Daily Bible Study for Tuesday October
11, 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
Psalm 62:1
Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh
my salvation.
Psalm 75
Promotion Comes from God
Today is another exciting day in the precious, powerful
anointed word of God! How many people like the sound of the word “promotion?” I
know I do. It is a wonderful thing to be promoted, isn’t it? The Lord wants to
promote His people to high places on this earth – to be leaders and strong
examples of His glory and love in our world. It isn’t the heathen that should
have all the highest positions and expensive homes, cars and other pleasures.
It is God’s will for His people to be very blessed and favored so they can be
used mightily by Him to have a great impact on the world around us. Let’s pray…
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for honoring Your children when we honor You. In
the book of 1 Samuel You said that those who honor You will be honored by You.
Lord, we know that we cannot be promoted in this life unless it is You who
brings it to pass. Thank You for showing us what we need to see in today’s
study. Father, I ask You to give me the anointing and utterance to speak Your
word boldly as I ought. Send forth Your message to Your people, unhindered and
unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Cause more people to read this and
come up higher in their understanding of Your plans for them. Open our eyes and
hearts spiritually to receive all that You have in this message for each of us.
Father, thank You for always watching over Your word to perform it in our
lives. We know that when we do Your word it will come to pass for us. We will
not be forgetful hearers. Your word is the lamp to our feet and the light to our
paths. Thank You in advance for the revelations, applications and answers that
will come as a result of this study in the mighty and precious name of Jesus.
Amen.
There are numerous examples of promotion in God’s word. He is
all about raising up His children. That’s good news. God’s plans for us is
always good news – amen! Today we will look at a few of those examples. This
should be an encouragement to everyone who wants to come up higher than where a
person may be right now. Promotion takes time. These things do not happen
overnight. With the Lord, we must first show ourselves faithful with what He
has given us. So many times folks want to be elevated to high positions in the
church or in ministry but are not willing to do the hard word it takes to get
there. People like the attention, but do not realize the hard efforts that are
taking place behind the scenes. This is true with any leadership position.
Today we will look all the way back to the book of Genesis
and move forward to see how God promoted His people, and even tested them to
see if they were ready for the promotions He had in mind for them. How many
know that if we won’t do the word He gives us right now, He knows we will not
handle more any differently? Let’s start with Noah. The Lord told him to build
an ark. Now they had not seen rain in a long time. Here was a man who had heard
from the Lord. He was asked to do something that seemed in the natural to make
no sense whatsoever. But Noah obeyed the Lord. He spent years building a very
large boat in a very dry land. He endured many accusing words and took a great
deal of mocking.
People laughed at him and surely thought he wasn’t in his
right mind. In spite of all that he built the ark and at the proper time, the
rain came down and Noah, along with 7 other people stepped into the blessings
the Lord had planned for them. They were promoted. They were given new life
with God – all because this man obeyed God and did what was asked of him.
Friends, this is how we get promoted. If we get nothing else out of this study
today, we need to understand that doing the will of God will always bring us to
higher ground – hallelujah! Look at this amazing moment…
Genesis 8:14-22
14 And in the second month, on the seven and
twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried.
15 And God spake unto Noah, saying,
16 Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy
sons, and thy sons' wives with thee.
17 Bring forth with thee every living thing that is
with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the
earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
18 And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife,
and his sons' wives with him:
19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every
fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out
of the ark.
20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and
of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21 And the Lord smelled
a sweet savour; and the Lord said
in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for
the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again
smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest,
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
What a moment that must have been for them! After all the
years of doing the work, they finally saw the fruit of their labors in God’s
faithfulness. Being obedient at times can feel like it is wearying, but if we
do not give up…
Galatians 6:9
9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due
season we shall reap, if we faint not.
How many realize that our faithful God is looking for people
who will be faithful to Him. To keep on keepin’ on is to show the Lord that no
matter how long it takes, we will keep doing the last thing He asked us to do
until if and when He decides to show us a different direction to take. This
leads us to Abraham. He is another wonderful example of great promotion…
Genesis 12:1-5
12 Now the Lord had
said to Abram:
“Get
out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land
that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I
will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. 3 I
will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot
went with him. And Abram was seventy-five
years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram
took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that
they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they
departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan.
So Abram (Abraham) departed. He obeyed. He did what the Lord
asked him to do. Because of his obedience, he was given great financial wealth
and made the father of many nations. Through Him all nations of the world would
be blessed because Jesus came from the seed of Abraham – hallelujah! As born
again children of God, the blessing of Abraham is on us too through Jesus
Christ our Lord! That is something to shout about saints! How would you like to
be so blessed and so wealthy that you could be used of the Lord to do great
works for the kingdom? I am raising my hand quickly on this – amen!
Now let’s look at Moses – another faithful man of God whom
the Lord used mightily to do a great work for His people…
Exodus 3:1-10
3 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his
father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the
desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And
the Angel of the Lord appeared
to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold,
the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses
said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not
burn.”
4 So when the Lord saw
that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and
said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take
your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”6 Moreover
He said, “I am the
God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
7 And the Lord said:
“I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard
their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So
I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring
them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk
and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and
the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites. 9 Now
therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have
also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come
now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people,
the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Moses put up an argument to the Lord about going before the
Pharaoh. In the end, God convinced him to go and he obeyed. After four hundred
years of bondage, the Lord’s people were brought out of slavery. Look at what
God did through Moses and the blessings that came from it. The obedience brought
the blessing and promotion. We all know that Moses was made a leader of God’s
people. But that never would have happened if he had not gone along with God’s
plan in the first place. And, in addition to this, we have to remember that he,
like all of us, had a choice. He could have turned and walked away and had no
part of it. If he had done that the Lord would have moved on to someone else to
get His plan carried out. God never controls us – He always gives us a choice.
Either we obey and get blessed and promoted, or we don’t and we miss out. I
want the blessing and promotion – how about you?
Speaking of the Israelites, the Lord had called them out of
bondage to be His own special people. He wanted to promote them to be kings and
priests for Him. That’s promotion if we ever saw it, isn’t it? Unfortunately,
most of the people ended up dying in the desert because they were afraid to
take the steps of faith into their promised land, so they missed the promotion
and the countless blessings that would follow. Herein lies an example of what
not to do. Only two people took God at His word and as they sat around with a
bunch of doubters for forty years, they continued to believe that the
inheritance was theirs – no matter what the others said. That was Joshua and
Caleb by the way. Even at the age of 80 – like Moses, they were strong, healthy
and well able to do what God was calling them to do. Talk about faith! Glory to
God!
How many of us could sit and wait on the Lord to promote us
for forty long years in a dry, desolate place while continuing to believe that
God would get us to the desired destination? Joshua and Caleb are great
examples of long standing faith and patience, aren’t they? And they are to be
an example for us all. They saw the Promised Land and they believed the Lord
would help them take down every giant and obstacle that formed along the way.
That’s the kind of faith that can get us places and accomplish great things in
the Lord’s kingdom – hallelujah!
Now let’s turn our attention to David – a man after God’s own
heart. He is a wonderful example of promotion. David showed himself a man a
faith in God’s power in his life on many occasions. It started when he was very
young. A ruddy little shepherd boy in the wild with a little slingshot and a heart
full of faith in his God. He took down the lions and bears. But in all that he
accomplished, he knew that it was God who gave him the victory. When the
opportunity to slay Goliath came along, he stepped right into the picture with
a few small stones and a great big desire to honor God. He knew that little is
much when God is in it. What happened as a result? God honored him!
When the Lord wanted to replace king Saul because he had
turned aside to idols, He looked no further than to that ruddy little shepherd
boy – David. He was next in line to be promoted to the throne over Israel. Why?
Because he proved himself faithful in that which was little. God is always
going to do right by His people when they do right by Him. And how can we show
God that we are faithful? By enduring hardship like a good soldier. Look at
this…
Acts 14:21-22
21 And when they had
preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to
Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch,22 strengthening the souls of
the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom
of God.”
Nobody gets promoted by just wishing for it. It takes time to
go through the daily affairs of this life; when we get tired, hungry, tempted
and tried, to show the Lord that no matter what weapon forms against us, no
matter how loud our flesh is screaming to have its own way, we are going to go
the extra mile until we reach the desired destination. When the Lord looks down
and sees this kind of faithfulness and endurance, He will bless the us greatly.
After we have endured, we will not lose our reward…
2 John 2:8
Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him and He
will never let us down. I am getting so blessed as I see His plan for this
message unfold that I could shout from the roof tops – hallelujah! Praise the
Lord! If you and I are willing to do the hard work it takes to get promoted, we
will get it – in due season. We must not grow weary. All the kings who were
given a position to rule over God’s people had an opportunity to honor God with
the promotions He had given them. Unfortunately, many let their power and
position go to their heads, and as a result, the Lord took them down. In our
chapter today we see that it is God who puts one down and sets up another. If a
person gets a high position and does not handle it faithfully, we must make no
mistake in understanding that as fast as we got there, the Lord can take us out
if we do not handle our responsibilities honorably.
Speaking of honoring the Lord God, let’s look at a woman whom
we can always admire greatly for her boldness. She did not consider her own
life so she could be used by God to save His people from complete annihilation.
Her name is Esther and she is one of the women I admire the most in the Bible.
When she said, “If I perish, I perish”, she meant it! Glory to God! She was not
going to back down from her husband in fear. Nor did she allow wicked Haman to “rock
her boat.” How many of us will stand boldly against the enemy when he roars in
our faces trying to frighten us while our promotion is waiting right around the
corner? When we are getting ready to be promoted by the Lord, it seems that is
the time that we receive the greatest opposition from the enemy.
He knows a little about what’s going on and he wants to do
everything he can to stop God’s plans and promotions for us. Haman was used of
satan to try to stop the blessings of God’s people, and he was busy scheming
how he could take them out…
Esther 3:1-6
3 After these things King Ahasuerus promoted Haman,
the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him and set his seat above all
the princes who were with him. 2 And all the king’s servants who were within the king’s gate bowed and
paid homage to Haman, for so the king had commanded concerning him. But
Mordecai would not bow or pay homage. 3 Then the king’s servants who were within the king’s
gate said to Mordecai, “Why do you transgress the king’s command?” 4 Now it happened, when they
spoke to him daily and he would not listen to them, that they told it to Haman, to see
whether Mordecai’s words would stand; for Mordecai had told them that
he was a Jew. 5 When Haman saw that Mordecai
did not bow or pay him homage, Haman was filled with wrath. 6 But he disdained to lay hands
on Mordecai alone, for they had told him of the people of Mordecai. Instead, Haman sought to destroy all the
Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus—the people
of Mordecai.
There have been times that I could see the enemy trying
everything he could to get in my way. But the Lord has told us in His word that
no weapon that forms against us will prosper…
Isaiah 54:7
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall
condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
Here’s the thing. God’s children have to realize the
authority that we have over the enemy. If we don’t, we will surely be defeated,
and it will not be God’s fault! Jesus told us this…
Luke 10:19
19 Behold, I give
you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
We
have the authority right now – it’s in our hands, our hearts and our mouths.
The question is, will we use it? If anyone thinks they are going to get
promoted into higher positions in the Lord’s kingdom without some opposition
from the enemy, they are in for a great big surprise. In this life we will
always have battles. If you are not in one right now, just give it a minute;
you will be. And if you are not seeing the enemy come against you, you may want
to make sure you are doing the will of God. The devil only lays heavy on the “go-getters.”
He leaves the bench warmers alone – they are no threat to his evil plans. Esther
was promoted to Queen because of her boldness and desire to stay the course,
even when the going got tough. Praise the Lord!
Moving
right along, we can look at all the prophets whom God raised up to do His work
and speak His words to His people. We see folks like Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel,
Jeremiah, and Deborah to name a few. And let’s not forget to look at Daniel. He
was tried and tested such as most of us have never known. Yet, in all the
splendor that he was offered in the world system, he would not reduce his
standards to that of an earthly king’s fare. Instead he chose to be tested and
he stood his ground. He prayed openly and boldly to the Lord his God. He
certainly was not ashamed of his Lord. He was willing to be accused and even
thrown into a den of lions. How about you? What would your reaction be to that
kind of test? It’s something to think about, isn’t it? Look at this…
Daniel
1:8-21
8 But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would
not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine
which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he
might not defile himself. 9 Now God had brought
Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. 10 And
the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who has
appointed your food and drink. For why should he see your faces looking worse
than the young men who are your
age? Then you would endanger my head before the king.”
11 So Daniel said to the steward whom the
chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please
test your servants for ten days, and let them give us vegetables to eat and
water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance be
examined before you, and the appearance of the young men who eat the portion of
the king’s delicacies; and as you see fit, sodeal with your servants.” 14 So he
consented with them in this matter, and tested them ten days.
15 And at the end of ten days their features
appeared better and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion
of the king’s delicacies. 16 Thus the steward took
away their portion of delicacies and the wine that they were to drink, and gave
them vegetables.
17 As for these four young men, God gave them
knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom; and Daniel had understanding
in all visions and dreams.
18 Now at the end of the days, when the king had
said that they should be brought in, the chief of the eunuchs brought them in
before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 Then the king interviewed them,
and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah;
therefore they served before the king. 20 And in
all matters of wisdom and understanding
about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the
magicians and astrologers
who were in all his
realm. 21 Thus Daniel continued until the first
year of King Cyrus.
Can
you see it? Promotion and honor were given to Daniel and his friends because
they honored God in the face of great opposition. May we never forget the words
of the Lord in this…
30 Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your
father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will
honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.
God
will do what He says He will do. When we honor Him – He will honor us. This is
a big deal friends – a very big deal. May we all get this today deep down in
our hearts like never before. I have seen Him do this for me in countless situations
– both in the church and at my workplace when I was still working in the
insurance business. I lost my job because I stood up for Jesus, and as a
result, the Lord has not stopped honoring me – hallelujah!
Let’s
look at the other guys in the book of Daniel who withstood some “fiery” trials
and came out smellin’ like a rose…
Daniel
3:8-30
8 Therefore at that time certain Chaldeans came
forward and accused the Jews. 9 They spoke and said
to King Nebuchadnezzar, “O king, live forever! 10 You,
O king, have made a decree that everyone who hears the sound of the horn,
flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery,
in symphony with all kinds of music, shall fall down and worship the gold
image; 11 and whoever does not fall down and
worship shall be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 12 There
are certain Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon:
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego; these men, O king, have not paid due regard
to you. They do not serve your gods or worship the gold image which you have
set up.”
13 Then Nebuchadnezzar, in rage and fury, gave the
command to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. So they brought these men
before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying to
them, “Is it true,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, that you
do not serve my gods or worship the gold image which I have set up? 15 Now
if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with
all kinds of music, and you fall down and worship the image which I have made, good! But if you do not worship,
you shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. And
who is the god who will
deliver you from my hands?”
16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and
said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this
matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us
from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But
if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor
will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
19 Then Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury, and the
expression on his face changed toward Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. He
spoke and commanded that they heat the furnace seven times more than it was
usually heated. 20 And he commanded certain mighty
men of valor who were in
his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, and cast them into
the burning fiery furnace. 21 Then these men were
bound in their coats, their trousers, their turbans, and their other garments, and were cast
into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 22 Therefore,
because the king’s command was urgent, and the furnace exceedingly hot, the
flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abed-Nego. 23 And these three men, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-Nego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery
furnace.
24 Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he
rose in haste and spoke,
saying to his counselors, “Did we not cast three men bound into the midst of
the fire?”
They answered and said to the king, “True, O king.”
25 “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose,
walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the
fourth is like the Son of God.”
26 Then Nebuchadnezzar went near the mouth of the
burning fiery furnace and spoke,
saying, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, servants of the Most High God, come
out, and come here.” Then
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from the midst of the fire. 27 And
the satraps, administrators, governors, and the king’s counselors gathered
together, and they saw these men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the
hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the
smell of fire was not on them.
28 Nebuchadnezzar spoke, saying, “Blessed be the
God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, who sent His Angel and
delivered His servants who trusted in Him, and they have frustrated the king’s
word, and yielded their bodies, that they should not serve nor worship any god
except their own God! 29 Therefore I make a decree
that any people, nation, or language which speaks anything amiss against the
God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego shall be cut in pieces, and their
houses shall be made an ash heap; because there is no other God who can deliver
like this.”
30 Then the
king promoted Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in the province of
Babylon.
What
a deal! How about you? Would you have that kind of faith in God in a fiery
trial? They certainly did. And look at how the Lord stepped in to save them.
Jesus got right into the heat of it with them. Hallelujah! This should be a
lesson to us all. Along our journeys of obedience to the Lord, we can remember that
Jesus is right in there with us, every step of the way. He promised to never
leave us. If this doesn’t show it to us, then what will? The entire Bible is a
depiction of how Jesus has been there all along – from the very beginning!
Anything that we go through as we try to obey God is not going to leave us
without the help we need. Look at this…
John
14:16
And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—
If we would only remember His
precious words to us when the heat is on! After that terrible trial in the
hottest furnace, look at what happened! Promotion! Friends, we are going to go
through some tough stuff in the kingdom work. But it will make us stronger in
our walk with the Lord. It will be used of Him to build us up and make us to
look more and more like Jesus. It will establish us…
1 Peter 5:10
But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you.
Let’s
look at this too…
1
Peter 5:6
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time,
Who
gets promoted saints? The humble! The proud get the “dregs” like verse 8 says
in our chapter today. Ok – so what are dregs you ask? It is listed in the
Webster’s 1828 dictionary as:
“Waste
or worthless matter; dross; sweepings; refuse. Hence, the most vile and
despicable part of men; as the dregs of society.”
Yes,
the proud will get what they deserve, while the humble and faithful man or woman
of God will get the promotion from the Lord. Here is what the faithful and wise
steward gets according to God’s word…
Luke
12:42-44
42 And the Lord said, “Who then is that
faithful and wise steward, whom his master will make
ruler over his household, to give them
their portion of food in
due season? 43 Blessed is that servant whom
his master will find so doing when he comes. 44 Truly, I say to you
that he will make him ruler over all that he has.
Maybe
there are some of you reading this today who do not want to go through the hard
stuff to get the promotion in God’s kingdom work. Well, that’s OK. If you don’t
want it, you won’t have it. It is that simple. God will move on to the ones who
earnestly desire it. But I am believing that I am talking to a group of people,
who, like me, want the promotion. We want God’s best! We want to honor Him with
all we have been entrusted with so He can do great work in and through us in
the earth. He has a lot that He wants done and the time is short. I don’t want
to be a bench warmer, do you?
Now
we will look at the disciples of Jesus. He chose 12 men who He could train
while He walked out His ministry right before their eyes. In three short but
very powerful years, those guys would be trained and witness the ways of the
kingdom so that when Jesus left – His work would be carried on in the earth.
One of the twelve had to be replaced because that one had turned back to
perdition – destruction. But his replacement would be chosen by God to step in
and receive the honor and blessing of doing the Lord’s work. The disciples were
sent out…
Luke
9:1-6
9 Then He called His twelve disciples together and
gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He
sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 And
He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey, neither staffs nor
bag nor bread nor money; and do not have two tunics apiece.
4 “Whatever house you enter, stay there, and from
there depart. 5 And whoever will not receive you,
when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet as a
testimony against them.”
6 So they departed and went through the towns,
preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
The
disciples got promoted after they went through all the growing pains of learning
to be a true disciple of the Lord Jesus. Their time of training had finally
come to an end. It was time to go and do. How many know that we can’t wear
training pants our entire adult lives? Unfortunately, many are. They keep
sitting around looking at the elementary teachings of the Lord and refusing to
digest the weightier meat that would enable them to grow up enough to get out
there and really make a difference. There are many who would prefer to keep
playing golf, or shopping and going to movies and watching TV then get out
there and make a real difference in the world by being Jesus hands and feet to
a desperate world.
Friends,
I am a witness here. I have seen the Lord do amazing things in just 11 years since
I really surrendered my life to His will rather than my own. I have had a lot
of growing pains along the way. We will always continue to grow no matter how “mature”
in the faith we become, but we have to reach a point where He can trust us to
handle more. He has so much more for us to do.
This is a season of great
increase for my husband and me as the Lord opens exciting new doors for the
ministry He has given us – Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. We would not be where
we are today if it hadn’t been for the Lord leading us and guiding us every
step of the way. We have had to endure some losses, take a few punches from the
enemy and make a great many sacrifices. But when we go somewhere and He speaks
through us to comfort someone, or help them to turn back to Him, we walk away so
blessed that we feel like shouting!
Second
to being alone in the presence of the Lord, there is no greater blessing on
this earth than to be used of the Lord to bring blessings to others. It gives
us joy that really is unspeakable. We can’t even put words to the fullness we
receive as we pour out to others what He has freely given us. I live to
encourage others. I am here today to be the hands and mouthpiece of the Lord to
you – right here, right now. What about you? Where are you at right now in your
walk with Jesus? Would you like to see the Lord promote you? If you just said
yes, are you willing to do what it takes to receive that promotion? Think
seriously about it – won’t you?
Heavenly Father:
Thank You for showing me what it means to be
promoted in Your kingdom. Whatever You really want me to do, I am willing to
get there. If I have backslidden, I ask You to forgive me. Help me to clearly
see what steps I need to go back and do so I can pick up on the path You have
for me. Show me how I need to be faithful with what You have already told me to
do so I can be in line with Your perfect will. Thank You for loving me and
standing in the fiery trials that the journey will hold. I give You thanks and
praise for Your help in getting me there through the Helper – Holy Spirit in
me. In Jesus mighty name! Amen.
There are three main points to
consider from today’s study…
Promotion comes from God alone
There will be many trials and obstacles
to overcome on our journey toward promotion
Only the humble will be promoted -
not the proud
Questions:
What has the Lord asked you to do recently that you may need
to go back to?
Are you willing to withstand the trials to get the promotion?
What might you need to repent for right now? Take it to the
Lord in prayer.
What stood out the most to you in this study?
Who can you share this study with?
How
much do you value a promotion from God?
And God Said… You fill in the blanks.
Matthew 13:12
For
whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance;
but
whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
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