Happy Soul SONday Sanctuarians. We have one more day remaining in 2012 and we are finishing our year strong with “40 Days of Healing”. For 40 Days we concentrated on our spiritual self and healing wounds from past hurts. For 40 days we entered into The Sanctuary, the Inner Courts, and we read one scripture for healing and prayed and affirmed our healing. Today is the 40th day. The final scripture in our 40 Days of Healing is Luke 5:17-26:
One day while Jesus was teaching, some Pharisees and teachers ofreligious law were sitting nearby. (It seemed that these men showed up from every village in all Galilee and Judea, as well as from Jerusalem.) And the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus. Some men came carrying a paralyzed man on a sleeping mat. They tried to push through the crowd to Jesus, but they couldn't reach him. So they went up to the roof, took off some tiles, and lowered the sick man down into the crowd, still on his mat, right in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man, "Son, your sins are forgiven." "Who does this man think he is?" the Pharisees and teachers of religious law said to each other. "This is blasphemy! Who but God can forgive sins?" Jesus knew what they were thinking, so he asked them, "Why do you think this is blasphemy? Is it easier to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' or 'Get up and walk'? I will prove that I, the Son of Man, have the authority on earth to forgive sins." Then Jesus turned to the paralyzed man and said, "Stand up, take your mat, and go on home, because you are healed!" And immediately, as everyone watched, the man jumped to his feet, picked up his mat, and went home praising God. Everyone was gripped with great wonder and awe. And they praised God, saying over and over again, "We have seen amazing things today." In this passage of Luke he writes of yet another miracle, the healing of the paralytic. This miracle is significant because it shows that Jesus' authority extends even to the forgiveness of sins. Jesus proves that the same power that operates in God also works in Him and so he proves to the naysayers when the paralytic walks away healed that he operates in those same transcendent powers. The paralytic is stationary and totally helpless. But after his healing, he can walk through life and praise God. This text also shows the importance of faith. It is the faith of those who bring the paralytic to Jesus that is highlighted. This detail seems to indicate that God honors us as we seek to lead others to the Lord. The paralytic comes on a mat, but the crowds prevent access, so the friends must scale the ladder on the side of the house to get up on the roof, where they can cut through the roof and lower the man in front of Jesus. Needless to say, such activity is highly distracting. The man ends up right in front of Jesus. So now the Teacher must act. What will he do? Jesus pulls a surprise. No doubt the crowd has expected a healing, since Jesus' reputation has spread far and wide already. But instead Jesus talks about sin. And thus again a miracle becomes a parable. This time it pictures the presence of the destructive forces of sin in the world. And then Jesus claims to have the authority to reverse those effects, he says, "Friend, your sins areforgiven." The remark provokes an instant theological critique from the religious experts present. They began thinking to themselves, "Who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" They see the risks correctly. They understand how great Jesus' claim is. The issue of blasphemy will become a central concern at Jesus' trial, as Jesus reiterates an authority for himself there that the leadership will question. To blaspheme was to perform an action that violated God's majesty. Claiming a privilege that was only God's would be such a violation. Jesus poses a challenge: "Which is easier: to say, Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, `Get up and walk'?" Now there is irony here. It is easier to say sin is forgiven, since one cannot see it. But actually to forgive sin is the harder thing to do. Still, the healing of a lame man could be supported visually; one could see its success immediately. Jesus' remarks, however, link the two actions. Healing will reveal the authority to forgive--and in the process raise many questions about who Jesus is. So Jesus says, "But that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." This moment in the account calls to mind the sports expression "crunch time." Either the man gets up and walks or he continues to lie there. Either Jesus' claim comes through, or he is utterly embarrassed. God does not help sinners, so what will happen? The claim, however, rides on what the paralytic does in the next few moments. mmediately the paralytic stood up in front of them. The man's walk means God has talked! As the former paralytic praises God, amazement overwhelms the crowd. They have seen remarkable things. Again Luke ends the passage asking the reader implicitly to ponder what has taken place. What happened? What has been claimed about what happened? Events speak louder than words: the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. Jesus has backed up his words with action. God is vindicating Jesus' claims. At crunch time Jesus applies his authority with great skill. As the paralytic walks, the question becomes who will walk with him and share the forgiveness Jesus has pictured. As we approach the finish line of 2012, its crunch time. What are you going to do in the final seconds of this game? What are going do with the wounds, disappointments, hurts and unforgiveness that you have been holding on to with yourself and others? Not forgiving and holding resentment is like having a wound which you check every day to see if it is healing but never doing anything to treat the wound. Forgiveness frees and heals you. It recaptures the energy that you were giving away in sadness, anger, and revenge. Forgiveness also empowers you. It puts you back in charge of you and it enables you to focus on living in purpose, providence and prosperity. The forgiveness choice is, “Do you want to be bitter or better?" Keep holding on to the pain and you will be bitter. Make the better choice. Learn to let go. Today make a Life Resolution to live a forgiveness lifestyle. Not sure as to how to live in forgiveness, just enter into The Sanctuary for a Daily Dose of,” Living a Forgiveness Lifestyle”. It will surely be Food for your Soul. Matthew 2:11-12 "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route." Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea. He was born during the time when Herod was king. After Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. The wise men asked people, "Where is the new baby that is the king of the Jews? We saw the star that shows he was born. We saw the star rise in the sky in the east. We came to worship him." King Herod heard about this new king of the Jews. Herod was troubled about this. And all the people in Jerusalem were worried too. Herod called a meeting of all the leading Jewish priests and teachers of the law. Herod asked them where the Christ would be born. They answered, "In the town of Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this {in the Scriptures }: 'Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, you are important among the rulers of Judah. Yes, a ruler will come from you, and that ruler will lead Israel, my people.'" Then Herod had a secret meeting with the wise men from the east. Herod learned from the wise men the exact time they first saw the star. Then Herod sent the wise men to Bethlehem. Herod said to the wise men, "Go and look carefully to find the new baby. When you find the baby, come tell me. Then I can go worship him too." The wise men heard the king and then left. They saw the same star they had seen in the east. The wise men followed the star. The star went before them until it stopped above the place where the baby was. The wise men were happy to see the star. They were very excited. The wise men came to the house where the baby was. They saw the baby with his mother Mary. The wise men bowed down and worshiped the baby. The wise men opened the gifts they brought for the baby. They gave the baby treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But God warned the wise men in a dream. God warned them not to go back to Herod. So the wise men went home to their own country a different way. While Herod tried using his knowledge of Jesus' birth to kill him, the Magi used this knowledge to find him and worship him. Their worship involved giving of themselves, their time, their treasure, and their honor. Like them, when we truly come to Jesus to worship him, we must be willing to offer our time, our treasure, our honor, and ourselves; then God reveals his will to us and uses us to bless the work of Christ. Ask God to receive your heartfelt worship and praise for his worthiness and glory, and use you to advance his cause in the world. Merry Christmas from The Sanctuary!
My hope is that this day you have experienced the love, joy and peace that this day represent. Christmas brings with it a wondrous light of love and hope and happiness to make the season bright. And that light is the birth of our Savior. His birth brings with it the gift of love, the gift of peace, the gift of joy and happiness. And my prayer is that all of this be yours at Christmas. My prayer for each of you is that the spirit of love gently fill your hearts and homes for in this season there are many reasons for happiness but the primary reason is that our Lord and Savoir was born to be the Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6: "For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." So let us rejoice in the spirit of Christmas which is Peace, the miracle of Christmas which is Hope, and the heart of Christmas which is Love. So as we pray together on this Christams day, let us join to together in thanking God, for His greatest gift and promise, Jesus! Christmas Prayer Father, we come to You giving thanks for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We come with a heart of thanksgiving. We thank you for all the good things in our life, for You are the Creator of all things good. Father, we thank You for the gift of love, joy and peace. And all of these fruit of the spirit can be found in your presence. For in Your presence is the fullness of joy, peace and love. We are so thankful that you allowed us to see another Christmas. We thank you for the opportunity to share in this time with our family and friends. We thank you for the abundance to overflowing blessings that we have experienced this day and year. Father, we thank You for your provision, that all our needs have been met. We thank your for your protection that Your perect love caseth out all fear and that no weapon formed against us prospered. We thank you for Your peace that passes all our understanding. The peace that has kept us calm and secure in the midst of all adversity. We thank you most of all for your Prince of Peace, because he was born we are able to have life and have it more abundantely! We thank you for Father for our lives and Your presence in it. Thank you God for your son Jesus...Amen! Luke 2:8-11 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. I am in Day 32 of my "40 Days of Healing" and my devotional scripture today was Luke 17. While reading this scripture I realized that it held a simple but yet defining revelation message. The passage reads as follows:
"Now on his way to Jerusalem Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well." (vs. 11-19) From the west to the east, Jesus spent his life preaching and teaching. Here we find in Luke 17:11-19 he was at the border of Samaria and Galilee where he met ten men that were lepers. During these times according to the laws of Moses lepers were excluded from society, grouped together. So these men were standing on the outskirts. As Jesus was going into the village they called out to him, “Lord have pity on us." When he saw them, he told them, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." To be officially pronounced clean from leprosy, a certificate had to be obtained from the priests. And as they went to the priests as instructed by Jesus, they were cleansed and healed. The healing was conditional, if anyone of them had turned back they would not have been healed. After they were healed only one went back to give glory to God, and give thanks to Jesus for his salvation and healing and that was the Samaritan. The one, Samaritan, belonged to the hated race the other nine were Jews. And when Jesus saw that he was the only one He asked, “Where are the nine? What a striking illustration of the ingratitude of men! One returns, the alien; the other, saved from a living death, are heard no more. The Samaritans faith and his obedience saved him. His faith had not only saved his body, but he had been born to the new life, his soul was saved. Gratitude is a rare thing, it is found but in few; the inability to be thankful clings to most people. It is the general character of men to be unthankful and unholy. Many of us share in the providential goodness of God, yet few take notice of, and are thankful for it. However, God is known to be good, to the unthankful and to the evil. A sense of our spiritual leprosy should make us very humble whenever we draw near to Christ and we experience his healing grace. All of us have experienced the grace and compassions of Christ, for they fail not. We know we can look to God to meet us with mercy, when we living in obedience. And when we are met with God’s healing and grace let us be like that one leper, let’s give thanks to the one who was sent to heal us. It becomes us, like him, to be very humble in thanksgivings, as well as in prayers. Christ noticed the one who distinguished himself from the nine, the Samaritan. The others only got the outward cure, he, the Samaritan, the hated, received the spiritual blessing. Two simple words changed his life! This is such a befitting message for the season. As we celebrate the season with the gifts and trappings, let's not forget what Christ has done in our lives. The abundant blessings of healing, provision, protection and favor that he has bestowed upon us not because we are deserving of it, as we are surely leprous in our nature; but because He is kind, good and faithful. And because of this we should desire to be as that Samaritan, running back to our Savior to Thank Him for all he has done. These two simple words can change your life! It is Worship Wednesday! We are fastly approaching Christmas but so much has occurred recently many of us do not feel the spirit of the season. Yes, we are experiencing tough and tumultuous times. And I know many feel as though we are in desert place where we are questioning God, not certain as to why such events had to happen and we even question if He is still with us. We have lost our confidence, our praise and our reason to worship and replaced it with fear, anxiety and worry. However, we must not lose sight; we always have a reason to worship God in the toughest of times. Our reason to praise and worship is found in his Word. His Word carries with it tremendous promises for those who choose to make God their King and Lord and we are co-heirs to every promise as believers. One wonderful promise found in Psalm 91 gives us the confidence to know that God is our protector. It states that if we choose to put our entire trust in Him he would protect and deliver those who proclaim and declare God's faithfulness. Another such promise of protection can be found in Isaiah 54:17. It says that no weapon formed against thee shall prosper, as these are the benefits of being a servant of the Lord. These promises essentially says that even though the enemy plots and schemes against us we are assured that God will guard and watch over us and that no evil will come near us. He shall empower us to tread down the enemy and be victorious against his plans against us. I don't know about you, but I sure needed to be reminded of this today. There is so much going on in today's world and without God's assurance of deliverance and protection, I don't know how we would survive. I find strength in knowing that God is on my side, watching over and protecting me and my family. I know that we may not always feel like singing and worshiping God, but we have to remember that despite the circumstances we face in this season of our life it does not change what we are called to do and be, if anything it confirms that we must still worship and praise Him because God is still God and He is still on the throne in Heaven, He still rules and He is greater than anything we are facing. God is for us and no matter how rough and tough the enemy may seem, in the end we win! So take a few minutes to meditate on Psalm 91 and ask the Lord to teach you how to make Him your dwelling place. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the love of God to you in such way that you will know and experience His presence every moment of every day. The Lord is with you, surrounding you and blocking for you today. So take heart, God is on your side and He will be with you always! In the midst of the tragedy, in the midst of the tears, in the midst of the loss, in the midst of the desert place declare His word and His promises. And even though the triumph doesn’t look like it is here yet let the enemy know that he lost what he was trying to achieve in the fire, in the battle, in the desert place as you will still worship and sing that “God is your victory and He is here”! Prayer Wall in The Sanctuary Today as we go into Intercession I ask that we bind together in unity to pray for protection over our families and loved ones, over our schools, communities, churches. The attacks of the enemy have increased and with each attack fear is sweeping across the land. This is the goal of the enemy to grip, cripple and distract us with fear. But we know that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love joy and a sound mind. That's why we are waging war on the enemy. We are placing on the whole armor of God and releasing our weapon of mass destruction, prayer! ◊Intercession Prayer◊ Heavenly Father, we come to You now in the Name of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, we make a joyful shout to You, we come before Your presence with singing, and we enter into Your gates with thanksgiving, and into Your courts with praise, and You are good from everlasting to everlasting. Lord we pray for our President, all members of congress and of the armed forces of our nation, all of our families, friends, enemies, intercessors, teachers, pastors, neighbors, doctors, all people of Israel, everyone we go to church with and all of Your workers. Heavenly Father, we ask that you let us dwell in the secret place of the most High and abide under the shadow of the Almighty. You are our Lord, our refuge, our fortress and our God in whom we can trust. We ask You to deliver us from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence. We ask You to cover each of us with Your feathers and let us walk under Your wings to take refuge. We ask You to let us not be afraid of the terror by night; nor by the arrows that fly by day, nor by the deadly pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor by the destruction at noonday. We thank you for the things that are written in Psalm 91, that we can dwell in the secret place of the most Almighty God and that we can abide under the shadow of our Almighty God. We thank You that we can say You are our Lord, our refuge, our fortress and our God, whom we can trust. We thank you that when we call upon You, You will answer us, and be with us in these times of trouble. Deliver us, honor us, satisfy us with a long life and show us Your salvation. Father, we are thankful that our Lord Christ Jesus spoiled all principalities and powers and made a show of them openly and triumphed over them in Himself. We claim victory for our lives. According to John 14:14 we ask You Lord Jesus to loose your angels in great abundance in our presence, the presence of everyone we have prayed for today and into our homes, cars, trucks, lands, properties, buildings and work places to protect us, guard us and to force out, drive out and to cleanse out all evil, wicked demonic and tormenting spirits from our presence and we cast them into the abyss and that they shall not return to us. We ask that You to create a hedge protection of angels around each of our minds and loose You might and warring angels around each of us, our homes, families, schools, cars, trucks, lands properties, work places to protect us from the enemy. Heavenly Father, we pray that now and through our lives, You would strengthen and enlighten us. Enable us to be aggressive in prayer and faith. Enable us to be aggressively mentally, to think about and practice Your word, and to cast all of our cares, all of our anxieties, all of our worries, all of our concerns and fears once and for all to you, because we know that You love us and watch over us according to 1 Peter 5:7. We will not allow fear to enter our hearts, but will allow Your peace that passes all understanding to surround us. The peace that keeps us calm and secure through adversity and storms that may come into our lives. Father, we thank You for our lives and Your presence in it. We ask you You to do this according to John 14:14, in Christ Jesus Holy Name. Amen If you are need of prayer, please submit a request via our Connect From on our website or you may email to [email protected]. We will place your request on our Prayer Wall and petitions will be made. Happy Soul SONday Sanctuarians! I hope that today you are taking time to rest your body from your labor, but you are feeding your soul as well. This weekend has been one of deep sorrow as we deal with emotions and over whelming grief from the Sandy Hook school shooting. This incident as well as the previous tragedies of mass loss of life as indicated that we are living in very perilous and evil times, that were revealed in scripture. Scripture states that men would have corrupt minds and their hearts would become wax cold not having natural affection or self-control. Doesn't this sound like the times that we live in? And in light of this recent tragedy, we gathered on this past Friday in The Sanctuary with people from all over the country on a prayer call to honor the lives of those lost and to pray for the families, communities and our nation and world. God showed up on that call and gave us comfort and a word for our lives. And that word is…He is calling us back to prayer - He is calling us BACK TO THE BASICS. It time for us “humble ourselves in prayer and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways so that he may heal our land”. Prayer is the only way that we will be able to survive and deal with these times. As you see prayer does not change God…it changes YOU! And when you are changed it is a light to those who are in darkness. I know many of us feel as though we don’t know how to pray or what to pray and that has prevented us from developing that consistent prayer life that we know that we need. Well you are not alone. The disciples felt the same way. In Luke 11:1 the disciples said to Jesus, "Teach us how to pray," and He answered by teaching them the prayer we call the “The Lord's Prayer”, he taught them the basics. And on this Soul SONday we want to take you back to the basics. We invite you into The Sanctuary to get a Daily Dose of, “Back to Basics…Teach me how to pray”. It is Worship Wednesday! And today is very symbolic. The date is 12/12/12, the 12th day of the 12th month of 2012. It is a day appointed for divine visitations. It is a millennial day which comes once every one thousand years. After it, there will be no other such day until the 12th day of the 12th month in 3012. This particular day is extremely symbolic, because it is the last millennial day in the 21st century. The number 12 is highly symbolic in the Scriptures. For example, there are 12 Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are 12 gates of the celestial city in Revelations. There are 12 sons of Jacob. Jesus was 12 years old when he went up to the temple for the second visit. There was a woman in the Bible who was healed from her 12 years long of infirmity of hemorrhaging. The number of explorers sent to Canaan was also 12. And on this millennial day, we are going to activate a special divine purpose. We are going to access and download divine strategies and plans. This day is the day to lay a new spiritual groundwork to ensure correct positioning for the future. It’s a day to solemnly gather and cry out to God. This millennial day, is a day for the activation of special divine purposes. It’s a day to cry against the dominating powers. It’s a day to activate blessings that have been rendered dormant. It’s a day to deal with long-standing strongholds. It’s a day to wage war against every yoke, debt, and vicious cycle of hardship and chains of bondage. And these chains can be broken with one major weapon, worship. When we lift up our voices in songs of praise, these words are like an ambush against the wiles of the enemy. When God is magnified and lifted up in song of praise and adoration the heavens rejoice. This power of worship was demonstrated in Joshua 6:3-5. “And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of ram's horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him. I can picture Joshua listening and writing down the plan and when God stops here, I can see Joshua looking at what he's written, looking up toward heaven, looking back down and thinking, "That's it?" It was not the resonance of the trumpets and voices that brought down the walls. This was not an experiment in physics; it was a demonstration of spiritual power. Just as the praise of Paul and Silas preceded the shaking of the prison and opening of the doors, the shout of the people became the voice of faith. Worshipping people are creating a place for God to come in and sit down. And when Abba, Father, comes into the room, devils run, walls fall, strongholds come down and chains are broken. I wonder how many times we've been one shout away from a victory? I wonder how many times we've sat in our seats at church holding back in our worship; and because we did not, or would not, worship--regardless of the music, regardless of the song, regardless of the man or woman on the stage--we robbed ourselves of spiritual victory. You may be just one praise away, one song away, one shout away from the breakthrough that you've been waiting for. Allow God to be your Rescuer. He is working in us to free us totally – to break every chain, to tear down every stronghold – so that we can love and worship Him with ALL of our hearts, souls, minds and strength! Through praise and worship, we draw near to God and He draws near to us. Every lyric in song for the glory of God becomes a powerful weapon that is dangerous to the enemy. When we sing praises to God we are not just "singing” God uses these words and lyrics in the natural realm to do a mighty work in the spiritual realm. It’s all about tearing down enemy strongholds and breaking down enemy barriers. God has given us WORSHIP as a weapon to BREAK THE CHAINS! |
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