God's Reality

There is a fresh, new wind blowing through the Body of Christ this December.  It is unlike anything I've felt for about twelve years.  It is the true Spirit of Love, overtaking us and causing us to lay down the judge's gavel and surrender to the One who is Love.  This calls for a transformation into His image, as never before.

This morning the Spirit led me to 1 John 3 and the Message version eloquently speaks, "My dear children, let's not just talk about love, let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living in God's reality. God is Love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of Love, we live in God and God lives in us."

Permanent residence in a life of Love! How do we do this?  Prophetess Phyllis Ford just released her Prophetic Word for 2016 and it falls seamlessly into line with all that the Father is speaking to me right now. In her word she wrote, "The more we acclimate ourselves to who HE is and what HIS ways are, the further we progress in that transformation. Some of us don't look like God because we have become unacquainted with who He is.  We must seek to know Him so that we are able to understand the spiritual aspects of ourselves in a new and better way. We then lay hold of who He is and who we are so that the transformation process can begin to bring forth harvest."

Last night, together with a sister in Messiah, I stood knocking on the door of a "flea-bag motel," my arms laden with gift bags of cookies, oranges, a warm shirt and some little learning toys for a three-year-old boy and a gift basket of pampering items for his young homeless mother.  She opened the door and her bouncing little boy ran to us yelling, "Presents!"  He had on blue jeans but no shirt - despite the freezing temperature - but his face radiated such joy.  I asked his name and he proudly exclaimed, "My name is Christopher!"  My heart skipped a little beat. That's my own son's name and I remember when he was three and what a beautiful home we lived in, and how blessed our family was. But now there was a chance to bring love and warmth and joy into one little Christopher's heart and perhaps give his mama some hope that someone cared; a chance to look like Yeshua, being acquainted with who He really is.

Yes, the Spirit of Love has to overtake us. The world is so filled with little Christophers and their battered, drug-addicted, lost parents. We are not going to reach them by staying home and folding our judgmental arms and pretending that these unmet expectations of a Christmas season and these desperate needs all around us are not real. My dear little children, let's practice real love. This is the only way we'll know we're living in God's reality.

Abba Father, thank you for re-awakening us to Your reality.  Thank you for stirring my heart once again to remember that the sum of the Torah - is Love! 

Hide Yourself

Here we are, right in the midst of the Feast of Hanukkah and yet things seem different this year. It is not about Jewish customs or traditions - it is the longing of my heart to be Yeshua's Light in this dark world, to be a Living Temple of His Holy Spirit.  (1 Cor. 3:16: Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?)

Yet, as I have been crying out to Him to show me where He would send me as His Light and His Spirit, He has continually responded, "Hide yourself."

"Hide myself," Lord?  Where?  Are you not calling me to still GO for you, DO for you, BE you to those who are lost?"

I sat before Him a long time this morning with those questions on my heart and mind, and finally He began to speak to me:

"So much is about to happen - so much!  I keep telling you to hide yourself because this means 'HIDE IN ME.' You are still thinking like the world. You need MY mind, MY thoughts! Take every thought captive in Yeshua (2 Cor. 10:5). Ephraim is a child without wisdom. When the time arrives, he does not come to the opening of the womb (Hosea 13:13). I AM BIRTHING A KINGDOM UPON THIS EARTH! Repent of sin and get close to ME.  Fully trust me for all you will need.  Have I not always provided for you, My child?

"O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from ME. Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of YHVH are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them (Hosea 14:8-9)."

His words shook me back into the glory of all that He is.  He is not sending most of us to a physical place in this season -- he is calling us to HIDE OURSELVES IN HIM, getting so close to Him that fear cannot enter our minds and trust will be our daily bread. He is calling His chosen ones to GET INTO POSITION IN THE WOMB, READY TO ENTER THE BIRTH CANAL!  He has hidden us in the secret place and knit us together in the womb -- and soon it will be time for us to launch forward into all the splendor and might of His Kingdom Reign -- but not yet!  Not yet.  For right now, we must graft ourselves into the green Pine Tree, who is the Source of all wisdom and faithfulness. We must hide ourselves in His tabernacle where we get so close that we won't miss His quiet Voice of instruction or doubt the fullness of His provision.

That is what Hanukkah means to me this year: kindling the flame of His love in my heart and hiding in the shelter of His tabernacle, where I am kept safe.

Psalm 27: 5 "For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling. He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle and set me high upon a Rock."