When Your Money Comes Up Short by Elaine Davenport January 24-Feb. 2, 2010

Money Woes can lead to other woes!

I do not have to talk about money so much, it has never posed a problem to me.  I value it for kingdom work and to help others, but other than that I am grounded in knowing that the Lord provides.  In fact, my greatest money challenge has never been will I be able to get anything; but instead it is will I be able to help when help is needed. The answer is always yes.
Yet, I get phone calls as a prayer intercessor and emails and prayer requests and 50% of the time the problem stems from money woes.  And as I have counseled and prayed; I realize that good advice as found in the b-i-b-l-e…goes a very long ways.

It’s not God’s will for you to come up short with your money:

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.3 John 1: 2

But my friend…you’ve got to do your part.

I am a tither.  I know that the first tenth belongs to God.  If that is unsettling to you; my prayer is that you will seek revelation on this.

Here are Eleven reasons why people don’t have enough money:

1. They won’t work…some don’t want to,  some only want jobs that pay a certain amount, some refuse to work in certain places…therefore hindering the release of The Blessing.  Or if they do work; often they don’t work hard.  Maybe you need a second job.

There are people who have been forced to be on a fixed income due to disability or illness and there are people who due to emergencies are forced to lived temporarily off of public assistance and there are people who live in places where there simply are no jobs.  If you are one of those…you must pray and ask God to guide you out of that situation.

2.  People who live off of credit will eventually come up short.  The credit card minimums will continue to increase.  A payment of $180.00 a month on a 5,000 balance at a high interest rate could take over 10 years to pay off.   Credit card bills eat into your discretionary income.  That is the money that you’re supposed to have left over to live off of after all bills are paid.

3.  Poor money management.  Not  keeping a mental or preferably a written record of expenses  can mark us for failure.

4.  No savings.  You must have a savings.

5.  Fast food money.  Cook your own meals, it is healthier and cheaper.  Fast food money goes fast.  It is not cheap.

6. No budgetary guidelines.  You must live within your means.  If you can’t do that then  making more money won’t help you; it will ultimately hurt you.
7.  Sowing into bad ground produces a bad harvest.  The bible says that we reap what we sow.

8. Selfishness.  If you try to hold on to your money without any benevolence….it will get away from you.

9. Pray  for wisdom on how to spend your money and where to spend your money.

10. Not paying your bills.  You will not get ahead by ignoring your bills.  Make arrangements with them.  They will catch up with you.  Pull your credit report and be honest with you.

11.  Overspending…guaranteed you are overspending in certain areas. I once bought a harmless looking salad dressing daiky that cost $1.40.  I never looked at the bill.  IT was costing me $45.00 a month in lunch and it wasn’t THAT GOOD!

****Note, if you are broke all of the time and your money keeps coming up short; guaranteed you’re missing it.

More Tips:

1.  Get out your bible and begin to study God’s way of handling your finances

2. Pray about it

3.  Buy some books on money management

4.  Make a plan and stick to it.

5.  Don’t repeat your old ways once God delivers you from debt.

There’s more…but this is a good start.  If you can perfect these things, you can expect improvement.

El Shaddai by Amy Grant January 24- Feb. 2, 2010

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Here I Am To Worship by The Oslo Gospel Choir January, 2010

Holy Is The Lord! by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir January 25- Feb. 1, 2010

Giants by Donald Lawrence January 24-31, 2010

Jesus You’re Beautiful! by CeCe Winans January 23- 30, 2010

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Glorifying Jezebel! by Elaine Davenport January 22, 2010

Jezebel deserves no Glory…

I was invited to host an event some time ago called:  Men and Women Of The Bible! I thought that meant people you admire…but stay with me.

I had no idea what to expect, but I did not expect to be shocked.  A few days before the event I was given a list of the characters chosen so that I would be ready.  They sent me a summary that they wanted me to follow and instead I explained that I would research things and bring my own.

I was surprised to see two names on the list:  Satan and Jezebel!

Are  you kidding me?

That’s alright I said.  I got out my bible and got armed!

They were in for a real shock on the night of the event.

When I arrived, there was a woman dressed in red  looking extremely flashy and she alerted me that she was playing the role of Jezebel.     Her faced looked like it was loaded with make-up! At the time, I wrongfully was disgusted ; though to my credit I did not show it in my facial expression.  I later found out that the woman apparently had no idea just how bad Jezebel really was.

Most secular people think Jezebel was a cool rebel woman who dressed like a harlot.    Though no one really wants the label, many in this world have a tendency to dress in an opposite apparel to what God intended.  God is a Holy God and we, his people should dress as the set apart people that He designed us to be.

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (First Corinthians 6:19-20)

1 Tim 2: 9 And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and proper clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes.

Okay forget the appearance for a minute…let’s talk about Jezebel’s character.

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JEZEBEL CHARACTER

After the death of King Solomon, Israel had many kings that ruled over them.    One significant king was King Ahab.   His wife’s name was Jezebel and she  was a worshipper of Baal the idol god.  Jezebel was responsible for much evil and wickedness in her husband’s reign and also during the  reign of both of her sons.  Jezebel’s character was that she was said to use “arts” to seduce others into partaking in wickedness and to coerce others away from the truth or good standing with God.

JEZEBEL SPIRIT

God spoke of the Jezebel spirit in Rev, 2: 20: ²⁰Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. ²¹I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. ²²So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways., I

The story of Jezebel can be found in I Kings and II Kings.

I do not need to finger point.  All I need to do is lay out the facts.    The bible does show that Jezebel got pushed her family to do evil deeds and that she in turn died a horrible death.  She worshipped a false god.  That wasn’t enough, she forced others to as well. She killed many prophets.  She decided to end all Gods but her god.  Her death was timely as prophesied and horrid.

If you take a hard look around our society today; you may not see so much of the character of Jezebel as you do the Spirit and the dress.  Please pray that this deception would end.

As I relayed Jezebel’s true identity at that event, I could tell that the woman who chose her no longer felt like Jezebel was a bible heroine!

This is the poem that I read…as Jezebel strolled down the aisle.  She had a smile on when she started…but not at the end:

Jezebel, we can tell that you were the victim of a family curse,

With no shield from all the evil, you had already rehearsed,

Your father killed his brother, and I guess that was his best,

At the same time, evil touched your heart and we all know the rest,

You had a false god who could do nothing for you despite all your trying,

You killed all the prophets except Elijah and had people crying,

You even ate dinner with all of the priests to your God Baal,

You put him to the test and he went into a stall.

Your temper was unmeasured,  you never seemed to have shame,

But Elijah prophesized that there would be shame in your game,

You married King Ahab and he was an envious monarch.

He got his eye on his neighbors plot of land and turned into a shark,

He asked the neighbor to give him  a piece of his property,

Why couldn’t he have offered him a good price or a fee?

But you zoned in Miss Jezebel and set up a case against the poor neighbor in haste,

And the poor man was stoned,

JEZEBEL, OH JEZEBEL YOU WERE BAD TO THE BONE!

For the makeup you wore, they called you names behind your back,

The Painted Queen and much worse and that is a fact!

You pushed your servants around and so the big day came,

When their loyalties were tested to see if you’d reign,

They say that you fell out of a very high window

when a King in season demanded  that you had to go,

You had on full dress and this was your thesis:

You splattered into 1,001 itty bitty pieces.

Your Name lives on in the lives of the saints, only it makes their stomachs turn and it has a taint….

You were evil, unkind, off track and consumed with revenge, Jezebel Jezebel you deserved a bad end!

Footnote:  They weren’t mad because the information they had been using had been passed down for a few years and even though they were doing this just for fun…my message was that when it comes to evil…we don’t play with it, we recognize it and root it out!

have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Rev 2:20)evertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Rev 2:20)

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Rev 2:20)

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.” (Rev 2:20)