Meet Jesus: Lord of Take Back Matthew 4:6

March 27, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. :7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

Satan had trouble with meeting Jesus. His intent was to trick him and cause Him to slip. He met his match. He met the Lord, God.

Meeting Jesus means meeting the Lord, God. His is able and willing to deal with any situation. He is Lord.

Stuff trys to put us down. Stuff trys to break our spirit. Stuff trys to rob our joy. Jesus is joy. His kingdom is righteousness, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit.

With success after success, lately, Prince had defeat after defeat. No one wanted to work with him. They were envious and defeatist. Somewhere from deep inside, he summoned up some joy. “Good gracious”, he declared aloud. “If no one will walk with me, then I will walk alone. They can follow, can’t they?” Those thoughts seemed good. His smile came back. He took charge of his life again. He began to work out issues and others joined with him. Sometimes you just have to rob the joy back to get going again.

ACT! Bow to the Lord. Give up. Meet Him on terms of surrender.

PRAY! Father, I give myself to the Lord, Jesus. He is Lord. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. I surrender to His love and mercy and Lordship. I surrender to His joy that is unspeakable and full of glory.

Phil’s Other Home

Meet Jesus: Taken Matthew 4:5

March 26, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 4:5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

The fact that Jesus would allow himself to be taken anywhere by the devil astounds me. What was going through His mind at those moments? Here he was, led by His own Holy Spirit, to spend time with evil. Here he was entering the beginning of His public ministry dealing with a defeatist devil. Our present thinkers tell us to feel good and be happy and then minister. Our present ideologies point to pleasure as the entry to ministry. Jesus allowed himself to be taken into the presence of evil itself. This was His entry point into public ministry. He allowed testing. He presented himself for inspection. He was taken.

Pushed to the max, Jim was about to pop. This was supposed to be his year to get the big promotion. It began with pain. Employees were livid with some decisions he had made. Every emotion in him was twisted. He had worked night and day and given himself totally on behalf of these. They turned on him. The year before, he had handled the torrents of accusations from a disturbed man. The threats had been against these very employees that now turned on him. For defending them, he now stood their accusations of being unfair and inequitable. Was this how to start his big year?

He resigned himself to stand through the accusations. He remembered that the name, Satan, really meant Accuser. He remembered, Jesus had stood testing before His big year. Surely, he could allow the Healer to live in and through him in this critical time. “Father, forgive them”, he whispered, “They don’t know what they are doing.”

ACT! Testing is never fun. When God has something big, He can allow life and, yes, even the devil a place to sort out our intentions and grace living. Is there a place of testing in your life? Is God preparing you, stabilizing you for the next big thing? Submit to the test. Let it prove you out. Don’t fight. Let God fight for you. Take time to pray Psalm 35 and see what happens.

PRAY! Father, I am not my own defense. When life and the enemy rise against me as a flood, You be the boat of my salvation. Carry me away from that which is too strong for me. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies. Cause in me conviction to repent of those weaknesses in me that could have led to this situation. Cause holiness to well up in me. Cause me to crucify any flesh that needs changed. Let these troubles be a directional that causes me to become closer to You in thought and word and deed. Cause me to be more like You than ever before. Then, in the next big thing, I will be able. I will be founded. I will be strengthened to do that to which You have called me. I surrender myself to be taken.

Meet Jesus : Pleasing God Matthew 3:17

March 22, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 3:17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

When we connect with Jesus we connect with pleasing God. Jesus pleases the Father. When we are with Him, we are pleasing the Father. That is important. So often in life, we want to please our Father. When you meet with Jesus, you are in the environment of pleasing Him. You can’t miss pleasing Him.

Pleasing God may mean doing tough work. While working through some conflict mediation, we came to the point of closing in prayer. It had been a tough night. Everyone had spent emotional energy to embrace peace. It was the right thing to do. It is greatly pleasing to God to do everything that leads to peace and building each other. That does not make it easy. But it is pleasing. The scripture came to mind as we prayed from Zephaniah 3. God joys over us with singing. That word joy means to jump up and dance and pirouette. What a picture of God singing and jumping and spinning over us with joy! Doing the hard thing is pleasing to Him.

ACT! Take one item you are unsure about in your relationship with God. Examine it. Is Jesus involved in it? If you were doing it or being involved in it would you invite Jesus to be a part?

PRAY! Father, help me to please You. Help me to meet with Jesus when I plan an activity. I can always be sure it will be pleasing to You when I meet with Him to do it. Help me keep that focus, Father.

Meet Jesus: Fire Baptizer Matthew 3:11

March 21, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 3:11: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:

Be ready for change when you meet Jesus. John gets us focused in our preparation. Meeting Jesus can make you different from the inside out. He brings the Holy Spirit and fire to pour over you and change you. Think of it this way. It is like having chemical fire on the inside (the Holy Spirit) and liquid fire on the outside. However, the real you is strengthened not burned. The stuff that is between you and Him will be cleansed.

Conflict is one of those baptizers in the Holy Spirit. We want to avoid it, yet it is the right thing. God used conflict to cause us to dig deeper into understanding of relationships and life. The deeper we dig, the stronger we become. In talking to a leader, it struck me to provoke him that leaders love resolving conflict. They don’t love the conflict or the anger and frustration that may accompany it. They do love the process of resolution and the end result. Through conflict we are baptized in Holy Spirit fire. He strengthens our resolve and our ability to move ahead. He causes us to face hard items that need to be removed. It is one way He baptizes us with fire.

ACT! Pick an item that needs to be burned away in your life. Put it in front of Him for handling.

PRAY! Father, I am not afraid of being baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. I await continually meeting with Jesus to be continually cleansed. Let Your faithful and just character enter into my life as I confess my sin before You. Forgive me and cleanse me from all ways that are unlike You.

If we can pray for you regarding anything in your life, please let us know. Our greatest blessing is to bless others in prayer. www.prayermetro.com Phil

Meet Jesus: Fruit Inspector Matthew 3:7

March 20, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 3: 7: But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8: Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

John’s preparatory help is worth really reviewing. Fruit inspection is worth our time. Fruit inspection should best be done by us. Fruit inspection should best be done on us. John noted some tough untended stuff in these leaders because they were standing in the way of others meeting Jesus with their bad fruit. Hopefully, we do enough personal inspection that God doesn’t have to resort to outside help to get our attention.

ACT! Take a little time to inspect and prune. What in your life is preventing someone from seeing the real Jesus inside of you? Can you cut it off?

PRAY! Father, when I meet Jesus, He is so gentle, yet so true to the point. Help me to be honest before You inspecting my attitudes and life. Help me be a preparer of the way to Jesus, like John instead of being a hindrance to the way like the leaders in this story. I open myself to Your Holy Spirit for inspection and pruning to bring forth fruits meet for repentance.

Meet Jesus: Destined Matthew 1:16

March 20, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 1: 16: And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Born of men, born of a woman, and born to destiny was Jesus, the Christ. Meeting Jesus means meeting a human full of humanity. Jesus meets us in this frail human family of Joseph and Mary. A simple husband was Joseph. This family came from a line of prostitutes, murderers, connivers, kings, and faithful men and women. They look just like our families.

Jesus is a family man. While He is the Christ, the anointed, the Messiah, He is a simple family man from a flawed, fractured, but persistent family life.

ACT! Thank God for your family line. Don’t worry about the problems. Praise Him that you exist at all through that family line.

PRAY! Faithful Father, You brought me to this time and place in life. You gave me the family line. You gave me a father and mother. I exist. No matter how flawed that line, I have destiny. There is an anointing in Jesus for me through You.

Meet Jesus: Life Giver Matthew 1:2

March 19, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 1: 2: Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;

Jesus comes from the line of Abraham. Abraham was a giver of life. Abraham turned faith into a lineage of ability and more life. Abraham was an investor in the future. His sights were always set forward.

Meeting Jesus means meeting the future. He is future focused. He intends to begat. He intends to birth new life, new dreams, new ways, and new opportunities for you.

ACT! Take that dream of yours. Think of who else could be involved. Give them the opportunity to be a part.

PRAY! Gracious Father of Life, Jesus challenges me to be like You. You are a Father. Abraham got his ways from You, the Father of fathers. Teach me to birth newness through others

Meet Jesus: Nazarene Matthew 2:23

March 18, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 2: 23: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene.

Later in life when brother told brother about Jesus, one replied, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”. Nazareth was just simple and probably had a more than ample share of troubles. There was nothing good or outstanding about being from Nazareth.

Jesus wasn’t who He was because of where He was raised or a tremendous good family name. He gives us the same opportunity to be the best of the best according to our calling and destiny. Hometown, family, community standing, and other accolades of men mean nothing when we meet Jesus. All of us can succeed.

ACT! Erase out of your mind the idea that some status to men makes the difference in succeeding in Jesus. If you take pride in it, put it out and stand tall in Him alone. If you take shame in it, stand tall in Him alone.

PRAY! Father of Birthright, you placed me in the time and circumstance of my upbringing. You will bring it to good in Jesus. You will bring me to success in Jesus, the Nazarene.

Meet Jesus: Simple Governor Matthew 2:6

March 15, 2013 by Phil Larson

Meet Jesus: Simple Governor

Matthew 2:6: And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

Life deals us situations that need governance beyond our human capabilities. While they may be simple situations, they nonetheless need a Governor, who can rule and reign over them. Tough stuff gets out of control and needs to be brought back. Thoughts, emotions, actions, mindsets, addictions can get out of hand in us. Jesus is a Governor, who can help us get rule over them.

ACT! Think of a tough situation that needs governing in your life. How did it get there? Can it be that someone who can rule over it can solve it? Let Him start on it.

PRAY! Holy Father, You know the areas of life that are out of control for me. You provided Jesus to be a Governor. He came from a simple place to apply simple principles in my life. I give You my out of control life in need of a Governor. Embrace me in Your peace and solution.

Meet Jesus: Fulfillment Matthew 1:22

March 10, 2013 by Phil Larson

Matthew 1:22: Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Jesus is the fulfillment of promises in the Father. To Abraham, the Father had promised much blessing. To us, the Father promises all the promises of Abraham fulfilled. In Jesus is a confident, “Yes”, spoken from the throne of God for each request to the promise.

Now that is incredible. Jesus is the fulfillment of promises. That is His nature and assignment in our lives.

ACT! Go ahead, make God’s day. Appeal to a specific promise given that is waiting fulfillment in your life.

PRAY! Holy Father of Grace and Light, show Yourself to me today. You promise new mercies every morning. I appeal today to Your mercies of healing and strength and financial provision and protection for my household from destruction. I appeal to Your abundant mercies of deliverance from evils that have already happened.