Purposed In His Presence

There is something that I have experienced before, and recently it happened again causing me to reflect for a moment. We have all been in this place. It's nothing new, nor is it exclusive to only me. [Insert grin] This is what happened.  Because of the events of the very LONG day before I was so tired this specific morning, that I just couldn't hardly put one step in front of the other.  I literally had to keep pushing one foot moving in front of the other to get the day started with all that this entails; husband to work, home school rolling on, taking the dog out, then desperately hanging on to a cup of coffee hoping that it would help. (and it didn't help as much as I would have liked) It was one of those mornings that I needed a second cup without the time.  Then I remembered that I was supposed to be at the church for prayer at 9 am.  I thought to myself, can I even drive?  I was that tired.  But I knew that I couldn't stay this way, I said a quick Lord Help Me and kept going.  But something had to change.

Normally when I go to the church at different times for prayer, it's not prayer for me, that's the kind of prayer that I pray at home.  Rather it's to minister to God, praying for His Will and Plan to come to fruition in the body of believers, in the leadership of the church, and more importantly for the salvation and transformation of the lost in our community, our City.  And on this morning, I was struggling to focus on just praising Him.  I couldn't hardly get passed first base, per say.  So I got down on my face before the Lord, and no, I didn't go to sleep. :)  I just simply told God the truth quietly:  That I loved Him and thanked Him for the Honor of praying for His people..... but I needed help.  On this day, as an intercessor, I didn't do what I always do. It wasn't the time to declare the [actual] Word of God over our city, nor was it time to "stand on the wall" and pray over everything that is happening in our congregation.  And believe me, Great things ARE happening!  It wasn't the time for all of that, it was time to Worship and Bless the Lord, and I was struggling. So you see, we can't always be "Susie, Super Spiritual"  where ever we are, all the time. There will always be times that we need help. And I was definitely there.

So in the middle of being quiet and honest before the Lord, He was ready to do His job, especially because I was struggling.  While the prayer music was playing, you could feel the Holy Spirit step in and take over.  I wasn't saying much of anything, yet my heart was crying out to God, and immediately you could feel His Refreshing Presence enter the room.  The excessive tiredness began to subside along with the fogginess that came with it. Suddenly, I could realize that I was praying what  needed to be prayed, and it wasn't "Lord help me" anymore. It was the prayers that He wanted to be prayed. You see, when we learn to submit ourselves to Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit [in all things], the Holy Spirit will guide and direct us. And in this instance, He was praying the prayers that needed to be said, while refreshing and restoring me at the same time.  He just good like that!

So don't ever be intimidated or afraid to be honest with God, no matter what the situation is.  Always go to Him first, and then .... always be honest.  He understands  how we feel, but He is waiting for us to bring it to Him..  He has our answers, He's ready to refresh us and give us strength, but we must bring it to Him first.  He is ready to give us the Great Exchange: His strength for our weakness, His joy for our mourning, a Mantle of Praise for our heaviness.  It is all there in His Presence, and He is waiting for You!!

Have a Wonderful Day in Jesus Name.
Be Blessed!

He Comforts Us Part 2

Psalm 40:1-3

New Living Translation (NLT)

I waited patiently for the Lord to help me,
    and he turned to me and heard my cry.
2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
    out of the mud and the mire.
He set my feet on solid ground
    and steadied me as I walked along.
3 He has given me a new song to sing,
    a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see what He has done and be amazed.
    They will put their trust in the Lord.

I have heard this scripture repeated lately, and have learned that when God puts scriptures out there over and over again for us to see, its for a reason.  You might read it once, and then you might see it in a devotional and then again on a Sunday service, it is sang about or quoted again. Has that ever happened to you?

Well recently, I had heard this scripture repeated from three different sources in a short amount of time, and it jumped out at me because I know it well.  I have a history with this scripture.  Sometimes we just need to revisit previous times in our life; not to keep reliving the past, but to remember what God did for us during those times.

In the days that scriptures were written, more specifically the Old Testament, there would be a specific encounter that one would have with God, and they would build an altar there, give thanks to Him and move on.  And when they at times would come back by that place they would revisit that altar and remember what God had done in their life.  They would kneel there and thank Him again for what He had done for them before.

This scripture is one of those altars for me.  I remember as a young adult I struggled.  You see, I grew up in a family of Pastors and Evangelists.  God has blessed me with a Godly heritage that is part of my foundation today, but that didn't keep me from moving away from God and walking a completely different path for a time.  In the early days of marriage to my husband, we came back to the Lord right away.  But because I had walked such a dark path at times, and because I was a Pastor's kid and Pastor's Grandchild, the enemy enjoyed reminding me almost every minute of the day, that I knew better. So, he wanted me to think I had to settle for mediocre Christianity,and that I wasn't going to receive any more from God, because I knew better and I could not take them back or I couldn't make them go away either. (this was the battleground in my mind)

And one day I read this scripture, and held on to it so closely for a long time.  Because I just couldn't believe God could ever forgive me of all people, of everything that I had done or become.  I knew all to well what the pit of despair was like, and never wanted to return there again.  Even though I still did not have a grasp on the fact that I was a child of God and not a step child per say, I knew who rescued me, and everyday I could not be thankful enough.  It was kinda of like I was the prodical son returned without the celebration.  I knew that I had been forgiven, but had not yet reached out for the truth, that I could "celebrate" or live in joy, because I had been rescued.  Believe me when I say, that the day that this mind set turned around, I have never gone back.  I live in the redemptive power of the cross, and I will never go Back!

Now, back to the point.[insert grin]  The scriptures are in place to bring us life, to bring us joy, to bring us comfort.  Not just because of the words, but because HE comforts us and confirms to us through His Word.  I held on to this scripture with a thankful heart that I had been forgiven until one day I got to the point that I could literally turn the page to

Psalms 42: 1 
New King James Version (NKJV)

As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.

There came a day when I could see how much my Heavenly Father loved me, and my past had nothing to do with it.  The enemy had officially lost the battle as my eyes were finally opened to the truth.  My past was gone, as far as the east is from the west, and I am free to live the rest of my life in the joy and peace of His Presence!  This is what He has for us, and this is how He Comforts Us: through the truth of His Word.


Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank you for every soul that reads this entry, and I pray that they find You and all of Your goodness, mercy, love and strength in every verse that they read.  Bring to their remembrance all of the love that You have for them, and also the freedom and purpose that You have already given them.  May we all learn to walk in that today.  It's Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

I pray that each of you not only know how much God loves you, but also to take comfort in His Word.  It's for you.  

Many blessings to you today In Jesus Name.

He Comforts Us Part 1

I remember back to a time in our young married life as Christians, the things my husband and I walked through.  They were completely different issues for us individually, but the intense part was that we were having to walk out not on our own; but together.  My husbands issues were more philosophical in nature toward the things of God, and mine was more in the form of emotional baggage that I had no idea how to be free from.  Now, the side note here is that there are MANY marriages entered into in this same general problem.  And I can tell you, that unless you are both willing to walk out with each other their problems, issues and matters of the heart together; and be willing to support and provide grace and understanding, this path that you are on will turn out to be a journey through the wilderness. We have to be willing to walk out each others path together, encouraging each other, giving each other grace and mercy as often as needed combined with a lot prayer.  It is a covenant relationship, and that means we stick it out together.

Jesus in the New Testament and God, our Father in the Old Testament has both promised to never leave or forsake us (Deut 31:6  Hebrews 13:5)  He's a friend that sticks closer than any brother(Proverbs 18:24), and He promises to be with us even to the ends of the earth (Matt 28:20). All of our days, we will never be alone. He IS there with us.

We have become a society, that says I can do what I want, when I want, because I want to.  Once this mind set takes over, it no longer matters what the effect is on loved ones around us. We have forgotten as a whole, that our decisions directly affects others; always.

God created us to be in relationship with Him. So He formed relationships around us to teach us how to be and with who we should be. And when the attack on the family became the center of hell's focus, relationships have been so twisted that young people today don't always have a knowledge of what a relationship is really supposed to be like.  For instance, when I was in High School, everyone "knew" what relationships were "supposed " to look like or be like, even if they didn't have that example in their immediate family.  Now, you see people who honestly would not know the character of a real relationship and what that in tails if it stood in front of them.  When one person does step up and speak out for and about marriages and family, they are the ones being labeled as strange or weird.

Today we live in the result of a world with secular views are saying to live for yourself and nothing else matters.  But in 1 Corinthians 13 the description of love is completely the opposite.  The entire chapter speaks of love not being all about self and more about others.  We must get back to some of the basics. To love like Christ loved the church is the only way to see others through Heavens eyes. Everything will take on a new meaning.

God wants to heal every thing in your life that has wounded you. Wounds from past relationships, hurtful words that have been spoken to you over and over, and HE wants to show you what blessings come from a covenant relationship with Him.  Spend some time in His Presence as you study and read 1 Corinthians 13. The Passion Translation is a good example, but read it in your  preferred version.  He wants you to know what true unconditional love really is, and He wants YOU to walk in it's fullness.


Dear Heavenly Father,

I praise You for every person who reads this entry and needs a touch from You.  You are the One who loves us, makes provision for us, and You alone knew each of us before we were ever born.  You have a purpose and plan for all, and nothing escapes or gets past You.  So I thank You for Your Hand being upon each individual in need of You, and showing them that You are there in the middle of each situation with them. You are and will always be closer than anyone that we could ever know on this earth. And I pray that they see this truth in operation in their lives today.  In Jesus Name.  Amen.


Call out to Him today with everything that is in Your life and invite Him to step in and help you.  He is already there, waiting on you.  Blessings my friend.  Have a great day .

The Perfect Storm

If you are like me, you will say that there is no "Perfect Storm" because we do not like them.  When you are in one, there is nothing to like about it. Nothing at all. But there are reasons why a storm in our life could be considered a Perfect Storm; that's because God will use the turbulent times in our life to bring us to a place to where He wanted us to be all along. Let me show you what I mean.

In Matthew 14 :24-32, While Jesus was away from the disciples praying, they found themselves in the middle of a great storm. Notice, Jesus didn't cause the storm, He was where He should have been: praying, communing with the Father.  Just because we are faithful children of God, this doesn't mean that hard times won't come.  But we have the assurance that Jesus will meet us out there on the water in the middle of the storm; and who knows, an opportunity to do something great may present itself. But the question is would that opportunity ever come if we are always on the beach?  I may be wrong, but I don't think so.

There are plenty of reasons to not like a storm, and they are extremely obvious. No matter if it is daytime or night; when a storm comes, the clouds that roll in are dark and daunting. The winds creating the waves are frightful because they are displaying the power of earthly elements that we can not control. Human nature doesn't like not being in control, ever. When we are not in control, that means that we have to admit, at least to ourselves, that we do not have all of the answers. Another thing that we as being human, we do not like.

We have to remember, that the Word tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that God has GOOD thoughts toward us. A plan for our future. So that must mean that we are not to go under and be overtaken by the storm, but rather we are to be expectant for God to be there in the storm.  That means our faith will expect God to rescue us; we will expect Him to show up when we are afraid. The surroundings may cause fear to show up, but our faith will say " Now, where is Jesus, I know He is here somewhere".  If you look at Matthew 14 the disciples saw Jesus, but didn't know it was Him. Their fear caused them to not recognize Him in such a miraculous state because they didn't know that He could walk on water. But because of this encounter with Jesus, we know in our situations that He Can!

Let's look at another "Perfect Storm".  In Jonah Chapters 1-3, you'll find the story of Jonah running from what God instructed him to do. I know what you might be thinking, because I have thought it before myself.

In this perfect storm, God did orchestrate it.  Because Jonah literally went the other direction to keep from doing what He instructed him to do; God created a storm and mind boggling events like being swallowed by a "great fish",  all to get Jonah to line up with the GREAT things that God wanted him to do.  Now realize this before we go any further. God was not going to kill Jonah, although he must assuredly felt like it, Jonah wasn't going to die. God directed Jonah's path to the place where self would get out of the way and he would listen to God's instruction.

I might be the only Hard headed person in the world, but somehow I know that I am not the only one that relates to Jonah. God tells us to do something, and we think we either know better of what we should do or we are just like Jonah saying "No Way Am I Doing That".  Been there, done that.  And I do not plan to ever do it again.  God does have a way of showing us that He does know best.

There is an interesting thought that I realized.  In the storms of life (Matt 14) they come and go, and God is there every time, and it only took a few verses to tell the story.  But when we run from God, we create the problem. It took three chapters to tell Jonah's story!  I think that it is safe to say, that even though we might be afraid, its easier to do it God's way than our own.

The Perfect Storm does exist in our life. The question is, what will it create IN us?

Father,
I thank You for each person reading this entry today.  I know that You so faithfully guide us and see us through to the end of every situation in our life.  Your plan for us is so much greater than we could ever plan for ourselves.  We choose to surrender and trust you with every situation in lives instead of taking the long or hard way around.  Your grace and mercy is so much greater than earthly minds can wrap around, but You yet your are so Faithful and true to Your Word.  WE love and bless You for loving us first.  In Jesus Name.

Blessings to you all.
Have a great day !!