Wednesday Morning Scripture – Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants [longingly] for the water brooks, so my [1]soul pants [longingly] for You, O God.

2 My soul (my life, my inner self) thirsts for God, for the living God. When will I come and see the face of God?

3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?”

4 These things I [vividly] remember as I pour out my soul; how I used to go along before the great crowd of people and lead them in procession to the house of God [like a choirmaster before his singers, timing the steps to the music and the chant of the song], With the voice of joy and thanksgiving, a great crowd keeping a festival.

5 Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become restless and disturbed within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall again praise Him for the help of His presence.

6 O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear]; Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan and the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.

7 Deep calls to deep at the [thundering] sound of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.

8 Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song will be with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

9 I will say to God my rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

10 As a crushing of my bones [with a sword], my adversaries taunt me, while they say continually to me, “Where is your God?”

11 Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why have you become restless and disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, The [2]help of my countenance and my God.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 42:1 The Hebrew word translated “soul” in this psalm and elsewhere in the book of Psalms is nephesh. This word usually refers to a person’s “life” or “self,” but can also mean “throat,” as perhaps in vv 1, 2.
  2. Psalm 42:11 Or saving acts of.

Lion Bites – Global Prophetic Alliance – A Prayer for the Thirsty

Oh God, I long for more of you.

Like that deer panting for water, I yearn for your presence.

Reveal yourself to me, open my eyes.

Wake me from my spiritual slumber.

Help my spirit become alert and aware of you.

Amen

As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

Psalm 42:1-2 (NKJV)

Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

Ephesians 5:14 (NKJV)

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

#lionbites

Lion Bites – Global Prophetic Alliance – Fellowship With The Holy Spirit

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV)

You have known me as Saviour, as one who extends my grace to you, who brings you into the riches of my salvation. You have known me as loving Father, the one who welcomes you as beloved children, by the blood, and in the name of my precious Son. Now I want you to know my Holy Spirit.

I am expanding your understanding of the meaning of this fellowship as I walk with you daily as the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of revelation, and the spirit of counsel. I am inviting you into an experience of being entwined with me in a much deeper way that involves a level of communion that does not relegate me to moments in time or to encounters.

I am one with you. I am enlarging your capacity to live in awareness of your union with me all the time. I do not leave you, ever. I am always present. I am increasing your awareness of my presence, not in order to give you moments of intense feeling but for you to live and move and have your being in me, in my reality.

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

1 Corinthians 6:17 (ESV)

#lionbites

Tuesday Morning Scripture – 1 John 3:13-24

Children of God Love One Another

13 Do not be surprised, believers, if the world hates you.

14 We know that we have passed out of death into Life, because we love the brothers and sisters. He who does not love remains in [spiritual] death.

15 Everyone who hates (works against) his brother [in Christ] is [at heart] a murderer [by God’s standards]; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

16 By this we know [and have come to understand the depth and essence of His precious] love: that He [willingly] laid down His life for us [because He loved us]. And we ought to lay down our lives for the believers.

17 But whoever has the [1]world’s goods (adequate resources), and sees his brother in need, but has no compassion for him, how does the love of God live in him?

18 Little children (believers, dear ones), let us not love [merely in theory] with word or with tongue [giving lip service to compassion], but in action and in truth [in practice and in sincerity, because practical acts of love are more than words].

19 By this we will know [without any doubt] that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart and quiet our conscience before Him

20 whenever our heart convicts us [in guilt]; for God is greater than our heart and He knows all things [nothing is hidden from Him because we are in His hands].

21 Beloved, if our heart does not convict us [of guilt], we have confidence [complete assurance and boldness] before God;

22 and we receive from Him whatever we ask because we [carefully and consistently] keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight [habitually seeking to follow His plan for us].

23 This is His commandment, that we believe [with personal faith and confident trust] in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and [that we unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another, just as He commanded us.

24 The one who habitually keeps His commandments [obeying His word and following His precepts, abides and] remains in Him, and He in him. By this we know and have the proof that He [really] abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us [as a gift].

1 John 3:13-24 (AMP)

Footnotes

  1. 1 John 3:17 Lit livelihood of the world.

Lion Bites – Global Prophetic Alliance – Uncharted Territory

‘…….hear the call!’

I am the God who compels and propels you, and this year, I am catapulting you into new adventures with force. I am excited about what is ahead, for I have uncharted territory for you to explore this year.

My kingdom is not advanced by the hesitant, and my kingdom is not advanced by those who choose to sit arms folded on the back row. You have heard many words about adventuring with me over the years, but many of you have not really experienced adventure where you are exploring the unknown with me. But now, hear the call! I am calling you into a real adventure of new and uncharted territories. Feel the excitement and allow it to begin to course through your veins.

Do not allow fear of the unknown to hold you back. Do not allow fear of what might happen or fear of getting it wrong to cause you to hesitate on the borders. Approach this year with confidence and with boldness, knowing that, although it is uncharted territory for you, I have gone before you.

From the moment John stepped onto the scene until now, the realm of heaven’s kingdom is bursting forth, and passionate people have taken hold of its power

Matthew 11:12 (TPT)

#lionbites

Monday Morning Scripture – 1 John 3:1-12

Children of God Love One Another

1 See what an incredible quality of love the Father has shown to us, that we would [be permitted to] be named and called andcounted the children of God! And so we are! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

2 Beloved, we are [even here and] now children of God, and it is not yet made clear what we will be [after His coming]. We know that when He comes and is revealed, we will [as His children] be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is [in all His glory].

3 And everyone who has this hope [confidently placed] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (holy, undefiled, guiltless).

4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness [ignoring God’s law by action or neglect or by tolerating wrongdoing—being unrestrained by His commands and His will].

5 You know that He appeared [in visible form as a man] in order to take away sins; and in Him there is [absolutely] no sin [for He has neither the sin nature nor has He committed sin or acts worthy of blame].

6 No one who abides in Him [who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin. No one who habitually sins has seen Him or known Him.

7 Little children (believers, dear ones), do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who practices righteousness [the one who strives to live a consistently honorable life—in private as well as in public—and to conform to God’s precepts] is righteous, just as He is righteous.

8 The one who practices sin [separating himself from God, and offending Him by acts of disobedience, indifference, or rebellion] is of the devil [and takes his inner character and moral values from him, not God]; for the devil has sinned and violated God’s law from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

9 No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because [1]God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him.

10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are clearly identified: anyone who does not practice righteousness [who does not seek God’s will in thought, action, and purpose] is not of God, nor is the one who does not [unselfishly] [2]love his [believing] brother.

11 For this is the message which you [believers] have heard from the beginning [of your relationship with Christ], that we should [unselfishly] love and seek the best for one another;

12 and not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother [Abel]. And why did he murder him? Because Cain’s deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

1 John 3:1-12 (AMP)

Footnotes

  1. 1 John 3:9 I.e. in human terms, God’s seed is like a divine “genetic code” which is passed on to His children and produces in them the desire to live in a way which pleases Him.
  2. 1 John 3:10 See note 2:10.