Tag Archives: Righteousness

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation, Relationships

Recognizing and Defeating a Factious Spirit ~ Part 1

July 3, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Reject a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned” ~ Titus 3:10-11 (read verses 1-11).

Factions form around controversy. It is human nature to pick a side and stand on it.

There are situations in which God calls His people to separate themselves from others. Jesus said in His prayer in John 17 that we are to be a people who, though we live in the world, we are not of its mindset and ways. There is to be a difference seen in us from that of the world around us. As Christians, God calls us to represent His interests, standing on His side of every issue. So, factions form because of sin that stands in opposition to God, but we are not to be a factious people. What is the difference? I believe it is a heart issue.

We have all had times when misunderstanding, hurt feelings, disagreement, etc., causes a problem between one and another. What, in such times, reveals a “factious man”? God is showing me a vital, defining characteristic of someone who is taking actions in a factious spirit or mindset. The realization God is leading me to causes me to evaluate my own reasons for mentioning a controversy to parties who are not part of the situation. We do it for affirmation, wanting others to approve us and disapprove the opposing side.

As people, we often need affirmation. Seeking affirmation from any but God, however innocently, can often lead to fractured relationships. The factious spirit begins by leading a person’s heart and mind to want others to tell them that they are right, and the other side is wrong. The problem is that, when we do that, we put the people we call on for affirmation in the position of feeling they have to pick a side. Only God truly knows all sides and only He can reveal the righteous stance.

When lack of peaceful relations and discord come, seldom are any fully standing with God in the controversy. Asking other people to tell us what only God can know places them in a position of possibly lying to us about what they truly think as they try to placate and pacify our need for affirmation. When they do take our side, we cause a breach in their relationship with the other party. Even if they don’t pick a side, it can still fracture their relationships with the parties involved as they try to avoid them so they are not dragged into the war.

God’s Word encourages us to seek sound counsel and to comfort one another. Sharing controversy with those goals as the heart of our desire is good. However, a teachable spirit must accompany our seeking of counsel and comfort: we must possess a heart to receive instruction, and walk in the sound counsel and comfort given. Also, we must take care that the person we share with is able to give the comfort and counsel without feeling they must choose a side in the controversy.

Today I present the subject matter, the factious spirit that seeks to separates friends and family, causing a breach that puts all in danger of a fall. Over the next several posts, we will cover things God is revealing we must do to counter and protect against a factious stronghold coming between us in an ungodly way.

“But He knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls’” ~ Luke 11:17.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

The King is Coming! ~ A Vision

June 19, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

Yesterday morning, I had a vision that I believe to be from God. Lying in bed, hoping to go back to sleep, eyes closed, in that darkness I clearly see our bedroom filling with white smoke. Immediately following my asking the Lord, “What’s going on?” two angels step into the smoke and lift holy hands to God. I cannot hear what they are saying, but I sense worship in the air and step forward, joining the angel’s song. As I do, the image changes. I see many scenes of people all over the world, running in a panic from something. I get the strong sense that whatever is causing the fear and panic is allowed or sent by God. My heart of worship continues and the vision ends.

Last night, thinking on the vision from yesterday morning, I sought God for greater revelation. As I considered the scene of the Angel’s song, God pointed my heart to the position from and to which all occurred. Noting the position of things, I recognized the smoke, coming from the west, is the sacrifice of praise and worship coming from God’s people. The Angels came up into that worship from the southeast and turned to face due east. All the hosts of God’s creation who believe in and seek Him, were watching for and working to be ready for the King’s arrival.

I said above that I stepped forward to join the Angel’s song. I did not see myself do that. I was not seen in the vision, I was part of it, physically joining in the worship going on. It was a heart movement as I mentally and emotionally turned my focus to the East and began to worship God with full control of my very alert faculties.

As soon as I did that, the scene literally swiped away from the southeast where the Angels came from, to the northwest, being replaced as if seeing the screen of a video swiping up to replace the view of those worshiping God, changing to many scenes in a collage of views from everywhere on the earth.

The first, most evident scene was a woman, climbing a big hill or mountain covered with huge boulders, panic stricken, moving north. The next was a couple in a well-groomed, middle class neighborhood, running in a panic, the man looking over his shoulder to the west where the worship was coming from, dragging behind a woman with a panicked expression. Another had city skyscrapers surrounding many people on the run, with all I can recall seeing looking back as if to escape some approaching enemy, having facial expressions of panic. I vaguely remember scenes including a Japanese style building (a pagoda and huts), forest or wooded areas, and there was more my mind could not focus on before the vision quit.

God told me yesterday that the meaning of the vision would be found in my next portion of scripture reading. I finally got to focus on my reading last night, which was 2 Thessalonians. There, in chapter 1, verses 3-10, God reveals it.

“We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure. This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering. For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, AWAY FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD AND FROM THE GLORY OF HIS POWER, WHEN HE COMES TO BE GLORIFIED IN HIS SAINTS ON THAT DAY, AND TO BE MARVELED AT AMONG ALL WHO HAVE BELIEVED—FOR OUR TESTIMONY TO YOU WAS BELIEVED” ~ 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10.

Those who believe God run to Him in every avenue of life, their very being expressive of the true worship of God. Those who do not believe God run from any evidence of His presence and fight against the knowledge of God that makes Him evident.

I believe God is calling all who truly seek Him with a whole heart, desiring and recognizing His presence, to be more overt in our worship of Him in every way that the Scriptures reveal to be the true and evident heart of worship (1). Every part of our being must seek to possess and remain in the presence of the Lord through a holy life that truly and sincerely worships and honors Him as Lord. Those who do not want to know His presence will flee from us because they recognize and do not want the presence of the Lord. We are not to turn from worshipping God, as man pleasers, but as God-seekers, our focus is to be on the presence and power of our soon returning King.

Every act of our worship reaches out to Him as the savory aroma of the sacrifice of praise. Glorify the Lord with every breath, for the day of His return is nigh (very near to us, quickly approaching).

A few passages that instruct in the true worship seen in the saints of God: Isaiah 58; John 4:22-24; Romans 12:1-3; 1 Corinthians 14:24-25; Philippians 3 (esp. AMPCL).

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Path to Greatness: One Name

May 17, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

Reading Genesis 11, the story of Babel, I note anew the reasoning of the people as they plan to build and the rebellion against God found there. In verse 4, the people proclaim:

“Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Here they are talking about pooling their resources together to build a permanent residence where they can dwell under one name and stop roaming over the earth. They refused to scatter over the whole earth, choosing instead to become great as one people under one name. This is rebellion against God who told Adam, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]…” ~ Genesis 1:28, AMP.

God repeated this command with Noah, “And GOD pronounced a blessing upon Noah and his sons and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth’” ~ Genesis 9:1.

These people refused the will of God, deciding instead to set themselves up in one place, become great in stature together, and stand deliberately against the call to scatter over the earth, subduing it and making full use of its resources. In God’s response to this rebellion, we see Him doing what it takes to force the hand of the people and set them back on the path He laid out for them.

“And the Lord said, ‘Behold, they are one people and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and now nothing they have imagined they can do will be impossible for them. Come, let Us go down and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’ So the Lord scattered them abroad from that place upon the face of the whole earth, and they gave up building the city. Therefore the name of it was called Babel—because there the Lord confounded the language of all the earth; and from that place the Lord scattered them abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” ~ Genesis 11:6-9, AMP.

Beloved, God has a plan and a purpose for each of us on the path of life. Part of that plan, the key piece, is that we rely on and seek after Him and His will first, desiring Him above all, and fulfilling His purpose. Anytime we choose self-reliance over trust in Him, we leave the path of God’s desire for us, and fail to fulfill His purpose. God cannot let that stand. He must act as God and be God in the situation; and He is not above doing whatever it takes to set our feet on the path of His choosing.

Is there a difficulty in your life that has you stumbling about in confusion, frustrating your efforts to do what you want? Stop and seek the Lord to discern where you are on the path of life. Are you with the Lord on the path of His choosing? Then fear not. The trouble has a purpose and God has a plan and provision for dealing with it. Have you deliberately walked away from God, going your own way in your own strength to do your own thing? God does not leave us, but we can walk away from Him through rebellion that sets us on a path He cannot allow to succeed.

Holy Habitation with God requires that we get our bearings lined up with His as His people, called by His name, so we are on the path to fulfilling His purpose for us. Take a moment right now to check your position. Are you with God on the path, or have you slipped away?

“He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ‘GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.’ Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you” ~ James 4:6-10.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Difficult Things 3: God Causes Good

May 16, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” ~ Romans 8:28.

Who of God’s people have not had opportunity to trust the promise of God that He will turn our troubles to a good purpose? The question is, do we have the right to claim this promise?

John Piper, in his revised version of “Future Grace” points out that many of God’s promises to us are conditional. This is one such promise. God does work all things together for good, conditionally, “to those who love God” and “to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Qualification 1) God works all things to good “for those who love God.”

This love we are to have for God, 1) holds love for Him first above all else; 2) proves itself through obedience; and 3) is incorruptible.

We are called to love God first, above all else. My husband knows there is only One I love more than I love him, and that is God. God gets my first and best. Without this, I cannot truly love, nor can I do any good, for God is love, and He alone is good. Only in abiding relationship with Him can I hope to love as He loves or do any good thing. God is the source of true love and we can only accomplish the truly good with His power supplying. That is a good thing for my husband, because, as I keep God first in my affections, then my love for him flows out of my love for God. If we have anything positioned in our life above God, we fail to love God in a way that causes Him to work His good in our lives.

Jesus made it clear that proof of our love for God is seen in our obedience to follow Christ (John 14:15, 23-24; 15:10), practicing the obedience He exhibited as example for us (John 5:19; 5:30; 8:28; 8:42; 10:18; 12:49; 14:10; 16:13; Galatians 2:20). We prove our love for God through our obedience in following Him above all others. A love that keeps God first and obeys Him at all cost is incorruptible and everlasting, not falling away to falsehood or any evil thing. God knows those who love Him in this way will continue to love Him despite every difficulty. He knows they will seek to have His viewpoint for every situation they face in life and that they will watch for the good God chooses to do through those circumstances. He knows they trust Him because they love Him and they know His love always does what is best. So their love remains steadfast even when the outcome of life’s challenges takes turns they may not see as a good thing at the time.

Qualification 2) God works all things out to a good conclusion for “those who are called according to His purpose.”

If we choose to do something God does not call us to do, He is not obligated to work good out of it; thus it is vital that all we do be done in and by the calling and equipping of God. To do less means we do so in our own strength, which will fail us. Doing something even if called to it, but going outside God’s purpose and plan for us, thus walking in disobedience, nullifies His obligation to work good out of our circumstances. Loving obedience within the confines of God’s call to and equipping for us is required if we are to see the promised good from God that this Romans 8:28 promise of God holds for us.

I don’t know if you have ever been on a mission trip, but there are several things I find common to those who go in the calling and equipping of God. Great strength pours through the body of one who goes in the will of God, having God as first love. That power pours forth to accomplish great things, from reaching the masses with the gospel message and love of Christ, to ministering to the physical, spiritual, mental, and social needs of the masses. We often see the miraculous as God’s power pours forth through us, granting us the privilege of experiencing Him as His instrument in ministry. Then we get home and that anointing of His power for that specific time and purpose lifts. Strength seems sapped because that power is not as evident as when on the field for a season of ministry. At the same time, the joy and excitement of the experience spurs the desire for more of the same on the home front.

I believe the disciples, in our Mark 9:14-29 passage for this series, were in this post mission exuberance. They wanted to be God’s instrument for healing the boy, but their faith was resting on their past experience of God’s calling and equipping. They failed to seek God out of love for Him, entering into His equipping for this opportunity in front of them. They were not moving out of the calling and equipping of God, but out of their desire to do the miraculous. They fell to loving the experience of His power instead of truly loving Him, and out of that love, letting His power have control. They came off the mission field too big for their britches, forgot their first love, and found they had only a little power, which proved to be insufficient for the need.

For God to fulfill His promise of working His good into our lives, we must have hearts attuned to Him as our first love: our most vital need and necessity for life. We must also walk in the calling and equipping of God for current situations, with faith firmly resting in what He can and will do through us and for us. Anything less and the good of God may not reach us, His obligation to act on our behalf voided by our failure to fulfill His will through obedience that keeps Him first in our affections.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Difficult Things 2-C ~ A Faith That Moves Mountains: Personal Testimony (Long)

April 29, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I have hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord” ~ Lamentations 3:21-26.

My journey of learning to walk by faith, knowing I can trust God for every need, began with a very small issue that was mountainous to me. A wart on my hand refused to heal, despite every effort.

On the day I was considering the need to go to our medical doctor and let him take care of it, I walked into our living room where a TV program was talking about a little booklet, just out at that time, titled, “My Heart, Christ’s Home.” They were talking about the “room” of our heart where faith resides. Struck by the discourse, I went back to the kitchen I was in the process of cleaning, praying along the way for God to grow my faith. The person sharing the booklet suggested asking God to point to a particular need that He would use to enliven our journey to increased faith that fully trusts in Him. Doing so, as I reached into the sink for the next dish, I bumped the wart.

Memory of my mother telling me of a time when I had several warts on my hand came instantly to mind. She said they could not afford to do anything medically for it at that time, so she prayed for God’s healing, and He took care of it: within a week, they were gone. There it was! Revelation of the conduit for my beginning on the journey to grow in faith that fully trusts and looks to God. Praying for God’s healing to increase my faith to trust Him more, I went on with life. Not many days later, again doing dishes, I saw it, my perfectly healed hand. I forgot about the wart after giving it to the Lord and paid no attention until reaching into the water again reminded me. Ever since then, just the inkling of a wart meets with prayers of faith that trusts God. I have not had one wart since. In fact, one threatened to rise up just last week, and it is gone because God is faithful.

My journey of growth to greater levels of faith continues today. Our God is so very great; He is beyond any ability we have to fully comprehend His glory and power this side of eternity. I am convinced that, no matter how strong we grow in our knowledge of and understanding of Him, when we meet Him in eternity, amazement will be ours as we meet a Father much greater than we can ever comprehended in this life. Every situation we face presents us with opportunity to grow in faith as we come to better understand our God. Acts 17 tells us:

“The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist…” ~ vs. 24-28.

God’s desire is that we grow in our knowledge of Him, and the purpose of every experience under the sun is that we reach for His hand expecting to find it. This is the journey of ever-growing faith.

My husband and I are in new territory for us even now that is giving ample opportunity to seek and find the hand of God in ways never before experienced by us. My beloved husband of over 40 years received a diagnosis of stage 4 prostate cancer just a few weeks ago. He had no common symptoms of prostate issues, thus the advanced state (Men, it is vital you have a physical every year that includes a prostate exam and PSA lab work). The symptoms he does have pointed to a myriad of possibilities. Addressing the most likely cause first, his presenting symptom went on for 10 months before another symptom finally led to looking more closely at what was going on. So here we are, on a journey that, short of God’s work in my husband’s body, has us facing the reality that his life may end sooner than desired by us.

Seeking God as the shock of the diagnoses of earthly medicine hit, Father made it clear that He is in control. This thing is not outside the scope of His plan nor beyond the reach of His hand. He has purpose in this season and will accomplish it. This is a journey set by God to increase faith in us as we seek the Lord’s direction for each and every step. God’s purpose in this health issues is to give us opportunity to seek Him so we may grow in our knowledge of Him. As we do, we take every opportunity to share the journey in ways that help the faith and growth of those walking with us. You are now part of that group.

In our journey, we are discovering as never before the greatest of faith that cries out as Jesus did, “Yet not my will, but Your will be done.” We seek God, having our desire in the outcome, but we know God’s will is of greatest importance and must prevail, for His purpose will see its fulfillment. The soil for the seed of faith is always and only in the calling and equipping of God available to us in the things that challenge our faith. If we are not in the center of God’s will, reaching for His Hand in any given situation, His power and supply for our ability will not be there to help us. Faith either fails to sprout forth to accomplish any good thing because of immaturity, or because of lack of obedience that fails to receive the nutrients available to us in the soil of life-challenges. Growing and productive seeds for abundant life root out by faith in God, revealed as such through trusting obedience to Him, bearing the fruit of righteousness.

Faith seeks God first, finds His will and way for the path ahead, and walks that path with assurance that He is in control, leading to the outcome of His choosing. Faith trusts that the One who sees and knows all things, from beginning of time to end of days, is working a plan that establishes and accomplishes our divinely appointed role in this life.

All the good we seek to do can only come to fulfill His will and purpose as we grope for Him, finding His hand to lead us to it. Fighting death as if it is the mountain is a waste of energy apart from God’s leading in the fight. Short of the Rapture coming to take us, death is a promise to all human flesh. Death is the natural course of life in this shell we call “body”, and God is the one who sets in place the time and method of our death. Unless raptured, we will all one-day die.

God’s word tells us that He plans the number of our days while there is yet one of them. Before we are born, He knows our hour of death, because He set the course of our life and planned how each breath fits His eternal purpose. Our walk of faith is to grasp for His hand with every step, trusting Him to direct our paths to fulfill the purpose He planned before we were born. Continue in attempts to do what we see as good without waiting on God to direct, equip, and establish our path, and we deplete the soil of the heart, using up resources meant for other things, and missing the mark of fulfilling His purpose.

Depleted soil cannot bear good fruit. That is when our everyday ministry begins to falter as we deplete resources given for it while trying to do more than God calls us to do. Johnny has strength to keep working because God set His feet on the path and Johnny trusts God for each step. He is not fretting over things He cannot control. Though he is putting up the fight against cancer as God leads us to, He knows God is the only one who can bring the victory. God’s will for Johnny’s life will be done.

My husband’s health issue is a huge mountainous challenge in our lives, but it is not the only mountain, nor even the main one. Death being part of life, the mountain to cast away is anything in us that hinders our facing it with faith, hope, and trust in God, knowing He will not allow our death one instant before He fulfills His plan in us. The mountain God reveals to me is most important to Him is the things in us that hinder our faith and rob of strength needed for us to walk this journey well, in ways that glorify Him. Oh how sad it would be to come to the end of our days and fail to finish strong in faith filled obedience to God, being too busy fighting death to live the life He gives us!

One of the biggest challenges revealed so far on our journey is the mountain of my need to control things. My routines are messed up, and my calendar is no longer my own. I know. It never truly was, not if I truly follow God; but all sense of time ever belonging to me to control is falling to the wayside, as we must do what is necessary to travel the path God has us walking. We often get calls to remind of appointments one of his doctors set up without consulting us. The reminder for the appointment becomes the first we knew of it, reminding us that our calendar is not our own: it must rest in God’s capable hands (Psalm 37:23; 40:2; Proverbs 16:9). Household duties and my husband’s work duties pile up as we spend time normally put to those things, running to appointments and tending to health needs.

As we seek God in every challenge Johnny’s health journey brings, God directs us step by step. He is pouring strength to my husband, thus far protecting him from the side effects of chemo and symptoms common to his illness, empowering him to keep working and to get the work done as he gets to it. Hubby’s patience has always amazed me, and his ability to let God be God in this hour is strengthening my own.

As for me, God told me shortly after this journey began to fret not over things that can wait, but pick my battles with His priorities at heart, reserving the energy I need to be the wife Johnny needs in this season. That wisdom and the faith to let God have control, knowing God will provide the energy and ability for each thing in its time, brought down a huge mountain in me as I surrendered my times to God’s care, trusting my days to Him.

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me. Make Your face to shine upon Your servant; save me in Your lovingkindness. Let me not be put to shame, O Lord, for I call upon You…” ~ Psalm 31:14-17a.

When faced with an issue that looks like a mountain to overcome, the first step is to go to the Father and ask if we are the one to tackle it. The voice of persecution from God’s enemy often comes as a sense of urgency to jump on tasks that are truly unimportant in that moment, only serving to rob of needed strength for things we do need to take care of. We must seek His revelation to know if that thing in front of our eyes is a mountain He wants us to face, and whether it is one to cast aside or whether it is His provision of a place of fertile soil for our spiritual growth and service. His answer fertilizes our faith, making it ready for germination. Planting that seed by trusting Him for each step, following in obedient faith, grows in us the fruit bearing trees that glorify Him.

Knowing our calling and equipping, and having God’s focus, requires a vital and growing relationship with the Father. That begins and ends in prayer: communication with God that earnestly seeks Him with seeds of faith ready for His provision for growth. Seeking Him must be in faith that trusts Him to give the right answer, with commitment to follow the wisdom He supplies without wavering (James 1:1-8).

The question that comes to my attention next is, how do we know that our faith is planted in the fertile soil of God’s making so that mountains fall and good springs forth? Next post we address another difficult thing about God’s word and way that is necessary to understand if we are to see His good worked out into our circumstances. Hoping to see you back here next week as our life circumstances allow me time to write subsequent posts.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Difficult Things 2-B ~ A Faith That Moves Mountains

April 28, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not drive it out?’ And He said to them, ‘Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you’” ~ Matthew 17:19-20.

Last post we discovered that the “littleness” of faith Jesus warned of was not a lack of enough faith, as Jesus says that it only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains. The “littleness” Jesus speaks of in this analogy is faith that is immature, being unable to sprout forth and grow. It does not matter how much faith we have if that faith is immature: incapable of growth producing the fruit of the Seed. Faith, inadequately mature for growth, is useless, even though we possess enough of it to pile it up to mountainous heights. However, the smallest amount of faith, made ready to grow, is powerful, to the removing of mountains. That is the teaching of Christ I see.

No doubt, we each have many seeds of faith within us, each in various stages of maturation, some already grown into large, mature trees. Trees sprout forth in fruitful glory when, having experienced God enough in some areas of life, we no longer question His ability and willingness. Instead, we readily and easily trust Him in areas kin to our experience. In those areas, we bear much fruit to the glory of God, for we know from whom our help comes.

Facing new needs requiring faith, finding just that tiny seed available for the new situation standing before us, our past-experience of God helps prepare the new seeds of faith, making them ready to germinate at the unction of God’s Spirit. Just a little time with God’s Presence, receiving instruction regarding the path ahead of us, assuring our hearts of His faithfulness, and roots spring forth to produce a harvest. In the process, mountainous issues fall away into nothingness as we grow to know how great God is.

The problem the disciples had hindering their faith was that Jesus, the one who instructed them in the heart of God and His purpose, was unavailable for consultation. The Presence of God they knew was nowhere to be found in that moment of need.

Last post, covering this understanding that the seed Jesus sights as having “littleness” is immature, we ended with the thought that we must realize the mountain God has set His sights on removing. Knowing the mountain set by God for removal with hope set on Him who powers it is vital to victory.

Beloved, we will never, this side of eternity, have sufficient understanding of God and His ways so as to never have need to plant new seeds of faith. There is always new growth and fruitfulness to possess in our knowledge and understanding of God. The thing I am learning is that the mountain we think we see in front of us is most often potting soil, set in our path by God as the soil required for our faith-seed to grow.

We see the difficulty standing in the middle of our road; the hardship that we cannot get past. That thing standing in front of us, causing such frustration and doubt as it refuses to move, becomes enormous in our eyes as we fight the challenge we deem an obstacle. Wanting not to have the difficulty that challenge presents us, we decide it must be a mountain to cast off. Failing to recognize the soil made ready for seeds of faith’s growth, discontented in the place God plants us, we find ourselves fighting against God, thinking we are working with Him to move the mountain in our eye’s sight.

The truth I find is that the bigger mountain God is always after is those things in us that hinder our knowledge of Him and His ways, destroying our trust to believe Him and take Him at His Word. Let us look at our disciples again to glean from that example and see that, though they failed to heal the boy, a mountain did come down.

Before their mission trip, Jesus gave the disciples an assignment (Mark 6:7-14). They listened to the Creator of all things, The Living Word sent from the Father. He prepped the seeds of faith they would plant for fruit bearing as they faced each challenge set before them. That seed fertilized by God through Jesus’ words, commanded what they were going on mission to do, giving them authority to do it. The mountain was not the challenges lying ahead of them, but the things within that would stop up the growth of their faith to believe the command of Christ who gave them their authority. Believing Jesus, they overcame the challenges as they went forth in victory to fulfill Jesus’ Word to them. Their seed, impregnated by His instruction, grew to a fruit-bearing tree as they came to each challenge to their faith. They learned that they too could follow the instruction of God in the power of His supply and accomplish the great things of God’s choosing by trusting Jesus.

Now back home, the disciples faced a similar situation as that successfully met on their mission journey. Unable to perform the work they easily faced before, what happened to their faith? Why were they unable to heal this one brought before them now? I believe God was working on a new seed of faith they needed to germinate in preparing for the ministry ahead of them, but they had their eye on the wrong mountain. They saw the potting soil set before them in this one needing healing, and failed to see the mountain found in the lack of their knowledge of God that made for their littleness of faith. The healing of the boy was God’s will. Healing Him was within God power to accomplish. The demonized boy was soil prepared by God for a growth encounter that would remove a mountain of doubt standing in the way of the effective ministry He had for these disciples to possess.

Jesus, the one they communicated with to know the Father’s heart, was off doing something else. He was not there, readily available to instruct and prep the soil of their hearts by speaking to them the truth of God’s authority given to prepare their seed of faith to see the boy healed. They apparently did not realize fully that they could speak with and know the Father’s will for themselves, receiving His instruction and authority with power. Prayerlessly skipping the communication phase of their journey, doing what they had done before without clear direction for the “now” situation, they tackled the challenge with immature faith that could not sprout. Chopping at what they saw as a mountain to defeat, they failed to plant the seed of faith there and watch for what God would do. They tried to heal the boy with no root of authority and power established for that particular work. Good as the work they wanted to do was, they were working off depleted resources, using seeds of faith that Jesus called “littleness”.

In this account of the disciples little faith, I see that the disciples needed to grow to know that when Jesus was gone, the Father was with them to help them. They lacked faith to understand that the Father hears and responds to them personally. All they needed was to call to Him and seek His face with earnest expectation and hope of receiving His response. That is the mountain I believe God was after, their lack of reliance on Him as Father, and understanding to know that He was with them even when Jesus was gone. The next verses in the Mark account of this faith encounter, shows Jesus, beginning to prepare them for His soon departure. Jesus being about to leave the earth, we can see that it was vital they grow to know and seek the Father for themselves.

What mountainous challenge are you facing, Beloved? Are your sights truly set on the one to be cast away, or is that challenge in your sight truly God’s field of fertile soil made ready for your seeds of faith to germinate as you discover and overcome the true mountain God is after? If a situation stands, immovable, perhaps it is time to ask God to reveal the true mountain He is working cast away as He uses the experience to mature seeds of faith in you. Seek the Father with faith that knows He is faithful to respond in due season. He will show you what you need to know on the journey to cast out every mountainous obstacle to your mature and effective faith.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Difficult Things 1 ~ To Truly Trust: Side 2

April 12, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

Last post we began looking at the difficulty of truly trusting in God. We saw the seed of faith that leads us to seek the Father with trust that He who can, if willing, sees no impossible task and is able to respond to our need.

The problem is that we too often put God in a box of our making. We see a need, and, from our limited understanding, we see a potential solution. Working out of our finite mind, we too readily demand that God work in the way we perceive is best. We often fail to understand that God has the greater plan in heart, the eternal good of all concerned.

God always responds with the purpose of fulfilling the ultimate good. That understanding leads us to the flip side of our trust coin, and our greatest picture of this trust is found in Christ as He poured out His heart to God that last night in the garden He loved.

“And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done’” ~ Luke 22:41-42.

“Yet not my will, but Yours be done” is the flip side of the trust coin that we too easily miss out on. Jesus, in this day of His life, sought the Father knowing that if willingness to do so was there, the Father had power to remove the cup He was about to drink.

God’s ability was not in question. Truly, even His willingness was not the issue, for Jesus later tells Peter, “Put your sword back into its place; for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? HOW THEN WILL THE SCRIPTURES BE FULFILLED, WHICH SAY THAT IT MUST HAPPEN THIS WAY?” (see Matthew 26, especially verses 46-54).

Jesus knew that God had a greater purpose in the cup sitting before Him and this was the plan from the beginning. Yes, in the stress of facing the pain and suffering that cup meant for Him, He asked for the cup to be removed, and He asked in faith, knowing God could do what He asked if willing. However, in that faith and belief, He asked with a willingness to drink the cup for the sake of fulfilling the eternal purpose of God. True trust in God overcomes the stress hormones of our flesh and the desire of our limited understanding to desire God’s will above our own.

Jesus knew that Father God is the perfect Father, having the perfect plan for the perfecting work of humankind and the completion of His eternal Kingdom. He knew this God is all-powerful and can do anything He has a mind to do. That included the power to equip this Son of His to face the pain of 40 lashes and the nail scarred hands and feet of one placed on a cross. He knew the suffering He walked toward included the moment in time when the whole of the sin of humankind would go on His crucified shoulders and the Father He loved would turn His back on the Lamb bearing the sin. He knew, as hard as it was to face that pain and the separation it would bring for that brief moment of His life, the Father is trustworthy. He trusted God to do all He promised by the best means, working the greatest glory, and He trusted Him even in death.

This trust in God on the flip side is the meaning of the second, seemingly repeated trust found in our Jeremiah passage:

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” ~ Jeremiah 17:7.

What if Jesus failed to trust God to be God? What if He let fear and dread of the pain cause Him to be unwilling for God’s will? What if He ran from that cross, refusing to bear it; where would we be? This passage, more than any other, helps me to understand that the body’s natural response to such, with hormones surging and leading us to question the sanity of such a time as this, is not sin. The sin is in giving ourselves to it and letting it destroy our willingness for God’s will.

When we only want what God can do without trusting that He knows and does what is best for the situation so that it works His purpose, we place ourselves in a position to fall away from true faith if His greater purpose refuses us our desire. Trust in what God can do must ultimately flow from trust in who God is and the understanding that He who sees all will most assuredly see more than we can fathom. He, knowing more than we do about any given situation, always does what is best for our here and now, for that of those we entrust to Him, and for the eternal destiny before us.

Back to my husband’s situation. Do I believe my God can heal Him? You better believe I do, and I am praying with faith for that outcome. Not only do I believe God can heal him, I believe He is willing. The question is, what does God’s idea of healing look like for my husband? Do I trust God enough to surrender my husband to God, trusting His best for all concerned, even if that means his healing is for God to take this mate I love to his eternity? Yes, I do. Do I know that God will be my help to face the days without this man I have spent over 2/3s of my life with, when I cannot fathom life apart from him? I know I can trust my God.

Beloved, we put those we love and all we want in danger if we cannot truly and earnestly say, “Yet not my will, but Thy will be done.” To fail full trust in God, surrendering this one to Him, is to hold my husband as an idol, desiring him above my God. I will not put my husband in that dangerous place, for God says, “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another” ~ Isaiah 48:11.

That said, my prayer becomes, Father, I know You can heal my husband. I know You can help us through these days we face. I long to face these days with Your strength that brings You glory. I believe You are willing to heal my husband and my hope is for more time together here, this is my prayer and desire. But I also know that You know what is best for all concerned. So let Your will be done, on earth and in us, as it is in heaven. I receive every word of hope You highlight for me in this hour, and I stand on You who speak Your will into existence according to Your way and for Your glory. In Jesus, amen.

Oh! Yeah. What about the disciples in the healing they could not perform? I believe there were two problems that hindered their ability: 1) the desire of their affection; and 2) the authority in their desire. See you next post for Difficult Things 2, when I will endeavor to explain.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 5) ~ The Purpose

April 6, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

Listening prayer is a lifestyle of ceaseless communication with God; making every step and every breath an act of obedience flowing from a living and active relationship with Him as our Lord, our very breath of life. This lifestyle is vital to our function in this age in which we live and to our ability to overcome the challenges of a world that is daily moving farther from Him. In closing out this focus today, I am reminded of the purpose and goal of such a vital, God-breathed lifestyle of prayer.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight” ~ Proverbs 3:5-6.

The goal and purpose of listening prayer is to make all our being and all we do and think acknowledge God as Lord, knowing that He is our first and most vital need. He is our Treasure: our eternal Inheritance. To be still within, lifting every breath to Him, the One in whom we place our trust, acknowledges His right as God over us, and our need of Him in all our ways. Here in Proverbs, God promises that, as we acknowledge Him in all our ways, He will make our paths straight.

As I read this proverbs passage today, I found myself praying for God to reveal anything at the heart of my life that fails to acknowledge Him as Lord; anything hindering my seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness (Matthew 6:33). Shortly after that prayer, a book I am reading led me to Deuteronomy:

“The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live” ~ Deuteronomy 30:6.

Circumcising the heart is the removal of all that separates us from complete allegiance to and relationship with God. God reveals the things we lean on or want more than we do Him, and He begins the work of removing from our lives all that hinders our relationship with Him. Some things God graciously removes with hardly any notice of it or work on our part. We just suddenly lose all desire for that thing that interfered with our communion with our Beloved. However, there are some things where God will reveal the interfering offender and then tell us, “Circumcise your heart” (Deuteronomy 10:12-21 *vs. 16). Some things God requires us to do the work; He wants us to choose Him as much as He chooses us.

God holds us as the apple of His eye (Zechariah 2:8). He loves us so much that He made a way for us to have relationship with Him by sacrificing His Son on our behalf (John 3:16). God’s desire is for us, not wanting ANY to perish, but ALL to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). Repentance means to let go of one’s own way, aligning self with God and His ways, so that we walk beside Him in unity of mind and heart, fulfilling His purpose and plan. That requires us to love and desire Him as He does us.

The question is, do we hold Him as the apple of our eye – the center, most prominent treasure we seek to obtain and hold dearest to our heart when possessed? Do we desire relationship with Him so much that we willingly deny ourselves, and, taking up our cross of self-sacrifice daily, determine to follow Him at all cost (Luke 9:23, see AMPC)? Do we truly see God in all His triune essence as our first, most vital need and necessity, so that we choose Him above all else?

The goal and purpose of this call of God for us is that we may grow to love Him and desire Him above all else, fully possessing the eternal relationship He purchased for us. The love He calls us to grow in our possession of as we practice a living, life-giving, listening-prayer life that fully relates with and works alongside Him is best expressed in these words of Paul:

“Grace (God’s undeserved favor) be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with undying and INCORRUPTIBLE LOVE” ~ Ephesians 6:24, AMPC.

Loving God with a love so strong and sure, eternally binds us to Him. Nothing can draw us away from relationship with Him, corrupting our walk, when we come fully into this living, breathing walk of love with Him.

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 4-C) ~ The Way of It

April 5, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.

As we covered yesterday, we quench the Spirit in many ways: fear, doubt, disobedience, and more. Along with God’s instruction to not quench the work of the Spirit in us, here Paul gives a specific way we tend to quench the Spirit of God: through despising prophetic utterances.

What is prophetic utterance?

One work of the prophet is to make God’s word clear and evident as a source of truth and wisdom that applies to our lives today. As the pastor, a teacher, or a friend seeks to encourage us in the truth of God and its application to current life situations: that is prophetic utterance. To ignore that instruction and fail to apply it to some situation the Spirit points our hearts to as we learn of His truth is to despise prophetic utterance. To tell ourselves, as our fleshly soul is prone to do, “Oh, it won’t hurt just this once,” going against the nudge of the Spirit who reminds us of the truths of God and its application to some course we are considering is to despise prophetic utterance.

However, prophetic utterance takes another form in the power of God’s Presence that too many fear acknowledging as true and right in our day. Many in our day do not believe that the Spirit of the prophet works any more as it did in the days of the Old Testament. Though prophesy is a gift listed in the New Testament teachings we live by today, people deny this work of the Spirit. Though Jesus and His apostles taught that God will increase the number of His people who dream dreams and see visions as the day of Christ draws near – methods used by God in making prophesy known, many refuse to believe this gifting still works in our day. They deny themselves the benefit of this communication method sent by God to help us in these days.

I am talking here about those sent by God to warn us of things coming in our day so we can prepare ourselves to face those things, yes; but often times the Spirit of prophesy is a work that is much more personal and close to home than that. Let us look at two examples of such occurrences:

When one of my daughters was a teenager, she was obviously struggling with something, growing more withdrawn and depressed with each passing day, but was not opening up to me about it. Seeking God for Him to reveal and heal the problem, I heard in the “voice” I have long experienced as God communicating with my heart, “There is a demon in your house and he is raping your daughter.” Wow! Too weird for words, I shook my head as if to shake off the ridiculous, but I know that voice, so I did not ignore it. Instead, I prayed, “Lord, that thought is too strange to me, but that is the voice I know as You, so I do not want to just ignore it if that is You. What I am going to do is lay that at Your feet, rest it with You, and ask that, if it is truth from You, You reveal the truth of it and prepare us to deal rightly with it.”

A few days later, my daughter finally came to me, “Mom, I have to talk to you.” She shared with me about horrible, too real to fathom, nightmares she kept having of ghostly, demonic beings raping her in the night.” Now if God had not warned me, I might have shook it off as something other than a battle to be fought on the eternal frontlines.

We covered together all the possibilities: a real life rape forgotten or denied; someone bothering her and causing a fear of potential harm, etc. Anything thought of as a possibility, we discussed and dealt with, but nothing was clear to us at that time. We began fighting on the spiritual frontlines and called on believing friends to help us, praying protection over her and seeking the revelation of any contributing factors. Eventually God did reveal that our daughter saw something as a child that was perfectly innocent, but that was beyond her understanding. It caused a fear in her that revealed itself through this demonic attack against her, along with other troubling dreams. The battle was long and we saw God move in ways that are awesome to my understanding, all of which we would have missed experiencing if I failed to trust that God speaks to us today in such ways.

Then there is the more recent experience of a person in my life who awoke one morning to God telling her, “You need to check your husband’s computer. He has thousands of pornographic pictures.” Again, the message came to her in the “voice” of God, as she knows it.

Her husband struggled for many years with pornography when he was young. When they married, he assured her that God delivered him from that issue. Later she discovered he was again delving into that evil. It led them to separate, but they were trying to work through it and get their marriage back on solid ground. She asked him frequently how he was doing in that area, holding him accountable, and, every time, he told her that it was not a problem. Then there came this word of God’s warning to her.

When opportunity presented itself, knowing the prophetic proves to be from God with revelation of the truth of it, she got on his computer to check things out. Sure enough, there were thousands of images on his computer just as the Spirit said, along with numerous thumb drives full of the stuff. The truly disturbing thing she found is that he had one folder full of pictures of her teenage daughter that he saved from the daughter’s Instagram account. She could find no other family pictures anywhere, not of herself, or of his blood-born son from his previous marriage, only that one folder of her teenage daughter’s pictures, innocent headshots of her, saved among all that porn.

This was not the first time her family’s life was touched by perversion. There were things going on that had many praying for the revealing of truth concerning her current husband, as warning signs kept rising up to cause us to question what was going on with him. The prophetic warning from God received in answer to many prayers for the truth of his heart intentions, a marriage is in shambles, but a child is safe from harm’s way. I shudder to think what might happen if this woman of God despised the prophetic voice of God within, thus, failing to check it out for herself and find the truth.

God gave prophets to the people of Israel because the people were afraid to hear from God for themselves (Deuteronomy 18:15-22). God sent Jesus to restore us to full relationship with Him, bringing this work of the Spirit as a resource to help us. Do not let fear and doubt keep you from trusting God’s voice in you and having the full experience of Him that He desires for you. Trust the Lord who promises to make His word to us known as from Him through His faithfulness that brings all to pass just as He says it will.

Know the voice of God. Cooperate with the work of the Spirit within you. Do not despise and deny the prophetic word sent by God for your good. Instead, examine everything carefully, looking for the truth revealed. Hold fast to that which is good, following the lead of God into righteousness. Abstain from every form of evil, being quick to flee harm’s way when God lovingly reveals an area of danger. God promises that if He is the author of the word sent, we will see the truth of it. Trust Him, and only believe.

Articles, Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 4-B) ~ The Way of It

April 5, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22.

This is long because it is extremely important to understand. I thought about dividing it into two pieces, but I don’t want to lose the flow and possibly miss the full impact.

Communion with God, discerning the voice of God’s Spirit, is vital to our ability to pray in agreement with His will and way in life. It is necessary for our ability to fully, and truly follow Him in fulfilling His purpose in us, just as Jesus did. That said, we all tend to wax and wane in our ability to hear and follow God. We tend to quench the Spirit of God for many reasons: doubt, uncertainty, fear, and probably the most frequent reason, falling to old habits of our flesh: just to name a few.

Scripture tells us that, upon receiving Christ and the Helper Spirit He gives as a seal, the old person we were dies. We become a new creation. In an instant, the old becomes new; but how is that, and why this wavering in our possession and living of the new person we are?

Yesterday, our Associate Pastor brought a wonderful message on this cooperation with the transforming work of the Spirit. I believe it will help us to understand more clearly the importance of our relationship with the Spirit: not quenching Him, but working in unity with Him through radical faith. We must understand our need to discern this mind of Christ in us, so that we may follow His lead.

By way of review, remember, in James 1 we see where James advises that seeking God for wisdom and receiving it only to doubt the wisdom given us, is a result of our being double-minded. The struggle of double-mindedness in the believer who has the Spirit of God, who gives us the mind of Christ to help us, comes from our fleshly mind arguing against the mind of Christ in us. Yesterday, as Pastor Tim taught on this subject, I found myself reminded of things important to realize at this point in this series.

When God created humans, Scripture says, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). This passage reveals that God created in mankind a body (formed of dust), a spirit (given the breath of life that comes from relationship to God), and a soul. He made our soul in likeness to His own, granting us a mind with which to think and understand our surroundings, a personal will by which we may choose our paths for life, and emotions that allow depth of comprehension and expression.

Our body allows us to relate with our surroundings through our five senses: hearing, sight, smell, and the sensations of touch and of taste. These allow full experience of our world and the people and things in it.
The spirit God breathed into human flesh is eternal. The intent and specific purpose of the spirit God breathed into humans was to equip them to relate with God. It was the place where people could experience true understanding of God and relationship with Him. (Stay with me.)
The soul (our mind, will, and emotions) relates with both God and all of creation. Anything that touches our lives, stirs our souls. These experiences lead to the expression of that which makes up our personalities and way of being ~ we learn from those things that touch our soul and become who we are as a person. The soul evaluates and stores the understanding found in the experiences of the body and the spirit. Without our God-breathed spirit to equip our understanding of God, our soul easily distorts the experience of God. This distortion takes place because our finite mind cannot fathom God without the aid of God-breathed spirit; our desire for our own will and way in life leads away from God; and the emotional highs and lows that color our understanding distort clear vision. I.e., Failure to see God work the way we think He should (mind), coupled with failure to recognize His reality in ways that stir us (emotions), and inability to understand our reality in light of the way we think things should be (will), is often distorted to mean that God does not exist or that He doesn’t care.

So now, why the past tense on the description of the God-breathed spirit given humanity at creation and its intended work in our ability to understand and relate with God?

When Adam and Eve sinned by refusing God’s way for them, the ability of the spirit of humankind to commune with God so-as-to know Him in truth, died. Everyone born to man from then on was born with a spirit that has no capacity to relate with the truth of who God is and how He functions. All that remained within us to help our struggle to realize and know God is the soul, which is fickle and based on personal opinion apart from the guidance of the spirit-connection. Our soul is prone to make God into our image, seeing Him with our finite understanding, the same as we view all other things. The soul is unable to truly comprehend that which is beyond our understanding. With our connection of spirit shut off, we cannot truly know how great and awesome God is. We cannot comprehend His voice or understand His ways because they are higher than our souls can fathom.

Then came Jesus. Upon believing in ways that truly receive Christ as God’s redemption for us, Jesus gives us the very Spirit of God, restoring our ability to see and know God as He truly is. His Spirit grants us the ability to understand the Infinite. In that instant, the being we were who could not comprehend God dies. Made new by the Spirit of God, Jesus restores our relationship with the Father.

This is the mind of Christ: the ability to see, hear, know and perceive truly all that God is and desires, and to communicate with Him. By the work of the Spirit in us, we understand all that He is doing as He reveals Himself to us, as well as how we fit into His plan and purpose. Walking through life, dictated by this mind of Christ is true and righteous innocence with God. Such innocence allows us to draw near to God, where He hears and knows us fully, and we hear and know Him.

Problem?

The problem all of us face to varying degrees is this: We are still flesh beings with a soul that has a mind of its own. Our mind wars against the mind of Christ and we too easily return to the old ways of the familiar, quenching the work of the Spirit of God in us. We fail to realize and fully acknowledge the right of rule that belongs to this mind of Christ in us. We quench the work of the Spirit because it is strange to our experience, or because we keep resurrecting the flesh-man so that we may go our own way.

Walking in relationship with God so we have His heart for life and for prayer requires innocence. Possessing it means we actively seek to discern and surrender to the mind of Christ within us, the Spirit of His Presence. The stronger we grow in this eternal practice, the better, as the consistent practice of being Spirit led and fed deadens the rule of a selfish soul that seeks its own way over God’s way.

We cannot truly communicate with God through living, life-giving communication without this bond made by the God-breathed Spirit found in Christ. We cannot be the true person God intended us to be without this connection with Him. Beware those things, beloved, that cause you to quench the work of the Spirit in you.

~*~For consideration~*~

“If then you have been raised with Christ to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead, aim at and seek the rich, eternal treasures that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds and keep them set on what is above, the higher things, not on the things that are on the earth. For as far as this world is concerned you have died, and your new, real life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in the splendor of His glory. SO KILL, DEADEN, AND DEPRIVE OF POWER THE EVIL DESIRE LURKING IN YOUR MEMBERS, those animal impulses and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin. …for you have stripped off the old, unregenerate self with its evil practices, and have clothed yourselves with the new, spiritual self, which is ever in the process of being renewed and remolded into fuller and more perfect knowledge upon knowledge after the image and likeness of Him Who created it” ~ Colossians 3:1-10, AMPC/Amplified Classic.

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world (which is separated eternally from God and cannot truly know Him), but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (only having His Spirit living in us equips us to truly and fully understand and believe). But he who is spiritual appraises (understands) all things, yet he himself is appraised (understood) by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ (so that we may know Him and receive His instruction with understanding, comprehension)” ~ 1 Corinthians 2:12-16, NASB (author’s understanding).

“Since Christ suffered in the flesh for us, for you, arm yourselves with the same thought and purpose, patiently to suffer rather than fail to please God. For whoever has suffered in the flesh, having the mind of Christ, is done with intentional sin, has stopped pleasing himself and the world, and pleases God, so that he can no longer spend the rest of his natural life living by his human appetites and desires, but he lives for what God wills” ~ 1 Peter 4:1-2, AMPC.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 4-A) ~ The Way of It

April 2, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18.

Recall from previous posts in this series that listening prayer is two-way communication.

We speak: God hears and responds. When He responds with words in the Spirit, whether through scripture, the encouragement of other believers, or that gentle inner voice, the work of the Spirit is to grant us understanding of the voice of the Lord. Our work is to hear with the listening ears of a disciple possessing a heart to obey. When God speaks to us in the work of His Spirit in us to encourage our wait for His action, we know the word is from the Lord as it happens in the earth.

He speaks: by faith, we listen and hear with understanding ears open to the Spirit of God who brings knowledge and remembrance of things we need to know so that we can follow through to accomplish the will of God in every situation. The Spirit gives wisdom with understanding comprehension. Listen! And give Him glory.

In today’s focal passage, we see that the will of God for us is that, in every situation of life, we rejoice in Him, praying without ceasing, possessing a grateful heart that expresses itself in us.

Note the “pray without ceasing”: How do we possess a ceaseless prayer life? We accomplish this as we realize that listening prayer begins with communion – friends, walking together in the partnership of life, and it culminates in action. We seek the Lord. He instructs us. We follow His instruction, doing what He equips us to accomplish. Meanwhile, we watch to see Him do what only He can do through our situations and in response to our obedience. We praise the Lord for His work in and through us all along the way. The topper? He rejoices over us who walk so closely with Him.

“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy” ~ Zephaniah 3:17.

Now, what of the “Rejoice ALWAYS…in EVERYTHING give thanks”? That appears easiest to do when things are good—or is it? However, things are not always good. When things are bad, it is definitely difficult to always rejoice and give thanks in everything—isn’t it? Difficulty being part of our always and everything, how do we continue to rejoice and be thankful?

It should be easiest to rejoice in the Lord with grateful heart when things are good; however, that is too often not the case. When God brings us out of a season of difficult and delivers us into the good land, we rejoice in recognizing His work on our behalf. However, when we neglect to realize God moved on our behalf, or when we are long in the good land, we too easily take for granted that goodness and neglect to rejoice and give Him thanks as we should.

Listening prayer maintains constant communion with God, being always aware of the good He does for us, and being faithful to this call in our rejoicing over Him with thankfulness. The stronger we grow in this practice of prayer, the more ceaseless our walk in this will of God for us. Be alert in the good days that you fulfill the will of God in listening communion with Him, laying claim to no good thing as if of your own making, taking nothing for granted.

What about the difficult days, how do we rejoice and give thanks when we see nothing to rejoice over and definitely are not thankful for what is going on? The answer is in our focus during such times, and in our understanding of what this passage teaches us.

Rejoice always: in what? Certainly not in our situations: good or bad. Rejoicing in our situations or in the provision God makes for our life circumstances and possessions He provides for us makes these an idol in our eyes. Rejoicing is always to be in our God – who He is in all seasons, His faithfulness, His help toward us, His presence, etc.

Scripture tells us, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of Your heart.” When our greatest desire is God, we will find Him in every situation, good or bad, and we will be satiated, strengthened, and helped. The scripture says, “The joy of the Lord is my strength”. Growing strong in our ability to find joy in the Presence of our Lord, whatever is going on in life, is what brings us strength to be able to face all that comes to our day. (Psalm 37:3-6; Nehemiah 8:10)

Focus in rejoicing is always in the Lord. When our lives focus on delighting in Him, thankfulness comes easy as we note His work and provision more readily, seeing Him move in to help us, in good days, and in difficult ones.

~*~

“Rejoice in the Lord always – delight, gladden yourselves in Him; again I say, Rejoice! Let all men know, perceive and recognize your unselfishness, your considerateness, your forbearing spirit. The Lord is near…” ~ Philippians 4:4-5, AMPC.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 2-C) ~ The Work of The Helper

March 31, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

Reviewing the work of the Spirit covered in our previous post, we saw that once we receive the Spirit of God through believing faith and repentant heart willing for change, the Spirit moves in, transforming us immediately in our eternal being, covering us with Christ so that God can relate with us. Holy Spirit then begins a work of transformation in our physical being, bearing forth from our lives the fruit of the Spirit, which is the nature of God flowing through us as His image bearers (Galatians 5:22-23). This work of the Spirit in us proves our relationship with God through His saving, grace. We cannot possess godly goodness on our own. That is why works are not part of salvation (Ephesians 2:8-10). Only as the Spirit enables true goodness in us can we truly obey God’s ways. Thus, works are a proof of salvation, proof of true and eternal relationship with God, not the way to it (James 2:18).

God’s Spirit resides in us as teacher, comforter, advocate, and much more, granting us the ability to discern truth about God, His word, His will, His ways, and His reality. Holy Presence grants us the ability to discern sin, righteousness, and judgment, not only in our way of living that requires His transforming work in us, but also equipping us to make choices that are good, prosperous, and blessed. Today we continue with a look at the rest of John 16:7-15.

“…I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”

Jesus told the disciples that He would disclose Himself to those who love and obey Him – God (John 14:21). That means He will make Himself better known to those who meet the criteria of loves obedience: obedience that flows out of relationship.

This walk with Jesus in the Spirit is like walking with a friend. The longer we walk together, the better acquainted we become. As we walk closely with friends, they influence our way of living and being; and we, theirs. This is the reason that scripture warns the believer seeking to grow in relationship with God to watch who they associate with, for bad company corrupts good morals (1 Corinthians 15:33).

Through the power of the Spirit, we still have available to us this relationship with Jesus, who discloses Himself to those who love and obey God. Jesus the Son and Father God reside within us in the person of the Spirit, Who discloses them to us as we walk more closely with Him.

I know that God never changes, for He is perfect in all His ways having no need of change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Believing the truth of this fact, two Old Testament passages come to heart to help us understand this work of disclosure accomplished by the Spirit – this communion that is vital to effective prayer.

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” ~ Jeremiah 33:3.

The Spirit of God as teacher answers our questions and responds to our seeking Him and His ways, in personal and clear ways of communication with us. This includes His vital work of equipping us to understand the Word of God found in Holy Writ, yes. However, there is more: Much more. For example, the Spirit helps us to understand things like why we are the way we are.

I shared many times here my struggle with a root of rejection. A book I was reading, encouraging steps toward healing such things in life, advised to pray for God’s Spirit to remind us of our earliest memory of an unsettled hurt and to help us settle it once and for all. The Spirit immediately brought my thoughts to recall a memory of something I thought was a dream. I said, “Lord, You know I’ve struggled to know if that is a memory or a dream. If it is memory, I need You to lead me to discern the truth of it.”

In this thing that I thought was a dream, I see my daddy and me setting on a couch beside which my mother was packing a big box of my clothes. She said, “You take Darlene and I will take Debbie.” My sis is over four years younger than me. The girl I believed was me in my “dream” was only about three, so that dream like remembrance never made sense that it could be real. Plus, the house setup and furniture was all wrong for where we were when I was three.

A day or two after praying for discernment, going about my day’s home care duties, humming some worship song, my mind was nowhere near thinking about that memory. Suddenly, the Spirit spoke very clearly to my understanding, “Darlene, what if that little girl is not you?” Immediately I realized the little girl was Debbie. My “dream” suddenly flashed with truth of remembrance. I was sitting across from them, that is why in my thought of that occurrence I always saw the little girl I thought was me clearly, setting beside daddy.

Once I realized the truth of my memory and what I saw, I knew that I was about seven or eight years old at the time. The scene then flashed with familiarity and everything fit the period for that setting. My mom and dad were fighting, and mom was packing me up to leave. Debbie sat beside daddy and I watched from across the room as momma prepared to send me away with daddy while she wanted Debbie. Root uncovered! Understanding the root, that my spirit of rejection came from that experience, true healing blossomed forth from there. The Spirit answers us, telling us things we do not know. I shudder to think of the struggle that would still have hold on me had I failed to trust and believe the Spirit speaking to me.

The second passage that comes to heart promises:

“Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the right or to the left” ~ Isaiah 30:21.

The Spirit of God helps us to understand the will and way of God, granting us wisdom for those crossroad decisions. He helps us to have the thoughts of God to counter our negative or false understanding. He helps us to have God’s answer for those who approach us for instruction, encouragement, or understanding of truth. He does all of this as He imparts to us another vital resource we possess for true understanding through listening prayer: we have the mind of Christ. See you here on our next post.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 2-B) ~ The Work of The Helper

March 31, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings 2 Comments

“But when the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Intercessor, Strengthener, Standby comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth Who comes from the Father, He, Himself will testify regarding Me” ~ John 15:26, AB Classic.

Yesterday we covered the provision of God found in His Spirit, that His Spirit is the teacher, equipping us to know and understand the truth of God and His word. He empowers us to discern God’s will and way so we can pray in agreement with God’s opinion. Now, John 15:26 in the classic Amplified Version of scripture adds to our understanding of the work of the Spirt.

God’s Spirit is in us, living in us on behalf of Father and Son, being for us the Comforter, Counselor, Helper, Advocate, Strengthener, and the Stand-by-you Presence of God Himself with us. God, in His Spirit, comforts us in our sorrows and counsels us on our path, which implies a form of clear communication. He helps us through equipping, strengthening, and providing our every true need; and walks with us, always near at hand as we travel through this life, which implies some ability to realize His reality. I have experienced all of these works of God’s Spirit in life, but most recently, the work of God’s Presence as Advocate. It was amazing as I prayed what to do about the situation, the Spirit advised, “Be still. I’ve got this.” Very quickly I heard back from the person expressing their realization of truth. Problem solved, and I did not have to say a word.

There are two ways the Advocate helps us in this life. One: when our flesh, this world, and the demonic seek to knock us down, destroy our sense of worth, or knock us off path, it is the Spirit who helps us recognize ungodly thoughts, desires, and ideas. He corrects us with the truth stored in us through His Presence and gets us back up and going in the right direction again.

When I was an immature Christian, I got involved with a religious group that I since then learned is a cult. Now I was not raised in Church, but an aunt took me when she could, and I read scripture off and on from the day I prayed to receive Christ. I did not know much, but when a friend headed back further into the church building after service, and I asked where she was going, the Spirit used what little I knew to get me out of that group. My friend, responding to my query, said she was going to a bible study. I said, “Oh, really! I love bible study. What are you studying?” Her reply surprised me, “I am studying to take the test so that I may be saved.”

I did not know much, but I knew that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life required for coming to God; the only door to salvation (John 14:6; John 10:9). I knew that belief in who Jesus is and what He did for us coupled with a repentant heart that recognizes our need of His work on our behalf, and a willingness to be transformed by Him through the baptism – indwelling of His Holy Spirit is the path of salvation. It is between the individual and God, not to be determined by some test given by mankind. The Spirit bringing what I knew to contrast what I was hearing led me to leave that place and not return. The Advocate protected me from a path leading to destruction by His work as the revealer of truth. This communication as we seek God and He responds through the work of the Spirit in us is prayer in all its glory.

Two: when a person falsely accuses us because of misunderstanding our words or intent, it is the Spirit of God who moves on our behalf to lead them to a true understanding. Sometimes He speaks through us and gives them ears to hear. Sometimes, when they won’t hear us, He simply leads them to discern truth by some other means.

The main work of the Spirit is to testify to our hearts the truth regarding the Christ. When God draws us to know Him and have ever-deepening relationship with Him, it is the Spirit of God who equips us to hear, see, know, and understand the call of God to relationship. He unites with us, enabling us through a Spirit of willing obedience to respond to Jesus calling, “Come, follow me.”

John 16:7-15, in the breakdown of scripture below, further instructs in the work of the Spirit to help us to an ever-deepening relationship with Father and Son.

“But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. …”

The Spirit of God is necessary for us to understand conviction concerning sin. Convict means to make aware of one’s sinfulness or guilt. Sin separates from God. Sin reveals that we disbelieve that God is all that He says He is and that He does all He says He will do. We cannot experience the fullness of unity with God when walking in habitual, rebellious sin.

God’s Spirit reveals to us the sin in our life, not all at once, but little by little. As we possess greater righteousness, He takes us deeper in our discernment of our sin issues. He teaches us the righteous ways of God, how we are to be and look like Him, and He empowers us to walk free of our sin. Holy Spirit makes us to understand the judgment already set for those who refuse to unite with Him and walk the path He walks, so we can avoid that outcome and learn gratitude for His deliverance.

Besides showing where we are living in sin and delivering us from it, this same work of conviction helps us to evaluate the crossroads of life. He inspires us to recognize a path leading away from God, walking in separation from Him (sin) and the one that keeps us side by side with Him, accomplishing His purpose (righteousness). The Spirit inspires understanding of the consequences of the choices set before us (the judgment of good or evil, prosperity or adversity, blessing or curse). Holy Spirit empowers us once we have this information to make the choice that is God’s will for us.

Beloved, the Spirit of God unites us with the Father and our Savior, empowering us to walk closely with Him so that our lives transform, influenced in positive ways by this relationship, making us as He is in image and practice. The communion we have through this work of the Spirit is the greatest form of prayer available to us.

We will pause here to keep this from getting way longer, and finish up on the work of God’s Spirit tomorrow. BLESSings, Beloved!

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 2-A) ~ The Work of The Helper

March 29, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. God himself has prepared us for this, and as a guarantee he has given us his Holy Spirit” ~ 2 Corinthians 5:4-5, NLT.

God calls and equips us to listen as His disciples, having His provision for our ears to hear and our mind to understand and our heart to stand in agreement so-as-to fulfill His plan and purpose for our being in this time in history. There are two main things God supplies us to equip us for success in our journey as His disciples: The Spirit of God and the mind of Christ. For these two resources to have full sway in accomplishing God’s will in us, we must understand their work in us, and BELIEVE! Today we look at the work of The Spirit of God in the lives of His children.

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. …These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you” ~ John 14:16-17, 25-26.

Jesus tells us a lot about the work of the Spirit in Scripture. Here we see the PROMISE from Jesus that He sends His Spirit to help us. The promise is that we will receive the Spirit and KNOW Him. We can and must as God’s children discern when the Spirit is speaking to us, doing His work as Helper. What is that work?

The Helper empowers us to understand the truth of God and His word.

We cannot fully comprehend the truth of God and His word to us without this work of the Spirit, so when understanding comes, that is not ours to brag about. All credit for our ability to understand the Holy Writ belongs to Spirit-God.

By the same right, when we set under the teaching of our church leadership, they must share with us what the Spirit taught them. The Spirit uses their teaching to take us into deeper understanding, and it is the Spirit of God that raises an “amen” in our Spirit when we hear His truth.

The Spirit is our Teacher and our Brain of Remembrance.

Think about what it takes to teach. There must be clear communication between teacher and student / disciple. The Spirit of God instructs our hearts and enables us to understand the teaching so-as-to apply it to our daily lives. When we forget some instruction, the Spirit is the one who brings it to our remembrance.

Though it may seem to us that our thoughts are our own, that is not always true. The Spirit is God’s response to the prayer of Jesus that we be one with them as they are with each other. Every good and true thought that leads us to the good God desires is from Him in the power of His Spirit that unites us as one with the Father. We cannot take credit for any good that comes to our understanding and actions.

The scriptures tell us two things about God that lead me to this assertion. One, God alone is good, and every good and perfect gift comes from Him (Mark 10:18; James 1:17). Two, when we ask for wisdom, believing and trusting Him to give it, He answers (James 1:5-8).

There is a true and good wisdom available for our possession in the power and equipping of Spirit-God. That wisdom is a gift from God in the power of His Spirit. It is not our own. We can take no credit for it. (James 3:13-18)

I believe this truth is why Proverbs describes Wisdom as if speaking of a person (i.e.: Proverbs 1:20-33). The Spirit of God is true and good Wisdom.

Often people will hear me proclaim, “God said to me” or “God told me”. These truths that I believe are why I do that. Every true and good understanding of truth that comes to me from Him is His speaking to me the instruction needed for life more abundant and full. Giving Him credit for it keeps me mindful that such good is not my own, but His.

I believe He speaks clearly to my heart because I have heard Him. He, many times has told me what is about to come; He gives understanding of what is going on, and truth I need to remember. It comes as a clear thought rising up as my own, but clearly not from my physical mind. Such thoughts always prove to be truly from Him and they lead my feet surly to the path of His choosing (Jeremiah 28:9; Ezekiel 33:33; Isaiah 30:21). I dare not take credit for it.

There is much taught concerning the work of the Spirit in scripture. We continue our journey tomorrow.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Listening Prayer (Part 1) ~ Requires Circumcised Ears

March 28, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“The Lord God has given Me the tongue of a disciple and of one who is taught, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He wakens Me morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as a disciple [as one who is taught]” (Isaiah 50:4, AMP).

Dialogue - one person is speaking and one listening — Dialogue – one person is speaking and one listening

I love this verse in the Amplified Bible version. God often highlights it as a truth for my life, a life-goal to walk out into my reality.

As the saying goes, “God gives us two ears and only one mouth for a purpose; so that we will listen twice as much as we talk.” Listening is a skill God calls and equips us to develop. As Isaiah says, the tongue of a disciple speaks a word in season to those in need of it because that child of God first listens to hear the words of God as His disciple.

God not only gives us physical ears, but He wakens our spiritual ears, circumcising our ears and our hearts so that we hear Him in the power of His Spirit and understand what He is telling us.

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit…” ~ Acts 7:51 (See also Revelation 2:7; Luke 8:8; Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 6:10; John 8:43; Romans 11:8).

Have you dealt with instructing children any? How do we know a child fully understood and received an instruction we gave them? We know when they do what we told them.

The title, Listening Prayer, comes from a book on prayer I read many years ago, bearing that title. In all my years of studying prayer, that book included, my understanding and practice is this: Prayer begins with seeking God on any subject or need; it progresses through hearing and receiving His opinion and instruction; and it ends in our obedience to do as He instructs. Prayer goes from faith filled seeking after God, to belief-fed obedience in action.

Listening prayer flows from a heart that is completely dependent upon God. We humans have a tendency to see our need and pray as if we know what the solution is, failing to realize that, without the Spirit of God’s help, we see dimly, as through a glass.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” ~ 1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV.

Have you ever looked at things through a glass? Glass greatly distorts an image. Some versions translate the word “glass” used here to “mirror.” Even our modern mirrors can greatly distort our understanding of reality. Plus, when we look in a mirror, the focus is on what we see of self and our surroundings. It is not on God and His purposes.

Only God sees all things clearly. He knows our hearts better than we know our own. He knows the hearts of those for whom we pray. He knows how our little thread in the tapestry of eternity fits best into His great plan. Understanding these truths makes it vital that we learn to first seek the Spirit’s instruction even in how we should pray. Once we have his heart on how to pray, it is finished. Once God says, “Here is my opinion,” ‘nough said! Standing in agreement with God says all that needs saying. This is one reason I believe we are to listen more than we speak.

Thus, we begin our journey to understand and practice listening prayer with understanding of our need to seek the Father first in every situation: seeking Him for His circumcision. We need Him to remove our fleshly focus and give us spiritually astute eyes that see as He sees, spiritually astute ears that hear His thoughts on the matter, and a spiritually astute heart that understands fully as He gives discernment in the leading power of His Spirit.

~*~

NOTE: My plan is to do this series of blogs quickly, getting them out each day to its conclusion. However, we have a family health situation that may take precedence over my time for writing. I will do my best to maintain the flow by getting the next posts out quickly. See you next post for part two.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Standing on the Promises

March 21, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the one who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” ~ 2 Peter 1:3-4, NLT.

The promises of God my King, Savior, Champion, Companion. We are in a season that has me leaning heavily on God and His faithfulness.

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. In that time, we busy ourselves with life as we go through the beginning of what may bring us to a long medical challenge in my sweet hubby’s life. He has a biopsy coming up to determine if his issue is cancerous, so we stand, waiting, to see what the Lord will do. (Prayers appreciated)

That said, I am so grateful that, though this life has its twists and turns that can throw us for a loop, we stand fixed and stable because of God’s faithfulness. Here in our focal passage, the author instructs us that we can share the divine nature of God as His image bearers and escape the world’s corruption caused by fleshly desires, by standing, firm in faith, on the promises of God.

God’s promises come to us by His grace alone, but most all we enter into by way of some act of obedience. Jesus promised us His Spirit to guide and equip us for life abundant and full in Him, but that Spirit comes only as we choose to believe the truth of Christ and His life, work, and sacrificial death. Most promises have something we must do to take our stance on that Rock.

This week, as I contemplate what life holds for us in these days of facing whatever we may face with Hubby’s health issues, God speaks to me through 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12. Through this passage, God reminds me that His promise to reveal Himself through me comes to pass as I go about my daily life, keeping my hands busy with the tasks at hand. Through this season of unknown challenges ahead of us, standing firm on God means doing what comes next with hope in Him to accomplish His will through even the most mundane of tasks.

God promises strength in our weakest hours as we make Him our greatest joy and song (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; 13:4; 1 Corinthians 1:27; Hebrews 12:13; Nehemiah 8:10). Knowing God’s promises, receiving His instruction, we take our stance on the Rock of our salvation, fully trusting that God will reveal Himself to and through us in this season we enter in to possess for His glory.

~*~

“Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” ~ 2 Peter 1:5-8, NASB.

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” ~ Hebrews 10:23, NASB.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Jesus, Our Example in Representing God’s Interests

March 3, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“All whom My Father gives (entrusts) to Me will come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will most certainly not cast out [I will never, no never, reject one of them who comes to Me]. For I have come down from heaven not to do My own will and purpose but to do the will and purpose of Him Who sent Me. And this is the will of Him Who sent Me, that I should not lose any of all that He has given Me, but that I should give new life and raise [them all] up at the last day. For this is My Father’s will and His purpose, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in and cleaves to and trusts in and relies on Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up [from the dead] at the last day” ~ John 6:37-40, AMP.

This really speaks a truth to me this morning that I need to possess and walk out into my daily life. I am really bad to not answer the phone or the door if I do not know who it is and feel like dealing with others. This practice is not expressive of God’s way, nor does it fulfill His purpose. He does not cast out or reject those seeking Him. He is THE LIGHT of the World. I am a part of His light on a hill, a lamp set in a place where darkness needs dispelling (Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 10:27; Romans 13:12-14; 2 Corinthians 4:5-7; Ephesians 5).

Jesus constantly remembered His purpose. Jesus kept at heart the truth that God sent Him to do His will and fulfill the Father’s purpose. Therefore, He turned none away without seeing what the Lord would do through Him in the lives of those He met. His purpose was to be the Savior, granting eternal life to all who sought Him, and lifting them to their eternal dwelling with God. He also possessed the purpose of making the Father and the truth of His Word known to all. He embodied the essence of God’s image, bearing forth the fruit of His presence, power, and love into every situation.

God speaks to me this day, reminding me that, like Jesus, it is vital to remember that we are here in this life at this time with a purpose. Jesus alone is Savior. We are Light to draw others to Him, representing Him and His interests in the world. As He did, trusting God to use Him in the lives of those seeking Him, we must do the same.

Now, not all who came to Jesus were truly seeking Him. Some came to oppose Him or to try to expose Him as a fraud. Others came out of curiosity. Many came to see what He could do for them in the physical. Whoever came, He did not turn away, but dealt with them where they were in life. Many, once touched by His love, grace, wisdom, and power, returned to truly and sincerely seek Him. Others never did. With all who came, Jesus fulfilled His purpose in dealing with each, individually or corporately, shining the Light of truth, lovingkindness, hope, and righteousness into their reality. This is Jesus’ example to us, and it is our call in Christ.

God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever: His purpose unchanging. Thus, this remains the Father’s will and His purpose: that everyone who sees the Son in us, those who, through our testimony, He leads to believe in and cleave to and trust in and rely on Him, these too should have eternal life. By following Christ’s example to us, loving on all who come near, shining the light of truth to them, we can take part in the work of God in the lives others with hope of His raising them up at the last day.

~*~

“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” ~ 2 Timothy 4:1-5.

“And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” ~ 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Jesus, Our Example in Glorifying God

March 1, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Jesus knowing their thoughts said, ‘Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Get up, and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, pick up your bed and go home.’ And he got up and went home. But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” ~ Matthew 8:4-8.

What was it that caused the people to glorify God? It was seeing this Man, Jesus, walking in the authority God gave to fulfill His purpose. Jesus, our example, shows us how to bring glory to God.

Beloved, we each have a calling, an equipping, the authority from God to fulfill His purpose in this day. Do you possess the authority God gives you and walk in it? People seeing you doing what only God can empower you to do, doing so as a gift possessed and used with full assurance of faith brings glory to God. This requires we hear and receive His call and trust His supply for fulfilling our purpose for being in this hour.

“We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us” ~ 2 Corinthians 2:17, NLT.

Whatever we say, whatever we do as followers of Christ, we must do in the authority He gives us in the work done. I write because God instructs my heart often that this is my calling, with full equipping from Him. When I write what He gives me, it flows with the assurance of His authority and provision, so I can write with certainty, owning what I know true.

I post my writings online because that is what God instructed my heart to do. This blog is a platform sanctioned by God with assurance that each post will go far and wide, to all He desires to receive it. Whether read by only one or a million and one, that is not my concern. My authority and equipping is to write it. God’s authority and power is to lead those to read it that He desires to speak to. It is your authority and equipping from God to discern His voice in the words and receive it so-as-to walk out His will in your life.

Whatever you do, beloved, realize the authority of God in it. If you do not see Him there, leave it. That thing, for you, is a work in futility, having little or no eternal worth. However, when inspired and equipped by God, it comes with authority to accomplish things of eternal value. Grasp hold of the assurance of God’s calling and equipping you and press forward with faith to fulfill your call (Colossians 4:17).

~*~

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” ~ See Romans 12.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Convinced of This: God is With Me

February 18, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” ~ Isaiah 41:10.

As I have my time with the Lord each day, it is amazing how much of His Word is set in place for our benefit, to lead us surly to Holy Habitation with God. None more vital than this promise expressed in Isaiah 41:10. For personal and full assurance that no matter what comes into our lives in this earth, whether through persecution or penance, we must fully believe that God is with “ME”! He is with ME to help ME.

None of the other promises I can think of, that assure our hearts, can stand-alone. They are dependent on this one fact, sealed and secure in our hearts. We cannot believe that God will truly help us if we fail to know that He is with us. We cannot hope for His deliverance or protection if our hearts tell us He is nowhere around.

Say it aloud, beloved, “God is with ‘ME’, working ALL THINGS for my good and His eternal glory!” Say it over-and-over, throughout your days, until it is settled and unstoppable in your spirit. Only with this sure knowledge are our fears, qualms, and uncertainty assuaged. Only with this sure understanding can we face even the best of days with the victory God desires and designs for us as His Holy Children.

Realize that God is our single greatest possession: no one or thing can snatch us from His hand. Only if we let this truth go without care can we fall away from Him. He is our inheritance: our exceeding, great reward. Only as we possess fully the relationship that knows God’s presence is with us can we overcome the flesh, stand in the midst of trouble, or live free in the challenges of this fallen world.

Put God’s word in your heart, beloved, where no thief can steel and no rust rot it away. Remind yourself continually of this vital truth, “No matter where I am, God is with me, and His heart desire and design is for my good.”

~*~

“Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money, including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions, and be satisfied with your present circumstances and with what you have; for God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you, nor let you down or relax My hold on you! Assuredly not!” ~ Hebrews 13:5, AMP.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you” ~ John 14:16.

Articles, Holy Habitation

Braving the Raging Waves of the Political Seas

February 17, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

In my time with the Lord today, two things spoke to me for our nation and the political seas raging around us.

Matthew 7: 24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. 26 Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall. 28 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

Following the principles found in scripture, our forefathers built and established the United States of America on God’s rock. Many want to deny this fact. To do so is to tear down our foundation that is solid and has held us stable for over 200 years. Those seeking to do that, work to place our foundation on sand. That sand will shift with the storms raised up at the whim of every person who thinks they have a better way.

It is vital in this election that we choose someone who realizes what is going on with the foundation of our nation; someone who knows God and whose life is founded on that Rock; someone focused to rebuild the ruins under US. This one will not be a perfect man, but he will be a man, perfected in Christ, made ready and fully equipped for service. Choosing well requires us to make our choice in the authority we have in Christ, led by Him, possessing faith and in full assurance of God’s controlling influence.

As I read John 6 today, God instructed my heart to understand that Americans are looking for a Savior and are going by throngs to the one they think looks to fit that need. Fear causes us to panic and act out of a desire to save ourselves and join with those we think can deliver us. To those of the body of Christ, we already have a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We need no other. What we do need is to walk by faith to support the candidate that most resembles Christ and is clearly led by Him with feet set firm on His holy foundation. Only that one is His chosen leader to take us back to our foundational roots and make our nation strong again (1 Kings 19:9-15a).

In John 6:20, Jesus says to those watching Him coming on the storm-tossed sea, “It is I; do not be afraid.” This storm that is raging around us belongs to God for His use in helping us to refuse to focus on the wave; instead, turning our attention to the Savior who is walking toward us. There is but one boat He will climb into with His chosen, but we have to brave the seas with Him, get on that boat with Him, and watch for Him to calm the storm. Verse 21 says, “So they were willing to receive Him into the boat, and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.” When we get on the sea with Jesus, He will help us find our boat and get us to the shore of His choosing.

I struggled for weeks, watching every debate I could, listening to news releases, searching info online for each candidate, perusing their websites and the list of issues they have a heart to address. I settled on one several times only to find my ears assaulted by voices proclaiming all his faults, as they see it, thus being set out to search anew. The constant fighting, arguing, and character bashing between them readied me to throw up my hands up in defeat of finding the one. The minute God showed me that the bashing of character going on was raising fear in me and I needed to realize even this storm is under God’s control, peace came and I knew my candidate.

Are you, like me, struggling to find the chosen? Join me today in the boat with Jesus, the author of our salvation and perfecter of faith, who chooses our leaders before we do. He will lift up in your heart the one He has chosen, and peace will immediately return despite the waves on the political seas. Search the candidates out to know their heart, yes, but do so looking for the boat Jesus is in. Once you reach shore, having found your boat, “trust in the Lord and do good” by placing your vote (see Psalm 37).

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Look to the Light, Then Cast the Vote

February 12, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God” ~ 3 John 1:11, NLT.

I don’t know about you, but I am struggling to find the candidate for the Presidency that I believe to be God’s chosen leader for such a time as this. About the time I think I found my candidate, they do or say something that sets me back to the hunt again. Crying out to God for His revelation of that person, today He instructs me to “Look at their example.”

Recently, I warned a friend to focus on the light of God rather than the darkness he is facing. We humankind have a tendency to look at all the bad and evil where, failing to find any hope there, we become confused, disoriented, and disparaging. Encouraging my friend, I cautioned him to keep eyes on God, the source of light and hope. Only there will we find help to see us through the darkness all around us.

As I consider my struggle to find a candidate to support, I realize that my eyes keep focusing on the darkness. With that, “Physician, heal thyself”, comes to mind. I realize instead of looking at the individual and sizing them up, I need to look for the character of Christ, the Light of God emanating from the person. Those who sincerely seek after and follow God, behaving in likeness to Him as His ambassador, representing His interests, are the most qualified for the job. Anyone doing less than that will fall under the weight of the position they seek to fill.

Yesterday I wrote the article on being part of the welfare of the nation by pparticipating in the freedom we have to vote for our leaders, taking full advantage of God’s provision for us in this place. Today, as I consider the difficulty I have finding God’s choice for President in this season, the thought to follow Jesus—looking at those who most exhibit His character and choose them, helps me. That narrowed the field greatly for me in several positions up for appointment. With this instruction, discouragement and frustration is replaced with hope of seeing and doing my best as one ordained to help in increasing the potential for our nation’s well-being.

Join me in looking for those candidates who are obviously in Holy Habitation with God. Look for Jesus and choose Him.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Come, and You Will See

February 4, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“And Jesus turned and saw them following, and said to them, ‘What do you seek?’ They said to Him, ‘Rabbi (which translated means Teacher), where are You staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come, and you will see.’ So they came and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day, for it was about the tenth hour” ~ John 1:38-39.

I believe in this study of Holy Habitation we have looked at this verse before, but today it speaks to me anew as I begin the journey of exiting a pit of heartache and despair to press forward in hope with faith anew. Holy Habitation is getting up each morning with expectation of following Jesus through the day, seeing where He is staying and doing what He is doing. It is the example He sat for us to follow as He daily did what He saw His Father doing, and this is the goal of Holy Habitation.

Any time we find ourselves in a pit of despair and oppression, this mindset is the way out. Jesus never leaves us in a pit. He is always with us, even in the darkest pit, making His presence known as He lifts us up with the crook of His staff and guides us every step of the way out. Today I am on the climb, watching for where I see God stepping before me in the day, and following Him to get needful things done.

When going through a rough patch that sees the proverbial floor yanked out from under our feet and us sitting in the bottom of a hole someplace, it can be difficult to stand up, dust off, and press forward. On such days, the smallest accomplishment is a victory worth dancing over. Combing ones hair can hurt in the bottom of a pit, but that may be just the step up that can lead to the next step that leads out of the pit.

Today God tells my aching heart that lies wilted at the bottom of just such a pit to follow Him and He will lead me out. “Read My word. Focus on prayer. Get up often, at the unction of my Spirit, and do what comes next.” Slow but sure, I follow Jesus to see where He is, and He leads me to His place where light and life reside.

Holy Habitation is a daily journey with a Holy God who cares for you. As you walk this journey faithfully, God will be faithful to lead you through to glory’s light.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ The Shepherd’s Crook, Part 2

February 1, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. …” ~ Psalm 23, NASB.

Following the Good Shepherd, Jehovah-Raah, requires complete surrender that trusts Him to be God and Father, leading us to the place of His desire, designed for the glory of His name. Faith in God to be the Good Shepherd for a life of abundance despite the issues of life in this world realizes that He has a purpose in all things. Resting with surrender that trusts His purpose equips us to find in His pastures the resources He provides for our growth and maturity as His children, made in His image. Equipped to trust in the Lord and do good, in His pastures, we find opportunity to make a difference in the situations of life. With heart attuned to Him…

“He leads me beside the still and restful waters”

Surrender to trust in the Lord to do the good He has for us produces a faith toward Him that equips us to find His rest in the midst of difficult experiences. Jesus exemplified this when He slept in the bow of a boat while His disciples panicked (Matthew 8:18-27). Jesus fully trusted His destiny to God, knowing God would fulfill His good word to Him; so much so that He was able to rest in the midst of life’s literal storm.

Temptation to panic is a sign of one’s need to be still and know God. Seeking Him to reveal the faith we must possess in Him concerning our situations will find Him responding to lead us to the place of still and restful waters in the midst of hardship. Hope filled with earnest expectation that God will be God even in the storm, is the ingredient of His Spirit at work in us that leads us to His rest. This restfulness of Spirit resides in us even though we often see the rushing waves of the river nearby and feel the winds of life’s storms around us. Despite such torrents, God faithfully provides a place of safety and security. Finding us completely reliant upon Him…

“He refreshes and restores my soul – my life”

When storms come to life, they tend to change the dynamics of the life we know. Those times can make it difficult to press forward. The solution is to find His hand and trust The Good Shepherd, who faithfully leads to green pastures and quiet waters. Refreshed in His presence, restoration comes as …

“He leads me in the paths of righteousness…not for my earning it, but for His name’s sake.”

Following the Lord requires faith to trust Him to get us to the place He has for us in life’s situations. Scripture tells us that, “A man’s mind plans his way as he journeys through life, But the Lord directs his steps and establishes them” (Proverbs 16:9, AMP). When we are truly following the Lord, He establishes our steps, making them effective.

There is always eternal purpose for the paths upon which God puts our feet. Trusting and following Him step by blessed step, with faith that knows His sovereignty that works good things out of all we face, will lead to the glory of His name and fulfillment of His purpose and plan.

Trust in Jehovah-Raah, Beloved. He will bring you through this life with a testimony of your experience of His peaceful pastures. He, whose thoughts are higher than our own and whose ways are beyond our comprehension, faithfully astounds us as we see His glory come out of experiences that are unfathomable to our finite minds.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ The Shepherd’s Crook, Part 1

January 29, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

When life gets hard and my body wants to hide under a rock, denying all that is coming at me, The Lord comes to me as a Shepherd, reminding me of His sure presence and instructing my heart anew that I can follow Him, step by step and breath by breath, through each day. Jehovah-Raah, The Lord my Shepherd, calls me to follow Him so I do not fall away in the storm and lose my way in life, trying to do for myself what only He can do. The Amplified version of Psalm 23 further increases hope for the help of my God in difficult days.

“THE LORD is my Shepherd to feed, guide, and shield me, I shall not lack”

When the waters get rough, the first thing I too easily strive for is to try to fix things. I run around like the proverbial headless chicken, wearing myself to a frazzle, trying to do what is only God’s to handle. Too often I do this without first seeking Him and His ways.

The best thing for me to remember in any situation is my need to follow my Shepherd, trusting His provision for all the need I see before me. This trust calls me quickly to seek Him and His righteousness first before taking any action. Often He uses the Shepherd’s Crook of His Spirit, urging me forward or pulling back to right paths. Through His Word and the Spirit’s lead, He lets us know when there is something to do. Following God’s Spirit, I learn the benefit found as I walk where He walks, feast on His supply, and find my rest under His Fatherly wings. Doing so…

“He makes me lie down in fresh, tender, green pastures”

In “fix-it” mode, I too easily miss the good God has for me in life. “Fresh, tender, green pastures” speak two things to me:

† This is a place where I can find food and God’s resource meant to nourish, grow, and change me to be all He intended when He planned me.

† This is a place of opportunity where, with reliance upon God, He can use me in right ways that accomplish His purpose.

I don’t have to be the “fixer”. I can trust God to take care of all I entrust to Him.

God often takes us through seasons that are too hard for us to face without Him. He uses these things to make us “lie down”, a position of complete surrender to His will, trusting Him, placing all reliance upon Him. When we lie down in His pastures, we find ourselves in a place that requires our full trust in His protection, provision, and direction.

In the pastures of our Good Shepherd, Jehovah-Raah, we learn to know God. God is in the business of creating for Himself a people after His own heart, readied for His Kingdom. Life’s storms are part of that work of God, revealing areas of needed change, growing our faith, changing our hearts and our nature to the image of God. Here God, feeds, guides, and shields us so that we have no lack of any true need in life. He is our only true need, and He gives Himself to us as we walk in the pastures in which He places us, trusting Him to be the Good Shepherd over all we find there. The things He allows us to experience on the paths of His pastures causes us to lie down in surrendered trust of Him, believing with faith in His supply for our ability to discover and accomplish His purpose for life.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Hallowed the Name

January 28, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven’” ~ Matthew 6:9-10.

There are seasons and situations in this life that are just hard, and that can be stating it lightly. Can I get an “amen”!

In such times, it can be difficult to know even how to pray. That is when God most often leads me to the Model Prayer outlined for us by Jesus. Today, as He leads me anew to this format, I note that the first three parts of our outline all point us to realize who God is: His attributes, nature, reality, faithfulness, and sovereignty. Just as the names of God point us to all we can know true of Him, Jesus reminds us to remember these things ~ first and foremost ~ before ever considering our daily need.

Holy habitation remembers:

God is our Father ~ Jesus tells us that He is a Father we can trust to give us that which is best for us (Matthew 6:25-7:11). Believing this true, I know that when hard times come to our lives, there is a purpose from Father that we may not understand until we come through the fires to see His glory. I also believe the author of Hebrew, who tells us in chapter 12, verse 10, that our Heavenly Father disciplines our lives “for our good, so that we may share His holiness.”

The scriptures are one source of God’s discipline, being “inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). Discerning the truth of His word is vital to our ability to walk through life and weather its storms.

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness” (Hebrews 12:11). God is Father, doing what is best for His children, so that we are not condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:32).

God is in heaven above ~ This truth reminds us that as we enter into the intimacy of relationship with God as Father, we must always remember that He is Sovereign, Lord of all. Nothing in life happens without His notice, and all that happens He works to fulfill His purpose (Romans 8:28-39). When things get rough, it is not the time to fall short in our faith that God is Sovereign above all, working in and through our lives to bring us to His holiness. That is when we most need to look to Him for discernment of the work His hand is producing in our lives.

Hallowed be Your name ~ No matter the trouble we face in this life, we can trust God to be holy: to be who He says He is, doing all He says He will do. In times of trouble, I too easily see the trouble and think God is somehow losing the war. Yet true faith to believe God “is” and that He is the reward for those who seek Him, continues to trust, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven.”

God is working an eternal purpose. He has more than the fleeting time we have in this life at heart. We may not fully understand His purpose for allowing the fires of testing or our times in the lion’s den, but He has eternal purpose with eternal perspective that is working for our good, not our harm. Failing to believe and trust Him when things get hard is to fail to know God.

“Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own” ~ Philippians 3:12, AMP.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Christ, The Life-Light

January 25, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” ~ John 1:5.

In this passage, Apostle John gives Jesus the descriptive name of “The Light”. One responsibility Jesus had in His time on earth as a man was to correct misconceptions people had regarding God and the truth of His will and way. Reading this passage in The Message Bible the other day, Eugene H. Peterson’s interpretation grabbed me with renewed fervor and comprehension.

“What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out. …The Life-Light was the real thing: Every person entering Life he brings into Light. ‘…my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize Him (The Life-Light) as the God-Revealer’” (says John the Baptist) ~ John 1:4-5, 9, 31, MSG.

Here, John the Apostle describes Jesus as the Life-Light, the one who makes true life in God known. He quotes John the Baptist as proclaiming Jesus as the God-Revealer. This is the work of The Light. Jesus made God known and brought His reality into view for all to see.

Beloved, Jesus calls on us as His ambassadors, to do the same. In John 8:12, Jesus proclaims, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus passes the responsibility on to us who follow Him out of the darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9): “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We, the called of God, are to be The Light, shining out to dispel the darkness of this world by being His representatives, equipped as God-Revealers in the likeness and fervor of Christ. Later in the reading of this John Passage in The Message bible, John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to some of his followers. Two of them followed Jesus. Getting His attention, Jesus invited them to see where he was living.

“They came, saw where he was living, and ended up staying with him for the day” ~ John 1:39, MSG.

As people seeking to live in Holy Habitation with God, it is vital that we develop a relationship with Jesus, The Light, who reveals the truth of God to us in our daily situations. Only then can we be Light that rightly represents Him. When we stay with Him throughout our day, in close union with Him, He shines through to reveal Himself in us.

Jesus calls us to be His Light in the world. Light must have a power source. Plug into Him every day and stay plugged in so His Light may continue to shine. Do not hide the Light or fear its brightness dispelling the dark and exposing things hidden in blackened corners. Shine bright in this day and glorify the Father in the name of the Son.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Day 15

January 19, 2016 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“Then Moses said, ‘I pray You, show me Your glory!’ And He said, ‘I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you…’” ~ Exodus 33:18-20, NASB.

Happy New Year, beloved. I pray your Christmas was indeed blessed and that you are ready to press forward with God for another year of partnership with Him in the work of Life. As we begin our journey anew to develop a life in Holy Habitation with God, let us begin today with the glory of God seen in His proclaiming His name before us.

Beloved, to understand the importance of this aspect of God’s glory revealed to us, we must understand how vital the name of God is to us and how His name over, in, and through us empowers our lives. Before peeking at the proclamation of God’s names as seen in scripture, let us understand the purpose and power found there.

To begin, realize, beloved, that Jesus never taught us to pray to Him, but to the Father in Jesus’ name. “Our Father who art in heaven…” is the model Jesus gave us to follow in praying to God. And He instructs in John that we are to ask in His name: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full” (John 16:23-24; See also Matthew 6:9; John 14:10-14, 26; 15:16).

Here is the thing about our prayer life and holy habitation with God in Christ Jesus, beloved: all that we do, all that we pray, all that we say, and every thought we think is to be in Jesus name, as rightly and truly represents Him and His interests. There is power in the name of Jesus as we realize our call to be His ambassador’s, representing His interests and kingdom purpose in our lives, thoughts, prayers, and ministries. God grants power to those sent forth in the name of the King to do kingdom business. This is what we are, ambassadors with the authority of the King behind us.

Jesus is our example who tells us that He came and lived in the name of the Father, representing Him in the world: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works” (John 14:10).

He calls us to this same unity of life and purpose:

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him. … If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me” ~ (John 16:18-21, 23-24).

Jesus came to teach us of the Father. He did so by being a representation of God’s nature, purpose, work, and interests, in the power of oneness with the Father. He, as our example, calls us to do the same in representing Him and His interests, thus proclaiming His name in the world. Living, breathing, speaking, and moving in the name of Jesus is the power of God toward us, doing His work in the earth through us.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Day 13

December 22, 2015 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“…But He said, ‘You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!’ …” ~ Exodus 33:18-23, NASB.

Moses came as close as any mere human can come to seeing the face of God, yet his view was dim. God did not let him see His full essence with clarity for the protection of his human life.

In scripture, we see that the glory of the angel is enough to make a man faint. How much greater glory the full essence of God: it is beyond our ability to look upon it without our falling over dead from the effects the greatness of His essence has on weak human flesh.

Consider a time when some excitement flooded your body with the hormones that rush forth, overcoming your ability to function as it drained your face of life’s force. That understanding is but a shadow of the effect the full impact of God’s glory, purity, and righteous illumination has on human frailty. So, God tells Moses, “You cannot see my full expression. The effect on you would kill your flesh.”

Now think about that, beloved. We love life and don’t want to die. God loves us and has a purpose for us to fulfill in this life. He knows that the weakness of our flesh cannot see Him in all His glory and live. Therefore, He holds His glory back to protect our life and keep us safe until the fulfillment of His purpose for our living is completed.

On the flip side, the vision of the glory of God kills our flesh. Physically, we want to live and fulfill God’s purpose, but we can only do that from a thriving Spirit-life. Spiritually, we want our flesh-man dead, so our Spirit-man may thrive. Recognizing the glory of God, longing for more and more realization of His glory with us and in us, is the weapon of God against our flesh rising up from the ashes to disturb our journey as partners in the glory of God.

“Where there is no vision [no revelation of God and His word], the people are unrestrained; But happy and blessed is he who keeps the law [of God]” ~ Proverbs 29:18, AMP.

Revelation of God, understanding of who He is, His essence, reality, will, way, and glory, is the key to restraining fleshly impulse. Though we cannot see His fullness without the destruction of our physical being, we must grow to realize the glory God does reveal to us. Only then can we overcome our fleshly desires in order to walk in the ways of God, in the power He supplies through His Spirit at work in us who are an expression of His essence to the world.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Day 9

December 18, 2015 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name’” ~ Exodus 33:17, NASB.

Walking in God’s favor empowers our lives and makes us fruitful as His people. It is a sign of intimacy with God, being a people after God’s own heart. Along with that is the increased intimacy of friendship with God as ones knowing each other well, privileged to call each other by name.

Known by name:

I know many people when I see them, but those I know best, I know by name; and those I am most intimate with, I know by their chosen or preferred name. This passage leads me to the understanding that it is the same with God.

Some have a shallow acquaintance with Him, while others draw near on a first name basis. People who possess a depth of knowledge as His chosen people that goes beyond mere acquaintance come into a friendship with God that is real and alive.

When God speaks to my heart, 99 times out of a hundred He begins by getting my attention as He calls out, “Darlene”. That sign of intimacy goes the other direction as the child of God learns the names of God, calling on Him with intimate knowledge of who He is (something we will look at closely in days to come).

Deeper intimacy still is found in a relationship that has God naming us according to His desire for us (Revelation 2:17). We see this in instances of people’s relationship with God in Scripture:

Abram (exalted father ~ Genesis 11:27, NASB footnote) becomes Abraham (father of many ~ Genesis 17:5, NASB footnote). Abram’s name change takes him from being the start of a nation to the promise of being the father of more than can be numbered.

Jacob (heel catcher, trickster, supplanter) becomes Israel (he fights or persists with God in prevailing prayer). Jacob no longer relied on himself and trickery to get what was his. He learned to rely on God and receive from His hand.

Simon (he has heard) becomes Peter (rock – one who stands on what he knows and speaks what he believes).

And in my time, Darlene (Beloved) becomes Abigail (Rejoicing – One whose heart rejoices in God. One in whom the heart of God rejoices.) God gave me this name long ago during a time of drawing near to Him and it became my mantra, my life goal, to live so-as-to bring Him rejoicing as I rejoice in Him. For someone who has suffered much rejection and the fear of rejection, this name inspires hope and helps me to know that God does not reject me, but has chosen me, and He finds joy in my presence with Him.

Knowing God inspires faithfulness that wins favor. Him knowing us produces an intimacy that is deep and abiding, as face to face as we can possess in this life, based on a love that never fails.

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

Holy Habitation: Living Continually Seated at God’s Feet ~ Day 8

December 17, 2015 Darlene's Ponderings Leave a comment

“The Lord said to Moses, ‘I will also do this thing of which you have spoken; for you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name’” ~ Exodus 33:17, NASB.

Throughout our journey to date, it is clear that holy habitation with God flows from a relationship with Him that is real, personal, and intimate. Here we see two ingredients to intimacy ~ finding favor with God (today’s focus), and knowing a relationship with Him that is on a first name basis (tomorrow’s focus).

Finding favor with God:

Type the word “favor” into BibleGateway word search, and 358 scriptures pop up for consideration. From the favor given Noah in Genesis 6:8 to that given those who hate evil deeds just as God does found in Revelation 2:6, we find the things that lead us to the position of a people having God’s favor. Glancing through these, I see that intimate relationship with God that produces His heart in us, leads us to the place of the favored people of God.

One of the greatest things said of Noah forms my heart cry as I seek to be a woman, walking in God’s favor: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).

The world found itself condemned by God because the people turned their back on Him to go their own way. Noah, alone, walked with God and, finding the favor of God, became God’s chosen instrument for renewal, leading to his salvation along with that of his family. Walking with God when everyone else goes the other way, having a heart after His heart, wins God’s favor.

Walking in God’s favor brings strength to overcome hardship and power for life abundantly full, thus touching the lives of others, helping them to know strength and power. Though the road may be difficult, as was Noah’s, walk with God day by day, breath by breath, beloved, and His favor will meet you.

1) BibleGateway word search results ~ https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?search=favor&version=NASB;AMP;NLT&searchtype=all

Seeking Holy Habitation, seated at God's feet (Exodus 15:13).