Be Who You Are

I heard God say this to me the other day.

"Be who you are, Beloved. I made you this way on purpose. They (the world) need you, even if they can't see it. I need you. Be who you are. You are mine. I have put my mark on your forehead. I have claimed you as my own. I am the leader that loves and understands you. I am the power from on high that lifts you from the dirt of misunderstanding. Rise up in dignity, Little One, and know my love for you. Run this race that I have set before you and don't give up hope. I am your Lord and I will see you through."

Seasons

For everything there is a season, and a time for ever matter under heaven;
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I heard this scripture read this morning. It really encouraged me because there is a season for everything. There is so much teaching these days that if you just think the right thoughts you can live a utopia here on earth. I know that that is coming in heaven. In the meantime, we live in the seasons here. The good news is that God will give us the grace for every season.

Pray Big Prayers

I urge then, first for all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4

Pray big prayers. I got this line from a friend. I am reminded that God wants everyone to be saved. Pray big prayers for the world and everyone in it. Have fun agreeing with Jesus as he intercedes for us. When you are praying about someone in your life, just expand your prayer and offer it up for everyone with a similar need. When someone offends you, forgive as quickly as possible and use the opportunity to pray for them and their families. When I pray the Lord's prayer, I meditate on it and use it for a big prayer. It comes alive. Be encouraged. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

Your Love

Arise, come my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.
Song of Songs 2:13

Jesus wants you to come with him. He is calling like a lover calls his beloved. I am remembering when it was time to choose a disciple to replace Judas, it had to be someone that knew Jesus personally. He wants you to know him in that way. He is not what you expect. He is far more wonderful, and he loves you more than you can even imagine. He wants you to be still and know that he is God. He wants to hold you close and to speak the truth to you. He is better than the Daddy that you always wanted. He is better than any friend can be. Come away from what keeps you busy and preoccupied. Many of your activities that you think are for God are not important to him. He wants you. You are what is important to him.

Yesterday, I heard this brand new song on the radio. It is so beautiful and I am sure that many of you can relate to it. I wanted to put the lyrics, but it is so new, that they aren't available yet. It's called YOUR LOVE, and it is by Brandon Heath.

You Are Beautiful

Arise, come, my darling;
my beautiful one, come with me.
My dove in the cleft of the rock,
in the hiding place,
on the mountainside,
show me your face-
let me hear your sweet voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Song of Solomon 2:13-14

I can still hear my friend say to me. "God loves you. He loves all of you, even the dimple on your bottom." God wants to spend time with you. He truly enjoys you. Let him take you to the cleft in the rock and let him enjoy you. Spend time just soaking up his love.

Show Me Your Glory

Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory."" Exodus 33:18

Fear has been a real issue for me lately. I am about to embark on an adventure that I find very intimidating. This morning, I was led to meditate on past experiences that challenged me and how God got me through them. I am so aware of how the children of Israel were shown miracle after miracle, but when faced with a new challenge, they always freaked out. God was so frustrated because they had already forgotten the great miracles that he had done on their behalf. God wants us to spend time remembering his help in the past. This will help us to face the future.

There is one other important thing that God showed me today. Remember when Moses asked God to show him his glory? This is what God wants to do in each of our lives. If Daniel wasn't in the lion's den, he wouldn't have seen God's glory as God rescued him. If David hadn't faced Goliath, he wouldn't have seen how God is bigger than his enemies. God has shown me his glory over and over as he led me through and around difficulties. He wants me to remember this and then to proceed with enthusiasm, expecting that God will keep showing me his glory.

Kingdom Living

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25

Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many? John 6:9

Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Luke 12:32-34

Over and over there are examples in the Bible of God asking a person to sacrifice what they have or are capable of so that he can become their source. When the little boy gave his little bit of food to Jesus, he had no idea what would come about. God multiplied it so that it was enough to feed five thousand and still have lots of left overs. When Jesus sent out the disciples, he asked them to give up their own way of providing for themselves and to let God provide for them.

For the past few days, God has really been emphasizing this theme to me. The little we have to offer , our strength, our knowledge, our abilities, our understanding, our courage, are all very limited. We use it and it is gone. He wants us to give up what we are capable of and rely on him. This is kingdom living.

Yesterday, I had to do something that really scared me. I had a puny amount of courage, but definitely not enough to get the job done. So I gave my courage to God. Next thing I knew, he had multiplied it and turned my scary project into something much more significant than I had ever imagined.

God is calling us to kingdom living. It is far better than we can even imagine. Why limit ourselves to what we and the world have to offer? Hop aboard, God has great things in store for you.

Be Holy

for it is written, "Be holy, because I am holy. 1 Peter 1:16

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Matthew 5:8

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Mathew 5:48

In many ways we are like a house. We need to be cleaned, and then we begin to immediately get dirty again as soon as we are cleaned. The house isn't able to clean itself. It needs to be cared for.

The more I understand dying to self, the better it sounds. There is such joy and freedom in surrendering to the owner of the house, God. I can't keep myself clean, but I can surrender to the one who can.

This morning, God was calling me to come into the Holy of Holies. I sensed urgency in his call. There is not time to get tangled in self righteousness, shame or pride. I see myself slipping them off as if they were a heavy suit with junk fastened all over it.

Our righteousness is limited and has no ability to make us truly holy. Remember, that is why Jesus had to die. He is asking us to give up our puny ability to be righteous so we can have his unlimited righteousness.

Great God

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:7-11

I know that it would be good if God said, "Yes," to all my requests. It would be good if God did everything in my life in a way that I envision it. Instead, he wants what is great. It was good that Jesus walked on this earth teaching and doing miracles. It was great that he died for the salvation of the whole world.

I sense a little sadness in God's heart because he is asking a great sacrifice of us. He is asking us to be led by his Spirit, rather than do all those things that look good in our eyes and the eyes of others. Then he can bring about what is great.

All around us voices are calling. It has caused a lot of confusion. God is asking us to keep our eyes on Jesus. These voices could distract us from the course that God has for us. Some are sins, but others are "good" things. God has great. We are going to have to trust his judgment because his ways don't always make sense to us. We can't trust our own understanding. We need to trust God. (Proverbs 3:5-6) We serve a GREAT GOD.

The Lord Gives

Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.
Job 1:21

Job is the one that said this. God was very pleased with what a good man Job was and yet he allowed everything to be taken away. He has his reasons for everything that he allows in our lives. When we are poor and wearing old clothes, God is doing a work in our soul. When we are rich and can buy lots of stuff, God is still doing a work in our soul. When I am wealthy it proves nothing, and when I am poor it proves nothing. I think of the poor widow that gave her last coin. God said that she was a good woman. Some people teach that if you are good and doing everything right that you will be rich and popular. Jesus was poor, despised and rejected. Jesus had no bank account. He didn't even have a home, and yet God supplied.

Do the Impossible and Outrageous

So the king said to Joab and the army commanders with him, "Go throughout the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and enroll the fighting men, so that I may know how many there are."
But Joab replied to the king, "May the Lord your God multiply the troops a hundred times over, and may the eyes of my lord the king see it. But why does my lord the king want to do such a thing?"
2 Samuel 24:3-4

David wanted to count his troops to see how powerful his army was. His hope was to be in God, not a great army. I am realizing that this is exactly what I was doing. I was looking at my finances and my situation and being afraid. I forgot that my hope was in God. I actually became happy when I realized this. It was good to be reminded that my present circumstances have nothing to do with God and his care for me.

God won great victories for Israel with small armies and with large ones. It really didn't make a difference. God was the reason for victory.

Christians are not supposed to be doing what is possible. We are supposed to be doing what is impossible and outrageous. To accomplish our calling, we must put our hand in the hand of God, learning to be completely dependent on the Holy Spirit for everything. (The Nature Of God by Graham Cooke)

Well Done

The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue. The God of Israel spoke, the Rock of Israel said to me: "When one rules over men in righteousness, when he rules in the fear of God, he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning, like the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth."
2 Samuel 23:2-4

As we read this scripture, something in me stood up and took notice. I sensed that God wants to encourage leaders. In a way, we are all leaders. We have all been given authority in general and also in some specific area of our lives. If we are Christians and are seeking God's face and being led by his Spirit, then this verse applies to us. God is saying, "Well done!" Read this verse and see what a difference you are making. You are light, you are beauty, and you are refreshing.

Pray With Authority And Persistence

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Matthew 16:19

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
Luke 18:7-8

I know that these scriptures are really full, but I just have two points that I would like to emphasize this day. The first is that we have authority and that we may as well use it, since it is really powerful. The second point is that God wants us to persist in prayer. The scripture from Luke comes after the parable of the person that knocked on their neighbor's door and wouldn't quit until they were given them what they needed. The Bible is full of examples of this. The book of Daniel tells of how Daniel prayed 21 days for an answer. The answer was headed in his direction on the first day that he started praying, but there were obstacles to be overcome on the way.
The other day, when I was in prayer, I had a vision of God kneeling in front of me with tears in his eyes, begging me to not give up praying for the things I have been praying about.My advice for you today is, go forth in the authority that God gave you and don't give up. God will hear your prayer.

Strengthening Our Inner Man

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.
Ephesians 3:14-16

"Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord. "I will protect them from those who malign them."
Psalm 12:5

I have learned throughout life that it is the strong and healthy plant or animal that resist disease and insects. A healthy cat is less likely to have fleas. Healthy garden plants ward of insects that would consume them. Obviously a healthy person is less likely to get sick. God is protecting us in many ways. He is our refuge, our shield, and our defender. This is very true and I am thankful for this. My friends and I are being protected in a different way. God is healing us of our hurts, setting us free from that which binds us, and giving us more and more dignity. He is strengthening our inner man. We seem to have just as many things coming against us and yet God is strengthening us so that they have less and less power over us. We are having so much fun as we become less and less victims and more and more victors.

On Trials

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

So then, those who suffer according to God's will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
1 Peter 4:19

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
1 Peter 4:12-13

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Galatians 6:9

I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Luke 10:19-20