On the last day, that great [day] of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. (John 7:37 NKJV)
As I sit and listen to the rain trickle down, I am assured the earth will drink it all up because it thirsts. Often, we are painfully thirsty. We seek coffee in the morning to keep our sleepy eyes awake. In the evening others desire a toddy, a pain killer to take away the sufferings of the day.
Jesus stood up and yelled in the middle of the big party, “Come to me if you are thirsty! Come to me and drink!” No Grande caramel macchiato nor jumbo margarita can fill the emptiness caused by the pains of life. Jesus is the only true thirst quencher. He is the only pain reliever we need. Freely, come to Him. He will heal every hurt. He will quench every thirst. Do you hear him yelling for you? The Living Water is waiting on you.
I enCOURAGE you to let him pour you the best drink ever, Himself.
“For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. (56) “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. (John 6:55-56 NKJV)
Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave [it] to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. (Matthew 26:27 NKJV)
The Lord grew me a lot in His wisdom at Oakmont Ridge, Collierville, TN , 2011
by Tammy Phillips NOVEMBER 21, 2019
LOVE WISDOM. SHE WILL KEEP YOU.
When you walk, when you go, YOUR STEPS WILL NOT BE BOUND OR DISTRESSED.
When you run, You will not stumble. You will not fall down. You will not, totter, nor waver. YOU WILL NOT BE OVERTHROWN.
Take hold of instruction. Seize discipline. Be strong in correction.
DO NOT LET GO! DO NOT BE SLACK! DO NOT BE DISHEARTENED!
Keep her. Guard wisdom. Watch over her. She is your life. Instruction is the key. WISDOM IS…LIFE TO YOU. (Wisdom of Solomon from Proverbs 4)
I enCOURAGE you to chase after the wisdom of God. Do not forsake it. It will preserve you. Build your life on the promises of God. If you have a circumstance and you do not know what to do, get a word from God. Listen to His word and abide in that word. Find at least one of His promises for your situation and do not let go. Get wisdom. It is the first thing you need to experience the abundant life He has created you for!
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” (John 8:12 NKJV)
Follow the Light. The Light will direct. When we are feeling like Job and questioning:
“Why is light given to him who is in misery? Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden and whom God has hedged in? For my sighing comes before I eat, and my groanings pour out like water. For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.” (Job 3:20, 23-25 NKJV)
It is always darkest before the dawn, when light of the moon is farthest from us. We sometimes are overwhelmed and devastated by the dark periods of life. But God! We know the night will not last and that the glory of the Son will break through the darkness. David says in Psalm 18:28, “For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.” He always victoriously overcomes the darkest places in our lives. He in fact enlightens the darkness! Glory to God.
I enCOURAGE you to take hold of the Light! Grab His word and do not let go. Follow the Light! He alone has the ability to walk you out of the dark place into His glorious light.
“And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8 NKJV)
Over and over in God’s word, He encourages, “do not fear.” When you cannott stand the silence because feel that you are wandering and wondering what you are to do next and where God is in all of it. He is there. He is right where He has always been. He has already gone before you. He is beside you. He is inside of you. He is behind you. He is all around you. He is the air that you breathe. Take His hand. He will help you walk where you think you cannot. He will hold you up. He will help you take the next step no matter how cluttered with obstacles your path may seem. Do not fear. He is with you.
The will of God is for you to walk by faith. The will of Satan is for you to walk in fear. Chew on that one. Where does your faith abide? If you are walking in fear, you ARE fulfilling the plan Satan has for you life. Ouch! You are placing your faith in the enemy, not in God nor His word. Keep confessing all those fears. You will receive exactly what you are believing for.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. HEBREWS 11:6
Walk by faith you will receive the promises of God. He will hold you up. He will help you take the next step no matter how cluttered with obstacles your path may seem. Have faith. Do not fear. He is with you.
I enCOURAGE you to take comfort in the all-encompassing presence of God in your life and do not fear. These are not idle nor empty words. Those three little words, “do not fear,” are words of hope and freedom. Have faith and do not fear. He is with you.
And David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God–my God–will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD. (1 Chronicles 28:20 NKJV)
Steep stairway, multiple steps and landings at a friends lake house taught me a few things about life. 11/18/19
by Tammy Phillips November 18, 2020
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way. (Psalm 37:23 NKJV)
Take one step at a time. I know on this journey you may not see the way clearly but take one step at a time. God will be your Newel Post, the anchor of the stairway, a support that helps bear the weight of the rest of the way. A newel is always found at the foot of a flight of stairs and at the top of the stairway. A newel is placed at every juncture where the stairway changes directions. God is your Newel post providing support and bearing the way at the beginning, the end and at every turn along the stairway.
As you begin to climb, God will bring you to a landing that will provide you time for healing, rest, and restoration. He will bring you to a landing place to guide you around the obstacles of life. The landing will provide you direction and next steps. Trust Him. He says in Psalm 32:8, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8 NKJV) He will help you rise and tread. Rise and tread. Before you know it, you will have risen and completed a run to the next landing.
I enCOURAGE you to keep taking one step at a time. God will be with you every step of the way. Take time to heal in your own way. Grieve in your own way. Healing is a journey and a climb. Take one day at a time. Take one breathe at a time. Take one step at a time.
The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17 KJV)
God is in the midst of you. God is in the center of you. God is in your nearest part.
God in the midst of you is Brave. God is in the midst of you is Mighty. God in the midst of you is the Mightiest. God in the midst of you is the Strongest. God in the midst of you is a Warrior. God in the midst of you is a Champion
God will save you. God will deliver you. God will rescue you. God will preserve you.
God will rejoice over you with joy. God will take great delight in you. God will leap and spring over you with gladness. God will rest in His love and be silent over you. God will joy over you with singing. God will spin around over you with a ringing cry. God will whirl around you with a shout.
God loves you that much.
I enCOURAGE you with the fact that God spins and shouts over you! He is excited about you. Know that God is all up in your business. He is working on your behalf. He is right in the middle of it and you ready to save.
He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:14 NLT)
Why do we hang on to the mistakes of our past? Why do we keep bringing up our sin? Jesus took them. Why do we try to keep them?
When we confess our sins and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, 1 John 1:9 states: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Forgive is the Greek word, aphiēmi, meaning to let go, send away, and to leave. Jesus paid for them and let them go. Why can’t we do the same?
Not only did Jesus let them go, he cancelled our stack of sin tickets. He made them disappear. He removed, took them and carried them. It is not our job to carry what he took. Get this point. He took it, our sins, out of the way! Ways is the Greek word mesos meaning middle. He took our sins from:
the middle
the middle of us
the middle of our mind
the middle of our heart
the middle of our journey
the middle of the road we must travel.
the middle of our life
If we truly have made Jesus, Lord of our life, our past sins mistakes, and wrongs, should no longer cause us problems in life!!!! He removed the obstacle of our sin from our way! They are not there anymore!!! They are gone!!! They are not in our way. Jesus cleared our paths. He cleared the path, so that nothing would stand in the way. Why do keep trying to put it back when he took it away? Stop it. He is the Way. Follow Him.
I enCOURAGE you to walk in the freedom of knowing that your sins are not in your way. The only thing in your way is you. Get out of your way. Jesus forgave you. Forgive yourself and forget them. He has.
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 8:12 NKJV)
Have you not known? Have you not heard? THE EVERLASTING GOD, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. (Isaiah 40:28 NKJV)
There is a quote: “Nothing lasts forever.” It is a lie. Our God is forever. He is ever. He is everlasting, evermore and perpetual. He is the beginning and the end; He is the First and the Last. He is from along time ago. He is now and He will always be. He is the Ancient of Days. He is eternity.
God is not a television show that can nor will be cancelled. God is eternal. During prayer this week, I heard deep in my spirit: “I AM GOD. I WILL NOT BE CANCELLED.”
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have [it] more abundantly. (John 10:10 NKJV)
The thief attempts to cancel God. Why do you think the enemy is trying to remove His name and word from our great country?
Be clear! Satan came to cancel you and me. His mission is to bring us to nothingness, annul, invalidate, abolish, put an end to, to deface, to invalidate for reuse, to mark us and strike us out for deletion, and to render us useless by destroying our life force and effectiveness. He would love to silence us, and Not happening.
Here is the good news!
God is not cancelled
Hope is not cancelled.
Deliverance is not cancelled.
Healing is not cancelled.
Salvation is not cancelled.
Righteous is not cancelled.
Truth is not cancelled.
The word of God is not cancelled.
As children of God, you and I are not cancelled.
“But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out, for I am the LORD their God. (Leviticus 26:44 NLT).
This also applies to Christians under the New Covenant. God will always be faithful to the covenant, for the sake of the covenant we have with God through Jesus.
“Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So, you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” (Colossians 2:8-10 NLT)
Christ is the Ruler of all. We are complete in Him and cannot be cancelled. We were created to live eternally with God and then sin entered into the world and attempted to cancel that plan. BUT GOD…had a better plan to buy us back.
“He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it out of the way by nailing it to the cross. In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross”. (Colossians 2:14-15 NLT)
Cancel is the Greek word exaleiphō which means blotted out; wiped away; washed in every part; whitewashed; obliterated; erased; deleted.
We are not cancelled and never will be as children of the Most- High EVERLASTING GOD who follow Him and are obedient to His word. We are the opposite of cancelled. Meditate on each of the following words. We are approved, established, upheld, continued, authorized, supported, called, strengthened, mended, favorited, elected, preserved, chosen, endorsed, verified, enlarged and written in the Lamb’s book of Life.
We should always follow God’s word and strive not to be like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Jesus said of them: ” And so, you cancel the word of God for the sake of your own tradition. (7) You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, for he wrote, (8) ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (9) Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God.'” (Matthew 15:6-9 NLT)
I enCOURAGE you to receive the cancellation of your sins by Jesus. Do not allow anyone else to cancel you nor silence your God given voice. When you follow the LORD God, the Everlasting Father, you can rest assured that God will never be cancelled, nor will He allow you to be. Stand and courageously proclaim His Truth. Hallelujah!
For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6 NKJV)
David encouraged himself in the LORD his God. (1 Samuel 30:6 KJV)
My husband, Kris does not love the morning hours, but I love watching him in the morning, prepare for the day. He speaks encouraging words to himself. He gives strengthens himself with a pep talk most days. He cracks me up and this may be too much information. When he enters the shower, he continues his encouraging routine and lifts up his spirits by turning up the music. He encourages himself.
In 1 Samuel 30, David and his men were coming back home. The return had been a long, three-day journey. They were probably tired and hungry. They may have been a little discouraged because the Philistines would not let them join the battle. How good does it feel when you have been on a trip and you turn the corner to home? When they came to Ziklag, their city, they found it burned, empty and plundered by the Amalekites. All their women and children were missing. David’s two wives were gone. It looked like everything was lost. Ever been in that kind of situation where you have lost all hope?
They wept until they had no strength to weep no more. Have you cried to the point that you felt like you had no more tears to cry?
David was greatly distressed and discouraged. He was in the squeeze. His wives were missing. His men were very upset with him. They were so grieved in their loss that talked about stoning him. Have you ever felt that alone and been that low and discouraged? Have lost hope?
David was at his lowest, BUT he encouraged himself in the Lord.
He did not lay down to the loss. He did not wait for someone else to strengthen him. He reached out and took the strength of God that raised Jesus from the grave. The LORD was his strength, all he had at the time and all he needed. The LORD’s strength was there for him the whole time, but he had to take it. This was the courage of God making itself real in the heart of a broken, hurting, discouraged man. This was strength to rise. It was strength to fight. It was strength to take back what the enemy had stolen. It was strength to conquer.
Are you low? Are you discouraged? Are you at the end of your ropes? Encourage yourself in the LORD your God. He does not play favorites. As his kids, we are all his favorites. He will strengthen you like he did David.
David went to the Lord and asked if he should pursue the enemy and if he would overtake them. The LORD told him to pursue and the he would overtake and recover all. The Lord gave him an action plan and a promise.
Have you sincerely gone to the Lord and asked him what to do about your specific situation? Have you waited for an answer? Do you believe what Holy Spirit spoke to you?
David encouraged himself. Encourage yourself. Remember, God’s great love for you. Remember, God’s promise and call on your life. Remember, God’s past deliverances in your life. David did. He went armed and strengthened with the encouragement of the Lord into battle. David went to battle from dawn until evening of the next day. He recovered all that was lost as promised and more.
I enCOURAGE you to strengthen and encourage yourself in the Lord. Besides, God, you are your greatest ally and you can be your own worst enemy. Go to battle to recover what the enemy has stolen from you. The Lord goes before you and it is his battle. He will help you recover all you have lost and more.
I encourage you that before you get out of bed and your feet touch the floor to meditate which means murmur. Encourage yourself and say: “I am brave. I am strong. I am courageous. I will not be shaken. I am healed, whole and complete. I am a conqueror. I am an overcomer. God, you are my God. You are the same yesterday and forever. I will recover what the enemy has stolen and more. I can do nothing without you and all things with you. I will stand. I will be #resolute2020.”
“After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage…(Acts 27:21-22 NIV)
Although the storm rages and we ask the Lord how He can sleep through it, he has already told us, just like he told the disciples in Mark 4:35-41, “Let us cross to the other side.” He is with us in the middle of the storm. He has not left nor forsaken us. He said, “Let’s go to the other side,” that is what he meant and that is what they did. He did it for the disciples. He did it for our forefathers and he will do it for us.
He took Noah to and through the other side of the biggest flood ever.
He took Moses and Israel to and through to the other side of the Red Sea.
He took Joshua and the Israelites to and through to the other side of the Jordan into the promised land.
He took Abraham from the other side of the River, led him through Canaan, multiplied his descendants and gave him Isaac
He took David to and through the other side of Goliath.
He took Jesus to and through the cross for you…and me.
KEEP UP YOUR COURAGE!
He took Paul to and through many times. Here is one account. In Acts 27:10 Paul said, “Men, I perceive that this voyage will end with disaster and much loss, not only of the cargo and ship, but also our lives.” The majority disagreed and they sailed anyways. They got caught in a big, bad windstorm for days. The storm beat them up and they lost all hope that they would be saved.
“After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. (Acts 27:21-22 NIV)
You should have not dated that person and you would have not got your heart broken.
You should have not over eaten or drunk too much and you would have not felt so bad.
You should have been a better parent and then your child would have turned out differently.
You should have been more careful, and you would have not…
“Should have…would have’s” in our lives are usually spoken by the enemy to bring on regret and shame. God will not leave us in the middle of the “shoulda-woulda.” Paul was sent and angel of God who essentially told him, “Do not be afraid. You have to go through this. You will be saved. You will make it to the other side of this storm.” When we are caught in the storm that is tearing us apart, the Lord will come to us or send us a word of encouragement. He even comes to us in the middle of the storm that he warned us not to go into. When we get caught in the middle of something and see no way out, hear the words of Paul, “I urge you to keep up your courage.” Further…
“KEEP UP YOUR COURAGE, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me!” (Acts 27:25)
Keep up your courage in this instance means:
Be a good cheer.
Be of good courage.
Take heart.
Take courage.
Cheer up.
Why? We have faith in God that it will happen just as he promised. If God said it, we believe it and we will make it to the other side.
I enCOURAGE you to leave the “shoulda…woulda’s” in the past. You cannot change them. You can change your future. Have faith in God to take you to the other side Trust Him. Be brave. Keep up your courage.
Complete in Him 