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.

Come on in, and Sit Down

Luke 10:19
Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you.

1John 5:18
We know that whosoever is born of God sineth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked on toucheth him not.

Romans 5:17
For if because of one's man's trespass (lapse, offence) death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive [God's] overflowing grace (unmerited favor) and the free gift of righteousness [putting them into right standing with Himself] reign as kings in this life through one Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed one).

Ephesians 2:6
And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

So come and sit down in the place that God has prepared for you. He came as a man and died to give it to you. Come and take your seat right there next to God. For it has all been accomplished for you. Yes, God has made you a king in His kingdom. He has given you all the authority in heaven. He has given you Jesus, so that you can make His enemies a footstool. He will not make you use your authority over things in this world that come against you. But, He has given you the authority to reign over your problems. Come on in, have a seat. And take your proper place in Jesus Christ.

Glory to God!

His Name

1 John 3:22-23
And we receive from Him whatever we ask, because we (watchfully) obey His orders (observe His suggestions and injunctions, follow His plan for us) and (habitually) practice what is pleasing to Him. And this is His order (His command, His injunction): that we should believe in (put our and trust in and adhere to and rely on) the name of His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and that we should love one another, just as He has commanded us.

• I believe in the name of Jesus to save and deliver me from every situation.
• I put my faith in the name of Jesus.
• I trust in the name of Jesus.
• I adhere to the name of Jesus.
• I completely rely on the name of my Lord and Savior Jesus.

I believe that mountains move and demons flee when I speak the name of Jesus. I have faith that He has done everything for me, I rest in the finished work of Jesus. There is no sin that Jesus didn't pay for. Just one drop of His blood was more than enough to pay for all sin for all time. Yes, I believe the Word and I trust in the name of Jesus. This life is not mine to fight but I will stand for and keep everything that Jesus paid for. I am always victorious because I have the name of Jesus. God has given it to me, when I made Him Lord of my life.

I trust that the name of Jesus has all power and authority, and God Almighty has placed it above all things. God will use His hands to back up the name of Jesus. I will always stick to the name given to me, it is who I really am. In my spirit I am one with Him. This is how God sees me, this is the real me, for I have been united with Jesus in death to live for Him in this life. I completely rely on the name of Jesus. I will never be let down, He is the Lord who lifts me up.

Thank You JESUS.

Why Do I Need To Know God?

Proverbs 3:6
In all my ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

In all my ways know Him.
In all my ways recognize Him.
In all my ways acknowledge Him.

What does that really mean?

Here is the definition of know:

• to perceive directly
• have direct cognition of
• to have understanding of
• importance of knowing for oneself
• to recognize the nature of
• discern
• to recognize as being the same as something previously known
• to be acquainted or familiar with
• to have experience of
• to be aware of the truth
• to be convinced or certain of
• to have practical understanding
• to have sexual intercourse with

So to know God is to have a personal relationship with Him. To know God is to know His personality that you have experience for yourself. It goes far beyond head knowledge and into the realm of experiential knowledge. This type of knowledge causes you to stand in the face of anything. His promises are true for you because you know God. When you have entered into this place of knowing God, you are joined with Him. This is how you can know God in all of your ways. You will think like Him. When the world says you are going under but God says you are above only and not beneath, you will have no trouble believing it because you know God. To know God is to think about yourself how God thinks about you. When He says that you have been made holy and to boldly come before the throne of grace, it is easy to believe because you know God. And because you know God, His presence will cause you to rest. You have expierenced before.

Psalms 21:6

For You make him to be blesses and a blessing forever, You make him exceedingly glad with the joy of Your presence.

To know God is to enter into His presence. To enter into His presence is to be in His rest. In this place there is peace and joy. And it is not a location but a state of mind, a state of focus. Knowing God is being in constant relationship with God, always in every situation fully trusting Him. Because you know Him. You know He is faithful to deliver you. His is fully capable to deliver you, and He wants to deliver you. He loves you. And you know that you are His beloved child. There is nothing greater then knowing God.

So how do you start to know God for yourself? Start with seeking Him with all of your heart. The bible says that this is when you will find Him. If you try to put Him in a box, and only read your bible because it is your duty, you are not entering into the relationship with Him. But if you say, Father I want to know you. Lord, teach me. God, guide me in your Word. Study his Word. Ponder on His ways. Ask Him and He will guide you. Put aside all of your religious ideas of who God is. Let Him be your guide as you study and pray. Get to know God, there is nothing more fulfilling that you will ever pursue.