LEANING, LEANING.......

LEANING ON THE EVERLASTING ARMS! In times of kaos......when there is nothing you can do about what is happening around you.....just relax, let go and LEAN on Jesus. Right now! Why wait! Stop what you are doing, put on some worship music and LEAN! If you are leaning on His everlasting arms.....you are very close.....you can hear His voice in the quiet of the moment. LEAN! When you are in that quiet moment......reach over and shut off that music and listen to the quiet....feel the peace......rest. If He has something to say, you will be ready to hear. Maybe He just wants to hold you........



TRUST in the Lord with all your heart. The Hebrew word in Prov 3:5 for trust is batah: trust in, feel safe, be confident, careless; stressing the feeling of being safe or secure. Likewise, all the derivatives have the same meaning "to feel secure," "be unconcerned." So....during your "tornado" experiences God wants to bring you into TRUST ~ where you feel safe, secure and unconcerned ~ because you KNOW that God is with you, in control and looking our for your best interest. When you were a baby, you felt safe and secure wrapped up in a blanket and held closely by your parents. I am certain this is no coincidence. God shows us in the natural about the spiritual, because we understand that better.



Other Semitic languages give other shades of meaning to the word TRUST: to be stretched out, taut. Very interesting, don't you think? Well....anyway, if you don't, I do! Not that I enjoy the thought of being stretched and pulled in all directions. But, that is what happens to us when we are learning to trust. This will make us more flexible, able to go with the flow and roll with the punches in life. And one thing I know for sure.....there are lots of punches, pushing, shoving, bending and stretching in life!



So.....when you are on the ride......learn to lean!

ON MY WAY TO PICK UP THE DB......

I had an amazing traffic free rush hour ride up to Grapevine to pick up BFF......DB. For those who don't know who that is, don't ask. For those who want to know what the DB is all about......don't ask that either, or I will have to lie to you and tell you it means dumb blonde. Yes, we are both blondes......but NOT DUMB!!!!!



So....as I am listening to Kari Jobe's new cd.....something in the words triggered something and God started talking and I started listening. As many of you know, something we are walking through right now, is the upcoming heavenly transfer of my beloved mother-in-love, Jean. She has stage 4 lung cancer, which has recently spread to liver and bones, and is starting to cause pain. Hospice has been called to help with pain management for the time being. So.....God started to speak to me about death and dying, in particular. We just kind of had a back and forth about this subject for a few minutes. He told me the key was TRUST, and reminded me of Pastor Dean's favorite scripture: Prov. 3:5 and 6. And Pastor Dean always says if you don't have a favorite scripture, he will gladly share this one with you! LOL!



So, even though I have studied TRUST before.....I studied it again. The root word means refuge. Now, just that makes me stop and think. TRUST = REFUGE......a place to hide, to take cover, a place of SECURITY. I don't know about you, but I love security. Of course, there are numerous verses that mention God being our refuge. So.....when I trust in Him.....that is the SAFE PLACE OF SECURITY I am looking for. By the same token......if I don't TRUST in Him........I am just out there on my own (leaning on my own understanding). WHERE WOULD YOU RATHER BE?



If I truly TRUST Him with all my heart, I will walk in peace because I know He is protecting me and handling things for me. Louis works as a security manager for a local ministry. His job is make sure everything and everyone is SECURE and not in danger. He has officers to assist him that he gives orders to; he has cameras, recording devices, fences and gates, security badges that can only be used by authorized personnel to gain access to certain areas of the building and grounds, he has vehicles that his officers drive to ensure safety on the property. SECURITY........REFUGE.......builds TRUST.



God has even better security officers than Louis. They are called angels....and they do the bidding of the Lord. God doesn't need the cameras and recorders......He knows EVERYTHING! Nothing can touch us Christians without the O.K. from God, so we don't have to worry about someone gaining unauthorized access to our lives. He also had a great system of gates and fences, because......we are.....after all......just sheep.



So.......if we believe this is true: and remember, we only DO WHAT WE REALLY BELIEVE, then we can indeed TRUST Him with all our hearts about everything in our lives. I can trust God to take care of everything concerning my Other Mother and the rest of our family. And, I can trust God with my life. We never know when He will call us Home. Wouldn't it be grand if we would EMBRACE THE CURRENT SEASON IN OUR LIFE and stop fighting God? I pray that if I have a long dying experience, that I will TRUST him enough to embace that season and not fight against it, but yield to it and keep learning about Him until the end. Wouldn't it be grand if we would EMBRACE THE CURRENT SEASON IN OUR DYING LOVED ONES LIVES and stop fighting God and making deals with Him? If you will......you will have peace and that will translate to those around you and your loved one in crisis.



I encourage everyone to learn to TRUST God as your REFUGE and your personal SECURITY officer. Then you can lay your head down in peace and rest, knowing that He cares for you and everyone you know and love. EMBRACE THE SEASON and learn all He has for you! Be the leader of light in your family during times of stress and painful loss......lead them to THE REFUGE.

REAL PEACE = REAL TRUST

I am absolutely miserable when I am not walking in peace in my life. I don't know about you, but I will do just about anything to have peace. Now, I am NOT talking about compromise here, because compromise will not bring you real peace....only temporary peace....simply because you have "temporarily solved a continuing problem".

I am talking about peace, not as the world gives, but as God gives, the peace that passes all understanding, brought to you by the Prince of Peace, who came to bring peace to the world as hearlded by the angels 2000 years ago.

I often think of peace as being the absence of trust. When we are able to absolutely: "Trust (lean on, rely on and be confident ) in the Lord and do good; so shalll you dwell in the land and feed surely on His faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed........Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass.....Be still and rest in the Lord; wait for Him and patiently lean yourself upon Him; fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath; fret not yourself - it leads only to evildoing. For evil doers shall be cut off, but those who wait and hope and look for the Lord [in the end] shall inherit the earth." Ps. 35: 3, 5, 7-9

There are conditions in this scripture for us to have peace: WE MUST TRUST, and do good, commit our ways to the Lord, be still and rest in the Lord, wait for the Lord, don't fret because of people who are evil and "seem" to be getting by with it. Then, meeting these "conditions" you will have peace: dwelling in the land and being fed as He brings good to pass and causes you to inherit the earth.

So.....who are you relying on, leaning on and have confidence in? What you can do, what your boss can do, what your spouse or friends can do.....or what God can do?

WHAT STRENGTH ARE YOU DEPENDING ON?

Ps 33:16-19 No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the EYES of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

That entire Psalm is just FULL of truth for us to draw from. But, for now, I will try to concentrate on this one section. Let's just set the paramaters for truth here. When the scripture is talking about God's eye on us.....it means that not only is HE watching us, but we have His favor. How do we have His favor? Reading just above this, it is evidenced by who or what we put our trust in.

Who do we rely on and cling to (trust)? What we can do....or what God can do? The Word clearly speaks here that no king (NO ONE......NOT EVEN YOU) can be saved by his strength. NOTHING (not your horses, cars, boats, guns, money, etc.) you have can give you true deliverance.

The answer lies where our hope resides. Our hope and trust must be in the Lord alone....then his EYES will be upon us (His favor) to deliver us from all kinds of calamities. Put your trust, your hope, all of yourself relying fully on...... His UNFAILING LOVE.

THE REAL ISSUE IS TRUST

For he said, "Because the Lord has sworn, the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." Ex. 17:16 I love reading the OT and seeing what happened "in the natural", that God might want to talk to me about "in the spiritual". What can this scripture say to us today?

As you attempt to move forward in your relationship with God, there will be "Amalekites" that will try to distract and defeat you. The good news is that, just like with the children of Isreal, God will war against your "Amalekites". What are your "Amalekites"? Anything that keeps you from experiencing God to the fullest. If your commitment to your job is keeping you from obedience to Him, God will declare war against it. If a relationship, materalism, or a destructive activity is keeping you from obeying God's will, He will wage relentless war against it.

When God called our family to leave our home of 14 years (Levelland, Texas) and move to Dallas for Louis to attend Christ for the Nations......we were a little slow in obedience. So God began to declare war against the things that were holding us back.

One of those things was Louis's job with Mrs. Baird's Bread. He had worked there 14 years, was very successful and we were comfortable with the money he made, the insurance they provided and the house we lived in. The first thing that happened after God spoke for us to go....and we decided we couldn't go right then, was that strange unlikely things happened on his job. His sales decreased, that had never happened before, he ran his truck into the garage door of the bread warehouse and the company was really mad about that....in fact, it began to seem that Louis could do nothing right and his company was becoming very displeased with him. Of course, we blamed the devil and gripped about the unfairness of it all. But, now, after reading that scripture, I realize that God was AT WAR with Louis's job because it was keeping him from full obedience. Many other things happened as well.....but perhaps I will mention those in a later teaching. Don't want to put all my eggs in one basket......LOL!

In truth, there is nothing so precious to you (like job security) that God will not become it's enemy if it keeps you from His will for your life. Yes, He loves us that much! You may be thinking, "How can I know what God may be fighting against in my life?" Is there something negative happening frequently with something that is dear to you and you can't figure out why? Perhaps God has taken up His cause against it. Not to hurt you. Oh no, never to hurt you......but to free you.

We foolishly think we know more about our happiness than God does. NEWS FLASH! He created us, we did not create ourselves. Struggles will cease when we put our complete trust in His will. So.....if you are struggling with something, it just might be God has declared war against it. "Cease striving (let go, relax) and know that I am God......" Ps. 46:10a.

It really comes down to who or what you are putting your trust in to take care of you, make you happy, comfortable, etc. For us, we put our trust in Mrs. Baird's as our provider, but we NEVER would have said that or thought that at the time. But it was the truth, and Truth confronted it and said, "NO! I am your provider, I will take care of you, I will make you happy, I will make you comfortable, come to Me and rest. Come to Me and..........trust."

TRUST AND OBEY

Once God has made himself know to you, what you do next is YOUR decision. Your reaction reflects what you really believe about Him.

A year ago, God woke me up at 4:30 on a Sunday morning and told me to go to Mid Cities Worship Center in Grand Prairie, Texas. The urge was soooo strong that I felt if I stepped out the door I would be carried by the Spirit over there. I could literally feel a pushing on my back.

I waited until Louis (my husband) woke up and asked him if God had told him anything about where to go to church today. I always want Louis to hear these things and NOT ME. But that's another struggle and another story. Anyway, he said, no, I guess we'll go to Bread of Life (where we are members). Then I told him my story. He reluctanly agreed to go.

We had been to this church a couple of times a couple of years ago. Louis went to a school there, so that's how we heard of it. A small fellowship with an 80 year-old pastor who liked us and always was praying that we would come back.

Anyway, I thought I was going there to maybe get a word for me or something to help me in my confusion about where God was leading us in ministry. I walked in the door and immediately felt at home. Felt the freedom to worship and dance and sign. The Holy Spirit fell (which I assumed was a regular occurance). I heard God say some things to me in regard to that church. He often speaks to me about churches in general, not often about individuals. After getting up off the floor, after arguing with God for several minutes that I shouldn't give a word as a stranger in a church.....I felt the pastor was about to call me out. So, I stood up and asked permission, and he said, "Go ahead, sister, you are family here." I gave the word. It was quickly absorbed by the congregation. And I mean ABSORBED. That doesn't always happen that it feels that way. I was taken aback. Testimonies and repentance began to happen at that moment. That word continued to affect the congregation for the next four weeks with fresh testimonies every Sunday.

Now, what if I had stayed home that day, or decided that wasn't God speaking, or didn't go because Louis was reluctant. (God wasn't speaking to Louis.....He was speaking to ME!!!!) That word and the resulting blessing would not have been given to that congregation that day. They needed to hear it from someone they didn't know......but somehow completely trusted (because God was on it and in it...not about me at all). The whole thing had to do with God finding a willing vessel, (me) and open hearts (the congregation) to hear the Word He wanted to bring to set them free.

I was the vessel, doing His work in His world in His Church. It's hard to wrap your mind around that. God uses people, plain ole' people to do His work on His Earth in His Church. What a humbling experience that I might have missed had I said no and not obeyed immediately.

WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

I fully believe that the Word of God is ALIVE. Therefore, making what it said yesterday still pertinent today. Several years ago, God came ALIVE on a scripture in Isaiah 26:1-2. ".....He sets up walls and ramparts for security (salvation). Open the gates....." Yes, these are just portions of those two verses, but God used that to show me an important truth that I would like to add to what Linda said. 1. We set up our walls and think they keep us safe. 2. God says he has already set up walls for us. 3. Our walls have no gates...nothing going out and nothing coming in. 4. God's walls have gates, for coming and going.

Our problem is TRUST. We don't trust that God can keep us safe, we don't believe His word, so we build all kinds of walls to keep the hurt out. When we are able to fully trust God and know that He ALREADY has walls of protection around us, we are able to let go of our walls.

Our walls, having no gates keep us stagnant, like the Dead Sea there is no flow. We're just full of foul, nasty, stinking water, that seems to slosh out unexpectedly upon people causing them hurt and pain. Remember.....hurt people, hurt people.

When our walls are down and God's are up and we are fully trusting in and relying on God for our protection, the gates are opened to allow God to come in and bring the living water that is to flow from our bellies and bring life to those around us. Also when the gates are opened, we can flow out and bring life as the scriptures speak of.

But....you say.....if the gates are open, I can get hurt! Certainly, according to God's word, He will protect you. Gates can be shut.

INCREASE YOUR FAITH, TRUST AND BELIEF. Let YOUR walls down. TRUST He will protect you within His walls. Let Him open and close the gates.....YOU ARE PROTECTED!