“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.  You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.  You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.  You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.  Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,  Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me;  Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.”   Psalm 139:1-12

He knows exactly where you are today.  You can’t run from Him.  There is no place that you have been or will ever be that will be hidden from Him.  He sees you.  You are not invisible, even though you may feel like it right now or  felt that way your entire life…..  You are perfectly seen and perfectly loved.  

You are not too far gone for Him and you are not a hopeless case for Him.  I’m sure Joseph (Genesis 37-45) felt that way when his own brothers left him in that pit to die.  I’m sure he felt completely abandoned, rejected, and hopeless…..  but God…..had a plan that no man could understand nor see.  God knew the greatness He had placed within Joseph.  God knew the fortitude and strength he had been given, for God’s confidence rested in that He had always been with Joseph and He would always be with Him……sounds like another familiar story of a son, rejected, forsaken to die a cruel death….oh, my dear friends,  He can understand where you are better than anyone….  He has already walked this path, your path, and nothing comes as a surprise to your Father.  His wisdom exceeds all wisdom.  He was left to die, forsaken with our sin, and He still chose to die for you.  But the news gets even better…..He also ROSE AGAIN!!!  He rose again so that you can partake of His resurrection power!  You don’t have to stay in the pit, He has given you His resurrection power to come up out of that pit just as He called another one of His friends…..

 Then Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.  But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”  Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”  Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”  Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.  And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world”…… Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”….. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”….. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me.  And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.”  Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”  Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.  John 11:21-45

No matter what pit you are in today, just like Joseph, you can be sure that you are not out of God’s sight, His reach, His love, and His plan.   And just like Lazarus, He has been there all along.  And by His resurrection power today He declares over you, “Rise again!  Come forth today in His power, be loosed and freed in Jesus Name.”  He is the resurrection and the life, you can run to Him, trust Him, know that He has heard you and has never been far from you.  There is no death that can contain you, no pit that can hold you, and no devil in hell that can separate you from His love!  You must make the decision today that what He did for you is enough and believe Him and run to Him!  Just as Betsie ten Boom (Corrie ten Boom’s sister, a Christian, who was taken captive along with her entire family to  Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany, for helping Christians) believed and once said, “There is no pit so deep, that God’s love is not deeper still.” 

Come forth today my friends…..His love is calling

“We love him, because he first loved us.”  1 John 4:19

You are deeply, perfectly, and beautifully loved.

You have been loved supernaturally your entire life.  Not a day has gone by that you have not been thought of in the highest regard and with the most tender of thoughts.  You have been cherished and enjoyed by the most captive audience.  You have been longed for and missed, anticipated and celebrated.  You are loved.

Not how you have been loved on this Earth.  Not defined by human hands.  By the hands of your Father.

For some, humans have tainted the way one sees love, misrepresented the way of love and perverted its path.  For others, this selfishness called love has created an image of a God that loves in a warped way.  One that requires something, demands, or is even cruel, harsh and twisted.  A love that is really not love at all…..

It is just an attribute of humanness that got labeled incorrectly, or a fabrication of religiousness devoid of truth and power.

Love, rightly defined, is DIVINE.  God is love.  You can not manufacture it on your own, you cannot fake it, you cannot even perform it, unless perhaps you have encountered it….

Encountered Him that is……You shall be changed.  You shall be transformed.  You shall be renewed.  The You that you always longed for is accomplished in His complete love.  The freedom you dreamed of can be found nestled within His embrace.  It is the safe haven of your heart.  The longing of the soul.  The desire of the world.

An encounter with love transforms your life completely.  You begin to see yourself differently because you understand the world based upon how He sees it.  That means that you love yourself because you now understand how He loves you.  You love your neighbor differently because you understand just how much God loves them.  And, you can love even your enemies with His power.

In fact,  just as you see in movies with superheroes, when you begin to receive and understand God’s love for you, you begin to see life with supernatural acuity.  As with x-ray vision, you begin to see right through people’s actions and manipulations and gaze upon their hearts, their pain, their need, and the lies that they believe.  You begin to hear, as with supersonic ears, the deep longings of the soul, the cries in the dark, and the longings of the heart.  And as with supernatural strength, you are able to help others lift off the heaviest of burdens with gentle ease, release forgiveness to those who assault you with their guns of bitterness, their knives of hatred, and their arrows of revenge.  You are now able to love the way that Jesus loved you in your pain, hopelessness, bitterness, and selfishness…..freely.

Receive His love today.  It cost Him everything to bring it to you.  It costs you nothing to receive it.  Freely you have received, freely you CAN receive it, and then freely give…..

If you will allow me to, I want to honor my mother.  One year ago today, she died suddenly of a heart attack in her home; she was 63 years old.  This has been a very painful and devastating year for myself and my family as we have walked out our grief, but thanks be to God, not without hope.

My mother had a good heart and she always made sure I was active in church.  She is the one who taught me of Jesus!  She was very prophetic, she loved her family, she loved the Lord, was a great hair dresser and cook, and she had a marvelous sense of humor.  She is greatly missed.

The Lord brought this song to my heart and said to me that this is the song that my mother sings now in Heaven!  This is the overflowing love of a heart that is truly free and face to face with Him.  Oh, how I am rejoicing with her today!  She is completely free in every way!  She is completely happy!  She is at complete peace and rest!  She is complete in Him!

“Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.  We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.  According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep.  For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” 

1 Thess. 4:13-17

Like me, if you are grieving the loss of someone you dearly love, know that you are not alone.  There is a God who deeply loves you and has made a way for you to have hope.  He can meet you in your lonely and devastated place and speak amazing love to your heart….

He also declares over you today a way for a  NEW HOPE…an eternity filled with complete peace and freedom.  Hope for life abundant, now!  And even, hope for those left to grieve your passing when He calls you home.  Jesus is the answer to complete Hope.  He holds the keys to death, Hell, and the grave because He conquered them!  And this is the same God, through Jesus’ salvation that will be with you always.

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you WILL be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”  Romans 10:  9-13

Oh, when we see Him face to face how we will thank Him!  So, if we can thank Him THEN, then we can thank Him NOW!  If we can thank Him for his deliverance when the freedom is complete, then we can thank Him NOW!!  Join with me today and make this song your anthem!

Thank Him for WHO HE IS!  He is worthy!

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

He gives us His roadmap to rest in this passage.  Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”  John 14:6

1. Come to Me.  He has made a way within His presence to rest.  You first must make the decision to come to Him.  He bids you to let Him give you rest….. not your friends, not a book, not a vacation (though helpful!), not perfect living, and not even Calgon!  He says to come to ME.
2. Take my yoke.  He has provided a supernatural yoke that is easy and light and will bring you life.  The enemy loves to assign false yokes to you through obligation, guilt, fear, shame, etc.  He loves for you to believe that there is a yoke that is more sufficient and satisfying than that of the Lords.  Consequently, you pick it up and walk under its weight.  This zaps your life and power because you must be so concentrated on relief from the weight that you miss what’s really all around you.  By faith, you can release all false yokes today in Jesus and pick up the one true yoke that will free your soul.  Ask God to reveal them to you….
3. Learn from me.  He has availed himself as your personal truth.  However, you must approach Him with a teachable attitude, ready to receive.  Often times bitterness, pride, fatigue, frustration and offense keep one from being “teachable” towards anyone or anything….. even God.  To receive rest, you must humble yourself to Him and that means being open to His answers.  For years I used to try to teach God.  When I desperately needed help in my life, I had to learn to lay down all that I thought I knew and request a new knowledge.  It was then that I really began to learn.  His wisdom was abundant, it was my unteachable nature that had and has to continually diminish.

There is a place of rest where the weary and heavy laden can go.  A place of peace, hope, and joy.  He bids you to come…. He bids me to come…..to complete REST in Him.

” Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”  Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.  The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”  Deut. 31:6-8

New life.  New comfort.  New strength.  New purpose.  New vision.  New encounters.  New declaration of His goodness today.

He is washing away all of the old as you choose to move forward.  He goes before you and will be with you.  Make your decision today to release 2010 and receive grace for 2011.  You can’t go back and do-over the past, but you can choose today to follow Him into your future.  Resist the temptation to look back and let those events scare you out of your future.  And don’t look forward so as to let the “What If” events keep you from moving at all.  Just put one foot in front of the other and move today in faith.  Put action to one thing you have neglected, longed for, dreamed about, hoped for or desired.  Just one step.  Then, let that momentum propel you into future actions.  Just pick one area to follow Him forward in.  Go ahead, cross the Jordan with Joshua and believe God for all that He has promised.  He makes ALL things new, so choose today to follow Him FORWARD!

Imagine for a minute this merciless state.  You awaken to a harsh desert.  People are wandering throughout looking to you for the answers to their needs.  Whether you come up with answers or not you are judged at every front and you awaken to constant scrutiny and complaining.  There is this constant requirement to give and to perform, perfectionism is the accepted standard, and no matter how hard you try, your perfect is never perfect enough.  You never know how to get ahead or to even matter in this barren place.  It seems like everyone wants something from you, everyone wants it now and no matter how hard you try to fulfill the constant demands placed upon you, you fear you will always come up short.  Now you’ve begun to question your own abilities or even your own sanity.  The passion that once led your life has now drained from you and you are ruled by constant obligation.  Pressure, pressure, pressure is all around with no relief in sight.  The more you resist the louder it moans, “Give, give, give, more, more, more….I am the bill collector of your soul.”

You go to sleep and wake up the next day, still in the desert, but beside a beautiful stream of flowing water.  The stream brings you everything you will ever need.  It carries your needs and suprises you with your wants.  You never know from day-to-day what will be delivered to you.  If someone needs something from you, you never worry about meeting the need because you know that the stream will bring whatever is demanded of you.  There is no pressure because you know that you are not the supply, however,  you are confident of your provision.  Your heart dreams, you are at peace and rest, everything is so light and easier with the stream.    You hear its gentle whisper…. “I am everything  you will ever need, your constant supply, the lover of your soul.  Your bill is paid in full.”

“For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of water…”  Is. 35:6b-7a

Jesus came to completely pay the bill that the law required.  The bill is paid in full.  Not everyone knows that it is paid in full, so they still demand payment from people, even from themselves.  The law is the demanding desert and this nightmare is the reality of those who continue to live according to the law.  The good news is that Jesus is the supply, He is the stream.  Wake up today beside the stream….He is your supply.

“And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.  And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock: 

And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him. 

Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.  David said moreover,

The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

And Saul said unto David, Go , and the LORD be with thee.”  1 Samuel 17:33-37

Ever felt trapped, option-less, bullied, hopeless, or even backed in a corner?  I am confident that these tactics can challenge the most prepared saints and have the potential to drain every ounce of the Divine fight out of you if you allow this demonic strategy to prevail.  I am here to proclaim to you today that you are not trapped!  You have many options awaiting you in Jesus!  Your hope may be misplaced; but this too can be remedied!  And if you are backed in a corner today then YOU CAN COME OUT FIGHTING!!!  Your God has not turned a deaf ear to you.  Today is your day.  Just as a lion and a bear came out after a lamb entrusted to David’s flock, and he went out after them, smote them, and delivered the lamb, so can you! 

Has the beast now turned and is after you?  You too, can catch it, smight it and slay it.  There is nothing that is coming against you that you have not already been given the power and authority to defeat. “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;” 2 Cor. 10:4  “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested , that he might destroy the works of the devil.” 1 John 3:8)

You see, the LORD delivered David.  David’s confidence was not in his own strength but in God’s.  David followed after God and used his instinct to protect and God delivered him time and time again.  So it is with you.  The Lord has delivered you and He will deliver you….  Your part is to SUBMIT and RESIST!  This is action. 

You must resist!   There are many things I do to resist the devil.  I have listed a few of the ways I have seen incredible victory by adding them to my life:

• Submit (Submit to what God is saying to you first.  This is the premise to all victory.)
• Praise (sometimes I play praise music and keep it playing day and night)
• Fast (This might be a meal or meals, depending on the needs you have)
• Shout (shout unto God with a voice of triumph!  God inhabits the praises of His people.  I might walk around my house and yell praises like, Hallelujah(this means “Celebrate God”), Praise the Lord, Glory to God, etc.
• Pray (1 can put 1,000 to flight; 2 can put 10,000…..get a prayer partner to agree with  you when you can.  Pray boldly!)
• Tell the devil to shut up! (I mean literally, tell the devil to shut up!  Every time a feeling other than peace and joy are in your life (unless of course there are especially difficult circumstances as in a death in the family, etc.) take authority over the enemy that is speaking his influence into your life through heaviness and oppression.)
• Call upon the name of the Lord, cry out to the Lord (This I mean literally too!  “Jesus, help me!  Jesus, I need you!”
• Read the scripture out loud (I usually go directly to the Psalms for this one)
• Anoint your house, your kids, your husband and even your dog if need be, with oil(I use olive oil). (Messiah means anointed one.  In the OT, they anointed the doorposts with blood so that the death angel would pass.  It is extremely powerful to anoint with oil even today.  It symbolizes Christ and his blood on the doorpost of your life and dwelling.  I practice this regularly when I feel the intense heat of opposition in my life or in my home and let the residue of the Anointed speak for me.)
• Stand.  Stand still, be still, wait.  (Sometimes this is the hardest.  Sometimes this is the easiest.  Depends on the fight.)

Get your arsenal ready and let the GRACE of God flow like never before through your life to see those ancient, intimidating, and familiar foes excised from your midst and the lives of your loved ones!  You have been given all authority “Behold , I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” Luke 10:19

If this has spoken to you today, go back and obey where you heard God speak last.  Then, use this Divine power to resist like never before.  God will do the delivering, you just concentrate on the resisting!  SUBMIT and RESIST!  God will DELIVER you and he will FLEE!

“Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom, from the other side of the Sea….Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast  for all Judah.The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.  Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard and said:

 “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not the God who is in heaven?  You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.   O our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend?   They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying,  ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’  “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them.  See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance.  O our God, will you not judge them?  For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”

All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the LORD.  Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite and descendant of Asaph, as he stood in the assembly.  He said: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem!

This is what the LORD says to you:

‘Do not be afraid or discouraged  because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s.”  2 Chron. 20

 O God, I don’t know what to do…. but my eyes are on You.  I know that You can give me rest all around just as You did Jehosophat.  Today, I feel the heat of this vast army coming against me and I am alarmed.  I believe that all victory is accomplished in You and I set my face towards You as my answer and as my reward.  I believe that not knowing the answer to all of my problems is okay and that not knowing the answer to even some of my problems is okay, because the real power of my life is that I have You to look to.  Please take away all of my fear and discouragement today.  I need You.  I feel as if I have been fighting this battle alone and today I lay it at your feet.  I acknowledge today that this is Your battle and I praise You with all of my heart for Your mercy endureth forever!  I will confidently say that I shall rejoice over my enemies because of the victory that my God has given me in Jesus Name!

 “The Lord IS near to those who have a broken heart, And SAVES such as have a contrite spirit.  Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.”  Psalm 34:18-19

If you are heavy with grief, loneliness, depression, or other suffering of the soul this season, I want you to know you are not alone.  God is drawn, not repelled to you.  In fact, the word for contrite here is “dakka” which means dust. Being broken hearted is definitely a qualifying condition to feeling pulverized like dust.  It is about as low as you can feel and God still promises to be near to you, deliver you and give you victory.

Oh, I have been that one; the one that felt like dust.  When our daughter died at Christmas, I really thought that God hated me.  It was the culmination of years of loss and heartache, failure, and pain.  How could the God that I loved so much take something so precious from me?  I felt He must have it in for me…… My tears were my food day and night…..

I would love to say that something magical happened in that moment that delivered me from all of my pain, but it didn’t happen for me that way….  and though at the time I didn’t feel Him near to me, I hoped that He was and that He would somehow save me from the ash heap I was buried in.  

Today I understand this scripture so much differently.  The Lord IS near and SAVES.  It was His action that moved me and comforted me.  It is the promise of His presence that I must trust in.  It is the promise of His salvation that I must believe in.  Looking back, there is honestly no other way that I made it except that He made good on His promise; He was near to me and He did save me. 

“For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, With him who has a contrite and humble spirit, To revive the spirit of the humble,

And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” Is. 57:15

He showed me His love in a new way, a way that I had not known before and He showed me a new “normal” for my life.  It didn’t erase the past or take it away from me, but added to it and honored it.  Now, I can stand before you and testify that  I truly live in peace, comfort, and hope because of Jesus.

If this is you today, know that you are not alone.  God does not hate you.  If you can, silence the “whys” of what you are enduring for just a moment….they will never lead you to peace.  The truth is, we don’t know the “whys” of this life.  BUT there is something we do know.  We have a promise.  His promise to us is that He IS near and that He SAVES.  Rest in that promise. 

Rest in Him today….He is near.

If I had to choose one prayer that I have prayed more than any other, it is one directly from this song.  “Find me, I’ll wait for you.”  I have prayed that prayer through each struggle, feeling of separation, seasons of depression, when I’m overwhelmed, and most certainly when I hear the lies that I have to SEEK Him harder to find Him because that is His requirement for relationship with Him and for Him to work in my life.

“And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.  His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.  And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.  When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem. And Joseph and His mother did not know it;  but supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day’s journey, and sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances.  So when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him.  Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.  And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.  So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”  And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me?  Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”  But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.  Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart.  And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.”  Luke 2:40-50

When we seek God and we don’t hear His voice in our lives we sometimes believe it as an indictment against us.  We reason that He must not care about us or even love us.  So, we seek harder, we go to others who we know hear from God, or we go to our friends and family members and wonder and inquire of them what the will of God is in our lives.  This often times sets us up for even more rejection or advice that sends us in the wrong direction; which in turn leads us to feeling more rejection.  It is not that seeking God is bad.  The scripture makes it clear that it is not, but I want to introduce you to a different perspective today.  One that requires receiving and waiting at its core.  One that requires silencing our urge to fear, thus control.  One that requires us to trust  Him; to believe that He hears you and is accomplishing God’s will in your life and in the Earth and that He sees the big picture.    I am asserting today that God will find you wherever you are.  It doesn’t matter how lost you are.  It doesn’t matter how wounded you are, how sinful you are, or how miserably you have failed.  You are not too far from His grasp.  Make my prayer your prayer today and you will see your God like never before!  Find Me God, Find Me, I’ll wait for YOU!!