Praise the Lord, everybody, because He alone is worthy to be praised! As always I pray everyone is enjoying God's blessing! What can I say but God has been good to me, and His mercies and His Grace are new every morning. The year 2015, the year of higher heights and deeper depths in Christ and already I have received a "D" on my first report card from the Lord.
Every week I set aside a personal day of consecration to the Lord, a day of fasting, prayer and quality time before the Lord. The other night after one of those consecrations I was lying in bed reviewing the day when I heard the spirit of the Lord ask "were you consecrating or just killing time?" Immediately I was convicted because I knew the answer was "killing time" especially the last two weeks. I have said this before and I'll say it again it is so easy to slide from true worship into an empty religious ceremony.
It all starts with what time I get up on those mornings. Recently I found myself getting up later and later, finding every excuse I could because the later I got up the less time I had to spend denying myself that day. It was subconscious but it was there. It is the beginning of a spiritual disconnect with God. God says in His word, Matthew 15:7+8 7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
It's a wonderful thing being in God's presence, spending quality time communing with Him in fasting, worship and prayer just because you love Him but at times I find myself reluctantly calling myself into a consecration only because I need God to do something for me and I know this is a way to get His attention. What good is it though to get God's attention and then end up getting rebuked by Him?
Just as God is a jealous God our flesh is jealous also, but not in a loving way. Our flesh demands all our attention and needs to be fed all the time and it doesn't seem to want anything good, anything that would be edifying to the body. This is why we must deny our flesh(ourselves) so that the spirit of God within us can thrive. But talking about it does not equal getting it done. Just because I scheduled a consecration does not mean I achieved it. Clock watching and rushing through prayer and scripture does not equal quality time with the Lord. God is saying it's time to wake up and smell the coffee or at least drink some coffee, "WAKE UP!! Brother Darrell, this is the time of the great awakening ."
Jesus spoke it in John 4: 23-24 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
There is no flesh in true worship, you can't bring your flesh when you want to spend quality time before the Lord. God chastens those He loves according to His word so even though it stings I'm going to take this "love tap" and learn from it, and I pray if any of you out there are experiencing the same thing will do the same.
God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall
Every week I set aside a personal day of consecration to the Lord, a day of fasting, prayer and quality time before the Lord. The other night after one of those consecrations I was lying in bed reviewing the day when I heard the spirit of the Lord ask "were you consecrating or just killing time?" Immediately I was convicted because I knew the answer was "killing time" especially the last two weeks. I have said this before and I'll say it again it is so easy to slide from true worship into an empty religious ceremony.
It all starts with what time I get up on those mornings. Recently I found myself getting up later and later, finding every excuse I could because the later I got up the less time I had to spend denying myself that day. It was subconscious but it was there. It is the beginning of a spiritual disconnect with God. God says in His word, Matthew 15:7+8 7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
It's a wonderful thing being in God's presence, spending quality time communing with Him in fasting, worship and prayer just because you love Him but at times I find myself reluctantly calling myself into a consecration only because I need God to do something for me and I know this is a way to get His attention. What good is it though to get God's attention and then end up getting rebuked by Him?
Just as God is a jealous God our flesh is jealous also, but not in a loving way. Our flesh demands all our attention and needs to be fed all the time and it doesn't seem to want anything good, anything that would be edifying to the body. This is why we must deny our flesh(ourselves) so that the spirit of God within us can thrive. But talking about it does not equal getting it done. Just because I scheduled a consecration does not mean I achieved it. Clock watching and rushing through prayer and scripture does not equal quality time with the Lord. God is saying it's time to wake up and smell the coffee or at least drink some coffee, "WAKE UP!! Brother Darrell, this is the time of the great awakening ."
Jesus spoke it in John 4: 23-24 23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
There is no flesh in true worship, you can't bring your flesh when you want to spend quality time before the Lord. God chastens those He loves according to His word so even though it stings I'm going to take this "love tap" and learn from it, and I pray if any of you out there are experiencing the same thing will do the same.
God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall
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