May 25, 2010

QUIET CONFIDENCE

Last week I reached a place where I felt the stretching in my life was almost more than I could manage, and was feeling very ragged indeed by the weekend.  I have been seeking the Lord for ‘a word’ about which direction to take for the future, needing to know which path to walk and what would please Him, even if it wasn’t exactly how I would think it ought to be!! 

Saturday night I had one of those dreams that you remember the details of clearly, but more importantly, the whole essence of the dream remains with you as if the Lord has found a way to impart something directly into your spirit in a unique way.

In the dream I made my way to a library because I was looking for ‘words’.  I picked up a book with a bright flashy cover, but it turned out to be romantic nonsense and I put it back down again.  Next I picked one up and the title was “Pau” – it was an old book, dusty blue, and well used, and I knew it was the one to take even though I could not translate the title!

I went through to another room and met a ‘friend’ – he was an olive skinned man and we sat to talk together.  He looked me directly in the eyes and said “This is VERY STRONG, like nothing you have ever known before” – I could feel this immense faithfulness, trust, confidence, strength, love, all flowing right into me.  I knew that what he had said was totally trustworthy and would be unchanging.  We left the library and went our separate ways, very happy and confident in the strength of this friendship which I knew would last forever. 

As I woke the scripture “in quietness and confidence will be your strength” was in my mind, and my spirit was filled with the strength and confidence that had been imparted in the dream.  I am very sure that it was Jesus I was talking to in the library and he gave me the words my heart was seeking.

Yesterday I found what the word ‘pau’ means, and realised that there are many who feel like that right now and need to have this same impartation from the Lord.

pau [te] hau
be exhausted, out of breath, run out of steam, worn out, tired, used up.   Ka tau mai ki ngā kura reo, e pau ana te hau, ka hoki atu e hikohiko katoa ana te ngākau (HM 4/2008 wh3).I arrived at the language learning gathering worn out and when I returned home I was enthusiastic. See also kua pau [te] hau.
pau
(stative) be consumed, exhausted, used up, finished, spent.   He aituā, engari kua poropititia e ētahi o ngā hīnātore, ka pau i te ahi i taua wā (HP wh6).It was a disaster but it had been prophesied by some of the wise men that it would be destroyed by fire at that time.

I find it interesting that in the current journey it was a Maori word the Lord used to describe the way I was feeling and the place that many have come to – this in itself indicates to me that He is moving in a way that is indigenous and beginning to merge the separate identities into ‘one new man’.  It is most encouraging.

May 12, 2010

CROSS TO WHERE?....AND WHY?

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This is quite a timely question for me.


For a number of years, when I have inquired of the Lord in certain areas, He has repeatedly led me to Isaiah 23:6 and at first I had no idea what He was trying to say to me!


Over the years I have kept digging around that verse. I have read it in context, understand it in that context, and even understand that in fact what was prophecied concerning Tyre did completely come to pass.
Having said that, He kept taking me there and I kept asking why, what are you trying to say to me?
It seemed to me as if He was speaking in riddles and I just could not get what it was about. There is a very encouraging reference in Isaiah 60:9 about the ships of Tarshish and their part in honoring the Lord, but it still was not the answer.

This week we've gone back there again! :) I felt to begin to look at it in the light of what is happening currently in the world today, and what I see happening around me personally - not that I hadn't done that in the past, but somehow this seemed to be the right time to go there.
In terms of the Middle East it's interesting that Tyre and Sidon (it's mother city) would be situated in Lebanon.

Right now the world systems of power, wealth and trading empires, are being seriously challenged. As are many of the areas that we would have stood in or with previously and not questioned a thing about them, including some of the church systems.
I feel the Lord is putting out the Isaiah 23:6 call to many in the Body of Christ today.
"Pass over to Tarshish (to seek safety as exiles)! Wail you inhabitants of the (Tyre) coast!" (Amp. bible)


Tarshish represents a safe place away from the devastation that is about to take place in Tyre which is to be completely laid waste because of its pride and the accumulated wealth of its traders and merchants. The passage in Isaiah says God will destroy the strongholds and fortresses of the areas of Tyre and Sidon.
It is evident that this gives a new freedom to expand without restraint and oppression (tribute or customs or duties) for the people of Tarshish.
In other words, what looked great would become terrible, and what was not attractive was going to be blessed and made good!


Prophetically I see the Lord saying to us:
Cross over! What looks good now is going to be demolished because it is man made and bringing wealth and glory to man. It's strength will be taken away as God destroys the strongholds and fortresses man has built, even though they have been admired since antiquity. Long-standing, if is not established by and in God, is no defence.
It is better to cross over and live amongst the oppressed (but faithful) in order to move away from what is currently standing under God's judgment.

It follows on into Isaiah 24 with the exciting statements in Isaiah 24:14 ..... 16
But these (who have escaped and remain) lift up their voices, they shout for the majesty of the Lord,they cry aloud from the Sea.
....
From the uttermost parts of the earth have we heard songs: Glory to the Righteous One (and to the people of Israel).

For those who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand..... the times are rapidly changing.

May 11, 2010

MORE TRUST

Today I am wondering when we might learn to trust God enough?  That means enough to REALLY let Him be God!

There are so many events that come our way in which we feel a need to leap in and be or bring the answer.  In some ways it is like us getting into the water with the drowning person and flapping about just like them ... instead of helping it just adds a bit more splash and noise.

When we truly trust Him to be ALL that He says He is, and able to do much much more than we could ever ask or imagine, maybe then we will also be able to step back and give Him a little more space around us and others to do that. :)  We might also stop trying to work out our own salvation in so many instances.

This doesn't mean we stop talking to Him about what we see, how we feel, the pain in our hearts for others, and all the others things that arise, but we communicate in loving relationship with Him a whole lot more than we rush in and do stuff.  We wait until we truly have His instruction and leading to do what He wants at any given time, rather than leaning on our own understanding!

Lately I have been left standing open-mouthed at His solutions to prayers I have prayed!  Some things, where there appeared to be no way or answer, have suddenly turned around and the solution has stood right there in front of me - I didn't do anything but ask and the One who knows all the answers has really surprised me with His graciousness and speedy response.

What I see is that He truly loves us all, and His heart and intention are truly to work in the way that best for us all, pulling together impossible threads to weave the bigger picture that He always knew was there.

My prayer in this time is that He will enlarge our hearts and understanding with something of Himself that takes us out of ourselves, out of trying to be the answer, have the answer, know the answer.  I pray He will lead us out into the unknown wonderful place of His great miracles and solutions ... not even as we think they should be but as He has always known they will be.

Bring it on! :)

Bfly card2

May 06, 2010

TRUTH

For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8,9).

God's thoughts about things are very different from ours. We would often allow what God would never allow. He has an altogether different point of view about things. We judge in one way about things, and God judges in another. It is necessary for us to come to God's standpoint. Oh, we would say, there is no harm in such-and-such a thing. Oh, there is no wrong in that; look at so-and-so and so-and-so, and we take our standard, perhaps, from other people. We have known people to do that; point to some outstanding figure in the work of God, in whose life was a certain thing - that one has been taken as the model, to be copied, and so the thing has been taken on. Oh, there is no harm in it; look at so-and-so. And I have known lives and ministries to be ruined on that very excuse.

The question is: What does the Lord say about it? God says, Walk before Me! Not before any human model; not before any human standard; 'There is no harm in it; so-and-so does it; it is quite a common practice'. No, no! "Walk before Me", says the Lord. We have got to get this in the spirit, the inward man. It is deeper than our best moral standards. Otherwise there is no point in it being in the Bible at all, if our moral standards can rise to God's satisfaction - why must we be so handled and reconstituted? It is deeper than our intellect, than our reason. You cannot, by reason or intellect, arrive at God's standard at all. Not at all! Oh, do not think that by any method of reasoning, you are ever going to reach God's standard. You never will. Here, it is only by revelation of the Holy Spirit. Christ has got to be revealed in our hearts by the Spirit. There is no point in Jesus saying: "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth", if we could get there by our own intelligence. Not at all. It must come by the revelation of Christ in our hearts, in the inward parts. This is something spiritual. "God is Spirit; they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth" - spirit and truth go together. Only what is spiritual, what is of God, is truth - only that!

From: Truth in The Inward Parts - T.Austin-Sparks.