Expect More!

Our God is Mighty and Strong and True, and He is bent on our freedom and wholeness. Psalm 118:5 says, "In my anguish I cried to the Lord. He answered me by setting me free." How often do we ask for just enough and no more? We ask for just enough to get by; we ask for a break, but He offers a breakthrough. We ask for relief, He offers us freedom. Jesus is not interested in making us more comfortable if it keeps us in prison. He wants us free! He is intent on our freedom and He wants us to desire it as much as He does.

Can you proclaim out loud, "I am free!"? Do you feel free? It is for freedom that Christ has set us free! We are not, no never again, to be subject to a yoke of slavery (see Galatians 5:1).

Before we were Christians, we had a list of accusations that stood against us and confirmed our guilt. But the Bible says that list, that debt, has been cancelled, and not just cancelled, taken away. With our guilt came supernatural powers that had legal right to steal, kill and destroy everything beautiful God offers us. This is the best part! When Jesus died on the cross, He did more than cancel the debt and remove the reminder of our guilt, He triumphed over the spiritual powers opposed to us. He disarmed them and made a public spectacle of the enemy's power by defeating death on the cross.

Think of it. Your list, your spiritual debts have been taken away. The enemy's right to keep you in prison has been disarmed. Your prison door is swinging on its hinges.

We've all given up a measure of our "paid for" freedom because of sin, fear, unbelief, and ignorance.

None of us can walk in true freedom without contending for it. We all have our share of battle wounds, past mistakes, and certain fears. Only those who are bent on their freedom find it.

If we had torn ligaments in our ankle and were unable to walk and do life with ease, we would pursue medical care and do the physical therapy necessary to regain our physical freedom.

Why, then, are we so willing to walk with a spiritual limp?

Oh, Lord, increase our understanding of all you want to do in and through us!

As we head into the holiday season, think about the gifts God wants to give you. Ponder for a minute how Thanksgiving precedes Christmas.

Begin thanking Him today for the ways He is going to come through for you. Thank Him by faith for the gifts He is preparing to give you. It's not that we are to treat God as our Santa Claus in the sky. The call on our lives is much higher than that. He delights in giving good gifts to His children. He longs for us to be fully free because when we are, we live powerfully on earth.

When every past hurt and offense is swallowed up by love, and when every fear is conquered because of Love's Redeeming Power, we then walk, and breathe and live, and give love and freedom to everyone we meet.

Ask for more! Expect more! Instead of asking for a drink of water, prepare for the raging river of God to sweep you off your feet and take you to your next place of promise! This is God's great will for you. Please Him by raising your level of belief and expectation!

Surrender...

My life verse is this: "And so I walk in His presence as I live here on earth" (Psalm 116:9). His presence is a place of promise, and nourishment, and care. We are never far from His provision and never more alive than when we walk by His side. Even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, He is there for us, walking with us, providing for us, and showing us the way to our next place of promise. Sometimes life leads us to places of great difficulty and struggle. Sometimes our circumstances scream that God has forgotten us and will not come through for us. It is in those places where we are tempted to set up camp in the wilderness and make it our home. We get used to the less-than life we are living, and it seems easier to settle than to hope for something better. But we must never surrender to our circumstances, only to God, and there's a big difference between the two.

The Old Testament tells how the Israelites took forty years to complete a journey that should have taken them about one week. One commentary says that this was a consequence of their rebellious fears. Now God cares deeply for us and aches when we are afraid, but when we coddle our fears more than we cling to God, those fears become an affront to His loving care and provision for our lives.

In the Psalms it says, "The people refused to enter the pleasant land for they wouldn't believe His promise to love and care for them. Instead they grumbled in their tents and refused to obey the Lord."

They refused to believe the Promise, and then they grumbled because their life had no promise!

Does that sound familiar?

The Israelites were not made for captivity. They were made to live free and reign as representatives of the Most High God.

We were not made for captivity. We were made to live free and reign as representatives of the Most High God.

Surrendering to our circumstances is like camping in the wilderness, refusing to believe that God is leading us to our next place of Promise.

Surrendering to God amidst our circumstances is to say, "Lord, You alone know what is best for me. I can't see You, I can't feel You, but I know You'll come for me. I know Your promises are true for me here. I know You have a purpose for me here, and I know You've made a committment to love me here. You get to decide how this goes, Lord. I will trust in You. I will walk through this wilderness, but I will keep my eyes upward and my ear bent towards Heaven. I will lean in and listen and watch for my breakthrough, for I know You will come for me. My circumstances do not define me, Lord. You do. I am Yours and I will follow You forever. Amen."

But for you who fear My Name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in His wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture (Mal. 4:2 NLT).

He Leads Me...

God's intimate love and personal attention to detail never fail to amaze and overwhelm me. A number of years ago I went forward at a meeting where the speaker was speaking words of insight and wisdom to each person. I had just come off of a speaking event and I was both elated and exhausted. God moved in powerful ways and I was profoundly tired.

I wasn't prepared for what I was about to hear and those words would affect me for a long time to come.

I was hoping for exhortation or encouragement in my walk of faith. Instead I received words that embarassed and humiliated me. To make matters worse, none of what he said resonated with me. Now this precious saint is human and God has used him in huge ways, but in my case, he was off or his mind was elsewhere and I was deeply affected by it all. I never wanted to put myself in this position again.

I enjoy hours in the Lord's presence during my own private prayer times. I love it when God speaks to me there. On the rare occasion that I get to attend a conference, I like to blend in and soak in as much as I can. Now mind you, my desire to blend has had more to do with self protection than humility, but I do want all of God I can handle.

This past week I attended the International Healing Conference. I was blessed to attend a luncheon for pastors and those in full-time ministry. Heidi Baker was the speaker and I tell you, I have never met a more Christ-like soul. This woman lives as a missionary in Africa and so far has adopted five thousand children and has loved them into the Kingdom of God.

Her testimony blew me away. I found myself begging God for her kind of radical faith and tenacity. At the end of her message the host stepped up to the platform and said, "Please don't grab for Heidi, let her pass by; she needs her rest for tonight."

There I stood, in a crowd of three hundred people, with my head bowed. I looked up to see Heidi standing directly in front of me. She grabbed my shoulders, planted a wet kiss on my cheek and wrapped me in a warm hug. She prayed a short prayer and smiled at me again. Then she walked away.

I put my hand to my cheek and was just stunned. I walked out to the car with my friend. I buckled my seatbelt and then broke down and cried. I sobbed and sobbed.

Jesus knew I couldn't keep hiding, but He also knew what would bless me beyond words. I once felt publicly embarassed and humiliated, this time I felt blessed and honored.

Each day of the conference I was surprised and overwhelmed by the intimate and personal ways God ministered to me as if I was the only one there. So much more happened than I am able to share here, but the thing I will say is that He knows my name, and He knows yours.

He knows your address, He knows what makes you afraid, and He knows what makes you want to hide. He is gentle and loving and kind and true. So much so, that He parts the waters or the crowds just to bring you a miracle to remind you He's there.

He leads us to the heights, through our fears, and into places of promise.

May we follow Him all the days of our lives!

This I pray...

Father in Heaven,

Forgive us for our apathy and casual committment to all that is right and good. Revive our hearts, Lord, and take us to a deeper place of intimacy with You. Forgive us for the countless ways we have compromised and hardened our hearts toward Your voice in our hearts and the calling on our lives. You love your Church, for she is Your Bride. And yet we've somehow tried to differentiate between our relationship with You and our committment to Your Church. Yes, the Church is flawed, because we are flawed. But You love us and You cherish Your Church. Revive our hearts, Lord, and give us a First Love passion once again.

Give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to do Your will. Forgive us for the over-busy, completely distracted lives we live. You deserve a Bride, fully engaged, fully committed to You, because You are fully committed to us. Oh, God, revive us once again. Anything good in us comes from You. Draw us into a deeper relationship with You and fill our hearts with Your glory. For nothing on earth compares with You, and nobody loves us like You do.

These are critical days and we cannot afford to be spread so thin that we make no Kingdom impact. Bring focus to our lives. Lift the grace to do anything but that which You've anointed us to accomplish.

Set us free from ourselves, our hang-ups, and our fears. Release us from the opinions of man that we may live lives totally devoted to You. Give us faith for living, giving, loving, and serving. May we determine to walk in such faith that a groundswell response follows us wherever we go.

Thank you for loving us with such great passion and deep affection. You deserve all that we are and more. Time on earth is short oh God, may we live with Eternity in mind.

As Psalm 26:3 says, we will keep Your Love ever before us and we will walk continually in Your truth. We will speak, move, give and live with Your love in mind. And we will walk forward unafraid, full of faith because Your truth sets us free and sets us up to live powerful lives.

Come, Lord Jesus, revive Your Church again!

We need You every hour!

Amen.

My Voice is Sweet...

This past weekend I spoke at Covenant Pines Bible Camp in McGregor, Minnesota. Over one hundred women gathered there to spend time with God and with one another. The worship was led by Andrea Lupino and was out of this world! Her leadership and passion set the stage for a power-filled time in God's presence. In fact, if you are in need of worship leader for your upcoming event, contact Andrea at: andrealupino@gmail.com; you won't be disappointed.

We talked about many things this weekend; our character and Christ-likeness, our vision and our hope; the way we treat other women, and how we see ourselves.

At one point I referred to the Song of Songs where Solomon tells the Shulamite woman to come out from behind the rock because, he said, "Your voice is sweet and you are lovely." Jesus says the same thing to us. We all hide behind our rocks of performance, perfection, insecurity, busy-ness, you name it. And in doing so we deprive the world of being blessed by God's presence in our lives. We also miss out on all of the ways God wants to reveal Himself in and through us.

I told the ladies to turn to their neighbor and say, "My voice is sweet!" And I had them turn to their other neighbor and say, "And I am lovely!"

They giggled and laughed as they said these uncomfortable words to one another. I'm sure you are shifting in your seat at the thought of saying such a thing out loud. And yet we must.

Until we identify ourselves as someone whom God deeply loves and celebrates, we will never fully grasp what it means to be His.

I dare you, put your hand over your heart today and declare, "Thank you Jesus. I don't have to hide behind anything. In fact I'll come out from behind the rock because I believe You when You say that my voice is sweet and I am lovely!"