Trusted With The Message

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For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit.  I Thess. 2:3

THE MESSAGE says it well.  “God tested us thoroughly to make sure we were qualified to be trusted with this Message. Be assured that when we speak to you, we’re not after crowd approval—only God’s approval. Since we’ve been put through that battery of tests, you’re guaranteed that both we and the Message are free of error, mixed motives, or hidden agendas.”

It takes a while for ‘self’ to be conquered.  When I was young, God’s will was cobwebbed with what I wanted for myself.  I pursued my dreams with a vengeance, believing that God was behind them, but eventually I began to hit one brick wall after another.  I worked double-time to demolish the mountain of bricks.  God’s will was in there somewhere, but I couldn’t separate the difference between His plan and mine. I grew depressed and became disillusioned with God; eventually, disliking my ministry.  Post-traumatic stress visited me before nearly every event.

Crashing and burning was the best thing that could have happened to me in the 90’s.  I finally died to self, and then an amazing thing happened.  I was surrounded by deafening silence.  In the stillness, I heard God’s voice.  With frenetic activity halted and my own inner voice silenced, I was able to understand how I had been driven by mixed motives and hidden agendas.  It took three years.

Because of God’s mercy, I was raised up out of the same ashes that God had burned in the fires of testing.  He was a recycling expert, using my foolishness and sin to invent something new.  God crafted a new language on my tongue; a message birthed out of the healing of my deepest shame.

People could tell and began to relax under its influence; their spirits bearing witness with God’s Spirit that what they were hearing was void of pretense.  The spiritually intuitive hearers always know.

Lord, this ministry is continually birthed in our relationship with each other.  I get it!  Amen

You’re Not Alone

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Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  Matthew 6:13

We are engaged in a battle with the enemy of our souls.  Temptations abound.  Condemning thoughts threaten our peace.  Doubts erode our confidence in Abba.  Fear cripples our faith.  Anger undermines our belief in God’s justice.

This is a global war, not a solitary one.  Forgetting that, I can fail to disclose my struggles to my spiritual sisters. I can begin to think that something is wrong with me if I battle temptation, fear, anger, and doubt.  I can easily view myself as someone who disappoints God.  I can assume others are more advanced spiritually.  I can be inclined to feel a sense of shame over the things that plague me.

This perception is untrue.  We are all in the same predicament.  Spiritual power to resist our enemy and achieve victory is collectively ours if we bare our burdens to one another with discretion.  We’re family.  The same royal blood courses through our spiritual veins.  War has been declared on us simply because of Whom we belong to.  We need to be vulnerable with each other.  We can stand firm as long as we stand together.

You will come against arrows of opposition today.  They may be numerous, causing you to believe that the power behind them is formidable.  But you do not fight alone.  I link my arm with yours.  We sing a song of deliverance.  The song is contagious, for as our voices are heard, more daughters begin to learn this song of hope.  There is strength in numbers.  The battle is transformed from a senseless massacre to an overwhelming victory.

Together with my sisters, Lord, we create a daunting line of defense.  Amen

When Pretenses Are Revealed

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And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before. Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” Genesis 31:3

Laban set up Jacob to fail. He stole some of his spotted and striped animals and hid them with his own son’s flocks in order to mate them. He would then accuse Jacob of stealing. When God prospered Jacob anyway, all pretenses of love and friendship Laban had exhibited, dissolved. No longer able to hide his true feelings, he accused Jacob and things became adversarial.

At that point, God did not instruct Jacob on how to repair the relationship. He was told to leave and return to the land of his father. He was released with God’s blessing.

Time in Laban’s household was a spiritual school. Jacob’s past sins were paid for and he bore up well under discipline. He gave his conniving father-in-law every opportunity to prosper and to embrace Yahweh. In the end, motives that Laban had hidden rose to the surface. What had stayed veiled for over a decade was exposed when issues of greed, Laban’s stronghold, pushed him to the limit. It was clear that Laban was not going to change so God released Jacob to leave.

There are relationships that are tolerable for a while, sometimes a long while. Others perceive harmony but you know that beneath the surface, you are dealing with an adversary, not a friend.   You may be in ministry with this person, or work for him. God has not released you to leave and you are straining under the pretense. Jacob’s story is a firsthand illustration that if we do what is right and bear up well under the pressure of unfairness, there will be a graduation day. Some issue will cause everything to blow up. What is hidden now will become clear for all to see and God will use their sin to release us to our next appointment.

For now, it can seem like you’re trapped. There is no such thing as ‘trapped’ in God’s purposes. Things might be uncomfortable, even excruciating. Your pride may be assaulted daily. Your coping ability might be pushed to the limits. Cling to God and allow this to strengthen your spiritual muscles of faith. One grand morning, God may just say, “Well done! Move on!”

I lived in oppression. It seemed endless. You taught me so much about my adversary and about myself. I remember the party our family threw when you said, “Move!” Oh Lord, You are a Deliverer! Amen

Holy Curiosity

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Now Dinah the daughter of Leah, whom she had borne to Jacob, went out to see the women of the land. Genesis 34:1

Has curiosity ever gotten you in trouble? Meet Dinah.

Her life was sheltered. She only knew the ways of her extended family. She heard stories of other tribes but never saw them up close. With the people of Shechem as her new neighbors, she was interested to know more about them.  She left the protection of her family to satisfy her curiosity. She was raped and her innocence was stolen.

There are many things God tells his children to stay away from like mystical spirituality and occult practices.  How many have tasted of hell’s delights and paid a high price in the after effects! A door was opened that gave Satan access to their lives. Most don’t know how to close it, or even that it can be closed.  They live a lifetime of torment that comes from spiritual compromise.

What am I to do with my God-given curiosity? What can I do for my thirst for what is hidden? Is it wrong to want to know the secrets of the kingdom?  No. I am the child of a Father who loves to teach me His ways. “There is a God in heaven who is the revealer of mysteries.” Daniel 2:28   My thirst for all that makes me feel intellectually and emotionally stimulated is found in God. If I ask Him to teach me, He takes me to stunning places of wisdom and understanding

Satan has led people to believe that spending time with God is boring, the reading of scripture is monotonous, and prayer is the stodgiest thing of all. The problem is compounded by the fact that many of our spiritual teachers haven’t found real life in God either and keep perpetrating the lie. They are merely reporters on their traditions.  Oh, to meet another believer whose heart bubbles over with what God is teaching them.

Dinah roamed outside safe boundaries and was never the same again. Today, from heaven, she would assure us that the best things of life are found at home in the courts of our King.

I pray for everyone reading this who doesn’t know You as the revealer of secrets. Open the eyes of their spirit to Your Word. Open the ears of their heart to Your voice. Amen

Question: Are you suffering today because you opened a door to what God has forbidden? Are you tormented because of it? Repent of that act and ask God to cleanse you of all effects. With sin confessed, Satan no longer has legal right to you. Ask God to close the gate and seal it by the power of His Spirit.

Accept Your Cherished Identity In The Story

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Listen to the LORD who created you, to the One who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine.   Isaiah 43:1

Brennan Manning said, “We often feel like the homely peasant girl for whom the king has come to take a bride.” Our sense of self-condemnation often causes us to back away from God’s call to live as His beloved. We feel unworthy. Our pride says that we can’t believe His words. Our understanding of love has been compromised by our experiences with others as we have all felt degraded, excluded, ridiculed, passed over, and a host of other things related to rejection. Memories fester in our souls, and infection grows with time. 

No one gets to define my worth except my Creator. Not a parent, not a caregiver, not a teacher, not a pastor, not a child or spouse. Only God’s opinion matters because His Word trumps all others. He says I’m cherished, and that must be lived out by daily acts of faith.

Many were made to feel unworthy by their parents.  They were never anyone’s priority.  Work came first.  Or other children were preferred.  Perhaps the ministry even trumped their importance. Spouses can also tragically communicate that their mate isn’t worth much, and children often tell their parents, “You’re a bad father or bad mother.”  We tend to absorb their opinions of ourselves.  We rationalize that these are the ones who know us best, so they must have credibility.  No, not if their opinion contradicts God’s opinion.

How do I live cherished in a world where few are cherished?  I believe my Father’s proclamations of love, by faith.  I am no longer to be ruled by the hole in my soul. The story becomes a narrative that I can tell others to extol the Fatherhood of God.  My life is no longer a tragedy.  Though it contains tragic elements, the overriding theme is joyous redemption.  I’m a Daughter of Promise, and every single thing is safely under God’s providence.

Lifting Up What Is Almost Dead

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“O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.  Isaiah 54;11

Hagar knew what it was to face death.  She experienced an isolation in the wilderness that offered no comfort. She held her nearly dead child in her arms.  Voice weak, completely dehydrated, and half starved.  No water or provision of food was in sight.  She smelled death but refused to succumb to what seemed to be the inevitable.  She poured out her complaint to the God of Israel.  Hagar said, “Let me not look on the death of my child.” And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Up! Lift up the boy, and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make him into a great nation.”  Genesis 21:16-18

Where did Hagar learn to do this?  From the very ones who forced her out of their presence.  Abraham and Sarah.  Oh, the irony.

I’ve cupped my hands around things that appeared to be dying.  Dreams, health, ministries, faith.  From all appearances, many would have said that hoping was foolish.  Death was staring me in the face.  All options were obscure at best.

Hagar, the least likely ministry leader, shows each of us the way to glory.  She prayed, listened, cast her hopes on God, and then obeyed.  She lifted up her boy to the God who breathes life into dead souls.  She could not know that a thousand years later, Ezekiel would watch God breathe over a whole valley of corpses and bring them to their feet.  By the breath of His mouth, He would transform skeletons into warriors.

Has God been true to His promise? Did he make Ishmael the father of a great nation?  Yes.  Many Palestinians have, and will, trust Christ.  When they embrace their Lord, how passionate they are!

Will God hear me when I take what is weak, perhaps even dead, and lift it toward heaven?  Yes. Hagar was told to lift Ishmael up and hold him fast with her hand.  Instead of laying him down in defeat, she embraced him in heartfelt prayer.  And oh, what an outcome.

You long to breathe over all things expired.  Amen

Jesus’ Undoing!

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It was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the Temple area he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices; he also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and chased them all out of the Temple.  John 2:13-15

Each of us have things that are almost sacred to us.  We might display them on a wall, under glass, or in a shadow box.  If it’s a document, such as a commendation or award, we might laminate or frame it.  We put important papers in a file folder and wouldn’t think of folding them in half, lest we crease them. And then there’s love letters.  We fasten them with a ribbon and tuck them away somewhere safe because having someone trample on the sacred evokes strong emotions. 

My mother, the year before she died of cancer, made a quilt for Ron and for me.  There was no sewing machine involved.  Every inch of it was hand-stitched.  I often told her that it looked like she used a machine – so precise was her hem stitching.  About ten years ago, I took it out of my cedar chest to discover that there were rips along the corners of more than a few patchwork squares. Years of tugging at it during the night had taken its toll.  I was shaken by it, so the first chance I got, out came my needle and thread. 

If unraveling on my prized quilt could undo me, can you imagine what Jesus felt when he entered the Temple and saw what was happening in His Father’s house? This was the place where atonement was made for sin.  This was the place where the rich and the poor alike could bring their best sacrifice and know that there would be no respecter of persons.  But on this day, everything holy was trampled. 

The priests were crooked, causing people to wonder if God was crooked as well. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?  The face of God is always marred by crooked religion. God still gets angry when His character is misrepresented. The very people He created, the ones He sacrificed His Son for, will be the ones who don’t trust Him.  For this, Jesus made whips and disrupted commerce.  Woe to the shepherds who cause the sheep to stumble over the God who loves them. 

You fought with us in mind.  And still do.  Amen

A Voice That Penetrates The Noise

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The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide Himself—with your own eyes you will see Him. And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind: “This is the way.”   Isaiah 30:20-21

On some future date, far beyond the life of Isaiah, Jesus and his disciples will be in a boat in the middle of the sea.  The opposite shore will be nowhere in sight.  It will be dark, and the sea will be churning.  Uncertainty and fear will overtake them.  Jesus will appear, walking on the water.  He will say, “It’s Me. Don’t be afraid.”  Like a child whose parent shows up to take care of everything, fears will turn to calm.  Pounding heartbeats will normalize.  Adrenalin will subside.  Awe and unworthiness will wash over them as the power of their Savior is made evident.

All of us are navigating our lives.  There’s often no light on our path. Wisdom for the next step is completely elusive. The shore is behind us. Everything familiar is out of sight.  We are in uncharted waters, feeling inadequate.  The sea is churning.  Passages are difficult.  Reaching a distant shore seems impossible.  Fears are intensifying.  Rational thoughts are no longer within reach.  The roar of the waves bombards our senses.  What next?  We cry out to Jesus.

Where is He?  He’s right there in the middle of it, asking to be invited into the boat. “It’s Me.  Don’t be afraid.”   He has not hidden Himself from us.  When sought, He will be found.  Faith reaches out and is rewarded. He alone is our anchor, our deliverer, and our comfort in the waiting.

Never has a voice been as sweet as Yours, heard beneath the noise of my life.   Amen

What About All The Promises?

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Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases. Psalm 103:2-3

God is holy and cannot lie. He is good for every promise that He has made.  God can, and will, heal every infirmity.  It is a certainty.  

Yet, I haven’t seen Jehovah Rapha heal every time I’ve asked for it.  Have you?  Instead, I’ve discovered that sometimes He heals now, ahead of heaven, and that is glorious! But for the rest of our infirmities, healing awaits on the other side.  Living in the ‘not yet’ doesn’t nullify any promise.  As Wayne Watson sang so long ago ….  “Home free, eventually. At the ultimate healing, we will be home free.”  

There are other passages in the Psalms that can be confusing as well. In Psalm 91, God promises that ‘nothing will harm us, and no danger will come near our tent.’ Yet, eleven of Jesus’ disciples died as martyrs.  Five missionaries were speared by the Auca Indians in 1957.  The persecution of Christians, right now, is on the rise. How can we understand these verses amidst the disappointment our hearts feel when God withholds what we believe He has promised?  

My father fought in WWII in the European theatre.  Before leaving boot camp, he memorized all of Psalm 91.  On the front lines in France, in a fox hole, he recited the passage all night long as the bullets whizzed by and mortars exploded in close proximity.  He saw buddies next to him die and was shocked the following morning to discover that he was the only one in his company still alive.  Did God honor Psalm 91?  Yes.  Yet I’m sure there were other soldiers, also believers, who clung to Psalm 23 and other promises.  Some, like him, survived.  Some did not. 

We can know this about Jehovah Rapha.

  1. All promises will be fulfilled.  Some now.  Some later.  All eventually.  
  2. We should ask boldly for God to move now because we never know if His answer will be an immediate ‘yes’. 
  3. If God has us in a time of waiting, He will give us the grace to be more than a conqueror, forging through the pain to glory. 

Jesus came to suffer, to be crushed, and to show us the path to glorification.  God’s promises were an umbrella over Jesus’ life.  Some intersected His daily life with the miraculous.  But everything else was perfectly fulfilled when He breathed His last and entered glory.  We follow in His footsteps to ask for, and witness stunning, miraculous events.  And we also follow in His footsteps to lean into His Father with childlike trust.  He will give us the grace to endure with hope, no feelings of betrayal marring our countenance. 

I trust You, even in the waiting. Amen  

It’s Never a Formula!

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Having said these things, He spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva.  Then He anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said, “Go wash in the pool of Siloam.”  John 9:6-7

Each of us needs supernatural healing from God, whether physical healing, emotional healing, or perhaps even spiritual healing from something related to spiritual abuse. When we hear that someone else received it, we’re eager to listen to their story.  We want to know how it happened and when it happened.  As they tell us about it, we wonder if something in their story holds the secret to our own breakthrough.

But there is no formula.  Jesus never offered any nor did He conform to them.  He varied His methods of healing.  Once, Jesus put spit on a man’s eyes.  Another time, he just touched them, and the man could see.  In John 9, he put mud on another man’s eyes and told him to go to the pool of Siloam, in the southeast corner of Jerusalem, to wash the mud off.  Why such a wide variety of methods? 

Here’s a thought.  If Jesus consistently sent blind men to the pool of Siloam to wash their eyes, every blind person would have attempted to travel to the ‘miracle pool.’  The grandeur of the tales about Siloam would have obscured the power of Jesus, and He would not share His glory with another.   The whole point of blind people receiving their sight was that they encountered Jesus Christ.

For any who is waiting on God, we know how tempted we are to work hard for our miracle.  We pray and read more, trying to uncover the secret of getting God to move on our behalf.  If such miracles depended on self-effort, we would all get our breakthrough sooner.  But on the other side of it, what would be our testimony?  “When I did this, the miracle happened.”  

Encounters with Jesus are happening all over the world at this very moment. He’s speaking to someone sitting at an airport gate, and another will feel His presence in the kitchen packing their child’s lunch.  You may sense a holy encounter when you see handwritten notes in your mother’s bible.  The Lord still changes bitter waters to sweet springs of Living Water.  

How I love this Charles Spurgeon quote:  

Do not call yourself Mara but remember the new name the Lord named you. Don’t be so ready to affix to yourself names of sad memorials; your griefs have tainted your memory.  Do not aid them to sting you. Call the well by another name.  Remember Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals both you and the waters. Record His mercy rather than the sorrows and thank the Most High God.