Month: December 2018

Taken into 2019

The living word of the Lord changes everything. Everything about God speaks. His word is like a fire. It is also like a hammer. (Jeremiah 23:29) He speaks and a new creation comes into being… YOU come into being.

The most elemental truth concerning you is identifying as God’s creation… craftsmanship… artistry… design. Through life-union with Jesus, the dead imposter you used to be is buried and your true self is breaking out as you are pulled into the future by grace. With every new day in Christ, you are becoming more of who really are. God has promised never to abandon you.

Surrender to the Holy Spirit’s current that longs to take you through that open door in front of you into the New Year. His desire is to change things through you this year. His creative power belongs to you in Christ. You have the authority in the name of Jesus to declare new things with your life and your voice. Because you are in life-union with Jesus and He is in you, your life speaks. (John 15:1-8 TPT)

In 2019, may you embrace your calling to declare the amazing news of God’s new creation. No one can share it like you. You have been designed with a unique voice to declare his glory. You matter because of Christ in you. His choice to be in life-union with you and me constantly lifts us to reign with him in this world to see His glory on earth as it is in heaven. Here’s to the best year ever in 2019!

You are a blessing!

Grace is not about my deficiency

Grace is not about making up for my deficiency. It is about the overwhelming goodness of God. In Christ, God completely shattered the intimidating forces of this world.

Grace goes before me in Christ preparing moments of display, signs, and wonders that show his glory. It is true that I have lived half a century with Jesus. And it is also true that I am still discovering how much the Father loves us. He loves the Son. When we receive his gift of adoption, we come into Jesus. Because we are in him, their love flows from within us out to the world.

The Holy Spirit constantly remains with us and in us because of grace. It’s not us! It is the goodness of God. Our grateful hearts explode with relief, peace, joy and the greatness of living any and every moment on earth as it is in heaven.

Because of Jesus, you are a blessing!

Burn the old, musty disguise…

When a child of God sins, their identity does not change. Becoming an orphan again is not an option… only role-playing. True change has come to us once we have opened the door to Jesus. We become daughters and sons at that moment. Untold damage is done when we keep the old familiar orphan self-perception around like a musty costume in the back closet. When you are a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ, you are never an orphan again. It’s just an old, dead, musty, role-playing disguise… Burn it! 

You are a blessing!

God chooses not to control…

God has chosen not to control things. Instead, he made humans to rule Creation in partnership with him for the glory of King Jesus. What begins to shake and shift in you in light of knowing God is not controlling things today, but instead is exercising dominion in Jesus’ name through his family on earth as it is in heaven?

Consuming Love for Jesus and His Legacy…

God’s dream poured into all creation through the prayers of Jesus is a unified love and the legacy of his family on earth as it is in heaven. (John 17, Matthew 6:9-13)

I will be forever grateful for having been born into a home and a church family who led me into God’s love. The legacy of God’s family is self-sacrificing love for him, each other and his creation.
Several decades ago I fell down on my face and prayed a prayer of brokenness that shifted the trajectory of my life… “Jesus, whether this makes you glad or not, you are stuck with me.”

The life-story we have written together is all about his relentless love consuming me. He keeps pouring it out even though so many times I am disappointed with myself. And, it’s not just for me. Somehow, he causes that same love to flow out of me to our wild world. When he planted me as his child, his intention and dream for me was a full grown, productive tree that has sent out deep roots and is not afraid of the heat and the storms. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The living word of the Lord for you and everyone in your life is that you are designed to be in Christ. By faith receive the fact that the Father loves you the way he loves the Son because you are in Christ. Your life has meaning and purpose because you became a part of God’s legacy on earth as in heaven by that same faith. You don’t live for yourself anymore. The consuming fire that started in your heart when you surrendered to Jesus is increasing with love for all nations and generations to embrace the same oneness you have with him.

God’s family, his household exists as a fulfillment of his dream and the answer to the prayers of Jesus to the Father. Take a few minutes today to ask the Lord to increase your capacity to receive and give more of his consuming love for all nations and generations.

You are a blessing!

Grace is better than details

Grace is a more valuable treasure from God to me than details. In my time of need, what matters most is remembering where to go. All of the resources of heaven are available to us on earth because of what Jesus has accomplished. Those resources are accessed at the throne of grace.

Last night I was with some prayer warriors from my church family. It was our weekly prophetic prayer night. Over the past few years, we have nurtured a prophetic prayer culture of surrender. When we get together, we lay down our individual agendas to move with what God wants and where He wants to lead us in prayer.

Receiving and declaring the living word of the Lord over the life of our church family is the lifeblood of our intercession. Last night it seemed that I was struggling to connect with what the Lord was speaking over us. Then one of our men prophesied, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)

The word of the Lord began to stir me up and my soul came alive with hope again. I don’t need details from God’s throne. I need grace. Grace from God is an unlimited resource for us in Christ.

The prophetic is all about living with confidence. But, it’s not about always having the right details. Through our faith in Jesus, we have access to the throne room of heaven. He has brought us back to life from the inside out. We are perfectly designed to be the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells with us and in us.

That means his throne of grace is an inward journey. The hope of glory is within you. It is the living presence of Jesus in you that gives you confidence in your time of need. Colossians 1:27 refers to “the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Don’t believe the lie that you need to make an impossibly long journey somewhere outside of yourself in your time of need. The throne of grace in Christ is accessed from within you. In fact, you are hidden with Christ in God. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you see it and understand what that means for you.

You are a blessing!

Some thoughts about you and our God who dreams…

Sitting by myself in Starbucks, drinking coffee. So, I wanted to just grab my laptop and start writing. I have no idea what you may want to do with this post. But, I guess I wanted to write something to encourage you and remind you that there is a design and you matter!

There is a dream in the heart of God that will come to into full view. He is fully committed to fulfilling it. It’s a dream that no human being or society has ever imagined. We have tried. But, we always end up back on our knees, willingly or as a result of the failure of our attempts to have the kingdom of heaven without the King.

There is a God who dreams, fully knowing that he can call all of it into being. We exist as a fulfillment of his beautiful mind. Every one of us designed by God before we were even in our mother’s womb.

We are born into an amazing, chaotic, intelligent, reproducing, terrifying, wonderful, living, wild world. Though we are unaware of the presence of God, his glory fills every part of our world and every world that exists or will ever exist.

The life of our God who dreams incomparable destinies is eternal and unseen and yet it produces the seen realm as well. He invites us into a lifelong journey of discovery. It is a quest of joining him in a covenant relationship with Jesus. We can trust him because he became a human being and dwelled here with us and experienced all of the same weaknesses that we do and yet was without sin. Then, he surrendered to death on the cross, took on himself the punishment for sin, died, rose again from the grave, and now reigns forever.

It was all part of the fulfillment of the dream of his heart. By saying yes to his invitation to eternal life as his closest companion, his bride forever, we enter into his dream. We discover that we are his masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God planned in advance for us to do.

Not one of us is a mistake, an afterthought, meaningless, or random. In Christ, we are actually a message, a testimony to the transformation God can accomplish with anyone who will trust him. Our battle, our journey is to keep taking the next step forward by faith.

So, wherever you are and whatever the state of your mind or heart, let me be a voice saying you are the dream of God as you trust in Jesus. As you take a step forward by faith you are becoming the real you. We are one in spirit and our kingdom is His and it is coming in fullness. Your next step is worth it.

You are a blessing!