Prophetic Word – Encourage Yourself in the Lord

This prophetic word is titled Encourage yourself in the Lord.

John 20:1-10

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. ² She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

³ Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. ⁴ They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. ⁸ Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— ⁹ for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then they went home.

This is the story of the resurrection of Jesus.  The disciple whom Jesus loved is John.  If you’ve seen the painting of the last supper the one leaning

against Jesus is John.

In terms of people who were friends/acquaintances with Jesus we know that there were 120 in the upper room, then the 12 disciples these were his friends, then we see that 3 were invited to the Mount of Transfiguration (Peter, James & John) this was His inner circle and then we see that the one that Jesus loved was John.

In today’s terms, John was Jesus’ BFF.  The closest one to Him. 

I think that’s why God gave him the honor of being taken up into the heavenlies shown what was to come and asked to write the book of Revelation.

So Jesus spends all this time with John and probably shared more with John than we know because that was His closest friend.  Yet, when John went and saw the grave empty and clothes folded and put to the side THAT is when he believed??  WHAT???

⁸ Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— ⁹ for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead.

I remember the first time I read that I stopped on that sentence and I thought how is it John, of all the disciples, didn’t believe Him?  Really John?

Think about this… after all that time spent with John, after John seeing all these miracles performed and seeing Jesus in the flesh and in action, after seeing that everything He said actually happened, why is it he only believed that Jesus would be resurrected after he saw the grave clothes?  Come on!

Remember John already saw Him in His resurrected body at the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-9).  So how is he STILL not believing it? If I were Jesus I would be a little hurt at his reaction.  After all they had been through, he didn’t believe it until he saw it. Wow!

You and I do this to Jesus all the time.

Do you think John needed one more word of confirmation before he believed?  Would it have made a difference?

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When you think about the Israelites living through 10 plagues without being affected, wandering in a wilderness for 40 years with food and water provided, their clothes never wore out, their shoes never wore out, none of them got sick and after all of this when they get to the point of crossing over to get what God told them was theirs they still refused to go because they didn’t believe they could take out the giants.

After everything they saw Him do.  He never once lied to them or tell them something the never happened.  But at that final moment they are standing there doubting if He’ll actually do it.

You and I do this all the time.

Do you think the Israelites needed one more word of confirmation or another miracle to believe?  Would it have made a difference?

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I am going to ask you a question, think about it seriously, do you need another confirmation to believe God for what He told you He will do for you?  Answer in the comments below.

This is the reason it makes no sense to have shaky faith.  Let me ask you a question, has He not proved to you already from past experiences that He will do whatever He told you He will do?

So what do you do when you find yourself in this totally irrational place of doubt and the unbelief? Encourage yourself in the Lord.  Especially, when you find yourself in a pit.

Here’s how David got out of his pit.

(1 Samuel 30:6 KJV)  ^“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.”

If people were threatening to stone me I think I would be most distressed as well.  But David encouraged himself in the Lord.  He found the encouragement to go on and not be afraid in the Lord.

Notice it says “he encouraged himself”.  Yes, we write prophetic words which offer encouragement and you can probably get encouragement from a friend or others at church; however, the best kind is when you do it for yourself.

How do you do that?

Revelation 12:11 “And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.”

The “him” in this scripture is the enemy.  When you have doubts, fears and unbelief that is just the enemy trying to shake you.  How you get rid of him is to open your mouth and recall past testimonies.

When the spies came back from spying out the land with the bad report and the grumbling of doubts and fears started, someone should’ve grabbed the microphone took center stage and said..

“Ok, before you think we can’t do this, remember that time when we thought those Egyptians were going to get us and God parted the red sea? Didn’t we cross over to the other side safely?  Didn’t he drown them so they wouldn’t follow us again?”

Yeah, that time.

“Remember the time when we thought were going to die of thirst and suddenly He made clean water come out of the rock?”

Yeah, that time.

“Remember that time when we woke up the following morning and all the Egyptian first born were dead but none of our children died?”

Yeah, that time.

“Haven’t you noticed that Becky over here is wearing brand new second hand shoes from 30 years ago that looked like we just got them at Stein Mart?”

Yeah, I’m just noticing that!

That’s called your testimony.  You get rid of the devil by being covered under the blood of Jesus and opening your mouth and sharing your testimony.

Now you may not have anyone to share it with so now this is where you do what David did, tell it to yourself!  Encourage yourself in the Lord.

Sit and remember the testimonies, in details.  This will increase your FAITH!!!!  You will come out of this experience feeling strengthened and encouraged.  And, it will give you the boost to go another day… or two.  Till you need to tell yourself a bunch more testimonies and keep it going.

This is why you must always write down your testimonies or else you are going to forget them.  No matter how big or small.  Write it down.  The truth is for some reason when we face giants we all get amnesia! LOL   It’s like poof! we forget what God did in the past.

Keep a calendar and for every wonderful move of God in a given month start recording them.  What did He do for you in January? February?  Write them down because you’ll forget then relive the stories to grow your faith.  It is by doing this that you can keep yourself going to the top of that mountain with your Hind’s Feet.

Luke 18:8 “And will not God bring about justice for His chosen ones, who cry out to Him day and night? Will He keep putting them off? I tell you, He will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”

Blessings