Today is the first Sunday of the month of October, and I am praying for you this morning.
May this new month bring you into the fullness of all that God has prepared for you. May the Lord order your steps, strengthen your faith, open doors that no man can shut, and give you grace to walk in His purpose.
May you experience the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. May your prayers receive answers, your heart receive peace, and your life become a testimony of the faithfulness of God.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen. ๐๐ฝ
ANOINTED MY HEAD WITH OIL! ๐๐พ๐ฅ๐๐พ๐๐พ๐ฅ๐๐พ
Many of you have experienced relentless attacks against your mind and emotions. The enemy has tried to overwhelm you mentally, exhaust you emotionally, and pressure you until you break down. But the helmet of salvation has been your protection, God has been keeping your mind!
Sheep can get their heads caught in briars and injure themselves while trying to escape. They can also be tormented by insects attacking their eyes, ears, and nostrils. So the shepherd anoints their entire head with oil. The oil soothes their wounds, creates a protective barrier, and brings peace.
David declared, โYou anoint my head with oilโ (Psalm 23:5). God is anointing your head with fresh oil, and your mind will be protected from every demonic attack assigned against it. Every spirit of fear, anxiety, confusion, heaviness, torment, and mental exhaustion must break in the name of Jesus!
The enemy will not build a stronghold in your thoughts. Every fiery dart is being extinguished, every wicked whisper is being silenced, and every mental battle is coming under the authority of Jesus Christ. Your mind belongs to God!
You will not lose your mind or break under the pressure. The Good Shepherd is restoring your peace, renewing your thoughts, and covering your head with oil!
Put in the comments: ANOINTED MY HEAD WITH OIL!
Be careful when God gives you choices.
I would rather submit myself to the will of God than depend on my own understanding to make decisions.
The Bible says, โTrust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.โ โ Proverbs 3:5โ6
Our hearts can deceive us, our understanding is limited, and what seems right in our eyes may not be right before God.
โThere is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death.โ โ Proverbs 14:12
So I don't want to simply ask God to bless my choices. I want to surrender my choices to Him.
I may be wrong when I choose according to my own understanding, but I can never go wrong by submitting to the will of God.
โNot my will, but yours be done.โ โ Luke 22:42
Lord, let Your will be done in my life, even when Your will is different from what I would have chosen.
"Let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one." - Luke 22:36
Jesus said this at the Last Supper. Hours before His arrest.
The Prince of Peace. The one who said to turn the other cheek. Telling His disciples to arm up?
People quote this verse to win arguments. Almost nobody quotes the very next verse, and that's where the answer is.
First, the setup. Jesus reminds them: "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." (v.35)
That was the old mission: welcome in the villages, provision everywhere.
"But now," He says, things change. Take the moneybag. Take the knapsack. And the sword.
Then He tells them why:
"For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in me: 'And he was numbered with the transgressors.' For what is written about me has its fulfillment." (v.37)
That's Isaiah 53:12. The Suffering Servant, the one who bears the sin of many, counted among criminals.
Now watch what happens.
The disciples say, "Look, Lord, here are two swords." And Jesus answers: "It is enough." (v.38)
Two swords. For twelve men. Against a Roman garrison and the temple guard.
Two swords were never going to win a fight. But they were enough for something else: enough for the arresting party to treat Jesus' little band as armed men. Enough for Him to be numbered with the transgressors.
And Jesus Himself points it out at the arrest: "Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs?" (Luke 22:52)
Then Peter actually uses one. He swings and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant.
And Jesus says: "No more of this!" He touches the man's ear and heals him (v.51). The last miracle before the cross was undoing the damage done by His own disciple's sword.
Christians still debate what this passage means for self-defense, and that's a fair conversation. But Luke tells us plainly what the swords were for in that room: so that every word written about Jesus would come true. He wasn't arming a rebellion. He was walking into the place of a criminal, on purpose.
He was numbered with the transgressors
so that the transgressors could be numbered with Him.
That's you. That's me.
Want a Clean Heart?
King David made some great decisions, but he also made some terrible ones.
During his reign, David chose to abuse his power by sleeping with the wife of one of his military leaders, and then arranging for him to be pushed to the front lines of battleโwhere he was killed. For someone who was considered โa man after Godโs own heart,โ David really messed up.
In 2 Samuel 12:13, we see David confess his sin against the Lord and in Psalm 51, we see his prayer to be made new:
โCreate in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.โ
Psalm 51:10 ESV
David failed, but God redeems. God restores. David still had to face the consequences of his decisions, but in that journey, God met him there.
If you want to be made new by God but believe that your past is too messed up, you can follow the path David showed usโconfess, repent, and ask God to make you new. You can even use Davidโs exact words as you pray: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."
When we seek God, we realize that Heโs already been seeking us.
God is faithful. He loves you. He can make your heart clean. In Him, you can become a new creation.
@TevinMacharia I am Zimbabwean, Christian, I follow your posts, I enjoy them, I forward them to lots of my friends but on this one you are completely wrong about the reasons for what he was doing giving out cash and gifts
These were proceeds of corruption & suffering of the people of Z Imbabwe
There is a place you get to when worshipping God where your spirit has overtaken your flesh.
A place where you are no longer conscious of the room, the people around you, your problems, your needs, or even yourself.
You started by singing with your lips, but somewhere along the way, something shifts.
It is no longer your flesh singing.
Your spirit begins to sing.
It is no longer your flesh worshipping.
Your spirit begins to respond to God from a deeper place.
You lose your sense of time. You lose your consciousness of everything happening around you. You are no longer trying to sound good, look spiritual, or impress anyone.
You are simply lost in God.
There is a place in worship where you stop performing and begin to encounter.
A place where the song is no longer just words coming from your mouth, but becomes a cry coming from the depths of your spirit.
You may begin with a song that you know, but suddenly you find yourself singing words you did not plan. You may begin with an ordinary melody, but suddenly there is a sound coming from within you that you cannot explain.
Your mind cannot fully articulate what is happening because something deeper than your intellect has taken over.
You have entered a place of deep surrender.
A place where the flesh becomes quiet and the spirit becomes sensitive.
A place where you are no longer asking, โWhat will people think of me?โ
You don't care anymore.
You are not conscious of your clothes, your appearance, your surroundings, or whether someone is watching.
You are conscious of only ONE.
GOD.
There is a place in worship where you can literally forget yourself.
You don't know whether you have been there for five minutes or two hours.
You don't know whether you are standing, kneeling, crying, laughing, praying, or simply silent before Him.
You have become completely overwhelmed by His presence.
This is why sometimes you can walk into worship carrying burdens you could not explain, and somehow you walk out feeling like a different person.
Something happened in the secret place.
Something shifted within you.
Your flesh came with one posture, but your spirit encountered God and came out with another.
Jesus said, โGod is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.โ โ John 4:24.
There is a dimension of worship that goes beyond singing.
It is surrender.
It is communion.
It is intimacy.
It is when your heart becomes completely yielded to the One who created you.
And perhaps this is one of the reasons some encounters with God cannot be explained.
You can explain the song.
You can explain the lyrics.
You can explain the atmosphere.
But you cannot fully explain what happened to you when the Spirit of God touched something deep within you.
There is a place where you ascend in worship and, for a moment, you no longer recognize yourself.
The person who walked into that place is not the same person who comes out.
Because when you truly encounter God, you don't just feel something.
You are changed.
May God take us beyond entertainment.
Beyond performance.
Beyond emotionalism.
Beyond singing because everyone else is singing.
May He bring us into that place where our spirits are completely yielded to Him.
That place where worship is no longer something we do.
It becomes who we are before Him.
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