Another Strategy to Break Through!

If there are times when you don't know what to do to get a break through, keep reading.

You probably have done all the regular things you know to do; like pleading the blood of Jesus over you and repenting of any sin you are aware of.  If you still don't hear anything, then may I suggest that you 'offer yourself a living sacrifice' to him? (ref. Rom. 12:1-2)

Let me explain...  When there's a cloud around me and it's hard to hear, I picture myself climbing on a huge alter and laying down.  Then I give my ideas, my mindsets, my interpretations of visions, all my past experiences etc. to  the Lord.  Sometimes this takes a while.  Then I ask Holy Spirit to bring to my remembrance anything that is getting in the way of our relationship.  He's so faithful to show me!  Hallelujah!  He wants this for us. 

God always shows up when there's a sacrifice on the alter--always!   He's no respecter of persons either.  What he's done for me He'll do for you.

This is another key that God has helped me use to get corporate break through at church.  It usually only takes one person to visit heaven and if they decree that everyone gets touched by heaven then they will.   There is so much power in our words.

When I claim Holy Spirit's presence around me he shows up!  When I don't claim it.... he sometimes doesn't. When I release the glory that's inside of me people get touched wherever I am.

Therefore I want to encourage you to use your words on purpose. Say what you want to see out loud and expect Heaven to move in.  Truly we have not because we ask not!

I bless you with more of His presence today and more of his boldness. Amen!
Big hugs,
Brenda Gale Thompson

Who's Your Source?

Peace Lilies I was given this week.

I got asked for money by a man and I don't even know them, some fellow in a far off land. I responded honestly, "Do you realize how many requests we receive every week from people like you? We can't possibly give to everyone who asks.  I am looking to God to supply my needs too!"

He thanked me for responding and said that the Bible says to ask.  He's right, the Bible does say to ask-- to ask God.  He is our source... no one else.  It's right in the Lord's prayer of Matt. 6:11, "Give us this day our daily bread."

I think he was referring to the text, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you..."(Matt. 7:7) If you take this verse by itself then it implies you can ask anyone for help.  If you take it in context of the paragraph, Jesus says in a later verse, " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:11 Italics mine)

So is it wrong to ask people for help? I would say no, but, you are limiting yourself to the natural realm when you do this.  It is very easy for people to limit themselves by focusing on people to get our needs and wants met.   We limit God when we do this and miss out on his supernatural provision.  He has so many more ways to meet our needs than we have ever dreamed.

We can turn people into idols when we look to them for our supply instead of God and we don't want to do that.  Even us wives have to be careful to go to God with our needs and not our husbands all the time.  God can use our husbands to meet our need but he also has many other ways to supply our need.

It's the same for employees looking to their paycheck to meet their needs or a pastor his congregation,  we can all fall into this trap rather easily.

The world will never take care of you as good as God will.  He has promised to meet all our needs according to his riches in Glory.  So it's our job to praise and worship him and when we feel Holy Spirit around us ask him what we are allowed to speak into His presence and glory. It could be a promise he's given you, divine connections, favor with the right people, provision for the vision, our daily bread plus more so we can give on every occasion.  Holy Spirit will tell you what to speak.

As you speak God's promise to you out loud, thank him for answering.  Then bless the Lord with your thankfulness  and praise during the day and watch what will happen.

-I have seen God look after me so many ways it defies description.
-I've been crows supernaturally appear on my farm when we couldn't rid of pigeons that were wrecking our hay. The pigeons left in a hurry! PTL!
-I've seen bees appear supernaturally from I don't know where to set up a hive on my property after we gave up trying to entice bee keepers onto our farm.
-I've seen lightning and rain on 3 sides of our property and our place stay dry so we could bale hay the next day.
-I've seen a little five year old give me peace lilies when God heard me say I would love some but don't have the money right now (on Thursday).
-I have had a motorcycle given to me and two cars so far and I didn't go ask anyone for them. I just kept praising him.
-I have had 4 new careers when I didn't know what I could do that would be lucrative.  God opened doors supernaturally.
-I watched in awe as my 8 cylinder car ran on empty for 10 days, many hours a day because I was strapped for cash.
-I saw a fellow arrange for us to get 3 winter's worth of wood free after my husband got laid off. We weren't asking anyone for help, but God knew our situation!
-I saw carrots grow to over 16 inches long when I loosed the power of creation into the seed.  What a testimony for my grandmother.  She asked me, "What did you do to that seed?" Ha, ha, it was a good witness to God's  care for her.
- I have seen food multiply so everybody could eat and there was lots left over. Hallelujah!  It took away my fear of having people over unexpectedly.
-Finally, I have had people track me down to give me money and I wasn't asking for it.  God knew my need.

God is no respecter of persons. (ref. Acts. 10:34)  What he has done for me he will do for you.  Let's all practice looking to God to give us our daily bread and not other people. It will help all our relationships to flourish.

I bless you with a hunger for God's word and the ability to take him at his word. May you find new joy today as you trust God more. Amen!

Big hugs,
Brenda Gale Thompson

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!