Revival ~~(Originally written on Friday, November 9, 2012)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Revival

      Lord, Loving Father, Redeeming Brother, Comforting Counselor,
      You are the Great I Am, the Alpha and Omega, the Amazing Creator - You know all things from the beginning to the end (but there is no end!). You hold the universe in the palm of Your hand! and yet You are mindful of us...even to know the number of hairs on our head!
      When we grasp the truth of this, how can we let any fear take root in our hearts?!
      You are our Shepherd, You protect us, guide us and provide for us. Over and over You have told us "Fear Not!".
      Lord, I know I previously lived my life in my own power, what a foolish thing! I did what "I" thought was right. I prayed and asked for direction but I have only recently learned how to listen to the answer. Thank You for Your Holy Spirit living in me being Your Communicator, Guide and Teacher to my spirit. I have been "saved" for a long time, but I didn't know Your power. I had not learned how to walk, live, breathe and rest in You. Even now I'm still learning to grasp the authority You have provided for us! "Us" as Your children, but also "Us" as Your body on Earth!
      Thank You Lord! You have provided all we need to walk in victory, please help us find our way to the path of victory, please remove the scales from our eyes! Remove our apathetic hearts! I ask that Your whole body wake up and "hear" Your call!
      If this election had gone to the candidate that I supported would people have backed off on their drive to bring our nation into Your will?  ...Probably...Even now we have shown ourselves too weak to successfully support a man that wanted to stand with Israel and to protect unborn babies! We need You Lord! We need the strength of Your Holy Spirit poured out upon our Nation! We need revival that can only be brought through an outpouring of Your Spirit! Lord we pray now, Let it be! Pour Your Spirit over our Nation, One Nation under You! In Jesus' powerful name and through His precious blood we pray, Amen!

Peace And Happiness

     In Christ we are required to let go of much! And like in many relationships of love we think we can do that easily. Let me be the first to tell you....it's not always so easy.
     In Christ we are told to consider others as more important than ourselves...it's not so easy either! 
     In Christ we're not to cling to the things of this world, but to lay up treasures in heaven....yep, not so easy either(small note here, some people have no issue with this, or any of it for that matter, I can only share from my own experience)
     I am a sentimental "collector" and have many things that are filled with memories. I remember where I was and how I felt with those things, kind of like a song or fragrance can stir memories. Letting go of those things is like ripping away those memories...like having part of my past(or myself) sliced away. 
     As you go through life you are required to let go of many things, life is full of change, the first I remember that I was forced to let go of was a kitten~killed by a dog...the next was a purse(and trust)~stolen from me...then relationships, dreams, homes, cars~ I'm not talking about things you let go of yourself, because you wanted to, but things that life and other people have forced you to let go.
     The experiences are scattered through life and you don't have to let go of everything all at once so it can sneak up on you, until all of a sudden you feel quite naked standing there having let go of everything!
     Yesterday I had one of those "naked" experiences! God has taken me through a lot of exercises lately of letting go of things, He has been showing me that it's ALL His~ I don't mean just the things that we already know... the sky, the mountains, the sunset, the sunrise~  He has shown me that it is ALL His...the man He lets me live with as my husband is really "His man", the sons I gave birth to, are His men also...the house we live in, the clothes I wear, the very skin I wear is His~ in the kitchen is a cutting board with my name burnt into it, but it's His too! The hair on my head is His! (Let that soak in and quit complaining about your body, your features and your hair, they are all His! and you can also apply that to your spouse! Should you really criticize the things of God?). 
     When God was showing me all of this, I easily agreed, "Yes Lord! It's all Yours!". It's a lot easier to do things when you're in a conversation with your Abba, than when life just hits you in the cold daylight~ 

~ in life I have let go of much! Somethings by choice, somethings not by choice at all. My parents moved quite a lot during my childhood, and I let go of friends, homes, schools, teachers~ then I went through a bad marriage, I let go of more, the hardest and most regretted is innocence and belief, I let go of home again, friends, family, until finally I let go of hope and the marriage ended~ 
     I walked through life with little hope for several years(I was not walking with Jesus then!), just looking for a place to "be", just to be in a little quiet corner of the world and be left alone to live my life and not have to deal with so many things taken by force or to have to let go of just to survive. Like a coyote that has chewed it's own leg off to escape a trap, I just wanted to heal.
     Find a place to heal I did! I found a life of peace and soul's contentment, for many years I lived in "peace and happiness", I loved my cocoon! But as life always does, change happens and you have to let go of things again. My cocoon crumbled around me and there was the hard world again, ready to take things from me ...my elderly father, my husband, my spiritual father, my marriage, my home, my family, my world~ 
     Picking up the pieces that were left I gathered the things that I could that had been part of my "peace and happiness" and moved on again, looking for another corner of the world where there could be a new "peace and happiness". The search can be tricky and treacherous! Sometimes we think we've found it when actually we've found something worse than we left. (Now I know to search in God)
     With going through my lessons from God, that it's ALL His, I thought I'd learned that "peace and happiness" can only be found in Him! But yesterday I was shown that I'm still holding on to things(it was a little Piggy Bank that could transport me back to the "cocoon of peace and happiness" that someone dared empty!), that even in clinging to memories I'm preventing myself from walking where He intends for me to go. How can I cling to things, to sentimentality, to memories, to "peace and happiness" and still be able to pick up my cross daily and follow Him? This is my current lesson! The first step is to mentally let go, recognize that it is truly ALL His, then ask Him to help you with the rest. So Lord, please help me to let go of the desire to create a cocoon, help me to grow into the "peace and happiness" of Your presence and it alone! I surrender all~ 

~~These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 ~~