Stand on Your Feet

He said to me. "Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you." As He spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.                                                                                                 Ezekiel 2.1-2


Many times people tell me, they wish they could have been alive when Jesus was in the world. They wish they could physically see Him and hear His voice. I've even said this several times. I mean, who wouldn't? What we don't realize is that when Jesus left this world, He promised us we would not be left alone. He said the Counselor would be with us, the Holy Spirit. Even though Jesus is not physically here, we can still hear His voice today.The problem is, many times He tries to talk to us, but we don't hear His voice, or we simply ignore it.

If you look at the verse above, what did this person have to do to hear His voice? They had to get up because meanwhile they were relaxing and lying down, they could not hear His voice. The same thing applies today. For example, when I'm talking to one of my family members, if they are lying down they sit up to hear what I have to say. Why? Because if I have something important to talk about, and they are just lying down, they wont pay attention.

God cannot speak to us when we are relaxed, or lying down. God speaks with us when we are standing on our feet, when we are fighting against the situations in our life. If you have been praying to God about something, and you have not received an answer from Him, then stand on your feet and God will come to speak to you. Don't stay relaxed or comfortable with the situations that are going on in your life. Because when we are comfortable, or used to the things going on in our life, we don't fight to change the situation.

If you are tired of how your life is, if you say enough is enough, then God will immediately come over you, and you will hear His voice.

God, what do I have to be thankful for?

Why God?

14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

          2 Chronicles 7.14

Why do I feel this way? Why does God let this happen to me? I pray to God, so why am I still not happy? Why doesn't He answer me? All of these questions, are some of the many I would ask myself. Sometimes I would pray and He felt so far away. Many times I would be in tears wondering, why God would allow me to suffer so much. The truth is God never walks away from us, we are the ones who give our back to Him. 

It's funny how lots of people don't even think about God or want anything to do with Him, but when problems come, He is the first person we blame and the first person we question. 

The reason we suffer, the reason why everything seems to be going wrong, is because we have been living in darkness. God makes a promise in this verse. He says that if we humble ourselves, if recognize that we are wrong, that we are nothing without him and we pray to Him, talk to Him, and we look for Him and leave the things and people that do not please Him, then He will forgive us and restore our lives.

A lot of times we don't do even half of this. Sometimes we just sorry, and expect our lives to change. Sometimes people pray a lot and read their bible every day, but their life is the same. God wants us to pray, He wants us to read our bible, but what He needs from us is to repent from what are doing and not only that, but also, with our actions show that we are truly sorry for what we have done. Once we turn from these things, THEN God comes over us with His Spirit to forgive us and to transform our lives.

God sent His only son to die for us, so we would not suffer. So, why are you still suffering? What are you holding on to? What is keeping you from God?

Campaign of Israel/ Campaña de Israel

Hosea 13.5-6

"I cared for you in the desert, 

in the land of burning heat.

When I fed them, they were satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud;

then they forget me. 

Hosea 13.5-6

      When we first come to God, we come to Him, with a load of problems; a load of things that make us suffer. During the battle of removing this suffering, God is there with us, walking us through our desert. Giving us strength to fight against the heat; the pain. Many times what happens is that when a person receives a blessing, an answer to their prayers, they thank God, and leave His presence. In other words, we come to God when were hurting, but as soon as He helps us, we say "See you later!" That sounds terrible, huh? 

     It sounds and looks awful, so how a person be capable of doing this? If we stop and think, why does a person abandon the One that has been helping them and blessing them? If you read the last part of the verse, you'll notice that pride got in the way. When we have pride in our heart, we stop being rational. 

    We start using our feelings, instead of using our reasoning. Why else would someone abandon someone who helps them? I mean think about it. If someone is helping you through every tough situation, would you be like "well, thanks for everything and bye". Of course not! Even if all your problems were gone, you would want to keep this person by your side because we never know when trouble will come. 

     However, when a person lets pride enter their heart, the devil places thoughts and feelings in the person. The devil puts the idea "I'm okay now, so I don't need God's help any more". "Now I can go back, and enjoy my life". When we become prideful, we are not humble to realize how much we need God and that without Him we cannot be happy; without Him we cannot do anything.

    The verse even says that when a person becomes prideful, they forget God. They forget that it was Him, that was there when they were alone. They forget that He was there to extend His hand, when all our "friends" were gone. 

    

I Want to Serve God

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

6 

Who, being in very nature[a] God,

    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

7 

rather, he made himself nothing

    by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,

    being made in human likeness.

8 

And being found in appearance as a man,

    he humbled himself

    by becoming obedient to death—

        even death on a cross!

Jesus, being the Son of God, took on the role of a servant. He had every reason to be proud, but instead He left the Kingdom of Heaven, to take on the form of a human being. In the bible there was even a point where Jesus was washing the feet of His disciples. Throughout the time He spent on Earth, He maintained Himself blameless by always being humble and obedient to God even at the last breath of life.

If you have the desire to serve God, you need to dwell in humility. Follow the footsteps of Jesus, beginning in your own home. Even if you have reasons to be proud, humble yourself daily before God. Never assume you are better than someone and as Jesus, live to serve and not be served.

The Promise

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be[c] in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.19 Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

Have you ever felt like something was missing in your life? Yeah, you have your friends, your boyfriend, your fun nights out, but are they not making you as happy like before? Every human being is born with a thirst for the Holy Spirit. However, at a young age the devil does everything in his power, to distract this thirst. He places the love of your life in your path. He opens a door to job of your dreams. He places friends, money, and several other things in your path. 

If you have all of these things, you cannot be thirsty for God. However, we all reach a point in our life where the things we used to do, we used to have, don't make us happy any more. We always feel like something is missing. 

If you read the verse, Jesus told His disciples He would be leaving the world, however, He said we would not be orphans. He would leave the Holy Spirit in the world to guide us, to be with us; in the same way that Jesus was with the people. 

This was not only a comment He made, it was an actual promise. The Holy Spirit is for those who surrender themselves to God. For those who sacrifice their will to do His will. When we seek His Spirit with all our heart, with all our understanding, He pours Himself inside of us. 

Are you ready to take hold of this Promise?

Valley of Dead Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-10

37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four wind sand breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

As I read this chapter in the bible, I realized that I have seen this valley of dry bones before. I used to be like those bones, and many of the people who are in the church are dead like these bones. If you read verse 7 and 8, you see that the bones came together, the tendons formed, the flesh appeared and the skin covered the bodies, BUT there was still no life in the people. 

Many times we see people who are blessed in their family, they are prosperous, they are healthy, yet they are unhappy with their lives. They are empty. They are feeling like something is missing in their lives. When we do not have an encounter with God, with His Spirit, we are dead in life.

We are living physically, but spiritually we are dead because we have not met the fountain of life yet. If you read on in verse 10 when God breathed into these dead bodies, they came alive and became a huge army. 

If you are tired of the life you have, if you are tired of trying to fill that emptiness with things of this World, then seek God. Ask Him to come into your life, into your heart, so you can know what true happiness and true life is.

God Bless.

Don't Look Back

Philippines 3:7-14


7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in[a] Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Tonight, as I was was reading these verses God showed me something new. When we say we want to have God, his Holy Spirit inside of us, there was to be a surrender. There has to be a sacrifice. You might need to sacrifice friends, the boyfriend/girlfriend, desires, bad habits, your attitude, etc. There is no short cuts when it comes to seeking the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Once you are determined to sacrifice and surrender your life on the Alter of God, you cannot turn back. Don't turn back to what you sacrificed. Don't turn back to how your life was before you made the decision. Don't look back by picturing how your life will be if you decided to go back on your decision. Never look back. Once you surrender your life, don't look back or to what you left behind, look forward. Keep your eyes on the prize which is the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Don't look to how much or how much you sacrificed because no matter how hard it was to sacrifice friendships, habits, etc. , none of those things compare of how much more you will gain with Holy Spirit.
If you look back, you will open a door for the devil, which is the temptation to run back.

If you focus your eyes, and all of your strength to receive the gift, you will find it sooner then you think.


So, what will it be?

Knowledge verses Understanding

A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, 

and a man of understanding is even-tempered. 

Proverbs 17.27

            When I read this verse today I was asking myself over and over again, "what is the difference between knowledge and understanding"? Also, I was wondering what God was trying to tell me with this verse. Let's break it down. The first part says "A man of knowledge uses words with restraint". In other words, a person who is wise will think before they say something. How many are the times that we said something that we later regretted? If we have this knowledge we think before speaking. We keep in mind that our words can either bring peace or an argument to who we are talking to. We need to be careful with this because our words have power. For example, if you tell a child a negative comment, they can grow up believing it and destroy their self esteem. You might even forget what you said, but if they saved that word in their heart then it can influence their life. That is why when we are upset, angry, frustrated, it is better not to say anything it all. Because we can cause a problem that didn't need to be there. 

             The second part of the verse says " . . . and a man of understanding is even-tempered". If a person has this understanding they are cautious with their temper, their emotions. Why? Because a person understands that their attitude, they temper can hurt the people around then. This is where knowledge and understanding are separated. For example, when a person is angry they are not using their knowledge. The ignore their knowledge and act on how their feeling. They don't stop to think that their reaction will hurt someone's feelings. That is why the man that has understanding is even-tempered because this man doesn't act based on how he is feeling, he stops to think "No, I will not yell, I will not be aggressive because I will hurt my family". This man uses his understanding.

                Still can't tell knowledge and understanding apart? How about this. A person knows (knowledge) that saying bad words do not please God. Therefore, he/she watches what words come out of their mouth.This is common sense to them because they know what they can and cannot say. A person of understanding knows what is right and wrong, but also why things are right and wrong. This is harder because a person many times, does not observe they way they act around other people. Sometimes we may be acting rude around others and not even notice it. The man of understanding not only knows what is right and wrong but also, he is also able to apply it in his life and understand why it is right/wrong. 

Why Be Worried or Afraid?

So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. 

What can man do to me?"

Hebrews 13.6

When it comes to our relationship with God, trust is essential. Many times people say that they believe in God; they know He is Almighty; they sacrifice to Him; they give their offerings and tithe to Him. However, they do not Trust in Him. How do you know if you trust in God? Easy. When you go through unexpected events in your life, when you face challenges, problems, or barriers, your reactions/thoughts/behaviour will determine whether or not your trust is in Him. 

Because if you trust that He is with you, why would you need to be stressed out about a situation? Why would you be worried or scared about what will happen? Why would you shed tears because of a problem? 

If you sacrifice to God, you obey Him, you serve Him, you tithe and give your offering, you believe in Him; but you don't trust Him, then none of what your doing will bring results in your life. 

Trust in God because if He is with you, what can man, what can the devil do to you?

Alone with God

22 That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Genesis 32:22-26

When Jacob wrestles with God, he did not have his possessions, protection, nor the women he loved. He was alone with God and it was at that moment that God appeared to Him.

Because when we have people, objects, and other distractions, we don't have the revolt to seek God with our all. Why? Because we have all those things to fall back on.

When we are alone, when we have no friends, no boyfriend/girlfriend, possessions, nothing to hold on to, its at this moment in our life when we say "God, if you are not with me, if you do not bless me, I am lost". We either put all our trust in God, or were lost.

Take advantage of this Campaign, and be alone with God and do not let Him go until He blesses you.

The Spirit of God

"The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.       
                                          1 Corinthians 2.14



When the bible capitalizes the word "Spirit" it is referring to none other than the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of God. When a person does not accept the things that comes from God's Spirit, it is because the person gives in to their flesh. For example, if I am upset at someone because of what they did to me, I have two choices. One, I can listen to the Spirit and forgive this person, because it is God's will to forgive. Or, I can give ears to flesh that tells me "Why should you forgive this person?" "Are you really going to let that go, after what they did to you?" When we choose to do our will, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit's correction. When we deny ourselves, and sacrifice what we want to do, we reject our flesh to please the Spirit.

When a person does not live in the Spirit, they find sacrifice, fasting, the need to go to church, as something foolish or unnecessary. Why? Because their minds are not able to see the spiritual need they have. This is why many people who do not know God, believe that sicknesses, depression, unemployment, divorce, etc. are normal things that happen to people. However, those who are in the Spirit know that there is a demon behind that problem.

If you say that your problem is something physical and not spiritual, then why have you not been able to overcome it? Or, why does this problem seem to go away and then suddenly, comes back.




                  

Leah's Biggest Mistake

31 When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved, he enabled her to conceive, but Rachel remained childless. 32 Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Reuben,[b] for she said, “It is because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now.”

33 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too.” So she named him Simeon.[c]

34 Again she conceived, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “Now at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons.” So he was named Levi.[d]

35 She conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said, “This time I will praise the Lord.” So she named him Judah.[e] Then she stopped having children.

                                       Genesis 29.31-35

Jacob, Son of Isaac, had two wives: Rachel and Leah. However, the only one he loved was Rachel, so  Leah was put two the side. The only reason Jacob was married to Leah was because he was tricked to do so, and it was the only way he could be with Rachel, which you can read about in the same chapter. 

God saw the suffering in Leah because she was not loved, so He enabled her to have children, and He closed the womb of Rachel. Leah gave birth to a child and named him Reuben. After he was born, she was sure that he would love her, but nothing changed. She conceived again and gave birth to Simeon. She gave birth again and named him Levi and she thought to herself "Now, my husband will love me, bond with me, because I am the mother of his three children." Finally, she gave birth to one more son and named him Judah. 

What's interesting is that when she gave birth to Judah she said "This time I will praise the LORD." Why did she say "this time"? The reason is because she was not praising God with her life before. God gave her 4 children, but it wasn't til the fourth child that she acknowledged God. 

Many times we worry so much to have the praise, the approval, the love of other people, that we  put that concern of having the approval of God, to the side. We focus more, we care more for the acceptance of other people, that we turn our backs on God without realizing it. 

When we do this, we are blind to see what God is doing in our lives. We do not value what He has been doing for us, giving to us, because our focus is on someone or something else. 

Leah had to have four children, before she could realize that God was blessing her and that regardless of her husband's feelings, God loves her. God was giving her the love that she needed.

But because her focus was on her husband, she was pushing God away just as her husband was to her. 

She kept giving birth to get even the slightest attention from her husband, that she didn't realize that God kept giving her children to get her attention. Once she realized this, she turned to God.

Where has your attention been?