Tuesday, November 24, 2009

My "MO"


My "MO" or method of operation is to be one of God's kids and since He speaks and things happen we, his kids, should be doing the same thing.(ref. Eph. 5:1)

I like to use the following scripture verses a lot.
I am calling those things that be not as though they were. (Rom. 4:17)
I know that life and death is in the power of my tongue (Prov. 18:21)
I am daily practicing speaking words that will bless, give hope and help people.(Eph. 4:29)
"I open my mouth with wisdom; and in my tongue [is] the law of kindness.(Prov. 31:26)

I am living by faith and not by feeling, sight or sound because that's the only way to please the Father. (2Cor.5:7, Heb.11:6)

My faith is the substance of the things I have hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. (Heb. 11:1)
My imagination is the drawing board that God uses to relay new ideas and impressions to me. (Eph. 1:18, 3:18-20)

I just wanted to share a few thoughts on how I walk out promises in the Bible using scripture verses and things the Lord has shown me.

When I set myself to seek the Lord through praise, worship and the word, I end up in His presence. Sometimes Holy Spirit will show me things and I'll get a picture or He'll remind me of scripture promises that I have heard before. This is the time to really pay attention because what He reveals to you is yours. (Deut. 29:29) You just have to decree it out of your mouth, because the bible says decree a thing and it shall be established.(Job 22:28)

Sometimes what you decree will come to pass quickly and sometimes what He shows you is prophetic in nature and Holy Spirit is wanting to get you going in a new direction. Ask Holy Spirit lots of questions so that you know what to do with the picture, words or promise that He shows you. Make sure you write it down so that you can remind yourself of it and keep declaring those words over your circumstances. (Habb. 2:2) The truth of God's word changes circumstances. It's a supernatural word and it always accomplishes what it is set out to do. (Is.55:11)

Holy Spirit will give you confirmation of things too, if you ask.

Remember "When you pray, believe that you receive and you shall have what you have prayed for."(Mark 11:24) Use this verse to get things on Earth to line up with Heaven... THY will be done, THY kingdom come, on Earth as it is in Heaven."

In a nut shell, I praise and worship, pleading the blood and repenting as Holy Spirit shows me stuff that needs cleansing. It's like going by the alter of sacrifice and the Bronze laver for the washing of the Word.

Then we can enter through the gates of thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise... Then we can go into the Holy of Holies as you feel the leading to worship the Lord. Then you are in His presence because there is no veil anymore. Hallelujah!

So when the awe of God come on me or the rarefied air I get really quiet and wait for Him to talk to me. IF I get distracted thoughts I say "Jesus, Jesus." and focus on Him. He always has something so special for us. It's the greatest joy of my life!

Lately I've been getting laughter and tears when I'm in His presence. This is not a bad thing, just a new thing that God is doing. The Quakers quaked, others have done, shaking and falling down in His presence, etc. etc.

May I pray for you? Lord I ask that you would impart a desire for this precious person to get into Your presence and that You would make it easy for them Lord. Show them something of Heaven and You Lord. Help them to see things from Your perspective Lord, in Jesus' name I ask. Change them from Glory to Glory as they behold You, Lord. Amen! (2Cor.3:18)

Monday, November 9, 2009

God communicates!

I want to go through some basics about how God communicates and take the mystery out of it. It should be as natural for us!

The most frequent way God speaks to people is by Holy Spirit inside of you. From John 10:27 we can see that, "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." So we should all be able to hear God's voice if we've made Jesus our Lord and Savior. If you have not yet asked Jesus into your heart, it is not too late. Just ask Jesus/Holy Spirit in your own words to come into your heart and reveal Himself to you.

Okay then, so how I started hearing God/Holy Spirit was recognizing that"Yes" is a peace deep inside and "No" is a queasy, something is not right feeling in your gut area. Many people identify with this long before they openly acknowledge God. Isn't that amazing? (more on that in another blog article)

Discerning God's voice gets easier with practice. Yes that's the big key, we have to practice every day. Sometimes we are so busy that it's hard to still ourselves enough to hear His quiet voice. I try and ask at least 20 questions a day of the Lord. Be a question box for the Lord.

Some people have heard God's voice audibly but that is not the norm for most of us. Holy Spirit has only yelled at me once in twenty five years and that was when I was going to make a horrible mistake and marry the wrong man. Trust me you never forget it!

I love hearing his voice. To me that's one of the biggest miracles of all, that I can hear his voice all the time. His voice sounds like your voice in your head and He's always encouraging, always hopeful, always the counselor. If this seems a bit far fetched I encourage you to start with the word of God because Holy Spirit will never disagree with the whole counsel of the word of God. You can learn to discern His voice by comparing it to the word of God (the Bible).

For example, we know that God will never condemn you because the Bible says that there is therefore no condemnation for them that follow Christ.(Rom.8:1) Now that is not to say that He won't correct you but He (Holy Spirit) will always leave you with hope and a solution. Condemnation does not do that. It leaves you in despair.

I want to mention how important it is to renew your mind with the word of God (Bible) because some traditional teaching is not backed up by the word of God. This is where 'the voice you know' comes in to effect. In John 10:6 it says that the voice of a stranger we will not listen to. That's good and I agree with that. Unfortunately some of the things I was told, I got used to, so they were not the voice of a stranger anymore and I did listen to them. Thus, I had a very unhappy life. As I started to speak who I was in Christ and root out all the garbage from my past I became a lot more peaceful and had much more victory in my life.

Also, it is easier to hear God's voice after you have died to your own will. That is the hard part. When we still have our own ideas or desires that we have not fully died to, that is when His voice gets skewed by our own voice/will. So I use Rom. 12:2 as a help and I "offer myself a living sacrifice to him" every day. Sacrifices are supposed to be dead, right? That is the interesting part. When you get to the point where you can honestly say that you do not care what the answer is, whether yes or no; you just want to hear His Voice, THEN you will hear Him clearly. After all the bible says "that you will seek Me and find Me when You seek me with all Your heart." (Jer 29:13)


Visions:
Another way that God speaks to you is in visions. In Habb. 2:2-3 we read, "Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make [it] plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it. For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry. "

There are different types of visions. Some of the different types of visions that I am familiar with include: visions in our mind as we think about God, visions that appear as pictures overlapping our regular vision, visions that happen as we soak in His presence with our eyes closed and visions that happen as we conduct our daily lives. Sometimes a deja vu can be a vision that we've had previously.


Dreams:
Other ways that God spoke to people include the use of dreams. God spoke to Joseph, the husband of Mary in dreams and thus kept Mary and Jesus safe Matt. 1:20 Matt. 2:13,19.. That is another cool way that God can talk to you. My daughters get these little dreams that are prophetic and it is so neat how the Lord is showing them that they are significant so they will start to write them down and pray into them.

This is not an exclusive list by the way, just a start.

I hope this helps you to dare to believe that God wants to talk to you. It is your right as a child of God to hear Him. So go have fun being a 'question box' to your Heavenly Father aka Daddy.
Bless you in Jesus' name!

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Almost There


Learning how to walk tight with Holy Spirit is a learning process. I wish I could say that I have arrived but after twenty plus years, I'm still catching myself once in a while.

Last night I asked Holy Spirit what He wanted to show me and I saw a cave with some rock icicles hanging from the ceiling. It was so dark I didn't want to stay in the vision but Holy Spirit said there was more to see. Trying to focus I noticed a translucent window that begged investigation. I moved over to see a morbid scene; a road leading down into the earth and people behind a partially built wall in the road.

Something was happening! The partially built wall, in the road was hindering the people from going down the road to you know where. I was squeamish at the sights and sounds and I didn't want to be in this vision. I was upset and horrified at what was happening before my eyes and I wanted to scream at the people to run the other way, but they couldn't hear me.

Shaken... I asked Holy Spirit what was the point of showing me this scene? He showed me that the bricks in the wall were parts of christian character, and how a life totally submitted to the Lord, mature, full of Holy Spirit will cause us to be such a witness that many will be turned to Him. In essence, hindering people from going to Hell.

Too much you think? I thought it was presumptuous too. So I asked the Lord for more confirmation, after all we are supposed to ask for two or three witnesses before establishing something.

Holy Spirit showed me Col. 2:9-10 and to paraphrase it we have Holy Spirit, which is the fullness of God, in us right now. OR, We've been filled with the fullness of God now... already. Christ means 'the anointed one and His anointing' which is Holy Spirit, the powerhouse of Creation. (Gen.1:2)

Then Holy Spirit brought two more verses to my attention. We are the light of the world (now). (Matt. 5:14) We are the salt of the earth. (Matt. 5:13)
Holy Spirit wants our lives to so shine with God's glory that people are turned from their unbelief to a living faith.

I was thinking about this whole thing yesterday and I was reminded of a time before I was saved. I was on a transit bus and there was a man sitting on the seat over the rear tire. He had white hair, a white shirt and trousers on. His countenance was so lit up that he glowed and I desperately wanted some of what he had. He had nothing naturally to make me attracted to him... yet I could sense goodness, hope, love and laughter around him. I couldn't stop glancing at him from my seat on the back bench of the bus. He seemed oblivious to me, just looking out the window and taking in all the sights. I wish I had had the guts to ask him what made his countenance glow. I am now convinced that he was a Christian full of Holy Spirit. (2Cor. 3:18)

Anyhow, I want to be like that man. As I drive my school bus, or move people may those around me see something of God in me.

God is looking for a few good people, men or women, who will dare to believe His promises. We haven't seen too many people who glowed with the Glory of God yet, but it's coming. I want to sign up for all that God has for me.
How about you?

(For Further reference; Rom. 12:1-2, John 10:27, Luke 12:32, Phil. 2:13, 2Chron. 16:9, Psalm 24, Jer. 29:11)