RED PILL OR BLUE PILL?

NEW LIFE!

Well, it seems we are still here..."shoot!"  

I remember waking up last year on January 1st and all I wanted was the earth to open up and swallow me.  Let's just get it over with!  But this year, I woke up with a vision.  The vision was of a new stem growing out of one of my rosebushes.  And instantly the thought of new life came to mind.

As I was pondering on this during my morning coffee with the Lord, I sensed in my spirit that He was saying to me..."red pill or blue pill?" I realize that in this day that there are others who may not like my chirpy disposition this morning.  I know what it feels like when you are miserable and just so depressed that someone else's happy disposition just irritates the "hibby jibbies" out of you.  You don't feel like being happy and you just want them to go away and be happy somewhere else...just not on your doorstep.  

But as life would have it, even not choosing is a choice.  Every year Father gives me a Word for the year.  FOCUS was the word for 2020...and that word followed me everywhere.  This year...NEW LIFE.  A somewhat bizarre thing to say considering the year of doom we are entering in.  Even those who are not Christians know that something has changed drastically, even if they can't quite put their finger on it. He gave me three other words as well yesterday.  CALAMITY, DESTRUCTION AND PAIN.  That's it!  Not much to look forward to in that.  This makes me think of Jesus in Gethsemané where He said, "Not my will be done, but Your will be done".  We are prone to believe that at that moment of agony in the garden He chose the death of the cross.  But the reailty is that the cross was the way to NEW LIFE.  He chose LIFE, but it meant the cross.  

This year, like in Deuteronomy 28, He will be standing before each of us at different intervals and ask us to choose between LIFE OR DEATH.  He hopes that we will be wise in this decision.   There will be times that we will feel that the price is just too high.  Personal Gethsemanés will come our way and we will have to choose in spite of our circumstances to side with LIFE.  And just like it was not easy for Him that night in the garden, so it will not be easy for us.  The reality is that in another garden almost 6000 years ago a choice was made for death, but He chose LIFE in Gethsemané.  Every day we will be faced with this choice whether in our homes when everything seems to fall apart, whether in the marketplace, and especially when we are forced by society to conform to the new "normal".  And we all know that it is not about to become easier.

The only way we will make it, is to constantly remind ourselves that when we choose life, even if it means a cruel cross, He who is the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE will cause this NEW LIFE to flow through us in spite of what we are going through.  This resurrection life is not dependent on our circumstances, but rather it transcends this life, as we walk by the Spirit and purposely choose not to follow the dictates of our flesh.  And the harsh truth is that for Resurrection life to come forth, there has to be death.  You will have to choose to die to whatever He shows you, but just as He was true to resurrect His Son, so He will be faithful to do exactly that in you.  Can you believe Him to do this in you?  It is not just eternal life in the sense of time, but quality of life.  And this life is to know the Father.  Jesus said, "This is eternal life, to know the Father and the one He sent." (John 17)  The NEW LIFE He so graciously extends to us is His LIFE.  It is not a happy disposition whilst living in denial of reality, but it is His LIFE burning all the dross away in our hearts and causing us to shine brighter every time we say..."I choose LIFE!".  When you do, you are saying...I CHOOSE JESUS.  It was an agony for Jesus to choose life that night.  And so it will be at times for us too.  And just as His choice of choosing LIFE pruduced hope and life in us, so us choosing LIFE will produce hope and life in others when they need it the most.

May you choose JESUS in 2021, especially when the going gets tough.  May you choose LIFE in spite of what is going on around you and experience this NEW LIFE that He is even now at the beginning of this year extending to you.  May you know that as this NEW LIFE starts to germinate in you, your roots will grow deeper into His love.  And love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things and endures all things.  We need His love to make it.  Love to help us endure, and love for our enemies.  Faith worketh by love.  As you choose this NEW LIFE, He will strengthen your inner man with might and you will be able to stand in the day of testing.  

As I start the New Year with communion, I am reminded of the red pill when I drink the grape juice resembling His blood.  Life is in the blood.  Jesus said to His disciples that His hour has come, the hour of testing and that satan has no part in Him.  Then we read in John 6 that He told those who were following Him that unless they eat of His flesh and drink His blood they will have no part in Him.  In John 6:66 (666) all except His disciples turned away.  The hour of testing is upon us now...will we turn away?  Peter said to Him, "Lord, where can we go, only You have the words of LIFE".  

I believe that in 2021 some hard choices will indeed be made by both the saved and unsaved.  It will affect their "now" and eternity.  And how we choose in this year will have eternal consequences.  If we become narrow minded in only seeing the "now" that screams so loudly, we will become victims of our circumstances and loose sight of the big picture.  I may be saying all this in the comfort of my home and that makes it easier.  But what will I choose when my life is threatened or my child's life? What will I choose then?  The only way we will be able to make the ultimate decision for LIFE, is when we have been consistent with our daily choice of choosing LIFE.  For in that ultimate moment our choosing of LIFE in the face of death, will be the summation of all our choosing.  With boldness by His Spirit we will be able to say, "Oh death, where is thou sting!" I ask myself, "Is it possible that He gave me this word of NEW LIFE, because He knows that we will see so much death?"  May we follow in the steps of our forerunner, Jesus Christ...the Finisher and Author of our faith.

Please Read: 

Ephesians 3:16-21

King James Version

16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

20 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

BECOMING A LITTLE CHILD

BECOMING A LITTLE CHILD

I was worshipping when all of a sudden I saw myself sitting on an eagle's back.  I was so small in comparison to the eagle.  We were flying over mountain tops and then over the sea.  I lifted up my hands just feeling so free!  I literally felt the air blowing on me.  The Holy Spirit reminded me of Isaiah 40:31 where it says that those who wait upon the Lord will mount up with eagle's wings.  

We came to sit right in a cleft of a rock high above everything.  I just sat next to Him in quietness and after a moment or two He said,

"Rest here My child in the cleft of the Rock.  Let me see your face and hear your voice here in the cleft of the Rock.  From here you can see all things in perspecitive, but below you loose sight of the whole picture.  Here everything is clear and you can hear My still small voice speaking to you.  But down there you are overwhelmed.  Up here you rest.  

You can come here any time and live from here to think and meditate on the things above.  Whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is holy.  You are no longer from below, but from above.  Do not worry about what people will say.  Leave your anxious thoughts below.  Does it matter what they think when they are below?  This year I said 20/20 vision, and I have brought you here so that you may see.  But we can still go higher.  When you are overwhelmed, I will set you high upon a Rock and will give you eagles wings to fly."

After this I saw myself in a familiar place.  We have sat with our feet in this river before.  I was sitting with my feet in the river.  The next moment I was walking in the river, but as a little child.  I remembered a painting I did years ago of a little girl holding her father's hand and walking in a river as the water sparkled like little diamonds in the sun.  At just that moment I could hear a child playing outside our house.  This made me think of how carefree children are.  Their imaginations not hindered by tomorrow or yesterday.  All that matters is that moment.   So free.  

Father reminded me of the scripture that says that with every temptation He will make a way of escape (1 Corinthians 10:13)  and I just realized that these moments, like the one on the Rock and here in the River, are that escape.  I looked the word escape up in this context and it means to be taken away from a place.  He has made a way for us to escape the harshness of this world.  When life becomes unbearable.  A child just trusts, perfect faith.  Great faith.  The unconditional faith of a child that just simply takes Him at His word.  The next song on my phone at that moment was called "Rest".  Starting with the word, "If you want to see the Kingdom, become like a little child and rest."  The one after that starts with "Become like a little child with you Abba".  Two different songs, saying exactly the same thing.  

A child's imagination is free. But we have sought to control it by indoctrination, tradition and opinion.  So scared of imagination and of deception that we have muzzled something so beautiful and pure.  Without guile, just allowing the heart to soar.  So that when others soar, we want to clip their wings, because we remain grounded and limited by our fears and caution.  Imagination has no limits.  Not that we are to throw caution to the wind and go against truth.  Becoming a child asks of us to imagine, to see with spiritual eyes of faith the things that are above.  Living by the Spirit and guided by the Spirit.  Not just by what we learn in revelation in the knowledge of the written Word, but that which is of the Spirit.  We set boundatires and call it discernment.  Although so needed, we unfortunately throw the baby and the bathwater out when it becomes too childlike.  To flippant or shallow for our liking.  Like zealours Pharisees we see these things beneath us.  All the while He answers His disciples with whom are the most important in the Kingdom of God with...children.

I realize there is a very fine line between what is made up and what is real.  What a conundrum we find ourselves in being told we are seated in heavenly places, but we insist on being grounded.  And in the process becoming like a child is seen as being reckless and foolish.  And yet, He uses the foolish to confound the wise.  For everything there is a season and a time.  The Spirit who is eternal is not restricted to time.  He lives in us and is outside of time and space.  Makes me think of Jesus saying that there were many things He wanted to tell His disciples but they were just not ready for it.  Strange that something like imagination can send the "wise" on a tangent?

He came to set the captives free and those whom He has set free are free indeed.  Dare we to dream, imagine and believe like little children that when He says that He is able to do super abundantly above all we can think, dream or ask, that He will?  So earthbound we have become that we do not want to dream. 

If you want to see the Kingdom you have to become like a little child.  We are born again of the Spirit...we are His children.  Not from below, but from above.  I want to see His Kingdom...not just in me, but all around me.  

We are about to go into the New Year and I sense that we may need to become increasingly like children and seek to hide in the cleft of the Rock.  To receive not only rest from this world but His perspective of things.  Come away My Beloved, is not only to get away from that which is vile and evil, but to come away, escape the harsh reality of this world once and in a while and become like a child and breath.  Just breath and be still.  

May we come as a child and rest in the cleft of the Rock and play in the river of His love.

Please Read:

Song of Solomon 2:14

O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.

Isaiah 40:31

31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Luke 18:16

16 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.

MY KINGDOM ON DISPLAY

A new thing My little ones, new for you and for all. My Kingdom on display. My hand in all you do. For as My river flows, it creates. It does not only heal, but creates! 

I have given you all gifts, not just spiritual, but creative gifts. Those who have and have shown themselves to be good stewards, I will give more! Those who still have to discover, new blossoms of creativity will come up to beautify the dreary. For even as you are locked down, My creativity is not.

So splash that paint, sing that note, write that poem and build that dream.  Endless is My creativity I wish to show through My children, as the Creator.  To display My love to all, for you. 

Do you think this insignificant? Have I not through all ages touched the hearts of those closed to My Word? Have I not opened hearts to receive that which only Spirit can display?  As you walk out, allow Me to do through you in the small and the big?  My heart beats in you, and it is My wish to display it through you.  Will you be the brush, the pen, the tool by which I write on the hearts of others?

Insignificant? I think not! Have you seen My display in heaven? They see this and yet they fall not down to worship Me.  But when My Spirit expresses Himself through frail vessels, they stand in awe.  Did they not say of Me, "Is this not the son of Joseph and Mary and just hear him speak!"

So My little ones, allow Me if you please. I am doing a new thing! 

Please Read:

Matthew 13:12-18

12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

 

River of Life 

 

If there is one thing that has radically changed my Christian walk, I would have to say it is the realization that God is a God of Truth.  Truth is reality as appose to that which is deceptive and untrue.  I realized that to ascribe to the truth is not enough, but that the emphasis has to be on whether I am the truth that I speak.  Jesus requires of us to judge righteously and He says through David’s prayer in Psalm 51 that He requires truth in the inward parts.  This is the crux of all our day to day dilemmas.  And if we allow the Spirit to show us that which is not true in us, we are at the perfect place of submitting under His authority.  That sweet place of humble submission where we are found out to be the phonies we are, ascribing to truths, but not being the truth in itself.  Truth however painful, is refreshing.

Father gave me a word just as I was waking up.  I have the responsibility to first knock on my own door when it comes to anything He gives me, lest I be found in error.  Very much having to walk the talk as we are all called to do.  I was struggling with this word because I was not sure how it applied to me other than the fact that I so desperately want Him to fill me afresh with His living water.  I am so tired and this year, probably just like you, has had its toll on me.  I was crying out to Him and whilst just being swept up, I suddenly saw a vision of me standing in a puddle of water.  What could this mean?  That very morning I saw a vision, upon waking as well, of a close up of a leaf where I could see its veins.  I could see the water running through these veins and the next moment it became this gold fiery color.  That was it.  And the Lord spoke to me in that instance and said, “First the water, then the fire.”  We know that water speaks of being washed and cleansed, and I believe that it is exactly what He is requiring of us.  To cleanse ourselves and to purify our hearts in repentance.  Because where we find the fire, is the Holy of Holies.  This is the very place that only the High Priests could go in.  Before he could go in as was required only once a year, he had to make absolutely sure that he was ceremonially clean, but also clean of sin.  These were men that walked in the literal fear of God because once they went in there with sin, it was “bye, bye baby!”  The Holy of Holies was the place of God’s glory where no flesh could enter.  So we can appreciate why He would say first the water and then the fire.  This was also the case where there was a bronze basin of water before they entered the temple to wash themselves. 

We are presently at a very crucial time where we cannot afford to do things our way, but have to seek God for how he would want it to be.  When I asked Him about this puddle of water I was standing in, I was saddened by what He showed me.  He took me to Ezekiel 47 where the Son of Man was shown the different levels of water coming from the temple.  We know now that we are this temple of God.  The first level of water was the ankle, then the knees, and then he could not cross over, and it says he could swim in it.  So you can imagine my disappointment with only being ankle deep.  However, as I was seeking my heart for sin and disobedience that I am walking in, He directed my attention to focus to control.  Whilst water is only to our ankles, we in fact can choose whether we want to stay in the water or just simply walk out.  We are fairly independent and in essence it speaks of a level of walking in the fear of God.  The part where the water comes to the knees, does not make it impossible to leave, but there is a certain vulnerability that comes with being on your knees.  Your ability to control a situation is less.  Once we get to the river, all control and dependency are out the door and you are at the mercy of the current.  Obviously this is where we want to be.  We want the River of God to take complete control of our lives and just be given over to it wherever He may lead us. 

I am drawn to the fact that between ankle deep and the river of water, the water level at the knees seems to be the bridge.  That place of vulnerability where we cry out to God.  It is in a sense a place of decision.  Do I turn around and walk out, or do I pursue this further and go deeper?  Do I go down even further into that place of unknown where I do not get to make the choices, but He does?  Where what is required of me is absolute obedience.  The reason I say this is that in Revelation 22 we read the following:

Revelation 22: 1 - 2

22 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

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.

What I find interesting is that the river flows not only just from the throne, but that the Lamb and the throne is one, from which this river flows.  When we think of the word “throne”, we think authority.  So from out of this place of authority, which is the highest authority of all, the Lamb of God, comes this river.  There is only one thing authority requires…obedience.  Now, I have to tell you that Father was not talking to me about outright disobedience, He was talking to me about independence.  Pride.  There’s no other way to put it.  It is what it is.  How easy it is for us to become so independent without knowing it.  We become so efficient in our Christianity.  We know the lingo, we know the scripture and verse, and we have gone through so much in various wilderness experiences and so when we open our mouths, out comes our understanding and experiences.  Now our testimony carries with it great value and as the Word says, they overcame by their testimonies and the blood of the Lamb.  I suppose those testimonies spoken about in Revelation holds more to it that just what we went through, but rather its focus may very well be what we are because of what we went through by the grace of God.   But herein lies what Father wanted to show me.  Everything that we have gone through, is not the River.  It just is not.  Neither is anything you have learned in the Word or experienced.  Not even many years of theological training or research you have done or any kind of training for that matter.  Yes, it helps, but it is not the River in itself.  Without us knowing it, we subconsciously think that what we have gone through is the be all and end all.  That this is what makes us unique and different, and dare I say…”special”.  Of course I am not downplaying whatever anyone have gone through.  What I am saying is that we end up holding fast to our confession of testimony, rather than our profession of faith…which is Jesus Christ and HIM crucified. 

Somehow we lay more emphasis on our testimony of what we have gone through, and what He has gone through becomes the springboard, the starting point, but not the heart of it.  Not just in our testimonies, although our testimonies are important, but we also seem to depend more on what we have gone through and learned in life, rather on that very life, the River of Life that flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.  You will see a clear correlation between Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22 and know that we are those trees that is to bring healing to the nations. 

I have to ask, “Have we grown independent from the testimony of the cross?”  Has our testimony of what we have gone through become more important than what He went through?  The issue is not who suffered more, the issue is WHO suffered.  Have we elevated our suffering above His, and subscribed to religious lingo, saying the “right” and Christian thing, whilst in our hearts we hold our own suffering so dear?  Is our disobedience to the authority of God which flows from the throne of God and the Lamb, our independence in this regard?  Please do not make the mistake of thinking that this could not be true of you because in Jeremiah 17 we read that the heart is utterly deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.  So do not be so quick to think that you do not have to consider the possibility. 

Is this maybe the reason why He gives me a message whilst still half asleep?  Where I am not yet fully within my senses, scrambling for pen and paper as I write what He speaks to my spirit?  When I wrote what I sensed He was saying I found myself asking was this of me or from Him, because I felt so disjointed.  So as if I was making this up and yet, for the next two days He told me to trust Him and confirmed it over and over to such a degree that I just cannot doubt it.  He had to find me at my weakest where I was not yet fully drenched in His presence sensing the anointing, but disheveled and tired, i.e. not in control.  Is this the reason why we are still ankle deep thinking that we are quite efficient in our evangelistic approach and testimonies.  The ability we have to bring others to tears and to get them to think about their lives?  As important as all these things are, the question that remains is, is the river that flows from your mouth that which issues from out of you, or is it gushing out of the throne of God, where you live in such dependence in obedience to Him, that it is not a drop, or a trickle, but the living water of God, where when you speak it becomes an event?  Where they cry out to you and say, “What must I do to be saved!”  How efficient have you grown with your step 1 – 10 of how to evangelize, or maybe just how you have always done it?  You know where to begin, and that particular punchline necessary to get them to consider their ways, but not yet to the degree you would really like to?  Have you grown independent of the River of Life that flows from that thrown where you dare not assume upon God as to treat every individual the same, but have an ear to hear and a mouth that is given over to the guidance of the Spirit in each particular moment?  Whether we like to hear this or not, our independence just like our obvious sins, defiles the purity of those living waters.   And the reality is that living from our own sufficiency causes us to grow weary and tired, because very soon our tank is on empty. How much of the dreams and visions and words from the Lord are murky and does not come true, because so many of them are mixed with "self".  The issue is not always whether a dream or vision or even a word is from Him, but rather, how much of self is mixed with it?  Because He desires that a crystal clear river would flow through us.

No matter how strong we think we have grown in the Lord, we are to be like babes, ever dependent on our Father for the next meal, or in this case, drink.  We have grown comfortable with our puddles of water we stand in.  It is what it is and we have come by with our effiancy, so why change it?  But if we want the river, greater dependency is required of us, which is only found in one place…on our knees.  Where we seek His face afresh and will not move until we know that the very River of God is gushing forth from our innermost being. 

Paul says the following in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 2:2

For I am determined to not know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

This is a man that called himself the worst of all sinners.  It was not to show us how humble he was, but that we could understand that the man who is known as the Apostles of all Apostles, which could say follow me, as I follow Christ, was so dependent on that River of Life that flows from the throne, that he could say it with authenticity.  Such meekness and weakness.  The very meekness we see in the Lamb of God who is one with the Throne of God from which this River of Life flows.

Have we grown strong in our testimonies so that we no longer need this River of Life?  Maybe you are independent in other areas.  Maybe in how you rear your children, or how you have determined you will do you work, cutting the corners where you can.  Maybe you have decided how and where you will reach out to others based on what you read in scripture, but forgetting that the life flows from the Spirit.  This independency is quite subtle.  It is not so obvious in our day to day life, especially when we have become so proficient in being Christian.  There is only one place to brake that mold we have built for ourselves…on our knees.  Exactly where I am going to find myself come what may, because I will not be happy unless that very River of Life runs through me and takes me wherever He wants to. I do not want to give people my opinion, my understanding, or my talent for writing or any other thing...I want to give them JESUS.  Because He is all that matters.  I do not want to make the living waters of His life running through my veins to be murky because I have grown independent in my walk as a Christian and have lost the freshness of being filled to overflow with His life, that continues to produce new life.  I have to come over and over to this throneroom to which we are called to come with boldness, and there find myself on my knees in the River of Life.  For unless I come often to drink, of what river am I giving to others?  And am I to stay a little while, being happy with a sensational thrill here and there, or am I going to do what it takes to immerse myself so that I may be taken over and become one with this River?  Where my seeing and hearing is His seeing and hearing, and my speaking His speaking.  He is seeking those who will seek Him with earnestness and are desperate not only for a touch, but an immersion into His life!

In Ezekiel 47 we see that this river flows from different directions out of the temple into other rivers, which is the Dead Sea coming into contact with the sea of the River of God, coming to life again.  There will be so many fishes.  This fishes speaks of the harvest that will come because we are called to be Fishers of men.  But the question remains, are we in the Dead Sea or in the River of Life?

I pray that you hear what the Spirit of God is saying to you personally and that you will ask the relevant questions to the One who knows your deceitful heart more than any other, and yet still loves you beyond words.  Let us draw near with repentant hearts to the Throne of grace that we may find grace and mercy, on our knees before the Lamb of God.

Amen.

WORD RECEIVED 24/12/20

All showers start with a single drop, all showers from rivers, and all rivers flow into the sea.  If you are thirsty, you come with a cup, but if you want all, then you come with all.

Rivers of life and healing, from your innermost being all find their origin in Me.  Are you in Me as I am about to send you out?  Will you dry up because you have been giving of yourself and not of Me?  For My River of Life will never run dry.  It will continue in Me and flow from out of Me, for I am the River of Life.  Can a river be thirsty?  Yet many of you are.  You are thirsty for many things, but are you truly thirsty for Me?  I search your hearts continually and there are those who no longer come to be filled.  Their rivers have grown muddy and murky and yet they continue to give others to drink.  My River of Life will cleanse you continually and because of the clarity they will see, they will see their own filth and turn in repentance to Me.  Many have not because you still insist on giving others of yourself.  Am I to look to you for provision?  Are they to look to you?  When you shall return to Me and drink of Me, then they shall drink of Me and thirst no more.

Come all who are thirsty and I will give you drink.  Continue in Me and as you allow the water of my Word to cleanse you, living water shall flow.  Will you continue to give others of your murky unrepentant water so that they can continue in their sin just like you?

Seek Me afresh My children to cleanse you with My Word and My Spirit will confirm that which I have done in you.  For My Spirit is first and foremost the Spirit of Truth.  Examine yourself…Are you in the truth?

For where My river flows, My fire goes.  Every part of you ignited with My glory.  Vitally part of every cell.  Strengthening your inner walls by My strength.  You are My planting and I have planted you by My River of Life so that you may drink of Me.  Have I not said that there will be healing in your leaves?  Am I not the life of your life?  Have the murkiness of your river not come from your compromise and therefore you no longer see clearly?  How long has it been since you have allowed My Spirit to search your innermost being?  For I desire truth in the innermost being.

Ask of Me and I will give you to drink.  I am the Living Water.

 

Please Read:

Ezekiel 47: 6 - 12

 

⁶ 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.

⁷ Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

⁸ Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

⁹ And it shall come to pass, that everything that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whither the river cometh.

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

¹¹ But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.

¹² 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.

Psalm 42

1. As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

2 My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?

3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

4 When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.

5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

6 O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar.

7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.

8 Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the day time, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.

9 I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

10 As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me; while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God?

11 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS

 

Home Is Where The Heart Is

 

Jesus, the High Priest and Apostle of our faith was not only given, but also sent.  The word Apostle means “sent”.  And so when we hear “for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” we can know that it means that He also sent His Son.  This is how He expressed His love, not only by giving His Son, but also by sending His Son.

Through the expression of His love for us, by sending His Son, we read Jesus saying to His disciples, “As My Father sent Me, so I send you” – John 20: 21.  He also said that that the world will know that they are His disciples when they love one another.  In this we see that the Lord connects the loving and the sending.  This love is expressed by the laying down of your life as mentioned in John 15.  Even so, He laid down His life as the sent One for us.  Not just the life here on earth to be crucified, but the life He had in His Father, being vitally connected and One with Him in the Holy Spirit.  Have we considered that price? 

Jesus asked Peter three times whether he loved Him and at the third told him, “Feed My sheep”.  The whole purpose behind the sending is the feeding of the sheep.  Even so Jesus came as the One sent to save the lost sheep of Israel. 

As of late the Holy Spirit is talking to me continuously about being sent and exactly what it means.  Such a small word with such a great significance.  We read in the Scriptures how with Jesus and His disciples staying in one place was not an option.  Being sent meant to go wherever He leads.  Just as they were getting comfortable and settled in one place, they received their marching orders to go and feed the sheep.  Sometimes it was whole areas, other times just that one person.  Always requiring obedience and a call to walk by faith. 

Luke 9: 1 - 3

₁Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.

² And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

³ And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.

How many of us are willing to just leave a place without anything, save that which is on our back?  When we go camping, we have the house on our back like tortoises…not willing to leave anything behind.  I have to wonder how many times they were told just like Abraham that they are to go, without knowing where they are to go.  Completely surrendered to the guidance of the Spirit.  They were sojourners, not just because they are not of this world, but sojourners even whilst being in this world.

Jesus said, “Follow Me”.  I am reminded of something He said to me years ago.  “The sheep are called to follow the Shepherd and not the sheep”.  This was related to the fact that I could see that the moment a new book, or movie or trend has arrived in the Christian arena, all the sheep herded together to go see and experience this new “thing”.  For me this became a warning sign as I started to learn that the way of those who follow the Shepherd is often in loneliness, because so few follow Him the way they should.  I live in farmland and sheep can be loud!  Very demanding wooly creatures that are frightened quite easily.  Always huddled together.  In one sense this is for their safety, but when it comes to having to go somewhere, they easily follow the wayward sheep.  I guess we would like to romanticize this nomadic lifestyle of the disciples because of their great exploits, but in reality I can see that there was a very real price to pay each time their hearts grew to love those around them.  New friendships were formed and I can see how the children flocked around them, even as the people hung unto Paul and kissed him when he had to leave.

Acts 20:37-38

³⁷ And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him,

³⁸ Sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

Jesus also said, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head – Luke 9: 58.  He was not saying that he slept outside, although I am sure there were many occasion that they had to.  He meant that He did not have a permanent home.  At this junction I have to ask, have you made where you are at your permanent home?  Whether your actual home or even your place of ministry?  Maybe the season you are in?  Have you made sure that the tent pens of your tent are so securely grounded that not even God can move you? 

A while ago Father told me “Possess nothing in your heart, but Me”.  What He meant with this was that the love I am to show to others, cannot be my own.  It has to be His love.  Being in my heart, makes my heart His permanent residence, as if to say that now He has a place to lay His head.  Just like John laid his head on Jesus’ bosom (heart), so Jesus lays His head on our bosom…HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS.  This is to say that wherever He goes, I go and wherever I go, He goes.  Never leaving home.  Oh the love of God!!  Who can fathom such a love for us, who laid down His life to make His life in us?  I am overwhelmed by His love!

What then are we to do with regard to the fact that He says that we are to love one another?  It simply means that EVERYTHING we have is to be held loosely in our hands, so that at any time He may take or give, or in this case…send.  How tight is your grip on those you love?  And how quickly are you offended by those that seem to hold you loosely?  Do you feel rejected and unloved by what seems to you as indifference and see them as just moving on, “leaving” you as if you do not matter?  Do you have a need that they have to always and forever be there for you, because according to you this is what love is?  Can you bear to bless the ones He is sending just as the disciples were sent and blessed by those who had to stay?  There is a price to pay for the ones sent, but also those who stay behind.

Are you a “sent” one?  Or are you going to stay?  Feeding His sheep as a sent one is to fulfill the mandate of what it means to be an Apostle.  This is how He said to Peter to express the love Peter had for Him, by feeding His sheep.  I imagine that a shepherd is rather a poor shepherd if he owns a few camps with sheep, but only tend to the one camp.  Have you been paying attention to just one camp, not adhering to the call of the other sheep He is wanting to send you to?  Has He called you to go, but you are choosing to stay?  I am not saying go feed another shepherd’s sheep.  I am asking, are you going where He sends you? 

If ever there was a time that sheep are hungry, it is now.  This is what it comes down to…laying your life down.  The life that comes out of your death to self in leaving, will feed the sheep.  Obedience carries with it great reward.  He says that He gives His Spirit to those who obey – Acts 5: 32.  This life that springs up from death, is resurrection life now.  It is also that which we stand to forfeit if we do not go and the life that the sheep we are to feed will not get from us.  We become like a river that does not flow and therefore have no life in it and our staying will cause that river to dry up. 

May we ask ourselves afresh whether we have let go.  Whether we have stayed, when we should have gone.  Can you bear to go where He sends you if it means that the intimate relationships formed may grow distant, not because there is no more love, but because you are being sent?  We read that Father told Adam and Eve that the man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife - leaving and cleaving.  As the second Adam, Jesus left His home to cleave to His Bride.  There is no cleaving without a leaving first.  And the leaving we are doing is not that of leaving those we love, but the leaving of a season, where He clearly states in Proverbs 16:9^{, -} A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps. 

 

We are leaving in order to cleave even more to Him and not to cleave to each other.  For our obedience to His direction will cause that union we so desperately desire.  Jesus told His disciples that if He did not go that He could not send His Spirit.  They were not too happy with Him.  He told them that only then He would be in them and that His Spirit would guide them in all truth and remind them of the things He said.   Therein lies a promise we should not miss.  “I will give My Spirit when I go.”  When you go when He sends you, He will give you the provision, just like He did with His disciples that were ordered not to take anything with them.  But not only that.  When you go, He will send His Spirit to those you leave behind and He Himself will take care of them.  Is your staying taking from those you love that which He wants to give them?  Trusting that He loves them far more that you could ever love them.  This lies at the heart of leaving.  Do you trust Him to take care of them?  And the reality is that He too needs to be able to trust you to go when He says go and that He can depend on you that I will obey and trust Him. 

As I wrote this, my husband came into the room to tell me a dove flew into one of the rooms.  Father speaks to me often through birds, particularly doves.  When I got there, the dove was just simply sitting on a chair.  Unharmed.  Usually doves are easily frightened and will make a whole mess.  I went to the dove and still it did not move.  Very strange.  So I thought not to scare the poor thing and gently picked up the chair, with dove still sitting on the chair to put the chair outside.  In this way it could just fly away without me even touching it.  The dove still sat there frozen.  I had to pick it up and place it in a safe place where my cat cannot get to it.  The Spirit spoke to me in that instance.  We prefer the comfort of the chair where we do not need to move.  We would rather stay where we are at without rocking the boat.  Often we are frozen by fear.  And if we do not go when He says go, He will have to physically remove us.  We can either choose to go or He will remove us.  What is at stake is that the dove resembles the Spirit of God who desires to go into all the world and make disciples…not converts.  Good as that may be, we are to make disciples.  Have you read the criteria of a disciples lately?

Luke 14:26

²⁶ If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

In the time we are about to go in, there will be those who still cleave to those they love and are not willing to leave.  They will want to protect their loved ones and provide for them.  This seems logical, loving and even spiritual.  But what is at stake is the Kingdom of God.  What is at stake here is those who are lost and will endure eternal damnation because they became converts, but never disciples.  The Church at present is full of converts, but very few disciples.  And because of the terrible wrath of God about to fall upon this earth they will die in their compromise, because those who are filled with His Spirit, chose to sit like that dove on their comfortable chair.  Those who are led by the Spirit of God are called the sons of God.  I am not saying that we are to neglect our families and loved ones.  What I am asking is, can you leave them so that Father can look after them when the time comes?  If you have not left them in your heart now, how will you leave them when it actually requires you to physically remove yourself and go where He sends you?  Are you still cleaving to your children?  Do you have to be in control of every aspect of their lives?  Are you still monitoring your husband’s every move and cannot bare that he refuses to bow his knee to the Lord?  Seeing that God is not doing anything you take over?  Are you cleaving to that job, that dream job that gives you so much pleasure and in the process your quiet time suffers under your priorities?  Is your ministry your be all and end all?  Is it your identity and that by which you are known?  Can you leave it in a split second should He ask you?  Or will you feel utter destitution as if you are left in empty space, no longer grounded?  What are you still holding onto and therefore cause yourself to be disqualified as His disciple?  Now is of the essence here.  Now, in the day that you hear the Spirit speak to you do not harden your heart. 

There is going to be a great reunion one day and we will surely rejoice in His wisdom and perfect timing in all things, as we see Him, and sing and shout the victory!  The time is short, let us number our days and be busy about our Father’s work whilst it is still day, because night is near.

 

Please Read:

John 15: 12 - 27

¹² This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

¹³ Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

¹⁴ Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

¹⁵ Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

¹⁶ Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

¹⁷ These things I command you, that ye love one another.

¹⁸ If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

¹⁹ If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

²⁰ Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, 

they will keep yours also.

²¹ But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they 

know not him that sent me.

²² If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have 

no cloak for their sin.

²³ He that hateth me hateth my Father also.

²⁴ If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.

²⁵ But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause.

²⁶ But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

²⁷ And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.