Anchor - Bethel

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where fear seems to be your constant companion?  Even though you know God is in control and you are trying to walk in faith it just seems fear will not leave you alone.  I am in a situation like that myself right now.  Over a month ago my job was eliminated.  I was called into an office and basically told thanks for the memories but we no longer need you.  The news was completely unexpected and devastated me.

I have declared God's word out of my mouth and peace has come but fear will not leave me alone.  Fear says what are you going to do?  When will I get a new job?  There is nothing out there and no one wants you.  Personally I am ready to get rid of the fear completely.   

One would think to completely get rid of fear I would need a job, then all my problems would be solved but I believe God wants me to get rid of this fear in the midst of the storm.  As I was beginning my day I heard two things that encouraged me.  First I heard the following scripture from the Passion Translation:  

The very moment I call to You for a Father's help the tide of battle turns and my enemies flee!  This one thing I know:  God is on my side!  I trust in the Lord and I praise Him!  I trust in the Word of God and I praise Him!  Psalm 56:9-10

Just let that soak in for a minute:  the very moment I cried out to God for His help in this situation the situation changed.  He took control and began to work on this situation and the fear did leave and continues to leave every time I turn the situation over to God.  Now consider this, God is on my side!  He is good all the time.  He will never leave me without and never leave me forsaken.  If God is for me who can be against me.  

So even though I would love to see something occurring in the natural I can trust God that He is making a way when there appears to be no way.

The second thing I heard is the song the Anchor by Bethel.  The words jumped out at me in a new way this morning because it talks about letting go but holding on as well.  Whenever I think of letting go I get the Nestle Plunge feel that I am falling back into nothingness but as I prayed and sought God on this I believe He showed me that we need to let go of the wrong thing, like fear, and grab ahold of the right thing, like faith.

As we walk out lives journey and whatever comes our way let us never lose hope in God and His goodness.  Even though the answers may not come when we want them to He is never late.  Please take a moment to read the lyrics to Anchor and let them wash over you.  Listen to the song, begin to let go of worry, fear, doubt, unbelief and grab hold of faith, hope, trust, and all the goodness of God.  When the enemy begins to attach just begin to praise God in the midst of the storm because He is the anchor that will hold you in place until the peace and calm come.

Blessings and peace

The Anchor Lyrics

In every season
In every change
You are near
In every sorrow
You are my strength
You are near
A peace in the storm
Your voice I will follow
In weakness I rise
Remembering You hold my world
I’m holding on to hope
I’m holding on to grace
I’m fully letting go
I’m surrendered to Your ways
The anchor for my soul
Father You will never change
I love You, I love You
My great Redeemer
My constant Friend
You are near
My faithful Father
You took me in
You are near
I will remember
Your promise forever
My Strength, my Defender
I can count on You
You are my Savior
My Hope and my Shelter
Your love is forever
I can count on You

Try

I think you all have realized by now I hear so much while listening to music.  I am finding this to be true of non christian music as well.  Recently I was watching Dancing with the Stars and heard the song Try by Colbie Caillat.  The song is such a beautiful reminder, especially to women, that we are beautiful just the way God made us.  It does not take perfect hair and makeup or the perfect body type to make us beautiful

I realize as I type this I am preaching to the choir as I can become very upset when my hair is not laying just so or is doing crazy things because of moisture and humidity, but I am learning that no mater how bad I think my hair is I am beautiful. I don't have to try and look or act perfect for people to like me I just need to be the special and unique person that God has created me to be.

If God created us so that no two thumb prints are alike why are we always comparing ourselves to others or trying to be like them?  I know I am guilty of this myself at times.  My personality can be a little reserved and quiet so when I meet someone who is outgoing and popular I can compare myself to them and wish I was like them and desire to have what I believe they have.  I can feel unloved and unaccepted because I am not like the person I am comparing myself to.  The truth is I am no surprise to God.  He knew the personality I would have and He knows how He can use it to draw others to Him.

The world would try and tell us how we need to look or act to be accepted.  The world would attempt to define what is beautiful and what is not, but only God can help us to see the true beauty in others.  If He can take an ugly caterpillar and turn it into an amazingly beautiful butterfly then I believe He can also help us to see the true beauty that is in others no matter how they look on the outside.  It is time for the body of Christ to stop seeing the negativity in others or the things they perceive that need to be changed and begin to see the beautiful treasures that God has created each of us to be.  Let us begin to call those treasures out of each other and begin to help each other rise into our true identities in Christ.  Let us begin to really love each other the way God intended.

Enjoy the song and lets start showing the world how to love God and the one in front of us.  Personally I am a little tired of them appearing to lead the way in this.

Blessings

From the Inside Out

In my heart and my soul I give You control.  Consume me from the inside out.  Let justice and praise become my embrace, to love You from the inside out.  From the Inside Out Hillsong United

Ever try and change something you don't like about yourself?  Ever try to change a habit, mannerism, or wrong thought on your own?  How did it work out?  Were you successful or did you just want to give up in frustration?  Maybe you found too many things about yourself that needed to be changed that it completely overwhelmed you.  I have been there.

I have discovered things I do not like about myself.   In relationships I can view others through a filter of hurt and rejection.  On my job I might view myself through a filter of comparison and feel I do not measure up.  In general I may feel I need to be nicer or more thoughtful.  The list can go on and on until you feel there is just no way you will ever change and become the person God created you to be.  In fact you may think you are even too far gone for God to change.

Well the good news is you are never to far gone for God.  The Bible clearly says that nothing will separate us from the love of God and that He will never leave us nor forsake us.  If God loves us so much that absolutely nothing can separate us from His love then I believe He never gives up on us and longs to see us become all that He has created and designed us to be.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by all that you see needs to be changed begin to declare over yourself everything God says you are.  I believe when we begin to focus on God and what He says about us then all the negative just begins to fade away.


So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around-life - and place it before God as an offering.  Embracing what God does for you is the best think you can do for Him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention of God.  You'll be changed for the inside out.  Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it.  Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity.  God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.  Romans 12:1-2

To begin, here are a few declarations you use.

• I have great worth and value
• I am accepted
• I am loved
• I am chosen
• I prosper in everything I put my hand to.  I have prosperity in all areas of my life - spiritually, mentally, socially
• I am the head and not the tail, above and not beneath
• I am bold and courageous
• I am an atmosphere changer
• I am more than a conqueror

The list can go on and on.  Search the word to discover more of who God says you are.  Pray over prophetic encouraging words that have been spoken over you and if they are positive, encouraging, and resonate with you then begin speaking those over yourself.  Other places you may go to find who you are in Christ would be to go to Joycemeyer.org (My own confession list began here), google, or I would be happy to send you what I have put together (email me at sdhaley7@yahoo.com to request a copy). 

To enjoy the full version of From the Inside Out check out the video below.

Blessings and peace

Passion (Yield My Heart to You - Kim Walker Smith)

This week I received some sad news that totally rocked my world and world of others I know.  The news brought great sadness and will bring about a change in the lives of all those affected.  Personally I was not ready for that change, I liked how things were and how they were going.  I am sure others felt the same way.  Even has I tried to be encouraging and supportive I was hurting on the inside and many tears were shed over the situation.  God finally got to a point with me when He said that is enough!   The time for mourning has passed and it is now time to rejoice.  After all it was not about what was lost but about what was and will be gained.

I realized as sad as the news was it had brought all those affected into a place of transition.  A place that would cause us to seek God as we have never sought Him before.  A place where we all would need to become totally dependant on God so He could help us each to step into the destinies He has prepared for us.  To take us to deeper and more intimate levels with Him. A place where we would become more passionate about Him.

We were not to worry about the future because the future is in His hands and He had everything under control.  Jeremiah 29:11 states that God knows the thoughts and plans He has for us.  The plans are to give us a hope and a future.  Personally I made the decision to not get into worry or fear over the future.  I will not get into worry or fear over what is currently happening or how the situation looks.  I will stand fast and continue to pursue the one who loves me.  I will learn to become more passionate about Him.

Many of you know I love to read and that I have the perfect job for this love because I work with books.  God recently placed in my hands the new book by Heidi and Rolland Baker called Learning to Love.  I just finished the first chapter and totally love the book.  At the end of the first chapter Heidi describes a life of passion that I would love to share with you because it was this that God used to bring this blog topic about.

Here is what Heidi says about passion:   "Scripture says love the Lord Your God with all your mind.  We are called to love God with every fiber of our being.  To love God with every part of you = passion.  We need to determine to live a life abandoned to His love - a life made up of passion.  Decide to change the worst for the best, darkness for light."

And Philippians 3:7-8 went along with this excerpt.
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for who sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.  Phil 3:7-8

I want this passion in my life.  I want to learn how to live in total abandon with God, to not worry about what is going on around me or what the future holds.  To be honest this post was met with a lot of technical resistance.  It got so bad a some points where I almost gave up and thought maybe I would try later or another day.  As I worked through the frustrations and maintained my peace everything started to get better.  A few problems continued to persist and I just started laughing and they too stopped.

Real peace and joy can only be found in Jesus.  We must learn to do as stated and learn to love God with every part of our being.  We need to fall more deeply in love with Him every day.   Start today to begin living a life of passion.  It may require some intentionality on your part but it will become easier as you begin to know the one who loves you more.

Yield your heart to Him today and know that no matter what comes or what happens He has it all covered.  Yes I may still be sad over the news because it brought about change I did not want but I know it will also bring a good change and others will begin to step into the destinies that God has placed on their lives.

All is For Your Glory

Happy 4th of July.  Let freedom reign in your heart and lives as you go after more of God.

Yesterday as I listened to All is for Your Glory by IHOP's Cory Russell the words of the song started coming alive in me.  We are all made for the Glory of God.  He designed us to be a vessel that He could fellowship with and work through.

He also designed each and everyone of us for His great purpose and plan.  Dear one, not all of us have a noticeable talent that can be used to glorify God but He did give us all gifts, talents, and abilities to glorify Him and serve Him.   Maybe you have a beautiful smile that you can share with everyone you come in contact with!  Maybe your talent is serving or ministering.  Whatever it is do it all for the glory of God (1 Cor 10:31).

So may we live our lives for God's Glory, may we be caught up in God's story for our lives and may He be our joy and our delight.  His plans and designs for you are for your good, to prosper you, and to give you a future and a hope.  Enjoy going after more of God and living your life for His Glory! 

Peace and abundant blessings.

Learning to Love

Have you learned to love? This question continues to play in my spirit. Have I learned to love the amazing God I serve? Have I learned to love the one He places in front of me? Have I learned to love the one that annoys me? The one that doesn't look good? The one that doesn't smell good? Have I learned how to love and see people how He sees them? I know the answer to most of these questions is no. I still allow my fears and insecurities to hold me back.  I allow what others think about me to place a reserve on me so I do not worship God with complete abandonment and freedom.

David danced and praised God so exuberantly that he danced right out of his clothes.  He became extremely undignified in front of everybody as he just let loose in his praise for his great God.  May I become more like that!  May I begin to praise God with complete abandonment.  May I become extremely vulnerable before God and with others.  May I learn to love and see people like He sees them.  May the very cry of my heart continually be more and more and more of you so that when others touch me the Holy Spirit would just ooze out of me.


May we learn to love God more each and every day and may we learn to completely love the one in front of us as He loves them.

Be blessed and encouraged today as you continually draw nearer to God.

Worship

You ever get a word from God, just one word, that He wants you to understand better?  For me that word was worship.  For all those who know me, you know I absolutely love music.  I could probably listen to it 24/7.  Give me some amazingly anointed praise and worship music and I am in heaven. But as much as I can enter into worship with music and enter into His presence in the process God was attempting to show me a deeper level of worship, a more intimate level or worship.

I believe God was and still is trying to show me that worship is more than a song I sing unto Him.  Worship needs to become my life style, that I need to start worship Him in all things.  Worship Him when people don't treat me the way I feel I should be treated.  Worship Him when I feel rejected by others.  Worship Him when I am struggling on my job and am begging Him for a new one. Worship Him when the world seems to be falling apart around me.  In other words worship Him at all times.  The bible says let His praises continually be in my mouth (see psalms 34:1).

To begin the journey of discovery what true worship is I thought knowing the definition of the word could be important.  The definitions I found online were extremely lacking as to what I believe God desires true worship to be.  Worship is more than a song service on Sunday mornings.  It is more than just giving reverence to God, it is more than just kissing the King of Kings feet or ring.  All of those definitions just feel so distant, sterile, and cold.

While the English definition of the word was lacking I looked up the Hebrew definition of the word for the Psalm referenced above (Psalm 34:1).  The word praise in this verse is Tehillah-to sing hallal, a new song, a hymn of spontaneous praise glorifying God in song.  So next I needed to understand Hallal-to praise, to make a show or rave about, to glory in or boast upon, to be clamorously foolish about you adoration of God.  Excited yet?  It gets better.  Here is the definition for the word bless in this verse:  Barak-to kneel or bow, to give reverence to God as an act of adoration, implies a continual conscious giving place to God, to be atuned to him and his presence.
So I believe to live a life of worship, we cannot just give the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords lip service.  We cannot come into church Sunday morning and sing a few songs and call it worship.  We cannot just come up to the King kiss His ring and walk away from him unchanged.  I believe to live a life of worship we must begin with love.  We need to realize how much God is completely and totally in love with each of us.  As we accept and return this great love our worship begins to change.  Our focus is not on the song we sing, how the band is playing, etc.  We begin to focus and gaze at the one we love.  Worship becomes more than a song, it becomes our heart cry as we draw near to our beloved.  We begin to long for more of Him and more of His presence.  Song of Solomon is such a beautiful illustration of how our love to God should be.  Our hearts should be lovesick for the one we love.  Our very longing and drive should be to be with Him.  So as the song says, Take us back to the Heart of Worship.  Take us to the place where all we long for is you and more of you.  Just close your eyes and picture your saviors face before you.  When you see His eyes looking down at you shining forth with such an amazingly great love it will forever change you.
I leave you with is Psalm from the Passion Translation.  Let your praise and worship become totally undignified.

Make His praise Glorious!

Psalm 47 Passion Translation

Go ahead and celebrate! Come on and clap your hands everyone!
Shout to God with the raucous sounds of joy!
The Lord God Most High is astonishing, awesome beyond words!
He's the formidable and powerful King over all the earth!
He's the One who conquered the nations before us
And placed them all under our feet.
He's marked out our inheritance ahead of time,
Putting us in the front of the line,
Honoring those He loves!

(Pause in His presence)

God arises with the ear-splitting shout of His people!
God takes the throne with the fanfare of trumpets!
Sing and celebrate! Sing some more, celebrate some more!
Sing your highest song of praise to our King!
For God is the Triumphant King,
The powers of earth are all His!
So sing your celebration songs of highest praise
To the Glorious Enlightened One!
Our God reigns over every nation!
He reigns on His holy throne over all!
All the nobles and princes,
The loving servants of the God of Abraham,
They all gather to worship!
Every warrior's shield is now lowered,
As surrender trophies before the King!
He has taken His throne,
High and lofty exalted over all!

Of course what would this blog be without a song.  Just soak in His presence as you listen to this. 

Love you all.

Discovering Who You Are

For me the New Year had a rough beginning.  I was strongly attacked in my identity.  Now some of the attack had to do with the fact that I was extremely tired from staying up too late the night before, but that was not the case a few days later when I was attacked with the same negative thoughts.

Personally I am tired of the view around this mountain and am ready for a change of scenery.  If I could will this away I would do it in a heartbeat but there is this word called process and despite what I think it is really not an ugly word!  I am going through the "process" so God can do a work in me.  He is teaching me that my worth and value do not lay with what others thing about me or what is going on around me but my worth and value can only be found in Him.  The process of learning this has involved many tears and I am sure it will involve many more before it is all said and done.  My prayer is that my struggles and what God is showing me will help speed up the process for others so that you can experience quicker freedoms and victories in this area.

No matter what our past is like it can plant the wrong seeds in our life.  Seeds like insecurities, doubts, fears, worry, unbelief, rejection, and feelings of unworthiness.  I am sure there are others but these seem to be the biggest hurdles I deal with personally.  A simple well meaning sentence spoken to me by another can become so twisted within me because of this negative seed that my messed up filter turns this around into they don't want me around, I am not important to them, or, and this seems to hit me the most, my life has no value and purpose and what is the point in living.

I realize even as these thoughts are going through my head that they are all lies every last one of them and these lies do not speak to who I am in God.  But, while I am struggle to eradicate these thoughts and replace them with the right ones they seem so insurmountable.  If others who are reading this have also struggled with suicidal thoughts please know you are important to God and that your life has meaning and a purpose even when we do not see it.  God loves us so much and His thoughts towards us outnumber the grains of sand on every sea shore and every thought He has towards are good. He has chosen each of us before the creation of the world and every one of our days were written in His book before they even happened.  What amazing promises and all from His word!

Twice this year, and it is only day four, I have received Jeremiah 29:11 from different friends.  For I know the plans I have for YOU declares the Lord.  The message bible puts it so well:  I have it all planned out- plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. Another amazing promise from God's word.  He will never leave us nor forsake us and He has a plan and purpose for every one of us.

So know that no matter what your past has said about you, what lies have spoken over you, you are important to God, your life matters, you have worth and value,  and you were made to bring Him Glory.  As the words of the song that is attached declare, "now I have a purpose, now I have a destiny, you made me for your glory."  Live your life everyday to bring glory to our great and wonderful God.  Don't look at what is going on around you, keep your gaze continually on Him because when you do the storms of life become so small and insignificant. 

To conclude, and it is a long conclusion too!!!  As I was typing this blog the following prayer rose up within me that I want to share:  Father, help the truth of your word penetrate my very being until the truth of your word is all I see.

May this year you begin to step into the fullness of knowing who you are in God.  May the lies be silenced and the truth of God's word becomes all you hear.  His word declares we are greatly loved, His love is beyond compare, He has a great plan and purpose for each of us and that plan may not be front and center for all to see but we are not made to please man, we are made to please God.  At the end of our days He is not going to say well done my good and faithful servant because of who our friends were, how many social media followers we had, or even how popular we were.  No He will say well done my good and faithful servant if we obeyed Him and all His commands.  Did we do what He asked us to do?  Were we the people He asked and created us to be?  All that matters in this life is have we lived a life that is pleasing and acceptable to Him?  Side note if you want to hear this message preached a bit better than what I have written listen to Banning L's message at the Onething IHOP conference on IHOP's website. 

As you listen to the words of this song may it help speak to your true identity and lift the cloud of gloom and despair that may have settled over you.  This song greatly helped me when I was being attacked in my identity the other day and provided me with great hope and a feeling of purpose.

Blessings and love in Christ our wonderful Savior.