Where to Find Peace in Times of Trouble?

Where to Find Peace in Times of Trouble?

by Olga Hermans

 

There can be a time in our life where we feel constantly bombarded with things that rob us from our peace. People worry about their problems and wonder how they’re going to make it through. We all have times where we feel that kind of pressure isn’t it?

I’d like to give you a few secrets to this today; secrets of what to do in a time of trouble and finding your peace back in your heart that you so desperately need. In times like that we need to be inspired and encouraged by someone who has faced circumstances far worse than our own and found a way to walk through them in victory.

We need to look away from friends or people that are around us that keep on talking about their own anxiety about the critical circumstances around them and start focusing on people who somehow found their way through the storm.

The bible is full of such people. It’s always a good thing to spend some time in the Bible and read about men and women who have gone through the same thing we are going though at the moment. You then will find out how they did it so you can follow in their footsteps and see how God came through for them.

Let’s look at the story of Esther. Did you know that Esther received beauty treatments with the best oils for a whole year before she could even see the King? How about that? The oils give us this great skin and make us smell good, isn’t that right?

Before each young woman was taken to the king’s bed, she was given the prescribed twelve months of beauty treatments—six months with oil of myrrh, followed by six months with special perfumes and ointments. Esther 2:12 NLT

Esther is a great example of someone who prevailed under pressure as a young woman of 18 years old. Here she was; called upon to risk her own life to save her own people from total destruction. She bore the burden of knowing that the lives of millions would be spared or lost as a result of her actions.

Talk about pressure; Esther could be the next poster child, you know. You probably know her story; she responded the way we probably all would have done and tried to argue with Mordecai her way out of the situation. Mordecai rebuked her though and Esther was faced with a dilemma. At this moment she could have fallen apart and seized with anxiety and rushed to the king’s court wailing with hysteria.

She didn’t do that; she made a plan to focus on God at this point. She called everybody else do the same; to fast and pray for three days and something amazing happened. A heavenly peace came upon her. That peace had such a powerful effect on the king that when Esther put on her royal robes and walked into the court, he not only held out to her the golden scepter indicating that she was welcome there, he wanted to give her half of the kingdom.

Peace put Esther in charge of the situation. Suddenly she was standing in a place of complete favor, which was unheard of in that culture. That was nothing less that supernatural. It didn’t happen because Esther wasn’t somebody special. It happened because she followed God’s instructions. Instead of worrying, she prayed and brought the peace of God on the scene.

You can do the same thing.

When you find yourself in trouble and you think you’re going to fall apart from all the pressure, you can pray instead of fretting and being anxious. You can make your desires known to God, thank Him in advance for answering your prayer, and receive the peace that He gives you.

After three days spending time with God, Esther came out of her prayer closet anointed and strong in the Lord; she had this immovable peace over her that even King was overwhelmed. He wanted to give her anything she wanted. Esther knew exactly what to ask; she said that she didn’t want half of the kingdom but she wanted Haman to come to a dinner with the king.

Esther was able to keep her peace in this moment of tremendous pressure. This peace kept the confusion that the devil tried to throw in away from the whole situation. Peace kept Esther dignified so that she knew what to do.

We all know the story that Haman was hanged on the gallows he had built himself. If we walk in the peace of God, we’ll see the same thing happen to our enemy. Peace will pull the plug on him and there is no way that he can do anything to you. It will turn the table on him. He will end up hanging himself on his own rope.

Sometimes you may not know exactly how to pray about all the pressures you are facing. When you face problems that seem big and complicated, you may find it difficult to fully express your heart to God on what is going on in your heart.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. Lam 3:41 KJV

You can literally lift up your heart to the Lord by telling Him that you are giving it to Him right now. Tell Him that you trust Him and His goodness and ask Him if He will take care of the situation; He will do it. Then you have to let the problem go. Every time the thought comes to worry, start to think about the goodness of the Lord. Keep your mind focused on Him!

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How to Get Out of a Pressure Cooker

How to Get Out of a Pressure Cooker

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever wondered why the Lord just doesn’t take away all the problems that steal your time and make you feel as though you are in a pressure cooker?

Whatever your call in life, God has a special grace to enable you to be an achiever. There are pressures that keep us from maximizing our time and frustrate the fulfilling of our goals. Even when goals are set and schedules are made it often seems everything that could happen to prevent us from using our time efficiently and effectively.

There are three major enemies of time with which one must deal on a daily basis: the devil, our circumstances and our flesh. Satan will do all that he can to mess up your circumstances and call on your flesh because his aim is to distort your testimony for Jesus and bring you to failure.

Let’s have a look at the life of Paul; he begged three times to take away the “problems.” I believe the “thorn” that troubled Paul the most was the interference of religious people, both Jews and pagan, who continually stirred up trouble for Paul wherever he went to preach the gospel.

Although God revealed to Paul why he ran into so much difficulty, He did not remove the difficulties. The Lord did something better; He reminded Paul of the grace which would enable him to overcome in every situation. God reminded Paul of the grace which would enable him to overcome in every problem situation.

The devil tried to do everything he could to stop Paul, but he couldn’t succeed. Even when Paul was repeated beaten and even shipwrecked of his life; he overcame by grace. Grace is a word often used among Christians; we talk about it, sing about it, and praise God for it. Have you ever thought about what it means to you?

Not even Jesus was exempt from the pressures of daily interferences, temptations and problems. That might surprise you, but Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way just as we are. Jesus was never immune to the devil’s interference. This is the reason Jesus can understand and care about those things that trouble us, and He is the one who will always have an answer to our dilemmas.

Have you, like Paul, realized that you can’t handle pressure or problems by yourself? You know, there is nobody in the world that is so wise and powerful or so experienced and so energized and wealthy and favored that a person could manage every day of his or her life without help.

Recognizing our inability is the gateway to receiving God’s ability. We shouldn’t try to manage our life in our strength; we know it won’t work. I have tried to do this so many times and every time I find out, it doesn’t work!

Making the decision to make God your first priority will also keep you in victory when external pressure comes against you. Is your time yours, or is it the Lord’s? You definitely can avoid a great deal of internal pressure by deciding to live for God and not only for yourself!

I remember the time that my children were little and I had to make a decision to be at home for them or having a nice job somewhere. It was an easy decision, but I still had to fight the thoughts that I wanted to be out there and do things that I also would enjoy doing.
Priorities are so important, aren’t they? When you commit your precious time and your precious things to God, He will multiply your time and protect those things that are dear to you and He will do it in a very exciting way!

However, if you try to hold on to your own things, you will really put yourself in a pressure cooker. Don’t give “the thief” an opportunity to fill your days with confusion and frustration. Don’t let him steal the things you value. John 10:10

Why should we struggle to exchange our ways for His ways? When we wait upon the Lord, He lets us in on secrets of wisdom and advice which we would never get hold of any other way.

I like to think of every task I have to do as an opportunity. After I have established my priorities, schedule my day, and committed every moment to the Lord, I know of a certainty that each task, even an unexpected on, is an opportunity to grow, achieve, and succeed.

No matter what pressures each day may bring, I face the day with the knowledge that I have the victory in Jesus. Each day holds the potential of blessing, achievement, victory, and overcoming. God wants you to give Him the opportunity to bless you and make you a blessing.

When pressure comes, take the opportunity to put God in the midst of it and to demonstrate to yourself and others that you are an overcomer and the devil is a loser.

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Grow Up and Be Free to Fulfill Your Destiny

Grow Up and Be Free to Fulfill Your Destiny

by Olga Hermans

Most Christians desire to fulfill the will of God. They know that they have a covenant with God and that all the promises in that covenant belong to them. Then there is the world on the other side that tries to talk them out of their covenant rights and privileges, especially the promises about prosperity and financial provision.

God has prepared a wonderful inheritance for you and me and those who are mature, responsible and faithful will receive it. Gal.4:1-2 shows us that although this inheritance belongs to us, childlike tendencies will hinder us to receive them.

Do you think that, that is unfair? I love my children very much, but I wouldn’t give them something if they weren’t old enough or mature enough to handle it. I wouldn’t give my son a motorcycle, if I knew he was way too young for it. I wouldn’t give my daughter a sewing machine for instance, if she was way too young for it.

Likewise, our heavenly Father loves us too much to give us things we can’t handle. Therefore it’s important that we understand what’s needed to walk in the abundant life. People grow in different areas in a different way, but God expects to grow all areas of our lives-spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically and financially.

We can make the growth process easier by desiring more of God’s Word. “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). That means, when we are thirsty for the Word, we put a demand on the Holy Spirit Who causes us to grow. “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

First Corinthians 13:11 says, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Child of God, if you’re still carrying a chip on your shoulder because of something that happened in the past, get over it and move on!

Stop being jealous when some of your friends gets promoted; instead rejoice with them for what the Lord has done for them and know that you might be next in line. Don’t think about what other people might think of you. One of the biggest things that we need to be set free from is the fear of man; we need to fear the Lord instead!

Put away childish behavior so you can walk in your inheritance. Eph. 4:14-15 Grow up and be free from your old ways in order to fulfill your destiny. If what people think about you moves you more than what God says about you, then God isn’t the Lord of your life. God cannot do anything for you when all you’re concerned about is popular opinion.

We need to get our priorities straight. It is very simple when we keep our eyes on what God says and not what Joe and Annie say about us. We should live to please God; our destiny is in His hands; He created us and has all the answers to all our questions.
Isaiah 51:12 NLT says: “I, yes I, am the One who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear?

Instead of listening to criticism and sarcasm, we should be focusing on God. Listening to critic and sarcastic remarks will cost you your healing, provision and the salvation of family members if you allow it to affect you. You see, it’s not only about you. God wants to bless you so that you can bless others (Gen. 12:2-3).

You really have to be on the alert, because satan will bring people into your life that tell you all the details about how selfish it would be for you to prosper and be blessed. But you and I know that he is the father of lies, he cannot do anything else. John 8:44 He will try to bring shame on you and talk you out of what rightfully belongs to you.

So, rise up and be humble before God, but be bold enough to apply the Word of God to your life and receive His blessings with a thankful heart. You really shouldn’t think twice about who disagrees with what you are believing for. Be free and walk in complete liberty from people and their opinions so you can possess all the Father has for you.

If you are born again, Jesus Christ has made you free from the bondage of opinions so you can glorify God, free from poverty so you can be rich, and free from sickness and disease so you can be healed. He made you free to walk in liberty.

Like any loving father, God wants us all to grow up and become mature. He has prepared a great inheritance for us. Make a quality decision to obtain wisdom through His Word and spend quality time in His presence. Before you know it you’ll be walking in His freedom…and in His blessings continuously.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

Jesus ALWAYS wants to heal you!

Jesus ALWAYS Wants to Heal You!

By Olga Hermans

One of your most vital spiritual assets that you need these days is your healing. No matter how committed you are to your assignment from God, it’s tough to keep believing for the victory when your body is hurting. It’s more difficult to be strong in your spirit when you’re physically weak.

You know it, I know and satan knows it!

Sickness can really slip up on us and when we don’t have enough strength to resist it, we get discouraged and end up being robbed of our precious time being effective in what we are doing. That is definitely not the way it should be.

When we desire to be valuable and successful in the Kingdom of God; we need our full strength and health to fulfill all God has called us to do. Please don’t think right now that you know everything you need to know about healing, because you might miss out on something.

You see, healing doesn’t come just by agreeing with the right doctrine. It doesn’t come from just listening what other people say. Jesus Himself is the healer. So, the very first thing we need to do is go to Him.

When you read the gospels you see that people flocked to Jesus by the thousands when they were sick. They didn’t first go to the church, although that is a good thing to do. They didn’t complain to their friends. They went to Him! When they did, He was good to them and preached the Word to them.

It always was Jesus personally who delivered people from their sicknesses and pains. He is the one who took their infirmities away so that they wouldn’t have to suffer with them. If you draw to Jesus and fellowship with Him in His Word, He will speak to you just as personal as He spoke to the people in the Gospels.

He will reach out to you and touch you with His healing power just as He did to Peter’s mother in-law who was sick with fever. As you will stretch your heart towards Him in faith, His healing power will flow into you just as it flowed into the woman with the issue of blood. Absolutely!

Sickness is NEVER a blessing. I don’t know why people think that God loves them and makes them sick at the same time. Jesus is ALWAYS willing to heal you; that is what He said time after time to the people who came to Him for healing. Acts.10:38

Jesus settled the crucial issue of whether or not it was God’s will to heal by answering the leper with one short, simple declaration. “I am willing,” He said, “be cleansed.” Isn’t that awesome? Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t give that man a list of 31 reasons why it might not be God’s will to heal Him? Aren’t you glad that He didn’t say, “Well, let me pray about it; sometimes God uses sickness to teach people things and if that’s the case, I’ll have to leave that sickness on you for a while.”

No, Jesus never said that to anybody. He is ALWAYS available to heal you from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet; every sickness has to go when you come in contact with Him. So, make a choice today and seek Him in the Word and let His healing power flow through your whole being.

Sickness is never God’s will for people. If it was, He would have put some sickness in the Garden of Eden before the fall. When He created Adam and Eve, He would have put some cancer or leprosy on them to bless them and make things better. He didn’t do that back then and He doesn’t do that right now. God has never changed His mind; He is always the same; yesterday, today and forever.

Could you ever look up to the cross and say, “Jesus, is it really Your will for me to be healed?” No, of course not. You know that on the cross He was suffering and dying for every need that you would ever have; from sickness to poverty and for every sin that you would ever commit.

You and I know that healing belongs to us because it has already been bought and paid for. We can reach out with confidence and receive it whenever we need it,  knowing that we have “a great High Priest who is able to understand and sympathize and have a shared feeling with our weaknesses and infirmities.’ Hebr 4:14-15

We never have to wonder ever again if healing is ours. What Jesus did on the cross settles it. His sacrificial love cuts through all the entanglements of all our theological and denominational opinions.

It doesn’t matter what others say; Jesus has spoken to us His will for all eternity. He has said not just with His lips but with His precious, poured out blood: “I am the Lord who healeth thee.”


Today Is The Day – Now Is The Time

Today Is The Day – Now Is The Time

by Olga Hermans

I’d like to share one of my favorite scriptures with you today; I have quite a few and this one is certainly one of them.

Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water: but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place. Psalm 66:12 KJV

I took this translation because I like the fact that it speaks of a wealthy place.

God wants to bring you into that place, into your very own wealthy place in Him. You live in Him and you have your whole being in Him. You live in Him and He lives in you. When you are in that place, it will have an effect on all the areas of your life for the good.

God is a good God; He will not force you into that place but He will lead you and in some instances He will even go before you! Because He wants to lead you to that place, you have to learn how to find your wealthy place and then let God bring you there.

I have gone through some rough spots in my life and so have you most likely; I felt at times that I could hardly hold my head above the water and sometimes I felt that I was burned on every side. I remember a time that we were financially in a very tight spot and if somebody hadn’t come in and paid the rent for us, we might have ended up on the streets.

I learned that it is God’s perfect will for us that we come out of those places; we don’t have to stay in those tight spots where we can hardly breathe.

God is a good God and He does NOTHING halfway. His intention is always to bring you out of something to bring you into something better. God brought the children of Israel out of the wilderness into the land flowing with milk and honey.

Have you ever been through the “fire and water” concerning money? There is a big chance that you have like many others and you even might have accepted it. But you know what; we have accepted some things that we should not have accepted.

Now you might be thinking that it is normal to be broke. Let me tell you this and I hope you believe it; it is not normal to be broke; it is abnormal. God has given us this promise in Psalm 102:13 He is telling us to ARISE. This is time to arise to the favor of the Lord.

This is the time for you to realize that you are in a covenant with God and that He has provided everything for you in Christ. He has a plan and a purpose for you; His design for you and me is to be wealthy.

If you don’t know how His covenant works; you probably will think that the prosperity message is a message for the greedy, lazy bunch and you don’t want it. But God providing for your every need is to bring Him Glory; God wants to show the world how well He takes care of you and me.

Do you remember what He did for Ruth? At the time that her husband died, she wanted to stay with her mother-in-law. The next thing that happens is that she meets Boaz who is a wealthy business man and eventually marries him. One minute Ruth was broke and the next minute so to speak she is living in a palace.

Ruth was very faithful; she took care of God’s business by staying with her mother in law and God blessed her tremendously as a result. When you know what God’s will is for you and you give Him 1st place in your life by developing a personal relationship with Him, you are putting yourself in a position to be blessed by Him.

How many are there that have no clue that there is a wealthy place in God that He wants to bring them into. As Abraham’s seed and heir of the world you have the power to get wealth in every form like wisdom and faith, revelation knowledge and the anointing for increase, gifts and fruit of the Spirit; creative ideas, concepts and insights; houses, land, businesses, contracts, favor, jobs, promotions, inheritance, debt cancellation, transportation vehicles and so much more.

You have to exercise diligence, for the hand of the diligent makes rich. Today God’s grace is abounding toward you and your family with a bountiful harvest from all the seed that you have ever sown.

We all need more understanding of the will of the Lord. The 23rd Psalm tells us that the Lord is our shepherd and that we shall not want. Psalm 23:5 tells us that our cup will run over. I believe that when God did it for David, He’ll do it for you and me!

Psalm 66:12 talks about that wealthy place in God. One more time, He doesn’t only want to bring you out; He also wants to bring you in a much better place. When you got saved, you were “brought out” of the Kingdom of darkness. God doesn’t want to stop there. He wants to bring you into a wealthy place too. Receive it by yielding to His will.

Today is Your day! Now Is The Time!

Can You Hit The Mark?

Can You Hit The Mark?

by Olga Hermans

 

Goals are very important; no vision takes shape without goals. You must set goals in order to see your vision become reality; otherwise the visions will be just castles in the air. It takes goals to be able to “hit the mark”.

An archer chooses a target before shooting his arrows. Otherwise the archer will waste his time shooting arrows into “thin air”. Without goals you will never hit the mark and your days will be filled with wasted time.

Do you feel sometimes that you are just wasting time? Sometimes we like to depend upon others for our own goals; we like to seek counsel from others instead of having confidence to seek God for ourselves.

God is pleased with us when we come to Him to find out what He has planned for us from the beginning of the earth and then set our goals after His counsel that He gives us. It takes courage to believe that God would fulfill your goals as we cooperate with Him in the way that He leads us.

How high do you set your goals? Do you work at achieving your goals wholeheartedly? Don’t be afraid to let the Lord lead you in setting good goals. He is behind you 100 percent. Get out there in life and win!

When you have a goal in mind, you certainly hope to see that goal come to pass. You set the end result as the final goal, however, just as each day is measured off in minutes and hours, so your ultimate goal is measured off in smaller steps and stages.

Each step is also a goal, equally important as the ultimate goal, but it is only a part in achieving the final result. The major goals in life are not completed in a day, or even a week. Some may take years and others may incorporate a lifetime.

One of my personal goals for me and for you as my subscribers is to discover the life you were born to live, ignite it with passion and turn it into a profit. I strongly believe that God has anointed us to create wealth to support the work that He is doing in this world.

One of my goals is to create an income online with Young Living Essential Oils and I accomplished my first goal just this week; I received a nice check in the mail from them. That was a goal that I had set in the beginning of the year. We never should despise the small beginnings and give all the Glory to God; He is the one who empowers us to do what we need to do to accomplish what we have set before us.

There are gifts and talents on the inside of you that you need to turn into a profit whether in a ministry or a business; your gifts and talents need to come to the forefront and grow and multiply for others to see them and to enjoy them.

Each and every day is an opportunity to achieve goals and work on others. How very important is it then to make the most of every day.

Our lives are always in transaction and change; nothing ever stays the same. Although we may face some unexpected changes in our lives, we can always be on top of the circumstances with God’s guidance and help; and proper goal setting can make this possible.

God has given us a blueprint for our lives and when we carefully and diligently follow that “blueprint,” each day will be a success leading to more success. No sensible building contractor would start building a house without a blueprint. If he did; it would become obvious to everyone in the end that there was no plan.

So many people go through life without a plan and the end result is equally as disastrous as building without a blueprint. In fact it is much greater tragedy, because the value of a house cannot be compared with the value of a life.

That’s why I am so passionate about the fact when people come to my blog that they will discover the life they were born to live and ignite it with passion and bring Glory to the Lord. Maybe you are thinking now that you made too many mistakes or that your situation has gone too far and cannot be changed.

Or you are at midlife or even older and you are reaping the results of not setting goals. Or you have just become a Christian and you realize that all your goals have been wrong and wonder if it really is possible to have a fresh start. I am here to tell you “YES” it is, it’s NEVER too late to pursue your DESTINY; NEVER!”

One of the most amazing things in the life of Jesus is that He fulfilled goals that had been set for Him, centuries before, through the mouths of the prophets. Jesus has goals for you too. Every promise in the bible is a goal that you can reach. He wants you to walk in abundance.

So, if I were you I would press in on what God has for you; press in and seek first His Kingdom and all those things will be added to you. Jesus wants you to exercise authority over satan and his kingdom. Jesus wants you to be free from anxiety and fear by living in His peace. Jesus wants you to be an overcomer because He overcame every sin for us on the cross.

Have I convinced you that setting goals is really important? Your success depends on the goals you set for yourself. If you don’t plan to succeed, you have already planned to fail. You probably have heard that many times, isn’t?

Let me know in the comment section what you like to achieve and I will come in agreement with you!

Do You Want To Be Right or Do You Want To Be Righteous?

 

 

 

Do You Want To Be Right
or Do You Want To Be Righteous?

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever been in a situation in which standing up for your rights meant stepping out of the will of God? People are crying out for their own rights in the streets. The western world has become a performance-oriented people. It looks like everybody is consumed with making sure nobody violates or breaks their own rights.

We should be very thankful that we live in a country where we can exercise our own rights and that we live in a country in which we are guaranteed certain freedoms by our constitution. But what do you do when you encounter a situation in which standing up for your own rights means stepping out of the will of God?

I believe that the time is coming where we as believers are going to be faced with such decisions; decisions that demand that you choose between “rightness” and “righteousness.” The choices that you will have at that given moment are going to determine for a great deal how your destiny will turn out in the time ahead.

It is important that you will embrace your destiny and pursue the righteousness which is of God, through faith rather than needing to be right all the time.

Do you know somebody in your own circle who wants to be right all the time? Someone who just keeps going until you and everyone else know that they were right all along? That’s what rightness is. On the other hand righteousness is a virtue and refers to uprightness. Righteousness holds the basis of your “rights” or “benefits” with God.

When you have God’s righteousness, you have the right to forgiveness of sin, the right to healing, the right to the presence and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the right to success and the right to security.

These rights were granted to you because God loves you that much and because of His mercy; you didn’t do anything to earn it or to deserve it. It’s all because God loves you and me; He gave it as a gift to us.

I have always wondered why so many Christians are not enjoying the benefits of their righteousness, which means that we are still ignorant of it. If that would not be the case, we would use all these benefits or promises to our advantage.

When we are ignorant of our righteousness in God, we don’t know about the promises to which we have a right. The consequence then is that we will make an effort to establish our own righteousness or rightness.

I have heard many people share a story of a situation where disagreement occurs with someone over a business transaction. The situation might be that you were cheated out of some money. God tells you not to worry about it and that He will take care of it. You have to make a decision at that moment.

Do you do whatever is necessary to prove that you are right? After all, you have been cheated!  Or do you stand in the righteousness of God and trust Him to move on your behalf? The first choice is pursuing your own rightness and the second choice would be that you choose for righteousness.

When you choose for your own rightness rather than righteousness you are concerned with being correct in the eyes of the people around you. When you choose for righteousness; you are definitely concerned about what God thinks and the opinions of people around you don’t matter.

The first choice: rightness is mostly self-centered, because it is all about you. You think you have to defend yourself because you want to look good before man in order to feel good about yourself. You make it very difficult for yourself because you have to prove that you are right and the other person is wrong.

Rightness seeks self gratification and approval from God through good works. In contrast, righteousness recognizes that you are accepted based on what Jesus has done through the shedding of His blood on the cross.

Righteousness on the other hand seeks to please God rather than self and the only way to do that is by faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith. When you keep choosing to prove your own rightness to other people, you leave God out of the picture and you’re on your own. At that moment your door is open for the devil and for anything that he wants to throw at you.

But when you seek God’s righteousness first and foremost, God is committed to back you up every step of the way. The first choice puts you in bondage to other people, while the second choice sets you FREE to serve a loving God who loves you so much more than you can ever imagine. He will take care of your reputation, He will back you up and your reputation will be stronger and better than ever.

A good reputation is very important. I’m just saying that you don’t have to run around trying to defend yourself when people accuse you falsely or tell lies about you. We all have enemies. Just don’t get your eyes on them. Keep your focus on the One who is sitting on the throne in heaven and know the Almighty God Who is taking care of you!

It is such a joy for us to be able to trust in the Lord.
Knowing that His eyes never leave us and that He is always there to defend us and fill our heart with excitement!
He has set us apart to bless us with His abundance and surrounds us with His favor as with a shield.
Psalm 5:11

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You are a River of Living Water

 

 

You are a River of Living Water

by Olga Hermans

 

On the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Passover, Jesus poured out His Spirit on believers in the upper room, and they began speaking in a new language. Rivers of living water flowed out of them, and they prophesied. This experience – the baptism of the Holy Spirit – is available to every born-again believer.

The origin of the rivers written about in John 7:38, is the river that flows from the throne of God. It is the life of God Himself. As we worship God, His river flows. As we speak in other tongues, His river flows. As we prophesy, His river flows. As we speak the Word, His river flows up and out of us.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say that rivers of living water will flow once in a while from those who believe in Him. He said these rivers of living water will flow continuously. That living water is the Holy Spirit. In this passage, Jesus talks about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which we have received if we have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior – the Person and the power of the Holy Spirit in us.

The river of living water flows within you and me. It is not supposed to be stopped up, but it is to bubble up within us and flow out of us. Many people have never experienced the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They have never let the rivers flow out of them. This experience was foreign to me as I was growing up, because I was raised in the Catholic Church. They also spoke a language that I couldn’t understand – Latin.

I remember very well the day that I got baptised in the Holy Spirit. Although I told people that I desired to speak in tongues, nobody told to me that I could receive this gift any time. My ideas about how spiritual things worked came from my upbringing in the Catholic Church. So I thought that I had to go to a certain service to receive this baptism. Knowing this, God told me to go to a certain meeting that was a two-hour drive away.

At the end of the meeting, they asked if there was anyone who wanted to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I did, and received it gloriously, fluently speaking a language that I had never heard before. I jumped in, and that language suddenly came alive. I loved it.

When you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, you are filled with a power that affects your entire being. To walk in victory, you must release the refreshing rivers of the life of God that have been deposited inside of you.

In John 7:37-38 Jesus says, “If you’re thirsty, come and drink and I will cause rivers of living water to flow out of your innermost being.” You see, Jesus was talking about rivers and not just one river.

There are many, many rivers flowing inside of you. One of those rivers is the river of reconciliation which actually is a ministry and is entrusted to every believer.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 2Cor. 5:17-19

There are 3 things in this passage.

  1. You have been made a new creation
  2. You have a new ministry
  3. You have a new message fit for a new creation. You definitely have become a new creation; something profound has happened to you.

I want to share a secret with you that my pastor shared with us. If you like to know more about this you can buy his book.
The more you yield to the river that is most prominent within your spirit, the more it will make exit from within your spirit for others in your life.

There are rivers of prayer, rivers of your destiny, rivers of full things that the womb of your spirit is pregnant with from Heaven; and when you begin to yield yourself over to the ministry of reconciliation, it will become the doorway to the destiny that God has for your life.

Isn’t that awesome? So, when you start to reconcile people to God, that river starts to flow on the inside of you to them and that river opens up other rivers on the inside of you and the door of your destiny will open up before you.

I like to encourage you to yield to that river of reconciliation. That river is on the inside of every believer, and this river is a river of life. You have life on the inside of you to give.

It is good to yield to the Spirit of God, to yield to that grace, and allow the Holy Spirit to control us. Have you ever experienced that God touched your heart in spite of you being hardened or stubborn? Maybe you realized that there was a change in your heart and that’s why you were able to respond to God? That was because of the grace of God that went into your heart.

The grace of God lives on the inside of you; in your heart and when you let it bubble up from within you, it will influence the rest of your life and your whole being and then is tangible for people around you to see it. THAT is your destiny!

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How To Keep It Simple

 

 

 

How to keep it simple

by Olga Hermans

 

If ever God would be speaking about simplifying our life, it would be now. People wonder often why they don’t see God’s glory, His presence, or His anointing. They want to experience all the things that seem to happen to other people regularly.

The answer is very often that they need to simplify their life in order for them to understand what God says in His Word.
There is this transformational power in God’s Word; freedom comes and life comes in your heart when you read it. It penetrates your heart when you let it and positive change will happen.

Yet not enough believers experience these kinds of breakthroughs; let’s have a look at why that is.

The primary reason is that their life is too complex. Most people don’t enjoy God’s presence, God’s anointing, or God glorious plan because life is just too complicated.

Then there are people who sit in church or fellowship with one another and talk about the Word but never gain any insight. These people hear the Word, but the revelation of the Word never comes. They don’t seem to have the ability to absorb the fullness of God’s wisdom.

Psalm 119:130 tells us that the entrance of Your Word gives light and it gives understanding to the simple. So, when you would sit under the preaching of the Word, light should come and God’s revelations should come.

The word ‘simple’ doesn’t mean that you are not intelligent or whatever; it means that you are open-minded and that you live a simple life. Have you ever wondered why older people have so much wisdom? I think because they have the time to process life’s experiences. Their life is simple.

Complexity in itself doesn’t have to a bad thing. Our body in itself is very complex and works wonderfully. The reason people don’t know God the way they should is that their lives are just too cluttered and too complicated.

So, if you are born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit, you can be sure that you have the ability to perceive the leadings of the Lord. The problem is that the busyness of your life and the noise of your flesh are depleting your spiritual life, which make it difficult to hear His still, small voice in your heart.

Your spiritual senses are overwhelmed by worldly clutter so they can’t function as they were designed to be.
I will picture an image here: let’s say that you are sitting in a room with your best friend. You are engaged in each other’s conversation and you can hear each other very well. You can pick up every variation of her voice; you know her so well that your communication gets more and more intimate.

Well, all of a sudden the room fills up with people who are all talking at once. Then TV goes on with a football game; people get so engaged in the game that they raise their voices more and more. 

Your friend is still speaking and you can still hear her, but you can’t discern what she is saying as easily as you could when the room was quiet. You might miss a few words and misunderstand a few things.

Now they open the windows and all the sound of the street comes in; buses, trams and taxis are driving and honking their horn. You are looking at your friend and you see her lips moving, but you can’t figure out what she is saying. There is too much noise in the room; you are unable to distinguish the one sound that is important. You are unable to hear the voice of your friend.

This is what many people experience in their prayer life. Our flesh and our natural concerns of this world are making too much noise and are asking attention from us all the time. Too bad, because what God wants is right there to talk to us, but we have to get quiet before the Lord and give Him all our attention just like you would do with your best friend.

People keep waiting on the leading of the Lord; they think that He is not leading them right now. But that is not true; He is always leading us. But if we don’t obey those leadings, He won’t be able to take us any further. We find ourselves spiritually stuck and unable to rise up to higher levels where our heart desires to go.

It says in Psalm 46:10 that if we will be still before the Lord, we will be sure that we hear Him tell us how much He loves us and that you are a son to Him. Hearing Him say that will give you such a boost that you want to come back again and be still before Him and listen to that still small voice and hear some more from Him.

But if our life is too busy and too cluttered and has gotten a little too comfortable with the ways of this world, we won’t be able to hear Him. People think that it is ok to talk to God while listening to the noise of the world. If you talk to God while you go and do certain things, that is perfectly fine and it is a good thing.

But there should be times in your daily routine that you set yourself apart from everything around you and make time for God. Get your emotions and affection untangled from the earthly affairs.

It is time for us to set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth. It is time for us to get the worldly clutter out of our minds so that we can more readily hear and respond to the voice of the Lord.

We do that by purposely putting more time and energy into spiritual things. We do it by spending extra time each day worshiping the Lord, meditating on His Word, and praying. We do it by giving more of our attention to Him.

 

It’s Time To Believe for The Favor of The Lord

 

It’s Time To Believe For the Favor Of The Lord

 by Olga Hermans

 

It’s time and you know it; it’s time to believe for the impossible to come into your life. God only wants us to go forward, never backwards. You can read in the book of Job where he says that “the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.” But then in the end Job still believed and ended up with twice what he had before. God restored back to him double.

God is not a respecter of persons, what He did for Job, He will do for you! God not only wants to bring you out, He also wants to bring you out better off than you were before.

No, God is not limited by the economy. God is not limited by our education or our lack of it. God is not limited by the environment we were raised in. The only thing that is God is limited by is our belief. You need to believe that God is shifting things for you to your advantage. He is shifting things in favor of you.

Psalm 102:13 says there was a set time for favor. That means there was a set time for people to receive increase, a set time they would see blessings. It’s the same way today. God has seasons in which supernatural doors will open, seasons in which you will accomplish things you never thought possible, seasons in which you will see great things to begin to happen.

It is up to you to believe this; if you don’t believe this, you are going to miss out. This is for people who dare to rise up to their highest potential, for those who are pressing in to more of God. This is for those who have waited upon the lord and they know in their spirit that this is true. This is the time that God is doing great and mighty things even beyond our own imagination.

Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to help the poor, to comfort the hurting, and to announce the acceptable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:19 says …. “This is God’s year to act!” Msg The ISV translation says: … to announce the year of the Lord’s favor.”

People had been in a very dry time before this was proclaimed by the Lord. There had been years of fighting and of judgment, but Jesus announced that things were changing from that time on. He said: “This is your season of favor.”

He declared it openly to all people and some took it for real and some didn’t want to believe it. It was almost that they couldn’t believe it because they were hanging on to their past; they felt they had sinned too much and that they never would accomplish their dreams or that they never would get healed or get out of debt or whatever it was.

By holding on to those thoughts they missed their season; they missed everything that God had for them, they missed their season of favor. Don’t let this be you; I urge to rise up and believe that this is the time to rise up and discover the life you were born to live; ignite it with passion and do something with it.

Maybe you feel like you are rowing upstream; life has been a constant struggle for you. You know what; you are not the only one. Many people feel that way; things have happened to them that totally got them off track and they are very disappointed. But God says, “Things are about to shift in your favor to receive the favor of the Lord.”

Sometimes when we look into our futures, we don’t see much. We don’t have a clue how we could ever get out of debt or get healed; we don’t see how our son or daughter could ever come home again. I know; I have been there. I just couldn’t see until my pastor started to talk about the goodness of the Lord and that all God wants to do in our life is bring restoration; that is the favor of the Lord.

It doesn’t matter what you have done, it doesn’t matter where you have been. God is able to wash you in the precious blood of Jesus and you are clean from top to toe and the best thing is that He will never bring it up again! So, why would you keep thinking about it and keep talking about it? Stop that and start believing the favor of God.

You need to be able to sense it before it arrives, which means that you start thinking that restoration will come into your life no matter what happens. God has promised it and that’s it. You see it coming; it might look impossible in the natural, but you know on the inside that it will come to pass. You sense it, you know it and you believe it.

Maybe your business is slow, sales are down but you can sense that the favor of the Lord will bring the necessary increase. You can sense that this is your year of favor; you sense that your best days are just ahead of you.

This is a season of change and of increase. You have to be perceptive and sense that the hand of God is upon your life; He has His eyes on you. The goodness of the Lord is at hand. The Lord has done some awesome miracles when He was here upon the earth to let us know that He only wants go around and do good things. Will you receive it when He comes your way or will you back away?

You won’t back away if you prepare your heart and you sense that the goodness of the Lord is coming your way. Receive it; this is the year for a glorious breakthrough in every area of your life. Listen to that still small voice on the inside of you that says: “I can turn it around. I can do what men can’t do. Will you let me?”

God is saying: “I have a new beginning. I can resurrect those dead dreams. Your best days are still ahead of you.” Are you sensing it? I sure hope so! Remember, the favor of the Lord is at hand!