Laura Diehl, Author at GPS Hope Page

December 23, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Are You Looking for God’s Divine Favor?

What would your life look like if you were walking in God’s Divine favor? In Luke chapter one, we read about how an angel appeared to Mary, announcing to her, “Favored one, the Lord is with you.” What was that favor from God going to look like?

She was going to have a child out of wedlock. She was going to be shunned by her friends and family because of it. As a matter of fact, according to the Old Testament law (which she was under) Mary could be stoned to death. Does that sound like God’s favor to you?

Gabriel wasn’t telling her, “God just wants you to know how much He likes you. He favors you. He’s for you. Now go live a happy life with no more problems.” This visit was about a reality that would change Mary’s life forever in an unimaginable way. This event in her life did not seem to reflect God’s favor. Instead, it put her in a terrible circumstance.

Let’s look at some other people in the Bible who had the favor of God.

Abel found God’s favor through his acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. And then he was murdered by his own brother, Cain, who was jealous at not having God’s favor.
Noah found favor with God. He lived righteously in an extremely evil generation. He was mocked and ridiculed as he walked in obedience to God by building an ark on dry ground for 100 years. Then his home, every extended family member and friend he had ever made in life were wiped out. Only Noah and his immediate family were spared because of God’s favor.
Lot found favor with God and was able to escape judgment. God was getting ready to destroy Sodom by fire. This was the town where he had settled his family. God sent an angel to pull him out of that evil place before the fire came. But Lot lost his home, his friends, and even his wife.
Joseph found favor with God and was blessed with prophetic dreams. His jealous brothers were so enraged by his dreams that they threw him in a pit to die, eventually selling him off to a totally different country as a slave. And because of God’s continued favor (which included having him put in prison for several years), Joseph was able to save the lineage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We can see from all of these examples that God’s favor can actually be dangerous. God’s road to His Divine favor can be accompanied by difficulty, hardship, persecution, pain, deep pressure, trials, and tribulations.

Does that look like our definition of favor? When we ask for God’s Divine favor, our mind goes to things like not being in financial difficulty, not having health issues, not having our children wandering in sin, and on and on it goes. And there is no question that God wants to, and will do those things for us.

However, there are two ways God can receive glory from our lives.

He receives glory by pouring out His favor on us in a way that the world can see we are wonderfully blessed, because we serve and love a God who showers us with obvious good things in our lives.
The other way God receives glory is when we go through trials and difficult things in life, but we remain firm, walking in peace, steadfast in our belief in God, and our belief in His goodness. This causes us to come out on the other side full of spiritual fruit grown out of His favor. We are victorious, strengthened, and have a new level of glory and anointing. Plus we are more in love with God than ever before.

What was Mary’s response to the angel after she was told being favored by God meant she was going to be an unwed mother, carrying God’s son? “Behold I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” Luke 1:38.

That is the response I want to have. I hope that is the response you want to have also. No matter how dangerous God’s favor is, I don’t want to trade it in for an easy comfortable life. I don’t want to be off the hook for trouble if it means missing the favor of God!

What people saw in Mary’s situation was not good at all. But what they didn’t understand was that Mary’s situation was actually because she was “highly” favored by God, as the child in her womb was conceived through the Holy Spirit and was God Himself coming to earth as a baby.

We cannot live and walk in fear of what God’s favor might look like to those who don’t understand, and who might even mock, criticize, and judge us. We need to learn to walk in faith, trusting God with full surrender in whatever it is He wants to work into our lives. That does not mean it will be easy, but we can be confident that we will be enabled with His strength, wisdom, and guidance.

When Mary met up with Elizabeth, she didn’t sob on her cousin’s shoulder and ask, “Why did I ever tell God I would do this? This is horrible! I can’t believe God is putting me through this. What kind of a God would do something like this to me, making me an outcast to my family and to society?” No, her response was breaking out into song. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed: for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation,” Luke 1:46-50.

Are you in a difficult position? Is God’s favor the last thing you see in your situation? Guess what? You may be right where God has put you, because His favor is on you. Since when does God do things the way we think He should do them? How often has God stepped in to do something in your life that looked totally different than you thought it was going to look? My guess would be a lot. And living in His Divine favor is no different.

Let the truth of God’s favor begin a song in your heart, as it did with Mary. God is conceiving something new in you. Trust him with all your heart. Trust him with your family. Trust him with your situation. You will see His glory, and you will see the fruit of His favor on the other side.

Gems from the Crown is a weekly blog from Crown of Glory Ministries to strengthen and encourage believers in Christ in their walk with God, especially in the areas of vision, authority, and identity. If you would like to have Gems from the Crown delivered directly to you, please click here.

December 16, 2015 by Laura Diehl 2 Comments

Do You Need God to Show Himself Strong On Your Behalf?

For many years I have loved 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.” It has often been one of my “go to” verses when I have needed Him to step in and “save the day.”

I recently realized this verse is even stronger in its meaning when placed within its context.

Asa was the king of Judah (which was the southern kingdom of Israel after it was divided). A prophet told him in a Scripture familiar to many of us, “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” 2 Chronicles 15:2. (By the way, Asa was also the king that was told the familiar Scripture, “be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded,” 2 Chronicles 15:7.)

Asa took God up on that, and was a good king, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, removing the altars of the foreign gods and causing Judah to go back to seeking the one true Jehovah God. This gave him God’s blessing and favor in his life. God gave his kingdom rest on every side, and they were able to build up their cities and prosper.

Then one day, an army of one million men from Ethiopia came against him. Asa’s army only had 580,000 men.

I am sure at this point, he remembered something that happened to his dad, King Abijah. An army of 800,000 men from the kingdom of Israel came against Abijah’s 400,000. The attacking king split up his troops and set an ambush behind them, so Abijah and his army were surrounded. In other words, there was no hope for their survival. But God Himself struck the attackers, because Abijah and the people cried out to God for help.

So now it is Asa’s turn, and he cried out, “Lord, there is no one but You to help in the battle between the powerful and the weak. So help us, O Lord God. For we trust in You.” (2 Chronicles 14:11). Once again, the Lord Himself struck the enemy, and the nation of Judah prevailed. Not only did they prevail, but they plundered all the spoil of the enemy!

Let’s go forward a few years. Israel is coming against him like they did his father. But this time, instead of seeking the Lord, he contacted the king of Syria, giving him gold and silver from the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of his own house, to get Syria to come help him fight.

They won the war, but a prophet was sent by God to give King Asa a message. First, Asa was reminded how God delivered them from the Ethiopians a few years earlier. And next is when the prophet spoke the words, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to him.”

Because Asa had been foolish, and not looked to God as his source of help, he was told from that point on there would always be wars for him. Asa didn’t like that word from God and had the prophet thrown in prison, but that did not stop God’s word from coming to pass in his life.

So being told God is searching the earth, looking for those who are committed to Him, is in the context of somebody being reprimanded who knew better, but did NOT seek the Lord. It was spoken to someone who had seen God’s hand of faithfulness more than once, but for some reason failed to trust God at that specific time of opposition.

The hardest battle I have ever found myself in was the death of my oldest daughter, a little over four years ago. It took me to a very suffocating dark place. Most parents stay in that place for many years, and some never fully come out of it. It was definitely something that was beyond what I could fight for myself, and the enemy was lined up against me to keep me there in defeat.

Most Christian parents who lose a child are extremely angry at God for not stopping the death of their child. And it becomes even worse when they hear someone give a testimony about how God miraculously spared someone’s life. “Why didn’t He do that for my child? What kind of a God is He, that he would let that person live and let my child die?”

If I wanted to survive this battle, and not only survive but take the spoils of the enemy, I had to cry out to God. And I did. For hours and hours, for days, weeks, and months on end, I cried out to God to pull me out of this black pit that I had been so horrendously thrown into, and to defeat the enemy staring me down.

Somehow I knew, groping around in the darkness, that my only hope to come out of that black pit was by asking Him to come down there with me and fight on my behalf. (And wrote about my battle in a book being published by Morgan James Publishing which will be out in stores July 2016.)

I realized quite early in my life that it doesn’t do any good to fight against God.

Even though there may be deep wounds caused on the battlefield, God can use those wounds in a way that makes us stronger, also causing us to have a greater trust in His love for us, and be more in love with Him after each battle. The victory may not look like what I thought it was going to, but I can usually see where His battle plan really was better than mine. And I have discovered that any wounds I suffered were worth the personal victories I gained.

What battle are you are facing today, this week, this month, or this season of your life?

Don’t be like Asa and think this one is just too big for God. Remember, He is actively searching for those who are in a place that is impossible to get out of in their own strength and in their own wisdom.

And don’t just sit around blaming God that you are surrounded. Instead, invite God onto your battlefield. He has never lost any war He stepped into, and He is not about to start now!

Gems from the Crown is a weekly blog from Crown of Glory Ministries to strengthen and encourage believers in Christ in their walk with God, especially in the areas of vision, authority, and identity. If you would like to have Gems from the Crown delivered directly to you, please click here.

December 9, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Three Ways You Can Be God’s Kingdom Here On Earth

God is for you! He has given you power, love, and a sound mind. So if that is what He has given each of us, how can we live out the truth of those things operating in our lives?

Last week we looked at the first part of 2 Timothy 1:7. This week let’s examine the rest of it, and how it relates to God’s Kingdom working through us.

First, let’s look at the “spirit of power.” That power is His authority He has handed to us to use on this earth against the enemy.

When God speaks, His Word is like a deed to a house. It is a like a legal spiritual document, giving us the rights to whatever promise He has given to us.

However, the enemy acts as a squatter. He will live in that place, taking over what is yours, until you discover him and kick him out. That “deed,” or promise from God in His Word, is the authority you have to do so.

“Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7. It is our responsibility to enforce God’s laws here on this earth. We have to kick the devil out of the places he already knows he doesn’t belong.

There is a way to get stronger in our authority over the enemy, and it isn’t something on God’s end.

Are you aware that you become like the people you spend the most time with? Look at the top five people you spend the most time with, and it will probably be a pretty accurate reflection of who you are. One of the quickest ways to change yourself (your thoughts and actions) is to change who you spend your time with. So if you want to be transformed to be like Jesus, (and have a greater understanding of the authority He has given us) you must be in relationship with Him, and spend time with Him, because He is where our authority comes from.

When our daughter, Becca, had her cancer at age 3, I had a very presumptuous faith. I believed if I spoke it, I would have whatever I said. (Isn’t that what the Bible says?) I told everyone that God was going to heal Becca, so she would not have to have her leg amputated. I thought the more people I told, the more God would have to honor His Word and heal her.

Guess what? On November 5, 1985 at three years old, Becca’s left leg was amputated. Since that time, I learned my authority does not come with my words by treating God like He was some genie in a bottle, but in my relationship with Him; knowing who I am in Him, and who He is in me because of spending time with Him and getting to know Him in an intimate, personal way.

I have been in some situations where there was a demonic stronghold involved that needed to be cut off. When I am called in to do this, I have to make sure I am not doing it from my own head knowledge, but that I do it based on my relationship with Jesus, putting on His authority, like a spiritual garment. (Remember the demon who said in Acts 19:15 “We know Jesus, and we know Paul, but who are you?” and attacked the seven sons of Sceva?)

I take the time to first see myself seated with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6). When I release myself to be in God, the enemy trembles because he isn’t dealing with me, it is the power and authority of God Himself!

What about the spirit of love? This is our identity.

Activity follows identity. Our actions are based on who we believe ourselves to be. I have heard someone tell the story about when they told a friend that someday they wanted to be a writer. The friend responded with, “You are a writer. You just have to write.” That statement changed how he saw himself, and he is now not only a successful author, but teaches others how to become successful authors.

Let me ask you, what are you doing that shows what you believe about your self-identity?

If God is love, and He has given us His spirit of love, then love should become our identity. We are told in Ephesians 3:17 that we are to be rooted and grounded in love. That means it is at the very foundation of our being.

God puts a pretty heavy emphasis on love. Not our conditional earthly kind of love, but His pure and eternal kind of love.

“I may speak in different languages of people or even angels. But if I do not have love, I am only a noisy bell or a crashing cymbal.I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing if I do not have love… And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” 1 Cor. 13:1-3, 13 (NCV).

I have actually found myself praying at times that God would not allow me to flow in the power of the gifts, if I was doing it with a wrong motive and not from His love. If it is that important to God, then it is important to me.

If you walk in Christ’s identity of love, you will be walking in power. Why? Because love never fails! (1 Corinthians 13:8) That is power!

Let’s look at that sound mind He has given us.

First, the meaning of that word “sound” means discipline or self-control.

The NLT version says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”

No matter how you look at it, this is a battle in our minds. And Jesus paid the price for that.

Isaiah 53:5 tells us that He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was put on Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Do you see that?

Chastisement is mocking and tormenting with words. When Jesus was being mocked and tormented by those making fun of Him, that was in exchange for our peace!

The crown of thorns shoved on His head, making the blood run, was paying the price for our minds – our thoughts.

When we put on the helmet of salvation, we are covering our minds with a complete work and the full price of being “saved,” even in our thoughts.

We have a choice in how we use our minds. I am not talking about the thoughts that randomly pop into our heads. We can’t stop those. But we have full control of what we do with those thoughts.

In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are told to bring all of our thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 2:16, we have the mind of Christ.

If we choose to take our personal thoughts captive, knowing we have the mind of Christ, we will see what He sees, and we will have His vision for our lives.

So we can be assured that He has given us a sound mind; a mind of discipline and self-control.

We are not to give in to fear. We are to have His sound mind, His power, and His love (2 Timothy 1:7).

We are to have His vision, His authority, and His identity. We can see the crown, we can wear the crown, and we can be the crown of His Kingdom here on earth.

Gems from the Crown is a weekly blog from Crown of Glory Ministries to strengthen and encourage believers in Christ in their walk with God, especially in the areas of vision, authority, and identity. If you would like to have Gems from the Crown delivered directly to you, please click here.

December 2, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

When Fear and Faith Collide

Do you really know and believe that God is for you? If you don’t, you are going to live in a lot of fear.

Most of us are very familiar with 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

How can we come against that spirit of fear? One thing is to saturate ourselves in the truth of God’s Word. Not just say it in our heads, but take the time to let it settle into our hearts, so that we believe it in a way that changes our thoughts, which changes our actions, and the way we live our lives.

Take a moment and think about what the result of these three scriptures would look like, if the truth of them were fully at work in your life.

Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (NJV)
Ps. 37:8, “Don’t fret and worry—it only leads to harm.” (TLB)
Phil. 4:6,7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (NKJV)

Here is that last scripture in the Message version.

“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Now that is something to spend some time thinking about!

I am sure we can all agree with the scripture in 1 Timothy that fear can cause torment. Especially fear about the future (and even more so when it comes to the future of our children). Once again, the Word of God has something to say about that.

1 Jn. 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (NKJV)

In other words, if you are living from a place of fear in your life, it shows you are not convinced of God’s unfailing extravagant love for you.

And that means you are going to make decisions in your life based on fear. Here is an acronym for the meaning of fear…F-E-A-R…

False Evidence Appearing Real

The enemy is good at doing that in our lives. He causes false things to look so real…things that God can step into and make change in an instant. I often have to remind myself (out loud, making it easier to believe) that I walk by faith, not by sight. I make my decisions based on what I know God has said, and is therefore true, and not based on what I see with my physical eyes or hear with my physical ears (and especially think with my run-away mind).

When I say God can step in and make things change in an instant, I also want to add that what He can change in an instant might not be the circumstance, but often it is my heart within the circumstance. He changes my perspective, showing me what He sees, and that can instantly move me from the torment of fear into the truth of faith.

Have you ever realized that both faith and fear are how we feel about the unknown? We either live in fear, and make our decisions out of that fear of the unknown, OR we live in faith in God, and make our decisions about the unknown future based on our faith in Him to take care of whatever it is we cannot see.

Here are two more acronyms, describing what I just said.

Forget Everything And Run

Face Everything And Rise

Which one are you going to choose?

Gems from the Crown is a weekly blog from Crown of Glory Ministries to strengthen and encourage believers in Christ in their walk with God, especially in the areas of vision, authority, and identity. If you would like to have Gems from the Crown delivered directly to you, please click here.

November 29, 2015 by Laura Diehl Leave a Comment

Presents and Gifts

There are two holidays that get most of us more excited than any others – Christmas and our birthday. What do those two holidays have in common? PRESENTS! It makes sense to give presents to someone to celebrate the day they were born. But have you ever wondered why we exchange presents at Christmas time?

Shortly after Jesus was born, some very important men (called Magi) from a faraway country traveled to give baby King Jesus some very special and extremely expensive gifts (Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11). They were acknowledging what an incredible gift God was giving to us, by sending Jesus here on earth to be a human, living a perfect life, able to die to pay the for the price for our sins. We don’t really know exactly what day Jesus was born, but for all kinds of reasons I won’t go into, December 25^th was picked on our calendar to be the day we remember and celebrate it.

So, the purpose of Christmas isn’t to get (or give) presents. The purpose of Christmas is to celebrate the birthday of Jesus. And since we can’t wrap up and give a present to Jesus like the Magi did, we give them to those we love and are special to us.

Christmas is a birthday celebration of the most important person ever born on this earth! In our family, every year we even have a cake that says, “Happy Birthday Jesus”. I hope you and your family will find ways to remember the greatest gift ever given at Christmas time. It’s not a Christmas gift, but a birthday gift – a gift from the birthday boy to every one of us!