Tag: Food For Growth

²² And David said to Ornan, “Give me the site of the threshing floor that I may build on it an altar to the Lord—give it to me at its full price—that the plague may be averted from the people.” ²³ Then Ornan said to David, “Take it, and let my lord the king do what seems good to him. See, I give the oxen for burnt offerings and the threshing sledges for the wood and the wheat for a grain offering; I give it all.” ²⁴ But King David said to Ornan, “No, but I will buy them for the full price. I will not take for the Lord what is yours, nor offer burnt offerings that cost me nothing.” ~ 1 Chronicles 21:22-24

How often do we bring offerings that cost us nothing, and expect God to move mountains for us? We don’t want to be uncomfortable or be put out in order to give God what He deserves. We will settle for less than the very minimum so that we can ease our conscience and continue on with our lives. We expect God to do great things for us, to have mercy on us, to show us favor and grace, yet we never want to step out and give God our best. We never want to sacrifice our flesh for God. Sacrifice our time. Sacrifice our food. Our music. We want our cake and eat it too.

Stop settling for the bare minimum. You want to see great things happen? Then you need to do great things. You need to sacrifice your time. Your food. Your flesh. Your music. You have to bring your very best when you come before the altar of God. Don’t be fooled by the idea that God is just a genie waiting for you to make a request. Sure He desires you to come before Him, to make your requests known to Him, but not empty-handed. Not without bringing something first for Him. Bring your offerings and sacrifices that cost you something.

Too often we are like Cain, we bring whatever falls off the tree and expect God to be excited and thankful for some dropped fruit. We need to be like Abel, who brought his very best. He brought the first and gave it to God. We see the Abels of the world being accepted, and we become envious. Instead of us giving our best and doing what we know we need to do, we focus on the Abels, and we try to destroy them, in turn destroying ourselves. Don’t look at others and their rewards, you never know what they sacrificed to get it. Bring your own sacrifices, your own offerings to the Altar of God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bring Your Best.

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“¹ After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, ² and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. ³ And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. ⁴ And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows. And Pharaoh awoke. ⁵ And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. ⁶ And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind. ⁷ And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. ⁸ So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.” ~ Genesis 41:1-8

Just like Pharaoh sought the answer to his dreams from magicians and wise men, we seek counsel from everyone who is not God. We always go searching for answers in places where answers cannot be found.

We seek out counsel from ungodly people, from people who are not believers, from people who are spiritually asleep, when the true answer can only come from God. Just as the magicians and wise men had no answer for Pharaoh, neither do the people who we seek and ask. The only one who can help us with our troubles, the only one who can show us the truth is God.

And just as God spoke through Joseph, He still speaks through other people as well. He may not answer you directly, but He will answer you, you just have to be listening to the right source of information. God will never leave you hanging. He will never leave you on read. He will never abandon you. God won’t always show up the way you expect. Sometimes He’ll show up in the most unexpected way or place, but He promises that His sheep know His voice. We are His sheep, and He is our Shepherd, trust that you know His voice.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek The Right Counsel.

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⁹ So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, ¹⁰ and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. ¹¹ Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” ¹² Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. ¹³ In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. ¹⁴ Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. ¹⁵ For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”

¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, ¹⁷ and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” ¹⁸ And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. ¹⁹ In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you.” ~ Genesis 40:9-19

There were two different dreams and two different interpretations, both of which are very significant today. There are two very different roads with two very different destinations. One road leads to destruction and one leads to restoration, both destinations and both roads are determined by a dream. Our dream, the dream we listen to, the dream we follow, and the dream we live. See, those men had Joseph to interpret their dreams after they had them, after it was too late, but we have the interpretation of dreams before our destination is set in stone. We have an interpretation from God Himself, who got off His throne and said “this leads here and this leads there.”

Watch yourself and you will see what your dreams are, and therefore you will see what your eternal destination is. But unlike the two men in this story, we can change our dreams.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Change Your Dream.

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¹ Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³ And the tempter came and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” ⁴ But He answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

⁵ Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ⁶ and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” ⁷ Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

⁸ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to Him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.’” ¹¹ Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Him. ~ Matthew 4:1-11

Notice when the Devil showed up? It wasn’t when Jesus was full. It wasn’t when He was strong. The Devil showed up when Jesus was weak. When He was hungry. We have this idea that The Devil won’t or shouldn’t attack us at our weakest moment, but that’s precisely when the best time to attack is.

When you watch a lion stalk its prey, it doesn’t go after the strongest gazelle; instead, it goes after the weaker gazelle. It attacks the prey that it feels it would be able to destroy and devour the easiest. And that’s exactly what the devil does with us. He waits for us to be weak. He waits for us to be hurting. He waits for us to be hungry. Because then he has a better chance of overcoming us. And the worst part is that a lot of the times we allow him to without a fight.

With every attack, Jesus defended Himself with scripture. How many of us can say that? We quote one scripture and then give up. Jesus is God, and it took Him three scriptures and a rebuke for The Devil to flee Him.

See we read the verse “resist the Devil and he shall flee you,” but we forget that we have to resist him more than one time. Depending on how strong your Spirit Man is and how weak your flesh is, will determine how long it takes for The Devil to flee.

For instance, if you don’t seek God daily, spending time in both worship, prayer, and reading the bible, you will be easily overtaken. Why? Because you haven’t fed your Spirit Man, so he is weak. You have to take time with God to strengthen your Spirit Man, or your flesh will always allow you to be overtaken.

See Jesus was hungry, but only in the physical sense. Jesus’ Spirit Man was well fed. Was strong. Was alert. Jesus knew that He had to strengthen His Spirit Man so that He could take on and overcome every sin known to man. We may not have to face every sin known to man, but we do have to face sins that continuously overcome us. And the only way to defend ourselves is by reading scripture, spending time in worship, prayer, and fasting.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Feed Your Spirit.

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“⁹ And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘¹⁰ Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you and reap its harvest, you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest, ¹¹ and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, so that you may be accepted. On the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. ¹² And on the day when you wave the sheaf, you shall offer a male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering to the Lord. ¹³ And the grain offering with it shall be two tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, a food offering to the Lord with a pleasing aroma, and the drink offering with it shall be of wine, a fourth of a hin. ¹⁴ And you shall eat neither bread nor grain parched or fresh until this same day, until you have brought the offering of your God: it is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.’” ~ Leviticus 23:9-14

How many of us have successful businesses? How many of us never worry about their income? I’m gonna go with less than half think like this. How many of us give the first fruits to God? Here’s what I mean. The very first paycheck you earn from that business or the very first amount you earn from the first product you sold. How many can say they give that to God? Probably even less. Why is that important?

Because by bringing the firsts, you are bringing your entire business before God so that He can bless it. So that it can be prosperous. So that it can reap more than you ever thought. Now I know that it sounds crazy to give the first to God. It sounds absolutely crazy, but it’s absolutely necessary. How can we expect God to bless our business, when we can’t even bring it to Him so that He may bless it.

When you sow into God, God blesses what you have sowed, so that you can reap. Ecclesiastes 11:1 tells us to “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.” Sow into God, and God will bless what you have sown, and you will reap exponentially.

And the firsts are different than the tithe. Why? Because the tithe is a tenth of what you have earned. But the first is the entire first you have made. If it’s a restaurant, the first you make from selling to your first customer, that’s the first. The first you get from the first car you wash. That’s the first. It’s gonna take a lot of faith. It’s gonna take a lot of trust. And it’s gonna take overcoming Mammon. But God promises that when we give to Him, He will give to us. We expect God to bless us first, then we will bring an offering. But that’s not how it works. You have to set the offering down before God can burn it up and accept it. You have to first provide the sacrifice so that God can provide the fire. You have to first open up yourself so that God can fill you up. We have to meet God’s standards before He can bless us. God doesn’t lower His standards. Neither does He go back on His Word, but He watches over it to make sure it has done what He has spoken. Take a step out in faith and see what happens.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Bring Your Firsts.

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“²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. ²² And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. ²³ The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.” ~ Genesis 39:21-23

Even when we’re in prison, God is with us. Even when we’re at the lowest of lowest, and we allow God to be with us, He will be there. In fact, He’ll do more than just be there; He’ll show you your destiny, your plan, your call if you let Him.

See everywhere Joseph went, he was in charge. In Potiphar’s house, in the prison, Joseph was in charge. His destiny, or call, was to be in charge of all of Egypt second only to Pharaoh. Even though he was in charge in the prison he still had the prison keeper before him, even though he was in charge at Potiphar’s house, he still had Potiphar before him. Everything Joseph did, or went through, mirrored his future.

Even when we’re at our lowest, God still shows us our highest, but it’s up to us to look for it. Sometimes it’ll take a little time to find the best in the worst situations, so I beseech you, search hard and don’t lose hope.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Search.

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“³⁵ All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, ‘No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.’ Thus his father wept for him.” ~ Genesis 37:35

We’re like Jacob. See, we only look at the evidence that the devil has brought before us and refuse to allow God to comfort us. We refuse to look at anything except the bloody coat the devil holds in front of us. We want to feel the pain, we don’t want relief. We constantly say that we don’t like the pain, we complain about the pain, but we refuse to do anything to fix the pain. We refuse to look at God and allow him to comfort us. Instead we demand to go to Sheol in mourning. Sometimes all we have to do is look away from the bloody coat so that we can get free of the mourning. So that we can move on, but we refuse.

Maybe part of us just doesn’t feel right moving on. Maybe part of us just feels like it’s the right thing to hold on to pain. Maybe part of us feels attached and connected to pain because it’s been there for so long. There’s a time for mourning, but at some point in time we have to look up and be comforted by God. Even though it’s hard, it’s the only thing we can do so that we can move forward. Because if we stand still while time moves, we’ll soon die. The only one that can set us free, is ourselves. We were given the key to let ourselves out of the cell of pain that we are in, we just have to know where to find the key we hid so long ago.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look.

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