Return From Captivity

Jeremiah 31:3-6 ....Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. 4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. 5 Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things. 6 For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.

God's people had a promise of coming out of captivity.  Even in their captivity He loved them with an everlasting love and continued to draw them, because God is love and He always loves. He promised that he would once again build. They would indeed be rebuilt.  And they would once again rejoice with tambourines and dancing.  And there would be a day when they would once again go up to Zion to worship.

If you have felt like you have been in captivity, please know that God has not forgotten you.  He loves you with His everlasting love.  He will rebuild your waste places and you will rejoice again. You will worship in Zion. You will meet with the Lord in Zion, the mountain of the house of the Lord.

The Word of God is true and His promise is sure.

Waiting In The Wilderness

Psalm 106:13-15 AMP 13 But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them, 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert. 15 And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.

Oh Lord when I am in a wilderness time, may I be patient to wait for the revelation of and unfolding of Your plan. May I not insist on my own way or desire. God I don't want leanness of soul. I desire to be fat in the things of You. I want to sup with You at Your table and eat of Your great bounty. May I eat of the abundance of Your house and drink from the river of Your delights. May I eat from Your table prepared for me even in the presence of my enemies.

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Psalm 36:8 ESV They feast on the abundance of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

Psalm 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:....

Come As You Are

Romans 12:1-2 ESV  I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

When we lay our lives before the Lord as a living sacrifice, sometimes we may think we can only bring the pure and undefiled parts, because the sacrifices God wanted were the best of the flock without blemish.  Only Jesus could come to God as that kind of pure, unblemished, perfect sacrifice. We can only bring our weakness and imperfection as a sacrifice unto God and let Him take it and transform us.

In this verse the fact it says "holy" may make us think we need to get ourselves cleaned up first.  It has to do with consecration unto God, a coming to Him based on Jesus' sacrifice. It is the only way to be acceptable.  All our attempts at being holy fall far short of the holiness of God that can only be manifest in our lives because of Jesus' sacrifice and our submission to Him. Holiness is a separation unto God and from the ways of this world.

We come boldly before the throne of grace based on the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.  We come with all our need to receive mercy and grace. If we wait until we are good enough, we will never come.  It is there before the throne that we are cleansed as we confess our sin and receive all we need to live a pure and holy life.

It is only as we come to Him with all our imperfections and needs that we can be transformed and become all He created us to be.

Hebrews 4:14-16 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. 

Titus 3:4-7 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

A New Walk

Jacob walked away from his night of wrestling with God, with a limp because of his hip being put out of joint. We also leave the wrestling match with what had been the strongest part put out of joint.  We walk away with a limp that requires a new dependence on the Lord, a dependence upon His strength and not our own.  We never walk the same again.

This reminds me of the following Scripture.  The woman came up from the wilderness where God had so worked in her life and she was so changed that she was unrecognizable.  She now walked in a place of dependence that she had never known. She walked into a deep love relationship with her Beloved.   

Song of Solomon 8:5-7 Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raised thee up under the apple tree: there thy mother brought thee forth: there she brought thee forth that bare thee. ⁶ Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame. ⁷ Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. ^.

A New Day, A New Identity, A New Walk (Part 2)

In the midst of wrestling with God, when asked what his name was Jacob had to admit that he was Jacob.  He was a deceiver, a swindler, a schemer.  (Genesis 32:22-32)

Being a deceiver, a swindler, a schemer, was a family trait.  Jacob's mother, Rebekah, helped him deceive his father to receive the blessing. (Genesis 27:5-17)  After that Jacob went to live with his uncle Laban, who deceived him by giving him Leah when he had served for seven years for Rachel. (Genesis 29:20-27)  Then Laban schemed over and over changing Jacob's wages time and again. (Genesis 31:4-7)  As Jacob was heading back to his homeland with his family and goods, his wife Rachel, Laban's daughter, deceived her father concerning the idols she had stolen. (Genesis 31:30-35)

We see that this was a family trait and it needed to go.  We may say "this is just the way I am" or "that is just the way my family is."  But if it is a character trait that is not honoring to God it must go. 

By asking Jacob to admit who had been, I believe God was putting His finger on that thing in his life at that time so it could be dealt with.  In the wrestling encounter, I believe God wanted to get at that core issue in the life and family line of Jacob.  That day when Jacob confessed who he had been God gave him a new name, a new identity.  Jacob was now Israel, which God had always intended him to be.  It probably took a little while to not think or act in the same way he always had.  Sometimes it takes a little bit to walk into the fullness of our new identity. 

Rest In God's Love

I felt like God wanted me to share the words of a song He gave me last summer....

I Love You

I find my place of rest

With my head upon Your  breast

And there I hear Your heart beat out this song

I love you, I love you, I love you

I love you, I love you, I love you, My child

May the song of my life be in rhythm and harmony

With the song of Your heart my God

As the fragrance of Your love saturates me

When this life, puts on, the press and the squeeze

May the fragrance of Your love flow out of me

So all the world will know the song of Your heart

I love you, I love you, I love you

I love you, I love you, I love you, My child

(then I heard the Lord say)

This is why you were created

This is why you were created, Oh My child

To know Me and My love, and walk with Me each day

My heart does long for you to know My love

In its length, and depth, and breadth, and height

So lay your head upon My breast

And there find your place of rest

And there you'll hear My heart beat out this song

I love you, I love you, I love you

I love you, I love you, I love you, My child

A New Day, A New Identity, A New Walk

Sometimes we hit a critical juncture in our journey with God.  It may require a face to face encounter with God in a wrestling match like Jacob had. (Genesis 32:22-32)

Jacob found himself in a difficult place, poised between his disgruntled father-in-law and his brother who had wanted to kill him.  He sent forth all he owned and all he held dear. He was left alone with God in the dark of the night. It was in that difficult place alone with God that Jacob found himself in a wrestling match with God.  Functioning as he always had was not going to work in this situation.  Jacob had to prevail with God.

There are times when we must wrestle with God in the darkness of the night until the light of the new day comes forth.  Even when the light of the new day begins to dawn, we can't let go until we receive the blessing we so desperately need. We may be done wrestling and we may have little or no strength left, but we can't let go.

It is possible that his nature as Jacob (deceiver, supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler) felt like a strength to him all those years.  It had gotten him a lot of things he wanted.  Even his "success" in being Jacob was a weakness and not the strength it may have felt like.  Jacob had to acknowledge who he was when he was asked, "What is your name?"  He had to acknowledge that he had indeed been a deceiver, supplanter, schemer, trickster, swindler. That confession was necessary in order to receive his new name.  He now had a new identity as Israel, a prince with God or one who has power with God or one who prevails with God. In God's book Jacob was always meant to be Israel.  

To be given a new name/identity/nature and be changed in the encounter, we must first realize who we have been. We must confess it before God and let Him change us into who we really are.  We can be changed when we recognize and confess who we really have been.  God touches that place in us that we have relied on as a strength.  Then He can be our strength. 

Jacob walked away with a limp because of his hip being put out of joint. We also leave the wrestling match with what had been the strongest part put out of joint.  We walk away with a limp that requires a new dependence on the Lord, a dependence upon His strength and not our own.  We never walk the same again.

The scripture says that God "blessed him there."  Not sure if the blessing was the new identity,  the limp of a new dependence on God, or something else.  But Jacob did come away from that encounter into a new day, with a new identity, and a new walk.

Key To The Cage

A year or two ago while praying for someone, I saw a bird on a perch inside a locked cage. The bird had a key in its mouth.  It was the key that would unlock the cage and allow the bird to go free.

Often we have the key to our own freedom and we don't even know we have it.  Sometimes we may know we have it but we may choose not to use it.  Maybe we don't know quite how to use it.  Perhaps we are even afraid to use it, because of the unknown on the other side of that door and/or because we have become so used to and comfortable in our cage.

God has given us the key so we can be free to become all that He ordained us to be.

Jesus has purchased our liberty.  He has made the way for us to be free.  He whom the Son sets free is free indeed.  The Truth will set you free.

Often the key is the confession of our own mouth.  Perhaps in repentance.  Perhaps in declaration of the Word in agreement with what God has said about our life or situation.  It can be any number of things.

Maybe you feel stuck in a cage.  Ask God about the key to get free today.

God Will Make A Way

Last Thursday was Purim, a Jewish holiday which commemorates the Jews being saved from the evil plot of Haman in ancient Persia.  Wednesday night during a time of worship God began to speak about making a way where there seems to be no way as He did for the Jewish people when Esther interceded for her people. 

God will make a way where there seems to be no way.  He has the solution ready before we even know there is a problem.

When evil Haman persuaded King Ahasuerus to make the decree against the Jewish people in an attempt to destroy them, God already had Esther positioned in the king's palace.  Once the decree was made known, Mordecai made Esther aware of the  situation.  She overcame her initial reluctance of possibly losing her life by going before the king without being summoned.  Her life and the lives of her people were in danger if she did not intercede.  She had indeed come to the kingdom for such a time as this.  (Esther 4:14)

Once the problem was known to the king, there was now a need for a solution.  Evil Haman was hung on the gallows he had built for Mordecai. And God gave great wisdom to Esther and Mordecai. He gave them a plan by which the Jewish race could be saved.  

Once a decree was made in Persia it could not be reversed.  But God made a way for the Jewish people to protect themselves and thus preserve the Jewish nation of people scattered throughout the Persian empire. 

Just as in this situation God knows in advance and makes provision of a way through the difficulties even before we know there is a problem.  God sees in advance and makes a way where there seems to be no way.  He is the way maker.  He is the Way.  He is the Provider. 

Pro=in advance

Vision= to see

Isaiah 43:18-19 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. ¹⁹ Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

Heart Connection

About a year ago, one day while I was at the piano worshiping the Lord, He began to speak the following to me:

"O my child come and sit with me a while.  I am so lonely in the depths of my heart, come and sit with me a while that I might share my heart. Many will have a surface relationship with Me.  But few will share My heart. My bride will share my heart.  Many run here and there to try to find Me.  And many will even pray, but few will share my heart. Come and be with Me, My child, and I will share My heart with you."

I believe that cry in God's heart is for each one of us. With the billions of people in the earth, God is lonely for a heart to heart relationship with each one. I believe there is a special slot/spot in God's heart carved out for each one.  And when that slot/spot is filled it brings satisfaction to God's heart. The deepest satisfaction comes when there is a real heart to heart connection.