Man The Deck!

Jesus said, blessed are the persecuted, and they are suffering big time right now. This is Bible League International, and 19-year-old Aria was beaten by her own father and violated by local authorities. You know what her crime was?

Simply that she gave her life to Jesus Christ after leaving radical Islam. They need Bibles in order to endure and persevere. And that's why Truth Network and Bible League are teamed up to send God's Word to 3,500 persecuted believers around the world at $5 of Bible.

$100 since 20. Call 800-Yes-Word, 800-Yes-Word, 800-Yes-Word, or give at truthnetwork.com. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Running with Horses, a podcast devoted to inspire you concerning a relationship with Almighty God that empowers you to accomplish things you never thought possible. Surely, Weaver wants to take you there.

And now, here's today's episode. You've heard me mention our book by the same title as our podcast, Running with Horses, and you've heard me say that I love the book because it's a powerful mentoring tool. Well, it mentors me.

It's also a way, it's also a tool for me to mentor others because we sort of cover the gamut of important things, the most important being the Word of God in our lives. And the feeding on His Word, one daily devotion in our book is titled Man the Deck, Man the Deck. And it comes from, you know, a naval turn that basically all hands on deck. In other words, there's a crisis or a challenge or a demand is being placed or maybe there's danger. So, you need the strength of every person, a man or a woman, to come on to the deck and do their job, you know, do their part, supply their joint, as it were. So, this particular post is Man the Deck. I want to share it with you because I love it.

And I think you will too. And it actually is written in the first person pronouns. So, listen to this. Two things are important. Faith to continually see ahead and faith's confidence to stand no matter what. One without the other limits me and my ability to prevail in the kind of prayer that I need that leads to action on my part, resulting in daily, get that daily, daily demonstrations from the Lord.

We've talked about this before, the ability to realize God's moving in your life. And we say, picking up again to read, His is the kingdom. The kingdom belongs to the Lord. So, His is the kingdom. My part is to participate in the way that He's requiring of me, in the way that He wants to daily show up in my life. And continuing, I have been given the responsibility to influence.

No question. Success comes from faith and confidence. Faith to believe God and confidence that comes from faith to persevere.

Glancing at the storm outside of the ark are frantically reaching for what to do next could weaken my hold. But true confidence means that there is no need to haplessly grasp at straws. Revelation of who I am and my purpose in God is greater than panic or grasping.

Neither storms nor the crowd move me. Faith isn't merely belief or hope. Faith is revelation of the written word, activated in the heart to build upon hope and reward what I believe. Faith doesn't fluctuate with crowds, winds, whim, or threat. Faith is the real thing, operating above a divine perspective from my seat in heavenly places right beside the Lord. So here's the last paragraph, the last sentence in this devotion titled, Man the Dick.

It's two sentences. What did the Lord say? Stay with that and keep moving. And keep moving. So the conclusion of the matter here and the references here are Matthew 14 and Ephesians 2. The bottom line is no matter what happens you can stand. What you want to remember and keep your focus centered upon is what did the Lord say to you?

You want to stay with that. Keep your focus there so that you can keep moving in that direction. You know Jesus did that. He began his earthly ministry and he completed his earthly ministry and from one point from the beginning point to the close of his earthly ministry from those two points everything in between he kept going. He kept moving. Nothing deterred him. The threat, the obstacle, the enemies did not slow him down or speed him up or change his course. He knew what his father had for him and he just resolved to stay with that.

Remember he was both God and man so he struggled in the same way that you and I do but he kept moving which is why I know that I can and you can. And I just want to go back and read one thing here. It's really powerful because the reading initially is in the first person but for you also for you. I have been given the responsibility to influence.

No question. That's true of you. You have been given the responsibility of influence, of being an influencer, of influencing others. There's no question that but that the born-again believer has the responsibility to influence others with a lifestyle that reflects the presence of almighty God. You know I can hardly say God without saying almighty because he is.

He is almighty God. No question. Success comes from faith and confidence to gather. Faith to believe God and confidence that comes from faith to persevere. You can do that. You can do that. Let me pray for you to do that. Father, today we release our faith according to your word in Matthew 14 and Ephesians 2 that we literally are seated with you in heavenly places in the power of the Spirit and that we have what you say we have. Can do what you've said in your word that we can do. The thing and the things you've written on our hearts we can accomplish in the power of your might because of your presence in our lives. So today we release our faith that way and we receive from you this kind of thinking, this kind of vision, this kind of approach. In Jesus name we thank you for this great endowment and we bless you father. We love you and we worship you.

Oh we love you so much. In Jesus name, amen. Our endowment, I mean that just struck me as we were praying. I hadn't thought of it that way before. It's a download you know what God has for you because you and I have the mind of Christ. We think like him.

We have the thought life of the King of Kings. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365 day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.