Word Life Ministry Update

This weeks entry is a little different because I want to share with you some exciting new things taking place at Word Life Ministry.

Website

Currently Word Life Ministry is in the creative stages of a new website. We are working diligently to get the site up and running in a few weeks. Some of the features on the website will be......

Statements of Faith - What does Word Life Ministry believe

News - Ministry Updates

Word Life Daily Blog - Starting with John 1:1 everyday there will be a short bible study

to get your daily Word Life started.

Sermon Archives - You can access sermons that have been preached by me and other's on

a wide range of topics.

Calendar - Upcoming ministry events.

Discipleship Training - To assist you in discipling others for Christ.

Ministry Store - Purchase books, Cd's etc

This is just some of the things the website will contain. To say that I am excited about this is an understatement. I have had a vision for a website for many years and now it is coming to pass.

Music CD

We are in the beginning stages of recording a new music CD. Right now we are choosing songs and plan to start recording in the near future.

Monthly Newsletter

Every month a monthly newsletter will be coming your way either by email or U.S. mail whichever way you decide you want to receive it.

Book

I am writing my first book. For almost a year I've felt the leading of the Lord to write a book and doing this weekly blog has motivated me to get started on it. I will keep you updated.

These are just a few of the new and exciting things that are happening here at Word Life Ministry. God is so awesome and I am so humbled by all that he is doing in our life. It has been a long time coming.

Back in 1995 I was holding a revival in Virginia and the Lord spoke through the pastor and said "This is my handmaid and I have anointed her and sent her to do this ministry." Then again in 1998 an evangelist was praying for me and my husband Kelly and the Lord spoke through this man and said "You are going to have a world changing ministry". At the time I could not figure out how that was going to take place however now 12 years later I can see what God was telling us.

Every since I was a child I have wanted to be used of the Lord. I wanted to be a vessel of honor for him. I can remember right before I met my husband I was praying and I told the Lord that if he never sent me a mate I was okay with that because he was more than enough for me and I was content serving him and preaching the gospel. I was 29 years old at the time and was fully committed to living my life single and working in the ministry. A few months later I met Kelly and within 8 months we were married. Kelly has said often over the last 13 years that his purpose is to support me and help me with this ministry. How wonderful it is to have a soul mate who has the same vision you have.

Yesterday morning in Sunday School class our teacher was talking about spiritual disciplines. He was speaking about training versus trying. I realized at that point that since I was first called to preach the gospel in 1989 I have been trying to do what God called me to do and over the years I have been frustrated when the vision that I felt God had given me was not coming to pass in the time frame that I thought it should. However now I realize that I have been in training all these years. I needed to prepare myself and work on my spiritual muscles (so to speak) so that when the vision came to pass I would be ready.

Praise God...I can see that the vision is beginning to unfold. Am I still in training? Absolutely!! However I make the decision today to stop trying and to continue training. Therein lies the difference. If you are trying that means your not doing, however if you are training then you are in preparation for something to happen. Glory to God I am training and preparing myself for what God has in store for this ministry.

Please continue to pray for us as we train and prepare for this awesome journey. We couldn't do it without the prayer support of our christian brothers and sisters. You are a vital part of everything this ministry is doing.

I will continue to post weekly on this blog while we are working on the website and then once it is up and running you can access the blog through the website.

Blessings to you my dear friends and until next week............

See You In The Word!

Janetta

The Immediate Presence of God

Psalm 139:7 - Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?

The presence of the Lord could arguably be considered the single most important part of our lives.

God is omnipresent meaning that he is everywhere at all times. David concluded in our text that there is no place that we can hide from God's presence. He is everywhere and sees everything. Because of this we can know that we are never alone and that he shall never leave us nor forsake us.

As well as being omnipresent, God also dwells in the believer. The indwelling presence of God is given to all who believe.

I Corinthians 3:16 says - Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you?

However, his omnipresence and the indwelling of his Spirit does not stop us from longing after the presence of God. How can we long and hunger for something that is already all around us and dwells within us?

God's Presence is:

1. Physical - God is always present to us. Physically, as the omnipresent divine reality
2. Spiritual - When we are aware and respond to the physical presence of God, then he is spiritually present to us.

A person may be physically present in a room, but unless we are somehow aware of that person being there, and respond to that presence, he or she might just as well not be there.

For instance....I went to church this morning and there was approximately 75 to 100 people present there, however I actually engaged with approximately 25 people. The other 50 to 75 people were there however they were not in my presence so they had no effect on me.

God is always present but unless we engage with him and respond to him, we are not in his presence and we do not have the benefits available to us that those who do engage and respond have. We have to purposely place ourselves in his presence.

Repentance brings us into the spiritual presence of God, however we must remain there. How do we do that?

I. Earnestly Seek Him

Deuteronomy 4:29 tells us - You will search for the Lord your God and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul.

If we want to walk in the presence of the Lord, then we need to be practicing the presence of God. Pray without ceasing and keep the Word of God on your lips and in your heart. For the Lord is always present when his Word is being spoken. We seek him and we find him in his Word!

II. We Must Have Him On Our Minds

If we wish to cultivate living in the presence of God, we must set our minds to think about God. We must place him before the eyes of our mind. Some people have the ability to turn their thoughts easily and almost instinctively towards God however for others it is not so easy. It demands some effort to stop thinking about other things less than God, but we must take every occasion to use or, if need be, create situations where we become "thought-full" of God, where our thoughts are full of God.

What we have to convince ourselves of is that we have the power to turn our minds to whatever we want. II Corinthians 10:5 says - Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

I Corinthians 2:16 tells us that we have the mind of Christ...and we know that Christ had his mind on the will of his father at all times.

III. Abiding In The Word

Jesus said "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask whatever you will and it shall be done unto you." John 15:7 This is because abiding in him means we will ask according to the Father's will. Jesus is always present with his word. Abiding in the Word of God will always bring an increase in the sense of his manifest presence.

Joshua 1:8 says - This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

IV. Say "Yes" to God's Will

At the last supper, among other things Jesus said. "If anyone loves me he will keep my word" (meaning he will do my will) "and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home with him."

The "if" is up to us, the "and" is up to God. We take care of the "if" and he will take care of the "and".

The deep sense of intimacy of God's indwelling is not something we can acquire cheaply. If we wish to experience that intimacy with God, we have to carry the cross. We have to surrender our will. If we do this, he will do his part. We give him our wills and he gives us the intimacy of his presence as only God, making his home in our souls, can effect.

Glory Hallelujah! Who wouldn't want to surrender their will and carry the cross when having the intimacy of God's presence is the benefit.

V. Worshiping Him

By placing ourselves before him in a place of adoration, we make room for him, and through focusing our attention on him we increase our awareness of being in the presence of God in our lives. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:2 to Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Learning how to soak in God's presence through worship is one of the most valuable things we can do with our time. God has promised that as we draw near to him, he will draw near to us and we will experience him with us in ever increasing measures.

In Closing....Psalm 91:1 says - He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. Shadow means "immediate presence".

Think about it...if you are close enough to be in someones shadow you are in their immediate presence. So let's read it like this....He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under (or in) the "immediate presence" of the almighty.

My little girl sometimes will wonder away from me when we are in a public place and I will run after her. I always tell her that if she leaves my presence then I will be unable to protect her from any danger that is waiting for her.

If we purposely leave our heavenly Father's presence then we are opening the door for the enemy of our souls to move in and try to snare us. Even though God is not limited as we earthly parents are and he can protect us no matter what, if we leave his presence and head into danger he is not obligated to rescue us and when he does it is only because of his mercy.

Do you want to remain in the IMMEDIATE PRESENCE of the Lord? If so determine from this day forward to earnestly seek him, keep him on your mind, abide in his Word, say yes to his will, and worship him...then you will be a secret place dweller and abide in his immediate presence.

See You In The Word,

Janetta

The Comfort of Christ Return - Part 2

Last week we had part one of this sermon that I preached a few months back. This week we will pick up where we left off.

3.) The Mystery of the Rapture

Look back to 1 Thessalonians 4:17

"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

There are going to be millions of saints still living when Jesus comes. When the shout comes, they will be changed before you can blink your eyes, and will be caught up in the air to meet the Lord. We call this glorious event the rapture.

The word rapture itself is not found in the bible. Rapture is from a Latin word that means "to seize" or "to catch away". It can mean, for example, "to seize with force", as in John 6:15 when the crowd was about to seize the Lord Jesus and make Him a king.

When the rapture comes, you and I are going to be seized by force. That force is our Lord, and neither the grave nor gravity will be able to hold us down.

This word can also mean to take someone from one place and put him in another place. Paul used the word when he described being "caught up" into the third heaven in II Corinthians 12:2. In the rapture, we are going to be taken from this place and put into another place.

Another possible meaning of this word is to "deliver from danger". The church is going to be taken out of this world into a safe haven when the horrors of the tribulation take place on earth.

The bible calls this a mystery. In the first part of I Corinthians 15:51 Paul says, "Behold I show you a mystery". The bible says in II Peter 1:4 that we are partakers of the divine nature. If you are heaven born, you will be heaven bound.

If the Lord Jesus Christ lives in you, you will share in the majesty of His return, the miracle of our resurrection and the mystery of the rapture.

But that's not all!!!!

4.) The Marvel of our Reunion

The rapture also means a marvelous reunion with those who have gone before. Verse 17 of our text in I Thessalonians 4 says, "Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord."

The Thessalonian believers were worrying about their loved ones who had died in Jesus. Paul put those fears to rest forever. There is going to be a reunion, a glorious homecoming in the sky someday.

Conclusion

In closing let's look at another truth concerning the rapture. It's that little phrase in verse 17 "to meet the Lord"

Do you ever think about meeting the Lord? Paul is not talking about a casual meeting here. It's a technical word that would be used to speak of going out to meet a returning ambassador or welcoming a returning dignitary, going out with an entourage to greet him.

Jesus is the King, and we are going to meet Him because He is returning. We are His ambassadors. One of these days soon, we are going to give an account of our lives to Him. What a challenge the Second Coming of Jesus should be to us!

Are you ready for Jesus Christ return? Are you ready for the rapture? Are you saved? As a Christian, are you ready to say, "Lord Jesus, I have loved you, I have served you, I have witnessed, I have been faithful."

Mark 8:38 says, "Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."

Are you ashamed of Jesus? Have you confessed Him as Lord?

Romans 9:33 says "Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed."

The fact that Jesus is coming back soon, and that we'll be going out to meet Him, should be a challenge to all of us as His people.

We can rely on the certainty of Jesus coming. We can rest in the comfort of Christ return. Jesus is coming back for His own! Be Ye Ready!!!!!!!!

See You In The Word,

Janetta

The Comfort of Christ Return - Part 1

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Introduction

Paul ends 1 Thessalonians 4 by saying, "Wherefore comfort one another with these words" (v18). Sometimes the second coming of Jesus is preached to threaten and frighten people.

Now, it's true that we ought to be threatened by Jesus coming if we are not ready to meet Him. We ought to be frightened if we are not prepared to stand before Him. But, these verses are written to comfort, not to threaten or frighten.

What the Apostle does in verses 16 & 17 is give an outline of what will happen at the rapture when our Lord comes. There are four basic events here which should give us great comfort.

1. The Majesty of His Return

It's clear that the Lord Jesus is the central figure here. "For the Lord Himself shall descend..." Acts 1:11 says the same thing: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven." It's the same Jesus, the Lord Himself.

Some people want to doubt the second coming. They are the same ones that doubt Jesus was born of a virgin, the same ones that doubt the crucifixion and resurrection, the same ones that doubt the sinlessness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the same ones that doubt that He is the Son of the living God, the same ones that doubt the empty tomb.

56% of so called evangelical Christians no longer believe that Jesus is the only way to make it to heaven.

To those people I say, Jesus Christ of Nazareth was born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, died on a cruel cross, was buried in a borrowed tomb, descended into hell, defeated death, hell and the grave, rose again on the 3rd day, ascended into heaven where He is seated at the right hand of His Father the almighty God, creator of Heaven and earth, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us.

Make no mistake about it. Jesus is literally, visibly coming back - just like He did the first coming and His return will be majestic.

One day our Lord will rise from His throne, step from the lofty heights of heaven's splendor, and begin His descent to this earth. He will come in the glory of the Father with all of His holy angels.

2. The Miracle of our Resurrection

The second event that should give us comfort is the resurrection. We are going to be raised. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God" and the dead in Christ shall rise first" (v16)

There are signs of Christ's coming all around us, but right now let's listen for the sounds of His coming.

A. With a shout...the word shout here means "command". Not a shout like at a sports event. This is and authoritative shout. John 11:43 gives us some insight to what Christ will say. When He raised Lazarus from the dead Jesus called "Lazarus, come forth". I believe the Lord's shout will again be "Come Forth"!

All of the sleeping dead in Christ will hear the voice of the Son of God. The Savior's voice will reverberate throughout Satan's kingdom of death and bring it crashing down.

At the Savior's command, the sea will give up from it's heaving bosom the dead who are in it. The winding sheets of the desert will deliver up the dead who are there. The battlefields will give up the dead who are buried there. Every graveyard will look like a plowed field when our Lord issues the shout.

B. We'll also hear the voice of the archangel, who Daniel 10:13 points to Michael. Why is Michael needed? Because the bible calls Satan the prince of the power of the air. Satan is a fallen angel, and Michael, still his superior, will say to all of the demons (fallen angels) and to Satan, "Make way for the saints of God as they go to meet our Lord in the air". Glory hallelujah to God I want to be in that number.

C. And the last sound will be the trumpet. Trumpets were very important in Israel. They were sounded primarily for worship and warfare. At Christ's coming, the saints will be caught up to the throne to worship, and the great tribulation war will begin here on earth. This is the miracle of our resurrection.

You may say, this is beyond my understanding. How can I really believe in a miraculous resurrection. Truth is the fact that we are here right now is beyond our understanding. We don't even understand birth. If God can make man out of nothing, He can surely raise up something from a tomb! The same miraculous God will raise the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:51 & 52 says,

"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed".

The bible also says in Philippians 3:21

"He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body"

And the Psalmist said in Psalm 17:15

"I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness".

What are we going to be like in the resurrection? We are going to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory hallelujah to the Lamb of God!!!

This concludes part one...next week we will cover events 3 & 4.

In closing let me ask you....Are you ready for Jesus Christ to return? Are you ready for the rapture? Are you saved? As a Christian, are you ready to say, "Lord Jesus, I have loved you, I have served you, I have witnessed, I have been faithful".

Jesus is soon coming again...if you do not know Him today please call upon Him while there is still time. Ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you from unrighteousness and come into your heart. The Word tells us that if we ask, He will come into our heart and save us from our sins. That is the whole purpose for Christ death on the cross. That we might be saved!!!

See You In The Word,

Janetta