Receive the Man of God

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me." (John 13:20)

I can't tell you how many born-again, Holy Ghost-filled Christians pick their pastor apart on Saturday night and then expect him to pray the prayer of faith for them Sunday morning! They'll constantly make critical comments about the evangelists and preachers that God has sent to minister to them and then wonder why the rain of the Spirit has all but dried up in their churches.

Most of those folks would never dream of criticizing the ministry of Jesus. Yet, according to the Word of God, that's precisely what they're doing. You see, Jesus said, "He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me."

I know ministers fail sometimes. I know they make mistakes. Jesus knew they would too. But, even so, He said, "If you receive them, you receive Me."

Seeing our Blessings

“We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost – also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”—Numbers 11:5–6

The Torah portion for this week is Behaalotecha, from Numbers 8:1–12:16 and the Haftorah from Zechariah 2:14–4:7.

The manna that fell from heaven was miraculous. It fell daily, with the exception of the Sabbath, when no work was permitted. There was exactly enough, even on Friday, when two times the amount needed fell so that there would be enough for the Sabbath. The Sages teach that the manna tasted exactly like the person eating it wanted it to taste.
Pretty amazing! So how is it possible that the Israelites complained about it?

Pressing Into God During Times of Crisis

DESIREE AYRES

 

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(© Goodwyn / StockFreeImages.com)

Editor’s Note: Ten days after a terrible explosion left her fighting for her life, Hollywood stuntwoman Desiree Ayres walked out of the Sherman Oaks Burn Center completely healed and whole. Now she co-pastors with her husband and shares her powerful testimony of miraculous healing and restoration with everyone she meets.

No matter how challenging or difficult your present circumstance may be, I can assure you of one thing: If you cry out to God in your crisis, He can and will bring you help. Not only will He help you but He can make a multitude of blessings out of every situation. Be encouraged, because as you cry out to your Creator, He can and will turn your mess into a message, your test into a testimony!

Blessings by the Bushel

"And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you." (Mark 4:24)

How many blessings are you going to receive from the Word of God? It depends on how many you expect to receive. When God measures them out to you, He'll be using your measuring stick, not His own. He always works that way.

Two people can hear God's Word about healing, for example. One will measure it with faith. "Praise God, by His stripes I was healed!" he'll say. "I believe that with all my heart, and I'm going to keep on believing it until I receive my healing."

The other will measure it with skepticism. "I don't care what Bible verses he comes up with," he'll say. "I just don't trust that preacher. I'll give this healing stuff a try, but I doubt very much if anything's going to come of it."

Blessings and Miracles

By Andrew Wommack

It’s true that we serve a God of miracles. But brace yourself, because what I am going to say about that will come as a total shock to some of you. The Lord’s preference is not to meet your needs through a miracle.

Now before you think I’ve lost all my faith, hear me out. I define a miracle as the suspension or superseding of natural laws, and personally, I’ve received many. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord performs miracles and uses them like a bell to draw people unto Himself.

But let me ask you, would you rather receive a miracle of healing or live with the blessing of good health? Would you rather have the Lord perform a miracle to pull you out of bankruptcy or be so blessed financially that He wouldn’t have to? I think the logical answer to both of those questions is obvious.

It’s always better to avoid problems, which is the result of living in blessing, than it is to be delivered out of them, which requires a miracle.

Believe in God and the Power of His Word

by Barbie Breathitt

Never doubt yourself or sell yourself short. Concentrate on your God given abilities and assets. Remind yourself about productive dynamic attitudes. Use your intelligence to find and seek ways to create solutions and solve problems to insure your success. You must believe that you are important in the scheme of things in order to be successful. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. Believe in God and you will prosper. John 12:44–49, “And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, does not believe in Me but in Him who sent Me. "He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me. "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. "If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. NASU” Tell yourself I am essential. I am special, important, intelligent and desirable. I am an overcomer. People need and want me. Prosperity and blessings are going to chase me down and overtake me.

Abraham : Father of many nations.

Greetings in Jesus Name!

It is not where you are at in life's journey but your relationship with the Lord that is going to bring the blessings to your life.

When a person fully understands this and walks in this realm they begin to experience the fullness that the Lord has for them.

Abraham experienced this in his life.

Deuteronomy 8:1 (KJV)
All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

Faith Outside the Box

Betsy St. Amant

I grew up in the church—literally, I was there every time the doors were open for most of my childhood and beyond. There are so many blessings that come from a strong Christian heritage—but there are many challenges as well. Challenges that stem from routine and absorption, rather than life and certainty. I knew what I believed—I just had no idea why.

You see, as a Christian from a young age, I knew all the buzz words, the lingo, the native language of “church-ese”. I knew all the popular Bible verses and hymns by heart, which is fantastic in one sense, but devastating in another. When we get too familiar with something, it loses its impact. And the life-giving words tended to fly over my head and miss my heart completely.

No Delays, No Limits

Written by Carolyn Savelle

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!  (Eph. 3:20 MSG)

Today's Confession: God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ask or think.

Becoming intense on the inside of you will stop the struggle in your prayer life. Once the struggle is gone, then the delay will be gone. Why? Because we've run out of time. Time is being compressed down to these last moments that we have left on planet Earth, and God's Word will be fulfilled for His children.

I'm not just telling you something I made up. This works! I have tapped into something from God. I have become intense in my prayer life. I just won't settle for anything less.

A New Time & Place

Written by Jack Hayford

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” (Is. 43:18-19 NIV)

Permit me to ask you something rather pointedly: Are you prepared to allow the Spirit of God to change your status quo? Are you truly ready for the Lord to do something new in your life? Something unexpected? Out of the ordinary? Are you ready to follow Him down roads you’ve never traveled? Are you open to the possibility that He might bless you in an unexpected, perhaps startling way?

None of us would be so arrogant as to say, “I know it all,” yet from time to time we may affect a certain blasé sophistication, a posture of pride that finds it stylish to be critical, cynical, or “laid back.” Yet this prideful attitude hamstrings our ability to move into the fresh and the new... and grieves the Spirit of God.

Who says you know what’s next for your life?

Who says God can’t use you in a dramatic, wholly unexpected way?

My Passover Blessing Prayer for You

Because of your partnership with me in gifts and prayers, I want to pray a special Passover blessing over you. 

The Miracle of Passover

At Passover we are instructed to bring a special gift of remembrance. We remember the miracle of the first Passover and the even greater miracle it foreshadowed — the Passover Lamb (Yeshua) translating us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. I am eternally grateful for what Yeshua has done in my life!

My Passover Gift to You

My Passover gift to you is a New Covenant version of the prayer God instructed Moses to pray over the Jewish people. God promised everyone who received this prayer would be sealed with His Name and everything His Name represents (Num. 6:22-27). Please take a moment to watch this brief video prayer. Also, I encourage you to forward this email to friends and family so they can receive a blessing.

Thoughts On Rain

by Julie Ackerman

Our Daily Bread is hosted by Les Lamborn

READ: Matthew 5:38-48

He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. —Matthew 5:45

When torrential downpours beat on the heads of my newly planted petunias, I felt bad for them. I wanted to bring them inside to shelter them from the storm. By the time the rain stopped, their little faces were bowed to the ground from the weight of the water. They looked sad and weak. Within a few hours, however, they perked up and turned their heads skyward. By the next day, they were standing straight and strong.

FAITH THAT IS SEEN

Mark 2:5, "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

MATTHEW 9: 1-8, MARK 2: 1-12, LUKE 5: 17-26

Faith can be seen. Just as Jesus explained to Nicodemus in John 3:8, faith is like the wind. Faith itself is invisible, but saving faith is always accompanied by corresponding actions which can be seen (Jas. 2:17-26).

It was not only the faith of the paralytic that Jesus saw, but also that of his four friends (Mk. 2:3). This demonstrates the effect our intercession in faith can have upon others. Jesus saw their faith. However, although our faith released on behalf of others is powerful, it is not a substitute for their faith. It is simply a help. The person who is to receive the miracle must have some degree of faith, also. 

Start Planting

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." (1 Peter 1:23)

You won't really get excited about the Word of God until you realize that it's more than just a collection of divinely-inspired promises. It's a living force that literally carries within it the power to make those promises become a reality in your life.

Is it tough for you to believe such a thing is possible?

It shouldn't be. You see it happen in the natural world all the time.

New Every Morning

Written by Gail Rodgers

Take today’s next step: Prayer mentors pray for the requests that come in to this site. If you want to help bring God’s mercies to those who need it, join the team. 

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)

If you find your heart is longing for a fresh basket of God’s mercies to be delivered to you this morning, there is one place to go: back to His word!

I know it sounds trite to say, “read the Bible.”  However, God’s word is life to your soul. Ask Jesus to speak to you through His word. Let His Holy Spirit fill your heart with what the Father knows you need to hear. Today, why not soak in this wonderful treasure from the word of God?

Like Ephraim and Manasseh

“He blessed them that day and said, ‘In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing: “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.”’ So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh.” — Genesis 48:20

This Torah portion for this week, Vayechi, is from Genesis 47:28–50:26 and 1 Kings 2:1–12.

Every Friday night, when Jewish families gather around the table to celebrate the Sabbath festive meal, parents bless their children. To the girls we say, “May God make you like Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah.” To the boys we say, “May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.” It’s easy to understand why we choose to bless our girls to be like the great Matriarchs. But why don’t we bless our sons to be like the holy Patriarchs? Why do we choose Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, instead?

Ephraim and Manasseh accomplished something that no one else in the covenantal family had. Isaac and Ishmael were brothers, but they weren’t able to live together. Ishmael was banned from Abraham’s home. Jacob and Esau were twins, and they, too, had their share of sibling rivalry. At one point, Esau wanted to kill his brother. Next came the twelve sons of Jacob, and as we know, their relationship with Joseph wasn’t perfect either. Their jealousy of Jacob’s favorite led them to sell Joseph into slavery.

The Treasure Box

Written by Kristi Huseby

“[B]ut Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.” (Luke 2:19, NLT)

Did you have a treasure box growing up? I did. In my treasure box I had a very old dollar coin that my Mom had given to me, some chapstick, and various other items that you might have considered junk but to me they were valued possessions.

In Luke 2:19 (NLT) we get the idea that Mary had a treasure box of sorts, only her treasures were memories of Jesus and how his life intersected with hers. Look at what it says, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

What were those things she stored in her “treasure box”? Could it have been the time when the Angel came to tell her that she would bear a child even though she was a virgin? Or what about when she visited with Elizabeth who was old, wrinkled and very pregnant? Did she treasure watching God’s miracle growing within her?

MORE TO FOLLOW . . . grace upon grace . . . .

    At the end of the day, a weary child is cradled comfortably at the lap of his loving father.  The thrills and cares of the day spin off from his mind as he fights his heavy eyelids.  He runs his tender fingers at the face of his father, gathers himself together and draws his lips closer to his father’s right ear.  

    Then he smiles as he whispers almost inaudibly, his hands feeling the sturdy arms and shoulders of his father.  The father smiles and nods repeatedly, responding with that usual reassuring voice.  

    The child’s voice faded into silence as he drifts off to a peaceful sleep. He had his fill of today’s delights – but he has his cares and desires for tomorrow.  His sleep is undisturbed as he had confided everything in his heart to his father.

Hold On ! ! !

http://www.wtv-zone.com/Marvaline/ES/esigs/aroundcornersig.html

Finding Joy in Praying for my Grandchildren

Written by Lillian Penner

What a joy it is to have that precious little grandchild come running into your arms with hugs and kisses. The six-year-old granddaughter calling to tell you she lost her first tooth or your seven-year-old grandson excited about making his first goal in his soccer game.

In addition to the senior discounts, grandchildren are one of the rewards of growing older. Mary H. Waldrip says it well, “Grandchildren are God’s way of compensating us for growing old.”