Morning Call to Worship – Day 21

Morning Call to Worship – Day 21

The Bible says that the earth is the Lord’s and that the all the fullness of the earth belongs to Him. He rains on the just and the unjust. The lilies of field in all their beauty are nourished by His water from under heaven. When the Lord reigns in your life, things that you thought would not change for your good, start changing. People who said that they would not help you will either get on board, or get out of the way.

God does have a way of making all things work together for your good. When He is reigning, you have the privilege of walking in the reign. You stand under heaven and catch reign in the well of your heart. While God is reigning, take this opportunity to let Him wash away the toxic emotions that may be eroding your joy.

My storage of self-sufficiency is empty. I surrender all. My will, Lord is at your command. Like rain, I need your anointing to free my soul, to make me whole.

• Today’s Theme: Listening for reign.
• Affirmation: The King of Kings is reigning in my life.
• Scripture Basis: I Corinthians 1:1-9, Psalm 130:5

Listening For Reign

Jesus questioned why the Pharisees seemed to know when the sky was about to get cloudy and bring forth rain, yet, they could not discern the signs of the times. There is a season to everything under heaven. Consecrating yourself to God will sharpen your spiritual senses and should also heighten your perception of how God is moving and what He wants you to do.

An Ordinary Life

Sometimes, God chooses ordinary people. Even so, nothing He builds is commonplace. No, that it is not a word puzzle. When God reigns in your life, you may have been an average singer, but you become an anointed psalmist. You may have been an all right (or just ah-ight) speaker, but you become a divine orator. You may have planted a single day in His Spirit before now; but you get the same reward as the one who has been working forty years, because it is from the same Spirit (Galatians 6:8). There is only one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:5).

You may have been just an Average Jane, Another Jenny on the block; but when God gets in your business, things start happening. You will not do the same things that you used to do. You will not go to the same places that you used to go. When I say not the same, it does not mean that your every destination will change, or that your every occupation will be different. Not everyone is doing everything wrong. I am talking about the heart of you. You will not act the same, because you will not be the same. You will not leave Him, like you came, in Jesus’ name. Once you have been separated (Acts 13:2); once you have been justified (Romans 8:30); you will work while it is day, for the night comes when no one can work (John 9:4).

The reign of God is the sovereignty of God. It will stir up the gift (2 Timothy 1:6) of God within you to affect your situation. When you hear the alter call, get up, and get in the prayer line. You may have been ordinary, but I decree and declare that you will become a phenomenal faith walker. That is what God’s reign does when it starts turning in you.

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are they that trust in Him. When you are chasing after God, as if your life depends on it, you might have to get out of the hater huddle. However, do not worry. No one has left anything for His sake and the gospel, who will not receive that and greater in this time and in the end, eternal life (Mark 10:30). Our Father is rich, in houses and land. If it were not so, the LORD would have told you. What will you bring Him? Can you trade your ordinary life, for a crown and white raiment? For a peace that passes understanding? For a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert? You can get real freedom.

You can start out, or start over, but start when it’s reigning Jesus. Follow His glory. You will have more peace. You will have more joy. God does not need you to have your ducks in a row before you surrender all to Him. He can even line up nations all by Himself. Do not wait for a trial and a test, before you make a true commitment. In this world, trials will come, but you do not have to be always down and out.

I do not know about you, but I had been down long enough. I have been talked about, kicked out, broke, broken, busted and disgusted. It was time for a change – those winds are blowing now. The latter rain is coming, because the LORD is reigning. It’s reigning Jesus! Start signing in the reign. The praise always comes before the victory.

Outreach / Reflection

Today’s Outreach / Reflection topic is there is power in the name of Jesus to help me make right choices. When God is reigning in your life, your measure of faith is important to overcoming obstacles. Jesus performed more miracles in places where the people believed on Him. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. You can be next in line for a miracle, but you have to believe God is and that He is able to perform it.

When the enemy sees you prospering, he wants to fray your garment of praise to God, causing you to doubt His authority and power. When the new King of Egypt saw that the children of Israel outnumbered the Egyptians, he chose not to collaborate with them. Rather, he chose to oppress them. This is the pattern of the enemy who sees your prosperity as a threat – he does not want you to have a greater platform and influence because you are the light of the world, lifting up JESUS as you let your light shine. JESUS said that HE would draw all men (people) to Him when we lift Him up.

Despite the enemy’s efforts to thwart your success, God has a way of moving in your situation. In today’s reading, the more the Egyptians afflicted the children of Israel, the more they “multiplied and grew.” Your adversary wants you to crumble under intense pressure. If he was really smart, he would leave you alone – because the lower he oppresses you, the lower you bow before the Almighty God. The more he pressures you like coal, the bigger diamond you will be.

When situations are working for your good, the enemy sees the good in your life as his personal thorn to battle. Your happiness, your faith, your prosperity… all of these circumstances are a blessing to you, but the enemy sees them as a hindrance to his plan. His desire is for you to feel defeated and cast down. Yet, we learn in II Corinthians 4:8-9 that though we may be troubled by circumstances, we are not distressed because we know that God has the power to change our circumstances. We may not understand what is going on, but we do not have to feel desperation over whatever is going on. It is only a matter of time before our deliverer shows up on our behalf and the enemy is going to pay double for our trouble. We may even be persecuted, but our Heavenly Father will not forsake us; and though the enemy may cast us down, he does not have the power to destroy our soul.

Understanding that Satan sees our well-being (whether spiritual or natural) as an obstacle, we also know that he has his own logic about how to overcome obstacles. Often, his way is to ruin the influence of good people whose lives are looked to by others to set an example of faithfulness to God. By attacking their influence, Satan seeks to kill two birds with one stone – both the leader and the flock. But we overcome him by the blood of the LAMB and the word of our testimony.

The Hebrew midwives in today’s lesson were courageous. They refused to follow the instruction of the Egyptian king when his request conflicted with what they knew was right in the eyes of God. They could have feared for their own lives. They did not consider their lives more precious than the lives of the children. They knew that destroying another life would not save their own when God desires none to be destroyed. They decided that taking the risk to save the children was more important than what Pharaoh could do to them. Man is able even to kill the body, but all souls belong to God. For their defiance of the decree, Pharaoh tried to intimidate the midwives, but they were wise. Those who are unwise sometimes mistake wisdom for foolishness. Lacking understanding, the foolish condemn the wise for making decisions that they would not make themselves; but God uses foolish things to confound the wise.

The midwives must have understood that sowing death could not lead to longevity. This is a concept that Pharaoh did not understand. He thought that by killing the children of Israel, it would preserve his place on the throne by getting rid of the competition. He was wrong. His persecution of the children also cost him his own son.

We can take from the lesson of the midwives that God honors those who honor Him. Because the midwives obeyed God rather than Pharaoh’s deadly decree, “God dealt well with the midwives…”

The enemy looks for ways to infiltrate God’s camp. Satan may have a goal of destroying the mighty, but he looks for the path of least resistance. The weakest link poses the least resistance. When the king could not rely on the midwives to put the children away quietly to death, he turned to the people, playing on their fear. Fear is a spirit. GOD has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Moses was born after the decree to kill all sons went out to the kingdom. But Moses’ mother was a daughter of Levi. She did not obey the words of Pharaoh, but hid the child for three months. When she could no longer hide him, she had faith that God would continue protecting him when she no longer could. She made a basket that would not sink, and put the child in the basket. She set the basket afloat near the side of the river. God guided the small ark. A maiden of the daughter of Pharaoh found it.

God intervened in the life of the child. The maiden recognized that the child in the ark was one of the Hebrew’s children. The word says that she had compassion on him. But of all of the Hebrews, how could she have known who the mother of the child was. But the Word says that she called the child’s mother to nurse the child. The Bible does not say that she investigated the situation to find out who the mother was. Moses’ mother found favor with God. She did the best that she could do to save the child’s life. God honored her effort and brought the child back to her, even after she sent him away – because she feared (reverenced) GOD.

Not only did God spare the child’s life, He brought the child before great men and women who had the resources to provide him with an extraordinary education and lifestyle. God had a plan for the child.

What would have happened if the child’s mother had obeyed man and not the will of God? God would have risen up another deliverer for the Children of Israel, but his mother would have missed a great blessing.

When the time comes to make a decision, we should think not only of the consequences to our own lives, but of the will of God. He has the power to remove the influence of what we would fear, and to allow only His blessing to prevail. If our choices align with God’s will, He is able to maintain his hedge of protection around us as a reward for our obedience. Do not fret if the world does not understand what you are doing. The light shines in the darkness and it is not understood.

God understands that the often-accepted ways of the world are sometimes in conflict with what He expects of our choices. Paul said, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient.” Right choices are not always popular, but God will honor those who honor His will.

Thank you JESUS! Hallelujah!

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