For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. (Acts 17:28 KJV)
“Have our own being,” what does that mean exactly?
Simply, the Greek word for the phrase “have our own being” is esmen, which means we are and comes from the root word, eimi which means to be, to exist and to be present
In Him, we have our own being. In Him, we are. In Him, we be. In Him we exist. In Him, we are present.
“Offspring” in focus verse is the Greek word genos meaning kin, kind; kindred; family; stock; tribe.
In Him, we are also his offspring. In Him, we are His kin. In Him, we are His kind. In Him, we are His kindred. In Him, we are His family. In Him, we are His stock. In Him, we are His tribe.
Genos comes from a Greek root word, ginomai meaning: be; become; come into existence; appear in history; are finished, are complete
In Him, we become. In Him, we come into existence. In Him, we begin to be. In Him, we receive being. In Him, we appear in history. In Him, we come upon the stage. In Him, we are made. In Him, we are finished. In Him, we are completed.
I enCOURAGE you to love, live, move, and be in Him. You are His kind and He alone completes you.
For in Him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:28 (KJV)
I receive a “word for the year,” but sometimes I receive a word for a day, a week, a month or a season. Recently, my focus word has been “move.” I prayed that God would move us or move in a particular situation to bring resolve. I shared my word and need with my prayer warriors at church, AFTER each individual used the word MOVE to express that they also needed God to MOVE: in a relationship, a loved one, in their body and one need was actually to move a troubling neighbor. Needless to say, I have been meditating on the move.
I helped my Mom and her husband downsize in preparation to move to a new home. We purged 40 years’ worth of ——!!! I have been chewing on this verse. Acts 17:28—hit me last night, when my mom was murmuring a little bit. “In Him we move.” IN HIM WE MOVE! We can do all things in Him and nothing without Him.
For in Him, we live. For in Him, we MOVE. For in Him, we have our being.
Live. What does it mean to live? The Greeks translation of the word live is the word zao. It means to enjoy life; to have true life and worthy of the name; active, blessed, endless; vital power.
In Him, we live. In Him, we enjoy life, not just live it. In Him, we enjoy life, even in the moves of life. In Him, we enjoy life, even when we have to purge. In Him, we have true life. In Him, live a blessed life. In Him, we have an endless life. In Him, we have a vital, powerful life that helps us purge forty years of memories.
Move. what does it mean to “move”? The Greek word for move is kineo. It means to go; to move from a place; to stir; to excite; to throw into commotion.
In Him, we go In Him, we are stirred In Him, we are excited In Him, we MOVE from place to place. In Him, we are thrown into commotion, particularly when we must purge seventy-six years of life’s memories and forty years of accumulation. In Him, we donated to charity and disposed of approximately fifty thirty-three-gallon garbage bags of clothes, shoes, blankets, books, dishes and assorted other things. What do you need to purge to so that you can enjoy life and just BE in HIM?
I enCOURAGE you to enjoy every second of life in Him. I encourage you to move in Him. Take out the trash in your body, mind, and spirit. Clean your house. Why? so In Him you can just be.
For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning. (Psalm 30:5 NKJV)
I can hardly wait to get to heaven to meet our Father, face to face. I can hardly wait to see the unimaginable colors.
When my Nanny was preparing to move from earth to heaven, she described the most beautiful flowers to my mom. She thought Mom could see them. Mom questioned, “Are you talking about the arrangements in the room?” Nanny’s sassy-self replied, “No they are more beautiful than that. Don’t you see them? Look at the meadow full of them. When you step on the flowers, they are not crushed.”
It has been a rather gray weekend. Some things happened that truly saddened me. The enemy tried to deter me from the mission. Psalm 30:5 played like an old LP in my head. “Weeping may endure for the night, but joys comes in the morning.” When we trust in God joy always comes. Unspeakable, overwhelming joy!
On this day, Sister Sparkle sent me a sunrise pic, joy came! It brought back great memories of my Nanny. It was away with the gray of the previous days. Although they were beautiful in the gray, there is nothing like the Fuchsia/Magenta sky to remind me of my Nanny and her Heavenly flowers. I actually was stopped in my tracks because I was reminded to celebrate Nanny’s home going, February 10, 1999!
I enCOURAGE you to believe that no matter what happens, if a friend betrays you, a repair needs repairing again, your sister-in-law has a bad car wreck, you lose a grandmother, a father, a mother or a son…weeping may be for the night. However, joys comes In the morning just like the beautiful sunrise that turns the darkness to light.
Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings, (Psalm 17:8 NKJV)
I love the word picture that David paints in this verse. I find such comfort in knowing that we are protected under the wings of our Almighty God, our Abba Father, our Daddy (as we Southern girls like to call him). When the storms of life come at us hard, the wind and rain are relentlessly trying to move us, there is nothing like crawling up in Daddy’s arms. No place that I would rather be than enveloped in His love and protection.
Psalms 91:4 is a verse I often like to hide out in, “He shall cover me with his feathers, and under his wings I will trust: his truth is my shield and buckler.” Comfort and protection can be found in our Father like we can find it in no other place. Sometimes little birds or ducks are so tucked away under the wings of protection that you can hardly see them. I want to be so hidden in my Daddy that all you can see of me is Him!
I enCOURAGE you to hide under the wings of our Daddy today. You will find rest in our Strength and Shield. The storms, big or little, will soon pass and the glorious light will come. We should then go out, shake our little tail feathers and give Him all praise and glory.
Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. (Mark 1:35 NKJV)
Wonder why we awake between, 3AM and 6AM? Pray-er, you know that the Holy Spirit often awakes you to pray at that same time. According to Mark 1:35, Jesus set the example for us. The word morning in this scripture is the Greek word prōï, meaning the fourth watch of the night, from 3 o’clock until 6 o’clock in the morning. It is the watch before daybreak.
Jesus was our example.
He arose really early.
He took action and went.
He departed to a solitary place
He prayed.
For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: (1 Peter 2:21 NKJV)
According to 1 Peter 2:21, we are called to follow in his steps. He prayed early, we are called early follow his example in prayer. I love the definition of the word, “example.” It is the Greek word, hypogrammos, which means: a writing copy, including all the letters of the alphabet, given to beginners as an aid in learning to draw them; a copy for imitation. Remember, how we learned to write? By carefully imitating and following an example. Do you remember laboring to get your pencil to follow the exact lines of the letters laid out before you? I do. We spent hours and hours mastering it until it was finally a habit and came easily. I also adore the Greek word for “follow” in this verse, epakoloutheō. It means to tread in one’s footsteps; to imitate one’s example.
I know he knew what He was doing. The quiet solitude of the morning allows one to hear His gentle voice without the multitude of distractions the day brings. Since we are called to imitate Him and follow in His footsteps, early to rise and pray, it is! We should find our solitary place and get to it. These early morning meetings have changed the course of my life and my families.
I enCOURAGE you to follow Him, when He calls and let Psalm 5:3, be your declaration to our Lord: My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5:3 NKJV)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13 NKJV)
If we believe the word of God, then you and I can do all things!
Repeat after me.
I can. I can do. I can do all. I can do all things. I can do all things through… I can do all things through Christ. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
YOU CAN.
You can get up off your couch. I can help my mother move twice within in a year.
You can be a good listener. I can be patient.
You can easily forgive. I can love hard.
You can remain calm. I can be slow to anger.
I can. How about you?
I enCOURAGE you to say you can. I enCOURAGE you to believe you can. I enCOURAGE you to have faith that you CAN.
“Chasing the sunrise with Mom in our PJ’s,” Athens, Georgia, February 4, 2021
by Tammy Phillips February 6, 2021
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle [you]. (1 Peter 5:10 NKJV)
BUT GOD of ALL GRACE (unmerited favor; loving kindness) who hasCALLED us BY NAME (His Name, Name above all names) into HIS ETERNAL GLORY (His majesty, His excellence, His absolute perfection and glorious condition)
BY CHRIST JESUS…
…after you have suffered and been in pain a little while…
He PERFECTS you. He COMPLETES you. He RESTORES you. He REPAIRS you He ORDERS you. He MENDS your BROKENESS. He makes you as you ought to be.
He ESTABLISHES you. He STRENGTHENS you. He BALANCES you. He empowers you to…
STAND IMMOVABLE.
STAND IMMUTABLE.
STAND FIRM
STAND FAST
STAND SAFE
STAND SOUND
STAND UNHARMED
STAND UNWAVERING
STAND READY
STAND PREPARED
STAND STEADFAST IN MIND
BE RESOLUTE
HE SETTLES you. He LAYS YOUR FOUNDATION. He STABILIZES you He ERECTS you. He CONSOLIDATES you. He GROUNDS you.
I enCOURAGE you in CHRIST JESUS. This is what He does. It is His Word. We can count on it.
We are CALLED UNTO HIS GLORY! We are CALLED UNTO HIS GLORY! We are CALLED UNTO HIS GLORY!
His mother said to the servants, “Whatever He says to you, do [it].” (John 2:5 NKJV)
In John 2, Mary had a need, and she took it to Jesus. They were out of wine at the wedding feast. She had faith in Jesus, in who he was and who he was to become. She simply said to the servants, like she would say to us when we take a need to Jesus, whatever he says, do it.
How many times do we vacillate in our mind? Should we or shouldn’t we? There is no vacillating in faith. We either believe He will meet our need, or He won’t. If we have prayed about a problem and God has given us a solution, we should do it! If we believe the word of God has directed us or the Holy Spirit has led us to do something, we better just do it. If we have asked for direction and we get nothing, we better do nothing. We should wait to hear from Holy Spirit. We sure do not want to miss the miracle.
I enCOURAGE you in that whatever He says to you, DO IT! If he says nothing, do nothing.
“And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach and publish openly the good news (the Gospel) to every creature [of the whole human race].” (Mark 16:15 AMPC)
Once, a few years ago, I read this verse. I became a bit overwhelmed with the magnitude of the commission, “GO…to all the world…preach the good news to everybody!” I had not worked a regular job outside the home in a few years. I did not have a lot of social contacts to deliver the good news to, or so I thought. I had a husband and two teenage boys. It was not like I could pick up and move to Bora Bora. I did not have spare time to visit my home state of Georgia, much less the whole world. I spent most of my extra time at the ball field.
I heard the hearty, gentle laugh of God and then Holy Spirit imparted a little wisdom into this mom’s spirit.
He showed me that “go” in Greek means to pursue the journey on which one has entered; to order one’s life; travel; traverse; to step; to walk. Although go infers motion, it does not mean you have to travel from zero to a hundred miles per hour in seconds. I learned that it was fine to go slow and steady. It also did not mean that we do not have to cross the Pacific to go on mission.
Holy Spirit then taught me what “all the world” meant in this verse. The Greek word for world is from the Greek word kosmos. It denotes order; circle of earth; the circle of human family, general collection of particulars: circle of friends; circle of coworkers; circle of political affiliations; circle of baseball family. I learned that our world, our cosmos, is our sphere of influence.
God shrunk the whole world down to a comprehensible size. I understood that we are to go to every creature in our sphere. Our mission field was to the red, yellow, black and white, to the young, to the old, to the mom and to the baseball player. We are to share Jesus with Bridgenetta, the cashier at Kroger. We are to share the good news with the hopeless wife and mother whose husband asked for a divorce after 30 years of marriage. We are to share the good news to friends with brain cancer, to the friends with breast cancer, to friends who lost a child or grandchild too soon.
We are girls and guys on assignment. Our assignment is to our sphere.
I enCOURAGE you to go, to love, to preach the good news of Jesus to your world. Alongside you, I will go to mine! We have much to say!
(PS… the more you share, the bigger your sphere of influence grows…even to the whole world.)
Holy Spirit loves to get my attention in the REST room, be it shower or water closet. I hear Holy Him so clearly in those spaces. I was recently showering. Out of nowhere, the Holy Spirit showed up. I was reflecting on the words of a sweet sister’s text, “I feel like the devil is trying to come in.”
Loud and clear, I heard Revelation 12:1, “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation(!) and strength(!) and the kingdom of our God(!), and the power of his Christ(!) for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
HELLO? According to John 10:10, Satan’s mission is to steal, to kill, and to destroy! He knocks on our door all day, every day and night! If he isn’t, there may not be anything he needs because we are already helping him out enough.
HELLO? He is after us! We have an enemy! He does not go away! Sometimes, he might be quieter than others, but do not be fooled into thinking that he is not in pursuit. He is trying to shake us. He is trying to distract us. He is trying to steal our joy. He is trying to kill us!
Here is the GOOD NEWS!
Jesus’ mission was to SAVE us in every situation not just eternally. The good news is He won! His mission is complete. Satan is defeated. Jesus won and wins every time!
I asked my Intercessory prayer warriors: “How do you keep a poker face in the front of the enemy?” We came up with three things:
WORD UP! Pull out the sword, the Word, and use it. There is an answer for every situation in the Word of God. Find it. Deposit it. Use it. Say it.
“No weapon formed against me will prosper!” “Peace! Be still!” which translated can mean, “Hush! Put a muzzle on it!”
SANG! “Raise a hallelujah!” David did it best. Pick a Psalm or any song. Sing it to the top of your lungs or quietly in your spirit. Resist the devil and he will flee.
“Devil not today! Fear you don’t own me!”
LAUGH! The book of James says we are to consider it nothing but joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you fall into various trials. Why? We should never let the enemy see, nor hear that we are moved from our resolute stand with the Lord.
“Strength and dignity are her clothing, and her position is strong and secure; And she SMILES at the future!” (Proverbs 31:25)
I enCOURAGE you today, every day, and in every situation: WORD UP! SANG! LAUGH!
It’s your choice. When you cannot hold up that sword alone or sing or laugh, call on assistance because we are doing life together.
Lastly, turn on your ears! You never know what you might hear in the REST room!
Complete in Him 