Made Alive
In this episode, Diana invites you into a heartfelt conversation on the hardships of life. Have you ever felt like a no one? At least on some days, you feel like a nobody, that nobody sees you, nobody cares, all they care about is what you can do for them today??? I once felt like a no one too. Until I found I was more than what the world or other people tell me I am. We serve a mighty God who is more than able to bring life back. To make us alive, by knowing who He is. He is for us. Join in on the conversation now as we talk about an amazing Helper given to us, for the hard days that do come.
Diana’s Notes
Hello everybody!!! And welcome to today’s episode, MADE ALIVE, here on Heartfelt Conversations with Diana! Me! LOL
Can we just be real honest today? Sometimes life seems to suck. Sometimes life is just plain unfair! We mind our own business, we try to lead lives that don’t harm anyone, we are honest, hard working, we give and we give and we give, while some people seem to take and to take and to take!
There is a story of a man in the Old Testament who lived his whole life in obedience and honor before God Almighty. He lived a life of integrity. If anyone should have been able to live on Easy Street, it should have been Job.
Job 19: 25.27
“But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He will stand upon the earth at last.
27: I will see Him for myself. Yes, I will see Him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!
Job spoke these words in response to Bildad. Bildad was one of the three (air quotes) “friends” that came to see him when his whole life was falling apart.
Just a little background for anyone who might not be familiar with the history of Job, in the Joyce Meyer Amplified Bible, there is a nice summary about Job; she writes:
“ Job endured almost every kind of loss imaginable- the loss of money, possessions, family, health, and the support of his friends. But he did not lose hope in God. Even when things became so bad that his wife wanted him to denounce God and die!” Job called her foolish and responded, “Shall we accept only good at the hand of God and shall we not accept (also) misfortune…? Job 2:9,10
Job was a man of great faith, and he lived a surrendered life to God, recognizing and having full knowledge that it is from and by God’s hand that we even have life. Job had reverent fear for His position as the One True God Who brings direction to our lives, and it is for us to obey and follow Him in good times and bad times.
The crazy thing is that Satan was up in heaven proclaiming that the only reason Job was even faithful to God was because God had blessed him so much. Job was a very wealthy man.
I’m telling you, if you have a creative side, a curious side, an adventurous side, you will never get bored reading about the extraordinary events and encounters in the spiritual realm between heaven, hell, and the inhabitants of earth. There is no SYFY movie out there like it.
Listen to the commentary from BibleHub Study on the Heavenly Council concerning the court hearing in heaven over the accusations about Job.
You see, Satan is an accuser; he is a little whiny baby always running to God to tattle on every little bad thing we do that goes against God’s Word.
Just like there is a physical law of gravity that exists, we don’t see it, but we operate within its boundaries. So too with God, He has spiritual laws or kingdom laws set in place that we operate in, whether we believe in them or not.
And just like on earth, we have court systems; in heaven, there is also a court system, and God is the ultimate, supreme Judge and Ruler. Here is what the topical study tool from Bible Hub says:
The concept of the Heavenly Court is a significant theme in the Bible, depicting a divine assembly where God presides as the supreme judge and ruler. This celestial council is composed of angelic beings who serve various roles, including messengers, warriors, and ministers of God's will. The Heavenly Court is a reflection of God's sovereign authority and His governance over the universe.
And guess what?? According to Job 1:6, Satan, the accuser, is a member of that council. Remember, Satan is a fallen angel. He is a celestial being, but he is not God. He just wants to be god. Satan became filled with jealousy and pride, and he decided that he would lead a rebellion against God so he could take God’s place as the ruler of all creation. The Bible says, in Isaiah 14, “You said in your heart… ‘I will make myself like the Most High'”
Thus, he tried to rally up a bunch of other angels to overthrow heaven and dethrone God, which is a joke because God is God, He saw it coming before Satan was ever a thought, anyways, so Satan is thrown out of God’s kingdom but he keeps coming back like a bad penny throwing human beings under the bus all of the time to God, saying look at this one and look at that one, they all sin, they all miss Your mark of excellence God so what are you going to do about them?
Huh? Huh? Huh? Whatcha gonna do about it!!!!
In Job’s case, court case, lol, Job is not being accused of sin
In the opening of Job 1, the scriptures tell us:
He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.
So with that, Satan needed a new tactic; his strategy is always to accuse us before God, and he even speaks accusations against our own selves in our heads. He fills us with feelings, feelings of guilt and shame and anger and rejection, trying to make us feel we are disqualified from God’s love and goodness; when in fact the very opposite is true when we have Jesus, because Jesus is the very ONE Who qualifies us
2 Corinthians 3:5 - Not that we are sufficiently qualified in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency and qualifications come from God.
Anyway, back to the “heavenly council” conversation we began from the Bible Hub Study Tools: they go on to say that the….
The narrative begins with a scene in the heavenly realms where the "sons of God" present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also comes among them. The LORD praises Job's righteousness, but Satan challenges Job's integrity, suggesting that his piety ( or devotion) is due to his prosperity. Satan proposes that if Job's blessings are removed, he will surely curse God. The LORD permits Satan to test Job, but He forbids Satan from harming Job himself.
Job 1: 1-12 There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.
4 Job’s sons would take turns preparing feasts in their homes, and they would also invite their three sisters to celebrate with them. 5 When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
As Job is praying for his children and offering sacrifices for their sins, Satan is up in the heavenly realms, standing before God, accusing Job of not really loving God. It is only because God has blessed Job that Job even cared about God. Ever have that accusation come against you in your own thinking? Has anyone ever been accused of not really caring about someone else?
Verse 6
6 One day, the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” the LORD asked Satan.
Satan answered the LORD, “I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that’s going on.”
(pause for just a second and let me read you this verse in the New Testament)
1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Peter warns about the very thing Satan himself says he does in court before God in Job
He’s been trying to bring us down for a long time!!! That is why we must be aware of his tricks and have the help of the Holy Spirit - And His Supernatural Strength, wisdom, power, and authority in Jesus’ Name to overcome these tactics he uses. Extreme power requires Ultimate Power AND Authority.
Picking up in verse 8
8 Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”
(So Satan is watching our every move, but God is also watching over us, but not to harm us, but to assist us, help us to defend against Satan, who only wants to steal, kill, and destroy. Verse 9
9 Satan replied to the LORD, “Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God. 10 You have always put a wall of protection around him and his home and his property. You have made him prosper in everything he does. Look how rich he is! 11But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”
Satan is always looking to divide us against God and God against us
12“All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.
But how do we fight the enemy???? An enemy we can’t even see, who has power we do not have.
First, do not become anxious about anything; God has our backs!
Here is the rest of 1 Peter 5:8-9
Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded and alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in your faith and in the knowledge that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering
I went through suffering, and that is why I want to encourage you with the cure to the curse; The Dead living, eternal death, constant defeat curse, and share that there really is Good News to be shared!
Jesus is the way, and He has given us a supernatural helper, the Spirit of God- the Holy Spirit. The Third Person of God.
By standing firm in our faith, our faith in Who God is. Satan went before God. God and Satan are not equals, do you see that? Satan is subject to God. Satan may have power we do not have, but God has Authority, and Jesus has given us His power but also His Authority- Authority in His Name. And the Holy Spirit is our Strengthener to help us be able to stand firm. We need a strong structure, a strong foundation to withstand the snares and traps and illusions of the enemy, and without an intimate relationship with God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the tribunal God, the Godhead, the Trinity, as some say. Then we are not fully fortified within our inner man. The place where your entire being is built upon.
Every day we face trials and tribulations and heartaches and sorrows, not because God is not on our side, but because we live in a cursed world full of sin since Adam and Eve, and we will always have something trying to steal our faith, our joy. Satan doesn’t help us for sure. He stands up there throwing insults and injury our way, trying to keep us tripped up just like he was doing with Job. Trying to get Job to curse God because of all of his so-called “bad luck” or curse. He wasn’t cursed because he knew his God. God blesses those, protects those, and provides for those who seek shelter in Him.
He wants us strengthened in His Word so that when the enemy does come, when the heartbreak does come, when the issues of life try to take us out and bring us down, we will not be shaken. We will not be blown away or broken. We might do a whole lot of bending, but we will not be broken. If we trust God, no matter what the circumstances look like, we will have the victory because it is already ours in Christ.
How did Job accomplish this? If any of you listened to Pastor Eric’s message, The Familiar Stranger, you would know that in the Old Testament, Jesus had not yet come and so we had not yet been given the Holy Spirit to dwell permanently in us, but the Holy Spirit would still COME UPON God’s people as God purposed.
I believe that even though Satan may have been busy coming against Job and trying to do everything that he could to destroy Job’s faith and shatter his trust in God, Job remained faithful because God sent His Spirit to come and be UPON Job. To strengthen his innerman with supernatural ability.
I may not have had the extreme amount of loss that Job suffered, but I did experience a loss in my life, but unlike Job, I did not pass my test. I did blame God. I buried it at first and tried to negotiate my way back to God. I thought He was against me, but if I ever wanted to see my daughter again, I would have to find a way to be acceptable to God. It was wrong thinking, it was fear-based, work-based evil thinking.
I saw God on His throne of Judgement pronouncing me unlovable, but God sent Jesus so that not one would be lost. No one.
I was a nobody. Are you feeling like no one? At least on some days, you feel like a nobody, nobody sees you, nobody cares, all they care about is what you can do for them today???
God cares!!! He cared about you before you ever cared about Him
Romans 5:8 - But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Ephesians 2:4-5 - But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, / made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!
Galatians 2:20 - and for those who have received Jesus, according to Galatians, we have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us. The life we lived in the body, we now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave Himself up for us.
Unfortunately, I was wrongly led to believe my daughter was taken from me by God as a way to punish me for my sins. I believed this because I was told by the church I grew up in that God took my daughter as payment for my sins, for getting involved in bad relationships and having sex outside of marriage as a teen. That payment had to come, and this was simply God’s way.
Now, yes, if we sin. If we do things that are against what God calls good in His word, like not stealing, not lying, not committing murder, these are for our own benefit, not to do these things. But if we do, then be prepared to pay for the consequences of those choices, in the natural realm of things. But God does not go around making bad things happen to us because we ticked Him off, or He is just sick and tired of us.
He is for us. He is for you. He is for me. If we get one thing in our heads, let that be it. God is for us. Say… “GOD IS FOR ME!” AGAIN
GOD IS FOR ME!!!!
Every time you start to get down on yourself or act out from frustration, just pause for a few seconds and say God loves me!!!! -God loves me!!! God loves me!!!!! - And allow Him to fill you up with His Love and His Joy and His peace, then… move forward with your day.
No matter what we do, God’s wrath is not against us. Why would He send His Only Son to die in our place, if His position was to bring us wrath and not eternal, abundant life???
Job knew his God. I knew of God, but I did not know He loved me.
I thought when I gave my life to Jesus that if I were acceptable by my works, then at some point God would welcome me in, but I had to follow the rules and be a good girl for that to happen. Or attach myself to someone He thought was good.
The problem is, we are all disqualified just by our humanness. But like we shared earlier in our conversation, Jesus qualified us. That is why it is so important that we all learn that our relationship with God is not based on our goodness, but His. As we grow closer to Him and spend more time in His word, we just begin to look like Him. Our form changes, bends into more of His likeness.
It happens slowly over time, and it is a much smoother journey with the Help of the Holy Spirit.
We opened today with Job 16: “But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives.
God sent Jesus so that we could live redeemed lives now, eternally, in the spirit-awakened, fully alive and free of judgment, while on this planet earth. But we can’t know what that redeemed life is for us without getting into God’s Word and having the Help of the Holy Spirit reveal God’s message to us. Each one of us has a personal, hidden message from God to us that he reveals as we surrender in faithful trust and obedience to Him, our Eternal, Sovereign God.
And God is not going to reveal His plan for your life to anyone but you. Now, some may receive a word from the Lord about some information or give you a word, hey bro, I see God doing some great things in your new business adventure - but the details and the love and passion and pathway will only be given to us as - hear that word?? - It's a tricky word, I had to learn to become very comfortable with. I am not naturally an “as” kind of person; I am a make-it-happen person, a just-do-it person. I kept getting ahead of God. He would place something on my heart, and I would run with it “as if” it had occurred, which is good to believe to know God has called you to do something even though it hasn’t happened yet. But timing, as they say, is everything. And in my case, I would then get bored or tired of waiting and make it happen. That is not a good idea, because oftentimes the things you see involve other people, and God may need time to work on the details, even though He wants to encourage us that something good is coming. Then, the people involved don’t want to cooperate with God’s plan, but now I have already gotten the ball rolling and made decisions based on them doing their part, because I had a plan. But they have to hear God, agree with God, and follow. That is free will.
And as people, we are pretty comfortable with our free will. But, it can be easy to avoid and put off the things God places on our hearts as a part of His good will and plan for us. We could have been the answer to someone else’s prayer, but we didn’t feel like asking Him if He had anything for us to do for Him today. It was “free will” day again.
He is waiting to reveal mysteries to us, but we have to cooperate with Him and hear Him. We need the Helper, the Holy Spirit, to help interpret His message to us as we read. To help us hear God’s voice when we pray, seek His advice, or ask for help, and to zip our lips when someone comes against us unfairly. The Holy Spirit, our Help, is here to guide our footsteps on the journey as we fix our eyes on the example of the life of Jesus. We need to learn to wait on God’s timing for things. Job did not become impatient and curse God as his wife wanted him to. Job remained faithful through it all.
God wants to strengthen your innerman, your inner person, where you need to be the strongest.
Next week we will chat more about the Job, but in the meantime:
I pray you will allow God’s word to speak to your heart regarding the Holy Spirit and that you will find additional comfort, wisdom, knowledge, and insight by continuing to learn more about the Holy Spirit and listening to Pastor Alexa’s message, From the Man To The Mystery.
The link to her message is on the notes for today, and you can find those notes on heartfeltconversations.com
Also, Pastors Eric and Alexa have a more in-depth conversation on their podcast, The Cutting Room Floor. And you can find their episode: Encountering The Holy Spirit, where they share their personal story on coming to know the Holy Spirit.
So, please go check it out in the notes for today’s episode.
I’d like to close our conversation today with Ephesians 3 14- 21
This is my prayer for each one of us here today:
For this reason [grasping the greatness of this plan by which Jews and Gentiles are joined together in Christ] I bow my knees [in reverence] before the Father [of our Lord Jesus Christ], 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth [a]derives its name [God--the first and ultimate Father]. 16 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, 18 be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; 19 and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].
20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen!
You are God’s Treasure!! His masterpiece. In Christ, we are indeed Made Alive!!!!!!
Have A GREAT WEEK, EVERYBODY! See ya next time
The link to Pastor Alexa’s message: From The Man To The Mystery
Pastor Alexa:
Wind & Fire: From The Man To The Mystery | Pastor Alexa Jones
Podcast: The Cutting Room Floor/Encountering The Holy Spirit
Songs to inspire you
MercyMe - Dear Younger Me (Official Lyric Video)
Ryan Stevenson - Eye of the Storm (feat. GabeReal) [Acoustic]
MercyMe - Flawless (Official Music Video)
Foundation Verse
Romans 8:11
The Spirit of God, Who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living in you. “
Additional Resources
Prayer of Salvation
Jesus has given salvation, healing, and countless benefits to all who call upon His name. These benefits can be yours if you receive Him into your heart by saying this prayer:
Heavenly Father, I come to You admitting that I am a sinner. Right now, I choose to turn away from sin, and I ask You to cleanse me of all unrighteousness. I believe that Jesus rose again from the dead so that I may be justified and made righteous through faith in Him. I call upon the name of Jesus Christ to be the Savior and Lord of my life. Jesus, I choose to follow You, and I ask that You fill me with the power of the Holy Spirit. I declare right now that I am a born again, child of God. I am free from sin and full of the righteousness of God. I am saved in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This prayer and the comment above, were taken out of the book:
Secrets to Powerful Prayer - Discovering the Languages of the Heart
By Lynne Hammond and Patsy Cameneti
If you have just received Jesus as your Savior, please write Lynne Hammond Ministries at:
PO Box 29469
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55429-2946
Or, email one of the ministries listed on the Additional Resources Tab and let them know that you are a brand new Christian and need some direction on the next steps for your new life in Christ.
Or email us here at Heartfelt Conversations with Diana and we will pass along your information for you.
Congratulations if you are a brand new Christian or if you have Returned Home! Welcome!!! Get in God’s Word and get it into you!
Diana’s Home Church:
Valley Family Church - Pastor’s Eric and Alexa Jones
www.valleyfamilychurch.org
Other recommended Jesus-centered churches who teach the True Word of God:
Elevation Church - Steven Furtick
https://elevationchurch.org/
Joseph Prince Ministries - Joseph Prince
https://www.josephprince.org/
Joyce Meyer Ministries
https://joycemeyer.org/