TODAY’S PROPHETIC NUMBERS

January 09, 2024 – 01/09/2025

1 – Unity
9 – Fruit Bearing (+) Judgment (-)

FRUIT BEARING STRENGTH

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
– Joshua 1:9 NKJV

Somehow, people have gotten the impression that God is the mean old man in the sky waiting to spit in our Cheerios if we mess up.

Lost job? Crumbling marriage or rebellious child? God must be punishing me for something I did. Financial problems, health issues, natural disasters? God is judging me. I must have messed up when I…. STOP!

This is wrong thinking from the pit of Hell! The devil wants you to believe this lie so you will doubt your Father’s goodness. Satan hates it when we know how good God truly is. It shines a very bright spotlight on how evil and demented he is. He hates to be reminded that he is not God and has already been defeated.

Know this: God’s not mad at you. He’s not waiting for you to mess up so He can squash you. He’s just not. That’s not who He is or how He deals with us. He does let us have the natural consequences of our actions, but that is on us alone – not Him.

There is a beautiful scene at the end of “The Agony and the Ecstasy,” Irving Berlin’s historical novel about Michelangelo that illustrates my point. An aging Pope Julius II visits the nearly completed ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The pope looks up at the now-famous depiction of God about to impart the gift of life to Adam. Now, Julius had fought terrible, bloody wars in the name of the church. However, as he looks at Michelangelo’s picture of God, a smile comes to his lips.

“Do you truly believe God is that benign?” he asks the famous painter. “Yes, Holy Father,” Michelangelo replies. Pope Julius says, “I most ardently hope so since I am going to be standing before Him before long. If He is as you have painted Him, then I shall be forgiven my sins.”

The pope saw an image of God, unlike the one he had lived with his whole life. God wasn’t killing life. God loved to give life. He is love, light, and life. He never brings you hatred, darkness, or death. Those things are brought our way by nature, the devil, and by man – oftentimes self-inflicted. God is good, period.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. – John 1:4

Declaration: God is good all the time, in all ways, for all of eternity. I walk in the goodness of God, and I see Him move in great ways to work things out for me. I will not let the lies of the devil rob me of the peace and joy that God created for my life.

From My Book: Good Overcomes Evil