Category: Teaching

Seasons come and go and nature constantly reminds us of the ranges of change that happens daily in this big world we live on.

We are no different as changes come in many ways throughout our lives.  We are never always in full throttle or in over drive neither are we always balanced, centered, and focused.

Life is like that and as long as we live as human beings this side of heaven, the sun comes up and the sun goes down and God is faithful with ALL His creation!  We are experiencing all the thrills and spills of life as they come our way.

There are times where we pull away from God due to the various range of circumstances we find ourselves in.  We really don’t want or mean to pull away but circumstances happen and we are not always our best when they come our way.

It doesn’t mean that we really want or try to pull away from God, but our expectations and circumstances all come into play.

Yes, life is life but we also have resistance that is inspired by the kingdom of hell itself.  We are to have wisdom and be transparent with the beloved of God but wise concerning evil.

Cast not away your confidence for you have a great reward.  But make sure when you open up do not cast your precious pearls before swine.  Keep your peace within and go with that peace and assurance from God.

The rest of who we open up to is so important.  It is important to know those who labor among you and keep your mind in sync with God.  We will deal with things as they present themselves.  Take 3 seconds and think how to respond with God’s wisdom.

“Gracious is The LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.  The LORD preserved the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.  Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for The LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee,”    Psalm 116:5-7 KJV .

Our constant source of all life comes through God.  HE is faithful even if we aren’t at the various moments in time.  If we would be honest, instead of being “perfectly religious”, we would make such headway towards the destiny he has called us to.

His desire is that we win the lost and disciple the new converts and do whatever our gift is to the body of Christ.

We believers all need to grow up in Christ for we ALL share at being real with trustworthy.  There is nothing to be ashamed of when we are hidden in Christ, we are covered with His robe of righteousness.

Christ made the total way for our salvation and it cannot be added to by you or your works. He did it all and that is why we are to surrender to the power of God’s gift.  We must be wise and be innocent concerning evil.  Transparency and honesty are powerful weapons in our arsenals.

“But The LORD is faithful, who shall establish you, and keep you from evil,”    Thessalonians 3:3 KJV.

“The law of The LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of The LORD is sure, making wise the simple,”  Psalm 19:7 KJV.

“The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me,”    Psalm 116:6 KJV.

Oh, how I greatly appreciate the prayers of the saints!  I am learning so much more about the power we gain at being still and knowing He is God!

All I could do was rest and soak in being quiet and worship.  I couldn’t believe how weak I had gotten in warfare.  I was hit from every angle at the same time.

I feel like I have been spinning and kicking like the martial arts, It has been nonstop.  So, I became tired and exhausted.  But faithful prayer warriors fought for me!

We all get tired and exhausted, but what I learned in all this, is to regress, to be still and know He is God.  So now I am soaking and listening more.

Retreat is a necessary important part of war before we can ever advance.  We all need R & R (restoration and recovery.)

So, when you are exhausted and tired and cannot get your strength back, it is a good clue that you need to back away for some time.

You will feel vulnerable when you are exhausted and tired from war.  It’s the time to back away for refreshment.

I saw myself as a dried out old sponge and suddenly I was dipped into living water (The Word) and I soaked it up quickly.  I feel many of you are now sharing the same feelings as I too am.

It’s time to be still and know He is God and soak, soak and soak in His presence!  Soon you will be full again to conquer and overcome in wiping away every threat what needs to go with that pure water of the word of God!

You are not a human doing, you are a human being, and that what makes us one beloved of God!

Just Be, beloved!

 

In HIS Grace and Mercy,
~ Sherry Edwards Mackey

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Religion makes people intolerant and mean — with nasty faces and judgmental, critical attitudes.

Yes, these are so miserable they want everyone to be as miserable as they are.  These religious forget where they came from and turn into unhappy miserable people.

The religious spirit expects everyone to buck up and get with their program!

Now Jesus was not religious and He went to where the people were.  Jesus had a divine appointment set in motion by God.

Jesus only did what he saw His Father do and say.  He purposely went down to Samaria, to encounter face-to-face a woman whom the Jews hated, and called all Samaritans, half breeds and dogs.

The Samaritan woman went to the well and Jesus interacted with her, not condemning her, but speaking into her life.  Jesus made it so simple for her that a child could understand.

“⁴ But He needed to go through Samaria.  ⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”  ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.
⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?”  For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”
Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”
¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”
²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
The Whitened Harvest
²⁷ And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”
²⁸ The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹ “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰ Then they went out of the city and came to Him,”   John 4:4-30 NKJV.

This woman was married many times and a sinner, but after that encounter with Jesus she was told clearly that He was HER Messiah!

Oh, the goodness and mercy of God!  That day she became the first woman evangelist taking the message from Messiah to all her people in Samaria.

Jesus didn’t condemn her for her many marriages but what He did was, He revealed himself to her to such a degree that it changed her whole life and destiny by giving hope to her people.

Have we have forgotten where we came from?

Religious faces, thoughts, words and all religious behavior are intolerant and mean spirited because they cannot be good enough in their own mind.

So, if they can’t do good enough, then that is their thought for everyone else.  Religious deception causes intolerance towards everyone and everything that isn’t lining up with their view.

God expects us to reach out to people to let them know there’s a kingdom, but not of this world!

The religious forget there’s a world out there and create boxes to house their beliefs regardless of how erroneously they are.  These boxes become into entrenched into salt and too much salt in one place is too salty.

²⁵ “Now his older son was in the field. And as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶ So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. ²⁷ And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and because he has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf.’
²⁸ But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. ²⁹ So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. ³⁰ But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’
And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. ³² It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found,’”    Luke 15:25-32 KJV.

The burnt-out religious brother wasn’t happy that his brother was found, favored and forgiven after squandering all his inheritance.

The brother who was so religious and jealous, did not realize the most important piece of this event was that his brother was lost and now he is found!

It was a call to celebrate his return.  The father’s love watched from a long way off, hoping for the return of the wayward son!

The father was so happy about his son who came home, that he lavished him with hugs and kisses, giving him a robe to cover his condition, sandals on his feet giving him new shoes and steps ordered by his father and a ring on his finger, a sign of the fathers authority over all his house!

The jealous older brother was upset as to why the father was celebrating him, and yet he had never given him permission to have a party with his friends.

The father told the jealous brother that he could have had a party anytime with all the fixings and his friends.

The other brother was upset at his brother’s homecoming, thinking he didn’t deserve it.  The older brother did not understand that his place in his fathers house was certain and all that the father had, was his too.

Not understanding the father’s love, grace and mercy, kept him prideful in all his abilities and works, as he felt entitled to much more.

When we get so deep into religion, our pride causes us to forget our own relationship with God and each other.  We forget where we came from!

Sometimes an ordained retreat and down times in our lives are where God leads us and refreshes us in a different way; especially when we are tired and burnt out!

When we get this way, we will notice it seems like everything is making us irritable, drying up and that we are being pulled away from all normality.

There will be times when God is actually leading us to a place to rest, regroup, get reconnected, reestablished, and hear from God.

We are not to be feeding off each other, battling against each other in this condition.  It would be like piranhas going after flesh after flesh.

Religion is what makes complicated the love, understanding and the reality and purposes of God.  We must make room for the Holy Spirit to work on our hearts.

As we are transformed by the Holy Spirit, others will then take notice and want the God we represent.  Once we realize our condition, then we can no longer offer the cheap brand of mindless Merry-Go-Round religion-based performances, or some sideshow acts of pretenders majoring on clown-like behavior, captivating and mesmerizing, with donned mask and paint to alter their true selves.

We must make up our mind, decide, and demand to get off that Merry-Go-Round.

There will be many sized spiritual waves and crashes, and it will shift as a larger wave will descend, but what is left standing once the wave has crashed, was founded on a good foundation.

As the wave runs its course by going into every square inch, it claims everything that wasn’t connected deep on the foundation, and that is released, as it recedes out to sea.

We need to do our ministry.  It is fine to have meetings and enjoy The LORD and each other, but where are the soul winners and the maker of disciples?

The Church has been guilty, for not having any place for these.

So many Church goers are religious, putting in their one hour per week, before then promptly go back to the worldly mindsets.

There is no room for change, no tolerance, and what they fail to see is that all throughout history, when God brings change, some receive it and move with God.

However, there are those who refuse change and when the Spirit of God moves on, many of the people do not move with God.  Thus enters another denomination and they turn what was a place where God once moved, into a shrine of death.

Then in God’s mercy, He sends reformers and prophets, and these shrines begin to kick out the very ones who were needed to bring reformation.

Truly does the passage say, they become white washed walls full of dead men’s bones.

I am done chasing fleeting feelings and experiences.

My soul follows hard after God regardless of who stays or goes.  I belong to HIM and as He moves.  By HIS Grace I will follow.

I hope many of you who read this agree that it is time to stand against religious spirits.

I want to see God move in this end-time harvest, don’t you?

Have we forgotten where we came from?

 

In HIS Grace and Mercy,
~ Sherry Edwards Mackey

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Our Number One Foundational belief in our salvation is understanding fully that it is impossible to keep in the flesh.

That is why Jesus came and took our place for our sin once and for all.  It was impossible to be saved, sealed, and delivered in our power, but the perfect precious Lamb of God took our place.  We cannot add anything to it or take anything away from it.

Jesus stands at the door of our heart and knocks, if any man hears that knock and opens the door He will come in.

Becoming right with God happens when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Through Christ’s atoning work on that cross He, the perfect Lamb of God, paid the awful terrible price for the salvation of our eternal souls.

When we truly get the revelation of what he did in our place, we cannot help but be grateful, love and serve The LORD!

I am so grateful that he draws us closer.  For who can’t help but believe when they are confronted with God’s perfect love that cast out all fear!  Fear causes torment and our God does not torment.  It is His lovingkindness leads us to repentance.

Being a servant to the people of God for decades, I have seen much.  But this especially I have seen a lot.  I have never seen a person who was a pressured, pushed, fearful, or tormented individual make a true love commitment to Christ.

Fear and torment cannot keep you.  I have NEVER seen a person make a commitment who was fearful, tormented, pressured, and continue on with Christ.

Fear will not save you and fear will not keep you! God’s motive is always love, because when you come to know the lover of your souls you cannot help but repent and fall in love with Him!

When met with Perfect Love, you cannot help but repent and receive his love and His security deep within.  Christ is not religious and He goes wherever the people are.

Always remember to remind yourself and others that we love Him, because He first loved us.  And it is because His lovingkindness always leads us to repentance not fear and torment!

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me,”    Revelations 3:30 KJV.

“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.  And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him, because he first loved us,”    1 John 4:15-19 KJV.

As for me, I have learned through the years how blessed and relieved I was when I learned to remain childlike in innocence.

It wasn’t always that way though!  Those who know me well understand who I am but for the majority, remaining as a child has kept ignorant, innocence and close to Abba, and people have not seen what I pack inside.

It is better to remain incognito and quiet staying in the back until He calls you forward.  Then everyone will know!

This is the key beloved; Let God make room for your gifts!  You don’t need to say it, prove it or try to make it happen.

Let God open doors and let HIM say it!  He wants to take us onward and upward in the Spirit realm and Let God make room for you.

I try to do my best keeping it simple.  So, I fall on the grace and mercy of God.  I am simple, and childlike and that is my rank. I seek no titles. He is my total life. And I want to bring glory to His HOLY Name!

I pray in season He always reveals.

I seriously asked God to keep me innocent and childlike to take what the Holy Spirit shows me, to minister encouragement in all ways.

To move in love and do all things motivated by love for The LORD, to all of us who are in a major struggle.  It is my hope his word has moved you and given you confidence in Jesus name!

 

In HIS Grace and Mercy,
~ Sherry Edwards Mackey

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Becoming harsh, critical and impatient with people is a Major Red-Hot symptom and a true sign that we are becoming spiritually deaf and blind that is rooted in pride.

If we become Religious it shall cause us to become ineffective.  The blind lead the blind and they both will fall in a ditch. What did Jesus say about these people?

“But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.  Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch,”   Matthew 15:13-14 KJV.

When we lose our compassion for hurting humanity, we can easily become religious on external things that offer nothing eternal.  If we do not take heed to the warnings we cannot help but slide down that slippery slope none of us are exempt.

There are so many who take the turn pike of what seems to be the easy way around.  What happens next is that we avoid the very route of greatest need.

There is such a need to reach Samaria and the uttermost places in the world.

Jesus had a divine appointment by God with a multiple times divorced woman of ill repute!  The Jews called Samaritan’s dogs, and can you imagine what his disciples thought to see him talking to this Samaritan woman?

Although his disciples thought he was veering off course, this direct leading by Jesus opened the door to Samaria with the good news!

Not many could have fathomed the historic statement Jesus made that day!  Who would have known!

But when the woman at the well came that day who would have thought she became the first woman evangelist to her community.  Come and see the man that told me everything I ever done..

There is still such a need to relate to people where they are who desperately need our compassion!  These are they who seek the message of hope to their world.

There are still many Samaritans in our world, yes those who are untouchables of religion.

The religious get further away from effectiveness because these begin to veer off the path of The LORD focusing and going and turning inward instead of focus upward!

The sure way to tell it is a religious order is to watch and listen to their words and watch their actions.

Religion seeks to retain their hold of people instead of the people who seek to serve The LORD.  The religious seek out those who will serve out their demands that they can’t even accomplish.

These many religious orders are motivated by pride and feeding egos and they fall prey to a judgmental, critical organization that only the “perfected” elite can attain.  If you don’t measure up, they demand more and command that you get with the program.

Remember, the good Samaritan no longer looked for the way of avoidance of those hurting humanity and who are half dead. In our walk with Jesus there will be many temptations to get pulled from all sides and if ministry is no longer a loving caring convocation, it’s a farce.

We must remember that regardless of the wounded conditions, we must focus on Jesus and what he would do and where would he go.

We must never get caught up in religions rules and regulations who say get with the program!  These types of people you will come across daily, mark those and watch and see how they fare, as they give no room for God’s Loving Spirit.

“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him.  Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise,”    Luke 10:29-37 KJV.

“But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?  And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.  Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him.  Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise,”    John 4:29-37 KJV.

 

In HIS Grace and Mercy,
~ Sherry Edwards Mackey

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