Kisses from God

So many things were revealed to us at the Crown of Beauty: Delightful Treasure Retreat this past weekend.  So many Jesus "intersections" among the ladies.  Intersections pre-arranged by God to encourage, lift up and bless those precious daughters of the King. So many kisses from Jesus.  So many Jesus "sightings" throughout the weekend.

I'm allowing God to bring them back to memory and I will post them as He sees fit. Today it was one of the sweetest of pictures that he gave me.

 As I lay in my bunk worshipping along with Jesus Culture "You Won't Relent" I thought of the prospect of my grandchildren coming up to the cabin the next day and the Lord gave me a startling picture of my Dad watching his great grandchildren playing in front of the cabin he built with his own hands.  He was laughing and clapping his hands with that twinkle in his eyes.  My eyes teared up and I thanked God for that picture.  I wasn't sure what it meant. Perhaps he could see from heaven? That God allowed him to be there watching them for a moment in time?  Anything is possible but didn't seem quite what God wanted me to see.

The next morning during a teaching time and a comment about our mansions in heaven, God revealed that was a picture of Dad's mansion in heaven (I always hoped it would look like the cabin) and saw his joy as children played in front of him.  A glimpse of heaven is what I saw that night--a blessed glimpse of heaven--seeing my Dad where He is alive now doing what He loves to do.

Get out of your box!!

A month or so ago I was up at the family cabin enjoying some time with family and God.  Such a cool, wonderful, quiet time to enjoy peace and rest.

As I awoke early one morning I felt the sweet lull of the Holy Spirit.  I was drawn into the throne room of God and felt His deep love.  Within minutes I heard God speaking to me.  He said "people say that they have God in a box but the truth is that they are in the box".  They are trapped by who they think they are, their own misconceptions of God's grace, their own emotions, etc.

I knew what the Lord was saying.  He was saying that we each have difficulty looking at our own lives in an objective way.  We can't seem to push beyond our small world.  It's as if we are in the box and have written all over the walls who we believe we are.  We need help to peek out of the box.

If we would just step out of our boxes, the sides would open up and we would allow the light of God's truth to shine on our now flattened out boxes--to form a picture of who we were truly created to be and what message we are meant to live.  And yes, that's what I mean.  We are meant to live our life's message--to be the message to ourselves and others.

We are unique, one of a kind, like no other creature or human in the world.  Our God is so creative, he never makes the same person twice.  Our physical DNA, our personality, or experiences, our way of relating to the world and to God are all different.  Do you hear that?  How much does God love us?  How much does he want individuals that are reflections of himself and yet unique, beautiful and created as one-of-a-kinds????

Get out of that box!  

Let God flatten out the sides of that tiny cubicle you think is your life with no possibility of change!  God's world is open to you--to experience the light of His love and live a life of fulfillment and peace to bring glory to a God that is so awesome we cannot fathom all His amazing attributes.

Get out of that box!

My theme song lately is Super Chick's song Rock what you Got!

So I keep telling my life purpose clients.

Get out of the box, see who you are created to be, and then Rock what you Got!

Here are they lyrics:

This one's for the beaten downThe ones who lost their rock and rollRise up you lost ones, claim your crownYou were born to rock inside your soul
Welcome misfits, orphans, allThe ones who feel they don't belongYou were made to rock, so stand up tallGo rock the world and prove them wrong
Rock what you gotRock what you gotDon't ever let them make you stop
Rock what you gotLight up the lotNo one can rock the way you rock
This one's for originalsWho strike out towards the great unknownFear not the missteps, take the fallsThe rock you find will be your own
This one's for the beaten downWho gave up on their rock and rollLift your eyes from what drags you downYou were born to rock inside your soul

Another Fresh Start

So, the first half of the year I determined to grow closer to God and in essence get into better spiritual shape. I studied the Word with an appetite to learn more about the amazing Creator and Lord God. I leaned in close to His heart so that I could gradually begin to hear my heart beat with His. I sought opportunities to join Him in loving others. He blessed me beyond measure despite my ups and downs, my starts and restarts. He is still leading me in those paths and I know I will eternally be seeking Him more each day.

Now, it's time to get this physical body in shape for what the future holds. 2012 is only 5 months away and God has called me to get in shape so that I can indeed run this race and keep up with Him.

So, this week I got up every morning and walked along the canal near our home. Ears plugged into music and arms swinging along to the music with some huffing and puffing as I started up that hill to better health.

What I didn't expect was some amazing insight from God as I walked. Thought I'd share what He showed me today.

My path takes me past the home where my Dad spent his last few months and then past the park where he loved to walk, count the ducks and chat with my mom and anyone else who came in his path. Today as I started to cut across through the park, the tears began to flow and he felt so close, my love for him so deep, my loss so great. At that moment a Michael W. Smith song began playing on my Iphone. "Deep in Love With You" quickly brought me to sobs.

Sitting at Your feet is where I want to be
I'm home when I am here with You
Ruined by Your grace, enamored by Your gaze
I can't resist the tenderness in You

I'm deep in love with You, Abba Father
I'm deep in love with You, Lord
My heart, it beats for You, precious Jesus
I'm deep in love with You, Lord

I remembered sitting alone at my father's bedside the night before he passed into the arms of God. (with the angels applauding according to his pastor). I found a DVD left at the home by one of Dad's wonderful caregivers and put in in the CD player. I sang to my dad those sweet words of worship. So precious was that time, a gift from God to me alone. Sweet, sweet gift from God. I am so grateful.

Walking on through the cool damp park grass I clearly heard my Lord say to me in His sweet loving voice, "that's what I want you to feel for Me, that's how I want you to adore and seek me". I wept more with gratitude that the Lord would show me what it felt like to love him as my Abba Father.

Romans 8:15
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

I rejoice that I can experience that Abba Father love here as my dad experiences this love at the very feet of our Abba Father. I yearn for the day when we can both be there in God's eternal glowing love.

Craving God alone

Do you remember when you first fell in love? How you wanted to spend every minute of the day just talking to your new love. As you got to know him more and more you began to crave a closer relationship. Back in the old days we knew that intimate physical love had to wait so the desires grew and grew. That’s what is missing in relationships today. There is no “wait” or build up.

Back on track. I remember writing things like I can’t wait to feel you pressed up against me—wanting to meld into my love.

Craving a completeness of our intimacy. Press so hard that we become one.
Craving each touch of his hand and sweet intimacy of a kiss.
When I was upset that’s who I wanted to talk to, be held by. The comfort and peace and came with the security of that love. The fresh blush of love and the security of knowing it was returned.
We must crave our God first. We can crave Him first and foremost.
We can wake up each day whispering His name and hearing His voice.
Craving God means wanting to follow Him everywhere He goes. It’s joyously falling into step as He goes about His day. It’s waiting for each moment to serve Him, to please Him.
Craving God is so powerful that we can’t not talk about Him. In new fresh love we drive everyone crazy—because every topic of conversation leads back to him and how wonderful He is and our relationship is. We can’t not talk about Him.
Craving God is knowing that each move of His hand, a word form His heart is miraculous.
Craving God is knowing that He can do no wrong—that His intention is out of love.

A day of craving God should look like this

I awake with a smile, feeling His presence, hearing His voice—southing and loving—speaking my name. Communing to the depths of my soul—pressing deeply and completely into Him—feeling His communion with me.

Then I arise. Needing to know more of Him. To search his Word because IT IS HIS WORD. He wrote it in miraculous ways just as He writes it on my heart. Amazing! Astounding!
Then He heads out the door, me close on His trail. Waiting in anticipation of where He will go and who He will touch. Watching and joining when he bids me to come closer to see and speak.

The day goes on as we go down the road. He pauses constantly in his work to draw me closer and whisper in my ear of his pleasure that I am learning to love more and more. His arms (his pinions) surround me as my heart sores as I commune in worship of Him—pressing closer and closer.

I watch as he touches each soul and my heart grows at his grace and mercy. I watch as He weeps when He must correct when those He loves refuse to hear—he weeps knowing that their path is heading away from Him and towards destruction and despair—he weeps when they go through trials and can’t hear His voice of comfort and assurance. I learn to weep with Him, to love them as He loves them. Feeling his tenderness and His grief, I learn to grieve, I learn to pray, I learn to speak. It hurts to feel their pain, but it’s pain that brings understanding of God’s heart.

As I watch, as I follow closely behind Him, I stop sometimes knowing that I am so flawed, so far behind Him I lag, I get distracted or forget to follow. He stops and He waits for me to catch up or he retraces His steps to put out His hand to me and guides me back in place.

We move on. The road gets rougher—He holds my hand.

The day is over and I lay down, He lays down and wraps His arms around me. There is peace in my spirit and I sigh in His embrace.


Deuteronomy 6:5
And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

So let's get this Refresh engine restarted!

Wow, has it really been that long since I blogged? Isn't that just like life exemplified? We have a great idea, a resolution, a decision and we motor along at a good speed for a while and then slooooowwwwlllly the speedometer drops mile by mile and then we are at a stand still, motor idling, wondering which way to go and maybe even if we can make our foot press down on the peddle ever again.

That's when it is definitely time for a fresh start! That's when we are best ready to hear the call of God--to allow God's GPS to direct our path.

Last night I woke up in the middle of the night, not in a rosy mood at all to say the least. I was in a grumpy mood! Grousing in my mind so to speak. Who would have thought that God could break into that mess of thinking things to make His point? That, my friends, is the grace of God! Trying to get a word in edgewise into a thinking things mind! How great is our God that He can and does.

Some things had already been brewing in spirit over the last couple of weeks. At CoR we had been studying about some components of our faith--Who is God, Who is Jesus, Who is the Holy Spirit to be more specific. Pastor John gave us a worksheet each week and we discussed at CoR on Sunday. The week on the Holy Spirit sparked my interest to re-discover who He is in my life (or maybe best to say who he SHOULD BE). My first step was to pick up Francis Chan's little book appropriately called "Forgotten God" which is about the Holy Spirit. Chan asks a lot of questions and encourages us that the Holy Spirit has been indeed forgotten or "put aside" in many churches.

This provoked more thought for me. All the churches I'd been in over the last few years had not forgotten the Holy Spirit--in fact He was a major topic of discussion and much a part of our lives. Perhaps Chan was talking about other types of churches?
But maybe not. We can certainly talk about the Holy Spirit and not have Him working in our own lives can't we?

So, it's time for me to wrap my arms around who each of the persons of the triune God are supposed to be in my own life and in the life of our fellowship.

With that said, I am dedicated to starting my engine again, pulling in behind God, and following Him wherever He takes me. Going the speed He goes, slowing when He slows and idling when He idles in my life.

For better or worse, I will take those along with me who want to hop in their own car, put the metal to the pedal (or the brake on the brakes) and follow Him into a new understanding of who He is.

Today I being with Matthew 1:1.........

Hold Tight

Have you ever asked God, or really begged God to give you direction in a vitally important situation?

A friend of mine and I were talking about how we've experienced Ah Ha moments just as we were waking in the morning or even during the night. I remembered reading that if you are in a dilemma or need to figure something out that you should think about it just as you fell asleep (not worry--I don't think that counts--that causes night mares more than solutions). For example, when I was up at our cabin this week as I fell asleep I was thinking about how to hang a quilt in one of the bedrooms, and sure enough as I woke the next morning I heard the words "button holes" in my head. My subconscious had worked out a way to hang a difficult quilt.

Thinking about that as I fell asleep last night, I said to the Lord "Lord I am stuck--I need a word as to how to proceed. Thanks."

It was funny, as I began to waken early this morning and repeated that request to the Lord I said to Him (and me) I'll just go back to sleep and I know you will direct my thoughts Lord." I nestled back in ready to go back to sleep when words popped into my head.

"Hold Tight".

Okay, so I asked and He definitely answered. And what did I say to Him? Did I immediately answer in faith with "sure thing God, Thanks." No I said in essence "been there and done that" and used it as an excuse to do nothing, are you sure Lord?" I know, sounds pretty silly. After all, I asked and He answered. I knew what God meant immediately--don't go anywhere--wait on Him. But God, being so very patient with me, in His mercy brought some pictures to mind. The first one made me laugh--it was me with a rope lashing myself to Jesus--I wasn't going anywhere. Then it was of a child clinging around the neck of her daddy--"holding on for dear life" as Daddy swam through water and then coming out of the water began to run with me clinging to His back. Then it was me holding on tight to my Daddy's neck!

Wowzer bowzer! What a trip! At first it was a little scary going through the deep end of the pool grasping so hard I thought I might choke Him and then hanging on even tighter as my Dad ran through the forrest at break neck speed dodging tall trees and leaping over huge boulders. Then I realized, just like a child, if I would hold tight and stay one His back, that I would see some amazing things as I felt the "rush" and giddiness of effortlessly running the race. I felt the gleeful feeling of experiencing this amazing race riding comfortably on the back of my trusted Father.

At first I have to say when God said "hold tight" I wasn't a happy camper. I wanted marching orders, I wanted written directions, I want to KNOW GOD! Instead he was telling me to KNOW GOD, to lash myself to Him with the Word of God, to hold tight to Him, throwing my little arms around His broad shoulders and neck, to bury my face in His neck when the road looked overwhelming ahead of us.

It wasn't the word I expected (is it ever fellow travelers?) but it was certainly a good one.

So, take my word as yours today if you need to. Hold Tight!

Hosea 12:6 "So you,(B) by the help of your God, return,
hold fast to love and justice (God)
and wait continually for your God.




I

Casting and Binding

Like many other people I know life has become anything but easy or comfortable lately. Layers of security have been peeled away form our lives leaving us with less security in the world but causing us to lean on the "core" of our lives security. Graciously God does this in most cases in small layers--one at a time (for He is a God of grace and mercy). He does this for our good, to bring us to complete dependence upon Him.

This morning I woke with an overpowering sense of insecurity. My head knew that I had nothing to fear but my heart quaked with fear. Usually, the Holy Spirit rises up within my spirit to combat this enemy of my soul, but today was different. This fear caused a paralysis in me. I now realize the term paralyzed with fear is very real. The most I could do was sit and pray and finish the baby blanket I am knitting.

It is so amazing to me what God uses to touch our spirits, to bring us back to that peace in Him that is just out of our reach sometimes (or so it seems). Today it was the knitting. Being a new knitter I rely on Youtube for my instruction. Having knit more rows than I can say (note to self--fatter yarn, fatter needles next time) I was ready to finish off the blanket. I looked for the videos and found out that this process is called casting off or binding off.

My spirit saw a glimmer of light and I began to look up scriptures about casting and binding.

Here's what I found

1 Peter 5:6-8
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because[a] your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.


1 John 4:17-19
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us.

Revelation 4:9-11

9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
11 “ You are worthy, O Lord,[a]
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist[b] and were created.”

on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 18:18-19
18 “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.

So with those scriptures in mind and without further explanation, I will now cast my burdens at the feet of Jesus, cast out fear by loving my Lord, cast away the enemy who seeks to keep me in this place, worship at the throne of God, bind the enemy from my mind through the power of the Holy Spirit and ask the Holy Spirit to empower me to loose myself to walk in freedom.

I will do all this as I cast off those last stitches. I will remember that I ran the race of painstakingly learning to do those stitches. That I must finish the race by casting and binding. I will cast off and bind up this baby blanket (remembering the bundle of joy that it will cuddle soon) and joyfully finish my day.

And for you fellow Tiara Ladies, I will listen to Mary Mary sing Cast the Shackles off my feet so I can dance.

Hugs with prayer for you to have a fear free day.