Great Name

This week has been a long frustrating week.  I have allowed my focus to shift from the face of the one I love to my circumstances as a Peter did I started to sink.  My emotions became involved and I started to believe nothing would ever change.  I began to listen to the lies of the enemy regarding my life instead of standing on the Word of God.  Thankfully God helped me realize that I was not alone in the battle I had brothers and sisters in Christ who would stand with me and believe with me.  When we prayed together, not just for my issues but theirs as well there was a change in the atmosphere.  God said it is going to be all right. This morning He reminded me He is Johovah Shammah, the abiding presence.  He is abiding within me and He is greater than my circumstances.  Through Him I will gain the victory, in fact Ps 108:13 states that with God we will gain the victory and he will trample down our enemies.  I love how the Message bible relates this scripture the best:  Give us help for the hard tasks, human help is worthless.  In God we'll do our very best He'll flatten the opposition for good.  Does that not just encourage you? 

There is a song that used to be sung in the church ages ago and one of the lines in the song stated "let God arise and His enemies be scattered."  One day I heard this song sung a different way instead of the enemy being scattered, it was splattered.  Today do not give a place in your life to the enemy, do not believe His lies.  Stand on the promises of God's word because His word works even if you do not see it working at the time.  Allow God to come into your circumstances and totally annihilate the situation.

Today's song is Your Great Name.  There are so many wonderful lines through out this song reminding us that God's name is great.  Through His name the enemy must flee, the dead are raised and the sick made whole.  He is the great I Am - now I think I will share both songs as they are both great faith building songs.

Enjoy.

Learning to Run

Recently in my quiet time I realized that God did not feel as close as He has been.  As I prayed and asked God about this He gave me a vision of a parent and child where the baby is trying to learn how to walk and the parent is standing a ways off with arms outstretched waiting for the baby to walk towards them.  As the baby learns how to walk better the parent increases the distance to stretch and grow the child.  Same concept with God, He has moved farther back so I have to go a greater distance to reach Him.  In this way I will grow and strengthen in my walk with Him and like any good parent if He sees me start to fall He will be there to catch me.  I long for the day when I will be able to run to Him no matter how close or far and fling myself into His arms, wrap my arms around His neck and tell Him how much I love Him.  I pray you too will grow and strengthen daily in your walk with God.

I really wanted to share a song with you again, since it has been awhile.  There are so may wonderful songs I could have shared but I believe this is the one God would have me share today.  All I Need Is You!  May this be our hearts cry daily. 

Blessings and Joy in the Holy Spirit!  :)

Healing and Wholeness

All
I just finished listening to one of the most amazing messages.  I strongly encourage each of you to either go the Bethel Church's website or iTunes in the podcasts and listen to Kris Vallotton's message on Healing and Wholeness.  It will totally bless you!

Recap of what you will hear:  There are 27 healing miracles that Jesus performed, for most He spoke a word but when He did not He did so for a reason.  In the case of the blind man when he spit and put the mud on his eyes Jesus took what had cursed the man to heal him.  When Jesus heals He wants to heal you body, soul, and spirit or the whole man.

When Kris went on to talk about wholeness, the message took on a whole other dimension.  Our soul has needs and that is okay.  We need love, attention, relationships, etc.  We need to know that someone celebrates our life, or as he puts it will be at our funeral.  Jesus loves all of you, He does not just love your spirit He loves you body, soul, and spirit.  He loves your whole being!

I am praying each of you will have the time to listen to this message and that it will bless you as much as it did me.  Lastly celebrate someones life today, let them know how much they are loved and appreciated. 

I will start: I love and appreciate all of you! I thank you for the kind and encouraging words you have sent my way via email.  It was hard for me to start this blog but I am so thankful that this has been a blessing and encouragement to all of you.

Sorry no music today but never know when I'll get another song to share with you.  :)

Stephanie

Freedom (I Asked You For Life)

I am sure you are beginning to notice that God tends to get my attention via a song.  I have a great love of music and normally have music going more than the television. 

This morning as I was getting ready for work a song was playing on my iPod called I Asked You For Life.  In this song there is a phrase that goes "I asked you for freedom, you broke every chain and you gave me the key."  I have heard this song numerous times but today that phrase stuck out to me more than at other times.

I began to realize how true this was in my own life.  Some of you, that have heard portions of my story know that God has delivered me from the chains of failure and rejection.  Two of the biggest areas that were keeping me from truly knowing who I was in Christ and understanding how greatly loved I was as well.  When God first starting dealing with me on rejection, thankfully He just did one thing at a time,  He gave the following scripture:  You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.  John 8:32

It was a long and sometimes painful process for this truth to sink in.  Many times I would yell, well more like scream this scripture out of my mouth as tears ran down my face but eventually I began to see the truth and not the lies the enemy had been feeding me most of my life.  I realized as I listened to this song I now hold the keys in both of these areas and when the enemy comes at me I just dangle the keys in his face and tell him to get lost no matter what the situation may look like.  God holds every situation and circumstance in His hands.  He is in control of everything and I just need to turn my cares upon Him.

Farther down in John 8 in verse 36 it goes on to say "who the son has set free is free indeed" and what glorious freedom it is!

Now I would be a bit remiss if I did not share the song with you so enjoy.  :)
Blessings