Author: mossgjo

When Satan tries to convince you your peace, contentment, joy, etc., you have from living your life to honor God is bad or wrong, tell him he is a liar and keep it moving in Jesus’ name! Many times this will come in the form of people because that is who Satan likes to use most often. We see this in Matthew 16:23 and Mark 8:33 when Jesus tells Peter get thee behind me Satan when Peter tries to correct Jesus about His mission upon the Earth. Now, I don’t recommend calling people “Satan”, however, I believe Jesus is teaching us many lessons in these passages. Number one, sometime people in your inner circle will sometimes not understand your mission. Number two, sometimes you have to distance yourself from these people. I call it, “Love them from a distance.” If you happen to live with the person this is happening, know that God will give you the grace to deal with the situation until he decides to move or change things.

Additionally, Satan tried to convince Jesus all he had to offer him was much better than what God had to offer. That is LOL funny, but a lot of times we do not see this in the natural.  In, Matthew 4:1-11, we see that the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. Remember, when we are being tested it is to build our character and to prove our faith before God. So, Satan literally tries to lure Jesus in with the sins and enticements of this world we live in consisting of power, influence, and attack his identity and ego. Satan does the same to us, too, right?

Finally, in the end Jesus told Satan man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God. Jesus continually quoted scripture to the devil! He used the word of God to put Satan in his place… What an example for us! When Satan tries to convince us, and he will, that our choices for God have been in vain or fruitless, recognize it is from Satan and then feed back to him the word of God. Folks, this is the importance of US knowing the word of God for ourselves. It is one of the weapons we have to fight Satan when he comes prancing around in our lives. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve, did not have scripture to defend themselves, but they did have God’s direct instructions to them to stay away from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15) and today God tells us to stay away from the sins of this world.

God has sent us out as His modern-day disciples. Christians are modern day disciples or Christ followers.  As we go out and people do not receive what you are saying or doing, Jesus told the disciples to kick the dust off of your shoes and keep it moving (Matthew 10:14). In other words, we do not have to debate people about the word of God. Satan will use these people to disrespect you and try to lure you into conflict and strife with them. That is not our mission though. Our mission is to spread the word of God through the Fruit of the Spirit. Once you have said it and once you have done it, it is the Holy Spirit’s job to penetrate people’s hearts. Satan will try to discourage you when people do not receive what you have to say or do.  Remember, Satan is a liar! Do and say God’s word and let the Holy Spirit do the rest! Obey God and leave the consequences to Him. God will honor your love and obedience to Him. Love & Blessings! 

Many times, we wonder why God is not moving in the way we expect. We forget time and time again God’s thoughts and ways are not like ours. When we do this, we become frustrated. I have learned when I hit those dry or wilderness seasons to ask God, “What do you want me to know or learn?”

In 1 King:18, we see God had Elijah waiting for 3 years after he witnessed God perform the miracles in Zarephath. In those three years God was preparing Elijah to confront the most wicked king ever in Israel, Ahab. He was EVIL.                       

We see in verse 17, Ahab and Elijah finally meet. Ahab had the Israelites worshiping Baalim. Elijah wanted to settle the issue of who was the true and living God. So, he asked the Israelites that question. No one answered.

So, the challenge Elijah offers becomes to cut up two bullocks and lay it on wood with no fire. They were to call on the name of their gods. Elijah was to call on his God. The God who answers by fire will be the one and only true God.

The people took him up on the challenge. They called on their gods from morning to noon. Nothing happened. It is now Elijah’s turn. He becomes so bold that he builds an alter to surround the bullock pieces and builds a trench to soak the alter in water. It was now evening and Elijah prayed to his God. God consumed EVERYTHING that was on the alter including the water! The people fell on their faces and acknowledged the Lord God Almighty!

Often times, God wants to prepare us in our seasons of waiting. Even in our times in the wilderness, God wants to prepare us for His use, if we allow Him. After Elijah saw the miracles God performed in Zarephath, he knew what God was capable of doing. He became the willing vessel to confront the most evil and wicked king ever during that time in Israel. Are you willing to let God prepare you to do BOLD things for Him? Love & Blessings!   

1 King 11:14 talks about God sending adversaries in Salomon’s life. Why? This is the man we discussed two blogs ago who prayed and asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. However, we discussed in May 7’s blog (found at www.whereisgodnow.org) how Solomon started repeating the sins of his father, David. So just like David, God became angry with Solomon because he started doing things God asked him not to do. He disobeyed God and married women he was forbidden to marry which caused him to seek other gods.

Although, Jesus came to save us from our sins, it does not exempt us of the consequences that come with our sin. It does not mean that God will turn a blind eye to what we are doing. I believe if he sent adversaries to David and Solomon, he can do the same to us. Satan loves to confuse the issue and have us to believe it is okay to do the things the way that the world does it. After all, God did promise us an abundant, victorious life, right? No, no, sin is sin in God’s eyes and he will do the sorting and examining of our hearts, but do not let Satan fool you to think you will not have consequences to endure.

1 Kings 11 describes the three adversaries that God sent Solomon and how He would rend the kingdom away from Him. What a fall! This is the reminder of why we have to renew or hearts and minds through Christ Jesus every day. Our adversary, Satan, is seeking whomever he can devour and will use any and every tactic to draw us away from our God and have us turn our hearts against Him… Be strong in the Lord! Love & Blessings!

God asks us to do powerful supernatural things. For example, when God asks us to bless our enemies that rails against our spirits. We can not do that in the flesh. We don’t even want to do it. But because God has asked us to do it, whether we like it or not, we should be obedient to God. Why? Because it really is for our own good. Sin is a destroyer. So, when we are angry, bitter, cold, etc., to others, in the end it destroys us little by little. This is why God has asked us to bless our enemies.

In this season of contention of Roe V. Wade, we have many angry people declaring their body is theirs and no one should tell them what they should do with it. However, for those of us who belong to God, who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, He has told us we have been bought with a price! The blood of Jesus was used to purchase us. The Bible says our bodies do not belong to us. Our bodies belong to God. His spirit dwells within our bodies. Our bodies are his temples on the Earth.

We have to be oh so careful when we start to take on the rhetoric of culture and the world. Do not forgot this world is Satan’s kingdom. Heaven is our home not the things in this world. We are just passing through on this Earth and hopefully being a blessing to others. Abortion is not of God. God is the giver and taker of life, not man. There is where we have to trust God in ALL things. That is not to say the things God has asked us to do is easy. But through the help of Jesus through the Holy Spirit, He will give us what we need to do the right thing. It may not always feel good at the moment. But when we honor God through our deeds and actions, He is paying attention. He is looking at our hearts and attitudes toward Him! The abortion issue has many layers to it, but the bottom line is will we be obedient to God and let Him have His way in our lives? Love & Blessings!

God’s word is for our teaching. It edifies us and corrects us. The Bible warns of what may happen when we are disobedient. It blesses us when we honor and are obedient to His word. Solomon wanted to honor God with his life. This is evident in 1 King 3:9 when Solomon does not ask God for riches, fortune and fame, but He asks God for an understanding heart to judge people and discern between good and bad. This is called Wisdom! Should we not be asking God for the same?

Solomon was wise to ask God for wisdom. He had been exposed to much in his life seeing his father, King David, triumphs and failures. No doubt Solomon did not want to repeat the same mistakes as his father, David. He did not want to succumb to the same pitfalls nor did he want the people of Israel to suffer the same. However, some old habits die hard.

In 1 King 9, God makes a covenant with Solomon. God tells Solomon if he walks before Him with integrity of heart, uprightness, and do his commands and keep his statues and judgements, then he would establish his kingdom upon Israel. Then comes the warning… BUT IF YOU TURN from following me and do what I have not asked, then I will CUT YOU OFF. 

Furthermore, it says because Solomon and Israel forsook God and had taken hold of other god’s and worshipped and served them, the LORD BROUGHT UPON THEM ALL THIS EVIL In 1 King 11:6, it describes how Salomon did evil and his heart was not full after the Lord, as his father, David… repeating the sins of the father. This is food for thought … Have you forsaken God and brought much evil and curses in your life? Love & Blessings!

As I sit before God and read His word, the Bible, I realize He is teaching me many things about Who he is and How he works in our lives. One of the miracles of reading the Bible is although you may have read passage of scriptures numerous times; God reveals something more, something deeper, just for YOU that he wants you to know… That’s a BEAUTIFUL thing!

 I shared with you in earlier blogs, how God lead me to read the Gospels. I was only going to read the red words of Jesus, but God quickly corrected that notion and said I needed to read everything in context to get the full flavor of what was going on and how he worked and moved in the lives of people, circumstances and situations. I discovered not only was he working in the lives of His people, the Israelites, but He was also working in the lives of those people who were AGAINST Him, the Egyptians, during that time in the Bible and many others as you read further.

One of the BIG takeaways in reading the Bible is God will do, work, move, etc., in whomever lives He chooses including animals and all creatures. This is how we build and nurture a wonderful relationship with Him by getting to know Him through His word. Everything is the universe is at His command. It makes Him WHO He is, the ALMIGHTY GOD of the UNIVERSE… AWESOME! This makes for fascinating reading as it helps me relate to how God is moving and working in my life. It gives me the grace and patience to move forward and to open my heart to him more and more for Him to use me as His vessel in the capacity He needs… AMEN! Love & Blessings!

Last October God impressed upon my spirit to read His word. I must admit, I have never read the Bible in its entirety. God knew that. So, He had me to start with the New Testament and now I am reading the Old Testament. Folks, I have made so many discoveries, which I believe is ONE of the reasons God wanted me to read His word in its entirety. The Bible is the first communication God speaks to us. If you want to know how God thinks and His attributes, it is found in His word. As you start to read, the Holy Spirit will start showing you things and teaching you things about YOU, the World, and everything in between.

Consequently, as I am reading 1 Samuel 16:14, I knew the story of Samuel and King Saul was disobedient and the infamous phrase Samuel said to him, “It is better to be obedient than to sacrifice.” I knew the story. However, this time what jumped out at me was the second part of verse 14. We know that the spirit of the Lord left King Saul because of His disobedience. But I never realize, “…and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.” I have always associated evil spirits with the devil, Satan. We talk about demonic spirits and evil spirits and they are associated with the devil. I know God caused Pharaoh’s heart to be harden towards the Israelites while Moses was trying to set them free. We know God’s purpose in that was to show his power and might to ALL. We know the Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness, but it was not described as an evil spirit.  We know Satan was there to tempt Jesus. It was also a beautiful illustration of when Satan tries to tempt us and how we should resist Him. So, I needed to delve into the purpose of the Lord sending an evil spirit to King Saul to trouble him.

Another beauty about knowing the Bible for yourself is you discover over and over there is nothing new under the sun, in which we find in God’s word. This is true. Although we are living in modern times, anything we face is not new to God. It may be new to us like COVID, but God was dealing with plagues since the beginning of time and some of them He sent purposely. So, King Saul has this evil spirit sent by the Lord to trouble him… Hmmmm.

Well, when the spirit of the Lord left King Saul, it was a sad day. A sad day indeed that the Lord sent an evil spirit in the place of His spirit upon King Saul. Folks, this is deep. Sometimes an evil spirit can come upon us because of our disobedience… There, I said it! Could it be, that we are struggling and having hard times because we are out of God’s will for our life? We want to blame Satan, but sometimes it maybe us and the bad choices we have made, like King Saul made. King Saul was miserable after the Lord’s spirit left him.

Without God’s spirit in our lives today, we are miserable beings. Some of us may not know the source of our misery, but in some instances, it may be the spirit of the Lord has departed from our lives. King Saul’s constant disobedience left him as a wretched man.  His pride got the best of him. And although he would say he was doing things for God and making sacrifices unto the Lord, God saw King Saul’s heart. As a resulted God no longer wanted Saul to be king and had David anointed as king.

In this story we see the process of how God deals with situations. Overnight, David did not become king, nor was Saul overthrown in an instant. But we can see the hand of God in this situation as he works in Saul’s life, David’s life, and yes, Samuel’s life as he is God’s messenger in all of this. So sometimes God deals with us. His spirit may leave us and we too may go through some misery because of our disobedience. But we know if we repent, and turn away from our sinful ways, God can restore us back into His fold. Love & Blessings!

Our LOVE for Jesus should run deep. When you think of all he endured and how he has set us FREE, the gratitude and the thankfulness to Him should cause us to want to live our lives representing Him on the Earth. Consistently, this is how we can honor Him is by having Him the Lord and Savior of our lives. Jesus said, these people honor me with their lips and with their hearts are far away from me, Mathew 5:9. He also said something similar to religious people of his day that were healing the sick, prophesying, casting out demons among other things. He said there will come a day that he will dismiss them and tells them to depart from Him because He never knew them, Mathew 7:21-23. Wow! This chills me every time I read it. These people were busy! Busy doing God’s work; yet, they missed it, according to Jesus! That should be penetrating to every heart. It should give us an immediate gut check!  

It is one thing to know about Jesus, to know about God, to know about the Holy Spirt, to know the Bible, etc. Undoubtedly, it is clearly on a different realm of having an intimate relationship with Him. Confidently, having Him Lord and Savior of your life, and Him having YOUR HEART secures our eternal futures. That is what God looks at, our heart.

During this Easter season and moving forward, remember to love God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. As Jesus was crucified on the cross for us, our souls will be crucified, too, but our spirits will grow more and more into the love of God and what he did with sacrificing his son, Jesus, for us and THEN leaving the Holy Spirit to be our comfort and guide. It is truly a beautiful and amazing thing that words cannot capture the fullness of it. Lovingly, embrace and appreciate what was done for YOU! Love & Blessings!

Palm Sunday is the commemoration of the triumphant entry of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. The people welcomed and greeted Jesus into the city by waving palm branches and scattering them in the rode way as He made His entry.  His entry was significant as he was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. A donkey is seen as an animal of peace versus a horse that is seen as an animal of war. This entry upon a donkey was also seen as fulfilling prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, “The Coming of Zion’s King – See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  The people had heard of Jesus’ great works of healing and the raising of Lazarus from the dead among other signs and wonders. So, they were genuinely happy to see Him in Jerusalem. I am sure most wondered what He could do for them.

In all of this celebration, Jesus also posed a threat on many levels especially in the political arena. How do you justify murdering an innocent man? You chump up charges against him. That is what they did to our Lord and Savior. Charges of blasphemy claiming to be King of the Jews was one of the charges. There were other false accusations against him as well. Palm Sunday also marks the first day of Holy week.  All of this set the stage for Jesus’ crucifixion at the end of the week with His resurrection on Easter Sunday. So much was going on within this span of time, but none of it by accident. For we know this was Jesus’ purpose on the Earth. He knew this. It was hard on his humanity to endure what he endured. But He relied on the Father to lead and guide him through this agony. What an example for us! We will have agony moments in our lives, too. Yet, we too, have God and the Holy Spirit to help us endure. Thank you, Jesus! Love & Blessings!