ENCOURAGING HOPE, STRENGTH AND VIRTUE

Good morning Precious Family, Friends and Life Colleagues,

         Isn't it amazing, this life we have been given? Isn't it astounding how God gave each and every one of us life and time and amazing wonder with which to have and to hold as well as to behold? God is so good to us that we often don't recognize how good He really is to us. And when we're in a funk of some sort, we may even take for granted God's goodness or not recognize it at all because we are so consumed with our own issues.

         Remember to thank God for how wonderful He is. Remember to love on The Lord with all you've got within you, if for no other reason than to change your own mood and the atmosphere in which you find yourself but can't stand to be in. Worshiping God is the best way to lift your spirits. And when you need to hear something to help you feel better or to simply gain your composure, remember to ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. How do I know? Because I dared to ask and I was amazed at what I heard. ...

         ... Joel Osteen said something today that amazed me yet that also encouraged me and lifted me up. He commented about God's Favor and how God's Favor is on those under attack. He commented about when you seemed to be singled out for abuse that that's a sure sign that God's Favor is upon you. ... Now mind you, these are not quoted verbatim, just near as I can put it down to say in my own words. By the way, I found these words of encouragement in Luke chapter 6, which confirms what Pastor Joel had said.  :0) --- Sure hope I can pull up his website and hear what he had to say on the subject again. Anyone who seems to be holding on for dear life and struggling to hopefully do more than merely survive their current situation would do well to go to www.JoelOsteen.com for some encouragement. I only happened to come across his teaching today (Sunday March 16th) by channel surfing. I needed to hear these words from God. I needed God's Word to encourage me and lift me up, as well as to give some meaning to my life. And you know what? God's Favor is never without purpose. This means that there is an Anointing upon the one favored by God and that God's specific Will, Plan and Purpose for your life is something pretty spectacular, a wonder to behold. We might not be aware of what it is, but rest assured Satan does. Why else would he try so hard to knock you down, keep you down, work you over, spit you out, and do everything possible to keep you from knowing God's Divine Will, Plan and Purpose for your life by overloading you with all sorts of abuses, chaos, etc. etc.? Because he knows something you don't.

          Satan knows that if you were to ever get hold of how awesome you really and truly are in God's sight and how powerful you really were to become (and actually truly are) because you realize that you are a child of God Most High, and that you also have The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness at your personal disposal ... he knows how much you'd be handing over to him the whoop-ass he deserves. Instead, he tries to give you a whoop-ass of your own that is so intense and often relentless with little reprieve so you start beating yourself up and caving in to all the antics of his minions. But the reality is, we don't have to take it. We have a powerful ally on our side to help us out. We have God The Father, God The Son, and God The Holy Spirit, The Blood of Christ, The Word of God, as well as The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness on our side. All on the side of Righteousness, Justice and Truth. ... The Devil will do anything to keep us from worshiping God. He will do anything to cause us to lose our focus so our attention is diverted from that which is right, just and true. And we, like the saps we are, repeatedly fall for it. We are so often caught unawares because we are so ignorant of his devices, something God commands us not to be, by the way. We seldom pay attention to ourselves, what's really going on in a given situation (or behind the scenes in the situation), or what it's really all about. We easily succumb to the banter in our minds as well as in the hearing of our ears because we are stupid enough to not pay attention. We therefore do ourselves a great disservice and often a great injustice to the body of Christ as well as to The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. And we most certainly prove ourselves quite unwise and unintelligent and unenlightened beings. And we prove ourselves not on The Path of The Highway of God. Why? Because we are human beings. Because we don't pay attention to what is really going on in spirit and in truth; only to what we deem truly credible with our physical senses, which is not the most reliable source of truth or light.

           Thankfully, God created us to be one family. We have each other to rely on, for goodness' sake.  God's Truth for us, about us, and readily available to us, is something we'd be foolish to ignore or treat lightly or disregard. God never meant for us to, nor did He design us to live in the dark. God would have never said, "Let there be Light" if that were the case. God said "Let there be Light" because it was, is, and ever shall be of utmost importance that we live, move, and have our being in, through and by The Sun of Righteousness - Jesus Christ. We must always remember this. That's why Jesus Christ is The Way, The Truth, The Light and The Life of men ... of our lives. We just need to let go and let God. We need to let go and let Christ glorify God in us and through us so God can be glorified all around us for the sake of The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness. It is imperative that we understand this. We must all come to our senses. We must all put the devil in his place ... under our feet and out of our minds, bodies, affairs and relationships. We must take the authority God gave us and use it wisely, even stripping away the authority the devil thinks he has over us and instead using the authority God gave us over him. God never intended for us to be losers. He made us to be victorious.  He has done everything to give us hope as well as a wonderful future. He even devised a Plan with a Purpose for us that causes us to flourish in accordance with God's omnipotent goodness. GOD IS LOVE and nothing less. And we are here to serve Almighty God, Our Father in Heaven, here on earth for the express purpose of blessing, expanding and increasing The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness on earth as it is in Heaven, to the glory of God The Father, in Jesus' Name. Amen.   

(c) 2014; Terri Spahr, aka (Prayer Writer Terri)