Open Door - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Open Door

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

"I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.” (Isaiah 45:2-3, NASU)

There was no special thing I was doing this Saturday morning at 5 am, except reading Don Moen’s new book entitled, “God Will Make A Way” (Emanate Books/Thomas Nelson, 2018). Off and on for over a month I had been picking it up and reading a chapter. At about the same time Stephen E. Strang had come out with his second book on President Donald Trump, entitled “Trump Aftershock.” (Frontline/Charisma Media, 2018). I had also finished reading one chapter of that one too before I picked up Don’s book again.

Each book (and of each man written thereof) is very different in several ways, but specifically, both had been (and still are!) called to serve in our Lord’s purposes for the nations. One knew it early on in his walk with the Lord and has continually sought the Living God along the journey. The other will certainly get a very real, deep sense of what he is fully called to do, even though he has not quite known as yet Who is working through him. This plan will go way beyond even where his extreme confidence in himself has gotten him thus far.

As I was reading along as to how the Lord had directed Don in several ways he didn’t always understand, Holy Spirit started moving in me. Usually, when I receive a prophetic word, I begin to feel this bubbling start to rise in my stomach, as if butter is being churned up in a wooden bucket. (You have to have been on a dairy farm to understand that, as in Minnesota or Wisconsin for me.) I knew it was not the early morning coffee affect either. The Lord wanted me to write.

So I put down the book, not sure exactly what He wanted to be written, or for whom. I just knew something was coming, and to turn my computer on.

I got up from my prayer/reading chair and went into the other room, praying as I walked. “What, Lord? What am I to write?”

His response in my head, “Open doors. Let people know their open door is here. For many, it is right now.”

Thus this message. At this time. For you right now.

Prophetic art by James Nesbit

I sense that there are many of you who have come to where you are not sure you will, or even want to, continue on. You have prayed. You have waited. You have cried, saying to the Lord, “It will never happen. I will never get to that place where, and what, you put in my heart years ago. I wanted to get there then. Now it is too late.”

But the Lord Jesus would say back to you, “It is not too late. It is now the time. There were other pieces of the puzzle that had to line up, others had to get in place, and now is the time for that door to be opened. You have come this far. Walk through the door. Now is the time. Now is the place. Now is the plan ready to be fulfilled for you. Walk through the open door. In faith, walk through that door.”

As I write this, again Holy Spirit begins to stir up my spirit, and as I pray in tongues, I know there are specific people He wants to make known to that this specific word is especially for them. Kevin, Jesse, Ben, Mary, Julia, David, and more. Each of you has been waiting. Each has wanted a clear word. This is it for you.

And if your name wasn’t listed here, but you too sense the Lord touching your spirit as you read that word, then I suggest you too believe it is for you. Prophetic words often go beyond the one spoken too. They can be for many, as you hear and respond also.

Your faith, coupled with His grace, brings spirit-led results. Don’t doubt but believe.

Keep your eyes fixed on Him as you walk through your open door. Even in your weariness or seemingly lack of faith, in the walking you will experience His strength, power, and ability to carry out the mission He has called you to accomplish.

Now is the time to walk through the open door that He has now opened for you.

Thank you, Lord Jesus!

Shalom and ahava (peace and love in Hebrew).

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. Want an adventure walking on short adventures? Check this out: "Walk With Me" video series with Steve Martin.

Also, I hope you get my latest book, Adventures in Courage, out this November. Paperback or Kindle versions. My 19^th authored publication. (Yes, this is an advertisement!) Still time before Christmas! Buy here on Amazon: Adventures in Courage

If these messages have ministered to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $10-$50 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families in Israel whom we consistently help monthly through our humanitarian work. Your tax-deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

  

Secure, conveniently contributions can be done online now. Click here: DONATE 

(or use the DONATE buttons on the blog.)

Contribution checks can be sent to: 

Love For His People, Inc. 

P.O. Box 414   

Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.) 

Please share Now Think On This with your friends on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.  We appreciate your help.

Now Think On This #377 - in the year of our Lord 12.22.18 – “Open Door”  Saturday 5:55 am

Two Sides of the Coin - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Two Sides of the Coin

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” (Romans 11:22, NASU)

For many Americans (well at least 50 % of them) the 2016 elections gave hope that the grace of God would once again direct our steps, in giving this nation another opportunity to look to Him for the road we must follow. 

With the election of Donald Trump and other conservative leadership, the future of this country will hopefully take the dramatic turn needed to be on the right road, the opposite of that one which by natural decisions we had taken the wrong way, through the establishment of immoral and ungodly laws. 

Believers can once again see the glimmer of light coming. 

One could sense the relief, if not outright rejoicing, that those who had loudly proclaimed their ways of death would not be given the chance to further erode His established ways, through governmental and judicial transformation. Once again the Lord has stopped the enemy’s hidden, ongoing agenda, which would further bring down America and continue to remove the protective walls that had brought us to that place of being a light upon a hill.

There always seems to be two sides of the coin when considering a choice to be made. The goodness of the Lord can give us further opportunity to get back on the right path. But we must be aware that He is also a just God, and if we do not, by His grace, stop the destructive ways that have become most prevalent in our society, we will experience His severity. 

A society cannot long disregard the laws of the living God and expect to live without the due consequences. As outlined in Deuteronomy, proclaimed first to the Israelites, the same holds true for any people called to follow after Him.

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them." (Deuteronomy 30:19-20, NASU)

While we gratefully acknowledge this newly given opportunity to see restoration of just and righteous laws once again in our land, we must not expect that we can sit back and just let our governmental leaders do it. As the people of God, we must stand strong in prayer, petition, and ongoing proclamation for His kingdom to come, His will to be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

This is the mandate we have been given. By His love and grace flowing through us, life will overcome death, and true freedom will be experienced under the shadow of His outstretched wings.

If we fail to seek Him in these years ahead, and acknowledge Him in all our His ways, we will lose sight of the chosen path set before us, resulting in further destruction and evil coming upon the people of this land.

We must keep our eyes fixed on Him, our only hope and glory.

 Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc. 

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

We are blessed when the ministry receives gifts to support the families that we do, primarily in Israel, Hungary, India, Pakistan and the hurting ones here in the USA. You also can share out of the abundance you have been given.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 

Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)

Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  

martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  

Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Blogs: Love For His People,   Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 11.2512.10.16 - #270 –“Two Sides of the Coin” – Saturday, 9:45 am

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

Your Choice or God’s? - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

Your Choice or God’s?

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“You were in a faraway country, but I reached out to you. I called you from that faraway place. I said, 'You are my servant.' I chose you, and I have not rejected you." (Isaiah 41:9, ERV)

Decisions made by the Lord God are not always the decisions we ourselves would have made. And as for me, I certainly am glad of that. He is God and I am not.

Some decisions I have made over these six decades of life weren’t the best, and I had to live with the facts that followed. But those times when I knew I couldn’t make the right choice, and was certainly fearful of making the wrong one; when I sought my Lord to get His plan and purpose…

Life is good when that happens.

We often see the road ahead of us with unclear vision, through blurred eyes. We may have done all the good “homework” we could have, to get as much clear vision as possible, but at times we still lack the confidence that it wasn’t enough. We still have that uncertain feeling. And so we need to lean on and trust the Lord even more, believing He knows what He is doing.

I get that same uneasiness when it comes to this year’s USA political elections. To begin with, it is not about whether I will vote or not. That decision was firmly made when I promised to be a “light on a hill”, both in spirit, soul and body. (Christians who neglect to use this one main arsenal in our fight for the Lord’s purposes, for good, freedom and justice, are simply missing it on this point. Why would you not vote, and then just sit back and say, “God’s will be done.” He made us to be part of His will that is to be done.)

The Lord’s choice to perform His will has not always been the one those surrounding His choice would have made. Let’s look at a few biblical examples.

When Samuel came to anoint the Lord’s anointed, how many of the father’s sons in Bethlehem were brought forth, while he left one out in the sheep’s pasture, tending dumb sheep? I believe the count was seven sons. (In our case, I believe the count was 16 others who came forth to be chosen. They weren’t, while many said, “No way” about the 17^th one.) David later proved to be a mighty man of God. Rightfully God’s choice.

A despicable, deplorable, unredeemable Pharasitical named Saul was, beyond all counts at this historical time, quite possibly the chief of sinners among men (as he himself later wrote in I Timothy 1:15.) He himself thought he was doing God’s will by persecuting those who had made a decision to follow Yeshua. For sure he, among the many “righteous”, would not have been elected to turn the Gentile world to serve the Living God of Israel!

But ah ha! He was the Lord’s chosen one to take His Gospel to the nations!

I clearly recall the history written about a prostitute named Rahab, who secretly let the Israelites into the Canaanite town of Jericho, before the walls came tumbling down at His command days later. What would have happened if these warriors, who themselves had been chosen by God, had refused to let this ungodly one be used by their God? You know the answer as well as I do.

And let us recall how our Almighty God had chosen and then anointed to use another unsuspecting one - Cyrus the Persian king, the non-Jew, to do His will concerning His people.

"Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held — to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut:

2. 'I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.

3. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.

4. For Jacob My servant's sake, and Israel My elect, I have even called you by your name; I have named you, though you have not known Me.

5. I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me,

6. That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other;

7. I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.'” (Isaiah 45:1-7, NKJV)

How about our own great 16^th President, Abraham Lincoln, who rarely attended church or spoke with a “Christian” mouth, until the last five years of his secular life. He and his policies had been turned down as President by those who were enslaving millions of men, women, and children. Many of those whom believed themselves to be Christians, doing the Father’s will. We know how that turned out, and who really was on God’s side for righteousness and justice.

Who says the Lord can’t take one such as these and use them for the good of His people? Which God do you serve? One Who sits idly by, or One Who acts on behalf of His people?

I heed these words written in the sacred Scriptures:

“You were in a faraway country, but I reached out to you. I called you from that faraway place. I said, 'You are my servant.' I chose you, and I have not rejected you. Don't worry—I am with you. Don't be afraid—I am your God. I will make you strong. I will help you. I will support you with my right hand that brings victory.

Look, some people are angry with you, but they will be ashamed and disgraced. Your enemies will be lost and disappear. You will look for the people who were against you, but you will not be able to find them. Those who fought against you will disappear completely. I am the Lord your God, who holds your right hand.  I tell you, 'Don't be afraid! I will help you.' People of Israel, descendants of Jacob, you may be weak and worthless, but do not be afraid. I myself will help you."

This is what the Lord himself says. "I am the Holy One of Israel, the one who saves you. "Look, I have made you like a new threshing board with many sharp teeth. You will trample mountains and crush them. You will make the hills like chaff. 16 You will throw them into the air, and the wind will blow them away and scatter them. Then you will be happy in the Lord. You will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.

"The poor and needy look for water, but they cannot find any. Their tongues are dry with thirst. I, the Lord, will answer their prayers. I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die. I will make rivers flow on dry hills. I will make springs of water flow through the valleys. I will change the desert into a lake filled with water. There will be springs of water in that dry land. I will make trees grow in the desert. There will be cedar, acacias, olive trees, cypress, fir trees, and pines.

I will do this so that people will see it and know who did it. They will notice what happened. Then they will understand that the Lord's hand made it happen, that the Holy One of Israel created it all." (Isa 41:9-2, ERV)

Let it be done, Lord. May Your choice be placed in the position You have called them to, for our sake, and for the sake of Your people Israel.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

  

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

We are blessed when the ministry receives gifts to support the families that we do, primarily in Israel, Hungary, India, Pakistan and the hurting ones here in the USA. You also can share out of the abundance you have been given.

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

If these messages minister to you, please consider sending a charitable gift of $5-$25 today, and maybe each month, to help us bless families we know in Israel, whom we consistently help through our humanitarian ministry. Your tax deductible contributions receive a receipt for each donation. Fed. ID #27-1633858.

Click here for safe ONLINE GIFT GIVING THROUGH OUR WEBSITE using major credit cards: Love For His People. If you don't have a PayPal account you can also use your credit card or bank account (where available). 

Contribution checks can be sent to: 

Love For His People, Inc.  P.O. Box414   Pineville, NC 28134

Todah rabah! (Hebrew – Thank you very much.)

Please share Now Think On This with your friends.

Email: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  

martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin and  Love For His People  

Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople 

Blogs: Love For His People,   Now Think On This

Full website: Love For His People

YouTube: Love For His People Inc.

Now Think On This - In the Year of our Lord 10.16.16 - #266 –“Your Choice or God’s?” – Sunday 3:05 pm

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve