Tag Archives: Father

Do You Recognize Resistance?

07 Thursday Jun 2012

Posted by in choices, Obedience, Surrender, Uncategorized

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“…and there will I plead with you face to face.” Ezekiel 20:35

This is not impatience, frustration, or anger, this is a father who is desperate for the heart of his child! This is an agony which is unmatched by any other grief known to man: that the Almighty God would plead with mankind, and do so face to face (is unthinkable) and yet, that it is what God promised.

Moses, the meekest man who ever lived, was not permitted to see the face of God. But now, Jesus Christ has paid the penalty of man’s sin, and not only can we look our Savior in the face, but we can be clothed in His very self. Can you look Him in the face and resist? Do you recognize your resistance? God so often pleads with mankind, and is so often missed. Moses could not have missed the presence of God if he had tried, but to us, the very face of God has become just another passing shadow on a dulled and hardened conscience.

This pleading of God is personal, because He wants not just a portion, but our very whole selves. I remember the day I sat my “sixteen-year-old, confused self” down on a swing and in utter frustration and desire to be free, cried out “Okay, I will surrender everything if you will let me keep _________.” God said “No. I want it ALL – everything you’ve got!” He would not let me go. His grip grew tighter until I felt I could not go on any longer in this suffocation. He was pleading with me face to face, and when at last I opened my eyes, there He was, and He was so glorious, I felt ashamed that I had not recognized His worth from the beginning. He was worth so much more than anything I could desire to hang onto.

Dear believer, when God pleads with you, look at His face – do not avoid His gaze – and give in to all that He requires.

~Hannah

I Dreamt

09 Wednesday May 2012

Posted by in Answers, dream, Father

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His thoughts said, I dreamt a distressing dream last night. I was threatened with torture for Christ’s sake, but I escaped it. I did not endure.

His Father said, When did I promise to give strength and grace in a dream of the night? My grace is for that which is, not for that which may never be.

Carmichael, Amy. His Thoughts Said…His Father Said…. PA, Fort Washington. 1941 (#62).

Prayer and Motivation ~ Day 8

24 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in 31 Days of Prayer Challenge, Chambers, Prayer, Secret Place, Uncategorized

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“…Do not have as your motive the desire to be known as a praying man. Have no other motive than to know your Father in heaven.” ~Oswald Chambers

Do the few of us who occasionally trickle into the prayer closet do it for the right reasons? Is it obligatory for our reputation among those more “spiritual” than us or, are we purely seeking the heart of our Heavenly Father?

“…ye shall not be like the hypocrites…for they love to pray…that they may be seen by men.”

Our calling is largely a secret one. Prayer should crush man’s pride…not exalt it; “The pharisee stood and prayed…God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are…And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:10-14).

When you enter into prayer, ask yourself if you are there for the sake of Christ or the sake of self.

As Oswald Chambers put it, “Determine, not to get a gift for yourself, but to get at God Himself.” This is the highest calling of prayer – to go in for relationship’s sake and to forget for a moment all other things in the light of the glory of the face of God.

What is driving your prayer life?

~Hannah

Spontaneous Prayer ~ Day 10

22 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Daily Living, Opportunity, Prayer, Relationships

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A few days ago, I wrote about the importance of spending time alone with God – listening to His voice – but that isn’t the only time we are supposed to pray. Look at I Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.”

This is a very familiar verse to most people…in fact, you have probably heard it dozens of times. Did you ever really stop to think about it? What does it mean to actually pray without ceasing? Yes, you read that right – without ceasing: constantly; with no intermission; uninterrupted; without ceasing. When I was eight or nine, I had a firm belief that I needed to be praying every waking minute of every day. I was convinced that I would be disobeying God if I wasn’t constantly talking to Him. This led to a fear of displeasing Him if I ever stopped praying for any reason.

“Our whole life should be so pervaded by the reality of God…”

Looking back on that time, I realize how warped my view of God was. God isn’t an angry, judgmental ogre, ready to zap us every time we stop talking to Him. That isn’t what this verse is saying at all! God loves us…and because of this, He wants to spend time with us. Prayer shouldn’t be a duty – it should be a delight. We should breathe prayer – our whole life should be so pervaded by the reality of God that we can talk to Him just as naturally as if He were standing next to us. Do you do this? Do I do it?

Sadly, I have to admit that my prayer life is nowhere close to “without ceasing”. How often are my hands busy doing some “mindless” chore (washing dishes, for example), while my brain is very busy somewhere else (usually building castles in the sky)? That time could be spent talking to God – I could turn doing the dishes into a sweet time of fellowship and communion with my Abba Father! This is the true meaning of praying without ceasing – spontaneous prayer that just leaps to our hearts, even when we are busy with other things. How many opportunities like this are we missing every day?

~Christen

Later this Week:

19 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in Death, Testimonies, Uncategorized

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I met Margaret a year ago, and have watched her grow in her relationship with God ever since. Later this week, she will be sharing with us how she has learned to see God answer prayer, even through deep pain. She shares with us a personal story of “walking through the shadow of death” and coming to peace with God’s will for her father’s life.

I believe one of the hardest things to trust God with is the people nearest to our hearts: and yet Jesus said, ”If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:26).

As I have learned from this verse, it is not today’s defining of “hate”, but rather (in the Greek-miseō), this word holds the meaning of our loving the Lord in a greater way than anything or anyone else. When we find ourselves in this position, we actually grow in our love toward others, because God is love and if we abide in Him, we will not be able to help the repercussion that this love will reproduce in our lives (toward others); but only when we keep Christ as our first love.

For Margaret, as well as many of you and I, we have found God’s love and grace sufficient in hard times. When we can’t pray because of grief, our Spirit groans in us to utter the things which we have no words for. May we learn to let our love for God consume our lives and, as we do, this love will conquer the sting of death. Pain will be there, but because of it we can more fully know the love and healing that is in Christ. Be encouraged to pray in both good and hard times.

~Tiffany Martens

My House, A House of Prayer ~Day 19

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Body, Holy Spirit, House, Power, Prayer, Temple

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Are you a prepared place for prayer?

I Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, You were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body. (Amp)”

Let’s draw a comparison between the above verses and Mark 11:17: “And He [Jesus] taught and said to them, Is it not written, My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have turned it into a den of robbers.”

This house Jesus was referring to was the Temple, ”a place set apart or suited for the offering of prayer“. It had been mis-used and it’s purpose abused. Wrong had been brought in, defiling its set apart purpose for the pureness of prayer.

In the same way, do we not, as believers, sometimes defile our minds, our bodies, our soul–the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit–just as the Temple was defiled?

In comparison to our bodies as the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the Old Testament Tabernacle:

We know from the Old Testament that the Holy of Holies was a place set apart, in the middle of the Temple, where the Ark of the covenant rested and a place that only the High Priest could enter once a year. A veil/curtain separated this room and was a symbol of the need for a mediator on behalf of the nation of Israel. Under the law, strict procedure had to be followed for entering. This was a result of God’s Holiness and purity (to learn more, read here).

Now, it is only through Jesus’ atonement for our sin that we can “…have full freedom and confidence to enter into the [Holy of] Holies [by the power and virtue] in the blood of Jesus, by this fresh (new) and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain (veil of the Holy of Holies), that is, through His flesh, and since we have [such] a great and wonderful and noble Priest [who rules] over the house of God, Let us all come forward and draw near with true (honest and sincere) hearts, in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith (by that leaning of the entire human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness), having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty (evil) conscience and our bodies cleansed by pure water” (Amp.).

 Veil=Separation from God,  Priest & Atonement =Jesus, Temple=Me

This reminds me of part of Job’s prayer when he said: “I have sewn sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death, not for any injustice in mine hands; also my prayer  [house of prayer] is pure [clean] (Job 16:15-17).” Here, Job has repented of any sin, and laid aside his own strength; he is weeping in the face of death and declares that his prayer comes from a pure heart. We too, need to prepare our hearts and bodies to be pure in and through prayer. Let’s make our temples worthy of such a Holy procedure.

Tiffany

Obedience in Order

16 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Fear, Honor, Obedience

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Today, obedience is rare in the life of a child. People gawk at submissive teenagers, and ask why they’re not normal. The sad fact is that the norm has become rebellion, and the expected end of every child – Christian or secular. Why is rebellion accepted while obedience is “out-of-the-ordinary”?

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:” ~Proverbs 1:7-8

The God we serve is a God of order. He imparted his truths precisely and with purpose to mankind. The fear of the Lord must be the preface to every obedient act. Parents train their children to fear them, obey them, reverence them. God says “Fear me, obey me, reverence me.” The obedience to parents is the natural outcome of such a relationship with the Lord.

Proverbs says that fools despise wisdom and instruction. A fool, as defined here, is one who has no fear of the Lord. Therefore, one who hears the instruction of their father, and obeys their mother is not a fool – but one who fears the Lord. The fulfillment of the first commandment with a promise is only possible through the fear of the Lord. There is not other way to achieve it.

As a young person, you are called to fulfill the Biblical mandate to honor – but only through the fear of the Lord can you do this. Fear of God keeps one’s focus properly placed, and gives the grace to step back, trust God to work through parental authorities, and know that He holds the entirety of your future, he has held every moment of your past, and he is holding your present moment.

~h

Everlasting Mercy

05 Sunday Feb 2012

Posted by in encouragement, God's Love, Mercy

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“I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.” ~II Samuel 7:14-15

Almost three thousand years ago, God made this promise to David. Although it was specifically directed to Solomon, we can apply it to our own lives as well. Look at what God says…

I will be his father, and he shall be my son.

God is the perfect Father, and we are His children. He knows exactly what we need, even though we often don’t understand how He is working.

If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.

How many times has God worked through other people to punish you? When we get out of line, God often uses our authorities to straighten us out again. If God just stopped right here, how comforting would that be? “If you sin, you will be punished.” But the promise doesn’t end there. Look at the next part of the verse:

But my mercy shall not depart away from him.

God was saying, “David, if your son disobeys me, I’ll punish Him…but I won’t forsake him.” When we sin, punishment is inevitable – but even in the darkest hours, we can be confident that God’s mercy is still with us. This reminds me of Psalm 103:17: “But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him.” No matter how often we stumble and fall, God’s mercy is everlasting.

~Christen

Tested Because of Love

29 Thursday Dec 2011

Posted by in Trials, Trust, Waiting

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“God, why would you let this happen to me???”

Have you ever asked this question? If we were all honest, probably most, if not all of us could think of such a time. God’s ways are often difficult for our human minds to grasp and understand. But I have begun to see the simple truth beneath the trial that requires so much trust. God extends to us a relationship…a greater depth of relationship…with Him. He says to us, “It will require pain, and sacrifice, and struggle – walking in the dark, holding my hand, and trusting that I will not let you fall. Are you willing?”

My heart then often cries, “But Lord, you said if I delight in you, you will give me the desires of my heart…and this trial is NOT the desire of my heart!”

The answer to that cry that has come from my heart so many times astonishes me again and again: When the desire cometh it is a tree of life…yet, the longer the wait, the sweeter the fulfillment. Much sacrifice equals much love. Little sacrifice equals little love. He waits that he might be gracious. For the waiting proves us, tries us, refines us, and when it is finished, the graciousness, the gift, is far greater. It is more precious than before.

Obedience to the voice of the Lord. It is saying “no” to self and “yes” to Jesus every time. It is leaving behind my self-will, and my desires (which are not needful – for the Lord supplies every need) and saying “Here I am. Use me, take me, break me, pour me out, only do not sever the tie that binds my heart to your heart, Oh God.” And when we come to that place of committment with Jesus, the test is completed in His timing, and the desire comes, sweeter, fuller, richer, than we dreamed possible.

You are tested because of the Father heart of God – a heart of boundless love.

~h

…endures f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by in Abiding, Mercy, Promise

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“His mercy endures forever.”

It’s repeated over and over and over again, all through the Psalms, all through Scripture in multiple ways. The amazing grace of God – that in my neediness, He not only does, but He desires to draw near, and make me whole…complete…full. I fall every day. We all do. We slip in the dark, sometimes we slip in the light. Sometimes we just sit down to sulk. His mercy waits for us. His window of grace is open, being poured out, sometimes even on an unwilling heart, but there for the taking, nevertheless. Deserving? No. Yet, He sees our destitution before Him, whether we do or not. He knows our frame…dusty, frail, feeble. He pities. His Father-heart overflows with compassion for us. It is that compassion and love that causes us sometimes to be put in the furnace of affliction for greater refining. Yet the mercy is new and fresh ever morning. It endures. Not for today, not just for tomorrow. It endures forever…eternally given, eternally received. May we draw near, with thankful hearts, because we are fully assured of His love…that mercy will always pick us back up, and the grace of God will always abide near, to keep us in all our ways.

T&H

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