SPIDERS PART TWO

SPIDERS (I)

The spider taketh hold with her hands.

and is in the kings' palaces.

(Proverbs 30:28)

When it's time to lay eggs, the spider produces a particular type of silk-thread and spins it into a protective sac, then deposits them. When an enemy comes to steal the spider's offspring, it gets trapped on the sticky fluids that line that the silk. The spider wraps the enemy in another kind of thread, and turns it into food.

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What's the message if the spider??

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The battle is over your future!!

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Don't let the enemy have your children. Don't let him rob you of your potential. Don't let him steal your destiny. When those with weak wills, weak knees and weak faith saw the giants in the Promised Land, they wanted to go back to Egypt. But not Caleb.

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He said, " Neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us." (Numbers 14:9). When you understand what the battle in your life is about, you actually begin to feed off the stuff the enemy throws at you and say, "Bring it on, what does not destroy me will only make me stronger."

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Be like Shammah. "When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled...But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the Lord brought about a great victory" (2 Samuel 23:11-12). Shammah knew what he was fighting for. That lentil patch put food on his table. It represented his family's future. It was his legacy. And when Shammah stood up to the enemy," The Lord brought about a great victory." And He'll do the same for you!

SPIDERS PART ONE

SPIDERS (I)

The spider taketh hold with her hands.

and is in the kings' palaces.

(Proverbs 30:28)

Everything a spider needs to survive and succeed in life, God put within it. Swipe it with a broom and before it hits the ground, its fall is broken. It just reaches inside, releases another protein-filled silk-like thread, slides down, finds a safe place, then comes back stronger than ever and builds a new web. What's the message of the spider?
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Everything you need, God has placed within you!!
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The Bible says," His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness...he has given us his very great nd precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:3-4).
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What has God given us? "Everything we need." What has God made us participants in? "His divine nature". Wow! Your future is not determined by who you know and who you don't, who likes you and who doesn't. The power to fulfill your destiny is within you! The warfare over your life and the struggle you're in, is about what you were born, called and gifted to do. So, "Stir up...the..gift of God..that is in you" (2 Tim 1:6). In other words - start producing!!
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Life may have knocked you down, but it hasn't knocked you out. What's at work within you will triumph over what's at work around you. Stand on God's word, draw on your faith, hold on, and when the smoke clears, rise up and anoounce, " By the grace of God, I'm back!" You say, " But I've lost so much." As long as you still have what God put within you, you can make it!

LOCUSTS PART THREE

LOCUSTS (III)

The locust have no king,

yet go they forth all of them by bands.

(Proverbs 30:27)

The locusts have one more important lesson to teach us: Instead of following, lead the way! If you keep hoping someone will take you by the hand and tell you how it's all going to work out, you'll never get anywhere. "The locusts have no king [ leader], yet they go forth" Note the word "go". Has it occured to you that God may have called you to blaze the trail and set the pace? You've sat in church for years and heard all the sermons, now, "it's time to cross the Jordan and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you" (See Joshua 1:11)

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But you say, " Nobody in my family has ever done anything like this before." Good, then you'll be the first! Who are you going to listen to? The voices of your dysfunctional past or the God who is saying to you, " Be strong and courageous... for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:9). Having folks think your ideas are crazy, is just part of every success story. When God moves, He doesn't commission a focus group or call for a vote.

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No, He looks for someone like Isaiah to say, "Here am I. Send me!"(Isaiah 6:8). Then He underwrites them, equips them and sends them out to be , "The head, and not the tail....above only, and ...not .... beneath" (Deut 28:13)

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And the people God uses are people He can trust with success; people who say, " My wings are too small to travel this far. It wasn't my flapping around that got me here, it was God."

LOCUSTS PART TWO

LOCUSTS (II)

The locust have no king,

yet go they forth all of them by bands.

(Proverbs 30:27)

Locusts can't really fly; their wings are too narrow, But they can jump two hundred times their own height. And timing is everything! The locust waits till the wind blows, then he jumps, and the wind carries him to his destination, What's the message of the locust?

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(1) When God moves, be sure you move! A locust cannot navigate where he goes, or fly against the iwnd, or chart his own course, or change direction. No, he's totally dependent on the wind. Thank God for self-help books and leadership seminars, etc. But there comes a moment when you have to trust God, recognize his timing , take a leap of faith and let the wind of His Spirit take you where you need to go. All your flapping around and wearing yourself out won't get the job done.

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(2) Stay sensitive to the wind. God, not you, determines your life's purpose. He's the One who schedules your seasons of opportunity. But spiritual lethargy can dull your senses and cause you to miss your time. "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again" (Hebrew 5:12). Perhaps instead of flying, your life is falling apart because you let the fire of God in your heart go out. Well, it's not too late! The wind will blow again. So start praying, "Lord, I may have missed my time before, but not this time, I don't want to end up wishing I'd done something I didn't get to do, not because You weren't ready but because I wasn't?

LOCUSTS PART ONE

LOCUSTS (I)

The locust have no king,

yet go they forth all of them by bands.

(Proverbs 30:27)

In Bible days people feared a cloud of locusts more than all the armies of their enemies combined. They could literally black out the light of the sun, devour everything in sight, and bring down a kingdom. They were unstoppable!! What's the message of the locust?
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(1) Don't quit, your victory is assured! The locust is not big, but he's bold! If he can't get through the wondow, he'll climb down the gutter and come up under the porch. But he never gives up. So keep praying, keep believing, keep fighting, your victory is assured. "If God be for us, who can be against us?"(Roman 8:31). Pastor, a hundred locusts will do more to win your community to Christ than a thousand bench warmers.
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(2) Alone you can't , but together we can! The locusts operate in "bands". Some of us have issues when it comes to letting people into our life. Because of fear, insecurity or pride, we don't want to talk to anybody, or open up and admit to anybody that we need anything, To reach your destiny you must surround yourself with the right people.
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You can't run with weak, satisfied, laid-back, mediocre people. No, you need people with an appetite for life and a hunger for God. In God's kingdom the mathematics are different: "One can face a thousand but two can chase then thousand" (See Dt 32:30). "If two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:19)

CONIES

CONIES

Conies are creatures of little power, yet they make their home in the crags.

(Proverbs 30:26 NIV)

A coney looks like a rabbit but he can't run like one. He resembles a mole but he can't dig deep like one. So he moves to higher ground and positions himself in the rock, in a place of strength. What's the message of the coney? Reposition yourself! How??
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(1) By realizing who you are in Christ. When you accepted Jesus as your saviour, your status in God's eyes changed completely. You're no longer an outsider, but a fully accepted member of God's redeemed family, with direct access to your heavenly Father and all the rights and privileges that go with it. Knowing that allows you to operate from a place of strength and not weakness, faith and not fear. When that happens you begin to pray for more, believe God for more, and enjoy more of His blessings.
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(2) By recognizing that your limitations don't limit God. Who does God use? "Feeble folk." How? By putting them in positions of strength. Sometimes that means putting extra support around them. When you have a bad leg, you don't put braces on your good leg, you put it on the feeble one. And is He has to, God will put braces on you and get you there ahead of the folks who sit around complacent and complaining.
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"Feeble folk" praise God differently! Others praise Him because they have a feeling of entitlement, but not conies; they remember where they were when God found them and what He brought them through, and they say, "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side" (Psalm 124:1)

ANTS

ANTS

Ants are creatures of little strength, yet they store up their food in the summer.

(Proverbs 30:25)

The message of the ant is "prepare yourself!" He prepares for winter while he is still in summer. that's because:
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(1) His eyes are on the future. You can't undo the past , but if you let it, it can undo you. The summer of your opportunities is passing quickly. Winter will come whether you're ready or not. Remember Christ's parable about the five foolish virgins who had no oil in their lamps and were excluded from the wedding? If you're not ready when your time comes, you'll miss out.
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(2) He has the ability to delay gratification. If you don't have the patience to wait, you'll miss or mess up , what God has in mind for you. The ant takes the resources he has in summer , and moves it towards his winter. Will somebody else show up and do this for him? No. Are there predators looking for a chance to steal what he's got? Yes. But he's so focused on where he's going he doesn't have time to worry about where he is.
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(3) He has a cause bigger than himself. Ever watch an ant work? He sinks his teeth into a piece of bread three times bigger than himself and drags it to where he's trying to go. Are you saying, "This is too big for me, I can't carry it by myself?" You don't have to. Read this: "Glory be to God who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we could ever dare to ask or even dream of" (Eph 3:20)