Daily Bible Study for Friday September
30, 2016
By: Hanny Lynn Stearns
Fish N
Loaves Ministries, Inc.
“Multiplying
God’s Word Around The Globe”
Chapter Reading
for Today: Please read in
your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered
paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate
translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful
for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their
wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version,
that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I
will keep it with the New King James Version.
One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my
own writing. I am adding red to the letters when
it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.
Bible
Gateway Verse of the Day
Philippians 1:9-10
And this I pray, that your
love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you
may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without
offense till the day of Christ,
Psalm 68
God’s Gifts and Callings for Women
In this chapter we see a lot
about God rising up, causing His enemies to flee like dust on a windy day. We
also see a great deal of rejoicing by His people – Israel, meaning us – the church!
He certainly is a strong and powerful God and all the things He does for people
should cause any mouth to open wide and sound out loud His praises – amen. Women
have not been left out in God’s plan for His work in the earth. Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for the many awesome
things You perform for the sons of men. You love and care for those who are
considered “down and out.” You care for the women and watch over them as a
Father, only better than any earthly father ever could. Father, I ask You right
now for the anointing and utterance to bring Your message to Your people. I ask
You to open wide our hearts and enlighten the eyes of our understanding to
receive what You have to deposit into our eternal account. Father, make this message
fly freely across the globe unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my
flesh. We know that You always watch over Your word to perform it when we do
what it days. Signs, wonders and miracles only happen when we hear Your word
and obey it – even if it makes no sense to the natural mind. Lord, we purpose
to be doers of Your holy word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You for changing
our thinking more and more to line up with Yours day by day. We praise You for
the answers to this prayer in advance in the mighty name of Jesus! Amen.
If a person was to try to pick
apart all the glory of God in this chapter, it would be overwhelming. Why?
Because God’s word is so deep and rich with meaning and revelation for the
Christian soul. In this chapter we see that God is powerful and strong. His
very presence makes the earth and mountains shake and tremble. Those who love
and seek God rejoice – exceedingly because He has been their strength and
protection…
Psalm 28:7
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.
Those of us who really know
God have so much to sing and shout about, don’t we? For being so big and
powerful, He is so gentle and loving, tender and sweet. Oh how we love Him - amen!
In verse 5 I have found comfort on many an occasion as I began to walk more
closely with Him. Anyone who grew up without knowing their natural father, or
whose dad abandoned them can come to this promise and find rest. The wonderful
thing about this is that our God is the best Daddy!
He is rich with love, healing,
comfort, prosperity and countless other blessings for His children. Nobody will
ever find and earthly dad like that. Some may have great earthly dads – that’s
wonderful. But as great as they may be, none can compare to our Father in
heaven. He can love us and comfort us like no person on this earth ever can.
Another key point for me and
you is in verse 6. He sets the solitary, or in other words, the lonely ones in
families. How many times have you met someone who didn’t have any family? Your
heart went out to them, didn’t it? Well, if we who are of a sinful flesh can sympathize
with such a one, how much more will our Daddy in heaven care for them. When I
came to Florida I was as a solitary person. I was all alone.
I had some family
here, but they were not walking with the Lord, and we had some serious issues
between us that only God could fix. But as soon as I arrived in the sunshine
state, the Lord started bringing God loving people into my life. I was invited
to dinners and outings, concerts at the opera house, church gatherings, etc. I
felt like I was now a part of a big family.
With all the family issues we
had going on at our house, I was always longing for a big, loving family. Oh
but God! He had the best plan to put me into the biggest family on the planet –
the family of God. Because He is with us always, we are never alone. And then
He lathers us with blessings by surrounding us with people who really do love
and appreciate us. And we can love them right back with the same love that the
Lord has shed abroad in our hearts – what a deal! God is so good all the time! One
need never feel alone with God as their Father!
The next point that stands out
today is in the same verse – 6. It says that the Lord brings out those who are
bound into prosperity. We talked a lot about prosperity yesterday. Much of that
discussion had to do with financial blessings. But this is a different aspect
of the prosperity that God provides. When we have been bound up in our lives by
sin and abuse along with other painful things, like addictions, etc., the Lord
can bring these people out into a place where their souls even prosper…
3 John 1:2
Beloved, I pray that you may
prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.
The Lord is telling us here
that He wants us to prosper in ALL things. Did you catch that? ALL things! Not
just finances, but in our bodies and our souls where the mind, will and
emotions are. The Lord does not want there to be any sick or feeble among us –
naturally or spiritually. And all of that is entirely possible. With men, it is
not, but with God it is…
Matthew 19:26
But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.”
Only God can bring us up and
out of captivity. The only parts that we have to play in that arrangement is
that we are willing to come out and that we obey what He tells us. Following
those two directives will bring freedom from bondage to anyone who wants it.
After what I have seen the Lord bring me out of recently where bondage to food
and sugar addiction was concerned, I marvel at why I drug my feet for so long.
Now that I am getting the sweet taste of victory in my life for the first time,
I wonder why I didn’t come to the well of Living Water sooner. How could I have
remained in all that suffering when the Lord had gifts and a calling for me that
was readily available all along?
Something like this reminds me
of Dorothy from the movie, “The Wizard of Oz.” I am not a promoter of watching
such a movie anymore since it deals with witchcraft and that is of the devil.
No Christian should open their eye gates to such evil and thereby open the door
for the enemy to work in their lives. But the point I am going to make is a
good one. Most of you have probably seen the movie. It was made back in the
1930”s or so. When Dorothy landed in the faraway land of Oz, she was given a
pair of ruby slippers. Her instructions were that she just had to click them
and the helper – Glenda would come along.
Here is the principal. In the
end she discovered that as badly as she wanted to go home, though she thought
she couldn’t get there, she was weraing the power to get there on her own feet
the whole time. She was gone from home a very long time – sounds like many of
us who are wandering in the wilderness of sins and addictions, etc. When she
discovered that she could go home, she made haste and got herself back to Aunty
Em and the rest of her buddies back in Kansas. Yes, it was all a dream. This
was just a movie. But the principal rings widely true for the Christian today.
We can drag ourselves along
thinking we are “stuck” in the problems we are facing with no way out – even after
getting born again. If we don’t put our eyes on the Lord and on His word, we do
not come to realize the power that lies within us as His children. We walk
around without ever opening the “letter” that tells us what we have inherited
as a child of the Most High God. That is so SADD-U-CEE because many Christians
are living defeated lives by not digging into the letter (The Bible) to see
what our inherited rights really are.
This was the case with me on many levels.
I battled with this issue and that issue for far too long, not realizing that
the way out was the word of God. I had signs, wonders and miracles just waiting
to happen for me if I would be willing and obedient to the word of God. If I
would have chosen to work the word like Dorothy needed to click those cute little
heels together, I would have walked out of my many pits far sooner than I did –
glory to God!
When we get into the next
section of verses (7-10), we see how gracious our heavenly Father is to him who
is weary. While we are out there wandering around in our “wilderness”, here
comes the Lord with a word in season to him who is needing it so desperately.
How many know that one word from the Lord, acted on in faith can produce a
mighty miracle? That’s right. He wants to shower us with blessings and let us
know that He is with us and that He will provide exactly what we need when we
need – that’s a blessing like a heavy rain in springtime! Hallelujah!
Little did I know how powerful
working the word really is until recently. Eleven years as of tomorrow of
walking closely with the Lord – praise His name, and I did not grab onto this
even though it was told to me long ago. My sister in the Lord, Joyce Meyer was
put right in front of my eyes to tell me how to walk right out of any bondage I
was in, but did I really listen, or in other words – pay attention and do what
she was telling me? No, I didn’t. As a result, I continued to battle with
something that wasn’t even really there.
How sad that must have made
the Father and Jesus to see me struggle like that after He had so graciously provided
the way out. How about you? Have you been told the truth about the word of God?
Do you know that it is sharp and powerful? Do you know that faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God? Do you realize that saying His word
out loud over your life every day in faith will break every chain off your
neck? Isn’t this good news saints?
We no longer have to struggle needlessly
when the Lord has given us the keys to the kingdom, by praying to Him and
working His word with a willing heart and acting in obedience to what He tells
us to do? It almost seems too simple. But remember, it isn’t the Lord who comes
around to make anything hard for His people…
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon
you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden
is light.”
Women (and children) have been
especially beaten down in this world. They have been abused terribly by evil
men. Being the “weaker vessel” as the Bible describes us has been an open
invitation to the enemy to seek to steal, kill and destroy in many women’s
lives. He has hounded them and kept them in darkness and fear for millennia. While
men are to be the leaders, or head of the household, women play a key role in
the family, the marketplace and in ministry. They are the backbone to everything
goes on in the home. A woman is to be a strong supporter to the husband, while
the husband is to show her love just like Christ loves the church…
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
To continue the discussion about God’s word, we appreciate what we see
in verse 11. This really jumped out me. I thought about what the Lord showed me
today in Jeremiah. More on that in a minute. “The Lord gave the word, and great was the company of those who proclaimed
it.” God has sent many prophets, both male and female to the church to
speak into them some truth. He was usually calling them to repent.
You’ll notice
when you look around the church that there are usually more women than men. Why
is this? Why are the men sitting at home watching football while the women are
carting the kids off to church? She drops them off for Sunday school while she
sits alone in the pew wishing that her husband was there hearing the word of
God with her. I know what this feels like – it is not good.
Back to Jeremiah for a moment. Let’s look at what he did here…
Jeremiah 42 (The Entire Chapter)
42 Now all the captains of the forces, Johanan the
son of Kareah, Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people, from the least
to the greatest, came near 2 and said to Jeremiah
the prophet, “Please, let our petition be acceptable to you, and pray for us to
the Lord your God, for
all this remnant (since we are left but a
few of many, as you can see), 3 that the Lord your God may show us the way
in which we should walk and the thing we should do.”
4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have
heard. Indeed, I will pray to the Lord your
God according to your words, and it shall be, that whatever the Lord answers
you, I will declare it to
you. I will keep nothing back from you.”
5 So they said to Jeremiah, “Let the Lord be a true and faithful witness
between us, if we do not do according to everything which the Lord your God sends us by you. 6 Whether it is pleasing or displeasing,
we will obey the voice of the Lord our
God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of
the Lord our God.”
7 And it happened after ten days that the word of
the Lord came to
Jeremiah. 8 Then he called Johanan the son of
Kareah, all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to
the greatest, 9 and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you
sent me to present your petition before Him: 10 ‘If
you will still remain in this land, then I will build you and not pull you down, and I will plant you
and not pluck you up.
For I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought upon you. 11 Do
not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid
of him,’ says the Lord, ‘for
I am with you, to
save you and deliver you from his hand. 12 And I
will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your
own land.’
13 “But if you say, ‘We will not dwell in this
land,’ disobeying the voice of the Lord your
God, 14 saying, ‘No, but we will go to the land of
Egypt where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor be
hungry for bread, and there we will dwell’—15 Then hear
now the word of the Lord, O
remnant of Judah! Thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you wholly set your faces to enter Egypt, and go
to dwell there, 16 then it shall be that the sword which you feared
shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; the famine of which you were
afraid shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die. 17 So
shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to dwell there.
They shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. And none of them
shall remain or escape from the disaster that I will bring upon them.’
18 “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘As My anger and My
fury have been poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so will My fury be
poured out on you when you enter Egypt. And you shall be an oath, an
astonishment, a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.’
19 “The Lord has
said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt!’ Know certainly
that I have admonished you this day. 20 For you
were hypocrites in your hearts when you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, ‘Pray for us
to the Lord our God, and
according to all that the Lord your
God says, so declare to us and we will do it.’ 21 And I have this day declared it to you, but you have not
obeyed the voice of the Lord your
God, or anything which He has sent you by me. 22 Now
therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by
pestilence in the place where you desire to go to dwell.”
Here we see a prophet whom God had chosen to
carry His message of wisdom and warning to His people. Jeremiah wasn’t always
so willing, but the word of the Lord burned in him like a fire. He had been
called to it and God was directing him to carry it out. Finally, Jeremiah
yielded. The people had been rebellious and not willing to do what the Lord
said. So He sent them a word.
How many know that God is always fair? He will
not allow judgment to come to His people without first giving them a chance to
repent. But if they do not obey the voice of the Lord, destruction will surely
come their way. And we must remember that God id good all the time. He is not
the one who brings the destruction. That job belongs to the devil. He is the
destroyer.
Once the people sin and do not repent, the Lord
has to make a judgment call on the situation. The enemy is right there waiting for
that to happen. He knows that once God has passed judgment on a situation, then
the devil has a wide open door to go into their lives to steal, kill and
destroy. The many demons in the world that help satan do his dastardly deeds are
like a bunch of vultures sitting around on a telephone line just waiting for
someone’s door to open so they can go in and tear on the human flesh for their
dinner! As gruesome as that sounds, it is happening every day in the world in
which we live.
Little did I know when the Lord called me to
come to Florida that He was actually bringing me to the place where He was
going to tell me what my gifts and calling for His work would be. When I first
started hearing from Him the plans He had for me I was quite surprised. I
shouldn’t have been too surprised though. I can look back over my life and see
how He gifted me and prepared me for this. The Lord has used many female
prophets as we can clearly see in the Bible.
I once ran into a man in a church I visited one
evening who told me I couldn’t be an evangelist because there were no female
evangelists in the Bible. But he was wrong. There are plenty of women helping
in the ministry with Paul, as just one example. He notes their names and shows
great respect for the work they did. We also see several female prophets back
in the Old Testament. We could do an entire study on this, but for now, it will
be up to you individually to study that out on your own. The women in the Bible
were used mightily by the Lord to carry His message. Look at this…
Romans 11:29
For the gifts and
the calling of God are irrevocable.
Moving on, with all that said, the Lord has called me to be a prophet.
In His Word He makes it clear that He calls some to be prophets, teachers and
evangelists. Jesus fulfilled all of the offices of the ministry. So whatever
the Lord tells you and me He wants us to do, our only response should be, “Yes
Sir!” Look at what Ephesians says about the gifts…
Ephesians 4:7-16
7 But to each one of us grace was given according
to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore He
says:
“When
He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean
but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He
who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He
might fill all things.)
11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets,
some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for
the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the
body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of
the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the
measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that
we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of
deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in
love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from
whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies,
according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes
growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
Friends, if any person comes and tries to tell you that you cannot do
this or that in the body of Christ, run, don’t walk to the Lord to seek Him and
His thoughts on that! Nobody but God gives us the calling, and nobody but God
can anoint us to carry out the position of that office. We see more in this
chapter about women. In the procession there were singers and players, and
among them were women. Ladies are called to have a key role in the kingdom of
God – both in God’s house and in the mission field.
I have heard people say that they will not sit under the teaching of a
woman, declaring that women should not speak in church according to other
verses in the Bible. This is taking it out of context. The Lord would never do
anything that would contradict His word. When we seek Him about questions like
this, He is more than happy to answer. He will give you the witness you need to
confirm your answers…
2 Corinthians 13:1
This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.”
Jesus could show up and give you four witnesses! It happened to Kenneth
E. Hagin when he was searching Him for answers. The Lord does not appear in an
open vision to every Christian, but He has to some. And to them He has given
direct answers to, we are blessed to have had that information shared with us
so we can have some very important questions answered. How many know the Lord
always wants to help us? He is so good. Women play a key role in life, in the
home, in the marketplace. Look at Proverbs 31…
Proverbs 31:10-31
10 Who can find a virtuous wife?
For her worth is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her; so he will
have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil all the days of her
life.
13 She seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her
hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships, she brings her food
from afar.
15 She also rises while it is yet night, and provides
food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants.
16 She considers a field and buys it; from her profits
she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength, and strengthens her
arms.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is good, and her lamp does not
go out by night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her
hand holds the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor, yes, she reaches out
her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all
her household is clothed
with scarlet.
22 She makes tapestry for herself; her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among
the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies sashes for the
merchants.
25 Strength and honor are her clothing; she shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She watches over the ways of her household, and does
not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many daughters have done well, but you excel them
all.”
30 Charm is deceitful
and beauty is passing,
but a woman who fears
the Lord, she shall be
praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own
works praise her in the gates.
Here we have an example of a godly woman. She is a wife, a mother, a
business woman and a minister to the poor. She is wise and allows the ways of
God to be her strength. There is nothing saying she cannot do the Lord’s work.
A woman like this is praised in the word of God. This is what God is looking
for in His women of the kingdom. He has assigned each one their gifts and
equipped them for a specific calling. They have all the authority over the
enemy as the men do and they can cast out demons and raise the dead as much as
any male minister in the known world. God loves and calls women.
I remember being rather sad after that evangelist told me this. And now
I see how ridiculous that was. After all, Holy Spirit Himself told me one day
in my home that He was going to make me a fisher of men. Well if He said that,
no man can refute it. I never should have even given it a second thought. The
mistake I made was opening my mouth to say anything about what God had called
me to do in the first place. He hadn’t asked, so it was really prideful
boasting in a nutshell. Ugh!
When the Lord speaks, even the kings of armies turn and run the other
way in terror! Hallelujah! One word from our Daddy in heaven and “bye bye
enemy!” And guess who gets to sit home and pick through all the spoil they left
behind – the silver, gold and all the jewelry? The women, of course! Praise the
Lord! He gives good gifts to His daughters – praise His name forever. This
lines up perfectly with our discussion from yesterday – the Lord wants to
shower His people with material blessings among other things. Nothing about God
is cheap! He is rich and He gives to us richly…
1 Timothy 6:17
Command those who are rich in
this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the
living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
In a world where women have been beaten down again and again, it is time
to rise up and step into all that the Lord has called us to do. If there are
any men reading this study who are married, or considering marriage, this would
be a good time to encourage your female counterpart to be all that the Lord has
called her to be. Let her know that you support her work and her ministry to
God’s people as she has been led of the Lord. Show her respect for the work she
needs to do for her Lord and Master. Be an example to her of doing everything
with excellence – at home, at work and in ministry.
This chapter is, like all the others, full of the promises of God. It
includes His mighty strength over the enemy, and what He wants to do for the
ladies as well as all His people. When people see the benefits that the Lord
loads us with daily, they will have a reason to notice how good God is. He is a
giving God and His people have every reason to sing and shout about Him all the
time. No matter who we are or what we are called to do, we have cause to
rejoice in God our Savior. He is strong, He is awesome, and He gives power and
strength to His people. Hallelujah! That’s worth joining in to the holy
procession, don’t you think?
Questions:
Name some of the great things that God does for people as
noted in this chapter.
How does God help those who are weary?
Name the gifts and callings of God as detailed in Ephesians.
If you are a woman, have you realized that God wants to use
you mightily for His kingdom work?
If do not know
what your specific calling is, will you take some time to seek the Lord on it?
How has this
study helped you?
What will you do
differently as a result of today’s lesson?
Who can you share
this study with?
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
Women have an important role in
ministry
The Proverbs 31 woman can be a goal
for every Christian woman
God gives power and strength to His
people
Let’s
pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for the gifts and calling to do Your
wonderful kingdom work. Father, I ask You to help me see clearly what You have
designed specifically for me to do. Show me anyone I should be connected with
to carry out this work. Thank You in advance for helping me to see what I may
not have seen and to do what I have not yet done. I give You all the glory,
honor and praise in Jesus precious name. Amen
Have
you stepped into your calling? If not, what’s holding you back?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Luke
1:76-79
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of
the Highest;
For you will go before the face of the Lord to
prepare His ways,
77 To give knowledge of salvation to His people
By the remission of their sins,
78 Through the tender mercy of our God,
With which the Dayspring from on high has
visited us;
79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and
the shadow of death,
To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of
the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
19 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
