without words

It's just Him and I.

We sit in silence, saying not a word, yet communicating the entirety of our hearts.

My soul opens and pours out all my concerns and needs and He quickly meets me in secret to commune with me. My heart needs Him, like my body needs food and water - that's how desperately my soul needs to hear His voice.

My substance comes from my trust, not from having answers to all my questions. My heart is fully secure in the knowledge that He truly hears me and knows me... my confidence is found in that deep part of my heart that says, "although everything still looks the same, I know you hear me and see me and I trust you as my guide, my father, my love."

My mind may demand answers yet my spirit only finds rest in full abandoned trust, where there aren't any real answers, just deep assurance and peace that supersedes my mental abilities.

He is so kind, so refreshing, so stable. He holds my heart gently in His hands with care and concern ensuring that my best interest is at hand.

Whether that's grace or discipline, it doesn't matter - as long as it's His hand I could care less.

I would rather have freedom through discipline than bondage through easy street.

I love Him, because His attention is on me - He loves me deeply and calls yet even closer. This is a love beyond our humanity - it truly is divine. This is why I love Him... He first loved me without requirement.

And without words all this can be communicated - this is the miracle of having His Spirit within. I am amazed at His mystery.

my resting place

Everything is discovered in Him.

It's in that place of prayer - the place of secrecy and intamcy that all the answers my heart is seeking for are found. As I pour my heart out to Him, He responds with revelation and grace upon my soul.

I find myself searching for answers in other places but never finding satisfaction or true rest for my soul. I weary myself with attempts of discovery and then finally fall to my knees in a place of desperation before the One who holds the keys to my heart.

It's crazy, but all things are found in Him. Even if I don't understand, if I don't "get it", I leave His presence filled with peace, hope and the ability to forge on. His touch, His words and His comfort is so beyond me. It has a way of taking me to places I never thought exsisted. He is magical. He is glorious. His is Love and in Him I learn to live in Him, through Him and for Him.

The questions.

The searching.

The drive.

It's all found in Him. In His knowledge, in His grace.

a new wave

God is raising up prophetic messengers.

There is great movement in Spirit over the church.

Great fire, great judgement and great love are coming to those who bear the name of Christ for purification, testing and refinement.

God is preparing his army. A people who are laboring in silence, in the wilderness. A people who have been marinating in what he is saying for so long that the word of the Lord has overtaken their life. The message to the churches burns on their lips and consumes their hearts. They are a people unafraid of the desert places, the seasons of preparation. They're aim isn't to build another ineffective religious organization or para-church ministry. They want him. They want his Kingdom to come to the Earth and they want to see his church be just that.

This movement in the Spirit is happening with incredible intelligence, exact precision and purposeful preparation. This movement is hidden, it's begun in the secret place where the masses cannot see. It's happening in an undisclosed location all over the land. God's messengers are being prepared for that great and glorious day when they are all simultaneously released to ambush the religious establishment that kept a wayward and fraudulent church operating.

Signs and wonders are coming in great number - oh, not the way you think. I'm not talking about more televangelists or healing rallies. No, signs and wonders that are initiated by the Holy Spirit, spoken by God's messengers and fulfilled by the Spirit. I'm talking about God demonstrating his authority, his supremacy and his jealousy for his people and his glory.

There is a revival coming, but it's not going to look like you think. It's not going to be in the defiled temples or the godless Christian companies that use the name of God for monetary gain. No, it's coming to the highways and bi ways. It's coming to the marketplace, the grocery store and the public schools.

Keep your eyes and ears peeled to the sky for he is coming and when he does, if your lamp stand isn't full - it's too late.

the richest poor woman

The poor widow who gave her pennies was able to do what the rich young ruler wanted to do.

She gave everything.

This is what Jesus requires - everything.

The rich young ruler wanted eternal life so he asked Jesus how he could get it (besides he could buy whatever he wanted). Jesus' answer was shocking to him, "go and sell everything you have... then follow me." He couldn't do it. I'm sure there was a part of him that really wanted to do it, but he loved his money and possessions more then his desire to follow Jesus.

The widow on the other hand only had $20 in her bank account. She didn't know where she would get money to eat tomorrow, how she we be able to pay her electric bill or make her mortgage payment, but she gave it all anyway and she received the Kingdom of God!

The God of mammon will give you what you want. You name it - it's yours. You want money, a new car, fame, power, etc. He can get it for you, but he robs you blindly of what really matters. While the one hand gives you material, the other takes your soul. This is why Jesus said you can't serve two masters - it's either God or money.

God is looking for a bride, not a whore. Most of God relationship with humanity has been one of divided love on our part. Humanity has shared his heart with many other loves. God is searching for those who are willing to forsake all and love him exclusively.

That may mean giving all your money away.

That may mean loosing your car, house and temporal securities.

That may mean your life.

This is the cost of being His. This is what He requires. Just like your husband or wife expects you to remain faithful emotionally and sexually to them alone, so does God.

Jesus teaches in Matthew 6 to not worry about money, food, clothing or possessions. He says this is what consumes the minds of the heathen. This is the what they system of the world requires of you - that you pledge your allegiance to security, money and the pursuit of making a good life for yourself. Jesus says in this passage that we are to remove our thoughts from these concerns and to be "worried" about one thing only - His Kingdom, His heart, His will.

God is looking for a people that will be radically given over to the spirit of John the Baptist. He had no other ambition but to prepare the way of the one he loved. He lived in desolate places, ate bugs and honey and most likely had dreadlocks. Jesus said no one was greater than him... hmmmm.

Bottom line, ask Him to undress you today from all the clothing society, the spirit of the age and your own decisions have put on you. Let him take off the worry about tomorrow, let him convict you of cheating on him and let him restore unto you the joy of your salvation.

the power of love

Today, may love be my highest aim. May love awaken in my spirit that I may dwell in Heavens realities. May I set up camp in the presence of love. May my life, my words and my actions be proof that love really does cover a multitude of sins.

Give me greater revelation of real, genuine and sacrificial love. Love that bears all things, forgives all things and hopes for all things. May my life be patient and kind and may I allow love to heal and restore those closest to me. May the manifestation of love affect all I come in contact with.

Love has the power to forgive sin. Love has the power to overcome death. Love has the power to join in with God and do his Divine works. Love has no bounds and it delivers to shaky heart from all fear. For fear cannot stand the bright and brilliant light of love.

Love is too pure, too selfless, too liberating to entertain thoughts of fear. Love lets go, it gives grace to lay down your life until death, it enables our human spirit to do things it typically resists. Love conquers all things.

In love there is no limits, no selfish ambition and no other desire than the desire to serve the one being loved. Love is concerned with the affairs of others and doesn't think about one's own rights or well being. Love takes care of others before the self. It gives without any expectation of return. Love is purely motivated and has no self-seeking motive.

Love will never end but will lead us from this life into the next. Love will never cease.

Let love be our highest goal.

What's the point?

"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Matthew 5.13

What is the purpose of salt?

It enhances life and adds more colorful flavor to the food you've put it on.

This is the purpose of our the Christian life and the Church although when most people think about Christians and the church as a whole, they have the totally opposite idea. When you think about Christians or the work of the church do you think about an enhanced life? What about your co-workers or unbelieving friends? Do they think about an enhanced life? Probably not.

But this is the very point of what Jesus was getting at. If salt loses its saltiness, then what's it good for? So if we as the people of God lose our purpose in the Earth, then what's the point?

I believe this is where the current church system sits. In a place ineffectiveness, going through the motions but not getting anywhere. My life is being turned up-side-down as I am seeing what God is doing in his church. He is brewing a great reformation to the current church establishment in order to allow his church (his people) to arise and do his work. God is deconstructing the bricks and mortar of yesterday in order to rebuild and purify his Bride for his return.

The saltiness of church is gone. Thousands, if not millions of mature and rooted believers are leaving the church establishment for good. They're resorting back to going home to home and breaking bread, keeping the unity of the faith. They're searching and looking for what's real and what God is doing.

God is up to something in the Earth and among his people. Aslan is on the move and his purpose is to redeem his church for sake of his people and his glory.

selfishness

"What is causing the quarrels and fight among you? Don't they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it..." James 4:1

Selfishness is a sin -

Actually all sin can be traced to selfishness. The motive of breaking any of the 10 commandments is selfishness. It's the sin of preferring "me" before God or other people. Our society has done a great job at masking this sin that lurks within all of our hearts. They say, "make sure you're taken care of first..." or "if you don't take care of yourself, who will?" This pervasive message has crept into our hearts and for many it has justified our daily self-seeking rituals.

Selfishness is deceptive because it promises you that you will get what you want. It causes you to push yourself to the front of the line, to take shortcuts and to manipulate situations in order to get what you want. The truth is once you get whatever it is you were pursing, it doesn't satisfy because of your motive.

For example, say I want to have my morning coffee. Just as I'm getting ready to brew it up, Judah cries, Nikki needs help with something and Zion pooped. In that moment either I can get very frustrated because the demands of my family are taking me away from my cup of coffee or I can lay down my desire for coffee for a half an hour and then make my brew. If I choose to push through and still persist at making my coffee while the house is in need, I may get it sooner but I've burdened my heart in the process. So I may have my coffee but it cost the integrity of my soul.

Crazy, I know - but it's true. Selfishness drives us to push for our own way and then when we get what we want, it doesn't really satisfy because we schemed and killed to get it.

For me, this is heavy. This is revelatory. This is true love. I am deeply challenged to search my soul and make it my aim to honor God today in laying my life down. It's actually embarrassing that taking up my cross is related to my morning coffee - I too am a spoiled American in need of God's fire to purify my selfish heart.