Showing posts with label Annagail Lynes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Annagail Lynes. Show all posts

Friday, August 24, 2007

Faith-Lift Friday: Faith Works by Love

Encourage others and yourself! Share a scripture, quote, devotional, lyrics, or anything that has blessed you and strengthened you in your faith. Don't forget to sign Mr. Linky.
Join us at Sheryl's blog and start sharing your Faith-Lift's for Friday!!

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love. ~ Galatians 5:6 (KJV).

Faith works by love. I believe that every thing in the Bible, every promise, every condition, hinges on the love of God.

It hinges on believing that God loves you. Recently I read a question from someone that read "Is it a sin to love yourself before others?" You cannot truly love yourself or others without believing that God loves you.

And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. ~ Mark 12:31.

This verse tells us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. If we don't love ourselves, we can't love others because we will treat them the same way we treat ourselves. And if we don't love others, we don't love God.

How can we truly love ourselves if we don't believe God loves us? We can only see our true worth when we believe what God says about us. It is only when we believe that the Creator of the Universe, the Great Alpha and Omega, can love someone like us—faults and all--that we can see how much we are worth.

We don't obey God before we believe He loves us. It is a byproduct of believing it. We aren't blessed because we are good enough or because we confess Scriptures every day. It isn't even because we pray enough or go to church enough. No, we are blessed because we believe that God loves us.

When we believe that, we step into our new identity. We put on our coat of many colors, our coat of promise. It represents who we are—children of the Most High God.

It is then that we take on our new identity and become the person God created us to be. We cannot move forward in our destinies, our work for the Lord, until we learn how to be loved by God, until we take a leap of faith and believe that God loves us.

Take the book of John and read one chapter every day. Keep reading it until it seeps into your spirit. Find Scriptures on the love God has for you and read them every day. When you go by the mirror every morning and evening, tell your reflection "God loves me."

Do these exercises every day until you really believe that God loves you. Then watch those long-standing problems in your life disappear.

~ Annagail Lynes



Copyright © - Annagail Lynes
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This says it all... have faith, memorize His Word & Believe what He says about you.
God Bless, HL

Friday, August 17, 2007

Faith-Lift Friday: Stay Still

Here's another Inner Fullfillment devotional I need to share! Thank you Annagail once again for stricking a nerve and waking us up to what we need to understand!


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STAY STILL

...I have struggled in the past with anxiety issues. I still do from time to time. If I dwelled on the negative thoughts too long, they sent me into a full-blown panic attack. I have experienced panic attacks less frequently since I learned to stay still.

Conventional wisdom tells us when things are going wrong in our lives, when we are going through crisis, we should work harder, read more of the Bible, confess more Scriptures, do more good works.

No, the time for reading, confessing and doing is before the trial. See trials are similar to growing crops. We have to plant the seed, water it and give it sunlight before it grows up. Once it is here, that's not the time to plant, water or give it sunlight. In fact, if we didn't do all those things before, we wouldn't have any crops at all. Instead, when it grows up, it is time to harvest.

The same is true for trials. When we are in the middle of the trial, that is not the time to start reading the Word or confessing Scripture. It is the time to maintain our reading and confessing.

We should be reading the Word and confessing Scriptures before the trial to prepare us for the hard times.

It is a time to rest, to stay still, to believe that God will do what He promised in His Word.

Rest? What does that mean? Most of us in this work hard, play hard society have no idea what it means to rest. We think it means to sleep, but rest is so much more than that.

My Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has ten definitions for rest. My favorites are freedom from activity; quiet; tranquillity; peace of mind or spirit; to repose without anxiety; to trust; rely; depend.

We say we believe God. We say we believe His Word and all the promises in it, but do we really?

Do we believe Him enough to say "God, You said You shall supply all my needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Lord, I'm just going to rest in that promise, knowing you are going to come through for me"? Even when we are facing money issues? Unemployment? Demotion? An empty bank account?

Do we believe Him enough to trust in Him? Rely on Him? Depend on Him when we are in a crisis? For most of us, the answer is no.

Where has our belief in our circumstances gotten us? Where has our belief in the bad reports of this world gotten us? We received what we believed.

If that is true, wouldn't the opposite be true too? If we believe God's Word and put our faith in what God has said, wouldn't we receive what we believe too?

What do we have to lose? If it doesn't work for us, we are still in the same position as we were before. We are no worse and no better.

But what if it does work as God said it would? Then we could be living the life God intended for us to live.

Stay still in adverse circumstances. Believe God. Rely solely on Him and His Word because He keeps us in perfect peace when our minds are stayed on Him.

- Annagail Lynes



Copyright © - Annagail Lynes
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I share this with as the Faith-Lift Friday because I truly feel we all need the reminder to have Faith that God will see us through our trials & truly believe in Him and what He can do.


We need to prepare ourselves and read (bathe ourselves in) His Word, so that when the trial comes we can stay consistent in our readings and prayers. During the trial, stay consistent in reading the Word, don’t lag behind getting sucked into what Satan would want you to focus on. During a trail we need to focus on our beliefs and REALLY believe what God says He can do! I pray that I can remember to rest from the flesh, and walk in the journey of a great harvest while refreshing myself in our heavenly Father when the trials, depression, anxieties, and temptations come.

If you'd like to start receiving the Inner Fulfillment devotions: click here to subscribe!


Thursday, August 2, 2007

Inner Fulfillment - Doubting???

I receive "Inner Fulfillment" devotion daily and really enjoy reading it. I want to share this particular devotion by Annagail Lynes because too many are out there believing satan's lies.

Please, take the time to read, retain, and remember this:


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"I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was younger, but if I died tonight, I don't know if I would go to heaven," a friend of mine wrote when she instant messaged me awhile back.
Unfortunately, each of us have felt this way at one time or another. I know, I have.
One day, the devil kept whispering in my ear, "You aren't saved. God doesn't talk to you like He talks to Joyce Meyer or Benny Hinn. He doesn't do things for you like He does for Marilyn Hickey."

At first, I tried to resist, but the more I thought about it, the more doubt seeped in.
The question of not being saved tormented my mind. As hard as I tried, I couldn't think of anything else. I decided to do something about it.
I picked up the phone and called my local Trinity Broadcasting Network station, praying a prayer partner would be down there. Within seconds, I was connected with a mild-mannered woman.

She listened carefully as I told her the problem.

After an agonizing moment of silence, she said, "I've had that problem myself, and let me tell you what God told me."

I couldn't wait to find out what God told her. Maybe it was the lifeline I needed to keep me from drowning in this ocean of torment.

She continued, "The devil is a liar, so the only reason he would tell you that you aren't saved is because you are."

A two-hundred pound weight seemed to be lifted off my shoulders. My mind suddenly became clear.

Revelations 12:9
says , "Satan, which deceiveth the whole world..."

John 8:44
also notes that satan has "no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."

You may be thinking "How do we know that it is satan that is tormenting us?"

Are you full of doubt, fear and confusion? Are you restless and feeling condemned? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, more likely than not the devil has been speaking lies to your mind.

2 Timothy 1:7
explains "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

1 John 4:18
reminds us "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."

When we are afraid of where we will spend eternity, fear's twin brother doubt moves into our minds as well.

"But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed," states James 1:6.

I know when I am being tormented by the devil, I feel like I am on a ship in very choppy waters, the wind blowing hard. I am being tossed from the left side of the boat to the right and back again. If I don't make the boat stop, I will become sea-sick.

When we are harassed in our minds, we are not experiencing the peace that God gave us in John 14:27. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

One of God's Names is Jehovah-Shalom, which most people translate to mean the God of Peace. More specifically, though, the word Shalom means nothing missing, nothing broken.
That's the way God wants your life to be--nothing missing, nothing broken.

But how can you have that peace, that assurance, if you doubt whether you are saved or not?

Let's see, what the Word has to say.

John 6:44
assures us, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him:"

If that is true, then the fact that you accepted Jesus into your heart in the first place means God drew you to Himself.

No man can pluck you out of His hand. If you flew to the far side of the sea or the remotest part of the world, the Lord's hand would still be upon you.

Sometimes even knowing this doesn't help us to feel better.

Although your spirit became saved when you asked Jesus into your heart, your soul--your mind, will and emotions--didn't.

Romans 12:2
instructs us to renew our minds.
We renew it by "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" (2 Corinthians 10:5).

When the devil whispers in your ear, "You aren't saved,"
grab your Bible and say, "Devil, the Word of God says that you are a liar. Therefore, if you say I am not saved then I must be saved."

You are replacing the negative thoughts the devil planted in your mind with the truth--the Word of God.

You may not feel saved, especially if you have sinned, but your feelings are not an accurate judge of what is going on around you.

Have you ever had a teacher who was tough on you, and you were convinced that he was out to get you? Then you found out that the teacher didn't hate you but was trying to bring out your potential? In that case, your feelings weren't telling you the truth, were they?

If you have sinned, 1 John 1:9 gives us the solution: "If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
There is nothing you can do that God won't forgive you for because Psalm 103:3 tells us "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities..." All, not some.

If you've walked away from God or the devil is continuing to torment your mind, give him a one-two punch by re-dedicating your life to Christ.

If any man comes to Christ, He will in no way cast him or her out.
Romans 10:9-10 instructs us "That
if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation
."

Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that he was beaten and bruised for every sin you have committed or will commit? That He was raised from the dead three days later? If so, then pray this prayer aloud:
"Heavenly Father, I believe in my heart that Jesus died on the cross for all my sins. I believe He was raised from the dead. I confess Him as Lord. Jesus, come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior. From this day forward, I will follow you all the days of my life. Thank You, Father. In Jesus' Name. Amen."

If you prayed that prayer, let me know.

You are now a part of God's family. And there are no illegitimate children in His family.
The devil is a liar. If he says you aren't saved, then you must be a Born-Again Believer. Don't let the devil talk you out of your salvation. Hit him with the Word.

- Annagail Lynes

Copyright © - Annagail Lynes
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I hope you enjoyed this devotional... let me know what you think!
HL