer or is your heart static? Staying the same? Blank?

The Husband's Responsibility: PRAY! Knowing that YOUR WIFE is one MAJOR tactic of the enemy to destroy your mission and ministry as a couple, PRAY FOR HER! Pray a hedge of protection around her. Pray for her mental stability. Pray for her growth in her walk with the Lord. Pray for her sharpness, that she would be able to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit with clarity. Plea the blood of Jesus over your wife. Protect her from the enemy with your prayers!

The Proverbs 31 husband TRUSTS in his wife with his heart! She has has spent time girding herself up, strengthening herself, and because of this, he trusts her. She is guarding herself from becoming overwhelmed. She has safe-guards in place. Where she is vulnerable & obedient, is to being LED by the Holy Spirit, and that is exactly where we want to be.

We can learn from the past. We can learn from the beginning. The enemy's goal was to take out Eve. His goal was to distract Eve, get Eve into disobedience. Woman of God, recognize this as a warning. This is ALL THE MORE reason for you and I to be diligent in our pursuit with the Lord. Our marriage and our calling as a couple is dependent upon our stability & obedience. If we know that we are a target of the enemy, it makes it crucial that we are always armed. That our foundation is in the Word. That our stand is on the ROCK! Stability is key, pursue it! Don't be victim to the enemy, be the VICTOR!

#151 - Plea the Blood!

Good morning! Praise God for Tyler's mini-laptop that he got for Christmas! (thanks mom & dad!) We've caught Tyler Jr countless times by our MAC laptop, and the part of the cord that plugs into the laptop to charge it.... I don't know how many times it has made it to Tyler Jr's mouth before we could catch him! Argh... so... needless to say... I guess that it may have made it to his mouth one time to many. We will be making our way to BestBuy today to see how to remedy our situation! We just speak favor and an easy outcome over the situation!

Well, this morning we are going to go back a little bit and have somewhat of a history lesson. Very good and powerful stuff though that CAN really add power to your life!!! We're going all the way back to Exodus. If you remember, God calls Moses to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt.... out of the slavery of the Egyptians. Moses was 80 years old and his "spokesperson" Aaron is 83! (HELLO! Talk about doing great things the 2nd part of your life! Are you older? Take note! Your greatest things you do for God may be yet to come!). You probably learned about the 10 plagues in Sunday school. So, Pharoah would NOT let the people go. Moses warns him, to no avail, so the plagues begin. All the water in the land is turned to blood, an infest of gnats come... also known as "blood-sucking gadflies" (yuck!), plague on the livestock, boils all over man & beast.... and the plagues continue to come. Well... all the while, if you remember, the land of GOSHEN, where God's people are, get NONE of these plagues. They are protected from these plagues while the Egyptians are enduring them all! Let's fast forward to what I really want to get to cover....

Exodus 12:11b-13 - It is the Lord's Passover. ¹²For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment [proving their helplessness]. I am the Lord. ¹³The blood shall be for a token or sign to you upon [the doorposts of] the houses where you are, [that] when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt. ²³ For the Lord will pass through to slay the Egyptians; and when He sees the blood upon the lintel and the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses to slay you.

Fast forward with me to Jesus going to the cross....

John 19:14-15 - ¹⁴Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover, and it was about the sixth hour (about twelve o'clock noon). He said to the Jews, See, [here is] your King! ¹⁵But they shouted, Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! Pilate said to them, Crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar!

I remember growing up and when us kids were little when my dad would leave for work, we would yell after him, "Bless the works of your hands! ---Blood of Jesus!" It was something we just grew up saying. "Blood of Jesus." I recall my sister getting into a car accident and remember her telling me that as her car was spinning, she just remember shouting, "Blood of Jesus!"

A phrase that in today's society, we don't hear it a lot. But, let's revisit Exodus & John. Do you see the similarities? Are you drawing the same conclusion I have drawn. With more study, I'm sure if we dug into the Greek and Hebrew... we would probably see even more. Often the old testament is a foreshadow of something that takes place in the new testament. And here.... the BLOOD is what SAVES the Children of God! The Blood is what brings life! That 10th plague that ran through the land, ultimately is what caused Pharoah to tell the Israelites to LEAVE! Get out of this land, you may go! You are no longer slaves to us! The blood on the doorposts SAVED the first born Israelites children, where the firstborn of the Egyptians dies on that night of Passover. BUT, because of the BLOOD, GOD's CHILDREN were kept safe! They were "PASSED OVER" by the destroyer!

We look at John 19... or really look at the whole life of Jesus. We look at what salvation really is, accepting Jesus' Blood, his death, believing He is God's Son and came to live and die that WE may be forgiven of our sins.... His death, His blood shed HAD TO HAPPEN for US, you and me, to have the opportunity for the "Destroyer" to PASSOVER US! Through Salvation, when we accept Jesus as our Savior, we are set free from death, hell & the grave. We know that our eternity, when our earthly bodies pass away, will be spent in Heaven! Dancing, rejoicing, singing!

So... I encourage you today.... as I remember hearing my mom say SOOOOO many times, "I plea the blood of Jesus over you!" Today, plea the blood of Jesus over you and yours! Verbally place of blood line around your home. As the Egyptians did on the doorposts of their home, the enemy could not enter!

Now a quick reminder.... keep sin out. Keep strife, offense, gossip.... keep those things out! We don't want to allow any open doors for the enemy. But, PLEA the BLOOD OF JESUS! There is POWER IN THE BLOOD! Jesus shed is blood for you and me! And when we believe, we can look forward to our time to come in Heaven!