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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.

Saints of Christ – get alone with Your master each morning. Begin your day seeking His holy face – in His Word and prayer (Job 23:12; Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 6:6; Mark 1:35; 2 Timothy 2:15). Run on FULL saints and not on empty. True wise virgins saints fill and run their earthen vessels on full, not empty! (Matthew 25:1-13) These are the “few”, the “little flock” of the Lamb of God who shall forever enjoy the treasures of Heaven for all eternity (Matthew 7:13-14; 25:1-13; Luke 12:32; 1 Corinthians 2:9; Revelation 21).


“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?

Isn’t this exactly what the same LORD Jesus taught us when instructing His disciples of the New Testament era on the important matter of prayer fellowship? Listen to our Savior:

“But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.” Matthew 6:6

Prayer is saving faith in action—the obedience of engaging in a personal perpetual, and intimate relationship with the Savior. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent” (John 17:31). In the divine economy and the personal life of every authentic disciple, knowing the LORD and a life of prayer are inseparable realities.

Satan is defeated
as we are dead with Christ,
hid with Christ in God!
Romans 6; Colossians 3:3

Note that when the LORD called Moses to meet with Him in the morning, he told Moses that He wanted personal time with him: “no man shall come up with thee.” (Exodus 34:3)

As Exodus 34 continues, we will note here below how that Moses went up an empty slate if you will and as the saying goes. Perhaps this refers to the blessed humility in Christ’s servant Moses and therefore his openness to learn of the LORD. He came up in the morning to meet with the LORD with a teachable heart and no preconceived notions or doctrines.

“And he hewed two tables of stone like unto the first; and Moses rose up early in the morning, and went up unto mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand the two tables of stone. 5 And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.” Exodus 34:4-5 

Like Moses, are we allowing the LORD to be the Writer of the bless-ed constitution on our hearts? When we come before Christ with open heart, He pens His Precepts upon our hearts, filling us with His Spirit. When speaking specifically of Moses, the apostle Paul writes:

“Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 

After meeting with the LORD, Moses came out of that fellowship consumed with the Word and by the Holy Spirit. Watch this:

“And it came to pass, when Moses came down from mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist (knew) not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. 30 And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him.” Exodus 34:29-30

Just as Moses experienced, as they meet with Him, the countenance of the people of God today, will be lit – will shine bright for the world to see and take notice of the salvation of our God!

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

We cannot lead others where we are not willing to go ourselves. Moses arose in the morning to meet with God. He had spent quality fellowship with the LORD. He sought God in private and was now being used of the LORD in public. Now he is “hid with Christ in God” and being used of the LORD to help others (Colossians 3:3):

“And Moses gathered all the congregation of the children of Israel together, and said unto them, These are the words which the LORD hath commanded, that ye should do them.” Exodus 35:1 

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

Recently, one lady rebuked me for preaching that disciples of Christ should seek His face in the morning, putting Him first. She said this was Americanized. Jesus wasn’t American and neither was Moses or the psalmist. This has nothing to do with what part of God’s globe is living but rather, that they are looking to the One who made all things and is our only salvation – according to His Word. In this message we are looking at what Jesus and Moses said and did about early morning prayer and it’s more than obvious that they sought God early in the morning – they put Him first:

“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

HOW DID JESUS begin His days? Did you just see how “a great while before day” Jesus sought the Father when He was on the earth? Are we following Jesus – by beginning our day, every day, before His holy feet, seeking His beautiful face? If we are, we shall begin our days with Him (Mark 1:35; 1 John 2:6).

“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6

The Psalmist agrees.

“My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.” Psalms 5:3

“O God, thou art my God; EARLY (Hebrew: dawn) will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;” Psalms 63:1

“Morning” appears 227 times in the King James Bible.

“Unless in the first waking moment of the day you learn to fling the door wide back and let God in, you will work on a wrong level all day; but swing the door wide open and pray to your Father in secret, and every public thing will be stamped with the presence of God.” Oswald Chambers

Men of God have always been seen to wake up early and seek God, first thing. The LORD’s Word is filled with such examples to us. Jesus Himself set that example by rising up a great while before daylight and seeking the Father in a private place, one uninhabited by any other man (Mark 1:35).

“But unto thee have I cried, O LORD; and IN THE MORNING shall my prayer prevent thee.” Psalms 88:13

“Prevent” here simply means to go before Thee. In other words, the psalmist, speaking to God, speaks of his seeking the face of the LORD first “in the morning” – putting Him first by rising up to pray, to send forth prayer to the LORD.

Memorizing the following words spoken by the man after God’s own heart (David) as immensely changed the course of this disciple’s life (Acts 13:22).

“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11

Mark Herridge Sr. writes:

“Give a man a prayer and he can have the victory today. Teach a man to pray and he can have the victory for a lifetime.”

Sister Debbie Lord shares:

“Lately I’ve begun my morning by bowing before the Lord God Almighty and Jesus at His right hand, magnifying Him — His ‘hallowed’ Name — holy, spotless, pristine. Wonderful and terrible is His power, judgment, mercy and love. More pure and true than any other thing or being in all of creation. There is none like Him. None can even begin to match Him in all of His majesty.”

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. Please captivate my heart with Thy holy fear, to hasten my life to Your holy feet. Teach me to pray. Please teach me concerning seeking Your holy face. Let my days begin with You O God – and yes from this day forward each day You give me will begin with seeking Thy holy face. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s Grow Together! Sign up here to begin receiving the Moments with Our Master email devotional that is sure to help you grow in His grace and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:2; 3:18).  It’s sent out for the edification of the body of Christ. Sign Up HERE.

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Abiding

Safety in Wise Counsel [podcast]


Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war.” Proverbs 20:18

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.” Psalms 37:23

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” Psalms 90:12

“Safety” in wise counsel from God’s wisdom, Word, and including at times with the help of His beloved saints.

“Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.” Proverbs 11:14 

“The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD.” Proverbs 21:31 

“For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.” Proverbs 24:6 

Caprice means a sudden and unaccountable change of mood or behavior.

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14  But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15  This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16  For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17  But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18  And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” James 3:13-18

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“Let Brotherly Love Continue” [podcast]


“Let Brotherly Love Continue.” Hebrews 13:1

“And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” Ephesians 5:2

1 John 4

God Is Love

“7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
8  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
9  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
10  Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
11  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13  Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14  And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15  Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16  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.
17  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.
18  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.
19  We love him, because he first loved us.
20  If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21  And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”

1 Corinthians 13

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4  Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5  Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6  Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7  Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8  Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.”

Support | STORE | Podcasts | Jail/Prison MinistryMexico Mission here | All Ministry Updates | Because You Care Page | The Greatest of these is CharityBe Ready in the Morning [podcast]The Sure Mercies of David [podcast]That Repentance and Remission of Sins should be Preached [podcast]At His Feet | Prepared to be Used of God Walking with Jesus on His Stated Terms – the Cross | Fasting and PrayerThe Old Man Must be Put Down [podcast]The 5 Sins That Keep God’s People Out of Their Promised Land [podcast]What Did Paul Mean by “I Keep Under My Body”? [podcast]“Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith” [podcast]A Living Sacrifice unto God [podcast]Departing from Hell BeneathPrayer

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 5 Aspects of the Mind of Christ [podcast]


5 Components of the Mind of Christ from Philippians 2

Philippians 2:2-10

“Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

At Gethsemane the death before the cross, before His death on the cross occurred.

“Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42

“He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:8

Living in the mind, the disposition of Christ means you are truly following Him.

As Christ’s disciple, your devotion, your love is first to Him, then to your neighbor, not self (Matthew 22:37-39). You are commanded by the Savior to set self aside and to lift others above yourself—to prefer, to put God and others first. Those who do so, experience true freedom, liberty.

Being one with Christ, who gave all to save you, means your life is over—you now live to serve the LORD and others, not self (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3).

Have you poured prayerfully over Philippians 2:3-5 today? If you will begin every day this week pouring prayerfully over this passage, asking the LORD to internalize it in your heart, God will begin to deeply instill the very “mind of Christ” into your innermost disposition.

Part of the dying…. IS GOD calling us to Himself, to forsake this world, including the attempt to save an unrepentant nation long in rebellion against Him – America?

Prayer: LORD, I want to walk in the disposition You walked in on earth. I will esteem You and others above myself. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let’s Grow Together! Sign up here to begin receiving the Moments with Our Master email devotional that is sure to help you grow in His grace and in the knowledge of our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Pet. 1:2; 3:18).  It’s sent out for the edification of the body of Christ. Sign Up HERE.

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