“Be Ready in the Morning” [podcast]

MUST-READ: IF YOU don’t wake up swinging, you’re going to get knocked out. You’re going to lose. As God’s child, YOU are in a FIGHT, A WAR – like it or not. A war is raging over your life, for your eternal soul. And you are losing if you don’t get up swinging, every day.

Set your life up for success by hard-scheduling Christ into the first waking moments of your day – in prayer and His Word (Matthew 6:6; Mark 1:35; 2 Timothy 2:15). Build your days upon the Rock – the only immoveable platform, destined to victory!

ANY person who is not beginning his/her day seeking the face of Christ, is not putting God first. They still have the god of self first. Repentance needed – a re-turning to the LORD afresh! Then, watch His beautiful blessings flow into your life – so that no matter happens or comes your way, He’s LORD and Master over it all!

We must love and honor our God “first” as we “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33). To seek first the LORD denotes priority – putting Him first and not ourselves. As we honor the LORD, there will be a leading to seek His holy face first thing each morning! When such is the case, the perfect will of God will pervade our lives. That is the promise of our LORD Jesus.

“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Matthew 6:33

Putting Jesus first is literal. If we haven’t settled in our heart, our life, to spend time with God daily (preferably first), we are backslidden, setting ourselves up for failure, doing things our own way instead of God’s, and in utter need of repentance. Today is the day to turn back to Jesus as the “first love” of your life! See Revelation 2:4-5.

“I can do no good to those who come to seek from me if I have forgotten my time alone with God in the early morning.” – Robert Murray McCheyne

“In the past I would use the excuse that I wasn’t awake enough in the morning to read God’s Word. As a result, I spent much less time with the LORD in His Word. Best to do first. I have coffee every morning with Jesus and His Word.” – Meme A.

The disciples day begins with talking with God in prayer and praise and thanksgiving and allowing Him to talk to us by studying his Word.

A quality day with Jesus begins with communion with Him – First thing in the morning.

“There is no time like the early morning for fellowship with Jesus!” FB Meyer

WHEN God truly is first in your life, it’s proven in that you arise each morning to seek His holy face, to do His holy bidding, to be led by His Holy Word and Spirit (Psalms 5:3; 63:1; Mark 1:35).

“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees.” – EM Bounds

“I seek thee early” – Below is yet another reference to putting God first and early morning prayer communion.

“With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.” Isaiah 26:9

“A sinning man stops praying. A praying man stops sinning.” – Leonard Ravenhill

The LORD instructed His servant Moses to “be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning … and present thyself.”

Are you “ready in the morning”? Are you presenting yourself before the LORD in the morning? (Exodus 34:2-3)

Do you go up to God in the morning?

Is He your first priority when you awake?

God instructed Moses:

“And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount. 3 And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.” Exodus 34:2-3

Our meetings with God are to be private (Exodus 34:2; Matthew 6:6; Mark 1:35). He desires to meet with Him in private. To further emphasize this point, the LORD tells Moses that not even animals should be in the vicinity.

Concerning Psalms 30:5, one sister in Christ has observed the following:

“Every morning, we have the opportunity to make that morning the first day for the rest of lives.”

Early morning prayer is an absolutely irreplaceable mainstay in the life of every disciple of Jesus.

Do your mornings begin with fellowshipping with the LORD?

Those who choose to be “ready in the morning” to meet with God, will be ready when Jesus suddenly returns. For truly they are setting their heart affections upon Heaven’s King instead of this world (Colossians 3:1-4).

“Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; 36 And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. 37 Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. 38 And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. 39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. 40 Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.” Luke 12:35-40

Think you really know Him? The person who does not have a daily prayer communion with the LORD has no oil in his lamp/vessel and is therefore not ready to meet Christ, the heavenly Bridegroom. Read Jesus’ warning parable on the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

Anyone not praying is not seeking God and has already fallen away (Luke 12:40).

Satan is defeated as we are not only positionally but also practically dead and “hid with Christ in God” (Romans 6; Colossians 3:3).

There is no such thing in history as a powerfully used man or woman of God who was not given to our LORD in a life of prayer.

“Pray often; for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge for Satan.” John Bunyan

“He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find him the rest of the day.” John Bunyan

“The secret place of prayer is the place to fight our battles and gain our victories.” R.A. Torrey, How to Pray, p. 88

Moses was alone with God. Jesus did and taught the same:

“And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he (Jesus) went out, and departed into a solitary (uninhabited; no other man) place, and there prayed.” Mark 1:35

Abraham also had established habits for success with the LORD – to meet with and commune with Him “in the morning.”

“And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD:” Genesis 19:27

Is Jesus the first One you are going after tomorrow morning beloved?

Beloved, never again awake and do anything except seek God in your first moments. That’s exactly how Jesus walked (Mark 1:35). You are kidding no one except yourself to say that reading the Bible at night, the very last thing you, is going to cause you to grow in Christ (Psalms 5:3).

Our Mornings

During a season of ministry in my life, when 140 men had been thoroughly, individually ministered to and repented and received Jesus, with no exception, after each man gave his life to Jesus, discipleship began immediately. Deliberately and with deep conviction, I would look them directly in the eyes and lovingly, firmly say:

“Your day only begins right when it begins at the feet of Jesus! Whatever you do, read God’s Word daily. From this day forward, never begin your day without reading, studying God’s Word and spending time with Him in prayer. It’s more important than breathing and food. Don’t ever begin your day, each and every day from now till eternity, without Jesus, without spending time in His Word and prayer.”

BEGIN YOUR DAY WITH JESUS – IN HIS WORD AND PRAYER – and everything in your life is going to be blessed!

Is Jesus calling you to “Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning”? (Exodus 34:2-3) Is the Savior bidding you to “Come and dine”?

“Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord.” John 21:12

Beloved, how can we possibly dish out if we don’t first dine? How shall we feed and we don’t first fellowship, with Jesus, if we don’t feast of the bounty at His banquet table? Is He calling us to answer His call to deepen and prioritize fellowship with Him?

“One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.” Psalms 27:4

“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” Psalms 27:8

At His Feet [podcast]

“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” Job 13:15  Job had just lost all of his children and yet held fast his integrity toward the LORD. He would not allow his wife, his friends, or any other circumstance or entity sway his thoughts. This was a man with a real relationship with the living God – one not based on circumstance. First, foremost, and separate from all else, Job loved and worshipped the LORD with his whole heart. We must come to the place where our LORD alone is […]

BEGIN THE DAY WITH PRAYER EM Bounds

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Dwelling in the Secret Place of the Most High [podcast]

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