The Real Grace

MEMORISE:

"For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." - (Romans 6:14)

READ: TITUS 2:11-12 (KJV)

11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

MESSAGE:

There are many preachers today who say that once a person is saved, he or she is forever saved, so the fellow would go to heaven even if he or she keeps committing sin. That is a big lie. My own Bible says clearly in Romans 6:15: "What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid." 

Real grace enables you to live holy rather than permit you to commit sin. What the grace of God does is give you the ability to live above the dictates of your flesh. It is by grace that you are saved (Ephesians 2:4-5). After that, the grace of God that brought you salvation will then teach you to live holy. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world". This is the true work of grace that the Bible talks about.

Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. - (2 Timothy 1:9)

Please ignore anyone who tells you that the grace of God allows you to commit sin. That is a message from the devil, carefully put together to send many people to hell. The devil knows that no sinner will enter into heaven, so he carefully crafted this message for Christians to ensure that they continue to sin even after responding to the altar call, but he will fail over you, in Jesus' name.

I have had big men of God argue with me over this subject and each time, I tell them, "Let us assume that you are correct, and once I have given my life to Christ before, heaven is sure even if I keep committing sin. That means if rapture takes place or we both die, we will both go to heaven. But if you are wrong, that means if rapture takes place now or we both die, I will go to heaven, and you will go to hell. Either way, I am still correct. I would rather choose the safe path". What about you?

KEY POINT:

Grace is the enablement to live above sin, not permission to commit it.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: MARK 8-9

AUTHOR PASTOR E A ADEBOYE 

HYMNAL:  8 - I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR

1. I need Thee every hour,

Most gracious Lord;

No tender voice like Thine

Can peace afford.

REFRAIN: 

I need Thee, Oh, I need Thee;

Ev'ry hour I need Thee!

Oh, bless me now, my Saviour,

I come to Thee! 

2. I need Thee every hour,

Stay Thou nearby;

Temptations lose their power

When Thou art nigh.

3. I need Thee every hour,

In joy or pain;

Come quickly and abide

Or life is vain.

4. I need Thee every hour,

Teach me Thy will;

And Thy rich promises

In me fulfill.

5. I need Thee every hour,

Most Holy one;

Oh, make me Thine indeed,

Thou blessed Son!

Culled from the Redeemed Christian Church of God Open heaven manual. 2023.

Always be kind to somebody

  I was the poor kid growing up. My mom used to send me to birthday parties with no present, just so I could eat. I definitely got to a point where I understood and was embarrassed as hell.

In fifth grade, my friend’s mom invited me to sleep over the night before the actual birthday party. When her daughter was in the shower, the mom laid out the toys that she had bought her daughter

for her birthday. She let me pick one to wrap and put my name on.

I’m 37 now. I am still grateful to that mom. That one act made such an impact on me.

Always be kind. 

If you see someone falling behind, walk beside them. If someone is being ignored, find a way to include them. If someone has been knocked down, lift them up. Always remind people of their worth. Be who you needed when you were going through hard times.

Just one small act of kindness could mean the world to somebody today.

That Secret Sin in You

I AM WRITING THIS LETTER TO THOSE WHO ARE GENUINELY BORN AGAIN, BUT THEY ARE STRUGGLING WITH SOME SECRET SINS... BECAUSE, I WAS THERE!

There is something glorious about your future God will show you, you will not need your pastor to keep preaching holiness message to you daily...

When you see a girl singing in the choir, yet, from the choir, she keeps sexual appointments, check that girl, she has not seen anything yet about her future...

When you see a young boy who dresses to church, to seduce those small girls to bed and his mates will be clapping for him, check that boy, he has a spiritual eye problem...

He hasn't seen anything about his future yet...
If you do it again and again and again, God will forgive you again and again and again...

But, while He is busy forgiving you, angels are busy searching for some one else heaven will use to replace you ...

What separates men before God is not how long they can pray or how much scriptures they know...

The value God places on people is not determined by the position they occupy in the church...
But how much they can bear for His Name sake...

Some times, He allows your salary to be delayed, to know if you will start stealing in your office...

Sometimes, He allows some lose ladies to start suggesting sex with you, to know if you have grown...

But unfortunately, you still fall again ....
Yes, He will forgive....
But, you will still remain in the same class in the school of glory...

Decision separates men...
There is an OIL that comes with separation...
The weight of a man is buried in the decisions he makes when no one is watching him ...

Many times, God allows you to be lonely so that you can be holy...

Forget this public revival messages all of us are preaching...
Many are still behind in the school of glory...

Not because they chose to, but because they still don't want to pay the price of separation...

If it takes a man to be married to be responsible, we will not have many married irresponsible men scattered all over the place who are renting houses for their girlfriends, while their wives are still at home....

When a man is due for marriage, he should get married...

But don't tell me to get married because you want me to escape fornication...
Marriage is not an escape route into a responsible life...

What you cannot control when you are single has the power to control you even when you are married ...

No matter how beautiful your wife will be, you will still see other beautiful ladies....
Teach me how to die to flesh sir...
Teach me that I can live alone in a house alone and yet, I will not think rubbish thoughts...

Joseph was not married before he ran away naked from Portipha's wife bedroom ...
It was not a marital ring on his finger that made him refuse that gesture....

But because he knew the future God has planned for Him will be messed up by a single decision....

I want to raise a generation of young boys and girls that will love God where no one is seeing them ...

I want to raise a breed that doesn't appear holy only when they see their parents or their pastors...

This holiness by dressing is sending people from choir seats to hell fire...
They are dying in secret sins, yet, they have none to cry to, because, once they confess, they will be stigmatized...

Consequently, we are raising a generation that is speaking in tongues on their way to hell...

Sister, singing in choir doesn't confer value on men before God, but decision...
Stop attaching your spiritual growth on night vigils where you go and flog enemies ...

God is waiting for you when no one is there...
If you can succeed there, you will be a commander of the supernatural...

The greatest tool against the end time church is the adulteration of the message of grace...
They teach you that God will forgive...
But they will not teach you that God will not promote you to another class...

No matter how you love your child, you will not give him your car key to use when you know he has not perfected his driving...

As long as that child is finding it hard to drive perfectly, he will keep trekking to school...

There is someone reading this posts now, heaven is saying that you are due for manifestation, but you have not made a decision yet...

You are still afraid of hunger....
You don't want to starve....
You are ashamed of what people will say when you stop sleeping with men for money to pay bills...

They have even told you that there is no young person like you that doesn't have sexual partners...
That human beings were wired by God to fall and rise again...

Several times, you have made moves to delete all those phone numbers that connect you to your vomits...
But you have been afraid of the days of loneliness...

You don't want to miss those cuddles...
You don't know if you can ever look into his eyes and tell him: "No more sex"...

Even if he accepts, you are afraid that you might never cope...

Sister, don't let weekend orgasm rob you of eternal value...

Your enemy is no more that witch in the village....

But any man that is making you comfortable in a place of rebellion with God ...

Don't be in church singing in the choir and God will go to the nearest hotel and catch a prostitute, wash her, clean her and fill her with His power...

I know you have been trying to make amends ...
You have answered altar calls several times, yet, you still fall back, even more deeper ...

Some of us were there not too long ago...
Singing in choir, leading in powerful prayer sections, yet, battling with addictions...

Worse of all we were afraid to tell anyone...
Because, people around would never have understood how much we were trying to be better ...

We bought different anointing oil, from different men of God, yet, we were not free...
We even afflicted ourselves with fastings...
Yet, nothing changed ...

Until we encountered the Word of God.....
When Jesus said that " We are made clean by the Words that I speak unto you..."

We began to read and study the Bible...
Like Job, we began to esteem God's Word above our necessary food...

Gradually, addictions began to lose its grip...
God began to change our appetites...
Until today, the darkness is past, the true Light now shineth ...

Brother, I want to recommend you to the Word of God....
The Word of God will settle that lust issue...
Don't go and rush into marriage if you are not ready, because you want to avoid temptation...

The spirit of lust does not respect wedding ring...

Especially now that our sisters who are still in Babylon even prefer having it with married men ...

There are still single guys who are serving God in spirit and in truth...
5 chapters of the bible every day and 1 hour prayers or more...

You will see that your mind will stop going to those thoughts ...
Jesus did not say it is easy...
But He said that with God all things are possible ...

Your heart is beating faster now as you are reading this...
You are wondering if you will ever get free from the things you are struggling with...

Friend, that God that did it for us, He will show up on your case...

Receive grace to feast on the Word from now....
In Jesus Name...

Pls share 2 save someone

Shalom

DO YOU LOVE GOD

Open Heavens 2016 Devotional May 23, 2016 DO YOU LOVE GOD? Get Open Heavens 2016 Today. Visit http://www.iopenheavens.com.

"Is there life after death?"

Question: "Is there life after death?"

Answer: The existence of life after death is a universal question. Job speaks for all of us by stating, “Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure....If a man dies, will he live again?” (Job 14:1-2, 14). Like Job, all of us have been challenged by this question. Exactly what happens to us after we die? Do we simply cease to exist? Is life a revolving door of departing and returning to earth in order to eventually achieve personal greatness? Does everyone go to the same place, or do we go to different places? Is there really a heaven and hell?

The Bible tells us that there is not only life after death, but eternal life so glorious that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to the earth to give us this gift of eternal life. “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). Jesus took on the punishment that all of us deserve and sacrificed His life to pay the penalty for our sin. Three days later, He proved Himself victorious over death by rising from the grave. He remained on the earth for forty days and was witnessed by hundreds before ascending to heaven. Romans 4:25 says, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

The resurrection of the Christ is a well-documented event. The apostle Paul challenged people to question eyewitnesses for its validity, and no one was able to contest its truth. The resurrection is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. Because Christ was raised from the dead, we can have faith that we, too, will be resurrected. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the ultimate proof of life after death. Christ was only the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. Physical death came through one man, Adam, to whom we are all related. But all who have been adopted into God's family through faith in Jesus Christ will be given new life (1 Corinthians 15:20-22). Just as God raised up Jesus' body, so will our bodies be resurrected upon Jesus' return (1 Corinthians 6:14).

Although we will all be eventually resurrected, not everyone will go to heaven. A choice must be made by each person in this life, and this choice will determine one’s eternal destination. The Bible says that it is appointed for us to die only once, and after that will come judgment (Hebrews 9:27). Those who have been made righteous by faith in Christ will go into eternal life in heaven, but those who reject Christ as Savior will be sent to eternal punishment in hell (Matthew 25:46). Hell, like heaven, is not simply a state of existence, but a literal place. It is a place where the unrighteous will experience never-ending, eternal wrath from God. Hell is described as a bottomless pit (Luke 8:31; Revelation 9:1) and a lake of fire, burning with sulfur, where the inhabitants will be tormented day and night forever and ever (Revelation 20:10). In hell, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, indicating intense grief and anger (Matthew 13:42).

God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but desires them to turn from their wicked ways so that they can live (Ezekiel 33:11). But He will not force us into submission; if we choose to reject Him, He accepts our decision to live eternally apart from Him. Life on earth is a test, a preparation for what is to come. For believers, life after death is eternal life in heaven with God. For unbelievers, life after death is eternity in the lake of fire. How can we receive eternal life after death and avoid an eternity in the lake of fire? There is only one way—through faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die...” (John 11:25-26).

The free gift of eternal life is available to all. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36). We will not be given the opportunity to accept God’s gift of salvation after death. Our eternal destination is determined in our earthly lifetimes by our reception or rejection of Jesus Christ. “I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). If we trust the death of Jesus Christ as the full payment for our sin against God, we are guaranteed not only a meaningful life on earth, but also eternal life after death, in the glorious presence of Christ.

Don't You Believe in Miracles?

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

I find that hugely helpful because it tells us that miracles are not merely a random display of God’s power. Every miracle has a purpose. Think of it this way:

When God works a miracle, he’s not just doing something. He’s also saying something.

Sometimes we focus on the amazing thing that happens without considering what message it is intended to convey. But miracles in the Bible never happen without a context. When God works a miracle, he is using the “small letters” of the miracle to help us understand the same message that is “written across the whole world.” When we read a miracle story in the Bible, we ought to ask, “What is God saying to us through this amazing event?”

That leads me to make these two observations:

 

1) The Bible is filled with miracle stories.

2) But they do not happen routinely or predictably.

We read of amazing miracles in the time of Moses when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt. We read of more miracles during the days of Elijah and Elisha. We read of amazing things that happened during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we read of other miracles in the book of Acts.

That’s one side of the story. The other side is that you can read page after page after page in the Bible without running into any miracles at all. It’s not as if miracles were an everyday occurrence even in Bible times. They did not happen routinely or predictably. That is, the blind man in John 9 had no way of knowing when he got up that morning that he was about to regain his sight. Ditto for the lame man in Acts 3. As a general rule, those who received miracles in the Bible had no advance notice.

“I Pray for a Miracle Everyday”

It is right at this point that we come to the core issue regarding miracles. You can’t read the Bible without running into miracles, but they don’t happen all the time, and you can’t predict in advance when they will happen. That fact ought to us help us as we think about miracles today. In one of his books, William F. Buckley quotes British author Evelyn Waugh who said, “God does work miracles, but it is presumptuous to anticipate them.”

“Don’t you believe in Miracles?” Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. We believe in miracles! Always the answer is yes. And we pray and fervently believe and hope and trust and wait for miracles to occur. But we understand that God works according to his own will, and that we cannot anticipate miracles even as we pray and wait and hope for them.

I have a friend who serves on the staff of a large church. He has been at the church for almost twenty years. Because of his longevity, and because of his quiet, godly, gentle demeanor, he is beloved by all who know him. Shortly after he was married, his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Her condition deteriorated to the point that she has been bed-ridden for many years. Although my friend has served on the church staff for a long time, many of the people in the church have never seen his wife because she has been unable to attend a service for many years. My friend rarely speaks about the burden he carries. At night he gets up every two hours to turn his wife so she won’t get bed sores. The sadness he feels must be enormous, but you would not know it to listen to him. Somehow he has found great joy in the Lord in the midst of his own personal sorrow, and those who know him cannot doubt his deep love for the Lord and for his wife. A few months ago, during a tour of the Holy Land, a place where you feel very close to the miracles of the Bible, my friend said regarding his wife: “I pray for a miracle every day.”

No one questions the power of God to work amazing miracles today. He’s God. He can break into our world any time he chooses to do things that we cannot explain. It’s not God’s power that is at issue. And it’s not our belief in miracles–past or present. The issue rests at a much deeper level–with the sovereign plan of God for our lives. The question is not, do we believe in miracles? But what kind of miracles do we believe in? And what kind of God do we believe in? Sometimes our understanding of how God works is much too narrow.

Here is another way to say it.

 Miracles are not about us.

Miracles are about God.

That’s where the story in 1 Kings 17 becomes so helpful. And so challenging. Of all the sorrows of life I know of no sorrow greater than the death of a child. This is nothing that seems more unnatural. Parents are not supposed to bury their children. It is the privilege and the honor of children to bury their parents. It is not supposed to be the other way around. The death of a child is like a period before the end of the sentence.

Your Starting Point Matters

I have learned that where you start makes all the difference in thinking about sickness, suffering and death. If you start with the accident or with the sickness or with death itself, you will never come to the right answer. I know many people whose faith has been badly shaken and even destroyed by the tragedies of life. I know that feeling myself. If you start at the tragedy and try to reason your way back to God, you won’t make it. You’ll fall off the ladder somewhere. None of us is smart enough to reason from a tragedy back to God. If you start with yourself, you’ll end with yourself, and you won’t be any better off.

The only hope is to start at the other end, with what we know to be true about God. The theologians call this the First Principles. In the time of trouble, start with God. Ponder his character. Meditate on his attributes. Think about who God is.

God is holy.

God is righteous.

God is just.

God is gracious.

God is merciful.

God is love.

God is all-knowing.

God is all-wise.

God is present everywhere.

His ways are perfect.

His plans are beyond finding out.

He works all things together for our good and his glory.

He loved us so much that he sent his Son to die for us.

He sent the Holy Spirit to indwell us.

He forgives our sin through the blood of Jesus.

He seals us with the Holy Spirit.

He fills us with the Spirit.

He promises to conform us to the image of his Son.

He will never leave us.

He disciplines us when we stray.

He loves us with an everlasting love.

His plans for us are good.

He makes no mistakes.

Make a list like that. Write it down. Say it aloud. Repeat it in prayer. Tattoo the truth on your grieving heart. Start with what you know to be true about God. If you remember who he is and why he sent his Son to the earth, and his wisdom, power, goodness and love, if you start there, you can slowly make your way back to the tragedy itself. I have walked that road myself many times. This is not some sort of magic trick that will make the pain go away (it won’t) or answer all your questions (it won’t do that either), but starting with God provides the only possible framework for answering the questions we all have.

We need a God so big, so great, so powerful, so wise, so vast, so eternal, that he can encompass the sudden death of one of his children. Some people talk as if the tragedies of life are accidents in the universe. As if God turned his head away and something bad happened while God wasn’t looking. As if God tried to stop it but couldn’t. A God like that is no God at all. I cannot worship an impotent, puny, manmade God who abdicates the throne of the universe and leaves us alone in our despair. That is not the God of the Bible.

And that brings us to the story of the death of the widow’s son in 1 Kings 17:17-24. Of all the episodes in the life of Elijah, this is probably the most troublesome. In our text Elijah lays himself out over the body of a dead child and the boy comes back to life. And it’s not exactly like the story of the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday morning, which is surrounded by angels and a sense of glorious triumph. It doesn’t even carry with it the same feel of Jesus crying out, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43). Because this story is so unusual, some people have discounted it as being a myth. They see it as a kind of folk story, almost like a fairy tale. Some liberal scholars suggest that either the boy wasn’t really dead or that it never really happened at all.Before we examine this passage, I want you to know that I firmly believe exactly what the Bible says. I think the widow’s son died, Elijah stretched himself over the boy’s body and prayed, God heard his prayer, and the boy’s life returned to him. But I also acknowledge the emotional difficulties because it raises questions we don’t often talk about. If God does this some of the time, why doesn’t he do this all the time? That is an enormous question, but I don’t know how you can deal with the story without coming to grips with some of the great mysteries of God in his mercy and sovereignty, what God does and what God doesn’t do. We’ll look at that in just a moment.

Let’s focus on three parts of the story:

1) A Sudden Sorrow

“After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!” (vv. 17-18).

Note carefully the first two words, “After this.” The Hebrew literally says, “After these things it happened.” That’s a powerful statement about God’s sovereignty. Whatever else you want to say about this unforgettable episode, don’t call it an accident. The child didn’t get sick by chance, and he didn’t die by chance. His sickness and his death were both part of the sovereign plan of God.

There are so many mysteries about why God does what he does. I’m reminded of the words of Tony Evans who said, “Everything in the universe is either caused by God or allowed by God, and there is no third category.” That’s a hugely important statement. So many times we look at heartbreaking tragedy, and we want to invent a third category called, “Bad things that just happened for no reason.” But there is no such category. When the text says that it came about that the child grew ill, it’s the writer’s way of saying that what happened to this young boy was not an accident. It was not chance. It was not fate. God was present in the home when that boy died.

The timing of all this deserves our attention. The boy gets sick after many weeks and months of miraculous provision by God. After many months of the flour and the oil never running out (1 Kings 17:8-16), suddenly the boy gets sick and dies. Why does it happen that way? We walk with the Lord and we do the best we can, and one day the phone call comes that changes life forever. Or we get a report from the doctor with bad news. Or our children get into terrible trouble. Or our marriage falls apart. Why do these things happen?

It is very easy for us to become complacent in the midst of the blessings of God. We secretly begin to think, “Everything’s okay now; I’ve got life all wired up. My marriage is good and my kids are doing well and my job is good and life is good and I love my church. Everything in my life is exactly where I want it to be.” If that happens to be your situation at this moment, don’t feel bad about that. If your life is like that, you ought to enjoy it and be profoundly grateful to God. But know these two things for certain:

 

1) You don’t deserve these blessings.

2) They won’t last forever.

They never do. Soon enough the clouds will move in and the rain begins to fall. You shouldn’t live in fear, but you ought to be wise enough to know that after sunrise comes sundown, and after high noon comes the darkness of midnight. So it is for all of us sooner or later.

After the time of God’s blessing, disaster strikes. We don’t know why the child got sick. It almost seems like a contradiction. There was the testing, then the blessing, and then the sorrow comes. It seems like it ought to be reversed around somehow, like it ought to be sorrow and then testing and then blessing. But that’s not how God works. It’s more often this way:

Testing

Blessing

Sorrow

It is so easy to be lulled into false thinking. “Ah, we made it through the hard times. It’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out.” But that usually is not God’s design for us.

It’s good for us to remember this as we approach Thanksgiving. If this year your family is gathered round your table and everyone is doing well and everyone is happy, if as you celebrate, you have no problems to speak of, rejoice and give thanks. But don’t take your blessings for granted. Enjoy them, but do not presume they will last forever.

2) A Powerful Prayer

“And he said to her, ’Give me your son.’ And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed. And he cried to the LORD, ’O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?’ Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, ’O LORD my God, let this child’s life come into him again.’ And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, ’See, your son lives’” (vv. 19-23).

As I read the text, a question comes to mind that I cannot answer. When the child first became ill, where was Elijah? Was he there and did he pray for the boy? I assume the answer is yes, but the Bible doesn’t tell us. I have a further question. When the child died, why did Elijah do what he did? Here’s my answer.He got involved because he saw God in everything, including all the sorrows of life. I find his response very instructive when the mother accuses him of coming to her house just to kill her son.

 Number one: He doesn’t get angry.

Number two: He doesn’t try to explain why her son died.

Number three: He doesn’t argue with her.

Number four: He doesn’t make any excuses.

There is no easy way to explain what happens next. Elijah lays down on top of the body of the child. Foot to foot. Leg to leg. Chest to chest. Arm to arm. Hand to hand. Face to face. He does it not once, not twice, but three times. No one really knows exactly why he laid down even once, much less why he did it twice or three times. Perhaps Elijah understood that to do anything for this boy he was going to have to get very personally involved. As a side note, since the boy was dead, he was now unclean under Jewish law. It was wrong for a prophet of God to touch a dead body, but extreme cases call for extreme measures. And so by lying down on the body of the child, it is as if he is saying “Oh Lord, take some of the life from within me and give it to this boy.” He prayed for a miracle because he believed in a power greater than death.

3) A Joyful Testimony

We come now to the end of this amazing story. Seeing that her son has come back to life, the grateful mother declares to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth” (v. 24). The Bible doesn’t record that she said, “Thank you,” though surely she did. It’s not recorded here because that’s not the point. Her words explain the miracle, and they also explain why not every mother receives this miracle when a child is sick to the point of death. The miracle happens to authenticate Elijah as God’s anointed prophet. God had promised to sustain all three of them–mother, son and Elijah–until the rains came and the drought ended (v. 14). On the basis on that promise, Elijah believed that God would bring the boy back to life. Strange as it may sound, the miracle is less about the boy and more about God’s power working through Elijah. It is a miracle of sovereign grace, given this one time in Elijah’s life and never again given during his ministry. God answered this prayer bythis man in this way at this particular moment in time. And he did it for his own purposes. There is no other way to understand the story. This is a lesson about the Sovereign of the universe moving in a miraculous way in answer to the prophet’s fervent prayers.

Here are two Scriptures to meditate on. The first comes from Isaiah 53:10 in the New American Standard Bible: “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.” Isaiah is speaking of the Father’s decision to put his Son to death on the cross for the sins of the world. Think about what that says. Not just that the Father sent his Son to die or that he allowed his Son to die. It is much stronger than that. In ways that we cannot fathom, it pleased the Lord to allow his Son to suffer and die. How can any father be pleased to crush his own son? I cannot imagine it. Parents do all they can to protect their children. But our Father was pleased (for the sake of our salvation) to crush his own Son. That tells us that God’s ways and our ways are not the same, and we cannot judge him by human standards. The second verse is Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him” (NIV). This means that God does what he wants and no one can stop him. Here we come up against the bedrock of God himself. He is great and powerful beyond our imagining. All that he does is right, even those things we do not understand.

And that brings me back to the original question:

Don’t you believe in Miracles? Yes!

Do you believe God can work miracles today? Yes!

Should we pray for miracles? Yes!

I think of my friend who said, “I pray for a miracle every day.” And I remember the words of Evelyn Waugh: “Miracles do happen. But it is presumptuous to anticipate them.”

Another Kind of Miracle

We can’t boss God around. As a friend said on Sunday, “God’s God.” That’s right. He’s God and we’re not. He’s in charge of the universe, and he does what seems best to him. You can fight against him if you want to, but you’ll lose every time because your arms are too short to box with God.

Let’s return to the story of Greg Hatteberg for a moment. When that well-meaning but misguided man predicted that Lisa would be healed of MS that very day, Greg seemed unconvinced so the man said, “Don’t you believe in miracles?” Here was Greg’s answer:

I believe with all my heart that God can heal Lisa. I pray that when I come home Lisa runs out to greet me. If she does, you will be the first one I’ll call so we can praise God together. But if when I go home, Lisa is sitting in her reclining chair and says, “Did the seminar go well?” I just want you to know that another miracle happened today–the miracle of God’s sustaining grace keeping her close to him for another day.

That strikes me as exactly the right biblical balance. We are fully justified in asking God to work miracles on behalf of our loved ones. I can think of some friends in desperate situations who need some miracles at this very moment. But God doesn’t limit himself to our understanding of what our loved ones need most. He is fully able to do spectacular miracles today just as he did in Bible times. But more often he gives strength to the weary and courage to the fainting and hope to those who feel like giving up. Greg and Lisa Hatteberg are living proof that God’s miracles come in more than one variety, a truth they experience every day.

I am writing these words on the day before Thanksgiving. If your heart is filled with joy because your life is free from trouble, rejoice and give thanks to God. You need not feel guilty if at this moment your problems are small and your blessings are large. But if you are in the 99% of the human race to whom those words do not apply, keep these truths in mind.

God still loves you.

He has not forgotten you.

He knows what he is doing in your life.

He loved you enough to give his Son to die for you.

He is with you even when you do not sense his presence.

Keep Believing. Never give up.

When you count your blessings this year, remember to give thanks that we serve a God who is bigger than all our unanswered questions.

Do you need a miracle today? Or do you seek a miracle on behalf of someone you love? You need not feel bashful about asking your Heavenly Father for what you believe you truly need. Pray and believe, and then leave the matter in God’s hands.

Trust in the Lord with full confidence, remembering this truth:

Miracles aren’t about us.

Miracles are about God.

Let God be God and all will be well. Amen.

Prayer: God Guides You To Be More Like Christ

“The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”(James 3:17 NIV)

If you want to recognize God’s voice and figure out whether you have an impression from him or not, first you need to ask if the idea agrees with the Bible.

Then, you need to ask, “If I follow through on this impression, will it make me more like Christ?”

Philippians 2:5 says, “In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus” (NCV). God’s goal is to make us more like Christ, so he would not give us an impression that would lead us in a direction opposite that goal.

James 3:17 is a great checklist for helping you to see if something is an impression from God when it comes to the character qualities of Jesus Christ: “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere” (NIV).

If your idea or impression is impure, then it’s obviously not from God. This may sound pretty simple, but you wouldn’t believe how many people I meet who are trying to convince themselves that an impure impression is somehow from God.

Is the impression peace loving? God’s going to give impressions that promote harmony and not conflict.

Is it considerate? When God gives you an impression, he is concerned about the impact that impression is going to have on somebody else. He’s not going to give you impressions that mess up other people’s lives.

Is this impression submissive? That’s not a word that we use very much, but it simply means humble, teachable, and not arrogant. If you’ve really heard from God, then you’re not going to be afraid to test that idea by sharing it with others and getting their input.

Is it full of mercy? I’ve met a lot of people who think they have heard from God and yet they’re the most judgmental, condemning, and negative people. Those people haven’t heard from God. They’ve heard from their own prejudices and anger. If you really hear from God, it makes you full of mercy.

Is it impartial and sincere? An idea from God won’t make you manipulate and control others.

Checking an impression against these seven character qualities of Jesus Christ will help you know if your idea is from God and if it will make you more like Jesus.

Source: http://rickwarren.org/devotional/english/full-post/prayer-god-guides-you-to-be-more-like-christ