God’s moving

We often say “God is moving”. What do we mean by this? What are we inferring or referring to?

Often we mean that there are good circumstantial things coming to pass. The offering was good, the service was full of passion or there were new visitors. However we are discounting both the depth and breadth of what God is doing when we only refer to circumstantial things. Other times when we say “God is moving” it means that we may have a great deal of positive emotional energy regarding how the circumstances of life appear to be trending. And so when things by and large seem to be “going our way” (i.e. there are more things turning out like we want them to than not) then we say “God is moving” This misses the entire reality of what God’s moving really entails.

God’s moving is really the movement of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore the movement of the Holy Spirit is always God moving on the hearts of people. When the offering plate is fuller than last week it is because God prompted people to give and they agreed with the Holy Spirit and obeyed. When the service is full of passion (if it is genuine and not contrived or mere emotionalism) then we can be sure what has happened is that God’s Spirit moved on the hearts of people to draw them to repentance, trust, worship, adoration, thanksgiving, etc. In addition, not only did God speak, but the people listened and obeyed. If there are new visitors in our church services, we can be assured it is because God was “moving” on their hearts and convincing them of a need to gather with God’s people and seek Him and in particular He has led them to our congregation; and again in this instance the evidence of God’s moving is the people’s obedience.

So “God’s moving” is the convicting, convincing, rebuking, training, drawing of the Holy Spirit in the hearts and lives of people coupled by their faith, trust, brokenness, humility and obedience. However God is always working, every day, every moment for our salvation and to shape and form us into His likeness and image, so if we do not see or hear or say often “God is moving” the reality is that people (maybe me?) are not listening to and heeding the work of God. Indeed the Holy Spirit is always at work, the question is are we also about the Father’s business and are we keeping in step with His Spirit? I want to see God at work always, but am I agreeing with all that God is saying to me? Please, Holy Spirit come!

What God is doing in the hearts of believers

God paid the price for His children to receive everything they need for life and godliness. Everything. And yet we moan and complain, fear and worry, and find ourselves constantly hurried, stressed and full of anxiety. The reason we fall short is because fail to pay careful attention to what He has said and to listen to what He is saying. God is pouring out His Spirit with all of His abundant blessings upon all who will believe. If we will but wait in His Presence, He will give us blessing upon and blessing and grace upon grace and the beautiful thing is that when we spend time in His Presence we finally begin to realize that He is the greatest gift! All that we need for life and godliness is found in Him. Here are some realities of what God is doing, what He is pouring out, what He is supplying, if we will wait, trust, listen, believe, and receive:

  • As His beloved God is making us into His beautiful masterpieces
  • He is availing to us all we need to be at peace and rest in every moment
  • He is providing all of the power, patience and love we need to be His body
  • He has given and is giving us love, compassion, and everlasting loving-kindness for every person, and every circumstance we are in right now
  • He is right now giving us victory over everything (including joy and peace over anger, bitterness, judgement, grumbling, negativity, and complaining!)
  • He also supplying patience to us for things being less or different than we would want them to be
  • He is giving us love and joy and excitement about the things God is doing

Please realize, recognize and receive all that God is offering you right now! There are some things in life that are far off. His supply of His Spirit is not one of them. He wants to fill you now. Please let Him abide in you and you in Him!

Every moment, every circumstance and every person is a present opportunity for God to fill us, use us and flow through us to bring His kingdom to earth. Please wait patiently in God’s Presence and let Him flow into you with His holy fire, let Him speak to you the majesties of His voice, let Him move through you by His mighty Holy Spirit and let Him do in and through you everything He desires which will make you into His likeness and image with ever increasing glory and will result in praise, glory and honor to Him forever and ever!

God is faithful and He is doing it!

I want to share with you about what God is doing in your life and in the lives of all of His children who call on His name, seek His face and obey His voice. Far too many Christians do not know what is available to them in Christ Jesus, or even if they do know they still do not live in His Presence and in the fullness of His blessings. Here are 7 realities that believers need to receive and live in:

1. God is at work in the lives of those who believe
2. His Spirit is present in those who are His
3. He may not be manifest (outwardly made known) if we are not abiding, resting, trusting, praying, listening, dwelling, etc.
4. His power and peace is at work in those who believe, especially when we avail ourselves thru prayer
5. He is making us into His warriors when we pray, whether we feel/know it or not (the condition here is humility and brokeness)
6. We can be those who live centered, abundant, overcoming, peace-filled, radiant, glowing, glory-covered and glory-filled lives if we will spend time in the presence of God, abiding always and praying without ceasing
7. The children of God are forgiven, cleansed, set-free, empowered, filled and sent

We need to live in what God has given and what He is doing in the present moment in the lives of His children. There are matter of fact things that God has done for and in believers that we still don’t think are present realities. My prayer for myself and other believers is that we would learn all that God has already done and receive all that He is now doing in us. This only happens in prayer, in listening to the voice of God, waiting upon Him, abiding in Him. Please, take the time in prayer and the Word today to receive all God is doing in you!

Learning to abide in His Presence

To be like Jesus, requires being with Jesus. To treat others with love and respect means spending time at the feet of Jesus receiving from Him love and learning from Him what is true. When we live in His Presence, His words and His Spirit not only minister to our hearts and bring us courage but also fill us up with hope, light and life. When we try to live out of our own effort and understanding we fall short. When we live in Christ and He lives in us, we have His grace/favor as a shield around us, we have His glory within us and His fire surrounding and protecting us, we have it grace and love poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit He has given us and we have our life truly on a solid rock. When we step back into our own ability, nothing but chaos and heartache ensues. So this week, today, every moment of this day, rest in Him, trust Him, rely on Him, pray to Him, ask of Him, depend on Him, believe Him and watch and see what He will do in and for and through you. Abide in Him and He will abide in you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Seek what it means to say “Jesus, Your Presence is heaven to me”.

Abiding

Definition from Google Dictionary: (Archaic) Dwelling

This world may feel that abiding is something archaic, old fashioned, obsolete, insignificant. However, abiding is what we were created for. Abiding is why Jesus came to the earth and died on the cross for our sins. Abiding is all about Jesus in us and us in Him. He abides in us as our hope of glory. We abide in Him as our refuge and strength. Peace, joy and contentment do not come from a station in life or an accomplishment or recognition. These come as we wait in His Presence. We are “worried and concerned about many things, but only one thing is needed”. When we wait before Him, He speaks to us, lovingly, tenderly. When we wait before Him, He lifts us up, embraces us, comforts and shields us. When we call on His name, our Abba hears us and answers with His perfect wisdom, all-sufficient power, and everlasting loving-kindness. Abiding is having the kingdom of God within us. Abiding is trusting, waiting, faithing, loving, worshiping, dwelling in Him! We are invited to abide always and everywhere. Abiding is available to us by the blood of Jesus. Please accept Jesus’ invitation to abide in Him.

Isaiah 30:15:  In repentance and rest (abiding) you will be saved. In quietness and trust (abiding) is your strength. (NASB – parentheses added)

By grace through faith

Scripture tells us again and again that it is by grace through faith that we are saved. Abraham’s faith was credited unto him as righteousness and the patriarchs listed in Hebrews 11 walked by faith while on this earth. I know that many of you are probably facing a myriad of struggles, trials and opportunities. Yet, what I am reminded of is that God’s grace is sufficient for whatever you face. If you will but believe and receive His grace for forgiveness and salvation, He will indeed save you. But furthermore if you will but believe and receive His grace for wisdom, provision, guidance, hope, restoration, and whatever else you are facing I know that He will also give you His grace in abundant measure for your circumstances. So today, realize that it is because of God’s love for you that He sent His son, who offered His life as atonement for our sins; it is because of His love that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us; it is because of His love for us that He sends His Holy Spirit to abide in us and it is His grace through faith that makes all things possible!

The allure of busy-ness vs. the peace of His Presence

We all complain about how busy we are. And fret and bother and even present ourselves as martyrs because of the many demands on us. And yet truth be told, many of us are addicted to our busy-ness. We truly can’t live without it. Furthermore we really aren’t trying to. When things slow down and we begin to sabotage ourselves and the time God is creating for us to have sweet communion with Him, STOP! Let go of all the stuff. Let go of the constant need to be doing something! Let go of the insecurities that drive you.

God is calling us to come and sit as His feet. He is calling us to be “Mary”s who choose the “one thing” of ever-always being in His presence and utterly-desperately-depending upon Him for all things.

Let God speak to you. Let God sit a while with you and you with Him. Call out to Him and let Him truly be your peace! Being busy doesn’t fulfill, nor does it bring peace or contentment or true success. Being with the Lord is what ultimately brings life abundant and the only side effects of being with Him is a greater awareness of His moving, a greater sensitivity to His revelations, a greater compassion for the lost and a greater inner sense of love, joy, peace and rest. Why don’t you lay down your busy-ness and sit a while with the Lord?

We need the Lord

So, this is a common theme in my writings recently. And I won’t apologize for it. And I don’t get tired of stating something so profound and simple and yet so important. We need the Lord. We need Him more than we need air, food, water, clothing, shelter, and on and on the list goes. We need God for it is only from Him and in Him that we truly have love, joy and peace. Love is not known because of some human emotive response to outside stimuli. Love is known as God is known. Love is, because God is. The apostle John reminds us in fact that God is love. Love is the selfless, gracious, merciful, beneficent, compassionate and good DNA of God and it is from His revealing and sharing of Himself with us that we know and experience love. Furthermore love manifests from and through a choice. A choice to give and a choice to receive. The same can be said of joy and peace. God’s essence is joyful because in Him there is no darkness, no sin, no despair, no guilt and no shame. In Him, all are completed and find their true meaning and eternal love, joy and peace. Love, joy and peace (and their many offshoots) are not learned, but rather are received, dwelt in and willfully shared with others. If you feel as though you have a lack of love or joy or peace in your life, there is nothing and there is no one that can fill that desperate longing except the Holy Spirit of God. You may have glimpses of these things by God’s prevenient grace and His omni-presence, but only as God dwells in you and you in Him will you ever find true contentment that will never fade away. As long as you are pressed into the heart of God you will feel, hear, receive, know and experience love, joy and peace that is both inexpressible in words and yet simultaneously overwhelmingly full of glory! So please, take my advice: press into the heart of God through prayer and worship and make sure to be still and know that He is Your love, joy and peace forevermore!!!

God’s greatest tools for shaping and forming us

God has been showing me recently that He uses three tools over and over in order to shape and form us into His likeness and image. Those three tools are suffering, lack and delay. And yet perhaps God would call these things training, discipline and appropriate timing. But nonetheless God allows things to come into our lives in order that we might be shaped to be like Him. He allows us to be tested and tried. He allows us to experience difficulties that are too much for us to bear. He withholds things from us in order that we might look to Him for provision and understanding. And He calls upon us to wait for His perfect timing rather than trying to force an imperfect “solution”.

In my life I find that I often complain about these things. Often from my limited (and selfish, pride-filled perspective) I believe that God is putting on me more than I can really handle or He is withholding the supply that I know He has but isn’t releasing or He isn’t coming soon enough with the solution that I have asked Him for. But as these three things keep coming at me again and again I am beginning to believe that God actually desires that we have all of these occurrences in our lives in order to cause us to trust Him more and become more like Him!

So when you face something that seems to beyond you, it may very well be that God is using things in your life to bring you to a place of brokenness and emptiness in order that you might call out to Him in desperation and allow Him to shape you in humility and holiness. This week when you wonder why something is happening, change your questioning into a patient observance of God at work making something beautiful in you!

No one else can do it for you

No one else can choose for you. No one else can think, feel or act for you. We each must choose for ourselves who we will serve (Joshua challenged the people of Israel with this choice). We each must choose for ourselves how we will live.

When circumstances are especially difficult and we ask the Lord to help us, one thing we must know is that we cannot sit passively back and let someone else just “sort it out”. God is able to do things in and through us, but only as we choose to allow Him to. Remember: when we seek the peace and joy that God gives we must choose to receive it from Him. He is not going to force His peace and joy upon us.

Many times in our lives we find ourselves in the middle of a “bad day”. And then we wish or dream or hope or pray that things will get better. We long for the moment when things will once again be “good” and we will be happy. And yet we often wait for God to somehow magically change our attitude even while we are sulking or complaining. God has the power to anything and yet He has given us the gift of free will and therefore won’t go where we don’t allow Him to. If we ask Him to make things better but don’t make the choice to allow Him to change us, will things really get “better”? If we ask Him to guide us through a particularly trying circumstance but we don’t allow Him to shape, form and re-tool us so that we personally can be victorious, will anything really feel  better or complete? What good are changed circumstances if we are still broken within?

No other person can make your choices for you:

  • No other person can choose to eat, sleep, work or play for you
  • No other person can choose joy, peace, love, hope, contentment for you
  • No other person can choose or have a good attitude for you
  • No other person can choose or live out Christlikeness for you
  • No other person can worship, pray, serve or become a disciple of Christ for you

In all of life no one can do it for you, though Christ can live life in you and through you!

Only Jesus can bring you hope, peace, joy and contentment, but not through the changing of our circumstances but rather through the changing of us. And He won’t change us unless we let Him.

So, whatever you are facing, choose now to let Him change you. He might also change the things around you, but He is far more concerned with you than with passing circumstances. And when you ask God to make you feel better, have a better attitude, be more like Him, have more contentment, truly feel full and alive, realize that no other person can do that for you. Only God in you can make it happen and then only with your permission and your partnership. He won’t do it alone. You have to work with Him.

So stop waiting for some other human to make you feel better. Seek the Lord with all your heart. Ask Him to change you. And then personally agree with Him and partner with Him in whatever He wants to work in you!