Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. (Isaiah 1:18).
The spirit of God had just impressed upon my heart on what my next phase of my ministry, should be , what he wanted me to do, but my flesh and thoughts were screaming saying “NO” .I did not feel like doing that, so I sat down in a corner like a child that had been ordered to do “a time out in corner” but this was my choice and I wanted God to see my point, I needed him to know that I had feelings, emotions and a need that needed to be addressed. So I swore not to sleep but wait for him to speak, but he did not and instead I found myself a sleep sitting down on a hard carpet. When I woke up I did not pray, said no word to God but said to myself ” Isabella” go to bed.
The following morning I decided I was not going to include my question in my quiet time but instead pray for God’s needs in the city we live in and as I mentioned these needs one by one, I started weeping uncontrollably and here is when I heard this small voice saying “do you really mean what you are saying” how can they be set free from these chains if you refuse to go? If you do not go I will raise up another who will go for their sake” At first it really did not sound right, because I thought God should have said please go, am sending you, instead he sounded like me many years ago bringing up our kids I could say, Debbie do you want to do the dishes? If you do not I will ask Winnie to do it.
That morning I made up my mind to die, and obey the Lord. The first thing I did was to repent for being stubborn and wanting my own way, and second I said to him “Lord please do not give my assignment to someone else am willing to go”. Have you been praying for God to meet his needs in your city, state or family? It might require you to listen carefully, because God could have told you to be the answer to that need. It’s easy to pray for God to raise a laborer to go to the streets, to the homeless, to the addicts, prostitutes and pimps, could it be that your position and responsibility is not just pray but go out and be the laborer?
I have learned that we always see the fruits of our prayer closets and that we attract that which we pray about and have a burden for. I want to encourage you this week to refocus your prayers from your own personal needs to the needs of God in your area, in the nations of the world, I believe that when we begin to meet God’s needs, he has no choice but meet our personal needs. “But seek ye’ first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33) Our prayer lists and prayer times should be filled with kingdom requests, as we do so our flesh becomes weaker in opposing the word of the Lord, because we are feeding the flesh the word and not the problem. In many cases we make strong our fleshly desires by praying the need, personal need, so we go to prayer miserable and come out miserable because we went to the problem solver and we did not talk about his power to solve the problem but how mighty the problem was, and how weak we are to resolve it.
The question that automatically comes up is what has this have to do with God using the dead? So long as we claim the liberty in Christ but deny his Lordship over our lives, he will not find us worthy of his use. We have to die to our feelings and our thoughts must be renewed. We will be dead to sin but alive in Christ. At times we have to die to things that are not necessarily sin, but are a hindrance to where he is sending us to go. Just as in the natural, dead people have no feelings; we should constantly put the members of our bodies into subjection of the spirit of the living God. Asking the Lord to help us to die to our flesh, asking us to make us strong in our weak areas, cleanse us from our sins and purifying us with the shed blood of Calvary. Dead people do not argue with God, they do not run away from God’s calling they do not defend their actions but simply repent and move on.
This week, ask God to help you become dead to your flesh so that you can hear him, so that you can do that which he is asking you to do. If you do not, God will raise up someone to do that which you should have done had you obeyed. And when he does, and you see this person flourish in the ministry you refused, you will become jealous and bitter. What is God saying to you today, has he sent you and you are still fighting him? Has he released you from a job and you are stuck there because of the money? Has he released you from a relationship but you are still lingering in there? How about releasing you from one ministry but you are still hang up with the fact that you are comfortable and you know everyone and everyone knows you compared to where you are going? Has he asked you to leave this country and move to another but you are still fighting? Child of God, obey the Lord and he will bless you. You might struggle with the obedience process but your reward and destiny fulfillment is found on the other side of obedience. If we ask the Lord to help us to die to our feelings, he will help us.
Till next week please visit us on the web at www.vesselforhonor.org for our meetings times and schedules. This weekend we had a wonderful time in Stockton ca, and I encourage you to come to one of our meetings.
Yours in Christ service: Evangelist Isabella Mw*********@ve************.org
http://www.vesselforhonor.org/
