Do You Kniw Your God?

Do you know your God?

May was an interesting month for me, in many ways. Immediately after mom‘s funeral, I decided to tidy up the living room. I wanted to get her ostomy supplies together and give them to a friend. Those things are super expensive and I definitely wanted to bless someone with them if I could. 

For some reason as I begin tidying up that one corner of the room, I decided to completely rearrange the living room. I still don’t know what came over me. 

Before I was done, I had three rooms in complete disarray.   My whole house was, “tore up from the floor up“, lol, which would have been no big deal, because I still had 10 days before I was going back to work.  But my sweet grandson decided he was done waiting to come into the world. His mom went into premature labor on Thursday night, the 18th, and I spent the next nine days, happily, taking care of grandbabies. 

I came home exhausted the night before I started back to work to a “Tore up” house, and the demands of a full-time job. The next morning as I was praying, I was discussing this with the Lord and He gave me the verse Daniel 11: 32.  

“They that know their God will be STRONG and do exploits.”  

I immediately begin saying it, praying it, decreeing it and declaring it. I even wrote it down on a little sticky and stuck it to my computer monitor.  I completely focused on the “strong“ part. Because strength was what I desperately needed. And as always, when the Word of God is applied, I felt better within a week and, I am happy to say, my house is looking pretty good. 

Yesterday I opened my Bible to Daniel 3 if you’re not familiar with it, this is the portion of scripture where the three Hebrew children are thrown into the fiery furnace. This morning Holy Spirit was talking to me about that. I have some situations in my life where I need answers. I have some people in my life that need God to do “great exploits“ on their behalf. 

The Holy Spirit highlighted to me today, Daniel 3:17, “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king ‘Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer in this matter. If it be so, our God, whom, we serve is able to deliver us from the burning, fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of your hand, oh king. But even if He does not, be it known  to you, oh, king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which you have set up.“ 

I have always looked at that portion of scripture and thought, “Wow, they had such great faith“. while that is true, I don’t think that was the basis of their declaration. 

They knew their God! 

They knew who He was! They knew what He could do! Their confidence was not, even remotely, in their own strength.

It’s my personal opinion that when Daniel wrote verse 32 of chapter 11 this is one of the situations he was thinking of. 

They knew their God, He made them strong internally, so that they did not fear, they did a great exploit for Him!  

If you’re not familiar with that chapter, they were eventually thrown into a tremendously hot furnace and God supernaturally delivered them completely unharmed. You definitely need to “check it out” if you don’t know that story.

We live in a world that is anti-Christ. Our culture is antichrist, even hostile to the things of God and the people of God. I will be quick to agree, in the natural it’s difficult but I don’t think it’s as bad as they had it (yet)!  As I’m thinking on the people in my life, and the situation‘s that are concerning me, I felt the Holy Spirit, kindly and gently remind me, I need to “know” my God better.   

Most people don’t read their Bible anymore. You can barely get them to church.  The Martha syndrome is rampant. Daily needs, concerns of family, finances, etc., have made the Word of God a “snack” we grab  for a quick boost when we feel like it.  

If we do not know our God, we will NOT do exploits, or have the strength to do them.

The only way to know God, like anyone else, is to spend time with Him. The only way to do that, or get started doing that, is through His word. 

Never before in the history of man has so much Word, been so easily attainable!  We have NO excuse!

Virtually every human over the age of 10 has a device in their pocket that, at any given moment of the day or night, can read the Word of God, listen to the Word of God, listen to music about the word of God, listen to commentaries about the Word of God, listen to preaching about God from virtually any preacher on the planet. 

We have the resources to be strong! We have the resources to know our God! We absolutely have the resources to do exploits for Him! 

re there some hings going on in your life that are bad? Turn it around! Know your God!  Know Him better tomorrow than you did today.  

Our culture screams at us. they demand we approve of their evil behavior. They intimidate and bully with fear, because they have nothing else. 

The CHURCH has the power in the earth, the real power. We have the power not only to overcome but to take ground for the Kingdom of God. 

At the end of that chapter, the king declared if anyone even spoke against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendigo it would not be tolerated at all.  They would swiftly and completely meet the full force of his power.  

The laws of the land were changed to bring safety and peace to God’s people (AND EVERYONE ELSE )  because of their exploits. 

Our world is in desperate need of safety and peace.  Our world needs God’s people to stand up in His strength, and do great exploits for him. All we have to do is KNOW our God.

Pray with me, if you would like to … Father, we repent of not being more diligent to know You, and Your Word. We ask you to forgive us. Holy Spirit, we ask You to lead and guide us and teach us to do better. Nudge us in those moments when we can take an opportunity to be in God’s Word, or His presence. Give us wisdom and insight to push away the cares of this world, and become more like Mary and Martha. In Jesus name, amen.

Practical ideas… 

Listen to the Word of God as you  drift off to sleep. There is a great app called YouVersion. It’s completely free and even downloadable. When you are in a Wi-Fi area, you can download it and then listen to it without the Internet. 

You  may still have the Bible on CD. Play it through your DVD player. 

Internet access not a problem?  YouTube has many videos of people reading the Word of God, dramatized, and not dramatized, lol.  

Write down portions of scripture that really minister to you and put them in prominent places in your home. Bathroom mirror, computer, monitor, above the kitchen sink, for instance.

Make a commitment every night to read one chapter of the Bible before you go to bed or, when you get up or after your dinner, etc.

Days when you have no demands instead of watching a 30 minute sitcom or 90 minute movie listen or read the Word instead.

And above all, any children in your life, make it a priority with them.

Read a chapter, or at least, several verses, every morning before they leave for school.

Turn on recordings of the Word of God while they drift off to sleep.

Create incentives for them, to not only read the word of God, but memorize it, such as candy or special outings.  There are lots of great resources on Pinterest or on the Internet for charting and encouraging children to know the Word of God. 

Display your Bible prominently in your home. It will remind you and send a message to your family that it is the most important thing you own. 

When you’re doing mundane chores like washing dishes or folding clothes listen to good teaching on your phone or the TV. My favorite time is doing yardwork.  

Find songs that really minister to you, that are strongly based on the Word of God, and listen to them when you cannot focus on the written or verbal Word.

These are just a few ideas, that I’ve come up with during my life. I bet you can come up with some other really good ones for your life. I would be really curious to know what they are.

But most importantly… Make a commitment, today, to develop a plan. 

Even if you just take one suggestion from above, or come up with only one of your own, commit to it! Implement it! When you neglect it, immediately correct and start again! Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to really work it into your daily routine.

We can do exploits! 

We can see our finances restored! We can see our families whole! We can see our loved ones saved and serving God! 

Never be discouraged, you have a great big God!