The Spirit calls me this morning. There is peace and a sense of excitement as I end this last year of 2011 and look for ward to what 2012 will bring.
I wonder if this will be the year the of the Lord's return for His Church? Or will this be yet another year to press forward, assault the gates of hell to rescue yet more the of the Rahabs caught behind enemy lines?
This last year has been brutal in so many ways. Lots has been shaken out and down. Faith has been tested and tried. The world is in chaos, our country divided, and our families broken by sin.
So why is there any sense of peace? John 14:27, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid."
Jesus said this as He was explaining to the disciples the up and coming disbursement of the Holy Spirit into their hearts and minds to take place after His Ascension. Since that time, we who are born again, have the Presence of Christ Jesus through His Spirit, and the Holy Third Person of the Trinity provides the peace beyond explanation or understanding.
The Holy Spirit calls me this morning to get ready for the coming year.
He has me ponder the world and all that is being offered. The temptations abound and the things to delight our flesh are endless. Then He begins to make the point of today's counsel meeting.
He speaks into my thinking, "As you look around, the world is in a buying and selling frenzy. The primary medium of exchange is money. You want something, and you offer your money in exchange. This form of commerce is how you have been programmed to live your life in the economy of the world.
But God's economy doesn't work that way. The medium of exchange in God's economy is Heavenward words, otherwise known as prayer"
What a wonderful reminder for the one who has no money with which to purchase all that is needed or desired in the earth's realm. The medium of exchange in God's economy is prayers and petitions. As believers we have to know this. But if we really believe it, why is there so little prayer being brought to the One from whom all blessings flow?
Prayers are like gold in the Lord's economy, and through our prayers we gain the blessings from Heaven. But an even more exciting reality is that the Father Himself has loaded up our Heavenly bank account with all the resources we need to procure the blessings we seek.
Worthy words, prayers, petitions, and the faith to believe are all available to the poor in spirit to exact the greatest blessing from Heaven's Throne. In John 15:7, Jesus said, "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."
An amazing promise, but as the world dominates our thinking we are programmed to value only our life and comforts here on earth. Things have become more important than people, our ego's bigger than our God, and our words worthless to bring about changes in our lives and the lives of those with whom we have been commissioned to share our faith and the Good News about the Savior.
The New Year presents a line in the sand, and an opportunity to cross over. We can leave behind the twisted priorities and bondage to worldly comforts in favor of a new beginning. Lessons learned can now be applied to effect changes that can and will have an eternal impact.
We have all we need to shed the fruitless deeds of darkness, continue on the work and mission of our Lord: to destroy the works of the devil, set the captives free and look forward to the return of our King, in all His Glory. We have the Holy Spirit within and all He asks is that we yield to His rule in our lives and Heaven's goals will be accomplished.
To access the Throne and have the storehouse of Heavenly answers opened to us, we need only bring the contract Jesus signed in His blood, and the "gold" placed in our heavenly bank account called the "prayers" of the saints. The Lord calls for our participation in the government of our world and it is in this place of prayer that we begin.
We communicate to God what we believe our corner of the world needs and He will send the resources. It is a sacred trust. Intimacy reveals His wisdom over the affairs of men and what is really needed. He will communicate this to us and we can then petition with the complete faith that we have all we ask.
I cherish the time spent with the Holy One and I pray for more and more intimacy to be established between us in 2012. I know this is His will and my desire, so I anticipate an amazing New Year of deeper and more prolonged fellowship in ever increasing prayer. As I pray for the Mind of Christ to overtake my human mind, and seek to bring every thought into the captivity of Christ, I know I will find more and greater answers to the petitions I bring.
We, the Church of the living God, have been given a legacy of power and authority by the Author and Creator of everything that exists. What will we do in 2012, with the legacy we have been given and the delegated authority we have to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" and see it happen?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Resurrection Power
The watches of the night bring the "psyops" of evil. Like the croaking of a frog, the repetition of the message the enemy wants me to believe, keeps assaulting my mind while I am half asleep.
The Holy Spirit calls to me out of that place of vulnerability to remind me that He is always with me to combat the lies with Truth. How thankful I am each and every day to know that My Redeemer lives, and His wisdom and counsel begins right away.
The enemy's tactics against me always boil down to the battles I am watching unfold or worse, the battles that are in full swing and raging. It's not just the fact that a battle is being waged by the evil one, it's all the suggestion that the "evidence" proves he is prevailing in it to the "apparent" destruction of all that I hope for. His ultimate goal is to destroy my faith that God is who He says He is.
The Holy One allows me to vent my fears. He listens while I repeat the lies to Him that the enemy has fed me. I take it all to Him this morning. He receives the dark words of doom. I repeat what I hear the evil voice taunting me with, as I suffer in the circumstances of this trial.
His gracious words start to flow to me. I Peter 4:12-19, "Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ."
I walk my mind back to my Savior's life and model. What about "take up your cross and follow Me" have I missed? The Holy One gently clears my mind,
"Beloved, you do not get to choose your own cross". I do not get to select the place where I must die to my flesh, my heart, my emotions. But die I must or I can never experience resurrected life.
I put my mind on the death of my Savior, and process His suffering. True to the scriptures, I find within this painful trial, that my Lord knows well my pain.
He was betrayed by those closest to Him
He was misunderstood
He was rejected
He was crushed in heart
He was emotionally all alone separated even from His Father
He was brutalized physically
He heard the victory chant as evil drove the spikes through His hands and feet
But then I realized there is something He did not model, something that overwhelms me that was not in Him. Self Pity.
With the Holy One guiding my thoughts, as I ponder the agony of the betrayal I feel and lift my eyes to the way the Savior suffered for me, I realize there was no self pity......ever.
Jesus came on a mission and the mission did not disintegrate due to the response of the P.O.W.'S or the munitions of evil set up against Him. Jesus came to conquer and conquer He did. Past the pain of all that he suffered, He rose triumphant and is now seated at the right hand of all Power and Authority.
I Peter 4:13, "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His Glory is revealed. The Holy Spirit who dwells within me is charged with the Sovereign Role to bring Glory to the resurrected Savior of the world, in me and through my life.
Discouragement and self-pity have no place in my heart or my mind. I repent and petition the Holy One to release His joy and peace within me and give me the strength to walk on for the ongoing commission is well stated in I Peter 4:19, "So then, those who suffer according to the will of God should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good".
The Spirit reminds me that the closer we get to the return of the Lord, the more intense will be the enemy's efforts to discourage all who believe and represent the light. But He is here to "strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to the fearful hearts, be strong and do no fear, your God will come. He will come with vengeance and with Divine retribution. He will come to save you". Isaiah 35.
Suddenly I begin to feel the power of resurrection life flood my heart and mind, realizing nothing is impossible for my God. Self-pity has given way to the Lord's mighty Presence in this ongoing battle against the darkness and the commission to walk and live in the delegated authority I have against evil, as a servant of the Most High.
Evil is now on a leash and we can enforce it's boundaries. The gates of hell will not prevail against the delegated authority of the Lord's people. Lord, Thy kingdom come and Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy Spirit calls to me out of that place of vulnerability to remind me that He is always with me to combat the lies with Truth. How thankful I am each and every day to know that My Redeemer lives, and His wisdom and counsel begins right away.
The enemy's tactics against me always boil down to the battles I am watching unfold or worse, the battles that are in full swing and raging. It's not just the fact that a battle is being waged by the evil one, it's all the suggestion that the "evidence" proves he is prevailing in it to the "apparent" destruction of all that I hope for. His ultimate goal is to destroy my faith that God is who He says He is.
The Holy One allows me to vent my fears. He listens while I repeat the lies to Him that the enemy has fed me. I take it all to Him this morning. He receives the dark words of doom. I repeat what I hear the evil voice taunting me with, as I suffer in the circumstances of this trial.
His gracious words start to flow to me. I Peter 4:12-19, "Do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ."
I walk my mind back to my Savior's life and model. What about "take up your cross and follow Me" have I missed? The Holy One gently clears my mind,
"Beloved, you do not get to choose your own cross". I do not get to select the place where I must die to my flesh, my heart, my emotions. But die I must or I can never experience resurrected life.
I put my mind on the death of my Savior, and process His suffering. True to the scriptures, I find within this painful trial, that my Lord knows well my pain.
He was betrayed by those closest to Him
He was misunderstood
He was rejected
He was crushed in heart
He was emotionally all alone separated even from His Father
He was brutalized physically
He heard the victory chant as evil drove the spikes through His hands and feet
But then I realized there is something He did not model, something that overwhelms me that was not in Him. Self Pity.
With the Holy One guiding my thoughts, as I ponder the agony of the betrayal I feel and lift my eyes to the way the Savior suffered for me, I realize there was no self pity......ever.
Jesus came on a mission and the mission did not disintegrate due to the response of the P.O.W.'S or the munitions of evil set up against Him. Jesus came to conquer and conquer He did. Past the pain of all that he suffered, He rose triumphant and is now seated at the right hand of all Power and Authority.
I Peter 4:13, "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when His Glory is revealed. The Holy Spirit who dwells within me is charged with the Sovereign Role to bring Glory to the resurrected Savior of the world, in me and through my life.
Discouragement and self-pity have no place in my heart or my mind. I repent and petition the Holy One to release His joy and peace within me and give me the strength to walk on for the ongoing commission is well stated in I Peter 4:19, "So then, those who suffer according to the will of God should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good".
The Spirit reminds me that the closer we get to the return of the Lord, the more intense will be the enemy's efforts to discourage all who believe and represent the light. But He is here to "strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way, say to the fearful hearts, be strong and do no fear, your God will come. He will come with vengeance and with Divine retribution. He will come to save you". Isaiah 35.
Suddenly I begin to feel the power of resurrection life flood my heart and mind, realizing nothing is impossible for my God. Self-pity has given way to the Lord's mighty Presence in this ongoing battle against the darkness and the commission to walk and live in the delegated authority I have against evil, as a servant of the Most High.
Evil is now on a leash and we can enforce it's boundaries. The gates of hell will not prevail against the delegated authority of the Lord's people. Lord, Thy kingdom come and Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Born Again
The Holy One calls me this morning and I open my eyes and ears to yet more of an understanding of His ways. He is no respecter of persons and I am so thankful for the wisdom He so liberally provides for all who seek Him without Him finding fault.
God knows I am a flawed vessel, yet, He patiently leads me into all truth by His Holy Spirit. My human mind is so dull and resistant at times. I get a little glimmer of profound truth then lose it to earthly distractions. But the Lord is patient with me and He never gives up. We are each on our own unique journey with Jesus. He has the road map for our lives and will get us to our ultimate destination, but not via the same roadways that He is taking other believers.
In this personal and unique relationship with our Savior, we all get truth at different times and in different ways. I marvel at how long it takes for me to find a specific truth that comes so easily for others. Yet, the Holy One never condemns me. He patiently brings it around again and again until it finally clicks.
So what was the grand "revelation" to my heart and mind again? The message of what it means to be "born again" and why that catch phrase is so significant.
Jesus said, when speaking to Nicodemus in John 3:3-8. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again" and again He repeated and said, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again."
The Holy One explains it to my own heart and mind this way: "When you were born in the flesh under the dominion of a sin legacy, you were incomplete. However, you were born with a Spiritual potential that required a choice.
Created to be "in the image" of God , Who is a Three Person Trinity, at our flesh birth, the Third Person of the Trinity was not dispersed within. There is a hole, a void, a place in your heart for God, but it is vacant at your flesh birth. At birth you are flesh and soul but missing the Spirit.
Over the course of every human life will come the opportunity and responsibility to choose to be in relationship with the Creator. For those who choose relationship with God, the Father through the only Savior, God, the Son, Jesus, the experience of being "born again" happens and the Holy Spirit enters to complete the unity of that relationship."
I see clearly that we must be born again, whereby the Holy Spirit enters in to complete us and enabled to live to the fullness of our potential in the image of our God. We are brought into His image by the indwelling Third person of the Trinity, missing at our flesh birth.
Our flesh birth is temporal and suitable for all that is only temporal. But when we are born again of the Spirit, everything about our being is redeemed so that we can "see" and "enter" the Kingdom of our God.
To our God be all the Glory. Heavenly Trinity, earthly us: the unifier is the Holy Spirit who enters when we are "born again". Jesus came in the flesh to model this truth. Holiness wrapped in humanity, Jesus represents the individuals we can become if and only as we are "born again".
May we each become the dwelling place of Holiness as we come to faith in Jesus and find ourselves truly "born again".
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
God knows I am a flawed vessel, yet, He patiently leads me into all truth by His Holy Spirit. My human mind is so dull and resistant at times. I get a little glimmer of profound truth then lose it to earthly distractions. But the Lord is patient with me and He never gives up. We are each on our own unique journey with Jesus. He has the road map for our lives and will get us to our ultimate destination, but not via the same roadways that He is taking other believers.
In this personal and unique relationship with our Savior, we all get truth at different times and in different ways. I marvel at how long it takes for me to find a specific truth that comes so easily for others. Yet, the Holy One never condemns me. He patiently brings it around again and again until it finally clicks.
So what was the grand "revelation" to my heart and mind again? The message of what it means to be "born again" and why that catch phrase is so significant.
Jesus said, when speaking to Nicodemus in John 3:3-8. "I tell you the truth, no one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born again" and again He repeated and said, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to Spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, you must be born again."
The Holy One explains it to my own heart and mind this way: "When you were born in the flesh under the dominion of a sin legacy, you were incomplete. However, you were born with a Spiritual potential that required a choice.
Created to be "in the image" of God , Who is a Three Person Trinity, at our flesh birth, the Third Person of the Trinity was not dispersed within. There is a hole, a void, a place in your heart for God, but it is vacant at your flesh birth. At birth you are flesh and soul but missing the Spirit.
Over the course of every human life will come the opportunity and responsibility to choose to be in relationship with the Creator. For those who choose relationship with God, the Father through the only Savior, God, the Son, Jesus, the experience of being "born again" happens and the Holy Spirit enters to complete the unity of that relationship."
I see clearly that we must be born again, whereby the Holy Spirit enters in to complete us and enabled to live to the fullness of our potential in the image of our God. We are brought into His image by the indwelling Third person of the Trinity, missing at our flesh birth.
Our flesh birth is temporal and suitable for all that is only temporal. But when we are born again of the Spirit, everything about our being is redeemed so that we can "see" and "enter" the Kingdom of our God.
To our God be all the Glory. Heavenly Trinity, earthly us: the unifier is the Holy Spirit who enters when we are "born again". Jesus came in the flesh to model this truth. Holiness wrapped in humanity, Jesus represents the individuals we can become if and only as we are "born again".
May we each become the dwelling place of Holiness as we come to faith in Jesus and find ourselves truly "born again".
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Monday, December 26, 2011
God's Crazy Plan
The Spirit calls me this morning. The significance of this time and season is acknowledged by all of us who call Jesus our Savior. The house is quiet this year. One of many since all the kids moved on and into their own personal Journey with Jesus. We will get together later, but for now the heart longs for those who have left and a return to the days gone by.
As a parent it is so hard to watch my children leave home and the sorrow can be overwhelming.
I wonder what it was like for the Father to watch the Son leave home?
I often wonder what it must have been for the God of all Creation to leave His Glory and wrap Himself in flesh? But today, the Holy One has me focus on the the heart of the Father who sent His Son into the world to pay sin's debt to Holiness.
What must it have been like for the Father to watch the Son leave home?
His birth on earth was not the beginning of the plan for redemption of His fallen Creation. But it was the pivot point in the history of man upon which our eternity depends. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him (that He died in our place for sin) will not perish but have eternal life.
The plan was crazy, from the human point of view. Unbelievable for most. That God, the Son would descend from His Heavenly Throne and come to us in the form of a human baby, small, frail, and vulnerable. Crazy, that God, the Father would send His Son to watch him die on a human constructed Cross to pay the sin debt of the world. Crazy that God, the Spirit would raise Him up in a transformed body to the Glory that was His before the creation of the world. Crazy, the love that devised the plan. Crazy, that it was all for us, His beloved creation.
Satan, the arch enemy of Heaven was no doubt laughing with glee at the Creator's lunacy in making Himself so weak as to be like His Creation. But that is where evil made his fatal mistake. Satan believed one of his own lies, the one that has stumbled men over all the generations: That God is made in the weak image of man.
The truth is that man is made in the Glorious image of God and the birth of Jesus is the very evidence of that Sovereign fact. Could it be that everything about Jesus; His birth, His sinless life, His death, His Ascension was to prove that God's original design was not flawed until sin entered in?
Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to model for us our original glorious potential in unbroken fellowship with our Creator and with an eternal future that the human mind cannot begin to fathom. But in order to participate in that future, the power of sin unleashed at the fall had to be broken.
The question that comes to mind is "who, under the affects of the fall could break the power sin unleashed at the fall?" The answer is: No one but God Himself and that is, after all, the point.
Man did not create God, God created man. Who then could pull man up out of the death that sin promised but the One who created man in the first place. And we were created in His image. The Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit form the Trinity, and we were designed to be a three part whole: the flesh, the soul and the Spirit.
Born in sin at birth, we lack the Holy Spirit. Not only did Jesus come to model our potential to live a Holy life, He sent the One, whose role and part of us, our humanity was missing: The Holy Spirit. He is now available to all who would come to acknowledge the desire and desperate need to be in relationship with our Creator and willing to accept the Only Way to get there.
The Son left home to bring back many sons and daughters to the Father's love. He left home to gain and insure that eternity would provide the supreme joy for His Father's heart: to be surrounded by those He created , who worship Him for who He is. To provide through His death a huge eternal family from every tribe and every nation on earth .
What must it have been like for the Father to watch the Son leave home? Much like it feels to my own heart today, very bitter sweet. The sorrow of broken fellowship for the moment but filled with the knowledge that when they do return home, they will be bring back many new ones to flood my heart with joy.
I am thankful to the Holy One for putting the temporary separation in perspective and reminding me of the joy of a bigger family. One that will be together for all eternity.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
As a parent it is so hard to watch my children leave home and the sorrow can be overwhelming.
I wonder what it was like for the Father to watch the Son leave home?
I often wonder what it must have been for the God of all Creation to leave His Glory and wrap Himself in flesh? But today, the Holy One has me focus on the the heart of the Father who sent His Son into the world to pay sin's debt to Holiness.
What must it have been like for the Father to watch the Son leave home?
His birth on earth was not the beginning of the plan for redemption of His fallen Creation. But it was the pivot point in the history of man upon which our eternity depends. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him (that He died in our place for sin) will not perish but have eternal life.
The plan was crazy, from the human point of view. Unbelievable for most. That God, the Son would descend from His Heavenly Throne and come to us in the form of a human baby, small, frail, and vulnerable. Crazy, that God, the Father would send His Son to watch him die on a human constructed Cross to pay the sin debt of the world. Crazy that God, the Spirit would raise Him up in a transformed body to the Glory that was His before the creation of the world. Crazy, the love that devised the plan. Crazy, that it was all for us, His beloved creation.
Satan, the arch enemy of Heaven was no doubt laughing with glee at the Creator's lunacy in making Himself so weak as to be like His Creation. But that is where evil made his fatal mistake. Satan believed one of his own lies, the one that has stumbled men over all the generations: That God is made in the weak image of man.
The truth is that man is made in the Glorious image of God and the birth of Jesus is the very evidence of that Sovereign fact. Could it be that everything about Jesus; His birth, His sinless life, His death, His Ascension was to prove that God's original design was not flawed until sin entered in?
Jesus came from Heaven to Earth to model for us our original glorious potential in unbroken fellowship with our Creator and with an eternal future that the human mind cannot begin to fathom. But in order to participate in that future, the power of sin unleashed at the fall had to be broken.
The question that comes to mind is "who, under the affects of the fall could break the power sin unleashed at the fall?" The answer is: No one but God Himself and that is, after all, the point.
Man did not create God, God created man. Who then could pull man up out of the death that sin promised but the One who created man in the first place. And we were created in His image. The Father, the Son, and The Holy Spirit form the Trinity, and we were designed to be a three part whole: the flesh, the soul and the Spirit.
Born in sin at birth, we lack the Holy Spirit. Not only did Jesus come to model our potential to live a Holy life, He sent the One, whose role and part of us, our humanity was missing: The Holy Spirit. He is now available to all who would come to acknowledge the desire and desperate need to be in relationship with our Creator and willing to accept the Only Way to get there.
The Son left home to bring back many sons and daughters to the Father's love. He left home to gain and insure that eternity would provide the supreme joy for His Father's heart: to be surrounded by those He created , who worship Him for who He is. To provide through His death a huge eternal family from every tribe and every nation on earth .
What must it have been like for the Father to watch the Son leave home? Much like it feels to my own heart today, very bitter sweet. The sorrow of broken fellowship for the moment but filled with the knowledge that when they do return home, they will be bring back many new ones to flood my heart with joy.
I am thankful to the Holy One for putting the temporary separation in perspective and reminding me of the joy of a bigger family. One that will be together for all eternity.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Introducing....KING JESUS***
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. Awaken by a blasting headache that has come and gone through the watches of the night, I long for His peace to invade my brain.
The conflicts all around me have escalated to a fever pitch.
The words of the prophet Malachi keep echoing in my mind. The last book of the Old Testament, is a short book packed with what was grieving the Heart of God before the FIRST coming of our Savior and Lord. I find it a very important read now that we are so close to the Return and SECOND coming of our Savior and Lord.
Malachi 3:13 says, "You have said harsh things against Me, says the Lord. He was speaking to "believers" at the time it was written and He speaks to me today.
But what have I said against you, Lord? Sometimes we speak only in the voice of our hearts that is audible only to the Holy One who dwells within. Has He heard me say, "It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty. But now we call the arrogant blessed. certainly evildoers prosper and even those who challenge God escape."
Loosely translated, "Where are you Lord? I have been praying and praying but things don't change except to get visibly worse for the home team." It is at this sad point and despairing of life that I find myself thinking, "if things are just going to get worse and worse, why go on?"
But then the Holy One speaks to my despair, "My child, this world is NOT your home, you are truly just passing through. I have placed within you a longing for your homeland of Heaven that nothing on earth can satisfy. Stop trying to make the world a better place (for yourself) and rather instead, work to make Heaven a bigger place (for Me). You are here to enlarge Heaven's ultimate citizenship by introducing the world to Heaven's Eternal King....JESUS.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says it best: Speaking of the Patriarchs of our Faith, and exhorting us today, "Instead they were longing for a better country, a Heavenly One. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their (our) God, for He has prepared a city for them (and us).
The Holy One has re-set my thinking and brought me to repentance.
His wisdom is two-fold:
I understand now, why I feel so estranged in my heart from all that is around me. This world is not my home. It has been a huge mistake to keep trying to "move in", to keep trying to "fit in". I can now embrace the Truth, that, until I move on to my Heavenly home, the longing will be in my heart for a place not of this world.
And, as I accept this Truth, I can then be free to do the "greater" works drawing from the Holy Spirit's Presence, for it is given to us who believe and have our feet on planet earth, to introduce the world to our King of Kings for so long as we are here.
Matt 28:18, Jesus said, "All authority in Heaven and earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations". In other words, "Go tell the world about Me".
I am so thankful for our early morning pep talk. I am now ready to get back in the game and re-calibrate myself to His goals for my life.
Eternity is for all of us just a heartbeat away. It is imperative that we keep our mindset on eternal things. We must anchor to the goals and forget trying to make life here so comfortable for ourselves or others that we cannot nor need not think on eternity.
Releasing our tight grip on our desire for earthy comforts, we can move on to the real purpose for our lives which is to introduce all we meet to our Eternal King of Kings:
The conflicts all around me have escalated to a fever pitch.
The words of the prophet Malachi keep echoing in my mind. The last book of the Old Testament, is a short book packed with what was grieving the Heart of God before the FIRST coming of our Savior and Lord. I find it a very important read now that we are so close to the Return and SECOND coming of our Savior and Lord.
Malachi 3:13 says, "You have said harsh things against Me, says the Lord. He was speaking to "believers" at the time it was written and He speaks to me today.
But what have I said against you, Lord? Sometimes we speak only in the voice of our hearts that is audible only to the Holy One who dwells within. Has He heard me say, "It is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty. But now we call the arrogant blessed. certainly evildoers prosper and even those who challenge God escape."
Loosely translated, "Where are you Lord? I have been praying and praying but things don't change except to get visibly worse for the home team." It is at this sad point and despairing of life that I find myself thinking, "if things are just going to get worse and worse, why go on?"
But then the Holy One speaks to my despair, "My child, this world is NOT your home, you are truly just passing through. I have placed within you a longing for your homeland of Heaven that nothing on earth can satisfy. Stop trying to make the world a better place (for yourself) and rather instead, work to make Heaven a bigger place (for Me). You are here to enlarge Heaven's ultimate citizenship by introducing the world to Heaven's Eternal King....JESUS.
Hebrews 11:13-16 says it best: Speaking of the Patriarchs of our Faith, and exhorting us today, "Instead they were longing for a better country, a Heavenly One. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their (our) God, for He has prepared a city for them (and us).
The Holy One has re-set my thinking and brought me to repentance.
His wisdom is two-fold:
I understand now, why I feel so estranged in my heart from all that is around me. This world is not my home. It has been a huge mistake to keep trying to "move in", to keep trying to "fit in". I can now embrace the Truth, that, until I move on to my Heavenly home, the longing will be in my heart for a place not of this world.
And, as I accept this Truth, I can then be free to do the "greater" works drawing from the Holy Spirit's Presence, for it is given to us who believe and have our feet on planet earth, to introduce the world to our King of Kings for so long as we are here.
Matt 28:18, Jesus said, "All authority in Heaven and earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations". In other words, "Go tell the world about Me".
I am so thankful for our early morning pep talk. I am now ready to get back in the game and re-calibrate myself to His goals for my life.
Eternity is for all of us just a heartbeat away. It is imperative that we keep our mindset on eternal things. We must anchor to the goals and forget trying to make life here so comfortable for ourselves or others that we cannot nor need not think on eternity.
Releasing our tight grip on our desire for earthy comforts, we can move on to the real purpose for our lives which is to introduce all we meet to our Eternal King of Kings:
JESUS CHRIST
AT WHOSE NAME
EVERY KNEE WILL BOW
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Resurrected Hope**
The Spirit calls me this morning to talk things over. Hope like Lazarus has died. Nothing is turning out like I had hoped. I am in a place like Martha and Mary mourning the death of hope for that is what was placed in the tomb beside the body of their beloved brother, Lazarus.
While he was sick, the sisters sent word to Jesus to come quickly for Lazarus was in desperate need of a healing. The women were watching as their brother slipped into death, helpless yet hopeful that if only Jesus would come, Lazarus would be brought back from the abyss of this sickness and restored to health so that life with his family would go on.
Scripture says in John 11:5, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days". Then in vs. 17, scripture tells us, "On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days." This delay had nothing to do with any lack of love for them.
Martha and Mary were beside themselves with grief, shock, and despair at the loss of their brother. The awful truth was that Jesus did not arrive in time to "heal" him. The sisters had knowledge that Jesus was a healer. They had a personal relationship with Him and even sent word saying "Lord, the one you love is sick".
What they could not see nor comprehend at that moment, was His plan to work a profound miracle and testimony into the fabric of their lives that would make the history books for all eternity. Their perspective was limited and their view short sighted. They had known Jesus to be healer and that was the limit of their expectation to date.
The Holy One speaks to me, "You are like them. You trust Me now, for what you have seen or experienced Me doing in the past, but not for the higher, bigger, more outrageous things that you have not seen nor experienced before. Life will always provide opportunities for the faithful to go past what they know about Me to the higher levels of greater miracles."
But Lord, at what point in the disaster that forms the stage for the miraculous is THE turning point? Lazarus died and hope died with him. Jesus, you arrived but Lazarus was still dead.
The Spirit speaks, "Read on My child".
Martha went out to meet Jesus. When she heard He was coming, Martha went out.
In her grief, she went out to meet Jesus.
In her mourning, she went out to meet Jesus.
In her heartache, she went out to meet Jesus.
Martha went out to declare her faith, and not just in what she believed was a lost opportunity to see Jesus do what He had done for others as in heal her brother. Martha's next words conveyed her desire to take yet another step further in her faith in Jesus, "But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask."
Martha recognized and affirmed that Jesus was the Gateway to God. She declared her belief that Jesus was the Great Intercessor, and that God, who governs life and death would give Jesus whatever He asked.
Then those incredible words hit her ears, Jesus said, "I AM, the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Finally, Martha understood the true identity of the one before whom she was standing. She discovered that Jesus is God. "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.
In that moment, her hope was revived. Hope was resurrected before her brother. On that day, the tomb was emptied of all that it held, her brother and her hope.
What in your life lies in the tomb of death and alongside of it, your hope? I know what it was in my life today.
When faced with the impossible things. When death occurs and mourning takes over, will we be like Martha and go out to meet Jesus? Will we run to Him for comfort and understanding and to take that next step further in faith in Him?
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
While he was sick, the sisters sent word to Jesus to come quickly for Lazarus was in desperate need of a healing. The women were watching as their brother slipped into death, helpless yet hopeful that if only Jesus would come, Lazarus would be brought back from the abyss of this sickness and restored to health so that life with his family would go on.
Scripture says in John 11:5, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when He heard that Lazarus was sick, He stayed where He was two more days". Then in vs. 17, scripture tells us, "On His arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days." This delay had nothing to do with any lack of love for them.
Martha and Mary were beside themselves with grief, shock, and despair at the loss of their brother. The awful truth was that Jesus did not arrive in time to "heal" him. The sisters had knowledge that Jesus was a healer. They had a personal relationship with Him and even sent word saying "Lord, the one you love is sick".
What they could not see nor comprehend at that moment, was His plan to work a profound miracle and testimony into the fabric of their lives that would make the history books for all eternity. Their perspective was limited and their view short sighted. They had known Jesus to be healer and that was the limit of their expectation to date.
The Holy One speaks to me, "You are like them. You trust Me now, for what you have seen or experienced Me doing in the past, but not for the higher, bigger, more outrageous things that you have not seen nor experienced before. Life will always provide opportunities for the faithful to go past what they know about Me to the higher levels of greater miracles."
But Lord, at what point in the disaster that forms the stage for the miraculous is THE turning point? Lazarus died and hope died with him. Jesus, you arrived but Lazarus was still dead.
The Spirit speaks, "Read on My child".
Martha went out to meet Jesus. When she heard He was coming, Martha went out.
In her grief, she went out to meet Jesus.
In her mourning, she went out to meet Jesus.
In her heartache, she went out to meet Jesus.
Martha went out to declare her faith, and not just in what she believed was a lost opportunity to see Jesus do what He had done for others as in heal her brother. Martha's next words conveyed her desire to take yet another step further in her faith in Jesus, "But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask."
Martha recognized and affirmed that Jesus was the Gateway to God. She declared her belief that Jesus was the Great Intercessor, and that God, who governs life and death would give Jesus whatever He asked.
Then those incredible words hit her ears, Jesus said, "I AM, the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even though he dies. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Finally, Martha understood the true identity of the one before whom she was standing. She discovered that Jesus is God. "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God who was to come into the world.
In that moment, her hope was revived. Hope was resurrected before her brother. On that day, the tomb was emptied of all that it held, her brother and her hope.
What in your life lies in the tomb of death and alongside of it, your hope? I know what it was in my life today.
When faced with the impossible things. When death occurs and mourning takes over, will we be like Martha and go out to meet Jesus? Will we run to Him for comfort and understanding and to take that next step further in faith in Him?
The Holy Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Thursday, December 8, 2011
The Reason for the Season
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. The news is blasting away with "tis the season" and then all the whoopee over the greeting "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" or any variation thereof.
The Christmas season is upon us and for some years the conflict has been escalating between the world and religious people over Dec 25th and who owns the "rights" to that day on the calendar. Many are saying "This is our day and you have no right to hijack it and make it less than what we say it is". Others say, "I'm not even a Christian and yet you force me to acknowledge the preeminence of Christ on that day and by your tradition refuse me an alternative Holiday."
As I ponder the debate realizing how heated it has become, the Holy One reminds me that He has an opinion and I need to hear it. He starts with a sobering question, "Could it be that the Lord Himself does not want His name attached to the worldly celebration of gross materialism that western Christmas has become?"
We defend that day with all our vigor and even virile indignation (otherwise know as hatred) against all who seek to take the "Christ" out of Christmas. But, seriously, what has been lost when those who are called by His name are so caught up in the worldly extravaganza that we just blend in with the crowd and put Santa next to the manger in our hearts and minds.
The world does not honor Christ as Savior or as Lord, so why insist that they be forced to yield to our acknowledged reason for our personal celebration of that day. The roots of traditional Christmas date back to the politics of religion in a different time and place than the actual time and birth of our Savior.
Tradition has taken the place of faith so why are we so shocked that the same spirit of darkness that began the tradition has taken it back again, and now to the point that even Christians are on board. Leaching Holiness is the devil's ancient game. Offering an "appearance" of goodness and mercy hooks us and then the complete distraction from Holiness is easier.
The birth of Christ happened in history. But it is the personal love relationship between us and Him that matters in the context of life on earth and beyond. And the reason we need to acknowledge His birth is to be humbled by His death. Jesus Christ came to die in our place. He was born to take away the sin of the world.
Unfortunately, Heaven is not the final destination point for all who will celebrate the birth of the Savior on earth and spend years exchanging gifts and shouting "Merry Christmas to those we meet. All that outward stuff matters not if our hearts are not Christ's home. Unless the Birth of the Savior takes you to His death on the Cross, His Divine Birth and the celebration counts as nothing for you.
I will celebrate the good cheer and the giving that the season inspires, but maybe it is time I stop the huge fight for the "tradition" of the season and think more about how I can offer the world the alternative of my faith in the "Reason" for the season.
Back to the original question: "Could it be that the Lord Christ Himself does not want His Name attached to the worldly celebrations as it stands today?"
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Christmas season is upon us and for some years the conflict has been escalating between the world and religious people over Dec 25th and who owns the "rights" to that day on the calendar. Many are saying "This is our day and you have no right to hijack it and make it less than what we say it is". Others say, "I'm not even a Christian and yet you force me to acknowledge the preeminence of Christ on that day and by your tradition refuse me an alternative Holiday."
As I ponder the debate realizing how heated it has become, the Holy One reminds me that He has an opinion and I need to hear it. He starts with a sobering question, "Could it be that the Lord Himself does not want His name attached to the worldly celebration of gross materialism that western Christmas has become?"
We defend that day with all our vigor and even virile indignation (otherwise know as hatred) against all who seek to take the "Christ" out of Christmas. But, seriously, what has been lost when those who are called by His name are so caught up in the worldly extravaganza that we just blend in with the crowd and put Santa next to the manger in our hearts and minds.
The world does not honor Christ as Savior or as Lord, so why insist that they be forced to yield to our acknowledged reason for our personal celebration of that day. The roots of traditional Christmas date back to the politics of religion in a different time and place than the actual time and birth of our Savior.
Tradition has taken the place of faith so why are we so shocked that the same spirit of darkness that began the tradition has taken it back again, and now to the point that even Christians are on board. Leaching Holiness is the devil's ancient game. Offering an "appearance" of goodness and mercy hooks us and then the complete distraction from Holiness is easier.
The birth of Christ happened in history. But it is the personal love relationship between us and Him that matters in the context of life on earth and beyond. And the reason we need to acknowledge His birth is to be humbled by His death. Jesus Christ came to die in our place. He was born to take away the sin of the world.
Unfortunately, Heaven is not the final destination point for all who will celebrate the birth of the Savior on earth and spend years exchanging gifts and shouting "Merry Christmas to those we meet. All that outward stuff matters not if our hearts are not Christ's home. Unless the Birth of the Savior takes you to His death on the Cross, His Divine Birth and the celebration counts as nothing for you.
I will celebrate the good cheer and the giving that the season inspires, but maybe it is time I stop the huge fight for the "tradition" of the season and think more about how I can offer the world the alternative of my faith in the "Reason" for the season.
Back to the original question: "Could it be that the Lord Christ Himself does not want His Name attached to the worldly celebrations as it stands today?"
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Salvation and the Sword
The Spirit calls me this morning. The great "day" of thanksgiving has past, but the need to be thankful is ever present. My heart and mind are loaded with outside stimulation of emotions firing every cylinder in my engine.
My heart aches for those I love scattered from coast to coast and continents to islands remote and far away and my heart delights in those near enough to hear their laughter and feel their hugs. I weep for those we have lost and rejoice for those we have gained.
The battle rages and there are deep questions that have no answers.
BUT...the Holy Spirit........calls.
He knows my thoughts. Do I dwell too much on those we have lost? Those we are separated from for various reasons? He speaks to me, "No for that's the Heart of the Savior."
He gently handles my sorrow. He helps me past the agony of judgements reminding me that Jesus said He did not come to judge the world but to save it. John 12:47
Do I dwell to much on self incrimination about what I might have done differently to keep the peace? He helps me past all the guilt reminding me that Jesus said He did not come to bring peace but a sword and that sword would divide the closest relationships. Matt 10:34-37
Salvation and the Sword, what an interesting picture and for some, a conflict. But as The Holy One continues to guide my thoughts, I know they are completely intertwined and part of His Sovereignty. The plan of Holiness to bring us back from the dark abyss of the fall.
Why are we left here after our own salvation except to be the unique expressions of Christ to the world that touches our lives.
True believers have felt the Sword.
True believers know what it is to be on the opposite side of salvation and hope.
True believers understand that, absent the Sword of conviction and a sense of division, the need for repentance will not be found and eternal salvation will not happen. People will die and will feel conviction and will face ultimate judgement but too late for them to change. The Sword must do it's work.
Salvation has been offered to all mankind, but it is and always will be a choice. The Sword of Christ brings all of us to the place of choosing.
True believers lives are to offer an example of that choosing.
Does my life radiate my choice? Does Christ though His Holy Spirit in me manifest the separation and consecration of Holiness to the point of creating a conflict with the worldly people around me?
Do I represent Christ and HIS Sword with the testimony of how in humility it worked on me? The reminder of the Sword of Christ kills my pride....it has to...for I was once an enemy of the Cross and no different than those I judge.
The Sword of Christ will create conflict but it's perfect work will lead us to repentance and thereby to salvation. May I always remember how it worked on my life and pray for that same perfect work in others. Salvation and the Sword.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
My heart aches for those I love scattered from coast to coast and continents to islands remote and far away and my heart delights in those near enough to hear their laughter and feel their hugs. I weep for those we have lost and rejoice for those we have gained.
The battle rages and there are deep questions that have no answers.
BUT...the Holy Spirit........calls.
He knows my thoughts. Do I dwell too much on those we have lost? Those we are separated from for various reasons? He speaks to me, "No for that's the Heart of the Savior."
He gently handles my sorrow. He helps me past the agony of judgements reminding me that Jesus said He did not come to judge the world but to save it. John 12:47
Do I dwell to much on self incrimination about what I might have done differently to keep the peace? He helps me past all the guilt reminding me that Jesus said He did not come to bring peace but a sword and that sword would divide the closest relationships. Matt 10:34-37
Salvation and the Sword, what an interesting picture and for some, a conflict. But as The Holy One continues to guide my thoughts, I know they are completely intertwined and part of His Sovereignty. The plan of Holiness to bring us back from the dark abyss of the fall.
Why are we left here after our own salvation except to be the unique expressions of Christ to the world that touches our lives.
True believers have felt the Sword.
True believers know what it is to be on the opposite side of salvation and hope.
True believers understand that, absent the Sword of conviction and a sense of division, the need for repentance will not be found and eternal salvation will not happen. People will die and will feel conviction and will face ultimate judgement but too late for them to change. The Sword must do it's work.
Salvation has been offered to all mankind, but it is and always will be a choice. The Sword of Christ brings all of us to the place of choosing.
True believers lives are to offer an example of that choosing.
Does my life radiate my choice? Does Christ though His Holy Spirit in me manifest the separation and consecration of Holiness to the point of creating a conflict with the worldly people around me?
Do I represent Christ and HIS Sword with the testimony of how in humility it worked on me? The reminder of the Sword of Christ kills my pride....it has to...for I was once an enemy of the Cross and no different than those I judge.
The Sword of Christ will create conflict but it's perfect work will lead us to repentance and thereby to salvation. May I always remember how it worked on my life and pray for that same perfect work in others. Salvation and the Sword.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
God's provisions are Never Late
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. Last night I was reminded about the overwhelming Sovereignty of our God, and what He will do to facilitate His plans and purposes in and through our lives. Further, He reminds me of what He is willing to do in such a supernatural way so that we will not doubt where all provision comes from. He tells me, "My provisions are never late and and I will always sponsor My Will. You need to stop striving."
The impossible occurs from an impossible set of circumstances. In God's Will, provisions have been established to meet the need before it is ever known. Such is God's Sovereignty. He is outside of our comprehension and knows the end before the beginning of any and all matters.
God is never late in what He provides and His provisions always arrive at the appropriate time in His Will. Matt 2:7-18 is the account of the Magi coming to the house of the "Christ" child, Jesus. and His mother, Mary and Joseph.
The ancient prophesies spoke of the "Son" of God called out of Egypt. But Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The journey of the Magi must have been long and hard. In the days of our rapid mobility and fast travel from here to there, from place to place, it's hard to remember that their journey was long and their guide was a "star" in the east leading them to an unknown place to worship a newborn King. It has been said that it took years for them to get to their Divine destination. Jesus was no longer an infant, possibly 2 years old when they finally arrived.
With them they brought extravagant and costly gifts suitable to honor the King they were about to meet. Joseph and Mary were humble people, and Joseph was a carpenter by trade. Little did they know about the danger soon to erupt from the murderous rage of King Herod. And little did they know of the need for the provision the Magi were compelled to bring.
Scripture tells us that "when they (the Magi) were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream". He was told to go to Egypt. Joseph immediately obeyed and left for Egypt where they stayed until the death of Herod. Scripture doesn't tell us what the cost of such a trip and duration of a stay might have been, but no doubt that the gifts of the Magi funded it. The Holy One speaks to my heart, reminding me that such provisions accompany all who will but seek the Lord's will.
In my personal life experiences, looking back, I can see the absolute truth to that reminder. Two years ago, I was blessed to be a part of a move of God and received a double portion in my cup.
The plan was to travel to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific, to witness the finalization of the adoption of one of my grandchildren, and see first hand the mission field one of my sons has worked in for many years. From there I was to travel with him to attend a WYAM DTS where he was to teach in New Caledonia.
Personal resources did not permit such an expensive trip but the Lord sent love gifts though different people to fund His will for me in the situation. It was the desire of my heart to be able to go and meet the people of this beautiful land out of which my granddaughter was to come forth and then to see my "missionary" son operating in his calling.
Weeks before I left, my son called to inform me that the plane scheduled to take us from Vanuatu to new Caledonia had been sold and they were awaiting a replacement. Later on, the new plane was secured by the national airlines, but our travel to New Caledonia was bumped to the next day and would be delayed by 24 hours.
At the time, it was an inconvenience due to his speaking schedule as it put him late on arrival for his teaching slot, but in my heart I reasoned that the time and travel change was from the Lord. Little did we know then of an important detail over the finalization of the adoption that required a 24 hr delay in timing to make it "perfect" in God's economy.
God's plan included that my my son-in-law was to meet the birth father of his soon to be adopted daughter. Due to a legal requirement added on late by the judge to finalize the adoption, my son-in-law and my son had to travel to meet the birth father on a remote island and the only time to get there was the very day we would have been traveling from Vanuatu to New Caledonia were it not for that unexpected sale of the plane and delay it created. The language barrier as well as other custom issues required the help and presence of my son to go with my son-in-law. Without the delay, he would not have been available to assist. Many, many details in God's amazing plan required that 24 hour delay.
The very fact that the Lord would sell a nation's only plane to facilitate His Will for our family is a brain buster, but speaks to His super natural intervention in our lives beyond our ability to fathom.
Provisions made before the need is fully realized and supernatural timing adjustments to put us in the slot of His perfect will, are just examples of the "Being" and actions of our outrageous and indescribable God. If the Lord's Will for us is always so perfectly funded and impeccably timed, why are we not completely, desperately, seeking it for our lives each day instead of striving for our own "will" to be done.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The impossible occurs from an impossible set of circumstances. In God's Will, provisions have been established to meet the need before it is ever known. Such is God's Sovereignty. He is outside of our comprehension and knows the end before the beginning of any and all matters.
God is never late in what He provides and His provisions always arrive at the appropriate time in His Will. Matt 2:7-18 is the account of the Magi coming to the house of the "Christ" child, Jesus. and His mother, Mary and Joseph.
The ancient prophesies spoke of the "Son" of God called out of Egypt. But Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The journey of the Magi must have been long and hard. In the days of our rapid mobility and fast travel from here to there, from place to place, it's hard to remember that their journey was long and their guide was a "star" in the east leading them to an unknown place to worship a newborn King. It has been said that it took years for them to get to their Divine destination. Jesus was no longer an infant, possibly 2 years old when they finally arrived.
With them they brought extravagant and costly gifts suitable to honor the King they were about to meet. Joseph and Mary were humble people, and Joseph was a carpenter by trade. Little did they know about the danger soon to erupt from the murderous rage of King Herod. And little did they know of the need for the provision the Magi were compelled to bring.
Scripture tells us that "when they (the Magi) were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream". He was told to go to Egypt. Joseph immediately obeyed and left for Egypt where they stayed until the death of Herod. Scripture doesn't tell us what the cost of such a trip and duration of a stay might have been, but no doubt that the gifts of the Magi funded it. The Holy One speaks to my heart, reminding me that such provisions accompany all who will but seek the Lord's will.
In my personal life experiences, looking back, I can see the absolute truth to that reminder. Two years ago, I was blessed to be a part of a move of God and received a double portion in my cup.
The plan was to travel to Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific, to witness the finalization of the adoption of one of my grandchildren, and see first hand the mission field one of my sons has worked in for many years. From there I was to travel with him to attend a WYAM DTS where he was to teach in New Caledonia.
Personal resources did not permit such an expensive trip but the Lord sent love gifts though different people to fund His will for me in the situation. It was the desire of my heart to be able to go and meet the people of this beautiful land out of which my granddaughter was to come forth and then to see my "missionary" son operating in his calling.
Weeks before I left, my son called to inform me that the plane scheduled to take us from Vanuatu to new Caledonia had been sold and they were awaiting a replacement. Later on, the new plane was secured by the national airlines, but our travel to New Caledonia was bumped to the next day and would be delayed by 24 hours.
At the time, it was an inconvenience due to his speaking schedule as it put him late on arrival for his teaching slot, but in my heart I reasoned that the time and travel change was from the Lord. Little did we know then of an important detail over the finalization of the adoption that required a 24 hr delay in timing to make it "perfect" in God's economy.
God's plan included that my my son-in-law was to meet the birth father of his soon to be adopted daughter. Due to a legal requirement added on late by the judge to finalize the adoption, my son-in-law and my son had to travel to meet the birth father on a remote island and the only time to get there was the very day we would have been traveling from Vanuatu to New Caledonia were it not for that unexpected sale of the plane and delay it created. The language barrier as well as other custom issues required the help and presence of my son to go with my son-in-law. Without the delay, he would not have been available to assist. Many, many details in God's amazing plan required that 24 hour delay.
The very fact that the Lord would sell a nation's only plane to facilitate His Will for our family is a brain buster, but speaks to His super natural intervention in our lives beyond our ability to fathom.
Provisions made before the need is fully realized and supernatural timing adjustments to put us in the slot of His perfect will, are just examples of the "Being" and actions of our outrageous and indescribable God. If the Lord's Will for us is always so perfectly funded and impeccably timed, why are we not completely, desperately, seeking it for our lives each day instead of striving for our own "will" to be done.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Thursday, November 17, 2011
The Birth of Majesty
The Holy One calls me this morning. Wrestles abound and thoughts of His Majestic Being take me out of the mental conflict of worldly thoughts.
With the celebration of the Birth of our Savior right around the corner, I always have to stop the spin into the worldly push for gifts, and tinsel, and distractions off the point of origin which is the Babe in the Manger. The day when Majesty zipped Himself into humanity and took on flesh, so that our human eyes might see what our human brains cannot begin to comprehend.
John 1:1 says, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." It is a huge mistake on our part to minimize what went on over 2,000 years ago in the human arena of life and the Divine arena of Eternity. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
A flash back to Genesis comes to my mind, when Adam and Eve were in fellowship with the Creator.
Gen 3:8, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as He was walking in the cool of the day". Due to their rebellion and sinful disobedience, scripture says, "and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees." From there, they experienced the ultimate separation from the "Source" of all that exists. They experienced separation from the "Word" which is the source of all; all reason, all expression, the rational principle that forms and governs all things. Remember that in creation, God "said" and it was so.
Separation from the "Word" and we call Him, God, is ultimate death, beyond any human ability to describe and beyond the human concept of the breakdown and termination of the physical body. It is a death so profound that, I believe, our human relational minds and souls cannot even fathom that degree of separation until after it has occurred.
BUT GOD
......GAVE......HIS.......SON.......THAT.....WHOEVER.....BELIEVES.....IN......HIM......SHALL.....NOT.....PERISH.....BUT.....HAVE......ETERNAL.....LIFE...........John 3:16
because of the fall, man was already condemned, but then the Word says,
FOR.....GOD.....DID.....NOT.....SEND.....HIS.....SON.....INTO.....THE....WORLD.....TO.....CONDEMN.....THE.....WORLD.....BUT.....TO.....SAVE.....IT.....John 3:17
Majesty zipped Himself into humanity
The Word became flesh
God came and dwelt among us
But Why?
To restore man to his original relationship with the Creator. To redeem and reconcile and re-set man back into fellowship with the Source of All, from which man was separated in the fall.
The entirety of the Old Testament was written to men for their eyes to look forward to the Birth of the Messiah Redeemer. The entirety of the New testament was written to men for their eyes to look back to the Birth of the Messiah Redeemer. For on that day, God fulfilled His promise to send a Savior into the world, and since man, despite all his most heroic efforts cannot be found adequate to save anyone, God came into this world Himself.
Luke 1:35 tells of the Divine intervention of Holiness into our world. Mary, the chosen vessel for the Divine Birth was naturally confused. When the Divinely supernatural collides with the principles that govern the natural, questions and wrestles do come. Mary was no exception. Here she is a young virgin recently betrothed, yet not married, together with the ancient writing that spoke of a virgin being with child. Isaiah 7:14. "Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give brith to a son and will call Him Immanuel, "God with us".
Our human minds seem to be able to readily accept things in the future, until the day it becomes our reality, and defies our concept in the "natural".
Mary questioned, the angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And Mary's answer was priceless, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."
Another year in the history of man, brings us to the manger yet again. The Truth of our Savior will be presented along with the endless temptations to bypass the stable and head to the mall. May we allow our hearts and our heads to bow in reverance and awe before the Holy One who chose a manger over a palace to begin His walk among us.
Oh and just so we don't get too comfortable with His "humanity", let us never forget that He returned to His place of Glory after He fulfilled the Holy requirement for the redemption of our souls.
Rev 1:13-17, "And among the lampstands was someone, "like a son of man", dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all of it's brillance. When I saw Him I fell at his feet as though dead."
This is the true identity of the One who zipped Himself into humanity 2,000 years ago in a manger.
May the awe of who He is flood our hearts and minds until we see Him face to face.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
With the celebration of the Birth of our Savior right around the corner, I always have to stop the spin into the worldly push for gifts, and tinsel, and distractions off the point of origin which is the Babe in the Manger. The day when Majesty zipped Himself into humanity and took on flesh, so that our human eyes might see what our human brains cannot begin to comprehend.
John 1:1 says, "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us." It is a huge mistake on our part to minimize what went on over 2,000 years ago in the human arena of life and the Divine arena of Eternity. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us.
A flash back to Genesis comes to my mind, when Adam and Eve were in fellowship with the Creator.
Gen 3:8, "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord as He was walking in the cool of the day". Due to their rebellion and sinful disobedience, scripture says, "and they hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees." From there, they experienced the ultimate separation from the "Source" of all that exists. They experienced separation from the "Word" which is the source of all; all reason, all expression, the rational principle that forms and governs all things. Remember that in creation, God "said" and it was so.
Separation from the "Word" and we call Him, God, is ultimate death, beyond any human ability to describe and beyond the human concept of the breakdown and termination of the physical body. It is a death so profound that, I believe, our human relational minds and souls cannot even fathom that degree of separation until after it has occurred.
BUT GOD
......GAVE......HIS.......SON.......THAT.....WHOEVER.....BELIEVES.....IN......HIM......SHALL.....NOT.....PERISH.....BUT.....HAVE......ETERNAL.....LIFE...........John 3:16
because of the fall, man was already condemned, but then the Word says,
FOR.....GOD.....DID.....NOT.....SEND.....HIS.....SON.....INTO.....THE....WORLD.....TO.....CONDEMN.....THE.....WORLD.....BUT.....TO.....SAVE.....IT.....John 3:17
Majesty zipped Himself into humanity
The Word became flesh
God came and dwelt among us
But Why?
To restore man to his original relationship with the Creator. To redeem and reconcile and re-set man back into fellowship with the Source of All, from which man was separated in the fall.
The entirety of the Old Testament was written to men for their eyes to look forward to the Birth of the Messiah Redeemer. The entirety of the New testament was written to men for their eyes to look back to the Birth of the Messiah Redeemer. For on that day, God fulfilled His promise to send a Savior into the world, and since man, despite all his most heroic efforts cannot be found adequate to save anyone, God came into this world Himself.
Luke 1:35 tells of the Divine intervention of Holiness into our world. Mary, the chosen vessel for the Divine Birth was naturally confused. When the Divinely supernatural collides with the principles that govern the natural, questions and wrestles do come. Mary was no exception. Here she is a young virgin recently betrothed, yet not married, together with the ancient writing that spoke of a virgin being with child. Isaiah 7:14. "Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: the virgin will be with child and will give brith to a son and will call Him Immanuel, "God with us".
Our human minds seem to be able to readily accept things in the future, until the day it becomes our reality, and defies our concept in the "natural".
Mary questioned, the angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And Mary's answer was priceless, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."
Another year in the history of man, brings us to the manger yet again. The Truth of our Savior will be presented along with the endless temptations to bypass the stable and head to the mall. May we allow our hearts and our heads to bow in reverance and awe before the Holy One who chose a manger over a palace to begin His walk among us.
Oh and just so we don't get too comfortable with His "humanity", let us never forget that He returned to His place of Glory after He fulfilled the Holy requirement for the redemption of our souls.
Rev 1:13-17, "And among the lampstands was someone, "like a son of man", dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. His head and hair were white like wool as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all of it's brillance. When I saw Him I fell at his feet as though dead."
This is the true identity of the One who zipped Himself into humanity 2,000 years ago in a manger.
May the awe of who He is flood our hearts and minds until we see Him face to face.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Vessels of Transport
The Holy One calls me this morning. The time change makes it easier to rise up energized. My body clock is already causing activity to my brain, as the wall clock has been moved back one hour.
I wake up thinking about the Lord and Christmas and what His birth represents to those of us who believe. The Holy One has spoken abut a new season about to unfold. I am a habit person and cling to the familiar, so any preview of a new season usually has me shaking on my old familiar boots.
I know the Lord is stretching us, but in the time frame of history we are living, the changes are coming way too fast, which makes our reliance on the Holy Spirit within even more essential and almost desperate lest we get carried off by the flood of dissipation the world is offering.
Thinking about Christmas and the Babe in the manger, our Savior and Sovereign King, my mind is comforted by that familiar setting. Then the Holy One paints a different picture in my mind. He shows me the Magi, the star and the vast desert across which they trekked in search of the new born King. Matt 2
He said, "you are a vessel of transport". Interesting picture. "The Magi were on a mission to bring the riches of this world to the Heavenly King, Jesus. Now you have the riches of Heaven to take to the world. Will you be My vessel of transport?"
The picture is clear. Our Lord, though the indwelling Holy Spirit within the hearts of true believers, reaches and touches the world of people. We have the privilege and responsibility to be His vessels of transport. Across the street or around the world, every place we go, we take the Holy One with us. Conversely every place we refuse to go, we withhold the Holy one from touching ground.
Since Jesus left saying, I will never leave you nor forsake you, His position is clear. But there is our part in this love relationship. To serve Him we must be willing to push out, be bold, like the Magi. We must be willing to follow the star of His will across the desert, taking the riches of God's love into the dry and thirsty places. The riches of Heaven are ours to share.
Way back in history, the Magi were driven by desire to find and honor the newborn King. It consumed their lives. Today we have the wondrous opportunity to be driven to serve and honor the Risen King. May that focus consume our lives today.
We are vessels of transport. The question is "are we willing to go?"
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
I wake up thinking about the Lord and Christmas and what His birth represents to those of us who believe. The Holy One has spoken abut a new season about to unfold. I am a habit person and cling to the familiar, so any preview of a new season usually has me shaking on my old familiar boots.
I know the Lord is stretching us, but in the time frame of history we are living, the changes are coming way too fast, which makes our reliance on the Holy Spirit within even more essential and almost desperate lest we get carried off by the flood of dissipation the world is offering.
Thinking about Christmas and the Babe in the manger, our Savior and Sovereign King, my mind is comforted by that familiar setting. Then the Holy One paints a different picture in my mind. He shows me the Magi, the star and the vast desert across which they trekked in search of the new born King. Matt 2
He said, "you are a vessel of transport". Interesting picture. "The Magi were on a mission to bring the riches of this world to the Heavenly King, Jesus. Now you have the riches of Heaven to take to the world. Will you be My vessel of transport?"
The picture is clear. Our Lord, though the indwelling Holy Spirit within the hearts of true believers, reaches and touches the world of people. We have the privilege and responsibility to be His vessels of transport. Across the street or around the world, every place we go, we take the Holy One with us. Conversely every place we refuse to go, we withhold the Holy one from touching ground.
Since Jesus left saying, I will never leave you nor forsake you, His position is clear. But there is our part in this love relationship. To serve Him we must be willing to push out, be bold, like the Magi. We must be willing to follow the star of His will across the desert, taking the riches of God's love into the dry and thirsty places. The riches of Heaven are ours to share.
Way back in history, the Magi were driven by desire to find and honor the newborn King. It consumed their lives. Today we have the wondrous opportunity to be driven to serve and honor the Risen King. May that focus consume our lives today.
We are vessels of transport. The question is "are we willing to go?"
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Who Do You Trust?
The Spirit calls to me this morning. The trials and temptations to give knee-jerk reactions to what life brings has been heavy on my mind. The Spirit speaks through the watches of the night. The subtlety of His voice calls me into consciousness.
He calls to me and I know I need my first cup of coffee to be alert to what He wants to talk about this morning. Whispers of His wisdom float through my mind. "Each trial you face is a test of obedience. They are not random, they are not coincidence, they are opportunities for refinement through and through".
Right now, life seems like a furnace of intense heat. Discomfort is all around and from every angle there seems to be some unmitigated disaster.
Then the Holy Spirit speaks, "You trust Me for eternity, will you trust Me now?"
It's easy to defer trust for the next life when it seems so far off. But hard to trust for the next step here on earth when the pathway seems so covered by chaos and confusion and uncertainty. My knee-jerk reaction is self-reliance. I think I know what I can do, what I can tolerate, what I can manipulate to protect my "comfort zones" at any and all cost.
Heb 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God". The Spirit speaks, "You have faith in what you can do but what about faith for what I can do? Faith for what goes beyond your flesh capacity?"
Every trial is designed to take us beyond our own ability to resolve it. Refinement happens through surrender. Most all of us are confronted by situations we did not go looking for. How do we react? Is our first reaction self-pity or self-reliance?
The Spirit speaks to my heart, "I want your first and most overwhelming reaction to be to bring it to Me. Stop trying to find your own answers, your own solutions, or orchestrate your own deliverance. Then, I want your next reaction to be obedience to My Word and My commands. I am here to enable you, but you must co-operate."
As I look back over the years, I see those knee-jerk reactions, and what they cost me and even where they stumbled me. But each one offered a life lesson that enables me to whole heartedly agree with the Holy One today. I say, "yes, Lord. Fill me with the sense of your Presence and manifest the fruit of your Life within".
Today, even as fear grips my mind, as I surrender it all to the Holy One, His presence promises the fruit of His faith to believe all things. Faith for His Divine control. Faith for His deliverance. Faith for His restoration. And in that faith, I know I can Trust Him.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
He calls to me and I know I need my first cup of coffee to be alert to what He wants to talk about this morning. Whispers of His wisdom float through my mind. "Each trial you face is a test of obedience. They are not random, they are not coincidence, they are opportunities for refinement through and through".
Right now, life seems like a furnace of intense heat. Discomfort is all around and from every angle there seems to be some unmitigated disaster.
Then the Holy Spirit speaks, "You trust Me for eternity, will you trust Me now?"
It's easy to defer trust for the next life when it seems so far off. But hard to trust for the next step here on earth when the pathway seems so covered by chaos and confusion and uncertainty. My knee-jerk reaction is self-reliance. I think I know what I can do, what I can tolerate, what I can manipulate to protect my "comfort zones" at any and all cost.
Heb 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God". The Spirit speaks, "You have faith in what you can do but what about faith for what I can do? Faith for what goes beyond your flesh capacity?"
Every trial is designed to take us beyond our own ability to resolve it. Refinement happens through surrender. Most all of us are confronted by situations we did not go looking for. How do we react? Is our first reaction self-pity or self-reliance?
The Spirit speaks to my heart, "I want your first and most overwhelming reaction to be to bring it to Me. Stop trying to find your own answers, your own solutions, or orchestrate your own deliverance. Then, I want your next reaction to be obedience to My Word and My commands. I am here to enable you, but you must co-operate."
As I look back over the years, I see those knee-jerk reactions, and what they cost me and even where they stumbled me. But each one offered a life lesson that enables me to whole heartedly agree with the Holy One today. I say, "yes, Lord. Fill me with the sense of your Presence and manifest the fruit of your Life within".
Today, even as fear grips my mind, as I surrender it all to the Holy One, His presence promises the fruit of His faith to believe all things. Faith for His Divine control. Faith for His deliverance. Faith for His restoration. And in that faith, I know I can Trust Him.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, October 22, 2011
The Road to Distinction
The Holy one calls me this morning. I am deep in thoughts about the times and concerns over what to expect as evil unleashes its final volley of torment into the world. I hear the Holy One enter into my thoughts and establish our conversation. He reminds me, "The enemy's goal is well understood: to destroy the creation that God loves the most I.E. Man."
With all the wisdom of the wise at evil's disposal and now the Internet in full swing with no filters to slow the deception from being dispersed around the world into every generation alive, people are being separated from truth and into the grip of evil deception in exceedingly great numbers.
For every opportunity to research truth, there are countless open doors leading to deception. The Holy One quotes the Savior, "Narrow is the way that leads to life", "Broad is the highway that leads to destruction". Matt 7:13. This generation is more tempted by the broad highway than any other generation to ever live. In this "end of days" scenario, it is mind boggling as to how many alternatives to the One True God are being offered and how many counterfeit saviors are being followed.
God promised His people persecution for their faith. But He also gave a promise to make a distinction between those who serve Him and those who do not.
The Spirit takes me to His Word. In the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament and from the last Divine words spoken before the first coming of Christ, God said to His people: Mal 3:14, "You have said it is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements, by going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty. But now we call the arrogant blessed and certainly evil doers prosper and even those who challenge God escape".
As a follower of Christ, I can relate to that perspective and there are many moments when self-pity follows that line of thinking. But the Holy One provokes me to read on to vs 16, "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard". "A scroll of remembrance was written in His Presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored His Name."
As the trials intensify and the world becomes a blast furnace of refinement for the Believer, what am I sharing with others? Does self-pity saturate my conversations? Do my words drip with the toxic poison of "poor me"? If so I will most likely miss the promise that follows, "They will be mine when I take up my treasured possession, I will spare them just as in compassion, a man spares the son who serves hm and you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."
Is this the day and does the Lord want to make a distinction but our testimony of faith speaks of betrayal? Heb 11:1, says, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The road to distinction is not the easy road. it is narrow and not just in the belief that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, but also in the boundaries that the Holy Life places us within.
While the world can enjoy all the perks that the compromise of God's commands provides the lost, we have limits on what we can have, or do or think. Our ultimate reward is being deferred and we are called to be separate. But we are not called to be morose or joyless or unhappy in our loyalty to the Supreme and Sovereign God of all Creation. We are to rejoice in the Lord, always.
This passage exhorts us and reminds us that there is a day on the calendar for the Lord to set His hand of blessing upon our lives in ways that we and all will see the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not. God will be glorified as we serve Him whether though our joy filled sacrifice of those things that are not ours to hold, or through the lavish blessings and evidence of his Presence in those provisions while the world does without. Either way, It is our responsibility to serve Him and rejoice in the process.
The Blessed Presence of the Holy Spirit in my life totally makes up for anything the world has to offer. As I seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, all the rest that I need will be added unto me....Now that's a distinction......Matt 6:33
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
With all the wisdom of the wise at evil's disposal and now the Internet in full swing with no filters to slow the deception from being dispersed around the world into every generation alive, people are being separated from truth and into the grip of evil deception in exceedingly great numbers.
For every opportunity to research truth, there are countless open doors leading to deception. The Holy One quotes the Savior, "Narrow is the way that leads to life", "Broad is the highway that leads to destruction". Matt 7:13. This generation is more tempted by the broad highway than any other generation to ever live. In this "end of days" scenario, it is mind boggling as to how many alternatives to the One True God are being offered and how many counterfeit saviors are being followed.
God promised His people persecution for their faith. But He also gave a promise to make a distinction between those who serve Him and those who do not.
The Spirit takes me to His Word. In the book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament and from the last Divine words spoken before the first coming of Christ, God said to His people: Mal 3:14, "You have said it is futile to serve God. What did we gain by carrying out His requirements, by going about like mourners before the Lord Almighty. But now we call the arrogant blessed and certainly evil doers prosper and even those who challenge God escape".
As a follower of Christ, I can relate to that perspective and there are many moments when self-pity follows that line of thinking. But the Holy One provokes me to read on to vs 16, "Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard". "A scroll of remembrance was written in His Presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored His Name."
As the trials intensify and the world becomes a blast furnace of refinement for the Believer, what am I sharing with others? Does self-pity saturate my conversations? Do my words drip with the toxic poison of "poor me"? If so I will most likely miss the promise that follows, "They will be mine when I take up my treasured possession, I will spare them just as in compassion, a man spares the son who serves hm and you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."
Is this the day and does the Lord want to make a distinction but our testimony of faith speaks of betrayal? Heb 11:1, says, "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." The road to distinction is not the easy road. it is narrow and not just in the belief that Jesus is the only way to Heaven, but also in the boundaries that the Holy Life places us within.
While the world can enjoy all the perks that the compromise of God's commands provides the lost, we have limits on what we can have, or do or think. Our ultimate reward is being deferred and we are called to be separate. But we are not called to be morose or joyless or unhappy in our loyalty to the Supreme and Sovereign God of all Creation. We are to rejoice in the Lord, always.
This passage exhorts us and reminds us that there is a day on the calendar for the Lord to set His hand of blessing upon our lives in ways that we and all will see the distinction between those who serve God and those who do not. God will be glorified as we serve Him whether though our joy filled sacrifice of those things that are not ours to hold, or through the lavish blessings and evidence of his Presence in those provisions while the world does without. Either way, It is our responsibility to serve Him and rejoice in the process.
The Blessed Presence of the Holy Spirit in my life totally makes up for anything the world has to offer. As I seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, all the rest that I need will be added unto me....Now that's a distinction......Matt 6:33
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Paradise Found
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. I realize the clock is ticking and the days are passing too quickly. I wonder why all the deadlines? Why do we live in such bondage to the calendar and clock?
Well, that's the way it's always been, except when I was very little and didn't understand the school year or worry about bed time cutting my day of adventure short. What if I could return to that kind of life? What a wonderful rich thought to ponder.
Then the Holy One speaks, "That's the way it was in the garden before the fall." There is so much that is distressing to me about the fall. All that sinful man and the arch enemy of God the Creator could plot together, in unrestrained flesh, creative evil, arrows to the heart and poison to the mind.
Don't most of us look around and long for days gone by? That one Christmas when life, for a sweet moment was just right. Or that vacation in the mountains, when the silence of the of the world pressing in, permitted the symphony of the forest to be heard.
The Holy One calls to me, "Come away with Me this morning, let's go back to the garden." What a delightful invitation. I feel huge smile come across my face as I think about all that could mean:
Walking with my God in the cool of the morning,
Surveying the handiwork of the Creator on display.
Feeling the smallness of my being on one hand and the bigness of my value to my Beloved on the other.
Sensing His Presence all around me and the magnitude of His love that I cannot begin to understand.
All the thoughts I had of doing things today or the vexing questions that plague me, even those that focus on my "purpose", seem to melt away. And then it occurs to me that the most incomprehensible thought in my mind comes to be: "All is well with my soul."
"Lord, I want to live here in this moment". He responds, "You can". One of the greatest blessings that came as a result of the death of our Savior on the Cross of Calvary is the ability to return to life in the garden before the fall.
Think of it. Life lived in constant contact with the Creator of the universe. Constant contact with the Source of all that we know. Constant contact with the Sovereign Power and Eternal Being who knows everything past, present and future. Constant contact with the One who gives us our value and purpose and our next breath with which to live it out.
Jesus came to restore us to the One True God...Himself, and to the life potential that was set before Adam and Eve to work and take care of the Garden of His Creation and everything in it.
As a result of the fall, all was lost. The original glory of man, the original relationship that God Himself ordained, the peace and pace and carefree life in "paradise" that we all long for in our heart of hearts. But in the amazing plan of our merciful Creator, redemption has come. We have been redeemed, bought back, re-set to reclaim what has been lost and empowered to take back what has been stolen.
We accept that Jesus died for our Eternal Salvation and we know that somehow, on the day of our death here, we will begin our life elsewhere, but there may be many years and a lot of problems to fix between now and then, between here and there.
The Holy One continues to speak about what the resurrection of My Savior means and brings to my earthly life today. Jesus, when speaking about Himself as the Good Shepherd in John 10:10 said, "I have come that they (His sheep) may have life and have it to the full."
But what does that mean when we have sick babies, empty bank accounts, spouses who have left for greener pastures or a "you're fired" slip on our desk? The trials of life in a world reeling from the fall
are a stark reality of what we must deal with. But the promises of our God are all yes and amen for those of us who believe and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior.
The Holy One calls us to bring all our burdens to the One who can lift them, the One who can heal them, the One who can replace anything that has been lost or stolen.
The clock and calendar are antagonistic to the sweet life with our Savior and we have been programmed to march to that beat. We are limited in our time with the Lord in the cool of the morning. We are distracted by the responsibilities we feel to the world system, without realizing we are not to be under it's rule. We are overwhelmed by the size of our problems, forgetting the One who controls all things. And we are tormented by our lack of value in the eyes of those we share life with, while the love of the One who died for us never gets past our head into our hearts.
I find that unless I am willing to make and take the time for my Beloved, the clock and the calendar will continue to rule my life. The Spirit is calling me, reminding me that each day I have a choice. I can join Him in the garden where all is well with my soul, or I can run headlong into the world that beckons me, postponing one of the greatest blessings He died to give me: a life on earth engulfed in His love, with a second chance in the Garden of God.
I choose the garden.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Well, that's the way it's always been, except when I was very little and didn't understand the school year or worry about bed time cutting my day of adventure short. What if I could return to that kind of life? What a wonderful rich thought to ponder.
Then the Holy One speaks, "That's the way it was in the garden before the fall." There is so much that is distressing to me about the fall. All that sinful man and the arch enemy of God the Creator could plot together, in unrestrained flesh, creative evil, arrows to the heart and poison to the mind.
Don't most of us look around and long for days gone by? That one Christmas when life, for a sweet moment was just right. Or that vacation in the mountains, when the silence of the of the world pressing in, permitted the symphony of the forest to be heard.
The Holy One calls to me, "Come away with Me this morning, let's go back to the garden." What a delightful invitation. I feel huge smile come across my face as I think about all that could mean:
Walking with my God in the cool of the morning,
Surveying the handiwork of the Creator on display.
Feeling the smallness of my being on one hand and the bigness of my value to my Beloved on the other.
Sensing His Presence all around me and the magnitude of His love that I cannot begin to understand.
All the thoughts I had of doing things today or the vexing questions that plague me, even those that focus on my "purpose", seem to melt away. And then it occurs to me that the most incomprehensible thought in my mind comes to be: "All is well with my soul."
"Lord, I want to live here in this moment". He responds, "You can". One of the greatest blessings that came as a result of the death of our Savior on the Cross of Calvary is the ability to return to life in the garden before the fall.
Think of it. Life lived in constant contact with the Creator of the universe. Constant contact with the Source of all that we know. Constant contact with the Sovereign Power and Eternal Being who knows everything past, present and future. Constant contact with the One who gives us our value and purpose and our next breath with which to live it out.
Jesus came to restore us to the One True God...Himself, and to the life potential that was set before Adam and Eve to work and take care of the Garden of His Creation and everything in it.
As a result of the fall, all was lost. The original glory of man, the original relationship that God Himself ordained, the peace and pace and carefree life in "paradise" that we all long for in our heart of hearts. But in the amazing plan of our merciful Creator, redemption has come. We have been redeemed, bought back, re-set to reclaim what has been lost and empowered to take back what has been stolen.
We accept that Jesus died for our Eternal Salvation and we know that somehow, on the day of our death here, we will begin our life elsewhere, but there may be many years and a lot of problems to fix between now and then, between here and there.
The Holy One continues to speak about what the resurrection of My Savior means and brings to my earthly life today. Jesus, when speaking about Himself as the Good Shepherd in John 10:10 said, "I have come that they (His sheep) may have life and have it to the full."
But what does that mean when we have sick babies, empty bank accounts, spouses who have left for greener pastures or a "you're fired" slip on our desk? The trials of life in a world reeling from the fall
are a stark reality of what we must deal with. But the promises of our God are all yes and amen for those of us who believe and trust in the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior.
The Holy One calls us to bring all our burdens to the One who can lift them, the One who can heal them, the One who can replace anything that has been lost or stolen.
The clock and calendar are antagonistic to the sweet life with our Savior and we have been programmed to march to that beat. We are limited in our time with the Lord in the cool of the morning. We are distracted by the responsibilities we feel to the world system, without realizing we are not to be under it's rule. We are overwhelmed by the size of our problems, forgetting the One who controls all things. And we are tormented by our lack of value in the eyes of those we share life with, while the love of the One who died for us never gets past our head into our hearts.
I find that unless I am willing to make and take the time for my Beloved, the clock and the calendar will continue to rule my life. The Spirit is calling me, reminding me that each day I have a choice. I can join Him in the garden where all is well with my soul, or I can run headlong into the world that beckons me, postponing one of the greatest blessings He died to give me: a life on earth engulfed in His love, with a second chance in the Garden of God.
I choose the garden.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Monday, October 17, 2011
One Way to Heaven
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. I have been so troubled by the news about the genocide taking place in far off lands. I judge those people executing the genocide and rightfully so. They need to be stopped and sent to hell for all they are doing and have done.
The Holy One invade my thoughts with the truth about the unsaved and the One who will ultimately judge us all. He speaks Truth. Hell has no compartments that grade and penalize sin according to human values. It is hard for the human mind to grasp that concept because we have, in our own hearts, given value to our sin actions or, opposite that, we have given value to our good deeds.
What we think is "fair" are grades of sin as assessed within the human mind. There is a bar of good, better, best, or bad, badder, worst. We rate our sin and the sin of others by an internal standard. I guess if we are gods then we can rest with this standard and rating system and be assured of our entry into Heaven at the end of this earthly life.
But God........ Does the Creator God who formed us and gave us His Spirit through His Son, use the same standard and measuring rod for our life and eternity?
The Word of God given to man and the appearance on earth of God incarnate, (I.E. God in the flesh), who is Jesus Christ, reveals the truth.
Many are caught up with their own self generated image of God. Whether we see God as a kindly white haired ancient person who is desperately fair minded, beholding to men for their loyalty, or see Him as a tyrant, angry, wrathful, control freak, waiting for the human to cross Him, most conjure up an image and work our way out from there.
But our image of our Creator must can and must come from TRUTH. God is who He is. We didn't create Him, He created us. While we were created in His image, He remains high and above the weak "flesh" image that we tend to judge Him according to.
God has made His Word available and in our history, has even wrapped Himself in flesh to show us Who He is. JESUS IS GOD. His Presence, His Person. His Life, His Death, His Resurrection all point us to the TRUTH about our Creator.
The question for each one of us is whether we will accept God for Who He is. If we do, we are promised to live forever in His Presence. If we do not then we will live forever not in His Presence. It's a simple choice, really, except for those who would choose to be their own god.
The drive to be our own god, takes us down any road that pleases self. We justify our human mind and thinking, saying, "I just can't believe in a God who would: send a good person to hell or, save an evil man, or__________________ you can fill in the blank, never really grasping the truth that it's all about a choice that each human can, must and does make before the final judgment is rendered by a Holy God.
The incredible kindness, mercy and generosity of our Majestic Creator is that salvation depends on a choice that every person can, must and does make. Our Sovereign God leveled the playing field, taking off the table any condition of birth, goodness of deeds, talents we may have, or any relative comparison of our personalities, appearance or innate character.
The only thing that God uses in His assessment for salvation is the question, "What have you done with the truth that Jesus Christ was sent from Heaven to earth by Me to save you?" We are to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of mankind and the One sent by God to paid the price for God's wrath against sin, wickedness, and evil, all of which every one of us is guilty, when using the standard of God's Holiness as opposed to the standard of our human goodness.
To those who say the way is too narrow, especially those who follow counterfeit gods, the TRUTH that Jesus gave us is clear when He said, "Small is the way and narrow is the gate that leads to life, broad is the road that leads to destruction" Matt 7:14
It is not the rigid requirements of the law that lead to life, but rather the One, the ONLY ONE, who represents the gate. JESUS IS THE GATE and THE ONLY WAY to access Heaven.
For those who deny the truth, reject the One and only provision God has provided for our salvation and eternal life in the Presence and company of our Creator, the end will come as a shock to all those theories about Heaven and hell. For hell is isolation and separation from all that we know as life and light. A miss of the only way to Heaven will translate to the same hell for all regardless of the best or worst actions we accomplish on earth.
Either we are or are not saved, and Jesus, alone, knows who are His. Do you belong to Jesus? Have you entered into a relationship with the Son of God? Or will you get to the gate and be turned away?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy One invade my thoughts with the truth about the unsaved and the One who will ultimately judge us all. He speaks Truth. Hell has no compartments that grade and penalize sin according to human values. It is hard for the human mind to grasp that concept because we have, in our own hearts, given value to our sin actions or, opposite that, we have given value to our good deeds.
What we think is "fair" are grades of sin as assessed within the human mind. There is a bar of good, better, best, or bad, badder, worst. We rate our sin and the sin of others by an internal standard. I guess if we are gods then we can rest with this standard and rating system and be assured of our entry into Heaven at the end of this earthly life.
But God........ Does the Creator God who formed us and gave us His Spirit through His Son, use the same standard and measuring rod for our life and eternity?
The Word of God given to man and the appearance on earth of God incarnate, (I.E. God in the flesh), who is Jesus Christ, reveals the truth.
Many are caught up with their own self generated image of God. Whether we see God as a kindly white haired ancient person who is desperately fair minded, beholding to men for their loyalty, or see Him as a tyrant, angry, wrathful, control freak, waiting for the human to cross Him, most conjure up an image and work our way out from there.
But our image of our Creator must can and must come from TRUTH. God is who He is. We didn't create Him, He created us. While we were created in His image, He remains high and above the weak "flesh" image that we tend to judge Him according to.
God has made His Word available and in our history, has even wrapped Himself in flesh to show us Who He is. JESUS IS GOD. His Presence, His Person. His Life, His Death, His Resurrection all point us to the TRUTH about our Creator.
The question for each one of us is whether we will accept God for Who He is. If we do, we are promised to live forever in His Presence. If we do not then we will live forever not in His Presence. It's a simple choice, really, except for those who would choose to be their own god.
The drive to be our own god, takes us down any road that pleases self. We justify our human mind and thinking, saying, "I just can't believe in a God who would: send a good person to hell or, save an evil man, or__________________ you can fill in the blank, never really grasping the truth that it's all about a choice that each human can, must and does make before the final judgment is rendered by a Holy God.
The incredible kindness, mercy and generosity of our Majestic Creator is that salvation depends on a choice that every person can, must and does make. Our Sovereign God leveled the playing field, taking off the table any condition of birth, goodness of deeds, talents we may have, or any relative comparison of our personalities, appearance or innate character.
The only thing that God uses in His assessment for salvation is the question, "What have you done with the truth that Jesus Christ was sent from Heaven to earth by Me to save you?" We are to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, who is the Savior of mankind and the One sent by God to paid the price for God's wrath against sin, wickedness, and evil, all of which every one of us is guilty, when using the standard of God's Holiness as opposed to the standard of our human goodness.
To those who say the way is too narrow, especially those who follow counterfeit gods, the TRUTH that Jesus gave us is clear when He said, "Small is the way and narrow is the gate that leads to life, broad is the road that leads to destruction" Matt 7:14
It is not the rigid requirements of the law that lead to life, but rather the One, the ONLY ONE, who represents the gate. JESUS IS THE GATE and THE ONLY WAY to access Heaven.
For those who deny the truth, reject the One and only provision God has provided for our salvation and eternal life in the Presence and company of our Creator, the end will come as a shock to all those theories about Heaven and hell. For hell is isolation and separation from all that we know as life and light. A miss of the only way to Heaven will translate to the same hell for all regardless of the best or worst actions we accomplish on earth.
Either we are or are not saved, and Jesus, alone, knows who are His. Do you belong to Jesus? Have you entered into a relationship with the Son of God? Or will you get to the gate and be turned away?
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Friday, October 14, 2011
A Pause In The Action
The Spirit calls to me today in the silence of a pause. I desperately desire answers to the heart petitions I have put at the Throne. Delays and red lights are frustrating to me. I guess we are all "action" people and in our world of instant real time problems we are looking for instant real time resolutions.
So the question is , "Why, do you delay, Lord? What purpose is being served in this pause?"
I have no doubt that each day and each delay serves an eternal purpose in my life. Looking back, the Holy One reminds me of past places of desperation. Places where I thought I would just die if something didn't happen to change the situation.
He graciously points out that some of the greatest lessons providing the greatest spiritual growth spurts came during those mind bending days and delays of answers to prayer. This is one of those days and times. The Holy One speaks, "take every thought into the captivity of Christ."
But what does that mean? The fog starts to clear, as He directs me to 2 Corinth 10:5. "We demolish every argument and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
The scrutiny of the Holy Spirit begins to burn. "Some of your petitions lately have been off". Can our prayers be "off"? Jesus said in John 14, 15, 16, 17 things like, "If you love Me you will obey Me", "If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given." The command to love, the promise of peace, the last words and lessons emphasized before the return to His Heavenly Throne.
"Ask in My Name". The Name of Christ is power. It is His position and Character that is the power. Ending our petitions "in Jesus name" does not guarantee answers if those petitions violate His Character.
Wow! What a revelation and humiliation all at the same time. I am taken out of complaining about the delayed answers to a place of brokenness that my prayers may be asking my Lord to act against His Character in the answers I seek.
Lord what am I to do with the "pause"? The Holy Spirit takes me to Phil 4:4-8. Rejoice in the Lord, be anxious for nothing, be thankful in presenting my prayers and petitions and finally, think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. excellent or praiseworthy.
As this directive and my obedience to it begins to take affect, the Holy One opens my mind to the way and the prayer that has violated my Lord's Character and in repentance, I am permitted to retract and re-present my request.I am thankful the Holy Spirit speaks, teaches, and refines me. His burning scrutiny takes down one more layer of flesh.
At the very end of this hard word to my heart, He reminds me that in our relationship, we are still a team. The Lord has co missioned me to serve him and the word co-mission implies that I still have a part to play. The Lord's way is to commission His servant to do His will, but in the process we have much to learn and on earth we will never arrive at a place where we have it all in a bag without a desperate need to depend on His indwelling Spirit.
This pause in the action has allowed me to go deeper and see more of what the Lord's Character is all about. Prayerfully it has allowed the Holy Spirit to bring this servant more into conformity to His Character as well.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
So the question is , "Why, do you delay, Lord? What purpose is being served in this pause?"
I have no doubt that each day and each delay serves an eternal purpose in my life. Looking back, the Holy One reminds me of past places of desperation. Places where I thought I would just die if something didn't happen to change the situation.
He graciously points out that some of the greatest lessons providing the greatest spiritual growth spurts came during those mind bending days and delays of answers to prayer. This is one of those days and times. The Holy One speaks, "take every thought into the captivity of Christ."
But what does that mean? The fog starts to clear, as He directs me to 2 Corinth 10:5. "We demolish every argument and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."
The scrutiny of the Holy Spirit begins to burn. "Some of your petitions lately have been off". Can our prayers be "off"? Jesus said in John 14, 15, 16, 17 things like, "If you love Me you will obey Me", "If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given." The command to love, the promise of peace, the last words and lessons emphasized before the return to His Heavenly Throne.
"Ask in My Name". The Name of Christ is power. It is His position and Character that is the power. Ending our petitions "in Jesus name" does not guarantee answers if those petitions violate His Character.
Wow! What a revelation and humiliation all at the same time. I am taken out of complaining about the delayed answers to a place of brokenness that my prayers may be asking my Lord to act against His Character in the answers I seek.
Lord what am I to do with the "pause"? The Holy Spirit takes me to Phil 4:4-8. Rejoice in the Lord, be anxious for nothing, be thankful in presenting my prayers and petitions and finally, think about whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. excellent or praiseworthy.
As this directive and my obedience to it begins to take affect, the Holy One opens my mind to the way and the prayer that has violated my Lord's Character and in repentance, I am permitted to retract and re-present my request.I am thankful the Holy Spirit speaks, teaches, and refines me. His burning scrutiny takes down one more layer of flesh.
At the very end of this hard word to my heart, He reminds me that in our relationship, we are still a team. The Lord has co missioned me to serve him and the word co-mission implies that I still have a part to play. The Lord's way is to commission His servant to do His will, but in the process we have much to learn and on earth we will never arrive at a place where we have it all in a bag without a desperate need to depend on His indwelling Spirit.
This pause in the action has allowed me to go deeper and see more of what the Lord's Character is all about. Prayerfully it has allowed the Holy Spirit to bring this servant more into conformity to His Character as well.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Wisdom From Above
The Spirit calls me today. I am so thankful to hear His voice amid and above all the clamor of "what-ifs" that start from the moment my conscious mind wakes up. Much is being taught in the struggles of my life, day by day and situation by situation. I know there are two ways to handle all of life's problems....my way and His way.
The "grooming", the "sanctification process", as the Bible calls it, is life long. Allowing the Holy Spirit more and more authority and control over my thinking and doing, is the real battle at it's base. The battlefield is in the mind and I need wisdom.
What lie have I believed about my God? What corrupt perspective has been grasped by the mind still polluted by the fruit of that tree, our ancestors ate from? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Thinking it of great advantage to be "like" God, knowing good and evil, Adam and Eve got tricked, bamboozled, out slicked. The truth is that in our humanity, our minds were not wired with a reject button when evil presents itself. The reality is that evil somehow tickles our senses, comforts our flesh and fuels a rebellion in our hearts against the good, against the One who designed us for fellowship with Holiness.
But God.......In the design of His Beloved, our Creator, provided each and every one of us with free will. The freedom to choose requires a choice and so it is. We all have a choice to make. We all must choose who we will serve; God or self. For all the "whoopee" about serving the devil, when we rebel against the Holy One, the one we are really serving is self. The enemy doesn't care if we serve him or not, so long as we do not serve God.
Somehow the prospect of self-serving doesn't seem so evil. It seems natural and justifiable. But that is the biggest, baddest hook the enemy uses to keep us in bondage.
Today the Holy One takes me back to where it all started. Gen 3:5, the serpent said to Eve, "For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil". Then, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom", she ate.
The impact of that original sin has traveled throughout the ages and generations of men, still touching our lives today. Through the Word of God and the testimony of the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, we have been given the privilege and opportunity to re-set our computer and live out a life as before the fall in fellowship and relationship with our Creator God, and, with all the blessings that fellowship with Him brings.
We can live a life where all the wisdom we could ever want or need comes from the Throne of our God through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
James 1:3 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God". Wisdom holds great appeal to us humans. Wisdom was one of the appeals the devil used to tempt Eve. With the increase of knowledge, we can see the minds of men bending further and further away from our Creator. Empires are being built, "Ziggurates" are in every corner of the world, as monuments to the plans of men living a God-less, self-serving life.
The Holy Spirit stands ready to impart to us the wisdom of a Holy God, but the self serving mind will not hear of it. Wisdom from above puts us in submission not control. Wisdom from above emphasizes the provider not the receiver of such a gift. Wisdom from above brings Glory to God not glory to men.
The Holy Spirit's counsel brings the warning: look to Me and my Word for your wisdom.
In the quiet of the morning, I do look to my Counselor. All the decisions I need to make boil down to the one: to serve the Lord my God or to serve myself; to seek and secure His wisdom and live under His ruling authority or launch out to build my own Ziggurates in rebellion of the One who died for me.
I know full well that my God has an opinion about everything that touches my life. In every situation it is my responsibility in our love relationship to find out what that might be and adjust my thinking accordingly.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The "grooming", the "sanctification process", as the Bible calls it, is life long. Allowing the Holy Spirit more and more authority and control over my thinking and doing, is the real battle at it's base. The battlefield is in the mind and I need wisdom.
What lie have I believed about my God? What corrupt perspective has been grasped by the mind still polluted by the fruit of that tree, our ancestors ate from? The tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Thinking it of great advantage to be "like" God, knowing good and evil, Adam and Eve got tricked, bamboozled, out slicked. The truth is that in our humanity, our minds were not wired with a reject button when evil presents itself. The reality is that evil somehow tickles our senses, comforts our flesh and fuels a rebellion in our hearts against the good, against the One who designed us for fellowship with Holiness.
But God.......In the design of His Beloved, our Creator, provided each and every one of us with free will. The freedom to choose requires a choice and so it is. We all have a choice to make. We all must choose who we will serve; God or self. For all the "whoopee" about serving the devil, when we rebel against the Holy One, the one we are really serving is self. The enemy doesn't care if we serve him or not, so long as we do not serve God.
Somehow the prospect of self-serving doesn't seem so evil. It seems natural and justifiable. But that is the biggest, baddest hook the enemy uses to keep us in bondage.
Today the Holy One takes me back to where it all started. Gen 3:5, the serpent said to Eve, "For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil". Then, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eye and desirable for gaining wisdom", she ate.
The impact of that original sin has traveled throughout the ages and generations of men, still touching our lives today. Through the Word of God and the testimony of the life, death and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, we have been given the privilege and opportunity to re-set our computer and live out a life as before the fall in fellowship and relationship with our Creator God, and, with all the blessings that fellowship with Him brings.
We can live a life where all the wisdom we could ever want or need comes from the Throne of our God through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
James 1:3 says, "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God". Wisdom holds great appeal to us humans. Wisdom was one of the appeals the devil used to tempt Eve. With the increase of knowledge, we can see the minds of men bending further and further away from our Creator. Empires are being built, "Ziggurates" are in every corner of the world, as monuments to the plans of men living a God-less, self-serving life.
The Holy Spirit stands ready to impart to us the wisdom of a Holy God, but the self serving mind will not hear of it. Wisdom from above puts us in submission not control. Wisdom from above emphasizes the provider not the receiver of such a gift. Wisdom from above brings Glory to God not glory to men.
The Holy Spirit's counsel brings the warning: look to Me and my Word for your wisdom.
In the quiet of the morning, I do look to my Counselor. All the decisions I need to make boil down to the one: to serve the Lord my God or to serve myself; to seek and secure His wisdom and live under His ruling authority or launch out to build my own Ziggurates in rebellion of the One who died for me.
I know full well that my God has an opinion about everything that touches my life. In every situation it is my responsibility in our love relationship to find out what that might be and adjust my thinking accordingly.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Monday, October 10, 2011
The Encounter
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. The trials of late always seem to be a battle royal and the battle always has sides; opposing sides, lines drawn, choices made that oppose things central to my core.
The Holy One calls me this morning to speak into the situation and give me His perspective. In the distance Jericho sits impenetrable from the human point of view, the troops are antsy, ready to engage the enemy and Joshua is looking at the huge fortress of a city, contemplating. The Spirit takes me to His word and Joshua 5:13.
"Now, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand". (This has been interpreted to be an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Himself.) Joshua went to Him and asked if this Warrior was "for" Israel, or their enemies. The Man with the sword replied, "neither, but as the Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come."
Joshua was told to remove his sandals for he was standing on Holy Ground, yet more evidence that this was an encounter with Holiness.
Joshua fell face down in reverence and asked what message the Lord had for (Joshua) His servant. Being of a warrior type mentality, I see life as a battle. When the Holy One speaks to me through His Word, very often He takes me to the great battles of Biblical history. I see things from a perspective of good vs evil, light vs dark. I know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but truly against powers of darkness in the heavenly realms.
On the eve of the battle to push forward into the promised land, the Lord wanted to make one thing clear. Joshua was commissioned to fight God's battle not the other way around. Even on the issue of opposing sides or points of view, God has only one...His. The nation of Israel was called to represent the One True God to the world.
The titanic battle, the epic struggle is against the devil and his hordes of fallen angels, (demons).
The nature of this epic struggle is to win the hearts and minds of God's most beloved creation (humanity).
Since the very beginning of the existence of man; when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, the devil has used lies and 1/2 truths about our Creator to destroy the relationship that God desires to have with us, yet God continues to speak and to appear in our lives and circumstances to reveal Himself. Throughout history from Old testament to New, God has always revealed Himself to those who were searching. And so it is today.
The Holy Spirit speaks if we will but give Him audience. Joshua fell face down in reverence and in anticipation of a "word" from the Divine Messenger.
When we are in contemplation of our life circumstances, looking at the battles we face or situations we encounter, are we open to a visit from the Holy One? Joshua was. As a result, he was given the most incredible and unique battle strategy to ever come out of a Commander-in-Chief. But before the strategy was given, Joshua needed a better perspective of the battle and his position in it.
We are called to battle, but as much and as personal as it may be or become, the truth is that we, as Christians, are servants of a Holy God. We are to be servants of His Holiness in whatever life circumstances may become ours to face or fight because the battle belongs to the Lord, and it is His. We are to represent Him to a lost and dying world.
Joshua has this amazing encounter with the Lord Himself, and in his humility and awe received his commission to be at the head of God's human army to lead God's people, God's way.
I pray we all might have such an encounter. I pray we will always remember that the battle belongs to the Lord. It is for His Glory, and His Honor, and His purposes that we are commissioned to fight.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy One calls me this morning to speak into the situation and give me His perspective. In the distance Jericho sits impenetrable from the human point of view, the troops are antsy, ready to engage the enemy and Joshua is looking at the huge fortress of a city, contemplating. The Spirit takes me to His word and Joshua 5:13.
"Now, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in His hand". (This has been interpreted to be an Old Testament appearance of Jesus Himself.) Joshua went to Him and asked if this Warrior was "for" Israel, or their enemies. The Man with the sword replied, "neither, but as the Commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come."
Joshua was told to remove his sandals for he was standing on Holy Ground, yet more evidence that this was an encounter with Holiness.
Joshua fell face down in reverence and asked what message the Lord had for (Joshua) His servant. Being of a warrior type mentality, I see life as a battle. When the Holy One speaks to me through His Word, very often He takes me to the great battles of Biblical history. I see things from a perspective of good vs evil, light vs dark. I know that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but truly against powers of darkness in the heavenly realms.
On the eve of the battle to push forward into the promised land, the Lord wanted to make one thing clear. Joshua was commissioned to fight God's battle not the other way around. Even on the issue of opposing sides or points of view, God has only one...His. The nation of Israel was called to represent the One True God to the world.
The titanic battle, the epic struggle is against the devil and his hordes of fallen angels, (demons).
The nature of this epic struggle is to win the hearts and minds of God's most beloved creation (humanity).
Since the very beginning of the existence of man; when Adam and Eve fell in the garden, the devil has used lies and 1/2 truths about our Creator to destroy the relationship that God desires to have with us, yet God continues to speak and to appear in our lives and circumstances to reveal Himself. Throughout history from Old testament to New, God has always revealed Himself to those who were searching. And so it is today.
The Holy Spirit speaks if we will but give Him audience. Joshua fell face down in reverence and in anticipation of a "word" from the Divine Messenger.
When we are in contemplation of our life circumstances, looking at the battles we face or situations we encounter, are we open to a visit from the Holy One? Joshua was. As a result, he was given the most incredible and unique battle strategy to ever come out of a Commander-in-Chief. But before the strategy was given, Joshua needed a better perspective of the battle and his position in it.
We are called to battle, but as much and as personal as it may be or become, the truth is that we, as Christians, are servants of a Holy God. We are to be servants of His Holiness in whatever life circumstances may become ours to face or fight because the battle belongs to the Lord, and it is His. We are to represent Him to a lost and dying world.
Joshua has this amazing encounter with the Lord Himself, and in his humility and awe received his commission to be at the head of God's human army to lead God's people, God's way.
I pray we all might have such an encounter. I pray we will always remember that the battle belongs to the Lord. It is for His Glory, and His Honor, and His purposes that we are commissioned to fight.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
The Covenant Keeper
The Holy Spirit calls to me this morning. The topic of our conversation has to do with vows. Our covenant with Him is obviously 2 sided, and He has spoken about the importance of knowing and doing my part. Today, He speaks to the vows I have made in my life, not just to Him but to another.
We make vows and enter into covenants with people throughout our lifetime here on earth. When it comes to "vowing", it is the marriage vows we are most familiar with. In our society and in our lives, one of the biggest days on our calendar of events is the day we come together to exchange vows. The wedding day.
So much preparation usually goes with it. The people we invite to share our big day. The food we select and prepare for the celebration. The place we choose to exchange our vows. But then there are the vows themselves. The entire celebration revolves around the bride and groom making vows and promises to each other in the presence of their chosen witnesses.
The ceremony is somber yet celebrated as 2 people promise to bind their hearts together. The ceremony takes place in the natural and the guests are present to witness this covenant between the bride and groom.
But there is also a great cloud of witnesses in the heavenlies that not much attention is given to. And then in the ultimate seat of Witness sits the Lord God of all Creation, who has given men and women this priceless privilege: a newly formed unit within which to live, love, find pleasure, strength and protection. The wedding initiates the ordained relationship called marriage and we make our vows to that end.
The question the Holy One brings to me this morning is the one that brings a new perspective to the vows we make. It's not about the "who to", but rather it's about the "before Whom" do we make and take our vows. We make and take our vows before the God of all living things. We exchange our vows and enter into a covenant before a Holy God who is the ultimate Covenant Keeper.
In these days, when vows are broken and covenants destroyed all the time, both inside and outside the Church, the Holy One speaks to the real problem. At the core of our vow breaking, covenant trashing attitude is a total disrespect and disregard for the One before Whom our vows were made.
If we are just talking to each other expressing our emotions of that moment in time, then it is no wonder we run to the divorce courts and file our papers then walk free to pursue other relationships without a break in our stride. But if we have it in our hearts the understanding that we made our promises before a Witness who will hold us accountable for broken vows and covenants, it is not that easy to walk away.
And then to realize that the marriage union is an earthly symbol of an eternal relationship with the Lord Himself, our accountability is even greater to remain true to our vows.
As much as we are covenant breakers, the Lord our God is a Covenant Keeper. Psalm 105:8 tell us, "He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations."
The test of covenant keeping on the human level reveals a lot about us. It tests the integrity of our hearts and our word. But it also puts to the test our respect for the One who is a witness to our covenant and the one who ordained marriage itself.
When we can find no reason on earth to remain true to our covenant, then maybe it's time we look past the earth realm and find our reason in the heavenly realm, remembering, before Whom we made our vows. Humans will always give us an excuse to break any covenant.
Justification abounds to terminate our most intimate relationship. Yet as a Christian who belongs to and follows a Covenant keeping God, we are all without excuse and must remain true to our vows, no matter what the world says.
Marriage and family are under attack like never before in history. It is not a question of "if" our marriages will be attacked but only when. When the trial hits our marriages will we remain true to our covenant vows spoken in the Presence of our Covenant keeping God? The amazing truth behind our Covenant keeping God is that He will enable us to be like Him.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
We make vows and enter into covenants with people throughout our lifetime here on earth. When it comes to "vowing", it is the marriage vows we are most familiar with. In our society and in our lives, one of the biggest days on our calendar of events is the day we come together to exchange vows. The wedding day.
So much preparation usually goes with it. The people we invite to share our big day. The food we select and prepare for the celebration. The place we choose to exchange our vows. But then there are the vows themselves. The entire celebration revolves around the bride and groom making vows and promises to each other in the presence of their chosen witnesses.
The ceremony is somber yet celebrated as 2 people promise to bind their hearts together. The ceremony takes place in the natural and the guests are present to witness this covenant between the bride and groom.
But there is also a great cloud of witnesses in the heavenlies that not much attention is given to. And then in the ultimate seat of Witness sits the Lord God of all Creation, who has given men and women this priceless privilege: a newly formed unit within which to live, love, find pleasure, strength and protection. The wedding initiates the ordained relationship called marriage and we make our vows to that end.
The question the Holy One brings to me this morning is the one that brings a new perspective to the vows we make. It's not about the "who to", but rather it's about the "before Whom" do we make and take our vows. We make and take our vows before the God of all living things. We exchange our vows and enter into a covenant before a Holy God who is the ultimate Covenant Keeper.
In these days, when vows are broken and covenants destroyed all the time, both inside and outside the Church, the Holy One speaks to the real problem. At the core of our vow breaking, covenant trashing attitude is a total disrespect and disregard for the One before Whom our vows were made.
If we are just talking to each other expressing our emotions of that moment in time, then it is no wonder we run to the divorce courts and file our papers then walk free to pursue other relationships without a break in our stride. But if we have it in our hearts the understanding that we made our promises before a Witness who will hold us accountable for broken vows and covenants, it is not that easy to walk away.
And then to realize that the marriage union is an earthly symbol of an eternal relationship with the Lord Himself, our accountability is even greater to remain true to our vows.
As much as we are covenant breakers, the Lord our God is a Covenant Keeper. Psalm 105:8 tell us, "He remembers His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations."
The test of covenant keeping on the human level reveals a lot about us. It tests the integrity of our hearts and our word. But it also puts to the test our respect for the One who is a witness to our covenant and the one who ordained marriage itself.
When we can find no reason on earth to remain true to our covenant, then maybe it's time we look past the earth realm and find our reason in the heavenly realm, remembering, before Whom we made our vows. Humans will always give us an excuse to break any covenant.
Justification abounds to terminate our most intimate relationship. Yet as a Christian who belongs to and follows a Covenant keeping God, we are all without excuse and must remain true to our vows, no matter what the world says.
Marriage and family are under attack like never before in history. It is not a question of "if" our marriages will be attacked but only when. When the trial hits our marriages will we remain true to our covenant vows spoken in the Presence of our Covenant keeping God? The amazing truth behind our Covenant keeping God is that He will enable us to be like Him.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The Power of Worship
The Holy One calls me this morning and I find that He has placed a song in my heart. This is odd for me since I have no great voice for singing and since the trials of my life weigh so heavy upon me. But there is song...and it is worship. A little off key and not too melodious in expression, yet a song none-the-less.
The Holy One has over and over taken me through the battles I face, to the great battle Jehoshaphat was facing in 2 Chron 20. Spoken by the Spirit through a Levite in the great assembly, the Lord told King Jehoshaphat and all who lived in Judah and Jerusalem, "Do not be afraid nor discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God's." He went on to describe the Lord's directive, "tomorrow march down against them." He told them where the enemy would be. He affirmed that they would not have to fight this battle. He told them, "take up your positions and stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. Don't be afraid, don't be discouraged, go out and face them and the Lord will be with you."
So convinced of the Lord's promise of victory, King Jehoshaphat declared to the people the success that their faith and God's Word would bring. After consulting with the people, it was decided to appoint men to sing praise and worship the Lord for the "Splendor of His Holiness." Those worshipers went out at the head of the army, singing "give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever."
What a unique strategy for battle, sending men out at the head of the fighting men, armed with praise and worship to the Holy One. Arms lifted up, not in defense but held high in praise.
When facing such a potential for destruction and even annihilation, how amazing that the people were, given over to praise and given victory without a sword leaving it's sheathe.
The scripture says that while God's people began to sing and praise Him, the Lord set ambushes against the 3 (not just 1) armies coming against His people. The Holy One has shown me a great weapon in the war, a powerful weapon with which to enter a "battle" against evil and that powerful weapon is worship
The song He has placed in my heart will grow and become a symphony of praise. Prayerfully my voice will improve through use, but the most overwhelming point He has made to me today is that worship and praise belong to the One who calls me to battle for His Honor and His Kingdom.
As a battle strategy, the praise of God's people was simultaneous to the Lord setting ambushes for the enemy's armies, all of them. Praise keeps our eyes on the Splendor of His Holiness and off the threats that the enemies of our life are trying to impose.
Praise is our labor of love while God does what we cannot.
Praise is a hard thing to remember to do when it seems that evil is compressing us from all sides. But praise and worship is the one thing that can catapult us out of our despair and into the very Presence of the One who holds all things in his loving and capable hands.
Expending my energy in praise and worship while God fights the battle, is an amazing strategy for victory. I am so thankful that He has taken me to this place.
Our God is worthy of all our praise, just because of Who He is, but then to realize that our praise to Him defeats the dark forces arrayed against us makes for a double portion of delight.
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 No wonder there is a song in my heart......
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
The Holy One has over and over taken me through the battles I face, to the great battle Jehoshaphat was facing in 2 Chron 20. Spoken by the Spirit through a Levite in the great assembly, the Lord told King Jehoshaphat and all who lived in Judah and Jerusalem, "Do not be afraid nor discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God's." He went on to describe the Lord's directive, "tomorrow march down against them." He told them where the enemy would be. He affirmed that they would not have to fight this battle. He told them, "take up your positions and stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. Don't be afraid, don't be discouraged, go out and face them and the Lord will be with you."
So convinced of the Lord's promise of victory, King Jehoshaphat declared to the people the success that their faith and God's Word would bring. After consulting with the people, it was decided to appoint men to sing praise and worship the Lord for the "Splendor of His Holiness." Those worshipers went out at the head of the army, singing "give thanks to the Lord for His love endures forever."
What a unique strategy for battle, sending men out at the head of the fighting men, armed with praise and worship to the Holy One. Arms lifted up, not in defense but held high in praise.
When facing such a potential for destruction and even annihilation, how amazing that the people were, given over to praise and given victory without a sword leaving it's sheathe.
The scripture says that while God's people began to sing and praise Him, the Lord set ambushes against the 3 (not just 1) armies coming against His people. The Holy One has shown me a great weapon in the war, a powerful weapon with which to enter a "battle" against evil and that powerful weapon is worship
The song He has placed in my heart will grow and become a symphony of praise. Prayerfully my voice will improve through use, but the most overwhelming point He has made to me today is that worship and praise belong to the One who calls me to battle for His Honor and His Kingdom.
As a battle strategy, the praise of God's people was simultaneous to the Lord setting ambushes for the enemy's armies, all of them. Praise keeps our eyes on the Splendor of His Holiness and off the threats that the enemies of our life are trying to impose.
Praise is our labor of love while God does what we cannot.
Praise is a hard thing to remember to do when it seems that evil is compressing us from all sides. But praise and worship is the one thing that can catapult us out of our despair and into the very Presence of the One who holds all things in his loving and capable hands.
Expending my energy in praise and worship while God fights the battle, is an amazing strategy for victory. I am so thankful that He has taken me to this place.
Our God is worthy of all our praise, just because of Who He is, but then to realize that our praise to Him defeats the dark forces arrayed against us makes for a double portion of delight.
"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4 No wonder there is a song in my heart......
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Intellectual Faith***
The Spirit calls to me from deep within my sleep state. The first thing I hear is, "Beware of intellectual faith".....As I am getting my first look at the clock, it is still dark outside, but the Holy Spirit continues...."the faith that remains in the mind only....the faith that comes out of knowledge brought to the mind but never makes it into the heart. The "knowledge" of God is different than the "experience" of God."
As I began processing His profound statement, I realize that for faith to be real, it must have personal experience from which to draw. Each one of us, called to live a life of faith, must have a personal experience with our Lord. We each must have a personal testimony that brings together all the knowledge we have "about" our God, as we live to see and feel the wonder of a life "with" our God.
The enemy, the ancient foe of mankind attacks the mind and debates the knowledge of the Holy One. Since the very beginning of man's days upon the earth when Eve fell and enticed the first Adam to follow her lead, the curse we bear is the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of that tree opened the door to our minds, where the enemy of our souls could challenge and question our thoughts and plant lies about our Creator that would repel man and separate us from our God. This ancient foe goes by many names in scripture he is called "Nebo" or "Nebu", the Babylonian god of learning (education) and is found referenced in Isaiah 46:1.
The heart and the mind are two different things and I see that there is knowledge in both. We can have heart knowledge that comes from experience, and have head knowledge that comes from a book. Paul spoke of it in Eph 3:17-19, "and to know this love that passes knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God".
The Sovereign God of all Creation who sits enthroned above the Heavens, desires to be in a personal relationship with each in of us and is willing to orchestrate all the personal experiences we need to have heart knowledge of Him. He has given us His Word, the Bible, but The Almighty has also made the way through the Person and life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for us, His Beloved, to experience and enjoy a personal relationship with Himself.
Jesus came to show us the Father. Jesus came to assure us that the One who has given each one of us the breath of life, desires to be personal; so personal that He wants to dwell within our hearts.
The indwelling Presence of God, Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, wants to make our heart His home. The intellectual mind cannot fathom such a mystery. The Who, the how, even the why is beyond our mind's imagination and the human intellect cannot begin to explain it. But the heart has the ability to accept it as Truth.
With this mystery that the heart can accept, comes supernatural intervention into our lives that give us our tangible personal experiences with the One who is Spirit. God orchestrates and ordains the circumstances whereby He reaches into our lives and becomes strangely visible. The impossible happens, the unlikely occurs, desperate needs are fulfilled where there is no viable means on the horizon. Miracles, we call them miracles and rightly so.
To experience Divine intervention and gain heart knowledge, means that we must live at risk. The human demand for control is turned upside down when God moves in our lives and most try to live within well defined comfort zones. Trials come and threats to our security abound, but it is at those times when, in desperation, our hearts cry out. When the human mind has no answers for our dilemma. When everything we understand with our mind unravels. It is in those times that our hearts begin to know. As the Almighty begins to act in our behalf, then we begin to gain the heart knowledge of His Presence.
I ponder why the Spirit has brought this up. I think He is warning about a move by evil in these end times to corrupt the "knowledge" of the Holy One. I believe the warning comes to make sure my faith is based on knowledge and experience together. Like the man born blind who was given his sight at the hands of Jesus said, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know, but what I do know is this, I was blind and now I see." John 9:25. Heart knowledge, experience, a miracle from God that changed his life forever.
Are we living in the anticipation of daily miracles, and life changing experiences that are a standard against the lies of evil and doubts about our God? Are we willing to live at risk so our Lord can demonstrate His Presence in our lives not just for our own sake but for the sake of His Glory made visible to the world around us? Or are we hanging into an intellectual faith, that won't be needed until the last day we draw our breath here on earth? A faith that remains within the limits of our human mind and reason, but never makes it to our heart.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
As I began processing His profound statement, I realize that for faith to be real, it must have personal experience from which to draw. Each one of us, called to live a life of faith, must have a personal experience with our Lord. We each must have a personal testimony that brings together all the knowledge we have "about" our God, as we live to see and feel the wonder of a life "with" our God.
The enemy, the ancient foe of mankind attacks the mind and debates the knowledge of the Holy One. Since the very beginning of man's days upon the earth when Eve fell and enticed the first Adam to follow her lead, the curse we bear is the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of that tree opened the door to our minds, where the enemy of our souls could challenge and question our thoughts and plant lies about our Creator that would repel man and separate us from our God. This ancient foe goes by many names in scripture he is called "Nebo" or "Nebu", the Babylonian god of learning (education) and is found referenced in Isaiah 46:1.
The heart and the mind are two different things and I see that there is knowledge in both. We can have heart knowledge that comes from experience, and have head knowledge that comes from a book. Paul spoke of it in Eph 3:17-19, "and to know this love that passes knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God".
The Sovereign God of all Creation who sits enthroned above the Heavens, desires to be in a personal relationship with each in of us and is willing to orchestrate all the personal experiences we need to have heart knowledge of Him. He has given us His Word, the Bible, but The Almighty has also made the way through the Person and life of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, for us, His Beloved, to experience and enjoy a personal relationship with Himself.
Jesus came to show us the Father. Jesus came to assure us that the One who has given each one of us the breath of life, desires to be personal; so personal that He wants to dwell within our hearts.
The indwelling Presence of God, Himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, wants to make our heart His home. The intellectual mind cannot fathom such a mystery. The Who, the how, even the why is beyond our mind's imagination and the human intellect cannot begin to explain it. But the heart has the ability to accept it as Truth.
With this mystery that the heart can accept, comes supernatural intervention into our lives that give us our tangible personal experiences with the One who is Spirit. God orchestrates and ordains the circumstances whereby He reaches into our lives and becomes strangely visible. The impossible happens, the unlikely occurs, desperate needs are fulfilled where there is no viable means on the horizon. Miracles, we call them miracles and rightly so.
To experience Divine intervention and gain heart knowledge, means that we must live at risk. The human demand for control is turned upside down when God moves in our lives and most try to live within well defined comfort zones. Trials come and threats to our security abound, but it is at those times when, in desperation, our hearts cry out. When the human mind has no answers for our dilemma. When everything we understand with our mind unravels. It is in those times that our hearts begin to know. As the Almighty begins to act in our behalf, then we begin to gain the heart knowledge of His Presence.
I ponder why the Spirit has brought this up. I think He is warning about a move by evil in these end times to corrupt the "knowledge" of the Holy One. I believe the warning comes to make sure my faith is based on knowledge and experience together. Like the man born blind who was given his sight at the hands of Jesus said, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know, but what I do know is this, I was blind and now I see." John 9:25. Heart knowledge, experience, a miracle from God that changed his life forever.
Are we living in the anticipation of daily miracles, and life changing experiences that are a standard against the lies of evil and doubts about our God? Are we willing to live at risk so our Lord can demonstrate His Presence in our lives not just for our own sake but for the sake of His Glory made visible to the world around us? Or are we hanging into an intellectual faith, that won't be needed until the last day we draw our breath here on earth? A faith that remains within the limits of our human mind and reason, but never makes it to our heart.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Patience In The Process
The Spirit calls to me this morning. A strategic victory has been won and a long standing prayer answered. The Spirit reminds me that even in the rejoicing over a great battle won, the work must continue until the last day and the Lord Himself returns for us. "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it." Phil 1:6 "Do not grow weary in doing good." Gal 6:9
His words help me to realize that the moment of great victory in a battle fought and won pass quickly and are to be savored and celebrated, yet are not the end. Once saved, the battles we face are part of the process. The ultimate goal is to bring each one of us into the conforming image of Christ Jesus Himself and bring Glory to God in the transformation.
The Spirit calls me to look back over my life and trials. In each one, the pattern was similar:
The trial hits. Shock and confusion permeates my heart and mind, the heat turns up, the questions swirl. God, where are you? God, why is this happening? God, what do I do?
But the trial continues. No quick fix comes. I gain my footing and get up. I know myself well enough to understand, it is not by my own strength that I find a place to stand. It is the Lord Himself who has begun to lift me up.
But the trial continues. Battle lines are drawn, the enemy of my soul keeps the arrows coming. Relentlessly he assaults me. God's Word and His promises are my only comfort. Thanksgiving comes out of the storm for this place of relief.
But the trial continues. Faith, hope, trust, love are all challenged from within my mind, Even the promises I hold onto seem like dandelions in the wind, blown and scattered.
Then the Holy One finds my ear. He takes me to the one verse that has helped me weather trials in times past. Isaiah 54:16. A familiar friend speaks, "See, it is I who have created the blacksmith who fans the coals into a flame and forges a weapon fit for it's work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc."
Out of context, and all alone, this verse would seem to paint my loving Creator as a cruel and heartless Being, bent on my destruction, sending the enemy on a search and destroy mission against me. And, the evil one wants me to stop right here in my thinking and understanding of why I am suffering. The enemy tries to use this scripture to discourage me. For it is, after all, the Word of God.
But as I read on, the hope comes, "no weapon forged against you will prosper. You will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication is from Me, declares the Lord".
I am reminded that each struggle, each trial, each battle, each heartache has a purpose and a point know to the One who created my inmost being. I am a work in process. I was not born in the image I was destined to have. Changes need to take place.
Resolution of my trial is not the end goal. Transformation of my heart and mind is. The trial is only a means through which the Holy Spirit of Christ can work me into His image. The "battle" for me, is the place of perspective, where I must choose priorities and decide what is worth fighting and dying for.
For me, the battle must be fought for the Holiness and Righteousness and Honor of my Heavenly Father, and for the Glory of my King Jesus.
The trials of life will continue. Battles will be fought and won. But the end comes when the King comes. Until that day, we will continue to be in the process of refinement, in the process of being transformed into the likeness of the King Himself.
He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
His words help me to realize that the moment of great victory in a battle fought and won pass quickly and are to be savored and celebrated, yet are not the end. Once saved, the battles we face are part of the process. The ultimate goal is to bring each one of us into the conforming image of Christ Jesus Himself and bring Glory to God in the transformation.
The Spirit calls me to look back over my life and trials. In each one, the pattern was similar:
The trial hits. Shock and confusion permeates my heart and mind, the heat turns up, the questions swirl. God, where are you? God, why is this happening? God, what do I do?
But the trial continues. No quick fix comes. I gain my footing and get up. I know myself well enough to understand, it is not by my own strength that I find a place to stand. It is the Lord Himself who has begun to lift me up.
But the trial continues. Battle lines are drawn, the enemy of my soul keeps the arrows coming. Relentlessly he assaults me. God's Word and His promises are my only comfort. Thanksgiving comes out of the storm for this place of relief.
But the trial continues. Faith, hope, trust, love are all challenged from within my mind, Even the promises I hold onto seem like dandelions in the wind, blown and scattered.
Then the Holy One finds my ear. He takes me to the one verse that has helped me weather trials in times past. Isaiah 54:16. A familiar friend speaks, "See, it is I who have created the blacksmith who fans the coals into a flame and forges a weapon fit for it's work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to work havoc."
Out of context, and all alone, this verse would seem to paint my loving Creator as a cruel and heartless Being, bent on my destruction, sending the enemy on a search and destroy mission against me. And, the evil one wants me to stop right here in my thinking and understanding of why I am suffering. The enemy tries to use this scripture to discourage me. For it is, after all, the Word of God.
But as I read on, the hope comes, "no weapon forged against you will prosper. You will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication is from Me, declares the Lord".
I am reminded that each struggle, each trial, each battle, each heartache has a purpose and a point know to the One who created my inmost being. I am a work in process. I was not born in the image I was destined to have. Changes need to take place.
Resolution of my trial is not the end goal. Transformation of my heart and mind is. The trial is only a means through which the Holy Spirit of Christ can work me into His image. The "battle" for me, is the place of perspective, where I must choose priorities and decide what is worth fighting and dying for.
For me, the battle must be fought for the Holiness and Righteousness and Honor of my Heavenly Father, and for the Glory of my King Jesus.
The trials of life will continue. Battles will be fought and won. But the end comes when the King comes. Until that day, we will continue to be in the process of refinement, in the process of being transformed into the likeness of the King Himself.
He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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