The Bible is not a magical book of powers that anyone can recite or chant and expect to see results. The Word of God is powerful in the lives of those who abide in Jesus and live by His words. Jesus said in John 15:7, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.”
HOLY GOD By Mark E. Hardgrove, PhD Isaiah 6:1-8, NKJV 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two...
These people could not control Jesus, and they could not corrupt Jesus, so they decided that they had to kill Jesus. They were suffering from JDS, commonly known as Jesus Derangement Syndrome, and they were triggered by His presence and His speech. To carry out their nefarious plan of murder they bribed Judas with thirty pieces of silver to betray Jesus. They would do whatever was necessary to end the ministry and even the life of Jesus.
WILL THE STONES CRY OUT? By Mark E. Hardgrove, PhD Luke 19:29-44, NKJV 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied,...
They confessed that Jesus is Christ, meaning that they believed Jesus was the Messiah, but like all Jews, they also knew that Malachi said that before Messiah appeared with healing in His wings, Elijah would come first. So, they asked, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” They did not yet understand that John had come in the spirit and power of Elijah.
Elisha, the next generation, picked up the mantle, and He knew who to call on. He called on the Lord God. He moved by faith, struck the waters, and the waters rolled back, left and right. This was his time now. The mantle was his; he would be anointed as the lead prophet of God to speak truth to power.
Elijah was sitting on the top of a hill. He probably saw the soldiers coming from miles away, but he did not run or hide because he was not afraid. It’s true that Elijah had gone through a valley depression, but it is also true that he came out the other side of that valley and now he’s back on the mountain.
If we are not all in, we will not stay the course when the going gets tough and hard times come. Anyone can fake it in the good times, but who we really are is exposed when the trials and troubles of life come at us in wave after wave of adversity. When those times come (and they always do), Apostle Peter said an uncommitted person will be like a dog returning to his own vomit and a pig going back to wallowing in the mire (1Pt 2:22).
Sometimes, when we are discouraged and depressed, we begin to feel like the whole world is against us. If we let him, the devil will whisper in our ear telling us that no one likes us, no one cares about us, and that God Himself has abandoned us. That is the downward spiral of fear, futility, doubt, and discouragement. If you surrender to those emotions, they will suck you down into a bottomless debilitating pit of despair and self-pity.
Any of us can reach the point of exhaustion. We push ourselves to do all that we can do for as long as we can do it, but like a marathon runner, even great men and women of faith can hit the wall. “The wall,” is a term used in distance running. It is a place in the race where a runner feels completely emotionally and physically spent. Some runners quit right there. They say, “That’s it. I’ve got nothing left in the tank.” But other runners, experienced runners, know that it is possible to press on, to get through the wall to find what’s called their “second wind.”
