My heart is troubled this morning. Someone I love suffers and for months I have seen the train wreck coming and felt helpless to avert it. I have prayed and gently offered caution, but to no effect. My beloved still shot off in the direction of the human heart and has had it utterly broken… Again. The last thing my beloved needs is to hear “I told you so…” OR” I so saw this coming.” But, the warning in my heart was clear these last few weeks as my beloved spoke of the hope for the future being carried in the heart. 

Woody Allen once said, “The heart wants what the heart wants.”

He was justifying his affair with Mia Farrow at the time, but this morning it reminds me of a stern warning I drew from my four years of in-depth Bible study under the wisdom and teaching of Beth Moore.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” 
Jeremiah 17:9 (AMP)

In our fallen human condition… The heart may want what it wants, but that could be based on a lie. Deceptive above all things. Our heart will lie to us about what is Truth, but it will always tell us the truth about what we believe. (Bob Hamp, my spin.)  

So what is the truth?

My fixer, rescuer heart wanted to immediately correct the error when I was asked, “Why didn’t God stop my heart from being broken again?”

Perhaps He tried.

My beloved will have to come to the Truth over her broken heart on her own terms. I can offer her no answers and truthfully this painful season is an appointment of wrestling with God as Jacob did when he insisted to God that he would not stop contending until the Lord blessed him. (See Genesis 32)

For me this raises a great issue regarding the human condition. 

From our limited perspective everything is shaped by our experience, the suggestion of the media we expose ourselves to on a regular basis, and the influences that we surround ourselves with through relationships and ideology. So the question is: Can a human being ardently pursuing God completely misconstrue or misunderstand what it is He is trying to say to them or move them to discover? 

Unequivocally the answer is YES.

WHY?  

The Fall. In Genesis 3 something happened that breaks the heart of God. Eve, deceived by the enemy, ignores God’s warning not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Do you remember where her husband, Adam, was when the enemy came to Eve? Let’s read it:

Genesis 3:1-7 (NLT)
¹ The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

⁶ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

Adam stood and watched as Eve walked into the enemy’s trap and did nothing to stop her. As a matter of fact, he followed her into the lie and partook of it as well. You see, Adam and Eve’s original sin is not about what they ate – it is about what they believed in their heart.

The enemy planted doubt and Adam and Eve partook of that doubt. They made an agreement in their heart about it and pursued what was forbidden based on a lie. In her Bible study, “No Other Gods”, Kelly Minter writes “Satan will tell us the facts [all day long] but never tell us the truth.”

What we believe to be true and what is truth may very well be two different things. At this point, question becomes: How do we untangle the web of deceit woven throughout our broken condition? 

1. It starts with our heart. 

God admonishes many things about the heart in Scripture. Not only does He tell us it is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, but He also commends us to guard our heart.

Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. Proverbs 4:23 (NLT)

What does it mean to guard your heart?

The Hebrew word translated “guard” in Proverbs 4:23 is n’sar. It means to keep watch over. (Strong’s Greek & Hebrew Dictionary)

Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines “guard” this way: “one assigned to protect or oversee another.”

So how do we guard our hearts? 

In the movie, “The Ghost and the Darkness,” a group of construction workers commissioned by the British government are attempting to build a train track in the African bush. The only problem is that there are lions out among them and they prowl around waiting for the opportunity to pounce and eat those who are building the African Ugandan-Mombasa railway. The leader of the group commissions part of the group to continue to work on the railroad while others in the group begin to gather sticks and cut down trees in order to erect a fence. Still, throughout the movie the lions hunt and kill those who are working on the railroad.

The workers use many tactics to stop the lions. They build their own fence for protection, but the lion jumps over it. A sharp shooter comes to stop the lion but ultimately fails. They set traps and miss the mark. Nothing keeps them safe from the lions.

Similarly, God’s Word promises us that our enemy, Satan, is like a roaring later seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

I believe guarding our heart is not just about keeping things that we don’t want there out, but it is also about allowing things in that make us more like God. One word: sanctification. Submitting our heart to God and allowing Him to cut away our flesh until only He remains.

Cutting away our flesh is how God works out sanctification in our lives. Our part is surrender or submission to God’s sanctification in our lives. Jesus called this pruning. Paul calls it dying to self and putting the “old man” or “old nature” to death. Whatever words you use to frame, sanctification is a necessary aspect of God renewing our minds, aligning our wills and healing our damaged emotions while breathing eternal life into our spirit and physical healing to our temporary, earthly bodies. God’s part is making us new.

So over and over again in the course of a season in our life we have to check what our heart wants against what God wants for us. Laying aside sin and things that easily entangle our human nature is not easy, but again – it is necessary.

A few additional verses on Sanctification or Heart Circumcision:

And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.-Deuteronomy 30:6 NKJV

 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;  but he is a Jew whois one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. Romans 2:28-29 NKJV

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, ~ Colossians 2;11-13 NKJV

It is the first work of the Holy Spirit unto Salvation that a man should be “cut to the heart” or spiritually circumcised.

“For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:

³⁶ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Menand brethren, what shall we do?”

Acts 2:34-37 NKJV

2. Give God Your Angry and Hurt Feelings. 

God is a “big boy.” He can handle what you are feeling, and any anger or hurt you feel He has allowed you to experience. Even more than that, He asks us to come before Him and lay ourselves bare. I remember the first time these words came out of my mouth in a group setting. All the women in the room got a hardy laugh out of it. I offered, “Sometimes you just have to forgive God.”

One person piped up. “How can we forgive God. He can’t be wrong.”

No, God cannot be or do anything that is evil, bad or wrong. But, often times we feel in our hearts that God set us up to get hurt or allowed us to suffer for no good reason. If you think of forgiving as “taking someone off of your hook for what happened and putting them on God’s hook” then what you have is really not “forgiving God” but instead, releasing Him from the judgment you’ve made against Him. When I pray to “forgive” God I always say, “Lord, I judged you…. (fill in the blanks)… as a result of what happened.”

I think God gets the wrap for a lot of things He does not do. I remember sitting with a newly bereaved parent not too terribly long ago. This parent had lost an adult child in an accident and felt angry with God because they had prayed for God to protect their child. The question on the table became “What if you are blaming the wrong person for what happened?”

There are lots of reasons that bad things happen: human will, fallen existence, or the enemy’s plans and attacks are a few of the ones that come to my mind. Like it or not, God’s sovereignty doe snot mean He will interfere with a person’s will or the choices they make. Because of the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, we are subject the consequences and pain of sin which resulted in a curse on both Adam and Eve, plus the earth and all mankind after them. God sent Jesus to redeem us from the curse, but that does not mean we are instantaneously freed from the bounds and consequences of generational and personal sin, or that someone else’s sin might bring about pain in our lives. The enemy would like for us to think God did us in, and that He lied. After all, wasn’t it the serpent who asked Eve, “Did God really say?” (see Genesis 3)

Yes, I think it was. His twisting of the facts to cast God in a bad light is as old as the Garden and sin itself. There is truly nothing new under the sun.

Learning to hold fast to what you know about God to be true through His revealed Word will help you to find God blameless in your suffering. Job had plenty of reason to blame God, but if you read those long discourses in the antiquated pages of the book bearing his name you will find God saying what He said to Isaiah centuries later, “My ways are not your ways and my thoughts are not your thoughts…” (Isaiah 55:8)

3. Trust God and not the outcome or circumstances about what you have prayed.  

Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV says this much better than I:

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 your paths. 

We must come to God on His terms, not with our finite and vain imaginations making His Gospel and His promises about us. We must follow Him with a surrendered heart and fully confident that whatever He offers us will ultimately bring us our good and His glory no matter how painful or long-suffered it may be.

1 person prayed about this.

At the risk of sounding like a sorcerer, or something worse, I’d like to teach you how to use some magic words that are guaranteed to work wonders. These are magic words that I’ve personally tested and am strongly recommending that you try them out for yourself.

Okay, before you start calling me a wizard, give me a chance to prove that I’m not one, or that am one.

Here goes something…

The magic words I’ll be teaching you are not words in the order of “abracadabra”; mythical words of nearly obscure origins. Or words like “abstqontqinyishbarw” that can’t even be pronounced.

Instead, I’ll be dealing with magic words that actually work as you’ll attest to yourself.

The first and potentially the greatest of these magic words is;

I Love You:

This magic word is one of the most widely used and abused spell. This word has gotten a lot of girls pregnant before the appointed time. It has caused a lot of heart breaks because of its wrong application and incomplete potions. A potion that is usually lacking when this spell is put together is a “sincere and mature heart”. A lot of times this spell is cast, it is usually cast with a – naive, lustful, deceptive, or infatuated heart; and this neutralizes the potency, longevity, authenticity, and graceful nature of the spell.

For the aforementioned spell to work safely, it needs to be used with a sincere and mature heart. If used on its own, the spell will only backfire and cause great harm. It’s a very dangerous spell and should be used cautiously.

However, if you really care about somebody; I’d suggest that you try using it on them. Just walk up to the person, and say, “I Love You”.

The second magic word I’ll be showing you is a very powerful spell. It’s so powerful that only very few are able to use it. This magic word is reserved for the courageous. And it goes;

I’m Sorry:

This is one of the most powerful spells available to man. But it’s also the most dreaded spell – as most people are too timid and chicken hearted to invoke its powers. Also, for this spell to work to it’s full potentials – do not add excuses to it. Even if there are valid excuses for whatever it is you did that warranted a need for the spell.

To add to the potency of this already great spell, you can also add this potion to it, “I didn’t mean to hurt you”. That increases it’s length and magical powers.

The third magic word I’ll be showing you is;

I’m Glad You’re A Part Of My Life:

This magic word has similarities with the first magic word I showed you. When using this spell, you’ll also need a sincere heart to maximize its potentials. Otherwise, like what happens when you misuse the first magic word, it will backfire and come back to hunt you for invoking its powers without having a runway where it can land. And that runway, or landing pad, is a sincere heart.

The fourth magic word is one you can use to rent a space in someones heart. It can be used in two models. And it goes;

I’ll Miss You. Or, I’M Missing You:

This magic word engraves you in the hearts and subconscious of people. However, it doesn’t work in a vacuum. This spell needs a history to work properly. And a good history at that. Like a football team, the history works the ball to the post, while the magic word puts the ball into the goal post.

The fifth and final magic word I’ll be sharing with you also has two models. And it goes;

Seeing You Makes Me Happy. Or, You Made My Day:

This magic word creates a positive clarity and goes a long way in dispelling emotional vagueness and uncertainties which characterizes and derails most relationships. This spell also needs sincerity and a history to work, though not a very explicit history like the one needed to use the fourth magic word.

These are the five magic words I’ll be sharing with you. Do not abuse them and bring harm on others and on yourself.

Selah.

This slightly modified post also appeared here.

Be the first to pray.

 I used to think salvation meant giving my life to God.

But the bible says:

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Gal. 2:20

I don’t give my life to God.   Jesus gives His life to me.  That’s how salvation takes place.

Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.  John 1:12

When Jesus came in, my new life began.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!  2 Co. 5:17

I used to think I had to give my life to God, but the truth is, He had to give His life to me.

3 people prayed about this.

There’s a limit to what you can hold: You can’t hold everything at the same time.

For everything you’re holding right now there’s an opportunity cost; something you’re letting go of, something that is drifting away from you. You must discover what that is and ask yourself if it’s really worth less than whatever it is you’re holding on to right now.

If you’re holding bitterness; you are sacrificing happiness.

If you’re holding a grudge, you are letting go of your emotional and spiritual freedom.

If you’re holding on to the past, the future is out of your grip:

You can’t effectively hold the future without letting go of the past.

Neither your future nor your past are willing to share your attention with each other. They both want an exclusive treatment and attention.

Trying to hold your future and your past at the same time is like trying to keep two fiancées – who are both aware of their presence in your life. Each of these prospective life partners will be devising a means with which to cut out the other prospect from your life – in other to earn your full attention.

Nevertheless, the ball is still in your court.

The reason your future and your past are fighting for your attention is because they rightly consider you as very wealthy; they see you as the only means by which they can become actualized. You need to choose which one is better. Not which one you’re more comfortable with, but which one is best for you. Trying to hold on to the two, past and future; is like marrying two wives. One of which is very competitive and insecure, that being your past. And the other being secure and confident, that being the future.
Trying to live together with the both – considering their very incompatible character traits – is setting up your home, that is your mind and life generally, for strife and discontentment.

A major problem is that a lot of people seem to be comfortable – holding on to their past – because it serves as a shell. A comfort zone.
These people are more comfortable with the hurts, abuses, betrayals, slanders and other negative experiences of the past, than with the “unknown” experiences of the future. They sadly believe – letting go of their past will free up their hands for more embittering experiences. So they lash on to the devil they know. They throw away the baby with a bath water. They throw away the challenges of the future alongside the future.

But there is something I call, “The art of letting go”:

This is an art that must be mastered by those who want to free themselves from the voluntary shackles of the past, that is people who want to get more – happiness, fulfillment, and joy, out of life.

The joy of the future belongs to these people: People who are willing to let go of their past.

No matter how much you’ve been hurt in the past, it’s important you know that, “Your future is too big to share you with your past”.

It’s all or nothing.

Here are some things you must understand and imbibe – if you are to master the art of letting go:

1. Know that you can be in control.

The only reason everything seems to be happening to you outside your will is because you’ve given up total control. More like you may have unknowingly surrendered control to external influences.

“Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.” (Proverbs 25:28).

This control I speak about is fundamentally internal.

If you don’t understand that you can control your life, you will most likely remain a victim. Like the scenario painted in the scriptures mentioned above, you will be an open ground for looters and wild animals to come and go at will – while leaving a devastating and dehumanizing trail of destruction and exploitation.

Also,

“A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.” (Proverbs 29:11).

The ability to control external circumstances, which is an evidence of wisdom, is a byproduct of being able to control yourself internally.

You may not be able to choose peoples actions, but you can choose your reactions. And if you can consciously or instinctively choose the right reactions; you will be able to determine and control subsequent actions of the people around you.

You control people by controlling yourself.

The more you learn to control yourself, the more you learn to control people.

However, you must not focus, or be consumed with the prospect of controlling other people. Being able to control people is merely a byproduct of self control; not the essence.

2. You’re too big to fit into your past.

Refusing to let go, to forgive, to move on – is generally like trying to ride your dog, when you can afford a horse. That’s going to frustrate both you and the dog: It’s functioning outside design that’s why it’s so frustrating and emotionally exhausting to hold on to past hurts.

Holding on to the past, to a past hurt, abuse, or any negative experience is mentally exhausting. It’s like trying to use a blunt kitchen knife to cut down a huge tree, when a chain saw is within your reach.

The scenario is spiritually like that of a human being trying to fit into the shell of tortoise for self defense.

And by the way, holding on to the past has little or no effect on those who have hurt you in the past. Even if they are remorseful. But is has a huge effect on the person holding it. It shrinks the persons perspectives and deprives the person from having great experiences with others.

In essence, your past experiences are limited, but your future experiences are unlimited because you are a spiritual and consequentially an unlimited being. So holding to the past, is setting yourself up for emotional suffocation and suicide.

Selah.

Yours in Christ ,
Johnson Chukwuma.

This post also appeared here

1 person prayed about this.

The surface of our world is increasing in beauty, but it’s depth is in a state of grave decay.

The number of smiling faces on our media outlets and commercials are increasing drastically; so is the – crime, depression, and suicide rates.

The boom in the cosmetic industry is accompanied by a collapse in the self esteem and quality of the character of women, generally speaking. It seems so bad that some are saying that it’s virtually impossible to find a woman you can trust, that ‘wifey’ personalities are becoming extinct.

The big question is, “What is responsible for this sad irony?”

Why is the increase in the beauty of the surface of our planet disconnected from the beauty of the hearts of men? why is there no correspondence between the two?

Why does the character of the people responsible for this increase in the aesthetic beauty in our planet seem ugly?

I mean,

“If the environment reflect the hearts of the people in the environment; why are the hearts of men growing cold – despite the beauty they create in their environment?”

These are deep and important questions that seek answers.

Does anyone have any idea?

Answers, anybody?

I’ll be sharing with us – the essential reason why the beauty on the surface has effectively been severed from the beauty within.

The model of opportunity cost can be used to analyze this problem:

When you focus on something, you let something else suffer as a result of the lack of your attention. When you focus on feeding something, you let something else die of starvation.

The major reason the surface beauty of our planet is blossoming at the expense of the beauty in the hearts of men is because men have shifted focus from themselves – to their creations.

The opportunity cost of material development is spiritual development. It is however not the same trend with the opportunity cost of spiritual development. Spiritual development is all encompassing; material development is not. Material development has little or no effect on the spirit, but spiritual development has a massive and substantial effect on the material.

People are generally measured by what they do and accomplish, not by who they are intrinsically. This paradigm of living, though it has some positives, have largely destroyed the esteem of humanity on a general note – thereby creating cosmetic, superficial, and shallow societies.
This paradigm of living has taken infinitely more than it has given to the society:

It has taken peoples esteem, peoples joy and happiness, peoples confidence and peoples hope.

People can hardly see any hope within themselves. They only see hope outside themselves; in their – job, educational qualification, societal recognition, money in the bank and other material possessions and accomplishments.

Such trend subconsciously suggest that humanity has no independent worth. And that’s a dangerous mindset to live with.

Confidence and hope, amongst other positive personality pillars, have largely been outsourced.

Peoples confidence and hope are now regulated by external and material influences; things that can, has never, and will never fail to disappoint.

The inevitable disappointments that result from outsourcing such important pillars of a healthy personality to external and unstable forces has signed many up for a life of extreme dissatisfaction and sadness – which is a pathway to an increase to societal ills.

It used to be – “Change from inside out”. But today it’s, “Let’s change from outside in”.

The societal attempt to feed the souls of men with the joy and pride of material and aesthetically accomplishments has greatly malnourished the soul. The visible effects of this undernourishment are – emotional, spiritual, and moral bankruptcy in humanity.

People are doing the exact opposite of this divine principle needed for creating a glorious world,

“…First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23:26).

The beauty of decay is the perverted pleasure people derive from watching a beautiful world, while despising a beautiful heart.

The beauty of decay is founded on peoples propensity to cover up and pacify themselves over the internal emotional and mental decadence of their soul – by further beautifying their surroundings.

Mirrors have spiritually been replaced with televisions in the mind and hearts of men. So people look into the television and force themselves to believe it’s a mirror. They see what they want to see; a beautiful world. They consciously ignore the disconnection between the beauty in the mirror, that is the television, from the beauty in their hearts.

As we advanced, so did our problems. But we shouldn’t have allowed our problems to advance with us:

The admirable and aesthetic beauty of our world is no longer a mirror – reflecting the hearts of men. It’s now a television displaying a prototype and material interpretation of what the hearts of men should look like.

1 person prayed about this.

“…in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer].”~ Jeremiah 20:9b (AMP) 

 Oh, how God is speaking to me through this passage of scripture. A few years back I wrote an extensive weekly study on various Hebrew Names of God from Scripture. When I came upon the name Esh Oklah I loved studying the correlation between a consuming fire kind of God and a God so jealous for us that His anger and love burn with the same consuming purpose. The literal translation for this name is “to eat (consume) by fire.” There is no other way to say it, God is PASSIONATE. God’s anger burns in consumption of things that dishonor Him because His Love burns so passionately to be reconciled to us in every way!

When I began to roll Jeremiah 20 around in my heart, massaging it and allowing it marinate in my soul and spirit, I imagined the life of Jeremiah and how frightening it must have been to confess the very truth of God and be so persecuted that one would utter the words, “If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name,”  Jeremiah 20:9a (AMP) 

Jeremiah even went so far as to accuse God of deceiving him and setting him up to be a laughing stock among his own people just a few verses before this powerful statement about the call and passion of God. Still the last words he speaks in Jeremiah 20:9 resound so loudly with the season of life I am in. “…in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer].”~ Jeremiah 20:9b (AMP) 

Let’s just SELAH on that for a minute. In the New King James Translation it says, “Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”~ Jeremiah 20:9 (NKJV) 

His word is in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones. One commentary I read on this passage said the “burning fire in bones” reference refers to passionate intensity. Jeremiah says, “I was weary of holding it back…” Can you relate to that statement? 

Has God ever called you to something that burned within your heart so intensely you grew weary of holding back? I came to this realization before I had ever stumbled upon this verse. I have been in a season of preparation and struggle is not an adequate word to describe the journey I have been on. I have been challenged, cut back, had my expectations dashed to the ground only to find myself thriving in odd and new ways as well. A few weeks ago I developed an exit plan.

That fire shut up in my bones to do more than just compute, administrate, organize and file. My fire compels me to write, to study, to relate and to create. The desire of my heart comes to life when I connect people to God’s heart through creative expression. In July, my faith will launch me in the direction of passion and dream. I will leave the safety of my position in vocational ministry and strike out into new territory staking out the mission field of my influence, and moving to the rhythm of God’s heartbeat as an artist and communicator. I have no idea what the outcome will be, all I know is the option of not doing what God has set before me far outweighs anything that might oppose me along the way.

Not too long ago, God impressed upon me to not just seek to do things that give life to others, but rather to do the things that give life to me and out of the overflow of that life serve others. That is really what I hear when I read, “I grew weary of holding it back, I could not contain it.” Allowing God’s ministry to others to flow out of a place of life and rest. Doing the things that are not on His agenda will cause me to grow weary, but doing the things He has designed and uniquely fashioned me for will bring life to the full not only to me but to everyone around me as well. Bring on the Life!  

What is it that burns with passionate intensity within you?

Ask the Lord how He has uniquely fashioned you and designed you to carry that passion into this world.

What is it that you grow weary of holding back?

Ask the Lord to show you how to live and serve from a place of rest.

In what ways does God bring life to you in such a way it overflows into the lives of other while you serve from a place of rest? 

Pour out your heart to God about these things and watch Him bring life to your dreams in ways you could never imagine!

 ”It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~ E. E. Cummings

Live Boldy, Be All That He Created and Redeemed You To Be! LIVE. FULLY. ALIVE. 

1 person prayed about this.

I don’t know if any of you have sensed the great amount of people going through tough things right now. I believe it is kind of like the scripture that talks about whatever can be shaken will be, and what remains, will remain. I feel the shaking. A friend of mine from KC sent this word yesterday and I thought it confirmed how I was feeling so here it is. Her name is Robin Dublin, awesome lady in tune with the Lord. This is an inward preparation for a battle coming. Holly Smith

This word was given to me driving home one night – the Lord began speaking and I rushed home to write down what I was hearing. Thank you, Lord, for your compassionate warning. Blessed be the name of the Lord God Almighty!

Robin Dublin

1/31/12

My Impression from the LORD 1/31/12

There is a war brewing. I see it as a cloud of dust afar off. The Lord in His goodness is warning us and giving us time to get ready. Prepare yourself – strengthen you arms and ready your bows.

The Lord is preparing a great army to recognize, identify, strategize and war against he enemy. Now is the time to prepare your mind, heart and body for this battle which will take place in the spiritual realm.

Don’t delay. Get ready. Cover yourself with His word, get in His presence, worship Him. Expect Him to speak and give direction and guidance. Connect to the Holy Spirit’s power within you and be confident of His calling on you to fight.

Make time. Make way for Him to arm and equip you for His purposes and His glory.

Be faithful. Be diligent. Be intentional in your preparation. Find those of like mind. Ask the Lord who you are to war with. Align yourself with those people. Be ready to stand with them, arm in arm, heart to heart, spirit to spirit.

Know that you will be called upon to stand strong, stand still and know that He is God. He is the One directing the battle. He is the One that gives the victory. For His glory.

Be confident of this word to you in that evil time and you will have no trouble standing against the strategies and lies of the enemy. Stay clean. Stay pure. Protect your fellow warriors.

God is raising up an army of women and men who will not back down. But they must be armed with His personal word to them to succeed. Know your God. Know your enemy.

The enemy will challenge you in every area of your life. Be prepared to suffer and be misunderstood. It’s alright. HE, the great I AM, knows. Stand. Stand strong. Stand strong in the face of adversity and persecution – for God is raising up warriors. Choose now to prepare – and then don’t look back.

The battle is coming. The skirmishes are already here but the battle is coming. It is coming from within. Beware of those close. The enemy plans to destroy from within the body of Christ. Get very familiar with the weapons of your warfare. You will need all of them alongside the wisdom of God. Victory is mine, says the Lord, but the battle must still be fought.

Don’t delay your preparation. Today is the day He calls you to war. Those of you whose hearts are leaping right now as you are reading or hearing this, are the ones He is calling to fight. You know who you are. It is no secret. Now is your time, dear warriors. You are being called up. You are being called to prepare for war. You have waited a long time but now is your time.

Prepare, watch then wait. The battle is near.

Know your God. Know your enemy.

8 people prayed about this.

Prayer is talked about a lot in Christian circles.  When I first started my journey with Jesus, I took a lot of bible studies and classes on prayer.  The crazy thing was, the more I studied prayer, the more inadequate I felt in my conversations with God.  Looking back, my dialog with Him started out so simple and real.  Then, before I knew it, I was saying all these “right” phrases and approaching Him with some stiff agenda that someone else came up with for me. 

I am not saying that studies on prayer or even prayer mentoring is a bad thing. I’m just bringing up the possibility that prayer is a lot more personal than we present it most times.   I’m concerned that a lot of Christ followers have a weak or inconsistent prayer life not because of something God said, but because of something we’re saying. 

Think about this.  Abraham obviously had a robust prayer life.  The bible tells us he left his home and land just as God said. How did he learn to pray?  He didn’t attend a conference or bible study.  I think the answer lies in another question.  Who gave him the desire to communicate?  

God wants us to talk with and listen to Him. He wired it into us. Remember how He walked around in the cool of the evening with Adam and Eve in the garden… talking? 

Jesus reminded us we should be praying - so we should be praying. But when He talked about prayer, He seemed to be trying to orient our hearts toward God as an intimate and good Father more than teaching us canned strategies.   In Matthew 6 Jesus tells us to get secluded and talk with God.  He seems to imply that prayer is really about centering down…shifting our focus to heaven… allowing the One who resides there to influence our mind, will, and emotions. 

Here’s Matthew 6:5-13 from the Message version:

“And when you come before God, don’t turn that into a theatrical production either. All these people making a regular show out of their prayers, hoping for stardom! Do you think God sits in a box seat?

 ”Here’s what I want you to do: Find a quiet, secluded place so you won’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense his grace.

 ”The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They’re full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. Don’t fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

   Our Father in heaven,
Reveal who you are.
Set the world right;
Do what’s best— as above, so below.
Keep us alive with three square meals.
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil.
You’re in charge!
You can do anything you want!
You’re ablaze in beauty!
Yes. Yes. Yes.

For me this centering down with God is a more a mindset than geography.  Yes, a lot of the time, I physically draw away from everybody to talk with God.  More often than that though, I talk with Him right in the  midst of my crazy daily life.  I treat Him as the trusted Father/friend who is right there with me.  I’ve learned to submerge like a submarine into my soul and spirit and get eyeball to eyeball with the One who’s on top of life. 

And I talk spirit to Spirit.  And I listen spirit to Spirit.  And I know I’ve prayed.  But I didn’t learn it.  I’m living it.

What’s your prayer story?

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Hi this is Lisa, the web developer for the deep breath site. You may have noticed lately that the site has been offline several times and has been exhibiting strange and suspicious behaviors. This is due to the fact that the site has been maliciously hacked 4 times in the last month or so. I’ve had to take the site offline each time this has happened to investigate and to recover the site.

I have no doubt that we are a target here at deep breath for the powerful ministry that happens here. People with malicious intent, spurred on by Satan, have been infiltrating the underlying systems through the back door, intending to cause harm. They are using various tactics and I have been working hard to close these holes, increasingly determined to win this battle and ensure that deep breath will continue its good work of ministry going forward.

I give you my pledge to do my utmost to make this site a safe and healthy place to visit. I have closed all known holes and have taken every security precaution that I know to take.

I ask you to pray with me for protection over the site.

And for favor with the Lord that I have defeated these foes once and for all and closed any and all technology holes that they could slither through.

Thanks for your prayers and your commitment to deep breath.

Blessings
Lisa

2 people prayed about this.

People talk about growing spiritually.

What does that mean to YOU?

Here’s my definition of spiritual growth:

“Spiritual growth is the expansion of my capacity to know and experience God“.

First for me:

The Holy Spirit has been my number one factor in growing.  Having a mentor like Him is phenomenal.  Hearing His voice and responding to the truth He shares with me has brought about tremendous change in me.

Second for me:

Reading and meditating on scripture from the bible has taken me into a new world.  God has been having a conversation with me ever since I began digging into the bible.  My perspective on life, love, and relationships has been turned upside down by this other-worldly book.

Third for me:

Others sharing their knowledge, perspective, and understanding of God through their life experiences has been pivotal.  It’s seems my “living God” is out there living in and through people.

Yes, the Holy Spirit, the bible, and other believers have increased my capacity to know and experience God.  I’m bigger and stronger spiritually because of my interaction with these three.

What’s growing YOU?

Be the first to pray.