Ed Christian's World

Spirit Rulers…

There are stories of great military campaigns throughout history: King David taking Jerusalem, Alexander the Great conquering the walled cities of the ancient world, General Sherman taking Atlanta and turning the course of the Civil War to name a few.

The taking of such cities required courage, zeal, and often brilliance. However, Proverbs says that “greater is the one who rules his own spirit than the one who captures a city.”

Think about that. God’s saying it is more important to rule your spirit. Look at all the military conquerors of history, and all they did; all the challenges and obstacles they had to go through.

Yet, many of them couldn’t even control their own lusts and it destroyed them. Set your heart, and your goal on ruling your own spirit.

Storm that wall, conquer that stronghold, and win that victory. Then your life will be far greater, stronger, and more life changing than all the generals of history. For greater than the one who takes the city, is the one who rules their spirit.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7

Today, make it your goal to rule your spirit by the power of God’s Spirit.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Dwell…

Jesus said He will only return to the world when His people say “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.”

For that to happen the Jewish people had to return from the ends of the earth to the land of Israel and dwell there.

Psalm 37:3 says “dwell” in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Only when the Jewish people dwell in the land can Jesus return to dwell with them.

Do you want God to come down and His glory to fill your life? Then learn the secret of dwelling. When you dwell with God, God will dwell with you. To dwell means, to wait in His presence not just occasionally praying.

It means meditating on and soaking in His goodness instead of rushing all over the place. Are you living in the blessings of God that He has for your life?

If not, chances are the reason is in the word dwell. Because the Lord’s will is to dwell with you, and have His glory dwell in your life. When you learn the secret of the word dwell. If you dwell, He will come.

For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ Matthew 23:39

Today, spend time entering the deepness of His presence, receiving of His glory.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Brother In The Storm…

Proverbs 17:17 says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

Likewise Jesus was born to become your brother and to share in your adversity. He was born to become your brother – to share in your birth.

Not just to share in your joy, but to take up the adversity of the world – your pain, your burdens, and your sorrows so you would never be alone. When you’re in sorrow, in your valleys, in your time of loss, when it looks like you’re abandoned, you’re not going to be abandoned by Him.

He’s going to be there with you in your time of adversity. His presence may be gentle and often unnoticed, but He will always be there, your best friend and your closest brother.

How faithful is He to you? So much so that He was literally born to be with you in your worst times. A friend loves at all times, so love Him at all times.

Live a life worthy of what He gave for you. For a friend loves at all times, but Jesus, your brother, was born for adversity.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Today, draw close to Jesus and soak in the love of your closest Brother and dearest Friend.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

Your Father’s Blessing…

Up until the 1980s canaries were used in coal mines. If the canary became disoriented or died, it was a sign that the air was toxic and everyone was in danger.

Today we’re seeing an attack on fatherhood. Fathers are depicted as bumbling fools, childish, and irrational. More and more children are being raised without fathers.

Fatherhood is the white canary of modern society. Their minimizing and disappearance is a sign of a toxic culture in which we live – one that is at war with family, gender, and humanity itself.

Fatherhood is only the first to vanish. Next will come motherhood, childhood, and the very nature of being human. As God’s child, be all the more true to God’s ways.

Uphold the sanctity of fatherhood, motherhood, parenthood, childhood, male/female, marriage, and life itself. Do your job as end-time believers and stand up for what’s right.

Shine the light of Jesus more brightly than ever before. Because the darker the world, the brighter must be the light to that world.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:13

Today, do your job and shine Jesus brighter than ever before.

Walk day with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Mystery of the Seventieth Seven…

The prophet Daniel prophesied that the Messiah would come to Jerusalem and then “the city and the sanctuary” (the Temple) would be destroyed.

It all came to pass in 70 AD. So Israel’s Messiah had to come before that moment. The Rabbis have followed other people claiming to be the Messiah and observant Jews are still waiting for Messiah.

But the cut-off date was already given and there’s only one contender in all of human history: born in Bethlehem, rode a donkey into Jerusalem, and died for our sins – all according to Hebrew prophecy.

And He did it all before the year 70 AD. And yet for 2000 years, Jesus’s own people have still been searching. We can be like that too.

Even though you know the Lord you can still be searching for your fulfillment through other things in a million other ways. But God’s made it clear. There’s only one way you can be fulfilled.

Joy, peace, and true blessing are only found in Him. There are no other contenders. Get your eyes back on Him. He’s still the One, even for you, there’s no one else.

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Matthew 11:25

Today, put your thoughts and actions towards being fulfilled in the One who has no contenders.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Chrysalis…

You may find yourself dealing with old habits and feeling stuck in them; thinking old thoughts or repeating ungodly or unhealthy behavior. But don’t conclude that that’s who you really are.

Consider the butterfly. It starts out as a worm-like creature that goes into a shell and becomes a chrysalis. The chrysalis bears the shape of the old body, the caterpillar.

In order for the butterfly to become the new creature it was born to become, it has to break out of the old shape. So you have an old self and a new self.

Those old habits you deal with are no longer part of the new self. They’re nothing but a shell. The new you is not that, but inside it. Learn to see the shell for what it is.

Break out into what God has for you. The old thoughts are things that you can break out of. It’s not the real you in God anymore. So become that heavenly creature you were meant to become.

Break out of that thing which is no longer you, it’s just the shell of the chrysalis.

But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Colossians 3:8

Today, don’t accept the limitations of the old you, the old life – break the shell, break out of that chrysalis – and live as the new creation you are.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Revolutionary Handbook…

The world is filled with revolutionaries who will do anything to reach their goal.

But imagine if revolutionaries were like many believers – and gave up on changing the world because they didn’t feel appreciated or ministered to – or if they just didn’t feel led.

If most revolutionaries were like most believers there would be no revolutions. That’s why there’s not a lot of revolutionizing of the world going on among most of God’s people – because most believers don’t take the Lord’s purposes as seriously as people in the world take their causes.

Revolutionaries know if their revolution’s going to succeed, they have to put it first above everything else. We are the true revolutionaries of this age. Do you really want to see the world transformed?

Put God first and seek first His kingdom. Put the purposes of the great commission first above your own will, agenda, and your own wants.

For the revolution will succeed when the revolutionary decides it’s time to be serious.

Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near. Revelation 1:3

Today, live as a revolutionary – put God’s agenda above your own and do something to further the great commission.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

To Transcend Life…

In Hebrew when a plural word is used for a singular, it represents intensity. It denotes such great intensity that it can’t be put into one word.

In the prophecy of Messiah’s death given in Isaiah 53, 700 years before Jesus’s coming, the words appear, ‘in His death.’ But the Hebrew reads in His deaths.’

You see, Jesus didn’t just die a death, He died deaths for us all. What He went through was so colossal that the word ‘death’ doesn’t even explain it.

We’ll never know the depths of His suffering, or the sacrifice He gave for us in love. Therefore, we each need to live our lives to the utmost, in a manner worthy.

He died for you a death that transcended death.Therefore live a life that transcends life. He gives you the power to live a life that is beyond this life.

So live in that power, beyond what’s expected, beyond the flesh, beyond the natural, to the supernatural. Live a life intensely alive for Him. So that your life becomes a life beyond life, because He died for you a death beyond death.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 1John 2:2

Live to transcend your old life. Do something for the Lord beyond what you normally do.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Great Bluff…

I know a Jewish believer who has a congregation that went through opposition. His congregation was firebombed and the sanctuary was destroyed.

In the days after, they decided to hold their services in the bombed out room, with dancing, joy, praise, and thanksgiving.

He knew that his enemies, and more importantly, the enemy, was trying to intimidate him. Instead he took it as an encouragement that he had something to do that must have been greatly important or the enemy wouldn’t have bothered.

It turned out that more people came to the Lord after that bombing than before. God blessed His ministry, and even gave him favor with the government. The enemy will stop you if you let him.

If the enemy’s trying to intimidate and stop you, it means you’re doing something important. So be encouraged!

Praise God, give thanks, and rejoice all the more! Press on, because you must be doing something right. Keep doing it, because the enemy can never stop you from doing God’s will, unless you stop yourself.

When the wicked advance against me
to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me,
even then I will be confident. 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. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord. Psalm 27:2-6

Today, don’t allow the enemy to intimidate you from doing God’s will. Go against all fear and all the works of the devil.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always,

Ed

The Heavenly Calling…

When I took the test in high school to tell me what my vocation should be – it never said anything about ‘ministry’ – but it should have. We are all in some sort of ministry and that is part of our vocation. The word vocation comes from the word voc or vocal, as in voice. It comes from a biblical truth.

Your vocation is your calling. You’re not supposed to just do ‘something’ in life, you’re supposed to fulfill your calling. You have a calling on your life.

It doesn’t come from you. It comes from God. He’s calling you and you have to follow it. It’s okay if your life doesn’t match up with it yet. Your calling is higher than you and often something you wouldn’t expect. You just have to respond, follow the voice of God, and you’ll become that person.

You’ll fulfill your true heavenly calling when you follow the Voice, the Word, and the Spirit of God. Follow the voice of His leading and keep following it, today and every day. For your heavenly vocation was given to you by nothing less than the Voice of God.

Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. Hebrews 3:1

Today, make it your aim to look for, hear, and follow the voice of God’s leading in your life.

Walk daily with God at your side!

Love always

Ed