Category: Daily Bread

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Open Your Spiritual Eyes

33 Once when He was in the synagogue, a man possessed by a demon—an evil spirit—cried out, shouting, 34 “Go away! Why are you interfering with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” ~ Luke 4:33-34 NLT

There was never a time when Jesus casted out a demon or unclean spirit, and the unclean spirit didn’t recognize Him. As soon as they saw Him, they knew who He was. Not only did they recognize Him, they could do nothing but proclaim who He was. They saw into the spiritual because though they didn’t follow the LORD, they wholeheartedly believed in who He was. They could see it. Their spiritual eyes were wide open.

Today, the spiritual eyes of the Church are mostly shut. I didn’t realize that so many self-proclaiming Christians argued over right and wrong that are plainly and blatantly pointed out in Scripture, let alone argued about the Divinity of Jesus, calling it Catholic propaganda. The spiritual eyes of the Church are closing shut. We’re falling into a deep spiritual sleep that will only end with our own downfall and demise.

LORD God, please awaken Your Church, starting with me. Open my spiritual eyes that I might see clearly. That I might accurately discern between Truth and Error. That I might be the change I want to see in the world by being a light in this dark world. Help me to see You for who You are and not for what I or society or culture or deceived men and women see You for. Help me to follow You with all that is within me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Turn Your Knowledge Into Understanding

40 On the other side of the lake the crowds welcomed Jesus, because they had been waiting for Him. 41 Then a man named Jairus, a leader of the local synagogue, came and fell at Jesus’ feet, pleading with Him to come home with Him. ~ Luke 8:40-41NLT

Jairus was the leader of the local synagogue. He was a very important man, but his faith needed Jesus to physically come with him to heal his dying daughter. Whereas the woman with the issue of blood was healed just by touching the fringe of Jesus’ garment. The Roman Centurion wasn’t a Jew in the slightest but had the greatest faith in all of Israel. Today is no different.

Our leaders talk a good talk and bring a good message but don’t believe in the power of God. Their faith is limited by their own beliefs and ideas. Whereas the common unknown person is seeing more healings, breakthroughs, and miracles than the leaders could ever dream of. Why? Because the abundance of head knowledge without the abundance of understanding is useless.

We have to have understanding of who God is and what He wants for us in order to see His glory work in our lives. If we just know a lot but don’t believe or put it into action, that knowledge is useless to us. It’s now just empty words that have no power or authority to save, heal, or redeem. If we want to see the glory of God, we have to have knowledge and understanding so that we can put it into action.

Dear LORD, please continue to bless us with knowledge, but please also bless us with understanding that we might put our knowledge into action. Help us not to just regard Your Word as empty, powerless words but as power and life itself. Grow our faith so that we might be like the Roman Centurion and the woman with the issue of blood. Help us to see signs, wonders, miracles, healings, and Your glory. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Fill Me With Authority

36 Amazed, the people exclaimed, “What authority and power this man’s words possess! Even evil spirits obey him, and they flee at his command!” ~ Luke 4:36NLT

Jesus did many things that amazed the people because of His great authority. One of the first was casting out demons and evil spirits. Why? Because the people of Jesus’ day weren’t as spiritually blind and ignorant as we are today.

They knew the difference, most of the time, between a sickness and a demon or unclean spirit. They didn’t get offended when someone suggested they had an unclean or demonic spirit. No, they threw themselves at the feet of Jesus, asking for help.

If the Church wants to get their God-given authority back, then we need to start differentiating between the spiritual and the physical. So that we can begin to cast out demons once again, it shouldn’t take us hours upon hours to cast out demons. The early Church didn’t even have to speak or be present to cast out unclean spirits. All it took was a piece of cloth touching Paul to cast out the demonic spirits. This is great authority. This is the authority God intended for His Church, regardless of the generation we are in. We aren’t to be weak and powerless but filled with power and authority, all fueled by one thing, love.

Dear LORD, please teach me to love more. Soften my heart from a heart of stone to a heart of flesh. Write your Word on my heart that I might not sin against You. Show me the way to correctly love people. As You fill me with Your perfect love, fill me with Your power and authority that You promised from the days of the prophets of old. Fill me with love and power from on High so that I might show Your glory to the dying world around me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Fight For Your Family

14 And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” ~ Nehemiah 4:14

I’m encouraging you today, dads, fight for your sons and fight for your daughters, fight for your wives and fight for your homes. This is your family we are talking about here, so take an interest and fight for them. What do I mean? Get on your knees and pray that the LORD will have mercy on them. That the LORD might intervene on their behalf. That the LORD might save them from their wicked ways and turn them towards Him. Fathers, you have a spiritual battle that you have to fight, not just for you, but for your wives and your children. Now is the time to stand up and fight for all that God has given you.

Peace. Love. Go forth and Fight For Your Family.

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Com’on Dad

16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. 18 And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” 19 Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” ~ 2 Kings 20:16-19

Hezekiah was sick onto death, but prayed to God, and God had mercy on him and healed him and would add 15 more years to his life. So, the king of Babylon sent an envoy to Hezekiah, wishing him well because he had heard that he was seriously ill, but he had recovered. Hezekiah, filled with pride, took and showed the envoy all the treasures he possessed. All the treasure in his own palace and all the treasure in the Temple of his God.

God was not pleased with that, so God sent Isaiah to tell Hezekiah that the time was coming that all he had stored up from the time of his fathers until now would be taken away to Babylon, and even his own sons would be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then Hezekiah said, “That’s cool, I can deal with that. The word the LORD has spoken is good and acceptable to me.”

He was thinking that because it would not happen in his lifetime but in his son’s lifetime, it was a good prophecy. Com’on, dad, that was a really selfish thing to do. You would think that Hezekiah would be like his father, David, and pray for his son with Bathsheba. Although God had pronounced the judgment, David still pleaded with God for mercy. Because he knew God is a merciful God. But Hezekiah was like, “Better them than me.” When it was his fault that all of that would happen to them in the first place.

Dads don’t accept anything but the best for your children, even if it is their fault. Even if they brought it on themselves, we must pray and intercede for our children every morning and every evening. When we wake up and before we go to sleep, we must petition God on their behalf. God must hear the names of our children called before His throne every single day. They are our offspring. So, dads, let us not be selfish like Hezekiah and be labeled a Com’on dad, but intercede for our children every day.

Heavenly Father, please bless my children, and if they have sinned against You, please forgive them and deal with them in mercy and in grace. Watch over them and keep them from harm and from bad influences. Lead them in the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Cover my children in the blood of Jesus, and give Your angels charge over them. Thank You, Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ Name I pray, amen.

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Follow Regardless of Others

10 Even if my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will hold me close. ~ Psalms 27:10 NLT

Many people have this idea that serving God will suddenly fix all their problems. Like accepting Jesus will suddenly make life a lot easier. This isn’t true because as soon as you accept Jesus, you have to start running the race set before you.

The race is tiring and difficult. Many fail; few even begin. The race isn’t easy; it’ll force you to choose between life and death. This may cause all people you love to abandon you, even your parents, but God will never leave you more forsake you. Instead, God will strengthen you and keep you. He will give you streams of living water that will never run dry. Why? Because God is our good Heavenly Father. He’s perfect and just in all of His ways.

When all others abandon you for doing what’s right, and the Devil comes against you like a flood, God holds you. He goes before you and clears the way. He dwells in you so that you might be strengthened and encouraged. He sticks closer than any brother, father, or friend. Why? Because He is good and He loves us dearly.

Peace. Love. Go forth and Follow Regardless.

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Strengthen The Spirit

41 When He returned to them the third time, He said, “Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But no—the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 Up, let’s be going. Look, my betrayer is here!” ~ Mark 14:41-42NLT

The last night of Jesus’ life was very stressful for Him. He was overwhelmed with the immense pressure laid upon Him to the point that His sweat became like drops of blood. Jesus, being a man as He set off His Godliness to take on our mortal form, asked His disciples to pray with Him. He needed help praying. Why? Because a three-strand cord is not easily broken. One may put a thousand to flight, but two may put ten thousand to flight.

But His disciples were overcome with sleep and couldn’t keep their eyes open. Jesus’ response was very different than the meme that tries to paint God as happy we fall asleep while praying because it’s like falling asleep in your grandfather’s arms.

God isn’t our grandfather. He’s our Heavenly Father. And just as our earthly fathers expect more out of us than our grandfathers, so does God expect more out of us. Jesus asked if they couldn’t pray with Him for one hour. That was the bare minimum Jesus was asking for, just one hour. When they fell asleep, Jesus said it was because their flesh was weak. This is why Paul puts a lot of emphasis on putting your flesh into subjection and building up your spirit man.

The last time Jesus went to the disciples, He left them sleeping until the hour of trial had come. He didn’t wake them up to pray with Him. This is a very frightening thought when we put it into perspective. When we pray, and we fall asleep, God wakes us up. He tries to get our attention; sometimes, He even wakes us up at all hours of the morning trying to get us to pray, but if we refuse to stay awake. If we refuse to put our flesh in check, then God will leave us where we lie. He won’t wake us up to pray anymore. And in doing so, we will miss our opportunity to prepare for the coming trial that awaits us.

All of the disciples left Jesus when He was arrested after that. Peter denied Him before the rooster crowed that morning. They were unprepared for the coming tests and trials because of the lack of prayer. When God wakes you up, it’s not for no reason. God is waking you up to strengthen your don’t miss out on your spiritual workout.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Strengthen The Spirit.

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Don’t Be Offended By The Word

60 Many of His disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?” 61 Jesus was aware that His disciples were complaining, so He said to them, “Does this offend you? 62 Then what will you think if you see the Son of Man ascend to heaven again? 63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64 But some of you do not believe me.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning which ones didn’t believe, and He knew who would betray Him.) 65 Then He said, “That is why I said that people can’t come to me unless the Father gives them to me.” 66 At this point many of His disciples turned away and deserted Him. 67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?” 68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. 69 We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.” ~ John 6:60-69 NLT

Jesus made many disciples of those who would follow Him. Some of these were even chosen before the Twelve Apostles, yet they walked away because of a difficult teaching to grasp. Many of us in the Church today do the same thing. We want to follow Jesus. In fact, we’ve been following Him for many years. Some our whole lives, but then we come across something that we just can’t wrap our minds around, and it causes us to run from God instead of to Him. A very famous celebrity couldn’t come to grips with how God could be jealous, so she not only walked away from Him, but she created an entirely new religion. And in doing so, she has led so many others astray as well.

See, God’s thoughts are far above our thoughts. His ways are far above our ways. In other words, it’s difficult for us mere mortals to grasp all that Jesus said. So, instead of seeking God for understanding, we get upset and walk away. Many of us have down this. It could be a simple verse or an entire theology, but nevertheless, we walk away because of a lack of understanding. This is dangerous. Why? Because there’s no evidence that those disciples who did this repented and came back to follow Christ. The LORD warns that if we refuse to follow His ways, we’ll be given over to a reprobate mind. Therefore, love the LORD and all of His ways. Serve the LORD with gladness. He will never withhold good from you. His desire is for your good. Therefore, trust in Him, and He will guide you into paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Be Offended By The Word.

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Fully Trust God

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Even when God is disciplining us, His thoughts are toward providing us with hope and a future. All of God’s thoughts are pleasing and pleasant toward us because God loves us. Never make the mistake of even considering that God is against you or that He does not have your best interest at heart. Just like an earthly father will discipline his child, so God will discipline us so that we can learn and not stay in ignorance (Proverbs 3 & Hebrews 12).

God has great plans for us, but we must be disciplined and not run wild and out of control. We can’t be craving and gullible. We can’t be chasing after fame and fortune and getting caught up in the things of this world. You must care about the things that God cares about. You must value what God values. Why? Because these are eternal, but the things of this world are temporary. The temporary things lead us to death because they lead us far away from God.

Trust the plans of the LORD. He may not always tell us the purpose of each and every season He has us go through, but we can have faith that it is always for our good and never to hurt or harm us. This is the promise we have from our Heavenly Father, who loves us more than we could ever know.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fully Trust God.

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Remember Who You Follow

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. 3 So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. 5 Everything they do is for show. On their arms they wear extra wide prayer boxes with Scripture verses inside, and they wear robes with extra long tassels. 6 And they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the seats of honor in the synagogues. 7 They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi.’” ~ Matthew 23:1-7NLT

Jesus warned the people not to leave the temple or ignore the teachers because they taught Truth but didn’t follow what they preached. Today, so many people leave the Church because of a pastor and what he or she does. They leave the Church entirely because of someone else. Jesus is telling us not to do that. Too often, we base our own relationship with God and our faith in Him on other people’s relationship with God. We base our actions on other people’s actions.

Our relationship with Jesus should never be based on someone else. It’s only about us and Jesus. A lot of our pastors and leaders are like the Pharisees and Scribes of Jesus’ day. They teach Truth, but they don’t live it. Just like we’ll have to stand before God on Judgment Day and give an account for all that we did and didn’t do, so will our leaders. If we allow someone else’s downfalls and slip-ups to affect our relationship with God, then we’ll be judged for that on Judgement Day. Jesus told Peter a very difficult statement to come to grips with.

Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!”

John 21:22

We can’t control how our leaders act, but we can control how we act. We have to remember that we don’t follow men; we follow God Himself. We follow the forerunner of our faith. The one who went before us and made a way where there was no way.

Dear LORD, please help me to follow You. Help me not to be distracted by others and how they choose to live their lives. Help me to keep my focus on You. Help me to keep You and You alone as my North Star and the center of my world. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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