Dear friends,
I pray that you are well. As I have opportunity to meet people, I've found that if we get beyond surface conversation that they have a story. Too often, we never get to know people well enough to hear their story. Some have great stories of perseverance and encouragement, others have lives that have been continually marred by wrong choices, and some through no fault of their own have been ambushed with life's problems. There are so many people that are hurting. Some need help, but they all need hope. Hope comes from experience with the faithfulness and character of God. Some find themselves in situations where they don't know what to do. Even as Christians we find ourselves asking, "What do I do?" Today, I would like to offer a few thoughts on "what to do when, I don't know what to do."
Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 4:13
It is easy enough to say that when you don't know what to do, stand! What does it mean to stand? This reference in Ephesians is a very familiar passage and gives keen insight to spiritual warfare. Many have gotten up for years and symbolically put their armor on. There is nothing wrong with that, it may well encourage some people's faith, but you really don't have to put on what you never took off. All of those things have to do with being in Christ. He is the truth; He is our righteousness; He is our peace; Faith comes by His spoken word; He is our salvation; the sword is His spoken word. We are in Christ. We see Moses could not view God's goodness (glory) except he be hidden in the cleft of the rock. That rock is Jesus. If we cannot handle even a glimpse of His glory in our flesh, neither can we withstand the full onslaught of the enemy except we be "in Christ".
In the passages of Ephesians 6:10-19 The word "stand" is used 3 times. We are not to run; we are not to fall; we are to stand. It is interesting that Paul describes us being all suited up in Christ (our armor) and what is the command? Stand. When people get suited up in armor, it is for going to war. Did Paul say go into battle? One might say no, but in verse 18, Paul says, "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit". Prayer is the battle.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is pray. It seems that when in a crisis we tend to exhaust all human possibilities before we turn to God in prayer. Paul is saying that when the onslaught of the enemy comes, stand in Christ and pray in the Spirit not just in tongues, but all prayers. We are suited in Christ and Christ is in us and greater is He in us than he that is in the world. So when trouble comes knocking, let Jesus answer the door. So what do I do when I don't know what to do? First, I must stand. Do not back up or back down. Do not quit. Secondly, I must pray, but thirdly I must praise.
1. Stand
2. Pray
3. Praise
We looked briefly at the first two, now let's look at praise. I have written many times about 2 Chronicles 20 because it has been so meaningful in my life, but allow me to visit part of it again today.You know the story; three enemies were about to attack Judah.(Our enemies are three as well, the world, the flesh, and the devil.) There was no way they were prepared for such an attack. Jehoshaphat called a solemn assembly to fast and pray and seek the Lord. God responded by speaking through a prophet. I won't go into the whole prophetic word, just the first part of verse 17, "You will not need to fight in the battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, Who is with you O Judah and Jerusalem!"
The next day they sent the praisers out first and the Lord ambushed their enemies and a great victory was won against impossible odds. We are told in 1 Thessalonians 5 that it is the will of God for us to give thanks in everything and Ephesians 5:20 to be giving thanks always for all things to God the Father.
There may be someone in the pit of despair today. Self-pity will not deliver you. It will only get worse. There are times when a simple prayer of "help me" will be answered, but I have found for those who are walking in a measure of maturity, that God sometimes says, "Get up off the ground! Stand up and be who I called you to be." I remember a time a few years back when there were several situations working against me in my life. I became more and more discouraged until I was wallowing in self-pity. The Lord basically said,"Stop it, get up and fight. I began to pray and take authority over the things He had given me authority. I prayed His word and began to praise Him. Not only was there an immediate lift in my spirit, but the situations began to change. From time to time I have visited the valley of despair, but my visits have been fewer and shorter since I learned to stand. I have shared this before, but it applies "If you want to escape the low places enter into God's high praises." Stand and see the salvation of the Lord.
May the knowledge of God's love encourage your heart today. He is faithful. Don't give up or give in. You are sons and daughters of the king.
In His love,
Herb Dean
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Escaping the Boundaries of Human Limitations
Dear friends,
I hope you are well this morning. I woke up this morning thinking about God's calling me into the ministry years ago. As a good many of you know, when God called me, I ran. I was a timid individual who found it difficult to stand before groups. I ,basically, told the Lord I could not do it and ran for ten years. As a broken man at the end of those ten years, "I heard the Lord say, you were right all along; you can't do it, but faithful am I Who calls Who will also do it." This morning as I thought on these things, I began to think about the response of those in scripture to the call of God on their lives. Some of their experiences were not that far removed from my own. I want to look at a few of those this morning. Maybe someone out there in cyberspace is wrestling with a call from God.
Too often we place limitations on our ability because we see the frailties of human flesh. What we don't realize is that when we place these limitations on ourselves we place them on God as well. One of the first verses I memorized when I was five or six years old was: I can do things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Phil. 4:13. I could quote it, but it would be many years later before I would enter into the good of it. In fact, it brought me little comfort when God called me to preach. How many people have rejected the call of God because of their perceived limitations? Really, it comes down to a matter of faith. Can God do through me that which He has called me to do? If we reject the call of God, we reject His grace to be what He called us to be. Your limitations are not established by your inabilities, but by your rejection of God's ability. Neither is your potential limited by your inability. Your potential is found in God's ability. Let's look at some of the men God called in scripture. I want to look at not only their response, but God's response to them.
1. Moses- When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and told him he was going to pharaoh to deliver God's people, Moses' response was,"Who am I that I should go to pharaoh....?" Later in the conversation Moses says to the Lord,"O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." God's response,"Who made man's mouth? ...... Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore ,go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." Moses, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send. He was still not convinced and angered the Lord. You can read the whole conversation in Exodus chapters 3 and 4. You can see the reluctance of one of God's choice servants.
2. Gideon- The angel of the Lord called him a mighty man of valor. At that moment he was hiding in winepress threshing wheat. Gideon's first response was to moan and groan about being forsaken by God. The angel gives him God's call and his response was,"O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
3. Saul-Samuel prophesied that Saul was the desire of Israel. In other words, he was saying you are chosen to be king. Saul's response,"Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?"
Are you seeing a pattern? The children of Israel didn't enter the land because they saw themselves as grasshoppers in the sight of the people of Canaan. If our perception keeps us from the call of God, we have trusted only in the arm of the flesh.
4. Jeremiah- God's word to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah's response, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." God's response to Jeremiah, " Do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
If anyone knows our ability, it is God, and yet He refuses to accept our excuses. He does not look at our strength; He looks at His own. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power working in us. Ephesians 3:19 What is that power working in us? It is the Holy Spirit Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, the same Holy Spirit who was brooding over the face of the waters when God said let there be and there was. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Are you too hard a case for Him to use? Absolutely not! You can do all things through Christ Who is your strength. You've heard it said that God is not interested in our ability, but our availability. Paul said that when He was weak, then he was strong for His strength is perfected in our weakness. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. I believe that grace is not just unmerited favor, but it is God's ability. His grace is more than sufficient to enable us to do what He has called us to do. He delights in showing Himself strong in the lives of those who totally trust Him.
Friend, don't set your boundaries according to your ability. God wants to take you far beyond where you thought you could go. Don't limit God. Don't limit God in you. God can do whatever He wants to do and He can do it in you.
Be blessed,
Herb Dean
I hope you are well this morning. I woke up this morning thinking about God's calling me into the ministry years ago. As a good many of you know, when God called me, I ran. I was a timid individual who found it difficult to stand before groups. I ,basically, told the Lord I could not do it and ran for ten years. As a broken man at the end of those ten years, "I heard the Lord say, you were right all along; you can't do it, but faithful am I Who calls Who will also do it." This morning as I thought on these things, I began to think about the response of those in scripture to the call of God on their lives. Some of their experiences were not that far removed from my own. I want to look at a few of those this morning. Maybe someone out there in cyberspace is wrestling with a call from God.
Too often we place limitations on our ability because we see the frailties of human flesh. What we don't realize is that when we place these limitations on ourselves we place them on God as well. One of the first verses I memorized when I was five or six years old was: I can do things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Phil. 4:13. I could quote it, but it would be many years later before I would enter into the good of it. In fact, it brought me little comfort when God called me to preach. How many people have rejected the call of God because of their perceived limitations? Really, it comes down to a matter of faith. Can God do through me that which He has called me to do? If we reject the call of God, we reject His grace to be what He called us to be. Your limitations are not established by your inabilities, but by your rejection of God's ability. Neither is your potential limited by your inability. Your potential is found in God's ability. Let's look at some of the men God called in scripture. I want to look at not only their response, but God's response to them.
1. Moses- When God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush and told him he was going to pharaoh to deliver God's people, Moses' response was,"Who am I that I should go to pharaoh....?" Later in the conversation Moses says to the Lord,"O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." God's response,"Who made man's mouth? ...... Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore ,go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say." Moses, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send. He was still not convinced and angered the Lord. You can read the whole conversation in Exodus chapters 3 and 4. You can see the reluctance of one of God's choice servants.
2. Gideon- The angel of the Lord called him a mighty man of valor. At that moment he was hiding in winepress threshing wheat. Gideon's first response was to moan and groan about being forsaken by God. The angel gives him God's call and his response was,"O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."
3. Saul-Samuel prophesied that Saul was the desire of Israel. In other words, he was saying you are chosen to be king. Saul's response,"Am I not a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel, and my family the least of all the families of Benjamin? Why then do you speak like this to me?"
Are you seeing a pattern? The children of Israel didn't enter the land because they saw themselves as grasshoppers in the sight of the people of Canaan. If our perception keeps us from the call of God, we have trusted only in the arm of the flesh.
4. Jeremiah- God's word to Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah's response, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." God's response to Jeremiah, " Do not say, I am a youth, for you shall go to all whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
If anyone knows our ability, it is God, and yet He refuses to accept our excuses. He does not look at our strength; He looks at His own. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think according to the power working in us. Ephesians 3:19 What is that power working in us? It is the Holy Spirit Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead, the same Holy Spirit who was brooding over the face of the waters when God said let there be and there was. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Are you too hard a case for Him to use? Absolutely not! You can do all things through Christ Who is your strength. You've heard it said that God is not interested in our ability, but our availability. Paul said that when He was weak, then he was strong for His strength is perfected in our weakness. God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. I believe that grace is not just unmerited favor, but it is God's ability. His grace is more than sufficient to enable us to do what He has called us to do. He delights in showing Himself strong in the lives of those who totally trust Him.
Friend, don't set your boundaries according to your ability. God wants to take you far beyond where you thought you could go. Don't limit God. Don't limit God in you. God can do whatever He wants to do and He can do it in you.
Be blessed,
Herb Dean
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Be Not Weary In Well Doing
Dear friends,
I pray you are walking in God's blessing. Have you ever felt like giving up? If you are like myself, you have.
As a pastor I went through a time where every Monday morning I was ready to resign. I am reminded of the cartoon where a woman is standing over someone in bed who has a sheet pulled over his head. The person in bed keeps crying, "I don't want to go to church!" The woman responds, "You have to go, you're the pastor." There can be difficult seasons in our lives where we just don't feel we can continue to go on. I want to encourage you today, that there is a harvest coming. Don't give up!
I usually post a verse each day on facebook and this morning I posted Galatians 6:9, " And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint. Then as I was reading my e-mail a minister who sends out a word for today used that same verse. I heard the Lord say this morning as I was praying,"with persistence comes reward." We have talked about it before, but all the promises to the churches in Revelation were to those who overcame. Let's look again at some who persevered until they reaped.
1. Abraham was 75 when he was promised a son, 100 when he received the promise.
2. Jacob wrestled all night with the angel, part of which was probably in great pain because his hip had been disjointed, refusing to let go until he received a blessing.
3 Joseph was given a dream at 17. He went from the pit to the prison to the palace where he stood before pharaoh at age 30. He was probably 40 or more before he saw the fulfillment because it was in the third year of the famine that his family bowed before him.
4. David was anointed king of Israel as a teenager. He spent years fleeing for his life living in caves and Philistine territory and at his lowest point at Ziklag he was just a few days from becoming king of Judah. At age 40 he would reign over all Israel.
5. Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law and go back to her land. She remained faithful to Naomi and was rewarded with a husband and though she was a Moabitess was included in the lineage of Christ.
In the parables of Christ, Jesus told about the unjust judge and the widow. The judge gave in because he knew the widow was persistent. Then there was the friend with a visitor late at night. He sought his neighbor for food, but his neighbor had gone to bed. Jesus said he would not rise and give him bread because he was a friend, but because of his persistence, he would rise and give him all he needed. Jesus said, "Men ought always to pray and not faint (lose heart). Luke 18:1 In Luke 11:9, Jesus says, " So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it will be opened to you. Ask, seek, and knock are present imperative in the Greek which means a continuous action. In other words ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking. There are some who would say to ask more than one time is not faith. I say ask until you hear from God, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the rhema (spoken word of God).
" I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Isaiah 62: 6,7 The Lord wants us to be persistent, unwavering. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Friend, don't give up. I could give you all the cliches like it's always darkest before the dawn, or breakthrough comes right before breakdown, but the truth is God has given us a promise, "with persistence comes reward." "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of god, you may receive the promise." Hebrews 10:36
You might ask, "Haven't you written this same thing before?" I have written very similar teachings, but I have found I need to be reminded from time to time that my efforts are not in vain. There are some of you who have prayed and prayed; you have expended great energy for little results and you wonder at times, "Is it worth it?" or "Am I counting for anything in the kingdom?" You cannot measure results by what you see. Be faithful pilgrim, there is a harvest coming. Be encouraged today in His love.
Blessings,
Herb Dean
I pray you are walking in God's blessing. Have you ever felt like giving up? If you are like myself, you have.
As a pastor I went through a time where every Monday morning I was ready to resign. I am reminded of the cartoon where a woman is standing over someone in bed who has a sheet pulled over his head. The person in bed keeps crying, "I don't want to go to church!" The woman responds, "You have to go, you're the pastor." There can be difficult seasons in our lives where we just don't feel we can continue to go on. I want to encourage you today, that there is a harvest coming. Don't give up!
I usually post a verse each day on facebook and this morning I posted Galatians 6:9, " And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint. Then as I was reading my e-mail a minister who sends out a word for today used that same verse. I heard the Lord say this morning as I was praying,"with persistence comes reward." We have talked about it before, but all the promises to the churches in Revelation were to those who overcame. Let's look again at some who persevered until they reaped.
1. Abraham was 75 when he was promised a son, 100 when he received the promise.
2. Jacob wrestled all night with the angel, part of which was probably in great pain because his hip had been disjointed, refusing to let go until he received a blessing.
3 Joseph was given a dream at 17. He went from the pit to the prison to the palace where he stood before pharaoh at age 30. He was probably 40 or more before he saw the fulfillment because it was in the third year of the famine that his family bowed before him.
4. David was anointed king of Israel as a teenager. He spent years fleeing for his life living in caves and Philistine territory and at his lowest point at Ziklag he was just a few days from becoming king of Judah. At age 40 he would reign over all Israel.
5. Ruth refused to leave her mother-in-law and go back to her land. She remained faithful to Naomi and was rewarded with a husband and though she was a Moabitess was included in the lineage of Christ.
In the parables of Christ, Jesus told about the unjust judge and the widow. The judge gave in because he knew the widow was persistent. Then there was the friend with a visitor late at night. He sought his neighbor for food, but his neighbor had gone to bed. Jesus said he would not rise and give him bread because he was a friend, but because of his persistence, he would rise and give him all he needed. Jesus said, "Men ought always to pray and not faint (lose heart). Luke 18:1 In Luke 11:9, Jesus says, " So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it will be opened to you. Ask, seek, and knock are present imperative in the Greek which means a continuous action. In other words ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking. There are some who would say to ask more than one time is not faith. I say ask until you hear from God, because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the rhema (spoken word of God).
" I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth." Isaiah 62: 6,7 The Lord wants us to be persistent, unwavering. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Friend, don't give up. I could give you all the cliches like it's always darkest before the dawn, or breakthrough comes right before breakdown, but the truth is God has given us a promise, "with persistence comes reward." "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of god, you may receive the promise." Hebrews 10:36
You might ask, "Haven't you written this same thing before?" I have written very similar teachings, but I have found I need to be reminded from time to time that my efforts are not in vain. There are some of you who have prayed and prayed; you have expended great energy for little results and you wonder at times, "Is it worth it?" or "Am I counting for anything in the kingdom?" You cannot measure results by what you see. Be faithful pilgrim, there is a harvest coming. Be encouraged today in His love.
Blessings,
Herb Dean
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