SEEING AS HE IS

This morning Father drew my attention to the fact that in Him there is a particular seeing that we are called to.  In 2020 He gave me the word FOCUS and Psalm 32 He says He will guide me with His eye upon me. This guidance would not be by showing me various things in the spirit realm, but that this eye upon me speaks of teaching me how to see.

I was wrestling about something, not sure how to handle it and His answer to me was that it is not about my doctrine or my particular truth.  It is not about whether I obeyed Him.  It is not whether I am right or wrong or the other person.  These things, these categories in my life are not my foundation.  "What your foundation is, is who I AM."  Our tendency is to see things through our own particular filters, especially when we know them to be doctrinally true.  And, of course, truth is always to be upheld.  But in this He was showing me the seeing that He wants to bring us into is not seeing the truth about Him, but The Truth - I AM.

This requires us to surrender to the uttermost, even our spiritual categories we so dearly hold on to, the diamonds we picked up in the rough during our journey with the Lord.  The particular wisdoms and revelations that have carried us through.  We become well-rehearsed in our answers, and even whilst asked a question, we already formulate our answer..."Because we know this one".  But in truth that is placing God in a box...albeit a very doctrinely truth box, still a box.  He wants us to be in such a place with Him that every situation asks of us to see it the way He sees it.  Our independence is magnified in these moments as we pride ourselves in knowing the answers to life's issues.  Where does one go to find this seeing as He sees? 

Isaiah said "I am a man of unclean lips for I have seen the Lord."  The seeing of God, meant the seeing of himself as he truly is...a man.  And not just a man, but one with unclean lips.  What kind of seeing is this of seeing God and being undone because of this seeing?  I cannot but think that the place of this seeing is in the holy of holies where the only light is the light of His presence, His glory.  Other than that...darkness.  Only He is seen in that moment and in the darkness nothing of you...you become nothing.  Your opinion means nothing and all you know is nothing.  All that is, is I AM.  Within that veil you do not bring in your opinion, your truths or doctrines you hold onto...you stand there stripped aware of only two things...you are man and He is God. Once you have left this place you come out changed, for now you truly see.  You do not see from your perspective, but you see as He sees, as He is. You see because you have seen Him.  I cannot help but to think of Moses who went up the mountain and spend so long in the presence of God, that He came out shining with the glory of God.  When He came down He did not only come down to present the LAWS, but he came down and presented God.  Those who are called to enter into this place and leave, have only one aim...to present God as He truly is.  Not the truth about God, but God, The Truth.  The man Moses is not presented. All that matters is that what has transpired in darkness, for Moses was in thick darkness on that mountain, just like in the Holy of Holies.  The essence of God and who He is cannot be explained by knowledge of doctrinal truth, but has to be revealed to us.  In Ephesians 1: 18  Paul prays for the Ephesians that they may receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.  This is also the very truth that protects us in this last age between what is true and what is deceptive, but coated in truth.  This is what gives us the edge when we as herolds go forth to proclaim the coming King...because we know the King, we have come to the place of Isaiah.  We are undone.

My attention was brought to three woman that seems to be connected.  The first one is Hannah, finding herself in the temple praying that she would be blessed with a child.  Vowing to offer him unto God to be His, if only she could be with child.  The next woman is Mary, whom being a virgin in every respect, found favor with God and bore the Son of Man, and lastly we find Anna, in the temple, who held this newborn Child and went out to proclaim the coming of the King.  I see three dispensations here...that of the Old Testament, the High Priest that will come in the foreshadow of Samuel.  Then Mary who is the fulfillment of that prophecy during the Church Age and Anna who held Him in her arms prophecied and went out into all Jerusalem to tell all of His salvation, as the coming Apostolic Age.  

All three woman are connected to one Child...the Christ.  Hannah went up during the feast days to implore the Lord for this child.  She desired this child so much and was willing to be rediculed by Eli, the then High Priest, of drunkeness, if only she may bring this child into this life.  Her barrenness was overwhelming to her and she cried endless tears before the Lord, not willing to let Him go unless He blesses her, as He did with Jacob.  She was found in the temple.  And so others may look upon us, those Pharisees, and ask why we are still found in the temple if He then does not answer our prayer.  Why are you going through so much and are willing to pay such a dear price in order to conceive?  In the same way we are called into the temple of God to make our requests known to Him that the Christ Child may be conceived in us and we may be found with Child. From out of her womb came forth the child Samuel, the foreshadow of a Prophet that will come from the womb of a virgin girl called Mary.

Mary, who was a virgin in contrast to Hannah is not found in a temple, but what little we know of Mary is that she was chosen because of her virginity and purity.  She was already betrothed and  resembles the Bride who carries this promised Child bringing Him forth into the world.  Her womb has been opened, the veil has been torn and from her came forth the Messiah.  Chosen, because of her purity and so He seeks the virginal Bride that will bring forth the Christ Child.  Her virginity was at the heart of the birth, because there would not have been the Christ Child if she was not pure.  So our purity, our holiness is at the heart of the birth of the Christ Child in us.  And so He desires purity of His Bride so that He may come forth. And after her days of cleansing, on the 8th day, she brought Him into the temple, into the arms of Anna, the Prophetess.

Anna who was a virgin at birth, an 84 year old widow, spent all her time praying and worshipping in the temple.  She was a New Testament type of Hannah, however all her days were spent in the temple.  Here she was constantly under the voice of the High Priest, Simeon, as he read the Torah and served in the temple.  A wise woman who was often in the position to minister to others because not only of her understanding of the Torah, but because she spent her days and nights in the temple of God...in His presence.  So that when she saw the Child, she already knew the Child.  Because it was to Him that she prayed and pleaded for Zion.  It was because of Him she dare not leave the temple.  It was to Him that she betrothed herself to and it was on Him that she was waiting...in the temple.  And although she was not privy to go into the Holy of Holies in the temple itself, He has met her countless times in the secret place of her heart.  In the Holy of Holies of her temple.    There she communed with Him and there she met her Maker.  There she was undone.  Where others only saw a child, she saw thé CHILD.  She immediatly broke out in exhuberant worship and went out to tell all of the Messiah.  And so those who have spent their days and nights, resembling Him being their all, in the temple, in the Holy of Holies, knows Him as He truly is, and will be sent to go forth and proclaim the Messiah unto a dying world.  The Word makes it clear that Anna was different, not because she was a Prophetess, but because of where she spent her life - in the presence of God.  In that place where we do not come in with our categories, no matter how much we know the Word, so that when He shows up not in the splendour of a mighty King, but as a child, she recognises Him.  

He is waiting on those who will seek Him day and night in the temple of our hearts, in the same place that Isaiah was undone, a man with unclean lips.  Someone as this, He sends out, because having seen Him, they will not present themselves, their opinions and doctrinal truth, but Him...the essence of Him, the Truth.  Seeing as He sees requires that we come to the end of our categories of all our truths, so that we are transformed by the truth.  You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free...sometimes we need to be made free of that which is not so obvious. This truth sets us free to conform to the opinions of others, but mostly free from our own opinions...about the truth.  The truth of who He is, is at the heart of seeing.  It sets us free from stoic and predictable phrases that sounds right, but lacks life.  It sets us free from having to come up with the right answer, when all that matters is who He is.  Because who He is answers all the questions.  To present Him is the greatest honor and calling of our lives.  Not how we have formulated our opinion of Him through our lives, however precious, but from out of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, from out of the dark place, where no flesh may enter.  No mixture of self.  Seeing Him as He chooses to reveal Himself to you in that given moment.  From this place is our seeing to be, because His seeing will be our seeing, and so will our speaking and hearing.  For as a child is birthed from the very cells of a mother and comes forth from her womb, so when Christ is formed in us, we are one with Him.  But this takes time and this takes seeking Him day and night in the temple, seeking His face.

Please Read:

Galatians 4:19

King James Version

19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you...

Psalm 27: 4 - 5

4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple.

5 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! (An Exhortation)

 

"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"

As we enter into this year with the apprehension of what could possibly happen with the Trump and Biden "tug of war" whilst the lives of millions are at stake, I am reminded of the fact that as the "swamp" of those involved with diabolical works in darkness is brought into the light by President Trump, that there remains a particular "swamp" that needs some deep cleansing as well and will not be overlooked.

As it is of utmost importance that the Prophet sees not only his own life in the light of God's dealings, so he has the responsibility to convey the heart of God with regard to His church.  My spirit is stirred within me in the knowing that the church is not quite ready with what is about to happen. The swamp of the church is about to be brought in the open.  As was the case with Ravi Zacharias through whom the Kingdom of God have receive a mighty blow, we can know with assurance that God will not be mocked!  For as was the case with Jesus when He ran into the temple with braided whip to overthrow the moneychangers, He now is ready to bring the whip unto the backs of His disobedient children.  Where we would look upon what has happend to Ravi Zacharias as tragic, and it is, we have to understand the message that is clearly given, and yet the church has not heard.  He has spoken and we have not heard.  We have sufficiently been shocked, but not moved to seek out our own hidden sins. 

God has tolerated the hidden sins of His children for so long, but will not bring judgment on the world before He sends it upon His church first.  For judgment begins with the house of God first.

1 Peter 4: 15 - 18

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.

16 Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

18 And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.  

And though we have all gone through our own personal judgments, the shame of the Bride being caught with her dress up exposing her nakedness as she has been whoring with the nations, is about to be broadcasted over the world.  No longer will He tolerate her ludeness and perversity but bring her sins in the open as an open judgment before the world.  Her lovers will look upon her as one who sold herself not for gain, but willingly allowing the temple to be defiled.  So that she may return to Him and seek His face afresh, for this shame only the blood can cleanse.  For unless He brings this judgment, she will remain in her sins and be given over unto it.  

As Trump has repeatedly said..."Enough is enough!" so, He is saying "Enough is enough!"  Will we look upon His judgment as the world looks upon Trump's, or will we tremble in fear as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God?  The judgment has to start with His Bride, because His coming is so near and yet still she dabbles in sin, still she is faintly concerned about the spot on her dress as she hides her sin in the depth of the swamp!  

There will be more Ravi's that will be exposed and it will start from the top.  Those who prophecied in His Name saying that they have heard of the Lord, saying, "Peace, peace!" or "The burden of the Lord!" will stand with their hands on their mouths as their lying, deceiving and manipulation is brought into the light!  The hirelings who have enslaved the sheep of His pasture will be held accountable and the money used for personal gain, will come back and testify against them.  They will be stripped poor and have to answer for their thievery.  Even so those who have spoken against His true prophets will have to answer to Him, for speaking against them, is speaking against Him.  

Woe, woe, woe to those who take this warning lightly and does not seek to have themselves abased before the throne of God in the light of His holiness.  For He will not be mocked by our sin and cause us to think that there is still time to dabble in the swamp...there is no more time!  Judgment has started, but have you put yourself under His hand willingly or does He have to enforce His hand upon you to obey and do as He has been asking you to do for how long?  

We insist that He is merciful, but know this...His judgment is His mercy now.  For unless you allow Him to judge you and not leave anything untouched by His devouring fire of His Spirit now, how will you be able to stand before Him very soon?  There will be those who will willingly come and those who will be found out.

Therefore, humble yourself and pray, seek His face and allow Him to judge you.  Today if you hear His voice do not harden your hearts.  

Please Read:

Ezekiel 16

King James Version

16 Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

4 And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee; thou wast not salted at all, nor swaddled at all.

5 None eye pitied thee, to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee; but thou wast cast out in the open field, to the lothing of thy person, in the day that thou wast born.

6 And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live.

7 I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare.

8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine.

9 Then washed I thee with water; yea, I throughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.

10 I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers' skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.

11 I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck.

12 And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head.

13 Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.

14 And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God.

15 But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

16 And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

18 And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.

19 My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord God.

20 Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,

21 That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

23 And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord God;)

24 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

25 Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.

28 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.

29 Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied therewith.

30 How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord God, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;

31 In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

32 But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!

33 They give gifts to all whores: but thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers, and hirest them, that they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom.

34 And the contrary is in thee from other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to commit whoredoms: and in that thou givest a reward, and no reward is given unto thee, therefore thou art contrary.

35 Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord:

36 Thus saith the Lord God; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

37 Behold, therefore I will gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated; I will even gather them round about against thee, and will discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness.

38 And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

39 And I will also give thee into their hand, and they shall throw down thine eminent place, and shall break down thy high places: they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.

40 They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

41 And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

42 So will I make my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart from thee, and I will be quiet, and will be no more angry.

43 Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast fretted me in all these things; behold, therefore I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord God: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations.

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.