Carter Conlon

Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. 58 When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her. So it was, on the eighth day, that they came to circumcise the child; and they would have called him by the name of his father, Zacharias. His mother answered and said, “No; he shall be called John.” But they said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” So they made signs to his father—what he would have him called.

If we are going to amount to anything we must learn how to pray and be set apart for God. When you choose to live for God, the evidence of His Spirit will be upon you and will work through your life. The plan of God is sure, the promise of God is true. In order to oppose the plan that God has for your life your enemies have to be able to oppose God Himself. Remember what the Lord did with you and remember that He will never leave you or forsake you.

Is it possible that there is someone in your life that God is prompting you to speak to and you’d rather not? Is it possible that God is speaking, looking for a witness to what he's speaking to the heart? We might find ourselves reluctant to speak in this generation. But even if we're not inclined to speak, God still is. And when we move in unison with him, mercy, sometimes on a scale bigger than we could ever imagine, is unleashed.

Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’” Having said this, He breathed His last. 

So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, “Certainly this was a righteous Man!” 

“Take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it.” ... Remember my chains. Grace be with you. Amen.

Colossians 4:17-18 NKJV

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 

Discouragement comes when we begin to lose courage on our forward journey. Sometimes the journey we have crafted for our future is partly true and partly fiction. We fall into the theological error of “WhatHowWhen” when we know what God has promised us but we want to tell him “how” and “when” to do it. In the midst of all our discouragement Jesus still comes and reminds us that He will never leave us of forsake us. Be encouraged, the plan that God decreed for your life is still unfolding and it will happen in God’s time and in His way.

Don’t be deceived into to thinking you can have the worship of God and have your sin too. You humiliated the devil the day you came to Christ and Jesus made an open display against the powers of darkness but now your mortally wounded by an enemy you let live and you sit in the House of God disguising your sin. It’s time to get to higher ground and move to where the Cross is. Today, humble yourself, pull of your disguise and the Lord will receive your prayer and shame the devil. Today don’t reject the voice of God lest your compromise swallow you up.

Have you ever been disappointed in God? Are you among those sitting in the house of God feeling a little outside of it all, wondering if your relationship with God could ever be the way it once was? In these seasons we are prone to make the mistakes. Discouragement and bitterness against God come into the heart when the plan doesn’t move forward like we thought it should move forward. Your plans may have amounted to nothing but God’s plan is still ongoing and God’s plan is the best plan of all. God hasn’t written you off, He has not forgotten you and the best for your life is yet to come.