Sometimes it is the simple things that are the most profound. There is no other God besides Him, tell me what other god gives you His care for earthly cares? Come to the Great Shepherd, allow Jesus to tenderly care for you – trust, surrender, yield these cares to Him and “leave them there”, for He knows your frame and remembers you are but dust.
The Lord is calling you into a deeper realm of trust – it’s a place of abiding in Him, here there is no fear, no worry, no lack, no need, just His tenderness that fills our weaknesses with more of Himself. Go lower still and allow yourself to become more fully dependent upon Him, for this is the most beautiful and profound exchange – His care for our cares. If you are humble enough to trust Him and surrender these cares, and LEAVE THEM with Him, it means they are no longer with you. This is the place you were meant for, union with Him that allows you to ascend above the earthly weights and cares. Thank you Jesus.
“Pour out all your worries and stress upon him and leave them there, for he always tenderly cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 TPT
“Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. [Ps. 55:22.]” 1 Peter 5:7 AMPC
“As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe]. For He knows our frame, He [earnestly] remembers and imprints [on His heart] that we are dust.” Psalm 103:13-14 AMPC
“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 AMPC
Revival 101. You constrict and confine the Holy Spirit when you do not yield your schedule to Him. From the pulpit to the secret place of your heart, from the greatest to the least, we must yield and make room for Him. Who wants to be rushed at a banquet, who wants to hurry through the experience of a fine dining meal?
There are often adopted attitudes that if the Holy Spirit comes, then we will yield. That is not how it works, for it is through our yielding and surrender the Holy Spirit is welcomed; and in faith, response, and reverence we host Him for however long He desires to move and dwell among us. A simple shift in thinking will make all the difference.
I’ve been a “church goer” all my life, and as I was taught from a young age to honor and move with the Holy Spirit, this is an area I’ve watched wane even in the most “spirit filled” atmospheres. Who does time belong to? The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof… we must truly give it ALL back to Him.
The Lord says today, “if you give Him time, He will restore it!”.
The root of the word time is “to divide”. When we give time back to the Lord, He rightly divides, and we stay in sync with the Spirit. We must remain in Him in Spirit and in Truth. He moves beyond the limitations (of space and time) and brings us into His perfect will in the moment leading unto movement and momentum. Faster than a perceived second, anything and everything can change. This type of yielding is what lends us unto redemption and restoration, as there is no loss in this giving. What was lost, now becomes found.
“My son, if you will take the time to stop and listen to me and embrace what I say, you will live a long and happy life full of understanding in every way.” Proverbs 4:10 TPT
“The one I love calls to me: Arise, my dearest. Hurry, my darling. Come away with me! I have come as you have asked to draw you to my heart and lead you out. For now is the time, my beautiful one. The season has changed, the bondage of your barren winter has ended, and the season of hiding is over and gone. The rains have soaked the earth and left it bright with blossoming flowers. The season for singing and pruning the vines has arrived. I hear the cooing of doves in our land, filling the air with songs to awaken you and guide you forth. Can you not discern this new day of destiny breaking forth around you? The early signs of my purposes and plans are bursting forth. The budding vines of new life are now blooming everywhere. The fragrance of their flowers whispers, “There is change in the air.” Arise, my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place. For now is the time to arise and come away with me. For you are my dove, hidden in the split-open rock. It was I who took you and hid you up high in the secret stairway of the sky. Let me see your radiant face and hear your sweet voice. How beautiful your eyes of worship and lovely your voice in prayer. You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship. For they raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I’ve planted within you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together.” Song of Songs 2:10-15 TPT
Faith will offend the mind of religion, however without faith we offend the mind (heart) of God.
This is the very difference of choice between pleasing God or pleasing man.
“But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. Hebrews 11:6 AMPC
While “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1), faith is also our foundation of union with the Trinity. Jesus is the doorway to access the Father, the Holy Spirit is the presence who emanates the attributes and character of the Father. Faith declares we have given God, the all sufficient One, a home, a preeminent place to dwell in our heart. An acronym was quickened to my spirit when I saw the word faith, “Father Abides In The Home”, we belong to Him and He belongs to us.
Doubt, who is the twin face of fear, is the enemy of faith and is so offensive to God because it is as if you are willingly allowing a thief into the home that belongs to Him. Disbelief dishonors the first commandment, and compromises covenant; it accuses the heart of God and His nature. Denying Jesus at the doorway of our hearts is the ultimate robbery of mankind. It is the very sin of Adam and Eve that brought disconnection to humanity.
Jesus leads us unto restoration to the Father’s heart as the Holy Spirit continues to whoo and draw us in, closer and deeper into holy realms of the Love within the chambers of the Father’s heart that reconnect us to the Bosom from which we were born. True union and fellowship is found here, this is abiding in the Vine, our life flow from the Father to the Son to the Spirit.
Father Abides In The Home
In His House we honor the Name above all Names – and we do it by faith, hope, love, trust, listening, and obeying. We do not share the glory in the home with intruders. We do not dine with fear and doubt at His table. How offensive indeed.
“I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah 42:8 KJV
““Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” Jesus answered him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’ This is the great and supreme commandment.” Matthew 22:36-38 TPT
Do not be deceived. Gifting is not the mark or sign of maturity, it is the renewed mind transformed by Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit that marks a person unto maturity. (1 Corinthians chapters 1-3)
All of creation is longing, and even groaning with expectation for the revealing of God’s mature sons and daughters (Romans 8: 22,23). Maturity is not even always a measure of natural experience inasmuch as it is a supernaturally transformed mind. In other words, the revealed mindsets of Christ that are adhered to will always supersede man’s natural experience – hence the phrase “this person is very spiritually mature”, which is not based on age alone.
Once again, the evidence of gifting is not the sign of maturity, it is the adopted / transfused mindset of Christ. If you want to be a new man, you need a new mind – the mind of Christ.
Growing in gifting is profitable, however renewing your mind supersedes the fruit of the gifts abilities. To be spiritually mature is to think as Christ.
A beautiful picture is the crown of thorns that our Lord wore upon His head. What a magnificent inheritance we have; a mind of life in exchange for the mind of death. Riches too incomprehensible, though can be received all by changing one’s mind.
For too many years we focused on how we can be great for God instead of how can we die to allow Christ to flow through us.
I wrote the above last week, and I believe it’s something worth pondering in our pursuit of loving and knowing God and His ways.
For many the heart was right however we were “taught” wrong. I praise the Lord for those who are redirecting that narrative, and those who will yield to the purity of the message.
When we focus on being great for God we will always come short, because the Gospel was and never is about our greatness but rather the greatness of God. This is how many burn out, especially in ministry as exhaustion sets in from ‘not being enough’.
As Paul writes in Ephesians, “be empowered through your union with Him”, oneness with Jesus is the only way to truly experiencing a fulfilled life. You will do great things, but through divine union with Him otherwise you will be named a goat at the end of the age. It is never about works alone, but rather letting the Worker move through you, it is a beautiful holy partnership with the Lord. Everything Jesus said to us through His Word is perfectly attainable through the power of the Holy Spirit.
May we never cease to remember it is Christ in us the hope of glory. If there be any thing to glory about, may it be that the life we live and have found is IN Christ. He is the Life, we are a branch on the Vine and are truly blessed when we bear fruit – many may see it and enjoy it, but may we never forget the Source of that fruit.
“I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing.” John 15:5 AMPC
🎵 How Great Thou Art 🎶
Oh Lord, my God When I, in awesome wonder Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe displayed
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art
And when I think that God, His Son not sparing Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing He bled and died to take away my sin
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art
When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart Then I shall bow, in humble adoration And then proclaim, my God, how great Thou art
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee How great Thou art, how great Thou art How great Thou art, how great Thou art
Upon graduation from Bible College many years ago I was full of zeal, vision, and (some) knowledge. I thought Jesus and I were leaving to go conquer the world… His words to me some months later as I was making plans for my next steps have forever marked me. It’s the basis of my life’s journey thereafter and testimony – “Die to your dreams and visions so I can resurrect them”. And off to “the desert” I went… I had received Vision, but now in greater depth I would learn how to empty myself. Life begins when we end. All life is in Him! Death has always been the start of my life, a paradox indeed! But when you catch His vision, you will be free. As I have been learning over the years, I may say it a few different ways, but the simplicity of the message and dire need of it in the Body will never cease.
As we are transformed by Him, we continue to behold Him; we look and keep on looking just we ask and keep on asking. He is the daily Bread, and daily we must die. However in daily death we find daily resurrection! Jesus is the Life you are searching for, apart from Him we can do nothing.
Surrender is not a one time prayer, but a daily necessity in the believer’s life.
I ask you this question (and to myself as well), “Is the Lord living His life through you today”?
“For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.” Acts 17:28 AMPC
“I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Galatians 2:20 AMPC
“My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine!” Galatians 2:20 TPT
“And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].” Luke 9:23 AMPC
Humility is not self condemning or angst against one’s self. Humility is emptying yourself as Christ emptied Himself, so that He, Christ in you may be glorified in which ever and any way He chooses to express Himself. In other words, personal humility is lowliness (empty of self will) so that Christ may have His full expression through your life.
Mature sons ans daughters allow Christ’s full expression through their lives, as they have come to realize it is pride not to – for if they do not yield it is still a measure of one’s self protecting or preserving even when they have the best intentions to ‘be humble’.
I have struggled with this for many years, friends (and I’m still working on it). But the sooner it clicks and the mindset shifts, you will be free. There’s no freer place on earth than in surrender. Staying small in the name of humility is not helping the Kingdom of God, nor is it bringing the Lamb the full reward for His suffering. Refusing the Lord to work through you or the avoidance of for fear of pride is yet still pride. Humility is a true understanding that it is all about the Lamb – surrendering as a yielded vessel to allow His ways, His voice, His works and His plans be accomplished through you. You are now the tent in which He dwells!
“Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility:] Who, although being essentially one with God and in the form of God [possessing the fullness of the attributes which make God God], did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained, But stripped Himself [of all privileges and rightful dignity], so as to assume the guise of a servant (slave), in that He became like men and was born a human being. And after He had appeared in human form, He abased and humbled Himself [still further] and carried His obedience to the extreme of death, even the death of the cross! Therefore [because He stooped so low] God has highly exalted Him and has freely bestowed on Him the name that is above every name,” Philippians 2:5-9 AMPC
“However, let him who boasts and glories boast and glory in the Lord. [Jer. 9:24.] For [it is] not [the man] who praises and commends himself who is approved and accepted, but [it is the person] whom the Lord accredits and commends.” 2 Corinthians 10:17-18 AMPC
“There is a divine mystery—a secret surprise that has been concealed from the world for generations, but now it’s being revealed, unfolded and manifested for every holy believer to experience. Living within you is the Christ who floods you with the expectation of glory! This mystery of Christ, embedded within us, becomes a heavenly treasure chest of hope filled with the riches of glory for his people, and God wants everyone to know it! Christ is our message! We preach to awaken hearts and bring every person into the full understanding of truth. It has become my inspiration and passion in ministry to labor with a tireless intensity, with his power flowing through me, to present to every believer the revelation of being his perfect one in Jesus Christ.” Colossians 1:26-29 TPT
“The mystery of which was hidden for ages and generations [from angels and men], but is now revealed to His holy people (the saints), To whom God was pleased to make known how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ within and among you, the Hope of [realizing the] glory. Him we preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing everyone and instructing everyone in all wisdom (comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God), that we may present every person mature (full-grown, fully initiated, complete, and perfect) in Christ (the Anointed One). For this I labor [unto weariness], striving with all the superhuman energy which He so mightily enkindles and works within me.” Colossians 1:26-29 AMPC
Tetelestai “It is finished” ~ Jesus’ shed blood finishes everything, beginning to the end 🩸 Thank you beautiful Lamb of God, you are life to me.
“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17 NKJV
The Father of lights gave us Heaven’s choicest gift, the Light of the world, the spotless Lamb. In Him there is no darkness, therefore darkness could not hold Him. Thank you Father for sending Your Son, it truly is a Good Friday! The Lamb, the Light, the Redeemer restored what was lost through the darkness of sin.
Today we remember when You Jesus humbled Yourself to the point of death on the cross, and became sin for us. There would be no eternal life or light without You. Thank you for the unimaginable pain and suffering you endured for us. Words will never suffice, though we thank You Lord for taking the darkness of the world, the very grip of sin and death itself that we may experience Your Life. You are and forever will be the perfect Lamb of God!
The believers purpose has always been to know, experience, and see God (Jesus) so they may reveal Him.
A few months back we taped an episode on The Christian View, “Living A Life On Purpose”. When I was preparing for this episode I looked up the word purpose in the Greek, prothithemai. Purpose is defined as: a setting forth, proposal, the showbread, sacred (bread), and in Help’s word studies purpose is defined as providence – literally, “a setting forth in advance for a specific purpose (“God’s pre-thesis”).
The setting forth of a thing, placing it in view. Here we see without vision we perish, as the Lord God’s instructions symbolically were to ‘set the Lord before them’ as a type and shadow of Christ through the Bread of Presence, though they did not know it yet. “You shall set the bread of the Presence (showbread) on the table before Me at all times.” Exodus 25:30
In the Old Testament the showbread (also called the Bread of Presence, in Hebrew literally translated bread of faces) was displayed on the Table of Showbread on the north side of the Holy Place on the right in the Tabernacle and later Temple. This was consecrated bread that represented the 12 tribes of Israel. Every seven days (sabbath day) the 12 loaves were replaced with fresh loaves, with the days old loaves given to the priests to eat who served in the Temple. Jesus was there all along, waiting to be revealed, waiting for the time of completion. The 12 loaves also symbolic of the 12 apostles Jesus would reveal Himself to, showing Himself to them as the unveiled High Priest who made a way for personal communion, so every tribe and tongue would see Him too, the mission of the Gospel.
Purpose, then vision … taste and see. In our natural world most all will not taste something unless they see it first, though in the Spirit realm it is the opposite. In Heaven’s Kingdom, when a person tastes that the Lord is good, it is then they have opened sight.
I think of the prophet Moses, the very one the Lord gave the instructions for the Tabernacle. He was not perfect, but he did get a lot right (most things in my opinion simply because of his love and fear of the Lord) and most importantly he was a “presence man”. Even then, in the old covenant it was not God’s intention to be separated from man, it was man who was afraid of God. “Now all the people witnessed the thunder and the flashes of lightning and the sound of the trumpet and the smoking mountain; and as they looked, the people were afraid, and they trembled [and moved backward] and stood at a [safe] distance. Then they said to Moses, “You speak to us and we will listen, but do not let God speak to us or we will die.” Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him [that is, a profound reverence for Him] will remain with you, so that you do not sin.” So the people stood at a [safe] distance, but Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.” Exodus 20:18-21 AMP.
Perhaps Moses personal transfiguration with the shekinah glory of God, enabled him to later appear before Christ on the Mt. of Transfiguration with Elijah, where he was finally able to see the promise land by beholding Jesus in the natural realm. Perhaps a gift of Heaven, because he was not afraid of the presence of God but he boldly pursued the very face of God, perhaps he had already seen Jesus as no one comes to the Father except through Him. Heaven sent God’s one and only perfect and sinless Son, Jesus in flesh in the New Testament, divine and incarnate. Perhaps Moses was able to stand like an Aaron and Hur, and say to His Lord, you are the High Priest the firstborn among many, ‘holding up His human arms’ in a sense, that would soon spread on the beam of a cross to suffer and die yet to win the victory over all defeats, even the grave itself. The law would soon be fulfilled, and redemption was underway (Moses – law and covenant fulfilled, and Elijah – restoration of the Father’s heart).
Jesus came from the lineage of King David, and David was the only non-priest that ever ate the showbread and lived. It was David who said, “I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” Psalm 16:8 KJV. Perhaps David saw Jesus too, I personally believe he had the revelation. David’s “north” was the Lord, and positionally just as it was in the Tabernacle the Bread of Face was at his right side. “Jesus replied to them, “I am the Bread of Life. The one who comes to Me will never be hungry, and the one who believes in Me [as Savior] will never be thirsty [for that one will be sustained spiritually].” John 6:35 AMP
We are to be life as Jesus is the bread of life. “It is through him that we live and function and have our identity; just as your own poets have said, ‘Our lineage comes from him.’” Acts 17:28 TPT. THIS IS OUR DIVINE PURPOSE. A place where our faces meet and have communion with Jesus, to be transfigured by His glorious frame ~ we shall never thirst and never be hungry. When we accept the invitation and dine with the Bread of Life, naturally we should should invite others, because this is mankind’s purpose, to know Him. Jesus is home, He is “north” and when we live from this place of Kingdom sight, we can feed others with purpose when we understand our own identity in Him, though it will never replace the personal communion those we have invited are intended to have.
This is the Divine Proposal, taste and see the Lord is good. He set the table in the Old Testament, and it was fulfilled in the New. Do you believe Jesus the Messiah is the Bread of Life? From old covenant to new, He has always pursued you. Have you accepted His proposal? And if you have accepted this proposal do you live in such a way as a devoted Bride preparing for her Bridegroom King?
As we enter into Holy Week, the Bread of Presence, our purpose of communion, is a beautiful reminder to think upon the Bread (the Lord’s body) that was broken for you and the Wine (His spilt blood). While eternal life is to know Him, it was a most costly sacrifice when the darling of Heaven was crucified for you to have and experience a personal relationship to readily commune with Him. He is the Bread and Wine, and there is no other way by which we may truly know Him.
“Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true [supreme and sovereign] God, and [in the same manner know] Jesus [as the] Christ whom You have sent.” John 17:3 AMP
“But as it is, Christ has acquired a [priestly] ministry which is more excellent [than the old Levitical priestly ministry], for He is the Mediator (Arbiter) of a better covenant [uniting God and man], which has been enacted and rests on better promises.” Hebrews 8:6 AMP
“Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts! And in love he chose us before he laid the foundation of the universe! Because of his great love, he ordained us, so that we would be seen as holy in his eyes with an unstained innocence. For it was always in his perfect plan to adopt us as his delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so that his tremendous love that cascades over us would glorify his grace —for the same love he has for the Beloved, Jesus, he has for us. And this unfolding plan brings him great pleasure! Since we are now joined to Christ, we have been given the treasures of redemption by his blood—the total cancellation of our sins—all because of the cascading riches of his grace. This superabundant grace is already powerfully working in us, releasing all forms of wisdom and practical understanding. And through the revelation of the Anointed One, he unveiled his secret desires to us—the hidden mystery of his long-range plan, which he was delighted to implement from the very beginning of time. And because of God’s unfailing purpose, this detailed plan will reign supreme through every period of time until the fulfillment of all the ages finally reaches its climax—when God makes all things new in all of heaven and earth through Jesus Christ. Through our union with Christ we too have been claimed by God as his own inheritance. Before we were even born, he gave us our destiny; that we would fulfill the plan of God who always accomplishes every purpose and plan in his heart. God’s purpose was that we Jews, who were the first to long for the messianic hope, would be the first to believe in the Anointed One and bring great praise and glory to God! And because of him, when you who are not Jews heard the revelation of truth, you believed in the wonderful news of salvation. Now we have been stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. He is given to us like an engagement ring, as the first installment of what’s coming! He is our hope-promise of a future inheritance which seals us until we have all of redemption’s promises and experience complete freedom—all for the supreme glory and honor of God!” Ephesians 1:3-14 TPT
If there be any Spirit to possess me, may it be the Holy possession of Love! For if I have not Love, I am nothing. Without Love, I give breath to the wrong spirit. May I decrease that You may increase in me Lord!
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” I Corinthians 13:1-3 NKJV
“He must increase, but I must decrease. [He must grow more prominent; I must grow less so.] [Isa. 9:7.]” John 3:30 AMPC
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