365 – Page 47 – Watch. Stand. Pray.

323 – Stop Everything and Ask God for Breakthrough

Facing challenges drives us to test our priorities and rearrange them when they are out of order. This relates to the adage, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

When hard times come, some people “self-medicate” as a means of escape from having to face reality, either through substance abuse, immorality, or recreation. Other people start working hard and diligently. Hard work is less irresponsible than escapism. The mature response must prioritize prayer above diligence.

We know that God must watch the city for the watchmen to be able to keep it safe. God must establish a building for the construction crew to complete it successfully. Your own work needs God’s breath, as well as your hard work to solve whatever situation you are in.

Your challenge of the day may be that you don’t have enough challenges or that you feel dry and need to grasp hold of some sense of direction and vision for your life. You may need to learn something, you might even have the luxury of knowing what you need to learn. Or, you may have the usual financial, professional, and social conflicts. Whatever challenges you face, pray for God to break through.

Never fret and worry—never! Every situation has elements beyond our control, sometimes we even know what those things are. You will always need to trust God, sometimes you even know it. If you struggle to find the property to build a house, then finally buy the property, you will struggle to build the house. Once the house is built, you will struggle to maintain it. Once you are comfortable maintaining it you will struggle with the relationships that develop under its roof. Once your relationships are in order, your business will bring challenges that risk financial loss, take time from your family, and often both.

We never get past the place of needing God to enter into our circumstances and turn them all the way around. He loves to delay His deliverance for the end, so don’t be surprised if He adds a little suspense like so. Just keep praying for breakthrough. If you don’t think you need breakthrough today, then pray for tomorrow’s.

324 – Law of Spirit & Soul

The human spirit occurs at a higher plane of existence than flesh; the soul exists higher yet. Jesus’s spirit is the Holy Spirit.

The human spirit is emotion or energy. Sometimes the sixth sense is a “gut feeling” delivered from our subconscious as it evaluates past and present circumstances, only providing unexplained conclusions. Part of the subconscious consideration of our “gut feelings” include memories and subtleties, part of those subconscious considerations also include senses that we receive from our own emotions detecting other emotions in the room—from our spirits detecting other spirits in the room.

The soul and the spirit are not used interchangeably in the Bible. While the Bible refers to a human “spirit” when explaining emotions and intangible social atmospheres, a non-human “spirit” refers a consciousness without flesh, and the soul refers only ever to the eternal value, exclusive to a human. This is how the Bible uses the terms “soul” and “spirit”.

The soul is the place of our elemental choices on which our morals are constructed. While morals must come from above, we must choose whether we are willing to adopt those morals. That willingness exists at the high, otherwise unexplainable as much as inexplicable level of the human soul. While the Bible is silent on what specifically the soul is, we know that it is more eternal than the spirit because of the great value placed on the work of Jesus to even save our souls.

In all Biblical logic, some choice in our souls was the basis for selecting which names would be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and it likely contains our actual, eternal memories. The human brain—merely in the flesh—is not the actual storage of memory, but only a buffer or an “information cache”. Our brains may forget, but our souls do not. While in the flesh of this lifetime, our memories are limited to only what our brains can cache; but the soul could contain many, many more.

These realms cannot be accessed from natural science. Quantum machines may touch the soul and spirit realms, but can only affect—or damage—nature. The spirit and soul are higher—it’s the Law.

Matthew 8:16, Mark 5:25-34; 6:13, John 20:22, 2 Timothy 1:6-7, Hebrews 4:12-13, James 1:21

325 – Learn & Know Who You Are

Discover your path of work in your life by discovering who you are. Analyze your skills and passions. Don’t just look at the things that fascinate you, but seek to understand them at an elemental level. If dinner fascinates you, ask why. Is it because of the food or the people or the preparation?

There is a difference between being interested in the non-profitable “consumer” side of a thing and the profitable “production” side. God makes everyone a producer in some capacity, able to carry one’s own weight and then some. None of us are able to completely carry ourselves, but we can carry more than our own weight. In this, we help each other, carrying each other and contributing more than we take. That cooperation between humans can only happen because God Himself designed us to at a level that stretches even more fundamentally than DNA.

You will find a reliable vocation for your life by seeing where you fit into this grand scheme of human cooperation.

There is no profit in analyzing your “consumer” interests. If you pursue non-profitable interests, you will end up in debt and a burden to others. Pursue those skills that contribute and lift others, not just activities that you enjoy. Even when brainstorming new ideas, the only good ideas will contribute and carry their own weight. “Contributing” is the same thing as “prospering”.

Understand “what” you are as a human. As the Image of your Creator God, you are a prosper-making machine. You were designed to help, lift, build up, encourage, contribute, and be a benefit to all around you. When seeking to discover your strengths, constantly remember that strengths refined will help others to prosper. When you work toward “prospering others”, you effectively work within your strengths.

Once you see the prosperity programmed into yourself, the skills that help you prosper others will be easy to identify. God doesn’t make failures; people only become failures when they don’t operate in their strengths, namely helping others to prosper along with yourself. Within your skills you have much room for choice; your individual creativity can’t not be imprinted on your working prosperity. Only failed prosperity fails to be unique.

326 – God Upholds the Righteous

God upholds “righteous” people, who practice fairness and justice, because He likes them for it—because He likes justice and fairness. God wants justice and He won’t let someone who does rightly by others to easily slip between the cracks.

It’s hard at times to believe that God cares or works justice. But, watching how God upholds the people who uphold justice can be proof enough that God is real and God is near.

Everyone dies and hardship makes us stronger; God denies neither to the righteous. “Upholding” means that when times get too hard or the wind blows strong, God interrupts the natural order just enough to make sure that the righteous aren’t swept away. Being “upheld” may mean nothing more than surviving what is unsurvivable.

There are generally three main ways God upholds the righteous, but one could always count more than these three.

1. Because righteous people do what is right and fair, their lives are naturally stronger. Friends will help the righteous in need because people who are fair and honest and do good work naturally have more friends than greedy people who take shortcuts on quality. That was how Job’s fortune was restored. Friends gave him just enough money to start again; Job doubled his original wealth from that.

2. God also brings miracles and coincidence to the righteous. It could be that righteous people, being “godly” are “looking for God” in the small things, so they notice coincidences God already sends to everyone. But, miraculous things happen to people who are honest and fair.

3. Also, by praying, angels will always have the prayer they need to bring aid to the righteous. We each need a cloud of prayer around us for protection. Angels need prayer to wage war against evil. People who pray will supply angels with help everywhere they go, even to help the praying people.

Doing what is right and honest and fair to others is the best way to court favor in the High Court of Heaven. Prayerlessness is an injustice to the angels and to the world they want to help, including ourselves. Thus, prayerlessness is a form of self-mutilation while prayer is an act of justice.

327 – Demonic Invitation

Satan and his fallen angels believe that our words and actions give them supernatural permission to make trouble in our lives. Demons have much more power over people who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God who forgave our sin at the Cross. But, even as a Christian, a person can do things that invite demons to make trouble.

The term “satan” means “accuser” or “prosecuting attorney”. In many ways, demons think of themselves as lawyers making constant accusation, looking for endless loopholes, complaining about microscopic differences to find any excuse to say, “Well look here, that human just said that I can go and make a mess. He said so himself,” or, “He may not have said it, but when I tempted him he went along with it. So, he invited me in.”

Christian bookstores are filled with “deliverance” guides on the topic. Some of these books provide lists of things that a person might say to unintentionally invite a demon. Whether you learn from those lists or not, the important lesson is the principle: Demons use anything to argue before God that you want them to have some level of activity in your life. These can include recommending a dark movie to a friend without great disclaimers. It can include watching a bad movie many times for enjoyment, the same with songs, jokes, fowl language, sarcasm that would be evil if taken literally.

It doesn’t matter if you believe it invites a demon; the demons will argue it anyway. Speaking a demon’s name does not necessarily “summon” the demon, but he may be curious and drop in to examine why someone is talking about him. Listening to a song and giving an honest critique does not invite demons, but recommending the song or regularly enjoying it can. Never let any entertainment fascinate you more than Jesus and the Bible.

This topic could be studied more extensively, just as Christian bookstores have entire sections dedicated to it. But, one of the greatest ways to invite evil is to believe lies about God’s truth. Even endorsing “territorial boundaries” for Christian fellowship invites petty squalling; consider the worldviews of those who squabble.

Acts 19:11-20

328 – Law of Worship

Worship is an offering, only receivable by God Most High, givable from every realm—spirit, soul, flesh, mind, truth—any realm imaginable. Worship must transcend every state of existence. Once cannot worship God in truth, but not in spirit. One cannot worship God in mind, but not in good deeds done through our flesh. To worship God requires worshiping Him in spirit and in truth and in deed and in mind.

Our thoughts about God and His creation are a form of worship, as our the good actions to bring justice and quality work into the physical world around us. Singing music causes vibrations and harmony in the natural realm as well as emotion in the spiritual realm. But, we can worship God in spirit through silence. The most controversial form of worship is always the spiritual realm because it does the greatest damage to the evil spiritual beings—demons and devils—who live seated in that spiritual realm. Emotions can scare those who don’t learn the self-discipline and responsible stewardship of choosing their own emotions, thus “emotion-phobic” people can often be afraid of worship in spirit. But, just as every human has a spirit, so must every human learn to worship in spirit lest one’s worship be incomplete.

When we worship God, we connect our own existence to Heaven’s, even reaching directly to God’s inmost heart. The love, joy, adoration, good will, praise for deeds well done by His loving hands, thanks, and love of loving Him are all part of the emotions of worship in spirit.

When we worship God in the realm of our deeds, His splendor enters the world affected by our deeds. Just the same, when we worship God in spirit, the spiritual realms of our lives thrive with happiness and power for the angels to work and help us. When we worship God by stating the truth and having right beliefs and a healthy, positive thought life, God’s Heaven comes into our minds and thought life, making is a bountiful place of joy.

Whatever your circumstances, worship God from the midst of them; never wait for circumstances to be what you want first. Worship God first—it’s the Law.

John 4:24, Ephesians 6:18, Colossians 3:16-17

329 – Don’t Push Wet Noodles, Especially if They Bite

Few things are as demotivating to an already motivated motivator as someone who has no motivation. Affluenza is a common cause of demotivation. The Christians at Laodikeia in the Book of Revelation had this problem. Life was so comfortable for them that they didn’t care about the things that mattered to their Savior who died for them.

But, affluenza is not the only cause of demotivation. Sometimes poverty causes despair, which is wearisome in itself. It’s hard to get out of bed after being in a hospital for a year. When someone hasn’t had work for a long time, going out the door seems tiring and, frankly, embarrassing. When you give someone a first job in a long while, that worker might turn out to be one of your best, but only after a few laps around the track. If you’re the one getting off the couch, be prepared for others to need to be prepared to be patient with you.

Some wet noodles can’t come to life, some can, but they can never be pushed.

Jesus warned against giving pearls to pigs. Pigs don’t appreciate pearls for their beauty or the work it takes to find them. So, if you give them to a pig, it might think you’re throwing stones at it and attack you in turn.

Only work with people as much as they are motivated to work with you. Never chase after people who aren’t excited about your reason for getting up in the morning. We don’t need the same reasons to get out of bed in the morning, but people who work together should at least be excited about other people’s reasons. Those who aren’t excited about other people’s good pursuits aren’t excited about other people pursuing good things. Don’t confide in them.

When someone shows no motivation, if you share your joys, worries, dangers, and victories with that person, you just might get bitten. What do you mean you had “difficulty”? Someone with affluenza will think you must have done something wrong. What do you mean you “want money”? Someone who has little money may not know that “making money” is about others. It’s better to keep your peace.