Spiritual Archives

February 18, 2022February 17, 2022

Lulled To Sleep

²² But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. ²³ For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. ²⁴ For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. ~ James 1:22-24^ESV

So many of us in the Church today were raised in church from childhood. We’ve heard the Bible our entire lives, and to many of us, it’s lulled us to sleep. We’ve forgotten that love we had at first. We’ve gotten so used to grace that we’ve forgotten the price that was paid. We’ve forgotten how much God has done for us and in us.

When we go to church, it’s no longer about growing in Spirit and Truth; it’s become about a religious ritual that we believe will get us into Heaven. The message begins to fall on deaf ears, and we stop growing, becoming complacent we forget who we once were. But it’s not too late to awaken your sleeping spirit. It’s not too late to melt your heart of stone. God has already paid your debt; all you have to do is repent.

Dear LORD God, please forgive me for taking Your Word for granted and for taking advantage of Your grace. Please replace my heart of stone with a heart of flesh and renew a right spirit within me. Awaken my sleeping spirit that I might know You and who You created me to be. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

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The Sons of God Pt. 1: Who Are They?

Whenever giants or the Nephilim are mentioned, more times than not, the Sons of God are brought up in the same breath. This is all because of what some have named, The Genesis 6 Experiment. Genesis 6:1-4 explains that the Sons of God came down and reproduced with the daughters of man. Many believe that these Sons of God were angels, while others believe they were the righteous sons of Seth. But is it even possible for angels to have sex with women? Can angels even take human form? Aren’t angels terrifying beings? Join ArieRashelle as she searches through Scripture to understand who the Sons of God were in Genesis 6 in her video, The Sons of God Pt. 1: Who Are They?

Genesis 6:1-4
Genesis 5:1-3
1 Corinthians 15:45
John 3:1-21
2 Corinthians 5:17
2 Peter 2:4-10
Jude 5-7
Hebrews 4:6
Hebrews 4:9
Hebrews 10:26
2 Corinthians 5:2
Genesis 19
Hebrews 13:1-2

The Sons of God Pt. 1: Who Are They?

Who Are The Sons of God?

The Genesis 6 Experiment

¹ When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, ²the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. ³Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” ⁴The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.
Genesis 6:1-4

In Genesis 6, the author doesn’t write that the Sons of God and the daughters of man had sex and conceived the Nephilim. It simply said that during the time the Sons of God were sleeping with the daughters of man, the Nephilim were on the earth as well. Oh, and also they were on the earth after that as well.

The New Testament Account

⁴For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into [Tartarus] and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; ⁵if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes He condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; ⁷and if He rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked ⁸(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); ⁹then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, ¹⁰and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.
2 Peter 2:4-10

Peter explains that there are angels who sinned and are now still in chains of gloomy darkness in Tartarus, until Judgment Day. These angels are the same beings as the Sons of God recorded in Genesis 6:1-4.

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Beware of Complacency

⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? ¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, ¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. ~ Proverbs 6:9-11

When we stop desiring the things of God, and we stop seeking Him, we become complacent in our walk with God. When we become complacent with God, we stop moving forward. If we aren’t running the race set before us, then we’ll never reach the finish line. We’ll never find our Promised Land. We’ll fall asleep right where we stand and eventually die of hunger and thirst.

This is where a lot of us are. We’ve slowly stopped reading our Bible. We’ve slowly stopped praying. We’ve slowly become distant from God without even realizing it. We don’t have forever to get it right. We only have today; tomorrow is promised to no one. We have to constantly check our spiritual temperature lest we fall asleep, allowing poverty and want to sneak up on us like an armed robber.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Beware of Complacency.

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Be Aware of His Presence

¹⁰Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. ¹¹And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. ¹²And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! ¹³And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. ¹⁴Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. ¹⁵Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” ¹⁶Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” ¹⁷And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” ~ Genesis 28:10-17

The LORD was with Jacob, but Jacob had no idea God was with him that He was. The LORD had to give Jacob a dream so that he understood that he was in the presence of God Almighty. This is how we are. We understand God is within us, but we don’t know His presence the way we should. We can walk into a room and never realize the presence of Almighty God is in that place, just waiting for His people to enter into His presence and see miracles.

It’s in His presence that miracles take place, that salvation and forgiveness are given, and freedom dwells. Yet even seasoned Christians miss the presence of God Almighty. And in doing so, we miss blessings and miracles. Therefore, wake up and take notice. Take notice of the presence of the LORD. Take notice of what He is doing in your life and those around you. Take notice of all His promises and all of His characteristics.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Aware of His Presence.

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Seek Good

¹⁴Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. ¹⁵Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. ~ Amos 5:14-15^NIV

The desires of our heart are what leads us in our actions. They are what define our character. Therefore, we must seek good that we might live and not die. That in our weaknesses, God might have mercy on us. Because when we dwell in God seeking good and we become weak in our sin, God lifts us up on His shoulders that we might be strong through Him.

Don’t fall into the traps of the enemy that tell you your past struggles define you. Your past doesn’t define you, but your present does. Your current actions are what define who you are, and in turn, the destination you will reach. When we only focus and desire evil, we choose the same death that Christ Jesus saved us from.

We willingly choose Eternal Death by giving into the strongholds in our life that have replaced God and, in turn, have become false gods. We have become enslaved to them. But if we set our hearts on good and our desires are to please God, then our actions will change, and chains will begin to break because of the reddening blood of Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek Good.

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Consecrate Them

¹⁵When the water in the skin was gone, she put the child under one of the bushes. ¹⁶Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot, for she said, “Let me not look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. ¹⁷And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. ¹⁸Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” ¹⁹Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. ²⁰And God was with the boy, and he grew up. He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow. ²¹He lived in the wilderness of Paran, and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt. ~ Genesis 21:15-21

Hagar and Ishmael were just thrown out of the house of Abraham. They were trekking through the wilderness when they couldn’t go anymore. So, Hagar set her son down and went far enough where she didn’t have to watch him die, but God heard the cries of the boy. Though Hagar was older and no doubt wiser, God didn’t hear her cries. He heard the cries of the boy.

God honored the boy and was with the boy because of his father, Abraham. It could be because Abraham circumcised him under God’s covenant. It could just be because God promised Abraham he would be a great nation. What we know for sure is that God was with Ishmael because of Abraham.

How many of us today can say that God shows mercy to our children because we are a friend of God? Or that God hears the cries of our children because we are so close to God? We have to build a relationship so strong with the LORD that when our children are out of our sight and in physical or spiritual danger, their cries can be heard from God. That even if they don’t know they are in danger, the Holy Spirit cries out to the Father on their behalf.

We have to raise our children with the love and the fear of God, that they understand what it means to dwell in His presence and seek His face. So they understand right from wrong. So that God may dwell with them even when they are grown. Now is the time to teach them how to pray, worship, and fast. We have to teach the ways of righteousness them before the world can corrupt them and then wonder where it all went wrong. Make a stand to consecrate your children in the LORD, that even when they are old, they will still abide in His love.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Consecrate Them.

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Prepare Your Household

¹ God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ²So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you and purify yourselves and change your garments. ³Then let us arise and go up to Bethel, so that I may make there an altar to the God who answers me in the day of my distress and has been with me wherever I have gone.” ~ Genesis 35:1-3

When Jacob was preparing to go before the LORD, he didn’t just have himself spiritually prepared. He made sure his entire household was spiritually prepared. He told them to get rid of their pagan gods and purify themselves because Jacob understood that even if everybody may not be there because they were under his roof, they were under him. So, he had to make sure that they weren’t bringing a curse on Jacob or his household.

Today, we are fooled by the lie that our actions only affect us, but that’s not true. One man’s actions brought a curse on all of Israel. One man’s actions caused his entire family to be swallowed up into the earth. Our actions affect those around us, and other people’s actions affect us. When we invite someone into our home, we have to be careful that they aren’t bringing anything that could but a chasm between God and us.

We have to separate our household and our spiritual lives from the world and its darkness. We have to make sure we have nothing in our lives that can give the Devil legal right in our lives or keep our prayers from being heard by God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare Your Household.

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Refresh Your Memory

Jacob knew who God was. God had called him. God was with Jacob the full twenty years he was with Laban. Jacob even physically wrestled with God. Yet, God reminded Jacob of who He is and what He had done for him.

Even though we know who God is, we still need a reminder. We need a refresher, lest we forget His goodness and mercy. Lest we forget all that He has done for us. Lest we face an enemy that seems too great for God to handle.

We all need reminding of who God is, not just for us, but for spirits around us that try to separate us from Him. When God went before Moses, He didn’t just silently go before him. God shouted His own name and all He had done for Moses and the people of Israel. When we refresh our minds and the atmosphere of who God is, there is a shift in the air. Fear turns to courage. Grief turns to joy. Weakness turns to strength. And faith abounds richly.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Refresh Your Memory.

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Where Is Paradise?

Throughout Scripture, we see that the afterlife plays a huge role in our theology. Where we go when we die isn’t left up to every person’s individual imagination or even interpretation, the Bible sets out a clear description of what happens when we die. So, then what or where was the man Paul speaks about being caught up to paradise go? What is paradise exactly? Join ArieRashelle as she searches through Scripture for the answer to these questions and more in her video, Where is Paradise?

Luke 23:40-43
Matthew 12:39-40
Psalms 16:9-10
Ephesians 4:8-10
2 Corinthians 12:2-4
Luke 16
Matthew 11:12
John 10:7-30
Revelation 2:7
Genesis 3:22-24
Ezekiel 31:15-17
Genesis 3:19
Psalms 139:7-8

Where is Paradise?

⁴²And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³And He said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:42-43

²I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. ³And I know that this man was caught up into paradise—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows— ⁴and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
2 Corinthians 12:2-4

⁷He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.’
Revelation 2:7

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Keep an Eye on the Future

¹⁷Then Abraham bowed down to the ground, but he laughed to himself in disbelief. “How could I become a father at the age of 100?” he thought. “And how can Sarah have a baby when she is ninety years old?” ¹⁸So Abraham said to God, “May Ishmael live under your special blessing!” ¹⁹But God replied, “No—Sarah, your wife, will give birth to a son for you. You will name him Isaac, and I will confirm my covenant with him and his descendants as an everlasting covenant.” ~ Genesis 17:17-19

The LORD told Abraham that Sarah would give birth to a son, but Abraham laughed to himself in disbelief. Immediately after, God tells Abraham the name of his son, Isaac. Isaac apparently means ‘He laughs.’ And if we think about it, Isaac didn’t really seem to do much… sure, he’s one of the forefathers of the faith, but he didn’t do all that Abraham did or even what Jacob did. Isaac almost feels like a blur… I wonder if Abraham hadn’t have laughed but believed wholeheartedly, Isaac would have received a different name with a more purposeful role as a forefather of the faith.

The sins of the father may not rest on the children, meaning that the child will not die on behalf of the father’s sins, but the father’s sins will, without doubt, affect the children. This is why we have so many generational curses because what we do today affects those who live tomorrow.

Let’s take a quick look at Isaac again. He made the same exact mistakes of his father, Abraham, in regards to lying about his wife. He didn’t learn from his father’s mistakes. Isaac loved Esau most, and he didn’t see that the call was for Jacob. Even in his old age, Isaac was easily tricked by his wife and son, Jacob. A lot of what he did, or what he is remembered for, seems to be laughable, but even in all of that, you can still the mighty hand of God upon him.

God was with him when he had a problem with Abimelech and his people. God was with him when he married Rebekah and when he needed comforting after his mother’s death. God was without a doubt with Isaac, and this is because of Abraham’s relationship with God. Abraham’s relationship with God was so close and true that God continued that relationship with Isaac.

What we do and how we react to our circumstances will impact and affect our children, even if we don’t think it will. So, make a conscious effort to always have the future in mind as we live in the present.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Keep an Eye on the Future.

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Tag: Spiritual

Lulled To Sleep

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