Category: Devotions

Believing the Lie

 

"You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies."  John 8:44

 

We get victory in our testimony…so here goes part of mine.  Growing up I had to be one of the most insecure, lack of self-esteem having young girls.  I sought validation from peers and friends…and when I didn't get it, I was crushed.  Many times I was picked on (I now think largely in part of me being so smart, yep it ostracized me a bit) and I would cry because I didn't understand why, and yep I was a crybaby.  Even as I write this I start to tear up.  I have to thank God for my friend Camisha (smile) .  I will never forget this but in 8th grade there was a girl who will remain nameless that always had something negative to say about me (and in her case she had NO room to talk, looking all manly herself oops sorry lol :p ).  She wrote something like "Marquita Priester-worst dresser" and Camisha made sure I didn't see that…she instead wrote "Best Dresser".  We all go through that period of finding ourselves and I thank God that she was there to intercept that…who knows what would have happened then because by that time I had developed a smart mouth and had no problem fighting since I never got in trouble at school.

 

For a long time even into my adult years, I believed the lie that I had to compare myself to other people, on essentially everything.  School was almost the one area that I did not compare myself because I had always been exceptionally smart.  But as a young woman, I lacked the belief that what I saw in the mirror was acceptable and nagged myself about everything I could find wrong.  So when I got sick in college, it served as a wake-up call to the falsehood of the lie I believed and the key to walk out of the prison of self-hatred.

 

The devil is the father of lies.  A lie in definition is the opposite of truth, an un-truth.  It is also withholding, twisting words around (as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden), or a gross perversion of the truth.  The devil perverts everything.  He plants that one thought, and feeds it with another thought, until we are so far gone (if we don't have the fortitude to catch it) that we believe whatever he said.  Its not okay to compare yourself to others because God created us all with unique purposes…we all have a different place in His grand plan.  We may have similar stories, similar roles, but when all those things add up under your name it becomes something different.  All of our stories are different, although we may be on parallel roads.  Stop believing the crap the devil tells you, like you aren't good enough–counter thought "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" Philippians 4:13, I will never get well–counter thought "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers them out of them all."  Psalm 34:19, I'm too weak–counter thought "But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world."

 

Remember that!!! YOU belong to God so stop giving yourself over to lies and be victorious.  Use your authority!!!!  Christ has already defeated the devil so act like you know!

 

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith."  1 John 5:4

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"No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is of me," says the Lord.  Isaiah 54:17

Living with Expectancy

 

'and said to Him, "Are You the Expected One, or shall we look for someone else?"'  Matthew 11:3

 

Jesus tells us in John 14:14 "If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it."  I think sometimes we do not ask because we do not believe it will happen.  You think, well, it probably won't happen anyway so why waste my time.  I've learned lately that we have to expect great.  The Jews did not expect Jesus to be the Messiah, which caused them to doubt His miracles and His being the Messiah and so after His death, it was left up to the Apostles to preach the Good News.  One of my new favorite chapters is the 23rd Psalm. Verse 5 says this: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.  Do you get the promise at the end of that verse?  Our cup overflows!  Here's another scripture: Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies, "I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!  Malachi 3:10  God promises to open the windows of heaven with blessing upon blessing for you.  Of course with these promises, they are in conjunction to your obedience in the principle, i.e, being holy, repenting (doing a 180 from sin and sinning no more), tithing, etc.  But as a child of God we can expect God to be faithful to His Word even when we find it hard to believe.

 

If you are struggling in some way, lacking in something, it is because you aren't expecting (or maybe you haven't tried God yet, meaning been obedient to His call, because He does call us all for unique and individual tasks as a part of the Body of Christ).  We walk around as Christians complaining about what we don't have but as the scripture says, you don't have because you don't ask! And you don't overflow because you don't expect it. 

 

As my spiritual godmother says, we have to expect God to blow our minds on a daily basis.  At first I did not grasp the brevity of what she was saying, why because I was barely believing or expecting the promises of the Word to come true for me.  But guys we must step out and trust the Lord.  Expect those mountains that you want moved to be gone because we are to believe in the things that are unseen. Turn whatever is the roadblock in your life over to Him and expect it to be moved.  Yes, every person can remind you of the things that you are dealing with, but until you get before God and expect Him to do what He says, wholeheartedly believing in Him for what He has said…you aren't really living.

 

"I will bless them and the places surrounding my hill. I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26