"The Threshing Floor" - June 17

Morning by Morning, June 17 - "The Threshing Floor"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Your sheep hear Your voice and Your children are led by Your Spirit. Help me hear and follow You today, Lord God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ... 

 

As I wait for Your leading this morning, I hear in my heart "the threshing floor." ...

 

Yes, Lord. What are You speaking to my spirit? ...

 

What comes to mind are the words of John the Baptist who had the spirit of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord in the hearts of the people:

 

"In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!' This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, 'The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight! ... Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but One who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and will gather His wheat into the granary; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire'" (Matthew 3:1-12).

 

John spoke of the "threshing floor" as a place where the wheat is separated from the chaff, just as he spoke of the bad roots that produce bad fruit being uprooted and removed. The chaff and the roots were to be consumed in the fire -- the Fire of the Holy Spirit at the hand of Jesus. By the spirit of Elijah, John was preparing the way of the Lord before Your first coming (Matthew 11:4) just as the same spirit of Elijah -- the Holy Spirit in the consuming Fire of God -- is preparing the way of the Lord before Your second coming (Matthew 17:1-13). As was prophesied long ago: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their father, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:5-6).

 

We are in Your threshing floor. Our hearts are being threshed. Our bad roots that bear bad fruit are being uprooted. All is being consumed in the Fire of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, in our land, in our world. "For our God is a Consuming Fire" (Hebrews 12:29).

 

John referred to this "threshing floor" as Your threshing floor -- "He will clear His threshing floor and will gather His wheat into the granary" (Matthew 3:12). That's not talking about the world; that's talking about us! The threshing floor is Your threshing floor. It's Your threshing floor for those who are Yours so You can separate the wheat from the chaff in us. Just as You're the Lord of the harvest, You're also the Lord of the threshing (Matthew 9:38).

 

Come, Holy Spirit! Come, Holy Fire of God! Burn the chaff out of me. Burn the chaff out of Your Church. This is the time of "the threshing floor!" Give us grace to get through this "threshing," that the wheat of pure hearts, wholly devoted to God, can be gathered up into the granary of God. Prepare the way of the Lord in us before the "great and terrible" day of the Lord comes in our world. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My Friend, may the Holy Fire of God burn in you and give you His grace to come through the threshing floor of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit prepares the way of the Lord in your heart for the great and terrible day of the Lord to come, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

   

  

Listen and join me in today's Morning by Morning

Prayer Devotional Podcast

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

Pakistan Preaching Praise Report from Last Night!

Friends, I'm excited to share this praise report I just received from Pastor Rizwan after out outdoor evangelistic meeting in a new village for our outreach in Pakistan last night:  Over 350 souls were saved! And there were testimonies of healing received already, as the Pastor reported this morning: "41 Persons are healed from different things. Last night one person had heavy teeth pain so pain gone after he went to his home. Two sisters came with heavy stomach pain so they told our team that today they are healed perfectly!"

 

Friends, thank you so much for all your prayers, encouragement, and support for us to be able to hold these monthly evangelistic outreach meetings through our Internet Ministry into Pakistan. Each month, I am preaching in different villages around Lahore, Pakistan in the Punjab Region through Skype in these outdoor evangelistic meetings. Leading our local team, Pastor Rizwan Fazal sets up a big screen in an outdoor meeting usually and interprets my message of hope and healing live in Pakistan. Then we follow up with prayer and discipleship through our partnership of ministry with Pastor Fazal. We're excited to see what God is doing in these days!

 

"And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come!" (Matthew 24:14)

From Last Night's Meeting. Praise the Lord!!!

New Mailing Address for Messiah Ministries:

Tommy & Rocio Hays

Messiah Ministries

17503 La Cantera Parkway

Suite 104407

San Antonio, Texas 78257

My friend, we've updated our new ministry website. Take a look and tell us what you think!

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

When "To Pluck Up and Pull Down, to Destroy and Overthrow" = June 16, 2020

Morning by Morning, June 16 - When "To Pluck Up and Pull Down, to Destroy and Overthrow"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Merciful and Mighty, Faithful and True, my Strength and Shield, my Lord and King, O Lord my God -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- I bow before You and look up to You, to begin my day intentionally and intimately embracing Your Presence. ...

 

When we're wavering and wondering, You're always here reminding us to turn to You. And as I turn to You today, You're Word comes to mind from the prophet Jeremiah, who spoke into the hearts of Your people through troubled times:

 

"Then the Lord put out His hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, 'Now I have put My words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:9-10).

 

It's Your word that's anointed "to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow" just as it's Your word that's anointed "to "build and to plant." And all that's truly of You and Your word will always be counterfeited by the enemy of all that is right and true, "the thief who comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy" (John 10:10).

 

There's a right way and wrong way. There's Your way and the enemy's way. There's Your word and Your way; and there's his words and his way. And we desperately need Your discernment to know the difference.

 

Give us humility to see and to allow what needs to be plucked up or pulled down, what needs to be destroyed or overthrown. And at the same time, give us courage to embrace what is of You and to stand against what's not of You. May we stand up and speak up for what You've build and planted, what You've sown and grown, what You've established to stand through the tests of time.

 

We'll stand on the right side of history when we kneel by the side of our beds and at the foot of Your cross to hear Your words, to receive Your guidance, and to obey Your commands as we seek to walk in Your ways.

 

We need the same Holy Spirit who anointed Jeremiah to hear and to speak, to respond and to act, to anoint us with Your words and Your power, with the wisdom of Your ways in our generation. Let nothing be plucked up or pulled down, be destroyed or overthrown that You have not marked for destruction, even as You uproot and remove all that is. Give us the God-given sense to know the difference.

 

Just as a tree is known by its fruit, so are our motives and actions. Let our motives and actions bear the fruit that comes from obedience and courage to hear and obey Your words is spirit and truth. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My Friend, may you be anointed to know when to pluck up and pull down to destroy and overthrow, to build and plan, by the discernment and the power of the Holy Spirit of the Living God who abides in you, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

  

  

Listen and join me in today's Morning by Morning

Prayer Devotional Podcast

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

Pakistan Preaching - Our Next Monthly Evangelistic Outreach Today - Tuesday June 16th

Friends, please keep us in prayer today for our next monthly evangelistic outreach meeting through our Internet Ministry into Pakistan.  (Tuesday morning here; Tuesday night in Pakistan). Each month, I am preaching in different villages around Lahore, Pakistan in the Punjab Region through Skype in these outdoor evangelistic meetings. Led by our local team, Pastor Rizwan Fazal sets up a big screen in an outdoor meeting usually, along with our interpreter who interprets my my message of hope and healing live in Pakistan. Then we follow up with prayer and discipleship through our partnership of ministry with Pastor Fazal. We're excited to see what God will do!

"And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come!" (Matthew 24:14)

New Mailing Address for Messiah Ministries:

Tommy & Rocio Hays

Messiah Ministries

17503 La Cantera Parkway

Suite 104407

San Antonio, Texas 78257

Friends, we've updated our new ministry website. Take a look and tell us what you think!

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

"Decently and in Order" - Mornig by Morning, June 15, 2020

Morning by Morning, June 15 - "Decently and in Order"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. Help me hear Your voice and be led by Your Holy Spirit, here in the embrace of my Father this day. ...

 

"All things should be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:40).

 

When Your Spirit leads, things are decent and things are in order. By the same measure, when it's not Your Spirit who is leading, things are indecent and things are out of order. Even a blind hog has that much discernment. 

 

We're created to need order, to need structure, to need stability and security. And we're created with a need to turn to You as the only One who can set things right, in Your created order -- in our hearts and in our world.

 

Just as Your Spirit hovered over the waters of the darkness at the beginning of creation, You spoke and You brought order out of chaos, structure out of instability, security out of insecurity (Genesis 1:1-2). You spoke by Your Spirit and there was light out of darkness, as You set things right in our world (Genesis 1:3).

 

Come, Holy Spirit. How we need You in our hearts and in our world. How we need You to speak and set things right. How we need You to bring order and decency, stability and security in the way that only You can do. We need Your law and order, just as much as we need Your mercy and grace.

 

Yet Your order is not controlling and oppressive. Your structure does not restrain our full freedom of expression of our opinions or desires or demands for change. But Your order brings the guidance of Your ways and the bears the fruit of Your Spirit. And the fruit of Your Spirit is an expression of Your character which You're forming in us, as You hover over the waters of our souls and infuse us with the light of Your glory. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law" (Galatians 5:22-23).

 

In fact, when Your Spirit comes to set things right, with all things done decently and in order, there is great freedom and great expression. The very verses of Your Word that speak of decency and order first speak of the full expression of the gifts of Your Spirit:  "So, my friends, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid the speaking in tongues; but all things should be done decently and in order" (1 Corinthians 14:39-40).

 

Father, sanctify our tongues that we may speak with Your voice and the language of heaven into the chaos of our day. Open our spiritual ears to hear the voice of heaven in our hearts that we may speak and prophecy Your words of spirit and life into the chaos of our world.

 

As the sons and daughters of God in our world, as the disciples and followers of Jesus Christ in our generation and in our land, fill us with Your Spirit to walk in the full expression of the gifts of Your Spirit, that we may sow the seeds of Your Spirit and see Your bear the fruit of Your Spirit -- here in our hearts and here in our world.

 

Set things right, O Lord! Let all things be done "decently and in order" -- all in Your order and all in Your way. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My Friend, may you be secure and stable, with all things set right in your heart, all by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God abiding in you and speaking words of spirit and life through you, as He bring His order into our world, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

 

  

Listen and join me in today's Morning by Morning

Prayer Devotional Podcast

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

Pakistan Preaching - Our Next Monthly Evangelistic Outreach - Tuesday June 16th

Friends, please keep us in prayer tomorrow for our next monthly evangelistic outreach meeting through our Internet Ministry into Pakistan.  Each month, I am preaching in different villages around Lahore, Pakistan in the Punjab Region through Skype in these outdoor evangelistic meetings. Led by our local team, Pastor Rizwan Fazal sets up a big screen in an outdoor meeting usually, along with our interpreter who interprets my my message of hope and healing live in Pakistan. Then we follow up with prayer and discipleship through our partnership of ministry with Pastor Fazal. We're excited to see what God will do!

"And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come!" (Matthew 24:14)

New Mailing Address for Messiah Ministries:

Tommy & Rocio Hays

Messiah Ministries

17503 La Cantera Parkway

Suite 104407

San Antonio, Texas 78257

Friends, we've updated our new ministry website. 

Take a look and tell us what you think!

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

"One Blood", One Love, "One God and Father of All" - June 12, 2020

Morning by Morning, June 12 - "One Blood", One Love, "One God and Father of All"

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" (Revelation 19:16). You are "Lord of All" (Acts 10:36). ...

 

As I look to You in prayer today, in the midst of a world that looks so dark and divided, I also see light and hope in the midst of it all. For wherever there's darkness, there will also be light (Isaiah 60:1). Wherever there's wickedness, there will also be righteousness (Matthew 13:30). Wherever there's evil, there will also be good (Romans 12:21). And wherever there's despair, there will also be hope (Romans 5:5). For You have not left Yourself without a witness in any place in our world (Acts 14:17).

 

Racism must be uprooted and replaced with respect. Violent destruction must be opposed with mutual honor and respect. Evil must be overcome with good, hate overcome with love, and darkness overcome with light. For as Your Word declares, we are all "one blood" in You:

 

"(God) has made form one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should (all) seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being ... 'For we are also His offspring'" (Acts 17:26-28).

 

It's the enemy of our souls that seeks to divide us, while You seek to unite us. It's the enemy of our souls that seeks to stir up division and strife with hatred and fear, pitting life and against life and race against race. It's the enemy of our souls who "comes only to steal and kill and destroy" but You "came that (we) may have life and have it abundantly" (John 10:10).

 

In You, there is no division, no racism, no prejudice, no violence, no murder, no injustice, no shame. "The Scripture says, 'No one who believes in (You) will be put to shame.' For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the Lord is Lord of all and generous to all who call on Him. For, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved'" (Romans 10:11-13). And the Scripture says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20).

 

So I join with the prayers of my brothers and sisters in Christ around this world to pray that our hearts and our land be covered and cleansed in the "one Blood" that can makes us see one another, respect one another, honor one another, love one another, stand up and speak out for one another as "one blood" together with one another. "For He Himself is our Peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility" -- between Jew and Gentile, between one race and another, between all hearts divided by sin from our God (Ephesians 2:14). "For in (Jesus Christ) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him God was pleased to reconciled to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace by the Blood of His cross" (Colossians 1:19-20).

 

By His One Blood, there is "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as (we) were called in one hope of (our) calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all who is above all, and through all and in (us) all" (Ephesians 4:3-6). One Blood, One Love, One God and Father of All. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My Friend, may you be an ambassador of Christ, His light in the darkness through the One Blood of of the only One who can make us one in His Love and Light in our world, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friend! 

  

Listen and join me in today's Morning by Morning

Prayer Devotional Podcast

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

New Mailing Address for Messiah Ministries:

Tommy & Rocio Hays

Messiah Ministries

17503 La Cantera Parkway

Suite 104407

San Antonio, Texas 78257

Friends, we've updated our new ministry website. 

Take a look and tell us what you think!

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!

Psalm 59 for Age 59 - June 10

Morning by Morning, June 10 - Psalm 59 for Age 59

 

Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak out Your name and listen for Your voice, here at the beginning of my day. ...

 

An evangelist friend of mine on the other side of the world sent me a birthday greeting this morning inviting me to pray the Psalm numbered for my age. Today that would be Psalm 59. And my first thought is that's getting a little too close to Psalm 60! ...

 

Even so, as I pray through Psalm 59 this morning, I see it was a very challenging time of transition in David's life. He had many mixed emotions, surrounded by both friends and foes on his journey into his destiny. But through it all and in spite of it all, he turned his eyes and lifted his spirit to You, as his finished his Psalm with a flourish of heart-felt words of worship from a heart full of faith and trust and praise:

 

"But I will sing of Your strength,

in the morning I will sing of Your love;

for You are my Fortress,

my Refuge in times of trouble.

You are my Strength, I sing praise to You;

You, O God, are my Fortress,

my God on whom I can rely" (Psalm 59:16-17).

 

I like how he begins his final declaration of his trust in Your goodness and grace with the word "But." All that went before that "But" was his reality and the reality of the world he faced in his day. He didn't have his head buried in the sand. He wasn't afraid of reading the news. He wasn't detached from the challenges of local politics and the national turmoil of his time. "But" at the same time, he kept his eyes on You with his heart full of songs of praise.

 

In his songs, You strengthened him. In his prayers, You empowered him. And even to this day in what we now call "The Psalms" we're all encouraged by his heart of faith, despite all he went through -- both by all he brought upon himself and by all that was brought down upon him -- "But" as a man after God's own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). "When (God) had removed (Saul), He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, 'I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will" (Acts 13:22).

 

By the power of Your grace, I want to be a man after Your own heart like that, like David. One who will be found faithful to do all Your will no matter what. Fully aware of all that's going on in my day, in my world, and not detached from all I've been through -- no matter the source of my struggles, whether my own or otherwise -- "But" trusting in You with a song in my spirit, full of faith in my heart. So Psalm 59 at age 59 is just fine with me, with You and my friends right here by my side! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

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

My Friend, may you be found faithful as one after God's own heart, with your eyes on the Lord and your heart full of praise, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. Thank you for being my friend and joining with me on this journey of faith and prayer! God bless you, my friend! 

  

Listen and join me in today's Morning by Morning

Prayer Devotional Podcast

https://anchor.fm/morningbymorningtommyhays

New Mailing Address for Messiah Ministries:

Tommy & Rocio Hays

Messiah Ministries

17503 La Cantera Parkway

Suite 104407

San Antonio, Texas 78257

M Friend, we've updated our new ministry website. 

Take a look and tell us what you think!

Tommy & Rocio Hays | Messiah Ministries

Messiah-Ministries.org

Please share this word to encourage a friend!