Author Archives: Denise Boggs

Fruit From Root Issues

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By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Matthew 7:16-20 (NIV)

 Unhealed wounds create the perfect opportunity for seeds to be sown that create bad fruit many years later. We will reap what we have sown. One tiny apple seed planted in the ground will produce an entire tree filled with fruit. Good seeds like kindness produce good fruit; and bad seeds like resentment produce bad fruit. We can recognize the original seed that was sown by the fruit that is being produced. Many people are unaware that the root issues in their life today, is the result of seeds planted years ago. Jesus made it very easy to see our root issues as He taught how to recognize bad fruit.

Jesus said in Mathew 7:16, “You will fully recognize them by their fruits…” We can look at the bad fruit in our lives or the re-occurring problems to identify what needs to be uprooted. In Matthew 7:16-20, Jesus uses a tree to explain the principle of getting to the root of bad fruit or recurring problems.

 To get to the root issues we must track from the fruit (today) back to the root (when it first began).

  •  The fruit reveals areas of the heart that need healing.
  •  The trunk of the tree is the built-in structure or habits that keep the root issues producing bad fruit (Matthew 7:16-20).

Here is the Answer to Rejection

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Have you ever felt the pain of rejection?  Most people have.

Jesus also experienced rejection from His own people.

“He came to His own people and his own received him not.” John 1:11

He felt the pain of rejection from every relationship.

“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34

On the cross, He cried…

“Father, why have you forsaken me?”  Matthew 27:46

He felt all of our pain at that moment. However, His last words were “It is finished.” John 19:30

Our acceptance was completely paid for by Jesus on the cross.   After suffering on our behalf, Jesus was taken up by Father God and seated at His right hand in the heavenly places.   If Christ is in you, then you have been accepted by God as one of His children.  You too are seated in the heavenly places.

“And he raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Ephesians 2:6

“To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.” Ephesians 1:6

In Christ, you are no longer forsaken, no longer rejected; you are fully accepted in Him!

The Power to Move a Mountain

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“You will know and understand the hope to which He called you and the greatness of His power.” Eph 1:18

faith to move mountainsWe have access to His great power when we are in His will. The power to create the universe, move a mountain and change history is in His hands. He has placed me as His child, His representative on the earth, to call on Him to create, move or change something. Sometimes we get so preoccupied that we forget our purpose.

Have you ever gone into the grocery store and forgotten what you intended to buy? After a couple of steps into the store you have a thousand voices speaking to you!  You see all the brands of cereal and the sales, and you forget what you wanted to purchase.  The same is true in our daily life.  The calls, the options, and the sales grab for our attention. What happened to the still small voice that spoke into your spirit the moment you woke up?  Was it drowned out within the first few steps into your world?  We must realize how Christ was able to carry out His assignment on planet earth. He set His face like a flint towards the cross and He didn’t let anything distract him. The world could not hinder, discourage, slow down nor stop Him.  Know what your purpose is and rely on the greatness of His power to accomplish it.

You Shall Walk

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“You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land which you shall possess.” Deut. 5:33

Walk in HimThe Lord has a path on which we are to walk. We are to walk in His ways regardless of our circumstances.  God promised us in Deut. 5:33 that if we walk in His ways, we will live a long life and things to work together for our good.  Even when our circumstances do not appear to be going as planned, if we walk in the ways of the Lord and trust what He has promised in His word, life will go well. This does not mean there will not be any problems.

As we walk down the path of life, there will be bumps in the road.  Things will happen that we did not plan on, but nothing should change the way we walk. We must still walk in His ways and not veer to the right or to the left.

When our son was in a coma, I could feel the pull moment by moment to give in to fear and to give up and accept the report of the doctors. The doctors said my son would be in a vegetative state if he came out of the coma. But I resisted the pull and I didn’t give in. I trusted in the Lord. God said He would show us the path of life for our son. He said our son would live and not die. As I read God’s Word, He encouraged me to not give up.

“The eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing for joy…” Isaiah 35:5-6

So, I walked in the ways of the Lord, believing His Word. The path of life for our son had been prepared ahead of time and now we had to embrace it by faith. Faith is the assurance of things we hope for even though we may not see them yet. We saw him lying in a hospital bed unable to move, talk or communicate in any way. But we did not give in to what we saw. We had to believe what we did not see. We believed that he would walk and talk again……and praise God he is walking, talking and serving the Lord today.

Whatever you are going through do not give up, give in, or stop walking and trusting in the ways of the Lord. His ways are a high-way above the circumstances. The high-way is the way of faith, believing what God says and not giving in to fear. Don’t let your circumstances dictate your thoughts and convince you that God is not faithful. He is faithful. He will work all things together for good for those who trust in Him. Trust Him and ask Him to show you the path of life.

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Psalm 16:11

Stressed and Distressed? Try Resting in His Arms

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“And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting looking and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him, [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless unbroken companionship]!” Isaiah 30:18 AMP

Have you ever sat for hours, listening to someone talk and thought to yourself, “I sure wish they would just get to the point?” I have! I have heard many teachers try to explain God’s love by using so many words and by the time they were finished, I had lost their point in the explanation. Over the years I have prayed, “Lord, just make it simple, so I can understand. I want to get it.”

As I read Isaiah 30:18, everything that describes God’s love to me was wrapped up in this verse. I felt completely safe, secure, and loved as I read it. Nothing could confuse or take the truth of His love from me. It was if I was taken up in His arms, and at that moment, I was held so securely I would never doubt again. He loves me so much and He has been waiting on me to fully receive His love.

He loves you too! He is looking, watching, and longing to be gracious to you. He has poured His loving kindness and tender mercies out and is watching and waiting for you to receive them. Like the father of the prodigal son, he was waiting, watching, and longing to see his son come back home. When the prodigal son finally came back home, his father wrapped his arms around him and covered him with the finest robe. Everything the father owned had been his.

That is how I see God; His arms opened wide with a robe just my size in His hands, waiting to wrap it around me. I am His daughter, and He has been patiently waiting on me. He says, “Daughter, I have been waiting on you to come and receive all I have prepared for you. All my blessings are contained inside of my love for you to receive.”

God’s desire has always been to show you how much He loves you. Simply receive it, and you too can rest in His arms all day.

Find Your Purpose and Stay in Your Seat

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“Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places” Ephesians 1:20

“And He has raised us up together and made us sit together in Christ Jesus”. Ephesians 2:6

Jesus is seated by the right hand of the Father and He doesn’t get up out of His seat. But we get up, just as a little kid has a hard time sitting still in church. They squirm, wiggle and always need to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom. Maturity is all about learning how to sit down, and stay seated in our seat, our place of authority, not distracted and pulled by our fleshly needs and the world around us.

Once you finally find your seat, your position or God’s purpose for your life, you need to stay seated in your seat. God’s power that worked in Christ and raised Him from the dead also raised Him into His final seat of authority. The power of God placed Jesus at His right hand in heavenly places. That same power is working in me to lift me up out of sin and to break behavior patterns that have been learned and embraced due to generational iniquities. As I overcome these sins and the pull of iniquity, I can feel myself getting lighter and lighter, until I am seated in heavenly places, high above my circumstances, high above principalities and powers of darkness

Deal With Offenses by Magnifying The Lord

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“Oh, Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3

Have you noticed the increase in the opportunities to be offended? Even after 25 years of marriage to my husband, I sometimes get offended by what he says. As a wife, I may know he doesn’t mean something the way I took it, but I still feel a huge pull to be offended. I believe in the day we are living, the days prior to the return of the Lord, there will be a greater pull than ever before to be offended. Jesus taught us in Mathew 18:7 that offenses will surely come. In Mathew 24, when the disciples asked Jesus what the signs of His return would be, He said in verse 10, “And then shall many be offended…” So we should not be surprised when we feel the pull to be offended. The question is: how fast do you move past an offense? Jesus made it possible for us to be able to move past offenses very quickly.

I must constantly remind myself that we are in “the time,” the days before Jesus returns. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, that there would be a great falling away in these days. I believe the falling away is due to being offended. If your love waxes cold according to Mathew 24, you will fall away.

I know when I am offended, I must quickly forgive. Forgiveness is the only answer! It is the way of escape! The quicker I forgive, the quicker I come back into my right mind. When I am offended my soul is in control. When I forgive, my spirit rises up above my soul and takes back over.

I have learned that when I am offended everything is distorted and even my emotions become out of control. When I am offended at a person I will see them in a distorted way, bigger than they really are. I will become overly focused on them. They become the center of attention and all I talk about for days. Every conversation even goes back somehow to what offended me.

The more we put our focus on those who offended us, the more magnified they become. This could cause our heart to wax cold and may lead us to sin against God. He is the only one we are to magnify. When we focus on others and what they did to offend us, we make them bigger than God.

Oh, Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. (Psalm 34:3).

So right now press the minimize button and minimize the person who has offended you. Bring them down to the right size and forgive them. Remember, if it were not for the grace of God you might have done the very same thing

Hold On To Hope

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“We who have fled to Him for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope that has been appointed for us” (Hebrew 6:18).

What are you hoping for: a new job, a husband, a wife, or healing of a loved one? For that which you are hoping, let me encourage you to tighten your grip. It is time to securely grab hold of whatever the Lord has promised you. Don’t let it slip out of your hands and don’t give in to even the slightest disappointment. Spend time with the Lord and this is what happens: “We who have fled to Him for refuge might have mighty indwelling strength and strong encouragement to grasp and hold fast the hope that has been appointed for us” (Hebrew 6:18).

There is something God has appointed for you. When you give-in to disappointment you are in essence saying, “I no longer believe that what God has appointed for me, will take place.” Disappointments will cause you to let go of the hope. It is like you have been swinging on a rope across a huge cannon, and you let go of the rope right before you get to the other side. When you give in to disappointment, you can feel yourself sliding down the rope. If you give in, your strength will grow weary and you will completely let go.

I know this is how it works. Right now I have burn marks on my hands from letting the rope slip through my hands. Disappointments are coming from every side. I have been so bombarded by disappointments that I gave in to them. When a friend pointed out that I was disappointed, I said “You better believe I am disappointed”. I began to give her a list a mile long. I wanted her to understand all the things that disappointed me.

But the Lord would not allow me that privilege. He lovingly said, “That is what you receive when you are in kindergarten.” Then I remembered. In kindergarten when it rained and we were disappointed because we could not go outside and play, my teacher would give us a sucker. The Lord reminded me, “You are not in kindergarten and you cannot give in to disappointments.” I must adjust my grip and hold on. Paul said it in Hebrews 6:18, “hold fast to the hope that is appointed for us.” The word appointed means it has been prearranged and set before me. All I do is grab it and hold on tight to Hope. Hope is the anchor of my soul.

Place Your Cares on Him, and Rest in the Lord

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“Cast your burdens upon the Lord” (Psalms 55:22).

Rest in the LordCasting a burden upon the Lord means you turn the burden over and release it to Him. Every burden has a weight, and some are heavier than others. The Lord knows we can only carry a burden for a short amount of time before we begin to slip and fall under the weight of it. God calls us to bear one another’s burdens only long enough to bring them to Him. Remember, the Lord will not put more on you than you can carry.

If you are weary, it is time to cast your burden upon the Lord.  He says, “Come unto me all ye that are weak and heavy laden (weighted down) and I will give you rest, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  As you rest, learn of me, and find rest for your soul.”

You will know you have cast the burden down when you begin to experience His rest. So why not enter into His rest today?

In His Presence, There is Fullness of Joy

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“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; prayer, that goeth not out for feigned lips.”

(Psalms 16:11)

“Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.”

(Psalms 17:5)

As we travel down the path of life, the Lord will make the path very clear.  The right path of life leads you to do what is right.  You know you are on the right path by the peace that comes as you choose to do what is right. Sin draws you away from God’s presence and the right path.  When you continue in sin, you travel down a path farther and farther away from God. You feel lost and alone, far away from home.  The steps to get back home can be found in His Word.

The Psalmist declares  “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”   (Psalms 119:105)

Just like Adam, we still run and hide from God when we feel guilt or shame. When we have sinned, we need to run toward Him for forgiveness. We need to say, as David did, “I said, Lord, be merciful to me: heal my soul; for I have sinned” (Psalm 41:4).  We are all, at times, like a prodigal son that needs to run back home. As we repent, we begin walking on the right path to our Heavenly Father, who is always waiting at the door for us with His arms open wide to receive us.

Pray and ask God to help you to get back on the right path that will lead you home.