Prayer and Prophecy*

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Tragedy seems to be our daily fare.  Reports of the natural disasters have been eclipsed by the heinous act of an evil mind and the victims are many.  People from all around the world are praying, each of us touched in our heart of hearts, grieving and crying out to our unseen Comforter.
  

The Holy Spirit speaks from the darkness of the early morning watch, and offers His light:

“Your prayers must be more than just an exercise of your human good-will”.

Before I can put my mind to defend against the shock of His statement, He takes me back in His Word to a day in the life of my Lord Jesus.  John 11 is the account of His response to the death of His friend, Lazarus   Most of us know the story and the miracle of the Lord’s power over death, but the Holy One has a lesson for me on the subject of prayer, intimate prayer.

John 11:43-45 NKJV “Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.  And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by, I said this that they may know that You sent Me. Now when He had said these things He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth”

Prayer is our way of connecting with God who is, at the moment, unseen.  It can and should be intimate and personal and filled with the evidence that the connection is real and represents a two-way conversation.

As we make that connection, we have a wonderful opportunity to come to “know” God and to understand (in part) not only His will as in the written Word of God but through wisdom provided by the Holy Spirit within, begin to grasp an understanding of His ways.

In the arena of true Prophecy, the Lord shares with us what He is about to do as He did when He visited Abraham on His way to check out what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. (Genesis 18:17-33).  True Prophesy comes directly from the mouth of the Lord to the mind of the human recipient. 

    

I would say that Prophecy or a prophetic “word” does not come “out of the blue”, but rather out of a conversation that the human is having with the Creator, Who is the Sovereign God of all things created.  This is the true relationship that God desires with us and the relationship we can have through the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Prophecy is really just knowing what the Lord is about (or willing) to do and proclaiming it as done.   We must beware, however, of speaking in an uninformed way FOR God rather than in a knowledgeable ABOUT Him. 

 

As I process our conversation and make application to my personal prayer life, I need to see how and in what ways prayer, on my end, has become just an exercise, lacking the power and privilege of Divine answers. 

It is easy to get offended when the Lord questions my “work” and points out a weakness, but if I want to improve my “serve” and meet the goals of His assignments, I will take what He is pointing out and ask for His help to correct and strengthen what He determines is weak.

Much prayer is being offered out of the deepest desire to relieve the pain of evil’s victims, but the real goal in prayer is to see what the Lord will do in direct response to our prayers and I am sure it will always involve His Glorious and miraculous intervention. 

It is critical in prayer, that we know that we know that He hears us and will respond to our cries for intercession and in THAT (His response) all will come to know Him as One who loves each and every one of us, bringing rescue and remedy not just for the here and now but for all eternity.

As we enter into the Holy place of communion with the Father that Jesus died to provide and engage the power of heaven, people will be healed, delivered, and  even resurrected according to God’s Will. 

How can we know His will in specific ways unless He tells us?  How can He tell us if we are not willing to stay long enough in His presence to listen?

We are told that Jesus spent long hours in solitary (intimate) prayer, most likely to get His marching orders directly from His Father in Heaven, to know and activate the Father’s will on earth. That is our legacy and how we too, can become a conduit of His authority in the world of people that touch our own life.

I truly believe that in prayer, my desire and the Lord’s will become one and then ultimately come to pass, but in His time and in His way.

 

Jesus said of His upcoming act of calling forth the dead, that the audience would see it and then know that God the Father sent Him.  May our outspoken prayers for help and recovery enable others to see God the Father as the source of the blessed answers and Jesus as the One who makes our relationship possible. May others experience Him, not just the compassion of the one praying.

In these dark days we need our prayers to be more than sympathy for the ones who are hurting.  We need them to be more than just an expression of worthy comforting words.   We need them to bring down the power of Heaven’s healing and the knowledge of the One who answers.

Today I feel the need to repent and ask forgiveness for the times and ways my prayers were merely an exercise in speaking fine sounding words to impress others rather than a connection and completion of a powerful and Divine circle of communication between the Creator and the created, the Lover and His beloved. 

    

The Spirit is Calling.  Can you hear Him?   

Pentecost: The Grand Finale of Our Salvation***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Repetition is the way we learn and grow in or relationship with our Creator God.  The subject of our conversation is a repeat but with new understanding each time He speaks to me about the Celebration of Pentecost.

"Few understand or acknowledge the Eternal significance of the Day of Pentecost".

As I ponder His words, I realize I am guilty as charged.  The day of Pentecost is little celebrated in the Body of Christ.  Except for the “crazy” things people may do (and others may judge) in the misunderstanding of that epic moment in our redemption, little is celebrated about the day.  Yet how vitally important is the day the Holy Spirit was unleashed to indwell those who believe in the One Whom God sent to save humanity and to restore the created back into a sacred relationship with the Creator.

The day of Pentecost was the grand finale in God’s provision and plan for Salvation that Jesus died to provide.  The Holy Spirit in us completes us as part of the circle of Life.  He binds us eternally to the Trinity as “Christ in us, the Hope of Glory”.  

Col 1:26-27 Paul writes: "The mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations but now has been revealed to His saints.  To them (and us) God willed to make known what the riches of the glory of this mystery are, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory".

  

Salvation through Jesus saved humanity from the consequential death that came with rebellion in the “fall”, But Pentecost is the event and day in which we have been brought to unity with the Trinity:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  “Christ in us the hope of glory” is the ultimate completion and goal of salvation, since restored relationship IS the goal of Salvation.

Even as we have been saved from the judgement of Hell, fire and damnation, we are not to regard that as the greatest aspect in having been save FROM something, but rather we must prioritize the priceless blessing in that we are saved FOR Someone.  We have been redeemed for an eternal relationship with the God of all creation and that begins here on earth through the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit of the Savior God: Jesus the Christ.

Let us not continue to overlook celebration on and for the day of the unleashing of the Holy Spirit of God upon His people.  For the Disciples, the day of Pentecost coincided with celebration of Shavuot as the feast of weeks, which is an agricultural feast of thanksgiving for the wheat crops.  However, more and deeper it is the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the entire nation of Israel assembled at Mt Sinai.  1500 years earlier the Spirit of God fell upon Mt Sinai and while the disciples were thinking of that day of celebration, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, and we call it Pentecost.  (The fiftieth day after the Resurrection.)   Biblical history records the Holy Spirit of God coming upon certain people but not until Pentecost did the Holy Spirit of God come to indwell the believer. 

This is an annual day to celebrate but one day is not enough to celebrate the ongoing Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   That event should be a thankful everyday celebration and acknowledgement of His vital role in our completion as being made one and whole (holy) with the Trinity forever and ever. 

“If you love Me, you will obey Me” said our Lord Jesus.  God’s love language and the way we can “speak” love to Him is through our obedience to His Word and His voice.  The Holy Spirit is the internal voice of our Lord.  The day of Pentecost is the day of the Divine One coming to enable our spirit to overcome our flesh temptations and live out our love in obedience to His directives.

The day of Pentecost is the day we look back upon as the model for the anointing and baptism (immersion) by and into the Holy Spirit of Christ and with the manifestation of Heaven’s power at work in, to and through our lives.  

It is not a day for personal “ecstasy” in a “supernatural” or even “witchcrafty” way but rather to be empowered to share the Truth and Glory of God and His "wonderful works" to the lost and dying world around us. Those who were present on that day were men "from every nation under Heaven" and yet each one heard the message spoken in their own language and not the language of the disciples. 

If we are looking for our own pleasure or a supernatural other “realm” experience to set ourselves apart we have sadly missed the reason for the great unleashing of the Holy One.  It is in our temporal bodies infused by the Holy Spirit that we are enabled to share the Gospel and be a conduit of the life and character and love of our God and King Jesus.  Anything less becomes a point of self-serving, self-exalting, misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Christ in the world of humanity.

The Holy Spirit is our Guide into all Truth.

The Holy Spirit is our indwelling Wisdom and Divine Discern-er of good and evil.

The Holy Spirit is our Enabler and Glorifier of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the Voice of Holiness within.

In these dark days of confusion and chaos, the Holy Spirit is our Source of Peace.

There is no end or limit to the working Power of Christ within the heart of the Believer, or to the victories He brings in all our trials and challenges here on earth. 

If we have not yet grasped the significance of that day, I believe it is time we settle into the Blessing of Pentecost and acknowledge with thanksgiving the Gift of the Holy Spirit within.

Lord, I long to be in right relationship and under the ruling authority of Your Holy Spirit within.  Thank You for the promise of our Helper sent from You to enable us to live filled and led by Your Holy Spirit.

 

Lord Jesus, I pray you bring me to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit in the way You experienced Him when You walked in the flesh among men.   Thank you for this poignant reminder and please give me ears to hear what the Spirit is saying and a heart to obey His Voice.  In Your Powerful Name above all Names, I make my request Lord Jesus.  

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

   

Rapture as a Divine Precedent***

The Holy One calls to me this morning with an interesting beginning to our conversation today.  In the non-verbal ways that He guides me into all truth, today He reminds me:

“I am the God of Precedents.  To understand what lies ahead, you must look to the past.”

My thoughts are laid bare before my indwelling Counselor so He takes up my thoughts and speaks to my questions.  Today I am thinking about the promise of the “Rapture” that will wrap up this chapter of His eternal plan for humanity and delightfully so, for those of us who believe.

One thing I have noticed over the years as I study the Word of God: He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  His Word speaks to all generation and over all of time. What God did at the beginning of the history of man’s days upon the earth, He will repeat during the end of man’s days upon the earth.  (Matt 24:40) His Word is a “living” communication between the Creator and the created.  In that it speaks wisdom and has application to every person born of woman regardless of the time in which we were born.

This morning He takes me back to His word to confirm my thoughts about the coming “rapture”.

I usually look to Elijah as our hope in the promise of a rapture, but today the Lord shows me another man whose circumstances might actually be more similar to our own.

He takes me back to Genesis to remind me about a man named Enoch, who lived and as scripture tells us in Gen 5:22-24, “After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 hundred years and had sons and daughters.  So, all the days of Enoch were 365 years.  And Enoch walked with God and He was “not” for God took him”.

To further explain what happened to Enoch, as a man who “walked” with God even before the flood of His judgment, the Lord takes me to Hebrew 11:3-6, “By faith Enoch was taken away so he did not see death, and was not found because God had taken him; for before he was taken, he had this testimony: that he PLEASED God.  But without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”.

This is an Old Testament precedent for the “rapture” that we current believers are looking forward to. 

The Lord honored the man who “walked” with him in the days of such depravity and called him out before the flood of judgment came.  There is much symbolism for us to glean from this account of the way God works with His people and especially those who walk with Him.   

As I look to this account for wisdom, I understand that we must have and demonstrate faith, not only in the fact that He exists, (even Satan knows He exits!) but also faith in the goodness of His character that He will reward those who diligently seek Him.  

While not everyone will experience transition by rapture, the point remains that some of us will. Many have died in the Lord Jesus and they are at peace awaiting the completion of God’s eternal plan and reunion with all who have trusted in the good will and reward He has promised.

There is a day on the earth calendar when “when the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord.  Therefore comfort one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:16-18)

In these days when darkness seems to cover the land and evil seems to prevail, our loyalty to the Lord gets tested and our faith in His good character gets challenged in a myriad of ways. The devil has one goal and that is to separate us from the Love of God and our Savior Jesus. One of his ancient techniques is to convince us that God is not a good, gracious, merciful and loving Creator but rather is out to harm or deprive us of things we want or need. 

If we go with that misrepresentation of our God, and we doubt His goodness, faith gives way to fear or rejection and we lose our walking unity with Holiness.

I am thankful for these vital words and the encouragement that comes from knowing that the life and rapture of Enoch represents a Precedent in God’s will and His ways.  We have been told of what pleases our Lord and what “faith” He is looking for that makes us eligible for that great event called the Rapture of the Body of Christ. 

Walking with the Lord has been made far easier for us due to the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. But there still remains a choice that we all have to make: that is to “walk” with Him each day and in the ways where our faith pleases Him.

The Holy Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

        

Worthy or Worthless Words?***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Yet again He reminds me to be mindful of the words I speak.  His voice is gentle but insistent.

“It’s time for you to revoke some of the careless words you have uttered and that are causing you pain even if they were uttered in jest”

Sometimes in my feeble attempts to be entertaining I have said some things that have eerily and in ways I did not plan or calculate brought uncomfortable circumstances to bear.   God knows each one.

 

What is exciting to me is to know that the worthless words can be revoked and renounced to reclaim the blessings that I may have denied myself and self-inflicted curses can be broken that I might have inadvertently placed upon my life in opposition to His plans over my role, my calling and the work of my hands.

 

Remember Peter who 3 times denied that he was a "Disciple" of Christ's.  Mark's account says that Peter denied and then, "began to curse and swear". We do not know exactly what these worthless words might have been but Jesus did.

We know that he denied being a disciple or even knowing Jesus. God, despite His grief, honors our words. In the Mark 16 account of the resurrection, of Jesus, it was said to the women who had come to prepare His body for final entombment, by “a young man clothed in a long white robe” in vs 6-7, “Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen! He is not here! See the place where they laid Him?  But go tell His Disciples-and Peter -that He is going before you into Galilee.  There you will see Him as He said to you.”

Peter had denied being a Disciple and here the angel of the Lord made that distinction. I suppose there are differing interpretations of this directive, but given his denial, it seems to me that Peter was at this moment was no longer identified as a “disciple”.  Scary thought until we read about the sweet forgiveness and restoration process of our Lord.

If three times, Peter called down a curse and denial of the Lord, three times he was given the opportunity to proclaim his love.  Each of 3 worthless words and curses were revoked and his love and faith and loyalty proclaimed.  Such is the move of Holiness toward all of us who have uttered worthless words we have lived to regret.

God honors words; His and ours.  No one will be forced to accept Jesus as the Savior that He is.  What we proclaim in and over our lives has a bearing on our lives.  Why allow the worthless self-cursing words to stand when the ginormous blessings of Heaven are ours to claim and proclaim while we journey here on earth?

Moving on in the thoughts of worthy vs worthless words and believing that we were created in the very image of the Sovereign Creator Himself, I trust we were therefore created to create.  But in the corruption power of the enemy of our souls, we are tempted to make destructive proclamations over ourselves and others thereby becoming an agent of the very darkness that we despise or fear.

We have a great legacy provided by Jesus to bring the Good Will of Heaven into our daily lives.  Praying and proclaiming OUT LOUD His promises as opposed to agreeing with the evil of the enemy’s sick agenda over us and the fallen earth, re-enforces our restored dominion. 

The Lord God's Divine Enabler (the Holy Spirit) lives within us to bring forth what our worthy words declare.  If I am to be a “creator” of good things in the image bearing likeness to my Creator God and Heavenly Father and Savior,  and words truly do have the power of creating, then I must follow His Divine directives to focus on the good, lovely, praiseworthy, admirable, true, noble, and excellent things possible in this life. 

Since I am being prepared for everlasting life, my self-question is, “why am I not not even practicing for what I will be doing for all of eternity????? Like using my words to create and not destroy. I believe that my worthless destructive words can and must be revoked through repentance and then good proclamations be made that reverse the curse the worthless words bring.  The story of Peter drives this home to my heart.

Another thought that crosses my mind is the bondage we may be held in when we continue to make declarations that others have spoken over our lives and ones that we repeat such as a child being told they are anything less than the magnificent workmanship of God Himself.  Even as we discipline and correct our children, they ultimately belong to another and respect for His ownership must be observed.

If we trust and believe in the healing power of the Great Physician, and have been diagnosed with some infirmity or affliction, can we not say, “I am in the process of being healed from said sickness (creative) rather than repeating the diagnosis or condition as if a permanent (and destructive) health issue? 

Many thoughts come as I ponder the principle behind the directive to guard my tongue and utter worthy not worthless words. 

   

What worthy words can I declared today that the Holy One will make manifest in my life and into the extended world that my life touches? .... hmmmmmm.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?

Guard Your Thoughts ***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  He whispers His counsel into my ear as my mind comes to conscious attention.

 “Bring every thought into the captivity of Christ”.

The Holy Spirit knows my deepest wrestles and there is no point in trying to be “righteous” and deny the mental assault by evil.  Almost before my feet hit the floor, He takes me back to a day when Jesus was asked by a distraught father to help his demonized son. The disciples were powerless to deliver this young boy and the matter ended up at the feet of Jesus.

Upon deeper assessment of the situation, Jesus addressed the father and asked if he believed that his son could be delivered.  The father replied, “Yes, I believe, help me in my unbelief”.   Mark 9:23

This situation is one we will all experience one time or another in our earthly journey with Jesus.  There will always be situations that call for faith beyond what we have at the moment of a crisis.  And, most of us who are Christians, will say, “Yes, I believe”, but then realize our weakness and come to confess, “Help me in my unbelief”.

The wisdom of God in creation is greater than we could ever attain with our finite minds.  We never arrive at the place where we know all things or where we can completely control anything.  The Holy Spirit reminds me yet again the words of Jesus, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” and that applies even to the condition of our faith and the caliber of our thoughts.

Jesus made it clear that His departure from planet earth was the best thing that could happen to humanity once He died for our sin.  By departing He would then send the Holy Spirit to supernaturally indwell all who would come to believe and acknowledge that He, Jesus, is God.

The 3^rd Person of the Triune Godhead was sent to dwell within us to complete our design.  The Holy Spirit is the final element to the human being that completes us and makes us whole.  We are not perfect nor flawless but with Him we are complete in our design according to the work of the Divine craftsman; Creator of all.  We are all born with that God ordained and God shaped hole (void) that can only be filled by the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself.

The father of the demonized boy had a physical encounter with God in flesh form and had to wrap his brain around that fact and then choose to believe.  Since the resurrection of Christ, the Holy Spirit has been unleashed into the world and for those of us who believe, we have the Holy One within.  His strength and His power, His wisdom even His faith is always available to us 24/7.

The enemy of our soul is ancient and always present in this fallen world.  His weapon of choice is the same he has used since confronting Eve in the garden and his strategy never changes:  He is a liar and his field of battle is our mind.

As the days draw down and we get closer to the return of our Lord Jesus, the King of Kings, the battle will get more intense and the lies more convincing.   The Holy Spirit reminds me that in order to stay out of the grip of the serial liar, I must bring every thought and make it captive to Jesus. 

This is a tall order and I am not sure how to manage it given my analytical brain, so, like the father of the demonized boy I say, “I will to obey, help me in my weakness”.  I need the Holy One to discern the truth from the lie and then I need Him to empower me to reject the lie.

More and more I realize that my helpless cry is music to my Lord’s ears.  The very thing He is and plans to be, is my strength in weakness.  What a wonderful God we serve.  He never leaves us to face life and its challenges on our own. 

Relief surges as I know His Presence and Counsel will ultimately resolve all the wrestles.  With the Holy Spirit I am whole, complete and one with the Trinity by Divine design.  Now, what about those thoughts?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?