But you, man of God

11/03/2025

When you first become a follower of Christ, you are on fire, you can’t wait to spread this news that has changed your life. But our Lord has a process that makes it stick, a process of refinement that allows us to learn to not depend on our own strength, or ability, and the strangest concept of all, that is very difficult to grasp at first, is that our God allows the devil to be used as a tool to bring us to the place that He wants us to be. Just look at the over-confidence in the way Peter proclaims that he would never deny his Lord and he would go to the death for Him! Peter probably meant that with every fiber of his being when he said it, but the problem was even the best intentions can still be full of arrogance, when we fail to understand that we are nothing without our advocate, Jesus.

When we serve the Lord and seek to do His will it has to come from a strength that is not our own. Jesus knew this moment of Peter’s denial of Him would crush him, and the crushing part was part of Peter’s refinement. Peter was still too reliant on himself, he hadn’t failed enough yet to have empathy that would be needed with others for the future mission that would be placed before him. I mean after all I don’t think Peter’s faith was lacking, I mean I think it’s safe to say that Peter probably had the most faith out of all of them, but clearly he still needed to be humbled, to know that he was nothing without his Lord and it wasn’t going to be Peter’s strength that would be the “rock of the church”, it was going to be Jesus’s strength and grace, being manifested through Peter.

I learned something yesterday when reading more into this section of scripture. When Jesus warned Peter that satan had asked to “sift you”, Jesus wasn’t just referring solely to Peter. The “you” had a more profound meaning in the original language, which included all the disciples. This is what is so special about this moment, Jesus basically tells Peter he’s going to fail, but seeks to encourage him by telling him that He has prayed for him that his faith won’t fail, and that when he repents and turns back after his failure, he wants him to strengthen his brothers, the other disciples.

Do you get it friends? This failure to stand up for Jesus was part of Peter’s journey. Part of a greater process in which Peter had to be humbled through failure and a major setback so that our Lord could mold Peter into the man He needed him to be, not the man Peter thought he should be. Because of Peter’s lack of humility and his reliance on his own strength, he was not completely aligned with the Lords will. He was after all the one who pulled out the sword in the garden and sliced the temple guards ear, even though the Lord had predicted many times that the time would come when the Son of Man would need to be arrested, tortured and killed. So Peter and the disciples still needed a valuable lesson that would both crush them and then allow them to be built back up with the strength of Jesus. The crazy part is who the Lord allows to be used to accomplish this, and I think it’s the same for our lives too in the Bible. The devil had to ask permission to sift them. Sifting was a process of shaking wheat during harvesting, so that all the bad parts would fall out. And this is something our God allows the devil to do, so that we can come to the precise moment of humility that He wants us to get to in order to become the servant He wants us to be. But don’t miss this, Jesus is our advocate, He doesn’t just allow us to be sifted without limit, He prays for us, He asks God to strengthen us so that our faith may endure until the end, and that we would get back up even after we’ve fallen to serve the Lord’s will in our lives. Jesus doesn’t allow anything to go to waste. Every failure, every temptation that has been presented in our life, including the ones we’ve failed at can then be used to further strengthen our faith, once we’ve repented and turned back to God. God will use these failures to help encourage others and give others hope and bring them into the Kingdom’s purpose.

This is why we study God’s Word church. Because it’s not just any other so called “holy book”, It is the ONLY Holy book. It’s divinely given by the ONLY God. And it’s meant to show how even though man fails God, that if we’ll humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways, repenting and seeking the knowledge of who God is, with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, that He’ll meet us right where we’re at. He doesn’t desire a sacrifice, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins has already been made, that of His Son, Jesus Christ. He desires a humble, broken, repentant spirit. “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”(Hosea‬ ‭6‬:‭6‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

If you’re getting frustrated because you feel like you’re falling back to the same behaviors over and over again, maybe it’s time to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and trust that your strength will never be enough? It is only Christ who can intercede for us, He is our advocate and if we’ll learn to lean and focus on Him alone we’ll find a peace and strength that is not our own! ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/20/2025

Do you feel like life is a roller coaster? I mean the kind you don’t want to be on? Like just when you think you’ve got it together, BAM, another circumstance that’s outside of your control hits you, you hit that crest, and woosh down you go feeling like you’re spiraling out of control and something hit you that you never thought would happen. I get it, life and our emotions can definitely be a roller coaster, whether it’s us failing when we didn’t do what we want or desire to, or simply having something happen to us that we didn’t anticipate that starts to make us feel angry, upset, or anxious. All of it can certainly feel like a ride which none of us prefers to be on.

But this is why I love the book of psalms. The Bible helps us to get off the coaster. To relinquish control to our God, and trust that He has a plan even when things seem out of control. That the flesh and relying on our own strength will always fail us.

The devil loves to play games, first he tempts us with something the flesh desires, then he reminds us of all our failures, who we used to be, and he floods our hearts and minds with emotions surrounding this so we’ll come to a place of defeat and self pitty. But make no mistake friend, this posture only magnifies our failure, it’s a false humility because it’s still focused on self, and it’s a masked arrogance because instead of us defaulting to repentance and venting to Jesus telling Him, “well Lord I’ve picked up my burdens again, I’ve failed you, and I need to surrender and trust You that you will see me through this once again, not because of anything I can bring to the table, but simply because You love me and offer me so much more than forgiveness!”

We have to change our perspective friends, we have to trust that our God is in control, no matter what our circumstances may be. Jesus, and His power is the only key to get off the crazy roller coaster of life. We can’t overcome the flesh on our own, we can’t control our lives, we can’t bring justice to our lives, only our God is in complete control. The life of a follower of Christ isn’t absent of temptation, of injustice, or trials and suffering, we are still very much subject to the same roller coaster that everyone else experiences this side of eternity. The difference is when we focus on God and trust that nothing surprises Him, and if He’s allowed us to experience what we’re going through that it serves a purpose, and the sooner we realize that and learn to place it in His hands, the sooner He will flood our hearts with peace and joy and self control that can only come from the Spirit of God living inside of us.

But make no mistake friends. We do have a choice, and what we fill our eyes and our minds with daily, is what will consume our hearts. And our hearts can either be filled with the Spirit or filled with the flesh. They are in complete opposition to one another. We must choose to starve the flesh, and to feed the Spirit with God’s Word. When our minds and eyes are fixed on eternal matters, our hearts learn to believe Truth, and that therefore helps us to combat the lies and deceit that the flesh and the devil love to throw at us. So the question becomes rather simple, what will you and I choose to feed everyday? Are we diving into God’s word, praying for change and the power of God’s love to reside in us, or are we feeding the flesh and relying on our own strength, failing over and over again? Are we truly trusting that God is in control, no matter what? Or are we only reading the words on the pages of the Bible like they are simply a story without a purpose? Faith is what makes us go deeper. Faith and discipline of walking with our God daily in an intimate relationship with Him is what feeds the Spirit. Nothing else works! We have to keep the faith, even when it seems hard, and not let our failures or emotions defeat us. Keep the faith and surrender your circumstances to the Lord, and trust that He will sustain you, and carry you until the end! ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/19/2025

Is there a no more powerful image to sum up my life without words? I’m the one who held the hammer and nails, that pierced the flesh of my Lord and Savior. I’m the one He suffered for, I’m the one that wounded Him, and then when I became exhausted, when my life turned upside down because of my own doing, because of my own failures; Him the One that suffered for me, even though I wounded Him, was there to pick me up. What a strange thing to do from my minds eye! My mind can barely begin to grasp this concept, and I’m learning more and more each day, the weight and full measure of what this means for my life.

I love every little detail of this picture below: from the slumped exhausted posture of the man, having tried every selfish route that only brought disaster, the fact that both hands are holding the hammer and nails, the wounds showing that the Savior who holds me in His arms is the One whom I’ve wounded, the halo that belongs to my Savior, but because He’s holding me up, giving me strength and letting His grace wash over me, that halo now belongs to me too, even though my destruction was of my own doing. I’m counted as righteous, not because of being a good man, not because of anything I’ve done, but simply because He chose me and my faith in Him alone and walking with Him daily is what defines my righteousness. I’ve only been made holy and clean because I’ve been bathed in the blood of Jesus. And let me tell you something, thank goodness we don’t have to wear labels of rank in heaven, ranking our life’s sin and how much redemption we each needed because I’m certain I’d be part of the worst sinners club in heaven, right there with Paul. “This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” — and I am the worst of them.” (‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭1‬:‭15‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

I have to remind myself of this so much because it’s so easy to become discouraged. That battle in your mind, and heart, it’s very real and those evil thoughts that suddenly wash over your mind reminding you of your past are temptations, flaming arrows sent by the devil to throw you off course, meant to distract you and push you off the narrow road that God has for you. And when you fail, because you will, you must, much like me, remind yourself who’s righteousness you put on. It’s not our own, but Jesus’s alone. We have not earned it, no matter how much good we think we do, works have never come first, in fact works are meaningless if they come from our own strength, it is only when faith comes first and the Spirit working through us reveals this to us that we get it right. Change only comes from within first, from having our heart of stone removed, and being gifted a new heart of flesh and blood that is not our own, but that of our Savior. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place my Spirit within you and cause you to follow my statutes and carefully observe my ordinances.”
‭‭(Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭26‬-‭27‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

He chose us first, we must always remember that. Without Him we’d still be holding those hammer and nails, but we’d be dead in our sins lying on the ground waiting for the scavengers to come and pick us apart. But just like Lazarus, while our bodies had already started to decompose because of our own selfish doing, in the distance we heard a voice that said: “‘INSERT YOUR NAME’, COME FORTH!” And suddenly our eyes were opened and we were raised to new life. And while the old flesh may be waging war against us daily, we consume our daily bread, because our hope is not in our ability, but in His alone. While the verses below imply that we can be rocked and shaken, our everlasting hope is that “even though the mountains move and the hills shake, His love for us can never be removed and His covenant of peace will never be shaken!” Oh God, my eternal Savior, let it be today and everyday moving forward, more of You and less of me! ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/18/2025

All of us at some point have experienced that one person we know in our lives that possesses a boldness in their requests which rejects all normal social protocols. We would never think of burdening someone else with such a request because it seems shameless, and maybe we even, because of our cultural norms think that lowering ourselves to that level would give the impression that we lack self respect. How we respond to that type of person is important, but that’s a discussion for another day, today I wanted to focus on how Jesus used our life experiences, both good and bad to teach us concepts. This isn’t the only time He uses the example of a persistent, shameless person, as He also describes a persistent widow and her cries for justice to an evil judge, who eventually gives in to her, not because he wants to do the right thing, but rather he just wants her to stop pestering him. Isn’t it interesting how Jesus uses such negative scenarios to encourage us to pray with boldness, with expectation?

In this example below we see Jesus describing an annoying friend that comes knocking late at night with an unreasonable request, and they are so persistent and bold that we end up giving them whatever they ask for just to get rid of them, so our children go back to bed and aren’t disturbed, and we can go back to sleep. Jesus isn’t saying by any means that this person did a good deed for the right reason. Rather He’s trying to make a point, that if people who are flawed give in because of boldness and persistence, then how much more is a perfect and loving God, and Father in Heaven going to respond to our persistence and boldness of our requests to Him? The thing is though that most of us, because of our human nature, when we pray for a week, a month, or maybe even years, we eventually think that Gods silence is Him either saying no, or that He’s not interested in our requests because He’s far too busy.

Friends, we have to stop thinking about an all powerful God with such limited thinking. Our God is never too busy, in fact He’s all about listening to us and His desire is to walk with each of us daily. Why else would an all powerful God come down to earth, humble Himself, take on the limiting form of a man, and become a servant to His creation? Even to the point of death? Can you even begin to truly comprehend that kind of love? I mean do we even understand what that means, truly? The God who created the universe from nothing in a simple 6 days, parts of which we don’t even know about or have explored and still remain a mystery to us this day, the God who destroyed two entire cities (S***m and Gomorrah) with a snap of His fingers in an instant, the God who parted the deep Red Sea and the Jordan River, the God who gave the Israelites their daily mannah in the desert, the God who gave specific instructions for the salvation of the first born of His chosen people on the night of Passover while the Israelites were in captivity to the Egyptians; this same Great Almighty God came down from on High and humbled Himself to walk among His creation to serve them and die for them so that we could walk with Him daily. I’m still everyday trying to wrap my mind around that concept. Let that soak in and marinate for a minute.

If He was willing to do that, can you see why Jesus is trying to present us with these unique scenarios so that our thick, stubborn minds can begin to comprehend how great the Father’s love is for us? The thing is that if our God is silent, it’s for a reason, the waiting always serves a purpose, and like any wise father, the waiting is meant to not only give us our request, but to bless us with a deeper faith and growth that could only come from a dependence on Him. And just like we think of God with our limited human minds and perspective placing those irrational limitations on Him because we have them ourselves; we also cannot place a human timeline or perspective on God’s faithfulness. Why is it that when years pass, we then allow that to become a measure of God’s faithfulness? How many times in the Bible does God show us He’s faithful to His promises? Was not God faithful to free the Israelites from Egypt after 400 years? Or in Babylon for 70 years? There are so many examples of how God’s timeline never lines up with what human expectations are, and that’s for a reason, it’s usually to humble us further and get rid of all arrogance and pride and teach us to be dependent on Him.

So friend, what is it that you’ve been praying for for a long time and it seems like your God has forgotten you? This is why we receive our daily bread, this is why we fill our minds with the knowledge of who God is and not rely on the wisdom of men. And trust me, as I’m writing this the Spirit of the Living God is convicting me too. I’ve been praying for years for a miracle and I’ve grown weary and tired and I’ve grown lazy in my prayer life recently, and when I get to this point I have to fill my heart, mind and soul with His promises, I have to reset and change my perspective. Because great is our Lord, and He is so worthy of praise! Our flesh will always be at war with Gods Spirit which has been given to us. And we have to deny this flesh, in order to make room for the Spirit. This is what taking up our cross daily means. The world asks what kind of God allows His children to experience pain and suffering? When they really should be asking what kind of God gives up His life for His children so that we can be made right with Him and then gives us the power of His Spirit so that we can be made holy and overcome the world? Remain steadfast for great is His faithfulness!❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/17/2025

Oh Lord, Thank You that You are faithful even when we are not. Thank You that You are a place of refuge, a safe, strong tower that we can run to for peace and strength in a dark and fallen world. Thank You that You warned us that in this world we would experience many troubles, but to “take heart”, for You, most Holy God have overcome the world. You are the God of making dead things coming alive in the name of Jesus! Oh Lord help us recognize and walk with Your presence today! To You be the glory forever and ever! Amen❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/17/2025

10/17/2025

So much of God’s Word is personal if we’ll really treat it that way. I mean the second half of the New Testament serves as a warning to us. And when I read the book of Jude, written by one of Jesus’s brothers, a family member who grew up with Jesus and just like James had the hardest time believing Jesus was the Son of God and not just a regular man, I really pay attention. Because if anyone would’ve exposed Jesus as a fraud it would have been His brothers. But these men, although they doubted at first because of their human natures end up being some of His greatest and most passionate advocates. Jude doesn’t even identify himself as the brother of Jesus, rather simply as first a servant of Christ. I mean if that’s not humility and true belief, I’m not sure what is. Jude could have written about anything, but this short one chapter book right before Revelation seeks to warn the body of Christ of an infiltration of stealth by the enemy. He seeks to tell us to be on guard, to make sure we are not tricked by those who come disguised as sheep, but are really ravenous wolves, only seeking their own selfish desires. Our Lord made it a point to warn us of this as well: ““Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves.”(Matthew‬ ‭7‬:‭15‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

So how do we get discernment? How do we know what is Truth, and not the false gospel of prosperity and “thou shalt do whatever makes you happy”? We receive our daily bread, we study it as if our lives depended on it. Because my friends they do. Never before, in this dark and cruel world has it been easier to be led astray. The devil loves any extreme. He’s not just after the lost and people who are walking around aimlessly, he’s also after those who seek to believe and follow Christ. When we are warned many times over by the forefathers of our faith to watch out for these type of people, we really need to make sure we pay attention. Our faith must be genuine, it must be our own, and it must be rooted in the Truth of God’s Word, all of it, not just the cherry picked verses that make us feel better about ourselves. The Bible should make us squirm at times, it’s meant to make us see how short we fall and how desperately we need a Savior. The Lord wants the best for us, He doesn’t want us falling for partial Truth and that’s why He made sure that we had the Bible to guide us.

Salvation is a gift, there is no debate over that, but justification through Christ’s actions on the cross is just the first part. If that’s where your faith ends then you’re missing half of the gospel. Jesus didn’t just come to justify you and cover your sin with His blood, He came to sanctify you, and this is done through the power of the Holy Spirit living inside of us, when we truly decide to follow Jesus and commit our lives to Him 100%. We cannot serve two masters, if we’re serving both God and ourselves, then by default we’re truly serving the devil in disguise. This is why we must constantly seek Him daily and reflect on the condition of our hearts, asking Him daily to reveal Truth to us. Even the most mature of believers is subject to deceit and falling away from Christ, and if they tell you otherwise than that’s a red flag in and of itself, because that my friends is called spiritual pride and it’s not of God. It’s only God who is able to change a humbled broken heart, it truly has nothing to do with us, except a willing spirit. “And God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.”(2 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭8‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

So be on guard friends in these unstable times. Walk with the Lord your God daily. Make Him your first priority and immerse yourself in His Word. Do not rely on anyone else to tell you what the Word of God says, study it yourself, and ask God to reveal His promises and mysteries to you. Keep the faith and endure till the end. ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/16/2025

Oh Lord, Speak loudly, move in a mighty way today. Teach us to walk in Your will and sacrifice whatever need be to stay rooted in You. Give us hearts that cry out just like Samuel: “speak Lord, for Your servant is listening!” and help us to be still and know that You alone are God. Lord, give us eyes to see and ears to hear. May we be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to get angry. May Your Spirit of wisdom and discernment be ever near to us. Lord continue to be merciful and soften hearts and minds, and bring more into the fold so that they may finally experience freedom in You! Help us to kill the flesh, so that we may live for the Spirit in this crazy, noisy world and above all may we love You and others above ourselves. Thank You for choosing us first. In Jesus powerful and Holy name, Amen ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/16/2025

What is it that is troubling you, consuming your thoughts today? This story of Martha and Mary no matter how many times I think I understand it, always holds a deeper meaning and conviction when I return to it. In this crazy world we live in, I’m certain that very few of us identify with Mary, but rather Martha. Instead of sitting at the feet of our Savior, listening to what He has to say, we’d rather come to Him with our thoughts, the worries and anxieties of this world that distract us and keep us from truly resting at the the feet of our Savior. And don’t get me wrong, He wants us to come to Him either way, but as someone who loves purely, His desire is not just to hear our worries and anxieties, His ultimate desire is for us to find rest, peace and joy at His feet. To find true fulfillment, not being distracted by anything else, and being caught up in all this world throws at us.

Too many of us instead of preparing for the worries and troubles of life by seeking Him first, we are reactive to our challenges in life, instead of first coming to Him listening to His promises that are sweet news to our soul and preparing for the tough times that lay ahead. I unfortunately had to learn the hard way that this is a very selfish approach to our relationships with the Lord, only coming to Him when we need Him, and our Lord because He is loving, wants so much more for us. Now I’m not saying Martha was completely wrong, for she was serving our Lord, but the point was while she was serving our Lord, I think the Lord wanted to gently correct her to let her know that being at His feet, learning, was what was most important. This is how we go deeper with Him and fill our cup. And just like faith has to come first before our works, so must intimate time be spent with our Savior in order to be able to discern the will of God and experience true freedom and peace from the worries of this world.

I’m so thankful that our God is a patient and loving God, never growing frustrated with how many times He has to redirect me to this Truth. How about you friend? If you’re anything like me, I’m certain you have to redirect yourself constantly, even if you are walking in the Lords will, reminding ourselves that we are simply a vessel here to do the Lords work. We must remember that our Lord looks at the heart, that He does not care first about outward appearance, but first that we are changed from the inside out. We must learn to change our perspective and refocus on Jesus, who set the example for us, being God and becoming man He became a servant, but also knew that He had to get away into the wilderness and spend time with God. We must first learn to be Mary, before we can serve like Martha with a pure heart! Keep those eyes fixed on Jesus and make sure you spend time first at His feet before starting your day today. ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊

10/15/2025

I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I’ve been waking up in the middle of the night a lot recently and feel like the Spirit of the Lord has had a lot to say. Some days, I’m just like can we pick this back up at 8 am Lord? 😂 A word I’ve been hearing a lot recently is the word “supernatural”, and this morning I also heard “dry bones”. 🦴 Now some may not know this, but from a human perspective there are some weird, for lack of a better word, supernatural stuff that happens in the Bible, and this is one of them. And until recently, I think some Christian’s may have gone dormant or stale, forgetting that our God is a God of the supernatural. You may say well what the heck does that mean Ian? And well, simply put it means doing things only the Creator of this world is able to do. Defying the natural laws and order of the world, the law of physics, and doing what man thinks is impossible. Performing a miracle. And this account right here, among many other accounts is a perfect example. Commanding an entire valley of dry bones to come to life, forming an army out of the dead.

We literally serve a God who can bring the dead to life! Take a moment and pause to reflect on that Saints. The same God who breathed the first breath of life into the very first man forming him out of nothing, that took one of his ribs to give him the gift of Eve, the God who parted deep seas to make a way to escape the Egyptians, that came down to dwell among us from on high only to be rejected, disrespected, spit on, beaten and then crucified, so that we might have freedom from our own circumstances of rebellion that we’ve created. That chose death, and then was raised on the third day so that we might be able to tap into that “supernatural”, resurrection power through faith! Yea Saints, that’s the supernatural God we serve. So let’s not forget that during our daily struggle and let’s tap into that supernatural strength through faith and prayer as we seek to serve Him with joyful hearts through the mundane, believing that He can turn the darkest hearts into hearts and minds that can serve Him.

Start your day out thanking the God of this universe for choosing little ole you, for just simply giving you abundant, eternal life and remind your heart and mind that we are not home yet Saints. Cut anything out of your life that keeps you from this mission and stifles that ressurection power of the Holy Spirit! And when your circumstances seek to overwhelm you, remember the God we serve is supernatural, and can prophesy dry bones to life simply by speaking it. We serve a God of the resurrection! Is there anything better or more worthwhile to chase after this side of eternity! Endure through all circumstances and do not become weary in doing good Saints! “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”(Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭9‬ ‭ESV‬‬) Lift your eyes up towards where your help comes from and put on your heavenly Daddy’s armor today! Keep the faith and remain steadfast, we are not home yet! ❤️🙏⚔️🛡️👊