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Perspective
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Tag: trust
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Sealed with Love 📨
Dear Friends,
I write today to say God is Good.
He is a Good, Good Father who delights in the desires of our hearts. Yes, even those tender ones that we are tempted to discount. For me, this has meant a beautiful amalgam of Loops + Journal + Bible Study these past few days.
I first saw these loops earlier this year on Jenn Johnson and I immediately knew that I would very much like a pair for myself. Was it the best time for me to indulge?
Honestly, no.
So I laid it down.
Soon after, I saw this journal in the shop next door. It caught my eye, as only some things do. I immediately knew that I wanted to purchase it, yet I wasn’t too sure. Not sure if it was needed, not sure if it even fit my budget.
But I had it in my heart. So I laid it down.
Fast forward to August. I get my hands on this awesome Bible Study by Hannah Brencher and yes, I knew I wanted to dive in. But I wasn’t so sure yet again. I was in a trial and my focus was different.
So I laid it down.
Come September 》New Beginnings
Come September, and God starts to reveal Himself as the Father He always has been, but in a whole new way.
Tender, Gracious, Extravagant.
A Father who is so intimately involved in the details of His Daughter’s life, that even when she forgets, He remembers.
He remembers the what, He knows the where, He orders the steps.
To put it bluntly, the past few seasons have been dark. Staying close to Jesus, I have learned to navigate murky waters and make my way through the fiercest storms. I didn’t know if I could even take it at times, but He carried me anyway.
And He has brought me safely through.
Come September, and God starts to reveal some tender, new truths that suddenly bring a ton of light into my life. He keeps me sensitive to the fact that times and seasons do change, and He is, in fact, Faithful. He tells me to burn the bridges to the trauma of seasons past, and create space for Him to build some new bridges in my life instead.
Some new bridges that will connect the dots… from where I am to where He has promised to take me.
But this also needs faith at a whole new level.
As surely as I have needed faith to sustain me in times of warfare and difficulty, I now also need faith to step into the breakthrough He has fought for me to receive.
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
(Luke 9:62)
So I decide now to not look back, and instead, to let go of what was so that I can step into what is and what will be..
Legacy as the Script is in the hands of a world-changing God.
So guess what He is doing?
A new thing within the New Thing.
Revealing Fatherhood. Growing relationship. Building bridges..
… for the bridge that links my present to my future is made with the bricks of authenticity, vulnerability and transformation…
And it needs me to open up. It needs me to let go. It needs me to listen to His voice.
It needs me to listen to the still, small voice within. Cliched as it may be, but oh-so-true!
And if I pay attention, I can hear Him.
I can hear Him rap ever so gently on the door of my heart, beckoning me to open up. I can hear Him take me by the hand, inviting me to release control and choose to trust Him instead. I can hear Him bring to rememberance things long forgotten, but only until such a time as this.
Because the Truth is that times do change, desires do come to fruition and promises are made manifest.
And when its time, He can’t be stopped.
“He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.”
(Daniel 2:21)
He is a Good, Good Father whose unrelenting Love will chase us down till we get it ..
His heart for us that is as true as the still, small voice within.
The tender whispers, the gentle musings that come up, seemingly out of nowhere, and remind me that its time for the loops to be bought, for the journal to be filled in and the Bible Study to be printed.
All because my Father knows. My Father sees. My Father cares.
Which brings me to another point.
The Word of God tells me that He will give me the desires of my heart. No – He won’t give me what I want, but rather what to want. And when He does, I know that He doesn’t give me the desires of my heart to frustrate them, but rather to fulfill them.
Whether it’s a beautiful amalgam of loops + journal + Bible study today, or may be a seemingly more important issue tomorrow, I’m beginning to realise that God is involved in the details of our lives.
After all, everything is small for a big God like Him.
All of this to say –
On the day that marks the beginning of the last quarter of 2021, may we pause and listen for His whisper. And as we do,
May we consider. May we follow. May we rejoice.
May we rejoice in the voice that wades through our thoughts, pierces through the dark, debunks all lies and brings forth light.
May we rejoice in the voice that lifts our spirits, cheers our hearts and encourages our souls to believe at a level that though seemingly outrageous, is only our normal.
May we rejoice in the voice that serves as our GPS and tells us to go another route even when we are convinced that we know what we are doing, and sometimes I think, precisely then.
May we rejoice in the voice that tells us enough price was paid for us to have the permission we need to be free, to be healed, to be whole and to be prosperous.
May we rejoice in the voice that tells us having seen all that you have, you haven’t seen nothing yet.
May we rejoice, friends in the voice deep within – so still, so small, so gentle, so tender – till it becomes the loudest in our lives. Till it is bigger than the narrative and clearer than the noise. Till it redefines reality and manifests life.
Till it is the sole thing that moves us, and as it does, we move mountains.
Till we let that voice win – every single time. Amplified by the sound of our obedience, and not diminished by the clanging of our fear or unbelief.
Till we let that voice have the Final Word.
Because I read the end of The Book, and my Bible says this:
Love wins.
So as I bring this letter to a close friends, I just want to ask you to heed that voice that is deep within you. It may be a tiny flicker, but as you fan it into a flame, know that it only takes a tiny match to set a forest on fire. He is in you and you are in Him – there is no more separation, but only the closeness of relationship. Father and Child enmeshed in Love, proclaiming Victory and rewriting Destiny.
You are a world-changer, just like your Daddy.
And don’t you let anyone tell you otherwise.
Here’s to Loops + Journal + Bible Study! And the treasures of wisdom that go for all eternity!
Love you more than most,
Simran.
👸📚🍁
The Royal Art of Re-memberance
Friends, I made a journal for myself this year in April to record and remind myself of the promises that God has made concerning me and concerning those that I care about.
It is one of my absolute favorite things to dive into this journal from time-to-time to read, confess and release the power of God’s Word over my life.
Why do I do that?
Because like Mary in the Bible, the mother of Jesus, who pondered and treasured the words God had spoken about Jesus being the Saviour of the world, anointed and appointed, to take away the sin of humanity; I do believe that we too have the same privilege.
The same privilege to receive, believe and steward the Word of God so that it is the Lord’s narrative that we are intentionally choosing to partner with and eventually see made manifest in our midst.
So I felt it back then, friends.
I felt an urgency, an impulse, an unction of the Holy Spirit to make myself a journal that would allow me to organise all the wonderful, prophetic words that God has given me thus far, in one neat place. One click on Amazon got me this babe:
I think she is fearfully and wonderfully made!
Ok.
So my jouney with Jesus through this brand, new journal began. I divided it up into a couple of different sections and promptly began decreeing the Word of God over my life.
Happy to report that not only have I seen the Holy Spirit move and manifest God’s will time-after-time, but also that the Lord continues to add more and more promises to my bounty.
Pastor Bill Johnson often says that we attract what we value. The Bible puts it this way,
“For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”
(Matthew 13:12, NASB)
God here, I believe, is talking about the sheer value of stewarding the revelation of His Word. He guarantees, that should we commit to this process of discovering and consistently releasing the sound of His Word into the earth, it is sure to have a domino effect and reel in even more abundant revelation, simply because we show that we value the sanctity of what our Holy God has decreed.
Like rain drops filling up a bucket.
Or like the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle being consistently and increasingly put together by the Hand of God.
That’s what the Promises of God do.
The promises of God can be likened to the missing pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that God is putting together behind-the-scenes.
The things that most puzzle and confuse us are these ___________________________. Fill in the blanks, literally. Questions about our identity, our purpose, our destiny. Questions about our family, household and community. Questions about God’s plan for us, individually, corporately and globally.
But what if we learned to take these questions to God Himself, instead of trying to figure things out in our own limited strength, with our own limited wisdom and our own limited resources?
What if we stopped trying to simply ‘fix’ everything ourselves and dared instead to entrust our matters to The One who is sovereignly in control, confident in battle and more than capable of bringing resolution to the very things that confound us?
God truly is who He says He is, friends.
I have always, always witnessed that whenever I am challenged by a trying and impossible circumstance, God always, always shows up.
He may not do it the way I expect or would like for Him too, or even on my timeline. But I can testify that He always, always does show up and show off.
Imagine a scenario, friend where you find yourself in what appears to be a snow-covered wasteland. For as far as your eyes can see, the land looks completely barren and desolate. You are fully geared up for a trek, equipped for the harsh conditions in front of you. Donning a long, furry overcoat to keep you warm and gum boots to help you plough through; you are good to go.
Yet, you can’t.
You feel lost for direction.
Now imagine the same scenario through the lens of the pilot of a chopper overhead. He can see that if you only take a few steps forward, turn right and walk for about a mile, you will be warmly greeted by a kind and hospitable old, godly couple who even have a guest room to spare, warmly lit with an inviting fireplace and a steaming cup of hot chocolate milk.
The pilot of this chopper overhead has insight into things that are obscure to you because he has a higher vantage point.
Yet, you do have the option of connecting to him through your cell phone device. You can choose to pull it out from your pocket, press the right buttons and connect!
One call away.
That’s how I believe it works with God too. He has insight into the road and the route ahead that will be instrumental in paving the best way forward, but we have to be willing to connect to Him using the cell phone device called the Word of God.
For the Word of God is our GPS to help navigate life.
“Jesus answered, ‘It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”
(Matthew 4:4)
Spending time in the Word and receiving His insight into the plans and purposes that He has for us is precisely how we trek through the snow-laden terrain of the broken pieces and parts of our lives.
All we are tempted to see and believe in the moment though, is that one piece of the jigsaw puzzlethat we find ourselves in the midst of. But God knows the whole picture!
And believe me, its a good one that He’s painting.
Things may look unanswered and incomplete to us in the natural, but we can take heart because we serve a supernatural kind of God.
“With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
(Matthew 19:26)
The God who knows the end from the beginning, already has the answers and the redemptive solutions our lives need. He reveals these hidden plans and purposes of His heart through a revelation of His Word by the Holy Spirit.
What He does require in the process is for us to put down the bricks of humility, vulnerability and complete dependency on The One who is perfectly faithful and absolutely trustworthy. The assurance of His Perfection is the fuel that empowers us to bring the broken pieces of our lives to Him so that He can begin to do what only and only He can do.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’
says the LORD Almighty.”
(Zechariah 4:6)
The promise friends, on the other side of our obedience is, that God will raise up a wall with the modest bricks that we have put down so beautically and monumentally that it will not only leave us astonished, but even those that we care about.
The truth is that God is the Architect of our lives, friends. As He has taken the complete charge of bringing about the complete restoration of our lives, I like to call this a process of ‘re-membering,’ i.e, rearranging, reassembling and realigning the different parts and pieces of our lives into the Grand Masterpiece that He has in His heart and mind concerning us.
So as He ‘re-members’ the different parts and pieces of my life, I find it incredibly helpful to in turn, ‘remember’ the truth of that which He has spoken and decreed.
☆ The Book of Rememberance ☆
It can be a file, a folder, a journal, a diary because the goal is to have a place to document and rehearse Truth.
Friend, for the Lord to ‘re-member’ our lives, we must remember what He says.
The devil is a liar, and in the absence of Truth, it is easy to believe what the world says. It is easy to believe what the media says, the government, or even our family and friends. Therefore, I find it so vital to be intentional about my time in God’s Word so that I can literally dwell in the Truth that He has spoken over me, letting His narrative shape and frame my reality, and not a lesser word.
So simply put, The Book of Rememberance is a space friends, where we get to put down God’s dream for our lives, and through the power of a loving partnership together, watch Him make it a reality.
Activation:
Friend, I would like to invite you to ponder some questions with the Lord in your own, unique miracle-in-the-making story. Letting God come into every dark and obscure crook, cranny and crevice of our lives is key to a lifestyle of ongoing holistic healing and good success.
I’ve learnt this much, and I know its true.
Any part of our life that is kept from the Lord will become an open door for the enemy.
While there may be areas of your life that you perhaps don’t feel comfortable addressing with the Lord yet, I encourage you to start opening up bit-by-bit to the Goodness of God. He is good, He does good, and He works all things together for good.
So friend, consider asking yourself the following questions:
What has God spoken concerning me? What has He spoken concerning my health, my family and my calling?
If you feel unsure about these questions, it’s time to press in. Its time to pray and seek God to reveal His heart and mind concerning the things you care about. Its time to let go and let Him step into your life and do what He is best at – make all things new!
Your life is now His story.
Let Him make it a grand one.
Showers of Blessings
These two precious snails yesterday taught me to trust the timing of God, friends.
For a few days now on this side of the globe (I live in India!), we have been sitting in the bliss of some very welcome monsoon rains. The trees have been washed and cleansed, the soil rendered moist, and the snails, loose.
So I took a long stroll hand-in-hand with Jesus last evening. A newfound leap in my step betrayed my joy with the kindest intentions. And with each step forward, my eyes started growing wide with wonder.
I began to experience the awe of God in a fresh new way.
In a way that showed me where a few days back, we were primarily held hostage indoors due to the intense heat and humidity, we were now experiencing such joy and bliss alongwith the freedom to be able to truly enjoy the beauty and splendour of creation, and the difference between the two scenarios was, what we call, a shift in seasons.
“He changes the times and seasons; He removes kings and establishes them.”
(Daniel 2:21)
Candid confession time, friends.
As a believer, I honestly struggle and wrestle with God to be able to accurately discern the times and seasons that I orbit in and out of. He is faithful, I am happy to testify, and lets me in when I seek Him. So it was this time too.
Transition change.
A season of dryness morphing into showers of blessing.
Naturally.
And I am beginning to suspect even spiritually.
Ok.
Let’s get back to the snails.
With their home on their backs, these two precious snails were positioned right next to one another when I, still within my apartment’s complex, received a gentle nudge of the Holy Spirit.
“Let’s take a few steps out.”
Yes, Sir.
So off I went following His leading. And just a couple of steps through the gate of my building was awaiting me this exquisite sight.
Two precious snails carefully aligned next to one another. Five minutes here and two minutes there – I would have missed it! For one champion was headed up north, while the other downtown. Different destinations assigned to each comrade, yet carefully juxtaposed with one another in this one moment of time.
Divine timing .
Isn’t it amazing friends?
Isn’t it amazing how our Heavenly Father is so intimately involved with us, even in the smallest details of our lives?
Helps me to know that He never misses a thing.
He is present. He is intimate. He cares.
He cares about His Beloved finding these two precious snails forming a yin-yang all their own to let me know that even my seconds are carefully timed so that whatever it is that He has for me, never misses me.
All we need to do is pay attention, friends and there are tiny miracles all around us.
Including what we call, a shift in seasons.
Yes, even spiritually.
With a timely downpour washing clean both, creation and the children of God; I felt a deeper stirring in my soul, and as I continue to write, it nags me all the way into faith for more.
For more of the awe of God.
The God who changes times and seasons, translating a dry and arid time into a season of fresh outpouring, blessing and favour; is the One I am wanting the more of.
For being in awe of Him, captivated by His majesty serves to heal my heart and reignite hope.
Hope for a season that brings us into a fuller manifestation of all that He has in His heart for us is what I am beginning to let myself have faith for.
So as I was soaking in the Word today friends, I found myself praying and prophesying some tender and potent truths over myself in a spontaneous outburst of Psalm 89.
I felt it on my heart to share with you too what I believe He has released, so that together we will walk into a bountiful future.
A future that is full of the bounty of heaven, both spiritually and naturally.
Paving the way forward, I am sharing now a benediction for Showers of Blessings based on the Promise of God from Psalm 89, The Passion Translation. I encourage you to personalise Scripture and confess it over your life as the very heart and words of Father God concerning you.
Personally.
Friend, the Lord loves intimacy in a way that is up, close and personal; dares vulnerability and demonstrates trust.
So let’s go.
This is what I believe Father God says to you,
“I have chosen you, ____________________ ,
Beloved Child of God,
as my loving servant and exalted you.
I have anointed you with the oil of my holiness.
I will be strength to you and I will give you my grace to sustain you no matter what comes.
None of your enemies will get the best of you
nor will the wicked one overpower you.
For I will crush your every adversary
and do away with all who hate you.
Because I love you and treasure you
my faithfulness will always protect you.
I will place my great favor upon you
and I will cause your power and fame to increase.
I will set your hand over the sea
and your right hand over the rivers.
And you will come before me, saying,
‘You truly are my Father, my only God, and my strong deliverer!’
… This covenant will be an unbreakable promise that I have established for all time.”
Says the Lord.
In my experience friends, the best way to respond to God when He gives us a promise from His heart is to pray in alignment so that we can see the manifestation activated and fulfilled.
King David did this, Scripture tells us when God gave him a promise that his son would be the one to build the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem and that David’s dynasty would indeed be established.
I’m guessing we can too.
Join me friend, won’t you?
“Dear Heavenly Father,
I am so thankful that you love me and I want you to know that I love you too. I thank you that you have given me access to some truly precious and great promises concerning my Identity, sustenance, protection, vindication and favour. I receive them with praise and ask that you will activate all that is needed in the unseen realm so that the seasons up ahead will testify to Your Faithfulness in my life as Your beloved child. I thank You that He who promised is Faithful and I wait in confident expectation to watch You move. Keep me close, Father and give me eyes to see and ears to hear so that I may know you deeper still.
In the Beautiful Name of Jesus,
I pray,
Amen.”
Let the seasons change.
Seeking Truth
The Word of God is both, a skillful scalpel and a mighty sword.
Talking of God’s Word today friends. Speaking of which, I humbly realise that no matter how much we say, it will never be enough.
But I told Jesus I’d try.
Thanks for your time.
Let me start with the story I believe He laid on my heart last evening as I began to churn with creative ideas for this post. If you have spent some time studying God’s Word, you may be familiar with the story of Elijah and the widow of Zaraphath recorded in 1 Kings 17. If not, no sweat. I’ll break it down for you.
Ready?
Elijah, friends was a prophet of the Lord in Old Testament times. When the nation of Israel became rebellious and idolatrous by worshipping gods other than Yahweh, the net result was not only moral decay but also the inevitable circumstantial consequences that followed their disobedience towards the Lord.
Led completely astray under the leadership of Ahab, an extremely evil king; Israel found itself in grave trouble. That was when Elijah stepped onto the scene and prayed for the Lord to shut up the heavens to get the people to a point of realisation and repentance so that they could be restored.
So what culminated as a result was a drought which lasted three and a half years. Even at great personal cost, Elijah put the purpose of God at the center of His life and persevered to see Israel turn around.
Israel eventually did and the drought was lifted. But that’s not the point of this story.
The point of this story is the power of God’s Word.
“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11, NKJV)
During the drought, Elijah was supernaturally supplied with food and water. The Lord sent him to a place where Elijah drank from a brook while God arranged for ravens to bring him bread and meat in the morning + evening.
However, the brook soon dried up.
But the good news is that the provision of the Lord did not.
The Lord commanded Elijah to go to a place called Zaraphath where God said He had already commanded a widow to supply him with food.
I am sure Elijah must have been surprised at this because widows in that time were presumably poor. Yet, how often do we see God provide instruction in a way that perhaps makes no sense in the given moment?
A test of faith.
Elijah’s story testifies.
Zaraphath was devastated by the onslaught of drought and famine. Starvation threatened the lives of people. These were indeed some desperate times, friends. And to top it all, God decides to send Elijah to a poor widow for provision.
Elijah at this point I believe summoned all his courage and asked the poor widow who did not even have enough firewood and was found by him collecting sticks.
Yet, Elijah did as he was told.
As the poor widow told Elijah that all she had was only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug which she was preserving for her last meal to be had with her son, preparing thereafter to die; Elijah audaciously interrupted her plans.
He told her that before she could cook a meal for herself and her son, she would first make a loaf of bread for him.
It was a request, actually. A very bold one.
What prompted him to say this, I hear you ask.
The Word of the Lord.
“For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord sends rain on the land.'”
(1 Kings 17:14)
God promised Elijah a never-ending supply of provision from a tiny jar of limited flour and a tiny jug of limited water.
And so it was.
“For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.”
(1 Kings 17:16)
Friends, whether I see it in the case of Jesus multiplying the two fish and five loaves of bread in the New Testament so much so that there were twelve basketsful of provision even after the crowd had eaten, or in the case of Elijah and the widow of Zaraphath in the Old Testament having more than enough to fill their stomachs even in the midst of an impossible drought and famine situation; one truth stands out to me:
Our limited resources when entrusted into the eternal hands of our Multiplying Master become a superabundant supply of God’s riches.
For our limitations are His opportunity.
All we need is a Word from the Lord.
Because the Word of the Lord goes forth like a mighty sword to manifest that which He has spoken and pull down strongholds that are contrary to His will.
It is designed and anointed to contradict, challenge and change the state of our circumstances.
Till our circumstances are brought into alignment with His will.
For His will is revealed through His Word.
Our part, friends in God’s story is to believe, receive and steward His Word.
For this is what God says to us,
“Open your mouth with a mighty decree;
I will fulfill it now, you’ll see!
The words that you speak, so shall it be!”
(Psalm 81:10, TPT)
Father God encourages us to speak His Word, friends.
To boldly declare it as a mighty sword in our mouth that is able to pull down strongholds in oppositional circumstances till our circumstances begin to align with the truth of that which He has spoken and the realm of His Kingdom is made manifest.
On Earth as it is in Heaven.
That is what God’s Word does in the context of our circumstances. But what about the condition of our hearts, friends?
Our inner world matters.
“For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.”
(Romans 10:9)
God’s Word, friends falls first on the ground of our hearts. So it is important that our hearts be soft and supple so that they can easily receive and believe what He is desiring for us to hear and implement.
But that is really not how we start with Jesus.
Because above all else, Jesus invites us to come to Him, just the way we are. Bound and shackled up. Shamed and discounted. Hurt and heartbroken. Hard and bitter.
He doesn’t really care how much of baggage we are dealing with, as long as we are willing to humbly surrender it all to Him and watch Him do what only He can do.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit”
(Zechariah 4:6)
For the Lord is famous for taking the broken and fragmented pieces of our lives, and weaving them all together in the masterful way that only He knows to, ultimately resurrecting a master piece from the inside and out so that it brings glory to His Name.
Well known evangelist, Christine Caine often says,
“Your history does not define your destiny. You can start bad and finish good in and through a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
Our God is truly a miracle working God, friends.
He takes our brokenness and gives us wholeness in exchange. He translates our pain into purpose and brings beauty from ashes. He heals the anger and bitterness in our hearts by teaching us to forgive. He promises us justice as we agree to put our trust in Him. In fact, the Bible calls him the Restorer of Broken Dwellings. So it shouldn’t surprise us when He starts with first holistically healing and restoring the broken condition of our hearts, minds, bodies and souls for New Testament says that now we are His holy temple, the habitation of His Spirit.
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?”
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
We are now His beloved children, holy and blameless in His sight. And guess what every good father cares about when it comes to His kids?
Their peace, their joy, their hope.
And anything that interferes with the kind intentions of God is dealt with.
Foremost of which, are the lies that we have believed, friends which affects the ground of our hearts.
Yes. It’s true.
Lies that we have believed about the nature and character of God. Lies about ourselves and our identity in Him. Lies about the world that we are called to touch and transform.
Lies designed by the enemy to keep us in deception and bondage.
But Christ came to set us free.
“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
(John 8:36)
So where do we turn to receive Truth that is able to set us free, remains a valid question.
The Word of God.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
(Hebrews 4:12, ESV)
God’s Word consists of Truth that are words anointed by His Holy Spirit, possessing the power to pierce and heal with the surgical precision of a scalpel.
It completely counters the lies of the enemy, reveals the authentic heart of God and brings His children into the light.
The light of the true nature and character of God, the light of our true identity in Him and the light of the truth about the world we are called to touch and transform.
The Aramaic language calls it, “noohrah” – the revelation light of God as well as the glory light of Christ.
This is the light of God, friends that pierces the dark, dismantles lies, reveals Truth and sets the captives free.
The light of God which sees us as a chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy nation – forgiven and redeemed as the righteousness of God in Christ.
The light of God which deems us radically loved, fully known, carefully understood and deeply valued as the very family and household of God.
The light of God which draws a line in the sand through the blood-stained path of Calvary and demarcates between the counterfeit roar of the enemy (fear or intimidation) and the holy roar of the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Perfect Love which casts out all fear and breeds inner rest, deep assurance and complete security).
Psalm 36:9 says it well,
“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.”
The power of the Word of God.
Both, as a skillful scalpel and a mighty sword.
Where can you apply the Truth of God’s powerful Word today, friend?
Grace
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
What I believe I am increasingly learning is the power of living in His Strength. Not struggling in mine, but thriving in His.
Where I am weak, He is strong.
And in Him, I am complete.
Praying for the power of the Most High to overshadow us, family as we tread into a new week!
His Grace is sufficient.
Shalom
🤍🌈
The Good Fight
Let Love happen
I’ve noticed one thing about pain. It compels us to misunderstand the nature and character of God.
Much like Eve.
Cut to the chase, here goes.
The Bible tells us that God told Eve she was free to eat from any tree in the Garden of Eden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Why did He do that?
I believe that God was actually protecting her freedom and that of man, because we were perhaps never designed to know any evil. Yet, in the face of an inadequate understanding of God’s true nature, Eve sinned.
To me friends, it is not so much the sin that led her to partake of the forbidden fruit that matters, as much as it is what led her to.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?'”
(Genesis 3:1)
For the crafty serpent to come in and sow doubt in Eve’s mind with irrelevant questions like, “Did God really say?” and have her succumb to the temptation of sin so easily, I do feel that somewhere Eve did not know the nature and character of her God well enough to begin with.
Neither did I.
But when you know better, you do better.
I am so glad, friends that we serve a God who forgives, redeems and makes all things new.
Jesus does not sit on the Throne with a stock of all our sin. He already dealt with that on the Cross.
He sits on the Throne and fights for us instead.
Our God is with us. He is for us. And He fights for us.
The Good News here is that He does not fight for victory, He fights from it.
Talking of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Word of God says:
“Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!”
(Colossians 2:15, TPT)
In short?
Having defeated and disarmed the powers of darkness, Jesus reigns.
And in Him, we do too.
With absolute victory over sin, sickness and death; we are called to co-reign with Christ.
So in the face of so much adversity, persecution and trauma; I am learning to be very intentional about reminding myself of some truths that though appear basic, are the very cornerstone of our faith.
And what I am realizing is that though in Christ, we do have victory over sin, sickness and death; we are not exempt from pain and suffering.
We are in the world, but not of it.
The world we live in friends, is lost and broken. So are the people that constitute it.
So when God called us to fight the good fight of faith, He made it abundantly clear that we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the forces of darkness for which we have absolute triumph through Christ.
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
(Ephesians 6:12)
Yes and Amen.
So it naturally follows that our enemy is not our parent, our sibling or our next door neighbour.
Our enemy is the devil, Satan. And the Good News is that he is defeated.
Yes.
The same crafty serpent that once deceived Eve and has continued in his attempts till date, is forever defeated.
How?
"By the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony."
(Revelation 12:11)
But here is the catch.
The degree to which we seek to know the Lord is the degree to which we will be abe to walk conscious of this reality, on an everyday basis.
Pain and suffering always threaten to numb or dim our consciousness of the victory we have through Christ. So it becomes important that we learn to process it in a healthy way.
In a way that is worthy of us.
For our perspective during such times, is the difference between life and death.
We will either succumb to the despair and hopelessness that our enemy, Satan would love for us.
OR.
Or we can choose to run to Jesus.
Run to Him for the healing we need in our souls and the perspective we need in our thought process.
Co-operating with the reality that God is trying to cultivate in us during such times friends, is key.
Are we trying to avenge ourselves, or are we letting Him avenge us?
Are we wasting precious emotional resources on harbouring bitterness and resentment, or are we learning to forgive, let go and trust God?
Are we walking in anxiety and dread, or in the fullness of the peace and power that the Lord died for us to receive?
The difference between the two sets of scenarious presented here is the difference between being a victim of our circumstances or rising above them as more than conquerors through Christ.
God often says to us,
Choose life.
Therefore, I choose to intentionally put Christ first. To surrender my will to be aligned with His and I find that the more I do so, the more I get to know the Lord.
Friends, as I am learning to do just what He says, I have found myself face-to-face with one beautiful yet startling reality,
“I may know Jesus fairly well, but I don’t know Him well enough.”
I really don’t.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is fully and completely worthy of my faith and trust, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how much He does honour child-like trust and mustard-seed faith.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is perfect in love and perfect in wisdom, but I don’t know Him well enough to know the full extent of all that He really is, all that He is capable of doing and all that which He will do.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is my best friend and my glorious king, but I don’t know Him well enough to know His next move on my behalf.
I may know Him well enough to know that He will never leave me nor forsake me, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how very faithful and relentless His pursuit of me, in reality, is.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is sovereign and has the final say in all matters that concern us, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how He will bend the rules of the game as we journey on.
I may know Him well enough to know that He is good, He does good and He works all things together for good in conformity with the counsel of His will, but I don’t know Him well enough to know just how He will manifest this Romans 8:28 promise again in my life circumstances.
I know Him fairly well, friends. But I don’t know Him well enough.
Fairly well to know Him as a beloved father, a heavenly saviour and a dreadful champion of my cause; but not well enough to know just what that may mean in its entirety as my destiny unfolds.
But I take heart in what I do know.
For what I do know is that with each day that unfolds, I can seek to know Him more.
Filled with the awe and wonder of His majesty, His mercy and His might.
And somewhere I suspect that the same holds true for you too, my friend.
So together?
Let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.
Let Love happen.
💖
His Name is Jesus
It happened again.
I rose up from my bed on a perfectly positive note. My spirit soared with expectation that confident hope inspires.
“Life is good.”
As I looked out the window, a perfectly clear blue sky greeted me. I smiled back and waited for Sharon’s response.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
As I waited, the clock slowly rearranged it’s arms from an intelligible V at 11 a.m to a flat L at 3 p.m to an inverted L at 6:15 in the evening.
Still no response.
With worst-case scenarious racing through my head, I take a moment to anchor myself.
“Take heart, she must be unusually busy.”
Nervously fidgeting around my cell phone, I scroll down my list of contacts to see the number of missed calls against Sharon’s name.
5.
Resolving to believe the best about the situation at hand, I put my cell phone down and walk across the room. Pulling the curtains back, I feel the rays of the scarlet setting-sun reassure me that all will be well.
The next day.
It happened again.
Maybe you can relate.
Friends, I know I am not alone when I say that this is a rather challenging time that we find ourselves in. Human relationships seem fractured and circumstances, uncertain. Yet, there remains a Rock that we can safely continue to stand and build upon.
His Name is Jesus.
I have personally never felt more grateful for the stability of Christ than right now. He is both, the answer and the anchor to our souls. In the midst of circumstances and relational dynamics that keep changing, it is His unchanging Presence and Promises that provide a firm foundation for us.
Yet, what seems to be dawning upon me with increasing clarity as I journey on with the Lord is that the fact that we have put our faith in God does not exempt us from pain, suffering or disappointment. Rather, it gives us access to the tools we need to walk victoriously through it.
Psalmist David said it like this,
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me."
(Psalm 23:4)
Sometimes friends, the only way out is through.
Through the heartbreak. Through the sickness. Through the divorce.
Not over, not under; but through.
So how do we process the pain, suffering and disappointment that will remain an inevitable reality as we walk through our own valley with the Lord?
I believe with all my heart that we have two voices in our lives that seem to want to write the narrative of our story.
One is the voice of fear, and the other is that of Love.
God’s Word urges us to choose life. But for us to be able to effectively and intentionally do that, we must know how to discern the difference between the two.
“Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.”
(Romans 12:9)
Simply put, fear will have us believe the lies of the enemy, but Love will patiently introduce us to God’s Truth.
The truth of who God is towards us in terms of His heart, His nature and His character; the truth of who we are in Christ, and the truth of what we can possess, both spiritually and naturally, in and through a relationship with Him.
Our inheritance.
Fear will have us cower in the face of disappointment. It will sabotage our responses and cause us to lower our expectations to match the level of our experience, as opposed to helping us elevate our experience to match the level of expectations that our faith in Christ inspires.
Love empowers us to do the latter.
Love encourages us to walk in the supernatural infusion of faith, hope and joy. He meets us where we are, and receives the two fish and five loaves of bread that we have to offer Him. He stoops down in the dirt and picks us up. He leads us to His red lettered words of life and prompts us to choose well.
His Name is Jesus.
He informs us that our past no longer has the authority to imprison us because He died to set us free. He lifts our countenance up to His face and beams in our direction. He reveals our royal stature as sons and daughters of the King of glory, and then commissions us to serve. He pulls us close when we hurt, and gently whispers,
“I will heal you.”
His Name is Jesus.
He makes a way where there is no way and goes before us. He works miracles in the hearts of men and turns the tide of the battle around. He fights for us in the unseen realm and tells us to just be still. He is our loving father, beloved saviour, dread champion and the Lord of all.
His Name is Jesus.
He is a promise maker and a promise keeper. He takes up the space in our hearts that is dry, parched and thirsty and fills us up till we overflow. He says things like, “I will never leave you nor forsake you, because I love you.” He is truly like none other and stands in a class all by Himself.
His Name is Jesus.
He is the way, the truth and the life. He is perfect in Love and casts out all fear. He reveals truth, inspires hope and gives joy unending. He shatters the strongholds of darkness and sets the captives free. He is a strong deliverer in times of trouble and promises to satisfy us with the fullness of His salvation.
His Name is Jesus.
He takes the mess that we find ourselves in and starts rewriting our narrative with the blood-stained ink of Calvary. He speaks words of comfort and strength, and gives us a ear to hear. He helps us discern the lies of the enemy from the Truth that He has spoken over our lives and lovingly nudges us,
“Choose life.”
He exposes fear as a poor counterfeit, and cheerily brings in the divine echo of Love in our midst. He heals our disappointment and gives us delight instead. He surrounds us like a shield and renews our strength. And in His Light, we see light.
For His Light distinguishes between that which is counterfeit, and that which is authentic; that which is fear and that which is Love; that which is a lie and that which is the Truth; that which is death and that which is Life.
So I turn my ear towards Him, friends.
“Choose Life,” I hear Him say.
Do you?
Armour of Christ
“Can you not discern this new day of destiny
breaking forth around you?
The early signs of my purposes and plans
are bursting forth.
The budding vines of new life
are now blooming everywhere.
The fragrance of their flowers whispers,
“There is change in the air.”
Arise, my love, my beautiful companion,
and run with me to the higher place.
For now is the time to arise and come away with me.”
(Song of songs 2:13, The Passion Translation)
On my walk this evening friends, I felt the Lord lay this portion of Scripture on my heart.
Navigating a shift in season perhaps, never felt more challenging. Yet, His Word remains a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. I believe there is change in the air and the sound of the cooing of doves in our land.
Does that mean there won’t be another dark night?
No.
But will that hinder the plans and purposes of our Father?
No!
So as we head into our week, I hope and pray that we will fix the gaze of our hearts onto Jesus – the author and the perfector of our faith.
Counting it all as joy, because ALL things work together for our good and His glory when His vantage point becomes our own.
Love always 🌲⚘🤍
SoulandSubstance27 