Monday, August 19, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 19 - Glorious Adventure of Pursuing God's Hidden Treasures
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I watch and wait for Your leading, as I begin my day embraced my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit.  ...
 
"It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out" (Proverbs 25:2).
 
You've created us for adventure. Even the things You've concealed, You've concealed them so You can reveal them, as we seek for them with You. You could have told us plainly all the truth we need to know; You could have given us fully all we need to have -- all in an instant, all in a moment. But You didn't create us that way and You've not arranged our lives that way. You created us to seek in order to find, to pursue in order to apprehend. You set in motion our mission to pursue the mysteries of God, saying, "When you search for Me, you will find Me; if you seek Me with all your heart, I will let you find Me" (Jeremiah 29:13-14).
 
We were never meant to be passive or grow complacent. We were never meant to mindlessly sit back and meld into our world to become one with the universe and lose all the sense of individuality and uniqueness in which You created our identity and planned for our destiny. We were never meant to float around on the clouds, playing our harps, and bored out of our minds. No, we were created for adventure! We were created to "run with the perseverance the race that is set before us.... struggle against sin.... endure trials.... (and) pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:1-14).
 
It's like a treasure hunt. You are the Treasure, along with all the good treasure You have stored up for us to search out on our great adventure of faith. "My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding; if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures -- then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God" (Proverbs 2:1-5).
 
In Your glory You've hidden these treasures for us. And now You've given us this glorious adventure to search them out. You stir up our passion for the mission and our hope for the journey, as You inspire us to come and see and to come and seek, saying, "Call to Me and I will answer you tell you great and hidden things that you have not known" (Jeremiah 33:3). So I begin my day excited to see what great treasures You've hidden for me to find today! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My friend, may you get excited about your glorious adventure of pursing God's hidden treasures, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
        

Ministry in Honduras
Praying for my wife, Rocio, and the team from our ministry this week (Laura and Milagros) in Honduras -- ministering the healing love of God to young girls recently rescued from the trauma and terror of sex trafficking by the Casa de Ester ministry. They are having prayer ministry times for the girls and helping equip the staff and leaders for healing and deliverance prayer ministry. So proud of them! Please join with me in prayer for them all.

 


 

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!

 



   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Friday, August 16, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 16 - True Faith, Lived-out in the Spirit of Love
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your name is above every name and everything I'll encounter today! (Philippians 2:8-11) So I declare the authority and power of Your name over my day and every dimension of my life, to begin my day well and to begin my day with You! ...
 
"Is not this the fast that I choose:  to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your Vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and He will say, Here I am!" (Isaiah 58:6-9)
 
Fasting and prayer without faithfully living it out in love is just religious and empty. Worship and praise without joyfully being about the Father's business with a willing heart is just offering up empty words that fall flat and never reach Your throne or Your heart. 
 
We have salvation through faith in You alone, not by our works or anything we do, no matter how righteously religious or socially good (Ephesians 2:8-9). But You've saved us to display Your love and grace through us. You've given us faith to put it to action; You've given us grace to be full of grace for others; You've given us Your heart full of Your Spirit to express Your heart to all who are weary and waiting to know the One who sees them and loves them and comes to save them, whether they know it or not. That's a measure of what Your Word means when You say, "the only thing that counts is faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). That's a measure of what Your Word means when You say, "Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is also dead" (James 2:23).
 
The Body of Christ without the Spirit of Christ is dead (Romans 8:9). And faith spoken in words alone or acted out in religious ritual without the power and love of the Living God touching and changing everything around us as it flows through us is dead. "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us -- and we also ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.... We obey His commandments and do what pleases Him. And this is His commandment, that we should believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He commanded us. All who obey His commandments abide in Him, and He abides in them. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit that He has given us" (1 John 3:16-24).
 
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me up and pour me out. Let the life and love of the Living God flow through me today in the power and authority of the name of Jesus and in the mercy and grace of my Father's heart. Then we will see Your light break forth like the dawn and Your healing love spring up quickly! When we call, You will answer! When we cry for help, You will say, Here I AM! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My Friend, may the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Love, fill your heart and flow out of your hands, your words, your prayers, and every dimension of your life in true faith, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

        

Ministry in Honduras
Praying for my wife, Rocio, and the team from our ministry this week (Laura and Milagros) in Honduras-ministering the healing love of God to young girls recently rescued from the trauma and terror of sex trafficking by the Casa de Ester ministry. They are having prayer ministry times for the girls and helping equip the staff and leaders for healing and deliverance prayer ministry. So proud of them! Please join with me in prayer for them all.

 

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!

 



   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!
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Thursday, August 15, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 15 - "Overflow with Confident Hope"
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I call on Your name and listen for Your voice, for Your sheep hear Your voice (John 10:3) and Your children follow the leading of Your Spirit (Romans 8:14). ...
 
"I pray that God, the Source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13 NLT).
 
O Lord, my God, I do trust in You. You are faithful and true. You protect me in so many ways that I don't even see. You provide for me in so many ways that I don't even know. One day, when my faith has become sight and my hope has been fulfilled, I will look back and say with all the saints, "Look what the Lord has done!"
 
But between this day and that day, You invite me to "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). You remind me that "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, and the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). And every day You lead me to turn to You as the Source of my faith and the Source of my hope.
 
Fill me afresh today with Your faith and with Your hope. Give me the assurance and the conviction that You're protecting me today in ways I don't even see and providing for me in ways I don't even know. You are the One "called Faithful and True" (Revelation 19:11). "This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness!" (Lamentations 3:21-23 NKJV)
 
What turns my hope into the "confident hope" You promise in Your Word for all who trust in You is "the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:13). It's the power of Your Holy Spirit that give me all the faith I need, all the hope I need to trust You and Your faithfulness to me. Lord, fill me afresh with Your power to trust in You, full of faith and hope today. Let me "be filled with (Your) Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18) so I can "overflow with (Your) confident hope" this day and every day (Romans 15:13). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you overflow with confident hope today, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

        

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!

 



   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 14 - "Abundantly Prosperous"
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. As I settle in to my prayer chair for my time of communion with You, help me start my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm listening now for Your leading. ...
 
"The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as He took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes that are written in the Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deuteronomy 30:9-10).
 
You "take delight" in prospering Your children in every area of our lives. So You're always inviting us to "return to the Lord (our) God ... and obey (Your) voice" (Deuteronomy 30:3). And You're always reminding us that You're never far from us to lead and guide by the wisdom of Your word, promising us, "the word is very near (us). It is in (our) mouth and in (our) heart, so that we can do it" (Deuteronomy 30:14).
 
Some would say these old-fashioned, archaic, religious ideas about returning and repentance, about receiving blessings and bearing fruit through obedience and faithfulness, are all just Old Testament rules of judgment and law, not New Testament principles of mercy and love. But You said in the "red letters" of Your personal words:  "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15). "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be My disciples. As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you" (John 15:8-14).
 
It's all because of Your grace that I can obey. It's all because You've written Your law on my heart that I can love. It's all because Your Word and Your Spirit are very near to me -- right here in my mouth and right here in my heart -- that I can be Your disciple. And it's all because my Father loves me in all the mercy and grace of God, just as the Father loved the Son, that I can be Your faithful friend who does what You command and Your beloved child who receives all the abundant blessings You delight in prospering me with. "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments" (1 John 5:3). "Whoever keeps His commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us" (1 John 3:24). "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it" (Luke 11:28).
 
Put Your law of love in my heart and give me grace to obey it and live it by the power of Your Spirit. By the power of Your grace at work within me, may I live my life in You "obedient from the heart" (Romans 6:7). And may You delight in prospering me abundantly according all Your good plans for me (Jeremiah 29:11). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you be abundantly prosperous in all you are and all you do, with God's Word and God's Spirit abiding in you to live obedient to Him, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

        

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!


   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

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Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 13 - Pursing Holiness of Heart
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Align my heart with Yours, my mind with Yours, my words with Yours.  ...
 
"Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1).
 
Your Holy Spirit is what makes me holy -- not what I do or don't do, not what I eat or don't eat, not what I wear or don't wear. Your Holy Spirit at work within my spirit -- changing my heart, changing, my mind, changing my words -- is what makes me holy. "For God is working in (me), giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT).
 
Your part is to do it and my part is to choose it. By the power of Your grace at work within me, I must freely choose to "cleanse (myself) from every defilement of body and of spirit" and freely choose to allow You to make me holy. You don't force me, but You do invite me. You won't make me, but You will embrace me. I can't make holiness happen, but You can give me "the desire and the power" to embrace the One who makes holiness happen in me. "Christ in (me), the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). 
 
"And this is the secret:  Christ lives in (me). This gives me assurance of sharing His glory" (Colossians 1:27 NLT). This is the secret to seeking to live in holiness, to live into the fullness of my salvation -- "a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes (me) holy through (my) belief in the truth" when "(You) called (me) to salvation (to embrace) the Good News; now I can share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 NLT).
 
So keep changing my nature into Your nature, my ways into Your ways, as I keep yielding my will to Your will and my spirit to Your Spirit. You continually invite me -- morning by morning and moment by moment -- to keep choosing and embracing the way of holiness by the work of Your Spirit at work within me:  "Let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God -- truly righteous and holy" (Ephesians 4:23). 
 
May I "not bring sorrow to (Your) Holy Spirit by the way (I) live. (But rather) remember, (You) has identified (me) as (Your) own, guaranteeing that (I) will be saved on the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30 NLT). Instead, by the power of Your grace my I "pursue peace with everyone and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14). May I bring joy to Your heart as I allow You to make my heart more like Yours every day. "The Lord's delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love" (Psalm 147:11 NLT). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My friend, may you pursue holiness of heart -- morning by morning and moment by moment -- all by the power of God's grace and God's Spirit at work within you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

          

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!


   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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Monday, August 12, 2019

Morning by Morning, August 12 - Just Say No!
 
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Fill my heart afresh with Your Spirit today -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
 
"Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard in Jezreel, beside the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. And Ahab said to Naboth, 'Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near my house; I will give you a better vineyard for it; or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its value in money.' But Naboth said to Ahab, 'The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance'" (1 Kings 21:1-3).
 
King Ahab was not a good king -- he "did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him" (1 Kings 16:30). And his wife, the infamous Jezebel, was even more wicked, controlling, and evil, at the expense of everything and everyone that stood in the way of whatever she wanted (1 Kings 16:31-33 and 18:4). So when Ahab came home to Jezebel "resentful and sullen" because Naboth stood his ground and refused to give up his inheritance from his father, Jezebel conceived an evil plan to destroy Naboth and steal his inheritance (1 Kings 21:4-7). She set him up with false witnesses to be slandered and then stoned to death so she could steal what was his (1 Kings 21:8-16).
 
What a prophetic picture of the enemy of our souls -- "the thief (who) comes only to steal and kill and destroy" (John 10:10). He relentlessly seeks to slander our name and steal our blessings. He'll use any means necessary to take away our Father's inheritance to deny us our identity and destroy our destiny as the children of God we are (Romans 8:14-17).
 
Naboth said No! And the Spirit of God is rising up in the hearts and souls of the children of God to say No! No, you can't have my Father's inheritance! No, you can't deny my identity and destroy my destiny! This is my Father's vineyard and He will produce His fruit in the good soil of my heart. He will have His harvest through my life!
 
Naboth paid for his resistance with his life. But You've already paid for our resistance with Your life. And now our lives are hidden with You in Christ. The enemy of our souls can't kill us because we've already died to all he would do when we died to this world in order to live in You -- "for (we) have died, and (our) life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:1). We were "bought with a price" -- by the blood of the Lamb who has forgiven us and free us to live into the fullness of our inheritance in You (1 Corinthians 7:23). "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
 
In that boldness we can just say No! As we entrust ourselves to You, we can "resist the devil and he will flee!" (James 4:7) By the victory of the cross, we say No! to him and Yes! to You. And by the power of Your grace, we can live into the fullness of the abundance of our inheritance in You -- secure in our identity and fulfilling our destiny. "Now to Him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more that all we can ask or imagine, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever!" (Ephesians 3:20-21) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays

My friend, may you just say No! to the enemy of your soul and every plan to steal your Father's inheritance as you say Yes! to Jesus and your life in Christ, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

         

Thank you for joining with me on this journey of prayer -- Morning by Morning! God bless you!


   
Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries
Healing from the Inside Out
  
Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries
4 Dominion Drive, Building 1
San Antonio, Texas 78257

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

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