Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Morning by Morning, May 3 - Everlasting Kingdom
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Christ the King, Christ in me -- rule and reign in my life today. ...
"In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall this kingdom be left to another people. It shall crush all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever" (Daniel 2:44).
You gave Daniel revelation and understanding of Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the kingdoms of this world. As he said, "There is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has disclosed to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen at the end of days" (Daniel 2:28).
The kingdoms of this world will come and go. But there is a kingdom to come, as Your will is done -- here on earth, here in our hearts, here in the midst of our world and all its kingdoms that seek to rule and reign in our lives. You are the King of that kingdom that will not pass away, that will bring the kingdoms of this world to an end. "I saw One like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And He came to the Ancient One and was presented before Him. To Him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and His kingship is one that shall never be destroyed" (Daniel 7:13-14).
"Come, Lord Jesus!" (Revelation 22:20) Come, King Jesus -- "King of kings and Lord of lords!" (Revelation 19:16) Come rule and reign in me and in my world. One day this Word will be fulfilled: "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15 NKJV)
And, at the same time, Your kingdom is also within me now, within the heart of every believer, every child of God who's welcomed Jesus, "the Spirit of Christ," within our hearts (Romans 8:9). As You explained long ago, "the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21 NKJV). "For the kingdom of God is ... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
Come advance Your kingdom in my heart and my world today. Empower me by Your grace, by the Spirit of Christ within me, to grow in the "righteousness and peace and joy" of Your kingdom, the everlasting kingdom that shall not pass away (Daniel 7:14). As You taught us to pray -- opening our hearts our Father, as the children of God that we are -- "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray you experience the everlasting kingdom of God advancing in your heart and your world today, as His kingdom comes and His will is done in you, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
Friends, I'm excited to be sharing a message of hope and healing at the First Wednesday Service of Worship and Prayer at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge Campus in San Antonio tonight, May 3rd, at 7pm, in the South Room Worship Center. Our Rapha God Ministries Prayer Team with be joining with Oak Hills Church to offer personal prayer ministry. We'll also join together in prayer for the National Day of Prayer. All are welcome. Please come join us!
My 365 Day Devotional with a selection of many of my favorite prayer devotionals I've sent out from my morning prayers over the past few years. Available through Amazon and Kindle or at our Ministry Office. May these simple morning prayer be a blessing and encouragement to you to start your day embraced by the love of our Father, centered in Jesus Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. 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!
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Morning by Morning, May 2 - River of Delights
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I'm watching and waiting, listening for Your leading, to begin my day grounded in Your Word and abiding in Your Spirit. ...
"How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of Your wings. They feast on the abundance of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your delights. For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light" (Psalm 36:7-9).
Lord, what is the river of Your delights? ...
What comes to my heart is this: "My river of delights is an expression of My heart and My life flowing in you. Drink deeply from My living waters, and My living waters will flow steadily from you, bringing My life to all it touches."
Yes, Lord. You said, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me, and let the one who believes in Me drink. As the Scripture has said, 'Out of the believer's heart shall flow rivers of living water'" (John 7:37). And Your Word says "(You) said this about the Spirit." (John 7:39).
Come, Holy Spirit. Fill me up, fill me afresh, with Your living waters today (Ephesians 5:18). Let the things that delight You delight me. Let the things that move Your heart move my heart. Let life arise in me and flow out of me. Like the river that flows from the temple of God, like the river that flows from the throne of God, let Your river of life flow steadily from my heart to bring life to all it touches (Ezekiel 47:9; Revelation 22:1).
"There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High" (Psalm 46:4). You make me glad. You fill me with joy. You make my joy complete (John 15:11; John 16:24). And I tremble with delight to freely come and freely drink, deeply every day from this river of Your delights. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray you drink deeply from the river of delights, allowing the Spirit of God to fill you up and flow through you, bringing God's life and joy to all you touch, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
Friends, I'm excited to be sharing a message of hope and healing at the First Wednesday Service of Worship and Prayer at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge Campus this Wednesday Night, May 3rd, at 7pm, in the South Room Worship Center. Our Rapha God Ministries Prayer Team with be joining with Oak Hills Church to offer personal prayer ministry. All are welcome. Please come join us!
My 365 Day Devotional with a selection of many of my favorite prayer devotionals I've sent out from my morning prayers over the past few years. Available through Amazon and Kindle or at our Ministry Office. May these simple morning prayer be a blessing and encouragement to you to start your day embraced by the love of our Father, centered in Jesus Christ, and filled with the Holy Spirit. 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!
Monday, May 01, 2017
Morning by Morning, May 1 - "Understand and Know Me"
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me awaken in the awareness of Your presence, as I begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit. ...
"Thus says the Lord: Do not let the wise boast in their wisdom, do not let the mighty boast in their might, do not let the wealthy boast in their wealth; but let those who boast boast in this, that they understand and know Me, that I am the Lord; I act with steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 9:23-24).
Help me understand You more completely and know You more deeply. More than wisdom or might or wealth, let intimacy with You be the priority of my life. Free me and lead me to truly "seek first the kingdom of God and (Your) righteousness, (trusting that) all these (other) things shall be added to (me)" (Matthew 6:33).
Cause the things that delight You to delight me -- Your steadfast love, Your justice, and Your righteousness. Put Your thoughts in my mind and Your desires in my heart, so that Your ways become my ways and Your will becomes my will. Where that's not yet my nature, keep changing my nature. Where these are not yet my convictions, keep convicting me until they become my convictions. Make me more like You each day (Romans 8:29). As you are, so am I to be in my world (1 John 4:17).
By the grace of God, I'm Your servant and I'm Your son, Your messenger and ambassador, a seeker and a believer, on my journey with You -- morning by morning, day by day. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray you grow each day -- understanding the Lord more completely and knowing Him more deeply, allowing your nature to be conformed into His nature, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
Friends, I'm excited to be sharing a message of hope and healing at the First Wednesday Service of Worship and Prayer at Oak Hills Church, Crownridge Campus this Wednesday Night at 7pm, in the South Room Worship Center. Our Rapha God Ministries Prayer Team with be joining with Oak Hills Church to offer personal prayer ministry. All are welcome. Please come join us!
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!
Friday, April 28, 2017
Morning by Morning, April 28 - "Excelling in the Work of the Lord" -- the Labor of Love
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Lead me in the way that leads to life in You today. ...
"Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Corinthians 15:57-58).
You're the God who has given me the victory already; and, at the same time, You're the God "who (continually) gives (me) the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 57). Empower me to live victoriously today -- not just embracing the victory You've already won for me, but also, at the same time, living into that victory, more and more, every day. By the power of Your grace, may I live out each day "always excelling in the work of the Lord" (v. 58).
What is "the work of the Lord?" ...
As I wait and listen, it seems I hear You saying, "You are My body in this world. My people who are called by My name, filled with My Spirit, seeking to walk in My ways to allow My nature to grow in them and allow My love and My power to flow through them. This is the work to which you are called -- to be My body, My people, My messengers, My ambassadors, My hands and My feet, My words and My truth, displayed in My glory through your lives."
Yes, Lord. You're reminding me now of Your Word to us: "The only thing that counts is faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6).
We are Your body -- "the body of Christ and individually members of it" (1 Corinthians 12:27). We are filled with Your Spirit -- "For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ... and we were all made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13). And You send us forth each day into our world to be Your ambassadors -- "So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making His appeal through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20).
You're nature is love and You've called us, commanded us, and commissioned us to go and to love with Your Spirit in our hearts and the power of Your love flowing through our lives -- "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.... No one has ever seen God; if we love another, God lives in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us His Spirit" (1 John 4:7-13).
Empower me to excel in this "work of the Lord" today -- here in my heart and here in my world. As You empower me to love -- my labor of love -- my labor will never be in vain. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray you will excel in the work of the Lord, living victoriously in the His labor of love through you today, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
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!
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Morning by Morning, April 27 - Song of Deliverance
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I welcome You into my heart and every moment of my day. ...
"You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance!" (Psalm 32:7 NKJV)
As I listen for Your leading, I believe I hear You forming the words of a new song of deliverance in my spirit:
Tossed to and fro
But ready to go
Battered and bruised
Pressed in on every side
But ready to break through
Persecuted and perplexed
Stuck down but not destroyed
Afflicted and resisted
But nothing's going to take my joy
When everything is shaken
That must be shaken
What can't be shaken will remain
When everything is crumbled
That must be crumbled
My God is my rock and will forever reign
Yes, Lord!
"I love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.... The Lord lives! Blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of my salvation.... Great triumphs He gives to His king, and shows steadfast love to His anointed, to David and his descendants forever!" (Psalm 18:1-50)
You are with me always. Even when everything is shaken that can be shaken, "what can't be shaken will remain" -- steadfast in the power of Your love -- and by the power of Your grace, "we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken," so "let us give thanks" (Hebrews 12:27-29). "But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies" (2 Corinthians 4:7-10).
You are a mighty God -- "mighty to save!" (Isaiah 63:1) And You are my ever-present God -- "with (me) always, to the end of the age" and with me in every moment of every day between this day and that day to come (Matthew 28:20). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray you will be filled with faith, courage, and songs of deliverance as you press through and overcome whatever faces you and those who are on your heart, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
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!
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Morning by Morning, April 26 - Believe Bigger
Good morning, Lord Jesus. I'm at my post, positioned in my morning place of prayer, listening for Your leading, as I begin my day deliberately seeking and embracing You -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
"Jesus said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, 'Father, I thank You for having heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that You sent Me.' When He had said this, He cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come out!' The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, and let him go.' Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in Him" (John 11:40-45).
I want to believe bigger. I want to see Your glory more. I want to trust in Your words with faith in Your heart to display Your glory in the power of Your love all around me today. Open my eyes to see it and stir in my spirit to expect it. "What was promised through faith in Jesus Christ (will) be given to those who believe" (Galatians 3:22).
As the father said, just before You set his son free from the spiritual attack trying to destroy his son's spirit, soul, and body, "I believe; help my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24). You told that father, just as you tell every one of us, "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23 NKJV). It's just as You told Mary, who was heart-broken and disappointed over her brother's death, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)
Set me free from any doubts or disappointments that would try to dampen my faith. Let me begin my prayers with fresh faith, grounded in Your Word, led by Your Spirit, rather than any unfulfilled experiences of the past. There's much mystery on this journey of faith, but let my expectations be firmly established in Your promises, rather than my problems, and in Your Word, rather than the ways of my world.
"Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). By the power of Your grace, I'm seeking You and I'm believing You. Help me seek more expectantly and believe bigger. I'm believing Your Word -- "As it is written, 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him'" (1 Corinthians 2:9 from Isaiah 64:4 NKJV). In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
I pray the Lord will empower you to believe bigger, trusting in His Word and His Spirit, to be at work mightily in the the things on your heart that you bring to Him in prayer, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!
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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