So Tender is Our God

I have been reading the book of Isaiah the last few weeks and came to the last book and found such a beautiful word picture. It portrays the beautiful tenderness of our God. And how lovingly He takes care of us.

12 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; then you will be nursed, you will be carried on her hip and trotted [lovingly bounced up and down] on her [God's maternal] knees. 13 As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. 14 When you see this, your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like green and tender grass. And the [powerful] hand of the Lord shall be revealed and known to be with His servants, but His indignation [shown] to be against His enemies.

Isaiah 66:12-14 (AMP)

I can remember when my children were infants, and the bond that was formed as I nursed them. I would tenderly stroke their hair. I would hold and rock them in my arms. How I loved those moments. This is how God sees us. He is tenderly guiding our lives, with His mighty right hand. He surrounds us with His grace to comfort and uphold us.

And because of His love and grace we can rejoice. And in this grace we will flourish. Our bodies and our children shall be strong and mighty, because of the Lord's powerful right hand, Jesus Christ.

Better than Botox

It is amazing how good it is to be a child of the most high God. We are blessed. Here is another beautiful promise.

5 Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. 6 In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil. 8 It shall be health to your nerves and sinews, and marrow and moistening to your bones.
Prov 3:5-8 (AMP)


Leaning entirely on God, and agreeing to do things and live life His way comes with a promise, Praise God. It is health and healing to our nerves, and sinews (the connective tissue) and even moistening to our bones. Trusting in God and worshiping God is health to our bone marrow. Red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. Stem cells are in our bone marrow. Trusting in God, giving Him worship and praise causes us to have healthy marrow and immune systems. Praise God! And our sinews are what keep our bodies young in appearance. Yes, it is better than botox. Praise God! The Word is alive. God sent His Word and healed us. Praise God! And did I mention, PRAISE GOD!

God's Garden

I am going to spend some time focusing on digging out some of the wonderful promises and amazing blessings that God has spoken to us in His Word. His Word is super positive and is the cure for anything that is ailing you.

10 And if you pour out that with which you sustain your own life for the hungry and satisfy the need of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in darkness, and your obscurity and gloom become like the noonday. 11 And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. Isaiah 58:10-11 (AMP)

Thank you Father that I am your garden that you tend. You water me and give me light. Even if there is a drought all around me, I shall still bare fruit. And even my health shall not fail, because my bones will be strong. And if my bones are strong, my immune system is strong. And if my immune system is strong my entire body is healthy and in balance. Praise and Glory, to You Lord!

Saul's Fall

I would like to talk about a somewhat of a sensitive subject. Being a man pleaser. Proverbs 29:25 says
25 The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever leans on, trusts in, and puts his confidence in the Lord is safe and set on high.
Prov 29:25 (AMP)
If someone trusts in what a man says over what God says it will cause a snare. It will limit what God can do, if you trust someone above Him or His word.

For instance, if someone is trusting in a man for their own spiritual growth it will limit your walk. You must seek. You must read the Word. You must want to grow. The bible says that we (the born again believers) have been made kings and priests in the new covenant with God. We are to have a personal relationship with our Father in heaven, and no man can do this for us. And there is no human being on this earth that is more favored by God than anyone else. Praise God! He is no respecter of persons. We have all been granted access by the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah!

No on can enter God's presence for us or instead of us. So be careful not to seek a man, but lean on, trust in and put your confidence in God.

Let's look at a Saul in the book of Samuel. Saul was God's first choice as king over the Israelites. And at first he was a very humble man, who loved and sought the Lord. But, he started loving the praise and acceptance of the people over the acceptance of God. In 1 Samuel 15 we see that God sent Saul to kill all of the Amalekites. But Saul didn't follow the directions of God. And then the prophet Samuel heard from God.
10 Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, 11 I regret making Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commands. And Samuel was grieved and angry [with Saul], and he cried to the Lord all night.
1 Sam 15:10-11 (AMP)

As you can see Saul chose to turn his back on God, by not doing what God said to do. Then Saul said that he disobeyed God because of what the people wanted. And Samuel said that because Saul had rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord had rejected Saul as king. And Saul said.
24 And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now, I pray you, pardon my sin and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord.
1 Sam 15:24-25 (AMP)

But God knew Saul's heart and he was still more concerned with how people viewed him. So Samuel said:
26 And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. 27 And as Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of Samuel's mantle, and it tore. 28 And Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.
1 Sam 15:26-28 (AMP)

But Saul still didn't care about the words of the Lord. He was still thinking about, and worrying about what the people would think about him more than what God thought about him. And he said to Samuel.
30 Saul said, I have sinned; yet honor me now, I pray you, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.
1 Sam 15:30 (AMP)

Because Saul cared more about what people thought about him then what God had said, it limited what God wanted to do in his life. And then God chose David to replace Saul. David was not God's first choice, Saul was. But Saul fell because he cared more about people's opinion about him then God's opinion.

Unbelief that Limits God

I have found that there are three types of unbelief.
1. unbelief that comes from a lack of knowledge
2.unbelief that comes from wrong information.
3.natural unbelief

Unbelief is something that will limit what God wants to do in our lives. After all in order to be saved a person must believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Because if you acknowledge and confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart believe (adhere to, trust in, and rely on the truth) that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:9 (AMP)
So we can understand that if we never believed in Jesus than God wouldn't have been able to save us. Our belief could have limited God, and some people still don't believe today, and they are limiting what God would like to do and has done for them.

So, back to the first type of unbelief. Lack of knowledge. This type of unbelief is easy to counter. Just tell someone the truth. Then when they hear the truth, that Jesus died for them, for example, then they can believe and can be saved.

Now the second type of unbelief steams from wrong information. This can come from people being taught the wrong thing. Such as healing passed away with the apostles. Some church organizations teach this. But, if you read the bible for yourself, and study on your own, you can learn that this is just not true. This type of unbelief may be a little more difficult to combat, but just through renewing your mind in the Word it will happen. The Word is alive, and will witness to you the truth.

Now, the third type of unbelief is really what I want to address. It is what I call natural unbelief. This is where a person believes the things that are happening in the natural over what the word of God says. Ever since we were babies we have listened to things in the natural for our basis of truth. When we felt hunger we cried, and someone fed us. When we were cold we cried, and someone wrapped a blanket around us. When we went to school we learned all about the five senses. And learned to trust only in those five, hearing, sight, smell, taste, and feeling. Those were what we based truth on. Don't misunderstand me, God gave us our five senses for a good reason. If we place our hand on a hot stove, we quickly remove it, so we aren't seriously burned. Thank God for that. But I believe that most of us failed to exercise, what I call, our sixth sense, it is the sense of faith. This is a sense that believes in an unseen God. It causes us to talk to this unseen God, and hear from the God that we don't normally hear with our physical ears.

When Jesus came to earth, He found that the apostles struggled with natural unbelief. Even in the old testament the men of God had to teach people that there was more to life then what we can gather with our five senses. In 2 Kings, Elisha was being attacked by a huge army. And He knew God, and understood that things weren't as they appeared, but his servant didn't understand this. His servant was panicking and here is what Elisha said:
16 [Elisha] answered, Fear not; for those with us are more than those with them. 17 Then Elisha prayed, Lord, I pray You, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord opened the young man’s eyes, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
2 Kings 6:16-17 (AMP)

I am sure that the young man's physical eyes were open, Elisha asked God to open His spiritual eyes. I don't think that Elisha could actually see these angels himself, he just knew that they were there. He knew God. And he didn't need any more proof then that. But, his servant needed to see them, to believe. I know that God will want us to believe just like Elisha did. Look at what Jesus said to Thomas after He was risen from the dead.
29 Jesus said to him, Because you have seen Me, Thomas, do you now believe (trust, have faith)? Blessed and happy and to be envied are those who have never seen Me and yet have believed and adhered to and trusted and relied on Me
John 20:29 (AMP)

So how do we get there? How can we retrain ourselves? Or how do we get rid of this type of natural unbelief? Let's look at Mark the 17th chapter.
14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him." 17 Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matt 17:14-20 (NKJV)

You can see that the disciples had tried to cast the demon out of the boy. They had done many mighty works of healing and casting demons by the power and authority that Jesus had given them. So, they did have faith, or they wouldn't have tried to help the boy. That is why later they came to Jesus and asked Him why it didn't work when they had tried. And Jesus answered, it was because of their unbelief. Now, I know there are many translations that say it is because of your little faith. But, Jesus goes on to say that all they needed was a tiny amount of faith. The reason that they couldn't cast the demon out of the child is because they had unbelief.

Let me create a word picture for you. Let's say you had a large boulder and a horse strapped to the boulder, and the horse was pulling it in one direction. The horse would represent your faith. Then you strapped an equally strong horse to the other side of the boulder and it pulled in the opposite direction. This would represent unbelief. The boulder wouldn't move. The horses would cancel each other out.

So what did Jesus say was the remedy to this problem? Did He say that they needed more faith? No, He said that they only needed a little faith. But that they needed to get rid of their unbelief. Now let's look at the next verse. Here again some translations have either omitted this verse completely or have left part of it out. It says:
21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."
Matt 17:21 (NKJV)

Now if you read this altogether the disciples came to Jesus and asked Him why, when they tried to cast the demon out of the boy it didn't leave. And Jesus said it was because of their unbelief. So the subject of the sentence in verse is unbelief. Jesus said that this kind, this kind of unbelief does not go out of the disciples but by prayer and fasting. Because He knew that they had faith. They just were negating it with their unbelief.

Let's take a look at Mark chapter 9 for the same account of this demon possessed boy to understand why the disciples had unbelief.
17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, "Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not." 19 He answered him and said, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me." 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.
Mark 9:17-20 (NKJV)

I believe that the same thing happened to the disciple when this man brought the boy to them. I don't know if you have ever experienced anyone having a seizure, but it will get your attention. And I'm sure that the disciples saw they boy fall down after they had tried to cast the demon out, and what they saw caused then to have unbelief. This is natural unbelief. It comes through our five senses. It can negate the faith that we have. But, the good news is that Jesus has given us the prescription for this type of unbelief. He said this kind of unbelief goes out of us by prayer and fasting. This kind of unbelief can be overcome, by subduing our flesh. When you fast and pray it is not to try and get God to do anything, it is to help us receive the things that He has already given us. In prayer and fasting we are proving to our flesh that God is more real, God is more true than anything we can see, hear, taste, and smell. God is so good that He knows that we struggle with this and He has given us a simple answer to taking the limits off of what He wants to do in our lives. Thank you Jesus.