Category: the living word of the Lord

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!

Not Alone

There are days when it is only the momentum of my habit that carries me here. It brings me to this time of solitude where I am alone with God. Every morning he is faithful and never fails to reassure me with the living word.

I reconnect with meaning here in this space. It is an unseen garden where I walk with God. You could say it is the Father’s vineyard. He joyfully sends me to work here. (see Matthew 21:28-32) I long to hear his reassurance in my soul. I need to taste the living water as he reminds me that he loves my perseverance. He is blessed when I keep showing up to work the vineyard day after day for the glory of Jesus’ name.

As I think about you today, I am thanking God. The fact that you would take a few minutes to read these paragraphs is in itself life-giving. According to God’s living word, I don’t look at you from a limited, worldly point of view. I know that in Christ you are part of the New Creation work of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17) We thank God for each other because we are members of one body. Through the living presence of the Holy Spirit, we are formed into a temple where God dwells.

So, this morning was one of those times when it was only the force of habit that pulled me to be awake and alone with God. Thank you, Father, for good habits. We love your vineyard. Open our eyes to see that you have favored us by sending us to do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks to the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17).

Thank you, friend, for encouraging my soul as you read what I have written. Let’s remember each other today and pray that by a miracle of God’s grace we will perceive heaven as it flows all around us in those places our habits carry us. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. We are not alone.

You are a blessing!

Finding Our Sanity

Our new self in Christ speaks so powerfully that it overwhelms our life… our experience of the world. We each find our sanity as a branch grafted into the vine. Jesus is the vine and The Father is the gardener. Find yourself by staying in life-union with him and by allowing his living word to flow in you. (see John 15 TPT)

Flowing beneath the surface…

It is a profound mystery to drive your roots deeper in search of the wisdom you need to live your story. I declare to you that regardless of your feelings or your current perceptions, you are God’s workmanship (masterpiece) created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God has already planned in advance for you. (Ephesians 2:10)

The relentless river of God’s creativity and design is flowing and creating pressure underground and beneath the surface of your life. If you will turn aside at any time (the sooner the better) and prophesy over yourself the announcement that Jesus made about the Spirit of God bursting out from deep within you, you will begin to see realness and authenticity flourish again. It is irreplaceable and unmistakable. Here is that announcement recorded in John 7:37-38 “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

You cannot afford to lose heart and it’s not necessary. I agree with you in faith that change is happening for you as you drive your roots deeper in pursuit of hope and power for your life. The Spirit of God will meet you there for the glory of King Jesus.

You are a blessing!

Buried deep…

I never could have predicted how The Gardener would plant me after I gave him my “yes” many decades ago. I never would have sent my roots deeper when the troubles came if he wasn’t so trustworthy. I never would have known that the glory of heaven was buried deep in the soil if it wasn’t for his living word. (see Jeremiah 17:7-8)

You are a planting of the Lord destined to be an oak of righteousness. This moment matters. (Isaiah 60:21, 61:3)

You are a blessing!

Hungry for the word of the Lord and the signs of heaven?

Samuel was a prophet to Israel in the Old Testament. He had an amazing track record with the people of God. It was written of him, “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3:19-20)

I love the story of how Samuel was introduced to the prophetic while he was a boy. You can read it in 1 Samuel 3. There is so much to learn from the interaction between Eli, Samuel, and the Lord. It speaks loudly to us about the need for spiritual mothers and fathers to step up and own what has been entrusted to us.

However, I want to focus on the first verse in the chapter. “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.” (1 Samuel 3:1) Take a moment and think about that. What would it be like to live in a time when you almost never perceived the word of the Lord and almost no one saw visions? Maybe we know about that far too well.

I don’t believe that the living word of the Lord was scarce or unavailable. It is usually the case that engaging with it is rare and unusual. God is not honored or pleased to make his amazing Presence known anywhere his living word is not welcomed and embraced. Oh, He is there, but the manifestation of the Holy Spirit won’t be experienced.

The voice of the Lord is speaking today. We will hear it if we long for it. If the church will set our hearts on being with him by faith in King Jesus, and surrender to whatever he needs to do in us, we will hear his voice. (see Isaiah 6:1-8)

There is an unprecedented move of God rising up in the world. It is marked by a hunger and thirst for the living words of the Lord. Will we be a generation who won’t stop until it is said, “the word of the Lord was overflowing and the signs of heaven were everywhere”? THAT would be amazing. By the grace of God, that is what we are going after.

You are a blessing!

God’s relentless display of beauty… You (part three)

There is a resurgence rising up to engage with something more. People around us are experiencing a world that is cracking and crumbling around them. Everything from religion to politics is failing to deliver on their promise of an amazing life in an amazing world. As daughters and sons of God in Christ we possess an eternal something. 

My most prized possession is God’s living word. I had no idea how powerful his word would be when it was first being planted in me as a boy. It has been a relentless slow-burning fire in me. The Holy Spirit has pursued me thousands of times in my sin and rebellion using the prophetic. The prophetic for me is receiving and sharing the living word of the Lord. 

The prophetic is a powerful force alive with heaven’s glory. God uses it to infiltrate every nation with the truth that Jesus did not come into the world to condemn. He actually came to save it (John 3:16-17) He saves us by staying with us and relentlessly changing us into who we really are. His word is alive with the power to do that for every person in every nation. 

And God’s strategy is you. You are his masterpiece, work of art, craftsmanship, made for the glory of heaven here and now. When you are led by the Spirit to put your faith in Jesus, your eyes are opened to see that the Father has a purpose for you. He is designing you to love his glory and to live for his reasons (Ephesians 2:10) 

So, don’t allow the distraction of trends and hype to make you throw away the treasure of the prophetic. The living word of God is moving and shaping you. You were planted by God when you trusted Jesus with your life. He is intent on growing you into who you really are… and oak tree of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:3) 

You are a blessing! 

God’s relentless display of beauty… You (part two)

The word of the Lord is alive and active. (Hebrews 4:12)  God intentionally brought us into being. We are designed for life-union with Jesus and his word is designed to change us into who God says we are. The prophetic will always be about Jesus. He is the Living Word of God. 

Receiving the living word of the Lord is where the prophetic always starts. David saw himself as something God had already written before he was born. (Psalm 139) The prophet Jeremiah also was told that he was set apart to be a prophet to the nations before birth. (Jeremiah 1) God’s word is full of life and it is designed to keep on filling us so that it flows out of us in everything we do. 

The Lord has taught me to trust what he says more than any other word regardless of how powerful it may seem to be. Sometimes I have even had to disagree with my own opinions and mindset because of God’s living word. What God says and reveals about my life is more powerful than even my own opinions. 

In order to grow in the prophetic, that’s where you begin. When you surrender yourself to Jesus, you become a child of God. The Holy Spirit wakes you up to the fact that you are a growing tree that he has planted. (Isaiah 60:21)  But, he didn’t just plant you and leave you to grow on your own. 

We are his sons and daughters. We have been appointed as prophets to the nations. The word we have been given radically changes things. Because we bear the name of Jesus, we possess the power and authority to “…uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”  (Jer 1:10) Jesus promised that the church he is building will unlock and open the way for heaven to be known in all the earth. 

Today you can say to the Lord, “I believe that your word is alive and active in me because I am your child. I exist because of your word. I surrender my heart, mind and body to you. Jesus, drive my roots deep into what you say so that it spills out of me everywhere I go today.” Amen

You are a blessing! 

A “breakthrough” in your mind

As I sat and listened to the sermon in our worship gathering yesterday, a light really came on for me on the inside. This was the latest message in the sermon series called “Hidden Treasure”. The focus of the truth being delivered was that we all have walls of limitation that we run into when it comes to fulfilling life goals and/or running after the dreams we believe in for ourselves. Our pastor was challenging the powerful mantra of our culture which says; “If you can dream it then you can do it!”. He was provoking us to face reality. It’s just not true… we can’t accomplish everything we set our mind to and our dreams don’t all come true. We run into walls of limitation.

Somewhere in the middle of his talk a bolt of spiritual wisdom from the Lord nailed me. He was talking about our need not only to believe in Jesus and be baptized with water but to also to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and power. My heart was already stirred up when he got me right in his sites and said: “You need a breakthrough in your mind to change your life”!

That was a good 24 hours ago and yet the Holy Spirit is continuing to work away on me. It dawned on me that many years ago I came to the end of myself in what I was able to conceive of and piece together philosophically about my beliefs, my life, my worldview. I am so grateful for that season in my life when I surrendered (even daily for a few years) to the Lord in prayer turning away from my self sufficiency and asking the Holy Spirit to come fill me with His love, power and gifts so that I could flow with what He is doing in the world. I can testify that over the years He has empowered me over and over again  to break through and tear down stubborn walls of limitation in my mind based on human thinking that is completely preoccupied  with the earthly realm. He has changed my life by renewing my mind with the realm of his kingdom which by the way has come and is all around us. I am convinced that His will for your life and mine is to be a place where the realm of heaven and earth meet and He is allowed to shine freely through our ordinary lives that Jesus truly is Lord. He wants His kingdom to come and His will to be done in and around us in our sometimes nasty earthly challenges as it is in heaven.

In one of Paul’s letters to his friends who were learning to follow Jesus in their very earthly lives, he coached them this way: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2

It matters that you ask the Holy Spirit to bring a breakthrough in your mind so that the walls of limitation that keep you imprisoned can be demolished! He is faithful and if we will surrender our mind to him, meditate on His word as greater than our thoughts and emotions, He will set us free and we will experience His glory in increasingly practical and tangible ways. Baptize us Lord!!