Normally older men who talk battle strategy with their other generals. Then they devise a battle plan which will be communicated with the troops. The generals will then watch from afar and not actually be the ones doing the fighting.

There is a word that is used many times throughout the Bible to describe God, this word is Jehovah Sabaoth. Jehovah Sabaoth can be translated as meaning the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Heavens Armies. This means that God is the general in charge of a whole host of armies. One day only heaven will tell how large the armies of heaven actually are, but my guess is that they are bigger than any scene out of Lord of the Rings can muster.

The difference between Jehovah Sabaoth and the leader of earths armies though is that while both have a plan, and both say the word and their armies follow them; only Jehovah Sabaoth will actually lead His army out into battle. God doesn’t sit on a hill in the distance watching the battle, no Jehovah Sabaoth is on the front lines fighting for you.

I don’t know what battle you are facing today, but I do know that when you pray the armies of heaven are mobilized to fight for you. As you lift up that prayer unto God, Jehovah Sabaoth places himself on the front line with a strategy and plan and will fight for you!

The Bible tells us that the battle is the Lords. So as you pray, rest assured that the battle is being won in your favor!

This disease will only actually end your life in extreme circumstances but it will always destroy your life in the smallest dose. It follows you whether you are young or old, heathly or unheathly, rich or poor, whether you have the best medical insurance or none at all. This disease will destroy your quality of life, it will eat away at your relationships, consume your thoughts and it creates physical sickness.

This isn’t some disease that can be treated with a drug, even though many take drugs for it, no there is only one solution to this disease. The only remedy is Jehovah Shalom, the God of Peace. For throughout the Bible we find that God comforts his people time and time again by reminding them that He is the Lord who will give them peace.

It was Paul who wrote to the Philippian Church stating that you must pray and trust in God, then the Peace of God, which no man can understand will surround and protect your heart and mind through your faith in Christ Jesus.

The disease I am talking about is anxiety. The experiencing of worry and fear.

Are you anxious today? Is worry consuming your thoughts? Has fear paralyzed you? If, so then pray! Pray to Jehovah Shalom for He is your solution. Peace is the only remedy to anxiety, and Jehovah Shalom has it to give in abundance.

Jesus once asked if anyone was anxious; his words of wisdom was trust in God. So today, as you pray, pray and trust, you’ll be amazed at how quick the antidote to anxiety kicks in.

Just imagine for a moment though if there were no limits in your life. Imagine if you could do what you wanted to do and there was no limit to your potential. What if you could go on a spending spree with no limits or go to the cheesecake factory with no limit to how much cheesecake your body could eat. What if you could go on vacation with no limit to the amount of days you could take, or go to the gym with no limit to how long your body could last on the treadmill?

Probably a difficult task to imagine those things. Why? Because we live in a world of limits. If there was no such thing as limits our world would be in chaos because we would not be able to cope without limits.

However, what if I told you there is a God who loves you more than you could ever imagine, in fact there is no limit to His love? What if I told you there is a God who has more intelligence than all the computers in this world combined, in fact if there is no limit to His intelligence? What if I told you there is a God who has more compassion than the Red Cross, World Vision and Compassion International put together, in fact there is no limit to His compassion? What if I told you there is a God who has more strength and power than all the energy in the stars in the Milky Way could ever generate, in fact there is no limit to his strength & power?

The bible tells us that the God of Heaven is also the Lord of our lives, and this Lord is the Omnipotent One! This means the God who is all powerful, or the God who is LIMITLESS! 

That is your God, limitless! While we live in a world of limits, he works at a different level that has no limits. So when you pray today, you are not praying to a God who is limited. No, you are praying to the eternal one who has no boundaries! Whatever your prayer maybe, it is not past the limits of God’s authority, it is not past the limits of God’s love, it is not past the limits of God’s compassion and it certainly is not past the limits of God’s power!

For He is the Omnipotent One!

While both are true, imagine what you can do if you had knowledge and you are close to the most important one you can possibly know. Some would say that the world is your oster, others will say your ceiling is unlimited.

Well, the truth is that there is a God who is called the Omniscient One. This means the God who is all knowing. He is a God who knows all things. He knows your circumstances today. He knows what is concerning you today. In fact He knows everything about you. However, because He is the Omniscient One, He doesn’t just know your circumstance, He also knows the answer to your circumstance, He has the answer to your problem.

Furthermore, He is the top man. When it cones to who you know, God the Omniscient One is the top of the pile, there is no higher, no greater, no more influential. So when you pray, it is not some meaningless religious act, it is the priviledge of having an audience with the One who knows all things.

Need an answer to the things of life, then pray. Need influence then pray. Need favor then pray. Need wisdom then pray. Need direction then pray. Why? Because the Omniscient One is listening and ready to speak!

This Psalm is all about a Biblical truth about who God is. He is referred to as the Omni-present one. This literally means the All Present One, or the God who is always with you wherever you go.

A few years ago Verizon had a series of commercials entitled, ‘Can you hear me now?’ These commercials centered around someone on their cell phone going into different places where normally you wouldn’t get a cell signal, but the call would never drop. Verizon used this to show they had the best signal of any carrier.

God shows us He is the same when it comes to being in His presence. There is no-where you can go without him being near. You may feel lonely, forsaken, rejected or just can’t see, hear, or feel God. That may well be what you feel, but the truth is that God is near. He is with you wherever you go!

When you pray you are not communicating with someone half way around the world, not someone who is on the other end of the telephone line, but you are communicating with the Omni-present One. The One who is with you wherever you go!

Abraham had been asked the unthinkable by God. He had been asked to prove his faithfulness to God by offering his only son to God as a burnt sacrifice.

Firstly, Abraham’s son was a miracle God had provided for Abraham. Secondly, Abraham’s son was the beginning of a promise given to Abraham. So in one request God was asking Abraham to give up his miracle and his promise.

However, in a remarkable act of faith Abraham kept God’s request to himself and told everyone that his son and himself would return after they worshipped God even though Abraham knew only he would return. The story continues to the point where God intervenes at the last moment just before Abraham is about to kill the boy and provides a Lamb who would take his sons place as a sacrifice.

Abraham then referred to God as Jehovah Jireh, meaning the God who will provide! I believe Abraham called God by this name because throughout his life God had provided where there was a lack.

God had provided a wife, a prosperous business, safety, fame, a son and now the final act of provision, a sacrifice. He realized that God is the great provider when you can’t provide for yourself.

Abraham is referred to in the New Testament as a friend of God. Friends communicate with one another. They spend time together and they trust each other. God knew he could trust Abraham, and Abraham certainly knew he could trust God.

When you pray today, you may be asking for God to provide. Provide funds, provide health, provide peace, provide favor, provide wisdom or even provide a son. Know that just as Abraham discovered that our God is the great Jehovah Jireh, the one who will provide all your needs!

Well, I have news for you today! There is a God in heaven who is head over heels in love with you and just desires to spend time with you!

There was a story in the bible where two sisters who lived together, Mary & Martha hosted a party for Jesus. The sisters got into a fight because as soon as Jesus arrived Mary stopped working and just spent time with Jesus. Martha was mad and then complained to Jesus about it. Jesus to many’s surprised basically told Martha to chill and be more like her sister! At first glance this can seem kind of weird, but not when you realize that Jesus is God in the form of man and you understand who God is.

In Exodus 20:5 God tells Moses that the people shall have no other Gods before him because he is “Qanna”. The word Quanna means to be Zealous or Jealous. Both of these terms describe God. He is a God who is zealous in His love for us! He pursues us, He longs to be with us and He desires that closeness that only love can desire.

Then he is jealous! Not in a creepy psycho kind of way, but in a true love kind of way. He wants to be first like any lover would. He wants all your attention and is unwilling to share it with others, just like one would not share their husband or wife with others.

God is described in the Old Testament as being the “husband of the nation of Israel”. His love for people is just like a husband in love!

So as you pray and communicate with your Lord today, you are not praying to a God who gives you half His time, or a God who is willing to receive half of your time. You are praying to a God who is “Qanna” for you! He longs for those moments when you talk to him. He dreams of those times when you separate yourself and just concentrate on Him. He desires a closer relationship with you. He is a God who is in love with you! Do not ever forget that!

Both are in business and both provide the public with goods and services. However, when the profits dry up one moves on, but the other keeps creating.

Throughout the Bible one of the most common names associated with God is Elohim. This name while used over 2,000 times is always associated with the Creator God. Many translate it as the God of power or the God to be feared.

However, if Elohim is the Creator God then what significance does that have for you? The significance is that He is the Creator! He is the God who isn’t in the business of making a quick buck and then moving on, no, He is the one who while powerful and to be feared, is committed to you for the long term.

That means when you fail Him, He will not walk away from His creation. When you find yourself broken He will will not throw you out, but work to mend and heal you. When others reject you He won’t listen to the voices of others. When you think you are past it and no longer have anything to offer He knows you still have purpose and desires to use you.

He is the Great Creator, Elohim and He loves His creation.

So as you communicate with God today, whether through words spoken out loud or words you write in a prayer journal, know this; you are communicating with Elohim, the one who does not turn His back on His creation!

This is the truth! Try to avoid paying taxes and eventually the government will catch up with you. Try to cheat death and eventually you will lose. Death is something that is part of our lives. The reality is that everything has a start point and an end point. Not only will our breath one day fail to keep us alive, but every task, every organization, every hobby, every business or institution will one day suffer death. This is just the cycle of life!

However, Abraham that Old Testament patriarch discovered something about God that nothing in this world can compete with. Abraham had just received justice for a previous event in his life when some of his possessions were stolen from him. This event changed Abraham’s perspective on life! I can see him almost having an epiphany like Solomon did in Ecclesiastes. For Abraham he realized that nothing could surprise God. He discovered that what goes around comes around and most importantly he found that God endures through all things. 

For Abraham life was one big journey. People changed, situations changed, culture changed and life changed, yet there was one who did not change. One that did not die and one who did not fail him. We see in Genesis 21:33 that Abraham started to give praise and honor to El Olam. This translates as the God who is everlasting!

This day Abraham discovered that God was not just the God of today but he was the God of eternity! This was a life changer for Abraham. From this day forward he knew that nothing could surprise God for He had seen it all before. He realized that God had been there, done that and got the t-shirt! Whatever life would throw at Abraham from that point on, Abraham knew that El Olam had the answer. 

As you are praying today, you are not praying to a God that will someday die. A God who doesn’t know how things will turn out. A God who is out of His depth. No, you are praying to El Olam! The one who has always been and will always be! The God who is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the Lord who has seen all things and the will endure through everything.

You have a God who does not change and lives forever! Pray with confidence that He has the answer and that He is in control!

I thought this was so sad that someone had to become someone they were not to be set apart. In the book of Exodus God tells Moses that for one day each week they are to set it apart from everyone other day. This day would be a day that was very different from the other six, a day that would be called the Sabbath. On this day the people were not allowed to work in any way. God told Moses in Exodus 31:13 that in the same way they were to set one day apart, so also God would set His people apart from the other nations of the world.

In fact God said to Moses, that he was Jehovah Mekoddishkem, which basically translates as the Lord who will sanctify you or the Lord who will set you apart. God told the people to be Holy as He was Holy. In itself this is an impossible task. We are sinful human beings who do not have the ability to be Holy. Yet Jehovah Mekoddishkem has promised to help us in this task.

God has set you apart from everyone else. He has set you apart for a purpose, a plan. He has set you apart for greatest and for his own pleasure. God has set you apart to become a difference maker, to be a light in a dark world. God has set you apart to be a city on a hill so that all can see. 

As you pray today, know that the God you are praying to is the God who looks upon you as a unique individual who is very different from the rest of the crowd. Different because He is the God who has set you apart. As you pray it may feel like you are swimming against the current, or that everyone else is going in another direction, this is why it is important to know that He is Jehovah Mekoddishkem. You are not supposed to be swimming with everyone else, instead the God you pray to today is the God who has set you apart for great things!