Come and See

 

 

 

 

In the area of faith and the place of believing or not, judging is the place of interpretation as to Who God is and what God does. Judgment is a place of weighing a testimony.  There are rules and then there are behaviors, circumstances and probable cause.  What throws people is when the impossible happens, the undefined and the unregulated.

Here often is the place of believing or not believing.

 Believing the testimony through the eyes of grace and love OR,

doubting because it doesn’t match the set of rules real or imagined; the set that keeps one comfortable and in a sense of controlled state.

This is where that kind of decision making  plays out in a clear way in the Bible.  I am using the NIV Bible in the Bible passages of this study portion.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

  In John 9, Jesus heals a blind man.  People begin asking about the man born blind.  They asked Jesus if he was blind because he sinned or because his parents sinned?  Jesus said, “ Neither.”  The people had a set of rules that they believed that if a person had a problem it was due to sin and that sin could be carried on to the children.  Jesus said he was born blind, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” John 9:3  

They had not seen it this way.  They were judging differently. 

When  Jesus healed him, he made mud and placed it on the blind man’s eyes and told him to wash in the Pool of Siloam, which means “Sent.”  Some of the power of the Scriptures are for our revelations later.  The name of the Pool of Siloam is for us to see an even greater glory.   John 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  Jesus was the One sent and healing and He was sending the blind man to be a testimony of that work of God displayed in Him. 

Following seeing for themselves the man now able to see, they were divided by their judgment or view. They were either going to have receptivity to the impossible or they were going to doubt.

John 9:8-9  His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9Some claimed that he was. Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”  But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

Jesus was behaving as LORD and some would see and some wouldn’t.  Seeing in this sense, is believing.

Here we go further seeing the division between those that held tight to their set of rules or those that were open to receive outside of them.

13 b They brought to the Pharisees the man who had been blind. 14Now the day on which Jesus had made the mud and opened the man’s eyes was a Sabbath. 15Therefore the Pharisees also asked him how he had received his sight. “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see.”

16Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.”

But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.

 Their division was between rules or miracles; the rules being their interpretation of the Law or seeing Grace.

Then they turned again to the blind man, “What have you to say about him? It was your eyes he opened.”

The man replied, “He is a prophet.”

18 They still did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they sent for the man’s parents. 19 “Is this your son?” they asked. “Is this the one you say was born blind? How is it that now he can see?”

20 “We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. 21 But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. 23 That was why his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

Notice that it says they had already decided.  They had made their judgment and had their set of rules within their own mind as to how God behaved and their own view of the Messiah instead of receiving what they were seeing.

24 A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God by telling the truth,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.”

25 He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”

26 Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

27 He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too?”

28 Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses! 29 We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”

30 The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. 31 We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly person who does his will. 32 Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. 33 If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

The chapter goes into discussing Spiritual Blindness and Spiritual Sight in the way of seeing Jesus Spiritually. 

35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

36“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”

37Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”  (As the once blind man says he wants to know who the Son of Man is so that he can believe in him he shows that he is receptive to all that he is.  Jesus responds by saying that he has seen him.  He had responded in favor testifying to others that Jesus was of God and had healed him.  Jesus goes further saying the one he believed in is the one speaking with him.)

38Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.

39Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” 

The gospel of John is said to be the most chronologically correct.  A hint to that is by the way John writes as he states, “Then…”  

Jesus is continuing to reveal Himself and the struggle in the Jews continues to be evident between their own perceived viewpoints of how God behaves verses how He is revealing Himself in Christ.  Notice their struggle and tight hold of what they expect should be instead of being open to what God is showing Himself to be in this part of John 10.

Then came the Festival of Dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23and Jesus was in the temple courts walking in Solomon’s Colonnade. 24The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works I do in my Father’s name testify about me,

31Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

33“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

The ones in the synagogue were often resistant or afraid and when he returned to the Jordan many came to him and believed.  Outdoors, by a flowing river they came and believed in open freedom.

There is a culture of these contrasts going on today in our own churches.  Recently there was a large conference in Southern California opposing the works of the LORD in ways of His Spirit and gifts and miracles today.  They cling to their rules and have difficulty seeing or believing God outside of their own boxed in viewpoint.  They are blind to the fullness of Him. 

Simultaneously, a group of people were honoring a man’s memory that had led the Jesus Movement that started in the 1970’s.  They celebrated on piers and on the water while floating on surf boards, saying scriptures, not meeting any particular guide line but just were.  They were open to all God is and loved one another through grace.  Some were believers and some weren’t, but they loved each other.  There in that place in the celebration, the Word’s of God being said out loud in unison atop surfboards and wave after gentle wave, rainbows formed around them.  In that kind of faith, that kind of love, amidst the waters came a visible sign of God among them in the rainbows.  Click on this link for a full article of the events written by David Housholder.

While the others, still believing in the LORD, compartmentalized Him, they miss out on the fullness of Him.  The joy of His being in ways we can’t imagine, but He wants to show us.  If only all that believed in Him had vision to see Him in His fullness and truth and not within our own judgment of Him, but in the evidence of His glory and grace.   Jesus longs for this from us. 

Jesus moved on from where he was to reveal Himself in an even greater way in John 11.  He was about to raise Lazerus from the dead.  He was told Lazarus was sick and He knew he had died.  He waited two more days before going to them. John 11:4 When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

Jews had come to comfort Mary and Martha in their time of mourning.  Martha had run out to meet Jesus and she said that if He had been there sooner, He could have saved him.  She had faith knowing how he could heal.  But, physical death was final in her mind.  She had a limitation there.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

24Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”

25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

27“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”

28After she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary aside. “The Teacher is here,” she said, “and is asking for you.” 29When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet entered the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who had been with Mary in the house, comforting her, noticed how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

32When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. 34“Where have you laid him?” he asked.

Think about this part.  He knows that He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead.  He knows that He is able to defeat death, but he sees their view of limitations on Him and the sorrows of death.  He has wanted them to see Him as LORD.  He is deeply moved by their grief and in spirit, troubled.  He knows what He has been trying to reveal to them about Himself for them to see, then the heart wrenching words of His desire for them is said to Him…

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

35 Jesus wept.

36Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  (Look at how they perceived this. Instead of seeing all that had happened before of Him wanting them to see, they unperceiving say to Him to see.  But, what they do notice is love.)

37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”  ( And again, look what happened to Jesus after they said this, bringing up the portion of opening the blind man’s eyes.  It’s like rubbing a wound in his heart. His response… 38 Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. 39“Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

40Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

41So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

43 When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

45Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”  (Fear of losing control)

49Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, ““You know nothing at all! 50You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

51He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53So from that day on they plotted to take his life.

54Therefore Jesus no longer moved about publicly among the people of Judea. Instead he withdrew to a region near the wilderness, to a village called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.  (This is another part that strikes me.  Ephraim means fruitful.  Judea was no longer a place that was bearing fruit.)

55When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, many went up from the country to Jerusalem for their ceremonial cleansing before the Passover. 56They kept looking for Jesus, and as they stood in the temple courts they asked one another, “What do you think? Isn’t he coming to the festival at all?” 57But the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who found out where Jesus was should report it so that they might arrest him.

Those that are open to a greater fullness of Who God is in their lives bear much fruit.  He shows Himself because He is not limited in the minds of peoples’ expectations, order or rules.  They live in His love and grace and the fullness of Him moves through their lives.

 A sign of people that live like that have joy.  They have joy in all circumstances because they don’t limit God’s work in good and in bad times.  He uses it for His glory like the man born blind and even the death of Lazarus. 

Hard times happen and there are times for mourning, but how much greater are the times when one praises, trusts and believes in what is impossible for man is possible for God.  They live in grace, love, peace, hope, thankfulness and joy.  They ride the waves with words of faith and rejoice in their Savior.

Have you arrested Jesus and detained Him from greater acts of seeing Him by your own judgment or view of Him?  Does your doubt in His truth give you a verdict that keeps you from knowing the freedom that He has for you?  Pray for Him to open your eyes, to touch the blindness or blinders that may be on you and ask Him to help you see and help you trust that even though there may be circumstances that are difficult or you have had to endure, He has a greater glory to reveal to you. 

 

I recently taught on this message in greater length. There is also a parallel to seeing in the Psalms of Ascent.  If you ever have need for me to teach or share with your church or women’s group, please contact me at loriwilley18@gmail.com

 

 



 

 

 





A Different Guy

 

 

 

“Pay attention to the weird,” a friend had said.  Out of the 12 disciples, John was a bit different in the way he referred to himself.  “John, the one whom Jesus loved,” he wrote, is sprinkled in the gospel of John.  No other gospels say this about him, nor do other disciples like Matthew, Luke or Mark refer to themselves as, “the one whom Jesus loved.”

 Weird.

Teachers I have sat under recently through DVD or television have trended to make fun of John and his sense of ego in his own gospel.  I’m seeing it differently.  I’m paying attention to the weird and seeing John.

John used more symbolism throughout his gospel  as Jesus being God than the others.  It opens in John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  John is seeing much more.  He’s revealing more spirituality and bigger picture things.  

What is it about him?

John receives.

John doesn’t appear to hesitate or work on coming up with his own stuff.  He receives. 

He received Jesus’ love.  He believed it.  He walked in it and he claimed it for himself. 
“John, the one whom Jesus loved.”

John also wrote that others were those whom He loved.  John 11:5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

John recognized and received Jesus' love and saw that He had it for others.  If you do online searches on Bible verses about love you will find that the larger majority are in Psalms (David was a man after God’s own heart) the book of John and the three small books 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd John.

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God and everyone that loves is born of God and knows God.  He that doesn’t love, doesn’t know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8.

And in the Aramaic translation, John 3:16 For God loved the world in this way: so much that he would give up his Son, The Only One, so that everyone who trusts in him shall not be lost, but he shall have eternal life.

This is the difference.  John was one of the inner circle guys because he confidently followed closely knowing he was loved.   At the time of eating the last meal together it says that Jesus said one would betray him.  John 13:23-25 reads that the one whom Jesus loved was close to Him and Peter asked that one to ask Jesus who it was.  John did so as he leaned back into Jesus’ bosom and asked Him who it was.  Jesus answered him.

Looking at this, here is John so close and comfortable knowing the love Jesus has for him and leaning right into his “bosom” or chest.  He presses into his chest, leaning and asks.  He is relaxed, near, intimate and confident that Jesus will answer him.  John is receiving and believing and living in the position of love and nearness of Jesus.  In that, he is also answered.  Peter, in his own uncertainty, asks John to ask Him. 

John is also the disciple that receives the great revelations of Revelation.  He receives.  He is open and believing.  He believes in such a level of spiritual awareness and openness to all God is that he sees huge things. 

He was at the transfiguration.  This was when Jesus’ human body took on a heavenly body and He conversed with Moses and Elijah.

He was at the crucifixion and there, he received more.  John 19:26-27 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, "Woman, behold, your son!" 27Then He said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

From that moment, he received her.  He didn’t say, “O no Lord, I’m not worthy of your Mom” or “I need to check and make sure it’s okay with the rest of the family.” 

He received her as his mother.  And Jesus knew he would.  Also notice his proximity.  Again, John is near.

He was at the ascension.  This was when Jesus was taken into a cloud and went into heaven.

Being receptive is everything. 

It is the beginning place of incredible blessing. 

It is the vision through eyes of grace and the fuller view of His glory. 

Many teachers teach the portion that Jesus spoke about having child-like faith.  That the Kingdom of heaven belong to such as these.  Children are strongly faith filled. They trust, they don’t come with agendas to confirm their own views, and they are open.

 I see them as receivers.

They are dependent on others to provide for them and care for them and they readily receive.  They started life that way and have yet to acquire anything significant on their own.  They have to receive.  Have you ever seen a child reject a gift?  Have you seen an adult?  I have seen adults say, “Oh, no you shouldn’t have done that” or “No, I couldn’t possibly take this.”

 We play unworthy.  Children don’t.

A little boy named Samuel was serving Eli.  Young Samuel received the words of God as God called to him he responded, “Speak to me LORD, for your servant is listening.”  1 Samuel 3:10  He received.

My husband traded his car in for a different one that was a convertible.  He gave the convertible to me and took over driving the older car I was driving.  I could hardly handle that kind of generous gift!  I couldn’t even initially drive it and had to have my husband drive it for the first 20 minutes because I was crying and feeling like it was more than I should have, that I wasn’t worthy of it.  It took me a month to fully receive it and enjoy it and accept it as a blessing.

 Now it is nearing November and I can’t have the top down anymore because it is too cold.  We live in Minnesota.  I wasted a month of warm summer days not feeling the fullness of joy, even with the top down, of this incredible gift by instead feeling like it was more than I deserved.  Now that I got over myself, and I realize how much he loves me and it is his expression of love,  I enjoy it and I see how much of a blessing it and he really are.

 I receive that love.

Those that receive from God and His love see a bigger picture.  They see more spiritually and they speak it more freely because they are not encumbered by doubt, unworthiness or have worked to acquire their own view.  To those that receive, it just is and they got it and they trust it and they enjoy it.

That was John.  He received Jesus’ love and he trusted it. 

Think of what your life could be like if you said your name and after it, “the one whom Jesus loves.”

Because, you are.

Receive.

In the receiving we are told to give, too.  As John received the revelation, he wrote it out so others would have it. He didn’t keep it for himself.  As God does things in your life, tell that story to others.  It encourages them or sets their eyes on His glory. 

Matthew 10:8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

John was also the only apostle that did not die in martyrdom and lived a long life, believed to have died of natural causes.  Hmm, weird.

 

 





Head to Heart

The difference between reading and knowing, to believing and living it out, is through the heart.

Head knowledge is mostly facts I have taken in and can draw from or recall.  When that knowledge roots itself in my heart it brings out a life change.  It produces. I not only know it, I believe it. It becomes a part of me; active and bearing something.  There is something to show for what you know.  It is part of your belief and being.  It becomes part of your life.

There are many challenges, endless challenges that I am met with in this faith-walk.  The challenges grow me.  They often take my knowing into believing.  That kind of inspiration can only be by the Spirit of the LORD. 

The word inspiration in Latin, has a literal break down meaning of “drawing air into the lungs.” Another recognizable word from the Latin regarding breath is “respiration.”  You also see the portion of “spira” or spirit.  The word Spirit is related to breath.  In Hebrew the word Ruach also means Breath and Spirit. 

To be inspired is like being given a Spiritual Breath for Life. 

Growing into stronger belief and faith is a provision of His Spirit.  He gives us opportunities to see Him and know Him more and it is up to us if we take it from our head to our heart, breathing it in and being inspired by it.  I wrote and teach sessions on the examples of this based on King Saul and King David.  Both men were chosen by God, inspired by His Spirit, but Saul only kept it in his head and didn’t live it out and David took it to his heart and did live it out.  God refers to David as “a man after My own heart.”  Acts 13:22 After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.’  Notice the portion included with him also doing. His belief became an active part of him living it…doing it.

The differences in King Saul’s and David’s lives were vast and it was based on what they took to heart or just to head.  It was whether they believed or didn’t believe.  A subtle reference of the LORD pointing to this in His Word in the physical description of Saul, that “Saul stood a head above all the others.”             1 Samuel 10:23.

 At the end of King Saul’s life, after he had taken his own life, it reads that the enemy came across his body and cut off his head and took his body and attached his body to the wall of Bethshan.  Beth means house and shan has meanings of quiet, tranquility, and dawn.  When you know the story of King Saul, he was not quieted or tranquil and his turmoil was all head thoughts.  He did not live out his faith through his heart.  More in this is that his body wasn’t even brought inside the walls of the House of tranquil-dawn, but attached to the outside of the wall. 1 Samuel 31.

Where I find myself in believing and living it, or either just having head knowledge, shows up often in me as just head knowledge as I have studied the Word.  I need inspiration to believe.  Some would consider me strongly faith-filled, but I have an endless stream of His Word that needs to be taken from my head to my heart. 

The LORD inspired me to one of them in particular last week.  It is a simple and widely known group of verses, but how rarely do I find myself believing it to the point of living it and growing in it.  Worry is head turmoil and not a heart of tranquil belief of a new dawn.

 I was sitting at my desk and working on my computer.  The weather had turned to heavy rain and strong wind.  As I was focusing on my work, I heard a long bang on our front window.  At first I thought it was a bird and quickly dismissed it because I didn’t think there was any way a bird would be flying in this kind of weather.  I figured it must have been a branch.  We have a big maple tree right out front.

As I continued responding to e-mail correspondence, I heard the LORD say, “You have an animal to care for.”  It was not a thought I would have generated and I stood up thinking, “Don’t tell me it was a bird.”  I walked to the door and opened it to look along side of the window. There on the ground was a wood thrush.  It lay with its chest in the dirt, at an angle and it wasn’t moving.  I could see its eyes opening and closing.

I thought, “I don’t know how to ‘care’ for a bird like this!”  Then I quickly went to what I knew I could do in way of care, I started praying for it.  The bird’s eyes opened brighter and it began to move its head as I prayed Jesus’ healing, relief from pain, restoration inside and out, and new strength.  The bird straightened and stood up on its legs.  It hopped under the shelter of the overhang of the bay window.  I went back inside, closed the door and let it be.  When the rain stopped I went to check on it and it flew away.

A little girl growing up, I would hear the verses over and over again from Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.  30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

I finally, really believed it. 

It went to my heart! 

He had known about the fallen bird.  He called my awareness to it too, in telling me to care for it as I cared in the only way I could, by prayer!  I watched Him care.  I had not paid attention to the word “care” in the scripture before until he used that very word with me that I had an animal to care for.

The peace of having that verse now firmly planted in my heart of belief has lightened me to a degree I never have been before. By just having it in my head, I wasn’t living it out.  The stresses I have since recently endured have not brought the worry as they have in the past.  I KNOW HE KNOWS and He cares!  As I care I pray and I leave them to Him to bring about His goodness into those things.

Let the things that God is showing you inspire you!  Let the breath of His Spirit bring what you know to a heart of belief and into a life that lives it.

 

In Little or In Much, It Is the Same

 

 

 

The LORD presented these words to me a while ago.  I have held onto them and have noticed the truth in it over and over again. 

In little or in much, it is the same. 

His love, His grace, His tenderness, His mercy, His peace, His hope, His strength, His security, His goodness, His wisdom and His joy comes through whatever state I am in.  It is in nearness of His presence and His Word and it does not wane.  All I need to do is think of Him.  He remains the same for me in whatever condition I am in.  

In little or in much, He is the same.

The power in His Word reaches me just as deep.

Having spent seven weeks teaching a Bible study in a location where people have great wealth and ministering to those privileged enough that they could speak of their travels, building projects and their latest lesson from a book or DVD they viewed; their hearts longed for more of the LORD and Him in their life.  They came as humbled students to hear more of His Word and to know Him more and to recognize the love He has for them.  They also came with prayer concerns and heartaches for family and children.

As I taught and read from the Bible they were sometimes moved to tears, sometimes filled with joy with exclamations of praise, sometimes strengthened and hopeful and sometimes humbled by a comprehension of how much God loves them.  Prayers were lifted and they needed Him.  He was there for them in exactly what they needed through His Word and connecting with them in their prayers. 

They left filled.

Last week I was invited to teach at Marie Sandvik Center.  They feed the local poor and offer Bible teaching.  I was told that they are allowed a meal after they listen to a Bible message.  I pained in my heart as I thought of them waiting in hunger as I taught and I was having a hard time bearing the thought of me being in between them and their food.  The LORD pressed upon me that their need for Him was just as hungry.  Even as I type, I have tears in my eyes.

That morning I had planned to spend several hours preparing for them.  I wanted to give them my best.  The time was stolen from me in one work related problem after another.  I was to leave in just seven minutes and my mom called me.  I started crying.  I felt empty, like I didn’t have anything good to give to them.  I hadn’t had the time to pray and draw fully on God as I always had prior to teaching before.  The time I wanted to be my best, I was at my least.  As my mom prayed over the top of my sobs, I began to feel a bit more peace.  I had to leave.  I knew it was going to be up to God and if anything good came out of my teaching it was going to be all Him.  I was nothing.

I arrived at the same time that several other women arrived there from my church.  They had made sandwiches and cakes and were there to serve the hungry after I taught.  I saw all that they made and the heart from which they made it.  Then, they offered to gather around me and pray.  My head was swimming with thoughts still of inadequacy, but I knew these saints, along with my mom and a dear friend, were putting me before the LORD and asking for all He had to use me for His good.

 As the room began to fill, I saw their sweet faces.  Many came with little children, some came with aging parents.  Old and young, mostly women, the room was filling.

I began to teach.  At first there was talking among each other and then they got quiet.  They were listening.  I spoke of Jesus and His love for them and His presence in their lives.  I read His Words.  I told some stories.  Just like the women in the summer; sometimes they cried.  Sometimes they were filled with joy and exclaimed in praise.  Sometimes these hugged one another.  At the end of the message I told them I was going to pray and then give them a blessing.  I suggested that I’ve known people that like to hold their hands out as in receiving when a blessing is said.  The room that held over 100 people was now fully packed with people who eagerly held out their hands to receive the LORD’s blessing. 

 Just as He said, they were also hungry for Him.

These lovely experiences of little and much and God being the same are imprinted upon my heart.  Even His lesson of Him being fully upon me as He calls me to serve when I feel I had much or little in way of teaching was that He was the same.  His Word does not return void and His Spirit of love reaches all that we need.

 We all hunger for Him and in Him we are filled.

 Hebrews 13:8 NIV   Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Matthew 5:6  NIV  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Psalm 107:9 ESV  For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things

Isaiah 55:11 NASB  So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

 



Stop Thief!

This morning I read an article written by a beautiful, young woman. Her photo was next to her article. She was questioning the money she just spent for a retreat of meditation, crystals, and a pendulum.  She left empty and because she felt nothing she was told she was already full of “light.”  She wrote her doubt-filled article and wondered about the methods of finding God.  She was left disappointed.  My heart broke for her and many women like her.

We have a nation of young women mostly, some men, that are searching in this way for their connection with God.  They didn’t find it in church or they didn’t go to church.  

 

As a pew sitter, I know that much of the teaching given in my half century was done from a platform that cried, “Fire!”  Most  of those who chose to connect to God was through a fire escape avoiding Hell.  Often what was missing was the love.  The power. The peace. The joy. The fulfillment of a relationship with the One and Only and how to have it in hearing Him and knowing Him.

 I managed to find these things through a charismatic experience when I was twelve years old.  I got to know His power in healing, in the gift of peace and joy through His Holy Spirit and that He continues to talk with us and through us.   Most churches didn’t teach about the power of God through His Spirit.  They didn’t place hands on people for healing, but instead would pray from a distance.

 

Some did the Job’s–friends-thing and sat and discussed what Job could have possibly done wrong to bring all of this illness and woe on himself.  Wrong!   These people were judgmental.   When Jesus walked the earth His biggest criticisms were on religious people that were judging others and making rules more important than grace and love and the gifts of His Spirit.

 

We have people reading horoscopes, the counterfeit to prophecy. What they are looking for is a prophetic word from God.  By His Spirit, He gives the gift of prophecy.  We crave this and most of our churches are not supplying it or encouraging people on how to hear God for themselves.

 

No wonder why we have a generation of women headed to retreats like the one the writer wrote of this morning and men, too, looking for Who God really is.  But, what is happening is that it is being masked.  Some of it is brought through methods called reiki,  a named energy of healing from their own energy and God of Life and Universe. I believe this is a name meant for the power and healing of His Holy Spirit.  This generation has not been taught of the fullness of God in this healing from His Holy Spirit for them.  They look for it, they crave it, they are created to long for it; for the power of His Spirit in healing physically, mentally and emotionally.   

 There is counterfeit.  Where there is real there is false, truth and lies, good and evil.  These things are in the physical world and in the spiritual Universal world.  Satan is said to masquerade as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11:14.

 

This energy seeking, light searching, crystal worshiping generation wants what they have not been taught or given.  Their souls are longing to be filled.  They are led to what they desire and they get tantalized, but eventually they end up disappointed.  Empty.

 

I stand guilty in not having made the kind of power in His Spirit more known out of fear of, “What would they say?!” from conservative church goers or doubters.  Those that moved in the fullness of His Spirit that I knew of were a handful of women.  They would meet in private settings like their houses and pray in the Spirit, share prophecy and lay hands on one another and walk and live in this power, but we were often too timid to bring it to the masses.  

 

A lot of churches that know God have not taught the fullness of God, His mercy and His power of His presence of His Spirit.  Resulting, we have these precious and beautiful starved souls searching and getting caught in a mysticism that is not giving them what they really need; freedom, life and value! 

Freedom in the saving grace of what was given to them through Christ Jesus and in that His Spirit and power they so desperately seek. 

Valued and loved so much that Christ made that sacrifice for them so that they could live a life in all that He has!  We aren’t supplying through His Spirit everything that Christ died for, for them. 

 

Despite these energy healing sessions and meditation moments, they are not finding freedom nor are they comprehending their full value and how much they are loved.  Guilt is still prevalent, fulfillment is not met and discontentment and discourse prevail.  They are not freed, but appear to become more tangled, frustrated and searching.   When we understand how much we are loved, we can’t help but love others in return.

 

These dear people seek mercy.  Mercy from illness, heart-aches, weariness, confusion and guilt.  When the guilt is removed then there is peace.  No religion, meditation or reiki is capable of removing guilt, except by Jesus and His forgiveness.  

 

With the “Fire” teaching, we are taught to stop the sin, but we rarely understood the love of the “once and for all” sacrifice forgiving every sin done and yet to be done; the total removal of guilt and condemnation.

 

Romans 8:1-2 ESV  1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

 

This is the place of the deepest, filling, fresh, breath no meditation can provide unless it is the meditation of that love.  And honestly, the more I love someone, the less I want to do wrong by them.  When we receive His love, we can’t help but want to show our love back.  

 

This is my plea to all in the churches in ministry proclaiming Jesus Christ.  Teach His love, His mercy, His promises kept, His power, His Spirit in healing and empowering.  Stop sending our beloved daughters and sons into dark rooms with wounds or emptiness to the hands of healing they so desperately seek but are not in His Name. Let them come to His power, Spirit, presence, healing, love and wholeness the way He started the church, by the powerful wind of His Spirit.  Let our children find it taught, given and provided for them.   No more inflicting wounds of condemnation, because it has been removed.  Instead, offer hands of healing, words of love, the vibrations of His Holy Spirit moving through them and balms of oils that anoint, bless and give life and hope in a near and real relationship with God that once and for all fulfills them. 

 

As the huge growth of Christianity continues in Eastern cultures, the irony is that people here are going to the Eastern practices that the East is leaving.  My interpretation of this is that the message of Christ has been distorted here.  It had not taught the power through His Spirit that they so desperately seek or the peace of His love, breathing Him in.  

 

I think of when we train our pets.  I can get them to obey by scolding them, but they will not want to be near me or walk with me.  But, when I train them in love, rewarding them but also letting them know where the boundaries are, we are in a relationship and the trust and nearness in that is good for them and for me.  

 

As Job’s friends considered themselves friends of Job, they tried to help, but had misunderstood.  They were causing more hurt than help.  They themselves were not understanding the LORD and hadn’t had a close and trusting relationship with the LORD. Their message was as good as it could be for what they had.  

 

Yet, Job knew and revered God enough not to curse Him.  God drew near to Job and let Job know Who He was as Job drew near to Him even in his complaints.  That’s relationship.

 

Following this time, Job understood God for himself.  Instead of being angry with his friends for their wrong take on who God was in relationship to his suffering by ending their friendship, he remained friends and prayed for them.  He prayed for the ones that added a little more misery and misguidance.  He forgave them.  What followed is beautiful.  It says that God blessed Job.  As Job came into a fuller relationship with God and prayed for those that caused him hurt by showing love and the power of God, it says that God gave Job double blessing of what he had before and the most beautiful daughters.

Job 42:15  Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers

 

In praying for our churches and leaders we have had over our life time that may have added more misery than mercy, we don’t take a place of judgment, but rather, some of them really didn’t know any better.  It was taught from what they knew.  If they weren’t in the full relationship and power of His Spirit, they couldn’t teach it or offer it.  

 

As we pray for them I know that the LORD will bring blessing.  We release the wounds, we move freely with Him and knowing Him and our daughters will be beautiful.  Don’t let your past hurts from church keep your daughters and sons from knowing His love, His freedom, His peace, His presence, His power and their value in Him.  Let’s grant our daughters and sons their inheritance.

 

If you are looking for churches that offer more in way of healing through the Holy Spirit, I recommend in the Twin Cities area groups that are called SOZO.  It is a Hebrew word for healing and deliverance.  These are a few that I am familiar with.

Hosanna! in Lakeville, MN

The Blessing House in Victoria, MN

Also, there are small groups all over the Twin Cities for women on hearing God and living in His power through Arise! Women’s Ministry.  You can get more information on this organization and other things that they do here.

 

 

Help Me to Trust You

Help me to trust You!

 

My plea came out of hurt.  My plea came out of painful trials.  I reacted in the trial as an indignant, spoiled child.  It was hard and I didn’t think I deserved it.  I searched why I was so hurt, why I was so afraid.  I wasn’t trusting Him in this kind of hardship. 

 

I asked Him to prove Himself, to show me that I can trust Him.  In a way it was manipulative and angry, coming out of hurting and fear.  I wanted Him to show me He was good.  That I could trust.  I expected Him to remove the pain and hardship and give me security in the way I wanted to see it.  

 

He did begin to do the things I had hoped for.  He showed mercy.  Mercy in His grace because what I was asking for came out of my motives of self gratification and earthly security.  And even in that place of asking, He was answering me. I couldn’t reflect on this or even recognize it until He showed me the other...

 

As I listened to a song, the realization of God becoming man from His great holiness to someone like me in great lowliness was never more real.  I closed my eyes and sensed deep within me His transition from the breath of Creator to the breath of a babe.  His beauty and might to something so fragile and meek.  I felt His descent into flesh.  It was as though I was there amidst His Spirit’s transition.  It was so real.  I felt all the universe watching with me in darkened, reverent silence.

 

Then, I saw Him.  He was on the cross.  His head crowned in thorns and hanging down.    He slowly lifted and turned His head and  looked up at me with His blood wet face and eyes filled with love and longing.  He looked right into my eyes as if saying, “For you,” and then slowly lowered his head again.  

 

I cried like I never had before.

 

It is everything.  It is what He did, truly what He has done that is my place of trust.  There is no greater love than that.  No greater desire for my well-being than that act of incredible love.  That is the place of my trust.  That is it, in its purest form.  No act can compare to that kind of faithfulness and love.  Yet, He was showing me mercy even in my original heart of selfish fear to prove I could trust Him by doing some of the things I wanted.  

 

The comparison of that kind of humble love and mercy even to satisfy my selfish want reaches me to a depth within that I had not known went so deep.  Deeper than my person, His mercy and love is made known.  In an imperfect, self-centered request, as my mistrust were thorns upon His head, He fulfilled answering my desires and in His loveliness, He showed me the ultimate depth of His love to mine.

 

Who is this LORD that we were made for such love?  One Who walks with us, carries us and selflessly shows one so weak how strong He is. By His Love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8   Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. ⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Philippians 2:5-8   Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.  

Soul Food For Your Prayer Life

 

 

Sometimes one person can say something that changes the way you do life.  Just over twenty years ago, one of those times happened.  A young mom shared a story.  Her daughter had nearly drowned and was in route by ambulance to a hospital.  She talked about how in the past, whenever she would see ambulances, she always said a prayer for the people needing them and for the workers on them.  Her thought of how she prayed for ambulances brought her comfort as she believed others were praying for her little girl now in one herself.  She held to those thoughts and comfort and hope.  Her daughter was fully revived and did not suffer any losses.

 

This was a new beginning for me.  I had never thought to say a prayer in those cases.  I began to.  I prayed for police.  I would pray for those in a hospital that I drove past. Then I took it further to other places, situations and people.  I especially prayed for kids that were in the school I passed or for kids playing, walking or biking down a side walk. 

   

One time in particular, I saw a little boy standing on a street corner by a main road.  His mom was taking a picture of him.  It looked like he may have been at a bus stop.  He was dressed up like one of the characters from The Blues Brothers and he resembled Jake, John Belushi’s character. He was a little shorter and rounder.  He wore a hat and sunglasses and he held a saxophone.  I prayed for him.

 

As I prayed in the Spirit the prayer became stronger than I had any mind for as I continued driving down the road.   I was surprised by the intensity of the prayer and I wondered why I cared so much for this little boy as I drove down the street on my way to work.  Sometimes God would move like that as I prayed for people.

 

My Mom told me she always prayed for people in airplanes when she would see one.  She thought of people going to see a sick relative or going to a funeral, for people on business or on vacation.  She lived near an airport so she was busy.

 

 Praying for strangers began to be a part of my every day.

 

When our daughter was in her late teens she started dating a boy.  They both were on the school swim teams.  He didn’t share the same faith as she did, but she told him that if he wanted to date her, he had to go to church with her.  He agreed.  He was interested in her enough to make the effort.

 

He was a gifted musician and enjoyed the music at the church.  During one of the songs, he was moved.  The words, “LORD, reign in me” became his heart’s request.  He came to Christ in that moment and through the music.  Later, he would play with our worship team.

 

After they had been dating for a while they started to talk about when they were kids.  They both had said they were shorter than most of the other kids back then and slightly over-weight.  It was hard to believe.  They were both now thin and he was super tall.  They each went and located their pictures from that time and were looking through them.  She was laughing and said, “Mom, you have to see these.”

 

I went through his stack of photos and there he was.  There was the photo of the little boy I had driven by years before dressed as a Blues Brother holding his saxophone.   He was standing at the street sign that I remembered having been driving by.   I was astonished!  I had prayed for him!  God had a plan on his life and I got to be a part of a moment in time to pray along and over this child that the LORD loved so much.

 

One moment given.

 

One moment partnered with God can change lives.

  

 It changed my life in a way of faith and purpose.  

 

As they got older they no longer dated, but he continued to attend the church.  As a young man, he got up and shared his testimony of how he came to Jesus during one of the worship songs.  He even has a tattoo that says, “Lord, reign in me” with a cross.  His gift of music and his saxophone has blessed that church many times and later he married a woman that had attended that church, too.

 

The blessing of God letting me see a result of a prayer for a stranger has impacted me for the rest of my life.  I know the prayers are heard.  I know He loves all of those we see and come across.  Your place, your timing, and the people around you have purpose.  

 

 Live in your purpose.  Live in love.

 

I shared this story with a group of women five years ago.  As I shared, one woman in particular gasped.  She was back in the states on a missionary furlough.  She was obviously moved by the story.  Just two weeks ago, on another furlough from their work in Sri Lanka, her husband approached me.  He told me that he shares that story I told of one prayer to everyone he gets to meet in Sri Lanka.  

 

One prayer.

One story.

 

You matter.  Your prayers matter.  Your words matter.  Your life has the ability for great purpose. God hears and He moves.  Be encouraged today that you and your prayers matter.  Believe.  There is hope. 

 

 Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.