Sunday Message from College Online Ministry and Encouragement

Enter God's Rest: Time for R & R (part 3 of 5) from Jewel Wlliams on Vimeo.

Join us for today's Sunday Word from College Online Ministry and Encouragement.

I am thirsty - one of the seven last words of Jesus

I am Thirsty

²⁸ Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. ~ John 19:28-29

Christ even in the midst of agony and suffering, was aware of fulfilling and finishing the work God sent Him to do.  Never, did we hear Christ give an utterance of complaint, yet one could think here He complains by stating “I am thirsty”, not so.  Here Christ deliberately seeks to be obedient.  His declaration of “I am thirsty” speaks to a greater truth.  The truth is Christ’s thirsting was a thirsting after the glorifying of God and the accomplishment of the work of our redemption.

Christ statement of “I am thirsty” reminds us of the man who was in hell and looked up and asked could Lazarus dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue; for he was being tormented in the flame (Luke 16:23-25).  This man’s torment was all humanities fate, an eternal thirsty that could never be quenched from the bitterness of sin’s drink.  Yet, had Christ not called out, “I am thirsty” and taken the bitterness upon his tongue, we could not taste of the eternal water that quenches our thirst.

Finally, when Christ took the bitter drink from the hyssop, it was a foreshadowing of the cleansing of our lives.  David in Psalm 51:7 asked God to cleanse him with hyssop and he would be whiter than snow.  Christ takes the sour wine offered on the hyssop branch so that you and I no longer have to have the bitterness of sin upon our lives, upon our tongues.  We can speak and know we are cleansed and that words that were once bitter now can be life giving words.  Isaiah said, I am a man of unclean lips, then God cleanses His mouth and make him able to go forth and speak the truth (Isaiah 6:5-6).  Today, know that Christ’s sacrifice gave you the ability to not only live for Him, but also to speak live giving Words, so that your thirsting will be filled from the fountain of the living water.

John 4:14 ~ But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

 

What is birth in you?

  

What is birth in you?

Written by: Rev. Jewel D. Williams

 

 

            Recently I was a part of an event where I experienced something amazing.  I cannot fully explain it, but I was told it looked as if I was giving birth.  What God later spoke to me was this, “how are you going to treat this birth? Will you treat it like a live birth or a stillborn?”  I took this to mean something special that I wish to share with you.

            There are times when we are asking God to do something for us and we have the great honor of receiving that in an unusual way from God.  We are excited about the initial “birth” and how we felt at that moment.  However, God desires us to do more than get excited about the encounters we have with Him.  We respond in two ways; we either treat what has been birthed in us as a stillborn or as a live birth. 

 If we treat what God has done in us as a stillborn we quickly lose the excitement of the birth and we see what was born in us as dead, which we soon discard.  However, if we treat what God births in us as a live birth, we treat it the way we would a new born baby.  You feed your new born baby.  You love and show affection to this new child.  You want others to share in your joy about your baby.  You do everything you can to supply your baby with what it needs to grow.    There isn’t anything anyone could say to make you lose the joy about your baby.  Even having to change not so pleasant diapers make you think negative about your baby.

            This is how God wants us to look at what He births in each of us.  He wants us to be excited about the things He is bringing from our lives.  He wants us to utilize what is in us to share the joy of this “birth” with those around us, so that they too will see the beauty of this new birth.  He wants us to supply this “birth” with what it needs to grow.  We need to spend time in prayer, reading our word and fellowshipping with God so that what is in us can grow.  And then, just as a child grows and needs meatier substance, so does what is in us need meatier substances. 

            I was also reminded when I read a piece of scripture (Psalm 7:14 ~ whoever is pregnant with evil conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment), that we have a choice on what is birth from our lives.  We can be used by God to bring birth to healing, deliverance, joy, peace and restoration to lives that are standing in need.  Or we can be used by the devil to birth disillusion and confusion and so much more if we are not willing to be the right kind of vessel.

            I want to encourage each of you today by asking, what is being birth through you?  Have you allowed God complete access to your life so the right seed can be planted in your life?  If so, in due season you will see the birth of that which is planted in your life.  Give that birth your complete attention.  Show it love, nurture it, get excited about it, and don’t let anyone convince you anything is wrong with what was birth in you.

Prayer: Lord you have birth something in your people.  Help us to nurture that which you have brought from our lives.  Help us to feed that which has been born from us so that it can become all you have ordained it to be.  Help us not to treat that which you have born from our lives as a stillborn.  Help us not to discard those gifts and talents in us.  Help us not to allow anything to discourage us from becoming all you have ordained.  Let it be so. Amen.

 

 

 



Meet The Author

Meet the Author: Rev. Jewel D. Williams, M.R.E. from Jewel Wlliams on Vimeo.

 

 

If you would like to have a chance at winning a free book, join us on FB at Williams Innovative Network (W.I.N.). and enter to win.  You can pick one from any my 4 books.

The Goat Mentality

The Goat Mentality

 

 

 

Read Matthew 25:31-46

I wrote this some time ago, but recently thought about it. I wanted to share it with you. Jesus in scripture talks about separating the sheep from the goats. When Jesus used examples, He used what people were familiar with. What characteristics of a goat show us the things God wants to change? Let's take a look at some of them:

GOATS

• Highly intelligent (1 Corinthians 3:19 – God does not wants us depending on our own understanding for it is foolishness)

• Independent (Proverb 16:18 –God does not want us to be prideful in our own ability because it only leads to our destruction)

• When they are first born they begin to fight with their siblings for their mothers milk (Isaiah 56:11- God does not want us to be greedy, only concerned with filling ourselves)

• The strong survive, if they are weak they are left behind or die (only concerned with self- Hebrew 13:1 - God wants us to think more of others than ourselves)

• Intensely curious and will investigate any thing that piques their interest. Because they are so interested, they are hard to keep confined to their areas. They will jump over fences for example. (Ephesians 4:14- God does not want us chasing after every thing that catches our fancy. He does not want us tossed to and fro.)

• They are aggressive in their behavior (Psalm 37:11 – God wants us to be meek for the meek shall inherit the God)

• They are more adapted to hot weather and not cold. They have to be taken indoors at night times. The are not as adapted to cold weather because of their size weight ability to conserve water limited fat & nature of their coats (They are “fair weather” survivors. They cannot withstand the storms. God wants us to be able to withstand the storms of life. We are able to do this because of our “make up”. He adapts or clothes us to be able to withstand the “cold”.)

• Breeding of goats can be difficult because of the aggressive behavior and confrontational behavior. For example if a male goat and female goat are aggressive towards each other, the male will not mate with her and will keep others from mating with her as well. (Psalm 133:1 – God wants us to dwell together in unity: husbands, wives, children etc.)

Prayer: Lord we ask that you give us the strength to put to death any goat-like characteristics that are in us. Help us to be moldable and usable for your glory. Amen.

God's Reality about our Situations

 

Numbers 11:23 (NIV) ~ The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.

Today, I was discouraged.  I was discouraged at the complaining and fault finding of God’s people.  I sometimes see God’s people wasting too much time on things that really do not have anything to do with kingdom work; it’s all vanity.  We sometimes put too much time and effort into trying to maintain our “coop existence” instead of seeking God for His directions.   As I was sitting and asking God what He wanted from me, this is the scripture He led me to.

My heart was like Moses when he spoke to God and asked, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? ¹² Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? ¹³ Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. ¹⁵ If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.” (Numbers 11:11-15)

Moses was fed up with the complaining and ungratefulness of the people.  If you read the entire chapter it starts with the people complaining and God sending fire to consume them.  That was not enough, it moves on to them complaining about the food they received from God, they wanted something else. The Israelites were known complainers. 

As I began to look more at this scripture I was struck by something else.  Do I at times become a complainer?  Do I look at my own situations and begin to be ungrateful because things are not the way I want them to be?  Do I look at my lack of money or lack of time and begin to complain about the “manna” God is sending my way? Do I spend too much time on things that really have nothing to do with kingdom building?  Am I sometimes like the Israelites, a known complainer?

I was discouraged today, but God showed me something important about myself.  He reminded me through the Israelites that I was complaining and wasting too much time on things that really didn’t matter; my complaints were just the same.  While I might not have been complaining about meat, I was not showing forth a grateful heart for what I had been given. Don’t we do that sometimes?  We stop and look at our situations and only see what we “don’t have” and we begin to complain.  We say things like if I didn’t have to give my tithes I would have some money (going back to Egypt thinking).  Or we complain to God as if He has done something wrong to us because our circumstances are not working out.  “God I’m your child, why are you letting my wife/husband act so bad, why won’t you fix it?”  We begin to blame God as the Israelites did when things are not going the way they want.

Yet God wants us to see His reality regarding our situations.  God’s response to the things that were on my heart today about my own situation was the same one He gave to Moses.  “Is the Lord’s arm too short?”  God’s response to my situation was, do not have an Israelite attitude.  Do not look “back” and desire what was back in the time of bondage, instead look forward to me and what I am doing.  Do not complain because things are not coming when you think they should, instead trust me and know that my arms are not too short to take care of your needs.  God’s reality regarding our situations is He will never leave us nor will He forsake us.  He is faithful to the faithful.  The God we serve promises to be with us in our wilderness experiences as well as our times of plenty.  He promises to be a faithful God to us as we learn to show ourselves faithful to Him.

God in the verse above was helping Moses by giving him what he needed.  God had Moses pick some men and He anointed them with power to serve with Moses.  God's arms were not too short to fix Moses situation, just as His arms are not too short to fix ours.

I was discouraged today, yet God reminded me that if I draw close to His presence He will fill me with His power and equip me to handle whatever He deems worthy.  I allowed God to speak to me today through the discouragement I felt to show me how He could better use me.  I was reminded that God is worthy of praise at all times; both the good and the bad time.  He is worthy of praise when my situations are what I want them to be or when I find myself in a place of lack.

I was discouraged today, now my heart rejoices as I praise my God for He is worthy of all praise.  I am reminded His arms are not too short to handle everything that comes my way, therefore no more complaining about my situation when in fact God has it all under control.