Ready To Serve

The Spirit calls, are we listening? We are commanded to pray without ceasing. How do we stay in this constant place? We have been going through a study on prayer, given for our "Further in Faith" woman's retreat. We are at the end of the word "prayer", the acronym given for the purpose of this study.

"R" stands for ready to serve.

The end is really the beginning of a whole new life as a servant of the Most High. As the Holy One has worked through each element of the intimacy with Himself. We have been drawn into the Holiest of Holies...into His Presence. We have a perspective as to how to remain in the place of never ceasing prayer. It's all about relationship and keeping the lines of communication open and flowing back and forth.

Once we have touched the very Throne of Heaven and we are confident of the One who is the source of all blessings up to and including out next breath and heartbeat, we are ready to serve His Will and trust in His ways.

This is the point at which we can move out in confident service. We can rely on the Holy Spirit to give us our assignments, and the ability to accomplish those tasks to the Glory of His Holy Name.

As we begin to operate in Trinity unity, according to the Words of Christ Jesus, He will bring His great victories in and through our lives. Nothing will be impossible. Mark 10:27 says, "Jesus looked at His Disciples and said, "with man this is impossible but not with God. All things are possible with God". And again, John 14:13, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things because I am going to the Father."

We have been placed and positioned where we are by God's great Sovereignty and our freedom to choose. Both end at God's Heavenly Throne. Where we find ourselves is in the Lord's over arching plan for our lives as servants of the Most High. Life is not random nor does God make any mistakes. You and I were ordained to be here on planet earth for such a time as this.

Our life of service is to accept this truth and seek His directives and then be obedient to the Heavenly visions and the voice of our Shepherd.

As I was preparing this last portion of the message, the Lord spoke to my heart and said, "A servant gives no thought to reward, but only to do the Will of the Master. The work of a servant must be done out of love for the Master, not repayment for the task accomplished, otherwise he is a hired hand who can be fired or discharged.

As I pondered that , I could see how we can get hung up on "works" and the expectation of reward. This is very different than expecting answers. The expectation of answers is the faith we need and the answers will bring Glory to the One who orchestrates them. But the expectation of reward, is a self-centered pre-occupation.

Our motive for serving the Most High must never boil down to "what's in it for me?" That in reality is an attempted theft of God's Glory and leads us to a ruinous life of self-glorification. The expectation of reward unmet can also lead to bitterness and self-pity.

Reward can mean different things to different people in different situations. Whatever we think we deserve because of our "work" must be set aside or else it might dictate an ungodly motivation, that the Master will not honor.

Our attitude as a servant must always be, "Abba Father, Your will, Your way, it is my honor to serve You."

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are His to manifest in and through our lives. We have been ordained at conception to have gifts, strengths and talents placed within us for the use by the Holy One. Being ready to serve is to acknowledge this and to surrender ourselves with all we have been given for the EXCLUSIVE use of our Master. The gifts of the Spirit are not nor ever will be self-generated gifts or talents.

We may have human talents or giftings but unless we surrender them to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to empower them to bring glory to the Trinity, they will always fall way short of the potential. It is not with our independent power or authority to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy or drive out demons, yet this is what Jesus said we can and should be doing as servants of the Most High.

Here again, it needs to be emphasized that we are His servants. By His Holy Spirit within, we received our individual assignment and by His Spirit and authority we have all we need to carry them out.

In our role as servant of the most High, our eyes will see God do amazing things even through us. Being ready to serve is now a matter of corporate unity with the rest of God's chosen servants. None of us are called to be lone rangers. God's will and His ways involve the entire Body of Christ. Each one of us represent a piece in God's Heavenly jigsaw puzzle of His plan and His people.

Our gifts strengths and talents are given to be used by Him for the common good. In I Corinth 12:4 "there are different kinds of gifts but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. All these are the work of One and the same Spirit and He gives them to each one as He determines."

As we come to the close of this study, we have entered into the Holiest of Holies as individuals, to bind our hearts and minds to the Lover of our Souls. This study on prayer has been a call to relationship and intimacy and fellowship with the Creator of our lives and everything we know. In this place of established unity with the Trinity, we can take our position and posture as servant with confidence that we have all we need to accomplish His will in and through our lives.

May our lives always reflect the peace that comes from unbroken fellowship with the One who calls us to Himself and may we all move out from here fully devoted to our Master and King, saying, "here I am Lord, send me!"

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Expect Answers

The Spirit calls and tells us through His Word and His voice to expect answers to our prayers. We have been going through different aspects of a life of never ceasing prayer. The Lord has given an acronym for this study, and that word is PRAYER.

Today we come to the "E".

"E" stands for expect answers.

When we are on the same page as the God of the universe, there is no reason NOT to expect answers. The promise of answers is throughout God's Word.

We should never think or act as if prayers are like gumballs we throw at a wall and always wonder which ones will stick.

When we are in the wonderful place of never ceasing prayer in Trinity Unity, we are living in our rightful role as co-governors of God's created world. And as we petition our Father to send what we need from our heavenly homeland, He is willing to pour out the supernatural resources and evidence of His being. Jesus, in His model prayer, prayed, "Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven".

In Heaven all things operate according to the Father's Will. We know from God's Word that those who rebelled His Rule and Authority were expelled and will never be able to return to cause Him any trouble.

Even the Devil in all his self-exalted pride and supernatural power was unable to usurp God's Throne and His Will. While this world is in it's fallen state and evil is able to cause chaos and confusion for yet a little while longer, still, in the Heavenly realm, all things operate according to the Father's Will and the principles of His Kingdom.

In prayer, we can tap into what is going on in Heaven to petition that those things come into the reality of our lives in the earth realm. Jesus did this during His life on earth.

We are privileged to access the Throne of all power and authority and to experience the supernatural intervention of God's power in and through our lives. The only requirement is relationship.

We are the child of a King. We have access to our Father as we remain in intimate relationship. John 14:13, Jesus said, "and I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask Me for anything in my name and I will do it." John 15:7-8, "If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is to My Father's Glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My Disciples."

Why would the Lord give us such Carte Blanc when it comes to us asking for, and Him promising to send answers. Why would the Creator of all things promise His visible intervention into our lives? John 14:13, "And I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father."

Look at it this way, Jesus came to bring Glory to the Father. The Holy Spirit was sent to bring Glory to the Son, and we are called to bring Glory to all Three.

The world and most people operate in darkness. Nothing changes who God is: God is who He is. However, our understanding of who He is will impact our relationship with Him and determine our future for all eternity.

The Word says, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a matter of talk but of power and authority. I Corinth 4:20. The believer's life should be a conduit of God's powerful authority for the sole purpose of bearing testimony of His Glorious Being, His Presence, His Sovereignty and His love for His Creation. Jesus said of His people, "you will be my witnesses to the world". God's miraculous answers provide the testimony of His Being. We should live a life of miracles.

All of us are building up a faith wall, one brick, one situation, one answer to prayer at a time. As our faith wall is built up, we will see greater things begin to happen, as we become bolder in asking for the "impossible".

In our "little faith" place, we will begin to recognize the Lord's Presence. He is always with us, but due to our immaturity (and unbelief), He may "seem" to remain silent.

As we have our eyes and ears opened we will become more and more aware of His faithful Presence and give Him the Glory as we "see" His hand on our circumstances. We will begin to trust and as we trust we will seek His ways more and more. Then greater answers will come as we listen and follow His directives.

Faith is progressive, it grows and builds on past experiences. My faith wall is full of miracles so I expect answers, but I had to "grow" to expect them.

Jesus was a man of prayer. His relationship with the Heavenly Father was maintained throughout the recorded days of His life and ministry through prayer.

I always ponder the strangest things and I wonder what details Jesus might have received from Heaven's Throne about the miracles He chose to perform in the lives of those He met. He said that He only did what He saw the Father do in Heaven and He only spoke His Father's words. Prayer was His link to the Heavenly realm and it is ours as well.

God does speak to His people. Just as in the days of old when God spoke to Abraham about the coming destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. In Gen 18:17. "then the Lord said, "shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?" God explained to Abraham the future of Sodom and Gomorrah and the reason for the judgement.

God spoke to Moses the same way. God spoke throughout the ages to His people and He will speak to us as well. We are His servants. As we nestle into the Father's arms and His Presence, He will give us our assignments, His directives and the resources including the faith to believe all things are possible.

Everything we need is available for the asking. the only question is, "Will you believe it? And expect answers?"

What visions has God given you? What desire do you have? Personally? A healed marriage? A healed family? A life of purpose beyond survival? Confess to the Lord if you need more faith for what you desire or need to have happen in the circumstances of your life, so that God, the Trinity will be Glorified.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit will be glorified as we give those needs up for intervention and The Father sends the visible answers.

If the answers do not appear, go back to the Throne for more wisdom, greater understanding, or to know what in your petition might need to be changed or what in your perspective of God's Will or His Way is off?

Like Mary and Martha, who would not have fathomed the possibility of a resurrection unless their petition for a healing was denied. Notice they did not run away from the Lord when their brother died and ended all their hope for life. They pressed in to understand why Jesus did not return to heal Lazarus as He had healed others. They expressed their disappointment and even their bitterness of sorrow.

The Lord can handle all our emotional honesty,even our bitter disappointments when we are told, "no".

We will stop here for some side-bar time with the Lover of our souls who holds all the resources we need to serve His will and impact the world of people we live among.

The Lord can handle all our emotional honesty,even our bitter disappointments when we are told, "no".

We will stop here for some side-bar time with the Lover of our souls who holds all the resources we need to serve His will and impact the world of people we live among. Pour out your heart with the expectation of answers. God always provides answers. If you are discouraged, ask Him for His faith...the fruit of the Spirit is Faith...The Spirit is on board to give us His.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Yielding to His Will & Ways***

We have been following the call of the Spirit, leading us into greater awareness of what is it to have a life of never-ceasing prayer. He has given an acronym to follow in this study on prayer and the word IS prayer.

We have gone through the lesson on "P" which stands for preparation, the "R" which stands for Repentance, the "A" which stands for acknowledge our dependency and today we are at the letter,

"Y" which stands for yielding to His Will and His Ways.

One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "you trust Me but do you trust My ways?"

Whenever the Holy One asks me a question like that one, I know He knows the answer but wants me to go deeper into discovery about myself and our love relationship. So, I take the "bait" and begin to ponder that question. He obviously makes a distinction between the big issue of trust as in for my eternal salvation, and the smaller things where I get hung up and anxious in life circumstances.

We all have need and we all have desires. Neither of these things are sinful in and of themselves. We are faced with the need for food and shelter, etc. Then there is desire. We all desire to be loved and in relationship, and even to help each other thus being appreciated.

These are not things we have to run away from. God created us. He set us up with needs and desire. In His Masterful Creativity, the Creator designed the created to need and desire Him. However, it takes time and introspection to recognize that God is at the baseline of our needs and desire and He is the only One who can bring the ultimate fulfillment to both.

The next step in our life of never-ceasing prayer is to allow Him to bring those needs and desires into our lives, His Way. This is what it is to yield in part: to allow without demanding priority or rights. The Lord took me to John 11 and the account of the death of Lazarus to emphasize this lesson.

Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha were beloved friends of the Lord. It so happened that Lazarus became sick. Jesus was in a different place and received message that His friend Lazarus was ill. Mary and Martha were concerned for their brother's health and knew Jesus to be the Healer. They had, no doubt, witnessed His powwer over sickness and disease.....so they sent for Him.

The Holy Scriptures tell us that Jesus tarried. He didn't rush to heal His friend but in fact, stayed longer in the place where He was.

Then, the unspeakable worst thing that could happen did. Lazarus died. For Mary and Martha, this death was even more devastating than the emotional loss of a beloved brother. In the culture of the day, Lazarus represented their security and their future. So Mary and Martha's futures as well as their hearts were broken by his death.

So they mourned. All they wanted, or desired and needed was to have Lazarus healed and restored to them. When Jesus finally arrived, they were crushed and hurting and even bitter because they "knew" Jesus as capable of healing their brother. But Jesus had a better plan, a Glorious plan. His Will, God's Will was always to restore Lazarus to Mary and Martha, but His way was through the death and unbelievable resurrection of this man.

The Lord pointed out to me that the sister's desire and the His will were one and the same, but His ways are not like our ways. By delaying the answer that was to come, Jesus was drawing them into deeper understanding about who He is. This is the message and the reason we must yield in prayer and say, "Thy Will be done" and accept how God's Will is enacted in the circumstances of our lives.

We are privileged to take our desires and needs to Him in prayer, but then, in trust we allow Him to work things out His way. If our desires are not in our best interests and according to His desires for us, then we must ask Him to change them. He has created us to desire but we need to look to Him for what we are to desire as well as for the fulfillment thereof.

Remember that He is Sovereign, outside our frame of understanding. He knows all things, how they begin and how they will end. He sees the end from the begining and what is down each and every pathway. He is trustworthy to lead us beside the still waters as well as the rushing stream. Why rely on our limited view of the road ahead when it is God who knows the map?

When we "know" that our desires are Ok and fall within the guidelines of the Word of God, we wait and yield to His ways of bringing them into our reality. All of the most disasterous things can happen in our lives when we try to fulfill our desires our way. Our desires may truly be God's Will, but unless we yield to His ways of bringing forth His will, we may miss something amazing but far more worrisome, we may actually fall into the enemy's agenda in our self-serving efforts and demands for resolution on our terms.

Independence is the refusal to yield to the authority of another. Rebellion is to follow the established rule of authority. Let's stop here to get our minds on the Lord's Will and try to gain His perspectiveon our lives, generally or specifically. Ask Him to speak to you about trusting and yielding to His ways. If you fear His sovereignty, confess that and repent, asking the Holy One within to set a new course for trusting and yielding to His Ways.

Here is another time to listen with your heart. Let the Holy One lead yiou into all Truth. Don't be afraid of what you might hear even if it contradicts your present course of life. God's Will will never contradict His Word but it will often contradict our thinking.

Don't worry about being a little "schizophrenic" at this point becasue you are in fact the "possession" of another....The Holy One within is bringing you into Trinity Unity away from self-serving, self-protecting, self-providing, self-centeredness. I.E. As yield to the Spirit, we are surrendering the Throne of our lives to His rule. As He establishes his government within we are safe.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Dependency on our God

This is the 3rd post and the 3rd letter in the acronym the Lord gave us for our Further in Faith Fellowship retreat last week. The Spirit called a few of us into the peace and quiet of our backyard forest where my home is located to have a meeting with Him. This is the Study He gave on the subject of Prayer.

"A" stands for acknowledge our dependency.

We have been through the praise of preparation to enter into the Holy Place of meeting with our God. We have seen a different side of repentance and taken our humble place before His Throne on our knees...Today we will consider and acknowledge our dependency upon our Sovereign and Almighty God.

When we got saved, we received the Holy Spirit. When we were "born again" the process was completed in an instant. Christianity is not just a mental or emotional exercise. Jesus did not come to introduce us to a new set of laws and rules for sin management. Yet many think that this is what Christianity is all about.

Christianity is the full blown possession by another. We always think of "possession" as being demonic because Satan has stolen and counterfeited God's plan for our unity with Himself.

It was God's plan and when Jesus said, in John 14:18, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you", this is what He meant. He was leaving physically but was going to send another counselor. He said we would "know" Him for He lives with us and will be in us; this is the unity (potential) that a believer lives in. Jesus said, "I am in the Father, and you are in Me and I am in you". He goes on to say that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all Truth and will teach us all things.

We were never meant to be independent. It was always God's plan and His Will that we be dependent on Him. The idea that we get saved and then float around here on earth aimlessly looking for good deeds to do without a dependent relationship on our God is a lie.

Jesus likened Himself to a vine and us to the branches. We must remain in vital connection and dependency on the "vine" He even said, "apart from Me you can do nothing". Over and over the reality of our "designed " dependency is spoken.

Remember the call is to "pray without ceasing". There are struggles we all face most of the time and we need God's wisdom to deal with them all of the time. The closer we move to the heart of God in our love relationship, the more we will delight in Him and the more we will learn to say, "Thy Kindgom come Thy Will be done" on this earth, here and now, as it is in Heaven.

The Holy Spirit within is the 3rd person of the Majestic Trinity. He is God and yet dwells within us. His presence assures us that whatever God's Will for us happens to be, we are able to accomplish it, not by our own strength or power or might, but by the Holy Spirit's power and even His righteousness as He dwells within out hearts.

When we finally get to the end of ourselves, and say "I can't",the Holy Spirit says, "I Will". But the reverse is also true. When we say, "I will" (as from pride or self-reliance), He says, "OK, give it your best shot, but if you will, I won't". The point is when we try to power through our way, who's glory are we seeking?

This is not an excuse for inaction, but rather the necessary posture for unity. It is continuous dependency. Just like God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit work in harmony with each other, we join them in privilege as part of the "team" in the execution of the Father's Will.

In our acknowledged dependency, God is glorified. God is revealed and by the successful execution of His Will, He is glorified and we are blessed. I have a dear friend who mentored me in this acknowledged dependency on the Holy Spirit.

In her life of ministry she recently went to a 3rd world country. When she arrived, she got a "Word" from the Holy Spirit that the mission had changed and she was called to use her primary gifting of "deliverance'. There were so many people in bondage and "demon" possessed that she ended up teaching and instructing in Biblical deliverance and spiritual warfare.

During the deliverance of one woman who had a small baby, the Lord spoke to her and told her the woman was going to throw her baby. She was told to get ready, so she passed the word to a fellow worker who got in position to catch the child. The woman did, the worker did and what would have been a horrible tragedy was averted because she was listening to the Holy Spirit.

When dealing with the enemy and God's will or the life decisions we must make each day, we must understand that the Lord knows all things. He knows the enemy's strategy, and the end from the beginning and just as Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, the Holy One within will teach us how to do the same and show us the pathway of His Will.

We are going to stop here, for you to look within for the Holy One. If you are saved He is there. This may be your time to get aquainted with His voice. Invite Him to reveal and manifest Himself, then look for him and listen for His voice.

If you already know Him, Praise Him for His powerful Presence. Celebrate that you are His servant and that He is always within to guide you, comfort you, heal you and help you no matter what life brings. You are safe and secure because He will never leave you nor forsake you.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

What is Repentance?

This is a continuation of the study on prayer the Lord gave for our "Further in Faith Fellowship" retreat. Further in Faith Fellowship has been formed to facilitate a deeper Faith walk for all who desire to grow and want to be challenged by like-minded people.

The Lord gave me an acronym to follow for this study on prayer. This is the 2nd letter in the word,PRAYER.... "R"

"R" stands for repentance.

We all know that the overall definition of repentance is "to be sorry". Guilt and condemnation will bring us to a place of repentance. Sin is a human condition and we all experience the weight of it. As the saved, our first encounter with our Holy God is in repentance.

Acknowledging our sinful state, we come to the cross where our Savior died in our place and paid the price for our sin as an individual.

Being sorry for our sin is only half of what true repentance is all about. True repentance is "to feel such regret over an action or intention so as to change one's mind."

This is a critical part of repentance and I truly believe that our ignorance of this side of repentance is why we live such defeated lives and with a breech in our intimate love relationship with our Lord.

Once we have been saved, it has been said that our sins are forgiven, past present and future. So is repentance just a onetime action or state of mind to lead us to God's forgiveness and once saved, it's all over?

The Lord showed me something very interesting a little while ago. I was studying the book of Amos. I am relating to a lot of the warnings that God has given throughout His Word through the Prophets of old.

As I was reading in the book of Amos, there was a judgment about to be executed against not only Israel's enemies but upon Israel herself. God was at the end of His patience with the rebellion and disobedience of His people. He had warned them and called to them, but they were willful and chose to ignore the ones He had sent to teach them and even those He sent to warn them.

Amos was a shepherd, not a professional prophet. He was sent by God. As he was getting the message from God about what Holiness was about to do, in the form of visions, Amos was in extreme distress at what he "saw". He cried out to God, almost in protest, and he begged God to stop what He was about to do as seen through those visions of the future. And then, scripture, in the King James Version says, "God repented" for what He was about to do.

This blew my circuits. God is not nor would He ever be "guilty" of anything. His is the standard of all Holiness and Righteousness, so why would the Holy Scriptures say "God repented" except that the word repentance has another side to it than the one we most often think about as it relates to us.

To repent is to change one's course of intended action

It is important in our love relationship to get past the limited definition of repentance that stops at being sorry. To be sorry with no intention or plan for changing direction is very dangerous. We can see from scripture that God ran out of patience with the nations of Israel who would repent when the heat was on but then return to the same violations over and over again.

I think of the people who go to "confession" only because this is a visual we can relate to. Confession is not repentance. And repentance is a lot more than saying a few "Hail Mary's", doing some pertinence, making promises to "never do that again".

Not only do we lack the power in and of ourselves to change but this is, to me, a sad example of "cheap grace" which is a whole other study.

The importance of this side of repentance is this:

There may be things we are doing, thinking, pursuing that do not produce guilt. We may be moving in a direction that is at "cross purpose" with God's plan and purpose in our lives. We may think that if we are not in "sin" as we define "sin" then we are OK and there is no need to change course.

In this place of repentance, we bow in humble confession of our known guilt and sin, but now, we should also, cry out that the Lord show us where we are at cross purpose with His Will. Many are trying to serve God their own way..not His way. Here is where we need to get lined up with God's plan and His purpose. "For not everyone who says to Me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the Will of My Father." ****while this refers to people who would try to access God through a way other than through Jesus Christ, who is the ONLY way to the Father, still the point is to turn away from that which is at cross purpose with God's Will in any situation.

God will speak to us. If we put ourselves in His Presence and at His feet, He will speak. I have found that God has an opinion about everything.

In this place of repentance, we become open to His thoughts, His directive, His Will because this is where surrender begins.

Practicing the lesson is part of the training in Righteousness, so we will stop here and find a place to transact our business with God. Confess what needs confession, express regrets for what conviction the Holy One brings and receive His forgiveness. But then, ask the Lord to show you where you might need to change your direction to line up with His Will. Write down what God tells you, what you might be hearing Him say to you.

In the Lord's prayer, we were taught to pray, "Thy Kingdom come Thy Will be done on earth as it is (being done )in Heaven.

My flesh is stubborn which is why I pray, "Oh Abba, rule the mule". God is merciful and gracious and gentle with His child. I personally prefer to be in bent knee position, but sometime I sprawl out face down like King David who fell prostrate before the Lord. Find your own "position" that seems right to you...but do what He is asking of you.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Prepare to Pray

The Spirit is calling each one of us to go further in faith. Prayer is our end of the Sacred Romance between us and our Creator God. Prayer is the unbroken communication and fellowship with the One who calls us unto Himself. We are to pray without ceasing; to stay in constant contact and endless conversation with our Beloved.

This is the beginning letter in the acronym God gave us for our women's day retreat outside my home in the forest. PRAYER is the acronym and...

"P" is for preparation

How do we prepare to pray? As we are to pray without ceasing what is our constant frame of mind to be? First and foremost to prepare is to remember who God is.

God is Creator of the Universe and all things in it. We have to get outside ourselves and our little world in order to truly see God.

God is absolute authority...He is Sovereign. There is no one greater, no one more powerful, no one beyond or beside our amazing and Sovereign God. He knows the end from the beginning and is all wisdom.

God is almighty, all powerful, all knowing, ever present.

God is perfect, above reproach, beyond our judgment, flawless and never makes mistakes.

God is eternal, always has been, always will be throughout all the generations of men and beyond.

God is Majestic, high above the common place. He is grand, stately and glorious. Words simply cannot describe His Being.

God is protector and provider. No circumstance is beyond His resolution. No enemy is more terrifying than our fierce protector.

God is Holy. One definition of Holy that I really like is: sound (as in of sound mind), happy, whole.

God is our "Abba" meaning "daddy". He is personal, loving, kind, and the One who knows every cell in our body and every hair on our head.

God is our Savior, having paid the ultimate price for our sin to insure our eternity with Himself.

God is the Holy Spirit of all Truth.

As we "prepare" to pray, let's all just stand in awe of Him and call out to the God of the Universe in our own way, declaring who you see that He is. Prayer is personal and the words that describe Him are personal to each one of us.

Prepare to enter into His presence by declaring your praises to Him for who He is. Forget about who is around you...or what they might think...We are here (in the forest) to meet up with our Glorious God. So stand, reach out to Him, look up, past the trees and just let your voice call out to Him in praise for who He is. Our Abba hears our cry amid the cries of all His children. He knows our individual voices...

Remember that our God is 3 in One....The Trinity...Praise all three...God, The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.

Honor Him with your praise and worship. Let all the cares of the world grow dim, take your time....you are on Holy ground.


Now that we have cried out to our Sovereign and almighty yet personal God, in continuing preparation, we must remember and declare who we are. For this we will kneel before our Maker in humble confession of our desperate need. We are the created, we are the weak, we are the needy, we are desperate. We are "Eve"in the garden who was deceived and we are the one who Christ died to save.

This is not time for repentance but rather to acknowledge our position with respect to our relationship with our Holy God. God gives grace to the humble and here is where there can be no pretense because our Abba father knows every cell, every hair, every thought we have. Here we kneel in humble reality that we are dependent on our Creator God for our next heartbeat and our next breath.

There is nothing wrong with being dependent, in actuality we are designed to be this way. To be proud and independent is to be tweaked out of our original shape. On our knees before our King and our God is how we are designed to be. We come into His presence with gratitude and a thankful heart. If your knees cannot handle this position, put your mind to work and use your imagination...bow your head and mentally kneel before your King.

Let's spend some time at the feet of our Lord in preparation. Talk to Him and declare who you know yourself to be.

The Spirit is calling. can you hear Him?

Is This The End of Days?

It has been a long time since my last blog. The Spirit has not been silent but rather, on the contrary, He has been giving me the information I needed in order to fulfill an assignment in service to my Lord Jesus Christ.

Together with one of my daughters, I was given a vision of a woman's day retreat to be held outside in the forest where I live. The preparation has been intense and typically whenever I have been given a lesson to teach or share, first I must live the lesson. It must become a reality to me or I cannot export it. I must live it or I cannot lead it.

The last weeks have been just that. The Spirit has called me to receive, glean, and apply what I have been given. I am now able to blog what I have been taught and what was shared at the "Further in Faith Fellowship", a ministry that I am now a part of. The next days of this blog will follow the teaching I was given by the Spirit to share with the women and you.

Further in Faith Fellowship Women's Retreat 10-23-2010

As we look around us there is no denying that this is end times, end of days, last curtain call, shop about to close. However you look at it, the end of all things is drawing near. One of the most telling fact of end times is that man has no answers for what is happening. We hear of wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes and floods in various places.

I come from California and I have felt earthquakes. I don't know about you but earthquakes are pretty scary to me. We lose our footing, the bottom drops out from under us, the earth and everything shakes down during an earthquake. I never lived through a flood but I can only imagine the helplessness one must feel. The one good thing about living through an earthquake or a flood is that it helps us to decide what is important. We grab our family and head for a safe place.

Forget trying to save the sofa,all the stuff that seems so important the minute before an earthquake or flood is forgotten as we huddle together and cling onto each other.

There are different kinds of earthquakes or floods that shake us down. Some are physical, some are emotional, some are financial, some are relational. One thing they all have in common is, once they hit us, we figure out what is most important.

Jesus spoke about the end of days in Matt 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21.

In Matt 24, Jesus says, "No one knows the day or the hour not even the angels in Heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. He went on to say that, just like the days of Noah before the flood, people would be going about the business of living: eating, drinking, marrying."

Back then no one knew what was about to happen, except one man named Noah. Noah was listening to God. Noah was in lifestyle obedience and was saved during the flood that wiped out every living person except him and his family.

Gen 6:9-22 is the account of Noah. Notice that in 6:13, God SAID to Noah....and then He proceeded to give Noah important directives that Noah heard and obeyed. In the end Noah was saved from the destruction that God ordered due to the corruption of people on earth. If Noah had not been listening, or if Noah had not taken God's directives to heart or ignored them, he would have been swept away like everyone else. But Gen 6:22 says, "and Noah did as God commanded". Noah was in a relationship with God.

The study I have been given by the Lord to share with you is on the subject of prayer. Prayer is so much more than just asking for things. Prayer is God's call to relationship.

When Paul says that we are to pray without ceasing, it's hard to imagine how to do that unless you understand that prayer is our end of the love relationship with our Creator God who we call our Heavenly Father.

To pray without ceasing is to remain in constant contact with the One who created us for fellowship with Himself. To pray without ceasing is to communicate in endless conversation with our Beloved. On earth we stay in constant contact with those we love. When they are gone from our sight, we text, we call, we e-mail, we figure out ways to keep in constant relationship. This is what prayer should be.

The Lord has given us an acronym to follow with each letter representing an important facet of prayer, made easier to remember. He wants us to focus on the bullet points.

"P" stands for preparation

"R" stands for repentance

"A" stands for acknowledge our dependency

"Y" stands for yield His Will AND His Ways

"E" stands for expect answers

"R" stands for ready to serve

Over the next week I will post to this blog the details of what the Spirit has shown me in each of these categories that is in His heart for His people. I was amazed to hear from Him and realize how much more depth of relationship and victorious living is available for all of us through what He has shown. I pray you will read this and then take the time to just get away with Him and let Him speak to you heart.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Desires of Your Heart

The Holy Spirit calls me today. He speaks to me about "desire". The promises in His Word are endless. Psalm 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".

The Holy One is showing me that He knows better than I do what it is that I desire. He is the indwelling Spirit of all wisdom and He inhabits my heart and my heart is where desire originates.

I have to admit to Him that what I think I desire, may not in the end bring delight. Should I not know my own desires? Confusing, until He speaks of our history together.

The Lord moved us to a wonderful land 2 years ago in February. But 4 years ago, I never would have thought to desire this land; never would have thought this land would have been available to me and not knowing how much I would love living in the forest, I would not have thought to ask for it as the desire of my heart to dwell in.

Now, this land has become a symbol of desire I didn't even know I had until the Lord provided it. It is a gift and blessing prepared for me and my family before it ever became a petition.

I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving and joy in delight each and every morning that I wake up here. And best of all is the truth that the Holy Spirit has shown me that He knows best what will make me happy, content, and full of thanksgiving in my heart. In our love relationship with our Creator, the Holy Spirit is our constant source for every good thing within, including our next breath and our true desires.

God knows each one of us so intimately because He created us, having knit us together while we were in our mother's womb. He implanted our gifts, strengths and talents and even our weaknesses so we would always have to rely on Him.

Today He reveals to me that our deepest desires are ones He is willing to provide because from the very start, He has placed them within our hearts. The Holy Scriptures say, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". The operative words are "delight yourself in the Lord" What does that mean and how are we to do it?

I have found that from sun up to sun up there are wonderful things in each of our lives that track back to our Creator, worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. Daily, in spite of burdens, trials and difficult situations, we are surrounded by the Glorious evidence of our Creator's love.

Everything in the created universe was formed to delight us. The Masterpiece of the Master is the created universe into which His most valuable Creation, (man) was placed...to find his delight in the One who created it and him.

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life and life to the full." John 10:10. Jesus came to reveal the relationship we can have with the One who gives life. God came and walked among us to the delight of those privileged to know Him in human form. But as the Holy Spirit confirms, Jesus sent Him to delight us from within and then to enable us to delight in the Lord our God in return.

Is there any among us who cannot find a peaceful place in the created universe where we cannot delight ourselves in the One who created it? Watching a beautiful sunrise or sunset? A breath taking mountain top or peaceful stream in the valley? A gaze up at the stars so far away or looking at the delicate beauty of the emerging butterfly just out of it's cocoon.

Each and every one of us can put our minds to delight in the Lord, and be filled with gratitude for who He is and what He gives.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart", even those you didn't know you have.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Good "God" of Good Men

The Holy One calls me this morning to weigh in on some deeply troubling questions I have been wrestling. There is only one Truth and that is His. More and more I see that we are about to begin living the Book of Revelation and the true "End Times" prophecy as no other generation has in the past.

Rev 1:3 says, "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it because the time is near".

It can be argued that this was written and dispersed so long ago that each generation can read and glean from it's challenging message. The Holy Spirit is the ultimate Counselor, Guide and Interpreter of the Word of God, and He has taken me to this place to answer the questions in my heart of hearts.

The end times scenario is all about the ultimate war between the God of all Creation and the devil who became His enemy by choice and insurrection. It was a fatal and ludicrous position to take because the "creature" will never ever over-take or usurp the Creator who created him.

Just as man, a wonderfully created being, will never ever become the God of all Creation regardless of his glorious attempts to become Him, we will always be the "created" and in spite of all our great achievements in this world we will never become the Creator of the Universe and beyond.

The Book of Revelation begins by saying that it is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ" to "show His servants what must soon take place" This book was written specifically for the "servants of Jesus Christ" and they are the only ones who will have an understanding of it's message through the Holy Spirit.

It has been said that the Bible is God's love letter to His people and unless you are saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ and therein a child of God, you are reading someone else's mail.

As we speak and for generations past, there have been times of "revival" and a call to return to traditional if not Biblical values. When the enemy of goodness and mercy has been given a foothold in our society and over our lives, there comes a backlash by decent and good people to reclaim that which has been stolen. There is a wave of revival beginning but I question in my heart what sort of revival it may be.

The Book of Revelation depicts the persecution of true Believers, those who have come to the saving knowledge that there is only one very narrow way that leads to Eternal Life and that is faith in the Gospel Truth about Jesus Christ: Who He is,(The only begotten Son of God), why He came, (to save the world of men from sin and the judgement to come) and where He is today, (seated at the right hand of all Power and Authority).

The message of personal honor, hope and charity can be embraced by people of all walks of life and from every religion and it can impact the world for good. Our founding fathers were anointed to establish a government with freedom and justice for all people, as we were all created equal by our Creator. Free will was God-ordained, and our freedom to choose our own personal "belief" system is foundational to our Nation's Constitutional protection of individual rights, just as free speech is protected.

It is hope inspiring to see those from differing faiths come together and challenge all people to be the "best" that man can be according to the moral code and conscience he has been given. But as a believer, I realize that man's best will always fall short of God's standard and without a personal relationship with the Savior of mankind and His indwelling Holy Spirit, Eternity in Heaven will be lost to those who rely on "one" they may see as the good "god" of good men.

Our job will always be to witness the Truth about Jesus Christ to the world around us. Our job will always be met with persecution, whether it be the darkest evil of a man's mind or the greatest good of a man's heart not yet "home" to the Holy Spirit.

Lest I get so full of compassion for the good, moral but unregenerate souls I meet along the way, the Holy Spirit reminds me that I did not write the Book but I am responsible to share what it says.

I cannot begin to comprehend what awaits us in Eternity, but God does. Somehow the God of Eternity knows that Heaven will require a unity beyond what man can achieve even when operating at his moral best. To God's Word we must all be true. The good "god" of good men is a counterfeit and we must never forget that fact.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Repentance: To Change One's Mind

The Spirit calls me today to talk about the ongoing sorrow I feel for ungodly decisions that have littered the course of my life. His deep and unfathomable love leads us to repentance but today, He wants to take me to a greater understanding of what repentance really means.

I have been reading the book of Amos about his call to prophesy and speak God's indictment and judgement that was about to fall on Israel and her surrounding neighbor nations.

I read about the end of God's patience with fear and trembling for those who push against His Sovereignty and fail to see the ax about to fall. Because we live in such a privileged time of Grace, the "Church" age, when His mercies are new every morning, we may become complacent about His powerful authority and brilliant Holiness.

The Old Testament and God's dealings with His Beloved Israel are a sobering reminder that a day of ultimate judgement is coming in spite of what we see and know people are "getting away with" in the world today.

To understand the Truth about our God is to respect His Majestic Sovereignty and always remember that He created us not the other way around.

Our only hope for existence is in His grace and mercy for all have fallen short of His righteous requirements for life, especially eternal life. Even our best efforts fall so short of the mark, except for mercy we would all be assigned the fiery pit of an unimaginable hell.

As the Holy One deals with my pride, I always come down to the reality of my own personal lack of worth. Having been raised "legalistically" the continuous sense of guilt and condemnation is ever present but mixed with the push toward the deceptive exalted pride of "works".

Today the Spirit had something to show me that blew my circuits and with successful application of His wisdom can change the conflict forever.

My personal Bible is the NIV Study Bible. Today I picked up the King James version in a random sequence of events. I have been studying the book of Amos so I went there to read. What I discovered was a lightening bolt to my mind.

In Amos 7, the Lord showed Amos the shepherd/prophet what He was about to do.

Amos 3:7 reads, "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets." Interesting that God chose a shepherd, outside the "religious" community to use as a spokesman to His people.

This causes me to believe that a prophet is simply a person who is so intimately aquainted with the Lord and His voice that he is privileged to know what the Lord is about to do before He does it, whether one day or thousands of years in advance.

Amos was so horrified by what he "saw" was about to happen to God's people that he interceded (almost in protest). My Bible reads, "so God relented and said, "This will not happen". When I read the same passages out of the King James version, the text reads, "God repented".

I pondered this long and hard. I know that God is not "guilty" and is always above and beyond reproach, so what does this mean, "God repented"?

The definition of repentance is "to feel such regret over an action or intention as to change one's mind." I have been hung up on a partial definition of that word having to do with remorse or sorrow.

I come every day to repent for things the Holy Spirit reveals that are short of the mark, but then find the frustration in either re-committing or the on going guilt for my thoughts or actions. This shortfall in understanding the definition of true repentance allows the enemy to keep badgering me with this guilt and in many ways keeps me from experiencing the real objective in Godly repentance.

The Holy One speaks: "Since the Cross of Christ, the believer's righteousness in the eyes of the Father is Christ's righteousness. The indwelling Spirit of Christ is the true believer's source for transformation. The process of transformation is not just a sorrow of failure but rather a reverse of course, a change of heart and mind."

More often than not, the transformation has more to do with the issue of God's ways VS. my ways. Guilt sent by the enemy mucks up the situation. I spend more time battling the guilt than changing course. I can see that repentance is therefore, in the life of a believer, more about reversing the human course that is usually in contradiction to Holiness even if not wicked or sinful in and of itself.

God's indictment and His judgement revealed to Amos is not evil, or bad but deserved, and yet God "repented". When the Holy Spirit draws us into His counsel and shows us our humanity, I now see that He is more pleased with a change of course than on going guilt and self-judgment. "Does the lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than to sacrifice." I Sam 15:22

His convictions are not to beat us down but rather to lead us into places of His Glorious plan for our lives. The more we yield to the Holy Spirit and change our minds toward His ways, the greater will be God's Glory and our victory over a fallen world.

There may yet be time on the prophetic calendar as we anticipate the return of our King to "repent" and model lives reflecting the Holy One within, which is the only life eligible for the blessings God promises to send upon our obedience to His ways.

Is the Spirit showing you where you need to repent? The world is waiting to see Holiness in us, for without Holiness no one will see the Lord. (Heb 12:14)

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Glory To God Only

The Spirit calls me today. I am still deep in the wonder of our meetings and the thoughts about miracles sent to glorify the Father and the Son. I am excited by all the possibilities that are now present when the Truth about the Father's love prevails.

The enemy tries to taunt me. He persists in sending gloom and doom to preside over my enthusiasm. I realize this tactic of evil has no real power. Gloom and doom is like dirt on my life lens and can be wiped off at will.

Gloom and doom has no staying power longer than it takes me to recognize that I am looking through dirt and I can get it removed. I confess to my Deliverer that there is dirt on my lens and He makes a speedy clean up of my thoughts.

I praise my Savior for His indwelling Spirit who can change my perspective in a heart beat.

Today's meeting must be really important for the enemy to begin so early trying to cloud my thinking and present his case for unbelief. I focus my mind back to the miracles that are needed and the part we are to play in the manifestations.

The Holy One reminds me again that the ultimate goal in any supernatural intervention by the Lord is to bring Glory to our Heavenly Father. Miracles reveal His true nature of love and His great power and authority.

As our Lord Jesus Christ provided the doorway to the Throne of Heaven, oversees our petitions, and arranges for the answers, The Spirit of truth brings Glory to the Son. Miracles reveal that true access to the Father comes through His only begotten Son of Holiness, Jesus Christ.

As the individual heart surrenders to the rule of the indwelling Holy Spirit, He, the Spirit, is able to manifest His gifts and supernatural answers. Our yieldedness provides the stage for the supernatural and brings Glory to the Holy Spirit. Miracles reveal His indwelling authority through surrendered servants.

What a beautiful picture of a Glorious Trinity in unity. And what an amazing revelation of the part every believer has been given to play if they are willing.

While I am energized by this picture and my heart begins to soar in pride for what I now know, the Spirit levels me with a stark warning:

"Remember this well: All Glory belongs to God. Humans have no claim to God's Glory but many try to steal it." The Glory that belongs to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be possessed by a human. It is corrupting and does not fit our being. If we attempt to steal it, the end result is disaster and a destroyed life and work.

Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord, that is My Name and I will not give My Glory to another."

How many times when wonderful miracles have been sent in answer to prayers and petitions have I leaped onto the stage and tried to steal God's Glory through self-exhalation, thinking or saying, "I prayed.... I asked God.... I said.... I saw."

While I do not take credit for the answer per se, I have made it known or thought in my own heart about the HUGE role I played in it's occurrence.... Like a little child helping to bake cookies by getting flour on the floor says in the end, "Oh look at what I made".

While this may be OK for a child to take credit for what mom did, I must grow up and never allow my pride to steal the Glory from the Sovereign God who would use the miraculous intervention we experience to reveal Himself to His beloved creation.

Our job as Servant of the Most High is to bring all Glory and Honor and Praise and Worship to our beloved Lord who is the Author of all miracles.

An internal reality check would be to admit, the sometimes not so obvious fact of, God's Divinely ordained control in every situation we face. It is His control that brings any intercessor or conduit of His mercy to the place of seeing the need and then, by His Holy Spirit, supplying the faith-filled prayers for whatever God is about to do to reveal Himself in the situation.

The human part is not to "work" but rather to "yield". We are not Creator, Savior, or Healer, but we know Who is all those things. Our job is to make sure that the full and complete Glory is poured out liberally to the One who provides every answer.

Jesus gave us a view of this in John 11:41. He was standing at the tomb of Lazarus, who was dead behind the stone. "So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father I thank You that you have heard Me. You always hear Me but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may know that You have sent Me."

Before Jesus was about to blow every body's human circuits, He wanted to establish the Divine Chain of Glory. When Majesty acts, confusion can overwhelm us and we might become tempted to shut down or run around in ecstasy, be witness to the miraculous event but fail to testify and glorify the one who executed it.

Jesus said that He came to bring Glory to the Father. The Holy Spirit was sent to bring Glory to the Son. And it is our job to bring Glory to all three.

I am brought to humble repentance for all the times my spiritual pride got in the way and tried to steal the glory, even for a second, that belongs to God alone:

The Triune God of all Creation in three part harmony: The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

To You be all Glory and Honor and Praise and Worship that creation can bring. Be Glorified in and through your servant.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Miracles: Our Worth or Eligibility?

The Spirit calls me today and as always, there is so much to talk over with Him. Everywhere I look, people need help. Within my family, within my circle of friends, within the Body of Christ, within the nation and around the world. So many are facing impossible circumstances that challenge us to our very core.

I often ponder human frailty in the face of what I consider to be a supernatural war with a supernatural enemy. The Holy One assures me that victories are surely available. I look to the Holy One for miracles because I know that without His Divine intervention, evil would wipe us out forever.

Miracles were what Jesus, the Son of God, called for in answer to the deep needs of those He met during His appearance on Earth in the flesh. Jesus came through human birth into a fallen world where evil has flexed it's controlling muscle since the very beginning of earth time.

What Jesus gave us and left to our humanity was the potential to maintain the victory He won through His own Divine nature. He conquered death, and every evil demonic grip over our lives was broken by His authority. And it is by His authority delegated to His people that we can call for the miraculous answers to the problems we face and expect to see them manifest.

In this supernatural war with a supernatural enemy, the Lord did not leave us as victims or orphans. In John 14:15 Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command and I will ask the Father and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know Him for He lives with you and will be IN you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you."

The Holy Spirit dwells within each Believer. For all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, the One who died to pay the sin debt for all people, we have the Holy One within.

As I look at the world around me and see all the impossible situations that seem so beyond our human ingenuity and power to fix, the promise of the Savior stand firm. Jesus said in John 14:11, "Believe me when I say I am in the Father and the Father is in Me or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father, and I will do whatever you ask in My name so that the Son may bring Glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything and I will do it."

The promise is remarkable, almost beyond human comprehension. Without the Holy Spirit, I would buckle to the toxic lies of evil that would lead me down the road of faithless unbelief. Evil says, "qualify the promises....the Lord can't possibly mean what he says.....you could never expect to do what He did...He is God and you are not" etc, etc, etc. And the lying beat goes on. Soon I find my feet moving to that beat...away from the promises, away from hope, away from faith.

The Holy One speaks assurances that only God can give. The wisdom comes. He gently reminds me that the greater goal in any miraculous answer is the Glory that will come to the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. We receive the answers, the circumstances change and we are blessed but that is not the goal nor the purpose for Divine intervention. We may think humbly that God bends circumstances for our own sake alone, but the truth is that He delivers victorious answers for the sake of His Name, the Name above all Names.

Miracles are the earthly testimonies of the love of our God and Creator flowing to and through our lives. In and of ourselves, we are not worthy of the miraculous answers to our problems here because so many are due to our fallen nature and the supernatural enemy who uses it to defame our Creator.

But as we yield to the authority and wisdom of the Holy One within, we become "eligible" to see and enjoy the supernatural intervention by the Sovereign Hand of our Sovereign God.

The Holy One tells me, "don't get hung up on your "lack of worth" in needing answers to the impossible situations. Focus on the "eligibility" that God is waiting for. The eligibility that I will bring to you: love for and obedience to, Jesus, the Savior of your Soul."

The Holy One within is the only One who can provide us with the love and obedience to the commands of Jesus. He is our Divine Source as the Life of Christ within, and He is waiting for every Believer to yield to His Rule.

As eligible servants of the One True God, the miracles will come, not just once in a while, not just back in the day, and not just as someone else prays. But they will come here and now and everyday into every situation, through every Believer's petition....All to the Glory of our Sovereign and Holy God. Then all the world will see His Hand and feel His Love and believe in the One He sent to save us: Jesus Christ, Messiah and Lord.

Are you in need of a miracle today?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Voice of the Shepherd*

The Spirit calls me today. I am always excited to hear His perspective. I have been spending a lot of time working outside. The land is so beautiful but it is part of my sense of "ownership" to add my own creative touches.

I find myself working on a projects that tax me physically and yet I am compelled each day to push toward the goal even in changing weather from hot to cold and cold to colder..

This morning the Spirit speaks and I understand more about His government over my life. He told me that He has had me in simultaneous drills designed to strengthen me physically as well as Spiritually.

That would explain this inner call to make the forest tidier; to manage it and prayerfully make the land more hospitable. This is also what He is doing through His wake-up call every morning to meet Him for counsel. He is managing my thoughts, my heart, my whole being and making His "Temple" more hospitable.

The discipline was hard at first but the Spirit was unrelenting and persistent in His call. The wisdom I receive in the early morning meetings is far beyond my own thinking. Not that anyone else would necessarily understand because the Holy One speaks to each one of us uniquely and in the specific language of our own individual heart.

There is something so comforting about the voice of the Spirit. It is the voice of my Shepherd. Jesus spoke of it in John 10. Vs 14, "I am the Good Shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me. Vs 3, ....the sheep listen to His voice. He calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. When He has brought out all His own, He goes on ahead of them and His sheep follow Him because they know His voice."

How many of us can honestly say we "KNOW" the voice of our Shepherd? We place a lot of emphasis on the written Word of God and so we must. But why, then, did Jesus use this analogy for us since sheep cannot read and must rely on their knowledge and understanding of the voice of their Shepherd?

Sheep without a shepherd are a pathetic sight. The shepherd is the only hope for their survival, and yet we are referred to as sheep over and over again. The fact that the Palestinian shepherd leads his sheep is not lost on me. Other shepherds may drive their sheep, but my Shepherd, the Good Shepherd leads His sheep.
With the Holy One out ahead and leading me into each new day, I can follow with a wonderful peace, knowing He will keep me safe all day, every day.

The critical issue to me is knowing His voice. How many other voices call to me in a given day to follow them unto my own destruction?

This is the reason for the "drills". The Holy Spirit is speaking and I must listen and obey. As the Shepherd's voice continues to speak and I tune my ear to the sound of it, I begin to recognize His voice and trust that as I listen and obey, He will keep me safe from all harm. I will have His Wisdom and Grace to deal with any situation I might encounter in any given day.

King David wrote this incredible Psalm about our Good Shepherd.

Psalm 23:
"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside quiet waters
He restores my soul
He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake
Even though I walk through the valley of the "shadow" of death
I will fear no evil for You are with me
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies
You anoint my head with oil
My cup overflows
Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

With this wonderful picture in my mind, I know I must listen intently to the Voice of my Shepherd and follow Him. I must be still and hear what the Holy One has to say. I must obey and apply each directive spoken. In this way, I will become more and more familiar with the voice of my Shepherd and more and more confident to follow the voice I know is His.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Living Epistle

The Spirit calls me today to gather my thoughts around Him. Since we have become such intimate friends, I know He desires to direct all my thoughts. It's the thought life that controls the body and He wants all my thoughts to pass through His great filter, set up as His throne in my heart.

I marvel at the changes occurring in me since I started in the "School of the Holy Spirit". This Heavenly course teaching me the role of the Holy Spirit is life changing because it is heart healing.

It is hard to imagine that the Holy Spirit has been such a powerful force dwelling within and yet for so much of my life, I have failed to recognize and yield to His quiet voice and commands. It is shocking to realize how much self-rule/self-fool, has dominated my life and caused such fear and agony in the day-to-day trials.

Somehow, deep within, I knew I was no match for all the vexing issues that present themselves, but until I began to learn the Truth about my internal Counselor, I always thought it was up to me, alone, to navigate the mine field of this life.

I always thought that, having the Word of God, the mandates of Scripture, and the knowledge of the Holy One who died for me, I was then expected to blast into each day with all the challenges and emerge victorious on the other side.

What I was missing all those years, was the understanding of the indwelling Presence of Christ, who was sent to live His life through me. I cannot live the life of my Savior in and of myself. There is too much flesh still devastated by the fall, too much intellect, too much pride, too much control.

The toxic lie of the enemy that I can, that I MUST, fulfill my responsibility as a servant of Christ in and of my own feeble strength, has poisoned more situations than I can count. The truth is that, in and of myself, I can do nothing. In John 15:5 Jesus says, "I am the Vine and you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing." Then again Phil 4:13 says, "I can do everthing through Him (Jesus) who gives me strength."

There must be a defined difference beyond just a "thought" that empowers me to live by the Holy standard of Scripture in obedience to my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus, and to be "in Christ".

His will, His way is that we be in unity with the Triune Godhead. As He was telling the Disciples about the Counselor, the Holy Spirit to come, Jesus explained in John 14:20, "On that day, you will realize I am in the Father and you are in Me and I am in you."

By the supernatural indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit, we can accomplish in the natural all that Jesus accomplished in His incarnation as God in the flesh, IF (and this is a huge IF) we recognize and yield to the control of the indwelling Holy Spirit. John 15:7-8, "If you remain in Me and My words remain in you ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to My Father's Glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My Disciples.

This "defined" difference that empowers me to live as my Savior desires, is the mystery of the Gospel and that is "Christ in me the hope of Glory" Col 1:27.

We can never find the words to describe this supernatural action, but we can "know" it deep within. A change of mind, a change of heart, a surrender of a right, or death to a privilege that brings life to a principle, all reflect an unexplanable change.

The Holy One calls us to allow Him the freedom to live His life of the Savior through our life. Then we become a living epistle, a "letter" sent by the Lord, to be read by all who know us or all who might see and witness our faith life with our God.

Can we do justice to this great calling in and of ourselves? NEVER!

Unless the Holy Spirit is allowed to maifest the life of our Holy Savior, Christ Jesus, in us and through us, the letter we represent will be full of contradictions and not suitable reading for others who are seeking the Holy life for themselves.

In the world of people I encounter each day, my life, may be the only "epistle" from God they ever read.

So, how does my life read?
How does your life read?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Waiting For The Lord

The Spirit calls me this morning and speaks to me about the need to wait for Him. There must be something very important about waiting. Something that only waiting for God to act can produce; something that only waiting for God to act, tests.

As I look back to God's Word, all those examples we are told to learn from seem to involve waiting for God to rescue and He always did:

Joseph in prison
Israel in Egyptian slavery
Mary and Martha and Lazarus

and each rescue was spectacular!

Conversely, as I look back over the course of many of my life circumstances, I can see that I was impatient, unwilling to wait for my Lord to rescue and therein made all kinds of bad decisions for self-deliverance with each one ending in disaster.

Psalm 27:14 tells us "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." These days call for more "heart" courage in the Lord than the Church in America has seen needed for a long time.

I have the experience of many thunder storms in my new home state. They can be the most awe inspiring, ear splitting events I have ever experienced, even beyond the earthquakes I have lived through in California.

One thing I have noticed during these thunderstorms is the few seconds delay between the flash of the lightening seen and the shock of powerful thunder felt and heard. The Holy One speaks to me about that pause, that delay and the split second anticipation of His mighty thunder. I know it's coming and there is no place to hide from it's "Heaven shaking" deafening roar.

In the thunder storm, the interlude between lightening and thunder is short and there is no way to become complacent or even ignorant about what is going to happen next; brilliant light followed shortly by a sonic boom that literally rocks my world. I can see the lightening, but it is the thunder that manifests the unbelievable power through my being.

Waiting challenges me almost more than anything else I can think of. I am a resolution person and I do not like the pain of waiting. In those interludes of delay and pause, I just can't wait for my Rescuer, and the temptation to plot and plan for my own deliverance gets intense.

This is the weakness the Spirit is pointing out to me today. He says, "Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait." What He is speaking today is an encouragement in the waiting, and the directive is to be strong in the process.

What is coming will be as majestic as any thunder I have felt, but right now the sequence of delay between the lightening of Revelation and the Thunder of it's power must be spent in heart strength and wondrous anticipation.

Do you have a lightening bolt of revelation? This word is for you; Wait for the thunder and powerful demonstration of the Holy Spirit that will surely rock your world. It's coming.

"Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord"

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Cross of Christ: The Great Unifier

The Spirit calls me today in gentle whispers to my soul. He says, "The sword of division must come but the Cross is the great unifier of men".

As Jesus was preparing His Disciples for His death and departure through the brutal execution by crucifixion on a cross, He told them, in John 13:34-35, "A new command I give you, love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another".

Interesting that the Savior of the world, God in the flesh, told us to love each other and stated it as a command. He also said in John 14:15 "if you love Me you will obey what I command".

As a follower of Christ, I cannot get away from the mandate to love. Love is therefore a choice, a decision, not a warm fuzzy feeling that ebbs and flows from an emotional merry-go-round of circumstances.

On a deeply personal level, once I became a Christian, I no longer have the right to follow my own "rules of engagement" toward other people, especially others who call Jesus their Savior.

Unity among Christians who come from every tribe and every nation around the world is a testimony of epic proportions to an unbelieving world who denies God and rejects His Son, Jesus Christ.

The Cross of Christ is the great equalizer of men in that it is only through the sacrificial death of God's approved substitute that allows everyone and anyone to call Jesus their own Savior and be saved. It is such an equal-to-all pathway to Eternal salvation, it boggles the mind to wonder why it is rejected by most.

God's salvation requires no birthright from noble parents, and it cannot be bought or sold to the highest bidder. The Cross of Christ saves by an individual decision over the only life that we have the power to choose for...our own.

Just as the Cross of Christ is the great equalizer, it is also the great unifier of men. Those who have sought forgiveness and found Jesus Christ as their Savior have been adopted into an eternal family. Regardless of background, nationality or time and date of earth life, we all share the common belief and faith in the One True God and Jesus Christ, His Son.

We are bound forever in gratitude to the One who saved us from eternal punishment. We are pulled together as a huge family with brothers and sisters in Christ. We are all trusting the same God and the same Savior; all looking to the same Word of Truth by the same Spirit; all in eager anticipation of the same Eternal Kingdom of the same Eternal King.

The sweet Sovereignty of our Holy God has created us for relational unity, first with Himself and then with each other. The Cross is the great unifier. Gal 3:28 says, "you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who have been baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.

The sword of Christ is dividing the world. As the days grow more intense and the time of the return of our King draws near, we must remember well, our Lord's command, to love one another. "By this all men will know you are my Disciples if you love one another."

The Cross brings us all together, as we love our Lord we will love each other.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Cross of Christ: The Great Equalizer**

The Spirit calls me today. I wrestle the sorrow of loved ones who have not yet come to Jesus for Salvation. The arguments for rejecting Him vary but in the end it doesn't really matter why they do. The assassination of Faith starts early and traverses a lifetime unless the Truth is received and acted upon.

The Truth that God loves us gets trashed trough some of life's circumstances that are tragic. Rather than taking our bleeding hearts to the only One who can heal us, we turn and walk away and sometimes even blame Him for our pain.

The Truth that God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus into the world of men to speak of His great love and to represent His Heart though signs and wonders and miracles of His Divine Grace gets trashed through apathy and tweaked priorities. Rather than seeking the knowledge of the One True God, we set about to control our own lives and, in essence, try to be "god" in and of ourselves.

The Truth that we all have a huge debt to pay our Creator for our sinful lives and choices gets trashed through an intricate system of justification and deceptive thinking. Rather than confessing our sin we justify ourselves into thinking that we are "good" and not accountable for having missed any standard of Holiness outside our own judgment.

The Truth that our Creator, God, in His benevolent grace, made a way for each one of us to have our sin debt paid in full gets trashed by our arrogant thinking that we can somehow save ourselves. Rather than embrace the Gift of Life, sent by the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ, we attempt to set up a way of "salvation" on our own terms.

The Cross upon which the Savior of the world died is the great equalizer and a symbol of God's mercy toward us in judgment. The absolute wonder of our Sovereign Creator is that Truth is available to all men. On the last day no one will be able to say, "I never had the Truth made available to me".

The Cross is the place where the God of all Creation executed His judgment over sin. Every man, and woman will have the same ability to accept Truth, regardless of their personal life circumstances, regardless of their nationality or family of origin, or place of residency, or color of skin, eyes or hair.

The Holy Spirit takes me to John's Gospel, where Jesus explained, "I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
In John 15:26, Jesus said, "when the Counselor comes, whom I will send from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me and you also must testify."

Christians have been criticized for being narrow in their belief system. We have been hated and mocked or cast as intolerant. But the Truth is that a Christian is simply a person who takes the Creator God at His word and believes in the One that He sent, Jesus Christ. Christians are people from every tribe and every nation who are bound together by the Truth set forth through the inerrant Word of God; that Jesus died for all men, to pay their sin debt and be reconciled back to the One and Only Creator God.

The Cross is the great equalizer of men for we all must bow there in need of the Savior who died and rose again. No one is exempt or above or excluded from the Cross. No one is righteous enough to stand before a Holy God and make a case for their own defense. And no one is so depraved that they are beyond forgiveness.

Jesus is the Only Savior of the world.....The Truth, the Truth, the Truth stands...for all Eternity........

Will you believe it?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

The Mercy of Repentance

The Spirit calls me and I am overwhelmed with gratitude. After reading the Joshua account of Achan's sin and subsequent demise in Joshua 7, I begin to process my priviledged ability to repent in a much greater way.

Each and every human has been tempted to sin and buckled in one way or another. I guess that is where our compassion for the "violator" comes from. We cannot, in and of ourselves, get past our humanity where our flesh drives our choices. It seems that wherever there is a law or limit or boundary perceived, the human will try to break it or push past it to our own destruction.

Why is it that I do the very thing I do no want to do and can't seem to do the very thing I do want to do? Paul called it "the body of death" in Romans 7:14-25 and has described it quite well.

For the simple mind the process is simple. God, our Creator, is perfect and Holy and we are not. When we understand the law we recognize that we are "law-breakers" and no matter how hard we try, we simply cannot hold to every law all the time.

Following the simple process, we confess to the "law-giver" that we have failed to honor the law. In other words, we see our failure and repent. We agree with God that we are law breakers, change our mind and our direction in the matter. God has promised that as we come to repentance, He is faithful to forgive our trespasses against Him, and the law. We are then restored in fellowship with our Creator and life goes on.

The greatest story ever told is the True Gospel. Jesus Christ died to save us from our sin and the eternal separation from our Creator God, Who now allows all who believe in Jesus Christ to call Him, our Father.

Today, the Holy Spirit calls me to focus on the blessing of repentance; our ability to say, "I blew it, I am so sorry and I will never do that again".

The account of Achan is heart breaking. God is just and so I do not doubt that there are reasons in His Sovereign knowledge of the heart and what would or could have happened to the future if Achan and his family were allowed to live.

For me, to look at the violation and the subsequent justice causes the deepest sense of gratitude that we today have the abiltiy to repent and know we will be forgiven and not stoned outside the camp.

Achan's sin and death is a stark reminder of where we would all end up if it were not for God's mercy and the price Jesus paid for our sin. Repentance is a true gift and a blessing beyond measure. One we should all utilize all the time.

It is the Holy Spirit within Who calls us to repentance. It is His conviction that points out where we trespass and His grace that reminds us we have forgiveness available.

What is the proper response to so great a salvation? Gratitude! Humble thanksgiving! Repentance is a Blessed gift. To be stuck in our trespasses with no way out is the worst nightmare I could ever imagine. Just ask Achan what it was like.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Blood for Sin

The Spirit calls me today. The clouds of oppression form a suffocating blanket and I know I must break through whatever is cloaking the Truth. As we walk with Holiness, there are those days when the reality of who we are in the flesh condemns us.

We have been called to personal and national repentance. The dire circumstances of our nation and our personal lives have brought many back to the promises of our Holy God. 2 Chron 7:14-15, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways,(repent) then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".

Corporate accountability becomes personal when we are called as a nation to repent. Intercession requires a weight be felt for the sin of others while not over looking our own. And the cloud of accountability swirls.

I have been reading in Joshua 5-7, the account of the Children of Israel entering the promised land. They crossed the Jordan and the first battle is the one fought at Jericho. What a great supernatural victory the Lord gave His people.

Celebration and a sense of invincibility were running high in the camp. A much smaller city, Ai was the next one to be conquered in the land the Lord God Almighty had given His people.

But then a darkness enters in. Chapter 7 is like a bucket of cold water thrown on the enthusiasm and fire generated by a wondrous victory. A smaller fighting force was sent out, but the Israelites were unable to take the city and having lost warriors in the battle, they returned to camp in defeat. Joshua sought the Lord to understand why.

It was revealed that there was "sin" in the camp. One man had violated the directive at Jericho: All plunder was to be devoted to the Lord and taken into the national treasury. One man stole things from the plunder and put them with his own possessions. He violated God's command, buried his "treasure" and in doing so brought defeat to the entire nation.

We who live on this side of the Cross, have a difficult time with the mandate of personal Holiness. The sin debt has been paid by another and we do not have to personally face the great penalty for violating God's Holiness. We, through a choice given, have the ability to see our blood guilt transferred to the Savior, on the Cross of death and atonement for our sin.

It would serve us well to look back in history to the ones whose lives were lived before the Cross. We see what price was paid for violating God's directives and commands.

Achan was the violator in question. While the elders and the leaders did not know who was to blame for the offense, God did. Tribe by tribe, clan by clan, family by family was brought forward until Achan was set apart and identified as the one who had rebelled and sinned.

The penalty was swift and sure: death to him and his family. Then all that he possessed was burned and buried. Lest we fall victim to the enemy of Holiness, we dare not have too much compassion for the violator. If we go there, these thoughts will trickle down from a general perspective of God to a personal agreement with the enemy that God is cruel, harsh, exacting and blood thirsty. We dare not even begin to attempt to judge God and His ways.

The Truth is like a nugget of gold that lies beneath layers of dirt and must be unearthed. And the Truth is, that God's Character and His Being are perfect. His laws are just. If you sin, you die. All are given the choice. In the case of Achan, one man among all the people in the nation decided to disobey the directive of their Holy God. Many may have been tempted, but only one man chose to disobey.

Everything the nation of Israel was about to do depended upon the powerful Almighty God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. This tribal family nation had been chosen to bring the knowledge about the One and Only True God of all Creation to the nations they were about to encounter. This was their mission. Their obedience and observance of His law was vital to the mission. No exceptions.

Sin in the camp had to be eradicated. Just like sin in our lives must be eradicated if we are to live a life worthy of our calling.

The church age is an "age" of grace and mercy flowing from our Holy God through the death of our Savior Jesus Christ. It is important that we recognize the mission and the calling to live a life acceptable to the One who calls us. After salvation we have the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables us to live up to the higher standard IF we yield to Him.

Just like the nation of Israel was called to be "set apart" from all the other nations on the earth, we, as the Church of the Living God, saved and sanctified, are called to be set apart from all the other people around us.

Jericho was recorded, in the minds of all who heard the account of the battle, as a supernatural victory brought through the Power of their Almighty God. Conversely, Ai was initially recorded as a humiliating defeat.

What made the stunning difference in the end was hidden sin. God is calling us to war in His name, to fight the battle so all the world will see His Glory. Victory has already been awarded the Church, because God Himself will fight the battle. But unless we deal with the hidden sin and rebellion within the camp, we will not be able to move forward; not as individuals, not as families and not as the church at large.

God will not be mocked. If we, His people, are living in the same sin as the world around us, how can we ever expect Him to bring forth His great supernatural victories. The Lord has promised to make a "distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve Him and those who do not." What represents the hidden sin in my life? What represents the hidden sin in yours?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

"Give Careful Thought To Your Ways"

The Spirit calls me today. It's Sunday. He speaks to the constant challenge so many of us face to get to church and participate with other believers in the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord.

We have a multitude of excuses and the enemy is a master at posing the exact one that will win the battle and justify our refusal to get to our chosen place of fellowship and worship. Apathy is a great enemy of faith.

The Lord spoke through the Prophet Haggai, to the Jews who were living in a spiritual place not unlike many believers find themselves today. The shocking reality is that our lives are being affected in the same ways for the same sin that God revealed through Haggai 1:5-12: "Now this is what the Lord Almighty says, "Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but have harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages only to put them in a purse with holes in it."

How many of us can say, "amen" to this as a representation of our lives? He goes on to say, "this is what the Lord Almighty says, "Give careful though to your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring down timber and build this house so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored."

In the Old Testament, the Temple was a physical building made to the exact specifications the Lord gave to His people. Since Christ came, paid our sin debt, and was risen on the 3rd day, the "temple" of His Holy Habitation is our heart, our body. The indwelling Presence of His Holy Spirit has taken us to the new understanding that we, the "saved" are indeed the Temple, the Holy place, the building not made by human hands, where He has come to dwell. I Corinth 3:16, 6:19, and 2 Corinth 6:16.

The Lord, through Haggai, continues His indictment of His people, "You expected much but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?" declares the Lord Almighty, "because of my House (Temple) that remains a ruin, while each one of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you, the heavens have have withheld their dew and the earth, its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine and the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle and on the labor of your hands."

Could this be the answer from Heaven as to why we are in such a horrible state? Could our apathy toward the Lord's Presence in our lives and the twisted priorities we have established be the cause of what we see as our failed personal economy, government debt, and oppressive circumstances in our lives?

Even if the passage was written and meant for the people of God in ancient times, the warning and truth of this Word could not be more clear to me today. The Temple's location and configuration may have changed since Jesus Christ came, but the apathy of the human heart remains the same.

The indictment is true and work must be done to rebuild the "temple" and make it a place of Honor fit for our King. Because the "Temple" is now the human body, great care must be taken by each one of us individually to keep ourselves free from anything that contaminates or puts us in apathy toward the things important to our God.

But the Almighty Lover of our souls has not left us without hope or the "power" to accomplish all He has required of us. Through our repentance (acknowledgement of our sin) and turning our lives over to the Holy One within, we can rebuild what has been left to "ruin" Haggai 1:13, "I am with you, declares the Lord. So He stirred up the spirit......of the whole remnant of the people and they came and began to work on the House of the Lord Almighty, their God".

What work must I do to make my Heart fit for the King? What unbelief must be evicted or idol destroyed that represents the "Temple" ruin? Apathy halts the building. May each one of us "give careful thought to our ways" so that the Lord will be Glorified in His Temple and we may be eligible to represent the truly abundant life promised those who obey.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Are You Ready?

The Holy One calls to me today. "The battle is raging and all the saints need to be at the ready to engage in this end times war." But what does it mean "to be ready'?

Good vs evil, Light vs dark; the theme of the warfare touches our lives each and every day. We can choose to remain ignorant, and deny that there is a war going on, OR, in our great human wisdom we can refuse to seek the wisdom from Heaven's Throne to gain the understanding of what the war is all about. Either way, whether by ignorance or in self-protection we will end up defeated by the enemy of our souls.

God's Word says, "the battle belongs to the Lord" and the ultimate truth is that it does. When Joshua was preparing to take Jericho, the first of many battles to be fought in the "promised land" of God's people, scripture says, "he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up and asked him, "are you for us or our enemy?" Joshua 5:14 "Neither, he replied, but as Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come."

This part of scripture is very interesting to me because I like to think that God is for me and against anyone I perceive as my "enemy". The ground war can get very confusing unless we come to the understanding that the battle is ultimately between God and the mutinous traitor who tried to usurp the Throne of our Holy Creator and become himself a god.

Just because the battle belongs to the Lord does not mean that we are not in it. Today the Holy One speaks to the always vexing question: "what is my part?"

The picture He paints in my mind is that of His army. Each person is to be a specialist. Each person has a gift and is expected to use it for the benefit of the Body of Christ, the army of the Lord, the warring Church.

As we hone our skills in the use of our "gifts" we will be called upon to use them at the proper times. As in any battle, different specialties are called for in different situations but all are necessary to the ultimate victory.

Those who have taken the time to learn and grow in their gifts are on the font lines using them. Some are being trained for service and are waiting to step up. Sadly some are not even looking for what they have been born to do in the Spiritual arena and are languishing at the base camp.

Being ready (instant) in season and out is the important goal, and always remembering that this is not our battle but the Lord's we fight. The war is mental, the battlefield is the mind, but our part is to take the Truth about our God and Savior to the lost and dying world we inhabit.

Through the use of our "weapons", the "gifts of the Spirit", we can fight the Lord's war for the hearts and minds of His beloved creation: Man. As He manifests through our lives, others can come to know Truth.

This picture of the battle is important for me to remember each day, otherwise, I can get distracted thinking that life is my personal war and survival is the only goal.

Am I ready? Only as I surrender all that I am to the One who calls me, will I be ready. By His indwelling Presence, I can know my gift and be ready for Him to use it at the appropriate times.

Are you ready?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?