top of page
Search

Hypocrites - Friday Praise & Pray (for others) December 6, 2024

Jesus did not like many of the religious people of His day. He said that the Pharisees and Sadducees made a show of observing the Law of Moses but lacked love in their hearts. He called them hypocrites in Mark 7:6-7 - He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “’These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.'


Those of us who believe in and follow Christ cannot afford to follow in the footsteps of those He despised and expect to enter heaven. We cannot use our mouths to proclaim He is Lord but ignore His teachings and the instructions of His Father, God Almighty. He expressly warned in Matthew 7:21-23 - “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’


Proverbs 20:27 tells us God sees straight into the spirit of every person therefore no hypocrite can deceive or lie to Him. We are even told that hypocrites cannot come before the Lord in Job 13:16. He will not indulge their petitions and that says a lot because the only people whose prayers His ears are closed to are the wicked. These individuals will not have their names in the Book of Life and no amount of intercession on their behalf will change God's determination about them, until they choose to change.​

ree

The wonderful thing is that God is in the business of forgiving those who turn from their wicked ways. He is an expert in forgiving and forgetting the sins of those who genuinely repent and choose to behave differently from that moment on.


If the Spirit of the Lord is burdening your heart and pointing to areas in your life where hypocrisy reigns, today is the day to rid yourself of that issue. Allow the Lord to reveal the hypocrisy you've been carrying so you can drop that burden at His feet. Yes, this process may hurt. After all, nobody enjoys confronting their shortcomings. Nevertheless, God reveals problems to redeem His people. So, this is not the time to beat yourself up. This is the time to accept what the Lord highlights as an issue, repent for it, and ask God for a strategy to not return to that sin. The Lord is faithful and has promised to save all who call on Him (Joel 2:32). Let Him save you as today is the day of His salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).


Acts 3:19 - Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord...




To learn more, please read:


 
 
 

Praise Day 2024 - Tuesday Praise & Pray (for others) December 3, 2024

We are officially in the last month of 2024. How have the previous eleven months been for you? Now, before you launch into sharing all you've endured, permit me to ask you to do one thing first: tell God 'thank you'. Yes, do that one, simple thing.


Did you do it? Are you sure? Then tell him 'thank you' once more.


We've all been through some interesting things over the course of the year. There have been moments that should have broken you and somehow, you are still standing. That 'somehow' was not your intelligence and it didn't depend on how good you've been. That somehow was and is the sheer grace of the Lord working for you.


So, tell Him 'thank you' once more. And say it with true intent this time.

ree

There are many who began the year but are no longer here. There are those who are alive but so oppressed by their challenges that they can't lift their eyes to heaven and can't find cause in their hearts to acknowledge God with gratitude. Then there are those who are sick and dying. If they had known they would be in their current position, I assure you, they would have made it a point to give the Lord more appreciation when they could.


Speak to your spirit man. Tell yourself that it is time to worship the Lord God Almighty. You are privileged to do so and you should take advantage of that. David spoke to his very soul in Psalm 43:5 - Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.


I encourage you to do the same this very day. Speak to your soul and command it to praise the Lord. Command your inner man to shake off the despair, the disillusionment, the disappointments, and everything else caging you from breaking into rejoicing.


Praise Him. Thank Him. Glorify Him. Exalt the King of kings.



TLDR: We are doing things a little differently today. It's Praise Day 2024!!! We're going to honor the Lord with our offerings of thanks during fellowship. Yes, Thanksgiving Day is over but let's keep it going. So prepare to love up on the Lord. Share your worship music. Tell the rest of us why you are grateful to God. Come armed with scriptures to glorify Him. Give lots of praise. We'll do this to commemorate December 2024 and to prepare us as we praise our way into 2025.





For more, please read:



 
 
 

The Threshing Tool - Friday Praise & Pray (for others) November 29, 2024

If someone called another person a 'tool', it would be no surprise if their target got upset. Ordinarily, that term is an insult guaranteed to offend. When it comes to God, however, being a tool for His kingdom is one of the highest compliments one can receive.


The reason lies in Isaiah 41:15 - See, I will make you into a threshing sledge, new and sharp, with many teeth. You will thresh the mountains and crush them, and reduce the hills to chaff. This verse reveals God's plan to use His people to separate the 'wheat' from 'chaff'. The threshing sledge was and is an agricultural tool for this very purpose. With enough force, it ensured that the wheat grain separated from the chaff which kept it enclosed in the field. That grain could be further processed to make flour and other products.


When God referred to a threshing tool in this scripture, He was talking about how people would be used to fulfill His will and His word on the earth. For instance, Jehu became the implement of God's promise to 'thresh' the House of Ahab, a king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. After Ahab's death, God intended to keep His prophetic word to destroy Ahab's family so none of them could ever rule the people of that kingdom again. Thus, the Lord sent a prophet to Jehu and instructed him to eliminate the family, resulting in the death of Queen Jezebel and her late husband's family members (2 Kings 9-10).


Then there was the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar, who was also used to 'thresh' in the Old Testament. Specifically, the Lord sent Nebuchadnezzar as the implement of His punishment for the Southern Kingdom of Judah for their many years of disobedience. He had repeatedly called on them to repent and turn away from the worship of false gods and idols, their occult practices, and the injustice that pervaded their society. Nonetheless, His warnings fell on deaf ears and so, He fulfilled His word to punish the people and used the King of Babylon to accomplish this.

ree

God doesn't just 'thresh' to punish with death and destruction. He also uses threshing tools to highlight the distinction between His light and the devil's darkness in a situation. The early disciples operated as threshing tools everywhere they went. Their presence would place a spotlight on individuals and even ways of thinking, revealing them to be satanic. One such example was Jesus. Everywhere he went, he destroyed the works of satan and displayed the mighty power of God so that people started thinking differently about their relationship with the Almighty Father and how He wanted them to live.


Philip followed in His footsteps with Simon, a powerful sorcerer who captivated the city of Samaria and was called “the Great Power of God” (Acts 8:10). The people called him this because they were convinced that the miraculous things he did were because of God even though Simon gained his powers from satan. In response, the Lord brought His disciples to show that He alone was powerful. When Simon heard Evangelist Philip teach about Jesus Christ, even he believed and was baptized.


As he later watched Apostles Peter and John perform signs and wonders by the Holy Spirit, he wanted that ability. However, because his desire was for power to likely continue to dominate the city (a common theme for those in the occult), he tried to pay to receive the Holy Spirit. Peter issued a strong rebuke upon him. The entire encounter was used by the Lord to show the people that the sorcerer was not His servant, thereby destroying satan's hold over Samaria.


Just as Isaiah 41:15 reflected God's purpose for His people then, it reveals His plan for today's believers. The Bible teaches in Romans 8:14 that the children of God are those who are led by His Spirit and it is these children that He empowers to thresh. These ones, as individuals and as a collective, are to be the instruments of His will in this age. Through His Spirit and His Word, we are to bring change to the places He sends us to. Our presence should trigger a threshing that brings God's light into dark places to destroy the devil's wicked schemes. Be it in the Body of Christ or in the world. We are to serve as His ambassadors, empowered to do exploits in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ.


May the Lord build us up to be threshing tools for His glory. By His grace, He will fashion us into the implements He can use for the advancement of His kingdom, IJMN, Amen.




To learn more, please read:


 
 
 
  • Instagram
  • Threads
  • TikTok
  • Youtube

© 2021 by Aluxe

bottom of page