Will you say “yes” to Him?

“Now there was in Damascus a disciple named Ananias. 

The Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he answered,

Here am I, Lord. 

And the Lord said to him, Get up and go to the street called 

Straight and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus

named Saul, for behold, he is praying [there].”

Acts 9:10, 11

 

I hope we all know the story of Ananias. God spoke to him

to go to Paul. At that time Paul was causing great suffering

among God’s people. He was imprisoning them and killing

them.

So when God told Ananias to go to Saul it was not

surprising he had reservations about going to him.

 

“But Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard many people

tell about this man, especially how much evil and what 

great suffering he has brought on Your saints at Jerusalem;

Now he is here and has authority from the high priest to 

put in chains all who call upon Your name. “

Acts 9:13, 14

 

But read what God tells him,

 

“But the Lord said to Him, Go, for this man is a chosen

instrument of Mine to bear My name before the Gentiles

and kings and the descendants of Israel; “

Acts 9:15

 

But I love how Ananias responded to God,

 

“So Ananias left and went into the house. And he laid his 

hands on Saul and said, Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, 

Who appeared to you along the way by which you came here, 

has sent me that you may recover your sight and be filled

with the Holy Spirit. “

Acts 9:17

 

Ananias said yes to God! That’s all that mattered to him at the

end of the day.

 

I share that story to show you that God uses simple, ordinary,

obedient people to carry out His will!

You don’t have to be anyone grand, you just need to be obedient!

I don’t know about you but I want to be used more by God.

I don’t want fear to stop me.

Ananias may have been afraid but that didn’t stop him from

obeying God.

We are God’s hands and feet in this earth.

So the question is, are we obeying His voice or are we

expecting someone else to answer His call?

Do we think we are too insignificant to be used by Him?

That is a lie from the enemy.

God loves you and wants to use you in a mighty way.

He is not waiting for you to become a millionaire to use you,

He is not waiting for you to get your life “sorted” out before

He can use you.

 

Please understand something, without God’s grace and favor

on our lives we wouldn’t be able to do anything.

But we have been filled with His holy Spirit and that

means we can do anything no matter our past, no matter

our skin color, no matter what people label us as.

Remember Gideon

Remember Moses

Remember Peter

Remember Mary

Remember Rahab

 

These people were not qualified according to the world’s

standards.

They were nobodies but not to God.

He saw them differently.

He saw greatness in them.

He validated them and that was the most important thing!

 

The word today is simple, God needs you!

He wants to use you.

You are His hands and feet.

He is looking to and fro across the earth to see who will say “yes”

to Him!

Will you say “yes” to Him today??

Bless you friends….

 

Rolain

 

 

Will you wait….???

 

Be strong and let your heart take courage,

all you who wait for and hope for and expect

the Lord!

Psalm 31:24

 

If you think waiting on God is a walk in the

park think again……

If you have really waited on God you will

know the truth. It’s a fight to wait.

Psalm 31 captures it perfectly.

Waiting is not for the faint of heart.

The word says take courage!

 

There have been things I have been waiting

on God for. I have been waiting for months

and years! It’s been such a test. But do I regret

the wait? Not on your life. The waiting was needed.

It played an important part in my growth as a son

of God and it still does…..!

You see, waiting reveals where you are really

at with God. It reveals your heart.

 

The Israelites saw that they were in trouble.

They felt trapped. They ran away to hide in

caves and cracks in the rock. They hid among

the rocks, in wells, and in other holes in the

ground.

Some Hebrews even went across the Jordan

river to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was

still at Gilgal. All the men in his army were

shaking in fear.

Samuel said he would meet Saul at Gilgal.

Saul waited there seven days. But Samuel

had not yet come to Gilgal, and the soilders

began to leave Saul. So Saul said, “Bring

me the burnt offerings and the fellowship

offerings.” Then Saul offered the burnt

offering.

As soon as Saul finished offering that sacrifice,

Samuel arrived. Saul went out to meet him.

Samuel asked, “What have you done?”

1 Samuel 13:6-11

 

There is such an important lesson in this story.

Waiting is its own kind of fire. The offering of the

burnt offering was reserved for the priest but

Saul even though was king did it.

God has a reason for making us wait and even

though we don’t understand we must wait. I

have been waiting for a long time for a lot

of things. It has been hard I must admit but I

see it’s what I must do.

God is in control even though it’s hard to see

at times.

 

If you are waiting for God, be strong. It takes a

strong person to wait on the Lord.

Let your heart take courage. The enemy wants us

to panic and take matters in our own hands.

Waiting is one of the greatest acts of trust we can

perform to God.

Impatience shows God our lack of trust in Him.

God’s promise to you may take weeks, months or

years but wait!! He can be trusted…….

He is working in the waiting! Some of His most

important work happens in the waiting so don’t

despise it.

Don’t lose heart….

You are on His heart….

He has not forgotten about you…..

He is true to His word…..

Amen

 

Rolain

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The arrogance of man….

And Saul built an altar to the Lord;

It was the first altar he built to the

Lord.  1 Samuel 14:35

 

Saul built an altar to God. It was probably the only

altar he built to God.

Why he built the altar is not really clear but the point

is this, he built an altar.

Saul building that altar almost seems out of context.

In fact, it’s so out of Saul’s norm that the word says,

 

“It was the first altar he built to God.”

 

Building an altar meant on a very rare

occasion Saul remembered God, he honored God!

It was one of those very rare occasions where

Saul put God first, where Saul stopped to thank

God.

The altar that Saul built tells us a lot about where

his relationship with God was. He didn’t build altars

which meant something.

 

On the other hand let’s look at David.

Building an altar wasn’t out of context for him.

He built countless altars to God. That also said

something about his relationship with God.

David was a man after God’s heart. God was the

most important thing to him….

 

David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11:1-5)

David kills Uriah (2 Samuel 11:14-23)

In both these situations David repented to God.

He confessed his sins and asked God to forgive him.

His heart broke because of what he did.

 

David counts his people (2 Samuel 24:1-9)

After counting the people the word says:

David felt ashamed after he counted the people

and said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in

what I did! Lord, I beg you, forgive me for my

sin. I have been very foolish.”

2 Samuel 24:10

 

Once again David humbled himself before God.

He confessed his sin to God quickly!

 

David wants to build a house for God.

(2 Samuel 7:1-18)

Even in peace David still sought the Lord.

He never forgot Him!

 

This is what I am trying to show you,

We need to be like David who built countless

altars to God. He loved God so much. Yes,

he sinned many times but he always turned 

to God. No matter how bad things got he

always turned to God and even in good times

he still turned to thank God!

 

Saul didn’t put God first a lot of the time.

Some would say he was proud. He believed

he could make it on his own. He was a skilled

warrior who was a “head taller” than everyone

else. (1 Samuel 9:2)

Whatever the case we must aim to be like

David who humbled himself before God.

He never relied on his own strength. Instead,

he relied on God and ALWAYS turned to

God, always……

The goal is not to be David but it’s to take

those things that made his relationship

with God stronger and apply them to

our lives.

The goal is not to discredit or attack

Saul but it’s to look at his life and

learn from his mistakes. We all sin

so attacking Saul would be foolish…

 

God wants us to put Him first….

Pride will always resist God.

We need to be humble and allow

God to lead us.

Rolain

 

 

The Craziness of Fear!!!

Fear grips us all at some time. It’s OK to have fear but where the problem lies is in how you respond in your fear. Fear is healthy but it is also destructive. A good example of this is seen in the story of King Saul. He had such promise but because of fear he made some really bad decisions. Let us take a deeper look.

– Because of fear, Saul didn’t wait for Samuel to make the offerings. His soldiers were leaving and because of that he made the offerings. He had no authority even as king to make those offerings.
( 1 Samuel 13:8-10 )

Let us take a look at that for a moment. Saul was in fear and fear if not dealt with will get you focusing on what’s happening on the outside (your circumstances). He saw the soldiers leaving an began to fear. He didn’t look to God and because of that he lost what God had given him! Fear will do that. It will get you focusing on your circumstances instead of trusting in God.

We tend to do that a lot. If things don’t go the way we think they should we take matters into our own hands. But it’s sin. I constantly battle with this. I need to constantly remind myself that God is in control, I need to constantly remind myself to not fear and then there are days when I fail!!!

The kind of faith we should have is like Jonathan. He trusted God no matter how impossible the situation seemed! He might of feared, I don’t know for sure but he still stepped out! And because he stepped out God used him mightily! That is the kind of faith I want.

As I end off I would like you to think about fear.
– What have you put off because you were or are fearful??
– Does fear influence a lot of your decision making?
– Are you constantly being moved by what happens around you?
– Could you say you act more like Saul or do you act like Jonathan?

These are questions to help you reflect. If we are to do great things for God then we need to move past our fears and step out in faith. Yes, Gods plans for us scare us at times but let us not stop there, let’s step out in faith!!!!

Rolain