My strength comes straight from God.

Psalm 62: 11 AMP

“God has spoken once,
twice I have heard this:
that power belongs to God.”

I sometimes believe I can handle whatever comes my way, you know I am a Christian so hey, bring it on brother. That is not true, there are times when I just don’t have the strength to handle what comes my way. I fail many of the time and it humbles me all the time. Something I realised is that God is in control and He is the only one with the Power.

Jesus reminds us that “apart from Him we can do nothing.” We need to know our limitations and we always have to come to the Lord in prayer for strength for each and every day.

I know that God has all the strength I need for each and every day, even when I wake up in the morning when I feel like I didn’t sleep a wink. Then I am asking “please help me, Lord.”

Even in my weakness, God is with me, I just need to call on Him and I believe He will strengthen me.

Prayer

Abba Father, humbly I admit that I sometimes forget that You are my strength, you have the power and I can call on You to strengthen me. I want to bring You all the praise, worship and honour thank You, I love You, Lord Jesus. Amen

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage or Twitter

Knowing God’s Will

I am sure you also want to know what God’s Will is for your life, I know I want to know God’s Will for my own life. How will we find out what God’s Will is? Create an expectation and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 25: 9 AMP
“He leads the humble in justice,
and He teaches the Humble His way.”

I think we actually need to ask God what His Will is for our lives. We need to admit that we are lost and that we cannot do this on our own. Failing to ask for guidance closes the door to finding out what the Will of God is.

When you ask for guidance you are stating that you actually don’t know what the future holds for you and that you need someone to show you the way forward. I think God is waiting for us to ask Him to show us.

I used to plan my month and weeks but lately, I have stopped that, I actually cannot plan anything without asking God’s guidance. It isn’t that important to plan ahead anymore. I do make plans here and there but I don’t think of it all the time.

Let’s look at James 1 verse 5 – 6 NIV “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

We need to believe and not doubt, God will react to our faith or the level of our belief. If you don’t expect God to answer you, He won’t. To create a level of expectation.

Prayer

Abba Father I want to come to You today in humble prayer, O LORD my God, today I want to come and ask You humbly what is Your Will for my life? I really need to know and I want to have an answer. I am looking forward to this year and believe that You have planned it for me. I thank You for Your answered prayers. I bless You, Lord Jesus. Amen

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage or Twitter

God’s blessing and protection

Psalm 2: 12 KJV
“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
and ye perish from the way,
when his wrath is kindled but a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
Psalm 5: 11 KJV
“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice:
let them ever shout for joy,
because thou defendest them: let them also that love
thy name be joyful in thee.”

I want to encourage you today don’t quit praying. God is blessing each one of us for our faithful prayers and our service. We know that the LORD Jesus Christ is there for us each and every day.

It may seem like nothing is happening right now but while we pray for our circumstances and wait on the LORD, He is working on our behalf.

Our strength is in the LORD and we know that He is our protection. Today I want to encourage you to stand on God’s Word, meditate on it. Don’t just read it but think about the word. Let it take root in your heart, while you focus on the Word ask the Holy Spirit to speak into Your heart. Let Him show you what you need to do today.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ please send the Holy Spirit and touch our lives so that we may know You more personally. Lord, we are drawing closer to You, hear our hearts. We love and adore You, we worship and praise Your Holy Name, bring You all the glory and honour. Thank You, Lord Jesus Christ for answered prayers. Thank You for listening and hearing from us. We love You, Amen.

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage or Twitter

You need Jesus Christ

This is my mission field and please don’t take offence I want to share the Lord Jesus Christ with you today. I know that you must know Him and perhaps you are able to share this message with someone that doesn’t know Him.

I believe that God loves me so much that He gave His only begotten Son Jesus Christ for my life. In doing this God wants us to come into His presence and have a special relationship with Him. His purpose for our lives is salvation and from there we may receive eternal life.

Let’s take a look at me for a moment, I have a past and I always was under the impression that I was just fine. I used to go to church every Sunday. The rest of the week I would crack open my Bible and then place my finger somewhere on a page read the scripture for the day. Sometimes those messages were hectic. I never really read the Bible until I actually was born-again.  Now, remember according to Romans 3 verse 23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I was guilty of sin and until I came to grips with that part of my life I was totally lost to God.

Then my friend reminded me that there was a price to pay for sin, the wages of death. That didn’t sit well with me and I said but I go to Church every Sunday. She pointed out Romans 6 verses 23 “For the wages of sin is death.” That is true but there is a solution to my problem, good news.

The Lord Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for my salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ died in my place to pay for my sin. See Romans 5 verses 8 “But God demonstrated His own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You are the only person that can make this decision but remember without believing you will not make it. For you to receive eternal life you have to take the first step which is “if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”  Romans 10 verse 9.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I believe that You died on the cross for my sins and that Your blood paid for my sins. Please, Lord, forgive me for I am a sinner. I am asking You humbly Lord Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour. Thank You, Lord, for dying for me, forgiving me of my sin and giving me the gift of eternal life. Lord, I want to turn away from my sinful life and I believe and acknowledge You as my Lord and my Saviour. Lord, here I take my hand and lead me and guide me in Your way. Amen.

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage

Are you living in a place called “more than enough?”

 2 Corinthians 9: 8 AMP

“And God is able to make all grace [every favour and
earthly blessing] come in abundance to you,
so that you may always {under all circumstances, regardless of
the need] have complete sufficiency in everything
[being completely self-sufficient in Him],
and have an abundance for every
good work and act of charity.”

Whew … are you looking at this verse? Do you look at your spiritual life and wonder where you are currently. Yes there are three different places you can find yourself in. Let us take a look and see which one you currently find yourself in.

Are you just not getting enough? Think of this the Israelite's were held captive by Pharaoh in Egypt. Are you being held captive by anything? Think about this your salary comes in at the end of the month before you open your eyes all your debt orders have run, you still need to pay the bond. You realize you just don’t have enough to pay your electricity bill. You haven’t even tithed for the month. Now you need to rely on someone else to help you out of this bind. Are you turning to the Lord for help?

Are you in a place called “just enough?” I think many of us find ourselves there often, we don’t budget well and when something comes up we just don’t have enough to actually help. I realize this place is building our faith where we actually need to trust in the Lord. We have to wait on Him to help us if something happens. We constantly believe that the LORD is “Jehovah Jireh.”

Are you in a place that is called “more than enough?” I think we all are striving to get to this place where we know we have extra to help other people. We are able to assist people in need and have a little extra for ourselves. This isn’t supposed to be our selfishness but now we can see who we are able to help.

Prayer

Abba Father, in humility I want to pray stating and confirming that You are able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I ask or think, to you be the glory forever. Thank You, Christ Jesus, Amen.

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage

Prayer for supernatural favour

Proverbs 3: 3-4 AMP
Do not let mercy and kindness and truth
leave you [instead let these qualities define you;
bind them [securely] around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So find favour and high esteem
in the sight of God and man.

I don’t know whether you also experienced this in your life but when I fast I find that I am constantly in the firing line. People will be angry with me for no good reason and it seems that at that point in time I step on many feet.

It surely isn’t intentional but I still seem to do that, so in these times I humbly come before the Lord in prayer especially at the office.

I would submit my day into the Lords' hands and ask Him to straighten my path and I also would humbly pray for wisdom and insight. These are very important to me because I feel that I need divine intervention in my life and I don’t want to be the person sitting around with no support.

I also clothe myself with mercy and kindness and I opt to speak the truth at all times. I do wear this around my neck. Let me encourage you today to do the same, the LORD God is with you and will help you.

Prayer

Abba Father may I ask to receive supernatural favour from my enemies because You surround me with a shield of favour. Lord I claim this favour from the people I have brought before You and it has already come to pass in heave and will manifest here on earth. In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen  

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer

At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer

Yvette van Niekerk Webpage

Two possible reasons our prayers aren't answered.

Proverbs 28: 9 AMP

“He who turns his ear away from listening
to the law [of God and man],
even his prayer is repulsive [to God].”

#1 Refusing to hear the truth. I believe there are many reasons why God doesn’t answer any of our prayers and we need to search our hearts and minds when that happens. I realised that one of the reasons God couldn’t answer my prayer was a lack of trusting that the Word spoken to me was the truth. I wouldn’t listen to the Word and turned my back on it. The consequence was that in my hour of need there was no answer. My prayer wasn’t heard because I didn’t listen to the Words, I never believe it was true.

#2 Lack of being humble. Another contributing factor to prayers not being answered is the lack of humility. I believe we become all puffed up and think the “world” of ourselves and forget that we are just human. In my hour of need I believe God revealed that if I will not humble myself and pray seeking God’s face and repent of my wicked ways, God will not hear my prayers. I also needed to repent of my sin. See 2 Chronicles 7: 14.

These are only two contributing factors that can inhibit God from answering any of our prayers.

Prayer

Father God, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I humbly come into Your presence today, if there is any sin that I should repent of I bring it to You, please forgive me. As James reminds us that when we come in prayer to You we have asked for things selfishly and with wrong motives causing You not to answer our prayers. Please in the Name of Jesus Christ I pray forgive us, our wrong motives and please Holy Spirit in the Name of Jesus Christ help us come into alignment with the Lord our God. Thank You, for answered prayers in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Amen

Get your copy of Daily Devotional Ebenezer  or At Amazon Daily Devotional Ebenezer  see Yvette van Niekerk Webpage