Tag Archives: Uniqueness

Devotional Series, Holy Habitation

God’s New Year Resolve

Leave a comment

In 1 Thessalonians 4:1, Paul encourages the reader to “excel still more” in their Christian walk and desire to please God. Reading that at this time of year brings my thoughts to the yearly habit of New Year’s resolutions.

I stopped years ago hopping onto that see saw. I’m not good at sticking to those. However, that doesn’t mean I stopped the work of changing my habits in the areas that need work. God simply inspired a different focus for me to practice in seeking to make progress in bettering those habits that are not the best. His way, with His help, works much better for me. I’ve shared it before, but here it is again, with hope of inspiring others like me.

Each year, for many years now, God has highlighted some verse or passage of scripture regarding an area He sees that I need to grow in. Last year (2016) was the need to strengthen my practice of “Holy habitation” with Him, a work of sanctification (Exodus 15:13). This year’s focus is a continuation of that: to realize and surrender myself to the fact that my old life is crucified with Christ, and that my new life requires cooperating with His work, allowing Him to live on in me (Galatians 2:20). For 2018, God if leading me to a much narrower focus on this sanctification He is working in me.

Through Hebrews 12:1-13, God is instructing me to excel still more at surrendering to His discipline. Most specifically my charge is found in verse 11-13:

“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. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” Hebrews 12:11-13 NASB

Throughout my 2017 journey, God has constantly brought to my attention that all sin is sin because it refuses those things that please Him. It is refusal to acknowledge His Lordship and seek Him first in our choices.

God is calling me to excel still more in strengthening my hands and feet for straight paths by making decisive resolutions with every breath to do what pleases Him as His disciple. Healing will come to areas of struggle with bad habits as I receive His discipline that keeps my feet on the straight and narrow.

Beloved, I encourage you today to get God’s focus for you in this new year. Don’t just reach out and grab something. Watch for the Spirit to grab you with the word from the Father for you. He knows best what you need, and Him being at the center of it is the power that accomplishes the good He desires.

When you receive His focal passage for you, write it out. Read it in many different translations. Carry it with you and refer to it often. Meditate on it. Keep a journal of experiences and other passages God uses to instruct you on your subject matter. You’ll be amazed as He directs your path this year to thoughts and opportunities that grow you in the area of HIS RESOLVE.

Body of Christ, who I am in Christ

Child, BE Who You Truly Are

Leave a comment

I am reminded in my Heart Quest study today of what God began showing me more clearly at Quest. We are a new creation and must learn to work and function out of the new that is in the world, but not of it—aware of the world and its ways, but not touched by it so as to be knocked back into the old. The lesson instructed us to write out what God said to us in our study today. Here is what I discern:

“Darlene, Remember that you are a new creation and walk in it. Learn to function in the new that is Me, where belief and trust come easy because we are one and you KNOW Me. Take hold of the eternal to which you are called and possess it as belonging to you even now, because it does.

“You have known for some time that Kingdom living can and should be your here and now experience out of which you flow. Major in this way of life I am showing you and go deeper still in your understanding and experience of its truth so you may become in this life more and more who you truly are in Me, the person you will be eternally. Some will enter the eternal Kingdom in shock because they will not even recognize, much less know, themselves. Don’t be one of them. Draw near to Me and I will draw near to you, beloved, and I will teach you the depths of who you are in Me. Be all that I show you in ever increasing surrender and I will use you to reveal the truth of My Kingdom in the earth.”

Body of Christ, who I am in Christ

Dispelling the Darkness: A Look at Psalm 37 – Part 10b

Leave a comment

This has been an awesome journey for me. I cannot tell you what God has taught me and done in my life as we have walked with one another through this time. Seeing all these truths flow together has been like putting the puzzle pieces in order and finally seeing the full picture of what God is showing me personally: a portrait worth affixing to the backing I call “my life”, hanging it up for all to see. My hope is in God that the communication of the things in my heart flowed to the pages of this text well enough to help your journey as it has mine.

Today we conclude our study of “Dispelling the Darkness” as we continue our look at 1 Peter 2:4-10: having covered 4-8 yesterday, we continue through verses 9 and 10 adding to our understanding of who we are in Christ.

“But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR GOD’S OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (vs. 9-10).

As living stones with Christ, we are:

A Chosen Race

We become part of the household of the chosen people of God when we enter the gate that is Christ:

“‘Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.’ …So Jesus said to them again, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Matthew 7:13-14; John 10:7-10).

Those He calls He also chooses, and as we choose Him, we enter through the gate to walk the narrow way found in life through Christ. God turns none away who come with repentant heart, sincerely desiring the new life provide through His Son.

Do you struggle with a spirit of rejection, beloved? To us in Christ, God says, “You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you” (Isaiah 41:9). So smile and take heart. You are not alone and you are not cast away. We are chosen to be…

A Royal Priesthood

We are back at 1 Peter 2:4-5, “And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a HOLY PRIESTHOOD, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

In Christ we are birthed into the lineage of Levi, made one with Christ in a holy priesthood. He is now High Priest forever, interceding on our behalf before the Father. The curtain is torn and cast away because He stands perpetually in the Holy of Holies as Advocate on our behalf; thus slinging wide the doors so we may enter in through Him, the Narrow Way, to address the Father in the name of Jesus: we are Christ’s own beloved representatives. We are enabled through Christ to be the beloved children God desired we be from the start, having communion and walking with Him in the garden of our lives. Thus we are Royal Priests with all the responsibility that blessed position holds.

I believe we pretty well covered that role yesterday as we went through the traits of living stones, but let us apply that now here as a beginning toward understanding the role of our priestly estate. As priests unto God:

† We call all to the time of response to the Holy Sacrifice for sin, announcing Messiah as the Holy Lamb provided by God, calling all to repentance and to restoration with God through Jesus.

† We encourage others to turn from sin to God, bringing to the altar in their body the sacrifice of denying self to follow Christ, so He may reign in all who respond through Life, making us holy, consecrated to the Father.

† We grow strong in God’s truths, His law and His ways, proclaiming them to all in need of greater understanding of their application in our day. We not only proclaim these truths, but we walk them out in our daily lives, not living as hypocrites that say one thing while doing another, but realizing that we represent Him and His interests in the world as ambassadors of Christ. Thus we walk as He walked, honoring God as Lord, following Him as Master; and we live as He lived, denying self to meet others at their point of need, with hope that they might enter into this blessed union with us.

† We rejoice over God in all His fullness, leading others to join us in celebration as we share His presence in our lives. Encouraging one another in the Beloved, we share God’s comfort as He has comforted us.

Thus we have a beginning of understanding our role as a Royal Priesthood. As each of us rest in the truth that we are a chosen race, seriously taking on our priestly role, He works in and through us to make for Himself…

A Holy Nation

Becoming Holy together: willingly consecrating all that we have and all that we are or ever hope to be to God for His use. To surrender ourselves: taking up our cross daily, denying self-will and our sinful ways so as to follow Christ as God does His work of sanctification in our lives. As we surrender every area of our sinful, fleshly nature to Him, He corrects His distorted image in us day by day, setting us apart to Himself for holy purposes. As this is accomplished in each individual of us, we become…

A People for God’s Own Possession

God takes as His own beloved possession those who willingly give themselves to Him, bit by bit possessing our lives and bodies as His land, making us one with Him. And as we willingly surrender to His Lordship in each area of life, we unite with Him in fulfilling His purposes. In so doing, we become His willing bondservant’s with Christ, AND HE BECOMES OUR PASSION. His desires and purposes become our own and all that we do in life is focused on eternity, serving Him and being His light where we are with hope of many joining us in Him.

As we find for ourselves and make as our own this blessed relationship in Christ, surrendering to it, we do not lose ourselves. Instead we find ourselves as He fine tunes us to make us all He desired we be: all the good and quality that He desired for us springs forth to Light. Bringing us to our full potential as individuals at one with Him, we become…

Proclaimers of His Excellence

What joy it is to express God’s presence and work in our lives. But how much greater still it is when we can rejoice with knowledge of His excellence even when our circumstances are difficult and the hand of God seems stilled. This is the place where we go deeper: from knowing His ways and desiring His hand, to knowing Him and desiring His presence. Being satisfied and content even when we feel He is all we have left to us; we are satiated together with Him. Here we walk with Him as a friend, rested in His care, trusting whatever He is doing or allowing, assured of His love, content and at peace in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. Here we become His…

Light

The light of His glory not only shines to reflect off of us, but it shines in us and through us in this place in our relationship with Him. In this position with Him we become a light so bright, others who see may not understand; they may even resent us because of it. But we and those with us know and understand for we are…

One

United with Him and one another, we become the fulfillment of the answer to the Lord Jesus’ prayer that we may be one with Him, just as He and the Father are one. Here we realize that we are the Bride of Christ. And we become wed to Him who is one with the Father, making us to be united with them in the Spirit.

There are two pictures in scripture that explain this place to us, the first being this relationship of being Bride of Christ. Wed together, us the Holy Bride, Him the Holy Groom, what do we see?

† TOGETHER AS ONE: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh” (Genesis 2:23a).

† HUSBAND (CHRIST): “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church. …You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered” (Ephesians 5:28-29; 1 Peter 3:7. “In the same way”: see 1 Peter 3:1-6).

† HOLY BRIDE, CHRIST’S CHURCH: “In like manner, you married women, be submissive to your own husbands [SUBORDINATE yourselves as being secondary to and DEPENDENT on them, and ADAPT yourselves to them], so that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives” of the Bride of Christ (1 Peter 3:1, AMP. “In like manner”: see 1 Peter 2:13-25).

One with God in all His fullness, Father, Son, Holy Ghost, we are made complete as one flesh through Christ, and we become our second picture of oneness with Him: the Body of Christ in the earth. As such we are destined to function in unison with His every move, totally dependent on Him.

Christ is the mind, the head: dictating function as the Father instructs, equipping us to do as He did in only doing what we see the Father do; serving His interests. Thus we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).

God is the heart: first supplying the blood, in which is the life, through the movement of His Spirit that feeds and empowers us to live in Him; granting us life more abundant and full. Next He unites our spirit with His to dictate our thoughts, will, and emotions, leading us to one desire with Him.

Thus we are His body, His hands, His feet, His mouth, doing the work of service, being His representatives in the earth. Rested in the unifying force of His love, we become strong and useful…

Vessels of Mercy

All the cracks filled in with the mortar of grace, we begin to hold secure the Living Water of Jesus as He fills us up to spill us out into the earth, thus to effect the heart of mankind bringing them closer to the kingdom of God. Being vessels in the weakness of flesh, we may still spring a leak on occasion, but grace continually brings us back to restoration, and God’s understanding sustains us as He patiently works to bring us to completion.

This is us: the beloved of God in the Beloved of God. One together in Him, made whole and made holy: sanctified and set apart for His glory, shining His Light that dispels the darkness in the heart of mankind. Selah (pause and calmly think of that, letting it soak in to take hold and find its place within you).

~*~

“Now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (John 17:13-23).

And all the Children of God said…AMEN!

~*~

If you have never taken the first steps of faith through Christ, I point you to the Good News: Click on -> Here’s Hope, for that is where this journey begins.

Soon to Come

If you are in Christ with me and want more, I will be back next week after the Grand Kids leave to begin a series titled “Completing the Suffering of Christ” (Colossians 1:24). We will be looking at 1 John to discover more about our walk with Him.

Chronic illness, Godly Principles, Overcomers

Defined by My Diagnosis? NOT! – Part 1 – The Intro

Leave a comment

About a year ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia – lovingly known as Fibro: a disease seen most in those who suffer chronic inflammation and believed to be the breakdown of normal pain reception, causing the sufferer to feel pain more deeply and constantly. The constant sensation of pain wears a person down, too often dictating and defining their life experience. Overwhelmed by unceasing pain and the quest for relief, they often topple to the experience, all of life dictated by their level of pain.

One thing I have discovered and decided in my journey with the diagnosis of Fibro is “that is not the life I want.” I do not want to be dictated and defined by my pain, so I have thought a lot the past several days about the problem of being “defined by my diagnosis” – a phrase used in conversation with a friend one day, and what that phrase means to me and for me.

That phrase, “defined by my diagnosis”, has come to me so many times since my lunch with Betty, my friend I came to learn has dealt with fibro for numerous years. She shared that she used to do all the research for her fibro and join all the support groups and try to follow all the advice. Then she got tired of being “defined by my diagnosis”. Thus she decided to stop all that and live her life defined by the love and pursuit of God.

That is where I am right now: being defined and dictated by my diagnosis. So over the past several days of that phrase flowing to my heart, I have sought the Lord, seriously considering what being defined by fibro means and how to change it. For the next few days I will share here the things God is showing me. Perhaps others who have health issues will be helped through the comfort and instruction God is giving me. As I introduce this subject, I join Paul’s heart in praying for those of us who have health issues that tend to dictate life, praying:

“For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light” (Colossians 1:9-12).

Seeking God’s direction and inspiration in determining what I need to realize and address in changing this thing that is trying to define my life, the things that come to mind and that I will cover beginning tomorrow include:

  • Know the enemy – what is this thing that is trying to define me and my ability to live? – Not so much the science “what” but the personal, experiential “what”? Realizing that…
  • Know the truth – What are lies about the disease that I am catering to? Lies about myself and my ability to cope? What is the truth of the matter, from God’s perspective? And how do I live in truth? Then…
  • Understand that I am me – the only me that I am. My disease experience may be common to man, but it is affected and made different by my own experience of it and my ability to cope with it in accord with the person I am and choose to be. In that understanding…
  • Discern my limitations – Instead of letting my experience of the disease set the boundaries, I must learn how to protect from its limitations by setting my own, realizing what I can do when and knowing when it is okay to push the envelope and when it is time to rest. Finally…
  • With these truths and insights under my belt, I can live life to the full knowing that truth sets free indeed, wisdom directs the path, and faith, hope and love abide: and the greatest of these is love.  

Even if you are currently in good health, I hope you return for the remainder of this series so you can store up any insights gleaned to share with others, and for use should an enemy assailant strike you.

Contentment, Faith, Godly Principles, Hope

Genesis 1: The Creation Story, Part 3

Leave a comment

Thus far in our study we have discovered God’s creation of light and dark that distinguishes day from night and gives visual aid for understanding good verses evil. Then we have covered the introduction of choice as depicted in the creation of the expanse that divided the water. Today, as I read on, I notice something that thrills my soul: the rest of the story that is illustrated in the creation seen in day four. Oops. Before we look at it, let’s not skip day three:

In day three, God collected the water together on the earth to form the seas, exposing the dry land upon which He produced a garden. In that garden He created various plants and vegetation that had its seed in it.

I am sure you have noticed, as I have, that God is a Creator who believes in variety. Yes, there are apple trees and orange trees, each having seed in it by which to reproduce itself. God obviously never meant for everything to be the same. But even in looking at an apple tree or an orange tree—or an apple or an orange for that matter, each will be different from the rest. God created there to be many varieties of plants, animals, and people. And though we have the seed of reproduction in us, and though there is likeness for each, none ever brought forth from that seed is exactly like another. There will be something unique and special about each one. And God looked, and He saw, saying, “It is good.”

We are not supposed to be like everyone else, so quit trying.

Some are smarter with greater wisdom for use of knowledge. Some are more talented in various forms of the fine arts. Others are gifted in craftsmanship. We can learn from one another and become better at being who we are in the process, but we are not meant to be clones of each other. Each creating being is meant to grow and become the best “me” possible.

To try to hold those who are gifted, talented and smarter back in their progress to becoming their best so one who is less apt in that area can feel better about themselves, is to rob society of the contribution those people can one day make if their gifting, talent, skill, and intelligence is cultivated and encouraged. To tell someone that they should be as good as that other one in an area of talent, gifting, intelligence, etc., frustrates their life, causing them to pursue after something that is not theirs to have, while keeping them from discovering what their strong-suit in life is.

We are supposed to discover that unique beauty within, created there by God, and rejoice in who we are, while finding a unity with Him and His companions in which to use our uniqueness in bearing fruit that betters the whole of His creation. It is through each of us becoming the best we can be that He is able to shine the light of His glory through us to those around us. Which leads us finally, to see something beautiful revealed in God’s creation-flannel-board of life, and at which we will begin to look—tomorrow.