Week 31 Joy

“Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, NIV).

There are a lot of things I can aspire to do as a Christian, but I guess I never really noticed that Gods will for me is to be joyful. I knew He wills or desires for me to pray and give thanks. But when I ask myself, “What is God’s will for my life?” I can now unashamedly say He wants me to be joyful.

He wants me to Always be joyful.

So this month I am on a quest for joy. I’m digging into the Word, asking Holy Spirit and practicing walking in the Joy of the Lord. I’ll share more in upcoming days.

In the meantime, have a joyfully creative weekend remember this:

God wants you to ALWAYS be JOYFUL.

August Theme 2016

As this has been an intense year, I am in need of refresher course in “The Joy of the Lord.”

Please join me in this study and share your scriptures, revelations and practical applications of the Joy that comes from and in the Lord.

Week 30
Read 1 Corinthians 12 -13

This month I have studied about the greater works that Jesus said we would do after He returned to the Father. I read stories of the works of Jesus, looked at my position in Him through faith and allowed the Holy Spirit to show me the needs of this generation. And just as this month ends, He leads me to the greatest work… The greatest of these is Love.

If I aspire to display Jesus to a searching world, I may be able to raised the dead, heal the sick, comfort the mourning and share the Gospel… but the end result is to share His Love. None of these works have eternal effect if they are not out of the Father’s Love for individuals. Not my glory, His.

So I studied 1 Corinthians 12 & 13. If I’m to continue on this journey of power (and who can deny the world needs to see the real power of a Living God) I have to get hold of the real love of God. I know He loves me, but do I understand, really get it, how much He loves those groping about in the darkness. I confess, I don’t love the way He does. My motive for these works may not be pure. But I will seek after that kind of Love so that ‘the works’ will be born out of it, leading the recipients out of darkness into His wonderful light. 
This does not negate the need to open the door for the tangible power of God to show up through a believer’s life, but the key is Love.1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 8, 13 NIV

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing…

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away…

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Week 29Matthew 11:2-6 NIV 

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

When John the Baptist hears about the deeds of Christ, it prompts him to ask if that ‘anointed one’ happens to be Jesus, his very own cousin. Funny how John didn’t even understand his own words and trust his own senses when a few years prior: “John protested strenuously, having in mind to prevent Jesus, saying, It is I who have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? And when Jesus was baptized, He went up at once out of the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he [John] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him.” (Matthew 3:14, 16 AMP)

John needed proof and Jesus lists off His works as evidence. Evidence that He was indeed the Anointed, the Messiah. Once before, John had heard and seen. I wish it weren’t so easy to forget…

Anyways, I digress… All that Good News on display, that’s what Jesus said we could DO (not reminisce about, wish for or debate.) He said we could have that anointing through Him by the power of Holy Spirit so that Father can be glorified. It’s proof the Father still loves the world.

What if, in this crazy time of social, political and human upheaval, what if the greater works also involve loving without regard to our own needs, serving people we don’t agree with, standing with the currently oppressed, loving our enemies. 

How is this broken world going to be healed? By sitting in front of the TV debating whether all lives matter? Despising the candidates and cursing them in the darkness? Yelling across picket lines? Smugly declaring that the world deserves judgment? I’m pretty sure only God gets to decide that. The whole earth is in violent upheaval because it’s been waiting, waiting, waiting for God’s children to realize who they are and DO what we have been anointed to do. 

We’ve been given authority and anointing. Let’s spread some Good News, what do you say?

Week 28 Greater Works

Lk 4:16-21

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he hath anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me
to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the prisoners,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
To proclaim preach the year of the Lord’s favor.

As Jesus read this verse from Isaiah in the synagogue, he stopped short at the proclamation of the Lord’s favor. He then went on to perform these miracles throughout His ministry on earth. 

But in the Isaiah passage, the anointing offers more than Jesus declared to the people that day. The Holy Spirit offers a crown of beauty for ashes, comfort to the mourning, a garment of praise for a heavy spirit. Those gifts were to come after His death. And they came through the coming of Holy Spirit, who is still now upon us in order to continue the fulfillment of the Isaiah scripture. As each person is delivered and believes, he/she becomes a tree of righteousness so that God can be glorified as the nations are healed. These greater works are not so that I can get glory, but for God’s sake alone. He deserves ALL the glory and honor forever and ever, amen.

IS 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me
to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to the bound (which also means blind);
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord…
…that they might be called TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, the planting of the Lord, that HE MIGHT BE GLORIFIED. 

EZ 47:5-7, 12
Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.
Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other…
…And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

REV 22:2
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.

Theme for July:
Greater Works than I Do

In a nutshell, I believe the Gospel of John is about two things: who Jesus really is and who we can be in Him. This month I want to explore the ‘greater things’ that I should be able to do when I am in Him.

Week 27 Verse John 14:11-14 NIV
Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Week 27                 John 14:11-14 NIV 

Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

I think it is interesting that Jesus tells the disciple to believe that he is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Such a matter-of-fact statement, as if it was that easy to accept. The God of the universe lives inside their friend AND he lives inside God. That concept just isn’t part of the human experience. 

So, just in case he had a hard time swallowing that fact, Jesus explains that the good works He’s been doing all over town are the Instagram stories that prove His claim. You can’t argue with the visual evidence.

What the disciples do know is that Jesus is about to go away, so they are probably a little anxious and confused. What were these last few years about if He’s just going to bail on them? How do you abide with an absent companion? How can they do greater works without Him?

So Jesus comforts them with the knowledge that if he sticks around a better companion won’t be able to come. They need that Friend, Holy Spirit, to help them abide.
Only in the abiding can we leave the brush strokes of the Father on this world. 

Week 26 Shalom

Don’t you love when your are seen? When that loved one looks in your direction and you know they know?
In a world that’s running fast, it can be easy to live an anxious and lonely life. I know that when the Lord fully faces me, looks me directly in the eyes, all my fears are chased away.

May those who gaze upon His Face have His Name upon us and receive His blessings.

Happy Independance Day and God Bless America!  Numbers 6:22-27

The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal. Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV

  
As you know I am still helping my dad recover from a stroke while he is in a skilled nursing facility. Aging is hard. Some days he moves forward and some backwards. Besides being his daily advocate with doctors and nurses, I’m handling his finances, trying to figure out where he goes next, and traveling through the nightmarish maze called Medicare. And while my daughter is doing well in her own recovery and suffering very few migraines, there are still issues I want to attend to concerning her own well being.

For a while I walked in a supernatural peace I couldn’t manufacture, but in the past month I felt the weight of stress on my shoulders again. I found myself trying to grasp that elusive peace, which unlike the joy of chasing a flitting butterfly, added to my stress. So when I read Isaiah 26:3-4 I wondered, if I was trusting the Lord, exactly where did my perfect peace go?
I knew Isaiah was the verse I wanted to share, but I didn’t know how I wanted to illustrate it. Besides, it hadn’t really got it inside of me yet, so as usual, I studied the original language. Isaiah repeats the word peace, shalom, twice. In Hebrew repeated words show emphasis. God promises a double portion, perfect peace. Not what I was experiencing.

But what really had me chewing was the word mind, yetser. Yetser means framework. I thought of framing a house. The framework supports and hold everything that will make that house my home. Exactly where was my frame of mind currently?

Interestingly, the word trust means to lean on and be supported. So it all fits together, especially in light of verse 4; every framework needs a foundation. I choose to be supported on the Rock, the Lord.

Remember the wise man who built his house upon the rock? We know what happens to his framework when the storm comes. 

My mental framework for dad was on the wrong foundation. I thought I was leaning into and trusting the Lord, but the enemy had subtly convinced me to lean into doctors’ reports and dad’s progress. A good report proved that God was Good, but what happened when every other day we took two steps backwards? My mind was swaying in the swirling storm, beams bending far past the stress points.

As I studied I saw blueprints in my mind. A structure on a stone foundation, leaning into the Word of God. My frame of mind must be supported on the immovable everlasting Rock, not on my dad’s health reports. Peace eluded me only because the swaying structure of my mind was anchored on shifting sand.  

Since I am repositioning my frame of mind onto Christ alone, circumstances haven’t necessarily changed. But because I see through a different mindset, I feel His perfect peace again. I take the storm in stride, praying more effectively, hearing his voice above the many others. 

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose frame of mind is supported on You, because he confidently leans on and into You. So trust and lean into the Lord forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock.   Isaiah 26:3-4 (My Translation)