Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette

Wife to The Sweetheart, Mom to the Fantastic Six, Nana to six of the cutest littles on the planet, Author, The Daniel Fast, A Devotional. UPCI ministers.

A Personal Encounter with God…

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Beyond thrilled to have The Sweetheart, my beloved, Douglas Elkins, in the guest writer spot! I love this message, it is his passion: to see others walk in Relationship with God. Feel free to comment and share!

2 Peter 1:10 “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall…”

THE STORY OF SAMUEL – 1 SAMUEL 3:1-10

The young lad ministered to the Lord before (under the direction of) the preacher.

In those days the Word of the Lord was precious because revelations, prophecies, and contact with God seemed to be a rare thing, possibly because there were so few Israelites that were willing to hearken to the voice and Word of God.

It would appear that when we compare this scripture setting with Exodus 27:20, 21 that the timeframe would be somewhere in the early morning, prior to dawn. Both the preacher and the lad were asleep.

Samuel’s sleep is interrupted quite abruptly by someone calling his name. He got up and went into the preacher’s bedroom to see what he wanted, only to find out that the preacher had not called him.

It was after three disruptions of sleep that the pastor, Bro. Eli-the-priest, realized what was going on.

“Samuel,” he said, “Go and lie down: and if you hear that voice calling you again you say, ‘Speak, Lord; for your servant hears you.’”

So Samuel went and did just as the prophet asked, and God spoke to Samuel that night in a special way.

I have purposely sidestepped what would be a vital, if not the most important, part of this story.

1 Samuel 3:7 7 “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.”

Understand that Samuel had godly parents. At the time of this account, he was living in the House of God – the Temple. He had daily contact with the prophet of God.

BUT HE DID NOT HAVE A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER OR A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

He could not discern the voice of God until he had developed a relationship with Him! Samuel had to have A PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH GOD!

He couldn’t go on his parent’s relationship with God. He wasn’t saved just because he went to church every time the doors were opened! His relationship with his pastor could not substitute with his relationship with God!

He had to have a personal encounter and develop a personal relationship with God on his own!

SAMUEL’S ENCOUNTER WITH GOD GAVE HIM HIS LIFE’S CALLING!

Paul had an encounter with God that radically changed his life. Paul’s encounter with Jesus Christ completely changed his life’s direction. (Read the story in Acts 9)

JACOB AT BETHEL. Jacob is the GRANDSON of GOD’S FRIEND – ABRAHAM. Even though he was Abraham’s grandson, he did not have a direct line to the throne by virtue of this relation. He had to have a personal encounter with God himself – for himself!

Jacob’s encounter changed his walk…literally!

Anyone who comes in contact with God has to change! And if you are ever going to do anything in life, you must have a personal encounter with God!

This is why Paul admonished the Philippians to “…work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.”

Judges 2:7-11. “And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim…”

This passage in Judges shows us how a spiritual heritage is lost.

Joshua and the elders who survived him knew the Lord and knew His works.
Then the next generation knew the Lord and knew about His works. This generation obviously had a personal experience of God but did not know what He could do for them.
Finally, a generation arose who knew NOT the Lord and knew not His works! This last generation, the Scripture notes, “Did evil in the sight of the Lord.”

From this passage we can see the importance of knowing and experiencing the great things of God PERSONALLY!

By searching the Scriptures, we discover this pattern repeated many times:

Abraham LIVED right, built an altar, and dug a well.

Isaac LOOKED right, dug a well, and built an altar.

Jacob did not know WHAT was right; but built an altar when he was in trouble.

Spiritual preparation cannot be bought or borrowed at the last minute. Young people cannot live off their parent’s relationship with God. Everyone must have his own personal relationship with God.

David lived for God.

Solomon, his son, lived for himself.

**Rehoboam, the son of Solomon and grandson of David, did not know what to live for!**

We need to see the works of God for ourselves. Past stories are not good enough for us today because we need a fresh and personal encounter with God for now!

Generation # 1 is a generation of COMMITMENT.

Generation # 2 is a generation of COMPROMISE.

Generation # 3 is a generation of CONFUSION.

There is a vast difference between EXPERIENCING the great things of God and EXPLAINING the great works of God!

If you EXPERIENCE it you can say, “I know….”

If you EXPLAIN it without experiencing it you can only say, “I think I know….”

I’m talking about having a personal encounter with God! (One like Samuel, Paul, Jacob…).

2 Peter 1:10 10 “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall…”

YOU WON’T FAIL IF YOU WILL DO THIS!

Those with a personal encounter with God rarely fail Him…walk in relationship!

Douglas started his ministry in youth work. He has over 20 years of pulpit ministry experience, serving in the capacities of Assistant Pastor, Senior Pastor, Evangelist and also Missionary. His secular work experience includes such titles as small business owner, seven years in retail management as well 15 years with the Federal Aviation Administration where he served as an Air Traffic Controller, eight of those years being in a management level.

He now serves as the North America Director for Revival By Design, a God-given pattern for revival. Douglas also serves on the Executive Committee and as the Director of Education for RBD Global.

He will soon celebrate 35 years of marriage to the love of his life….ME!

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Away from the presence of the Lord…

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Poor Jonah…If you do not know the story of Jonah and “the whale”, which is actually a big fish, here is the short version:

God tells him to go to Nineveh to preach to the wicked people that if they didn’t change their ways, He would destroy them.

Nope, no way in this world is he going to do that.

“But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah 1:3.

Now Jonah’s home was in Gath-hepher, near Nazareth in Israel, Jerusalem being about 30 miles northwest of Joppa. So he travels to Joppa, where he gets on a boat heading for Tarshish.

Do you know that Tarshish is the most distant city in the known world?! It is 2200 miles to the WEST, clear on the edge of Spain!

Nineveh, where God told Jonah to go, was at least 500 miles EAST of Jerusalem in modern day Iraq!

[Tweet “Jonah went to a lot of trouble to disobey God! He went to the opposite end of the earth!”]

Jonah’s reasoning for all of this disobedience? He despised the Assyrians, the people of Nineveh. He wanted to see them get what they “deserved”. The Assyrians were out to conquer the world and were a definite threat to Israel, so Jonah had made up his mind that they should be destroyed, he would have no part in their salvation!

So he makes a beeline for Tarshish, via Joppa, and hops a boat, where he makes all kinds of trouble.

The men on the boat discover he must be the cause of the mayhem, since the ship is about to sink, so he confesses that he is the lowlife they are looking for and even though they do not wish to do so, they finally through him overboard…and the sea is calm once again!

Picked up by a giant fish, he spends three nights in the belly of this overgrown sea lion, not the most pleasant of accommodations. “Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly…” Jonah 2:1.

“When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord;
And my prayer went up to You,
Into Your holy temple.” Jonah 2:7.

Confession is good for the soul…especially in Jonah’s case. He realizes his mistake, “And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.” Jonah 2:10.

Can we truly run from God and prosper?

No!

“‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the LORD. ‘Do I not fill heaven and earth?’ declares the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:24).

Did not the Lord create us, knows all about us and even fills the earth with His presence? There is no hiding from God!

Jonah found it out the hard way and had to spend three nights with weeds wrapped around his head.

How much are we like Jonah today? We think we know better than God, we bargain with Him, plead with Him and even run away from the Lord in our attempt to do our own will.

Things never go as we plan when we take things in our own hands! Like Jonah, we will find we could have saved ourselves a host of troubles had we just obeyed God in the first place.
What are you struggling with today that you need to repent of? Do it today! We have no promise of tomorrow! Is there something or someone that you cannot forgive? Is it really worth it to hold a grudge? Do you realize it is only hurting YOU? Repent, repent, and repent some more, as Jonah would have said.

Let it go! Tomorrow may be too late….pray, fast, break the chains that are holding you back and start living the life God intends for you to live.

Save yourself the money on those traveling shoes…

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Hello, my name is Nannette and I’m a People Pleaser.

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“Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the LORD means safety.” Proverbs 29:25 NLT.

In a perfect world, I would make everybody happy, I would cause everybody to love me, and insist everybody love each other.

It is not a perfect world, so I have spent most of my life trying to please everyone around me. Most likely, there will never be a time that they are all crazy about me, they will definitely not all ever be happy and I am pretty sure they will just tolerate one another.

What makes some of us prone to people-pleasing?

Are we born with it?
Was it something traumatic in our childhood?
Maybe something lacking in our upbringing?

Perhaps the weight of the world was upon our shoulders. If we had to help with the finances, even in a seemingly small way, we would feel as if we could not fail our family.

Maybe our needs, and feelings, were ignored or we were told they weren’t important, that would make for extreme insecurity and cause us to continually look for approval.

As we begin to grow up, we become even more conscience of those around us, if we are a chronic people-pleaser. We are afraid we will be made fun of, maybe afraid we will be left alone and definitely afraid that no one will like us.

That is terrifying to a young person. It is distressing to any age!

So we continue to seek approval. From everyone. It is a vicious cycle.

“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10.

[Tweet “If we are living to please someone other than God, we have replaced Him as first in our lives.”]

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3.

Continually worrying about the approval and acceptance of others can even be called idolatry.

Jennifer Dukes Lee, in her book Love Idol, addresses this form of idolatry and challenges us to live Pre-Approved by God! Jennifer “… gently invites us to make peace with our imperfections and to stop working overtime for a love that is already ours.”

Friends, we only have to please One and that is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! If we are pleasing to Him, everything else is alright with our world!

His love is agape love, totally unconditional!

That does not mean that things will be perfect, or even that everyone loves us; it means we have surrendered our lives to Christ and no longer seek approval from man. Our very existence is for Him, for worship and for His will to be done through us!

Living to please God doesn’t mean we worry ourselves to a frenzy every day wondering if we are doing all the right things, saying everything the right way, giving enough, loving enough, etc., etc., etc.

No, that would not be love.

“And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” John 8:29.

Jesus lived to please the Father who had sent Him. He knew He couldn’t be a people pleaser either. Jesus knew it was impossible to make everyone happy!

“…because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” John 5:30.

The will of the Father.

We are here to reach the lost, to touch the hurting, and to minister to the downcast. But it is the enemy’s business to keep us distracted, worried and confused to the point that we get nothing done but worrying about the approval of others.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men…” Colossians 3:23.

[Tweet “People-pleasing wasn’t in Jesus’ vocabulary and it should not be in ours.”]

If we have pure hearts and pure agendas we will live to please the One who matters.

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Author Archives: Nannette

About Nannette