The Far Side of Tomorrow

The clock tics off the minutes so slowly during the dark watches of the night. When will the joy of the morning that is promised after the long night of tears finally arrive?
  
There is no short cut through the emotional grief that cuts the heart when death comes to take one of our own.

When that "one" happens to be  child regardless of how many  years of earth time has been given to the parent-child relationship, the devastation of loss is acute.

In God's economy we were never meant to die and therefore death runs against everything that is eternal about our being. In and of ourselves we have no emotional tools to handle the separation that happens when death divides us from our loved ones. The hope of a reunited relationship is all that holds us together.  And Jesus is the only One who promises that hope.

For me, memories haunt the dark places where he once filled our lives with bright joyful days, exciting times and loyal love for his family.  Looking back only accentuates the sorrow.

When facing what feels like an emotional scorched earth scenario is there anything to be gleaned from the tragedy?  When there can be no replacement; when the intense love has no place to be poured out; when death stands alone as the villain and there can be no counter-punch to throw.  How does life go on when our personal world stops turning?

For a life-long believer in the One True God and His son Jesus Christ, this hard, hard emotional trial produces what is called a "faith crisis".   Something that represents such a challenge to all our fine sounding arguments that we make before our personal world comes crashing down.   Grief does that and as I have found no words can off-set the pain. 

How can the "love of God" be so cruel is a question the enemy of my soul wants me to dwell upon?  I have five other children and their spouses and 16 grandchildren who are every bit as deeply loved.  Why him and why now comes echoing back from the dark and empty abyss.  Questions without answers all lead back to something my Lord spoke to me years ago:  "I know you trust My will but do you trust My ways?"

To what some might label a PTSD experience, the "what-if" question goes to the "what's next" one and tends to drive the acute anxiety train right down the center of my once peaceful home town. 

Emotional, physical and mental fatigue all play their part in the attempted coup of my Spirit-life and relationship with the One I have trusted since I first found Jesus or better said til He first introduced Himself to me. 

In the recent past, I have walked my husband of 31 years and my mom through the valley of the shadow of death and somehow been able to return to the land of the living.  What then, makes this death such a hard mountain to climb?   

Was it the suddenness of  the loss without warning?  Was there a preparatory warning I missed?  Or something much deeper regarding the mystery of Holiness yet to be revealed?

Questions abound but the one thing I  do know is that there is only one place I can go for answers, if there are any to be found on this side of the veil.  Until then I wonder what I will find on the far side of tomorrow where many of God's promises are kept for delightful discovery at that future moment in my life?  What will be that incredible Joy of the Lord once I get through the dark storm of today? 

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   
                 
 

2020: A Victory Over the Darkness

For whatever the reasons and Divine purpose in the delay of this post, I returned to it today to share the beginning thoughts to the new year 2020.  Sometimes in the God's mysterious sovereignty we need to go back in order to go forward.  Such is the case in my life and the hard events that came at the beginning of 2019

The time of mourning and processing the deep grief of this momma's heart, must give way for a return to the plans and purpose and even "works" that God has prepared for me at the foundation of the world. Thankfully Eternity awaits and the sweet hope of reunion with those who have gone before calms the emotions and steadies the weak knees.  Until that day we press on with greater understanding and determination to share the hope we have in Christ Jesus with the lost world around us.

2020 A Victory Over the Darkness

Waking up after the cross over to another year, I hear the Lord speak into the dawn of a new day and a new year,  

"Go back to the original mandate I gave humanity in the garden of your origins".

It always interesting how one sentence from the Lord to my mind, sends me into the catacombs of deep thought and curiosity as to what He has to show me in any given day.  What better "point to ponder" on new year's day, than a look back to where time itself began.

I grab the Word and re-read the account in Genesis 1:27-28.  I see where the human mandate given by God back in the beginning was to go forth and multiply (create) and to have (exercise) dominion over all the Lord God made.  Mankind was to be the care-giver over all the Lord's vast creation.

As I read and re-read the account, I realize that the original mandate was never revoked nor cancelled after the fall.  The thing that changed due to a sinful choice, was the over-bearing continuous presence of an evil antagonist and the painful challenges he brings to that original mandate of our delegated dominion and authority.

Humanity got deceived and most of us have lived under that dark deception over the ages.  Throughout all the generations since the fall, evil has been acting out an alternative narrative to the one God ordained from the beginning which was this:  The Creator and the ones He designed as His "image bearers" (that's us) would rule and reign together WITH Him as His regent/representative over all He caused to exist.  That is to include the angelic beings called the Heavenly Hosts. And therein, I believe, was the rub to Satan and his rebellious crew.  In order to not be subject to inferior mankind, Satan left his place of serving God and humanity and in rebellion hatched a plot to cause division between God and man that would leave dominion  power and authority in his, not man's hands.

God's original mandate for humankind to rule and reign with Him has been the overarching purpose throughout all the generations and that purpose continues to this day.  But what of our dominion lost?  And how could the plan go forward with such an evil supernatural antagonist who "seems" to control life and the situations we meet?   Who but God Himself could take back the power of our "stolen" dominion intended for mankind and place it back in the hands of it's original holder?

Enter Jesus, God in a flesh body to win back what was lost by the first flesh/man Adam.  Since a purely flesh man made in the image of God was too accommodating to flesh temptations, God's eternal plan involved redemption by a "hybrid" if you will, of the Spirit of God Himself infused in a flesh body.  God sent His Son to redeem humanity and pay the price of .Holiness which was death for sin.  Do not think that God did not have the plan in mind before the fall.  That was Satan's weakness and his epic fail.  The great deceiver himself was deceived into thinking that he could separate God from His Beloved creation for all eternity. 

Salvation of the human race required the co-ordinated effort of the Holy Sovereign God and flesh-man to complete the plan and provide the way of escape for all humanity.   Salvation can be described as the rescue from an eternal penalty for rebellion of our Creator. Death spoken of in Genesis was more than physical as Adam and Eve lived on after the fall..  It was death of the beautiful relationship they once enjoyed and a carefree fulfillment of the Divine mandate.

God, the Father sent His Son Jesus to accomplish the means of reconciliation He planned before the fall, back to the original relationship whereby we are in a co-governing role with God Himself.  Unlike any generation before the Lord came to show us the Father and the plan, we have the grace in the power of the Holy Spirit to be reconciled and re-united with our Creator God.  We have the ability to live in co-laboring government with Him in the world that touches our lives.

That unity involves the 3rd person of the Trinity called the Holy Spirit who by His indwelling presence enacts the power of God within.  If we attempt to fulfill the mandate without the Holy Spirit we will fail. Satan is a corrupting influence and our flesh is still weak.

While we have certain constraints to our dominion until Jesus comes back to evict Satan for good, our sin issue has been dealt with so we can and must press on with all our strength.  We can and must go forth and multiply (with good works that glorify God) and operate in our delegated and restored dominion as the Holy Spirit leads and empowers us over the things in this temporal world that touch our lives.

The never ending story of our relationship with the Author of Life continues and so we will continue  to grow ever so slowly in the knowledge of the Holy One who calls us His own.  But this year He has reminded me to take up what He has ordained and what Jesus died to provide as our delegated dominion and see what He will anoint and empower in all we are impressed to do.

Happy New Year 2020

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

 

 

   

 

Understanding the Spirit Realm

When I first started journalling and set up this blog, I was a bit concerned that in cyber space, there might come some misunderstanding as to the nature and source of "The Spirit is Calling".

People are drawn to the spirit realm as a matter of curiosity or fear and some are drawn to the perceived "power" that the supernatural might grant them. 

To be clear, the spirit realm is real and inhabited by angels of light and demons of darkness  The "devil" is real as God is real, but God is the Creator of all and the devil is merely one of God's created.

The Holy Spirit is the 3rd person of the Triune Godhead as in God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Ghost).

My life history and experiences have offered lessons regarding the dark side of the spirit realm so I know the power there is real however (thankfully) limited.  These life lessons have enabled me to understand and process the hard events that take place here on earth as we have an unseen enemy committed to our defeat as humans. 

We get a behind-the-scenes look at the spirit realm in the first few chapters in the Biblical book of Job.  This is vital information for all humanity when attempting to understand the challenges and life shaking events that we all will face sooner or later.

The Bible is hard truth even if our finite minds cannot fully grasp such knowledge.   

Understanding that Earth experienced a hard fall when God's chosen regent and designated governor (original Adam) rebelled the Divine structure of Sovereign authority and lost his dominion to a dark deceitful being, helps explain the sense of a missing part of our Divine design.  What drives us deep within our core is to be "whole" or "Holy" and "complete", as we were designed to be back in the beginning.

We are hard wired for relationship with our Creator God.  Our internal design and DNA is as an immortal image bearer of the one True God. 

Until and unless we are restored in that glorious image, deep sorrow fills our soul and a vexing mystery floods our mind.  It is the Holy Spirit Who enables our restoration.  His indwelling Presence is only available to those who have come to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior from the penalty of rejecting Him that is to come. 

This blog was initiated to share the ministry and role of the Holy Spirit as He has worked in my life since that saving moment when Jesus took over.  

For those who have come here looking for the "occult", I'm sure you will be sorely disappointed, but I hope you will find value in reading about the true picture of the spirit realm and Who holds the power therein.

Before the creation of mankind in His very own image, it seems that the Lord God created the "Heavenly Hosts" otherwise known as angels,  to serve His purposes in what and for whom He was about to create.  These angels are supernatural to us and more powerful in design than flesh and blood humans. While awesome in power we are never to worship angels as they are merely servants of the Most High.

These celestial beings were given free will at their creation just as mankind was given.  And, just as mankind,  some in a free will decision chose to reject God's Sovereign structure in Divine authority.  In other words, these angels (1/3 of the total created) became infatuated with themselves (in pride) and chose a life and course at cross purposes with the plans and purpose of the Creator.  Back in the Garden of Eden, darkness (from an evil spirit) took ruling authority over mankind and all creation groaned. 

While 2/3 of the Heavenly Host remained loyal to the Creator and faithful to their Divine assignment, the full power of their role in our lives awaits our decision to become a citizen of Heaven.  

Jesus came to redeem what was lost at the fall but until we accept Him and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, evil will dominate our lives.

Many live under the dominion of darkness but Jesus came to set the captives free.  

These are just some "cliff" notes of a much grander supernatural love story where you have an important role to play as the Lord's Beloved creation.    I hope you might follow along with my story and be encouraged by things I have discovered on my journey with Jesus as you come to find your own place in His Presence.

The Spirit is calling Can you hear Him? 

Job chapters 1-2
John 14:15-18
Revelation 12 
Hebrews 1:14

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2020 New Year New Me

This new year 2020 has begun and I, for one, am thankful for it's arrival.  2019 was a very hard year and many trials seemed to hit all at the same time. 

A year of grief and mourning in the loss of a beloved son is almost over..... and I am changed.

Physical trials similar to PTSD and the ensuing  acute anxiety that goes with the shock (trauma) of sudden loss have offered other forms of pain ......and I am changed.

A Spiritual crisis laced them all together...and I am changed.

So deep has been the anguish that I took refuse under a rock and I'm still trying to make sense of it all. 

One of my all time favorite Christian songs is "The Warrior is a Child".  I relate to that honest expose. For all the images and talk of a strong valiant never back down from a spiritual battle front, that I prefer, the reality is more like the lyrics convey.  I have always seen this life in terms of a battle between good and evil and good must never give up or give in.  But as the song goes and the battle rages:

"They don't know that I go running home when I fall down.
They don't know who picks me up when no one is around
I drop my sword and cry for just a while
Cause deep within this armor
The Warrior is a Child"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRNFf3ykQvM

Each morning we wake up in a battle against an enemy of our soul. We don't have to don our armor and fight, but if we don't, whether for a day or years, we lose ground in the war.  Difficult days and hard times make us want to throw in that proverbial towel, I know they did for me.  But the Lord keeps encouraging me with the hope and promise that He will come again soon and make all things new.   

In the meantime, I continue my life-long journey with Jesus writing new chapters in our Never-Ending Story.

As for this blog, it has remained quite dormant and sporadic for a long season as I pursued other forms of outreach and networking with fellow believers,  but this year and after all that happened in 2019, I am being encouraged to refresh and revive this cyber connection with old friends and hopefully meet up with some new ones. 

So here's to 2020, a new year and a new me......

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him? 


 
  

Passionate Depravity***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  As things are heating up in this, our "One nation under God", I am shocked as to what is being revealed in our days.  The personal principles of our lives and our Godly character are being challenged at the deepest levels.  The body of believers known as the Church is experiencing attack, both from without and even more sadly, from within.  

We have been told emphatically by one who claims to be a "christian" that if we have a problem with the person, and the lifestyle that person has chosen, then we need to take it up with our Creator God.

This morning as I do just that, and enter into the place of His counsel, the Holy One minces no words, "Don't be confused by their "passionate depravity".  My Word stands." 

The situation that has gained so much media attention is not just a cultural or social disagreement with a given lifestyle, it has been injected into the "Body of Christ", the Church of the Living God as a point of debate and even a place of division. 

As I accept the challenge and bring this issue to our Creator God, who by His Holy Spirit leads me into all truth, He confirms what those who follow Him and know what His word reveals about humanity's "passionate depravity". 

Humanity has been given the unique ability to choose good or evil by our Creator God, and to use our free will to decide our lifestyle here on earth and our ultimate eternal destination point.

As we set about pursuing a lifestyle apart from God and His Word, the confusion sets in and we begin to stray way from the most basic truth about ourselves and the One who created us; Male and Female. 

Romans 1:24-31 gives a clear understanding of the slide into passionate depravity, the scriptures refer to as a "debased mind".

As for the Body of Christ, Jesus warned us in Matt 13:24-30 that an enemy has and will "sow tares" in the wheat field.  Tares look like wheat but are toxic to humans.  Then, remarkably (according to the parable) when asked if these tares should be uprooted when they are recognized, the owner of the wheat field said "No", lest you uproot the wheat with the tares, but leave them together until the final harvest.

The wheat field is said to be the world, but as the body of Christ gets infiltrated by ungodly people who act as agents of the enemy, we must be on guard.  As they come in to challenge the Lord our God and His Word, I see how that warning can apply to the church, and in that warning, the Church must be ready.  We must be ready to refuse the temptation to capitulate to such error and what is a classic attempt to assassinate the Divine character of our Creator God, which will invariably lead to error. 

Apart from the reality of free will in choosing a depraved lifestyle it might be argued that God is cruel in creating us one way then forbidding us to act according to the "way" we were created.  Therein lies the character assassination of our God.  Do not be deceived, it is the created and not the Creator, it is the human and not God who promotes the confusion and chaos in passionate depravity and rebellion of our design.  

The adversary of truth exhorts us to take our questions to the One Who is Truth and there is the exact place where Truth is confirmed.  My only question is have they done the same?

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?   

Seeing The End From The Beginning***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life on planet earth can be so confusing as there is so much to the vast unknown of time and space and the human soul.

For the Christian the struggle is real but so is the good outcome since for us the ultimate judgment has been rendered and we possess the pardon for all we have done that represents sin.  Once we fully understand and embrace our salvation, and what salvation actually provides, our life trials don’t seem so dark and foreboding.

The Holy One speaks into my wrestles from out of darkness and sheds His light:

“I know the end from the beginning: trust yourself and my love”.

The mystery of Holiness draws me in.  The Word says that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth.  When He speaks I try to listen and then try to follow where His Holy thoughts lead.

The exquisite revelation of my Lord as the Sovereign Creator of the universe, the earth and all things that exist is found in His word and today He takes me to the book of Job.  We find in the beginning that Satan was given permission to test Job’s loyalty to God. What unfolds is the account of a desperate time in Job’s life and horrific trials that were brought by Satan in an effort to break the man and humiliate the Creator.

Human assessments and limited understanding are unearthed as Job and his friends try to make sense of what has transpired in the earth realm.  But then beginning in chapter 38 God entered the discussion and the word says,

“God spoke from out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer Me.”

Thus begins the personal lesson that the Sovereign God of all Creation is about to teach poor Job.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?”

“Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the depths?”

“Who has put wisdom in the mind or who has given understanding to the heart?”

Chapter 39:

“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom?”

“Does the eagle mount up by your command?”

Chapter 40:

“Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”

“Have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

“Look now at the Behemoth (a dinosaur like beast) which I made along with you-He is the first of the ways of God.  Only He who made him can bring near His sword.”

Chapter 41:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? Or snare his tongue with a line that you lower?”

“Lay your hand on him; remember the battle-never do it again!”

“Who then is able to stand against Me?  Who has preceded Me that I should pay him?”

“Everything under Heaven is Mine.”

Talk about facing the reality of our own smallness and God’s great Sovereignty! Evolutionists would do well to read what the Lord had to say to Job.  I wonder if the Lord would not be asking them about the “newly discovered” black holes in the universe He created or the mystery of DNA scientists have finally tracked and that God used to create man in His image?

Today and with the help of my indwelling Counselor, I move through this account of Job’s encounter with our Sovereign Creator to the issue of trusting in His love and my own understanding of myself. 

Jesus came and at His incarnation, God the Son, wrapped Himself in a flesh body and walked among His created.  His voice did not thunder out of Heaven but spoke gently to those willing to listen. 

The Holy Spirit speaks in the same gentle tone to me today. And what He has enabled me to understand is the Truth:

Before Job was put through the fire, God saw and knew the end from the beginning.   God knew what Satan would do even before he asked permission to test Job.  And God knew what Job would do before that permission was even granted in the first place.  That is, after all, what Sovereignty is all about.

God knows the end of my trial from the beginning.  God knows the value and impact of the fire and how I will handle it in the process.  God knows what I do not and just as in Joseph’s life where the  pit, the dungeon and the prison were necessary stops on his way to greatness, (2^nd in command under the Pharaoh of Egypt) God’s Divine purpose is in what I am facing in these temporal trials.

Job’s trial ended in compete victory because he was drawn into a greater understanding of God Himself.  Today I can glean from what Job experienced.  God’s love for Job and confidence in his loyalty framed the trial.  And I am compelled to believe that God knew how it would end. Before He gave Satan permission to test His child, God knew what his child would do.

This insight gives me confidence not only in God’s love for me but in my ultimate victory in the test/trials that are permitted to touch my life.  My Heavenly Father/Creator knows my frame and has calibrated the weight I can bear.  God, the Sovereign One knows the end from the beginning of your story and mine. 

May the Lord be glorified as we trust in His love and find our self-confidence and courage for His victory growing in the process.

The Spirit is calling Can you hear Him?           

I Lost Not One***

On my personal journey with Jesus, I count on the wisdom I gain from the Holy Spirit. He is my cherished counselor, friend and guide on this crazy ever changing earthly journey as we are Heaven Bound.

With the sudden death of one of my Beloved children, I have been wondering why I had no clue of this impending separation.  In my personal relationship with Him,  I have been allowed to know beforehand and process other losses so close to my heart. I don't ask "why" but I do ask what I missed that might have prepared me for this devastating arrow to my heart?  

I live my life knowing this world is not our home, and that we are just passing through. I have taught all my kids and grand kids that same understanding of eternal life that follows for those of us who believe.

As a praying parent, and now as a grieving one, I have always prayed that when I see my Lord face to face I can say like He did, "I lost not one of those you have entrusted to me". I count it my spiritual  responsibility and privilege to see to their spiritual care and keeping all their days here and on into eternity.

Today the Lord reminded me of a conversation we had in Dec 2018 when I was thinking about how much I cherish all my children and their children. My thoughts were all about our eternal relationship and how vital it is for all my beloveds to translate into the Presence of the Lord when their days here are over and to be reunited together on the other side. I was prompted to offer my thanksgiving that as the mom of 6 kids, I have been spared the heartache of losing any one of them here on earth.  I remember my Lord saying at the time, "If you lost all you have here, will I be enough?"  Of course.  Lord where would I go from here?  You have the words and promise of eternal life.   I believe everything I experience here is preparation for there.

That said, what followed was the beginning of a blog started on that day along the lines of our conversation that morning.  Looking back I realize how my Lord was indeed preparing my heart for what He was about to do in taking my son home.  He brought me back to the blog in answer to my heart question and to reinforce His promise to never leave me nor forsake me.
  

Here is that blog:     

I Lost Not One

"The Holy One calls to me this morning. As a parent, I have always seen it as my responsibility to pray for my kids and now for their kids and extended family. This responsibility has been life-long and while all my kids are grownups I am still burdened to pray them through all that life serves up as challenges to them. In fact, just when I think I can take a sigh of relief something else seems to come undone and a faithful prayer becomes necessary.

I hear all the enemy’s arguments in my mind that “it’s their life, their walk, their Red Sea to cross and your time to let go. While the direct intrusion of my maternal protectiveness is out of date, my prayers for their wisdom, discernment, discretion, or faith never loses its shelf life.

Today the Holy One takes me to the Prayer of Jesus as He was about to leave planet earth. As I pray for my family and friends, the Lords speaks of His ordained will. “I gave these people and relationships to you… never forsake praying for them”.

The voice of the Holy One drives out all the words of the enemy that I should relax and disengage from my prayer privilege and responsibility. The Lord’s parting prayer for His disciples and BTW over all of us who come to believe is written in John 17. His heart desire is for us to be with Him eternally. My heart desires that ALL my beloveds be with Him and me eternally. That desire forms the basis of the burden that drives me to pray.

The words of the Holy One give the sense of ownership that Jesus reflected in His prayer.

“Holy Father, keep through Your Name those whom You have given Me".  As a parent my prayer is the same."

The hole that my son left here in our earth life and journey is huge yet to wish him back here to face all the challenges on this fallen planet and battle all the attacks by the enemy is never a consideration.  My wounded warrior has been air lifted off the battle field and taken home. I celebrate what Jesus died to provide and look froward to seeing my beloved healthy and strong and living the best time of his life.

Grief is an emotion that most likely never ends here.  We miss those we love.  But the knowledge that we will see them again is the reason for our hope and peace in the process.

 Even as I weather the separation and loss of one of my kids here on earth, I must continue to pray for the ones who remain and the next generation of grands and coming great-grand littles who have yet to make that vital decision about their future destiny and eternal life through Jesus, the One and Only Savior of the world. I will continue to pray for each and all of them so that when my journey here is over I can joyfully say, "Lord I lost not one of those You have entrusted to me!"

 

The Spirit is Calling.  Can you hear Him?  

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