Morning by Morning, September 23 - Worthy, Wanted, and Welcome

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Looking to You, I listen for Your leading to begin my day embraced by my Father, centered in Christ, and filled with Your Holy Spirit. ...

 

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 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 glory to glory; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17-18).

 

I had an opportunity to speak at church yesterday during a study of the Father's love in my friend Jim Barker's class. As I sought You for how to share and pray for them, You brought to mind these words -- unworthy, unwanted, unwelcome -- and how somethings these distortions of our Father's love can get in the way of the deeply intimate and loving relationship You long to have with us. These distortions of Your image can veil our hearts and minds from seeing You as You are and seein ourselves as we are in You.

 

Sometimes we feel and believe we're unworthy. Through the things that have happened or our misperceptions, we feel we don't measure up, we're not good enough, we'll never get it right. We feel we have to earn Your love and work for our salvation. And it leaves us stuck in the lie that we are unworthy. But the truth is You have made us worthy -- not by what we have done but by all You have done for us. "God proves His love for us in that while we were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by His blood, will we be saved through Him from the wrath of God.... We have now received reconciliation" (Romans 5:8-11).

 

Sometimes we feel and believe we're unwanted. Through the hard and painful times, we can feel abandoned or rejected, we can feel all alone, we can wonder why and wonder where You are in the midst of our suffering. But the truth is You are with us always, fighting for us in ways we don't always see and guiding us in ways we don't always know. You bring us through the rivers, through the waters, through the fires, reminding us that You are with us and You love us and whatever we go through will not have the last word over us (Isaiah 43:1-7; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12).

 

Sometimes we feel and believe we're unwelcome. When we feel unworthy and unwanted, we can sense a deep separation between us. We know You are holy and we feel so unholy; we know You are perfect and we feel so imperfect. It feels like You are way up there in heaven and we are here far below in a much different world on earth with a great gulf and unsurpassable distance between us. But the truth is You have bridged the gap through Your cross; You have reached down to take us by the heart and lift us up in the Spirit to dwell and abide in deep intimacy with You in Your Presence. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace (we) have been saved -- and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus!" (Ephesians 2:4-7)

 

The truth is we are worthy, we are wanted, we are welcome -- all by what You've done for us and all by what You desire for us. You created us for love because that's the essence of Your nature (1 John 4:18). We love You and we love one another because You first loved us and You always will (1 John 4:19). And when we get Your truth settled in our hearts -- that we are worthy and wanted and welcome -- then we can be true expressions of Your love and Your nature. As You are, so are we to be in our world (1 John 4:17). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My friend, may you see the Lord and see yourself as you truly are in Christ -- worthy, wanted, and welcome -- knowing how great the Fathers love for you truly is, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

   

My friend, Thank you for joining with me on this daily journey of prayer, seeking to grow in intimacy with God and the character of Christ. Thank you to all those who join with me in support and prayer of this ministry of helping people experience and encounter the Living God through intimate prayer and transformational ministry of healing and freedom in Christ -- "healing from the inside out" of "spirit and soul and body." God bless you!

 

On my Author Page at Amazon

For Speaking Engagement, Spiritual Retreats, Seminars, and Conferences,please contact me at tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org

God bless!

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!

Max Lucado, Jim Barker, and Friends for the 2019 Rapha God Ministries Fundraiser Friends, Come join us with Max Lucado and PGA Golf Pro Jim Barker for our annual Golf Tournament- Auction Fundraiser for Rapha God Ministries on September 28th at The Quarry in San Antonio!  You'll also have a chance to win a trip to Pebble Beach and more fun items to help us make this ministry free of charge to all who come for healing prayer ministry!  If you can't join us, please consider a tax-deductible contribution to Rapha God Ministries to help us fulfill our calling and vision of ministering the healing word of Jesus Christ! God bless you and thank you for your support, encouragement, and prayers! Registration to Play or Contributions for Rapha God Ministries Thank you and God bless you! Tommy Hays Pastoral Director | Rapha God Ministries Founder & Spiritual Director | Messiah Ministries 4 Dominion Drive, Bldg 1 San Antonio, Texas 78257 Max Lucado, Jeremy Camp, Randy Frazee from our 1st Year Fundraiser Thanks for all your encouragement and support mighty men of God! Max, Tommy, Tammy, Jeremy, Randy Tommy and Rocio Hays     www.RaphaGodMinistries.com

Tommy Hays, Rapha God Ministries, 4 Dominion Drive, Building 1, San Antonio, TX 78257 SafeUnsubscribe™ {recipient's email} Forward email | Update Profile | About our service provider Sent by tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!

Morning by Morning, September 20 - More Like Jesus Each Day

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Put Your thoughts in my mind, Your desires in my heart, Your words in mouth. Align my will and my ways with Yours. Make me more like You today. ...

 

"For God knew His people in advance, and He chose them to become like His Son, so that His Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters" (Romans 8:29 NLT).

 

Father God, from all eternity, You've known me because all eternity is eternally present to You. You see the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end, from everlasting to everlasting (Isaiah 46.8). "Just as (You) chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before (You) in love" (Ephesians 1:4).

 

So You've always known every choice I'll ever make, everything I'll ever do, and everything I'll ever become. You've always known how everything in my life will end up. And even though You've eternally known every choice I'll make, my choices are real and my choices are mine to make. You continually set before me the choice of blessings or curses, life or death, obedience or disobedience, trusting in You or trusting in myself, being conformed to the ways of heaven or being conformed to the ways of this world (Deuteronomy 30:15; Joshua 24:14; Romans 12:1-2). 

 

You say those who truly love You will choose to obey You (John 14:15). You say those who seek to please You will choose the ways of Your Spirit and not the ways of our flesh (Galatians 5:16). And then You empower me by Your Spirit to desire the right choices and to make the right choices that honor You and confirm my love for You. "For God is working in (me), giving (me) the desire and the power to do what pleases Him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT).

 

All along the way, You're at work in every opportunity in every moment of my day to help me become more like You -- "to become like (Your) Son" (Romans 8:29 NLT), "to be conformed to the image of (Your) Son" (Romans 8:29 NKJV) -- to make me more like Jesus every day. "Because as He is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17). We are called and empowered to "live like Jesus here in this world" (1 John 4:17 NLT).

 

As we both know, Lord, I have a long way to go -- a long, long way to go. But I trust You and Your Word that "the One who is faithful will do this" (1 Thessalonians 5:24). "And I am certain that God, who began this good work within (me), will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns!" (Philippians 1:6 NLT) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My friend, may you be moved with the desire and the power to be more like Jesus by God's Spirit at work within you, trusting in Him to be faithful to complete His good work in you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

   

My friend, Thank you for joining with me on this daily journey of prayer, seeking to grow in intimacy with God and the character of Christ. Thank you to all those who join with me in support and prayer of this ministry of helping people experience and encounter the Living God through intimate prayer and transformational ministry of healing and freedom in Christ -- "healing from the inside out" of "spirit and soul and body." God bless you!

 

On my Author Page at Amazon

For Speaking Engagement, Spiritual Retreats, Seminars, and Conferences, please contact me at tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org

God bless!

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, September 19 -- Everyday, Manifest Presence of Jesus

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I lift up my heart and open up my spirit to begin my day focused and centered in You -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...

 

"A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14:19-21 NKJV).

 

Lord Jesus, would You manifest Yourself to me today? Open my eyes to see You. Open my ears to hear You. Open all my senses to perceive You and Your manifest Presence -- here in my heart and all around me. 

 

You said You are with me always, and I believe You (Matthew 28:20). You said Your sheep hear Your voice, and I trust You (John 10:3). You said You fill heaven and earth, so You certainly fill every moment of my day and every place I'll go and every situation I'll encounter all along the way (Jeremiah 23:24). And You've invited me to abide in You as You abide in me -- heart to heart, hand in hand, moment by moment -- so I will (John 15:4).

 

As I seek to obey and live into Your commandment to love (John 13:34), as I seek to love You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), as I seek to know and embrace how great my Father's love for me and Your love for me truly is, I will be expectantly seeking Your manifest Presence with me all day long. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My friend, may you experience and embrace the manifest Presence of Jesus with you throughout the moments of your day, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

   

My friend, Thank you for joining with me on this daily journey of prayer, seeking to grow in intimacy with God and the character of Christ. Thank you to all those who join with me in support and prayer of this ministry of helping people experience and encounter the Living God through intimate prayer and transformational ministry of healing and freedom in Christ -- "healing from the inside out" of "spirit and soul and body." God bless you!

 

On my Author Page at Amazon

For Speaking Engagement, Spiritual Retreats, Seminars, and Conferences, please contact me at tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org

God bless!

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, September 17 - Inheriting the Promises through Both Faith and Patience

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Take hold of my heart and lead me by the Your Spirit on our adventure of faith today. ...

 

"Beloved, we are confident of better things in your case, things that belong to salvation. For God is not unjust; He will not overlook your work and the love that you showed for His sake in serving the saints, as you still do. And we want each of you to show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope to the very end, so that you may not become sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises" (Hebrews 6:9-12).

 

Through both faith and patience, we inherit the promises of God. Through both faith and patience, we keep diligently showing love and serving You. It's not just faith. It's not just patience. It's through both faith and patience.

 

Faith empowers us to believe. Patience empowers us to persevere. And both faith and patience have to come from You. My faith is a gift of God (Ephesians 2:8) and so is my patience (Galatians 5:22). Apart from the faith You give me, I can't believe. Apart from the patience You give me, I can't persevere. So as it turns out, I'm desperately dependent upon You. "Apart from (You), (I) can do nothing" (John 15:5). And that's really what humility is all about -- coming to the place and perspective in my heart and soul that I willingly choose to be desperately dependent upon You (James 4:6-10).

 

Yet there's often a struggle between my faith and my patience. My faith wants to take hold of my promises right now. They are Yes and Amen. No more waiting. No more blockages. No more delays. And at the same time, my patience reminds me to wait for it, to see it through, to hold fast, to keep on asking, to keep on seeking, to keep on knocking. As it turns out, I need both faith and patience to inherit Your promises -- not just faith, not just patience, but both faith and patience.

 

O Lord, I believe; help my unbelief. O Lord, I'm patient; help my impatience. As You know, I need more -- much more -- of both faith and patience.

 

You're a good Father. And a good Father loves to give good gifts to His children. I may not like the circumstances I go through on my journey of development of my faith or my patience, but I know You'll go with me on my journey. And I know one day I'll look back and say it was worth it all. Just give me a little more faith and a little more patience to believe and persevere today for all You've promised I'll inherit in the days to come. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

 

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

My friend, may you inherit all the promises of God, as He empowers you with both faith and patience to believe and perseverance into all He has for you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

   

My friend, Thank you for joining with me on this daily journey of prayer, seeking to grow in intimacy with God and the character of Christ. Thank you to all those who join with me in support and prayer of this ministry of helping people experience and encounter the Living God through intimate prayer and transformational ministry of healing and freedom in Christ -- "healing from the inside out" of "spirit and soul and body." God bless you!

 

Free to Be Like Jesus! -- Transforming Power of Inner Healing & Deliverance

For Speaking Engagements, Spiritual Retreats, Seminars, and Conferences, please contact me at tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org

God bless!

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, September 16 - We Can Walk with God

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I thank You that Your heavens are always opened over me and Your Spirit is always here within me. ...

 

"Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him" (Genesis 5:24).

 

Enoch was a man of flesh and blood like me. Yet there was something about his deeply personal relationship with You that allowed him to transcend barriers of this earthly realm. Your Word says Enoch "was known as a person who pleased God" and that "it was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying" (Hebrews 12:5 NLT).

 

I think there's more to the story and more of a point to the story than the fact that somebody left this earth without ever dying a physical death. I believe there's also something here about drawing us into a deeper intimacy with You in trusting faith and a daily spiritual journey that opens the heavens to us. 

 

Enoch was "under the Old Covenant" (Hebrews 10:11). "But Jesus has now obtained a more excellent ministry, and to that degree He is the mediator of a better Covenant, which has been enacted through better promises" (Hebrews 8:6). Now, not only can we walk with You, we can abide with You as You abide with us (John 15:4). Now, our hearts can be Your home and our spirits can live in constant communion with Your Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19; Romans 8:9). "Anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him" (1 Corinthians 6:17). These better promises are part of "the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

 

In that sense, I don't need to be longing for something Enoch had. Instead, I should be celebrating every day, gratefully thankful to You every day for the depth of intimacy and communion we can have in You today which is infinitely greater than anything Enoch could even ask or imagine. Through the New Covenant in Your blood, "God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace (we) have been saved -- and raised us up together with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6). 

 

Enoch had to wait three hundred and sixty-five years to be taken up into the heavenly realm, but I can be taken up with You right now! (Genesis 5:23) In a sense -- in the spiritual realm of Your heavenly, eternal dimension -- I'm already taken up, I'm already seated with You, I'm already eternally in Your presence, as I abide in You and You abide in me (John 15:4; Ephesians 2:4-6). In that sense, I'm already dead to this world and fully alive in You. "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Galatians 6:14). "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:18).

 

Lord, give me grace to grow into this depth of intimacy with You You've made possible for me. Teach me how to come up higher, to live up higher, to believe that You've already taken me up higher so that I can daily live from that heavenly place up higher in You. "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Romans 11:33) I'll spend a lifetime, even all eternity growing into the fullness of Your grace and all You've done for me in Your love! But for today, I'm choosing to "walk with God" in Your heavenly realm as best as I can and all by Your grace. Like Enoch, may I be known as one who pleases You and walks with You by faith. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

 

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

My friend, may you walk with God by faith in the heavenly realm of intimacy and communion with Him every day, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend!

 

   

My friend , Thank you for joining with me on this daily journey of prayer, seeking to grow in intimacy with God and the character of Christ. Thank you to all those who join with me in support and prayer of this ministry of helping people experience and encounter the Living God through intimate prayer and transformational ministry of healing and freedom in Christ -- "healing from the inside out" of "spirit and soul and body." God bless you!

 

Free to Be Like Jesus! -- Transforming Power of Inner Healing & Deliverance

For Speaking Engagement, Spiritual Retreats, Seminars, and Conferences, please contact me at tommyhays@messiah-ministries.org

God bless!

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!