The Gift Of Encouragement

Author Unknown

One of the most powerful things one person can share with another person is encouragement. Encouragement can stop a suicide, a divorce, and countless other tragedies. A word of encouragement can heal someone who is broken and wounded. It can give someone the courage to keep trying.

Our world is full of negative, bitter, uncaring people who can't say anything good about anyone or any thing. The people of God should be a radiant contrast to the people of the world. We should bubble over with the joy of the Holy Spirit. We should find it easy to be positive and uplifting.

Are you an encouragement to those around you? Don't let someone drift into despair from neglect or lack of encouragement. Share your CHRISTian joy by encouraging those around you on a regular basis!


"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today..." (Hebrews 3:13)

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." (1 Thes. 5:11)

Thank You In Advance

1 Chronicles 16:34 (The Message)

34-36 Give thanks to God—he is good and his love never quits. Say, "Save us, Savior God, round us up and get us out of these godless places, So we can give thanks to your holy Name, and bask in your life of praise." Blessed be God, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting. Then everybody said, "Yes! Amen!" and "Praise God!"

Author Unknown

Dear God:

I want to thank You for what you have already done.

I am not going to wait until I see results or receive rewards, I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until I feel better or things look better,I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until people say they are sorry or until they stop talking about me,I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until the pain in my body disappears,I am thanking you right now.

I am not going to wait until my financial situation improves,I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until the children are asleep and the house is quiet,I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until I get promoted at work or until I get the job,I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until I understand every experience in my life that has caused me pain or grief, I am going to thank you right now.

I am not going to wait until the journey gets easier or the challenges are removed. I am thanking you right now.

I am thanking you because I am alive.

I am thanking you because I made it through the day's difficulties.

I am thanking you because I have walked around the obstacles.

I am thanking you because I have the ability and the opportunity to do more and do better.

I'm thanking you because Father, you haven't given up on me.

THE STORY OF PEARLS

Author Unknown

Pearls are a product of pain. When a grain of sand pierces the shell of an oyster, all the otherwise dormant resources within the tiny oyster respond to the foreign irritant by caring for that sensitive spot. Over time, the sand particle is covered by healing fluids, and the wound becomes a pearl.

That's true for you, too. When hardships invade your life, allow God's Spirit to shape your response. Don't be bitter. Don't rush ahead of His plan. Rest in Him. Allow Him time to turn that irritation into an opportunity for your growth - and watch a beautiful pearl emerge from your set of circumstances.

"My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." - James 1:2-4

Big Issues - Bite Size Chunks

First, our kids couldn't feed themselves. Then they slowly began to learn to do it themselves. Since then, they've been really, really good at it! But in those very early days of teaching them to feed themselves, we didn't just hand them this big slab of meat to eat and say, "Go for it, kid." Every parent knows the drill - you cut the big piece into bite-size chunks so it's manageable. I got so used to doing it, it was embarrassing when I was out to lunch with a businessman and I started cutting his meat up for him!

I love our word for today from the Word of God in Zephaniah 3:5. In just seven reassuring words, God points us to the way He wants us to handle this "big piece of meat" called our life. It simply says, "Every new day He does not fail." God says instead of trying to do weeks and months and years, would you do life in these 24-hour increments He's obviously wired us for? Do days.

When we try to drag yesterday, with its baggage and its failures into today, we start to sink. When we try to drag tomorrow into today, with its worries and its fears, we run ahead of His resources, which are issued each new day for that day. I've got Monday's resources for Monday's needs. When I start worrying about Tuesday, or a week from Tuesday, I'm on my own and I'm going down.

There has never been and there never will be a day that our Lord has failed us. On different days our spouse may have failed us, our family may have failed us, our boss, our friends, our coworkers, the folks at church; even our income or our health. But "every new day, He does not fail." That's called days without fear.

And here is your Lord's guarantee for each new day. He's promised new mercies for every battle. Surrounded by the collapse of everything around him, Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3, "I remember my affliction and my wandering." In other words, on many new days, he had failed - just like you and me. "I remember the bitterness and the gall ... my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

God knows how to balance the grief with His goodness. He knows just when you just have to have an encouragement, and He sends it. He knows just when you need a hopeful sign, or some comfort, when you need some rest, an extra shot of strength, or a miracle. And He sends it right on time.

God knows when you've had all you can take and He raises His almighty hand and says, "Enough! No more!" He's promised to never let you have "more than you can bear." (1 Cor. 10:13) "Because of the Lord's great love," you are "not consumed." You serve the God of daily bread; of "strength equal to your days." (Deut. 33:25) The God of whom you can say every new day, "This is the day my Lord has made." (Psalm 118:24) Not the day my condition has made, or my boss has made, or my frustrations have made, or my spouse has made. My Lord made this day and has promised me everything I'll need to live it.

Don't even try to handle that big piece of life you've got in front of you right now. Your Heavenly Father cuts it into bite-size chunks so it's manageable - bite-size chunks called "every new day"!


Copyright (c) 2003, Ron Hutchcraft.
www.hutchcraft.com

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KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT

The Arizona Republic reported this story (so I'm assuming this story really is true!):

"As Terry Mikel was speeding toward Tucson, he passed a car, an unmarked Arizona Highway Patrol car. The officer pulled Terry over. When Terry explained that he was late for a class he was teaching at the University of Arizona, the officer took pity on him and let him off with a warning. Before he went back to his car he said, `Slow down and drive safe.'

"Terry felt obligated to correct him. `Excuse me, Sir, but it should be "Slow down and drive safely. You said, "Drive safe."'

"The officer walked back to his car and wrote him a $72 speeding ticket."

We can't do it, can we? We just can't seem to keep our mouths shut! Looking back, we know we shouldn't have said a word, but at the time we felt so compelled to speak.

Maybe you didn't get a ticket as a result, but you've done something just as foolish, haven't you? Maybe even this morning, before reading this message. Maybe even before leaving your house! James was so right when he wrote,

"If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body..... For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. But no man can tame the tongue." (James 2b,7-8a)

That's not an excuse, incidentally, to let our tongues run wild. Rather, it's a challenge. As hard as it may be to control our tongues, it is essential that we as Christians strive to do just that. We stand to lose more than $72 if we fail to do so.

"He who guards his mouth preserves his life, but he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction." (Proverbs 13:3)

"Lord, we truly want to use our tongues to Your glory this day. As difficult as it may be, help us to guard our mouths as we resist the temptation to speak at those times when we ought to keep quiet. In Jesus' name, amen."


Alan Smith
Thought For the Day
www.tftd-online.com

A Prayer to Remove Disappointment

Father God, in the name of Jesus, I pray Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we will cease recalling disappointments. Father God, I ask that there will be healing right now from disappointments. Father, all these disappointments that have become hindrances, I ask that You will pour in Your healing oil right now. As You heal with that oil, in those disappointed areas, I pray that You are going to take out the space which disappointment has been occupying, and that You are going to pour in grace. As Your grace comes into that place right now, so is Your anointing and Your gift of faith.

So Father, I ask that every disappointment, Father, no matter how small or how large, that You have come by Your Word that You have said that You have come to heal the brokenhearted. You are going to come right now and heal the brokenhearted. The Lord says that some of you, He is going to quicken right now some of those disappointments. Keep your eyes closed because He is going to heal your hearts.

Father, I thank You that You are healing their hearts right now. I thank You that the disappointment that they thought had to come and do what should have been done and didn't happen, I thank You, Father, for the word "divine postpone" - You are postponing some things for a reason. I thank You that the word You are giving me right now is to ask for the fullness of time to start to happen.

Lord, I would pray right now that the fullness of time would be rebirthed tonight, and Father, this robbery that has been going on this year, Father - You are showing me that there has been robbery after robbery after robbery after robbery. The enemy has tried to set up a tent of discouragement and hopelessness to move them into depression, to quiet them to where they could not move into the witness of the goodness of God.

Father, I would pray right now that the testimony that You have given them of Your goodness would come back so supernaturally strong right now, that they are getting their witness back tonight; they're getting their testimony back tonight; they are going to start to regain the joy of the Lord that is their strength tonight. Father, I thank You that You have been running intervention all year. Lord, You are showing me that things were not totally together. You are showing me that You are the God that also stands in front of something rather than allowing an abortion to happen.

You are a God of birthing and because You are the God that births visions, I ask right now by Your Holy Spirit that You would birth a new vision. As You birth those new visions tonight, Father God, You are going to bring provision. And as You bring provision, You will bring purpose; and as You bring purpose You will bring the anointing that meets the call.

So Father, I ask for healings to begin to flow right now. I thank You for physical healings that You are doing right now, Father. I thank You that You are directing and opening people's understanding right now, and that You are taking off and away from them disappointment, to where the enemy has set up a tent and has set up a place to lay down and torment them.

Father, I break off right now the voice of the tormentor. Father, they will not be tormented any more by that lying spirit that makes them think that they have missed Your will because that is a lying spirit, Father God. Father, You are showing me that You just simply had them in a changing of a clothing room, preparing them for the next position, and that You are reclothing them with a new design for the new time.

Lord, I thank You for saying that this is the word for "9": the new design, for the new time, for the new nine. Father, I claim that word would go forth so strong that as things change, Father God, they will be clothed with a garment of praise for the days of heaviness. Father, they will start to regain and reclaim the assignment and the territory that You have called them to walk in.

Father, the season of robbery is coming to an end. Father, I stand on the Word of God that says, "You do know the plans that You have for us, You do plan for us to prosper and that You have ordered our steps, as we are righteous in the Blood of Jesus." Father, I take the Blood of Jesus and pour it over everybody's future right now.

"Wake up, oh saints...for I am about to shake you and quake you and put you into exactly what I have prepared for you to do"

I say right now Father, that You are going to release creativity like a brand new move. Father, I ask that there will be new assignments released in this room right now. Lift your hands out right now. I heard the Lord say, "Get ready for assignments, for I'm going to assign, assign, assign." He says there will be assign, in the 9, assign, assign, assign. Father, I ask that the new assignments will begin to flow right now, Father, that it will flow into their bellies. Into their bellies, Father God, there will come such assignments.

The assignments, Father God, that have tried to rob them—premature death, I break your back right now. You will not block what God would have done, but instead, Father God, I call out longevity. Lord, those that have the witness of what You want them to do, You are going to line things up like they have never lined up before.

Father, I see You yanking some by the back of the neck and saying, "Wake up, oh saints; wake up for I am about to shake you and quake you and put you into exactly what I have prepared for you to do," says the Lord Your God. He says, "I am not only the God of the open door, but I am the God of the closed doors." He says, "I am not only the God of below, of the earth, but the God of above who counts the stars.

"Do you not realize My people, that you have limited Me?" He says, "Take off limits, take off, take off, do not limit. DO NOT box in how I will answer, how I will move, how I will push, drag, lead and guide because I look at your heart even when your mouth knows what to say," says the Lord Your God.

For He says, "I know that some of you have come to the end where you could no longer pray, you could no longer praise Me even. Yet I tell you this, that I look at your heart and I see your weeping and this is a sweet fragrance to Me," says the Lord Your God. "Have I not said that I know the hearts of My people?" He said that, "Not only do I know the hearts of My people, but I read the hearts of My people. Not only do I love those who are pure in heart, but I put inside of their heart what I would have them do.

"Tonight, I am going to drop seeds into Your hearts. I will water them by the dew of My Spirit, as things will start to come together. Get ready for a gathering, a gathering of My Spirit," says the Lord. For He says that, "I will command My wind to start to blow. It will blow heaviness off of you. There has been an adversity towards you to cause you to be bent over in depression and discouragement. I said that it will cause you to have to lift your head high to where you see the vision that comes from above and you will no longer be trampled on by the words of man that have made promises but have broken the vow of commitment," says the Lord Your God.

He says, "I am about to bring such conviction over My people. Those who have made vows and have not kept them, for I will give them grace for a season and then I am going to deal with their hearts and I am going to knit their hearts back with the seed of promise because I am a God of restoration," says the Lord Your God.

"You will know Me as a Restorer"

"You will know Me as a Restorer of your soul. Even when the enemy has taken your seed and has devoured your seed and has eaten your seed, but I am the God of the soil and you are about to see Me turn the soil over, and when that soil turns over, you will realize that it has been fertilized by the tears of the saints and it has come from a hardened ground into a ground that is moist and ready to grow fresh fruit," says the Lord Your God.

"Get ready for fruit to start to produce; it will not be the fruit of others but it will be the fruit of My Spirit. For I am calling those that are hungry for my Spirit to draw into My Spirit, and as they draw into My Spirit they will realize My Spirit is drawn into them.

"Then there will be an outpouring," says the Lord Your God. "It will first start with those who are willing to draw in. It will be a peculiar group; it will be a group that says, 'Lord, use us, use us, use us, use us.' They will become those who have been abused, they will become those that have been used up and left over, they will be those who say, 'Not me.'"

He says, "It will be like those in the upper room. They were not prepared until My Spirit came upon them." He said that He was the Preparer. He said, "They could not prepare themselves. They were locked away in fear, in trembling, fear of the future, fear of the past, and fear of the present." He said, "And yet My Spirit swooped in change, shook them up, filled them up and poured them out, and in turn My Son was glorified."

Eileen Fisher
Eileen Fisher Ministries
Email: Eileen@eileenfisher.org

About Eileen Fisher: Eileen ministers very strongly with the Holy Spirit in healing and prophecy and she has a special burden for Christians to understand the Holy Spirit as a person. Her desire is to teach about the Father who loves us, the Savior, Jesus, who died that we might be free, and the Holy Spirit, the Helper, who enables us to live the power-filled life. At present, Eileen travels and is a frequent TV guest and teaches Schools of Prophecy and Healing.

Eileen and her husband Fred have been happily married since March 14, 1963 and Fred oversees the ministry and is the ministry administrator. They have one married daughter Theresa, their son Michael went home to be with our Lord in 1993, and they have four grandchildren. Eileen and her husband Fred were born again in 1974.

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