Tag: Spirit

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God’s Perfect Timing

“How long, O Lord?” (Psalm 13:1, Psalm 79:5, Psalm 89:46).

I’ve seen people close to me wait on the Lord. Have you? It’s an amazing thing to witness. When you know their hearts are longing and desiring something that just hasn’t come about, and instead of complaining or dwelling on it, they release it to God. Over and over again, every day. Instead of choosing to strategize, tap every earthly resource, forge connections that weren’t there before, they surrender to the Lord’s timing. Stories like this preach to my heart. Patience, one of the fruits of the Spirit, is something many of us need to rely on God for. Waiting indefinitely doesn’t come naturally to many people. Seeing the patience that comes from trusting the Lord’s timing is a sure sign of His work in their hearts.

I’ve also seen people rush ahead, making things happen for themselves. You can see this when you sense striving, strain, and difficulty to find opportunity. God’s Word repeatedly instructs us to wait on the Lord (Psalm 27:14, Psalm 37:7, 34). We choose for ourselves what we do with our limited time here; we can choose to wait on God’s timing, or we can choose to build the Babel of our own desires.

When we’re talking about ourselves, it’s very easy to miss the difference. We tend to be convinced that our own desires are good, that our desires are God’s will for us, our desires are there simply because they are supposed to be satisfied. So we push. We try to make things happen. I’ve done this myself and seen it over and over again with many others. It’s what the world and the culture is convinced is best for us to do. In a world that worships being self-made, we need to make it happen, right? Well, if you look at the history of God’s people, actually, not so much.

Abram and Sarai, for example. They wanted to have a child, and God promised them children. But Sarai was desperate to make it happen, and had her servant Hagar bear Abram’s child in her place when he was 86 years old. Instead of waiting on the Lord or trusting in the Lord’s timing to fulfill her God-given desire for a child, this was an act of striving that reached outside of God’s will. God’s will was always to give Abram and Sarai a child. Striving for that apart from God led to a very costly sin. God gave them new names, Abraham and Sarah, when, 14 years later, His perfect timing came to give them their son, Isaac. Isaac became a forefather to Jesus, through whom God desired to provide salvation for all nations, by His grace, including those descended from Hagar.

Saul, who later became Paul, provides another example in the Bible of pushing ahead, instead of earnestly listening and waiting on the Lord’s direction. Saul was a Jewish Pharisee, pushing to kill people based on what they believed, convinced he was doing the right thing in God’s eyes (Acts 7:58, 8:1&3). My guess is that he hadn’t asked God about whether it was right or not. Jesus Himself got Saul’s attention by blinding him and speaking audibly to him, saying that he would be told what to do (Acts 9:3-6). Saul didn’t know God’s will at all, even though he was convinced that he did, enough to approve of another soul’s murder! It is a risk to act based on anything but God’s direction.

God’s timing is often not what we would like or expect it to be. King David, the man after God’s own heart himself, wrote, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (Psalm 13:1). No matter how close we are to God, we are all bound by time. We all struggle to wait patiently for God. We all eventually become aware of the fact that our time on this earth quickly runs out. We expect God to operate in this way in our lives too.

But God operates very differently. He tells us nothing is impossible with Him (Luke 1:37). He tells us in His Word that there is abundantly more than we could ever ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20) in His plans for us. He tells us to trust Him and wait on Him. Who will we trust, our experience in the world, or God?

“And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word” (1 Kings 18:21). It all comes down to what we choose to believe about God (see Characteristics of God series).

Paul sums up the tension between following our own desires and following the Spirit, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). Paul describes the struggle every person has of falling into sin even when actively trying not to sin. “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:18-20). Only Jesus Christ can provide deliverance from the sin that derails our actions (Romans 7:24-25).

It isn’t just failing to wait on the Lord that can cause us to stumble in our walk of obedience. Another kind of waiting can trip us up; when God tells us the time has come to take action, but we wait instead. We procrastinate, ignore responsibility, or simply run away. Waiting isn’t the right thing to do when God is calling us to act.

A famous example of that is the story of Jonah. God tells him to go to Nineveh, but he runs in the opposite direction instead (Jonah 1:2-3). It was another costly sin of disobedience, and yet in God’s grace, after three days in the belly of a whale, Jonah had another opportunity. He eventually went to Nineveh in obedience to God’s will (Jonah 3:2-3). Has God nudged you to move forward with something in your life, but instead of immediately carrying it out, you waited? Maybe you’re in that situation right now. He asks us to trust that His timing is perfect. But when we miss it, God in His grace can make a way, even when we’ve waited past His timing.

I have spent weeks, months, and years trying to make things happen on my own strength (for more on this, check out All About Trust). But there have been many things in my own life that God’s timing (not mine) was perfect for. The things I couldn’t control like getting jobs, finding churches, meeting friends—all had a divine timing that only required surrendering and receiving the gift. There was no striving or making-it-happen involved; these moments were pivotal to where my life went in that season, by God’s mercy. We may not be patient with God, but thankfully God is always, always patient with us. Halleluiah!

The more I learn to trust that God is in control, the easier it is to surrender the fear of missing something. The more we trust God, the more patient we can become, as we grow in our knowledge that God’s timing is always perfect. Amen.


“Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

“In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:4).

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God’s Presence in Prayer

Last week, I wrote about the Presence of God; today I want to share a bit about my first-hand experience of His Presence. Those of you who have been reading for a while know there was a time when I could not feel God’s Presence, and when I didn’t believe God was there at all.

I pray that what He’s brought me and been with me through is an encouragement to you in your own life with the King.

Desperate Prayer

Until something wakes us up to the reality that every day we are in desperate need of God, we may remain unaware of His constant Presence with us. Psalm 42 begins with a fervent desperation, “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalm 42:1-2). In the throes of sleep deprivation, I recently came to that desperate place. I realized once again that I had no where else to turn to for help but God.

Are you desperate for God today? Scripture says, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). When I got to that desperate state, I knew that God was my only hope and was ready to seek Him in prayer once again, with all of my heart. I’ve been there many times in my life, yet every time, God surprises me with something new. This last time, as I prayed about my struggles surrounding sleep, He answered my prayer with an awareness of His power.

God’s Power

There is great power in God’s Presence. God’s power is bigger than, and can overcome any obstacle that, we may be facing. In His Presence in prayer, I was able to let God’s power into a situation that felt too complicated for me to work out, “For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). With my sleep issue, there was nothing more I could reason out, I simply needed to be delivered by God’s power to move forward instead of staying stuck. When we are desperate for change in our lives, we can allow God’s Kingdom to come through His power working in and through us.

I talked to God about the ways I felt stuck. I prayed and I prayed, pouring out my heart to God. I told Him everything I was thinking about, frustrated with, thankful to Him for, and still hoping for. I prayed of my desperation. Sometimes, years ago when I would pray, I didn’t feel heard or seen by God at all. That empty void feeling is part of why I turned away from faith back then. I wasn’t desperate because I didn’t understand who God is, and that we depend on Him for everything. Thankfully, I have come to trust and believe now that He never leaves or forsakes us (Deuteronomy 31:6 & 8, Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5).

This time recently in prayer, His Presence was tangible to me in a way that is hard to describe. I had an alertness, and a sense that I wasn’t simply alone, talking to myself, but to God, and that He heard and fully understood me. I had an unusual clarity of thought about what my spirit was experiencing. God’s Presence brought a beautiful order, not only in the spirit, but also in language so that I could articulate it for myself, to where my heart needed alignment with God’s. Scripture encourages us to be “praying in the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20). In this fervent prayer, I was given the power from God to be aware of and express my heart to God. I was given peace, and also power to affect change according to His good plans and will. That power has continued. Praying in this way was an incredible experience, and one that we all can have when we turn our hearts to seek Him.

What became clear during this time of prayer was that God cared about what I was saying, even though He already knew it. He wanted to hear from me, just like He wants to hear from you. We will never be as understood by anyone as fully as we are by God. He already knows our whole story, and knows exactly what we mean, no matter what we say or how we say it. He has been present with us through it all, whether we’ve been aware of it or not. Being seen and heard by God is a gift He wants to give to us, and one that comes uniquely in intentional, fervent prayer. If you are desperate today, don’t miss out on His gifts for you! Cry out to Him and He will answer with His power and Presence. He has for me, over and over again. The Truth is that we all desperately need Him every day.

He is available always, listening and caring for us through it all. May heaven open as we open our hearts to God. Amen.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Characteristics of God: Presence of God

Have you ever felt the Presence of God? Maybe you’ve felt unusual calm or peace in a chaotic moment, or maybe you’ve gotten chills down your spine while the worship band played your favorite song among a group of believers. Maybe God’s Presence has met with you in a quiet moment at home with your Bible, or maybe He worked a miracle before your very eyes while you sensed standing on holy ground. The psalmist wrote, “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Psalm 139:7). God’s Presence is always with us.

There are many, many more, but today I’ll delve a little deeper into just six of the distinguishing characteristics of God’s Presence as part of the Characteristics of God series.

In the Lord’s Presence, nothing else matters. Nothing else is important or needs attending to. In His Presence we remember the Truth; that God takes care of us, provides for us, and sustains us; our own strength and efforts are futile. When we experience God’s Presence we are made more aware that we are completely engulfed by His grace and mercy as we take every single breath. It’s in His Presence our hearts can be transformed, and we can build intimacy with the God of the universe, the Alpha and the Omega. We are no longer tied to the things that weigh us down or make us afraid when we know that He is with us. In His Presence, we are free indeed.

1. God’s Presence Makes Us Free

The Presence of God is credited as having set the Israelite captives free from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 4:37). His power, glory, and goodness can be experienced by us today, right now. Worshiping Him with all of our heart or praying in the Spirit are ways that can make His Presence more tangible to us. In the Bible, God’s Presence is also described as “the glory of the Lord” (eg: Exodus 16:10, Exodus 24:16, Leviticus 9:23, Numbers 16:19). He is omnipresent and always available to draw near to, and yet, it can be so easy for us sometimes to miss out on experiencing His Presence.

God’s Presence prompted Moses and Aaron to fall on their faces (Numbers 20:6). The appropriate response to God’s Presence, which is so good and so holy, evokes immediate worship and service to Him; “Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!” (Psalm 100:2). In loving, fearing, and serving the Lord we become truly free. By experiencing His Presence, we can better get to know Him well enough to love Him. The living God longs to be present with us; that is why Jesus came! Scripture tells us how Jesus made a Way for God’s wonderful Presence to be with us anytime, anywhere. That’s the Good News.

2. God’s Presence is Available at all Times for Everyone

God wants each one of us to be alive in His Presence for all of eternity; we wouldn’t be here if He didn’t! It’s in God’s Presence He can teach us His heart, overflowing with love and grace for us. The more we spend time in His Presence, the more we are able to align ourselves with His heart (desires, will, and emotions). In His Presence, we are better able to become people after God’s own heart.

There is peace and rest in knowing who we are to God, His loved and cherished children. God spoke to Moses about the rest that His Presence brings to His people: “And he said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:14). Our souls can truly rest when we know we are cared for, loved, and protected. All this is freely available to us in God’s Presence.

3. God’s Presence Gives Us Rest

The joy that comes from experiencing God’s Presence is complete, and makes us unshakably joyful, “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). We need nothing more than God’s Presence. It provides all we need, and more. He Truly is sufficient for us (2 Corinthians 12:9).


We were specially designed to be in God’s Presence, it’s part of who we were made to be! All of God’s work aligns with and works for us to be able to dwell with God. As God is our Creator, it naturally brings us gladness and joy to experience being with Him. Being in God’s Presence brings safety, wonder, delight, peace, and true, deep joy in our hearts and spirits. “For you make him most blessed forever; you make him glad with the joy of your presence” (Psalm 21:6).

4. God’s Presence Makes Us Joyful

It is a promise in Scripture that we will all see God’s glory (Isaiah 40:5). Jesus was in the glory of God’s Presence before the world existed, and He entered God’s Presence and was glorified again after He died on the cross (John 17:5). God’s Presence itself is glorious and brings about glorious things.

The Presence of God gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist (Romans 4:17). Scripture describes God’s Presence with the imagery of mountains quaking, idols trembling, and justice being the only thing that can be done when it is near (Isaiah 19:1, Isaiah 64:1-3, Lamentations 3:35). Glorious things happen because of and come from God’s Presence. We can better see God, His glorious nature, and the glorious things that come from Him when we experience His Presence.

5. God’s Presence is Where We Experience His Glory

Of we whose sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus, it is said, “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.” (Revelation 7:15-16).

In eternity, we are promised to not only be present at God’s throne, but also sheltered forevermore by His awesome Presence when we are in Christ. We won’t be subject to the suffering or pain of this world anymore in His eternal Presence. Instead, we will be sheltered by Him.

6. God’s Presence is a Shelter

Experiencing His Presence, as we can in worship, prayer, and in other ways, can be so refreshing to our souls because it returns us to our innate connection with Him. David sang, “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). God designed us and longs for us so much that He promised to fulfill our need to be in His Presence for eternity through Jesus.

God’s purposes and plans ultimately provide for us to experience His freeing, available, restful, joy-filled, glorious, sheltering Presence, and for Him to enjoy our presence too, for all of eternity. Amen.

“For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf” (Hebrews 9:24).

“Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (1 Chronicles 16:11).

“Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago” (Acts 3:19-21).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Obedience to God’s Voice

I’ve been trying to hone in on hearing from God. I’m asking Him questions like, “What do You want me to do in the moment? Should I take a walk or should I read? Should I work or rest? Should I keep quiet or speak up?” After a lifetime of doing what I wanted on my own strength, and regretting most of those decisions, asking God before acting is both a necessity and big challenge. Doing things differently than I’ve always done them is never easy, but it’s worth the struggle, even though I mess up all the time. Just today, I realized I’d done the opposite of what I was supposed to, after making the wrong choice. It ended up causing consequences that set my day back. I realized in hindsight that my decision was disobedient to God’s will for me in that moment. He had told me what to do, I knew in my spirit what it was, but I didn’t act on it. Instead, I thought about it more, and waited, and slipped right into disobedience.

Obedience has a bad reputation in Western culture. We hear constant messages implying that we must listen, not to God or anyone else, but to ourselves; messages like: be a leader not a follower, be yourself, march to the beat of your own drum, do your own thing, live by your own truth. Not all of the sentiment is wrong or bad. But what the culture in this world fails to realize is that listening to our own hearts without the authority of Jesus (who also holds our True identity) is dangerous, because our hearts are prone to be sinful. Our hearts often simply want what they want, and rarely actually align with Jesus without being submitted to His authority. Our hearts, when unchecked, will eventually lead us into sin, every time. Sin leads to death and destruction (Romans 6:16). The obedience of our hearts to God’s will for us through Jesus is the only way to life and fruitfulness (John 3:16, John 10:9, Acts 4:11-12). Living in obedience to God is by far the best life possible for us.

Human beings were designed to obey God, but in the sinfulness of the heart, that obedience can be replaced by idolatry so that we obey, or are subject to the authority of, a myriad of other things. However, it is God’s authority that we are made to live and thrive under. When God told Moses to appoint Joshua as his successor to lead the people into the Promised Land, He spoke of the role of authority in the people’s obedience: “You shall invest him with some of your authority, that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey” (Numbers 27:20). Moses had authority to command the people only because it was specifically given to him by God to lead them. The very first thing recorded in Scripture that God said to man was in the form of a command, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’” (Genesis 2:16-17). God’s authority over man is clear from Scripture, as the proper order. Messaging from the world has tried to twist this order, and nudge us all into playing God in our own hearts and lives, to do what we want to do, to live solely under our own authority.

Obeying God simply out of love and respect for Him and His loving, gracious character is where I want to be, and I have faith that we all can reach that place in our relationship with God at any time. But in my fallenness, I recognize that things can and do go wrong. When they do, it points us to Jesus, who is the solution to every single wrong thing in our lives.

In some seasons of following Jesus, it can be hard to hear God’s Voice. In my experience, I can hear His Voice clearest when I am living in obedience to what He is telling me to do. When we hear His Voice directly in our spirits, it can seem easy to obey. As I learned again just today, it’s not always as easy as it sounds. But He always gives grace. Jesus spoke about his followers listening to His Voice, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd” (John 10:14-16). Sheep know and listen to their shepherd. To live in obedience to Jesus, our Shepherd’s, Voice, we must lay down our lives daily (Luke 9:23), including our hearts’ self-centered desires. He graciously laid His life down for us first; His Voice is trustworthy!

It is in obedience to God that we may enjoy peace; “He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:1-3). When we allow God to determine our actions, we are able to represent Him well, and be available to minister to others. He has given us His name, as we talked about last week in Called By Your Name, and He longs to guide us in the Way, living in obedience to Him.

May we all seek God and know His Voice, to guide us in all obedience, every day, every moment, all for His glory.

Amen.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,” (1 Peter 1:22).

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;” (Exodus 19:5).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Abide in His Love

Have you ever had a hard time letting something you did go that bothered you? It’s been a week like that for me. I have, over and over, let myself down. I’ve come from a poor attitude. I’ve had a lack mindset. I’ve felt an entitled spirit, on edge about everything, like I just can’t take another disappointment.

It’s cut off many connections, closing off opportunity for relationships to grow, all because I didn’t give the fear over to God before it took root in my spirit. The worst part of it was, I struggled to see it was happening in the moment. Once I did see it, I struggled to let it go. As I’ve felt this way many times in my life, I’ll guess that I’m not the only one who’s experienced this.

The whole be-transformed-by-the-renewal-of-your-mind thing (Romans 12:2) is really hitting home for me right now. I need to be renewed, and I know it. But, I can’t do it on my own; I need God to transform me. We cannot change our hearts by ourselves, we have to lay it all down before God and ask Him to change us by His grace.

I need to be reminded that I am completely reliant on God’s help to have a perspective of love and security in the Father’s love, not fear. In 2020, I wrote a blog called Compassion and Resting in Jesus. In times like this when I struggle, I’m reminded and take comfort in the fact that Jesus’ compassion and forgiveness is far bigger than the struggle. He offers us all a place of peace and compassion. Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me” (John 15:4). We are called—even commanded—in this passage to abide in Jesus. Abiding involves letting go of control and trusting Him and His love for us. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18). We read here that love and fear simply don’t cooperate. Jesus is the only way beyond the grip of the spirit of fear.

Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Jesus also refers to Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Abiding in Him involves staying close to Him, understanding and trusting His heart, will, and character, and relying on Him to lead us in all truth and life.

Despite how much fear or shame may sway us, we have no reason to doubt our identity in Christ, or that we are loved by Him. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9). Once we abide in Jesus, His love becomes ours. As we abide in Jesus, we can show and share His love, which is the most healing, restorative, and pure love there is. Abiding in Him is the best thing for us—that’s why He commanded it! It allows us to bear fruit; perhaps the most foundational fruit of life is that of love. “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

My hope for myself, and for you, my friends, is to abide in Jesus and His love anew today. May we see His incredible love with fresh eyes, and see a little further just how deep and wide it truly goes! His love is far more powerful than even the most deadly spirit that would grind our lives and our love to a halt. His love is the only place of safety, and is the foundation of a fruitful life. May we let the Truth, that we are loved by Jesus and bought by His precious blood, reign in our hearts, minds, and spirits today. Amen.

“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” (1 John 4:15-16).

“Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:24).

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Led by the Spirit

Here in the middle of winter, there has been a shift in spiritual seasons, at least for me. I had been in a season of waiting, of resting, and of stillness. That season was humbling, and at times frustrating. In Isaiah, it says, “but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31). I’d been so conditioned to work and make things happen, that being out of action felt wrong. But it was exactly what God was calling me to. I learned obedience, and to submit to His will instead of mine. It became clear that I needed that season of rest and to wait for the strength of God to be behind what I did in and with my life. I learned in this last season to wait for leading from God before jumping into anything new.

To wait on God requires seeking God and His will, all the time. For me this was also a frustrating process to learn, as it seemed so incredibly mysterious and too “woo-woo” to be practical in everyday life. But I just needed to surrender to get out of my own way and believe the truth, that God really does communicate, all the time! God’s Word says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). That’s a promise!

We see an amazing example of this in Acts 13, when the church where Paul (Hebrew name Saul) was worshipping in Antioch was all fasting together. While they were seeking the Lord in worship, the Holy Spirit spoke to them and told them what they were to do next. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them‘” (Acts 13:2). After obeying this command, the next time the Holy Spirit is mentioned, He empowers Paul to speak boldly, leading to a miracle (Acts 13:11) that stopped evil influence (Acts 13:8) on a man of intelligence (Acts 13:7) in the region, and his subsequent belief in the gospel (Acts 13:12). Paul’s words and actions were led. They weren’t done on his own strength, or just because he in himself felt ready to go. He was sent by the Holy Spirit, given God’s strength to take the actions he was sent to take.

While God may not speak audibly all that often, He speaks, leads, and sends people today in many ways. He’ll also speak to us if and when we’ve taken a wrong turn. Wrong turns are okay, as long as we are listening to Him! God won’t stop letting you know what’s right and in His will for you. He always makes a way for us to come back to Him.

I’m entering a new season where God is sending me in a new direction, and I’m excited to be able to share the details with you very soon! For now, I want to share that God has graciously given me new work to do, and in this new season I’ll be doing my best to steward it well and according to His leading. Friends, I would appreciate your prayers as God is leading my life in a new direction, that I would lean on God’s strength, continue to wait on Him even in the middle of the work, and allow myself to be led by the Spirit through it all.

I encourage us all to surrender it all to God, today and every day. The Spirit is eager and longing to lead us in God’s unique and beautiful purpose for our lives. May we let Him lead us as the King of our hearts. Seek Him and you will see miracles! Let your faith in God’s leading shine, and may He will do His will through you. Amen.

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

“And Peter said to them, ‘Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit“. . .’ (Acts 2:38).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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The Body of Christ

This past week I have been dealing with a neck and back injury. It’s disrupted both sleep, and this week’s blog post. All that to say, this one will be brief.

There is a need to each other to lift each other up in prayer, perhaps more than we realize. Ephesians 6 says, “and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,” (Ephesians 6:17-18). When someone I knew heard about my injury, they didn’t hesitate to pray, even though I hadn’t asked them to. Prayer for one another is just one powerful way we can follow Jesus’ commandment to love one another (John 13:34). The body of Christ, the church, is a powerful, connecting force in the spirit. When it operates in the love of Jesus, it is truly a beautiful, healing place.

None of us can do life alone. We need each other not just for prayer, but for care, encouragement, and covering. Having a hurt back has turned into a surprising blessing to me, because I witnessed the body of Christ address my acute need in prayer. It blessed me to receive that love and care. It blessed me to see obedience to the Word of God. It blessed me to realize how blessed I am to be part of the body of Christ.

Without the seemingly frustrating trial of my injury, I would likely have not appreciated where God has placed me quite as much. God can use anything to get our attention back on Him, on His work and His plan. Prayer matters. Prayer is a powerful form of care and love. It was a blessing to be reminded of the goodness to be found in the body of Christ. Today, I am thankful to be feeling much better, and that the pain has subsided considerably.

May we be attentive to the goodness of the body of Christ, even in a world that points out all the ways it has failed. And may we pursue love (1 Corinthians 14:1) as we journey with Jesus together, never failing to cover and intercede for each other in prayer. Amen.

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many” (1 Corinthians 12:12-14).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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In Flesh and Spirit

Applying the Bible to day-to-day life is an ongoing, daily decision. For a long time, I didn’t really understand how it applied to my job or sleep or inner monologue. I got very used to doing whatever felt right and seemed right to me at the time, which I’d describe as my default way of being. I later learned the Bible calls it the way of the flesh. 1 Corinthians 3:3 calls being in the flesh “behaving only in a human way.” Well, human is what I am, isn’t it? Why should I expect more?

But we all do, don’t we? We know what we want to do, but sometimes—or as was in my case, often—we just don’t. No great explanation, we just fail to show up, fail to follow through, or run out of time or energy. I think Paul captures this frustration best, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Romans 7:18-20). This isn’t to be read as an excuse for doing things we ought not do. Instead, it highlights how much we need Jesus. Only through Him can we be given the ability to do God’s will, or using the language in the ESV Bible, the ability to walk by the Spirit. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

The way out of the frustrating cycle of doing what we don’t want to do depends entirely on how dependent we are on Jesus. To be in the spirit involves our minds, our thoughts: “those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5b). It also involves leaving behind the selfishness that our flesh defaults to, “if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13b). Easier said than done, eh? Our minds churn out thousands of thoughts every day, and our bodies creep toward seeking comfort at every turn. To go against all that seemingly makes us human to obey God is no small feat, and one that we simply cannot do alone.

No matter how difficult it can be to resist old patterns of thought and behavior, God does not set us up to fail. To depend on Jesus is to be set up by Jesus with the Holy Spirit, who empowers us to be able to transcend our human weaknesses to obey the will of God. In surrender to God, we can love Jesus and keep His commandments (John 14). This is something our flesh simply cannot do. When we trust in Jesus and obey Him, we are able to walk by the Spirit and do things that aren’t possible on our own strength.

When we don’t depend on Jesus daily, or take care to walk in relationship with Him, we can quickly default to a self-pleasing or people-pleasing way of being, or the way of flesh. Jesus warns of this happening even when our intentions are good, “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

By trying to be like God we fell into the state of being in the flesh. But in His grace, God has made a way for us to walk in the spirit despite our human shortcomings. In fact, He turns our weakness into the very avenue that leads us to Him. It is when we admit to and surrender our weakness to God in trust that He empowers us to walk in the Spirit.

The flesh, while something we must all live with and are warned about in Scripture, can be used for good when we choose to surrender it to Jesus. It makes your relationship with Jesus so much closer! It is in admitting the weakness of the flesh that I found out how completely I had to surrender to Jesus, and it is so worth it. Paul acknowledges this too, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

In Jesus, we have the power to overcome the power that the flesh has over us, and the power to walk in a way of goodness and obedience far beyond our human capability. He is faithfully restoring all things that were lost through Jesus. May we choose to walk in the Spirit daily, just as God created us to do from the Beginning. Amen.

“So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . .” (Romans 7:21-25).

“…if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. . . .” (Acts 5:38b-39a).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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Endure Until the End

It is a heroic characteristic to endure. If we are able to have the blessing of sticking it out in this life, we endure its hardships and suffering. But movies send the misleading message that right after hardship, things immediately get better and stay that way. Reality, however, doesn’t pan out that way. Yet, because Jesus gives us hope beyond this world, we can endure, and if we have the faith, we can also trust that Jesus will make it all worth it in His Kingdom.

Jesus said of the end times, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:12-12). We aren’t promised better times; in fact, we are assured that the wickedness we must endure will get progressively worse.

Love must not grow cold in us, but must be kept warm in our hearts in order to endure, and we are warned that most people will fail at this. It is love that indicates our ability to stand firm to the very end.

Love is first on the list of fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22. In my own experience, love is not possible without the help of the Holy Spirit. I am keenly aware how much my flesh opposes love, a tension I’ve wrestled hard with; the world tells us we “love” each other just fine thank you very much, but the world’s love is not God’s unselfish, uninhibited, deeply caring, unconditional, eternity-enduring LOVE. The flesh, or the desire for self-preservation and avoidance of pain, gets annoyingly in the way of that kind of love.

To die to self is the only way to let the God-given, miraculous kind of love flow through us, and to choose to live by the Spirit instead of the flesh. As far as I’ve been able to learn in my journey, to deny the flesh and live by the Spirit is what we must do to be able to endure in love until the end of this age.

On days like today, my flesh wants to enter into the world’s system and way, and fight on my own strength from a place of fear disguised as anger and a sense of rightful injustice. Today I need to work extra hard to remember the Truth–that “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:14). And that we are not of this world, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,” (Philippians 3:20). We are to seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33), (because isn’t that hard enough for us?), and trust that God will provide, no matter how bad things look.

A necessary disclaimer I must add here is that of course I know that there are those whom God has given the strength to work for justice in this world, even among the increase of wickedness, and they are doing good and necessary work that I admire and applaud. But anyone who works against the tide of wickedness and endure in love must be given a God-given purpose in their work, not of fear. It’s the fear-driven anger I feel that tells me that work is not mine to do. And that is the perspective I’m coming from it all with today.

Things are getting harder. But God has not let us be blindsided by this fact; He warned us long ago. And He calls us to endure. Endure in faith. Endure in love. Endure in hope. “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3). To endure, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Amen.

Remember that out of great tribulation comes a promise, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:16-17).

“Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord‘” (Romans 12:17-19).

“Therefore as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Colossians 3: 12-14).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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We Can Know What is True

The level of fear I’ve been witnessing in the start of 2021 has left me stunned. We are living in a time of extreme spiritual confusion. Being confused easily breeds fear; we naturally fear what is unknown. It is the world’s way to keep fear alive and well, because what we fear has power over us.

We forget that we can choose not to be swept up in the tides of fear. We can get so used to it that we don’t even know we’re afraid. Even when fear feels so real to us, no matter how chaotic things seem, it is helpful to remember that God is not a God of fear or confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33a). He is a God of love and peace, and He wants to give these gifts to us.

How do we know we’re experiencing spiritual confusion (AKA fear)?

There are many warning signs that can serve as signposts that we are swerving toward fear and confusion.

Just a few may include: 

  • If we try to control people and/or things around us to a very strict degree. 
  • If loving God and loving people become an afterthought. 
  • If we are consuming greater quantities of news than of the Word of God. 
  • If we are buying things we usually wouldn’t, doing things we usually wouldn’t, considering things we usually wouldn’t, or saying things we usually wouldn’t. 

When we are centered and clear on God’s Word and His love, it is important to pray and consider reaching out in grace and truth to help someone else in the grip of fear and confusion. God commands us to love one another and does not want us to be afraid of the things of this world, “for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Friends, my prayer for us all is for the discernment to realize when enough is enough when it comes to fear. Fear destroys the spirit and does not protect us, only God can do that. The truth is, no matter how bad things seem or feel to us in the moment, God’s plan will come about. God’s promises remain true and undisturbed. Jesus loves us beyond comprehension and is still on the throne interceding for us. “There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear…” (1 John 4:18a). God is calling us to be people who love one another and stay away from the trap of fear, brought on by lies, in our minds.

Jesus is the Truth

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him’” (John 14:6-7). 

When we follow Jesus we become a person of truth. Further on in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks about his relationship with truth further:

“Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’ After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, ‘I find no guilt in him’ (John 18:37-38). 

To be in Christ is to be in truth. Knowing Christ is knowing the truth. Truth is something we can stand on, something that needs to be taken very seriously since we human beings are susceptible to confusing truth with almost-truth. But God has given us His Word and His Son Jesus Christ, who came as the very embodiment of the truth. In Christ, we can resist fear and what is false.

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7b). We may know this verse, but how do we resist the father of lies, the devil? How do we stop aligning ourselves with the things that are not true about where God is taking humanity, who God is, and who we are as His beloved people? 

By aligning ourselves with Jesus in actively loving one another as He loves us (John 13:34-35).  

When we live in loving ways, we act contrary to fear in the same way that Jesus did. We act in trust of a reality not of fear but of love and peace. We actually bring God’s Kingdom to earth. While it takes time and effort, we are able to watch our thoughts and catch ourselves in the lies we believe so that we can realign our thoughts with the truth. Living in fear and believing lies about ourselves, God, and other people is like putting blinders on ourselves. It is not loving to ourselves to entertain lies. We have the choice to take the blinders of fear off, but when confusion takes hold of our lives and spirits, we can easily forget that this is true. It can be difficult to remember that there is abundant life outside of the limited view we see in our blinders. 

Leaning on Jesus is where we find peace. In Him there is no fear, and from His peace we can start to see beyond the blinders and let Him heal the spiritual wounds of fear. 

In the new Pixar movie Soul, there is an apt illustration of this idea. The only thing in the film that can dissolve the dark cloud of fear and lies that cause souls to become “lost” souls is the truth. Once the lost soul can see one part of the truth, it brings them back to reality and life and they can uncover more of the truth. In this way, Soul is onto the truth of how God designed our souls to be–to respond to truth, and to struggle when we allow ourselves to believe lies. 

I want to be clear and say that Jesus is with us even and especially in our fear. He is present with you and working even and especially while you are afraid. He will never, ever leave you alone in your fear. 

Use the Discernment of the Spirit

There is a pervasive perception that there is so much information that is false or fake that it is impossible to know what is true. But this perception misses the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within each one of us who believe in Jesus.

It misses that the Holy Spirit knows the truth even if it is not reported or false testimony is given. It misses that the Holy Spirit speaks to us in our spirits and we can practice listening to His voice (Hebrews 5:14). It misses that the Holy Spirit gives us discernment between truth and almost-truth.

When in fear, we must repent and ask the Holy Spirit to help us discern between truth and almost-truth. 

It is when we believe almost-truth that some of the most sinister fear enters into our lives. “Almost-truth” is Satan’s specialty, and lately there are almost-truths being spread even more than those viral videos in the early 2000s. Instead of reacting to them, and giving them our precious energy, we can act in accordance with the truth, and go to God and His unshakable promises and love.

We can know the truth by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Many of us struggle to distinguish between our own voice and God’s. Indeed, it takes practice. Discernment takes an understanding of the fruit of the Spirit, a knowledge of the character and Word of God.

Whenever we find ourselves afraid, we can ask the Holy Spirit questions, such as, Does what I’m fearing leave room for grace? Does what I’m fearing question who God is? Questions like these can help us test and know if we are in alignment with the truth. 

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). We can test every spirit, every swaying force or idea, and indeed we are commanded to do so. This is part of loving and taking care of the temples that we are. 

May we be people of the truth, valuing what Jesus values, obeying and listening to the voice of Jesus instead of the loud voices of fear or confusion. Let us pray for wisdom and discernment, so that our lives are lived not in fear but Christ-like love.

“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’” (John 8:32). 

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