Up Close and Personal

~I was pondering today....about what the Lord did during our service at Life Care Center this past Sunday....how He revealed Himself to us...
~The Lord had led us to Romans 8:35 "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?"...v. 38 "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, v. 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
~And then we went into our time of praise through song....We'd just finished singing, "Nothing Is Impossible....when you put your trust in God; Nothing is impossible, when you're trusting in His Word. Harken to the voice of God to thee; "Is there anything too hard for Me?" Then put your trust in God alone and rest upon His Word; for ev'rything, O ev'rything, yes ev'rything is possible with God" Eugene L. Clark
~When we finished, the spiritual atmosphere became very heavy with the weighty Presence of God...and still....and then the essence of what the Lord spoke was this:

"You sing this song, "Nothing Is Impossible", but do you believe it?

Do you believe it? Do you really BELIEVE this? You sing, but do you believe it?

I love you so much, and I walk these halls night and day.

I have never left you nor forsaken you.

O, how I love you! O how I love you!"

~And the atmosphere became even heavier....and I could not speak....God's awesomeness had moved from Heaven to earth in a little dining room in a nursing home at 320 Brigham St. in Plainwell, Michigan. God came to us, up close and personal.

~Oh, His peace and His sweet Presence....and the overwhelming sense of His closeness and awesomeness....I have no earthly words....There were no words, because HE IS THE WORD!

How does one define THE WORD in earthly terms?....I truly don't know....But I do believe, that

God wanted us - all of us - residents and volunteers alike...to KNOW the reality of His abiding love and Presence...and to believe in WHO HE IS - Personally - and what is His desire to do among us...The Impossible - bring physical healing into the nursing home on a scale that will be exceedingly, abundantly beyond what we could think or imagine!

~So, I was pondering today about how God manifested Himself during the service...and how He revealed Himself to the residents....but then I also knew....He revealed Himself to me, too....

I need Him so much! I want to know My Daddy up close and personal - just like all of us.....

~I don't have any great, big revelation of sort....only that God wants to come close to us...more than we realize....to reveal Himself to us...and to love on us as His children....His Bride....

~O, Come Lord Jesus come....Come Lord Jesus come....

Psalm 42:1-2a "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God."

Jeremiah 29:13-14a "And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord...."

Jeremiah 33:3 "Call to Me, and I will answer you...."

By My Spirit

By My Spirit

6/25/09

Crista Simmons

O, in the barren places - when I could see no more...

I sought My Living Savior and there He stood before...

"Come unto Me", He gently spoke; holding forth His hand,

"And I shall take you forward, into The Promised Land.

The way is narrow and often very dark,

But I Am ever with you;

Never, ever to depart.

I allow the darkness, so you will ever know -

I'll never leave you nor forsake you;

No matter how it goes.

And as you look to Me,

I'll take you through to more than you imagine -

For it's not by might nor power,

But by My Spirit," says the Lord.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 (Amp.) "For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome. Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you. Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as in vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

A Call to Anguish

A Call to Anguish - David Wilkerson

Would really appreciate your comments....I am undone after listening to God's anquished heart pour through David Wilkerson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27DIST8qO4I

Philippians 3:10 "[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him, [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same ways come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
v. 11 That if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]."

Joel 2:17 "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar...."

Matthew 23:37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"

~Christ's Suffering....His longing for us, His Bride and who He desires us to be....that we may truly reflect the true image of Christ....not an imitation of who we think He is based upon who we're watching on television or even listening to standing in the pulpit...but Who He Truly IS and has called us to be as His Bride.
~The suffering of Christ...the suffering/agony/languish/ache beyond ache which happens because He knows what could be....but will not, when the person(s) involved (myself included) are not willing to participate with Him, because of selfish pride, rebellion, the desires of the world, the desires of self....my time, my life, my house, my job, my kids, my ministry, my this/my that....unforgiveness...etc., etc., etc....

~Lord, I lay it down...my life...my all...my hopes....my dreams....my family...my job....my ministry....Lord, that what will arise out of the ashes of brokenness will be Your Resurrection power displayed....in that Lord, yet not my will be done, but Thy will be done for Your Glory and Your Kingdom...both for now and forevermore. Do whatever it takes, Lord, to take me wherever You want to take me. In Jesus' Name....Amen.

The Aroma of Christ

The year: 2001...in my pea pod apartment....literally crying out to God....A disheveled man in his 50's-60's had come into the store where I was working that day...the town "drunk"...living out of his van, and he wanted to buy a cell phone. There was an essence so deep and poignant about him - smacking me full head-on...That visible CRASH in the spirit realm where we see and hear the effect of our own self-righteousness that has no effect to change the lives of others....I couldn't escape the question resounding as if I'd just yelled over the Grand Canyon, itself....Where was The Church for this homeless man? Why was nothing made available to him to which he could avail himself in his time of need? (Please know that I had no idea what he'd tried to do in his city, but the Lord opened my eyes to see the suffering about me in the midst of those who call ourselves: The Church.)

The Lord revealed the following vision during prayer....I was in a forest of type...a small clearing with a "campfire" set...The wood neatly arranged in the campfire....The stove pot of stew hanging above it - full of vegetables and meat - ready to feed any hungry camper or passerby....Then I saw people...wandering...aimless....starving....eyes sunken and glazed....approaching the kettle hanging above the collection of wood....nearly tripping over it. ~But no one saw the food...They wandered in oblivion to what they had just passed....I wanted to shout out..."HEY! IT'S OVER HERE! YOU JUST MISSED IT!!!".....My heart sunk and ached deep within....The hungry continued to wander about...still starving...still aimless.
....LORD! Why didn't these people see the food which was so readily available? What happened????...."My Child, did you see the wood? It was unlit, so there was no fire. The wood just sat there....There was no fire....Without fire, the wood will not heat the dinner which awaits...without fire, no heat, no cooking....and NO AROMA....There is no aroma, because the fire has gone out of My Church in America. Wood sits ready in her pews...but there is no fire."

I will close with the following excerpt quoted from Leonard Ravenhill's sermon, "Are We Willing to Drink His Cup?", 10/25/85 and can be accessed in full at: http://www.ravenhill.org/drinkcup.htm

"I was reading a couple of pages in the Marechales life yesterday. I like to turn to that book. She was the oldest daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army. Even when she was 85 years of age she could preach up a storm.
"One night," she said, "I went to Brussels. I went to a large mansion loaded with antiques and costly things. It was beautiful. It was owned by a Christian. I noticed a sweet girl there, at about 9 o’clock each morning she would come out of the servant’s quarters radiant.

I said to her one day, ‘My dearie, I want to ask you a question. I’ve noticed the last few mornings while having my breakfast, after coming out of your servant’s quarters, you are so radiant!’ She replied, ‘I begin at 5 o’clock in the morning.’ ‘5 o’clock?! To what time?’ ‘Well, breakfast is at 8. Usually I have the last fire going by about half past 7.’ ‘How do you do it?’‘I just kneel in front of it. I sweep all the ashes on one side. I put them in a bucket. I get some paper and some kindling wood.’ (And boy, getting coal to catch fire is a job!) ‘I go in that room and get that fire going. I go in the next, I go to the next. I go back and the first one’s gone out, so I do it over again. But eventually I get to breakfast a minute or two before 8 o’clock. I’ve lit my 12 fires.’‘Don’t you get impatient?’‘No.’‘Well, you say the fires have gone out?’‘Yes, they often go out.’‘Well, do you get up early for devotions?’‘No,’ she said, ‘Not very early.’‘Well, how do you maintain you spiritual life?’She said, ‘Every time I light a fire, I say, Jesus, while I’m kindling this fire, kindle a fire in me!’
Kindle a fire of Your love afresh in me this morning! Kindle a fire of Your devotion in me!
Here’s this precious little girl talking to one of the most powerful women in the world. A women who, at 21 years of age, went to Paris and turned the city upside-down preaching to all the prostitutes. The queen of the underworld was there. Men came from the Sorbone, the greatest intellectuals with their long beards and their pipes, and listened to her.
And yet the Marechale said that young lady taught me more than most sermons I’d ever heard.
She had to light the fire, get bellows, blow the things up and try to get them going. She said, "At every fire place, I never missed one morning saying, ‘Lord as I’m kindling this fire, kindle Your fire in me.’" The fire of love for Your will. The fire of love. The fire of joy. The fire of peace. The fire of compassion.
If this fire came back to the Church, we’d turn America upside-down in six months.
Ours is all theology. We get a starving man and give him a cookbook. Does it help him? He looks in the cookbook and sees there a dish with potatoes, beef, etc. What do you do? You tantalize him! You say, "Oh, I hope one day you can come to our place We’re going to have this dish, this beef, this turkey, and something else." And yet the poor man is ravenously hungry! We give him a picture, but we don’t give him the goods! At the average church on Sunday morning, they give you the menu, but they never give you the meal. They give an outline of theology: ‘This is our precious doctrine." So, most people will be reciting doctrine in Hell."

LORD JESUS, SET OUR HEARTS ON FIRE FOR YOU AND YOUR KINGDOM, ONCE AGAIN! COME, LORD JESUS, COME!

2 Cor. 2:14-16 "But thanks be to God, Who in Christ always leads us in triumph [as trophies of Christ's victory] and through us spreads and makes evident the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere, For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which exhales] unto God, [discernible alike] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the latter it is an aroma [wafted] from death [a fatal odor, the smell of doom]; to the former it is an aroma from life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is qualified (fit and sufficient) for these things? [Who is able for such a ministry? We?]...Amplified Bible

Revelation 3:15-22 "I know your [record of] works and what you are doing; you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of My mouth! For you say, I am rich; I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing; and you do not realize and understand that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see. Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude]. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears and listens to and heeds My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will eat with him, and he [will eat] with Me. He who overcomes (is victorious), I will grant him to sit beside Me on My throne, as I Myself overcame (was victorious) and sat down beside My Father on His throne. He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies (churches)."...Amplified Bible

What a Trip!!!

~First of all, I wish I could tell you that this post is about a wonderful excursion we took to the U.P. (Michigan's Upper Peninsula for all you non-Michiganians/or Michiganders - whatever it is we are!) ~I wish I could detail the beauty along the Virginia Turnpike; describing the grandeur and majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. ~I wish I could show you a photo of a 23" Walleye that I'd caught after much heaving and hoeing!

~Nope! This trip is about catching both of my big toes on my own self-righteousness and slamming full force down into my own pile of filthy rags! And the problem is that my biggest challenge is loving the brethren. If there is one place in my heart that I'm going to be critical, it is of the brethren. And beloved, this ought not to be.

~It is still too easy to get up on my self-righteous high horse and comment, "Well, so and so says that they're a Christian! And look at what they're doing?!?!?!" Now, I'm talking up close and personal....people that I deal with directly in my life....Some days, this deals with my husband and I....THAT'S REALITY! Some days, it deals with those more inner circle than others....and sometimes with those not quite so close, but still within "arms reach". I'm telling you...the Lord yanked my chain so hard on this issue that I'm still spitting out dirt and gravel!

~So why is this? When we get up close and personal, sheep stink. The Lord calls us sheep....and as my son has reminded me, get close enough to a sheep...and it stinks! We all have areas in our heart that the Lord is still shaping and molding us....and this is mine! Oh, I wish that it were not so...This thing that I don't want to do....I do, and the thing that I want to do, I don't do...O wretch that I am...Who shall save me from myself? Only the Lord, Jesus Christ is able to do this by the power of His Holy Spirit....convicting of sin, bringing repentence of heart and then walking in the power of His Spirit.

~I truly believe the greatest demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit is to love our enemies and to love those that we would not choose out of a crowd...or our own home church...I'm going to say right out that God doesn't care about our stinky old ministry if we are not manifesting His Love for His Church and the lost...

~There's a contemporary song that's very popular in church right now...."I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God. I am a friend of God; He calls me friend." And oh, how we love to get all
yippy-skippy about this song.....But....did you know that God calling us friend is conditional on us obeying His commandments? John 15:14 "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Our friendship with God is conditional upon our obedience. Our friendship doesn't automatically happen at conversion. It happens when we obey His commandments. Beloved, we know what they are, but how do we live them out? "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and body." "Love your neighbor as yourself." In the end, these three abide, but the greatest of these is love. Even the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13 that even if he could do all things spiritually, he was absolutely NOTHING without love.

1 John 4:20-21 "If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him that he who loves God must love his brother also."

"Lord, help me to love today as You are love. Fill me with Your Spirit...Who IS Love. Help me to see others as You see them....Help me not to love in word, but in deed. Forgive me, Father for the places where I've blown it big time...Create a right spirit within me....yet not my will, but Thy will be done. In Jesus' Name, Amen."

Be Prepared

~Last night (Memorial Day), the Lord spoke the first sentence, and then spoke the rest this early morning.
~You do not need to be afraid; you need to be prepared. Sound the alarm! The Day is approaching! The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord and My Church knows it not!
Scripture: Matthew 25:1-13, Zechariah 2

Let's focus on preparation:
Where do we need to be prepared first and foremost?
-Spiritually:
-Let's ask ourselves these questions....Where am I at in relationship with My Father? There is only one way to be in right relationship with God and that is through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Jesus said in John 14:6 "I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." Therefore, there is no other way to God the Father, except THROUGH Jesus Christ. For anyone to preach otherwise is false doctrine and a spirit of the antichrist.
-Heart issues:
-What is my relationship to other Believers? Saints, we are not to carry any ill feelings towards our Brothers or Sisters. 1 John 4:20 "If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" The Lord's Word also tells us that insofar as it be possible, we are to live at peace with all men (Rom. 12:18), and "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God". (Matt. 5:9)
-Beloved, if we are living at peace with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ, then our hearts will not condemn us. But if we have an issue between us and another Brother or Sister in Christ, then we are admonished by the Lord to go to them personally if we have been personally offended by them (Matt. 5:24), or we need to just leave it with the Lord. Period! (Rom. 12:19-21)
Psalm 139:23-24 "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts/anxieties; and see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (NKJV and Amplified)
We are to seek the Lord in that He will reveal by His Holy Spirit all that is hindering our relationship with Him, and/or others, or something which is hurting us through our sinful nature. As He reveals these things, then we are to confess them, ask His forgiveness and ask for the working of the Holy Spirit to correct us and lead us on His path of righteousness - ever looking to Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
-Service:
In Matt. 25:14-30, we read the parable of the talents. Therefore, until the Lord's return, how are we to be serving God and mankind, the poor in heart/spirit/finances, the afflicted, the elderly, the orphans and widows for the Kingdom of God/His Kingdom Glory? If we are a Believer in Christ, then the Holy Spirit is in each one of us for His Purpose as He has so determined in Heaven according to His will.
-Supplies:
Daily, we are to seek the Lord for a fresh supply of the Holy Spirit. He is the Living Water from Whom we shall never thirst. His supply never runs dry!
Store non-perishables, toiletries and water.

~Church, our time is short! What are we doing with it? Are we spending our days on things which have no eternal significance or are we seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness? We have a choice. Every day is a choice in how we spend it. Deuteronomy 30:11-20. Be wise and be prepared!

Being Priestly Kills the Flesh

~Saints, we as The Church need to get a grip on a concept that we don't like to address, but it is Godly...it is the essence of being a priest of God, because as a western, American church...we want the the resurrection power without the death to our flesh. As Leonard Ravenhill implies in his sermon, "Are We Willing to Drink His Cup", there is no pentecost without a death, and that we are looking for/seeking a deathless resurrection - a revival without personal cost: http://www.ravenhill.org/drinkcup.htm It is time for the Church to realize that if we are truly going to see revival, then we must realize what it is to be priests of God and to crucify the flesh.

~James 1:27 "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." Galatians 5:24 "And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

~You see, we have gotten to the place that there is so much flesh parading itself as "saved" in the Church, that we are no longer willing to address that which is unholy for fear of offending someone. God tells us in His Word to "be holy as I AM Holy", and when we do, somebody begins to scream "religious spirit"! Church, we need to be reminded that Jesus prayed in John 17, in the Garden of Gethsemane, that God would sanctify us - separate us from the world so that we would be in the world but not of the world. Jesus prayed that we be kept pure and separated from society's values and norms which are contrary to the Word of God and Who He Is.

~One of the priest's responsibilities in the Old Testament was to be able to differentiate the holy from the unholy. And I have to ask: Are we truly able to do that today? If we are truly, living stones, a holy priesthood, a chosen generation that the Lord wants us to be as stated in 1 Peter 2:5,9 then are we truly living out our priesthood? Because being a priest, means that the flesh has been dealt with...it is dead...and that Church...is the essence of the symbolism of baptism...dead to the flesh and all it's earthly desires - the old has passed away...there is a spiritual rebirth and with it there is a new creation in Christ, who will desire and live to walk out that which is Godly and Holy and Pure and Righteous....It is only that which is sown to the Spirit which reaps everlasting life....he who sows to the flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. (Gal. 6:7) In other words, my wants, my desires, my this, my that....From where do these wants, needs, desires generate? Are they generating from the flesh or the Spirit? Am I seeking first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness so that all these things shall be added unto me....God taking care of the things which concern my life, because I am first seeking Him and His Kingdom? Or am I just approaching The Throne of Grace as a "quick fix" to my problem?

~Church, the Lord's desire for us as His Body, is that we "look" like Jesus in Word and deed....and what we need to understand is that in order for this to happen, there is a death...a baptism...a submersion of the old man....so that the new man is able to arise in His resurrection power.

~For a greater, more in depth study of the concept of being priestly and all this involves, I invite you to read the book, "Apostolic Foundations - The Challenge of Living an Authentic Christian Life" by Arthur Katz, c. 1999/Burning Bush Press. Art Katz is now Home with the Lord, but his writing is so profound that it causes me to be speechless; gasping for breath.

~I will leave you with this quote from p. 22-23 "Priestliness must both precede and accompany the apostolic walk. We urgently need God to breathe upon us the spirit of true priesthood, and to touch and transform every aspect of our lives, our walk, and our ministry. There is a requirement to minister unto God before one ministers to men. If we lack the sense of the sacredness of God, which is to be found only in the holy place, by those who have the posture of the priest, that is to say, prostrated as a dead man before Him, then there is going to be something brittle, something lacking, and something plastic in the ministry we bring. There is a cry of God for the restoration of priesthood that alone will save us from the superficial demonstrations that a ostensibly performed in His Name."

~"Lord God, Our Father Who lives in Heaven, fill me with Your Spirit. May the desires of my heart generate from Your Heart, O God. Strip me of all earthly desires for what is contrary to You and Your Word. Cause me to come before Your Throne....for You and You, Alone. Create in me the image of Christ in all ways...for Father, it is only You and You Alone Who deserves the praise, glory, honor and blessing. In Jesus' Name, Amen."