The Selah Project

So thankful to be here and bring you this episode :)

Psalm 47:1 -- Come everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise!

SelahProject.com is on its way back ... presently it connects with the Selah Project Show Instagram. Check it out if you are able. Follow us too!

Email: SelahProjectShow AT gmail dot com

Jesus said, stop doubting and believe.

I hope this episode encourages you and maybe even help if you face a sudden ache in your chest.

Blessings

After finishing the study on getting closer to God, I would have thought that I would have felt stronger, closer ... yet seems my questions and confidence was weakened! And I am referring to the relationship of my beliefs and the day-to-day living of life.

Instead, I found and find myself with questions and doubts that cause way more problems for me.

Going forward with the show, my intent is to focus, share, and think about the words and deeds of Jesus.

As you listen to Episode 39, keep Hebrews 12: 1-2 in mind, 

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne.

Thank you for tuning in!

If you have the prompting, consider leaving a review on iTunes. 

Connect at Instagram - Selah Project

And I welcome your feedback, comments or questions at selahprojectshow AT gmail DOT com

Selah

It's been three months since I posted the final day of the 7 Day Challenge of Getting to Know God ... Better!

It wasn't planned that way but I think it has turned out the best, as what I share today is a better update/review of my feedback than what would have been shared had I recorded this episode the week after Day 7.

Share your thoughts or results with me! Email at selahprojectshow @ gmail . com or leave a recorded message up to 90 seconds at the Selah Project voicemail here:

Click Leave a voice mail

Highlights:

My "amazing" results immediately following the challenge ... not.

Our determined purpose is to know him better! (Philippians 3:10)

808

Stop doubting and believe ...

If you haven't taken the challenge, do so! Listen to Episodes 30-37.

Thanks for listening. Jesus is good news. May He give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. Ask.

When I had my son Greg put the outline for this study together, he sent me what he had done in Google docs. Everything was there, except Day 7.

I'm no sure why Day 7 wasn't there. Maybe it was that his outline was complete with six days. (I will have to ask him.)

So as I put the challenge together, I came to this day with wondering how to conclude. My initial thought was to use Day 7 as a review of the previous 6.

But God, I believe, had already written the final day as I was lead to Ephesians 1:17.

Paul wrote:

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Knowing Him better was something those who had even lived then understood its importance.

i hope we continue to grow in our understanding of the importance of getting to know God. Our friend. Our Father. Our creator. And all that He will reveal to us on our path to the reunion. 

Psalm 25:4

4 Show me Your ways, O Lord. Teach me Your paths.

John 17:3

This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

... hallelujah.

What has God revealed to you during the 7 Day Challenge? Share it by writing me at selahprojectshow @ gmail DOT com

Or at the Selah Project SpeakPipe

When we have feelings of failure, not being good enough, and disappointment, it's hard to believe we are a friend of God. But we can be who He would have us be ... He is able.

On Day 6, think about Philippians 2:13 --

Philippians 2:13 -- consider these versions:

13 For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure. (Amplified)

and

13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (NLT)

or

13 For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants. (The Living Bible)

Philippians 2:13 is a major perspective changer for me.

It’s a truth I think we have pretty much seen negated. If God truly works IN us (think again of the scripture where we are told change is being done from the inside out), then it really isn’t about what WE do. Seems to me I’ve spent way too much time trying to be better. More sin free. More like Him.

The problem here is it’s been about ME … what I have thought I should be doing and getting better so that I would be more like Jesus. I thought that as long as I could be good enough, I would become closer to God.

Philippians 2:13 turns all that around.

Ephesians 3:20-21 (NLT)

20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think...

God is more than able. So what is it we are to do?

Draw close with Him knowing this word from Him. He has given us grace. He has made us saints through Jesus. He is for us.

Get to know him BETTER :) He will transform us.

Today and going forward, thank God for his grace and ask that He gives you power to do those things He has planned in your life. Throw off any thoughts of your shortcomings and go forward knowing it is GOD who is at work in you. Today. And that pleases him.

Worship today with Hillsong singing From the Inside Out.

Day 5 of The 7 Day Challenge to Getting to Know God ... Better.

Becoming a friend of God! It starts with understanding He calls us his friends.

Exodus 33:11

The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

What an incredible experience that Moses had while he lived here on earth. God would come and speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.

What was it about Moses that moved God to do this? I would suggest that it was Moses’s heart.

Moses cried out to God to “teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you." (Ex. 33:13)” And later it was said that, “God made known his ways to Moses, and His acts to the people of Israel (Psalm 103:7)

Teach me your ways. Notice he did not ask for things.

When you understand the "ways" you will understand the "whys." Abraham wanted to know what was important to Him. Think about that. 

Friends understand each other because they know the how, when and why of things we believe and are going through.

Understanding He is our friend is the foundation of this closeness we are seeking.

That's what Day 5 has revealed to me.

Here is the worship I mentioned in this episode. Please take a few minutes to look it up online.

I Am a Friend of God -- Israel Houghton (former worship leader at Lakewood Church in Houston, Tx.)

Want to comment? Connect here at SpeakPipe

Instagram - SelahProject

email: [email protected]

Day 4 

Think about this:

Acts 13:22

22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.'

Psalm 119:34 - David wrote,

Give me understanding, so that I may keep your law and obey it with all my heart.

Listen to today's thoughts on the secret to not only being and becoming one after God's heart.

Whenever I would think about being a man after God’s heart, my FIRST response again was failure. Knowing that this is not what God now thinks of me or you, I bind that discouragement.

I declare that I do His will today, and I ASK the Spirit to give me the guidance to do these things today as well as the power.

Notice that David asked for understanding. Look how important this is! He asks for understanding SO THAT he will have God's heart and do his will.

Keeping God's law ... living via the power of His spirit ... being changed from the inside out ... begins with -- UNDERSTANDING.

Ask God for understanding. 

The more we understand God's heart, the gospel, Jesus' teachings the more we will draw close to Him and He to us. 

Want to comment? Connect here at SpeakPipe

Instagram - SelahProject

email: [email protected]

Hallelujah

Day 3 -- My favorite day of the seven because what I found Paul had written to be THE reason of truth that getting to know God better is in fact our purpose!

In Philippians 3:10, Paul wrote:

For my determined purpose is THAT I MAY KNOW HIM [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in the same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection, which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed ...

Think about what Paul has written. He has eloquently stated ... he wants to know God better. More deeply. More intimately. With increasing understanding.

Today, on the 3rd day of this challenge, declare this daily, going forward, your desire to know Him. 

I think it is all we need to do, He will take care of the increasing measure of better :)

It's God's desire.

More? Take time to listen to the worship of Hillsong United, Jesus Culture ... 

Share your thoughts with me here: Selah Project SpeakPipe

Instagram Selah Project

Hallelujah

P.S. When I was thinking about doing a challenge for me and listeners, I had decided on the IDEA first. In my spirit, I felt it important that believing, increasing faith, and growing in power was found in getting closer to God. And then, the scriptures verified that. 

Stay with the challenge. The final three days verify this even more.

At the end of Jesus' ministry, he asks/prays to his Father a revealing request.

John 17:24

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved me before the foundation of the world.

He asked that we be with Him and see/understand and enjoy the glory about to be given him.

Let us come to understand Jesus and God desire this relationship!

I hope you will be encouraged as He reveals to you his wish for us. Jesus wishes that we will be with him. IN this world and the one to come :)

References: Ephesians 1:18-23, & 2:7 Colossians 3:2-3

Take some time and consider the amazing grace from God here: John Lynch speaking at Biola University Chapel. He is a minister at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix Az and author of numerous books including True Faced, a favorite of mine.

Share your thoughts or testimony here: Selah Project SpeakPipe

Instagram: instagram.com/selahproject

Thanks for your support.

Hallelujah

(Most well-known English versions of the Hebrew Bible translate the Hebrew "Hallelujah" as two Hebrew words, generally rendered as "Praise" and "the LORD") 

A change of plans! From email to audio.

It occurred to me as I was struggling to put the email program together that why not just put the 7 Day Challenge on the podcast --- especially since way more of this audience is connected here, not via email.

Here is Day 1 - VIP Access thanks to Jesus

Think about this:

What is one area you’ve thought as a disappointment in your life? What kind of throne do you see God sitting on? 

Understand that it is through Jesus we have VIP access. Hallelujah.

Links:

Comments here: Selah Project SpeakPipe

Email us at selahprojectshow AT gmail DOT com

Selah Project website

Instagram

Next episode: Day 2 -- God's desire