How To Be Led By Him

"Doth not He see my ways and count all my steps?" {Job 31:4}

Scary, isn't it? He sees all our ways and count all our steps? Really? Well, that's what it says. And I'm sure if it's not literally He's counting our steps, it surely means God knows every single thing we do - what we do and where we go. That's why I think, Better commit my works to Him since He knows everything anyway. This way, He can lead me to what is good. And hey, I might end up being saved in the end from a lot of unnecessary heartaches.

You might ask, How do I do this?

By talking to Him about it in your prayer. You can ask Him to direct your steps (instead of coming up with your own) and lead you to what is good before Him. Now, it might not seem "good" always; but if you're trusting Him from now on, then you have to trust Him that He can work all things out everything for your good.

Another thing to do, is to talk to Him throughout the day what you're doing. Proverbs states: "Commit all your works unto Him and your thoughts will be established." {Proverbs 16:3} This is how to "commit" it: By talking to Him about it. You can tell Him what your plans are during the day; what you need done and what you would like to do. Then leave the rest to Him to take care of it. Which means, if you feel a tug to do something else or you feel "led" to go somewhere, go with it. It could very well be the Lord is dealing with you and leading you to do it. Which means, if not everything in your list gets done, you don't get annoyed about it. You leave it in His hands. You thank Him for it. Because, you are trusting that He is leading you.

It's a day to day practice. And it does takes practice trusting the Lord to work things out for you. But it gets easier and it gets better. You will find yourself happier. When He "anticipates" your needs and certain things you did not think about gets "worked out" for you, you will be amazed how involved He really is with our lives. There is nothing too trivial for Him. I've had it where I worried about not getting dinner done in time because I felt led to commune with the Lord. So I tell Him about it. And I get an assurance It's going to be okay. Later I look at my phone and my husband tells me he's going to be home later. That's just one of many examples. There have been so many "incidents" I've experienced with the Lord that has shown me how involved He really is when I get Him involved.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." {Proverbs 3:5-6}

Make God Greater

"Unto thee will I cry, O Lord my rock; be not silent to me: lest, if thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit." {Psalm 28:1}

Why is it sometimes God is silent? Is it really because He's had it with us and can no longer deal with us? But then, whatever happened to His mercy that endures forever? Or that He is slow to anger and full of compassion? Why does it seems like He doesn't hear anymore no matter how hard or how long we cry? Is He weary of us because we are so foolish and continually make mistakes? I hope not.

I think sometimes, God seems far because our burdens and our problems are bigger than Him. Not because He can't handle them but because we have become overwhelmed with them and can't see clearly anymore. We cry and we cry and He is right there and yet we can't see Him, nor hear Him because we've made our problems too big for Him.

Times like these we need to turn to the word of God and encourage ourselves in the Lord. We need to start from the very beginning and just start reading about His goodness and greatness. Start focusing truly on Him rather than our problems. When we do this, then God will start getting nearer, bigger, greater, and ever present in our minds. He then can work on our behalf because we are believing on Him rather than tying Him down with our unbeliefs. Whenever we focus on His goodness and greatness and talk to Him about His love for us, then there's nothing He will not do for us. He will be greater than our problems. He will prove Himself to be true. There will be nothing too hard for Him because He is good. He is great. And He is awesome.

Instead of focusing on our problems and our ability to fix them, lets open the Bible and read His word. Talk to Him about His word and His goodness. Let's praise Him and love Him. And we will see and realize that truly that there is nothing too hard for Him. He will come through for us and He will see us through another day.

"My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever." {Psalm 73:26}

"To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not besilent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever." {Psalm 30:12}

"But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible." {Matthew 19:26}

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." {Mark 9:23}

Finding Comfort In God

"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee: He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
(Psalm 55:22)

"Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: and call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me."
(Psalm 50:14-15)

Finding comfort in the Lord is possible. But we have to take time for it. And the more we get in the habit of finding comfort in Him whenever we're unhappy or things don't go our way, the easier it gets. But again, we have to take time for it. We have to remember Him and come to Him.

It's not hard at all. All it takes is coming to Him with our hearts.

This morning, after spending the whole weekend with my husband and he's gone back to the usual "work-week", I just felt so bummed out. After my usual morning routine of chores and playing in my craft room for an hour, I came to my sitting room to come to the Lord. He had told me in my mind to come to Him at ten. (I have learned to commit my days to the Lord and so that He's the one that tells me what I am doing next by placing it in my heart and in my mind. Sometimes He tells me to come at noon, sometimes at ten. Yesterday He said at six because it was Sunday and church starts at ten. He then places in my heart what to do next so that I don't have to plan or worry about what chores to do or what to accomplish. There are times I let Him know ahead of time that I need to do something, like do laundry or clean my room, and He helps me accomplish them. He tells me when to wake up too. He calls my name and places in my heart to get going and not to lie around too long in bed. He's been truly gracious to me. I've been living in this complete rest for awhile now since I've learned to commit my days to Him.) Anyway, this morning, I came here to my room at ten and just couldn't have the heart to do what I'm supposed to do. At first, I was supposed to write another song, but when I tried to do it, I ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, something tells me to practice instead. So I tried. But it didn't last. I placed my guitar down and started talking to the Lord in my heart and asking, What is wrong with me, Lord? And in my spirit I knew what was wrong, I missed my husband. But I had such sorrow in my soul because of it. I felt so low. My heart did not even feel right. I felt like I'm going to cry, but then I felt like an idiot for it because how many times has he gone to work every Monday and I recover so quickly? I did not miss him as I am missing him today. Anyway, this thought came to my heart, to read my Bible instead. So I started reading it and started to feel better. Still, sorrow, sadness, just weighing my heart down, pressing me. I did the next best thing I knew, I rebuked the spirit of depression away from me and bound him; and told him May the Lord rebuke him too. I felt a little better. I read couple of more chapters of Psalms and then laid my head down on my desk and talked with the Lord. I started thanking Him for all the wonderful things He has given me in this life; my health, my house, my wonderful husband who loves me so much, and the sun that is shining to help me bear through the loneliness of not having him around again. Then I said to the Lord, "What is wrong with me, Lord?" Because I still felt so bummed out! Then He said, "You miss Evan….Love me and I will comfort you." And so I did. I started talking out loud to the Lord of how thankful I am to have Him in my life. How since I was much younger He has been there for me to see me through so many sorrows and heartaches and troubles in my life. As I thanked the Lord and loved Him for being so good and gracious to me in my life, tears started to flow, then I started to speak in tongues. I continued to worship Him and praise Him because His presence was filling my heart and soul taking my sorrows away. I sang a song to Him I had written, "Your Name Is Jesus", and loved Him and worshipped Him some more. 

And now, thank you, Jesus, that sorrow, that pang, that harrowed-ness, is gone! He is so gracious to my soul! He is so real! He is so sweet! He is so good! Oh, I love Him so much! He is so real!

Truly, if we cast our burdens upon the Lord He knows how to sustain us. 

The beautiful thing about becoming dependent on God's comfort is that He is right there the second you need Him. Because He has come to know you to depend on Him whenever you're feeling bad. And He loves that. He loves it when we come to Him for comfort. Even for the littlest and tiniest reason. And you get to learn His presence and His voice that you know it's Him, there's no worrying whether He hears you or not. You know it's Him. And that alone is such a comfort!

There is no comfort like Jesus' comfort. He truly does satisfy our needs. He said in His word He will come to us and comfort us.

"I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you." 
(John 14:18)

I love Him so much!

Thank you, Jesus!

Do Not Forget The Lord

"They soon forgot His works, they waited not for His counsel. But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. And He gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul." (Psalm 106:13-15)

We have to be careful to remember the wonderful things that the Lord has done for us and continue to look to Him for counsel. Or else, He will send leanness into our souls. Maybe that's why many of us are so unhappy these days and feel that pang and gnawing and even wretchedness in our hearts. If we do, it's time, as a saint of God to stop looking to man for counsel and salvation. It's time to turn our hearts back to the Lord and say, "Please Lord heal me, for I have sinned." As king David confessed in his psalm: For I will declare mine iniquity; I will be sorry for my sin."

We cannot hide anything from the Lord. If we are looking to other "gods" out there in the world - meaning, other "savior"; we are greatly offending the Lord. 

"If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? For He knoweth the secrets of the heart." (Psalm 44:20-21)

The best thing to do is to wait on the Lord in prayer, no matter how hopeless we feel inside. He will come and will revive us if we wait on Him.

It could be that the Lord is angry with us and has sent "leanness" upon our souls because we have forgotten Him and have turn to the intelligence and wisdom of our friends and families and society instead of waiting after Him.

And what is the intelligence of man? It doesn't matter if he's a renowned doctor or psychiatrist or surgeon or what have you - even a great prophet or "a man of God". If our hearts are turned to them instead of the Lord, we are in trouble. If we are looking for our healing and salvation to them first, when we know the Lord and has experienced His goodness to us and miracles in time past, we are in trouble. God is not a man that He should lie, neither a son of man that He should repent, what He said He will do, what He has spoken He will make it good.  If He has said we can look to Him for our salvation and that there is no other savior, then we are in trouble if we are choosing other means of salvation besides Him first. He should be the first thing we look to at all times. No matter what. He must have our hearts and full trust - not in mere man.

Man is man, he is not God, no matter how intelligent he is. God alone is our salvation. God created man, not the other way around. And God alone saved man at the cross and died for his sins. The scripture states, "the chastisement of our peace was placed upon Him and by His stripes we are healed."

It's time to look to the Lord and wait on Him for answers. Pray to Him and ask for His grace and forgiveness. Don't look to man for salvation. God may have provided man for our help, but he is not the source of help. God is. We must look to the Lord first. And wait on Him for directions.

Don't lean upon our own understanding to save our own selves. Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Look to His word, know His word, meditate on His word, and hope in Him. And He will come!

He will come and save us because He is faithful! He is holy and there is no lie in Him. If His word said it, we can depend on it. But we must have faith in His word and we must wait on Him. 

He said He will come to those who look to Him for salvation. The Bible states, If we seek Him with our whole hearts we will find Him.

So look to Him, pray to Him, read His word, and finally, wait for Him; because He is faithful and He will save us!

Do not forget the Lord!

God Is Our Refuge

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

“Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea:

“Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.”

Psalm 46:1-3

There you go, even back in ancient times with the psalmists themselves they entertained the thought of the earth being removed and the mountains shaking and going into the sea; the waters roaring and swelling. 

Sounds like a cataclysmic event to me.

Sounds like us, doesn’t it? We imagine things like this happening to us in our time today. We even have movies going further and putting into pictures what we have not even thought of, at least I have not even thought of – like planets colliding with us – and so on and so forth, to even  immobilized us to fear.

We get our imaginations going to a point were we start thinking of a way of escape and salvation. Some people I heard dig up holes in the ground and make a bomb shelter, some stock up on food, some move up to the mountains up in the western side of America for shelter. Even my own husband had talked about moving up there too - "Just in case".

But thank God for the true answer to all these fears and dreads – God! Himself! 

Again, He is the only source of salvation.  There's no one else who is going to save us and comfort us when a cataclysmic event like we imagine happens. 

I want to be connected to Him.

It’s good to prepare for all these “calamity” I supposed. But in the end, I want God to be my salvation. I want to have peace in the process. 

And actually on that note, I don’t even want to worry about it, period. If there’s really going to be a terrible thing that’s going to happen I would like to make sure first He's going to be there for me and hear His voice. I want to know whether I live or die, He's going to be there for me. Because  can you imagine trying to save yourself when something terrible happens and you don't hear the voice of God? Or His assurances? I mean talk about fear, indeed!

Anyway, all this getting myself worked up is foolish and stressful. I do not like it at all. I’d rather have peace with the Lord. And then I’d rather pray He shows me whether I should prepare for it or not. Ha.Ha.

I remember one day I was going nuts about the “possibilities” of disasters; and you know what the Lord told me, “All is well.” Meaning, He is still in control and there’s nothing to be worrying myself about.

Oh, thank you, Jesus!

And we see that the psalmist himself had that assurance. He said, "We're not going to be afraid even if the earth is removed and the mountains are carried into the midst of the sea." Talk about confidence in God! 

Imagine the earth being removed? And mountains going into the midst of the sea? And having confidence we're going to be all right?

Well! That's how it should be! 

We should not be worrying about the "What ifs" and getting ourselves all worked up. God is in control. God will be our refuge and our strength. He will not leave us nor forsake us.

And anyway, didn't He say in the book of Matthew, not to worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself? He said, "Sufficient is the evil day thereof." 

So why do we worry? I don't know. It must be because it's the human nature to try to survive. But see, the Lord knows we want to survive. That's why He wants us to look to Him.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

The Voice of The Lord

I shudder at the thought of how close Evan's life was on disappearing from this world; from my world one Friday morning.

I had texted him, forgetting completely that he's still on the road. He went to read it, looking down and looking up on the road, and looking down again. As he went to answer me the Lord clearly spoke to him and said, "Don't answer it." He closed his phone and looked up and there as the road came into a bend, fifty feet ahead of him is a road block diverting the traffic into the right lane. He quickly changed into the right lane (no one else being there) and avoided a fatal collision. Had not the Lord spoken to him and had he not listened to the voice of the Lord, I don't know where I would be today or or if I would still be writing here this morning.

Interestingly enough about twenty minutes before texting him, I felt a desire to pray for him out loud. (There must be something about praying out loud because I felt just saying the prayer to myself but as if it wasn't enough I felt a nudge in my heart to say it out loud. (Take note prayer warriors, the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. I'm not sure if you can pray too urgently without speaking it out loud, summoning the power within you to take over and the spirits around you to flee...)) You see this is very peculiar because every morning before my husband leaves for work we stand together and pray for each other's safety; his on mine and mine on his. And then I go through the mantra of telling him, "Eyes on the road, do not speed, pay attention...etc." And sometimes he even teases me by saying it to himself out loud, letting me know he's aware of what he's supposed to do before driving away. So to pray for him again later for his safety I found quite unusual.

God is truly gracious to me. I could kick myself though for being the cause of almost killing him. How many times I would yell at him if I catch him reading a text and trying to answer it when we're on the road. He said that experience taught him a lesson, to never respond to a text again. He said a split second of looking down and running 65 miles per hour can bring you a hundred feet ahead without you even realizing it. But the Lord is so gracious to me and merciful to me. Thank the Lord He is real and watches over us day and night.

Balaam and His Promotion

And God said unto Balaam, “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people; for they are blessed.

And Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, “Get you intoyour land: for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you.” (Numbers 22:11-12)

I often wondered what was wrong with Balaam. He seemed to have done everything right. I mean, the Lord told him don’t go and he didn’t. The Lord told him to go and he did. When the angel came to try to stop him with his donkey he said to the angel, “I will go back if you want me to.” And yet the angel said, “Go.” Can anyone blame Balaam? Why was he killed like the rest of the people later?

I just saw the clue in these two verses. From the very beginning Balaam’s heart wasn’t really with God’s. You don’t really see that if you look at the surface. But you see it in his actions. Later on you see how he “counseled” Balak, the prince of the Midianites how to make the Israelites fall out of favor with God to a point that thousands of them die from a plague. We don’t read him instructing Balak but we read what Moses said about it, confirming that Balaam had counseled the Midianites to snare the children of Israel to commit whoredom against God by offering to their idols.

But here, these two verses, we see the heart of Balaam. Instead of telling Balak’s messenger exactly what God had told him, “You shall not curse these people for they are blessed”, he tells them that God refuses to give him leave to go with them. What! Sure, the Lord told him not to go, but that’s not the point. He didn’t tell the messengers that it’s pointless for him to even go. I mean there is no argument about it. Don’t even bother with it. God does not want these people cursed and so why even think that he should go, now or later?

This is where we find the problem with Balaam. He wanted to go. He wanted the promotion Balak can give him, even though he tells Balak again and again he doesn’t care. He does care. If he didn’t care at all he would’ve said so with the messengers from the very beginning…He  would’ve said, “You’re wasting my time, God does not want these people cursed and that’s what Balak want and he’s not going to get it, promotions or not.” Period. No arguments about it. But he goes and checks with God when the second messengers came. See I think if he had told the first messengers the truth that God does not want these people cursed then Balak would know there’s no point. But you don’t see Balaam telling this at all or at any time. He hides it from Balak. (Balak only came to know this because God would took possession of Balaam as he’s about to curse and turned the cursing into blessing.)

And then we see later on when Balak reproaches him for not coming at the very first he says to Balak, “Well, don’t I have power too to say what I want to say…” Meaning isn’t this why you ask for me? You might have the power to promote me but I have the power to bless or to curse, so you need me. And so, he thinks. He still thinks he’s going to curse the children of God even though the Lord plainly said, “No, don’t curse them.”

Well, he got what was coming to him. His true heart was revealed. He wanted the promotions deep down inside to a point that he thought he can go against God and still get it.

It is amazing how many of us can be snared like this. Like a big promotion at the company or some “good” opportunity may bring us blessing despite of it becoming a snare in our lives, going against the will of God in our lives, and we know this too and yet we go and take it even though in our hearts this is going to get us away, farther away from God or that we will become too busy for the work of God. Is it worth it? When are we going to learn?

Should We Fast?

Zechariah 7

King James Version (KJV)

7 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, even in Chisleu;

2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regemmelech, and their men, to pray before the Lord,

3 And to speak unto the priests which were in the house of the Lord of hosts, and to the prophets, saying, Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?

4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me, saying,

5 Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those seventy years, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?

6 And when ye did eat, and when ye did drink, did not ye eat for yourselves, and drink for yourselves?

7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets, when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and the cities thereof round about her, when men inhabited the south and the plain?

I find this section of the Bible very interesting. What does He mean they fasted for themselves? We could fast for ourselves?

Obviously. Otherwise the Lord won’t be rebuking these people about it.

So we could fast for our own personal reasons.

The people came to Zechariah to ask counsel of him whether they should go back to fasting and weeping like they used to do. And the Lord seemed angry with them because the truth was their fasting and weeping did nothing good, it did not give glory to God. They were fasting and weeping before Him and yet they weren’t because there were no changes in their actions and in their lifestyles. In the following verses we see what the Lord wanted of them:

8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying,

9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Execute true judgment, and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother:

10 And oppress not the widow, nor the fatherless, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.

11 But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear.

12 Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts.

It was obvious their fasting and weeping weren’t for the Lord but for themselves. It is strange to be spending all that time and energy and not end up changed! I feel if we really come to the Lord with all of our hearts and soul then He will deal with us and we should know what we’re supposed to do next. What is our weeping and fasting going to do us if we don’t listen to the voice of the Lord? Isn’t our taking of time to weep and fast is to know the will of God? And if we want to know the will of God isn’t our objective is to please God; therefore obey Him?

But I believe people want the blessings of God without being responsible to doing what is right. The children of Israel has been taught to fast and weep before God and so they do but they weren’t taught enough to obey Him.

Or we could weep and fast before God just to satisfy our own fleshly glorying of ourselves – so that we can say, “Well, I fasted and prayed and wept before God – therefore I am special – therefore God will honor and respect and bless me.” It’s as if God now has this responsibility to bless them because they did what was supposed to be pleasing before Him.

But obviously God was not at all pleased.

Change of heart. Repentance. That is what is going to please God.

Doing good – executing true judgment, showing mercy and compassion to our brothers and sisters, not imagining evil in our hearts against them, or the widows or the fatherless or the poor. The Lord said, “Let none of you imagine evil against his brother in your heart.” How many times we Christians do that? And yet we fast and pray and weep before God.

We can stop fasting and praying now because unless we do what God says to do all of our energy is a waste! It is all in our head! There is no blessings coming your way!

If we continue to talk about our brother or our sister in the Lord and imagine evil in our hearts against them and neglect the poor people in our church, especially the widows and the fatherless and not show kindness to them, then we can forget about our “piousness” and “sacrifices” because they are all a waste of time and energy. God is not pleased with us.

Oh, Lord God, let us hear you and incline our hearts to your word. Let us not just be a hearer of your word but also a doer. I pray, incline our hearts to your ways today and let us find ourselves doing good to your people, to one another, as you said to your apostles, “This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you.” Let us fast to truly spend time to hear your word and follow it and be changed. Let us do it Father and glorify your name through your precious Son, Jesus Christ. Today I pray. Amen.