Are You Allowing Self To Be The Stumbling Block That Keeps You From Obtaining God's Best?

There are times when you may feel as though every time you turn around there is a new obstacle in your way.   You have to know without doubt that God is with you at all times.   God has promised to never leave you and to never forsake you.   He has promised to be with you always.   

You have to understand what an obstacle is.   An obstacle is defined as something that blocks, hinders, or prevents progress.  To progress means to move forward or to move onward towards a destination.   God is a God of progress.   It is His will that you move forward understanding that He has set before you an open door and He has already made preparation for your arrival.   

So don't be moved by the obstacles.   Instead move the obstacles that tend to get in your way through faith, patience, and prayer.   Know that you are an overcomer and God is on your side.    Trust God to remove those things that hinder you.   Also realize that you can be hindered by your thoughts, actions, and attitudes.   Don't allow "self" (selfish ways or selfish desires) to be the stumbling block that keeps you from getting to your final destination with God.   

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ...

"I Give Myself Away"

Ministered By William McDowell

Are You Waiting and Allowing God's Word To Strengthen Your Heart While You Wait?

One of the hardest things to do is to wait for the timing of God.   The thing is, God's timing is not always our timing.   We have become so accustomed to doing and getting things our way and what we have to understand is, it's not about having it our way.   It's all about living and doing things God's way.
   
The Bible says to wait on the Lord and that He will strengthen our heart.   What we tend to do is get weak in our waiting.   Instead of allowing our faith and God's Word to strengthen us, we tend to get weak, and lose our hope and faith.    We get to a place where we try to work things out on our own instead of waiting on God by standing still and trusting His Word.
  

Psalms 27:14
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,

and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

The book of Habakkuk talks about the vision being for an appointed time.  When you have an appointment, that is a set time.   It is a time that has been set aside for a particular thing.   Understand, life is a series of appointments with God.   He has already set aside particular times in your life for everything needed in your life to occur.    You have to wait for the appointment and trust Him in the waiting.

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Habakkuk 2:3
For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He hath made every [thing] beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Galatians 6:9
And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY

"In The Waiting"

Ministered By Vicki Yohe

Are You Being Steadfast and Immovable or Are You Staggering and Walking Unsteadily?

It’s time to stop staggering.   To stagger means to walk unsteadily.    When you walk unsteadily, you are prone to falling.   It’s time to stop falling outside of God’s Word and His will.   It’s time to be steadfast and immovable so that you can abound in the promises of God.   

Some of the synonyms for the word steadfast are:   loyal, faithful, committed, devoted, and dedicated.   God is steadfast.   He is loyal, faithful, committed, devoted, and dedicated to us.   The question is, are we willing to be loyal, faithful, committed, devoted, and dedicated to Him.    We spend our lives trying to do all these other things for other people and our jobs and yet we fail to be steadfast when it comes to the things of God.   It’s time for a shift.    It’s time to stop staggering.   

When things are immovable, they are fixed, secure, stable, anchored, and rooted.   God wants us to be immovable when it comes to His Word.   We need to have our hearts and minds fixed on His Word.   We need to be secure in His promises.    We need to be anchored and rooted when it comes to the things of God.  

WORSHIP FOR TODAY

"Stand"

Ministered By John P Kee

Do You Have God Boxed In or Are You Allowing The Holy Spirit To Override Your Flesh?

It's not about fitting God into a box.  Whether it be your box or someone else's.   God is NOT limited. He is not limited to your perception or anyone else's perception of what you should be or of what you should do.   What we have to understand is, boxes have limited space.   They restrict you and put boundaries on every side of you.    They are closed in and they limit the amount of movement or activity that you can do on the inside of them.   GOD IS NOT LIMITED!   When you look at your life, you have to understand that your body is clothed in flesh and the flesh puts on limitations like a box.   But inside of you is God's Holy Spirit which is the limitless power of God.    In order to walk in the limitless power of God, we have to stop allowing the desires of our flesh and the people we know in the flesh to self-contain us.    We have to always remember that we are who God says we are and we can do what God says we can do.   We have to know without doubt that God is limitless and He is boundless.  

People see from the outside and they will tell you their opinion.  God created you and when He made you, He purposed your life.    When something is created on purpose, that means it is created with an aim or objective.    To aim means to point or direct at a target.   God had an aim in mind when He created you.    He set you in place in the family He wanted you to be in, at the church He wanted you to be at, in the neighborhood He wanted you to be a part of, on the job He wanted you to work, to live the life that He preordained for you to live.     So understand, it is not about following the crowd, submitting to the flesh, or even pleasing people.   It’s all about walking out God’s will, way, and Word in the way that He has purposed for you to do it.   It’s about living the life you have been given in a way that pleases the Father.   Your flesh will not always want to submit, people may not always understand and there may be times when they don’t agree, but your life was created by God for God.  You have to learn how to live from the inside out.   Knowing that the Holy Spirit within knows no boundaries.   Let the Spirit of God override the limitations of your flesh so that you can fulfill the plan of God for your life.    

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION 

Romans 8:13-14 - King James Version (KJV)

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Are You Seeking God and His Kingdom First and Allowing Him To Add All The Other Things You Need To Your Life or Are You Seeking The Things?

It’s not about where you are.   It’s not about where you have been.   It’s all about where you are going and what you are doing for God.   It’s all about being led by Him.   It’s all about laying down self or should I say “selfish” desires.    You can’t please God when your focus lies on pleasing yourself.    It’s time to let go.    It’s time to seek God “first”.   It’s time to reprioritize.    It’s time to focus on being the vessel God created you to be.   It’s time to remember that God created you for His good pleasure and not your own.   

So often we live our lives seeking things.  Seeking the right person. Seeking the right job.  Seeking the right home.   We seek so many things that we fail to seek God.  What we must understand is that the Bible says to seek God “first” and all these other things will be added unto us.   When you add something, that means it is in addition to.    We have to have the bare basics before we can add anything to it.    We have to have God.   We have to be seeking God.  We have to be following God.    When we have, seek, and follow God, the rest will be added to our lives by God.    

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
Matthew 6:33
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY

"The More I Seek You"

Ministered By Kari Jobe

Are "Your" Words Filled With Love or Are You Spending Your Time Murmuring and Complaining?

Don't be one who murmurs and complains.   Don't be one who backbites and gossips.   Remember, the same person that you are talking against may be the very person that God wants to use to open a door for you in the future.   It may be your supervisor, it may be a family member, it may be a friend, or it may even be someone you have just seen in passing.   It doesn't matter.   Always let the fruit of who God is come out of your mouth.   Remember, God is love.  Therefore your words should always be filled with love.   Don't allow your mouth to be used against you or as a tool for bitterness, anger, strife, and defeat.  

When you think of love, you have to remember what the Bible says.    The Bible says that love is patient and love is kind.    So make sure you are exercising patience when you deal with others.  Make sure your words are filled with kindness.   You have to sometimes learn the art of silence and the art of walking away.    What we tend to do is to entertain others.  We entertain their ideas, their views, and their words.   Not only do we entertain them, we tend to join in with them.   We have to be conscious of what we are joining in with through the words that are coming out of our mouths.   Make sure you are speaking words filled with love and life into your life and into the lives of others.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Ephesians 4:29

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.  

Are You Walking, Talking, and Living Your Life Like The Overcomer God Has Positioned You To Be?

It’s not about what you have been through or even what you are going through.   It’s all about how we are representing God as we go through.   Are we giving up on Him?   Are we letting our faith be seen?   Are we trusting and believing that He will honor His promises in our lives?   How are we handling our processes of pain?   How are we walking through the fire?  Are we walking with confidence knowing that we can’t be burned?  Are we walking through life knowing that the floods cannot overtake or consume us?  

It’s real easy to get caught up and even stuck in what we are going through.    It’s real easy to live out our lives saying why God … why me?   The real question is why not you?   God has chosen you to be a light in the world.   A light that shines forth His goodness, His grace, and His favor.    A light that reflects His love.    He has chosen you to be an overcomer.     He chose you to show the world that you have overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony.     In order to have a testimony, you have to first go through a test.  
So instead of asking God why me, start thanking God for choosing you.   He hand-picked you to be His representative in the earth.   If He chose you, KNOW THAT He will keep you.    Represent Him well.   Walk in the knowledge of His Word, knowing that He said that He will never leave nor forsake you.   Knowing that He is faithful and true.   Knowing that You are an overcomer.    Knowing that you shall live and not die to declare the works and the Word of God in the earth.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

2 Corinthians 5:20 - 

Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us

UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF AMBASSADOR – An ambassador is an accredited diplomat sent by a country as its official representative to a foreign country.    

Understand, we are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven who have been sent here on earth to represent God.   Are you representing Him well?

Are You Recognizing The Source Behind The Fear and Doubt You Are Experiencing In Your Life?

Over and over again God encourages us through His Word to fear not.   In Joshua 9, He told us to be strong and of a good courage and to not be afraid.   In Isaiah 41, He said to fear not because He is with us.   In I John 4, He reminds us that greater is HE that is in us than he that is in the world.    God does not want us to walk around in fear.   He wants us to be strong and of a good courage.   He wants us to have faith in the fact that the Holy Spirit resides on the inside of us.   He wants to know without doubt that He is with us.    So don’t be afraid.  

We have to recognize the source of doubt and fear in our lives.   Neither doubt nor fear come from God.   From the beginning the whole tactic of the enemy in the Garden of Eden was to bring Adam and Even into a place of doubt.    The enemy came to Eve with a question.   He questioned what God had said.   There are many purposes to questions.  Questions can test your knowledge but they also can raise an element of doubt.     Questions should push you into a place of not only checking the information you know but also the source of the information you know.  

So when questions come your way that cause you to doubt, you need to check what is happening in your life against what God has said.   If there is lack in your life and you check and see that God said that He knows the things you have need of and is faithful and just to supply what you need, let that be your final answer to what you are going through.     Let God be your final source and let what He has said stand.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATIONJoshua 1:9 - Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God [is] with thee whithersoever thou goest. 

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear thou not; for I [am] with thee: be not dismayed; for I [am] thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. 

Psalms 34:4 - I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

1 John 4:4 - Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ... 

"Whom Shall I Fear"

Ministered By Chris Tomlin

REFERENCE / CITATION:   Whom Shall I Fear [God of Angel Armies] [Lyrics]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOkImV2cJDg

Have You Learned How To Trust God Even When You Are Experiencing Pain? We Have To Understand That Pain Sometimes Comes With Healing ...

Life doesn't stop right here.   It's not over based on what you have been going through.   Understand, sometimes pain is a part of the healing process.    When a woman births a baby, there is pain during and after the birth.  However, healing comes.     When a child falls and scrapes his knee, there is pain and even an open wound at times BUT healing comes.     We have to remember that pain is not always indicative of death.  Sometimes pain is necessary for newness and birth to occur.

What we have to do is trust God during and through our process of pain.   There may be times when just don’t understand why you are having to go through so much pain especially when you have been walking in obedience and live by faith.    We won’t always understand it all but God does have a plan.   He said in His Word that He knows the plans He has for us and they are plans that will give us a hope, a future, and an expected end.    So even when we don’t understand the process of pain, we still have to trust in God’s plan.   

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

Jeremiah 17:14

Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou [art] my praise.

Are You Seeking God From The Onset?

What if?  What if things were different?   What if you had all that you needed without ever having to call on God?  Would you?   We tend to not do things when we are not confronted with them.   Your problems should be taking you to a place of communing or should I say communicating with God.

God desires to be in fellowship with us.   Fellowship can be defined as companionship and association.   When you have fellowship, you have a mutual support system.   God wants to be your system of support.   Are you letting God be your support in life?  He is the only firm foundation because He changes NOT.  

Don’t get discouraged when things come up against your life.   Learn how to seek God from the onset.    You have to learn how to immediately cast your cares over to God.   We have to stop struggling trying to figure out what to do when God has already told us.  We have to truly see God as all seeing and all knowing and know that He cares about us.    He is not lacking empathy but He is looking for faith, trust, and obedience.    Abraham is our example.    He walked in obedience to what God was telling him to do because he had FAITH and TRUST in God.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION

"By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went."—Hebrews 11:8.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY...

"The More I Seek You"

Ministered By Christ For The Nations Worship 

REFERENCE / CITATION Christ For The Nations Worship - The More I Seek You. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZfsxydxEXA

Are You Still Trying To Walk In The Old Even Though God Has Given You The New?

New beginnings!   It’s day 8 of this New Year.   How is it going?   Are you still trying to walk in the old even though God has given you not only a new year but a new day and this new opportunity to surrender all and to move forward?  Are you taking steps forward or are you in a state of captivity?   When you are captured, that means something has control over you.   It means it exerts power and influence over you.   Make sure the only thing that holds you in captivity is God and His Word.   Be controlled by the power of His Word and allow it to have total influence in your life.  

When something is new, that means it just recently came into being.   It’s not used.   It is NOT what is familiar.    So newness requires faith.    Have faith in God.    Believe and trust that He is well able to lead you, guide you, and direct you not only in this New Year, but in this new day, and in each and every moment of your life.   Have you ever had those moments where you are speaking faith and walking in faith and then the something happens and you say but God or why God?    We all have.    Make it a point to speak God’s Word and to believe it regardless of what is going on around you.   Let your mouth be filled with faith filled words and believe that your heavenly Father is well able to fulfill His Word in your life.  

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
Isaiah 43:18
Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ...

"Fill Me Up"

Ministered By Kim Walker and Jesus Culture

Fill Me Up - Jesus Culture / Kim Walker (Worship Song with Lyrics) Live From Chicago. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyNYdC5XUmo

Remember, Out Of The Abundance Of The Heart, The Mouth Speaks. What Are You Proclaiming In The Earth?

It’s day 7 of 2016, what are you proclaiming?   To proclaim means to announce something officially and publicly.   Understand, your life is a public proclamation.  The things that you do and the things that you say are establishing your belief in the earth.    Matthews 12:34 says that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.   So what you are saying is an overflow of what is truly in your heart.  

Are you speaking words of truth?   Are you even speaking God’s Word?   What are you consistently filling yourself up with?   Are you filling up yourself with worship and God’s Word or are you filling yourself up with the ways and attitudes of the world?    Let your overflow be God’s Word and His truth.    In order for God’s Word and His truth to be your overflow, you have to first get full of it.   Are you reading your Bible?  Are you consistently and constantly praying?   Are you staying connected and being passionate about the things of God?  

You can’t ignore God and the things of God and become full of Him.   In actuality, when you ignore God and fail to come into His presence, it weakens you and it drains you.   Don’t become an empty vessel.   Stay full!   When you are full, you are strong and you are able to stand because you know that GREATER is He that is on the inside of you than anything in this world.   You know that God is with you.   You know that His Word is true and you have faith that He will work everything in your life out for your good.   It is at that point, your point of knowing who God is and what He will do for you that your proclamation for God is made.   It is at that point, that your faith and stand for God can truly be seen.    

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ...

"Where You Go I Go"

Ministered By Kim Walker & Jesus Culture

REFERENCE/CITATION:   Where You Go I Go -Kim Walker Jesus Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyBw_DrEv34

Choosing To Rejoice In Today Regardless Of The Obstacles ...

Today is the day that the Lord has made LET US rejoice and be glad in it. It’s day 6 of 2016 so let us rejoice in knowing that God is with us and He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. Let us rejoice in knowing that He is all powerful and all knowing. Let us rejoice in knowing that we have a Savior and because of Him we win!

REJOICE TODAY regardless of the obstacles. The obstacles are meant to be stumbling blocks. A stumbling block is anything that causes difficulty or hesitation. Don’t allow the obstacles of life to cause you to hesitate when it comes to rejoicing and praising God.  

Rejoice because God has given you a new day.   He has given you this divine opportunity to worship Him, praise Him, and to make Him your priority in life.    When something is your priority, you regard it as more important than something else.    Make sure that God is the most important thing in your life.   Don’t mix up the blessings with the One who blesses.  

So again I say rejoice.   Take pleasure in our God.    Remember how He has kept you even during the times where He was not your priority.   Recognize how He is still keeping you even in the midst of the obstacles.    Pray frequently and fervently, understanding that the Bible says to pray without ceasing.   As you walk in obedience and pray, make sure you are praying God’s Word with expectation.   In other words, as you pray, pray out God’s promises from His Word with the expectation of Him fulfilling them in your life.

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION      
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray without ceasing.

Isaiah 43:26 - Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ... 

"I Will Rejoice"

Ministered By Pastor William Murphy

REFERENCE / CITATION:   Pastor William Murphy - I Will Rejoice BY EYDELY BESTOFGOSPEL CHANNEL. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1px4Uqfm5dM

Day 5 of 2016; "God Is Saying That He Will Do A New Thing ... Do You Believe It?"

As you take a moment to reflect back over the last 4 days of 2016, understand, they may have been good or there may have been some problems you have encountered throughout those 4 days but either way, those days are now gone.  They are a part of the past and God is still saying what He said in Isaiah 43:19,

“Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”    

God is ready and willing to bring forth newness in your life.  

Sometimes in life you can feel as though you are constantly in the wilderness, where you are lost and don’t know which way to go.    You can even feel as though you are in the desert, where no matter how hard you work or how much you try, you can’t get past the lack or what seems to be insufficiency.   It’s time to let go and let God.   Let go of trying to figure everything out on your own and let God direct your path out of the wilderness experience you have been going through.   It’s time to let go of trying to come up with your own supply and the mindset of how you think resources need to come into your life.    God is all seeing, all knowing, and very capable of meeting your needs through whatever means He desires to use.   It’s time to stop limiting God based on your perception of your situation or how you see that it needs to be fixed.   We have to just trust in God’s ability and walk in His grace.  For His grace is His unmerited favor that will bring about every need we have in life.  

WORSHIP FOR TODAY ... 

"I Believe"

Ministered By James Fortune & FIYA

REFERENCE / CITATION:   "I Believe" - James Fortune & FIYA featuring Zacardi Cortez & Shawn McLemore.flv. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwmnHNuwsjs

Understanding That Today Is A New Day and Letting Go Of Yesterday!

You can’t change it.  You can’t change what you did yesterday or the day before.   You can’t change what you did last month and last year.   However, you can move forward.   You can ask God for forgiveness, you can repent, and you can change your way of doing things.    Yesterday is gone but God has granted you grace and mercy to be here today.   What will you do with your today?   Will you worship God today?  Will you praise God today?   Will you lift up others today?   What happens today is totally up to you.

Will you be faithful today?   Will you speak words of encouragement today?    It’s time to stop living in your yesterday and begin praising God for this divine opportunity that He has given you today.    

Today I speak life into your life.   I speak words of encouragement into your life.    I want you to know that YOU are the head and not the tail.   I want you to know that GREATER is He that is in you than anything that is coming up against you in this world.    I want you to know that you are stronger than you think.   I want you to know that our Father hears your prayers.    I want to take this divine opportunity that God has given me today to speak into your life.    Again, what will you do with the opportunity that He has given you?   

SCRIPTURE MEDITATION
ISAIAH 43:18-19
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, [and] rivers in the desert.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY

"Heart Of Worship"

Ministered By Matt Redman

REFERENCE / CITATION:  Matt Redman - The Heart of Worship. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-Zp586pvZg

It's 2016, Where Will You Go From Here? Remembering It's A New Season, A New Day, and A New Year!

It’s 2016 and the year 2015 is now gone.   We have stepped over and into a new year.    What’s next?   Where will you go from here?   What goals do you have?   What aspirations?   What exactly is it that you are aspiring to do?   To aspire means to direct your hopes or ambitions toward achieving something.  What is it that you are trying to achieve?   Is it a closer walk with God or goals of self-achievement?   We have to understand, we are nothing and can do nothing without God.   He is the very air that we breathe.    It is in Him that we move, breathe, and have our being.    To try to achieve things without Him is futile.   When something is futile, it is incapable of producing any useful result and pointless.

Make every day of 2016 count.   Get before God.   Understand, He is beckoning you.   In other words, He is calling you to come closer to Him so that you can follow Him completely.        Remember, it’s a new season, a new day, and A NEW YEAR.   Let change take place.    If you weren’t completely faithful in 2015, let change take place and do all that is within you to serve God without compromise in 2016.   Do all that is within you to cast down doubt and fear and trust God completely in 2016.     Do all that is within you to MOVE FORWARD!    

SCRIPTURE MEDITATIONEphesians 5:1-10King James Version (KJV)
Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them.
8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

WORSHIP FOR TODAY

"I Will Follow"

Ministered By Chris Tomlin

REFERENCE:   Chris Tomlin - I Will Follow [With Lyrics]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g02mOpdNDtY