JOY COMES IN THE MORNING

Yesterday was a hard day - a hard day, but a good one. It was good because I got to spend some quiet time with the Lord, listen to some worship music and prepare for my week. It was hard because my spirit was heavy as I laid down to sleep last night. I saw something on television yesterday that sparked a whole spiritual evaluation in my head. I saw a woman talking about being held at gunpoint and she talked about praying and crying out to God. The Lord revealed to me that I do not do that...run to Him in desperate or difficult situations...when I really need help.

Growing up I learned early on that I did not have people in my life I could rely on in times of trouble. The adults in my life let me down. I went to them for help repeatedly and repeatedly they let me down. That began a lifelong sense of self-sufficiency and self-dependence. It probably served me well many times in my life, but it no longer serves me as a daughter of the Most High God who longs to be His little girl that TRUSTS Him for everything. I want to run to Him for EVERYTHING. I am not there yet because we still have this trust issue, but now I have a great understanding of what is at the root of it.

Lately I feel so distant from Him and I know He has not gone anywhere, so what is the problem? The problem is I run when things are rough or when I am really struggling with stuff because I have to take care of it myself (or so I have trained myself). I become bogged down with trying to sort things out, find a solution and make everything better. That is not what He intended. I need to run to Him now and pour my heart out to Him and TRUST that He hears me and will help me.
All night this song played over in over in my head or in my sleep – I do not know how to describe it. When I woke up it was still playing, as if the angels themselves were singing to me. Has that ever happened to you? I love it when that happens. I feel ministered to when I wake up. So, remember “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” Psalm 30:5

I had to link this video and post the lyrics, it is that AWESOME:



HOLY
Holy Holy God Almighty
Who was and is to come
God of glory You're so worthy
All the saints bow down

Holy is Your name in all the earth
Righteous are Your ways so merciful
Everything You've done is just and true
Holy Holy God are You
Holy Holy God are You

All blessing all honor belongs to You
All power all wisdom is Yours

P.S. It sounded just like this all night in my bed or in my head...!

THE GOODNESS OF GOD

What a day! I have been inundated with insight and revelation. Below is just one major area the Lord has been revealing today in order of occurrence.

• Wrote the previous post where I said, “Today I have been overwhelmed with gratefulness of the GOODNESS of God”
• Thought about Psalms 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the GOODNESS of the LORD in the land of the living. And wondered “where would I be?” I shudder to think!
• Went to the mailbox where my Believer’s Voice of Victory was waiting with the cover story “God’s GOODNESS – the foundation of faith” Headline includes Psalm 27:13 (Amplified) [What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord’s GOODNESS in the land of the living! In this story Gloria Copeland writes, "Only by placing our lives in His hands can we open the way for Him to save us, bless us and work through us, so that His wonderful will can be done on earth as it is done in Heaven." Check out my profile - He is giving me strategy to have the desires of my heart - His kingdom come, His will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
• Read an email with a “word of encouragement”, you guessed it – Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the GOODNESS of the LORD in the land of the living.

I have had so much revelation today my mind cannot keep up with it – Praise God! The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28:7 My heart and soul are leaping today with eager AND joyous expectation. I guess you could say I have been kissed by the King again.

Thank you Lord for your unfailing, neverending, everlasting love.

HOPE: JOYOUS EXPECTATION

All I want to do today is spend time in prayer, worship and bathing in the presence of God. With three kids that is not easy to do, so I asked them to join me. We square danced to David Crowder’s I Saw the Light and danced to Shackles. I explained to Isabella that next week we would be dancing because the shackles WOULD be taken off our feet.

The work has begun, a deeper level of freedom is creeping into my spirit. I am celebrating the victory that was won on Calvary, desiring to see it fully manifest in me and feeling that it is just on the horizon. I believe I am tasting some of what I will experience next week during the healing conference.

Today I sat to worship and write everything I am expecting, wanting and desiring next week. I listened to Only You on YouTube, closed my eyes and let my fingers express everything stirring in my Spirit. During that time the Lord gave me revelation of one of the big things I am expecting next week.

Of the two pages I typed I think this says it best:

I want my life to come into focus as if I have been looking through the wrong glasses and finally get the right pair.

Today I have been overwhelmed with gratefulness of the goodness of God, everytime this has happened before I have had significant divine appointments. So, now I wait, expect and hope!

THE BEST SERMON I NEVER HEARD

Yesterday we visited a church and the pastor did not preach a sermon. What? You ask, no sermon! It was two hours of prayer and worship. What I experienced was straight from the heart of God. I have never experienced anything like it in a regular church service. It fueled things in me, it confirmed things in me and it released things in me. The Father had bigger plans for that group assembled yesterday and there was freedom for His Spirit to lead. It was a breath of fresh air...literally!

Sermon from the Latin word sermō (discourse) meant "conversation" and that is just what I had yesterday - a conversation, just me and my Daddy.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17

And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:2

REPLEVIN

re·plev·in
1. an action for the recovery of goods or chattels wrongfully taken or detained.

It is time to take back from the enemy what he has stolen from us. We do not take it back because we lack, but because it is ours.

This video is a great portrayal of taking it ALL back!

What has he stolen from you? Your husband, your health, your children, your joy? Whatever it is, it belongs to you? Go get it!

THE DAY THAT CHANGED MY LIFE

Two years ago I sat in class at our church office for our monthly healing school. I eagerly anticipated this class every month, as I was excited to learn more about healing and how to pray for healing, but not this night; I really had not wanted to come. I almost turned around half way there.

The pastor shared a lot that night and as he did the Holy Spirit brought one memory to mind. I dismissed it, but it kept coming back. After the pastor was done he lead us in a corporate prayer and I sobbed the whole way through. He asked if anyone wanted to share and I raised my hand, still unable to speak through the sobs. I did not know what I would say, but I knew that something had just happened in me. I left that night and called a friend and told her I thought something really big happened and I was not sure what it was, but it was going to change my life, my marriage and my mothering. Little did I know how much changed in that two hour class.

I had battled depression since I was a child, but that night when the pastor prayed something settled in my spirit, wounds were released and healing came (although I did not know it at the time). Over the next several months the Lord confirmed my experience through prayer, visions, and prophetic words. I was pregnant at the time with baby three and six months later I delivered my baby girl, Kaira Hope. Shortly after I knew clearly what happened that night in the healing school - I was healed of a life time of depression. I had been in counseling and on medication for almost 20 years. After my second was born I no longer went to counseling, instead I began to be transformed by the renewing of my mind through the Word and after Kaira's birth I no longer needed medication.

During my two previous pregnancies I stopped all medication, but resumed after delivery. The Lord began to speak to me clearly about the depression and the medication and what He had done that night. I was healed! It has been two years since that unforgettable and life-changing day, but the effects will last a lifetime.

Just think what I would have missed if I had not gone that night. Maybe that is the night I learned not to go with my emotions (which has blessed me countless times since then).

I listened to Sara Groves tonight and I wonder what led her to write the following lyrics that sound so familiar to me:

Something changed inside me broke wide open all spilled out
Till I had no doubt that something changed
Never would have believed it till I felt it in my own heart
In the deepest part the healing came



He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 1 Peter 2:24

SPRING CLEANING

The Lord has been cleaning my spiritual house for months now. I clearly heard Him say, when I was re-baptized (click here to see picture and post) that He had taken care of the ugly stuff and now He was going after the really ugly. He wants me free and I want me free, not just a little, but a lot – the take the shackles off my feet, so I can dance kind of FREE! During this time He has been showing me some of the residue that has been in my spiritual house clogging stuff up. He often shows me through revelation, confirmation or explanation.

Today He furthered the explanation of distortion from yesterday’s post and previous Myth 1 & 2 posts. This was my devotional today:

"As you hear, do not be confused. Confusion is not of the Lord and all confusion leads to distortion; distortion means twisted and biblically anything twisted is also "wicked". So refuse confusion. We are not confused even if sometimes it may seem so.

We are coming out of things that are not right! Listen to the Lord. Do whatever He tells you to do--you can! Today is the day of salvation wherein He has heard you, and you are hearing Him. Today is the day He has made and rejoicing is your portion: The sons of God are led by the Spirit of the living God! Hallelujah!"

From Shirley Weaver Ministries, A Clear Trumpet, Inc., Post Office Box 295 . Mt. Pleasant, SC 29465.Copyright (C)2000-2006 All rights reserved.

He is spring cleaning in me and I welcome it, although sometimes it is painful whenI see the size of the dust bunnies under my sofa or when the cobwebs are wrestled free from my heart. Here is what I found about spring cleaning on Wikipedia - The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name. However it has also come to be synonymous with any kind of heavy duty cleaning or organizing enterprise. A person who gets their affairs in order before an audit or inspection could be said to be doing some spring cleaning.

I see what the Lord is doing as a heavy duty cleaning and He’s getting my affairs in order preparing me in advance for what He’s called me to do.

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!

Not really, but that is how I feel. Something is stirring deep in my spirit.

As a little girl my family went to Disney World every Thanksgiving and I would get so excited it became a physical sensation deep in my belly. That is how I feel this week. What is coming? I do not know, but my spirit is hungry, eager and excited.

This is a visual of how I feel although I am not going to Disney World and truly do not know what I would scream if I was moved to do so. If I am moved with excitement like the kids in this clip, I will make a video and you will be the first to see it.



I am still confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Psalm 27:13

MISTER ROGERS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

Judgmental? That’s not a word that we would typically use to describe our “neighbor” Mister (Fred) Rogers, but he described himself that way once and according to author Amy Hollingsworth, only once.

While in seminary Fred would visit different churches to see how different ministers preached. He and some friends decided to visit the church of a well-known and well-respected preacher. They soon discovered that he was away and there was a guest speaker. Fred, not impressed sat through the sermon making mental notes of all the rules the guest speaker was breaking. When the sermon was over he turned to his friend to commiserate and she was weeping. She told him that that man had said exactly what she needed to hear. It was then he realized that the Holy Spirit was able to transform that message into what his friend needed to hear – no matter how bad he thought the message was.

This experience shaped the rest of his life. It changed his Neighborhood as well. He said, “I’m so convinced that the space between the television set and the viewer is holy ground. And what we put on the television can, by the Holy Spirit, be translated into what this person needs to hear and see, and without that translation it’s all dross as far as I’m concerned.” Go Mister Rogers!

The lesson he learned from that guest speaker was: What is offered in faith by one person can be translated by the Holy Spirit into what the other person needs to hear and see. The space between them is holy ground, and the Holy Spirit uses that space in ways that not only translate, but transcend. (From The Simple Faith of MISTER ROGERS http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=452295&netp_id=356977&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW&view=details, by Amy Hollingsworth, page 35)

It made me think of blogging. What God prompts us to write from day to day, however spiritual or comical can be just what someone needs at that moment. The Holy Spirit can make just the right words or phrases minister to that person at their point of need. It also made me think of our critical nature. We are so quick to judge the things we see and hear, when we really have no clue how that very thing could be ministering to someone else.

During a meeting for a retreat weekend the leader brought out a little chick, you know the kind that peep when you put your fingers on the contacts? Well, she brought this thing out and did an exercise with the group and I couldn't stop bawling. It ministered to me deeply and God spoke loudly “to me” through that exercise. I heard and saw just what I needed at that moment.

You just never know what is going to minister to someone. Be careful what you say about others, especially your pastors. If people are following the leading of the Holy Spirit they are ministering to someone, it just might not be you. Or it could be you, just not at that moment.

Has something unusual ministered to you? I'd love to hear about it. If you don't want to comment here email me.

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:29-32