Brainstorming About Prayer

Luke 18:1 Jesus taught quite a bit on prayer and this scripture tells us "men ought always to pray and not faint".  Does that make you feel good or guilty?

Let’s do some brainstorming about prayer!  I’d like to pose some questions and I’d love to hear from some of you with regard to how you would answer such questions personally.  I will share with you my own personal thoughts.

First question, how important is prayer anyway?  Well, most people would say pretty important.  I say it is life and death to the experience of a believer.

Second question, why then does it seem sometimes to be the most natural thing in the world to do and at other times, the most unnatural and the thing we seem least inclined to do?

Third question, why is it that most people can only give you a few times in their lives when they felt that they really got a clear answer to their prayers?

Fourth question, and this is one that I heard over and over again as a Christian therapist, if there is a good God who answers prayer, why are there still starving children in Africa?

Fifth question, is it possible that what we have is a major misunderstanding about what prayer is and what it is not?  Or, could it be that we have not been educated or trained in the life-changing art of prayer?

These questions were triggered within me after reading the following quote from Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer:

“Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise.  It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy One.  The powers of the eternal world have been placed at its disposal.  It is the very essence of true religion, the channel of all blessings, the secret of power and life…It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfillment, the kingdom for its coming, the glory of God for its full revelation… (For) true prayer, that takes hold of God’s strength, that availeth much, to which the gates of heaven are really opened wide—who would not cry, Oh for someone to teach me thus to pray? pps.8,9.

Last question, does your prayer life fit in the description of Andrew Murray above?  If not, please do not feel condemned.  You are not alone!  In my experience, there are more of us who would say,  I wish!!!  But, for many of us, we would say he had something that we do not.

For today, let me say that I do not believe that has to be the response of the majority of us to his experience of prayer.  I believe that we have been under educated in the whole concept of prayer and we have not matured in what we have been taught.

So, let’s address the first question in the next blog.  How important is prayer anyway?  I’d love to hear from some of you.  If you have a difficult time posting to the blog, email your responses to me at sonshine38@carolina.rr.com . 

Meanwhile, I pray that the Son of God is shining brightly into your world today.  He wants to brighten our world with the light of His great love, so turn your face upward and allow Him to fill you with His warmth!

Face to Face with God?

Oh, what a beautiful morning!  Oh what a beautiful day!  The sun is shining where I am down-home today and the Son is also shining in my heart!  I hope the same is true of you!

My Honeypot (my husband) and I were having devotions together this morning as we do most mornings.  It was about having a “face to face” moment with God.  He asked me if I had times like this. We began to share around those times in our lives.

One of his most memorable times was when he was scheduled to be the morning speaker at his church and he had nothing to share.  It wasn’t that he hadn’t tried, mind you; he had!  Alas, it had been to no avail and two hours before the service he was dry as a bone.  He said he went out to the woods and sat down on a felled log.  He simply bowed his head and asked for help.

Suddenly, God was with him, and He gave him a most interesting message that he calls his snake bite sermon.  Perhaps, with his permission, I will share that with you someday, but today’s blog is about those times of God’s intense presence and how do those come about?

For him, it was a time of being at the end of his own efforts and surrendering himself to God to receive something beyond him.  In that surrender, God revealed Himself in a mighty way.  My husband’s eyes tear up and I can literally see the Holy Spirit on him when he shares this story with me.

I shared with him a time when I was just beginning to “practice the presence”. I had been informed earlier in the evening of the death of my stepfather.  I was in a quandary regarding whether to drop everything and travel to my hometown to attend the funeral.  At that time, I was involved in full time ministry which meant that I could not get away easily.

I went to bed with that on my mind.  Sometime in the night I was awakened and went to my spot where I was learning to meet with God.  I sat down with pencil and paper in hand and wrote down what I heard.  It was something like this.  “Go about your Father’s business; the man who died is not now nor was he ever your father.  I am and always have been your only Father.  Let the dead bury the dead”.  I did not go to the funeral and later realized that was a very wise decision.  I was able to do so in great peace as I had heard from heaven.

That night God the Father’s presence was so real, I can still feel it now as I share this with you and every time I think of it.  Something changed inside of me as a result of that encounter.  I moved from being a fatherless child to being a child of the most powerful and loving Father ever!  Now I had been a Christian about twenty four years at that time and I knew that I was a child of God, the Bible told me so.  But, that night I experienced Him in a way different from any other and I KNEW that He was my Daddy.  It changed the way I felt about myself forever.

There are many other times when God has been so near, I could feel His presence more real than I can feel any one else’s.  I will share some of those in the days to come, but right now let me ask you…have you ever had a face to face encounter with the Living God?  Do you KNOW you are His child?  Do you have a felt sense of Him being your Father or is it just head knowledge?

Do you even know that you can have such an encounter or have you been brainwashed into believing that is not possible?  The scripture reference for the reading today was Genesis 22 where Abraham had one of those God moments.  In obedience to the voice of God, he had taken the thing most dear to him in all the world and gone to Mt. Moriah, a place of sacrifice.  In that moment of surrender, God met him face to face! Do you think Abraham was ever the same?

There are multitudinous times in scripture when people met with God face to face, but we are sometimes told that is no longer possible for those of us living today.  I say that is a lie straight out of the pit of hell.  I have met Him myself so many times now that I would be hard pressed to ever share all of them with anyone.  Believe it or not!  It is true!

If you have never had an experience like this one, may I encourage you to seek His face.  He is waiting and eager to meet with anyone who will come to Him.   Psalm 27 is a beautiful one in which the psalmist cries out “When you said, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”  (Hebrews 11:6)  Expect Him to show up!

May I suggest that you take a moment at the first opportunity that presents itself, get quiet before Him and read this Psalm in its entirety? Pray as you read; that is, dialogue with Him.  This means that you say what’s in your heart and then you listen for Him to speak to you by His Spirit in your spirit.  I find that I do not hear His voice in my head but somewhere from the center of my inmost being.  One thing I can tell you, I always KNOW the times when I have met with Him and the times when the voice has had some other source.  I will share sometime how anyone can know the difference.  

Happy Seeking!

Why it is hard to pay attention to God

Yesterday’s blog was about paying attention to God or "practicing the presence of God"!  I continued to peruse this concept throughout the day.  What does it mean to pay attention?  I would love to be able to throw that question out to all of you and brainstorm some answers.

One thought I had is that we pay attention to what we love!  I love my husband; my husband loves me!  We have each other’s attention.  It is not work for me nor is it work for him.  It is a very natural thing that comes out of our love for each other.  For instance, if my phone rings and I see that it is him calling, I will drop all else to respond.  I know that he does the same with me.

Now think of that in the context of our Lord.   Does He have our attention like that?  We have his attention like that although most of us remain pretty unaware of that truth.  And Truth it is! 

(Ps.139:17,18) “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!  If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.”  This entire psalm has been a life changing one for me and many others with whom I have shared its contents.

Really! God? the God of the whole universe, who created heaven and earth and all that is within them…He is constantly thinking of me?  In a positive way?  Astounding!  How long has it been since you’ve been to the beach and counted the grains of sand?  These good thoughts our heavenly Father has toward us are more in number than all the grains of sand on the earth.  Selah..stop and think calmly about that!!!

Oh, I know some of us have been taught that God is everywhere and He sees everything we do and, therefore, we better not pout and we better not cry because He won’t like us if we act like that.  I know the song is about Santa but some people even have that mixed up, right?  To them, prayer is reciting their wish list or making up a todo list for God.  What’s sad about that is then we don’t understand why those prayers don’t get answered.

More people have the concept of God as a “gotcha god” than you would imagine.   This idea is fostered in order to cause people to be good, or else.  And people do fear Him, but they do not love Him.  Who could love a parent who was constantly watching every move looking for an opportunity to hit the child over the head with a two by four?  Not me!  And not many of you either.

When I worked at a treatment center for depression and anxiety, my duty was to teach about “distorted views of God.”  I loved that job.  I would tell people they ought to fire such a God and get a new one because their idea of God was not the God that Jesus came to reveal at all.  When they wrote a job description of the God they wanted it was more like the true God of the bible!  I saw many people set free in amazing ways.

Imagine with me for a moment a parent who is constantly thinking of the little one that they love so that they can raise it up to be the very best person possible.  Can you imagine that same parent saying something like, “OK, go on and put your hand on that stove and then you will learn a lesson not to touch the stove”?   No, and neither can any other person who has been raised by a loving parent.

Our heavenly Father is a good parent to His children!  (Matthew 7:7-11)  He is not a Father that would give a serpent to a child who asks for a fish, or stones to one who needs bread.  He is One who gives good things to those who ask Him!  He is the same Father to us that He was to Jesus. (John 20:17)  His heart’s desire is for us to be children to Him as Jesus was, totally dependent!  Who wouldn’t do that if we knew Him as He really is?  No one!

It is our enemy, the Devil, who tells such lies about God and, I believe, even inspires the kind of parenting that keeps people from being able to relate to God as a good and loving Father.  (John 8:41-44)  He is a liar and the father of lies.  It grieves me to hear the kind of thoughts that he has been able to sow in the hearts of people about our one true God! 

So let me ask you today…what is your view of the heavenly Father?  Unless you have done some work in the area of healing, it is not far from the parents who raised you.  If they were loving and devoted, then you see God in this way.  If they were anything but that, from cold and distant to harsh and tyrannical, then your way of relating to God will be similar to your response to them.  Hear me, I am not blaming; I am trying to explain how this happens.

May I encourage you to read the gospel of John with an eye toward this thought…what kind of a Father was God to Jesus?  Jesus said that He came to reveal the real Father to us.  (John 14:7-9)  He said if we knew that Father, we could love Him and it would be a joy to practice the presence of such a loving Father.  We would bound boldly into His throne room and jump up into His lap and look up into His face to receive His life changing look of love!

May the Son of God be shining on you today!

I pray that is your experience today!  If not, I ask the Spirit of God to reveal to you the truth of which I speak today and bring healing to your heart and mind as needed.  And, in the meantime, I pray the Son of God to be shining into the dark and cold places of your heart warming it up toward Him!

Paying Attention to the Lord

He is worthy of our attention!  And He is waiting to meet with you at your Well to spend time with you today!  Psalm 16:ll He will show us the path to life; In His presence is fullness of joy; At His right hand are pleasures forevermore!

Good morning, blogger friends.  I know it has been some time since I have shared anything with you and I apologize to those of you who might have missed me.  This has been a very busy time for me as my granddaughter has started college in a town very nearby our home and her mother has moved here as well.  I guess one could say there has been a lot of moving and shaking going on. 

This morning I was reading in a prayer book about the importance of continually walking in a sense of worship.  Now many people are natural born worshippers and they would say, Oh yes, I can relate to this and this I can do.  Then there are people like me who didn’t really learn to “worship” until I had been a Christian many, many years.  In fact, I am still learning.

As I stopped and pondered that thought another one came to me.  I read one time that the root of the word worship is a little like “His Worth Ship” like His Lordship, indicating that He is worthy of our time and attention.  Now this is something that I can relate to very well and I will tell you why.

One of the most life changing concepts in my Christian life has been to learn to “practice the presence of God”.  At first, that did not compute with me either.  I tried and I tried to experience the actual presence of God with me.  I listened as some of my friends told of how glorious and healing it was for them to do so.

One day I was sitting beside a young man and I noticed that he had a ring with a cross on it.  I asked him about it.  He said it was a “rosary ring”.  I asked if he was a Catholic and he said no, but this ring helped him to remember to practice the presence.  It was comforting to hear that he needed a reminder.

Others responded in a similar fashion.  One lady told of how each morning she would put a dot of ink on the top of her hand and every time she would move her hands and notice the dot she would stop and remember that God was present with her.  Now I was beginning to get it.  So, I went downtown and looked for something to remind me of His presence.

I found what I call my cross stone.  It is a small white marble looking stone with a cross etched in it.  I began to carry it with me everywhere and, sure enough, every time I saw it I was reminded to stop and realize that God was present with me.  This was the beginning of a great healing for me.  I will share more about that in subsequent blogs.

But, let me ask you today.  Is it easy for you to think of God as with you, right here and right now.  Oh, you may have learned at some time that he is omnipresent, but is that real for you?  It was not for me until I began consciously remembering that He was and giving Him my attention.  For me, this is one important form of worship!

May I encourage you to find some little thing that might remind you today that God is with you!  it could be as simple as the dot of a pen or a rubber band on your arm, or even one of those colorful bands that are so popular today.  Anything will do, but do it.  It has been one of the most life changing habits for me.

I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on this idea.  Write and tell me if you tried it and, if so, how did it go?  Hopefully, I will be able to write some more very soon to tell you more about how I learned to experience His presence.

Meantime, I hope the Son is shining brightly into your world today and the warmth of His presence is changing your day!

TRUSTING IN HIM ALONE

This morning my heart returned to some journaling I did a few months back about “waiting on God”.  If you recall, I began the blog with the reminder that it is He Who is waiting upon us as spoken of in Isaiah 30.  For years I have seen the vision of Jesus waiting at the well for each of us individually.  Often, I begin my time with God by simply walking up to Him waiting at the Well for me.

All around us today there are voices attempting to tell us in whom we may find our salvation.  These are, indeed, troubled times in which we live.  A quick perusal of history would reveal that it has been so many times in the past.  But we live in today and each of us is wondering in whom we can trust.  Who will be our deliverer?

 El Shaddai our Father

Andrew Murray is one of my mentors and I read his work regularly.  It is amazing how something that was written in the 1800’s could be so relevant to a woman living in 2012, but it is as though he is writing directly to me.  His faith in a living and loving God inspires me to trust in no one but the One in whom he trusted.

Even on a spiritual plane, there are voices crying out for us to listen to some man who has written many books about the way things need to be if one is to hope to be super spiritual.  In my forty years of being a Christian I have followed many of these voices with eagerness, hoping to learn some secret to victorious living.  Alas, eventually, it is revealed that they are just flesh and blood like my own self.

Don’t get me wrong!  I do not regret reading the writings of other seekers.  It has been and still is helpful many times.  But many of these once treasured books are gathering dust in my library while some, like Andrew Murray, and my Bible, of course, are read over and over again.  Why, you may ask?

It is because of Murray's simple message of the importance of “waiting on God.”  In his book “Waiting on God” (p.95), he talks about the effect of such faithful waiting.  He uses the example of a simple blade of grass basking in the sun.  Suddenly, I was able to relate to that blade of grass.

2 Corinthians 4:6 tells us that it is “the same God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  The context of this chapter is how to “not lose heart” in times of great distress.  So we see Paul writing in his day which was a time of trouble for early Christians who found themselves in great danger.

Think with me for a moment of the blade of grass.  Small and insignificant, it turns its face upward to the sun.  Murray says “just as the sunshine enters with its light and warmth, with its beauty and its blessing, into every little blade of grass that rises upward out of the cold earth, so will God meet with us.”  Can you imagine it?  Well, just try!

The Sonshine of God, Jesus Christ, is waiting for us to quiet ourselves before Him.  I can hear the stillness of the moment as He watches to see if we will turn our faces upward  toward Him and receive in the same way a blade of grace receives the sun into the core of its very being and gathers life from it.  Consider the comparison of a blade of grass to the magnificent sun!  Incomparable, as we are to Him!But even as the blade just yields itself to that mighty sun to receive all it needs for that day, even so we can yield ourselves to the awesome Son of God!

Some of you may be saying, but what about the reality of our situations?  Aren’t you encouraging us to bury our heads in the sand and not face the troubles of our times?  No, I am simply saying that I find my answers in Him and from Him!  When others are scurrying about shouting that the sky is falling, I hear Him assuring me to be still and trust in Him.

It is with such assurance that I can turn my attention back to the important things of my life and “not lose heart.”  In the last verses of 2 Corinthians, Paul says that the things which we can see are only temporary, while the things which we cannot see are eternal.”   Now that's a different perspective, isn't it?

Yes, I will still do my part to see that we are under the proper authorities.  But it will be from an entirely different perspective if I have been with the Lord.  It will be from a position of seeing things as God sees them and not as we have a tendency to see them through our natural eyes.  Changes everything for me!  How about you?

May I encourage you to read all of 2nd Corinthians with an eye to how it applies to your life personally today?  It may be a personal situation or the political scene of today, but whatever it is, God alone has the answer!  We can only get in on that answer as we choose to view our lives through our spiritual eyes and not our natural eyes!

Meanwhile, I pray that the Son is shining in His full strength upon you and like the little blade of grass, you are receiving your life from Him alone and trusting in Him alone for all you need this day and all  the rest of the days of your life!
Prayers and blessings coming your way!

WAIT IN FAITH NOT UNBELIEF

ISAIAH 55:8  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord.”

Do you ever think about “God’s ways?”  For many years, it was not something that I gave very much consideration.  However, in recent days, my attention has been turned to this subject once again.  In Romans  11:33, Paul mentions that “His ways (God's, that is) are past finding out.”

The context of this scripture is about “unbelief”, the unbelief of the Children of Israel.  When the Lord led them out of their bondage and slavery, He assured them He had a land flowing with milk and honey.  Their behavior indicated their unbelief and they never got to go into that promised land.

God’s word says that He “brought us out to bring us in” (Dt.6:23)  When our situation becomes miserable enough, we become very invested in being brought out, but often are uninformed that He has a plan to also bring us in “to the land that he swore to give unto our fathers.”

If you are in a situation of misery today, know that you are not there by accident nor is it unknown to God.  Hear me, I do not mean God planned for you to be there.  We are usually in that situation due to our own or other’s unwise choices, and even though it may not be the place God would have us to be, it is still not unknown to Him.

He is definitely not delighting in our misery, even if we brought it on ourselves.  One of the ways of God is that He is always thinking good thoughts toward His children.  (Psalm 139)  Those of us who have parented or nurtured anything, even an animal, know that what we are invested in we are also hoping for the best for them and if it only depended on us and our resources that is how it would be - Best!

Some of us, acting out of our own thoughts and ways, would cut people off who displease us.  We would be smug and make statements like “you brought that on yourself.”  God is not like that!  He waits for us to turn to Him and immediately our deliverance is on its way.

He is delighted to lead us out of that place.  Those of you who may be somewhere unpleasant due to the choice of someone else, be it known that you are not a victim.  If you turn to God in your situation and give yourself to Him, He will lead you out and make you the victor!

Meantime, the question comes to me, “how do we learn God’s ways and begin to think God’s thoughts?”  The answer is same way we acclimate ourselves to anything.  We study that thing; we meditate upon it: we begin in any small way to apply the ideas behind it to our own lives.  Soon, we will find it becoming second nature to think in a different way and to act in a fashion that is in line with that thinking.

Believe God!  Over and over, from the beginning of His word to the end, He states what His will is and His plan for us.  It is for “good, not for evil”.  Jeremiah 29, and especially verse 11.  He promises that even after many years, He is still waiting for the opportunity to give us “an expected end.”

This “expected end” is part of our inheritance and because of our ignorance regarding its existence, we often fail to “possess our promises” and achieve God's expected end.  

My prayer for you today is that thee Son of God is shining in His full strength and power into your situation and revealing the places of darkness that may be unknown to you otherwise.  Many Blessings!

WAITING ON GOD

Psalm 25 – “Let none of us who wait on thee be ashamed.”

Along the line of our inheritance, I believe that every Word of God is something that we can stand upon in faith and believe it for ourselves and our loved ones.  In Psalm 25, the Psalmist is obviously in distress and is, possibly, caught in that place where he really does not know what to do and so he is attempting to “wait on God.”

Waiting on God is one of the hardest things I have to do.  I don’t know about you, but I am a very resourceful person and can often come up with some pretty effective ways to deal with the distresses in my life, or worse yet, in the lives of those with whom I share love.  And yet, talented as I may be in this area, I am instructed to “wait on God” and the promise is that if I do, I will “not be ashamed.”

Andrew Murray wrote a whole booklet on the theme of “waiting upon God” and its importance.  His writings challenge me to the depths of my being, and especially that part that tends to decide what to do without waiting.  I want action now!  It is not my natural inclination to wait on anybody.  No, it will be a supernatural work of God for me to wait!

In this case, I will confess to God my natural tendency to depend on my own understanding and make a decision and a plan of action based upon it.  I will agree together with Him that is contrary to His will for me.  I will ask Him to forgive me and to cleanse me of all associated unrighteousness.  (1 John 1:5)

His part will be to answer the above prayer and to give me the power and the grace to be obedient and to wait upon Him.  A struggle may still ensue between my flesh and my spirit, but it will be in His strength that I will overcome.  The promise, remember, is that I will not be ashamed.

Somewhere along the way, if I continue to wait and listen, I will hear a word behind me saying “this is the way, walk ye in it.” (Psalm 32: 8,9)  Times when I have waited for that voice and then been obedient to the holy direction are times when things have worked out well in my life.  But then, I forget!  Do you?

This morning, dear Father, we seek your face.  We desire your wisdom and your point of view on every situation in which we are tempted to act out of our own understanding.  Lord, give us grace to wait upon you and give us power to obey when we hear from you even if the word is to continue to wait and do nothing except to continue to pray.

Such grace and power and wisdom, the ability to see things from His point of view, as well as the knowledge of what to do are all parts of our inheritance as children of God.  I do not wonder that many people do not claim this inheritance.  It is just so much easier to do what we think best, isn’t it?

Father God, grant to us this day that we may wait and not be ashamed!  I also pray for all the other promises in this psalm to be true of us today.  Show us your ways; teach us your paths.  Lead us in Your truth and teach us.  You are the God of our salvation and on You we will wait all the day!  May this be true of us as Your children today!

Meanwhile, I pray that the Son is shining in full strength into your place of waiting and that until you hear the word you will be able to experience the warmth of His presence.  Amen

MORE ABOUT INHERITANCE

Do you ever wish you had a very rich parent you knew was planning to leave you a lot of money?  Or, better yet, one that was already sharing that future inheritance with you today?  Wouldn’t it be great to know that all that you ever needed could be made available to you today? 

As God’s children, that is the truth about us right now!  Of course, everyone is not God’s child; everyone is one of His creatures, but not all are children.  That only comes by our choice to receive what He has for us, beginning with a vital, loving familial relationship to Him!

In a recent blog, I spoke about having that living relationship with God and how I happened to come into that sweet union. (8/9/2012)  Last Saturday, I wrote about the implications of that relationship and how it brings us into line for an inheritance from God as our Father.  I encouraged you to read Romans 8 for yourself.

In that chapter, Paul shares with us his own testimony and instructs us that when we are born again by the Spirit of God, we become “sons of God” (v.14) and the Spirit we receive is also “the Spirit of adoption  by whom we cry out ‘Abba, Father’  (v. 15).  It is by this process that the Spirit bears witness to us that we are the children of God.  This is how every Christian comes into a vital relationship with the Living God!

In verse 17, he goes on to explain how becoming His child also makes us an heir “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..”.  Many Christians today do not even think about this inheritance, let alone get in line to receive it.  As I stated last week, being joint heirs with Jesus means all His Father has for Him is for us too.  But what does that really mean?  And, are we claiming it for ourselves and our children?  Claiming what? 

What we are to be claiming is every unclaimed promise of God to His people, starting with the Israelites.  For most of them, they were never fulfilled because of their disobedience to God’s instruction.  That did not make them void!  They are still valid for us as “those who are of faith and are blessed with faithful Abraham.”  (Galatians 3:9)

You see, if we are Christ’s then we are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise and that puts us in line to inherit those same promises which the Israelites never got to enjoy.  If you don’t believe me, study it out for yourself.  We have a wonderful inheritance laid up for us beginning with promises God gave to Adam and Abraham in Genesis and concluding with the book of Revelation.  It may sound overwhelming, but it is really very simple since He keeps promising the same thing over and over – life and life more abundant!

 I know that I can claim these promises for myself and some for my family.  One thing I believe is that it is not God’s will for my children to be in captivity like He told Jeremiah.  It is His will for us to be free and more than conquerors.  Is that the case with you and yours?  If not, you will want to study more on this with me in the coming days.   Begin by reading Jeremiah or in Genesis or even in Revelation, but begin reading about your inheritance so you can begin claiming it too. 

Free running for the gold!

Meanwhile, I pray that the Son, your joint heir, is shining brightly in your world and driving out any and all shadows that dim your joy!  If You are a child of the Living God then He has good plans for you and yours and He has already died to make that so!

DAILY DROPS ABOUT INHERITANCE

Good Morning, Blogger Friends:

This morning I had so much to say that my editors had to redirect me.  Their comment was that it was like reading “War and Peace”.  Well, I got the hint and I am rewriting, but for today I just wanted to check in with you and tell you that God is alive and well and He is still waiting to meet with you as we discussed in one of my first blogs (Isaiah 30:18).

What I was impressed with the most of my time with Him this morning is that we have an inheritance of which many of His people are not even aware.  It’s like inheriting a million dollars from someone and never going to collect it. Have you ever thought about what it means to be “joint heirs” with Jesus? (Romans 8:17)

Some of you may have been fortunate enough to benefit from an inheritance some family member left you in their will.  You actually collected it and so, that makes it easier for you to understand.  It is a gift that is handed down from someone who cared enough about you to want you to have it.

Some of you may have been cheated out of an inheritance in some way.  Perhaps your family member did not make it clear what they wanted you to have and so someone else is enjoying what was rightfully yours.   You, too, may be able to comprehend my topic today.  You are not enjoying your gift!

Let me just say, God has a will and He has made it clear who He wants to inherit what.  Many of us have not been diligent to read the document which would tell us clearly what He wants us to have from Him and that, of course, is His written Word!

Let me challenge you today to look up this scripture in Romans 8 and then read Jeremiah 30, 31 and 32 as well.  We will talk more about this in days to come.  Joint Heirs with Jesus!!!  So, all the Father had for Him is for us too??  Wow! Or, in scriptural terms, Selah, stop and think calmly about that!

Meanwhile, I am praying that the Son is shining into your life wherever you are and you are experiencing the warmth of His love for you today!  Better yet, I hope you are taking advantage of some of what He left for us to enjoy!   Many blessings!

DAILY DROPS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS

Good morning, blogger friends!  

It is very early in the morning where I am in the mountains of North Carolina.  It is just now beginning to get daylight, but I have been up for a long time.  I couldn’t sleep.  I wonder how many others are out there this morning who were not able to sleep last night.  I am thankful that when I cannot sleep, I can get up and relate to my Father in Heaven and know that I am not alone in whatever is going on in my life.

Many, many years ago I used to have trouble sleeping.  It was awful!  I could not go to sleep at night, but then when morning would be coming around I would get tired and suddenly be able to go to sleep.  Then, I would sleep most of the day and, guess what, that night I could not sleep again.  Now in those days, I did not know the Lord!  The problems which surrounded me seemed insurmountable and I had no resources.  I had no one with whom I could talk things over and solve those issues.

About half way through my life, at age 35, the old Hound of Heaven finally tracked me down.  I realized that while I would have told you that I was a Christian, meaning that I had a relationship with God, I did not really KNOW Him; I only knew about Him!  That was the first revelation I remember having that began to change my life.  Like the Israelites coming out of Egypt, I knew about Him, but I did not KNOW Him for Who He was and wanted to be to me – which was Everything!

As I look back on that time in my life, I realize that all it meant when I said I was a Christian was that I was not a non-Christian.  I did believe in God; I always had as far back as I could remember.  I believed all the right things about Him, too.  He was all-powerful, all knowing, and He was everywhere.  He had sent Jesus to die on the cross so I could get my sins forgiven and go to heaven someday.  And I believed that Jesus was coming again to “save the quick and the dead”. (The Apostles Creed)  Yes, I believed all the right things about Him, but I did not KNOW Him and what I believed did nothing to help me in my everyday  life.

I needed my life to change!  I needed to know how to do that.  I had beaten my head up against a brick wall for most of my adult life trying to make it work.  It only got worse and the sleepless nights increased until I had very nearly despaired entirely of going on.  I was ready to give up!

God was waiting in the wings for exactly that!  He was waiting for me to give up and to see that I needed to KNOW Him, not just know about Him!  I needed to come to the end of myself and realize that I was not in charge.  There was nothing I could do that would make my life what I knew it could be as somewhere in the depths of my being, I knew that my life was not what it was meant to be at all.  I had done all I knew to do, my very best¸ which consisted of pitiful efforts that usually complicated rather corrected my life.   I was at my wit’s end!

That turned out to be a very good place to be because that was where I came to KNOW Him!  As one mentor of mine (Jack Taylor) used to say ”at Wit’s End Corner” God saw to it that I heard the story of the Israelites who were God’s children.   The story-teller shared that they had been down in Egypt 400 years and they had heard about Him, but they did not KNOW Him.  In their bondage and misery, they cried out for deliverance and He heard them and sent Moses to lead them out of their state of slavery.  He brought them out to bring them in - into relationship with Himself!

The wilderness they wandered in was designed to teach them about Him, but like me they weren’t learning much and when they had the opportunity to cross over into the Promised Land, they were still afraid.  Their fear was rooted in the same thing my fear was, an absence of KNOWING Him!  Upon my own realization of my state of only knowing about Him, I also realized that if they had known Him they would have been able to leave that miserable desert and enter a land flowing with milk and honey!  That was God’s will for them; they blew it!  I realized that I had done the same thing many times.  This time I did not want to stay in Egypt or the desert; I wanted to be with Him!

How well I remember that moment when I said YES to God!  I can still hear that Hound of Heaven breathing down my neck trying to get me to surrender so He could get me to relate to Him, not just know about Him, but to truly KNOW Him!  Something happened then that began to change my life forever.  I began to believe in a God who wanted a personal relationship with me!

 I remember stepping up out of my desert of despair and walking down an aisle where I saw a cross and it was there I sat down that old life that had become more trouble than it was worth to me.   It was as though I was carrying a huge bag of garbage which I left at the cross and kept on walking.  I heard in my spirit man “thank you very much; I have been waiting a long time  for that!”  All I can really tell you is that I have never been alone since that day!

Yes, sometimes I am the only human being around, but now there is the Holy Spirit of God living within me and I am never really alone no matter what the situation.  I had been alone my whole life and I did not know that what I sought after and needed so desperately was the very relationship which I now have with God.  I had tried to fill that "God shaped hole" within me with other relationships to no avail.  But that day, He became my Everything! 

By this I mean that He was all I could think about, talk about and He began to teach me Who He really is as we began to walk and talk in the cool of the garden like it was meant to be from the beginning!  In other words, we started relating or communicating!  I talked and he talked!  He listened and I did too...  sometimes.  I was in love with God!  And I began to understand how much He loved me!  I had been born again and God’s Spirit was within me.  I had begun to live eternal life!  (Romans 6:23)

I know this blog is missing some pretty pictures today and even some good scripture references and I hesitate to post one like that, but I must get on with my day.  Anyway, it is the “word of our testimony which overcomes the enemy” so here you have it.  I’m sure many of you have a similar story of how He drew you into relationship with Him.  If so, I hope you will enjoy hearing mine and remembering your own.  

If you do not have a story but can relate in some way to mine, I hope it will help you along the way to come into a deeper relationship with the only One Who loved you enough to give His life for you – Jesus!

This is my story, and I’m sticking to it!!!  Many blessings,

Sonshine in the Mountains!

DAILY DROPS ABOUT DIRECTION

Good morning, blogger friends!


This mornings brief blog is about answers to prayer!
The other day we had a major move going on in our family and I was praying and asking God to watch over us and lead in everything that went on.


He gave me a WORD for the day, here it is:

MOVING DAY – JULY 28,2012

HERE IS THE WORD OF THE LORD:

PSALM 31:3 -  “LORD, LEAD US AND GUIDE US TODAY – FOR YOUR NAME’S SAKE!”

PSALM 32:8   “I WILL INSTRUCT YOU AND TEACH YOU IN THE WAY YOU SHOULD GO; I WILL GUIDE YOU WITH MY EYE!”

ISAIAH 30:21 “YOUR EARS SHALL HEAR A WORD BEHIND YOU SAYING, THIS IS THE WAY WALK IN IT,  WHENEVER YOU TURN TO THE RIGHT HAND OR WHENEVER YOU TURN TO THE LEFT!

AMEN AND AMEN AND AMEN AND SO BE IT!!!

Well, I just want to tell you we all stood on this and we had a great day with good travel and wonderful friends who pitched in and made it happen in spite of impossible odds and a great time was had by all.  I, personally, was able to remain unruffled through it all.  

Well, mostly, I think!

Do you have a major challenge going on in your life?  Seek the face of the LORD, He has it all in His hands.  Leave it there and only do your part!  Yes, you have a part and He can tell you what it is!  But, Let Him do His!  He will see you through it in a way that you cannot imagine!  He loves to leave my eyeballs rolling around in my head!!

Oh yeah and keep praying for all your loved ones!  It really works!  It really works!  Did I say, it really works?  Well, it does!  Thank you, for all the direction and protection and provision, Adonai!!!!

That's all for today!  I pray that the Son is Shining in full strength into your life and family today and you can feel the warmth of His love surrounding you!

DAILY DROPS ABOUT CONNECTIONS

Good morning, blogger friends:


Praise God, I have some kind of internet connection this morning and so even though I do not feel as prepared as I like to be when I write and post a blog for all the world to see, I'm writing anyway just because I can.  

This is a picture of the pathways/connections in our brains!  we all know how they work sometimes and sometimes they don't!  lol
Connections are strange things!  Sometimes, here in the mountains, I can get through with no problem, but more often than not, I can't. 


I have been thinking about blogging with regard to another important connection - Prayer!  Thank God, it is one connection that only depends on our willingness to turn our hearts toward home and cry out..ET..phone home!

Ancient means of connecting..lol.

The other day I was reading in Isaiah 59 when verse 16 jumped out at me.  It says "the Lord wondered that there was no intercessor."  Imagine, if you can, something that makes the Lord wonder!!!  


I was struck by the promises that followed in verses 19 and 21.  In 21, "As for me," says the Lord,  "this is my covenant with them:  My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants' descendants," says the Lord, "from this time and forevermore."  Contrary to what we might think, this promise is for God's people today as well as for Israel.  It is an eternal promise!

Eternal way of connecting with the real power!!

No wonder that God wonders... such awesome promises and so few intercessors to be praying them in and claiming them for their children and grandchildren.  I go so far as to add even the unborn children that will be coming into this family.  And today, I pray for a revelation to all grandparents about the power we have in prayer for our families.  It is the MOST powerful thing we can do!


Now I know what you are thinking... so much opposition in the lives of your loved ones.  All of Hell seems bent on destroying them, right?  Yes, I see the same thing with my physical eyes.  One friend of mine says in our world there exists a flood of words and visual images coming out of the mouth of Satan. I think he means the TV and the internet and other forms of media so prolific today.  I must add that these are not evil in and of themselves.  They often bring good as well.


Yes, the fact is that the flood of evil often comes from various places, no doubt.  But, drop back a couple of verses to verse 16 which states, "when the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him."   Here is another promise of God that may have some of you wondering, where is the fulfillment of it?  It is waiting for our prayers! 


 It is waiting for us to see with our spiritual eyes that which exists in another realm - the will of God!  For an understanding of what I say, read 2 Corinthians 4, the last verse says "the things which we can see are only temporary, but that which we cannot see (that other realm) is eternal."  We lose heart in our praying because when we only see with our physical eyes we become discouraged, naturally!  


A glimpse into the eternal heart of God will go a long way to encourage us.  An careful study of God's word reveals many wonderful promises which we are not seeing come to pass and we wait and we wonder why?  It is because God has called us to be co-creators with Himself by our prayers.  When we see these things that are not according to God's will for our children, we need to say, NO!!!  That is not what God says about my descendants.  He says that His Spirit and His Word will be our standard!  And I choose to stand in agreement with Him!


Jesus defeated the works of the enemy on Calvary!  (1 John 3:8)  But all of the work of Jesus and the promises of God are waiting for our Amen, for us to say "so be it" in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.  In prayer we can declare our agreement with the will of God and scripture says when we pray in accordance with His will we can know that we have what we ask for and can proceed to be thankful for those answers.  (1 John 5:14,15)

The Gap

This is the work of an intercessor - to stand in the gap between what is and what it ought to be.  (Ezekiel 22:30)  "So I sought for a man among them who would make up a hedge/wall/bridge, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one."  Our Lord wonders where those people are who can make the connection with Him and, therefore, connect their world with the eternal will of God.

Our prayers are the bridge between what is and what God says it ought to be!

Now it is my belief there are few intercessors, not because people do not care or would not do what they can to change their worlds.  It is because of ignorance!  A lack of teaching on the tools of prayer.  I know I prayed for years, if it be thy will, please do this or this.  Well, we can know what the will of the Lord is by reading His word and we have the authority and power to pray it in!


I wish I could say more, but this blog has gone on long enough.  For some time it has been on my heart to share some of those tools of prayer.  Pray for me that I will be inspired to do so and then will be freed up to do so.  Pray that I will "Rise up, take courage, and do it."


Thank you for your interest and for reading this blog.  And for those of you who have sent comments, I say a deep, heartfelt thank you!  I pray for all of you that the Son is shining with all of His strength in your world today!

DAILY DROPS OF COURAGE

Today's blog is about Courage!  


What is Courage?  One definition that I am partial to is "it is not the absence of fear, but the ability to act in spite of the fear."  A few blogs back we used a text that stated, "Rise up, take courage, and do it."  What is it that you need to rise up, take courage and do?  For me, it is to somehow overcome all the multitudinous tasks that fall onto my plate on a daily basis, to sort through them all and act on those that are most important and leave the rest alone!


Webster's dictionary defines courage as "the attitude of dealing with anything recognized as dangerous, difficult, or painful, instead of withdrawing from it;" and with this I agree.  It goes on, however, to say it is the "quality of being fearless or brave; valor".  With this I do not agree.  Just Elizabethology, of course, but I do not agree.  


It is very interesting to me that even the dictionary equates courage with heart and spirit having the connotation of having "the courage of one's convictions, the courage to do what one thinks is right."  This is the term that is used in the New Testament - to lose or not to lose heart.  Webster's says discourage means to dishearten, among other things.


If you will bear with me for a short span, I would like to refer to a few scriptures that are very meaningful to me and which encourage me on a routine basis.  Galations 6:9 "let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."  2 Corinthians 4:16 "even tho our outward man is perishing, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day."  Luke 18:1 & 2 Cor. 4:1 speaks of "praying and not losing heart".


Now, I don't know about you, but I have trouble "not losing heart". When I am faced with ongoing distractions and the daily situations that can present themselves just in the course of life, I tend toward discouragement or to lose the courage of my convictions to do what I know is right!  I'm not talking about doing something immoral; I'm talking about giving up in the face of this onslaught and giving in to the doing of what seems most important at the moment leaving what I know I am called to do undone.  In all honesty, sometimes am just too tired to do anything else when the dailies are over.  I bet many of you can relate to what I am saying.


In my study of this subject, I went back to Moses and Joshua.  The story of spying out the land is found in Numbers 13 where Moses selected the best of the men he could find...fathers and rulers, not inexperienced kids, to go and do the spying.  There were 12 of them and ten of them returned with good news and bad news.  

The good news was the land was indeed flowing with milk and honey and grapes that had to be carried a stalk at a time between two men.  The bad news was that there were giants in the land that they perceived as "stronger".  This word stronger has the connotation of violent or unyielding.  Does that make you think of life as you experience it on a day to day basis?  It does me!  It seems that the daily duties are stronger, sometimes seeming to be violently unyielding in their ability to stop me in my tracks.

Two men, Joshua and Caleb, gave another report, similar, but more encouraging.  Yes, there are giants, but "we are well able to possess the land".  The "well able" term means "goodness".  So they were looking to the goodness they knew they had backing them up, the goodness of God, Who had said the land was theirs for the taking.  Unfortunately, as it often happens, the majority ruled and the people did not enter in at that time.  Joshua and Caleb did get to go after all the others had died away many years later.


So what am I trying to say?  For today, just let me quote Moses who said to the people, "be strong and of good courage, for the Lord is the One who goes before you.  He will be with you.  He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed"!  He is the one who can give us the "courage" we need to do whatever He is leading us to do, whatever He is calling us to, He has already equipped us and made all the provisions we need to go forward.


Let's pray for each other on a daily basis that we will be able to walk this out in our lives and accomplish that to which we have been called!  Thank you for your prayers for me!  My prayers are for you too.

I pray that the Son is shining into your hearts and lives today!  And the strength of His goodness will encourage all of us to do what He promises to empower us to do... His will!