"A LIGHT HAS DAWNED..."

Isaiah 9:1-2, &6

"Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress....The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace..."

One of the most eye opening times in my life was the year and a half that I lived in the heart of New York City!  I loved being in the city.  There are so many things going on all at once that it becomes an overload for the senses!  At first my greatest concern was just to figure out where I was on any given street that I would find myself.  So many cars pass by and the noise of the people and construction and busyness just overtakes you.  If you are anything like me, you love it!  

One of the things I found in the rush of it all was how easy it is to be in the middle of a crowd and yet actually "see" no one!  It is so easy to become distracted and stimulated by "white noise" that you forget to look in the eyes of the hundreds of people that pass you by every day.  As I was reading this passage in Isaiah 9 this morning and thinking of Christmas, something stood up on the inside of me.  This is the time of year where we become so heavily absorbed in the "activity" of Christmas that we can easily miss the humanity that is passing by us every day, no matter where we live!  

Statistically, suicide rates are at an all time high during the Christmas season because more than ever people are aware of whether or not they actually have a place to belong during such a family oriented time in the year.  People you may think you know well and "look" okay, could be desperate on the inside.  With the rise of social media (which is not in itself a bad thing) and people's dependency on posting the life they want people to think they have, there is a loss of real eye contact and human touch when it comes to knowing how people really are. 

This scripture in Isaiah is an announcement!  God spoke through the prophet Isaiah to prophecy  (or declare) to the world that there was to be no more gloom, that HOPE would come to the world.  He went on to say that those who once walked around in deep darkness would SEE the light of Jesus.  

If there was ever a time to stay engaged in the world around you, it would be now.  Over these next few weeks, we will all just be getting busier as we get closer to Christmas and the tendency will be to become self absorbed.  May I lovingly encourage you the way I have been so greatly encouraged today myself by God, to pay attention and ask questions.  Ask the grocery store clerk how they are and thank them for helping you, ask them about their family.  Ask an older person how they are and what their plans will be for Christmas.  Check on your neighbors... Go the extra mile.  Pay attention to people at work.  You never know what someone could be carrying.  One thing is for sure, if you know Jesus then YOU are carrying HOPE inside you that someone desperately needs today.  

Be a part of sharing Jesus and carrying the great gift of His love into the life of someone who needs to know that they are not alone this Christmas.  Throw out the lifelines....

"Nothing Is On Hold,"

"Nothing is on Hold"

EZ. 12:26-28 MSG 

"God's message came to me: Son of man, do you hear what Israel is saying: that the alarm the prophet raises is for a long time off, that he's preaching about the far-off future? Well tell them, 'God, the Master, says, "NOTHING of what I say is on hold.  What I say Happens." Decree of God the Master.

I love the sheer Sovereignty of God.  "What I say goes." Full Stop.  There is this sense around the planet, much like the one Ezekiel was sent to confront, that we have "TIME".  Time to do what we want and THEN obey later.  It is like a lullaby that causes the need for alert urgency to go to sleep.  I truly believe that God is speaking about TODAY.  

I don't think the world is used to the idea of Sovereignty. Total rule...complete authority.  On Sunday, a few months back, I met with a girl in the city, who I met and prayed for on night a few months ago in an evening service. The message that had been preached was on relationships and baggage of past sexual sin.  There was a huge altar call and I made my way forward to pray with people.  I started to pray for this girl, not knowing who she was at all and she was slumped forward while standing there just sobbing.  

I knew there was a lot going on with her and told her I would be happy to meet with her.  After a few months she finally asked for that meeting.  So Sunday we went to a coffee shop in the city and when I met her I was amazed at how articulate she was. Smart and educated and full of gathered wisdom from "researching" God. The prevailing New York mentality is one of intellect.  People are very PROUD, proud of what they know and it can be very difficult to talk to about spiritual things. Especially when they involve Jesus.

Sitting at a bar with cappuccinos we started talking.  She said she has been coming to church for a year and has been serving and honestly seemed saved.  Then she started saying she was still struggling with "it all," which made me begin to think that maybe a decision had yet to be made.  

In the course of talking I found out that she was wrestling with one major thing, Jesus being God.  This had been the second girl I had met in a  week's time that has had this fight. ( It really is a picture of what the world believes.) The good news here is that by the end of our conversation,in the middle of this busy city and restaurant,  I was able to pray with her. Even through physical resistance, this beautiful soul was able to confess that Jesus is God and come into genuine salvation.

It is the issue of Lordship and rule that is nearly impossible for the world to accept. Lordship brings pictures to people's minds of slavery, restriction, captivity...being "told".  The truth is that the Lordship of Jesus brings freedom, protection, peace, direction and salvation. 

(Webster's Lordship definition:  the power or right to give orders or make decisions... Synonyms: authority, potency, authorization, say-so, dominance)

I personally feel the urgency of heaven right now.  I can feel the "day" approaching.  I know that Jesus is coming soon.  That's why the blindness and deception of the world is so thick right now.  Ezekiel was sent to speak to a hardened people.  I believe You and I have been sent by God  to speak to a hardened people as well!  Before Ezekiel could go and speak, God made him literally EAT the words that would need to come out of his mouth. I know that right now, wherever we are God wants to FILL our mouths with His Word so that what comes out is HIS message and nothing else! Unfiltered, no human bent, what He says goes.  

There has never been a more important time for the people of God to have something to SAY when there is an opportunity to say it! The only way to bring  Jesus to the World is to truly know Him everyday ourselves.  Only then will our message cause someone else to be hungry too.  The Message is NOT on Hold... It is happening right now!

...

"Be Filled with the Spirit!"

Acts 2:17 

"In the last days, says God, 'I will pour out my Spirit on ALL people.  Your sons and daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days and they will prophesy.  I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth below....and everyone who calls upon the the name of the Lord will be saved!"

In the weeks leading up to this powerful sermon from Peter, he had witnessed the crucifixion, the death and burial, the resurrection and ascension of Jesus!  Peter found himself along with the other disciples in an upper room and something amazing happened...the Power of the Holy Spirit fell! When Peter preached these words charged with electricity, he had just been filled with the Holy Spirit!  When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts, there was an outpouring over the disciples as they prayed.  This outpouring was what Jesus had promised them would happen when he left the earth!  Jesus said in John 16:7, "But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you but if I go, I will send Him to you. "  Jesus was saying, it would be BETTER when He left the earth because the Holy Spirit would come!

The bible refers to the Holy Spirit as The advocate, The Helper, The Comforter, The Revealer and the Spirit of Truth.  What a mighty gift we have in the Holy Spirit!  When Peter was prophesying this very important sermon, it is essential to understand what had just happened to Him.  He had just denied Jesus and been a man who was cowardly and subject to rage filled outbursts.  But when the Holy Spirit came upon him and FILLED Him, He was filled with power and spoke with authority!  These words were inspired by the Holy Spirit and they left no one out.  He was declaring that the POWER of God had come and it all pointed back to Jesus Christ, "And everyone who calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ WILL be saved!"

We live in a world that only functions in the realm of what is "natural".  This means, what we can see, touch, hear, say and understand. 1 Cor. 2:14, "The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit."   The world doesn't function at all in the realm of the supernatural or in the power of God! In fact it actively shuts down and attempts to silence the power of God any chance it gets, spreading fear and mistrust of anything cannot be naturally discerned. This is an evil plan spread by Satan himself, to keep people from experiencing the full life of God.

Sadly, this shutting down has crept into Christian circles as well.  I have met people that I know love Jesus, but want nothing to do with the Holy Spirit because it is something they cannot understand.  I have even met many Christians who are embarrassed of the Holy Spirit and treat this great gift to us from the Father as something we don't talk about, definitely don't pursue and push it all under the rug.  
When Jesus said, "It is better that I go..." He was saying this because He knew that it would only be through the power of the Holy Spirit that we would be able to stand up and boldly declare that He is Lord!  God wants to fill every person who calls on the name of the Lord with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that is evidenced through speaking in tongues, so that we can live a life of boldness and power! We need all we can have of God to carry out His mission of salvation on the earth.  A life of no power is something that was never meant to describe the people of God.  In fact, the reverse is true!  We are the people Peter was prophesying about!

As I write this, my mind goes back to Indonesia where I spent part of last summer.  I had the privilege of reading this very passage out of the second chapter of Acts to the orphan children after we spent some time in worship. Many of the children could already preach full messages with power and authority!  I watched as children went up and laid hands on other children and prophesied over them!  I told them this passage says ALL people and told them to pray for each other and as they did, the power of the Holy Spirit was undeniable in that place!

God is pouring out His Spirit over ALL people! No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, no matter where you live or where you come from. God is pouring out His Spirit over the young and the old and God wants to pour out His Holy Spirit over YOU!

I want to encourage you to step out and believe God for MORE.  Have you ever wanted more of Jesus in your life?  Have you ever been in a time of worship and run out of words to say how much you love Him?  Have you ever wished you could have more boldness and not so much fear?  Have you ever wished you could have the strength to overcome temptation?  That Power is here right now for you. All you have to do, if you want the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, is do as Acts 2:38 says, "Repent and be baptized EVERY ONE of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you WILL receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!" 

After making Jesus the Lord of your life, this gift of the Holy Spirit is there for the asking.  If you want it, you can have it!  Pray and say, "Jesus, I pray that you would baptize ME in the Holy Spirit!" And after you pray this, begin to PRAISE.  When you praise God, it shows that you believe His Word. You praise Him because you know He has done what you have asked of Him! Many people experience fear when they begin to ask for the Holy Spirit and it is easy to understand why they would feel this way.  The fear comes because of not knowing what to expect.  But you don't need to be worried!  2 Timothy 1:7 " For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind!"  If you are afraid, it isn't from God so you can tell it to GO in Jesus' Name.  

Just rest on the promise of God that if you are asking for the Holy Spirit, you WILL receive the Holy Spirit!  If you have not yet been filled with the Spirit, I am praying for you today! I am believing with you for an outpouring over your lives and homes and families.  These are exciting days to know Jesus and to have everything we can of the power of God!

" Rocks In the Mouth Or Loaves On The Tongue?"

Job 2:10

" ...shall we accept good from The Lord and not trouble?  In all this, Job did not sin in what he said."

I am always so challenged by the life of Job.  This book in the bible is one that will never fit into our perfectly drawn map or plan on how to live a "blessed" life!  Job was a man who loved God, serving and honoring Him in everything he did and yet he massively suffered!  

Suffering is something the devil loves to use to cast doubt on the goodness of God.  He does this because It does not match our human understanding of what goodness is.  When trouble or hardship come our way Satan looks for an open door to whisper lies into our ears about whether we are loved by God.  

Suffering left alone results in desperation and desperate people do and say things they would never do and say under normal conditions.  yet somehow, Job suffered and managed to watch what he allowed himself to say about God.  No matter what happened or how much worse it got, before it got better, He did not sin by what he said.  

Suffering in and of itself feels like starving for bread but being given rocks or gravel to chew on instead.  Could it be possible for God to take gravel and create bread?  Can there really be in exchange for ashes, beauty?  Is this possible really?  

This is why I love that God added the story of Job to His Word.  It IS possible for God to take everything the devil has tried to destroy us with and turn it all around.  It is WHO He is.   We are far better off than Job.  When Job faced his moment of suffering, Jesus had not yet come to earth.  He had not yet poured out grace for us at the Cross.  Yet, Job still believed.

Today, wherever we sit in our own personal experiences in times of trouble we have the gift of Jesus with His presence and his PROMISES to us.  These promises cause the gravel to become loaves of bread.  Because of Jesus, we can take the good with the trouble and the trouble with the good.  Not flippantly.  Not easily.  But through the lens of the Cross it can be done.  Why do we look at the Cross?  Because there could be no greater suffering than dying for the sin of the entire world. Yet even here God used the suffering and the dying of Jesus to bring victory and healing.  Because of Jesus there is never a time when all hope is gone!  Forever and always we have this hope.

If you are in a place today where you are experiencing rocks in your mouth and you long for loaves of bread, lean closely in to Jesus.  His love is the same for you in "this" as it is for you on days circumstances seem to support what we feel as love.  One thing I know for sure, God is good.  God is faithful. God does things past what we can find out or understand.  He is the only one who can take rocks and make them the freshest and most satisfying BREAD for our souls!

Romans 8:34-39

"... Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of the Father INTERCEDING for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?....No in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor ANYTHING else in ALL creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord."

"My Hope is Built on Nothing Less..."

Ecclesiastes 11:4. 

"Whoever watches the wind will not plant: whoever looks at the clouds will not reap."

We are living in strategic times.  There is a lot of "wind watching" (as the bible puts it) happening around the earth right now.  Simply put, to watch the wind is to look at circumstances and what is happening in the natural atmosphere to determine what decisions should be made and what kind of life you can have! I love that Ecclesiastes is so specific here when it says, he who looks at outward conditions will NOT ever find them good enough to put a seed in the ground!  

The world we find ourselves a part of right now, ONLY operates this way!  Stock markets rise and fall, success comes and goes, popularity and human praise is short lived... And then what?  Outward conditions are ever changing and are the LEAST stable places to bank all of our hope and yet it is so easy to to find ourselves doing just that. 

The year was 2001 and it was the Tuesday before the September 11th attacks on our country.  My husband Paul and I were living in Birmingham, AL. At the time.  We had just built our first little home and we had a nice church and a nice life. Everything was going well. And then it happened, Paul's boss came into his office and announced that the company was in trouble and that major cutbacks would be taking place.  Because of this he was laid-off.  

He came home that day and there we were job-less and shocked that "just like that" everything could change.  We had to gather ourselves and begin to form a plan on how to go forward.  Then, that very week, our nation was brought to it's knees when the terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The unthinkable was everywhere I looked!  There seemed to be no relief and fear was completely gripping my heart.  

I was watching the wind and becoming unstable in my spirit as I did.  As I realized what was happening in my spirit, I knew I needed Jesus to show me IN the storm, how to trust HIM.  

Jesus speaks in Luke 21 of the kind days that are coming upon the earth preceding His great coming. He said that as the Day draws near, people's hearts will be full of fear.  Luke 21:25-26. " Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world.."    The terror the bible is describing is one that comes from watching the wind.  Jesus bothered to warn us ahead of time that days like this would come, not to depress us and scare us, but to help us not to worry and fear the way everyone else around the world will worry and fear!

I realized during those months in 2001 of joblessness that Jesus was and would always BE the only place my hope could ever stay!! Nothing else is guaranteed. Just Jesus.  It was a minute by minute shift that started to happen in me as I started to take my eyes off of the wind and put them back on my Savior.  But it happened.  

My situation didn't change overnight.  We still had to walk out the effects of joblessness. But Jesus took care of every need we had.  This hasn't been a one time lesson in my life either!  FOUR more times, for similar reasons all out of our control, we would find ourselves without a job, but WITH a choice.  Watch the wind? Or Look at Jesus?  

These are moments where true FAITH is born. In the fire. It isn't easy to TRUST Jesus when outward conditions seem so far away from being okay.  But He is still just as ever-present as He has always been. When the world says, "be terrorized with what could happen or with what has happened," Jesus says, "keep your eyes on me."  

The days that are coming are very important for the people of God. We have the great privilege and assignment to lead people out of darkness and into the Light of Jesus.  We don't do it by having a nice theory, (when was the last time a theory helped you?)  about how this is done.  We do it by showing others the PATH we, ourselves, have walked with Jesus leading all the way.  

Maybe you have had the best week of your life or maybe this week has blown you away with unexpected opportunities to watch the wind and you find yourself in a storm today.  Can I just encourage you that Jesus IS with you and days like this prove our hope can be built on nothing less then Christ Alone....

Luke 21:27-28, "At that time they will see the of Man coming in a cloud and with power andGREAT glory. When these things begin to take place, STAND UP and LIFT UP YOUR HEADS, because your redemption is drawing near."  

"Mightier Than The Noise Of The Mighty Waters"

6/23/13, 7:22 AM

Psalm 93:3-4


“The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up the roaring of their waves.
 The Lord on high is mightier and more glorious than the noise of many waters, yes, than the mighty “breakers and waves of the sea.”

I've never thought about flood waters being full of noise before.  But they are.  They rush and roar and command total attention. Noise, has an inescapable quality and an air of torment.

In recent years we have all watched as floods have ravaged cities and people all over the world.  We have watched as Tsunami waters wipe out thousands of people in a matter of moments and forever change the face of nations and families.  Yes, I do believe floods are full of noise.

Floods are far reaching. They overtake and destroy, leaving behind damage, disappointment and loss.  I spent some time last year in Denpasar, Indonesia where I was given an up close view of what a flood can do as I met some of the children left orphaned by the Tsunami there.  What could be louder than the noise that the loss of family and all you have known can bring?  Can there be anything louder?

Yet How significant this one little passage in Psalm 93 is!  "The Lord on high is MIGHTIER and MORE GLORIOUS than the noise of the many waters…".

It is so easy in the midst of the noise and panic of a flood to forget that The Lord on high IS mightier!  His voice is louder than the noise round about.  His power to SAVE and REDEEM (or buy back) is unmatched. No mater how high the waters have come, the Voice of God is over the waters.  He sends the word and the waters are held back.

When I went to see the children of Indonesia, what I found wasn't devastation!  Surprisingly, I couldn't find mourning and self-pity for all that these little ones had experienced in their short lives so far.  What I found was the sound of VICTORY rising.  I heard the voices of children singing the praises of Him who called them OUT of darkness and INTO the Glorious Light of  Jesus!  I saw joy and laughing in places that made no sense. I heard stories of hope when all hope should have been gone!

What had happened as praise and worship began in these children's lives? The noise of the waves and the war was being SILENCED  and a declaration was going forth that our God IS greater! "Out of the mouths of babes you have ordained PRAISE to SILENCE the avenger and the foe!" (Psalm 8) The more they sang and talked about how Jesus found them and saved them, the quieter the waters were becoming.

Those days in Indonesia have forever changed me.  I will always remember the VOLUME of the voices of the children  that first moment I walked into their service and heard them sing. I remember and I am challenged to SING all the louder.  Louder than the noise of the waters...

  This I know for sure, there is NOTHING that the power of Jesus Christ cannot overcome!  No flood, no noise, no devastation is beyond His ability!  There is nothing we face that is truly hopeless when we know Jesus. So SING.  Psalm 31:24, "Be strong and take heart, all you who Hope in The Lord!"

"what matters most"

Acts 20 MSG

"But there is another urgency before me now.  I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won't be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started. The job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God."

I am so challenged today by Paul's faithfulness. He wasn't held back by the hard times but instead he embraced them as a mission he CHOSE to accept, revealed to him through the Holy Spirit.

It is so easy when our circumstances become treacherous in some way to shift our focus to changing the circumstance. To stopping the bleed.  To relieving the pain.  To just get the breakthrough or get to the "other side" of " this".  But the profound nature of Paul's words in Acts 20 tell us that God showed him what awaited him and none of it was good!  (In the natural). Yet, he embraced it.

It is also easy when our circumstance becomes treacherous in some way to become disoriented and sudden confusion can set in about "if" God is still with us!  Circumstances can play such a preeminent role in our lives. If things are going well, we must be "blessed," but if we are in a desert in our health or a winter in our marriage or in a valley of job loss we must be doing something wrong and are no longer living"blessed."  This plays out most clearly as we see how the effect of what is happening around us begins change to what we truly believe and we never truly know what we REALLY believe until our belief is tested.

In our Western world idea of blessing we so easily equate blessing with a lottery comparison! Bags of money falling out of the sky and into our laps!  Blessing cannot be reduced solely to a social status, or financial status.  While those things can be a blessing... THE TRUE blessing is knowing Jesus and the promise of heaven over eternal separation from God!  With this worked out properly in our hearts, we can see ourselves as blessed in ANY condition!  If we assess God's blessing on our lives solely through the lens of money or lack of money, we set ourselves up to be on a roller coaster of believing, God only when we have it and unbelief when we don't!


As we walk through the seasons of our lives it becomes critical to remember the TRUTH of the Word of God, which will always anchor our soul safely in times of trouble.  "I the LORD change not." (Mal. 3:6) "Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)  "Heaven and earth may pass away but my words will never pass away."  (Matt.24:35 )

Paul could have easily thought, "Maybe God isn't with me or maybe God is mad at me." When the Holy Spirit revealed that there would be hard times ahead. Instead Paul didn't take the bait of Satan in that moment that would surely discourage and take away his confidence in the goodness of God and instead said something that shocks me!  He said, "But THAT matters LITTLE!"

He made a conscious choice to magnify, to make large, what matters most.  I'm sure he thought about what awaited him (How could he not?) but he chose to let NOTHING take from him his TRUST in God and His life's assignment and mission.

He said, "what matters to me MOST is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all About this incredibly extravagant generosity of God."  What mattered to Him most wasn't the  trials and imprisonments, it was victoriously getting the word to the world that Jesus saves!

Our lives really come down to this one thing, finish the task assigned to each one of us who calls upon the Name of Jesus... Let everyone know all about the wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ!  No matter what kind of season we find ourselves in right now, Someone needs your story.  Someone needs to know how much Jesus Loves them and has a plan for their life.  Someone needs to know that Jesus is an "ever present help" IN the storm! Someone needs to know what matters MOST...