You must be ready and alert — spiritually awake, to know what God is doing. Only through a heart connected to God in worship and prayer will your lamp be burning. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. Luke 12:35 In this passage, it is important to embrace "being girded" as it means being ready to serve. As we read on, we see Jesus says that "the Master" responds as He will "gird Himself to serve" those who are found doing these things. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching.
Have you ever felt like your soul just needed a good washing? How many times I've felt that way. If you've ever felt this way, don't think it is unusual. We are in this world but not of it. Sometimes there are things that, if we are not discerning, we open the door to. It pays to seek the Lord at all times and ask the question… Why am I not experiencing God's presence right now? When you know it is His will for you to live in that place and also know that Jesus is your greatest example — as He lived in the absolute reality of God's presence continually.
You must be ready and alert — spiritually awake, to know what God is doing. Only through a heart connected to God in worship and prayer will your lamp be burning. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning. Luke 12:35 In this passage, it is important to embrace "being girded" as it means being ready to serve. As we read on, we see Jesus says that "the Master" responds as He will "gird Himself to serve" those who are found doing these things.
Do you realize that joy is something you choose? There is a time for mourning, but it is not healthy on a daily basis. If gone unchecked, it can become a downward spiral of self-focus. Oppression is not a fruit of the Spirit. It takes no faith to be depressed. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. Galatians 5:22 God has given us joy in His Presence. It takes a God-focus to enter into His joy. Jesus said the joy that I give you no man can take away. Even with the cross before Jesus it was "the joy that was set before Him" that gave Him the strength to endure it.
2025 is a year of awakening and coming alive to God. Recently I had a dream where "Hunger for God' was the theme. People were desperate for MORE of the Lord. God wants to transition you into a NEW season! He has an amazing new season for you because He makes all things new! Take the litmus test on whether you have spiritual hunger for God. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled. (Matthew 5:6) Do you want more of His Presence in your life? What means most to you right now?
It is so common for God's people to fall for the misconception of false humility that feeds their lack of importance. Let's just set the record straight here. Jesus did not die for what He did not value. If you were not valuable, He wouldn't have wasted His time enduring a brutal death on the cross. His very sacrifice points to the reiterated fact that is replete through the Bible that we are valuable to God.
A popular question I receive when I am ministering in new places is, "how can I see someone raised from the dead?" My usual response is asking how many dead people they have prayed for, but it doesn't seem to be the key people are looking to receive. If you do not pray for someone who has died – you will not see a resurrection. Years ago, I knew how to hear the voice of God but was trying to learn how to hear Him outside of a church setting. As I am in the Christian section of a bookstore – the Lord gives me a word for the woman standing next to me.
Throughout our lives we will all experience testing concurrent with the blessing of God. What rises to the surface during these tests? Hezekiah's life is an example and picture of how important it is to guard our hearts in all things. History teaches us just as if we were to watch a video replay of an event – showing us what to do and not to do. It does not have to repeat itself if we can learn to respond correctly with humility when God blesses us in extravagant ways.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 It is the heart of God to bring restoration to all people. In the simplest way the gift of salvation in Jesus is an act of God's desire to restore us to Him. It is the turning of our hearts back to the Source of all things. In this we see God's original intent, even to have unbroken fellowship with the pinnacle of His creation as we are created in the image of God.
You have greatness inside of you! You have the power to see lives transformed and God glorified. Jesus told the disciples not to try to do anything for Him without first receiving the Holy Spirit. Being assembled with them, He commanded them, "Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, of which you have heard from Me. For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." (Acts 1:4-5)
Follow Up
