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!
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.
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.
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.
I have been walking in a season where I am learning to let go and trust God more. I wish I could say I am passing every test with flying colors but sorry that is not the case. I tend to focus on the problem and how I can fix it instead of looking to God and what He says about the situation. Jenn Johnson puts trust in a great perspective. She said true trust is always believing that all of God's intentions toward us are always good! Sounds simple doesn't it?
Because I was not walking in this simple truth I was wearing myself out trying to calm all the storms that were raging in my life. Recently I cried out to God saying I could not handle it anymore. Now I am sure He was waiting for that exact moment when I said I cannot do this anymore because He was great to step into the situation and show me His perspective. The storms that appeared so big to me are so tiny in comparison to Him. With one step of His foot He can crush the storms because He is towering over them.
I am still walking this truth out but it is so liberating. When the storms rise at work I sense the frustrations coming on and I look to Him and peace returns. Recently a situation happened that I allowed the storms to again rise up and the waves to crash against me. Like Peter I focused on the wave and started to sink as I felt the water closing in on me. God broke through and began showing me the truth of that situation. He showed me that well intentioned words spoken to me when they went into my inner man became twisted and spoke against my identity in God. After the fact God spoke two words to me: inferiority complex. Not being sure of the exact meaning of these words I googled it and here is what I discovered.
An inferiority complex is a lack of self-worth, a doubt and uncertainty, and feeling of not measuring up to society's standards.
This definition spoke to my old man and not my new identity in God. God says He has called me to greatness! God's plans for me according to Jeremiah 29:11 are for my good and not my harm and to give me a hope and a future.
So instead of seeing myself as worthless and not measuring up I began reminding myself of who God says that I am and because the well intentioned words attacked God's plan for me I reminded myself of the hope and promise He had given me even if I am only stepping into a small portion of His plans for me.
I am learning, slowly at times, how to let go and just trust God in any and every situation that arises. I am learning, again slowly at times, how to keep my focus on Him and not on the storms that rage around me. I am discovering that as I focus on Him my perspective on the storm changes as well and I begin to see it as God does. But first I need to continually learn to let go of the control and just fall into God.
I love the new song by Steffany Frizzel Gretzinger called Letting Go. I believe this has become my theme song for learning to walk in greater levels of trust. I also love Proverbs 3:5-6. I have shared two different translations below because I love how both of them bring out different truths of this Godly promise.
One last thing; I also shared a picture from the movie Titanic because every time I listen to any song off of the new Tides album I get this vision in my head but instead of the characters in the movie I am standing at the front of the ship with my arms spread wide experiencing complete abandonment and freedom in God.
May you too learn to let go of control and learn to trust God more. May we continually fall into Him with complete abandonment and freedom.
Proverbs 3: 5-6
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct[a] your paths
Proverbs 3:5-12
The Message (MSG)
5-12 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline; don’t sulk under his loving correction. It’s the child he loves that God corrects; a father’s delight is behind all this.
Today as I was listening to music and working I came across a song by Will Reagan called Through and Through. This song was so worth sharing because it so greatly portrays how our great love relationship with God is supposed to me. Listen to the song with your eyes closed and just envision your father God's arms wrapped lovingly around you. I also included the lyrics below. Blessings.
I find that I'm safe and warm In your loving arms
I find that I'm safe and warm In your loving arms
You see me And You know me And You love me Through and through
You see me And You know me And You love me Through and through
You see me And You know me And You love me Through and through
When God speaks to you, do you ever feel as if the record is stuck in the same place and the same phrase is repeated over and over again? That is how I have felt lately and it is not a bad thing either. The one word I continue to hear God speak to me is love. He speaks words of love to me personally and He speaks words of love about His bride the church. As I continue to hear His love declarations to me my hearts cry is for others to hear these love declarations as well. I long for the church to know how great His love is and to learn how to show that love to others. If we do not receive His great love for us how can we in turn love those around us?
To experience all the greatness of God we must learn to put Him first, to seek Him, and to spend quality time with Him. We must learn to not allow the distractions of this world to drag our attention and focus away from God. This weekend Holy Spirit has been showing me how important He truly is. I have many things to get done in preparation for a business trip I will be going on soon but it paled in comparison to my hunger and desire for more of Him. As I allowed my Mary spirit to take over Holy Spirit and I experienced some sweet, sweet time together. In all my years of following after God I have never experienced anything as great as this and I am praying it only gets better from here. Will everything get done that needs to be done? Yes, but now the stress will not be present because I am so overwhelmed with the presence of God that is all I am aware of. He has become my focus and I am so undone by how truly wonderful He is. If our earthly worship of God can be this great and amazing how much more will we experience when we are in heaven face to face with the one we love? The very thought of it undoes me! I am sure I cannot even imagine how great it will be.
Today may you realize that all you really need to is love. Begin to allow God to pour His love out on you. Begin to take steps towards Him because as you take small steps towards Him He will begin to take giant steps towards you. May you truly learn what it means to become a lover of His presence.
Allow me to share the words of a spontaneous worship song from Bethel Church... I don't want to talk about any other lovers, your the only one there will be no others for me now, no others for me now. May we only know God and God only as our lover.
