When you walk side by side with Him

I'm not sure how I had lived on this thought for so long: That God's love was limited to what I was doing for Him.  That once my day started, if I sinned or made a mistake, I was done for the rest of the day trying to make up for what I had done.

In the last year, I've been slowly breaking off this false line of thinking, that my days were doomed because of a mistake I made or a sin I committed.  I even quoted 1 John 1:9 believing it for others, but not myself.

I can't tell you when my thought pattern changed, I just know it did.  I plan now  that my day is going to be a good day, no matter what happens.  I don't have to walk in knowing that because it didn't start out the way I would have liked, that I have to live in the guilt and shame, because as the day went on, living like that, I continued to do things that fit the manner of the early event.

That's because He is walking with me, my steps are along side His, and some days He's carrying me through my circumstances as I can't seem to walk them on my own.  They journey He and I are on, continues because its one I've chosen to walk.

When we choose to let the events around us direct our path, we will go it alone eventually.  Pride creates its own path. No one wants to walk with a prideful person as that would mean a companion and a helper and they have their own path of pride to encounter.  


When satan's fiery darts start flying, they can't touch you, as you're in the shelter of the High Place, in the Shadow of the Almighty.  You've drenched yourself in His word so you know every step He will take and you and He walk together.   Weapons may be formed to take you down, but they won't be used. 

I love 2 Chr where the 3 armies go to fight the Israelites, and they stand alongside the mountain top looking in the valley where the 3 armies are preparing to fight, and instead of going into battle, they sing.  And the 3 armies annihilate themselves!  The best part, the Israelites got all the stuff the kings had brought with them and it took three days to gather it up!

Walking with Him is a win-win.  Why are you denying it?

praise Him in the down times

Somewhere in my life when I was taught that "When you serve God you will deal with trial and tribulations", we were taught that when those trials and tribulations come that they don't leave with out prayer and fasting.

True. But we've taken the wrong stance on this thought. When we fast and pray, we need to do so in the manner of praising God for Who He is and for what He is doing. When those trials come, we need to learn that He's buiding up something better because we served Him.

We seemed to have missed that point in when He wants to bless us, He don't give us a stone instead of bread when we are hungry. Yes bad things will happed as rain falls on the just and the unjust. When it does fall, we need to praise Him as rain when it falls brings in new growth, bring life to that which was dead. We don't have to wallow in our sorrow and hand our head low. We need to raise it up and see that our redemption draws nigh!

When your rent is due and all you have is two potatoes in the cupboard and no butter or sour cream, praise Him that you have a two potatoes in the cupboard. Dig a hole and bury one so it will sprout and produce more potatoes. Because you've paid the rent, and you have another month in your house! Eat the other one!

I love it in Amiee's book when her husband took his fishing pole to go get dinner for that evening and Amiee told him that God would provide a meal for them becuase they were in the service of the King. Her husband came back empty handed, and Amiee had a feast on the table. God provides for His people. He knows our every need when we need it. When trouble comes, raise your hands and your head and tell Him thank you for the blessings He is about to bestow on you. He will.

By the way, I'll share God sense of humor:

I've stated before that I am trusting Him even if my cupboard is bared down to a bottle of oil and flour. One day a friend handed me a bag. She didn't know what I was declaring, and when I opened the bag, I had a large bottle of oil and a bag of oats. I laughed because God knows I make flour out of oats!

He loves us unconditionally. And we we chose to let the circumstances lead us to make decisions over what He has planned for us, we make it conditional on our own. We've changed the dynamics, He hasn't. He stays the same.

The vastness of God-Watch what you do

In reading the book about Aimee Semple McPherson, the founder of the Foursquare movement, I had mixed feelings about her life and they were due to how I was brought up myself. As I read further along, I find a woman who loved the Lord with all her heart and a desire to serve Him no matter what. She had a relationship with God.

The skepticism of her life came from actions she did out of a human nature. She had conversations with a married man over an intercom in her office which caused a stir with her employees and her mother. I believe it was out of loneliness that this occurred as she had no friendships in the ministry that she could confide in. Later the man left his position at the radio station and also abandoned his own family. (in our world today it would be as if we sent a text message to someone and was more personal then we needed to be).

She was kidnapped, by whom no one knows, only speculation that the Mob was involved. But from her actions with her co worker, a trial with a grand jury and other legal events took place from accusations that she had spent the three weeks that people thought she had drowned and said she was kidnapped that she had been having an affair with the man she had had conversations with over the intercom. She wasn't. There were reports of a lady claiming it was her sister that was having the affair with the man but she had recanted her testimony when Aimee and her mother refused to pay her. Then before the trial began the woman changed her testimony once again and Aimee and her mother were free.

We have to watch what we do. We seem to always say that it doesn't matter what you do, be yourself and the like even in the Christian community, yet we forget about stumbling blocks that can occur and snares that come about. We don't know who's watching or who's listening and 9 times out 10 they will get it wrong anyway.

Along the same lines we have to make sure we follow God's plan that He has for us, and do what He's called us to do in the manner He's called us.

God being the ultimate planner of all things, being the Creator that He is, if He has set a goal for us to acquire it is our job to finish the goal. When we side track from it and the time had come upon us to join others in the goal, we may not be ready as those that had done exactly what God called them to do. It does sound like the virgins with no oil in their lamp at the time the bridegroom came. Without the lamps lighting the way, the bridegroom is not able to find the way to his bride's home.

However, being the gracious God He is He could hold us back until we are ready and and not having to struggle to keep up.

I brought up two different points, but in actuality they do merge. We have to watch how we handle ourselves being in the service of our King. Even though we walk in freedom, it doesn't mean that we can also do things that are a stumbling block to those that are walking beside us. We have to be accountable to what we say and do. Even if others get it wrong and like the drama and pursue other avenues then the truth such as with Amiee, we don't need to go through trials we've caused ourselves.

Continuing in the vastness of God-

Something that a friend told a group of us years ago and she still says it today "Lord don't let me be decieved and don't let me be a deciever. When I say I am truely in awe of how our God works I really mean it. I have watched people who have walked in deception for many years and yet God' grace and mercy keeps them from stumbling until the time comes that they realized the truth that has set them free from the bondage. They lived and believed the lie that was told through out generations, or even a misconception that has continued for years and lived a life around it.

A funny story that I heard was a lady at thanksgiving got out her roasting pan to cook Christmas dinner. While talking with the other women in the family, she cut off about 2 inches of the ham and put it in the oversized roasting pan. One of the women asked her why she did that. "My mother did it". As the story goes on, the lady decided to find out for what reason her mother had cut off exactly 2 inches off the end of the ham. She discovered her grandmother had done the same thing. When she finally found out the source, she laughed. Someone's roasting pan was too small for the ham they had and the cut of exactly 2 inches off the end so it would fit! Back between Genesis Chapter 1:1-2 Isaiah 14:12-21 occured. Lucifer was the highest Cheribum, the one that was in charge of worship in the Heavens. In Isaiah 14:12-21he lost his job because of pride. He is a deciever and he wants to make sure we are living in deception. He doesn't care about those already walking in it, because he's got them in his snare. The times he panics, is when praying Believers begin to praise and begin to pray for the lost and name them specifically. Then he starts to squirm because he knows God will win.

When we begin to see that God loves us unconditionally compared to what satan (his name changed when he got kicked out of heaven) tells us that we are loved limitly, because he captilizes on the sinner worth not on the redeemed life, we begin to take off the lies and deception and begin to live in freedom. We begin to live for Him and not in the fear of hurting a family name because the family name is nothing compared to the name of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is total freedom. He came to redeem those that were lost, and living a life of sin, being decieved by a deciever and continued to live in the deception and decieving others. He shed his blood on the cross so that we could have a true relationship with a God who loves us with no boundaries, and when we sin we can go to Him and confess our sins and ask for forgiveness because He does forgive. He brings newness in life, even when we have to clean up the mess we made living a life of deception. He brings a way out when His truth is revealed so healing can begin, not so pain can continue. He is a healing balm.

Another friend told me to read Psalm 91 this year as I go on this prayer journey, because when you develop a communication line with the Father, sometimes you need to be reminded that while you are in the secret place of the Most High you are abiding in the shadow of the Almighty. He protects us from the snare of the fowler, and covers us with His feathers. In Mal 4 there's healing in His wings for the hurts and pains that we've endured because of satan's deception. You will trample the wicked with praises to the King and they will be ashes under your feet.

Its His promise in His word, and His word does not lie.

The vastness of our God

In conversations over the last several days, I've taken a stand on some things. I don't think that God causes earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters to use for wrath. I believe that when the world was created, all those that are deemed natural diasters were planned and as time goes on, they were to increase as it states in the New Testament several times. God set in motion every thing at the time of Creation. That's my predestination view.

Now on the other side. While natural disasters were created long ago and planned out, the same God directs at a single moment the movements of the humans that he created as He gave them free choice. Events that occur through the sinful nature that we first acquired at birth, and then given the option to leave at the foot of the Cross are those that may have evolved through generation to generation or through just a single day's event that caused catastrophic issues, not natural born.

That is the vastness of our God. He is a planner, knows the very day you were born, but also lives in the moment of the very action you participate in. He knows all, sees all, and knows how we will react at any given moment to any situation.

When we choose to walk in His steps, in His plan, we walk in freedom. True we walk through some narrow roads, deal with people who choose to not to know Him as we do on a daily basis. But that's the free will part of His plan. He's not going to force someone to have a relationship with Him. That's not His nature.

Yes, I'm rather grounded. I have to work things out to understand them a little better. Watch out for my next post as it may go deeper as I ponder on these things a little longer.

God's word is true-sin is sin

When I was working with Child Evangelism Fellowship, there was a great and simple definition as to what sin is. "Sin is anything you think, say or do that displeases God". So why do we as Believers in Christ haggle over what is right and wrong in God's eyes, twist what He says in His word to fit what we are doing in our lives? I was asked if I believed that a certian lifestyle could be changed or not. When I answered, that no it can't, there was a reason behind it. A person can not change what they don't acknowledge. (Yeah Dr. Phil!) If a person is not going to acknowledge that what God deemed to be sin, they aren't going to accept it and are not willing to change, but will make excuses for it to be acceptable for themselves and those around them. And God has no use for them if they continue to live a life of rebellion. God's word is very clear, if we take out something to fit our fancy, then His word become useless because it is His whole word that makes us alive in Him. It is Rheama and Logos. His word makes us accountable. Its not a bunch of rules because rules make it religious, and God's not into religion, He's into our lives. If we say that we are with out sin and live our lives like we want and twist His word around, then we are calling God a liar. And again we are making the book He gave us to live by, just a book. It has no value to it at that point. God's word is living and breathing. It is alive, every bit of it is truth. His word is truth. He give His believers freedom when they do confess their sins. When we acknowledge that our lives do not line up to His word, and confess our sins, He is FAITHFUL and JUST to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 john 1:9) "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. " (1 Cor. 6:9-10). So either we believe that what was written in Corithians is true and God's guidelines to what sin is in these verses or we throw the baby out with the bath water. God clearly states that even symbols in the Bible can't be changed or taken outwith out reprecussions from it (Matthew 5:18) , why would we take out or change words from it as well? Christ came to fulfill the law not to change it, and nothing in His word needs to be changed. We need to stop walking on the fence on this issue becuase the fence is coming down and there will only be a line drawn in the sand where the fence was. What side of the line will you be on?

"Walk in Me"

When I was at Bethel in January, my friend Holly and I had recieved a Word together. For me I sometimes have to have it point blank, like if God was talking to me He would say "On thurs at 3 pm I will kiss you on your right cheek." Now that I understand clearly.

So when this Word (rheama) was given, it was long and vast and I was listening intently. Holly understood right then.

I had to ponder it for a while on our way back to Brookings from Redding. Here is what I discovered.

While I was in Uganda, I had no worries about what to eat, where sleep or what I was doing that day. It was all planned out. I just had to walk in the plan that was set out. This was what I understood the Word spoken to mean.

I was to take it to the next level of faith. Trust in Him alone for all things. Trust in Him alone as to where I would sleep at night, what I would eat, where I would go. Walk in His footsteps that He's walked before me.

I'm am seeing first hand now what He is meaning. I've watched God show me confirmation after confirmation that I am walking in His steps. He is taking care of it all.

The other day I was thinking how this is possible as there are times when I feel that I am walking with one foot in Heaven and another here on earth. Heaven's viewpoint usually becomes clearer when I take that step of faith here on earth. The walk is usually unbalanced at first but then God conforms the walk to be straight and even as He reveals His plan each day.

Uganda was a step of faith. I had to walk on earth daily, trusting what God told me He would do. It was a hard journey to go through, but in the end it was worth it. People said I had my head in the clouds, and I did, and God provided! It was His plan!

So today, as I'm musing over events, its God's plan. He already has walked in it and set His footsteps for me to follow in. Its in His steps that I walk.