Author: Dailyechoes

By giving up religion, denomination and ritualistic works based worship, I became free to truly grasp an understanding of Grace. While maintaining a healthy fear of God, my focus became concentrated on His love. Through praise, prayer and His word I grow daily in the most beautiful, fascinating, inspiring and fulfilling relationship with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through His Holy Spirit. It is the greatest desire of my heart to truly echo the Heart of Jesus in every aspect of my life and in every relationship throughout my life.

I know you not

Matthew 7:21-23 KJV — Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

If I had a favorite movie star and I kept track of all that happened in their life, studying up on all their favorite things, what would happen if I just showed up at their front door and asked to go into their home? They would probably ask me, “who the heck are you?” I could tell them my name and that I’m their greatest fan, that I know their favorite color, their favorite food, every movie they were in, how many kids they have, how many times they married, and to whom, if they ever battled addictions, where they like to vacation, etcetera, etcetera and they still would not open their door embracing me and call me their friend.

It’s more likely they would call the authorities and have me arrested for stalking. They would say, “I don’t know you and you’re creeping me out.” No matter what I say at this point it would not convince this movie star, that never met me in their life, to just open their door and let me in. You can bet there’d be a restraining order put in place so they will never see me at their doorstep again.

Those of us that are socially self controlled understand this is not something acceptable to do. Sadly, This is what so many think is OK to do to Jesus. Those of us that call ourselves Christians but choose not to read His Word, or choose not to pray and live our lives completely surrendered. Some of us can tell you all about Jesus, what He did here on earth, and how loving, healing and forgiving He is. Yet we choose to entertain ourselves with the world and harden our hearts to any change that we need to make within ourselves.

Matthew 25:11-12 KJV — Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

I have experienced relationships in my life that have proved to be very one sided. As long as I was willing to join them in what they wanted to do, or go to their house every time, then they were willing to be my friend. If I wanted them to come to my house or do something I like they always had some reason they couldn’t. They were never really interested in me or what was going on in my life but they loved to talk about themselves and their lives. These friendships only lasted until I got tired of feeling like I didn’t matter.  At which point I would just stop trying and instead move on to friends that really cared about me too.

If I truly want someone to stay in my life and they really mean something to me, I will give them the most precious thing I have in this world to give them, my time. I would be interested in what they are interested in. I would want to know everything about them and would want them to know about me. If someone meant that much to me, I wouldn’t want to go one day without them in it. Once a week for a few hours certainly wouldn’t be enough time to know each other. More than likely this someone and I would be inseparable. If you saw me, you’d see them and vice versa.

As Christians, we want to be accepted into heaven where Jesus lives. We don’t want to hear Him turn us away saying, “I never knew you.” The question really is, Have we become friends with Jesus? How much time are we willing to give Him daily? Do we truly love Him, or is it our intent to just use Him to get into the door of heaven?

Faster than anyone wants to admit everything we spend all our time doing in this world will be gone. The only currency we actually have to give in this world is our time. No matter what excuses we try to use to excuse our choices we will still be confronted with the consequences of what we choose to do with our time. Did we invest it in the world and our current, vapor sized life, that’s here today but may be gone tomorrow? Or did we invest it in Jesus and our eternal, never to end, ever, life that comes immediately upon our exit from this life?

Matthew 19:29 KJV — And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

Father God didn’t create us to be distant or indifferent from Him. No he wants relationship, a very close, intimate relationship with us. This is why He sent His Son to pay the price for our reconciliation unto Him. Have you ever loved someone so much it felt like life wasn’t worth living without them? If so have you ever loved someone that much but they didn’t return your love?

John 3:16 KJV — For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

How can anyone expect to enter into His house if all they ever did in this current life was turn their nose up at getting to know the one person who truly loved them enough to sacrifice everything just to be near them. We can’t even love ourselves with this kind of perfect love.

So we must ask ourselves once again, have we made Jesus our friend?

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you as you seek Him with your whole heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Courtroom of Heaven

Revelation 12:10 KJV — And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

No matter what we have done wrong, even the tiniest of sins, the enemy brings it to the courtroom of Almighty God, day and night.

If we default on a payment with a creditor and the penalty is beyond our means, that creditor will take the matter before a judge to obtain legal right to collect, regardless of our personal circumstances. Our non-payment might be due to a loss of income, an extended hospital stay, maybe we had to replace the furnace in our house, or our paycheck might have bounced. No matter the reason, that creditor wants their money and they have no mercy.

When the court date comes, and we decide we are too embarrassed to show up to court, what happens?

The creditor will be granted their legal judgment against us. Now they can garnish from the small amount we receive to keep our family fed. We know they are not suffering because of our little debt but they will show no mercy as to our struggle. They have legal right and that’s all there is to it.

The creditor will not bet on us to take their legally obtained judgment seriously either. No, we already defaulted so instead, they go to our income source and tell them they must pay them directly under penalty of law. Even if our employer wanted to help, their hands are tied. Until the debt is paid in full, we have no choice but to suffer the burden of garnishment.

Had we, despite the embarrassment, went to court that day, we would have been able to plead with the judge. We could have reasoned with the judge, telling him the circumstances that kept us from fulfilling our obligation to pay and ask for the mercy of the court in working out a fair deal.

Chances are the judge would empathize with us and rule more in our favor due to the circumstances we had no control over. The creditor may not show us mercy but the judge is likely to be fair, just and rule with mercy.

Our enemy, the Devil or Satan, is counting on us to not show up in court. Like that creditor, the enemy goes after any and all legal ways to throw the book at us for every sin we commit, even those we didn’t consider to be sins. The judge has little choice but to allow him judgement against us unless we go to court and plead our case.

The enemy fills our minds and hearts with unworthiness, shame or a downright rebellious attitude knowing we are unlikely to approach the courts of heaven full of anger or guilt. The enemy is well aware that the atonement for our sin is found in that courtroom. He knows God’s mercy and grace, and He is very well aware of who our advocate, our lawyer is. It Is in the enemy’s best interest to make sure we do not show our faces in court.

Sadly, most of us fall for his deception, lies and tricks. We then live lives’ less than we were created to live. Our purpose is stolen or taken, our joy, comfort, peace, our health, all our blessings, our sanity, sometimes even our will to live. We may have been just barely surviving and still the enemy showing us not a shred of mercy will debit from us again and again.

When a trust has been set up for someone under the age of 18, or in some cases age of 25, we can’t use the money in the trust even in an emergency, without going before the courts and producing convincing evidence of a need to make a withdrawal. Although it’s our money, the way it’s set up is to protect us from squandering it all away in our young, naïve understanding.

The court then is our advocate and will decide if what we present is a true need or not. Chances are, if we have taken time to go before the courts to ask, we have already thought about it long and hard and we are convinced of our need, and we certainly don’t wait until our need is met to go ask the courts to meet the need.

This is the main reason our enemy goes to any length making sure we never show up in the courts of heaven. What we ask for is already there and it’s already ours, we just need to ask for it. The enemy deceives us into believing we can’t go into heaven’s courts dirty, sinful, unworthy or ashamed. He convinces us that somehow we must meet the need first. Truth is, we must wear the need into the courtroom and plead for said need to be met by what has already been deposited for us. The blood of Jesus!

Romans 5:8 KJV — But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Jesus didn’t wait for us to stop sinning, He didn’t even wait for us to agree we needed saving. No, even while we were yet sinners, He died for us. We have a trust already set up for us, all we need to do is go to court and show we realize and understand our need and with Jesus as our Advocate, our Judge, full of mercy and grace waits ready to grant us our request.

Romans 8:33-39 KJV — Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let’s not allow the enemy to bully us out of going before the courts of heaven where we can’t lose. We call the Judge Abba, Father and Jesus already paid the debt. Let us go boldly into the courts with thanksgiving and praise, laughing at our adversaries loss.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you as you seek Him with your whole heart.

We Wrestle not Against Flesh and Blood

Ephesians 6:12 KJV — For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness, in high places.

Do we still not understand? We have a grudge against our brother, sister, friend, parent, child, ex-spouse, et cetera et cetera because we think they are to blame, and there’s no excuse for what they did. They chose to hurt us the way they did, so we have a right to be upset, and our mind is made up.
And we would be wrong. The Bible clearly says, our battle may look like it’s with flesh and blood, it may feel like it’s with flesh and blood, there may be no humanly way to deny the facts saying its flesh and blood we are battling, yet still, we are told this is not the truth.

The Lord said to me, “so you believe this was done to you, for the ninth time, by the same person, and therefore they are absolutely to blame?”
Reluctantly, I admit the truth, I said, “yes, how can they not know what they are doing after repeating it nine times?”
He then asked, “have you never been the cause of someone’s suffering and pain without meaning them harm, and unknowing how you hurt them until much later?”
“I have,” I replied.
Next He asked, “have you ever been told that your actions caused suffering and pain for another and you responded with a roll of your eyes thinking how sensitive they must be, or have you denied their pain altogether believing no one could have possibly took you the way they did, therefore you became the true victim in your own eyes?”
My silence spoke more truth in that moment than any words I could use to answer. Still with head hung low, I said, “wow Lord, how could I be so blind?’ They are no more at fault than I was, yet true hurt and pain had been inflicted.”

We blame each other so quickly and unforgivingly. We won’t even hear their side as we feel we already know. Two sides, both unknowingly deceived by the enemy and ready to never give in. Both are ready to part ways unless the other realizes what they have done and convincingly apologizes.
Neither side has even the slightest understanding of the true plan of the enemy at work here because although scripture spells it out from A to Z as literal as it sounds, we don’t see how we can be used by the enemy at all. And we refuse to believe the enemy is to blame for all the actions and decisions of others either.

The truth, whether we want to believe it or not, is that our enemy has spent thousands of years studying us. A concept we may be able to contemplate but really have no understanding of. He knows how to use us against each other, and he knows exactly how to get an emotional reaction out of us. If we don’t make a conscious effort to be self controlled, especially over how things make us feel, he is happy to control our emotions for us. He is more than happy to tell us how we feel and how we should respond to our feelings.

We are taught from a young age how to control our actions no matter how we feel in order to be socially acceptable. Like not to hit, pinch, bite, or pull someone’s hair because they hurt our feelings. Or, like running to the bathroom when we need, instead of going out in the open like the dogs and other animals do. We are taught to respect authority even when it seems completely unfair. All things that we must learn to be at least socially acceptably self controlled.
We are not taught how to analyze and control our thoughts and emotions, just our actions in spite of our thoughts and emotions.

Thoughts, whether true or not, once emotionally accepted, then become our reality. This is how two people can go through the same experience and perceive the events and the effects of events differently. One may say they were scared to death and will never do that again, while the other says, “I laughed so hard I can’t wait to do it again.”

The word of God tells us. 2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV — Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

This is to say, we have control over what we think. We get to decide what we want to think before the thought takes root in our emotions. Our thoughts don’t have to become our reality unless we either decide to allow them to or choose not to be in control of them at all, thereby giving the enemy control of what reality we will live in.
I often hear people saying, “I can’t control what I think or how it makes me feel.” I, too, am guilty of these statements. God’s word tells me that by repeating these statements, I have repeated the enemy’s lies. God’s word clearly says I am in control of my thoughts if I choose to be, and how I allow myself to feel pertaining to my thoughts.

2 Corinthians 10:2-5 NLT — Well, I am begging you now so that when I come, I won’t have to be bold with those who think we act from human motives. We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.

Although I can not control what others do or say to me, I am in control of how I decide to perceive their actions and words. By consciously deciding my own thoughts about it, I also keep full control over how I’m emotionally affected by it. I’m no longer caught off guard taking offense and reacting.
I know the truth and refuse to be ignorant of the enemies schemes. I know that although someone I love may say or do things that hurt me, I am not truly fighting them. No, my true battle is with the enemy who so deceptively tries to conquer and divide, turning everyone against each other.
Because Father God forewarned me, this was one of the enemies tactics, I chose not to be hurt or offended, and I chose to react with the following Scriptures in mind;

Proverbs 15:1-4 NLT — A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare. The tongue of the wise makes knowledge appealing, but the mouth of a fool belches out foolishness. The LORD is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good. Gentle words are a tree of life; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Proverbs 21:23 NLT — Watch your tongue and keep your mouth shut, and you will stay out of trouble.

Philippians 2:2-5 NLT — Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

Colossians 3:13 NLT — Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

When I get hurt by someone, I know that although I felt a sting, I don’t have all the facts. Facts like

  • 1. What kind of day have they had?
  • 2. What triggered them to inflict pain upon me?
  • 3. What trauma from their past might be driving their present emotions?
  • 4. What lies might they have been told about me?
  • 5. Are they angry or hurting as bad as they are trying to hurt me?
  • 6. Did they even mean it the way I took it?
  • 7. Did I hear them wrong?
  • 8. Did something from my past cause me to be oversensitive?
  • 9. Is my mind blowing this out of proportion?
  • 10. Do they really mean me harm, or could it be all in jest?

The enemy is counting on me to make a move, react, respond, retaliate, or run. He doesn’t care how I choose to react so long as I react. Reacting is going into the battle blind, without strategy or facts. We can react without conscious thought. If, instead, I choose strategy, I would first gather facts, evidence, guidance, and understanding from wise counsel. Father God knows all the facts and hidden details that I need in order to claim victory over my enemies.

What the enemy didn’t expect was for me to choose not to react at all. He inflicted enough pain to constitute a tsunami of emotions flooding my perceived enemies territory, wiping them out without mercy.
The enemy never guessed I would choose to heed the warnings and wise counsel of God, and by putting on His armor, the enemy could not generate a reaction from me. I knew I was not really fighting the one who hurt me. That person was the disguise the enemy chose, so sure it would trick me into entering the battle unprepared.

We fight not against flesh and blood. Although it looks, feels, and hurts like flesh and blood, it’s really just the enemy trying to take us down!!

James 4:7 KJV — Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you as you seek Him with your whole heart.