“Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3 KJV). Regardless of any differences of gifts, accomplishments, or attainments, marriage is primarily walking together in agreement. Marriage does not work unless both attempt to walk together in agreement. Sensitivity to the other’s gifts or deficiencies must not hinder the attempt to walk together side by side, for marriage is a together walk in agreement. When either the husband or wife has a struggle maintaining their part of the together walk, then each must be sensitive to the needs of the other. Marriages will be strengthened, when each sees the other’s needs as an opportunity to minister, support, and fortify their spouse. Only when action must be taken, where there is a difference, should the husband exercise the veto power of headship. “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and He [Christ] is the saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23 KJV). LORD, give us strong, Christian marriages in Your body. Amen.
Author: Ken
Try the Spirits
Dreams need to be interpreted by the same standard as anything else where God may be speaking to you. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1John 4:1 KJV). Just as God may be speaking to you through an individual while awake, not all dreams come from God. “If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 13:1-3).
Protect Your Relationship With God
Your riches are what you value the most. Riches are kept where thieves do not break through and steal. “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20 KJV), but how and with what? A disciple listening to the voice of God in their thoughts, the “fear of the LORD is his treasure” (Isaiah 33:6). Like Enoch walking with God, he was continually laying up the treasure of the fear of the LORD until “he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). Your relationship with God is your communion with Him in your thoughts. Protect it, for Satan desires to separate you from the source of your strength and riches, as he separated Samson from his hair. Keep the conversation with God going. Think on these things.
Christian Modesty
Christian modesty is a humble estimate of one’s self before God, not seeking to draw undue attention to self, and not seeking to show off in an unseemly way. “Walk humbly with thy God” (Micah 6:8 KJV). Our conduct should reflect that modesty. “Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:2). Our manner of dress and clothing should also reflect a modesty, which takes the emphasis off us and points to Christ. “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest [Greek, kosmios, respectable, seemly] apparel, with shamefacedness [Greek, aidōs, modesty] and sobriety [Greek, sōphrosunē, self-control]; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array” (1Timothy 2:9). As sisters should protect their brothers’ purity by modest apparel, brothers need to protect their sisters from being unduly attracted to them by dressing in “costly attire” (2:9 ESV). LORD, may our manner of life between brothers and sisters be chaste, humble, and may You be the One to whom the attention is drawn. Amen.
When Everything Fails
“Hear my voice, O God, in my prayer: preserve my life from fear of the enemy” (Psalm 64:1 KJV). David speaks for all the godly but especially for Israel in the future time of Jacob’s Trouble in Daniel’s Seventieth Week (Daniel 9:24). It is then, when everything familiar seems out of place and our desperate attempt to resolve the situation is failure. Pray and trust God to do as He always has done — deliver His people. “But God shall shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly shall they be wounded” (64:7). He is the Immutable and Unchanging God Worthy of Our Trust. “The righteous shall be glad in the LORD, and shall trust in Him; and all the upright in heart shall glory” (64:10). Hallelujah!
Obey My Voice
“Obey My voice [Hebrew, qôl, voice, sound, noise], and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 7:23 KJV). The NET and NIV just as correctly translate this as “obey Me,” since the emphasis is on the command. But, do we obey the voice of God? Is that righteous thought in your head the voice of God, which should be obeyed? We have come a long way since we have confined the voice of God only to the inspired, canonized Scripture. We are rightly concerned that anyone can claim God spoke to them in their thoughts; but, are we so biblically illiterate that we cannot discern the false from the true? “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them” (Isaiah 8:20). Let us again be a people sensitive to the voice of God, though it be a small voice, in our head.
Divine Council Retrospective
Since early 2022, when I became familiar with Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s scholarly book, The Unseen Realm (2015), I have attempted to synthesize his Divine Council perspective with my Christian worldview. As a lifelong reader of the KJV, I’d never heard the expression “divine council,” since Psalm 82:1 was translated as “congregation” (KJV) not “divine council” (ESV). “God [Hebrew, elohim, singular] has taken His place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods [Hebrew, elohim, plural] He holds judgment” (Psalm 82:1 ESV). Multiple gods? Yes, but only one Almighty God. Heiser’s title The Unseen Realm and the Divine Council perspective allowed me to rethink my understanding of what takes place in the heavenlies — building a better foundation. For example, in Spiritual Warfare, notice how Paul links our struggles with the heavenlies. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). Another example, in Divine Healing, observe how an evil angel or “messenger [Greek, aggelos, angel] of Satan” (2Corinthians 12:7) is linked with a “thorn in the flesh” (12:7) and the struggle for healing. And still another example, in Prayer and Intercession, how can we avoid connecting the Courts of Heaven with Yahweh’s Divine Council? “Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; State your case, that you may be acquitted” (Isaiah 43:26 NKJV). We may differ, ignore, or misunderstand the Unseen Realm, but its concepts still affect us in our Supernatural Religion.
Jesus Wants You Well
C.S. Lovett, a retired USAF chaplain, wrote, “I do not mean to imply that God doesn’t use sickness… But the point is — He [God] doesn’t SEND sickness,” in his classic book, Jesus Wants You Well (1973). Growing up in the early 1970’s in evangelical, fundamental, Bible preaching churches, I remember being introduced to the writings of Dr. Lovett’s Personal Christianity by a blessed, fervent church friend. Lovett got it right, and he disagreed with conventional wisdom on 2Corinthians 12:7-10 about Paul’s thorn in the flesh. The devil wants us sick, since the “thorn in the flesh” (2Corinthians 12:7 KJV) was a “messenger [Greek, aggelos, angel] of Satan [Greek, satan, adversary]” (12:7) sent by God to “buffet” (12:7) Paul — and us. An evil angel of Satan was allowed to torment Paul, like Jesus was “led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1). The Father no more wanted Jesus to be tempted to make Jesus sin, any more than He wanted Paul to be buffeted to make him perpetually ill. Sure, we are to “glory in [our] infirmities” (12:9) for “when I am weak, then am I strong” (12:10) in the mean time; but, it is the devil buffeting with the sickness. Jesus came to heal and deliver us from the sickness, unless we have hidden issues allowing the adversary to successfully accuse us to prevent our healing. “When the even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils: and He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:16-17; compare Isaiah 53:4-5). Our response to being buffeted is to glory in our infirmities, thus strengthening us spiritually, but not simply to give in to sickness. Brothers and sisters, Jesus wants us well. Let the Holy Spirit persuade you what you should believe.
Elephant in the Room
“That’s what they want you to think,” said Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) explaining his wild eyed, conspiracy theory to an uncomfortable Alice Sutton (Julia Roberts) in the box office success “Conspiracy Theory” (1997). If a conspiracy is only an evil plan formulated by two or more persons in secret, then only our desire of credibility keeps us from labeling anything a conspiracy. A Gallup Poll (May 2023) found 74% of Americans believed in God and 58% believed in a devil. With increasingly fewer believing in supernatural entities, Christians desiring to explain their worldview of a cosmic but predictable chess match between Yahweh and His formidable-but-already-defeated-enemy the devil is increasingly more challenging. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV).
Our “CATEGORIES” Index Is ‘Food for Thought’ for Thinkers
The prophet Haggai presented the LORD’s case for the returned Jews from the Babylonian Captivity to start again rebuilding the Temple. “Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways” (Haggai 1:5 KJV). In particular, Jehovah asked them to think carefully about what they were doing. We may not be building the Second Temple, but thinking carefully about our current circumstances is good advice before we are drawn into even more complications for our daily life. The pages of WeNeedAMiracle.net have a “CATEGORIES” index to suggest topics of interest to biblically address your thinking. As much as the Body of Christ needs a Daily Bible Reading, our famine of not understanding Scripture stems from not studying and thinking about what we have read. Of course, internalizing and personally applying the Word of God is the necessary, concluding step. READ to familiarize. STUDY to understand. MEDITATE to apply.
We Need A Miracle 
You must be logged in to post a comment.