Living In The Dark

The Lord brought something to my attention today that I felt really compelled to write about. I know that I can say from a personal standpoint and also that most everyone has felt this at one time or another for a brief time or a long time. You feel like you’ve been living in a fog, like you’ve been existing but not living. Everything good seems to be happening to someone else, nothing feels quite right, it seems like there is a darkness surrounding you that you just wish someone else could see so that they could help to pull you out of it.

This darkness is caused by deception, as well as things that we see, hear and feel that are not righteous. It’s a darkness that satan wants to bind you up in so that you lose your hope and give up on God. If he can accomplish this he wins the war over you that he fights every day. He waits literally like a snake in the grass just waiting ever so patiently to strike. The devil will use any means necessary to steal you from Your Victory and God’s promises. The devil could be compared to a sideshow worker at a carnival trying to sell you his show or his goods. Inside of this show tent though there isn’t a regular sideshow. Instead there are things that can tempt us such as pornography, drugs, alcohol, all in abundance free for the taking, because he knows that if you try it once you’ll be hooked and begging for more. You can be the most upstanding person on the planet but if you fall into that trap, you’re in the dark and at first it doesn’t feel so bad because so many other people are there with you, so you don’t recognize the darkness. However you’ve been tricked and temptation got you. Is it bad, oh yes it’s bad. Is it unforgivable? NO!

When we finally cry out to the Lord for “HELP”! He hears us just like a parent hears a child crying for help when they fall or get hurt. God does the same thing as any other good parent too; He picks us up, dusts us of and tells us to try again. We have an opportunity to start over just like a child would. What we do with our next opportunity is the most important decision we can make, but we often don’t take the time to think. We run on impulse and we end up falling again and again, so that we eventually need that device that goes around your neck to call for help. “Lord I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!” That’s the point of desperation that we need to get to before we’ll actually look at the Lord’s help and not take it for granted. We’re more apt to be forever grateful. If someone saves you from falling off of the roof of a tall building, you’re very likely going to feel indebted to them for saving your life.

Jesus Christ not only pulled us in from the edge of the roof, He gave his life in the process so that we could live. He did not have to do this. He chose to do it because of his love for us. Hearing that needs to cause a physical reaction in all of us. Every time I hear what Jesus did for us or when I see the cross, my heart grieves over what He did for me. I can’t afford to take this gift for granted. I am drawn into repentance as I recall this act of love that exceeds anything you or I can comprehend. Just be thankful and love Him back. That’s all he wants is our love.

When we are steadfast (firm in purpose, resolution, faith) we resist the darkness and the devil will flee from us, taking with him the darkness and negativity. Leaving us to see and bask in the beauty that the Lord has surrounded us with. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (Amplified Bible) say’s, If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

Cry out to the Lord for help. Let him pull you from the darkness and into His light. He will restore your peace! He will restore your joy! He will restore the life that had been stolen from you. We have a major part in this though. We have to not only let Him fix us, we have to feel worthy of it and accept the blessing that he has given us.

A Prayer

Father I thank you for this message. I thank you for the opportunity to share it and possibly help some to see your light, from the darkness in their lives. Father I pray that each reader would have peace, health and love and have these things in your abundance God. I pray that each of us will keep our hearts soft and pliable so that we don’t let the darkness of this world, harden us to a point where we lose sight of you. Be with us all and guide our every thought and step.

In Jesus name I pray

Amen

God Bless You All.

“The Sharpshooter”

Why Have You Forsaken Me

Jesus cried out from the cross "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which translated means "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

At the time of his biggest trial, even Jesus felt like the Father had abandoned him. Though this was only a feeling as the Father had not forsaken him, it must have been an extremely intense feeling of abandonment. Even through that feeling Jesus then said "Into your hands I commend my spirit". Jesus never lost faith in Father God. He knew that the Father had a bigger will for Him and he wanted the Father's will to be done not his own. How close to that way of thinking are we?

Often times our spirits cry out the same thing as we feel that feeling of abandonment. "Father, Father, why have you forsaken me". Many times we feel like God's presence is not with us. We begin to wonder if He's even hearing our cries for help. When we don't get an answer from God we often times blame Him for whatever we were going through, because he didn't fix our problem or speak to us. Whatever the problem or need was it certainly wasn't God's fault. It was of our own doing or our own fault. We fail to realize or accept the fact that we are sinners in a sin filled world. God is perfect; none of us are or can ever be. So the fact that we are in sin, no matter how big or little our sin is, is most likely the thing blocking us from feeling God's presence in our lives and being in the position to receive the things of God. It is not Him choosing not to communicate with us because he doesn't feel like it.?

When we repent for our sins, our Father is gracious to forgive us of our sins, but the question we each need to ask ourselves is, are we asking God for his forgiveness, or are we rationalizing with ourselves that what we are doing isn't really sin? Every one of us is a sinner and every one of us needs to repent for those sins. It would be best if we made this a daily practice to set time aside to seek the Lord, repent for our sins and pray for God's grace and forgiveness. We should do this before we pray for anything else or anyone else, because by repenting and cleansing our spirit of sin, we are in better communion with the Lord

I don't know how many people have ever stopped to ponder this, but it needs to be looked at. Why have we forsaken God? We often feel that he has forgotten or forsaken us, but we are the ones that want control of our own lives and we want God on our terms. He accepts us just as we are. It can't work like that. We should be so in love with Him and desperate for Him that we'd be willing to handcuff ourselves to Him, just so that we would never be separated from Him. We go to Him when we need something but very few of us ever spend time just talking to God, or just praising God. He is there just waiting for us to come to him, He will not makes us come to him, and he will not chase us down. God wants so badly for us to communicate with him as "Our Father". I know parents that have communication breakdowns with their children and the pain they go through is agonizing to watch. Imagine for a moment the pain that we cause God to feel when we only go to him when we need something from him.

He wants to be a part of our "everyday" lives. He has plans for each of our lives that were never intended to be kept secret. He wants very badly to tell us these things, but he can't share these things with us until we become mature enough spiritually to receive them. If you don't have a relationship with the Father, He could talk to you all day long and you wouldn't know his voice. The time is coming sooner than we realize when Jesus Christ is going to return to this earth for His people. It is essential that right now we stop and take a spiritual inventory of ourselves. If you've never had a relationship with Jesus or had one and let it go stagnant, you need to call on Jesus, repent for your sins, and ask Him to make your spirit white as snow. Then draw near to him and stay close. Watch how your life begins to change right before your eyes.

See unlike us, He is merciful, graceful and forgiving. If we ask for His forgiveness, he will do it. So it is not too late for any one of us to make things right with the Lord. He tells us this in Hebrews 13:5 “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” If anyone has forsaken anyone, we His children have forsaken Him. Let us not miss the opportunity we have to mend that relationship with Him or begin one if you never had one. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.

A Prayer

Father I thank you for this message and I give you praise for the wondrous things you do for us. Father I pray right now for the ones that don’t know you and for the ones that have known you and fallen away that you would strengthen them all so that they could battle through the negative forces of this world to find their way to you Father. Remove the scales from their eyes and open their ears Father so that they could see and hear you in their spirit. Build in them father a burning desire for you that could only be quenched by the living water of Jesus Christ.

I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen

God Bless You All

"The Sharpshooter"

Doubt the Doubter

Revelation 3:15-16 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

If you look at a battery for any appliance you have, you’ll see that the positive and negative posts are very far apart so that they cannot touch. If they touch there is destruction by way of explosion.
When we are HOT, on fire for God, we are not only believing and loving him, but we trust him beyond anything or anyone that we would trust on earth. We do not just believe that He can do what he say’s that He will, we are trusting that He will do that thing.

Many times we will believe God for something but we may say something to the effect of “Well, I know that He can do it, but he probably won’t do it for me.” When we do this we are mixing a positive and a negative which is a dangerous mix. Have you ever noticed that when this happens it ends up being a relatively painful experience? Not only don’t we receive what He has for us because we doubted, but we have actually allowed ourselves to become the one thing that the Lord despises and that is lukewarm. It is better to be a non believer than it is to be a believer that doubts Him. At least the non believer doesn’t know God, and never had a relationship with Him, but to have a relationship with Him and to know Him but not trust Him or doubt Him is one of the worst things a Christian can do.

I pray that you never experience being lukewarm for God, but if you ever do it can feel like nothing good will ever happen again. You begin to feel like you’ve breathed your last breath in God’s favor. Questions like “will I ever feel close to God again?” will pop into your mind. Know that this is the devil trying to gain total victory over you; it is a time when you don’t feel like praying, worshiping or doing anything to help yourself. Again this is satan trying to gain a total victory over you. It is a time when you have to force yourself to pray, to worship, and to get in the Bible and just read. It will help you to hold on until you get breakthrough. I have experienced this first hand and I never want to experience this again.

This is not to say don’t question God. Questioning God is a good thing and encouraged because when we do we’re often seeking confirmation for something he said. We have got to stop doubting the one we should believe, and we need to stop believing the one that we should doubt. Many have this backwards and in this New Year, there is no better time then the present to clean out some bad habits.

I have lost count as to how many times I have heard someone say that God said He’d do something but the person doesn’t believe it can happen for them. This is because When the Lord said He would do whatever it was; the thought process didn’t stop there. The devil sneaks right in and tells us that God won’t do what he said and sometimes we agree with that for whatever reason.

The best thing we can do is to doubt the doubter. When God say’s he’ll do something, we need to receive it and go into prayer and thanksgiving for that thing. When the devil comes lurking around trying to tell you that God can’t or won’t do what He said, just tell the devil I doubt that. If you want to confuse the devil, that’s how to do it. He’ll go off talking to other devils (can you believe that I just told this Christian that I doubted God and the Christian doubted me right back? Can he do that? That’s not fair!! Now what do I do?

Let’s start putting a hurting on the devil. Let’s start kicking him around instead of letting him run rampant in our lives.

Lord God I thank you for this message. I thank you God for reigniting the fire within my spirit for you. I pray father that with the wisdom I have gained from the difficult times I’ve experienced, that you would send me to those that are experiencing a dark time in their lives, so that I could impart the peace and love that you have so generously given to me, into them. Father God I’m asking for a special blessing for all of the readers of this blog, that they and their families would experience your supernatural love, favor and compassion all through 2007. May this year be the year of revival fire here in the United States!

I ask this in the name of your son Jesus Christ.

God Bless You All

“The Sharpshooter”