“Fully Mature, Fully Developed, Fully Alive Like Christ” - May 23, 2023

 

Morning by Morning, May 23 - “Fully Mature, Fully Developed, Fully Alive Like Christ”   Good morning, Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind, Your desires in my heart, and Your words in my mouth, as I wait for Your leading in these first moments of my morning. ...   As Your disciples, we’re all on a journey of spiritual maturity to “grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- (into) Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). You’re growing us up by the power of Your grace at work within us, individually and together as a whole, “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (v. 13).   As The Message version of The Bible expresses it, it’s Your desire that we embrace Your power to become “fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love -- like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love” (Ephesians v. 13-16 The Message).   I have a long way to go. And truth be told, so do we all as the body of Christ. But You are work in the hearts of the willing. And by the grace of God, I’m willing. Grow me up, Lord. I desire to “grow up in all things into” You -- Your nature, Your character -- in my thoughts, my desires, my words, and in every dimension of my being until I am “fully mature, fully developed, fully alive like Christ.” In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Be encouraged today. In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays   My friend, may you keep growing up into the full measure of the stature of Christ, "fully mature, fully developed, full alive like Christ", in Jesus' name. God bless you, my friend! And you have a great day!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org

Please Keep us in Prayer for These Messiah Ministries Events May 23 Final Class of the year and Prayers of Impartation and Anointing for my Tuesday Night Free to Be Like Jesus class at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Join us for the Next Class Starting Again in September in person or connected online. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays May 25-29 Ministry in Mexico City area at several churches and different settings for our Freedom Encounters of inner healing, deliverance, evangelism, and prayer for revival. Rocio and I will be preaching and ministering at a different church every night (Wednesday through Sunday) and really welcome all your prayers for us and for those we'll be ministering to! Thank you! June 1 Speaking at Boerne, Texas Lighthouse of Aglow International Ministries. The Kendall Inn at 7pm All are welcome! June 15 Speaking at San Antonio, Texas Evening Aglow 7PM Hosted at Friendship Church, 14015 San Pedro. Contact Hannah for details: sa.aglow.evening@gmail.com All are welcome! July 17-31 Preaching an Evangelistic Festival in Kenya! I'll be part of a team of evangelists and intercessors sharing the Gospel in outdoor meetings, prisons, universities, orphanages, street ministry in Nyeri, Kenya, led by Wesley Paul Ministries. Over 150 Churches and ministry alliances across all denominations are hosting us! September 9 Save the Date! Messiah Ministries' Annual Celebration and Fundraiser. Please make plans to come join us if you can. This year hosted at the YO Ranch Conference Room Kerrville, Texas. Tuesday Nights (September through May) Teaching my Free to Be Like Jesus course at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays Every Wednesday Morning Joining with MorningStar Ministries to Lead Online Restoration Ministry Sessions for Online Connect Groups from around the world.   Personal Ministry Appointments Spiritual Direction Sessions and Personal Prayer Ministry Sessions of Inner Healing & Spiritual Freedom by Appointment and as the Holy Spirit leads. Please keep us in prayer for spiritual breakthrough and transformation! Let us know if you'd like to set up a session:  tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org   Sessions are without cost and all contributions help support the calling and vision of Messiah Ministries. https://messiah-ministries.org/partner/contribute

Free On-line Video Series: Setting Hearts Free! My Core Teaching and Ministry https://messiah-ministries.org/resources

https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays

My Daily Journey “Morning by Morning” in Prayer - May 22, 2023

 

Morning by Morning, May 22 - My Daily Journey “Morning by Morning” in Prayer   Good morning, Lord Jesus. I begin this day seeking Your face, listening for Your voice, and waiting for the leading of Your Spirit. ...   “The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning He awakens; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught” (Isaiah 50:4 NASB).   “Morning by morning” You awaken me and bring me into this place of Your Presence, as I listen and wait for Your leading. You have for over twenty years now of this spiritual journey of growing in spiritual intimacy with You -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. And then I follow Your leading to share the words I hear in my heart and the impressions and images and Scriptures that come to my spirit with those who join me on this journey.   I do pray these simple prayers help them draw nearer to You, to be sustained with a word when they’re weary, encouraged and lifted up when they’re discouraged or stuck, filled with a deeper hunger and pursuing thirst for closer intimacy with You, and set ablaze with a fiery passion for more of You -- just as You’re doing with me “morning by morning” before I send out these words of prayer to them.   Thank You for the freedom to be honest and real, transparent and true, in these morning expressions of my heart in my pursuit of Your Presence. Right out of bed, with my first cup of coffee, sinking into my prayer chair with my spirit and my laptop open for the leading of Your Holy Spirit, You’ve given me a persistent passion to spend these first moments of every morning with You.   Take me deeper, Lord. Lift me higher, Lord. Draw me closer, Lord.   As David expressed his morning prayers to You:   “Give ear to my words, O Lord, Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up” (Psalm 5:1-3).   This is my way of looking up, of listening up, of lifting up my heart to You in worship and prayer in these first moments of my morning to start of my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit of the Living God. You meet me here -- Heart to heart, Spirit to spirit, Deep to deep -- in the communion of prayer “morning by morning.”   And this is one of Your ways of making me more like You, “morning by morning,” step by step, one day at a time, “from glory to glory:”   “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).   “The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (1 Corinthians 6:17).   Make me one spirit with You, Lord. Put Your thoughts in my mind, Your desires in my heart, Your words in my mouth, as You sustain me with Your words and draw me near by Your Spirit “morning by morning” on my daily journey with You. And make me more like You each day (Romans 8:29; 1 John 4:17; 2 Peter 1:4). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Be encouraged today. In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays   My friend, may you be drawn close to God and conformed into His image from glory to glory as you pursue Him -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God -- in the deep communion of prayer "morning by morning", in Jesus' name. God bless you, my friend! And you have a great day!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org

Please Keep us in Prayer for These Messiah Ministries Events May 23 Final Class of the year and Prayers of Impartation and Anointing for my Tuesday Night Free to Be Like Jesus class at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Join us for the Next Class in September in person or connected online. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays May 25-29 Ministry in Mexico City area at several churches and different settings for our Freedom Encounters of inner healing, deliverance, evangelism, and prayer for revival. Rocio and I will be preaching and ministering at a different church every night (Wednesday through Sunday) and really welcome all your prayers for us and for those we'll be ministering to! Thank you! June 1 Speaking at Boerne, Texas Lighthouse of Aglow International Ministries. The Kendall Inn at 7pm All are welcome! June 15 Speaking at San Antonio, Texas Evening Aglow 7PM Hosted at Friendship Church, 14015 San Pedro. Contact Hannah for details: sa.aglow.evening@gmail.com All are welcome! July 17-31 Preaching an Evangelistic Festival in Kenya! I'll be part of a team of evangelists and intercessors sharing the Gospel in outdoor meetings, prisons, universities, orphanages, street ministry in Nyeri, Kenya, led by Wesley Paul Ministries. Over 150 Churches and ministry alliances across all denominations are hosting us! September 9 Save the Date! Messiah Ministries' Annual Celebration and Fundraiser. Please make plans to come join us if you can. This year hosted at the YO Ranch Conference Room Kerrville, Texas. Tuesday Nights (September through May) Teaching my Free to Be Like Jesus course at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays Every Wednesday Morning Joining with MorningStar Ministries to Lead Online Restoration Ministry Sessions for Online Connect Groups from around the world.   Personal Ministry Appointments Spiritual Direction Sessions and Personal Prayer Ministry Sessions of Inner Healing & Spiritual Freedom by Appointment and as the Holy Spirit leads. Please keep us in prayer for spiritual breakthrough and transformation! Let us know if you'd like to set up a session:  tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org   Sessions are without cost and all contributions help support the calling and vision of Messiah Ministries. https://messiah-ministries.org/partner/contribute

Free On-line Video Series: Setting Hearts Free! My Core Teaching and Ministry https://messiah-ministries.org/resources

https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays

Spiritual Roots of Anxiety Bear Fruit of Depression; but Spiritual Roots of God’s Good Words Bear Fruit of Gladness, Peace, and Joy - May 19 2023

 

Morning by Morning, May 19 - Spiritual Roots of Anxiety Bear Fruit of Depression; but Spiritual Roots of God’s Good Words Bear Fruit of Gladness, Peace, and Joy   Good morning, Lord Jesus. Arise in my heart and shine through my life today. ...   “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad” (Proverbs 12:25).   As I begin my day, fill my heart with Your Good Word. Let Your Word be a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path (Psalm 119:105). The Good News of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God will make me glad, as I hear it and as I share it (Luke 4:43).   As the root of anxiety bears the fruit of depression, let the root of Your good words, rooted and grounded and springing forth from the Word of God, bear the fruit of gladness and peace and joy.   Your words are Truth; Your words are Spirit; Your words are Life (John 6:63).   You are Love (1 John 4:8). And Your words are expressions of Your love. And they are better than life.   “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I will praise you as long as I live, and in Your name I will lift up my hands” (Psalm 63:1).   So let Your words of Spirit and Life fill my heart. Let Your words of Love and Life cast out all fear, all anxiety and lift off all depression, all discouragement, all heaviness of heart. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18). “For (You have) not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). So we can cast all our cares, all our anxieties upon You, for You care for us (1 Peter 5:7).   You uproot from within us all that bear the fruit of depression, discouragement, and heaviness of heart. In its place, You comfort all who mourn in sadness or weariness or sorrow: “To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3).   Let it be so in me. And let it be so in every heart who would receive any words You would speak through me today on my journey of faith with You.   As Your Word calls us and commissions us, "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the utterances of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever” (1 Peter 4:11). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Be encouraged today. In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays   My friend, may you be filled with gladness and peace and joy as God's Good Words are rooted in your spirit, uprooting any anxieties and casting out any fear, in Jesus' name. God bless you!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org

Please Keep us in Prayer for These Messiah Ministries Events May 21 Teaching my class Free to Be Like Jesus at 9:00 am at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. (6 week series on Sunday Mornings) Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays May 25-29 Ministry in Mexico City area at several churches and different settings for our Freedom Encounters of inner healing, deliverance, evangelism, and prayer for revival. June 1 Speaking at Boerne, Texas Lighthouse of Aglow International Ministries. The Kendall Inn at 7pm All are welcome! June 15 Speaking at San Antonio, Texas Evening Aglow 7PM Hosted at Friendship Church, 14015 San Pedro. Contact Hannah for details: sa.aglow.evening@gmail.com All are welcome! July 17-31 Preaching an Evangelistic Festival in Kenya! I'll be part of a team of evangelists and intercessors sharing the Gospel in outdoor meetings, prisons, universities, orphanages, street ministry in Nyeri, Kenya, led by Wesley Paul Ministries. Over 150 Churches and ministry alliances across all denominations are hosting us! Tuesday Nights (September through May) Teaching my Free to Be Like Jesus course at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays Every Wednesday Morning Joining with MorningStar Ministries to Lead Online Restoration Ministry Sessions for Online Connect Groups from around the world.   Personal Ministry Appointments Spiritual Direction Sessions and Personal Prayer Ministry Sessions of Inner Healing & Spiritual Freedom by Appointment and as the Holy Spirit leads. Please keep us in prayer for spiritual breakthrough and transformation! Let us know if you'd like to set up a session:  tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org   Sessions are without cost and all contributions help support the calling and vision of Messiah Ministries. https://messiah-ministries.org/partner/contribute

Free On-line Video Series: Setting Hearts Free! My Core Teaching and Ministry https://messiah-ministries.org/resources

https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays

Groaning for Growing Up into the Maturity of the Image of the Son of God - May 18, 2023

 

Morning by Morning, May 18 - Groaning for Growing Up into the Maturity of the Image of the Son of God   Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. ...   As I wait in the quiet for Your leading, I sense a groaning, like a yearning, down in my spirit. ...   These Words of Scripture come to mind:    “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope...” (Romans 8:22-24).   This groaning, this yearning, is for a growing up into the fullness, into the maturity of who we are in Christ as sons and daughters of God. “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (v. 19). Even all creation joins in this groaning, like a woman in the travail of labor, for what is to come “because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (v. 21).   Yes, Father God, keep forming Your nature, Your character, in me and every one of Your sons and daughters in Christ, by “the Spirit of God” dwelling in us, by “the Spirit of Christ” at work within us to set us free to like Jesus (v. 9). For by the power of Your grace at work within us, “we are predestined to be conformed into the image of (Your) Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (v. 29).   Give me grace to embrace this spiritual groaning, this spiritual yearning to keep growing into spiritual maturity -- into the image of the Son of God. We can’t even desire it, much less do it on our own, but “the Spirit also helps us in weaknesses” (v. 26). “The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (v.26b).   So, come Holy Spirit, keep making me, making us, more like Jesus every day. With all creation, with “earnest expectation,” I’m “eagerly” waiting and “eagerly” praying “for the revealing of the sons of God” into the maturity of the image of the Son of God (v. 19). And between this day and that day, I join in agreement with the heart of Your Spirit expressed through the heart of Paul, who carried this same groaning and yearning in his spirit: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (v. 18). As the Apostle Paul also expressed in Galatians 4:19, “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”   As the children of God, destined to be conformed into the image of the Son of God -- here on earth, here in our hearts and minds and souls and strength, as it is in heaven -- give us the grace to keep groaning and yearning in the Spirit, satisfied with nothing less. “Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-- into Christ” (Ephesians 4:13-15). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Be encouraged today. In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays   My friends, may you embraced the groaning and yearning of the Spirit of God within you and with all creation, praying for the maturing and revealing of the sons and daughters of God in the earth, in Jesus' name. God bless you!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org

Please Keep us in Prayer for These Messiah Ministries Events May 21 Teaching my class Free to Be Like Jesus at 9:00 am at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. (6 week series on Sunday Mornings) Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays May 25-29 Ministry in Mexico City area at several churches and different settings for our Freedom Encounters of inner healing, deliverance, evangelism, and prayer for revival. June 1 Speaking at Boerne, Texas Lighthouse of Aglow International Ministries. The Kendall Inn at 7pm All are welcome! June 15 Speaking at San Antonio, Texas Evening Aglow 7PM Hosted at Friendship Church, 14015 San Pedro. Contact Hannah for details: sa.aglow.evening@gmail.com All are welcome! July 17-31 Preaching an Evangelistic Festival in Kenya! I'll be part of a team of evangelists and intercessors sharing the Gospel in outdoor meetings, prisons, universities, orphanages, street ministry in Nyeri, Kenya, led by Wesley Paul Ministries. Over 150 Churches and ministry alliances across all denominations are hosting us! Tuesday Nights (September through May) Teaching my Free to Be Like Jesus course at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays Every Wednesday Morning Joining with MorningStar Ministries to Lead Online Restoration Ministry Sessions for Online Connect Groups from around the world.   Personal Ministry Appointments Spiritual Direction Sessions and Personal Prayer Ministry Sessions of Inner Healing & Spiritual Freedom by Appointment and as the Holy Spirit leads. Please keep us in prayer for spiritual breakthrough and transformation! Let us know if you'd like to set up a session:  tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org   Sessions are without cost and all contributions help support the calling and vision of Messiah Ministries. https://messiah-ministries.org/partner/contribute

Free On-line Video Series: Setting Hearts Free! My Core Teaching and Ministry https://messiah-ministries.org/resources

https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays

The Pursuit of the Mystery - May 17, 2023

 

Morning by Morning, May 17 - The Pursuit of the Mystery   Good morning, Lord Jesus. Fill me with Your Spirit and lead me in the paths of Your righteousness today. ...   “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments and His ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33).   There’s mystery in this journey of faith. The more I learn, the more I realize I have so much to learn. The more I think I know, the more I realize what I don’t know.   That could be frustrating or that could be fascinating. That could be confusing or that could be stirring up a curiosity, deepening a hunger, and fanning into flame a passion for the pursuit coming to know You more and more every day on this mysterious journey of faith.   I choose fascinating. I choose curiosity, hunger, passion and pursuit.   One way Your Word expresses this pursuit of the mystery is tucked away as a nugget of Truth in the Proverbs:   “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out the matter” (Proverbs 25:2).   And another is expressed in the Prophets:   “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).   In the seeking and searching, in the pursuit of the mystery, there’s growth and maturity. You’re forming in us the knowledge and the wisdom to know that You are God and we are not, that You’re in control and we don’t have to be, that You’re the Pearl of Great Price who’s worth our life’s pursuit (Matthew 13:46). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. Be encouraged today. In the love of Jesus, Tommy Hays   My friend, may you be continually fascinated in your pursuit of the mystery of God, in Jesus' name. God bless you!  Tommy Hays | Messiah Ministries Mailing Address: 412 S. Adams Street #148 Fredericksburg, Texas 78624 Please share this word to encourage a friend! Anyone can sign up for free at: https://messiah-ministries.org

Please Keep us in Prayer for These Messiah Ministries Events May 21 Teaching my class Free to Be Like Jesus at 9:00 am at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. (6 week series on Sunday Mornings) Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays May 25-29 Ministry in Mexico City are at several churches and different settings for our Freedom Encounters of inner healing, deliverance, evangelism, and prayer for revival. June 1 Speaking at Boerne, Texas Lighthouse of Aglow International Ministries. The Kendall Inn at 7pm All are welcome! June 15 Speaking at San Antonio, Texas Evening Aglow 7PM Hosted at Friendship Church, 14015 San Pedro. Contact Hannah for details: sa.aglow.evening@gmail.com All are welcome! July 17-31 Preaching an Evangelistic Crusade in Kenya! I'll be part of a team of evangelists and intercessors sharing the Gospel in outdoor meetings, prisons, universities, orphanages, street ministry in Nyeri, Kenya, led by Wesley Paul Ministries. Over 150 Churches and ministry alliances across all denominations are hosting us! Tuesday Nights (September through May) Teaching my Free to Be Like Jesus course at Bridge Church in Fredericksburg, Texas. Based on my Books Free to Be Like Jesus and First the Spirit https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays Wednesday Mornings Joining with MorningStar Ministries to Lead Online Restoration Ministry Sessions for Online Connect Groups from around the world.   Personal Ministry Appointments Spiritual Direction Sessions and Personal Prayer Ministry Sessions of Inner Healing & Spiritual Freedom by Appointment and as the Holy Spirit leads. Please keep us in prayer for spiritual breakthrough and transformation! Let us know if you'd like to set up a session:  tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org   Sessions are without cost and all contributions help support the calling and vision of Messiah Ministries. https://messiah-ministries.org/partner/contribute

Free On-line Video Series: Setting Hearts Free! My Core Teaching and Ministry https://messiah-ministries.org/resources

https://www.amazon.com/author/tommyhays