Month: July 2009

Today’s Word

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Journal2 Comments
Here’s a word that the Lord spoke to me yesterday morning.
Enjoy:

Son, don’t get so focused on the answers as the solutions to your problems that you forget to come to me for the answers. I am the answer. Don’t leave me out of the loop. Trusting me for every answer brings my presence into every area of your life.

I want that.

I want to be able to work miracles and show you my glory. But if you only rely on your knowledge base for your answers and not on seeking me then the miracle touch you desire can never come.

Seek Me Son!

Seek My face.

Seek my love.

Seek my wisdom.

You will be satisfied, not only in that your problem will be solved in wonderful ways but you will have me.

If you seek me you will find me.

If you seek me, you can have me.

Come, son.
Come and seek me.
Come to know me.
Come, I want to love you.
You’ll see my hand.

You’ll see my glory.
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Recommendation

On By josephbarlowIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hey Friends,

I get a weekly email from a friend of mine. Her name is Schlyce Jimenez. She sends out a weekly word from the Lord. Nancy & I have been amazed at the accuracy and timeliness of these words.
I recommend getting on her list, these words are very encouraging. You can sign up on her blog.
Here’s a recent word, check it out:

THIS WEEK’S WORD…

It’s a new season, it’s a new day. It’s time to put the past away!

Focus on Me and follow My lead. For where you’re going there is no map, no paradigm, and no previous trail to follow. Therefore, you must depend completely on Me. You’re an original. I desire to blaze a new trail through you so that others will be able to follow in your footsteps. I’ve called you to be a way maker and to be a unique representation (re-presentation) of My goodness. I have new depths of glory for you to experience and new exploits for you to accomplish. But you cannot move forward glorifying the past. You must forget what lies behind. You must wake up every day with a brand new mindset. Old things have passed away. Behold all things are new. My mercy is new everyday and yesterday’s failures must be put away. You cannot step into the unknown while focused on the past. No, it’s a new day! Expect Me to speak. Expect Me to guide you. Make a demand on the unction that resides in you. Pray in the Spirit, and expect the interpretation. Expect Me to speak to you in unusual ways. Expect Me to speak to you at all times and you will find that hearing Me is easy. You must get and keep yourself in a position to hear My voice. How can you follow Me if you can’t even hear Me? My sheep hear My voice and I am leading You, so press in until you are able to abide in the secret place even in the midst of turmoil around you. Your source of life is found only in Me, therefore You must learn to abide in My presence.

In this new season I will also teach you to rest in My ability and the finished work of the cross. I desire to break off the yoke of striving and working in the flesh and show you how to tap into My grace, favor and blessing. You cannot obtain Your inheritance or fulfill My plan for your life in your own strength, talent or ability. The life I have planned for you was never meant to be difficult, it was meant to be impossible. It’s impossible to you to accomplish My will apart from Me. You must learn to yield and abide and tap into My presence. You must learn to slow down and allow Me to open doors that no man can shut and shut doors that no man can open, through My favor. I have a plan for your life and I want to do the exceedingly abundantly above all that you hope and dream, but you must learn to rely on Me and allow Me to bring my purposes to pass for you in My timing and in My design. Otherwise you will end up with “Ishmaels” and unwanted frustration. But be assured, your breakthrough is coming like a storm that builds momentum until the rain cannot be held back. You will see My glory. You will see My plans come to fruition. You will see your desires fulfilled if you will make abiding in Me your highest aim. For without Me you can do nothing, but Christ in you is the hope of glory. Relying on My presence in You is the key. My grace is abundant. So rest in My goodness child and focus on Me. I will finish the good work I began in you and bring it to full completion.
God bless you my friend,
Joe
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Back To Hearing His Voice

On By josephbarlowIn Encouragement, Journal, TeachingLeave a comment

Have you heard?

He’s speaking.
Have you heard?
He’s speaking to you.
Have you heard?
Are you listening?
Did you know that He’s speaking to you?
There was a little boy named Samuel. Going to bed one night after fulfilling his duties in the temple of the Lord. He laid down and heard a voice calling his name. He thought it was the high priest that he worked with, but it wasn’t. It was the Lord calling his name.
When I was a little boy, 8 yrs old, I was getting ready for school and I heard a voice saying “There’s going to be a new boy at school today. I want you to take care of him for me.” When I got to school that day 1/2 way through the morning there was a new boy. I had heard the voice of God. He spoke to me. He introduced His voice to me.
When I was 13 I saw my brother Vince writing in his journal. I asked him what he was doing. He said, I’m talking to the Lord and I write down what He says to me. I said, “Can I do that?” He said, “I usually just start by writing, ‘My Son,…’ then I just listen and the Lord let’s me know what to write. I just write it down.” I ran down to my bedroom and did what he said. To my delight I heard God’s voice again.
I’ve been doing just what my brother told me since I was 13 and faithfully every time I’ve positioned myself to hear His voice, He has spoken.
I love hearing His voice.
Why be willing to live without it?
If it’s available to you why not position yourself to hear His voice?
If you’ve never heard His voice, why not ask Him to introduce His voice to you?
There’s a lot to learn about this, but the most important thing is faith.
Take a step of faith and ask Him to speak to you.
John 10 says that His sheep know His voice, they hear His voice, they follow His voice.
Enjoy your new found fellowship with Him. 🙂
If you want some more inspiration in this area, search for the labels on journaling.
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More On Healing

On By josephbarlowIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hey Friends,

Here’s a controversial post for you.
A friend sent this email which quotes a popular Christian author. I disagree with this author. You’ll see my comments below, but bear in mind that I’m not trying to be mean and I’m not lacking compassion. As a pastor I see suffering and do my best to minister to people, but changing the word of God to make somebody comfortable is not helpful. I’ve found when I stick closely to what the scripture says we see abundant results.
Here’s the quote:

My Struggles are About Him
by Max Lucado
What about your struggles? Is there any chance, any possibility, that you have been selected to struggle for God’s glory? Have you “been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29)?
Here is a clue. Do your prayers seem to be unanswered? What you request and what you receive aren’t matching up? Don’t think God is not listening. Indeed he is. He may have higher plans.
Here is another. Are people strengthened by your struggles? A friend of mine can answer yes. His cancer was consuming more than his body; it was eating away at his faith. Unanswered petitions perplexed him. Well-meaning Christians confused him. “If you have faith,” they said, “you will be healed.”
No healing came. Just more chemo, nausea, and questions. He assumed the fault was a small faith. I suggested another answer. “It’s not about you,” I told him. “Your hospital room is a showcase for your Maker. Your faith in the face of suffering cranks up the volume of God’s song.”
Oh, that you could have seen the relief on his face. To know that he hadn’t failed God and God hadn’t failed him–this made all the difference. Seeing his sickness in the scope of God’s sovereign plan gave his condition a sense of dignity. He accepted his cancer as an assignment from heaven: a missionary to the cancer ward.
A week later I saw him again. “I reflected God,” he said, smiling through a thin face, “to the nurse, the doctors, my friends. Who knows who needed to see God, but I did my best to make him seen.”
Bingo. His cancer paraded the power of Jesus down the Main Street of his world.
God will use whatever he wants to display his glory. Heavens and stars. History and nations. People and problems.
Rather than begrudge your problem, explore it. Ponder it. And most of all, use it. Use it to the glory of God.
Through your problems and mine, may God be seen.


Here’s my response:
I do believe there is a suffering for Christ, so let’s look at how the Bible defines this:

2Co 6:3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.
2Co 6:4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;
2Co 6:5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;
2Co 6:6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;
2Co 6:7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;
2Co 6:8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;
2Co 6:9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;
2Co 6:10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
In all of the accounts where Paul talks about his trials or sufferings for the cause of Christ he never mentions sickness as being one of the trials he bore. Some say that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was a sickness, but the Bible does not say this(unless you read the Living Bible paraphrase, Ken Taylor took the liberty to call the thorn a sickness) but it talks about the thorn being a messenger of Satan.
Purely from a human argument or standpoint, if you read the following:
Eph 5:1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children
If God puts sickness and disease on people to teach them something or to perfect them then I should do the same with my children.
Yet everyone knows that if I were injurious to my children I would not be reflecting the glory of God, nor His character.
If someone believes their sickness is from the Lord, then why do they go to the doctor? Shouldn’t they just suffer through it if He really gets glory from their pain?
If Deuteronomy 28 clearly separates the blessings from the curses and Galatians 3 clearly tells us that through Christ we are redeemed from the curse why would we get confused and start thinking the curses are blessings?
John 10:10 clearly states that the thief(referring to the devil) comes to kill, steal and destroy. If something in my life is coming to kill me, steal from me or destroy something that belongs to me, it’s easy to know the source. Thank God the word says to resist the devil and He will flee from you.
If someone is not receiving their healing it’s not God’s fault. 1 Peter 2:24 says that “by His stripes we were healed”
Again referring to the type of suffering Christians will endure, unanswered prayer is never one of them as the Lucado piece infers.
If someone is struggling in their faith with some unanswered prayer there’s several things they should check:
  1. Are they hanging out with people who have had the kind of victory they are seeking?
  2. Are they listening to teaching and preaching that brings the kind of faith they need? Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the word. If their faith is weak maybe they’re not hearing the right kind of preaching.
  3. Are they resisting and rejecting the things that are contrary to God’s word? the things that bring doubt and unbelief that war against their faith? Are they casting down imaginations and every other high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God? 2Cor 10:3-5. The very comments written above about suffering in unbiblical ways for the glory of God should be rejected because they are sufficient unbelief to hinder healing.
  4. Are they bringing the rudder of their life(their tongue) under control to speak the truth of God’s word or are they letting any negative report come out of their mouth?
  5. Are they obeying what God has ministered to them to do? Obedience is wonderful in releasing miracles.
Lastly, regarding the person who was a witness in the cancer ward:
God could use someone in a cancer ward to display His glory. But the way He’s going to display His glory is through their biblical, spirit-led character. Not through the victory of the sickness, but we don’t have to be sick to display this character. He wants this glory every day of our lives.

Well there you have it, I know it’s controversial and could be emotionally painful especially if you are struggling with receiving healing yourself. But the word of God is true. Jesus was not concerned about his disciple’s emotions when he accused them of having such little faith. If your faith is small then do something about it. Stop listening to teachers who teach unbelief. Surround yourself with what brings faith. Your life may depend on it.

Love ya
Joe
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