Words That Change What Is

The Holy one calls to me this morning.  After last night's thunder storm, His gentle voice is a sweet reminder of His love.  Elijah knew when to exit the cave where he was hiding and it wasn't during the wind, the earthquake or the fire. 

The Lord spoke in a gentle whisper and when he heard it, Elijah came out to the mouth of the cave.  I Kings 18:11-13

Threats on his life were what sent Elijah into survival escape mode.  I can't say I don't understand how he felt.  Making a stand in the world especially as a Christian, brings forms of persecution that threaten to rock our boat.

Elijah had just executed Jezebel's priests of Baal.  He had just brought forth a challenge to the Nation of Israel, to turn from their idolatry and come back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In addition to the supernatural proof of God's Sovereignty AKA the fire from Heaven called down by the Prophet,  Elijah also heralded the end of a drought, and famine caused by the lack of rain that the people had suffered under a covenant breaking curse. 

I appreciate the entirety of God's Word and while the prophets of old often brought news of impending disasters, I see that for every "curse" there was a "blessings" once the people did a course correction in their lives.  

I appreciate the account of Elijah and even the "fear" recorded here because, if this great man of God could run in fear of a murderous spirit, I realize I am in good company when fear strikes my mind and my heart.

The truth be told, I have a "leg-up" on Elijah.  I have a permanent anchor to God from within.  I have the Holy Spirit who indwells my being.  I am not alone.  His gentle voice wells up from within to speak truth, not from outside my cave.  I can hear Him when I choose to listen and He always has something important to say.

For a long time, the Holy One has been teaching me deep lessons on changing the rules of engagement in the battles I face in life. The internal process is called Sanctification, but the outward effect is call victory over the darkness.

"Guard your words", the all too often overlooked warning in taking my turf for the Kingdom of Heaven, is the message I have been getting over and over again. The  "Voice" is commanding but gentle.  His voice calls me to see that heeding this warning is critical to the victories I so desire.  The strategy hasn't changed over all the generations and skirmishes with the enemy of our soul.

Victory lies within the power of the spoken word.  Not just any spoken word, but the word of the Creator God.  Scripture tells us and it is written:  God spoke all things into existence.  We are His workmanship and embedded within our being is the delegated authority He has given man to represent Him and His kingdom on earth and over the earth. 

It is ours to have and take dominion over our circumstances and especially those things not in keeping with the Word of the Creator.

This is information the "enemy" does not want us to have or act upon.  We do have an "enemy" in this earth realm.  His oppressive tactics have worked to keep us in bondage to a power-less neutral state of being. 

We can "see" with our eyes what evil has worked into our circumstances and then resign ourselves to the "evidence" and belief that things are just what they appear to be.  But is that true?   Where does faith for better things enter in...like God's Will...Heaven's Will and when does that become our reality in the earth realm?  How do we begin to change "what is"?

It is imperative that we understand the most devastating thing to our dominion over the earth is when we speak words of agreement with the devil's dominion and control over our lives.

God's Word and His Will is to bless His people.  Jesus came to represent the power of Heaven and the Will of the Father and Creator of all.  Jesus came and over-ruled evil's agenda.  He delivered, He healed, He blessed.  His life and sacrifice changed the dark's dominion over earth. Jesus won and gave dominion back to man.

The Word of His testimony and the power of His blood defeated all the forces of darkness we find coming against us in the world today.  But what are we doing with such an epic legacy?  Some how it doesn't "look" like I am  winning and I have been asking the Holy One,  "why"?

In answer to that wide-open-too-many-reasons-to-explain kind of a question, I am surprised by His response.

"Worthless words" was His reply. "Every time you speak what you see or fear, antagonistic to God's Word and His Benediction over you, you are agreeing with evil and fueling it's power over you."

You mean to tell me that every time I speak what I see is wrong or fear will happen, that it empowers the darkness and it's grip over my circumstances?

Hearing my thoughts, The Holy Spirit speaks, "That about sums it up. You have been relinquishing your dominion by your spoken faith in evil's power over your declaration and faith in God's power.  You must speak what you desire not what you fear. The Word of God contains a promise for all you could want or need.  Discipline your spoken words and watch things change".

While I am not fond of "discipline", if I want to see things change I need to make this vitally important effort to guard my words.

The Lord never forces His will, but since I know that His Will is best, I happily agree to allow Him to govern my tongue.  Since He is my Source, I will listen for and speak out His words that will change what is.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

  


 

Blessings Follow Obedience

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  His Presence fills the room and with that comes delight.  My Holy Counselor has been teaching me a lot in this new season of my life.  Much of my "education" has been to unlearn old things rather than learn new things.

While I know Truth as a whole, there has been error mixed in,  Those errors have put me in forms of bondage that I was set free from when my Savior was nailed to the cross.  My perspective is changing and the blessing of His wisdom is peace.

It's amazing how many times it has been written:  "Do not fear", "fear not", "be anxious for nothing", yet fear has seemed to prevail in every challenge with the unknown.  Today my gentle Counselor calls me to consider why fear is unnecessary as a servant of the Most High.

"Fear is bound up in judgement and judgement is bound up in the law.  Jesus came to set you free from all of it".  Wow, what an accurate assessment of the subtleties of wrong thinking and the hope of a greater freedom to be experienced.

When Jesus died on the Cross, He said in a loud voice, "It Is Finished!"  We read those words yet forget what they meant.

The Levitical priesthood, was the core authority for the Nation of Israel historically and most of our laws trace back to theirs.  The relationship with the Sovereign God of all creation was distant and only a few were given privilege in their human form to participate in relationship.  Few found what we have been offered today.

The "law " for all our human attempts to live by it, could not change a heart. The law only proved our desperate depravity.  Flesh is consumed with self-preservation, self-promotion and lusts.  Flesh distorts even the highest principles of good character, and ends up on it's own throne and sets it's own rules of engagement in life.

The law was a target no man could hit.  God's used the "law" to convince us of our own inability to successfully work for His acceptance.   He used the "law" to point out our desperate need for a Savior and then sent His Son, Jesus, to rescue humanity who could not rescue itself.

I notice that observation of the "law" back in the day,  kept humanity at a distance from the Holy One, then, just as it does today.   For some there is a little box that is entered where sins confessed and penitence paid is supposed to bring us back into right relationship with God.  Unfortunately that does not make one right with God.  We cannot atone for our failures. 

Much like the "Tent of Meeting" in the Old Testament, there was a curtain that separated the people from their God.  Only the "High Priest"could enter the Holiest of Holies and then only on a certain day, in a certain way was the advance into His Presence,  acceptable to the Most High.  The people had to maintain a respectable distance or suffer extinction.  Jesus came to change all that.

While we, the Church have lost some of the rigidity and obedience to the "law" it still impacts our lives in countless ways.  We claim we are free, but observe the very thing that nailed our Savior to the Cross. 

As an example, The Holy One speaks of the "law" of tithing.  I feel the weight of that law.  He takes me back to the reason for that law, where I find it was establish for the most part to provide for the Levites who were commissioned to serve in the temple and were not able to "work" fields or support themselves or their families outside of their calling. 

God was simply providing for His servants through the "law".  Today, our failure to observe the "law" produces guilt and condemnation in the heart of most believers. 

Does God need our worldly possessions and money that we have such a tight grip on in our temporal lives?   Or does He have a higher end in mind?

Psalms 50:9-15, "I have no need of a bull from your stalls, or a goat from your pens, for every animal in the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills.  I know every bird on the mountain and the creatures of the field are Mine.  If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine and all that is in it.  Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? Sacrifice thank offerings to God.   Fulfill your vows to the Most High and call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will honor Me."

The law is good for society to maintain order and boundaries for our selfish flesh to live within.  It is good for it emphasizes the point that we, in human flesh, cannot meet or live up to God's standard of life and Holiness. But the law, does not change the heart of the human.  In this time of Grace, once we have been  rescued,  the law produces guilt and condemnation, and cannot co-exist with the Grace that God has given through the shed blood of Jesus. 

When Jesus said that He came to fulfill the "law" and then from the Cross, shouted "It is finished", the curtain in the Temple that separated man from His Creator was torn in two...top to bottom...came down from Heaven and opened the way, into the Holy Place of God's Presence.

God, in the Person of Jesus Christ, reached out to our humanity like never before, to reveal Himself as in no other time in the History of our days upon the earth.

As we set about to "obey" the law, the rules, or the requirements of the Church to be a member, may we instead consider this:  If we are truly "saved" we have already "obeyed" the only thing needed in God's extravagant offering: Acceptance of His rescue through Jesus Christ His Son.  There is nothing more to be done or worked out in order to be "right" with God.

However, the flesh has a throne of it's own to exalt and that is where we must put the "work".  We are free from the "law" that was set up externally to govern our flesh, but we find that a new internal code has been established that we know as the 'law of love'.  For this purpose, Jesus sent His Spirit to dwell within and empower us to live out His Holy life. 

To follow His earlier example, in the "law" of tithing, the Holy One calls my attention to the conviction of sharing and giving: not under compulsion, but rather the sweet desire to be a blessing to the world around me.

If I say "no", when He asks me to share or give, I will not be condemned, but I will miss out on a blessing that He has waiting for those who obey His voice from within.  Blessings do follow obedience, not to the "law" but to the voice of my Shepherd.

The Spirit is calling.  can you hear Him?

  

 

Living In Community

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  It is Sunday.  A day of some semblance of community.  For a few hours we come to a common place to exercise a common faith in a common Savior.  It's a snippet of Heaven that many actually find  hard to relate to.

The Holy One speaks to the deep in me.  For months I have been out of that kind of fellowship for reasons know only to the One who plans and gives Divine purpose to my life.

He told me going into this "season" that if I cannot get to the "Body" (Of Christ AKA the Church), He would bring the Body to me.  God is faithful to His promises and His Will, so fellowship has continued even if in a different location and way.

Walls between denominational loyalties have vanished and relational community with those of like spirit and calling is beginning to bud and flourish.

This morning, in the meditations of my heart, the Holy One speaks.  "Look at what sullies the community of believers".  I can tell by His words that this is going to be a new angle on an old problem. He reminds me of the Garden where man's origins lie, before "community" became the "society" we see today.

He directs my attention to the Words of the Creator at the foundation of the world.   In Genesis 1, God gave Adam the blessing and commission to be fruitful and multiply.  He gave the commission and authority to rule over creation.  Absent is any commission to rule over each other or make another man your slave.

Then came the horrifying fall: Chaos and confusion ensued.  Man and woman tried to hide rather than repent so God issued a discipline over mankind that was to establish a form of order that had been lost in the fall.  Woman would have pain in childbirth and problems in the marital relationship.  Man would have hardship in his work and frustration in his dominion over the earth.

The original benediction was withdrawn as Adam and Eve rejected fellowship with their Creator.  The nature of sin is self exaltation.  Every man became his own god.  Over the course of time and throughout history a "top-dog" mentality became the rule of community.

Without Divine intervention and  a set of laws to govern society, man,  no doubt,  would have utterly destroyed himself.  In the Old Testament, man was given a government of laws and penalties for breaking them.  Generations passed under the watchful eye of our loving Creator.

Then something happened.  Something beyond human imagination.  The Creator took the form of His Creation to rescue mankind from the horrors of the fall.

The magnificent Centerpiece of God' eternal plan for the restoration of relationship with His Beloved came to us when Christ was born in a flesh body.  Since flesh is the place of weakness in the one who was created in the very image of God, flesh has to be crucified so the real image of God through man can emerge.  Jesus allowed His flesh to be impaled as a model to be followed.  The crucifixion of the flesh comes in all sorts of challenges and opportunities to impale it are found present in each and every day.

While Jesus was sent to die the "sinner's death", He modelled for us what our life in community was to look like.  God's ultimate "law of love" was instituted at that epic crossroad and Cross.

Jesus' death was the death to sin in all forms and the fulfillment of the law.  He impaled flesh, the real enemy of Holiness, to the Cross.  Our relational peace with God was restored and the original benediction over His beloved has been reinstated for those who choose to follow Christ Jesus.

Herein is the Truth and message to me this morning:

Because of the infection called sin brought into man at the fall, even the "discipline" God intended to teach us has been twisted and corrupted.  The depravity in man and the provoking of our flesh by dark spirits from another realm, drives people to abuse each other, lord it over each other and enslave each other whether by seduction or chains.

The message of the Holy One comes at cross purpose to the intent of the fallen: which is to rule and dominate from a self-serving mindset.  Jesus said He came not to be served but to serve.  And that He did!

Looking at the life of the Savior throughout the Gospel accounts of His days upon the earth, I see how He took dominion over all that was hurtful and harmful to people who crossed His path, yet not a sword was drawn nor an effort made to force their surrender.

Jesus modelled the nature of a servant in the power of a Master.

He did not "lord it over" people but rather took dominion over their circumstances, and the issues that were causing them suffering, sorrow and pain. For those of us who are called by His Eternal and Sovereign Name and filled with His Holy Spirit, His words and His legacy remain on this earth for us to embrace, follow and live.

Phil 2:3, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests but to the interests of others".

The crucifixion of our own flesh comes in the actions of prioritizing and serving someone else's needs in addition to our own.  Selfish ambition excludes others and that is the point to the directive.

When Jesus walked the earth, He surely fed Himself and took care of things His own life needed, but in the situations He faced on His journey, He ministered to the needs of others.  At the end of a long hike up a mountain when people followed Him to hear His teaching,  everyone was hungry.  In considering His need and the needs of the disciples, He looked to the interests of the crowd as well and fed 5000+ people.

Compassion and sympathy for the suffering and needs of others preceded every miracle.  We can make excuses for our indifference and say "Yes, but He is God",  while refusing to draw from the Holy Spirit He sent to empower us to live as He lived and serve others as He served.  Selfish ambition and vain conceit doesn't even look for a way to help another it is so focused on "numero uno" in the flesh life.

Jesus' parting words should be as loud as a cymbol in our community of Faith, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

Community as God ordained and designed it requires each one of us to be a servant of the other. When we finally get the picture of our true "dominion", not in the exercise of  self-exaltation and ultimate power to rule over others, but in the exercise of our authority over circumstances that cause pain and suffering to our fellows, the Church will begin to fulfill her designated destiny to Glorify Jesus as His body and Representative on earth.

 The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

    

  
 

Living In The Land of Exile

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  A new lesson has begun in my training as a bond slave of Jesus.  While nothing changes the Sacred Romance, there are days when the depths of our love bond is being tested.

At one moment in my temporal marriage, when the  mountain seemed too high to climb, I was on the verge of giving up and walking away.  The voice of my Beloved spoke,  "I know your hurt, your pain, even your confusion, but I want you to go back in there and die for Me one last time". 

The death He was asking me to die wasn't anything more than pride, but it seemed so painful at the time.  Little did I know that it was the "one last time" when I would have the opportunity in my marriage to serve the Lord's good purpose in my earthly husband's life.

Today there is much happening that can be twisted by an evil voice in the darkness to blame the God who created and loves us for the horrible tragedies we see and experience or give up on the thought that goodness and mercy can prevail on a fallen earth.

The temptation is to express words of despair or anger or unbelief, all worthless words that set a tone for more fear to dominate and impact others.

The Lord gently moves me on in my meditation.  "Those devastated on earth need to hear truth.  Truth can be hard but it does bring much comfort to the soul."

The Truth is that eternity looms large in front of all of us.  There is no guarantee in this life as to the length or duration of the temporal.  But if we live as if the temporal is all there is, the hardship or heartache brings on a despair so deep and dark, it chokes out the goodness that can be found as we pass through the land of the living.

The awe and wonder of our Creator is in His love and there is where we find our hope.  I Corinth 2:9 says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him".  I can't even imagine.......

During the election cycle of the past, I focused on the words spoken by one who wanted to change the U.S.A.  His words were superficially sweet but sent a chill up my spine for what it would mean for America to undergo such a change.  I entered into a time of mourning for what I perceived to be the death of the country I love.

The Lord heard my weeping and put truth in my heart and  mind.  The Holy One told me then, "This land is not your home.  It has never been anything more than the land of exile".  Those were shocking words to my heart and my political agenda.  I erroneously believed that somehow we could make America here like the Kingdom of Heaven in my heart.  Until Jesus returns to rule and reign as the Majestic King that He is, no government on earth will ever be perfect.

This past weekend was  a National holiday to remember those who have fought and died for the principles of freedom that America's government is based upon.  We celebrate the ultimate sacrifice each has made.  With humble gratitude we honor the fallen and those on the front lines still fighting to protect the "Land of the Free".   We salute those who have returned home as heroes, having seen the horrors of war so others don't have to.

For the Christian whose heart is fixed on Eternity, this land is not our home.  No matter where we pitch our "tent" here on earth, we are just passing through.

Back in Jeremiah's day, when the Lord spoke through His Prophets, He gave a message to the Children of Israel on this very subject.  Jeremiah sent a letter from the Lord to the "exiles" who were living in Babylon. 

The Lord calls me to read it again and apply it's directive to life today.

Jeremiah 29: 4-7:  " This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to all of those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,   Build houses, and settle down.  Plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters.  Find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so they too may have sons and daughters.  Increase in numbers there and do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city (land) to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers so will you."

Tucked into this message is a picture of God's world view and His purpose in the world:  His people, carried by Him into a land not their own with a commission and a command to live and prosper there.  A quick read of the text brings a revelation of God's Will for us in this temporal life experience.

God moves His people into foreign places (whether neighborhood, communities or really foreign lands) to represent Him to the world around us.  We lose His  perspective when we wall ourselves off and isolate to live out all our "doomsday-prepper" scenarios.  We may not be as "radicalized"as some but the walls between us are as fixed as the barbed wire around the compound.

What gets defeated in the practice of judgement and isolation is the Heavenly war for souls;  those precious to the One who gave all men the breath of life, and the One who died that all may live in the Eternal Presence of Holiness.

There is great news for us as believers within the "Great News" for the world at large.  The "Great News" for the world is that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, JESUS, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM (as the Son of God,  what He did for us through His death and what He made available for us through His resurrection) WILL NOT PERISH, but WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

Within that great news of eternal life is the promise of His presence in the temporal world as well.  God can and will make a distinction in the lives of His people.  But never lose sight of His reason:  That the world will see Him in us, and desire to join the family and community of believers in the one true God and His Son Jesus.

This is not about a bank account or all the "fixins" of a gilded life.  The Gospel must be as true here as it is in 3rd world countries, just relative to our surroundings. 

I pray for  peace so that in each trial that will come, others will come to know His peace through my life and example. I pray for prosperity so that as I am taken care of, others will come to know the security of His provisions through my life and example.

Opportunities abound in the land of exile to represent Christ to the world around us just like in the final days of my marriage.  The question to each one of us who "know" the Lord is: "Will we take them?"

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?
 

Eternity Now

The Holy One calls me this morning with exciting new thoughts of Eternity.  We live at an accelerated pace in the advancement of technology and knowledge.  We live at an accelerated pace in travel and communication.

People are racing toward the next weekend, the next romance, the next promotion, or the next acquisition to make temporal life more comfort.  The world is racing in an accelerated pace toward something and few recognize it as Eternity.

God's Word says that "with the Lord, a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day".  II Peter 3:8   The Holy One speaks to remind me that God does not view time as we humans do.

The Lord has provided for my Kingdom education and I am in this season finding the time to to sit and savor rather than strive and stress with things happening that I cannot control.

The most exciting and fascinating thing to come out of His command to "wait, watch and worship", is the grasp of what time may actually be, in light of Eternity. 

Given the description of II Peter 3:9, we sometimes resign ourselves to have to "wait" for God to move in our behalf. 

I understand that God inhabits Eternity and that, (while a mind bending thought) reveals the truth that He is beyond our comprehension of time and space. 

When we follow the directives given to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven", we may fail to take into account the absence of a clock and calendar to Heaven's Will. 

Heaven's Will is bound up in the Great "I AM".  "I  AM" as God describes Himself, is always in the "present" moment.  If I truly believe that, then His will doesn't require time on my calendar and clock to become my reality.

Could it be that this dynamic is how Jesus conferred miraculous, instantaneous healings over people on earth?  And then again, why Jesus said to His followers in John 14:12, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me, will do what I have been doing and will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father".

What does it take to experience the fulfilling of that outrageous promise?

First and foremost is the relationship to the One who made the promise.  Jesus said, "I am the Vine, you are the branches.  Apart from Me you can do nothing".   We must be in that very special relationship with Jesus that He describes as "Vine Life".  John 15

Next is the relationship we have with the Holy Spirit. He is the One, Jesus said would be our enabler and the very One who would teach us all things and remind us of everything He said in His written legacy.  John 14

By and through our relationship with the Savior and the Spirit, we are then invited into relationship with the One who resides in the Holiest of Holies, the Father God and Voice that called all things into existence.  Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life and no one comes to the Father except through Me."  John 14:6

And then there is the relationship we have with the physical world around us, and this is the place where most fail and why we experience and witness so little of what Jesus did.  Our relationship with the temporal is so strongly connected with our flesh that we speak out flesh fears.  Our flesh is so convinced by what we may see in one moment that we denied what can change about our circumstances in the next. Words have creative power so these words influence our life and what happens.

Believing God, Who is Spirit and resides in a realm beyond our senses, makes it necessary for us to trust Him to be outside the human reasoning, and above and beyond our comprehension or what we "see" with our human eyes.

If we can push to that place of Truth, then we can push a little further to the place where all things are possible and what we dream about is already a "done did deal".

The Spirit is calling me to that place and I am excited to see what will happen in the next season of my life. The idea of time in light of Eternity is a thought still a little "ethereal" to me. When I am being taken in an unfamiliar direction by the Holy Spirit, He will pose questions to stimulate my thinking and extend my grasp or understanding of His ways. Today begins the "what-ifs" and"why-nots" that open up a whole new arena of thought.

I find myself looking at things like the "compression of time".  When a person falls victim to sickness and disease, not unlike some of Jesus' patients, the natural world tells us that time for healing would be days, weeks,  months, years or never to be expected on earth.  Yet Jesus brought instant relief to the afflicted, and defied the natural "law" by operating in God's Eternal Law of the "Present".

If time does not exist in the Spirit realm, then answers to our prayers and petitions can come instantaneously, just like Jesus modelled. 

What if delayed answers are nothing more than the time it takes for us to wrap our brain around God's willingness to provide them?

What if we accept the fact that the Spirit realm is the real realm and the natural world is just a shadow?

What if, as soon as we petition from our right relationship with the Promise giver, we believe and declare the answer is granted?

I have to admit the revelation of possibilities is causing my Spirit to soar against the caution of the flesh to slow my roll.  But I have lived long enough in places of deferred hope and resigned delays in the answers to life's challenges that I am ready to learn more and live in light of Eternity Present.

How about you?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?






 

Wait, Watch, Worship

Today the Holy One calls to me.  New life springs out of the rocks in the forest.  Tiny but exquisite flowers are finding their way from the crevices to delight the eye of those who take the time to look for them.  The message of "slow down" seems to be coming from my Counselor and Friend.

What an interesting, message considering where I am in my life journey.  Last July, life took a sudden turn and I found myself a widow after 31 years of marriage to a move and a shaker.  This life change seems more like a shut down than a slow down so the "message" is curious to me.

Gone are most of the old ways of familiar activities.  It's interesting to discover how much I used to do to keep up with his energy level and his drive.  I guess as a wife we all can and do become the "cog" in someone else's wheel.    

As I look back, I have to admit I was a "hoop-jumper" going through the motions and trying to meet the expectations of another.  Performance has been an issue all my life so performance anxiety presses down upon the flesh emotions that I learned to live with. 

Tension is a familiar feeling and an unwanted intruder, yet it has always lived side-by-side with the other voice of self-preservation, "I am woman, hear me roar!"

Since I have had to accept the new normal AKA widowhood, I realize the old life is gone. There is a future and a hope but different now that I am facing the challenges without the human husband I lived with for so much of my earthly life.

The call of the Spirit this morning takes me to His Word, Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God".  Today the sense of the verse is the power within it.

The Sovereign God of all Creation spoke it.  His Divine Will is in it.  Power beyond all comprehension stands behind it.

There always seems to be a "moment" right before a great display of nature's power is unleashed that we know to be the calm before the storm; the still before the rush of a tornado; the silence in the atmosphere as Creation seeks to hide from its Creator.

"Be still and know that I am God" is only part of that verse.  It continues on to say, "I WILL be exalted among the nations.  I WILL be exalted in the earth".

While so much of our earthly life boils down to the pursuit of individual, happiness and whatever it takes to obtain our personal goals, this verse commands our attention upward toward the Almighty God enthroned in Heaven.

I have learned over the last year that this life is tentative.  It can be over in a heartbeat or on a day we least expect it to end. We are not in control of life or death no matter how hard we may try to self-protect. 

I am so thankful when I hear the comforting voice of my Savior no matter what He speaks.  I trust Him with all my life circumstances.

Leading up to the translation of my earthly husband, my Lord spoke calming directives for each day's struggles and challenges.  Just like in the days of Abraham I found Him to be my faithful friend.  "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?"  Genesis 18:17

My relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ traverses decades.  I have walked with Him for most of my life.   He has never left me nor forsaken me even when I failed, I betrayed, and I stumbled on the journey.  He was always there to pick me up, dust me off and put my feet back upon the higher ground.  He has also been the wind beneath my wings when I found the courage to soar.

When He speaks, I know to listen.  My Lord knows the end from the beginning of all things.  He knows the pathway ahead and the twists and turns of each day's events before they touch my life.

Today, when He says, "slow down", I need to make some changes even if I have not registered my own speed on the trail.  There are important things I might miss, but even if it is just to linger longer so I can catch my breath, I know my Beloved has purpose in the wait.

Who knows what dramatic and powerful move of His hand might be just around the corner and He is placing me in the perfect place to witness and stand in awe of what He is about to do.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

Monday Worship

The Holy One calls to me this morning with a deep sense of worship flooding the atmosphere.  Yesterday was a Resurrection Day Celebration as each Sunday has become, for me, the day to remember that historic event and what the "Church" has instituted as "Sunday Service".  It reminds me to worship the Risen Savior each week as we gather together wherever that may be. 

So much has been lost over the generations since the Disciples and the Church saw Jesus Ascend, up into Heaven, out of their physical sight, to take His eternal position and receive the Glory that was His before the foundation of the world.

These days, there is some worship, but mostly teaching and some of that has become error leading us even further away from Christ and the worship of our God.   Perhaps the point of Holiness toward the  call  to worship, is that today is NOT Sunday.  It's Monday.  A work day.  A get up and out and onto the treadmill day.  The mood, if it ever was worship, is surely different on Monday. 

Thoughts flood my mind about the One sent to save all of us.  Jesus is the Son of God, a distinct One of Three who make up the Tri-une or 3 person God Head we know as our Creator.  His role was to make the personal sacrifice and to suffer the death that was made necessary at the fall of humanity. 

Holiness cannot and will not be compromised without the ultimate consequence being suffered and penalty for it's violation paid.  God said, in essence, "If you choose the forbidden and eat of it's fruit, you will die".  The forbidden tree was there to give man's free will a choice.  What would be the privilege and responsibility of free will if there were no choice.

The choice given was life or death.  The choice given was between a relationship with or separation from, the Creator.  The choice given was to live in the wonder of  God's abundant and permissive blessings or to take the freedom and use it to defy God's Sovereignty and merciful warning.

Thus began the treachery of a dark, defiant evil and the loss of innocence.  The peace of God fled along with the innocence and man found himself knowing more than he could handle with the knowledge of good and evil now flooding his finite mind and soul.

That is really at baseline what true death is, after all:  The rebellion that led to Holiness withdrawing Himself from relationship with man.  Knowing about things beyond our control, creates a climate of fear, worry, and anxiety.  Having to discern between good and evil without the appropriate wisdom and courage leads to judgement, unforgiveness, rejection and then ultimate isolation.

If we stop the story there, then all hope is lost. But God, in His unconditional love for His Creation, was never out of Sovereign control.  In His eternal plan, there was always a rescue in mind.  Awaiting the perfect time in the history of man's days upon the earth, Jesus was set to enter our world (the fallen one) and reclaim the turf surrendered by Adam and Eve.  He was the chosen One of the Three Person God-Head to make the sacrifice that would "redeem", as in "pay the price" required to re-establish man's relationship with the Holy Creator without compromising Holiness Himself.

Jesus said, "I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in Me should stay in darkness.  As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him.  For I did not come into the world to judge the world, but to save it..  There is a judge for the one who rejects Me and does not accept my words."  (John 12:44-48)

Judgment is the flip side of Salvation, and God, the Father,  has been preparing men for that day and giving men, individually, the choice since the garden and Adam and Eve.  While none of us chose the forbidden tree, each one of us today can and does choose life or death.  The Tree of Life that stood in the garden of God, left behind when the pair chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is still being offered today. 

Jesus, the Christ, is the Tree of Life.  He came without judgment to be the One to take all judgement upon Himself.  Holiness poured out the severe consequence for it's violation on the Son of God.  Since all humanity is guilty and no one could be found to take away the sin of the world, God Himself stepped in.  The Creator took the form of His created to redeem what was lost.  He took up flesh to die for the souls of all men.  And that is why we worship Him.

But God did not leave the One He sent to rot in a human tomb. In a miraculous intervention, the Holy Spirit (Who is the 3rd Person of the Tri-une God-Head) entered into the drama of creation to renew and resurrect the Life and Body of the Savior of the world.

Jesus came and accomplished the entire purpose for which He was sent.  Now, our access to the Heavenly Throne of our Creator, whom we have the privilege of calling "Our Father", is assured. The connection lost so long ago has been re-established and made possible for all who call upon His name. 

With our eternity secured and our relationship with the Living God established, earthly life takes on a whole new joy and freedom. Judgment is gone and with it goes all the fear, frustration and performance anxiety of our flesh.  Life with Jesus is full of Divine purpose and the peace that was lost in the rebellion. 

The reminder to worship is a blessing in more ways than one.  It opens my heart and mind to the much more there is to celebrate and experience in the Sacred Romance with my King. 

What does He have planned for us today?  I find that as I set my heart to worship, it doesn't really matter. because it's all going to be sweet in fellowship with my Beloved.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?