Is your life always open to the flow of the presence of God? Does Jesus always have an open invitation? This is what it means to be part of the revealing of the new creation in Christ. This is what it takes to not miss the unprecedented move of God. (inspired by Revelation 3:20)
Tag: surrender
Trying Harder is Toxic to the Prophetic
The Holy Spirit is training me to live in full acceptance as a son in the family of God. I did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading me back into the fear of never being good enough. (Romans 8:10-17 TPT)
God longs for us to give ourselves to an intimate relationship with him. In Christ he transforms us into his friends and lovers. In order to move forward in receiving and declaring the living word of the Lord, we need to anticipate more amazement over who Jesus is in us.
Religious duty is not amazing! Nurturing an attitude of religious duty, of trying harder in my life is toxic to my growth in the prophetic. It is time for the Church (remember that the church is people) to come clean about our friendship with religious duty.
To be prophetic requires an ever-increasing fire of friendship with Jesus. Friendship with religion (trying hard to please God) is NOT friendship with Jesus. The first gift God gives us on our journey in the prophetic is friendship with him from the inside-out.
How would your life be different if you surrendered to his promise to never leave you or forsake you? What if never leaving you includes those times when you have sinned and/or deeply disappointed yourself as part of his family? Are you ready for a deeper surrender to his never-failing friendship with you? Talk to him about it.
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!
Who’s on Your Shopping List?
I heard a shocking statistic.
There are 143 million orphans in the world today.
Then I heard of a website www.143million.org that offers several ways that people can invest in helping to improve the quality of life for one of these children. I was especially drawn to a project called “410 bridge” www.410bridge.org
You can read about it there, but it provides a great way for you and your family to connect with children and villages in Kenya, Africa. So, can you make some extra room on your Christmas list?