Your Unemployed God

God wants you in a position or a place where you need Him – that position where you recognize, without a doubt, that without Him you will never get through. That state of being where you finally come to the realization that with God all things are possible and the only thing you can repeat over and over again to yourself is: “This is impossible for me, but not for God…”

The truth is, God allows you to get to that place so that you will let Him “do” in your life. He longs for you to employ Him in every area, even the smallest of things. God yearns to be a part of your life, but you have to let Him in. Employ your God!

Stop trying to work everything out on your own, instead, seek the hand of God. Apostle Paul assures us in Romans 8 that it is God who works all things together for good with those who love Him, those whom He has called according to His purpose. That’s you – you love God and are here for a purpose, His purpose; even if it doesn’t seem like it. 

Listen, contrary to popular belief, God does not want you bursting your brain figuring out this and that, putting mismatched pieces of your life together like a crazy 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, in an effort to devise solutions to your problems. Only God can do that, and with ease. 

Jesus says in Matthew 6:31-33, not to worry or be anxious about anything. He says that God knows your needs. He says to be concerned with God, His Kingdom, and what He requires of you, and God will provide you with everything else. 

Employ God, utterly depend upon Him for your every need – whatever the need. David understood this completely, he said, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart.” - Psalm 37:4 (AMPC)

If you have truly and sincerely accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, then you belong to God; He is your God and His Word says that those who belong to Him, He will sustain:

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.” – Psalm 55:22 (HCSB)

Take God at His word – do not have Him as your unemployed God. Reach out to Him every single day, whether things are bad or good. He is waiting for your call.

Amen†

Your Unemployed God

Shelley Johnson January 27, 2017

You are not in this alone

The Israelites, after their long sojourn in the wilderness, had become doubtful and discouraged even though they were now on the verge of the Promised Land. God had brought them this far, yet they were demotivated and nervous about their fate, so He tells Moses to send 12 leaders, one from each tribe, to explore this land of abundance He had promised to give them. In doing so, they could see for themselves that the promise was real.

Upon their return, they gave this report,

“We went to the land to which you sent us and, oh! It does flow with milk and honey! Just look at this fruit! The only thing is that the people who live there are fierce, their cities are huge and well-fortified.” – Numbers 13:27-28 (MSG)

The evidence of the Promise was sure but there were challenges to overcome, and obstacles to surmount. Ten of the twelve scouts saw this opposition as invincible and concluded that it was not worth fighting for, however two of the twelve, Caleb and Joshua, saw the promise in all its rich abundance. 

But it was the disheartening part of the report that the people chose to accept and it made them question the validity of God’s promise.

How many of you are on the verge of your Promised Land but all you can see are the challenges before you? God’s people always have and always will encounter obstacles on their way to receiving what He has promised, you are no exception.

Now pay attention to what Joshua and Caleb said, 

“The land we walked through and scouted out is a very good land—very good indeed. If God is pleased with us, He will lead us into that land, a land that flows, as they say, with milk and honey. And He’ll give it to us. Just don’t rebel against God! And don’t be afraid of those people. Why, we’ll have them for lunch! They have no protection and God is on our side. Don’t be afraid of them!” – Numbers 14:7-9 (MSG)

Be the two and not the ten! The majority of people can always find a reason not to believe and go to extremes to convince you not to believe but if God has given you a promise, the opinion of the crowd doesn’t matter; all that matters is what God has told you. Even if you stand alone, stand alone because the truth is, you are not in this alone – God is with you. He is on your side. Not believing God is rebelling against God, so, only believe.

Those who see the obstacle as insurmountable or focus on their own ability, will be defeated – God offers them no protection. Put your faith and trust in the One who is able to do anything, far more than you could ever imagine, the One for whom nothing is too difficult to accomplish (see Ephesians 3:20; Jeremiah 32:27) and believe that what He says will happen, will happen.

Beloved, God will never say and not act, that’s not how He operates (Numbers 23:19). As a matter of fact, “God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; He won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t worry.” – Deuteronomy 31:8 (MSG). 

Amen †

Your Reaction bears the Fruit

You are going to react to every circumstance that you face, whether the situation is good or bad, you will react. Your reaction in good times is easy, the real test comes when you are facing difficult, unfavorable, and trying circumstances. The action you take then especially, will determine the fruit that you bear. 

That fruit can either be bad or good, and will depend solely on you. In other words you cannot always control the circumstances that come your way but you surely can control how you react to those circumstances.

Will your reaction result in fruit that’ll be beneficial to you or will it bear fruit for death? 

You can decide to indulge your human nature and complain, groan, get angry, hate, use obscene language, be filled with ire, keep malice, become envious, and allow strife to flourish in your heart or you can trust God to work the fruit of His Spirit in you, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Galatians 5:22-23), trust Him to work things out, put away all negative responses, count it all joy, thank Him, and praise Him even in the midst of your dilemma. 

You have freedom of choice but one way will lead you to bear fruit for death and the other will lead you to bear fruit for life. Proverbs 10:2 says that if you do the right things, then your actions can save you from death. 

In Deuteronomy 30:19 God tells us to choose life. Shouldn’t you then, choose life?

Focusing on yourself and the circumstance will result in your reacting in the wrong way but if you begin praising God, thanking Him and seeking His wisdom, your reaction will be very different. God will be occupying your attention and your reaction will be based in faith and trust in God and that will bring out good fruit in you.

James 3:17 says to seek God’s wisdom in every circumstance because God’s wisdom is full of good fruit.

Psalm 1:3 says that when you bear good fruit, you will prosper in all you do.

Your aim should be to bear good fruit whatever the circumstance. So, no matter what you’re going through right now, find strength in the Lord your God (1 Samuel 30:6), depend on Him to bring you out (Psalm 71:20), wait on Him (Proverbs 20:22), and always react in love (Proverbs 10:12).

Amen † 

Your Reaction bears the Fruit

Shelley Johnson January 19, 2017

What Do You Have?

“There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many?” – John 6:9 (DLNT) 

It’s not enough, there are only five loaves and two fish! It’s not enough, there are only seven rounds of flatbread and a few small fish! (ref. Matthew 15:34) 

Like the disciples, we often look at what we have and believe that it’s not enough. That’s because we always focus on what we don’t have. We spend too much time meditating on what we believe is lack rather than seeing the abundance that we have in Christ Jesus. 

Remember, what you focus on is what you will magnify and more times than not it is what will manifest. So if you’re focused on lack, guess what? 

The thing is, Jesus wants you to know what you have. Here are some things Jesus wants you to know: 

• You have a rich and satisfying life (John 10:10).
  
• You have a share in everything bright and beautiful that God has for His children (Colossians 1:12).
  
• You have the power to successfully produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:18).
  
• You have everything you need to experience a godly life full of His glory and excellence (2 Peter 1:3). 

And there is so much more! 

The boy in John 6:9 brought all that he had to Jesus. To the disciples it didn’t look like much, certainly it wasn’t enough “for so many” but Jesus took it, looked up to God, gave Him thanks, and it fed thousands and still even more remained – not just a little but twelve baskets full were left over. 

Stop looking at what you think you don’t have and bring all that you have to Jesus, give Him thanks and watch Him bless it, use it and increase it, exponentially. 

Amen †

What Do You Have? 

Shelley Johnson January 18, 2017 

“You” vs “You”

Knowing their thoughts, He told them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction…” – Matthew 12:25 (HCSB)

Divided thoughts, divided ideas and a divided mind…division within yourself. So often you’re unsettled on so many things concerning you. You simply cannot decide one way or another. 

Jesus told the Pharisees that division only leads to destruction, ruin, and chaos. This, I believe, can also apply to the internal division that may be your experience from ever since you can remember. A tug-of-war which causes you to jump from one opinion to the next – this way and then that. You’re never standing firm on any one issue but constantly vacillating from one point of view to another. 

This continuous struggle of uncertainty makes it almost impossible for you to complete any tasks, projects or assignments because as James 1:8 says, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So if you keep this up you will never be successful at anything since success is not a byproduct of instability but of peace of mind. 

If “You” vs “You” becomes more intense, everything in your life becomes more and more unstable, stagnant, there is absolutely no progress and no moving forward. Haven’t you had enough of this? How long will you chase after more than just one rabbit, you’ll end up with none! 

This fight with you has to end; but how? You’ve fought yourself for so long but now it’s time for you to unclog the cesspool this war has created inside you.

To conquer you, you must first take your thoughts off yourself and focus on God. Switching your focus onto God will create calm and peace within…

“You will keep perfectly peaceful the one whose mind remains focused on You, because he remains in You.” – Isaiah 26:3 (ISV)

When your focus is God, He will bring everything else into alignment, including your thoughts. 

“Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” – Matthew 6:33 (MSG)

Focus on God and allow Him to meet all your needs; even decisions you have to make, submit them all to God and He will direct you (see Proverbs 3:6), and it won’t be long before you will see the conflict that you’ve endured all this time with yourself, over.

Amen †

“You” vs “You”

Shelley Johnson January 17, 2017

Salt

January is coming to a close but I'm still in time to wish all of you and your families for 2017, every good gift from above. May God bless you all.

“You, beloved, are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes bland and loses its saltiness, can anything make it salty again? No. It is useless. It is tossed out, thrown away, or trampled.” – Matthew 5:13 (VOICE)

Recently I saw a meme on Facebook of a chef and the caption was “The Salt Man”, I must admit that it was funny. And, as my laughter turned to a chuckle it dawned on me that we’re all “The Salt Man” since in Matthew 5:13, Jesus tells us that we are the salt of the earth and we cannot afford to lose our saltiness. And, as I mused upon the word “Saltiness”, I thought of something else, “salty” – a word used nowadays to describe a person who is upset, an adjective that explains one who has taken offense or is over re-acting. 

To be salty in this regard reminds me of Lot’s wife. She was transformed into a pillar of salt – that’s the ultimate in saltiness – because of her looking back longingly for what God had brought to a destructive end (ref. Genesis 19:26). That is not the kind of salt you want to be. In her case the salt she became was a symbol of death – lifeless, tasteless, and unable to add any flavor to anything or anyone. By her actions, Lot’s wife immediately became exactly what she yearned for and looked back to.

Generally, in the Bible, to be salty is by no means a bad thing. Salt is a symbol of covenant, fellowship, and grace (see Numbers 18:19; Leviticus 2:13; Ezra 4:14; Colossians 4:6). Indeed our Lord wants us to be salty; He wants us to add flavor to other’s lives by walking in, and embracing the ways and principles of His Kingdom.

To be the salt man is to bring the Kingdom of heaven to earth through the way we live, to reach out to those around us to share the great news of our Lord Jesus Christ and to be examples of the positive impact He can have in their lives.

We are salt, and that means that we must take every opportunity to provide spiritual flavor to every individual we meet. 

Amen †

Salt

Shelley Johnson January 16, 2017