thoughts by Sylvia Gunter Archives - Page 3 of 11

Published October 19, 2022

What Is God Saying To Me?

We’re all on pilgrimage with God the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. I do not want to miss the lessons of the journey or forget His words of intimate delight, wise counsel, and gentle correction.

God means what He says.
God is serious with us in the matter of complete obedience. Ninety-eight per cent conformity to his will and his ways is not obedience. We want to say, “Cut us some slack, God,” but it costs not to obey him all the way. Remember Lot’s wife. Remember King Saul in the matter of the king of Amalek. If we compromise and treat God’s holy character lightly, we lose.

Only weakness will break strongholds.
God asks us to lead from weakness, not strength. God loves us too much to let us succeed in our own strength. William Gurnall said, “We have embezzled his strength, and he calls an audit.” His name is I AM. I rest in the fact that He is. Without Him, I can do nothing, a big zero. God asks of us what He can do.

I try to live by grace, but unless God does a work of grace in me, I can’t.
I try to speak grace words, which are words of life, and only God is sufficient for that in me. I fully take all His love, but my life presents at best only snapshots of His grace.

God will not go any further than His children are willing to be pure.
Purity before God is the cutting edge. We must obey Him and not reserve the right to discard any part of His truth. We reject His holiness at our own peril and that of others in our sphere of influence. It is not just a personal issue. It also has consequences for those we will affect in this generation. King David sinned against the counsel of his closest adviser. It cost the whole nation of Israel thousands of lives (1 Chronicles 21). That is sobering. God says to us, “I can do all things. Will you repent of your willful ways and see My glory?”

God has been gracious to cover our ignorance.
God has been merciful up till now, but He may no longer cover us concerning what we are not ignorant of. Presumption will result in disaster. God is doing a new thing which will lead to more freedom and at the same time require greater accountability to Him. He has new directions for us and deeper levels for us with Him, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see Him and respond to Him. He wants new wine skins for a outpouring of His Spirit in this generation.

I must not listen to seducing voices.
Seducing voices will suggest we take the easy road, or take matters into our own hands by our own power, or follow the dramatic or sensational. We must give no ground to comfort, deception, or denial of reality. This will require a very fine-tuned antenna, homed in on God’s voice alone.

I have missed eternal moments that sneaked up on me when I was oblivious.
We often expect Jesus to come in the front door, and He comes in the back way and tries to tap us on the shoulder to turn around and see Him. I feel dull of hearing, about as sharp as a bowling ball much of the time, so it all has to be God. We know nothing but Him. We are clueless without Him. I am as weak as I have ever felt. I am exposed and vulnerable. I don’t want to miss God as He moves in power among His people.

I am passionate about ministering to God, tuning into His heart, honoring Him, receiving from Him.
The heart of Jesus is ravished for His bride. He is jealous for our affection. He will not share us with another love. He wants to captivate us for Himself as His beloved.

Get still with God in your favorite “Bethel,” your place of meeting with Him.

Let Him open up His heart to you personally, between you and Him.

Prayerfully reflect on your life in Christ. What is He saying to you? Let Him review the traces of His hand in your life. Ask Him to speak to you intimately and powerfully in a key of music you can hear.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

God’s Perspective on Hope in Disappointment

Listen to the Word of God for you in Romans 15:13.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Be blessed to let God separate you from the soulish bonds that have held you captive in disappointment and hopelessness. Be blessed by your Father’s will, His heart, and His words. Let Him do His perfect work to enlarge you to receive more of His fullness spirit, soul, and body. Look to Jesus for ministry. He will shine the light of His Spirit in you to show you who you are and who He is in you and for you. Welcome His light.

The God of hope calls you to hope (Ephesians 1:18). You were designed for hope. You are His own special creation. He determined for you an appointed place and time. He has given you the good gift of Himself to live in you. He has deposited in you His great love in making you just the way you are, the real you, your true essence. You are blessed as He celebrates, affirms, and validates your unique identity for your authority, calling, and birthright in Him. You can hardly receive these words if you have received wounds of disappointment. Your soul has done everything it knows to do to heal them, but still disappointment gnaws deep inside you beyond reach. Jesus, your Kinsman-Redeemer, is ready to redeem the years that the locusts have eaten when you cancel your soul’s expectations.

You were created by God for eternity forever with Him. Satan can’t take that away from you, so he has sent fiery arrows to rob you, deeply penetrating missiles of disappointment with others, with yourself, and with God.

Jesus your Redeemer wants to pull the poisons out of the wounds in your spirit and your soul. He wants you to know and respond to Him as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, because He said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And when the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:32,36). God is inviting you to see truth with Him. That’s a powerful invitation. It is life-changing to own up to what you are seeing and hearing from Him, coming out of denial and truly allowing God’s truth to come into you. Be blessed as you let God reach into the deep places of your being. Be blessed as He wants you to exchange disappointment for His hope and love (Romans5:5, NLT). Be blessed to receive His hope that does not disappoint.

Be blessed in the name of the God of hope who fills you with all joy and peace as you trust Him (Romans 15:13).

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

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Blessing Of Your Heavenly Father

God rejoices as your Abba.

You are His child on the authority of His Word. He ordained you and brought you forth.

Hear God’s Word for you in Psalm 22:9. The psalmist said,

“You brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother’s breast.”

And in Psalm 71:6. “From birth I have relied on you…I will ever praise you.”

Receive God’s work as He cleanses deep wounds that you received from words and actions in your family of origin. Receive the ministry of Jehovah-Rapha, the healing covenant name of eternal God, as He works in the core of your being. Receive His healing, blessing, and deep release. The Spirit of your Father lives in you to heal and make you whole.

The Spirit of truth and the God of all mercy is ready to bring new life. Receive His cleansing from all hurtful memories, feelings, and emotions. Jesus died to set you free. Release all pain to Him. God promised in His word that He would wash you and make you whiter than snow (Isaiah 1:18).

Be blessed as God fills up the hole in your heart, those empty spaces, that bottomless pit that craves nearness, affirmation, connection, and significance, and yet fears it, is unable to receive it, and runs away from it. Be at peace, and receive healing from wounds caused by lack of bonding. Receive cleansing from attachment wounds, as Father-God binds you to Himself with cords that cannot be broken.

God fed His Son with His words of approval that nourished Him emotionally.

“A voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased‘” (Mark 1:11).

These words strengthened Jesus in His inner being. If the Son of God needed these words of affirmation from His Father, how much more do you!

You longed to hear words like that from your earthly father. Receive your heavenly Father’s words, “I love you. I am pleased with you.” Let your heavenly Father, father you.

Be blessed to rest secure and safe in His love.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

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God is Able

Able is the Greek word dunatos, related to dunamis, meaning ability, abundance, capability, mighty works, miraculous power, prevailing strength.

“God is able” means God has the mighty power to do a miraculous work out of His abundance and strength.

Romans 16:25 says God is able to establish you. Listen to the richness of the verse when read with its full definition “God has mighty power to do a miraculous work out of His abundance and strength to establish you.”

Bring your inability to the ability of God.

As you read these verses drink in the bigness of God as you replace “able” with “has the mighty power to do a miraculous work out of His abundance and strength.”

God is …

Able to give much more.   2 Chronicles 25:9
Able to deliver from fire.   Daniel 3:17
Able to raise up children of Abraham from stones.   Mathew 3:9
Able to give sight to the blind. Mathew 9:28-29
Able to destroy in hell.   Mathew 10:28, James 4:12
Able to perform what He promised.   Romans 4:21
Able to graft in the Gentiles.   Romans 11:23
Able to make you stand.   Romans 14:4
Able to establish you.   Romans 16:25
Able to make a way through temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:13
Able to make all grace abound to you.   2 Corinthians 9:8
Able to do exceedingly beyond all your asking.   Ephesians 3:20
Able to subdue everything under His control.   Philippines 3:21
Able to keep all we have committed to Him.   2 Timothy 1:12
Able to help the tempted.   Hebrews 2:18
Able to save from death.   Hebrews 5:7
Able to save completely, to the utmost.   Hebrews7:25
Able to raise men from the dead.   Hebrews 11:19
Able to keep you from falling and to present you before His presence without fault and with great joy.   Jude 24

To the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 25

Be blessed in the name of God who is able.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by permission
from: Prayer Essentials For Living In His Presence, Vol 1, page 74 © 2000 Sylvia Gunter

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Praise as Warfare

Praise is adoration of God for who He is, His person, His character, His names.

It is loving God because He is God. The Bible gives more exhortations to praise than to pray, because God is altogether lovely, holy, and completely worthy of our worship.

Reasons to praise

Praise is the atmosphere of the throne room of heaven. Revelation 4

Praise is where God lives. Psalm 22:3

Praise provides access into His presence. Psalm 100

We are created for praise. Ephesians 1:12, Isaiah 43:21

We are saved to praise. Psalm 106:47

God delights in it. Psalm 149:1, 4

God inspires it. Psalm 40:3

God is due it. Psalm 29

God commands it in the Scriptures. Psalm 34:1, 3

Jesus modelled it by example. Matthew 6:9

Praise is the God-given garment in exchange for spirit of heaviness. Isaiah 61:3

Praise stirs up faith. Romans 4:20-21

You are probably facing a battle today. Praise is a strategic weapon that comes before spiritual victory or deliverance. God releases power against the enemy when His people praise. Praise has been winning wars throughout the ages. Look at these biblical examples.

Joshua 5:14-15, 6:2 Joshua bowed to worship, and God told him that Jericho was already in his hands. As the Israelites marched around the city, they walked out the victory already won in worship.

Judges 7:15 Gideon bowed to worship, returned to his camp, and reported, “Arise, God has given the enemy into our hands.”

2 Chronicles 20:22 “When they began singing and praising...” The Israelites used praise at God’s direction for winning a tremendous victory. They had not even reached the battlefront when God acted and completely destroyed their three-fold enemy.

Acts 16:25-26 Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns. Suddenly a violent earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. The prison doors flew open, and prisoners were set free.

It is sometimes more important to persevere in praise than to continue to petition. Why?

Because in praise, we take our eyes off people and stop struggling on the human level. We focus our spiritual eyes on God and see beyond ourselves and our problem. Then we can lay hold of His infinite ability, availability, and sovereignty. Praise stirs up our faith to stand in His mighty name.

Because God has already judged the adversary, and he is a defeated foe. Praise executes upon him the judgments that God has already written (Psalm 149:6-9).

Because praise acknowledges the victory Christ already won. Jesus is far above all rule, authority, power and dominion, and every name in this age (Ephesians 1:20-21). His victory over Satan was legally accomplished at Calvary. Praise speeds victory. Let’s use our valuable weapon of praise for the battles we are facing today.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission
From: www.thefathersbusiness.com

Fruit of Joy

Beloved child of God, listen to your Father’s heart and his ways for you in Galatians 5:22-23,25.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control… Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.“

Listen to God’s Word for you in Nehemiah 8:10.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

God’s purpose in his creation was his own pleasure. He rejoices in all his works (Psalm 104:31). Job 38:7 says that God laid the foundations of the earth and marked off its dimensions and did all his work of creation while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy. Imagine the same joy of God when he created you! Your Father is joy, and he plants his joy inside you in the person of his Son. Jesus lives in joy in you.

Be blessed to drink deeply of the joy that God your Father has in you as his beloved. Be blessed with his understanding of joy, not the world’s fickle happiness. Be blessed to know the joy of the Lord that gives you the strength to go forward, to press on, to endure hardship. Be blessed with the oil of joy that flows from heaven. God commands for you the blessing of life in his joy, defeating depression, destruction, and death.

Joy is the quiet, inner sense of well-being in Jesus, but it also can be intense motion. Be blessed with rejoicing with intensity that words cannot fully express. Be blessed with Christ’s overflowing joy that bubbles up in you to flow out of you (Philippians 1:26). He promises joy that nobody and nothing can take away (John 16:22). Be blessed as you are filled with the joy that the Holy Spirit imparts in your place in the kingdom (Romans 14:17).

Joy can also be a daily decision and a battle. You can count it all joy in trials of any kind, when you know that your Father does all things well for you. Be blessed as you pursue Jesus who is joy. He came so that you can have this kind of joy. It is his gift to you (Romans 15:13). Be blessed in the incomparable joy of Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). Be blessed to be energized for each new day and each new challenge with joy that comes from him.

Have you ever been blessed to watch someone laugh? You laughed too, for no other reason than that they were joyful. Be contagious with joy in gratitude that you share in the inheritance of his holy people who live in his light (Colossians 1:11-12). Be blessed to be an ambassador of joy in a world filled with stress and sadness. Be blessed as you spread joy wherever you touch the lives of others. Be blessed to lighten the load of others and strengthen weary hearts with the joy of Jesus. Be blessed to brighten and refresh the weary spirits of others with joyful confidence in Jesus.

Be blessed with the joy that the Spirit of joy produces in you, your response to his joy (Galatians 5:22).

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Brokenness and Glory

Don’t miss the weight of these words from God, one phrase at a time. Tell your mind to let your spirit lead in connecting with the Spirit of truth in this passage.

1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...”
Resonate with the words “living hope through Jesus!” He gave you birth to new abundant life in him. Be blessed as your life in him unfolds daily, one step of faithfulness at a time. Seasons end, new birth happens. It can be confusing, because God doesn’t give you neat signposts. He wants you to keep your eyes on him, as Jesus is your living hope. Be blessed with glimpses of God’s purpose in it all.

1 Peter 1:4. “…into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you...”
You are an heir to a rich inheritance, all the riches of Christ Jesus. His purposes for you are in his keeping power. They can never die, or spoil, or fade away without fulfilling his heart for you. You are right in the middle of God’s process for you. You don’t have to settle for God’s second best because of somebody else’s choices or your own. As you are being who you are in him, you can do what you are supposed to do. You may have disappointments, but your life is his story with depth, adventure, suspense, surprising plot turns, and darkness that Jesus defeated. Be blessed as you understand more of his story that he is writing in your life.

1 Peter 1:5. “…who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.”
God surrounds you with his favor as a shield. You are shielded by his power, so that in every dark thing you’ve experienced, you can live large and strong. God put you on earth in your exact place for his specific purpose, and you are living in that purpose, even when you don’t know it. Your soul may be grumbling and resisting, but you are living the story that God is ready to reveal to you. God is a lot bigger than you expect him to be. He’s a lot bigger than your circumstances. He is the God of detail. When you seek his face, he is deeply involved in the small details of your life, but he has a “bigger yes” for you. Your true glory is the revelation of his splendor, revealed in you day by day.

1 Peter 1:6. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.”
As Jesus is revealed in you, you can rejoice no matter what. The display of his glory often comes through your wounds. Your dark nights showcase by contrast his splendid dawns, your griefs contrast with his glorious joy. In brokenness, God works in you something beautiful, deep, and substantial to offer others. You are developing inner strength as you are being blessed, broken, and given as an offering in your trials. True strength comes from your desperate need of God. You are a joy to him as you offer your true self as a spectacle of his sufficiency. Paul said he wanted to know Christ and be conformed to the fellowship of sharing his sufferings, knowing there’s a resurrection coming (Philippians 3:10).

Be blessed to know that your Father created you for this time, for these very circumstances. He knew exactly what would be happening in your life as you are living it now. He knows the impact for which he is preparing you that still awaits you. Be blessed to live into the purpose for which you were created, in spite of difficult people, through hard circumstances, and through tough challenges. Your purpose is in process. You won’t get there overnight. You won’t magically wake up with it one morning. But today you are closer than yesterday, and tomorrow you will be closer than you are today. Be blessed in him to know these things and rejoice in him.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

God’s Masterpiece

God is investing in you, caring for you, nurturing you. Be blessed with becoming everything He has called you to be.

With your spirit receive God’s Word for you from Proverbs 8:30-31.

“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”

And in Ephesians 2:10 NLT.

“For we are God’s masterpiece...”

God delights in how He made you. You are one of His masterpieces. You are His song to be sung in a key of music that is unique to you, in a rhythm, a harmony, and an orchestration that God rejoices to sing inside of you. The music of heaven graces your life as others see and hear and touch who you are, so that they receive from Him the awesome display of His delight in you.

Appreciate the delightful work of God’s hands that you are. God designed what you do to be built on the foundation of who you are in Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says,

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.“

You are not a tool designed to function to do good works because the world needs them done. God has given you the authority and compassion to be a part of meeting needs, but higher than that, you are beautiful and complete like the portrait that God painted in 1 Samuel 16:18 of a man after His own heart. You are a worshiper who sings back to Him the songs of heaven. You are brave with holy boldness, kept by the One who stands strong in you. You are a warrior who fights the right battles because you listen to your Commander. You have wise and gracious words that come from the wellspring of a righteous heart. You are fine-looking as you reflect the image of Jesus. You possess the signature that the Lord is with you. He “signed off on you.” Receive the seal of His signature on you.

In your spirit you are blessed to live in the beauty of being well-pleasing to your Father. You are beautiful, dressed in royal robes designed to express the position and privilege of being the King’s heir. You have royal inheritance of authority and privilege. You are a display of His splendor from His throne room. Be blessed with fulfillment in the grace and beauty of heaven seen in you. Be blessed with the peace and joy of heaven about you. You are blessed with the perfume of heaven about you. You are blessed with the color and light of heaven reflected upon you.

God is investing in you, caring for you, nurturing you. Be blessed with becoming everything He has called you to be and being all He has designed you to become so that all of heaven rejoices. Receive the delight of Jesus in His creation: you!

Be blessed in the name of the One who rejoices in His works (Psalm 104:31).

My Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission
From: You Are Blessed In The Names of God,

You are Secure as the Beloved

Beloved one, get quiet, listen to this blessing, and hear the voice of love saying good things to you.

Hear God’s Word for you in Deuteronomy 33:12.

“Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.”

Beloved one, get quiet, listen to this blessing, and hear the voice of love saying good things to you. You can rest in the full truth that you are your Father’s beloved. The voice of your loving Father resonates in you in a deep place. He called you his beloved from eternity. Taste deeply of love, of God, and of truth. Know the treasure you are to God. You are a chosen one, a special person, noticed in your uniqueness, eternally valued. You are priceless and irreplaceable, safe in his everlasting embrace, at rest in his non-comparing love.

Increasingly be aware of your belovedness. You are precious in your Father’s heart. Hear this so that you live with a stable, settled sense of true belonging. The good things you DO reveal what a beautiful person you ARE. Your real gift is not so much what you can DO as who you ARE.

Be blessed with your heavenly Father providing a safe, secure environment, without having to test him continually, fearfully asking the questions, such as “Are you still with me? Will you still be with me if…? Prove it by...” Be blessed to choose against the accuser’s lies about your adequacy, identity, legitimacy, your past, present, and future. Be blessed to know that you can never be rejected or abandoned by your Father. Your loving God never leaves you alone.

His love is your companion every step of the way. Be blessed with knowing his heart nurturing belonging, inclusion, and worth. Be blessed with healing of your soul’s rejection wounds and the spirit abandonment wound that is deeper.

Your Father calls you to become who you are in totality: spirit, soul, and body. All your life is an opportunity to become who you are, to affirm your own true spiritual nature, to claim your unique truth, and to say “Yes” to the one who calls you the beloved. God’s love is the core of your being. Discover more fully who God is and whose child you are. Your legitimacy is settled in him. Trust what he wants you to see and hear.

God has given you great gifts of inner peace, joy of living, sense of well-being, solidness and strength inside, and healing. Share your life in encouragement, hope, and trust. When you are secure, your presence is a joy to those who know you.

Receive and drive a stake in this blessing as the truth that shapes your daily life. Trust the voice of affirmation; it is persistent, strong, and deep. It will never let you go. Synchronize with the voice calling you chosen, and continually align yourself with your belovedness. Don’t be pulled out of your center in your belovedness. Be blessed to be attentively present to him to see his fingerprints and feel his closeness.

Be blessed in the life and in the name of the Chosen One (Luke 23:35).

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Forgiving Yourself

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

You’ve blown it. You have really messed up this time. You have agreed with God that what you did was sin. You know that God heard your prayer asking forgiveness, and you really meant every word. You believe that Jesus died for you on the cross and that His sacrifice forgives all your sins. But you still feel guilt and condemnation. You know from the Bible that God has forgotten that sin. He has removed it from you as far as the east is from the west. But you still feel horrible! How do you get past that feeling?

We make life hard by blaming ourselves for things we did in the past. But God says through Paul,

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).

What does that freedom really mean? It means that you are not saved from hell to be imprisoned in self-punishment. God has set you free. You are no longer a slave to self-hatred and self-condemnation. The Bible says, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).”

Forgiveness is not a feeling. You must choose to deny Satan the accuser and his plans to make you feel guilty and dirty because of sins in the past. When Satan tries to remind you of your past, do these things:

Meditate on the truth of who God is and who you are in Him.

Take into your heart and spirit scriptures about God’s forgiveness, mercy, grace, and love. Psalm 103 is a good place to start.
Take an objective view of your past to learn from your failure. What did you learn about yourself and God through this experience?
Allow God to expose the wound for His healing touch, and refuse the attempts of the accuser and destroyer to harass you anymore, because the King of glory stands as your Defender and Advocate.

Pray this prayer of commitment and begin enjoying the blessings of forgiveness and freedom.

Heavenly Father, thank You that you have never rejected me, and You never will. You have received me unconditionally. I am accepted in Jesus. My acceptance does not depend on anything but Jesus, His love, mercy, grace, sacrifice, and righteousness. I am not ashamed before You.

I repent of my sins in Jesus’ name. Thank You that I am completely forgiven and cleansed by the blood of Jesus. I will not allow the enemy to harass me about the past. I choose to forgive myself and receive the full freedom of Your forgiveness.

Thank You that my body can function in Your peace, healed and whole. I choose to let Jesus cover past failures and struggles and enjoy Your love, Your thoughts, and Your ways so that my mind is at rest. What amazing grace that You remember my sins and iniquities no more! Jesus took them on Himself. They are nailed to His cross.

Because of the amazing forgiveness of Jesus, I can forgive others in His name. I choose to forgive all those who have hurt me, harmed me, or spoken against me. I free them in my thoughts and no longer hold their sins against them. Bless them in Your mercy. I do this by Your indwelling power.

Thank You that I am a brand new creation. All the old has passed away, and I stand clean in Your sight. I can settle this today with You. I choose to receive Your healing grace by the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit within me.

Thank You that You control me, not my emotions or what others say or do. I receive all Your blessings for my life and give You all praise, honor, and glory. Amen.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Is My Heart God’s Resting Place?

“This is what the Lord says: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?” Isaiah 66:1

God is looking for men and women who hear and obey when He speaks, who follow the truth He reveals and have a sweet, holy desire to please Him.

These lives become the holy dwelling places of God which He can bless with Himself in a special way.

Even in the midst of the storms of life our hearts can be at rest. How can it be? Our rest is not a state of mind, but the Person of Jesus. Jesus is our Peace. His invitation is simple and yet profound. Come to Me all who are weary, and I will give you rest.

This kind of rest is bigger than physical relaxation or absence of labor. It is not just “getting away.” This rest is “as you are going” wherever God has called you. In Exodus 33:14, God says, “I will go with you and give you rest...” in the midst. This rest is an exchange of our frenzy, frustration, hurry, care, and anxiety for all the Spirit of Jesus, His strength and unruffled peace. It is all of God, manifesting all of Himself, in all the details, showing Himself strong in spite of our weakness, pressures, or circumstances.

God has the keys to His perfect rest. We must first cease striving in the energy of the flesh (Psalm 46:10-11). Get a fresh glimpse of His love and authority to live in harmony with the Father. When you struggle, acknowledge it and repent, “The dove of the Spirit is not resting undisturbed on my spirit, my heart, my soul, my mind, will, and emotion.” When we trust, we have the rest of Jesus by entering into it. Jesus provided a key when He said, “Learn of me, and you will find rest for your soul.” He did not say learn facts about Me, but learn Me, learn My ways, learn to receive from Me.

Let Perfect Rest, the Lord of glory Himself, live uncontested in you and transform you by living His life through your spirit, from the inside out. Talk to him often about it, until you hear the dove of the Spirit, saying “You are my beloved son or daughter. I am well pleased with you.” God is seeking such intimacy and unhindered communion that He is the explanation for all our life, because we don’t depart from a conscious sense of His presence permeating us. This is “tabernacling” where the Spirit of God rests.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Keeping In Step

Have you ever tried to walk up hill in snow?

Not an easy task, if you are the first one to attempt it. But if you find a path that someone has walked before you, the climb up the hill is made so much easier by walking in the footsteps of the one who came before.

Galatians 5:22-23 says: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

How often have we read that list as a check list and found ourselves lacking?

Love? Depends on the person.
Joy? I am happy most of the time.
Peace? Sure, when things are going well.
Patience? I have some, until somebody makes me lose it!
Kindness? I am a pretty nice person.
Goodness? I am better than some people I know.
Faithfulness? I usually do what I promise most of the time.
Gentleness? Depends on how you define it.
Self-Control? There are areas where I could use some more. Doesn’t everybody?

Often reading this list leads to conviction and determination to work harder. Quickly the burden of trying to be more loving, more joyful, more peaceful, more everything becomes overwhelming. It feels like trying to walk up hill in snow. We must put our feet in the nail-pierced footprints of Jesus, according to Galatians 5:24. “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there” (NLT). That’s our motivation and power. Galatians 5:25 tells us, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” What sweet relief comes from knowing that my job is not to produce the fruit but to keep in step with the Savior, in alignment with the Spirit who lives his life in me and who produces the fruit. We have all experienced glimpses of being in step with the Spirit. Think back to that situation when even you were impressed by the level of grace and love that was coming out of you in a certain tough situation because that wouldn’t have been your normal response. Rather than it being surprising, God wants it to be the norm, the natural flow of being in step with him.

Over the next nine weeks we will focus on a different fruit of the Spirit each week. For today I bless you to bring your spirit, soul, and body in step with the Spirit, so that your true beauty, the beauty of God’s Spirit living in you, may show forth. He has given you the good gift of himself in you. He makes you more like himself as you let him transform you into his image. The Holy Spirit reaches into the deep places of your inner being and expresses himself through you. “As this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives” Galatians 5:25 (The Message). That’s what we will be pursuing in the next nine weeks: living today by the Holy Spirit and following his life in every part of our lives, bearing the fruit of the Vine.

I bless you to bear much fruit as you keep in step with the Spirit of all fruit… love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Falling in Love with Jesus

What do you really want?

I pray that my answer to that question would always be “more of Jesus.”

But we are often lured away from our first and true passion by other loves. When is the last time you let Jesus invite you to want more of Him? Picture encountering Jesus face-to-face. Imagine that He Himself asks you these two questions:

“Who is it that you are seeking? Have I been among you so long and you don’t know Me?” (John 20:15b, 14:9).

Who are you seeking today?

Do you want Jesus so passionately that you can’t imagine spending a day without him? Do you know him so intimately that you come together with him in love, new life is conceived, and the fruit of love is coming forth?

The following guide is a call to the heart of God. Give yourself the gift of time. Slip away with the Lover of your soul for an hour, an afternoon, or a day and soak in this.

Get still. Sit before Him to communicate with Him. Read Psalm 46:10; 2 Samuel 7:18; Revelations 3:20; Habakkuk. 2:20. Write your response to Him.
Draw near His heart. Read James 4:8; Psalm 42:1-2; Isaiah 55:1-3,6; Psalm 65:4, 73:28, 84:1-4,10. Write your response to Him.
Seek His face. Read Matthew 7:7-8, Psalm 27:4,8; Psalm 63:1-8; Hebrews 11:6; Jeremiah 29:11-14. Write your response to Him.
Spend time in His presence. Read Exodus 33:14-15; Psalm 16:11, 89:1; Isaiah 29:13, 63:9; Lamentations 2:19; Jude 24-25. Write your response to Him.
Spend time knowing Him better. You cannot love someone you do not know. Let Him teach you who He is through His names and attributes. Each one reveals something about Him. Encounter Him in His Word. Read Matthew 11:29; Jeremiah 9:23-24; Philippians 3:8,10. Tell Jesus that knowing Him is the most important thing in all the world to you. Write your response of adoration or sing Him a song.
Tell Him all those things that you are willing to count as nothing compared with knowing Him and seeing His glory (Philippians 3:7-8): your ministry, your reputation, your personal strengths, your intellect, your pride, your self-sufficiency, your will, your ambition, your relationships, your job, your sins, your failures, etc. Say, “I give it all. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing
(1 Chronicles 21:23; 2 Samuel 24:24).” Give all that you know, and then open yourself up for God to show you new “all’s.” Write your response of surrender and commitment.
Be overwhelmed with the awesome Person speaking to you. “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness (Jeremiah 31:3).”

Receive His unfailing love. Let the Father hug you and pour His love into your heart by His Spirit.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Seven-fold Blessing

“..the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” Ephesians 3:14-15

Spiritual blessings begin with a revelation of God as Abba Father. Be blessed with a love relationship with Him. He wants you to know Jesus personally and grow in Him. Be blessed to desire righteousness that conforms you to the will and ways of God. He wants to give you holy joy in abiding in Him.

Be blessed with emotional blessings. Jesus is your healer of emotions. He releases healing to remove rejection, failure, and shame. Choose forgiveness for yourself and others. Be blessed with peace and joy to replace fear and anxiety (Matthew. 10:13) because God never fails. In Him you can have strong hope to believe Him for His promises.

Be blessed with knowing your personal value in Christ. You are of great worth to your heavenly Father. Let Him show you how He sees you in His Son. Receive His favor and His heart for you.

Be blessed with right relationships with others. Let God direct you to right loyalties and wholesome friendships that encourage your life with Him. May you live in healthy community with others.

Be blessed with mental blessing to remove blinders of deception from your mind, so that you will know the truth and have godly wisdom and discernment, knowing good and doing it.

Be blessed with God’s health and safety for all physical needs. Lean in to God’s strength and protection.

Be blessed in all your labors that God has authored. May your work or studies prosper in the provision of His hands. Acknowledge that He is your source and provider.

I pray blessings. I speak blessings. I choose to be a blessing.

By Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission
From: Blessing For Life: Word Of Hope and Healing

The Command to Hope

The psalmist gives words of command to his soul.

Listen as your Father directs you in Romans 12:12.

“Be joyful in hope.”

Hope is a promise of God, a position in him, and a command.

The Greek word translated hope means desiring good and confidently expecting to obtain it. Hope that is seen is not hope. Your assurance is in your Father that he is Lord of everything, even your challenges, opposition, and suffering. He knows the mysteries of your life, he knows what he’s doing, and he has a purpose for everything. Therefore, you can rest in him. Sometimes he stands as your only hope, but even so, be blessed with joyful hope and encouragement that he is holding your future.

The psalmist gives words of command to his soul.

“My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him. He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory; The rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:5-8).

God commands hope in him, and what he commands, he provides for. Paul said,

“Continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel” (Colossians 1:23).

In your circumstances that you can see, hope may fail you. That is the reason God gave you his Word and his promises.

“Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Immerse yourself in his Word, like Hebrews 6:18-19.

“By two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Be blessed as you take hold of God’s character, his unchangableness, and his promises with confidence. Be blessed with being sure that your Father cannot and will not lie to you, and he will never change his mind about you. Be blessed as you run to his firm hope as your strong and trustworthy anchor. Be blessed with continued faith in his goodness and with his great encouragement. In him you have the resources of the ages to press through walls of disappointment, self-protection, separation, and pain.

Be blessed with hope as God washes away disappointments with new vision and renewed God-directed “appointments” and expectation. God has appointed this season of refreshing and receiving for you. Receive his touch to restore the places that have been bruised, and broken, and shut down. Be blessed as you allow your Father to replace your burdens with his faith, your disappointments with his hope, and your doubts with his love.

Be blessed with the full purposes of God in re-forming and rebuilding you, which he planned before time to be released to you now. Be blessed to be saturated with renewed and restored life, so that hope deferred can no longer make you sick and hold you captive. Be blessed with all joy and peace in believing that God is doing this work by his Holy Spirit in you filling you with hope (Romans 15:13). Live in light that streams from the face of the God of hope. Be blessed as the light of his countenance shines the hope in him that does not disappoint. Receive the nurture, ministry, and full and abundant gifts of the God of hope.

Be blessed in the name of Christ Jesus, your hope
(Colossians 1:27; 1 Timothy 1:1; Psalm 71:15).

by Sylvia Gunter
Used by Permission

Category: <span>thoughts by Sylvia Gunter</span>

Get still with God in your favorite “Bethel,” your place of meeting with Him.

Let Him open up His heart to you personally, between you and Him.

Further Reading

Be blessed in the name of the God of hope who fills you with all joy and peace as you trust Him (Romans 15:13).

Further Reading

God rejoices as your Abba.

Further Reading

“God is able” means God has the mighty power to do a miraculous work out of His abundance and strength.

Bring your inability to the ability of God.

God is …

Further Reading

Praise is adoration of God for who He is, His person, His character, His names.

Reasons to praise

Further Reading

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Further Reading

Further Reading

God is investing in you, caring for you, nurturing you. Be blessed with becoming everything He has called you to be.

Further Reading

Beloved one, get quiet, listen to this blessing, and hear the voice of love saying good things to you.

Be blessed in the life and in the name of the Chosen One (Luke 23:35).

Further Reading

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Further Reading

God is looking for men and women who hear and obey when He speaks, who follow the truth He reveals and have a sweet, holy desire to please Him.

Further Reading

Have you ever tried to walk up hill in snow?

Further Reading

What do you really want?

I pray that my answer to that question would always be “more of Jesus.”

Who are you seeking today?

Further Reading

“..the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name” Ephesians 3:14-15

Further Reading

The psalmist gives words of command to his soul.

Further Reading