WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR YOU?
If you were outside your home and saw your child walking too close to the road, you would run after your child and get their attention with spoken words, right? No good parent wants their child’s life cut short. You would yell “No,” rather quickly and not think twice about it…for sure.
You will take a stand if you are going to lose everything. You will take a stand when you align yourself with God and see people walking down a wrong path.
If you were clipping limbs off a tree and a copperhead snake slivered out, would you pet it and invite it in for dinner or cut the head off? You either have to stand up to evil or be bitten. Satan is mad and there is a real war raging over the future of America and the nations, over the culture, over destiny and the prophetic. Satan knows his time is short.
Laws have been changed to go against God’s Word, bills that appear good for the people but bring about destruction and ruin are in place, and like the leadership had to be changed in the time of Daniel, we need a change in some areas as well. (See Daniel chapter 1). Daniel and his friends faced the opportunity to please God or please mankind. For Daniel, he chose to obey God.
Satan knows how to cleverly disguise something to appear good, to save us money or make it appear that way, but in the end to bring about destruction. Any time a person is moved by padding their own pockets, and do not care about the good of the people, it is an evil plot.
Esther encountered such a time as this recorded in the Bible. God saved the Jewish people because Esther chose to stand up and take a risk.
In our culture and media, God’s name is mentioned with little reverence. Only in the midst of tragedy did the nation turn to God on September 11, 2001 for about three weeks. Satan has infiltrated the minds of people to even state that people who hear God have some type of mental illness.
Instead of allowing the enemy to devour and destroy us, it’s time for pest control. Get rid of fear, doubt, and unbelief. Run the enemy out of your mind and heart. Take a stand and speak truth in love.
If at any time any of us get more concerned about money than we are souls, we are in trouble. If a pastor won’t speak truth to a person because he or she is one of their biggest givers in the church, or speak to friends and family who go against God’s Word, it is no different than big government that is more concerned with profit than the people they are called to serve.
Fear can prevent any of us from taking a risk and taking a stand. It’s time for all people to know that we can live and have abundant life in Christ—but the world system and God’s ways are not the same.
God’s ways are always best. Our view of Him impacts three areas of our lives. First, our prayers. When we recognize His greatness and power, we will become more confident that He can accomplish mighty things—(Ephesians 3:20; James 4:2).
Second, our understanding of God’s righteousness and His goodness influences our behavior. As we desire to be more Christlike, if we want to be blessed by Him, then it is in our best interest to quickly obey Him and His Word. As we desire to be like Him, to desire righteousness, we will be quick to repent of sin instead of blaming people, manipulating, and acting out in the flesh.
Third, our faith is highly impacted. Knowing that God can be trusted, that we know He is good and wants the best for us, causes us to fully trust Him. Knowing God and remembering His awesome acts on behalf of all mankind and those in our personal lives will build our confidence in Him.
The Bible says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:27-28). Who on earth would not want eternal life in Christ?
God’s name was not mentioned in the entire book of Esther but His Hand was evident throughout. God is awesome. He is forever to be praised. He saves His people.
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the saving of the Jewish people from Haman, who was planning to kill all the Jews. Purim, or the Feast of Lots, is a joyous holiday that recounts the saving of the Jews from a threatened massacre during the Persian period. Esther, who chose to take a stand shows the leading role she played in saving her people. She chose. She took a risk.
Look at her background for a moment. “Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother. This young woman, who was also known as Esther, had a lovely figure and was beautiful. Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died” (Esther 2:7).
Take time to read the Book of Esther. Ask the Lord to open your eyes to come under His Mighty Hand—the Holy Spirit, Prayer, the Word of God, the five-fold ministry, and the brethren. Don’t allow the enemy of your soul to isolate you from those you love. Satan is evil and always scheming to take God’s people out.
Our rights come from God, not from government. Every living human being has a soul. God has a plan and a purpose for every person…it’s up to us as individuals to make the choice to obey God or not, to receive the gift of eternal life or not. Will you choose? What will it take for you?
Stand strong, take a stand, step out and take a risk with God. When we wholeheartedly align ourselves with God…we stand with Him. We cooperate with His plan and purposes in the earth. Since God is for us, nothing can be against us. I have read the end of the Bible—and it ends well. How will your story end?
God is raising up precious men and women of God who will take a stand with Him, and spread the message of hope in God—the Blessed Hope—Jesus Christ! The Promises of God are “yes” and “amen.” God’s best is stored up for you. Yes, you will have to overcome obstacles and opposition in order to lay hold on all God has for you. Meditate upon God’s Word. Pray the Word and obey God’s instructions. Get His Word on the inside and then share it with the world about you. The Word of God will sustain you through the fire, through the storms, and while you are fighting the good fight of faith required to lay hold of all God has promised.
Share the Word…tell your children and grandchildren. Tell your family, friends, and those who come against you. Tell the world about Jesus!
God may have called you to take a stand in the realm of government, He may have called you to do full-time ministry, or start your own business. God may have you homeschooling your kids, raising your family to know God or you may be a full-time parent and work a full-time job as well. God’s plan and purpose for you is good…the most important thing you will ever do is fully and wholeheartedly receive and align yourself with God through Jesus Christ! The second most important thing is living that life out before the world around you…will you take a stand for Christ?
Love,
Deborah
Books by Dr. Deborah Starczewski…available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.starministriesinc.com and other distributors.
GOD’S PRICELESS TREASURE (How To Overcome Challenges, Be Transformed, And Know Your Purpose)….learn how to move from drama to destiny, a mess to a message, pain to purpose, and trials to triumph through turning to Jesus Christ.
A LEAP OF FAITH (25 Days At The Mercy Seat)….read the amazing accounts of how God intervened, raised my husband from death, healed him from two strokes, and walked with us through two open-heart surgeries at Mercy. The natural manifestations and extreme details revealed will give you hope to believe God for yourself, for your family, and the nations.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (Will America Turn Back To God?)….we are living in the Last Days…before the return of Jesus Christ….make sure of your relationship with Jesus and lead your family and friends to Him. You are a world-changer!
LIVING FOR ONE THING
David’s own family didn’t see him coming. They didn’t think or ponder that he was even in the lineup to be king. But God…saw David in the fields, tending the sheep, worshiping the Lord God Himself, and He saw a heart that was after Him.
While it is easy to get preoccupied with the world’s mess down here, you better stay focused on Jesus and on souls. I am telling you…Jesus is coming back soon. The revival fires are coming! There are people in the fields that are in need of Jesus. The fields are ripe with harvest.…souls. That will put your feet to dancing….worshiping before the Lord.
It is easy to get focused on the vision for our lives to the place that we miss the process totally. It’s easy to get caught up in the world system and live beneath God’s supernatural plan for our lives.
God wants us to grow into the likeness and maturity of Jesus. He wants us to do like Andrew did in the Bible (Andrew means bringer…he was always bringing people to Jesus)…to bring as many converts to Him as possible, and to speak life for transformation of the nations and to the people we meet everywhere we go in life. He wants us to use our God-given authority to bring about transformation in our sphere of influence.
We are called into fellowship with God. We get to spend time with Him, and His Holy Spirit lives inside of us and can rest upon us.
Everything we could ever want out of life flows from from this one privilege that King David understood better than most New Testament believers. David referred to it as the one thing:
One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple. (Psalm 27:4 KJV).
One thing I ask from the LORD, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the LORD and to seek Him in His temple. (Psalm 27:4 NIV)
We must learn to welcome and host the Holy Presence of God…if we want to see and experience revival fires, a returning to God as a nation. Repentance is key. We must seek God with all of our heart, mind and soul as believers…watching for His return…and occupying till He comes.
Jesus said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Kingdom is not separate from His Presence. This command by Jesus is to simplify and prioritize our lives down to this one thing which is evidenced by right living and winning souls.
As yourself these questions:
Am I surrendered to the Holy Spirit?
Do I try to run everything and want control?
Has the Presence of the Lord changed my heart attitudes to line up with Jesus?
Does His Holy Presence affect the vision and focus of my life personally?
Am I fully submitted to God so that I obey immediately?
Do I have any feelings against anyone that is clearly against God’s Holy Word?
Ask the LORD what it is that He wants you to do next. It may be to invite someone else to preach/teach/minister at your church—so GOD HIMSELF can usher in revival. Sometimes God uses the most least likely candidates — like you read above—about David.
“Whatever He says to you, do it? (John 2:5).
Remember this: God spoke the worlds into being. “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host” (Psalm 33:6; Genesis 1:3-24).
Use your words wisely. Speak life. Connect with other believers who are on fire for God—and fan the flame in those whose flame has been reduced to a flicker. People are hurting and need encouragement. Someone is about to give up that needs you to give them hope.
Take time to spend in God’s Presence and devour His Word. When we are so full of God that we want what He wants, we move to obedience immediately.
We have the most amazing privilege of carrying God’s presence. Let’s bring Heaven to earth…together….knowing we are called by God into divine purpose.
We must live for more…more of God…a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis. In Acts 4, Peter joins many others in prayer and prays for more—more boldness. God wants us to be empowered by His Holy Presence so that we can snatch souls from the realms of darkness.
“Lord, let your people live in overflow!” In Jesus’ name! Lord, heal every heart, dry every tear, and bring healing and salvation to every household.”
HIS LOVE and mine,
Deborah Starczewski
Deborah’s books are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc.
A LEAP OF FAITH (25 Day At The Mercy Seat)…
GOD’S PRICELESS TREASURE (How To Overcome Challenges, Be Transformed and Know Your Purpose)
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (Will America Turn Back To God?)
NEVER GIVE UP
God has the most amazing ways to touch the heart of just one person. And He goes to extreme measures to do so. I don’t know what you are walking through right now, but God does. Be assured that He is at work behind the scenes to make all things right. He loves you with an everlasting love and has greater things than you can imagine for Him to do through you as you cooperate with Him.
“Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it” (Hebrews 12:15 Amplified).
The person who is bitter over something from the past can get mad at the slightest little thing—like something springs up out of their heart. It can be a wrong glance, a misread text, a bad report, or something they even assume to be factual that is not so. People can become crippled emotionally and defeated—spending all their time battling emotional problems.
No matter what the circumstance, you must choose to forgive all who have trespassed against you. This frees you and opens the door for God to vindicate you. You can hear the Voice of God when you walk in freedom as well. He can use you to encourage others, while all along it is great encouragement to see the Lord at work in your own life.
Let your first thought be, “Lives are at stake” and reach out to touch someone. God has the most amazing and unique ways to reveal what is going on behind the scenes to encourage one person. Always listen to the Holy Spirit and follow Him as He leads.
This past week we had to have a cedar tree cut down—as it was growing strong and roots could damage the underneath of structures. I won’t share all the details…but God went to extreme measures for one man that needed encouragement. Later in the day, as I was taking my dog (Beau) for a walk, there was a large truck in the middle of the street grinding up the pine tree that we had taken down—with dust flying all over the place. I thought to myself, “Oh my goodness—that looks like lung cancer”…..as the workers’ trucks were covered and appeared brown at this point. I didn’t understand why the truck didn’t move forward away from cars, but perhaps they didn’t see them. Who knows.
At the time, I didn’t realize what the Lord was doing—but He did. The last storm that came through this area took one of our shudders off our home from the strong winds and we had asked J.R. to put it back up. He has a great lawn and maintenance service and we’ve known him for many years. When J.R. went to secure the shudder, he realized his ladder wasn’t long enough and walked across the street to ask workers at another home if they could help him or let him borrow their ladder for about ten minutes.
The next day, one of the workers came over to ask about my husband’s request of putting up new shudders and doing some extra work. As we were talking, the owner walked over and said he would talk with me. He began coughing and I knew in my spirit (by the Holy Spirit) that he had lung cancer and the Spirit showed me why He allowed me to see the dust. I began to share the story of the tree and the dust and then Fred opened up and told me he was just diagnosed with lung cancer. He shared his heart about how his parents died with lung cancer and how he had lost his wife several years ago (also to cancer) when his two boys were younger. He had prayed and asked the Lord to please allow him to live till the boys were grown.
I asked Fred if I could pray with him and asked if he was saved. God opened the door to allow me the opportunity to pray for this precious man. I prayed with him on the spot and we connected on facebook. I told him he would enjoy reading the encouraging posts. God did all of that to show Fred that HE saw and knew he had lung cancer—and GOD showed a total stranger. It was all the work of the precious Holy Spirit. He is amazing.
Fred told J.R. about how God moved the next day. He told him that God told the lady across the street about his cancer. J.R. called me today to share this with me. I stand in awe of how our loving Heavenly Father works.
Now, take a minute and think about this—if the storm had not blown up, the shudder would not have fallen off the house. If the cedar tree had not kept growing through the seasons of wind, rain, and sun, with potential of causing a problem, we would not have had to take it down. The dust would not have blown all over the place from the truck that ground it up and made it go all over the vehicles in the street. The wind was blowing in every situation—and what appeared as problems were actually a setup to connect people and bring encouragement.
Choose to view problems as opportunities to connect with new people. It is the way God works. He loves all people. He loves you. Look for and expect opportunities to encourage people. You may be the very one God uses to silence the critic in someone’s life and to inspire them to keep moving forward. You never know what people are walking though until you get close enough to care. Be an extension of the heart of God today.
God has greater things planned for His Sons and Daughters than any of us can imagine. He promises to vindicate and protect us in His Word. There is healing in the name of Jesus. Sickness and disease have to bow at the Name of Jesus.
Thank God the HOLY SPIRIT guides us—and He always does it according to the Scriptures. He reveals ALL hidden truth and shows us things to come…what an amazing LOVE HE has for us and HE sings over us…. be a blessing to all you meet.
I have permission from Fred Gilfillan to share this story—and it will be in my new book as well. Please join me in praying for Fred for healing from cancer—in Jesus’ name. Pray for your family, friends, and enemies. Pray for the President of the United States- President Donald Trump and his family, staff, and all those connected to him in every capacity. Pray for the military and all other organizations from police to firemen and women. We are instructed by God to pray for those in authority over us—and to obey, as long as it does not go against God’s Word, or they command us to do things that God forbids. Never give up, lives are a stake. Keep your heart clear and free so you can hear the Father’s Voice at the slightest whisper at the door of your heart—and obey!
Remember, there is always room for one more at the Cross of Jesus Christ. He is our healer and Redeemer!
Love,
Deborah
BOOKS FOR ENCOURAGEMENT BY DEBORAH STARCZEWSKI:
Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, www.starministriesinc.com and other distributors.
GOD’S PRICELESS TREASURE (How To Overcome Challenges, Be Transformed And Know Your Purpose)….learn how to move from drama to destiny, pain to purpose, a mess to a message. There is life after separation, divorce, cancer, abuse, abandonment—there is life in turning to Jesus.
A LEAP OF FAITH (25 Days At The Mercy Seat)…..the full account of God raising my husband from death, two open-heart surgeries….this book will teach you to overcome in any area.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR (Will America Turn Back To God?) …a must read for every leader.