Remember the Wish Bone?

Voice of Prayer

When our daughter was small, we had our family over for the holiday meal. They were new to the area and while eating, the conversation had turned over to the topic of the day: The Turkey!
Yes, we laughed about some momentous moments of getting that "bird" cooked and served just like you see on T.V. or in a magazine.
But I recalled this one time, when I was about ten years old, that when the meal for our family who had gathered at Thanksgiving, comprised a total of eighteen people. Of that number ten were children and the oldest of the group pushed out her chair and ran for the "turkey" that remained from that festive meal. In the process, some things were moved and even pushed out of the way to present the part of the "bird" that at least three people desired to grab hold of and that was the "the wish bone".
Chaos ensued, and much yelling of "who" would take hold.........meaning only two people can hold it between them and break the wish bone, right?  With the battle over, the wish bone broken, I thought of all the hoopla over a...."bone"!
In relating this tale to our daughter, we laughed at the humor and wondered if people still do that sort of thing.
Of more recent days, I remember just seeing a commercial around the holiday season of some younger ones grabbing for that "wish bone" and wonder why or "if" they still do it.

In thinking of our walk with God, we do not need "wish bones". We have His word that will strengthen us. His words comfort us when in hurt and pain. He delights for us to call on Him and delights to hear us give Him praise for all that He has done for us. Was on the way back from a blood draw the other day and praised Him on that trip, both going and coming back to the country. It was a great report. The hemoglobin was around its normal level. Yes, God is good!
I also thought today in hearing a teaching by Joyce Meyer how it is important to have a backbone.

In a prayer meeting about 3 years ago, I remember this young man prophesying about the "church" the body of believer's to have a real backbone. Although I have thought of his given word from the Lord many times in the past three years, I believe it to be so more of the "now word" if you please!

Each of us has to stand. We need the stability and agility to stand and still be flexible....without breaking or falling apart.  In a recent teaching loaded on my "Voice of Prayer" You Tube Channel, it was title The Truthful Witness: Not Based on Lies, False Ideas or Fantasy. We had looked at Luke 4:1-13.......NKJV.

Luke 4:1 -13….NKJV…Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, ”If You are the son of God, command this stone to be become bread.” 4 But Jesus answered, saying “It is written, “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” 5 Then the devil, taking Him upon on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “all this authority I will give You, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” Hemming in, isolation

8  And Jesus answered & said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan!” “For it is written You shall worship the LORD your God & Him only you shall serve.” 9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to HIM, “if You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 for it is written: “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you, ‘ 11 “and , in their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. 12 And Jesus answered & said to him, “It has been said, YOU shall not tempt the LORD your God.” 13 Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

In that teaching you will remember if you saw it and heard it that the Holy Spirit lead Jesus out into the wilderness. Hard time? Most likely! But testing does come, and we must have the backbone to stand, yes with flexibility but also with agility to move when God sends us out to do something for Him. That strength comes when we apply our heart to His instruction and our ears to the words of knowledge. As we lend our ear to understand, we are preserved by His discretion working in us. And it is His loving kindness in the daytime and at night, we see and know, His song is with us......it is the prayer to the God of my life and your life.

For if we would just come and hear Him, come and hear all who fear God..........others should hear what you and I will declare what He has done for our souls. Jesus heard the devil speak and Jesus answered with the written word of God. It was not some quote from some guy who lived a hundred years ago, but by the living Word of God.

Will we stand with backbone in these last days? Will we proclaim God's goodness?

James 3 :9-18 Amplified Bible

9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so. 11 Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?

 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren bear olives or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water. 13 Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [un-obstrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry) selfish ambition in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.

 15 This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal, even devilish (demonical). 16 For wherever there is jealousy (envy)  and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition) there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices. 17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled) then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits: it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering and insincerity).

In Genesis 4:9-16 we read of Cain and when he killed his brother Abel. With intent in his heart, he killed. Out of a hateful jealousy he killed him. And verse 15-16 of chapter 4 mentions that God put a mark on Cain and Cain left the presence of God.
I think of Cain being marked because of the hatefulness of his heart, and of his ability to murder. Being marked, is that which marks our character. In being the stable and the distinct reveals the quality of lack of it denoting a person's life. And what character or stength of character and where it lies, will determine the person's life in regard to " the difficult" or "even the hard" in life.

Abraham Lincoln was quoted as saying that "reputation is the shadow. Character is the tree."

Are we displaying a mere shadow.....or....are we displaying that tree...........for others to see.

Psalm 1:1-6   NKJV   1 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. 4 The ungodly are not so, But  are like the chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Living life by making wishes on a wish bone is living life in a "fantasy". I am not making any wishes on a dead turkey! Anything outside of God and His ways is considered rebellion, and of rage.........and will not end in success of anything. It will only lead to death. ( remember Cain)

As Jesus, we too, must be led by the Spirit of God and meditate and know to say the word like Jesus did in the conversation with the devil.
Strengthen that backbone. Kiss the Son in submission to His leadership and you will see your life ruled by His peace when all others outside the boundary of God will experience violence and wrath against them.

Lord, You are with us. We shout for joy because You defend us (them). Let those also who love Your name be joyful in You, for You OH LORD will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield. (Psalm 5:11-12)
Amen!

Notice: 

The Voice of Prayer  has a new teaching:

The Truthful Witness: Not Based on Lies, False Ideas or Fantasies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yapgc3QC344



You can also visit my You Tube channel The Voice of Prayer for more teaching at:  http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV

The Sum of our Lives

Is there a place devoted for God within our hearts and within our homes?
You can walk into someone's home and tell which is their favorite room.
At my husband's grandmother's abode, it was a beautiful home. It was well built, with beautiful wood. They were not the pretentious type of people. What you saw and heard in them, you got it! They would feed anyone dropping by just to say "hello". Their door was never locked, their kitchen table had another place set with plate and silverware, and just in case, there was an extra bedroom made up to accommodate the most wore out tiny travelers in the country.
What time of day determined the meal being served, but coffee was always available and as well as a good ear to hear.
They had time for the rich and the poor, the able and the disabled. They had time to talk tractors, the Dallas Cowboys and the weather if the need occurred when a sudden tornado came on the scene out their back door.
They never put on airs about their financial prosperity, nor of their own glory, but always looked to help a neighbor, refresh another person and then send them on their way.
It always seemed like the greatest place to be. The people would start to arrive especially when they heard' tiny travelers' had returned for one more visit. The people of all ages would come to gather, to meet family members, greet with a warm cup of cocoa or coffee and ask so many questions, that it seemed more like a ride on a merry go-round. Laughter would fill the room and the T.V. would be heard, BUT only if the Cowboys had scored another touchdown.
Nothing seemed more important at the time than just being together and spending time with those you love.
In writing this today, I became aware of what things we miss when we do not have them any longer. I seem to move more into a place of silence and in that silence, I can almost see through tear drenched eye's the room in a house located in the panhandle of Texas. Today most of the family of that two generations are gone. Other's own the lovely built home. And I wonder if they house the weary, if they invite "tiny traveler" to spend the night or have a friend over just to watch say "the Cowboys" play and maybe score another victory in sports.
What we devote our time to in our lives sums up who we really are in life!
What takes center "stage" within our homes and within our lives?
Do we think of others?


John 14:1-6
travele,

14:1 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know." 5 Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?" 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
NKJV

Jesus spoke about us not being troubled. That we are to believe in God and to believe in Him also. He told of these mansions and how He is preparing a place for "you". Is it "you" that He was mentioning here in John 14?
Was He thinking on "you" when He mentioned mansions.
He desires us to be where He is at.
Enraptured with life and the love of God, would not our homes and hearts reflect how much we really devote to Him?

What endures in the sum of our lives? What we do for Him and through Him should give a loud voice to whom we serve with our whole being. Through Jesus we continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise----the fruit of lips that confess His name. (Heb 13:14-25)
May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, equip us with  everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Have you talked with Jesus today? Have you asked about that "mansion" in heaven? And what might be the address?
Hopefully you are found "in His heart" daily. And in your asking remember to remind Him of what He has spoken in your past. Pay attention to when He is quiet, and wait to speak till you are fully aware you have His full attention. In asking Him into your life, He has not taken His eyes off of you. No, you are all that He sees.

Your "mansion" is ready! He calls you by name! No need to hurry, we still have time, the table is set, the food is prepared, and you will be His guest of honor. Not sure what beverage they will serve: hot chocolate or coffee, BUT FOR CERTAIN, YOU HAVE THE BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE!
AMEN!

I HAVE A NEW WEB SITE AVAILABLE NOW WITH OTHER CURRENT BLOGS AND YOUTUBE TEACHINGS. I INVITE YOU TOO CHECK IT OUT.  THERE IS A PRAYER REQUEST SECTION ON THE SITE.

www.godsgoodnessandlove.com

Notice: 

The Voice of Prayer  has a new teaching published:

AUTHORITY: HIS WISDOM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpvmfoKg98s

You can also visit my Youtube channel The Voice of Prayer for more teaching at http://bit.ly/1tNyBhV