Purpose Beyond Prophecy

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Deep thoughts have brought me to deep questions about the instability in the Middle east.  Knowing a little about Biblical history, I understand the nature of the conflict and how what happened long ago set the stage for the great battle that is, according to Biblical prophecy, going to take place in the future and in the Middle East.

The issue of Divine election is part of the swirling mystery of Holiness that I wonder about.  The Holy One speaks just one word into my thoughts:  "Pride".

This is going to be one of those days and counsel sessions where I need to get ready to go deep.  Not deep as in intellectual knowledge but deep as to the things that are still attached to my flesh and need to be removed.  What does my pride have to do with the Middle East?  Or what does the Middle East have to do with my pride? 

I need to go back to the Word and the historic account of the man and the woman and the maidservant where it all began.  Of course the story of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar is well known in the Christian Community.  We know about the promise God made to Abraham and we know how Sarah buckled in faith and gave her maidservant, Hagar to Abraham for the purpose of producing an heir to the promise.  We know how a son was born through Hagar and his name was Ishmael. We know that thereafter Sarah conceived and gave birth to the child of promise:  Isaac

We can read up and know that the slave woman and her son were sent away and into the wilderness.  We can read how God reckoned Israel through Isaac as the genealogical descendants of Abraham to receive the blessing and pass it on to the world. 

Scripture tells us in Gen 21 that contention grew within the family and finally Sarah said to Abraham "get rid of the slave woman and her son, for that slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac."

Even as the matter greatly distress Abraham, God said to him, "do not be so distress about the boy and your maidservant.   Listen to whatever Sarah tells you because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.  I will make the son of the maidservant into a nation also because he is your offspring". The scripture goes on to say in Gen 21:20 "God was with the boy as he grew up.  He lived in the desert and became an archer"

The reality that God spared Ishmael causes my mental gears to stop dead in their tracks and ponder that under talked about part of the account. 

The Sovereignty of God is absolute and even if I question His ways at times, I accept that His word is His will.  In this situation that exists in the Middle East in our days, I seek to understand His will.  The Holy One has taken me to this part of the story to see that God was with this "other" son of Abraham.  If God did not have a higher, greater purpose, for the life and lineage of Ishmael, the boy would have perished in the wilderness along with his mother Hagar.

The history of the nation of Israel and my history as a Christan and follower of Christ is the same in that I was "chosen".  Jesus says, "You did not chose me but I chose you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.  This is my command: love each other".  John 15:16-17

I begin to see the relationship that pride has to the conflict in the Middle east as well as to my life as a Christian.  We can take no credit for God's Divine election.  We can only rejoice in the plan of Holiness that gives us a part to play in His purposes that govern our lives.

When Christ came to earth, He left all His Divine privilege behind.  He came and humbled Himself even as He suffered and died on the Cross, He modelled the will of the Father against all pride.  Philippians 2:5  exhorts us, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a Cross".

Our Lord came and died the death for all humanity.  God is not content that any should perish but that all should come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus the Savior of the world.

Pride is the infection that kills the soul. Pride exalts self and creates the jealousies that lead to wars. The issue of Divine election rests with God alone, but my reaction to my own God ordained election must never be pride but rather thanksgiving.  God saved Ishmael I believe with the same loving compassion that He saved me.

Knowing Israel as the "chosen" exposes the potential pride in all of us,  We can get proud about being the "chosen" or recoil in jealousy if that place of privilege falls to someone else.  It can affect all of us from the two biological natural descendants of Abraham to the spiritual descendants of Abraham AKA the church.  The fact that God knows the heart does not change our free will to harden it.

Jesus came to show us the love of the Father who is not content that any of His beloved humanity should perish, not Ishmael, not you, not me.  There is a war in the natural that traces back to the two sons of Abraham.  Jesus came to heal all the rifts we have with each other and calls all of us to find our place in the Father's house.  Only through Him can Jew and Gentile be reconciled with the Creator God and each other. 

Jesus Christ also came to bring and then become a sword that will divide families and even nations.  "I did not come to bring peace but a sword".   What more poignant way for our all powerful King to be seen for Who He is than to enter into the world of human failure and chaos and bring Peace?  The Middle East is a cauldron of ancient national and tribal conflicts that are beyond successful negotiations or peaceful co-habitation on a natural level. 

The issue of the pride or jealousy over the "chosen" ceases to be an issue if we understand that salvation boils down to a decision and not a birthright. Divine election is in the fact that the gospel will be given to all flesh and left to each of us to decide to believe it. From that point on, the choice and decision is individual as we are all equally "chosen" to hear and have the ability to make it.

If God sees the end from the beginning regarding the history of man and does not have a purpose beyond what we know, He would have allowed Ishmael to die in that wilderness and spared all the world of the conflict we now have in the Middle East.  

If this world is all there is to the Creation story, then there is reason for great sorrow and fear.  However if the Lord is preparing humanity for a more extravagant future with Him then it is an imperative that we all enter into a deep and abiding relationship here before we pass into the eternal realm. Trials of various depths and degrees encourage us to look past our momentary struggles to find Him in the midst. 

At the moment it seems all eyes are on the Middle East.  Given what I know about prophecy, I know the Lord our God is there.  Praying for His Beloved Israel is only half the reason the Lord calls us to intercede. 

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has Sovereign purpose beyond what we know or can imagine.  The drama in the Middle East somehow serves that purpose. Do we pray for peace? Absolutely.  But we must also trust that God, not flawed humans, is the One in ultimate control. 

This is no time for Spiritual pride or arrogance in being among the chosen.  I see the point He is making to me and confess the pride that can hinder my prayers for the lost, even and especially those in the Middle East.  While I can read and know what prophecy foretells, God's Divine purpose is the point beyond the prophecy.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?                      

No More Guilt

The Holy One calls to me this morning and a dark spirit of guilt mocks me as I rise up and prepare for our morning conference. 

Trying to prepare my heart and mind for truth, I go to Romans 8:1.  Even as I quote the well memorized verse from memory: "There is now therefore no guilt nor condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus", I actually come to realize I have added a word to that scripture and quoted it wrong to myself and others. 

The actual text reads:  "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". (Rom 8:1 NIV) I have been adding a word to that verse and that word changes things which thereby add greatly to my wrestles within myself.  That one word identifies the source of my despair: guilt.  

Guilt is an emotion that follows condemnation, and the enemy uses it to trash my thinking.  If the enemy can get me to put guilt within the "promise" of no condemnation, knowing that guilt is an emotion evil can impact and even direct my flesh to consider, then he can twist the Holy Promise and use it to trap me.  The very promise that was given to set me free, can be twisted into a net from which there is no escape until I recognize it for what it is. 

Eve was the first one deceived by the enemy of our soul.  The enemy's methods are the same since the beginning.  So subtle are his devious ways, we must be on guard in everything we say and think, or the slightest lack of discernment can wreck us.  The counsel of the Holy One is imperative and His discernment is welcomed with His words of wisdom, "Your self-imposed guilt gives access to the enemy's condemnation".  There is a vast difference between my conviction and the enemy's condemnation."

He repeats His word, "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death". 

When we look at sin as a "nature" and not as individual acts, the issue of condemnation vs. conviction takes on a whole new dynamic. Jesus came to provide us who believe in Him and His mission, a new "nature" born of the Spirit of Holiness. The law of sin and death rules over the flesh and is final.  But the law of the Spirit of Life is resurrection beyond death.

What this means is that Jesus took our flesh death penalty and paid it in full.  Then He released His Holy Spirit to indwell every believer and that is the New Nature we have and can rely on when condemnation comes knocking. 

Guilt produces a myriad of wrestles and we can even begin to question our salvation if it does not get resolved.  Condemnation is judgement no matter how you slice it. Roman 8:1 tells us plainly that for those of us who are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation or judgement by God, yet we can be so aware of our flesh failures and the flesh failures of others that we accept the condemnation and doubt that we (or they) are actually "in Christ Jesus".

This New Nature and the manner in which we receive it are "supernatural".  While guilt and condemnation belong to the old nature because it has no remedy, conviction comes by the Spirit and provides hope for the resolution.

Even if I fail in my responses to life and trials on earth, I am not condemned because the consequences for disobedience or bad form are the Lord's way of getting us back on track and not a trip to the guillotine.  The enemy of our soul uses guilt as a wedge between us and our Lord who ever lives to forgive the flesh failures we still commit.  Through our confession and repentance for those flesh failures, the Lord sets us straight again.  The biggest problem with guilt is that it causes us to run away from the Lord and not toward Him. 

Guilt can keep us in a perpetual running and atonement seeking lifestyle, always trying to offset an emotional feeling by another emotional act that may be called "do-gooding".  Rather than living a resurrected life of valuable service we live a lesser life of "Christian" busyness motivated by guilt. The lesser life is power-less, and the enemy knows it. 

Thankfully the Holy One stopped me today before I revved up my engines to offset my guilt. He gently reminded me that guilt is a phantom I don't need to fear and nothing I need to respond to.   By declaring and believing the word of God, the guilt that seemed so foreboding begins to melt away.

I know that Satan is my accuser and uses condemnation as a tool.  Guilt allows his abuse to continue but my declaration of truth stops him dead in his tracks.  Evil is defeated by truth and the truth does set us free. My Lord has provided me with the Truth:  If there is no condemnation there is no basis for guilt. Being guilt-less in my own eyes allows me to receive the Love in His. 

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

           

Imagination:God's Gift***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  This new year also represents a new season of my life. As I journey with Jesus and in pursuit of my passion to write, I find myself "day-dreaming" more than I ever have before.

This morning the Holy One speaks to my concern that my "day-dreaming" could get me into trouble. I hear Him say, "I want you to use your imagination.  It is a gift"!  Then He takes me back to this year's promise, Psalms 37:4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart".

I cannot help but make the connection between desire and imagination.  Before I came to trust in Jesus, my mind did seem to have a dark layer over it and things I wanted or desired followed a self-satisfying lust.  Once I got rescued from that darkness of my irresistible sin nature, my perspective changed and I began see things in a whole new light. 

What I did not count on was the problem in the form of spiritual arrogance that came with salvation but could not protect me from the spiritual battles with my flesh that required discipline. Contrary to the thought that once we get saved we are no longer at risk for flesh failure, I discovered that flesh will still be tempted and it will put up a battle royal to have what it wants.

Flesh is never to be trusted in the sanctification process as it represents all that is at odds with our spirit and I tend to associate imagination and desire with the flesh.  Because of the link we make to our flesh, most are afraid to dream or let our imagination go.  We are suspicious of the supernatural and have little faith for miracles.  We can get stuck in an alternative reality to the one the Lord might have available for us to experience. Heaven is to be our reality and earth is where we begin to imagine it.

I wonder where does my imagination fit into this balance between flesh and spirit? I know as with every other part of my being, I must commit my imagination to the Lord and ask Him to protect it as He protects my mind and to use it for His Glory.  This conscious surrender enables me to delight in what comes next and not fear my desires. 

The Holy Spirit sends me into His word for confirmation where I find Ephesians 3:20, "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever and ever."

This verse challenges me as a part of the Body of Christ to unleash my God-given imagination to the God-given power that is at work within me to accomplish the great works prepared for us by God at the foundation of the world.        

What pleases the Lord is no secret.  He desires our unity and that we be bonded in love to Him and to each other.  We need to start imagining a unified body with all the powerful miracles that can be brought to earth out of the Heavenly Kingdom of our Lord through a unifying agreement within the church.

What force could be stronger than the power of God's love in unity with the saints?  Within the community of the church does lie all the power and gifts of the Holy One to impact and accomplish God's  Divine purpose for it's existence.

Can we imagine Divine healing?
Can we imagine Marital harmony?
Can we imagine Spiritual unity?
Can we imagine doing greater works than Christ did here on earth?

If not?  Why not?

Somewhere along the line we lost our ability to imagine things or ask for things beyond our own limited capacity to self provide or accomplish.  This verse does not tell us to rely on or do according to our own power but rather to remember it is God's power at work within us.  The verse promises we will see and experience the greater things even beyond what we ask or imagine.

If I can just begin to imagine more good than what I see and know that the Lord will do more than I imagine or ask of Him, what glorious acts of Divine intervention might we expect to see?

Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, was exhorting the Body of believers then to come into unity by the Spirit and this letter is for us today as well.  With all the struggles I see in the church and between the churches, it is hard to imagine a form of unity that Paul describes as even a possibility. But that is where the power issues comes to rest, and where I must apply my imagination.  What might we see God do that we cannot? 

Dreaming precedes doing when God provides the dream.  Imagining unity is the first step toward living it.  Imagination is God's gift, I plan to start using it.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

        



  

Keep Praying**

The Holy One call to me this morning.  There is so much going on in the world at large. Many wonder how close we are to the end of life as we know it:  Terrorist threats, and acts of depravity, plagues hitting the shores of our land, "progressive" leaders and diminished ability to protect ourselves from within and without of our own government, and even the severe and inordinate weather patterns that are causing destruction throughout the US and around the world.  The list of fearsome threats just keeps growing.

Today, Holiness reminds me to keep praying.  "Failure to pray does not change Who I am, it just limits your ability to know me."

Since Adam and Eve were first formed in the Garden of God, relationship was the underlying purpose the Creator had for their lives.  The Lord God made man in His image and for relationship.  The Lord God made Eve for He determined that it was not good for man to be alone.  Relationships are the single most important part of our lives.  We are hard wired for relationship and with so much of life happening outside of my personal control, my relationship with the Sovereign God of all creation is a top priority.

His statement this morning is an invitation for fellowship and I humbly accept it with thanksgiving.  We are told to "pray without ceasing" which in the beginning may seem like an impossible thing to do, but true fellowship with the One we call the Holy Spirit means that He is with me wherever I go. In whatever circumstance I may find myself, He is here as well. 

Phil 4:4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice!  Let your gentleness be evident to all the Lord is near."  That means that He and I can converse at any and all times.

To "pray", by definition means to "implore".  Is is easily and loosely interpreted by many as presenting what represents a wants or needs list to a Divine benefactor, who may or may not send it.  But that is just a superficial beginning of what God desires as a relationship.  Our needs create dependency and dependency creates relationship. 

We are born dependent on someone else meeting our needs.  Helpless at birth, we are dependent.  That dependency begins a relationship with our parents.  Our needs become the link to a deeper relationship that grows into a unity with others we call "family".    As we grow up, the "need" dependency (ideally) morphs into a mutual love and respect of each one who makes up our "family".  Prayer is like phone call to a beloved family member, not just to express a need but to talk things over.  Sharing joys and sorrows, venting and laughing, at things we see and experience in this life is all a part of the call..   

But unlike a family member who may be miles away or not near a phone to pick up our call, the Lord is near and His presence is very real.  No matter where we are in the physical realm we are always one with Him in Spirit and He is always available to talk. 
  
Then Paul goes on to say, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving present your requests to God.  And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

This has never been more real to me than when I walked through the valley of the shadow of death with my late husband.  I looked for and found reasons to be thankful.  As the world delivers blow after blow of hurtful things, we will always find someone whose trial is more desperate than our own, or one whose hurt is deeper than the one we are experiencing.  That is usually due to the intangible thing we call Grace, that enables us to withstand our own heavy burden yet not understand how someone else carries theirs.

The effect of God's grace is a mystery to the people around us and even to our own minds, but it always points us back to our source and that is the relationship we have with the Lord. Personally, grace is only seen in the rear view mirror and only truly understood after the trial has passed over us.  That factor of God's grace is the reason why we must always pray and give thanks in every situation.

I Thess 5:16 says, "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you."  I can rejoice that my conversation with the Lord is endless and since prayer is conversation with the one who is unseen, yet controls all things, I can very easily pray without ceasing.

The comfort of that established possibility along with the exhortation to engage in it, brings peace that the world needs but does not know.  Paul in his 1st letter to the Thessalonians and as he was addressing the subject of the Lord's return left word to those of us who, along with him, believe that Jesus is coming back. 

I Thess 15:9, "For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him". 

We cannot read Paul's words without realizing that the point of our salvation is a relationship;  that we may live together with the Lord and that the living begins here on earth.  The eternal conversation starts here.

Conversation with the Holy One does not need to be verbal.  The exchange of ideas and the wisdom from my all wise Holy Counselor usually takes place in the realm of the thoughts.  Verbal expressions from the human end are appropriate especially when the praying (conversation) begins at the point of thanksgiving and praise in acknowledgement and worship for who He is to me.

With thanksgiving for Who He is to me, I find myself praying to know Him better.  I hear my own heart implore Him for more of His.  With all that there is to learn about the Great I Am, His exhortation to keep praying is not just to get things I want or need, but is to grow in the ability to know Him and live in the deeper relationship He created me for in the first place.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 

        

            

The Lord's Servant

The Holy One calls to me this  morning.  The holidays are over for another year and we are heading back into life and business as usual.  Familiarity with our own life circumstances can tarnish the golden hope of our dreams for change. 

The driving factors in our lives seem to be the same as before all the days of celebration.  The places we go to when life gets tough unfortunately can be the same as well:  Sleep, alcohol  addiction, medications prescribed (or not) to help us cope and before long we have to admit the goal becomes just getting though one more day.

As a Christian it is hard to admit that I love my bed.  Sleep, although necessary for good health, can become a tempting escape from the battles that touch my life. The gentle voice of the Holy One calls me out to face another day, "Get up, remember you are a servant".  

Perspective is such a vital thing and I have an enemy who is always trying to mess with my perspective.  Few people realize the enemy has a voice as well as the Holy Spirit.  The enemy speaks to our flesh with temptations to act out an alternative to the way the Holy One would have us live our lives.

The Holy Spirit is well aware of the wrestle inside I was having with my flesh tempter.  Evil  mocks the promises I have been given and claimed for the new year from my Lord and His word.  The enemy started this mental assault yesterday pointing out the duration of life trials and the frustration he knows I have felt in waiting for resolutions.

Were it not for my Counselor within, this might have been a skirmish lost, but the truth of His wisdom reminded me to check my perspective.  The truth is so simple:  I am a servant.  My life is not my own.  My world and everything in it belongs to my Master and I am to serve His interests in each day He provides.  I can know (in part) His will for what I find on the pathway of this journey called life,  because His word IS His will.  However, I do not always understand the "ways" of Holiness and that is where my perspective can get tweaked. 

His ways are higher than ours and who can truly understand them completely?  Just like Mary and Martha who wanted and were looking for a healing for their brother Lazarus, when Jesus called out his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus told us in Matt 20:28. "Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many", we are to be servants too.  Jesus came as a servant of the Most High. He did not come to be served,  I am sure His flesh agenda would not have been to have it crucified.  We walk in His footsteps when we allow our own flesh agendas to be crucified. 

The reminder by the Holy One was just what I needed today.  I am a servant.  My agenda is not to be the focus or the goal of my day.  As a servant, my time and what I do with it is decided by the One I serve.  Strategies can be discussed, but at the close of the discussion, obedience is mandatory.  The end of His will for the problems I encounter will be served as I remain a faithful servant.

My perspective can be clouded by the ground war I am in, but Divine perspective knows the end from the beginning and how to best fulfill the desires of my heart according to His will and His ways.  Even the timing for resolutions to the situations here on earth is calculated according to the Lord's plan and purpose.

At present that timing may not be known to me, but what I do know is that I am My Lord's servant and that is good enough for today.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?