Morning by Morning, May 2 - Freedom from the Self-Centered Pride of the Spirit of Babylon

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Speak to my heart what is on Your heart, as I seek Your face and listen for the leading of Your Spirit -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...

 

"Twelve months later as (King Nebuchadnezzar) was walking on the roof of his palace in Babylon, he said, 'I have built this great Babylon as my royal home. I built it by my power to show my glory and my majesty.' The words were still in his mouth when a voice from heaven said, 'King Nebuchadnezzar, these things will happen to you:  Your royal power has been taken away from you. You will be forced away from people. You will live with the wild animals and will be fed grass like an ox. Seven years will pass before you learn this lesson:  The Most High God rules over every kingdom on earth and gives those kingdoms to anyone He chooses.' Immediately the words came true" (Daniel 4:28-33 NCV).

 

The spirit of Babylon is the spirit of pride -- self-centered "pride" in the sense of all that I am and all that I have and all that I do is all about me; self-centered "pride" in the sense of I'm going to do what I want to do whenever I want to do it and however I want to do it and there's nothing God or anybody else can do about it. No wonder "God is against the proud, but He gives His grace to the humble" (James 4:6 NCV). No wonder "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).

 

When we don't acknowledge You as God and King of our hearts, with Your Word as our Authority and Your Spirit as our Guide we're simply like those who "did what was right in their own eyes" during the cycles of disobedience and destruction in the days when "there was no king in Israel" (Judges 17:6). Like Nebuchadnezzar, full of the spirit of Babylon and the ways of this world apart from You, full of pride, full of ourselves, we soon suffer the consequences until we learn the lesson that there is a Most High God who intends to rule and reign in our hearts and in our land.

 

But in an amazing display of Your mercy and grace, even King Nebuchadnezzar was able to humble himself to repent of his pride and turn to You in acknowledgement of Your truth and Your place as the Authority in our lives. "At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up toward heaven, and I could think normally again! Then I gave praise to the Most High God; I gave honor and glory to Him who lives forever. God's rule is forever, and His kingdom continues for all time.... Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, give praise and honor and glory to the King of heaven. Everything He does is right and fair, and He is able to make proud people humble" (Daniel 4:34-37 NCV).

 

As Your Word assures us, when we "humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, (You) will lift (us) up" (James 4:10 NKJV). "If we confess our sins, He who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). "The sacrifice acceptable to god is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise" (Psalm 51:17).

 

Come, Holy Spirit. Expose and uproot the pride from me that gives any glory or honor or praise for any of the good things in my life to the credit of myself -- my own abilities, my wisdom, my own goodness. "Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father" (James 1:17 NLT). Set me free from the spirit of Babylon, with all its worldly self-centered pride, and give me a heart of humility to honor You and acknowledge You as the Source of every good thing in my life. Then, even "though (I may) fall seven times, (I) will rise again," restored and redeemed in the power of Your mercy and love (Proverbs 24:16). And by the mercy of Your grace, may that be the attitude of my heart long before I have to eat grass like an ass (KJV) for seven years to learn this lesson of humility and pride! (Daniel 5:21) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you filled with a humble heart, free from any spirit of self-centered pride, as the Lord lifts you up in His mercy and love, receiving all glory, honor, and praise for every good thing in your life, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

Healing from the Inside Out

www.Messiah-Ministries.org 

  

Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries

4 Dominion Drive, Building 1

San Antonio, Texas 78257

www.RaphaGodMinistries.com 

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Morning by Morning, May 1 - “Families” Matter

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. King of kings and Lord of lords, be King of my heart and Lord of my life -- this day and every day. ...

 

“Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh -- birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth -- so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families” (Genesis 8:15-19).

 

When it was time to leave the ark, You didn’t send Noah out alone -- You sent him out with his family. And every living thing that You saved through the ark didn’t go out alone -- they “went out of the ark by families.” 

 

In fact, this is the first mention of the word “families” in the Scripture -- as You began again with a clean slate and fresh start for humanity after the flood and their salvation. You sent them out to “abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth” through “families.”

 

Do “families” matter? It seems like the whole concept, the values, even the definition, of family is forever being challenged. Why is that? From a spiritual perspective, it often seems that the greater attack reveals the greater significance of what’s being attacked. The greater the attempts to redefine something point to the greater value of its true identity.

 

Our true identity in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ is expressed in terms of family: “For those whom He foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn within a large family” (Romans 8:29). “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For (we) did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but (we) have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14-16). “For in Christ Jesus (we) are all children of God through faith” (Galatians 3:26). “See what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are” (1 John 3:1).

 

No wonder family identities, family relationships, and family values are under siege in our cultural wars. “Family” is at the heart of who we are and our relationship with You.

 

There will be a great “harvest” at “the end of the age” (Matthew 13:39). And a key to that great harvest is the restoration of families, as brokenness, division, and strife give way to forgiveness, healing, and restoration. The curses will be overcome with blessings, and what was being destroyed will become the harbinger of what will manifest life. “Lo, I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents, so that I will not come and strike the land with a curse” (Malachi 4:5-6). “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity.... For there the Lord ordained His blessing, life forevermore” (Psalm 133:1-3). “‘Honor your father and mother’ -- this is the first commandment with a promise:  ‘so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth’” (Ephesians 6:2-3).

 

And finally, one the great prayers of Scripture speaks of “the family” as our identity in You: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of His glory, He may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through His Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:14-19). 

 

Yes, Lord. Come, Holy Spirit. Set things right within our hearts and within our families that You may ordain Your blessings over us. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My Friend, may you experience forgiveness, healing, and restoration in your heart and your family that the blessings of God may overtake you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

First Wednesday Encounter Service May 1st.

Friends, if you're in the San Antonio area, please come join us Wednesday Night, May 1st at 7pm, for the First Wednesday Encounter Service of Worship and Healing at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge. I'm excited to be sharing a message of hope and healing this month. Personal Prayer Ministry will be available in English and Spanish. All are welcome! 

Information at: First Wednesday Encounter

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

Healing from the Inside Out

www.Messiah-Ministries.org 

  

Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries

4 Dominion Drive, Building 1

San Antonio, Texas 78257

www.RaphaGodMinistries.com 

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Morning by Morning, April 30 - "Look to Him and Be Radiant"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Abide in me, as I abide in You -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God.  ...

 

"I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. Look to Him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed" (Psalm 34:4-5).

 

When I seek You, You answer me. When I look to You, You make me radiant. As I pursue You with all my heart, You change my heart. You take away my fears and cleanse away my shame. Then as I see You more clearly, I can see myself more clearly -- radiant with the light of the glory of God on my face and in my heart.

 

It's like You said in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another -- "from glory to glory" (NKJV) -- for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."

 

So give me a heart to seek You, to pursue You, to behold You -- more often, more deeply, more wholeheartedly. It's how You change me into Your image and make me more like You each day. And after all, isn't that what it's all about -- to be conformed into the image of the Son of God in this sliver of time I have on this side of heaven? (Romans 3:29)  Isn't this my destiny to answer Your call to "Arise, shine; for (my) Light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon (me).... Then (I) shall see and be radiant; (my) heart shall thrill and rejoice! ... The Lord will be (my) everlasting Light, and (my) God will be (my) glory!" (Isaiah 60:1-19) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you look to the Lord and be radiant -- conformed into His image from glory to glory, as He make you more like Him each day, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

First Wednesday Encounter Service May 1st.

Friends, if you're in the San Antonio area, please come join us Wednesday Night, May 1st at 7pm, for the First Wednesday Encounter Service of Worship and Healing at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge. I'm excited to be sharing a message of hope and healing this month. Personal Prayer Ministry will be available. 

All are welcome! Information at: First Wednesday Encounter

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

Healing from the Inside Out

www.Messiah-Ministries.org 

  

Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries

4 Dominion Drive, Building 1

San Antonio, Texas 78257

www.RaphaGodMinistries.com 

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Morning by Morning, April 26 - "Lead a Life Worthy of Your Calling"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- align my spirit, soul, and body with Your will and Your ways for my life today. ...

 

"Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other's faults because of your love" (Ephesians 4:1-2 NLT).

 

Holy Spirit, search my heart. Am I leading a life worthy of my calling? Do I believe in my heart I am called by God? Am I always humble and gentle? Am I patient with others? Do I make allowance for peoples' faults because of my love for them and my love for You? ...

 

Sometimes I think of "my calling" as more about teaching, preaching, ministering healing and freedom through prayer, and leading people to You. But in light of Your Word to me this morning, I'm seeing more deeply that "my calling" to "go make disciples" must be grounded and infused with humility, gentleness, patience, and love. And in all honesty, I have far to go in allowing You to make me more like You in every one of those ways.

 

That reminds me of another Word of Your wisdom and perspective for leading a life worthy of my calling: "If I speak in tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I had over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).

 

Lord, give me a heart to passionately pursue Your nature, as well as the sense of my calling. Put Your desires in my heart and Your thoughts in my mind. Give me a deeper love and greater zeal for things like humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Then the expression of the gifts and calling You've entrusted to me will flow out of me in a way that looks much more like You. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you lead a life worthy of your calling -- growing in a deeper love and greater zeal for humility, gentleness, patience, and love -- more like Jesus every day, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

Friends, please keep us in prayer on Saturday. I'll be joining with my ministry partner at Rapha God Ministries, Tammy Watts, to speak on inner healing prayer ministry at Oak Hills Church - Alamo Ranch in San Antonio. Thank you and God bless you!

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

Healing from the Inside Out

www.Messiah-Ministries.org 

  

Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries

4 Dominion Drive, Building 1

San Antonio, Texas 78257

www.RaphaGodMinistries.com 

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Morning by Morning, April 25 - Time to "Break Camp and Move On"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be Lord of my life and every moment of my day. ...

 

"When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, 'You have stayed at this mountain long enough. It is time to break camp and move on. Go to the hill country, the western foothills, the Negev, and the coastal plain. Go to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, and all the way to the great Euphrates River. Look, I am giving all this land to you! Go in and occupy it, for it is the land the Lord swore to give to. Your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to all their descendants.... And may the Lord, the God of your ancestors, multiply you a thousand times more and bless you as He promised!" (Deuteronomy 1:6-11 NLT)

 

Sometimes we settle for far less than the fullness of our inheritance. Sometimes we settle in to places and arrangements that become comfortable and common, when it's time to "break camp and move on." And sometimes we shrink back from pressing in to "go in and occupy" the promises and blessings of God You've already set apart for us.

 

Even today, the nation of Israel -- as the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- occupy only a tiny sliver of the land You promised to her and her descendants -- a land that You determined to stretch from the coastlands of Lebanon and the Gaza Strip of the ancient Philistines all the way to the Euphrates River that runs through Syria and Iraq. And in our hearts, as the children of God in Christ, You have promised us that You have already "blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places," but we tend to only live into only a tiny sliver of all You have sacrificed and paid for us to receive (Ephesians 1:3). And yet Your heart is to bless us and multiply us even "a thousand times more!" (Deuteronomy 1:11).

 

Lord, show me any areas of my life where I have been camped out too long. Show me any places where I need to break camp and move on. Show me the limits I've allowed to be imposed, the promises I've allowed to be unfulfilled, and the inheritance of Your blessings I've allowed to be withheld because I've stayed long enough living into something less than all You've created me and called me to be.

 

The promises of God are Yes and Amen. "For Jesus Christ, the Son of God, does not waver between 'Yes' and 'No.' ... As God's ultimate 'Yes,' He always does what He says. For all God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding 'Yes!' and through Christ, our "Amen' ascends to God from His glory! ... He has identified as His own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts as the first installment that guarantees everything He has promised us" (2 Corinthians 1:19-22 NLT)

 

You say "Yes" and I say "Amen." You say "Break camp and move on" and I say "I'm on my way." We're on this journey together -- out of my Egypt, through my Wilderness, and on into the fullness of my Promised Land. It's not about anything I've ever done or can ever do apart from You, but it's all by the power of Your grace at work in me to fulfill Your plans. So give me grace to take hold of Your hand and live into Your plan wherever You lead me and whenever You send me. As I do, I know I'll be blessed "a thousand times more" than I could ever ask or imagine (Deuteronomy 1:11; Ephesians 3:20). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you break camp and move on from anything holding you back from living into the fullness of all God has promised and provided for you -- all in His time and all in His way, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

Friends, please keep us in prayer on Saturday. I'll be joining with my ministry partner at Rapha God Ministries, Tammy Watts, to speak on inner healing prayer ministry at Oak Hills Church - Alamo Ranch in San Antonio. Thank you and God bless you!

Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries

Healing from the Inside Out

www.Messiah-Ministries.org 

  

Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries

4 Dominion Drive, Building 1

San Antonio, Texas 78257

www.RaphaGodMinistries.com 

Please share this word to encourage a friend!