Stay Spiritually Clean

     Lane and I have been to a conference recently and we know we are entering a new season of growth that while it brings exciting new opportunities it also puts us into new battles in the spirit realm. 
     "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12

     The Lord does not leave us on our own to fight the battles as best we can, but teaches us! He has equipped us with His armor, Ephesians 6:10-17, His Holy Spirit reveals things to us and matures us in our walk if we submit to the changes and the teaching.

     The lesson I have been given this week is to not allow the enemy to have anything "in us", even as Jesus said in John 14:30, "for the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me". The visual that He allowed me to see was frightening and convinced me that it is vital to follow these instructions! They are not just casual suggestions, but instructions for our survival.

     Daily we are to put the Armor of God on and sometimes more than once a day if we remove part of it at any point! But we are also to walk clean, to give the enemy no ground in ourselves. 

     What does that mean? It means to give no room for fear, bitterness, envy, jealousy, criticalness, lust, selfishness, addictions, anger, pride, depression...the list goes on and on, but whatever the enemy holds out is bait of this world and that if you bite at it, that is the ground you have given to him to come against you. If you bite at his bait, he takes you deeper and deeper, if you resist, you are free from him and he has nothing in you, you are clean!

     In this season, it is vital that you stay clean! Pick up your cross daily, walk the path that Jesus walked, selflessness....at the end of the day, ask the Holy Spirit to show you any "slime" that you picked up through the day, any place that you might have slipped into the enemies grasp and confess it, get clean again! Don't go to sleep dirty! You cannot defeat the enemy if you do not stay spiritually clean. 

     Remember he is wily, but with the Lord you are victorious! Sometimes all it takes to overcome the enemy is to stand firm and refuse to be dragged into it. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” An overcomer is one who resists sin no matter what lures Satan uses.

 

He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. Revelations 3:21

He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. Revelation 21:7

I Need More Composting!

     Sometimes I am selfish, self-centered and self-controlled. With all of that said, I see that my self is the block to walking completely in You Lord! 
     I try to pick up my cross and follow You Lord - but then I drop it and forget to pick it up again. Please forgive me for my shallow soil. Help me to grow deeper in You. I see I need more composting, I need to enrich my spiritual soil by throwing in more of my fleshly ways, more of what has been pruned from me into the compost pile....to decompose. Let the process of turning from self to You make my spiritual soil richer and stronger Father. 
     You are my heart's desire! I do choose to take up my cross and follow You.

Three Rants For the Price of One!

If you wanted to destroy a society, some good steps to take would be to separate the generations.....that is being done daily! We send our kids to school to be taught whatever somebody other than ourselves has decided is important (unless you are one of those involved parents and if you are then applause to you!) and even when we have them with us we stare at a cell phone to see what is important to someone other than our children! Watch anywhere you go, parents are committing child neglect out in public now, they take their children to the store, the restaurant, and sometimes even to the park, but do they speak to their children or teach them as they walk along? No, they stare at the screen of their phones! What can be so important that you neglect the child that you so desperately wanted in your life?! And on a side note, my granddaughter cannot read what I write because cursive is no longer important enough to be taught....but that also means this generation cannot read anything hand written prior to the typewriter, such as the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Gettysburg Address.
     The second thing I would do as a step to destroy a society would be to allow many different customs to be recognized as equal to the customs of the current society. You know, like be tolerant of every other holiday around the world, and every religion that wants to enter our society. Yes, I know tolerance is encouraged currently and you cannot be politically correct unless you are "tolerant", however, our society was originally to be the "Melting Pot" of the world, that doesn't mean we all stand out separate, it means we all mix together. Not demanding that everyone change to please us, but that if we wanted in this country we would change to fit into it!
     And then I would separate people from their history. If a person has no history or set of traditions then they could be created into whatever society I wanted them to be! Wait that is being done also! We are now to forget the Civil War happened and that many people believed in the rights of the states to create their own laws and govern themselves.......
........do you think that we see these 3 things happening daily means anything?

Diversity

     The Lord has been impressing me with the message that as a body of believers it is vital for each of us to learn to reach out to generations different from our own. The older generation needs the younger and vice versa, the younger needs the older! 
     Each generation is going to see things from their perspective, but we need to realize that God has many dimensions and as His body, we do too! We can learn from each other and we need to! The younger generation has the energy and passion for bringing new things into the body and the older generation have the stability and experience to be a strong guiding force. 
     If we think our generation has the corner on the truth of God, then we are going to be easily deceived and divided. Each of us needs to be aware of and be able to respect the strengths of one another and to gain and grow from them. 
     For the older generation, catch the fresh wave of energy and excitement for the Lord that the younger generation is bringing, but the younger generation, respect your elders, they have seen a lot of life and have wisdom that will help you advance and not make the mistakes they have. Listen to them and learn! 
     Reach across the aisle in church to those outside of your age group, learn to speak and listen to the people older and younger than youself. Everyone has something that you can learn from if you take the time to listen. 
     The world talks about "tolerance" but I'm encouraging you to be tolerant of the people in church that don't look like you, if they're older, they may have wrinkles you don't have, but if they're younger they may dress weird....but it's ok! They are family! We are one body!   

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35   

Which Path Do You Choose?

I was just receiving this teaching about healing from the Holy Spirit. I was seeing so clearly that when we receive healing we are faced with two paths to choose between. Imagine you're walking on a path and then it divides, there is a sign pointing in each direction, one says flesh....one says Spirit.
     There are times we are prayed for and receive healing but we don't "absorb" it, we may not feel healed and we don't put it into our belief system that we are healed. 
     We have a choice to make, we may believe the "symptoms" that we've been dealing with and walk their path or we may choose to believe the "healing" and walk it's path.
     The choice is ours, we are the healed (Isa 53:5), do we walk as the healed or do we choose to trust our flesh more than the truth of the Spirit and the healing?  
     It might be easier for us if we were able to make the choice once and for ever, but the test is in choosing daily to walk in the healing. We may have to remind ourselves by repeating the promises in Scripture....through Jesus' stripes I am the healed, I am a new creation, I am fearfully and wonderfully made! ....or we can listen to our flesh that loves to whine and get attention and demand to be made comfortable.
     You choose your path, are you sick or are you healed? If you accept the healing then find a way to absorb it, and to daily stay on that path! These scriptures help me, but there are many more, find the ones that work for you:

1. The punishment, which made us well, was given to him, and we are healed because of his wounds. Isaiah 53:5b

2 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 2 Corinthians 5:17

3 I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14

I'm not saying that it is always easy, and Yes, my flesh still fights and tries to win, but I am much happier and healthier when I am listening to my spirit and the Holy Spirit in me! 

no choice at all

the moon races slowly through the early morning sky...
where has it been all night?
Enjoying the solitude and peace of a night sky?
Now it has a great deal of area to move through before the sun cuts it's path short.

maybe the moon would move faster if it had a choice?
maybe it is like me and has a path to follow and not always in it's own timing

what if the moon zoomed ahead and was through before midnight?
what if it chose to not even appear at all?
those are choices i might also make!
but now you see, the moon is like me.....a path to follow and a schedule to keep...not always my choice

(yes, i could follow a different path, but how miserable for me would it be! so in truth, no choice at all!)

Bully-Proof

     I want to share a word of wisdom I received yesterday. Sometimes the wisdom is just common sense and I think it isn't necessary to share, but this one I have been told to share here.
     (Disclaimer: Everyone knows I am a Christian, I follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. He is my King, Master, and Saviour. So whatever I am going to write or share is from a Christian worldview.) 
     Currently, there is an epidemic of "bullying", not only among children but at every level of maturity! There has always been bullying and there will always be bullying, but we need to protect our children and grandchildren from the slings and arrows of this world.
     How do we protect them? Today there is a problem of "social media" on electronic devices of all types. This has increased the opportunity for bullies to operate, and it has even made some bullies that would not be "face to face" bullies. It is impossible to stop all bullying! It is multiplying, and yes, we need to teach against hurting others, but we will never be able to stop it all. 
     The word of wisdom is that instead of attacking the issue from the offensive angle, we need to be armed on the defensive side! We need to teach our children and grandchildren who they are, not just that they are attractive, smart, kind, great athletes, good musicians, amazing students or any of the other accomplishments that they may have acquired through human effort, but they are children of God!
     Are they a "child of God"? What does it mean to be a "child of God"? To me it means they are in an alien country, yes, they will face bullies! But who cares! They belong to the Creator of the Universe! They have a destiny and a promise! I know it isn't an easy walk, but as a parent, it is not only our responsibility to feed and cloth them but to nurture and care for their spirits also.  We have to instill an understanding of what it means to be a child of God! You cannot leave it to the Youth Leader at your church to "Bully-Proof" your child, it is up to you!
     Many parents are overworked and over-scheduled so I'm calling Grandparents out on this too! Pray, teach and be role models for your Grandchildren. Teach them who they are in God by showing them who you are in Him! I'm not saying to teach them a set of rules, but teach them about creation, teach them their roots in creation, teach them they were knit together in their mother's womb, teach them they are not an accident or just biology at work, they are a wonderful amazing gift from God. 
     We focus a lot on their physical or mental growth, but do we spend as much effort on their spirits? They are created to be a trinity of body, soul, and spirit. Don't neglect the spirit or they are easy targets for bullies. We spend hours running them to every soccer practice, baseball game, and music recital....how many verses of scripture do we teach them, how much have we invested of our time and ourselves to make them "Bully-Proof"? 
     How well balanced are their interests and teachings? 
     It is not enough to cloth and feed them if we want them to be "Bully-Proof", teach them who God says they are, and no bully will be able to hurt them!........just saying~