Journeyed out with friends for a hike this past weekend. Nature has a stillness and peace that calms the soul. Red River Gorge is beautiful in Autumn but can get insanely crowded during peak season. We rose up early and carpooled into the mountains. There were very few people on the trail and we had the perfect view to watch the mist clear from the canopy in the valley.
Princess Arch, Red River Gorge Ky
These Next Four Years
I’ve been thinking about the election and I do believe God has heard the prayer of His saints. The prophecy Kim Clement gave will be fulfilled and Trump will serve the remainder of his two terms. I don’t think it will be a quiet four years, but it will hold us back from the edge. I have a lot to do, scared as I am, and these four years will have to be the window. Then anything beyond that I will count as a blessing.
If censorship is already upon us, how much longer can we hold out? I’m still wondering what the best way is to preserve the word that is spoken since even YouTube is notorious for censoring. At some point, the edict will come down that all Christian related content be removed from all international platforms.
But perhaps this isn’t what should concern me – I’m just going to share what God puts on my heart and He can handle the rest.
Something New:)
I purchased an interesting piece of equipment and received it in the mail last week. Nothing fancy or professional, but it will be fun to play. It’s a midi keyboard. When I pulled it out of the box, I smiled.
Have you ever had a hobby you enjoyed and just let it go in all the busyness of life? It might be a gift or talent that God gave you. Making music is a ton of fun and a huge stress release for me – I get lost for hours harmonizing and laying down tracks. The last time I did anything like this was in the early 2000’s. I own a keyboard and even took piano lessons, but it’s been awhile since I laid down tracks with voice, drums, bass, strings…..I’m excited.
Talents that we let go get rusty. I think that’s part of the ‘taking of unused talents and giving them to others who will do something with them’ truth. It is slowwwww going on the learning curve – I’m not 25 anymore and technology isn’t the same either – but the more we stick to what we don’t know, the more we learn about it. And since it’s fun, I don’t lose interest.
Time Is Short
I hope you are leaning into your talents and pressing into God in pursuit of your purpose. He knows the way. I would only say this; life is so busy, so distracting and the dangers so close that we often forget to take time with loved ones and do the things we enjoy. I know there are many matters that press us, deadlines to be made, obligations and duties – for some this may be a level of pressure beyond the average, affecting many people – but please, take time to relax and allow your body to rest, let yourself enjoy those around you who love you.
Love is the Most Powerful Force in the Universe
We need it like food and sleep. Why do we forsake it? Why do we leave so little time to be with others whose company nourishes our soul? Spend time with God, put Him first, strive to be called a Friend by Him.
If we put Him first, all else will fall into its proper order.
We can get lost in the mayhem of everyday life. Make a decision today not to do that. Love those who are with you now and support those you love that they might fulfill God’s purpose on their life. This is what creates a bond that cannot be broken because God Himself will honor it. He loves us that much. Serve others in the capacity of a support role that they might become all God has purposed for them to be.
If you want to lead, you must first serve. Start with those closest to you. Pass the tests, be genuine in your affection for Him and others and He will see to it that you also are exalted in due time.
When we make it about others, we ourselves are set free of inwardly focused condemnation and introspection. And that’s a beautiful attribute of God’s love.
Have a great week all you talented people and carry on in your purpose in God, many blessings~
So you found a new friend who’s pretty cool. He’s full of fun ideas, infinitely curious and easily keeps pace with you. You’re having fun examining some strange bug you caught and his parents call him inside. Bummer. You both head home but later you realize he didn’t come back outside.
So missing him, after you finish lunch you run over and knock on his window, ‘Come back out’. He doesn’t tell you that he isn’t allowed to, maybe he’s ashamed of that or doesn’t want you to know why, or maybe it’s because he really does want to play outside and if he told you he couldn’t you’d leave, and he doesn’t want that either. So, he hops out the window and all seems good.
Then when his parents find out he’s no longer there, they call him in again. But this time he doesn’t just get called in, he gets disciplined. And maybe this happens a few times before you realize your friend keeps getting in trouble. You’re not sure what happened but you know it wasn’t good for him.
To love your brother is to not go back and knock on the window.
And he may miss you not knocking, or he may be sad, or even angry. Though it’s not necessarily about you, (if it wasn’t you, it would be another friend in the neighborhood) the Word says if one is hurting then the whole Body hurts, and when one rejoices the whole Body rejoices. Ask Simon who was picked out of a crowd and ordered by the Roman soldiers to bear Christ’s Cross in the street. It’s about bearing one another’s burdens when the load gets too heavy. And it’s about the maturing of the Body of Christ as a whole, God expects us to do the right thing by each other. You may miss your friend, but the loving thing to do is to stop knocking.
“You Do Not Understand Now, But Afterward You Will Understand”
Sometimes we can’t understand everything, but when God says, ‘Not now,’ it doesn’t mean never again. We might think it’s not like God to say yes, then no, then yes but I’ll give you the perfect example of this. Christ says, ‘Go out into all the world and preach the good news.’
Then in Acts 16.6-7 we get this seemingly contradictory shift with Paul and his men,
“Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them.”
Interesting, no? Jesus didn’t give the disciples any extra instruction, simply ‘go into all the world.’ No restrictions, no set timeline. This is another reason why it’s important to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Timing is everything.
Love isn’t always an easy thing, to love your brother isn’t always easy, it takes a great deal of maturity to fully embody the attributes of love. Agape love is impossible without God. If He is love, then one can’t have Agape without Him. He is made strong in our weaknesses. And Paul’s instruction to us in Romans 14 regarding stumbling means God expects us also to help each other.
One other simple example is this: if you’re having lunch with a friend and you know he struggles with alcohol, you don’t order a drink while you’re dining with him because you get to go home, go to sleep and carry on with tomorrow’s activities.
Meanwhile, he stops by the liquor store (since he poured out all the liquor he had, struggling to get well), and he falls dreadfully into sin and maybe doesn’t stop drinking for a week, missing work, forgetting obligations, etc.
Maintaining strength is important, God’s seasons are important and it’s important to do the right thing for your brother’s sake. God is faithful.
Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding. Romans 14:13-23
“So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil.” I like this line. To some, a particular action or connection is considered evil even though we know no sin has been committed. But for the sake of good, you protect and take responsibility for your brothers or sisters who may be struggling. Even though the Spirit forbade Paul from moving into those regions he wanted to journey, didn’t mean the people there were forsaken or that God didn’t love them. It was because there was a more favorable season at a later time.
Another huge hurricane is bearing down on the west coast of Florida and most haven’t rebuilt from Ian two years ago. I’m watching four live video cameras pointed at the Gulf of Mexico from Key West up the coast to Tampa Bay as I’m drinking my morning coffee and wondering to myself, ‘why do we hate adversity so much’?
A Lump of Potential
I think of how the artist presses their hands into the clay on the turning wheel and how without the skillful hands of the creator pulling, stretching and reconstituting, the potential would remain a lump of clay unusable and of little desirability.
But when our Creator works with us, part of the process that shapes our being is adversity. God sees unlimited potential in our useless lump of clay. We feel comfortable in our untamed lumpiness, no one notices us, we can’t be knocked over or shattered and we are familiar with our original elements and constitution. We don’t have to dare to be anything.
Adversity comes in many forms, sometimes one fiery trial at a time and sometimes multiple adversities hit at once. This is what happened to Jesus. It was one at a time and then all at once. These adversities in life are opportunities to ‘level up’, to be hewn, to be shaped and formed into something greater than we are today. And though the process can be frightening, bring sadness, seem daunting, God knows what He is doing. The final shaped vessel has to be fired in order to set the work, right? We fail continually sometimes, but God doesn’t stop giving us chances as long as we remain contrite.
God’s Acts are Meaningful, Never Trivial
I take comfort in knowing that I’m not assailed by the devil without reason or without gain. He’s a tool – puns welcomed – in shaping my vessel into a quality usable work in the Kingdom of God. If the devil wasn’t so prideful he could have slithered away out of sight and possibly preserved himself. But it is his pride that continues to dig his own fiery grave because every sin he commits against the Kingdom of God and it’s inhabitants (that’s you and me by the way) God turns for good – as difficult for us as it may seem, just check in with Job – God will turn the tide and deliver the spoil.
God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Being Purposeful About My Activity
Speaking of tides, I got a little gadget and installed a digital art software to play should I find myself waiting: in lines, in cars, at airports or just relaxing at home, etc. I can’t carry my physical art supplies with me everywhere and I’m hoping I’ll spend more time tinkering on this device making art than roaming around social media listening to everyone argue.
I’ve been working on the drawing below, learning the programs features and brushes, while listening to all the dreadful hurricane updates. No one wants it to hit them directly, but that means someone else gets hit directly – go north, go south – even local newscasters catch themselves when they say ‘it would be much better for Tampa if this goes South, well that means Sarasota gets hit but it would be awful for Tampa to get hit’…..
Well, it would be awful for Sarasota to get hit, no? I’ve been praying along with many others that the wind sheer brings the intensity down to a 2 or low 3. God can do anything, we’ll see what happens. Because even King David, with all his prayer and supplication could not save the first born. God is sovereign, I remain humble in this understanding.
Ian cost me great amount of money, but it coast others their memories, their happiness and even their lives. I have to keep my sense of victimhood in check. At least I have options, most people all they have is in the path of this dreadful storm – God may Your opposing wind buffer this monster’s strength to minimal impact.
The Time is Short, Make the Most of It
Making use of our gifts affords us opportunity and advancement. It also keeps what we have been gifted from being taken away and given to someone else willing to make use of it. So to put this truth into practice in my own life, maybe I’ll start making my own thumbnails on my Youtube channel, it’s a good investment of my talent, as feeble as it is. I’d rather use it than lose it.
Yes, I’m playing around with a channel and trying to figure out what direction God’s wind is blowing. It’s fun, it’s funny and altogether a bit annoying but as I’ve said before, as much as I hate the idea of doing a thing, I hate the idea of a whale lurking with its mouth open wide just beneath the surface of my complacency and fear.
Is there something under the water here?….is that why all the little houses are taking such a fright? I need to add a sea creature under there….maybe I should just put two glowing eyes peering up from the deep.
Featured Image by yours truly, and may the trials you’re facing right now not be for naught but instead transform your life by the skillful work of the Master’s hand. Let’s stay surrendered to Him, let’s stay humble so that we might learn and grow and ultimately flourish for His glory.
I read a verse in scripture this morning where God is being sarcastic. I’ve never really noticed it before. Maybe it’s my own mood this morning but, it does seem to qualify for sarcasm. And it made me laugh even in the midst of such a chilling address by the Lord.
It’s Amos 4.1-5. This passage is quite terrifying because whatever God speaks accomplishes that which it’s sent to accomplish…and it prospers in its purpose. Gives me chills…
God doesn’t play around y’all.
There’s another verse that really moved me which I’ll get to in a moment. But the sarcasm is found in verses 4 and 5 where God uses a nuanced tone with them and says in essence, ‘Come on to Bethel and transgress! Bring those sacrifices every morning, proclaim and announce your offerings, go right ahead! Because this is who you are and this is what you love!”
Whewwww~ NOBODY wants God speaking sarcastically to them, oh my goodness…
Evildoers Miss the Straight Path
He’s addressing the land of Bashan in Samaria here. I don’t know all the history but one of my favorite lines in this section is as follows:
“You will go out through broken walls..”
No hint of sarcasm there. This is an amazing imagery and description of an exit of power, or a driving out of evil from a place it once inhabited but is being rejected from the land. The scripture says the Lord will make our paths straight. Our path is made easy when we choose God’s way. We may not think this is true, because life is strenuous and confusing at times. But the Lord always makes a way where there seems to be no way. Isaiah 43.16, God made a way through a sea, He made a way through transporting in the belly of a whale, He made a way from death to life for Christ and all of us. There is no path, not even the path through the heart of evil, that God cannot make a way for us to walk out on dry land – a straight path.
But those who are evil, well their way is out through broken crumbled walls, falling debris, stumbling and even dying of their wounds just trying to get away from whatever is pursuing them. It is their own sin that has crumbled the walls of their life and existence. The word of God is tremendous. I like that wording very much, it’s concise and deadly.
God Delivers Us, But Evildoers are Delivered to Their Fate
In Amos 3.11 He speaks another powerful word:
“An adversary shall be all around the land; He shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.”
Our enemies don’t stand a change against God. However, against us alone…well that’s a different story. But, alas!, we are not alone! We don’t have to deliver ourselves all the time. If we can’t admit we need help, then the issue is far deeper than just trying to act strong. The strongest are able to receive help willingly.
Evil never slips out of the snare – there will always be a final snare that never lets them go. God will see to that. We don’t see to it, God sees to it.
Vengeance is Mine, and recompense; Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them.’
Deuteronomy 32.35
God works contrary to our understanding of the world. When we think we’ve won, we’ve actually lost. When we think it’s the end, it’s actually a newly created beginning. This only happens for those the Bible says are ‘hidden in Christ’. Hiding in any other way won’t save us from the exiting through crumbling walls. God protects and preserves His own, He watches over His word to perform it on our behalf.
I recently returned from a trip to Boston. I love big cities. They are always awake and always open for business. I also like the way of living far more than small town – each has its advantages I suppose – one offering a slower pace to life and one engaging and always beckoning attention and involvement.
I never clocked less than 10K steps a day while in Boston, and that’s without any extra dedicated time. In small towns, there’s no great possibility of walking or biking. Stores and destinations are just too far apart. In many instances, biking and driving took the same amount of time in Boston. Even in small ‘cities’ like Lexington, there is no decent public transportation that runs frequently enough without wasting an hour and a half waiting at bus terminals. A fifteen minute car drive is the only alternative.
We’re walking through the MIT tunnels to catch the rail to a 5K, not mine, just to be clear.
I was talking with a friend up there who stated it quite perfectly. He said that there’s an energy you can feel when walking the city. You always have other people bustling about, things are happening like deliveries, events, shows, students, other runners or cyclists on the city streets with you no matter the time of day. But to walk to a friends house in a suburb of a small town, all the houses shut up, curtains drawn, lawns are the same, row after row – it’s just an excruciatingly boring walk.
It’s true!
I do my best to walk daily – which I have to make time and drive to the park. But I have to work much harder to get 10K steps whereas the city seems to provide ample opportunity for healthy living without even trying.
Anyway, I guess I want too much just in general. Maybe we all do. We want everything that is good about all we’ve experienced combined for a perfect life. It’s just not going to happen.
I daydream about living in a big city. Who daydreams about something so mundane? Maybe I’m seeing a vision, this happens to me sometimes. Will have to pay more attention to these daydreams.
Motivators
I have to consider why something is being done, why I’m taking a particular action. Shouldn’t we all consider why we are doing certain things in our life? Jesus said to lay up treasures for ourselves in Heaven because the treasures of this world rot and disintegrate and pass away. Entropy. Even ideas that seem to propagate suffer deterioration if they aren’t of any eternal value.
I’ve noticed how much the wrong ideas about God propagate on social media. People who are Christians saying that what makes a shepherd inadequate is not preaching the goodness of a particular political party to their congregations. In other words, not using a position given by God to push your own political agenda is unacceptable as a Christian Pastor. Like, what kind of Hell-talk is this? Who is embodying the essence of the great Accuser of the Brethren here?
How is it that Christian influencers are falling into this treacherous language against Christ?
And then, as if just speaking it isn’t treacherous enough, we have loads of ‘avatars’ liking the post, not because they are Christians necessarily, but because their agenda lines up with the poster’s comment.
These Christians influencers will be held accountable.
Anything we say – especially if we have followers on a massive level – will be solely our responsibility come the Judgement. ‘But someone else taught me that!’ This argument, my friend, will hold no water with God almighty. He has already warned us, ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ This is why I am so adamant, esp with those God has laid on my heart, in correcting when someone is going down the wrong path. I care for them AND I care for all those children of God they are leading astray. I say children because they may be the few who are exempt, though still they will perish at the hands of ill-informed leaders, if they are never correct and taught proper biblical truth.
This is why leaders will be judged with far more weight than the children they are leading and influencing.
Hence this warning given: ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.’
Now we just as easily can put ‘influencers’ in place of teachers. Same thing, same process of passing along the wrong information about God in this example. Do I know everything? Of course not! Which is why I’m grateful (though maybe at first quite irritated) when I get corrected. Correction, admonishment, saves our lives!
Now that alone keeps me from stepping out as much as I might be, it’s a grave thing to have great influence and be dead wrong about something so grave as life and death of a person’s soul and body. That’s my issue I must overcome.
The Wicked Won’t Win, Even Though Now They Appear To Prosper
The wicked shall not prosper. There’s a verse that admonishes, ‘do not envy the prosperity of the wicked.’ And it’s easy to do that. This life on earth has many interesting and pleasurable things we could use our vessels to indulge in, yet this assuredly brings death. God knows the human’s psychological makeup better than anyone or anything. Even Satan understands human psychology better than humans do, duh..
Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Psalm 37.1-3
Everywhere I look anti-Christ organizations, corpse-porations and blasphemous God-haters seem to garner praise, financial gain and worldly clout. But like, who wants that kind of ROI?
Death of self would be our aim today, in this world of indulgent pleasures, including dopamine kicks-and-giggles that social media tends to deliver to our starving central nervous receptors. Sometimes I wonder if Christians aren’t saying these ridiculous things because they believe the more social media likes and praise they garner means somehow they are doing the right thing and are approved of God.
My God, people! This is such a trap. All of this misdirection must burn away. Self-centered ambitions must burn away. I know, far easier said than done – and I don’t have thousands of followers…God help me if I ever do. I might run away, which would result in zero benefit to anyone.
And there are always whales at-the-ready for servants of God who run….fantastic…
It’s a problem of space and time for me, I think. It’s a problem of losing. Losing things. And I hate losing things. I hate losing time and options. I need an eternal view, not a here-and-now view. Many who are smarter than I, keep correcting my thought on this: I must narrow my path which sacrifices all other paths I could walk and proceed with all focus in one direction. This is excruciating for me even though I know that to do otherwise just keeps the wheels spinning unproductively.
Everyday Witnesses Through Their Gifts
The Lord has been bringing unique individuals to my attention. People I would never find in the circle of interests I have, and these people are full-on dedicated to the work of God’s kingdom here on the earth. They aren’t formally in the ministry at all, they are chefs, or skateboarders, or comedians – all manner of professions but they never miss a beat to talk about God during an interview about their chosen profession or craft. It’s a beautiful thing to see.
And quite frankly, they speak with much more profound depth and authority about God than those who are in positions of prestige or power within the church (noun, place) today. I became disillusioned about the structure of church organizations and institutions since the mid-2000s.
Indeed, we all wrestle with God at some point.
God always calls the Gideon, or the David, or the Esther when they are known by few and obscure. I think this is amazing and I love to watch it unfold in a life; how the seemingly smallest is made the greatest among us, not by their own hand of power, but by offering all their strengths to God to use for His glory.
This kind of wrestling is among the most difficult because it is our weaknesses, the self, the ego, the intellect like Leviathans pushing forward within us for control when, perhaps one might say, the hero overcomes them to submit his or her vessel with all its inadequacies to the will of God, as Jesus did. It’s nothing short of miraculous. Indeed, without the Spirit of God, we could not possibly do it. Faith is a powerful thing when it’s witnessed working through an individuals life.
I’m seeing this more and more, in the most far away corners of the world; God’s people lighting up and flashing a signal, as it were, that God is ever present and available to save and guide into a more abundant and rewarding life. That is, if we can pay the price. There’s always a sacrifice.
God’s Refinery
God’s fire is all consuming. And whatever is not of Him burns off of our lives. God help those of us who have built much in this world but little in the kingdom of God. It’s no fun to walk through the fire, but in the end we are certainly better for it. The continual regeneration of life is an unmistakeable attribute of God. Without Him, there is no life-force. I can’t take this train of thought too far here, it’s one blog post, but it ties in with so many other aspects of the human-Christ-eternal dynamic.
MIT tunnel graffiti, hallway art.
If anyone abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
John 15.6
The above scripture is exactly how it is. But there are other scriptures which indicate that what isn’t burned up, remains.
Paul says that if our work is burned up, we will suffer loss – there’s my loss hang-up – though we will be saved, but only as through fire. So I would even go as far as saying if anyone doesn’t subject themselves to the fire to burn away what should not be there, then they themselves cannot be saved. Either we chose it voluntarily and in doing so we pass through it, or we succumb to it involuntarily and lose our lives as well.
Peter tells us that everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed and that heaven will pass away. This informs the reader that everyone will pass through that fire; but some things aren’t burned up but remain, continue, live on. And in the case of Christ, that living is eternal.
And again, Paul states that there is coming a great shaking and everything that can be shaken will be. But what is of God and eternal will remain. So this ‘passing through’ is a phenomenon we all must subject ourselves to, I think it’s voluntary, first. But if we don’t do this, run from it or deny God, the fire still must be passed through and we will also lose ourselves, our inhabited vessels even to the flames.
Now let’s think about our lives and how much will be consumed by the fire, how much we’ve done for our own self-centered ambitions and striving to impress other humans in this world. That’s a difficult thought experiment. But let us importantly remind ourselves of this, we are saved not by our own hand but by Christ.
This is so because we are in Him, we abide in Him and guess what? He had no evil in Him so that when He passed through the flames of Hell taking the keys of death Hell and the grave from that pesky Cherub, everything who was Christ rose again. In other words, His body also, being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing could hold Him, not even the death which was appointed to all of us to suffer, once. So indeed God’s words were true, Jesus suffered death, once as appointed to every man. But again,
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
Acts 2.24
And again, this is one portion of our promise, having been adopted by Him as His own children, a prophecy that is the Spirit of Christ, we shall inherit life eternal:
…because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.
Psalm 16.10
The grave couldn’t hold Him, nor will it hold us, dear brothers and sisters.
Okay, I can’t help but think how long it took me to write this one post. How does one measure time wasted or time spent productively?
Have a beautiful week, all you curious people. Or if you’re feeling adventurous; have a curious week, all you beautiful people~
Featured Image: Snapshot of more MIT graffiti, taken by yours truly~
Why do people have to lie? How is it good business to do so? I was blatantly lied to by an individual who I assume thought I knew nothing about his particular area of expertise. But I did. If you’re trying to sell a product or service why not be honest and establish your company as a reputable entity that can be trusted? This way you can have repeated business in the future…man, I was so disappointed.
Then they get mad because I call them out and they have to backpedal; all for extra bucks today when had they been honest it could have been several thousand in future transactions, not to mention a stellar reputation to go along with it. I have to ask myself, what were they thinking? Maybe people aren’t very smart or they short-sell their credibility because it’s today that they are in desperate need for the extra money (or whatever it is they are lying about) and the future doesn’t matter if they aren’t around to see it.
I Could Not Say Anything
Going down a rabbit trail, I also wonder why I can’t just keep my mouth shut. I could’ve not let them know that I knew they were lying – I could’ve let it slide and still refused the service. I don’t like being lied to I guess, it pisses me off, and I also don’t like to be pushed around. My personality is quite happy-go-lucky. To some who are far more serious, it may seem an unbearable lightness of being, annoying even. But as I’ve heard it said before, I have far less play in me than one might initially think.
I don’t always know everything, (I say not always because I also can know anything there is to know by the omniscient God when He sees fit to share with me).
So then I think about myself and how there are so many things I don’t know so how might I have been taken advantage of in the past?
We May Not Understand Why Now, But the Future Reveals the Reason
Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
John 13.7
Fear and high pressure sales do not work on me, at least not most of the time. Liars usually have to create an atmosphere first, perhaps of urgency or maybe confusion, before selling the narrative and zeroing in for the kill. One of my first jobs was selling cutlery – they are good knives too, I still have them and they are still sharp 30 years later. When what is being sold is of high quality, no dishonest tactics are needed to sell it. Being trained to sell those knives makes me chuckle today. The manager at that time, Rich Oakes, was a stellar guy, I think he’s started his own business today and doing great. He taught me a lot of things in that short fifteen month season that I’ll never forget and the knowledge has served me well.
Sometimes we wonder why we are where we are. We might think, why am I here doing this right now when I could be doing anything else? But wow, the thousands of dollars I have saved throughout my life having been taught how sales and marketing work at a cutlery office has been of utmost value to me.
Integrity Counts for More, Respect Brings a Better Harvest
Trust. Telling the truth can cost a company or an individual a lot of money, while on the other hand, being dishonest can increase a company’s bottom line. But at the expense of what? It’s a huge risk to bet on someone not uncovering the truth. I knew the truth, called the individual on his play, and still was pressured, as even their co-worker hopped in to reiterate the urgency of a situation which later turned out not to be so urgent, as I had already known.
I guess I feel disrespected somehow. There is a certain amount of respect that comes with having a husband to handle certain situations. But what I know that people who lie to me don’t know is that I have an all-knowing Husband who can follow them home, listen to them when they’re talking about me behind closed doors, and He delivers to me far more power than an earthly husband can provide. This makes me smile, because even though things would be somewhat easier being married, having an omnipotent God as a protector is unbeatable:)
The King and His Host
And when said Husband is also King, having a vast array of angelic host at His service, and I’m His wife, well dear children of God, we all also have a power that can manifest from the invisible to the visible – the spiritual realm is no different this very day as it was in 4000 B.C. or 1 A.D. when angels manifested to speak with Abraham or Lot or Mary – and I do believe, they manifest at will around us for whatever purpose our Lord and King – our Husband – deems appropriate.
Man, it’s hard to find people who are supportive and trustworthy. But thank God I do know some who are and have the privilege of doing business with them. You know when you’ve found an honest person when the decisions they make help you increase your wealth when it could have benefited them to say nothing at all or sell you something you don’t really need.
Sowing Trust, Integrity and Good Will Now for an Uncertain Future Ahead
Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may befall the land.…
Ecclesiastes 11.1-2
Generous, reliable and trustworthy people and companies are growing more scarce it seems. Could it be that one day, when I open to see who’s knocking, it will be a robot who’s come to fix the problem I’m having with the car, or HVAC, or refrigerator or……
God only knows where humanity is headed. But I for one am going to strive for as much honesty as possible knowing that man may kill the mortal body, but it is God who holds the soul.
Moses struck a rock and water flowed from it. He lifted up his staff, parted the sea and the ocean floor became dry ground. Elijah called down fire from the sky and it burned up people and earthly things – or in other words, Elijah’s prayer manifested a power that was seen and had effect in this earthly dimension. He didn’t start a fire, he called an already living fire down from an unseen location at the sound of his words.
And Joshua. He looked up and charged the sun, ‘Stand ye still!’ and the heavenly body obeyed.
How by scientific calculation can the earth continue to rotate on its axis and the sun remain still? Did the sun move, for this one day through space at the speed of earth’s rotation? Or did the earth turn vertically on its axis so that for those 24 hours Israel was situated as the North Pole, the sun never having to set? Did the earth indeed stop rotating?
In The Beginning Was The Word, Living Word
Can we even begin to imagine charging the natural world by decree and it obeying our word?
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3.21-21
When God spoke, creation listened. Whatever He speaks, His creation listens. ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ God spoke once and the decree never ceased, but multiplied exponentially.
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55.11
What would happen if we took God’s words into our mouth and spoke His words out into this earthly dimension having the faith that Jesus had? Or better yet, Jesus said all we needed was faith the size of a mustard seed and we would see mountains moved.
God’s Word Transforms Our Relationship To The Earth’s Rules
Jesus defied physics. He spoke to weather patterns and changed them instantly, leaving His fishermen friends in awe. ‘Have faith in God,’ He continually told them.
Elisha defied physics in the strangest and weirdest of ways. A worker dropped their axe head into the water and Elisha threw a stick and the axe head floated to the surface. God made the human being out of the earth; Jesus spit in a clump of clay and molded it around the hallow edges of a blind man’s eye socket, told him to go wash with water from the lake and there it was formed, a human eyeball where there was nothing.
We think about Jesus reaching out and touching people. Or people, like the woman with the issue of blood touching Him and being healed. But Peter’s shadow fell on the sick and they were healed. The man’s shadow, a simple scientific understanding of how light shining on an object creates a shadow, but the shadow is now imbued with the power to transform ailing bodies.
“As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.” Acts 5.15-16
What Is Going To Mean The Most To Us?
I ask you Church; what are we missing? What’s missing behind the decree that if I spoke today, nothing would happen? What are we missing on our words? What are we missing in our lives, what do we need for our shadows to fall on a passer-by and they immediately are set free from oppression or chronic sickness?
A different focus? Paul said, ‘Covet earnestly the best gifts.’ I don’t deny his wisdom. But he did go on to say the greatest of all is Love.
Might we be missing the only purpose needed to gain the power of the Spirit of God on our lives? That being Agape love? In one fell swoop, love cradles all that is needed to bring the human being into subjection to the higher order of God and the proper alignment with our neighbors.
What else is needed?
Maybe less time in front of a manmade screen and more time in front of God’s living word, learning ancient secrets, words that hold within them, like seeds, the transformative power of a living Spirit?
God is love the Bible says. How can we possibly become anything without total dedication to it, much less if we are trying to embody the idea of God’s Agape love. There is much to learn and much to put away simultaneously in order to take hold of God’s heart in this manner.
Draw Near to God and He Will Draw Near to You
(James 4.8)
God is hiding from us. Not so that we cannot find Him and lay hold of the power to do all the wonders that have already been manifest in the earth, but instead so that we will seek Him for those wonders.
If someone’s shadow could fall on you and heal you, would you accept that as a good thing? Or would you say, no, let me avoid being healed so easily. Would it not be a good thing then if it was our shadows freeing people?
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free..” Luke 4.18
…..’all these thing I do you also will do, and greater things….’
The Question of Purpose Has to be Asked and Answered
But I have to ask myself, why would we seek Him for these things? There’s no need for our sun to stand still. So what do we need? It goes back to love, no? Maybe I’m not thinking it through properly. But what other aim would not be pure arrogance? Doesn’t love cap ego? If our hearts aren’t focused on people, then what are we doing?
And once we determine that, we have to ask: are we making a Kingdom of Heaven decree to change the world for the better? Or to just amuse ourselves.
‘Call those things that be not as though they were,’ and ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven,’ and ‘..all these things that I have done you also will do, and greater than these will you do because I go to my Father.’
It seems to me that those who worked the greatest of signs and wonders were those God called the most humble and the meekest. So then, what can be done? What should be pursued?
This is the funniest thing to hear Myles Munroe deliver this message to the congregation, even the members couldn’t keep from laughing. It’s also dead serious and true. And that makes me laugh:) It doesn’t remove all responsibility from me, the woman, but it certainly doesn’t let the man off the hook either – I like that about God. He doesn’t let the man or the woman off the hook, as much as the man would love to blame only ‘this woman you gave me!’ for all his troubles:)
Life is serious, but sometimes, it’s best to take a step back, take a breath and learn to laugh, even the slightest bit, at ourselves. One of our family sayings is, ‘A family who laughs together, stays together.’ And it works for us.
We’ll live a far less anxious, fearful and offended life if we can let some beads of water run off our backs.
“Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.…” Proverbs 23.10-11
The Man is the Father Figure
Munroe teaches that it is the man who is the father, since the woman came from the man – God formed one man from the dust of the earth and all other men and women came from that one man. God didn’t return to the earth again to create the woman – the woman came out of the man. And since he produced the woman, he is her father in essence. “A father sustains what he produces. If he’s not sustaining what he produces, then he’s not a father.”
So if he isn’t acting towards her as a father would, look out, proverbs tells us that God will take up her case against him. I like that I have a heavenly Protector who doesn’t let me off the hook, but who also defends me against those who would find it convenient for it to be all my fault….Adam…..
We’re all trying to figure this out together and for sure, a little bit of humor goes a long way dear brothers!
Listen to this, it’s just like a man to be completely taken aback by what a woman can do and then act surprised that he’s the reason for all his discomfort. Human behavior, including my own, makes me laugh:
Women Multiply What You Give Them
“Whatever you give a woman, she’ll receive it, multiply it, and give it back to you…..she’ll never give back what you gave to her, she’ll multiply it first. She’s designed that way….if you give her a house she’ll multiply it and give you a home. If you give her groceries she’ll multiply it and give you a meal. If you give her frustration she’ll multiply it and give you……right…….
“So brothers, if you don’t like what your getting, change what you’re giving.
“It’s ridiculous to say to a woman, ‘where did you get this from?’ He’s receiving back – multiplied – what he gave….tell your husband, ‘if you don’t like what I’m giving you, change what you’re giving me.'”
I’ll be sharing much more from Munroe in the coming days, God has opened a floodgate of word through this man of God. Prayer and fasting for sure opens doors, opens our hearts and provides keys to receive from God.
Have a wonderful week all, be free, look up at the night sky, take up journeys~
Featured Drawing: Untitled by Ashley Gatewood, ~2014
What has God given you to do? Whatever it is, no matter how menial it may seem to you, it is tied into your purpose in the kingdom of God. Despise not small beginnings the Bible says. I like that. So we can get busy doing what God has put before us no matter how small, knowing we are building and investing in a much higher purpose for the future.
Be ardent in your work, and you will find God in your cooking pots.
from the film ‘Séraphine’ (2008)
This was first spoken by Teresa of Ávila whom Seraphine requoted.
I like the literary term for ardent: burning; glowing
I like the idea that even through the darkest of nights, if I’m tending diligently to what God has entrusted to me, His glowing fire will be upon my work, be evident in the results of my work, and will light the way of many who are without His light.
And we all know the world is growing darker day by day~
Prayer Is The Honeypot That Reveals Incoming Information
Nothing gets done on earth for the kingdom of God without prayer. There may be people who don’t even believe in God who are fulfilling the plans of God – that’s because there is an intercessor somewhere on their knees praying fervently, being led by the Holy Spirit. I’ve heard it said like this: God will not do anything without us, and we cannot do anything without Him. And isn’t it comforting to know we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
Remember this, what God has ordained no one can stop. It doesn’t matter what it looks like right now. I promise you, He is faithful.
Psalm 103: Bless the Lord all ye His angels that excel at the sound of His word. The Archangel Gabriel is a messenger. So he brings answers, visions, prophecy from the throne of God. I’m sure there are others who do this, and I’m also sure we hear directly from God and I know He speaks to us through other people as well. So there’s no lack of avenues to gain revelational knowledge and wisdom. I like the one below from Benny – he is speaking right into my heart.
Paying the Price: Is God in your Cooking Pots?
If we’re going to pay a price, let’s make sure we are paying the right price for the right thing. People are constantly paying the wrong price for the wrong thing because of ignorance. If you’re not praying, what price are you really paying and is what you’re getting rendering a net gain to your life? If we suffer for the sake of suffering, we gain nothing at all. And we do this all the time, it’s the human condition. ‘Why are you cast down, oh my soul? Hope in God.’But prayer causes the answer to excel to our understanding. THIS is the power of God’s divine word when its revelation becomes known to us through prayer.
Let prayer be your cooking pot for 2024. “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” Psalm 27.13-14
I’ll find my answers in disciplined prayer. Where else? He reveals all knowledge to those who ask.
“…never give up. You pray everyday, don’t miss one day because the day you miss is the day you lose. Stay in contact with God, daily.”
Coupling prayer with fasting and you’ll be on a fast track to God’s heart.
May your 2024 be brighter than ever, burn more fervently for the Lord, and may God dance among your cooking pots, all you beautiful people~
