Living in His Presence
second 40 day fast
Join with us daily as we enter into the Inner Courts and come together in Unity and Oneness. March 1st - April 9th, 2020
Isaiah 64:8 But now, O LORD, You are our Father, we are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.
Throughout the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah, these prophets would give analogies of the Potter (God) and the clay (mankind) being made and remade. Their lives were radically changed by invading nations who greatly restricted everything they used to do, including publicly worshiping God. We can learn from their experiences of being remade into new pots for the Lord. Jeremiah 18:4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. I must confess, I don’t really like the remaking! It is unsettling and messes with our minds and purpose. A pot is made of clay and fashioned and dried by fire to make it into a useful vessel. We tend to get comfortable in our purposes and the ways we do things. That can lead to complacency. I compare complacency to lining up at the starting line of a race and waiting for the race to start, all the while being unaware that the race has already started! This is never what the Lord wants for His people. The Lord does not throw us away, but he remakes us into the useful pot He needs us to be in each season of our lives. Are we looking back to what used to be, or are we resting in the fact that God Almighty is the one who has us in His hands and is refashioning us for His Purposes in this time of history! Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. This is a challenging season for people all over the world, but for God’s people it is a time to rise above the chaos and fear, and SHINE with the Light of the glory of God who is in us! How are you being changed in this season? Please take the time to talk with God about this today!
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His Word is What Sustains Us
Psalm 1:1-3 Those who put their trust in the Lord and delight in His Word can come before their Heavenly Father in Boldness and partake of His Presence How Do We APPROACH THE LORD to Hear Instruction? We Come to the Altar of Surrender to approach Him
Arise Church Arise Remnant Arise God’s People READ for yourself the entire Book of Hebrews, let God speak to you! For More Details see Document entitled Preparing to Hear the Voice of the Lord - Not in Isolation but through Consecration & Separation It is easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of all that is changing continually all around us and all over the world. David was feeling the same thing while he was isolated in a cave hiding from his enemies.
Psalm 142:1-3 I cry out to the LORD with my voice; with my voice to the LORD I make my supplication. I pour out my complaint before Him; I declare before Him my trouble. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then You knew my path. In the way in which I walk they have secretly set a snare for me. We must do the same thing as David – PRAY to the Lord our God. We must get with other believers and PRAY! First of all we need to pray for ourselves to be settled in who God is. Then we need to pray for WISDOM that only comes from God – wisdom from above. James 3:17-18 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy. And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. But if we listen to the wisdom of man- earthly wisdom, it is characterized by jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder, and all evil things. There will be no peace and not wisdom. Yesterday in prayer the Lord brought to our remembrance a prophecy from May 4, 2012, that gives us the key to receiving God’s wisdom: “I am slowing you down to bring you wisdom! Look at the elderly man. You must walk with him. Slow down. You are walking too fast. He walks with a pace of wisdom. He is not running. Do not walk ahead of him. He has much to say to you. I am giving you this wisdom. Slow down, Slow down, Slow down, Slow down, Slow down, Slow down, Slow down; hear the wisdom.” Here are the words of a hymn called Open My Eyes that I May See. Let this be our cry today to receive God’s wisdom: Open my eyes that I may see glimpses of truth that You have for me Open my Ears that I may hear the voice of truth that You send Open my mouth that I may bear gladly warm truth everywhere This fast started 18 days ago. Before it started the Lord told me this would be the most difficult fast I have ever been on, because He was going to discipline my mind. I had no idea what He meant, but I knew it was going to be serious. And then the corona virus began to touch our lives. The effortless life we once knew was shutting down all around us.
This morning I told the Lord we need discernment so we will not be deceived. Please help us to know what is going on and what we need to do and pray. As a ministry we have met most of the day to seek the Lord in what we need to do to stay faithful to God’s call on our lives, and to encourage others to stand firm also. I will be sharing what God has shared with us over the next several days. God first told us the satan is using FEAR as a tool to release the spirit of SEPARATION & ISOLATION into the world to dominate the people spiritually and physically. He told us to SLOW DOWN and ask Him for WISDOM! We must be careful to not move out of our emotions, thoughts, and opinions. In our slowing down to seek the Lord, we must also gather with others, in person, on the internet, or on the phone, to be ACCOUNTABLE. We must not make decisions or moves without wisdom and accountability. This unification of the body will break the spirit of separation and isolation. Psalms 141:4-5 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who do iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies. Let the righteous smite me in kindness and reprove me; It is oil upon the head; do not let my head refuse it, for still my prayer is against their wicked deeds. Things will never be the same, everything must come and must be changed
I am bringing this change to them so that you will know that I am close to thee Embrace the change, don’t look behind, stay focused and you will see Me Look forward and you will see that I am standing It is Me that wants you to see change has come and the change is from Me Because change has come, you must come and abide The mountain path is open to thee, step by step, come up Come and see what I have for thee, come up to the mountain top Come into the secret place, I want to bring you close, so that you can hear This is an excerpt from a prophetic psalm the Lord gave us July 27, 2014, called A Change Has Come. Change means to cause to turn, to make different, to put one thing in place of another, to shift. We can definitely say the world has changed almost overnight. But our God never changes. Since He remains our constant, let’s keep our focus and hope on Him. James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. We see in the prophetic psalm and this verse that God is calling us to come closer to Him, up to the mountain top for the purposes of purifying our hearts and minds! Human hearts and minds have a difficult time with change. Let’s confess this to the Lord and let Him bring the change in us that He is desiring! This will take courage. Courage means to be alert physically and mentally, to have a steadfast mind to not be deterred by danger or pain. In order to do this, we must Pray and we must Worship. Could the Lord be birthing Intercessory Worship at this time? I say Yes Lord, yes! Today’s blog is what the Lord has been speaking in great unity to our intercessors this morning. As much as I try to distance myself from the virus mania, and the disruptions man’s reaction to it have brought around the world, I have to admit that God is allowing it. He is Sovereign over everything. We must look at ourselves and see that if God is allowing a plague to be all over the world, we have sinned against Almighty God. We must repent of our lack of showing God the proper whole-hearted love, respect and devotion He deserves. We obviously are NOT trusting in Him, but eating from the table of the world’s news stations, instead of eating from the Truths in God’s Word.
We must spend some serious time in prayer repenting for our sins and the sins of our nations. Asking God to reveal our sins, and how we are to pray for them. I do not believe we have spent the time in Prayer for this crisis as we should! I encourage you to gather with fellow believers and seek the Voice of the Lord. Ephesians 5:14-17 For this reason it says, "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Usually when God sends judgment it is to awaken the people to their need to repent. A great awakening and turning to the Lord Jesus Christ is coming to the world. We must be like Daniel and offer up repentance on behalf of the people and pray for true repentance to come to their hearts today. We must pray and continue to pray until God says “it is done”! Romans 13:11-12 Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Have you noticed we are in a season of global unsettledness? Of course you have. Life as we have been accustomed to has been disrupted. How are we doing? Do we see this season as an opportunity to shine the light of God and His love to those around us?
1 John 4:11-12 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. Did you catch that last part? God’s love is perfected in us when we love those around us! So, how can we love the people around us better? In times of confusion, truth stands out as a shining light, and it also stands the test of time. So let us be careful to only speak words of truth and the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ! And may we do good deeds that demonstrate the love of God that is in us! 1 John 3:18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth. Another way we can demonstrate to God that we love the people around us, is to pray for them. Isaiah 33:2-6 is a great prayer to pray over individuals and nations at this time. Isaiah 33:2-6 O LORD, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of distress. At the sound of the tumult peoples flee; at the lifting up of Yourself nations disperse. Your spoil is gathered as the caterpillar gathers; as locusts rushing about men rush about on it. The LORD is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is his treasure. I cried out to the Lord this morning, “I am weary of the drama and confusion going on in the world”. He answered my cry by taking me to Isaiah 40.
Isaiah 40:3,5 A voice is calling, "Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God …Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh (everybody around us) will see it together”; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Do we hear God’s voice clearly today? There is so much noise and confusion going on around us, distracting us from hearing His Voice, and taking our focus off of God. He is telling us in His Word that we must clearly hear His voice calling to us today, so His glory can be revealed in and through us. God’s people are to stand out, above the noise and clamor, and display our faith in God! Isa 40:8 The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. I encourage us all to spend more time in the Word to hear His voice, and then stand up and stand firm on the promise in God’s Word. Isaiah 40:9 Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, "Here is your God!" We must purpose to go up higher to meet with God, away from the distractions in this current world. While there, we must WORSHIP God! Let’s spend MORE time with God and less time watching the news. Who are we trusting in? We must put or trust in God and make our trust evident to all those around us! I love this next section, “Do we not know how powerful God us?” Isaiah 40:21-22 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. Inscrutable means that we cannot even understand how much God understands, and how powerful He is! Read Isaiah 40:29-31 and rest on HIs promises to strengthen us in this journey! Let’s all purpose to come up to a higher place on the mountain to be with God, to clearly hear His voice! Daniel 9:22 He (angel Gabriel) gave me (Daniel) instruction and talked with me and said, "O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you INSIGHT with UNDERSTANDING.
We all know Daniel was a man of prayer. In the 9th chapter of Daniel he was fasting and praying for the people of Israel who were in exile with him in Babylon. Daniel had read the prophetic words that Jeremiah had written about the times he was living in. He read that their captivity would be over soon, but the people’s hearts were far from God. He cried out to God to be able to know what to pray. God sent him the angel Gabriel to give him insight with understanding. The Hebrew word for INSIGHT is SAKAL. It has the letters SHIN, KAPH, and LAMED. Insight means the light in a lighthouse to show the way. The Hebrew word for UNDESTANDING is BIYNAH. It has the letters BEIT, NUN, and HEI. Understanding means God’s Word humbly breathed in. Colossians 2:2-3 that their hearts may be encouraged, having been knit together in love, and attaining to all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of UNDERSTANDING, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God is zealous for us to come into the full UNDERSTANING of who He is. Not just being satisfied to know He is our Savior, but to delve into the mysteries and treasures of our Savior as revealed in God’s Word! 1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. In prayer yesterday, the Lord showed us that we need to pray for the Agnostic Gate. Someone who is agnostic is someone who is not willing to commit to the existence or non-existence of God. Agnostics won’t commit to believing in God, that something has a higher point of reference in their heart— in their mind (intellect), will (status), and emotions. This non-commitment is in reality a denial of the existence and need for God in their lives. This reasoning is a high place, a false alter, a “sacred” pillar, a carved IMAGE that is keeping them out of the most Holy Place of the Garden of Love!
This Gate is subtle and deceptive because it has a “form of godliness but denies the power”; it relies on intellect, accomplishments, perfectionism, displays, images, status. This Gate is most predominant in the church because it can look good. This heart gate sees itself rich but doesn’t know it is naked and beggarly. This Gate cannot cry out anymore for “amazing grace” or the need for “new mercies each morning” because it says, “I can do it myself!” Zechariah 7:11-12 But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears from hearing. They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the LORD of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the LORD of hosts. We all sin, and it is a choice to feel remorse and acknowledge we have sinned against God and others. But some people refuse to let God into their hearts, refuse to acknowledge Him, refuse to let anyone tell them anything about God, and refuse to let God lead them. We need to pray for all our friends and family members who are agnostic, to have their hearts of stone be changed to hearts of flesh, so they can receive the Holy Spirit that will cause them to walk in obedience. Ezekiel 36:25-27 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. Lord we pray for those who are behind the Agnostic Gate to Awaken, Acknowledge God, Repent, Receive God, a new Heart and the Holy Spirit, and Walk in His ways. Papa, have mercy on those at this Gate. Stir the people to repentance. Let them come to Intimacy’s Gate, Holy God, by your loving hand! |
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