Bill Elliff, Author at Refcast

The Preciousness of Daily Bread

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

Morning by morning, if we look to Him, He will deliver the manna to our door. He provides with tenderness and love and absolute perfection. His timing is always right, often waiting till the midnight hour so we will learn one more lesson that builds our faith and perseverance and gives the watching world a stunning testimony of our Father’s love and faithfulness.

Everyone must eat, and it must be daily. It’s possible to go without food for a while, but it’s not healthy. God has designed us to eat every day.
This is why God’s provision of daily bread is so precious.
Manna in the Wilderness
When God led the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, they quickly ran out of food as they crossed the desert. There were several million in their company, and their immediate response (it always was) was to grumble and complain.
Of course, the Father had a plan. He was leading them, and He leads us in all the right paths for His name’s sake. He used this massive national problem to teach them by providing their daily food in the most precious way.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. (Exodus 16:4)
Every Day Bread
The manna was there every single day for the next 40 years (146,000 days). It was provided the same way each day and precisely in the amount needed.
Read More

.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{align-content:start;}:where(.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap) > .wp-block-kadence-column{justify-content:start;}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{column-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-md, 2rem);row-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-md, 2rem);padding-top:var(–global-kb-spacing-sm, 1.5rem);padding-bottom:var(–global-kb-spacing-sm, 1.5rem);grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd{background-color:#dddddd;}.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-layout-overlay{opacity:0.30;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kb-row-layout-id223392_4ab238-bd > .kt-row-column-wrap{grid-template-columns:minmax(0, 1fr);}}
.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(–global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}}@media all and (max-width: 767px){.kadence-column223392_96a96c-18 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}}

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 30

God’s Sovereign Purposes

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

We will bow because of His greatness but also kneel because of His goodness. We will be stunned by how He has used His power perfectly for the good of all. We will worship His mercy, grace, and kindness and be forever captured by the absolute perfection of His love. We will see and rejoice in His glorious sovereignty.

The word “sovereign” means “one supreme in power; ultimate authority.” When we say that God is sovereign, we are stating the truth that no one is above Him and that He rules over everything. But there is something vital we must understand about God’s sovereignty.
God is God and does what He pleases, but God is good and always does what is right.
To misunderstand either side of this equation is harmful. If you do not believe He is God, you will treat Him lightly and not honor, serve, and properly fear Him. You will not acknowledge His lordship nor bend to His rule.
But if you do not believe He is perfect in goodness, you will think ill of Him and not love and respect Him. Every step of His sovereignty is driven by His goodness. God knows what He is about and is always righteous and good.
The Little Sovereign Faces the Sovereign God
Pharoah, in Moses’ day, was the ruler of the known world. He sat on his throne, thinking there was no one greater. He had the most prominent kingdom and the greatest army on the face of the earth.
All the Pharaohs in succession believed they were gods. Four thousand years later, there are still physical reminders of their dynasty. But a shepherd, directed by the Ultimate Sovereign, came out of the desert to humble him and accomplish Divine purposes. God spoke to Moses with this prophecy.
“But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” (Exodus 7:3-5)
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 33

The Means and Design of His Presence

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

We draw near in our day through the Word of God and prayer, continual repentance and faith, through the filling of the Holy Spirit and joining Him in His mission and continually abiding in Him. He is abundantly available to all those who seek Him, for it has always been His desire to dwell among us and be our God and us His people.

God plans for us to live in the constant, conscious awareness of His presence. He wants us to walk with Him in unceasing communion and unending joy. To this end, He has continually provided the means for this fellowship. If we cooperate, we will know the best of this in this life, a foretaste of eternity.
A Visible Reminder
As God was molding a new nation after He had delivered them from Egypt, He instructed Moses to build a tabernacle in the wilderness to aid this process. It would move with them in their travels and be placed among them when they stopped. It would be central to their encampment, always there, always present.
An Offering
Everything depended upon the people’s willingness to give. So God told Moses to raise an offering of materials to construct this dwelling place.
Tell the sons of Israel to raise a contribution for Me; from every man whose heart moves him you shall raise My contribution.Exodus 25:2
The materials were specific: gold, silver, bronze, fine linen, etc. All these beautiful elements were purposeful and to be given willingly from “every man whose heart moves him.” God could have created this Tabernacle from thin air, but He desired for its building to be a partnership with those He had created in His image. He made us like He is so we could join Him in what He does. And this joint venture was another stunning reminder of that plan.
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 31

Happy New Year!

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

At an opportune moment on the final day of the retreat, Christopher was now ready. He kept telling me, “Well, I need to learn more and grow into this.” Finally, I said, “No, it’s time right now to ask Christ to come in and take control. Are you ready right now to do that?” “Yes,” he said humbly. I called his brother over, and the three of us prayed as Christopher applied the blood of Christ to the doorpost of his life. He was born again.

Where has your life been and where is it now? God is the God of new beginnings. Regardless of where your life has been, if you come to Him in faith, He can make all things new.
A National Delivered
Moses and his kinsmen (several million Israelites) had been in cruel bondage in Egypt for 430 years. There was nothing they could do: no way out and no human means of deliverance.
God knew what He was about for His people to whom He had pledged the Promised Land. On a perfect day, He instructed the people to take an unblemished lamb (a picture of Christ, the Lamb of God who was to come) and place the blood of that Lamb on their doorposts. It would protect them from the judgment coming across the land of Egypt.
All of this was God’s means of deliverance but also a foreshadowing of the future, as everything is. The Messiah (the Lamb of God) was coming. He would become a man and live a sinless life and then die a sacrificial death. His death in our place would be the means of our deliverance from sin, death, and hell.
But …
Something had to happen. The people must believe in God as their only Deliverer, partake of an unblemished lamb, and the blood of that lamb had to be APPLIED to their doorposts.
Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. (Exodus 12:7)
The whole nation of Israel—every household—believed and trusted in the blood of the Lamb to save them. The blood was applied to their doorposts and the Death Angel passed over their lives.
A New Year
God now gave a significant command to Moses and the people.
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 38

Withholding Nothing

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

What are the limits of my faith? Where will I stop when God instructs me to take a hard step?…To even suffer so that His life and sufficiency in me can be more brilliantly displayed for all the world to see?

He said, “Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”Genesis 22:12
The great measure of our spiritual life is how far we are willing to trust God.

If we don’t believe in God’s character, we will never trust Him with anything.
If we are tentative or somewhat unsure of His character and goodness, we may trust Him in some areas, but there is a limit. If that is so, then there is a limit to how greatly God can use us.
But if we are fully convinced of God’s goodness, integrity and faithfulness, we will be willing to withhold nothing from Him in faith. These are the men and women who are most greatly used by God.

This was Abraham’s experience. Abraham’s faith was not built overnight. After a long life of walking with God, He came to the ultimate test. God asked him, now over 100 years old, to take the son he’d waited for all his life and sacrifice him on Mt. Moriah (the same mountain, by the way, where God’s son would later be crucified).
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 53

The Perspective of a Godly, Wise Man

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

Such a man realizes that God oversees everything in his life, and even the worst and hardest events can produce a redemptive purpose. He works all things together for good. Any bitterness or anger at God or man can be laid aside as we see what God is doing.

How we see things is most always through the lens of our particular perspective, our bias. And, it’s not always right. This is why it is so critical to be a man who has humbled himself and listened to God. A man who sees all of life through God’s eyes finds the right perspective. And this changes everything.
Joseph was such a man. It is why his story stands out in human history. Joseph was used by God to deliver the Israelite nation in a time of famine. Indeed, he was used to save the whole world from worldwide famine. God used his brothers’ bitterness and hatred to get Joseph to Egypt and place him in a position where this could happen. Joseph could have been bitter at his brothers for their cruelty, but instead, he saw and embraced the sovereignty of God in all these affairs.
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 32

Alleviating Fear

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

If you have fear in any area, there is one remedy. In prayer and the reading of the Word, listen to God. Let Him remind you of His promises (there are 7,000 in the Bible) and give you direction for your life. And then believe Him.

Everybody has fear. Fear is that anxiety that comes when we anticipate evil or danger, that something could go wrong. It often implies the potential of loss and manifests itself in multiple ways. Pippert said that whatever you fear you serve.
How do You Overcome Fear?
God has continually helped those who turn to Him deal with fear. Look how he helped an aged Israel when there was a total famine in the world, as his son Joseph invited him to leave the promised land and go down to Egypt.
God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he said, “Here I am.” (Genesis 46:2-4)
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 33

Seeing the Face of God

By Bill Elliff — 4 months ago

I cannot imagine the unbounded joy and deep fulfillment of seeing God’s face. It would seem that one look there will explain everything. We will see who He is and understand the height, depth, width, and depth of His love.

There will no longer be any curse and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.Revelation 22:3-4
Through the years, it has helped me to consciously enter the Throne Room of heaven when I come to prayer—to mentally and genuinely come, as Jesus told us to do in Matthew 6:6:
But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
This is not some weird, mystical visualization. It is simply meditating on what Jesus told us to do and the multiple pictures of the throne room, the throne, and “One seated on it” that John gives us in the Revelation.
I envision a door that enters God’s throne room. I walk through the door and close it behind me, shutting out everything and everyone of this world. I turn to face the Father to commune with Him.
Read More

Subscribe to Free “Top 10 Stories” Email
Get the top 10 stories from The Aquila Report in your inbox every Tuesday morning.

Post Views: 43

The Coming Judgment

By Bill Elliff — 5 months ago

For all who doggedly resist Christ, there are days of judgment coming. The Apostle John recorded a revelation of these coming days, and Chapter 14 is profound in its certainty. It speaks of Satan and his work in the final days as it grows darker and more prominent.

People vainly think that they can do whatever they want, ignoring and even blaspheming the God who created them. But the Bible is very clear: judgment is coming for all those who ignore and resist God.
Now is a time of extraordinary mercy when opportunity is given to all to turn to Christ. And, once turning, they will find love that is hard to fathom, mercy that is completely unearned, and blessing that is overwhelming and eternal.
But for all who doggedly resist Christ, there are days of judgment coming. The Apostle John recorded a revelation of these coming days, and Chapter 14 is profound in its certainty. It speaks of Satan and his work in the final days as it grows darker and more prominent. Of evil rulers that dominate the earth and people bowing down to worship him.
Read More
Related Posts:

Post Views: 45

How Important Are Your Prayers to God?

By Bill Elliff — 5 months ago

Prayer is not a side issue. A nice panacea for us when we’re in trouble. A little mantra we chant to make us feel better. Prayer connects us to the God of heaven and can thus do anything God can do. It is not “A” work; it is “THE” work of the believer. We are called to pray about everything; to pray without ceasing. It is our foundational activity.

If God is God, then there are things He values. Some things are important to Him, while others have no meaning or can even be offensive.
God mentions prayer over 650 times in the Scriptures. So, how important are our prayers?
A Sobering Silence
In the great revelation of things to come given to John, there is a stunning period of total silence in heaven.
When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)
What could be so important that all of heaven stops in dead silence? Reading ahead, we see that the mighty final judgments of God were about to be hurled upon the earth for its wickedness. These judgments will be a time of incredible noise and tumult. But preceding these judgments, there is total silence brought about by one thing.
Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. (Revelation 8:3-4)
All of heaven stops for one thing: the prayers of all the saints. Our prayers silence heaven. There are many interpretations of what this heavenly pause means, but this much should be easily understood:
Prayer is important to God.
He created us in His image to rule with Him.
Read More
Related Posts: