Never before have so many people with so little to say said so much to so few : )
Don’t throw in the towel…STAND ON THE PROMISES
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Matthew 28:18-20
Hear that! Jesus gave us His vision and it is an exciting and challenging one but to me the really exciting part is this…He also gave us His promises regarding His vision. Jesus prefaced the vision with the promise of power, and He ended the vision with the promise of His presence. So what I feel this Word is saying to me is if we have a God-given vision and you can tell if it is God-given if it embraces the vision of Jesus set forth in these scriptures…then it is no different for us. So as Jesus is always present in the ministries of the churches that embrace His vision, we also have the same promises.
He was saying, in effect, to all nations and to us not just I will be with you but I AM WITH YOU. His promise is that if we are doing His will, and if we are pursuing the vision He has for His church then we can count on this, We will never walk alone! He didn’t say that He would send an angel to be with us, even though we know that they encamp around us. He didn’t say that He would send another man or woman, though we do have the body of Christ. But Jesus said that if we will pursue the vision, He Himself would personally be with us.
No great move of God will go unchallenged. It won’t. So stand. Prepare yourself to stand and be prepared to stand. There will be attacks from the enemy as we pursue the vision, but Jesus is with us. There will scoffers and nay-sayers but Jesus is with us. There will be those that abandon the fight and that abandonment may feel at times personal, but Jesus is with us. There may be times when the resources don’t look adequate to meet the needs required by the vision, but Jesus is with us. There will be times when we want to throw in the towel but if you saw Jesus standing right there with you, would you? Could you? HE IS STANDING THERE!!!! HE IS…If I could scream it louder here I would…JESUS IS WITH US! He alone has the power that will give victory but we must stand with Him! He will help us but we must stand with Him and against the enemy. Those are His promises, not mine, so stand on them just like the old hymn that we used to sing by R. Kelso Carter- Standing on the Promises. I have put it below because I am just liking it a lot today.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King,
Through eternal ages let His praises ring,
Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I now can see
Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me;
Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,
Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,
Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing on the promises I cannot fall,
Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call
Resting in my Savior as my all in all,
Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing,
Standing on the promises of God my Savior;
Standing, standing,
I’m standing on the promises of God.
“How long are you going to continue this praying thing?”
JESUS CHRIST said: “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint” or in another translation, “Pray all the time and don’t quit.” (Luke 18:1) and Paul said this: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thess 5:17)
“How long are you going to continue this praying thing?” That is the question someone just asked me. Wow…how do I answer that? My life is very much a developing life of prayer. I take these verses literally and so I have purposed in my heart to try to figure how to live this life on earth while also living a life of prayer. To me ending my prayer life would kill the person that I am as much as someone killing me physically. I am not ashamed of my life of prayer but I really don’t discuss my daily schedule unless I am asked. Most don’t understand this life and many are frankly offended by it. The longer I pray and the more I pray the smaller my circle gets. Maybe some don’t understand my heart or maybe they don’t understand theirs. The flesh part of me would like nothing more than to be accepted and understood and liked by people. The part of me that was forgiven of so much and changed so radically and quickly by such a merciful God can never ignore nor do I want to ignore the debt paid for me. I feel nothing but absolute total love to the one that set me free. God changed me and showed me through His Word that I was to know Him in ways that I had never considered.
I asked for it all…this change. I said I would give Him whatever He wanted. He asked me into a life of prayer. Nothing has changed me more or continues to change and then sustain me than knowing my Lord the way that I do through prayer and the Word…they go hand in hand for me. It is glaring to me in these days as I watch and as I study, how little we all pray…even me. I am nowhere near the “without ceasing.” I have heard some try to explain and justify my actions as a calling. Was I “called” to this life? No. I may be assigned to certain ministries but I believe we are all to pray and so there is no waiting to be called for prayer any more than I would be called to something like obedience. Both are expected of me and demanded of me… but in the end I do it because I love God. I love Him. When I said whatever I did mean it. Love gives whatever is needed and to me it is so obvious that what God needs most is PRAYER PRAYER PRAYER.
There is this great saying: “Find out what God most wants done and do it!” Sounds simple.
You want to see the world evangelized? So does Jesus. In fact Luke 10:2 says: Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”
I have heard sermons on that verse saying GO and I have to tell you most everything in me wants to GO. But I want my definition of go, my will. Jesus didn’t say go, He said PRAY. If you GO, only ONE of you will go. What will that do to a huge harvest? But if you PRAY, hundreds can go. PRAYER ENABLES GOD TO CALL AND EQUIP AND SEND WORKERS INTO HIS HARVEST FIELD. I have found myself saying… but God, I want to win souls in Africa! And God says, “Do you know their language?” I say no and He says, “Do you know their customs?” I say no and He says “You pray and I will send someone who already knows the language and the customs.” His Will be done…not mine. So I pray. Does that mean I don’t take care of a need in front of me? Witness to the person across the street? Go into the mission field of my own town? Get outside the prayer room? Absolutely not, but in addition to a life of prayer, not as a substitute for. You want to see the world evangelized? Prayer may be the greatest act of evangelism.
Why are the harvest fields unreaped? I believe it is not because we didn’t GO, but because we didn’t PRAY. I pray because God loves me; I pray because I love God. And you know what? When you think about it, I pray because God loves you. Oh, and I don’t intend to ever stop.
Judas Come Home…
I have given a lot of thought over the years to Judas. Maybe because I am the daughter of a man who was also my pastor, who committed suicide. By doing so, my dad betrayed so many…yet mostly God. To me Judas is not just the person who betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Out of the necessity of trying to figure my own life I have always sought to know him as more. Recently one morning I felt the Holy Spirit speaking to me and showing me something new and really unexpected about this from these verses.
“Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 saying, ‘I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.’ But they said, ‘What is that to us? See to that yourself!’ 5 And he threw the pieces of silver into the temple sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.” Matthew 27:3-5
Oddly enough, I had never considered that Judas felt such deep sorrow that he made an attempt to repent. The only problem was he repented to the wrong people, the religious crowd. I began to consider what would have happened if Judas instead of going out and killing himself had went to Jesus as He was dying on the cross and pursued forgiveness from Him. What would Jesus do? Would He have forgiven Him? Will God forgive anything and everything? These were all questions that were swirling in my mind. I do believe Jesus would have forgiven Judas if He was given the opportunity, but Judas could not forgive himself so he took matters into his own hands and killed himself.
I knew the Lord wanted to show me more; in a sense I felt Judas had something else to say to me. So I continued to pray over this and I also talked to friends about their perspective on Judas and within days someone walked up to me and handed me a book titled, The Gospel According To Judas by Ray S. Anderson. I did not even get past this first sentence in the prologue when I read what was to be only the first of what Judas was telling me.
“I saw it in the men’s restroom in a restaurant in San Francisco, printed in block letters with a blue felt tip pen across the top of the mirror:
JUDAS COME HOME – ALL IS FORGIVEN!”
When I read that phrase it was like someone stuck a red-hot sword into my heart. All the memories- but not of anything to do with my dad…these were memories from my own Judas moments that came into my mind. I remembered the feelings of having betrayed my God…the rejection, loneliness and the feeling of not having a place I could call home. I also began to think about all the many people I knew and know who have also betrayed or lost face in the church or suffered rejection or shame and eventually left.
Then I heard a whisper from heaven saying tell them…tell the Judas out there, “Come home all is forgiven, I love you.” That little phrase really broadened my revelation of the Father’s heart and love toward all of us. It makes me want to go to everyone I know that has run way for any reason, even as I did, and tell them “Come home, all is forgiven, the Father loves you.” This is what Judas was trying to tell me – how big the Father’s heart really is.
In the epilogue of the book Ray gives us a wonderful picture of the love and grace of the Lord.
“My choosing of you counts more than your betrayal of Me!” Through His grace I discovered that the calling of God by which we become children of the kingdom does not rest upon our faith alone, but upon His faithfulness toward us.”
Judas please come home, I know how you feel, but all is forgiven and the FATHER LOVES YOU!!!
God is Stirring
Prayer notes (12/1/2009) God has stirred my heart this week to some new places. To press in and push hard in this last month of 2009 for the breakthrough that was proclaimed by our pastor at the beginning. Is this not the will of God? I believe it is and therefore this breakthrough is also a PROMISE of GOD as He said in His Word “anything we ask according to His will.”
1 John 5:14-15 says: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
and Haggai 1:13-14 says,
‘”I am with you,” declares the LORD. So the LORD stirred up the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the LORD Almighty, their God,…’
So I’m asking tonight…
Lord! We love you. We declare our love for you! We pray tonight as a part of the body of Christ, along with You, Jesus! Stir us Lord! We want Your will, purposes and expectations fulfilled in us and through us; in this church and through this church. We pray with a living hope and confident expectation because we serve a Living God. We are going after Your honor and Your glory and are thankful for this opportunity as we humble ourselves in Your presence Lord.
We believe we will see a demonstration of the power of the resurrection manifested through our prayers tonight in a very real way– even this day. We declare NOW is Your time, Lord! Now is the time to build Your house. Now is the time for souls. We ask for souls Lord as Your Gospel is proclaimed this week by our man of God- through the Word; through song; through the Love of God flowing out of all of Your Body. Now is the time for Your Kingdom to advance and increase; for breakthrough. Now is the time for revival!
Hoisted On My Own Petard!
House is almost clean, menu complete, all ingredients bought, games planned, excitement building…. We are getting ready to have a real Thanksgiving celebration and feast here at the Flood house. We have our traditions- For instance, at our house, we won’t put up a single Christmas decoration before Thanksgiving. We will wait until Friday evening when Meg and I will decorate the tree while we watch something like Gone With The Wind. Fiddle-dee-dee! or maybe a newer classic like, Napoleon Dynamite…that just makes me laugh so hard! It’s all tradition. Speaking of tradition- YES! No matter what you have heard, we will still go around before dinner and the Thanksgiving blessing and we will each say what we are thankful for. I fully intend to change-up a few things but some things have to continue simply because.
Here at the Flood house Thanksgiving dinner is also traditional and sure to please. Planned are four appetizers, two meats, two salads, six side dishes, three breads, four or maybe five desserts. This year there will be lots of family and some good friends. They are all cooking and then coming together at our house for this feast and time of real fun and fellowship.
This is the craziest thing though… I have delegated so well that I am actually cooking NOTHING for our Thanksgiving Dinner. Do you think anyone will notice? Perhaps I should whip up something, anything…haha….because I am wondering this…if I am cooking nothing and everyone else is cooking something, does this mean that I am the one doing all the clean up? I say that because in our house traditionally if one cooks, they don’t have to clean. MAN, OH MAN!!! Hoisted on my own petard!!!
So….if you find yourself alone this Thanksgiving or just don’t want to cook – come on over. We have PLENTY of food to share, a family that absolutely loves adding friends into our family but please, please don’t bring a thing because I need some help with the clean-up!!!
Surprise Party
and five hours later when the weight of the glory of God lifted….
One thing I have known well, too well…and that is that lie of the devil named rejection.
I started believing the lie of rejection when I was quite young and over the years I have fought it, hated it, used it and partnered with it…but I have never been able to get rid of it. I grew up with an absent dad. My dad was always traveling while in the Navy and then after he was discharged he became lost in his own world of ministry and school. When my dad was around, he often went through periods of such depression that he would close himself off for weeks at a time. I had a dad that tried very hard but wasn’t able to persevere and killed himself a few weeks after Christmas in 1975…at the time I was fourteen.
So for many years even before fourteen I lived with this spirit of rejection and resulting father issues and depression that came. Yesterday, as my birthday approaches (and my birthday is also my dad’s birthday just so you understand) I started feeling myself cave to such feelings of depression that I didn’t know what was going on. It was a feeling I haven’t felt in quite some time and I felt almost guilty for feeling it…like I was chosing this as I had until recently even accused my dad of chosing. I don’t mess around though with depression. I need help but from who? I went to the only one I know for sure I can trust with this. Someone that would understand and care enough about the roots of my rejection to pray even if they couldn’t understand what I was feeling. I went to Jesus.
I believe with all my heart that God sent me to the IHOPU student awakening last night. I had other things planned but I just couldn’t do them…so I got online and decided to check it out.
So five hours later when the weight of the glory of God lifted….
Not even an hour into the service, this girl got up and was getting ready to pray for people that had that spirit of rejection and Allen Hood (gotta love him) grabbed the microphone and said there are pastors kids and they really have this rejection on them and they need to be delivered tonight. They are here and on the webcast. I knew that he as talking about me….It was like the Holy Spirit took control of me and I started crying uncontrollably and continued as this girl, a pastor’s kid who had been delivered the week before, prayed for ME. And as she prayed and continued praying, I felt the release. It was that divine exchange you hear about. One weight exchanged for another….yes, there was this weight and I knew it was the GLORY- the very presence of God… No big bells or whistles. No falling down or shaking or dancing (well until later and then there was singing and dancing and praising like I haven’t done in a longgggg time : ). There was just the weight…glorious weight of God. I couldn’t move, I didn’t want to. And all that time I was feeling the release. This girl prayed for those that need the love of the Father to fill holes that my father couldn’t and didn’t fill. I believe with all my heart that those holes aren’t there this morning. That this weight took out a lot of things and put in some others. I can’t exactly explain it. Would anyone even believe it anyway?
I just feel different….Rejection is something I knew too well but rejection is a LIE of the devil and I declare this morning that I know nothing of these lies. Still under the weight, I felt God tell me to destroy those clippings and although it took effort to release those lies…I tore them up and flushed them and then I started declaring some things…and still, I declare that I know in every fiber of my being the Father’s love this morning….like Job 22:28
“You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. …”
I declare it today – NO REJECTION ON ME THIS MORNING only the LOVE OF MY FATHER. For my birthday God gave me one of the desires of my heart. To be free from this spirit of rejection, to be free from trying to please others to get their approval, to be free from trying to get people to like me, to be free from resulting jealousies and anger, to be free from resulting depression rooted in the guilt of my dad’s choices, to be free from ruminations and wondering if everything I said or did hurt anyone in any way every time I speak or write or whatever, to be free from perfectionism and performing, just to be FREE.
I shared my birthday with my dad and we never really had parties…we just exchanged cards and had a cake. For years after my dad died no one really wanted to celebrate such a day. I always understood because I didn’t ever really want to celebrate it either. So I have always just done things that were very low key. A dinner maybe. I have never really even had or wanted a birthday party…but last night God threw me a PARTY. A surprise party.
Five hours later when the weight of the glory of God lifted there was singing and dancing and God gave me such a gift- one of the desires of my heart – and He gave it two days early. He knew, because He knows me, that I couldn’t wait another minute…..HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!! THANK YOU GOD FOR SUCH A GIFT : )
Hallelujah and ALL THE GLORY TO GOD!!!!
Just Showed Up For My Own Life too
Three years ago I watched a documentary about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Honestly at that time I had no interest in Africa, AIDS or the people affected in the world. It was not in the radar of what I knew as my life, but that day God sat me down and sat me still and He touched my heart. Although it wasn’t a religious video or even one of social justice, I couldn’t turn away from what I saw and heard from Him that day…the burden. I told my family afterward that I would be going to Africa on a mission trip one day.
Over these last years I have thought about that statement and that day often. Then several days ago I watched a music video by Sara Groves. It was a video set to her song I Saw What I Saw and it was a message about how her life was changed and how it really began by a visit to Rwanda. When I saw it I started crying. I was bawling like a baby. Couldn’t contain my feelings. I know what God has placed in my heart and seeing that video brought it all into the open, if just in my own room…it had become a burden and was this true desire I was feeling?
Today I watched another documentary from the Nomad Film Series. It was titled- Just Showed Up For My Own Life. This documentary, about Sara Groves as well, chronicled both that visit to Rwanda but in much more detail and Sara ministering in Louisiana during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I am completely undone.
I have over these last years asked God to give me a heart that felt love, real love. God has taken my heart filled to the brim with so many prejudices and judgments and apathy and I can feel Him replacing it with His heart of deep longing and love and “homesickness” for these nations of Africa but also for individuals; also for this nation…the poor and broken-hearted of this nation and this town. I have cried all day for the orphans and the widows; for the elderly; for the women and for the men. Those living in poverty and a kind of trauma that I can’t even understand. His people, His children. Then I find myself praying that He would give me a nation and to help me perceive the need in the one in front of me today.
What God has placed in my heart is beyond my understanding. I guess I write it here because I have to believe there is someone out there that knows something at all about what I am feeling. I admit I don’t get it exactly and I admit it might sound crazy. I don’t even know the simple things I need to know so yes it is so beyond me…but for whatever circumstance I find myself or whatever season of my life I am in, this is. This is a new reality that has always been there in God’s plan for me. It is now a part of my own life. It is risky and yet I know the risk of not showing up for this part of my life is so much greater. I see documentaries like this and read books and listen to missionaries speak and I just want to see and know a people with that kind of love, faith, healing, joy that these people seem to know. I want to walk with Jesus there- maybe so I can know more of how He wants me to walk with Him here. One of the consequences of great prejudice seems to be great responsibility. I have to own that. I want to quit crying and yet I don’t want to ever quit. It is now my burden, my desire and my prayer.
I have been meditating on this scripture today. It has blessed me:
Isaiah 41:9-10 (New International Version)
9 I took you from the ends of the earth,
from its farthest corners I called you.
I said, ‘You are my servant’;
I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
10 So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
As I Walk on the Road to Emmaus – My Miracle
There has been a lot of talk recently about miracles. This past Sunday Pastor Sammy called those that needed a miracle to come forward to be anointed and to receive. I need a miracle in my life and so I went forward and I walked back to my seat believing I received. So did I? Well, first let me say-
Recently while reading Luke 3 the phrase “a state of expectation” just stood out to me. I began meditating on it maybe because I have felt this state, this expectation over these last months.
“Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ.” Luke 3:15
Then Monday I received an IM (instant message) from a friend. She said, “Melissa: Sitting here thinking of you. Continue to ask, seek, and expect big things. Ephesians 3:20-21.”
I saw that word “expect” and thought back to that “state of expectation.” Was this the Lord speaking about that? Maybe, maybe just me. Either way, I began meditating on it again…expecting and expectations. Sometimes my plans, goals and dreams do not turn out as I expect or imagine they should. Sometimes it appears that things I thought may be of the Lord do not turn out at all. If a miracle doesn’t manifest itself based on my thought life or yours, does that mean there was no miracle?
Last night at Bible study we read the story of the guys on the road to Emmaus and I began thinking about the miracle they too had expected and imagined.
“And He said to them, ‘What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?'” Luke 24:17
I thought it interesting that Jesus not only questioned them about their conversation, but also mentioned the sadness in their hearts. He knew their struggle. They were very open about it too. At that point, these guys thought Jesus was just another stranger because He appeared in a form that wasn’t familiar. They were sad because all they were hoping and believing for did not turn out as they expected. They were in a place that they saw no miracle or possibility.
“But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.” Luke 24:21
Jesus was and is redeemer…however, at the moment, it didn’t look that way to them. I think that is where I find myself sometimes, no oftentimes…on that same road. Things God has promised have not turned out the way I expected in some areas just yet. Sometimes I find it hard to even see the possibilities of my miracle. Ii is then that I have to try as best as I know how to trust in the Word. The Bible seems to be full of moments where it appeared things were not going to work out.
Maybe, like these men, I have missed the Lord and His miracles as I focus on other things…the road itself, my emotions. Maybe because I expect Him to show up a certain way and at a certain time and when He does not meet my expectations or my miracle doesn’t look like what I dreamed up in my limited fantasies and thoughts I tend to start withdrawing. Then I fall into disappointment and then blindness. I can see how easily temptation, lukewarmness, the desire for other things, and sin could follow. All because I allowed my road of possibilities and miracles to be changed into a path of lost expectation in the Lord when I began limiting those same expectations.
So back to my miracle. What will it look like? Will I know it? Maybe not at first, but I have to still believe. Because I believe we aren’t so different from those in Bible times that walked that original road to Emmaus but also because I read in the scripture that my friend IMed that it is God’s desire to do above and beyond what we are asking or thinking up. I have to work not to lower my expectations to my own personal experience or to your experience or the church’s or even our world’s. If God always came through in the Bible, He will always come through for me. SO by faith I tell you… YES- I GOT MY MIRACLE even as I walk on the road to Emmaus and it is all that He imagined and so very good…PRAISE THE LORD! GLORY TO GOD!
“Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21
HALLELUJAH – sharing a smile
In the internet world we often use this : ) to represent a smile. I do it all the time. But look at this – is it just me or has anyone else ever noticed that when the word hallelujah is typed in capital letters it seems to create the image of a smile? Can you see that? Okay, I haven’t gone crazy…look at it from a distance.
HALLELUJAH
HALLELUJAH
HALLELUJAH
According to the dictionary hallelujah has the following meanings – as an interjection it is used to express praise, joy, or thanks; as a noun it is a shout or song of praise or thanksgiving. hmmm… a smile seems appropriate to me.
God is so good and I am having a really great day. Hope you can say the same.
HALLELUJAH
If anyone knows Melissa... 
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