Lord Jesus

I Hate Snakes

November 3, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

I hate went I’m scrolling through Facebook and all of a sudden an image of a snake pops up in my feed. I quickly scroll by but that image is burned in my head and I physically shudder for added effect of how much I hate snakes (and yes, I shudder even if no one is around).

This happened to me this week. After the theatrics of the super-fast scroll by and shudder were out of the way, it struck me that this is exactly how our enemy behaves.

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and he loves the sneak attack.

We’re going about our business having a good day and BOOM. The enemy attacks and all of a sudden we’re in warfare. Can you relate?

It often leaves us reeling not knowing what happened.

Sometimes it’s a thought in our own head that brings the attack. When we nurture and feed that thought, the attack can take on a whole new life.

Let me give you an example from my personal life. God gave me a passion for His Word and I am called to share that passion with others through Bible studies and blogging. There have been times after a study where I know I was teaching the Word He gave me when I start allowing doubts to creep into my head. Those doubts sound a little like this: “Those people were bored and you wasted their time talking nonstop for an hour” or “Who do you think you are to teach God’s holy Word?” Does this sound familiar?

We all have a former life before God.

During that former life, we did things that we are not proud of that lead to shame, guilt and condemnation. I’m no exception. It’s this very area of life where we have to be careful.

If we don’t know who we are in Jesus Christ, we can allow those dangerous thoughts to take up residence. And if we don’t know the Word of God, we don’t really know who we are in Jesus Christ because He is the Word. The Word reveals Jesus and who we are in Him to those who read it.

When we walk in ignorance of our true identity, we allow the enemy to tell us that we are not worthy of our calling.

But here’s the truth.

We no longer own our past or have any right to allow it to come into our present.

Jesus Christ bought our past with His blood. When we allow our past to come into our present, we are stepping out of our new life back into an old life that was put to death when Jesus died.

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Galatians 2:20

Make sure you catch these words that Paul speaks to the churches of Galatia. This is a very important truth for all of us to be able to put the past in the past and grab hold of our identity in Christ. We were crucified with Jesus the very minute we accepted Him as our Lord and Savior. This is done.

We no longer live our old life because He entered us at that very minute and He now lives in and through us! When we continue to allow the past bondage to control our lives, we are doing a great injustice to Jesus.

We are telling Jesus that His death was for nothing.

Jesus is the very substance of life and we are rejecting Him all over again when we stay in guilt, shame and condemnation from things in our past. Click To Tweet He died while we were yet still sinners because He knew that we’d NEVER be able to get our act together without Him.

Let me phrase it one more way. It is a form of spiritual pride when we reject Jesus because we think we are not good enough for Him. We are being self-focused instead of Christ-focused. We will NEVER impact His Kingdom for good and for His glory as long as we are self-focused. Your past does not define you any longer. Turn your vision from your past to His Presence in your present:). Click To Tweet

Your past is covered – once and for all – by the Blood of the Lamb.

Blood is our lifeline and without blood we cannot live, right? Look at it this way. The Blood of Jesus Christ gives us new life. We are a new creation and we need to step into this new life and embrace it.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17

Every time those thoughts come to attack you, take them captive and make them obedient to Jesus Christ. Tell yourself that Jesus died to pay for those sins. Jesus took your shame and guilt. There is now no condemnation in Jesus because He paid the price for your past.

It is that simple.

Don’t allow those sneak attacks to be anything more than a one minute interchange in your mind. The thought pops in your head that says, “who are you kidding to think you’re worthy of talking to God?” and you immediately tell it that “you are worthy because of Christ Jesus who lives in YOU is worthy of all things.” The thought pops in your head saying, “Skip church today because it doesn’t do you any good anyway. You’re still nothing but a sinner.” To which you immediately reply, “I am not going to church for myself. I am going to church to worship and praise Jesus for being my Lord and Savior and for giving me new life.”

Speak life to yourself.

Here’s another wonderful verse to meditate upon.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21

The words we speak have power over our life. We can continue to agree with the thoughts of the enemy or we can grab hold of those thoughts and turn them around to speak truth. Truth that comes from the Word of God. Get in the Word today and start reading. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom and a revelation of who Jesus is as you begin reading His Word.

We have complete power over the enemy – in all areas of our life.

The Word tells us that if we submit to God that the enemy WILL flee from us.

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 4:7

This is a powerful promise that we glean from His Word. When we turn our hearts and thoughts to God and we become conquerors over the enemy. Every. Single. Time.

When we take those thoughts captive whether they are thoughts of our own shame or inadequacies or thoughts of others who have hurt us, we are doing the “super-fast scroll by the snake that pops up in our feed.” We are not giving the enemy any territory in our lives.

Dig into the Word today. You’ll be transformed for the rest of your life.

Stay in the Light and the Love always,

Eva

At All Costs

March 30, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

What does “at all costs” mean to you?

God wants us to seek Him at all costs. He wants us to save nothing for tomorrow.

Spend all you have on seeking, worshiping, praising and glorifying Him today.

This world teaches us to save for a rainy day. Save your best for really special occasions. Don’t use your china for every day eating. Don’t wear your good clothes. Don’t give away your last dime.

God has been showing me that when we save something for a rainy day, we are putting Him on a back shelf.

We are telling God – our very Creator – that we do not need Him.

Let’s establish some facts. Yes, we believe in God. But maybe, just maybe, we do not always believe God. One little word makes all the difference – “in.” We believe IN God. But we do not believe God.

Do you understand the difference?

It’s easy to believe in God. We believe in His overall existence as our God. But, if we’re really honest with ourselves, it’s not as easy to believe every word that He speaks.

Do you believe ALL of His promises?

Do you believe He can meet your EVERY need?

Do you believe He can care for your children?

This hurts me deeply because I know that I’ve faltered and fallen in this area of my faith. I have moments when I do not believe all of His promises. I have moments when I doubt He can meet ALL of my needs. Yes, I have moments when I doubt He can care for my children better than me.

But in the middle of my doubts, my fears, and even my failures I hear Him calling my name.

It’s faint at first because I’m completely wrapped up in my own woes and sorrows. But that voice doesn’t stop calling my name. Over and over again He calls until I catch a whisper of it in the wind around me. If I stop, quiet my racing thoughts and turn my heart I can hear Him.

It’s a sweet voice. It doesn’t condemn. It is gentle and loving.

The voice is Jesus.

How do I know these things? I know because the Word says it is so and Jesus is The Word.

So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

John 1:14

Reading the Word of God is how we learn to hear and know The Voice of God.

The more we read and pray into the Word, the more the Holy Spirit will reveal things to us that we do not know. There is no other way to know God. He reveals who He is and what His will is throughout His Word. He reveals who we are throughout His Word.

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’

Jeremiah 33:3

What a wonderful promise this is for all of us. He will tell us great and unsearchable things that we do not know. There are depths to the Word of God that we can spend a lifetime discovering.

But . . . we will not discover any of the unsearchable things that He longs to show us if we are saving our best for a rainy day.

I have to ask myself this question.

Am I seeking Him at all costs? Are you?

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

Are You Tapping into God for All Your Needs?

March 10, 2018 By Eva Conner 6 Comments

Can God Really Meet Your Needs?

What is your need today? Do you need healing whether it’s spiritually, physically, mentally, relationally, or financially or a combination of some or all of these? It’s okay to say yes.

Every single one of us has a need for healing in one area of our life. Every. Single. Person. If someone denies it, they’re lying.

We all have needs throughout life.

And the Word of God tells us that all of our needs are met in Christ Jesus.

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

Read that again. All of our needs are met in Jesus. ALL means ALL no matter what language you speak. If we are legitimate children of God, we all have rights to Jesus Christ’s glorious riches.

But are we tapping into those glorious riches to meet all our needs?

I know I’m not tapping into those riches right now. But I’m on a mission to turn that around. I recently read something that made me think about this on a much deeper level than I ever have before. I’ll share this excerpt with you. It’s from a book called “Rees Howells, Intercessor” by Norman Grubb.

I’ll set the scene. Rees Howells was a man who gave his life to God. And God was grooming him and using him as an intercessor for others. God was purging the flesh out of Rees day-by-day. In this particular passage, God was working on Rees’ dependency on his savings accounts instead of depending upon God for all things. So God told Rees that he was to meet all needs shown him with his own funds until he came to the end of himself.

Here is what I want to share (and keep in mind this is set in Wales in the early 1900’s so they are on a different monetary system than those of us in the United States, using pounds instead of dollars):

The day came when he reached his last pound.

The Holy Spirit then told him, “Cut the ropes and take the promises.” It was a direct call to step out on God.

But it is always easier to talk of such things than actually do them. It had been much easier to give one hundred pounds out of plenty than to part with this last pound and come to the end of his savings – for the first time in fifteen years.

“Oh, how the devil pitied me and brought such arguments! He told me it would be a step in the dark and that if there was a convention or anything of that kind, I wouldn’t be able to go unless I had one pound laid by. But the Holy Spirit showed me that if God wanted me to go anywhere, He would surely provide the means. The danger was on the other side: for if a person has money, he can go without consulting God – like Jonah, who could afford to pay his passage to run away from Him! The fact is, we can never really be bondservants until God does control our means.”

So Rees took the plunge and learned the blessed truth that his extremity was indeed God’s opportunity. His eyes were opened to the fact that he had a claim on God for what he could not supply himself. Just as surely as the Spirit had told him that the people of the village had a claim on his money to meet their needs, so now he saw that he had a claim on God’s resources to meet his.

The first week his need was for two pounds, and he was able to tell the Lord in his prayer that he would not have come to Him if he had had it himself.

“I was only asking the Lord to do what I would have done if I had had the money; and it was for His work. It came and what joy I had in finding that I had finished with the limited resources of man and begun on the unlimited resources of God! The promises of God had replaced money in the bank and become equal to current coin to me. I no longer had to carry my treasure with me wherever I went because I knew where the treasury was, and how to reach it!”

I hope these words hit you as squarely as they hit me.

It’s a challenge from God that few of us take.

We get so stuck in our own efforts – our own limited resources – and we often (or always) forget that God has unlimited resources. We truly need to come to the end of ourselves in all areas of our lives for God to be able to show us how magnificent He is.

Why do we think that God can’t pay our overdue water bill? Is it too hard to think that He cannot repair that broken relationship with our child? What about our marriage? Do we believe He is able to make it new again?

Do you believe God for the small things but not the big things? Or you may believe Him for the big things but not the small things?

I must admit I find myself trying to work things out in my own effort instead of putting ALL my trust in God to work them out for me.

Our God is able to do ALL things. When I manipulate and twist things to work in my own effort, I am actually robbing God of the opportunity to show me His goodness. Ouch! That hurts. Maybe it’s unintentional but we’re telling God, “No thanks, I can handle this problem better on my own.”

We’re telling God that we do not need Him.

We are telling our Creator that His very own creation does not need Him. And we do this all the time until we reach the point of total despair in a problem so big that it is beyond our ability to fix. I have to wonder if God allows us to reach that point so that we have to turn to Him.

My heart hurts right now for all the times we hurt His heart!

How can we turn this around and start letting God be God?

First we need to know who He is. We need to know God as the Creator of the Universe. He is he Maker of all things – seen and unseen. He is the beginning and the end – the beginning of us and the end of us.

We need to understand our total dependency on Him for our very next breath.

Without Him, we are nothing.

When we start focusing on God as the Great Almighty Sovereign God of the Universe, maybe, just maybe, we will start believing He is able to meet ALL our needs through His Son Jesus Christ.

Let’s start reading His Word today looking for His goodness. When we sow His goodness in our hearts, we’ll start reaping it in our lives. But the only way to turn this around in our lives is through the Word which is Jesus Christ. He is the only way to bring true transformation in all areas of our life – spiritually, physically, mentally, relationally, and financially.

Let God be God today. He is able and He is willing!

A note about comments:

I hope this word resonates in your heart as it does in mine. I’d love to hear from you. Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think about this word. If it changes your view on how you see God, I’d love to know. Thanks for the comments and thanks for sharing this site with others. We should all have the goal of sharing Jesus with others. Let’s share today.

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

She Said Yes!

March 7, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

She said yes!

Mary, the mother of Jesus, has always had a special place in my heart. I have always marveled at her willingness to carry our Savior when it could have cost her life.

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, 27 to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

29 Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. 30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

34 Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

35 The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. 36 What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month. 37 For the word of God will never fail.”

38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

Luke 1:26-38

If I were Mary, would I have said yes? Have you ever wondered how you would respond? Well I have good news for all of us.

We said yes!

Let me explain. Mary was a vessel who was willing to carry the Lord Jesus. Isn’t that a picture of us? I love how the Bible has so many layers. I never saw this before in these verses. Mary was a foreshadow of us. When we accept Jesus Christ into our lives as our Lord and Savior, we become a vessel willing to carry Jesus just like Mary! The Word tells us that He is in us and we are in Him (see John 14:20).

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

2 Corinthians 4:7

We are all willing vessels (clay jars) holding the great treasure that is Jesus.

So in the Scripture from Luke above put yourself in Mary’s place and imagine that the angel Gabriel is speaking directly to you:

28 Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman [or man]! The Lord is with you!”

30 “Don’t be afraid, Mary [insert your name here],” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God!

Luke 1:28, 30 (emphasis mine)

For me this would read, “Don’t be afraid, Eva, for you have found favor with God!” Speak this out loud right now with your name. It’s powerful!

This is the truth we need to settle in our hearts.

It’s vitally important that we know and understand that we are special in God’s eyes. We need to see ourselves as He sees us. And He sees us as highly favored. It’s when we begin to understand how He sees us that we begin to receive the freedom that Jesus explains to His followers (see John 8:32). We are the Father’s children in every sense of the word. We are no longer illegitimate children because we are now rightful heirs with Jesus.

Let’s take this to another level now. Not only see yourself as Mary but look at others the same way. We need to stop looking at the fragile jar and begin looking at the great treasure within the jar. You see, we are all merely broken jars. If that’s all we are seeing when we look at another person, we are cheating ourselves out of so much.

Let’s do as God does and look at hearts and not flesh!

A note about comments:

I hope this word resonates in your heart as it does in mine. I’d love to hear from you. Please leave me a comment letting me know what you think about this word. If it changes your view on how you see yourself, I’d love to know. Thanks for the comments and thanks for sharing this site with others. We should all have the goal of sharing Jesus with others. Let’s share today.

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

Parents Beware!

February 28, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

What does “complacency shaken” look like?

This is what it looks like:

His religious complacency was shattered. There was no great conviction of sin, but he knew there was a gulf between him and God, and a deeper concern for his eternal destiny than for any of the affairs of this life possessed his mind.

The excerpt above is from a book titled “Rees Howells, Intercessor” by Norman Grubbs. There is one particular part that pierced my heart as a mother.

Let me give you a little background first. Rees Howells was a young man from Wales. When he was in his early 20’s, he desired to make money in America. Rees had a cousin in America and there were also boys from his village who migrated to America and who shared how wonderful it was with everyone back in Wales. They also shared about the money they were making – earning more in one day than they could earn in a week in Wales. So off to America he went.

He went to Pittsburgh where his cousin was and he worked in the steel mill. Rees always was a godly man and had an awareness of God in his life. However, one night, his cousin asked him if he had been “born again?” Rees didn’t know how to respond and after repeatedly being asked the same question, he ran. His complacency was shaken.

He moved 100 miles away from his cousin.

But he said the “gracious Hound of Heaven was on his trail…”

You see, Rees lived a “good” life. He never knowingly or willingly sinned. He never joined in debauchery with the others in his village. He made God a priority in his life but he said,

I was outside the Kingdom, which all my good life and religion had never enabled me to enter.

Do you hear those words?

We can be so very very good in this life but if we are not in intimacy with Him, it is all for nothing. For Rees, the day came when he was to meet his risen Lord. He was struck with typhoid fever and he was facing death. He said he found fear for the first time. Then he said something that stabbed me straight in the heart. PARENTS READ THESE WORDS. As Rees was facing death with typhoid fever, he said:

Thank God my parents were not there to take that fear from me.

He had to face eternity alone so that he could meet God.

This is solid truth for each one of us. Rees promised God if He would spare his life, his life would be God’s and He did just that. I encourage everyone to get this book and read it if you want your own complacency shaken!

Do you see those words above that a 22 year old uttered when facing death? He was glad his parents were not there. If his mom and dad would have been there, he may never have met Jesus face-to-face. I can’t get these words out of my head and my heart’s deepest cry is that I will never take that fear from my own children.

It is so easy to want to take all of life’s struggles and darkness from our children. But in doing so, we are robbing them of their own need for a Savior. And if we do not have a Savior, we are not saved.

Here are three truths that I’ve learned as a mother that I’d like to share with anyone who has ears to hear:

Truth #1 – Don’t try to fix your child’s brokenness.

Only God can fix our brokenness. Brokenness is a good thing even though it is so hard. It is where we each need to get to in our journey so that we can see Jesus on the Cross. Seeing Jesus on the Cross is the first step to healing and wholeness. When we can actually see Him suffering and dying a death that was meant for us, it gets real.

Truth #2 – Don’t hide your brokenness from your child.

Our children look up to their parents and often walk in their footsteps. It’s okay to show your children your own brokenness and allow them to see how God put you back together. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, our KING can put us back together again!

Don’t hide the transforming power of God. Just a note, when I say to show and tell with your children, make sure they are of an age where they understand what you are sharing. 🙂

Truth #3 – Don’t create a glass house.

When we create a glass house, we make it impossible for our children to fail. If we’re not careful, we can easily get caught in the comparison trap thinking that everyone else’s life is perfect so ours needs to be as well. This is a negative result of social media. Everyone puts their best face forward on social media. Don’t compare because no one is perfect. Every single life has brokenness. Every. Single. Life. No exceptions.

When we create the “perfect” home and failure comes creeping in, we often don’t know how to handle it. And our children do not know how to handle it if we haven’t taught them. It is a very important part of life and a very important part of our children’s life.

Failure is healthy and further points us to our raw need of a Savior and Healer.

I know for me personally, parenting is one of the toughest jobs I’ve been called to in this life and I am so thankful that God is teaching me along the way. Here’s my prayer for all of us today:

Dear Father,

Thank You for the precious children that You’ve given us to raise. We know that they are Your children first. Help us and guide us day-by-day. Line our hearts up with Your heart. Use our lives to teach our children. Father, we thank You for showing us throughout Your Word how You want us to raise our children. Give each of us a deep desire for more of Your Word.

Surround our children with people who have a heart and deep love for Jesus. Let them witness to our children through their living. Give us parents the discernment to know when to step in and when to step out. Help us to never step in when only You can. We thank You and give You all the praise and glory.

In Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen♥

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva