Spiritual Storms

by Bill and Marsha Burns
http://ft111.com

The Lord has spoken to us and given us direction so that we know mentally where we are going, and we have times of spiritual exhilaration, but those times are quickly engulfed and extinguished by the storms. The storms of life have often obliterated our spiritual visibility. It’s hard to see where we are, let alone have any vision for what’s ahead. As a people, we are tired and battle weary.

There seems to be no end to the onslaught – spiritual attacks against God’s people in health, relationships, work, and finances. The difficulties of this present time have caused a subtle, but deep-seated discontentment and insecurity. And, this discontentment, which is all storm-related, has opened the door to a seducing spirit that prods us to find contentment in our flesh through fantasy and trying to find ways to escape the trouble.

Philippians 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Thanksgiving will accelerate the spiritual process that will get us to a place of stability and of believing God for His direction and leading. We have to cooperate with the flow of the Holy Spirit as He re-establishes divine order in our lives, and the Lord said that our sense of contentment will be restored by making a decision to be content and by putting things in perspective through our faith.

Philippians 4:12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

1 Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

2 Peter 1:2-8 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self–control, to self–control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Get the Two Together

by Kenneth Copeland

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
(Colossians 2:6-7)

Established in the faith and abounding with thanksgiving. These days it seems that’s a rare combination.

A lot of people have been taught faith over the last several years, and a lot of people have been taught to abound with thanksgiving. But it’s been hard to set the two together. Faith folks want to confess the Word all the time, but they don’t praise God very much. And those who like to praise God just want to jump and shout and dance and have a good time in the Lord. You can’t get them to get very serious about the Word.

Success comes from combining the two.

So, do it! Put them together in your life. When you run into a challenge, don’t just stand around grim-faced and white-knuckled holding onto your faith. Raise your hands high and praise. Start thanking God in the midst of what’s happening around you. Keep thanking Him for the answer until it comes.

Instead of just standing on the Word, let the joy of the Lord enable you to dance around on it a little. It will get you where you’re going a whole lot faster…and both you and God will have a much better time on the way.

Scripture Study:  Colossians 2:1-10

George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to “recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:”

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, A.D. 1789.