Stop Thinking and Open Up Your Hearts

Dear friends in Messiah Yeshua,
One week ago today I received a word through the Holy Spirit and He said it was for His people. I have sat on it for a week, because I so wanted to be sure it was of HIM (not me) and certain that He wanted it sent across this Blog. In my time of deep prayer with Him early this morning, I was strongly impressed that He wanted it sent, and He added some Scripture to it that blessed me very much! Now, I know I must send it out, so am writing it as follows:

March 22, 2016
TO MY PEOPLE:
     Stop judging so harshly, O my people, stop! You are the deep thinkers, the seekers of Truth, the cerebral people. Stop thinking and open up your hearts.
     You are wounded, fractured, bleeding. You are the children of Israel who told Moses to approach Me and speak to Me so you wouldn't have to. You say you want holiness, but you don't want to get close to the Holy One.
     You need each other, dear children. One can fix your car, one can teach your children, one can grow and can your food, one can cut your hair. You have purposed to come out of the world - and the world hates you even as it hates ME - so you need each other.
     Wash your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Humble yourselves before YHVH and He will lift you up. Perhaps as I lift you up from your knees you will extend your arms out to your brothers and sisters; yes, the ones who have wounded and rejected you - and the ones you have wounded and rejected. Stop thinking and open up your hearts! Love one another. Everyone who loves has been born of Me and knows Me. Whoever does not love, does not know Me.

A pause for several hours - and then He continued:

     You have studied Torah till your eyes cross.  You know My instructions. What are you doing with it? Now, I say study Acts. Study my early Church. Look at the zeal. Understand the suffering. Now put these things into practice.

Today, March 28, he added: "Now put these things into practice."

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.  Acts 2:42-47

A Burnt Offering

I read Leviticus 1 this morning. I have read it over and over, throughout the years. This time I determined to sit before YHVH until He showed me what He requires of me asan offering. "Yes, Father God," I told Him, "I understand that the burnt offering is me. I know You require that I offer myself as a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice to You (Romans 12:1)."  But what does it really mean and what do you want me to DO for You?  Shall we stay in this place of "Exile" until we get all the lessons of the wilderness and are released into the Land?  Shall we lay it all down and wait for the "new thing" you are bringing in this next season?

I was full of questions. He was full of silence. So I waited. Finally I heard the still, small Voice say, "Go to Lev. 6:12."  I read: "The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out, it must be Kept burning! What does a continually burning fire illustrate?

• Passion that never subsides
• Heat that consumes
• Light that draws others near
• Energy that does not fade

This is not an answer of what I should do next; it is answer of what I should continually be. What I am matters more to my God than what I do. If I am continually filled with a fiery passion for Yeshua, my flesh consumed, my spirit radiant to all who see me, and my life lived out before Him, then I emit a fragrance pleasing to the LORD.  

Leviticus 1:9: "It is an aroma pleasing to the LORD."  How does my life smell to You, Father? Perhaps I finally understand that the aroma I produce is what matters. You love the smell of burnt offerings! Leviticus 1:17: "It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD."  

Consumed flesh. An offering made by fire. Holy unto YHVH. Kadosh. This is what You require, not from my herd - but from my heart.

Thanks Feeds Our Trust

An entire congregation thrown out of its church building - it seems almost inconceivable. But as our eyes are being opened to the biblical pattern we have been thrust into, we marvel. We gathered again yesterday in the little white country church in the cornfields (our "wilderness tabernacle), and the Presence is so strong there, we can but worship and weep.

We have entered into the season of SOJOURN and EXILE -  and in this sojourn we grow closer to Him and to one another, for we have nothing to distract us. We do not have the beautiful banners and the furniture and the trappings. And I think of my dear, blessed Anglican friends around the country who have been experiencing this same thing at the hands of the Episcopal Church, who filed lawsuits against the faithful. Those who took a stand for the Word of God, and chose to keep His Truth have been banished from their beautiful church properties also, and were not allowed to take anything out but their fierce passion for Messiah Yeshua. They too are getting the lessons of the Exile.

But the lessons are sweet. The lessons are Trust and Obedience, Manna, Provision. We watch the hand of God work and we find ourselves overcome with tearful gratitude. Quoting again from Ann Voskamp: "Remembering with thanks, this is the bread. We take the moments as bread and give thanks and the thanks itself becomes bread. The thanks itself nourishes. Thanks feeds our trust."

As we are finishing our gathered meal and fellowship time, my daughter and grandson and their pastor enter the building pushing a huge carton on a dolly. It is her new electronic piano! Family coming together in a common cause, to lift the highest praise unto our God!  We help her unpack and assemble the beautiful new instrument, and then I sit in tears and listen to my little girl (now 37) play my favorite piece of music, Claire de Lune. My heart soars - I have not heard her play this soul-stirring song since she was a young girl at home, My eyes start to leak. This was a "remembering with thanks moment."

This morning I overflow with thanks, and my heart dances to the song I hear: "My heart and my flesh will fail me, but I know this one truth remains: God, You are the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

Thanks feeds our trust; and so we trust the Yeshua-Cloud that leads us and we sojourn on toward our Passover Deliverance.