How's Your Spiritual Eyesight? By Nina Keegan

How is your Spiritual eyesight?

Are you trapped in your own limited ability to only see your circumstances in the natural.. Is the impossible staring you down in a contest of wills? Are you physically incapable of seeing the bigger picture? Do you focus on your problems and your own lack of abilities to overcome them ...or do you focus on how big, how enormous God is and his ability to overcome anything ?

 What do you see with the eyes of your heart?  We must open our eyes to all things Jesus ...We must open our eyes to our spiritual life.. 

In 2 Kings 6 when Elisha was staring down the face of a huge army.. many troops surrounding him, he prayed! He turned first to God.. even though Elisha's  servant was very afraid of what he saw and he tried to warn Elisha .. Crying out to him in panic" "oh sir, what will we do?"

How many times have we gasped that very question? 

Elisha prayed!

Not worried in the least, He Prayed for his servants eyes to be opened, he was referring to his servants "spiritual eyes" so that he could see that the supernatural army, Gods army,  the one he couldn't see with his physical eyes was so much bigger than any army of enemy men..

After Elisha prayed his prayer the servant looked out and saw ( this time) a vast army of chariots and horses of fire that vastly outnumbered that of the enemies army... What would we see if we could open our eyes and glimpse into the spiritual realm..?

God's magnificent supernatural army was there to rescue them, to fight for them even though no one could physically see them ..that's how God works , He is always fighting for us, he's always there in our times of trouble, he's always prepared and ready for battle! He's always closer than our breath...

The Bible says God will fight our battles for us without us even lifting a finger in our own defense...

We simply must trust God..our faith is always in what we cannot see..

Through our faith we can realize that God is doing so much more for all of us, for his people than we could ever imagine or see through just our physical eyesight alone... we all face difficulties that seem insurmountable.. we often wonder how we will even get through the day..

But God's heavenly spiritual resources, his endless supply of mercy and his enabling grace and his unlimited supply of warring angels are always there for us even if we can't physically see them.. THEY ARE THERE!

We must continually search for God and look at things through our eyes of faith..  Trust God and all of Heaven to show up ready and armed with all of his supernatural resources.

"If you cannot see God working in your life ....the problem may be your spiritual eyesight ...not God's power or His willingness to rescue you!"

Elisha prayed again.. This time not for  spiritual eyes to be opened but for physical eyes to be closed...he asked God to blind his enemies...

Elisha did not even have to fight the troops that day,  he was able to lead them instead "blindly" away from his camp and deliver them into the hands of their enemy..

This Story  of 2 kinds of "sight"

Is quite a juxtaposition of our faith..

Are you being lead blindly

(can't see the truth) into the hands of your enemy through your own self-doubt, through your own lack of faith,through your own frustration and reluctance to pray? 

 Or will you open your spiritual eyes, open the eyes of your heart and let faith see the victory for you..let faith see the chariots of fire fighting for you at the very utterance of a prayer...

 Let Jesus marvel at your faith today and let him fight your battles with your eyes wide open.. Both physically and spiritually..!

2 Kings 6:16-19

16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

18 And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

19 And Elisha said unto them, This is not the way, neither is this the city: follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek. But he led them to Samaria.

Psalm 119:18 

Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.

Be A Sharpened Tool For The Lord.. By Nina Keegan

BE A SHARPENED TOOL IN THE HAND OF THE LORD

Can an AX boast of a greater power than the person who swings it?....Is a saw greater than the person who's doing the sawing?

We must always remember that we are just the instruments, we are just the tools in God's  hands ..God wants to use us in amazing ways but we need to recognize that we are only the empty vessels that God alone can fill.. We are nothing without him, but (we can do all things through Christ who gives us our strength..Philippians 4:13)

We are only useful to the extent that we allow God to use us ..

If we are indeed an ax in the hands of God, if we are indeed the tools God uses, then let's metaphorically take a look at an ax,  it's blade needs to be sharpened to be effective.. ( we are iron sharpeners for one another through the Word of God.. in order to be effective, we need to stay sharpened in our minds and in our knowledge of the Word.

When a blade of an ax becomes dull, it is no longer effective and can no longer be used for the purpose in which it was made.. It must again go through a refining and a sharpening process ..

We must always remain sharp so that we can continue to be used by God ..keep your mind steadfast on Him... Stay focused on the Word.. Stay prayed up and on the path God has paved for you.

All tools are different and yet each one is uniquely designed for a specific purpose; like a hammer and a screwdriver for instance...they are very important tools but each do very different things..

Likewise, 

if God has given you special resources and special talents to minister, to help others, to be a blessing in any way, you must acknowledge and realize where these blessings have come from and give God the glory for your unique God given abilities.. You are anointed to do something very specific that God has purposefully planned for you to do...

We must never regard our gifts and talents as something of our own creation, instead we must know where our special blessings and anointings come from......we can do nothing without God ...just like an ax, it cannot chop wood without someone who's deliberately and skillfully swinging it..holding it and using the tool wisely..

Be the tool God can use.. be the someone that God's skilled hands and his supernatural wisdom can use to glorify His kingdom... Be the one who said "yes"to being used of God!

 Be all that you can be for God, be the light, be the vessel, be the instrument, be the word of encouragement, be the lifter of hope ...be the the remnant and become an end- time harvester for the kingdom of heaven...

Speak God's Word, declare your testimony, be victorious in Christ, be used by Him...do not let your talents be wasted, step out in faith...God created you for a higher purpose in Him!

Receive it in Jesus name!

Isaiah 10:15

But can the ax boast greater power than the person who uses it? is the saw greater than the person who saw's? Can a rod strike unless a hand moves it ? can the wooden cane walk by itself?

Isaiah 10:21

A remnant will return yes the remnant of Jacob will return to the mighty God

Romans 9:17

"I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Dump Your Baggage Today... By Nina Keegan

DUMP YOUR BAGGAGE TODAY! 

Make today the last day you carry around baggage like a noose around your neck..

Are you living in shame, guilt and condemnation? Well these things are NOT from the Lord 

The enemy loves nothing more than to keep us wrapped up in our own shame, feeling guilty for past mistakes and sins!

It's bondage!  When we hear that people have so much baggage ..., it's their own decision to stay weighted down in the vast undercurrent of proverbial baggage ..

We drag around these heavy burdens.. these piles of luggage that are chaining us down

The luggage it would seem is filled with past mistakes, with guilt, with regrets , unforgiveness, strife, anger, condemnation, bitterness and the list goes on and on

We feel as though we need to unpack it every now and then and look it all over, re-examine it, and remind ourselves again and again for our sins and our past mistakes..  we judge ourselves and deem ourselves unworthy..

The enemy will never let us forget .. He traps us in our own strongholds of incessant guilt.

Then, and as if on cue, 

we pack it all back up.. Stuff it down..and drag it burdensomely around ... Making sure we forget nothing.. as we ready our steps for one more trip around the mountain of regret..until that is, we arrive at our next appointment with condemnation.. Then it will be time to unpack again! 

   This heavy laden luggage or"baggage " is linked to us through huge chains of torment that weight us down.. A powerful stronghold designed to steal our joy, and wreak havoc on our destiny in Christ..

  God is saying "No more!" 

God is saying "repent!" God is saying "come to me!" He is all you need! God can sever every chain ..He can cut away every rope, release every strap that's binding you!

God can and will set you free .. and what the enemy means for harm in your life , God can use for good.. Nothing wasted!  it's time to let these chains be disintegrated.. It's time for Freedom!! It's time for your own personal revival!

It's time to dump the baggage! 

It's time to forgive yourself.. It's time to move forward letting go of what lies behind.. keep your eyes steadfast on a Jesus and never look back!! 

It's time to take your life back and Jesus is the one who can do it ..Jesus died on the cross for you to be set free and whom the Son sets free is free indeed! 

Repent of your past mistakes your past sins , leave them to be covered completely and fully in the blood of Jesus ...leave them at the foot of the cross and walk away light as a feather and delivered ..no more bondage... FREE!! SET FREE!!

You are a new creation in Christ ...when God restores He always multiplies ..You are redeemed! 

Make today the first day of the rest of your life ..make today the day that God has come to set the captives free ...today is the day we never unpack our baggage again ..it is gone..cut loose and set free from us forever!!!

Hallelujah hallelujah praise and glory to God in Jesus name 

Amen! 

Romans 8:1

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,

Romans 8:2

because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.

Isaiah 37:20

Now, LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are the only God."

God is Willing... By Nina Keegan

"IT IS WRITTEN!"Jesus said...

Every Word of the Bible is God breathed.. It is alive!

I believe sometimes that we over think and over analyze the truth of God's Word, when in reality the truths in the Bible are quite simple.. 

We simply need to trust God's Word and let it be plainly applicable to our lives today. 

As I was reading in Matthew chapter 8 this morning about Jesus healing a man with leprosy, the man stated that He knew Jesus could heal him but asked Jesus if He was WILLING to heal him and make him clean. 

It occurred to me that the man undoubtedly knew that Jesus could make him whole, heal him and make him clean, he just wasn't quite sure if Jesus wanted to.... this simple act of faith touched Jesus ..so Jesus in turn touched him and healed him...

If you have read anything about leprosy in those days, it was a very awful and extremely harsh disease. To see someone with this incurable, highly contagious, disease littered with sores and scabs is heart-wrenching. Yet Jesus unfazed, and without hesitation touched him..He was not afraid to reach out and touch the man's diseased skin and heal him.

Many times in the Bible, Jesus just spoke the Word and healed the sick, but this time he deliberately touched him.

I believe this man would see such an unconditional example of pure love. When he was asking "are you willing?" I believe he was asking from such a humble heart, would Jesus be willing to touch him..to heal him the way he looked? 

With this disease ravaging his body he was seeing himself as someone that might not be worthy of being healed, that's why he questioned Jesus and His willingness..

As Christians, we all should believe that God has the power to bless us heal us and make us whole in every way; but it's our questioning of the willingness that causes us to get it wrong ...

Many of us believe that God would not be willing to do things for us because we've done too many things wrong or we have deemed ourselves unworthy of blessings, favor and healing because of our own guilt and condemnation. This is absolutely false, this is not correct thinking at all.

Jesus didn't even flinch when he touched that man. This was probably the first human touch that man had felt since he contracted the disease and yet he was healed instantly.

Sin is also an incurable disease by our own standards that can cause us to disqualify ourselves from being blessed and healed by God. But God is the same yesterday today and tomorrow. He wants to set you free and make you whole. He is the One who is able to cure you of Sin..He forgives us when we turn to Him in repentance. 

He is always willing!

We should never doubt His love for us..don't disqualify yourself because God's grace is unmerited we don't have to earn it or deserve it, it is our right that was purchased for us and paid for through Jesus' blood shed for us on the cross.

We must be careful not to become enthralled in religious habits and legalistic views in terms of thinking we need to earn healing of our minds bodies and souls. We must instead trust God in prayer seeking Him first. Prayer is laying hold of God's willingness not overcoming God's reluctance.

We should not expect God to only work in certain ways or in specified circumstances based on merit and good works. We should never want to limit God through our own mindset and lack of complete faith in His Word.

Just like the man with leprosy we must realize we cannot cure ourselves, we are unable to do such a task but we should faithfully and humbly ask for Christ's redeeming help and know that He is willing! Yes, He is always willing. 

With one touch or one command ...it can be finished!

Your faith has made you whole.... It is never about what you can do for Him, it is solely about what Jesus has already done for you... He is worthy that you receive what He died for you to have.. in Jesus name I pray!

Amen!!

God is willing, are you? 

Isaiah 1:19

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land

Luke 5:12

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean."

GET RID OF YOUR PRIDE NOW..by Nina Keegan

GET RID OF YOUR PRIDE NOW!

Pride always comes before a fall!!

This is a Biblical truth ..many great falls, defeats in battles and spiritual deterioration featured in the Bible started with the sin of pride.. 

A haughtiness that has so obviously pryed it's way through a crack in the doorway.. through a wrongful thought, an unforgiving heart.. Or a "know it all" attitude...

The very first sin recorded in the Bible with Adam and Eve was not, murder, lust, or  larceny, it was Pride...

It was pride that showed up and reached for the prize (the forbidden fruit) that would declare them to be as knowledgeable as God, the Creator of the universe in it's utter greatness and totality ..

It was the coveting and prideful nature to have what couldn't be had..the pride of claiming your equality to God himself through a single bite of a forbidden fruit... The fruit was a mere metaphor..  This was a test from God.. Obedience was called into question..

How far are you willing to fall..? What are you willing to risk..? Is it worth it?  

It was a "why not"attitude.. that consequently caused the ripened fruit to be the elusive missing link.. The apparent capsule of all knowledge..

It was a peering over the fence so to speak at a glimpse of what the proverbial neighbors had and declaring you're deserving of the same..

Deception.. Yes they were greatly deceived..

 They were given directions.. they were living in an ultimate utopia of paradise.

They wanted for nothing.. And yet...

There was a pull, an attraction , a temptation that summoned them to step into the trough of staunch disobedience..

An entry of pride was downloaded and was logged in and etched in to the very consciousness of mind ... "Just do it.. "

What happens in the place between thinking about sin and actually committing the sin..? What causes us to choose the wrong fork in the path...?

We are all sinners by nature and it is the pride of such a nature that calls us to leave our pathways of victory and wander recklessly off into the fall from paradise... The dark side .. A fall from grace... Pride ... It always comes before the fall...!

Like a child repeatedly told not to touch something... Yet like a gravitational pull of the soul...they just cannot help themselves..

Is it not true that temptation is inevitable.. ? Are we set up for failure from the start..? 

The enemy prowls around looking for the unguarded heart.. The mind that's been letting in the wrong thinking.. The soul that's been hurt, the backslider, the prideful...and he 

Plays his fully stacked deck .. He displays his hand..

His cards of enticement are set before us ..whispering of the counterfeit blessings... One delicious bite.. That's all it takes...

Through weakness we fall victim to the illusion that we ourselves are capable of doing it all on our own.. 

We rationalize, over compensate  and we blur if not completely obliterate the line in the sand..

We lose our moral compass and begin our gradual decent into the pit, our detour that is aimed in the opposite direction of the narrow gate of God's purposeful path.

We tread clumsily and without reproach far away from the protection of God and live our free will and not His...

We must stay prayed up and seek a relationship with God..

Humble ourselves and listen to his voice.. Seek Him first in all we do.. Stay obedient and be a "doer of the Word.."

 

Live out exactness of obedience.. Be trustworthy to the core of your soul..

We must follow peace.. God is NOT the author of confusion..

When you do not have peace.. When you are being tempted.. Call on The name of Jesus and let all Godly wisdom rule in your heart.. 

 Let the fear of God override the advertisement banner of false truths displayed  

so enticingly across our paths...

 CHOOSE GOD..  CHOOSE OBEDIENCE...Give God all the glory and do not credit yourself with successes .. For we are nothing without God

Live a life of deliberate obedience through praise and thanksgiving.. 

Lean on, trust in and believe God.. 

Check your pride at the door ask The Lord for deliverance and  

Be humble.. Always! 

 

1Peter 5:6

Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.

 

Proverbs 16:18

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

I will break down your stubborn pride. Leviticus 26:19

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ Obadiah 1:3

His pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the LORD his God. 2 Chronicles 26:16

In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. Psalm 10:4

For the sins of their mouths, for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. Psalm 59:12

When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2

Pride only breeds quarrels, but wisdom is found in those who take advice. Proverbs 13:10

Why Did lucifer Fall? .. By Nina Keegan

WHY DID LUCIFER FALL?

The answer to that ... Nobody knows exactly.. Was there an altercation? Did he start a fight he could never win? I guess we could all imagine for a moment.. 

lucifer was beautiful, anointed and had the keys to the enormity of all blessings and favor of Heaven at His fingertips...

How and why did something change so audaciously in Him.. How was his heart so hardened to the things of God.. The One he had long worshipped and praised..?

A desire for self recognition, perhaps a pride and arrogance won in the battle of his mind and he decided to become his own God.. He desired praise, he longed to be worshipped..

So with that.. And I imagine quite swiftly .. He was banished from Heaven.. Hurled out of the Kingdom and Firever banished from eternal blessings.. leaving all wisdom, peace, joy, favor, and love behind.

He tumbled( imagine the feeling of free falling at lightening speed into the deep abyss) and he took with him 1/3 of the angels..( Now demons) to wreak havoc on all man kind...

There was no do-over. No let's rethink this... 

He made his choice.. DONE!

Scary to think what choices we may want to rethink.. We never know the day in which we will be called home. Judgement day..when we will give an account for all of our decisions, and for our sins.

Now because of lucifer.. (satan's) choice... We too are left with choices and pathways of good or evil ... They seem to line up presenting themselves incessantly for our choosing.

We continually need Gods wisdom to decipher His voice, his plan, his purpose for us and our destinies in Him.

 There is evil in this world.. It's everywhere .. People are hurt, suffering, in despair.. living in all types of trauma and tragedy.. The heaviness of it all can most assuredly plague us, burden us and cover us in anxiety and fear..

The warfare we must fight and contend with will ultimately serve a purpose as to who we are in Christ .. We have authority over all evil through the blood of Jesus and His finished work on the cross..

we are ultimately so much greater with He who is in us than who has been unleashed to spread evil in the World...

God!! God.... He's so much bigger.. He's so capable and His Palms are are steadfastly carrying us.. Plucking us out of harms way and setting us so lovingly back on to His glorious path..

No matter what it looks like, 

What the enemy means for harm will only cause our promotion..

He has to repay us for all he has stolen.. even for days we have spent in sorrow will we reap a multitude of days steeped in unbridled Joy!!

Declare victory.. 

Remember who had the authority to kick who out of Heaven..

God won then . God wins now!!

Receive your victory in Him!!

Isaiah 14:12-17

12 “How you are fallen from heaven,

O Lucifer,[a] son of the morning!

How you are cut down to the ground,

You who weakened the nations!

13 For you have said in your heart:

‘I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High.’

15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,

To the lowest depths of the Pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,

And consider you, saying:

‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,

Who shook kingdoms,

17 Who made the world as a wilderness

And destroyed its cities,

Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

Step By Step.... By Nina Keegan

LET GOD TAKE YOU THERE... 

ONE STEP AT A TIME...

When God does things, He does it in a very orderly and specific way, nothing is haphazard or thought about last-minute ..our God is very organized.  A creative genius, no stone has been left unturned but each thing in its own right has been brilliantly planned out with every detail spilling into existence in the perfect order..  Deliberate Exactness !

God used order in organizing, creating and maintaining life. 

Our world and our universe were created so purposefully as each step was birthed through the authoritative Word and spoken by God so deliberately and with assured direction. ..life pulsed into existence, all at the perfect time... All in the perfect order.

There was an order in the manner in which God created the universe it was a step-by-step process. Then as we see in Exodus 13:18 it says that The children of Israel were led out of Egypt in orderly ranks ...and that most assuredly was no easy feat since there were approximately 3 million people..  but God had an order about it, The Israelites steps were ordered of the Lord and he brought them out each step of the way...

 Had they known ahead of time all the hardships and trials and stories that would unfold on their journey it would've been way too much for them to handle ...God allows us to only see things step-by-step so that we must trust him, we must fully rely on Him. Stay close to God knowing and understanding that He is in our tomorrows, He's already there..and we can face those ordered steps with him.

Doing things step-by-step and God's way through steadfast obedience brings success because it's about  a relationship with our creator and trusting that God doesn't take us to far to fast or give us things we are not yet ready for.

Many times we want

 "Insta-God" we want Him to just show up and supernaturally change our circumstances and fix all of our problems. We want instant gratification ...we don't like being uncomfortable we don't like leaving our comfort zone, we want what we want and we want it now!

But there is a method to what God is doing in our lives, there is always a definitive order about it..our steps are ordered of the Lord the Scripture says..

In order to be in complete obedience to God we must be orderly and we must accept things the way God has ordained them...

We want to go from A- straight to Z with no stops, detours or pauses in between, but there's so many lessons to be learned in the valleys that cause us to grow, stretch in our faith and to become prepared for the blessings to come... 

In Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 22 it says the Lord your God will drive out those nations ahead of you little by little He will not clear them away all at once...

It goes on to say that if they were to clear the way to quickly it would not be good for them...

God knows what he's doing "He's God"!

Yes Moses told the Israelites that God would destroy Israel's enemy but not all at once ..God had the power to destroy those nations instantly but He chose to do it in stages "little by little"  and in the same way and with the same power God can miraculously and instantly change our lives..

However, God often chooses to help us gradually...wisely teaching us one lesson at a time. Rather than expecting instant spiritual maturity, we grow through pain, it has a purpose..   we can't expect instant solutions to all of our problems ..God wants us to look to him ...step out in faith and work out things through faith and obedience.

Many times we must wrestle with ourselves in order to get to the place of complete surrender.

We need to slow down and work things out one step at a time trusting God so that we can stay exactly on the step we were meant to be on. ..

 We must trust that God's timing is perfect and that he's taking us through each stage as we are ready to receive it and when we're ready to grow through it ..

We will someday look back at a miraculous transformation that has occurred in our lives with gratitude knowing that we would certainly never change a thing.. That the character God has built up in us has strengthened us and readied us for the future! 

We will be so much stronger, wiser and blessed as a result of having done things orderly and in God's perfect timing!