Remain in me, Remain in The Word.

There is a process to being productive in the Kingdom.

1. Produce fruit where you are at.

John 15:16 says that Jesus, Himself, chose you. He appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit. The parable of the talents confirms that God has given you something to work with.

Start producing where you are. Believe and speak the Word of God now. It will grow in your heart and it will produce. Always remember that that Word is seed.

2. You will be pruned and purified.

As you produce fruit you will be pruned. Any branch in a vineyard needs to be cut back as it produces. Why? So that it will produce more. God doesn’t ever leave you where you are. When you start to grow He will continue to train you, teach you and correct you. He chastens those He loves!

3. You produce MORE fruit.

The more proficient and obedient you are to the Word of God the more results you will see. If you don’t produce results…you will be cut off.

The production of fruit maintains the connection to the Vine. Without that connection you will lose the very fuel you need to produce. The Word will have no root, no production centre.

4. Continue to produce = Remain in the the Word.

“You cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me…if you remain in me and MY WORDS remain in you, you may ask anything you want, and it will be granted! When you produce fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

1 John 3:21, 22

We have a confident assurance to Ask. We have Biblical assent to ask. What can we ask for? 

Anything.

Mark 11:22-24 makes it very clear if you can ask in faith for something you can have anything you pray for. Is that shocking to you? 

1 John 5:14 says that God hears us and if He hears us we can be confident that whenever we ask for anything that pleases him our requests will be granted. 

If that is difficult to process remember God has also given us free access to His throne room of Grace. He has seated us in heavenly realms in Christ at His right hand. We are sons of God, joint heirs with Jesus. We are righteous in His sight. We are filled with His very Spirit.

Why would it be hard to believe we can ask but not just ask to receive what we ask for? If you fulfil the above and are a submitted son of God you won’t ask for something against God’s will.

Release your faith today. Believe what the Bible says. Ask. God wants to answer you and support far more than you want an answer! 

Expect something good today!

“I VOW never to be poor or needy again, since my Father created the wealth of this planet for me to enjoy.”

“I VOW never to be unable to reach out & lift others out of need. God is in me & He is rich.”

“I VOW to always appropriate God’s BEST in life so that I can enjoy His abundance myself, and so I can share His abundance with others in need.”

The Lord is my Shepherd; I SHALL NOT WANT. 

My cup runs over.

Credit: T.L. Osborn 

How are you doing in life? How are you pursuing your God given dreams? Is your walk of faith as exciting as once you dreamed? If not, perhaps there is something lacking…

The word boldness has been very repetitive in my spirit lately. It is an awesome New Testament word. It is a word that transformed the early church. It fuelled how they thought, prayed and acted. It caused the sick to be raised up, the church to explode in growth and kept them going in the face of brutal persecution.

Paul talks about how boldness will allow us to enter into the throne room of God and through it we can receive grace and mercy in our time of need.

What I love about boldness is it something you can pray for! It is not something that you necessarily have been born with. It is a spiritual gift. It is a part of God anointing and equipping you to achieve what He has in store for your life. Boldness can be used to stand on God’s Word. Boldness can be used as you resist the enemy’s attacks against your life or your family. Boldness can carry you through life’s challenges and impossibilities. Boldness can rise up as you step out in faith. You can use it to go after all that God has provided for you.

Boldness will piggy back on your faith to access the grace that God has provided for you!

I recognise in my life that I often come short in the things of God but I have been spiritually challenged! The Holy Spirit in me is rising up! My spirit is sensing that the tide is turning. I am acting on what is in my heart. I am declaring the Word of God with a new found authority. I am releasing my faith. I am approaching the throne room with boldness and I am here today to tell you to come and join me there!

Don’t be discouraged by what you are going through! Look up! Look unto Jesus. He is the author and completer of your faith.  It is with boldness that you accept Jesus’ role in heaven, that He praying for you, interceding on your behalf and ensuring that God’s word in your mouth will come to pass.

Don’t worry I am not saying you are pushing your agenda with the Almighty. In fact, the bolder you are the more you begin to realise how humble you must be! Humility is not shirking away from God waiting for Him to punish for you any wrong doing. No! Humility is simply realising that we got the far better deal in the Blood Covenant, realising that we can never be God in our lives. God wants us to access His grace. He wants to abound towards with everything that pertains unto life and godliness but He requires us to come before Him. He needs us to ask. He needs us to submit to His will and then we will connect to Him! 

God is waiting on a people on this earth to be bold in their faith. He needs us to bold in our prayers. There are nations to be reached, people to be saved and work to be done. 

Be bold today. Stand up to what is wrong in your life. Be bold and talk in faith to your Heavenly Father. Run into the throne room like a child in his dad’s office, run into His arms and ask. He will answer and He will overwhelm you with His goodness! 

God will always give grace to the BOLD…generously! 

The pressure always comes.

When pressure in life comes how do you react? I know I react in several ways. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes not. Quite often it is the outside source of the pressure that confronts me which provides the correct or negative response. My children will see a different side of me when I am frustrated by their lack of obedience or my wife will see the pressure I face when we require money that doesn’t seem to be available. Certain tv shows will warrant emotions inside my heart that others won’t. I am a sucker for emotional moments that often make me cry! On the other hand I cannot handle any suspense without hiding behind a cushion! Pressure always comes and will yield a response!

As human beings we are brought into this world in an environment that is very pressure sensitive. Often our parents bring us up with certain ideals or situations that they have been forced into. You might have been brought into a prosperous financial family but the family never talks to each other. Someone else might have very little money and a bleak future but their relationships are close and inseparable! 

Pressure manifests in multiple ways…it’s how you respond that will produce your eventual outcome.

How did Jesus respond to pressure? One of the clearest examples we have is when Jesus was in the wilderness. He had just had the greatest spiritual encounter of His ministry to date. He was baptised and filled with the Spirit of God and God Himself had vocally confirmed His calling. The Spirit that filled Him promptly led Him into the wilderness. For 40 days Jesus was left without water or food, left to pray, to be alone and to be away from His family and friends. 

It was at the last moment, at the very end of His fast that the devil came. Imagine your thoughts at this time into a fast. McDonalds would have sounded awfully lovely at that moment. What did the devil say? “Jesus, turn these stones into bread…”

His response, “You shall not live by bread alone but by every Word of God!” 

That is how you deal with pressure, no matter what it looks like. If you can recognise the the source of any form of pressure you can deal with it effectively. Pressure always comes from the enemy. The pressure you feel is always pressure that has been trained into you and forms a response. The enemy knows how to push your buttons. He is looking for a reaction that takes you out of love and then, by default, out of faith. 

Begin to train yourself to recognise pressure. Recognise the source. Now decide on your reaction. Are you going to take your feelings literally or are you going to apply the Word of God? Are you going to speak the solution or are you going to cave under the pressure.

You will be able to withstand. You will be able to grow. You will develop a keen edge in the spirit realm when you practice. An athlete practices his craft, he develops his skills so that muscle memory kicks in whatever the situation. The glorious cricket shot has been practiced in his mind, in the batting cage and now on the field. The tennis player’s reactions have been pushed to their limits so that when the crowds are cheering the player can connect out of sheer determination. And I could go on!

Next time something begins to bug or niggle you, slow down. Allow yourself to respond how Jesus would. Rely on the Word of God to come out of your month so that you respond with a victory that can only come from within. Pursue God and not your flesh and as you continue to practice realise the small things dealt with right will lead you to greater things in God!