God is faithful and will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear. But He won’t take away the temptation before we have an opportunity to resist it. We are always in the training room of faith designed by God to help us mature in the things of God, and life in general. Jesus prayed that we would live above the evil in this world (John 17:15). Through faith and patience we obtain the promises of God (Hebrews 6:12), so to receive any help from outside of His mercy, we need strong faith for victorious living. It has been said in church circles, God won’t let anything of an overly challenging nature come to us before He checks the severity of it. Each of us have different levels of pain we can handle, different levels of manageable disappointments, drama tolerance, and offenses that won’t cut too deep for each of us. It may feel like we can’t go through a situation because our minds are screaming NO WAY! But God is faithful and as we lean not to our own understanding and trust the scriptures for our situations, that’s called working the word of God (Don’t wait on His Mercy, go on the offensive using God’s word). And through confession and real heart belief of the scriptures, we stand our ground until we have victory over our problems. During your trial for faith improvement, God always makes a way with the temptation for us to endure it, and continue right through it.

In the old testament of the bible, the Sabbath was looked upon as the final and absolute law that had to be kept even if someone’s life was at stake. That seemed to be the attitude. But Jesus said to the religious leaders of the day, the Sabbath was made for mankind not mankind for the Sabbath. In other words, certain chores or labor of any kind was not allowed on the Sabbath. But if one of the livestock falls into a ditch and can’t get out on the Sabbath, shouldn’t common sense say help it regardless of the Sabbath (Matthew 12:11). Why did those religious leaders get so bent out of shape when Jesus healed someone on that Sabbath day (Mark 3:1-6). The Pharisees and Sadducees were operating under the law concerning the Sabbath. Jesus came to earth and did away with the impossible keeping of the law. Because without Him changing our hearts into new creations in Christ Jesus, we couldn’t keep the law (Ten Commandments). Today because of the work at Calvary we can become doers of God’s word in thought, purpose, and action; we now can have a new nature without the habitual sin in our lives. So today we follow the Lord differently than the religious leaders of old. The dispensation of Grace is now here, and today we don’t live for the Sabbath.

Jesus is the living word of God. He came to earth to demonstrate the written word of God in action. Being the Son of God He has all the attributes of the Godhead and all its power. But once He came to walk among mankind He only used the written word of God to defeat the works of the devil. The power of God’s word on the lips of a believing Christian has the backing power of the Godhead to move all mountains of tribulation out of your way. God’s written word has been provided for His children to use for victorious living. In the beginning was the word (Jesus) and the word (Jesus) was with God and then Father God sent Jesus to destroy the works of the devil so we His children can live victorious lives even in a demonically influenced world. The deceptive power of Satan had total dominance over mankind after the fall in the garden. Something had to be done so all of mankind didn’t wind up in hell. Now you can choose a life without the habitual sin factor. We must choose Christ for ourselves to be saved from eternal damnation (Romans 10:9-10). Choose the word, it has the power to save.

David had one thing on his mind concerning the Lord. He sought for, and insistently required that he might dwell in the presence of the Lord. After all the battles David went through successfully because of God’s help, He wanted more of the Lord. He tasted and could see that the Lord was good (Psalm 33:8). David said He wanted to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. He had a very close relationship with Almighty God who brought David through many battles victoriously. God wants to bring us through many of our own personal battles in life. It all depends on how close you are to the Lord. We get close to God by learning about Him and doing His commandments. His commandments are for our own good in this uncertain evil world. The Lord knows when we’re about to get into trouble and can ward us if we’re used to hearing the voice of His Spirit and what His word says on any given area of life. Draw near to God and God will draw near to you (James 4:8). Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all the things we need pertaining to life will be added unto us without our effort (Matthew 6:33).

Be merciful just as your Father is merciful. Our Father in heaven was merciful to mankind by sending His only begotten Son to die for our sins. Jesus never sinned, and that’s why His blood could eradicate all sin, past, present, and future sin of the entire world. What most of us don’t realize is that the way we were created to live life was supposed to be based on love, being able to control our behavior according to God’s word, the Bible (There’d be no need for controlling our behavior if sin had never entered the world, thanks to Adam and Eve). Since sin entered the world, life has been an up hill struggle full of agitating spirits, moral conflicts, and every evil demonic work. God’s mercy manifests because we are helpless in getting out of this worldly curse. We live in the matrix (set up by Satan) which is designed to keep us away from God’s way of life. God’s way of living today is harder because of the habitual sin in the world and in our bodies. Even once saved, we still have the sin nature in our bodies, it hasn’t been redeemed yet, and our minds must be reprogrammed with God’s teachings and precepts. God made a way for getting us out of sin city, and all of the things that will destroy us are put aside from us because of God’s mercy. So now that you’ve been told; God’s command is, be merciful because your Father is merciful.

Wisdom is the proper handling of knowledge. Many people have knowledge but too much of it can puff us up with pride (1 Corinthians 8:1). The wisdom of God is pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, without favoritism and hypocrisy (James 3:17 HCSB). Earthly wisdom is wack. Godly wisdom produces knowledge that is pleasant and easily received. Worldly wisdom has been tainted by this evil world system. Everything has been affected by the sinful nature of mankind. The worldly wisdom is corrupt, always scheming with all the fleshly knowledge accumulated over the years. To get a complete overhaul of the fallen natured thought processing we’re accustomed to, the renewing of our minds with God’s word is vital (Romans 12:2). Otherwise your processing of the knowledge you’ve obtained won’t be true and pure, mostly good for getting over on people opposed to helping them. Godly wisdom wants to help others and obey the commands of the Lord. It was God’s wisdom that presented the plans to create the earth (Proverbs 8:1,23-31). This wisdom from God is ours for the asking.

Mordecai was trying to get Esther to remain silent, for to approach the king without permission, the penalty could be death. She was concerned about the Jews; her people, so God had her in this position of royalty. Esther did not care about the law of approaching the king unannounced, she said “If I perish I perish” (Esther 4:16), her heartbeat was for the Jews and their deliverance. When we can become one with our God given purpose in this way, we become unstoppable. Doing anything for the Lord that requires courage, is rewarded by God in a big way (Hebrews 11:6). When your calling and God given purpose supersedes the concern of harm or even death, you will have God’s full attention to guide you through all evil victoriously. Become bold for the Lord and He will become bold for you (Ephesians 6:10). This word today is for faith believing Christians that have laid it all on the line for Jesus and His Kingdom no matter what comes their way. These are they, that through tried integrity and word tested character have become courageous and fierce in motive and execution of their directive from the Lord.

The Lord sent a great fish to swallow Jonah. Jonah spent 3 days and 3 nights in the belly of a great fish. Now God has his attention like never before. The story of Jonah is that of disobedience, and repentance. God needed Jonah to send a message to His people who needed to be warned about their sinful ways. Jonah gave the Lord kick back and shied away from the command to go. This message to the people was vitally important to the Lord as He always gives a warning before He sends His judgement and justice to your door. Jonah was a prophet of God but not as versed in the Jewish laws and values. The bottom line is, obedience to the Lord is better than suffering as a sacrifice, and in this case it looks like Jonah was the sacrifice. While in the belly of the great fish, God sustained, and talked to Jonah there. After 3 days and 3 nights (indicative of the crucifixion of Christ), Jonah repented and God made the fish spit him out. Needless to say, Jonah went ahead and delivered that message to God’s people. A prophet must be ready to go whenever God says move. Obedience is better than being a sacrifice, because there’s no guarantee whether the fish will spit you out, or swallow you up.

Paul said for me to live is Christ (to fulfill His purpose) and to die is gain because of the glory of eternity. We all have assignments from the Lord and Paul back in his day was given the assignment of experiencing and writing 2/3′ s of the new testament. At one point in life we come to the conclusion we want to do something more meaningful in life, leaving a strong legacy behind. Following our God given purpose will give us that great legacy. It will be built-in as you follow the plan already in place for you (Jeremiah 29:11). We live, move and have our being in Christ Jesus (Acts 17:28). We are living in this world but should not be of it. We are the salt of the earth providing a preservative for the world (Matthew 5:13-16). And without the light of life in christians the world would be totally run over by evil. God works through His followers, His believing Christians to help keep the planet from a totally dark age. To live is Christ, following His teachings and precepts puts us in a whole other realm of existence in the earth, we learn to live above the evil in this world (John 17:15). So even though we die, for a Christian it is gain because you’re done with the life struggles of this world and enter into the ultima rest with Jesus.

John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus who recognized Him coming to be baptized. John felt like Jesus should be baptizing him instead of the other way around. Jesus replied to John, “We must fulfill all manner of righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). If Jesus wasn’t humble enough to let John baptize him, He would not be satisfying the area of coming as a man, opposed to coming in His fullness as the Son of God. He left behind all His glory and divine power He has in heaven to come and be as we are under this demonically ruled world system. He gave us the example of living according to the teachings and precepts of Father God. Jesus fulfilled His earthly assignment without sinning. He was tempted at every point of life as we are yet without sinning once (Hebrews 4:15). He became the perfect sacrificial lamb for the offering of our sins to Father God. Otherwise all of humanity would have to spend eternity in hell along with the devil, who most people follow knowingly and unknowingly. The Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world, but you must choose Him, it’s not automatic for us to just end up in heaven without accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Justice will be satisfied in the end, and hopefully you’ll be on the right side of judgement.