Never quit…
The moment you are about to quit is generally the moment just before your miracle happens… this is why we NEVER QUIT!
ISAIAH 40:22-31
The Message Bible
22 God sits high above the round circle of earth.
The people look like mere ants.
He stretches out the skies like a canvas—
yes, like a tent canvas to live under.23 He ignores what all the princes say and do.
The rulers of the earth count for nothing.
24 Princes and rulers don’t amount to much.
Like seeds barely rooted, just sprouted,
They shrivel when God blows on them.Like flecks of chaff, they’re gone with the wind.
25 “So—who is like me?
Who holds a candle to me?” says The Holy.26 Look at the night skies:
Who do you think made all this?
Who marches this army of stars out each night,
counts them off, calls each by name
—so magnificent! so powerful!—
and never overlooks a single one?27 Why would you ever complain, O Jacob,
or, whine, Israel, saying,
“God has lost track of me.
He doesn’t care what happens to me”?28 Don’t you know anything? Haven’t you been listening?
God doesn’t come and go. God lasts.
He’s Creator of all you can see or imagine.He doesn’t get tired out, doesn’t pause to catch his breath.
And he knows everything, inside and out.29 He energizes those who get tired,
gives fresh strength to dropouts.30 For even young people tire and drop out,
young folk in their prime stumble and fall.31 But those who wait upon God get fresh strength.
They spread their wings and soar like eagles,
They run and don’t get tired,
they walk and don’t lag behind.
God NEVER tells us to ask Him for something He doesn’t want us to have; and then when we ask we MUST ask in expectant faith!
1 John 5:14-15
Confidence and Compassion in Prayer
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask ANYTHING according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, WHATEVER we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
In Mark’s Gospel, after coming down off the Mt. of Transfiguration, Jesus finds Himself confronted with a desperate 911 situation, where a father with an demon oppressed Epileptic son is desperate to gain healing and deliverance for his son.
Coming down off the Mt. of Transfiguration, Jesus was confronted with a deparate situation:
Mark 9:14-26
A Boy Is Healed
14 And when He came to the disciples, He saw a great multitude around them, and scribes disputing with them. 15 Immediately, when they saw Him, all the people were greatly amazed, and running to Him, greeted Him. 16 And He asked the scribes, “What are you discussing with them?”
17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”
And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”
26 Then the spirit cried out, convulsed him greatly, and came out of him. And he became as one dead, so that many said, “He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose.
God clearly says in the Bible (read also Isaiah 55:8-10) in verse 11, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
In another place, God tells us that He has counted His Word above all His Name (see Psalm 138:2), and in the New Testament we are told that the Just shall live by faith (Note: that the Just would be us — of all who have been justified through the propitious sacrifice and shed Blood of Jesus, on Calvary’s cross).
MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST
Dependent on God’s Presence
There is no thrill for us in walking, yet it is the test for all of our steady and enduring qualities. To “walk and not faint” is the highest stretch possible as a measure of strength.
The word walk is used in the Bible to express the character of a person— “…John…looking at Jesus as He walked…said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God!’ ” (John 1:35-36).
There is nothing abstract or obscure in the Bible; everything is vivid and real. God does not say, “Be spiritual,” but He says, “Walk before Me…” (Genesis 17:1).
When we are in an unhealthy condition either physically or emotionally, we always look for thrills in life.In our physical life this leads to our efforts to counterfeit the work of the Holy Spirit; in our emotional life it leads to obsessions and to the destruction of our morality; and in our spiritual life, if we insist on pursuing only thrills, on mounting up “with wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), it will result in the destruction of our spirituality.
Having the reality of God’s presence is not dependent on our being in a particular circumstance or place, but is only dependent on our determination to keep the Lord before us continually.Our problems arise when we refuse to place our trust in the reality of His presence. The experience the psalmist speaks of— “We will not fear, even though…” (Psalm 46:2)— will be ours once we are grounded on the truth of the reality of God’s presence, not just a simple awareness of it, but an understanding of the reality of it.
Then we will exclaim, “He has been here all the time!” At critical moments in our lives it is necessary to ask God for guidance, but it should be unnecessary to be constantly saying, “Oh, Lord, direct me in this, and in that.”
Of course He will, and in fact, He is doing it already! If our everyday decisions are not according to His will, He will press through them, bringing restraint to our spirit. Then we must be quiet and wait for the direction of His presence.
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SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 