Out of the Abundance

Matters of the Heart

Did you know that "heart" is a five letter word? Take your hand and hold it out in front of you. Now spell out word heart using a letter per finger. Did you get a revelation from this exercise? Well if you didn't I, I did.

A few years back during morning worship service, one of my sisters in Christ made a mention about the word heart. The word that she gave was powerful. But for me, God took it a step further. The exercise that you did was what He had me do. And what He showed me then was this...........what you do with your hands comes from your heart. This simple yet, powerful lesson stuck with me. As anything that God reveals to His children, when what He speaks to your heart is for you, you will not forget it. Praise God! What you do with your hands is just one matter of the heart. The other matter is what you speak.

The word of God tells us that we are to keep our hearts with all diligence for out of it springs the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). Let's face it, things come up. Family members die, people lose jobs, words are spoken that hurt to the heart and so on. Everyday there is an issue. Yet, with all of this, we have been commanded by God to keep our hearts. With every command, many of us want to know why? What is the big issue with keeping my heart? Well, let's look at what Proverbs 27:19 says, "As in water reflects the face, so a man's heart reveals the man." Friend, the abundance of your heart speaks to those you encounter and it tells them what you are all about.

God gives a warning in His word that we shall know a tree by it's fruit. Evil trees cannot bear good fruit and good trees cannot bear evil fruit. This is talking about the things that we do. As so it is with our words. Matthew 12:34 states that evil people cannot speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Our words reveal to others the condition of our hearts. What are the matters of your heart? What un-forgiveness are you harboring that is causing you to speak bitterly of someone else? When those issues that God warned us about spring up, what are you speaking from your mouth as you deal with them?

Do you know that your heart is a representation of a garden before God. In your heart He has promised to plant the seed of His word that you may bear the fruit of that seed. The seed that He planted, dear friend, is the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus died so that you could have an abundant life. Now I want you to think about it. As a matter-of-fact, just close your eyes and visualize what that abundant life in Jesus Christ looks like. Reflect on what He has told you in His word as to the promises He has made of His kingdom. What do you see? Now picture that being in your heart. How awesome is that vision!

Everybody's abundance may not look like the one you envisioned. That's because God desires that vision of abundance for you. But as He has said in His word, it will only come by you keeping your heart with all diligence. Things of the world cannot be allowed in your garden. Your heart is the place that was only meant for God's Word. Friend, if God's word is not in abundance in your heart, then my prayer for you today is that God will reveal to you the abundance of your heart. I pray His Holy Spirit will show you what you have in abundance. And if it is not the word of God, then you have work to do in cultivating your garden.

Our words are meant to glorify the Lord. Our actions our thoughts, everything springs from the abundance of our heart. I pray that yours will be an abundance to speak good and bear the good fruit of God's word. Blessings.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart;

Try me, and know my anxieties;

And see if there is any wicked way in me,

And lead me in the way everlasting."

(Psalm 139:23-24)

He Looks at Your Faith - Part 2

Clarification

The other day I wrote a post about faith being accounted as righteousness before God. In this post, I stated that God does not look at your works, but your faith. After I made this post, I had a sister in Christ inbox me with the scriptures coming from "James 2:14-18".

"What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, 'You have faith, and I have works.' Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works."

Reading over these verses, I felt led to clarify some things about my previous post. Let me first say, that I do not object to anything in these verses or the fact that my sister in Christ felt led to share them with me. It is the word of the living God. In fact, I thank her for them. It shows me that she cares enough about me that she wants me to not be in error of God's word. Friend, she is doing what she has been ordained to do.

I'm going to ask that you will read over these verses one more time before you proceed to reading the rest of this post. The verses above help clarify why God accounted Abraham's faith to him as righteousness. When God told Abraham that He would give Him an heir, Abraham believed him (Genesis 15:6). But Abraham also had to do something. Abraham, at the appointed time, had to sleep with Sarah. It was then that she conceived Isaac, the promised heir. Abraham's faith in God led him to do the works that led to the conception of Isaac.

This matter of works is a totally different matter than the one I discussed in my previous post. However, for you to have the full understanding of it is just as important. In both matters of faith, God still looks at your faith and not your works. One has to do with you believing in God to make you righteous rather than you thinking that you have to do everything right or by the book. It has to do with you not allowing the enemy the room to make you think that you are a worthless person because you make a mistake. The other has to do with you believing in God and your faith in God causes you to keep yourself pure before God.

Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. And what James is saying in the scriptures above coincides with that. Your faith in God drives you to live the righteous life that Jesus died for you to live. Your faith in God drives you to want to be the best that you can be before God. Even if you make a mistake, you repent, get up, dust off, and keep going............by faith. My brother, my sister, every work that you do before the eyes of our Father in heaven will not be perfect. But the fact that you have faith in Him allows him not to look at your works. He looks at your faith for the reason why you do the works.

Abraham's faith in God had to show that he believed in God. Put it this way, I don't believe you or I would be confessing to be a child of God while the things we do and say scream everything but a child of God. Your faith in God produces the fruit of that faith. When you love God, you will obey God. When God is the driving force of your faith, you will have works. You will change the way you talk, walk, think and act. Yes, faith without works is dead. But the predominant factor here is this........God does not want you to think that the things you do is what makes you righteous before Him. Your faith.......your faith is what He sees above everything else. Your faith in why you live the way you live and do what you do to glorify Him is what He sees. Again I say, God looks at your faith.

Blessings,

A Name for Yourself

The Tower of  Babel

Sitting one day in our front living room, I read a story to my nephew. It was "The Story of the Tower of Babel". Now I have heard this story told many times. I've heard it being spoken of in the sermons of pastors. And I guess, I never paid attention to enlightenment of it. But on this one particular day, this story came alive to me. I began to understand it's meaning.

Have you ever gotten the idea to create something? How did it make you feel? Could some of the feelings you felt be excitement, happy, joyful? I bet you couldn't wait to get started. You gathered your materials and put together your strategies. You wrote down your start-to-finish. Pretty soon you had a finished product. How did you feel about your finished creation? Did you cherish it? Did you love it? I would even say that you didn't even let anything happen to it, did you?

Friend, the way you felt about your creation is the same way that God felt when he created you. The book of Genesis 1:31 states clearly that God saw everything that He created and it was "good". However,  after the fall of man (Adam) things changed. The hearts of God's creation became evil. They began to worship themselves rather than God. His name became no longer important as they sought to make a name for themselves. This is the case with the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9).

Now the whole earth had one language and one speech...........and they said, "Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves..........." (vs. 1-4).

 

 

The creation of God had discovered their liberty and freedom. But instead of worshipping God and building up His name, they decided that they would build up their own name. They wanted to be able to say that they did it. God was left out. Or was He? If you continue to read the chapter, you will see that God came down to see what they were doing. And as we know, God was not pleased. His creation making a name for themselves? As loving and merciful as He is, this was something He could not allow to happen. So He confused their language.

 

Are there any of you reading this post who feel a slight conviction by this story? Well I have a confession to make.......it convicted me. If I may be truthful here, I check my blog page all of the time just to see if someone I associate with has left a comment or something on one of my posts. Sometimes I get discouraged when I see not one response. I have to admit that I had to examine myself and my motive for this page. The discouragement was so heavy that I felt as if the Holy Spirit said to me, that I was trying to build a name for myself.

 

I love God. I am grateful to Him for everything that He has done. Creation speaks of His beauty. I also love to write. At this point in my life, my life is completely consumed with my Father. The reason I started this page was that I could express my love for Him. I freely want to share with the world what an awesome God we serve. I find though that I must be careful by not losing my focus. It's about my Creator, not me. I feel privileged that my eyes are able to see and that my ears are able to hear.  

 

Gospel recording singer J. Moss has a song called, "We Must Praise". This song speaks of us using our every part of our bodies to praise God. This one particular verse of the song says...... "If I were a writer, I would use a pencil...." My blog to me is my pencil. What, my friend, are you using? Are you using it to lift up God's name or are you using it to make a name for yourself? I don't believe that the people of the Tower of Babel would have even attempted to make a name for themselves if they even considered the fact that God would separate them by confusing their language. This moment to me was one of God's ultimate test. One of the many that mankind failed.

 

How about your test? If God were to come down to see what you were doing with what He's given you, will you be found building up His name or yours. This story of the tower came alive to me because as simple and corny as it sounds, I realized where they got the word babbling from. Can you imagine being able to understand your neighbor one day and the next day you have not a clue as to what he or she is saying. If God did that then, what will He do now?

 

God wants to be glorified in everything that you or I do. Any time we do anything other than that, we are making a name for ourselves. The latter part of the song says this......."Since I'm a Believer, I use everything". 



He Looks at Your Faith

"And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6)

In the day-to-day of living life, how often do we find ourselves struggling with the fact of what we have done and have not done? Does it ever get us to the point where we feel as if we know not what else to do? Do we ever find ourselves throwing up our hands to God in the sense to give up when we feel as if we've failed? We struggle with doing this and that because we think within our own minds that God requires all of these things from us. Well today I have good news for you........Your struggle is OVER!

 

During my studies this morning, God showed me something very profound about the life of Abraham. At this particular time in Abraham's life God instructed him to go forth to a land that he would give him to possess. He had promised him to give him descendant's as numerous as the stars. God promised him an heir. But Abraham didn't see how this would happen because he had no children. Abraham stated to God that God hadn't given him any offspring. He was childless. Let's pause right there and look at what Abraham said............"You have given me no offspring." From this verse, the first thing I learned is that Abraham knew where his blessings came from. He knew that whatever he received came from God. Even though he was a childless man at the moment, He knew that God was the one who could give him children.

 

Although this is not the major point of my post today. It was one that I felt needed to be stated to bring me into the point of this post. God promised Abraham that his heir would come from his own body. And when we read Genesis 15:6, we see that Abraham believed God and that his belief was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham's belief in God was based on his faith in God. In other words, Abraham's faith made God count him as pure, sinless, and holy before Himself. God did not evaluate Abraham as righteous because everything he did was right, but because he had faith in God's ability to make him righteous. (Spirit-filled Student Life Bible, Word Wealth, pg.24)

 

I recall a time in my life where I used to be really hard on myself for not doing things right before God. I allowed the enemy to bring me into condemnation. It made me feel worthless and powerless. Then one day as I was spending time with the Holy Spirit, He showed me that it was not about the things that I did, but about my faith in the "One" who died to make me righteous. It was not about the fact that I had to keep the law, but about the "One" who came, fulfilled the law, died and rose again. It was about my faith in Jesus Christ. That revelation came to me in the year 2010.

 

I love the fact that God loves us so much that He reminds us of things that He has already spoken to us. Apparently, I must have forgotten and lost sight of this simple truth. God had to give me a gentle reminder through the life of Abraham. As He has spoken this to me, friend, He is also speaking to you. What is God saying? "My son, my daughter, I do not look at your works. I look at your faith."

 

Here, fellow reader, is the greatest example of this revelation that I can give you as God gave it to me. I will bet that you never thought about the reason why God says that He will remember your sin no more. In our day we refer to that as Him throwing our sin in the "Sea of Forgetfulness". I'm not sure we have even grasped the power that is within this fact. It's simple, yet profound. When we come to God in wholehearted repentance, He forgives our sin and forgets that we ever committed it. Why? You ask. Why would he? He does this because He is not looking at our works. He's looking at the fact that we believed in Him enough to realize that the act we committed was against Him. We believed in Him enough to kneel before Him to repent and ask for His forgiveness. He's looking at our faith.

 

It takes faith to believe in God, for without it, we wouldn't be able to please Him (Hebrews 11;6). For us to come to Him in repentance says to Him that we believe in Him. So therefore with that, God is pleased. Just as Abraham's faith made him pure before God, and it was accounted to Him for righteousness..........our faith does the same. It is our faith that keeps us pure. It is the fact that we acknowledged Jesus as being the Head of our lives. No work that we can ever do will account for much before God. The only work we need is the working of faith. For when He looks down from heaven and see that we are confessing the name of His Son, Jesus, He sees our faith.

 

What work are you trying to do for God today? Is it a work of doing things right before God in hopes that He sees your work. Or, are you working your faith, that He will look down from heaven and be pleased? Child of God, don't worry about doing everything right. God looks at your faith.

 

 

How Much is Too Much? - Part 2

     

The Answer

How often do we say words from our mouths and the second after we've said them, our hands go up as if in disbelief that we've said such a thing? We say to ourselves, "Did I just say that?" or "I can't believe I said that." or "I didn't mean to say that." Deep down within we know that we meant what we said, said what we meant, and wanted it to do the damage that it has done. The thing that we fail to realize is that, once the words are released, we can't take them back. Deep down we know this, but it some way we try to fix the damage. We try to mend the hurt. We try to justify what we've said. Ever since the post on Facebook, I rolled over and over in my head what she meant. Believe it or not, I actually got my answer the same day I made the last post. It was revealed to me the reason we lose our covering.

As children of the Most High God, our words are supposed to be words that edify. In the Strong's Concordance, the word edify means the act of building up. God is clearly saying that our words are meant to be spoken with the intent on building up the people or person they are being spoken to. Anything contrary to this is out of the will of God. We lose our covering when we release words from our mouths that are not done with the intent for edification. There are people who tend to think that they can say whatever it is they want to say because they feel they have the liberty to say it out of "speaking the truth". Yet when the words come out of their mouths, there is not one word of truth in what they had to say. They come off being an offense rather than a blessing. They've used their liberty of words as an occasion to fulfill their flesh (Galatians 5:13). They've become a stumblingblock rather than a stepping-stone (1 Corinthians 8:9). This ought not to be so.

Once our covering has been removed, we open the door for criticism to come in. The devil loves to find any crack or crevice he can slither into to bring us into condemnation and guilt. The finger is then pointed at you. There are only two ways our words can be used: for good or for evil. Victoriously for us, we don't have to allow condemnation nor guilt to settle in. We have the authority through humility and repentance to run the devil off. The way that we do it when we are interacting with others is through edification. Just think of what you can do for that broken spirit when you speak words of encouragement. Surely we really don't want to give place to the enemy do we? I pray not.

It's a good thing for us to be covered by God's magnificent grace and to remain covered. One thing I know, is that He didn't make us ignorant to the wicked devices of the enemy. He actually exposes them for what they are: lies to deter us from the truth. Let's not be found putting an occasion of stumbling in our brother's way. Let's not lose our covering. Let us make no room for criticism but for building and edification.

Blessings,

"Let us therefore follow after the things

which make for peace, and things wherewith

one may edify another."

(Romans 14:9)