Tag Archives: life
Laughter is a Gift of God
Even though we know we are children of the Most High God, set apart and made Holy by the blood of the lamb, we sometimes don’t act and feel like the powerful, perfect in His sight, superhero new creatures God created us to be. Just like our life circumstances, we are a work in progress.
Although sin is never a joking matter, our bumbling efforts forward in grace don’t always have to be a source of self-loathing and a measuring stick of how far we have to go. We need to give ourselves and others grace, particularly in areas where there is no rebellion but perhaps just a splash of the realities of growing up in the Lord that aren’t perfecto.
When my son lived at home he figured out a clever way to pick apart my idiosyncracies and uncover to me any hint of detected hypocrisy without getting in trouble. He used humor. Even though he straddled the boarder of disrespect with this at times, he revealed truth in such a way I couldn’t help but choke on my food while laughing it was so spot on and funny.
It’s okay to look at yourself in the mirror and admit your not perfect and love yourself anyway!
Being able to accept and love yourself where you are while working to be more Christ-like is important. Lighten up in life in general but be careful to remain sober minded. We serve a Holy God.
Laughter is a gift from God and is medicine to the soul. Laugh and laugh often.
I laughed so hard while flipping through pregnancy memes night before last I had mascara streaming down my face. My husband came in and smiled while I read them to him. I imagine they weren’t quite so funny to him. This week as my uncomfort level has grown with my pregnancy body and its aches and pains I have not always handled myself with stoic grace. I have made sure to share with him regularly my process, when not with words, with grunts and groans as I waddled about the house and struggled to do things that use to be a cinch, directing my husband with an onslaught of new chores as I get the house ready for the baby.
I’m ‘Nesting.’
Yesterday I worked all day in my pj’s and didn’t even brush my hair! I didn’t really realize this until my husband got home from work. 😊 I proceeded to crack jokes about my pregnant reality. He cooked dinner for the third night in a row.
Last night he had a dream. Swans were ‘nesting’ in these trees, squawking, making a bit of a racket. He was thinking they weren’t as beautiful or as big as regular swans. He thought they seemed out of place not floating gracefully in the pond below them.
Hahaha. He would never dream of pointing out my imperfections, even with humor, as my son once did, but my ability to interpret dreams (especially one this obvious!) did it for him.
I’m not exactly the picture of grace and perfection this week as my body fills with extra blood, my weight soars, my circulation struggles and my trips to the fridge and bathroom increase and keep me up at night all while I give a blow by blow account to my husband. I know I haven’t been as charming floating on the water of the Spirit 😂 lately but thank God he still loves me and Jesus loves me too!
I am still beautiful and perfect in the sight of God and so are you, regardless of how you may be feeling or even acting.
I laugh at myself and the reality of my week and I also pray for greater grace to rise above my bodily limitations that I know will tempt me to complain over the next 6-7 weeks.
I pray for each of you too. Live. Laugh. Love.
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August Prophetic Word: New Beginnings!
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Prophetic Word: A Birth Announcement
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Fear No Evil
Fear no evil, not because evil does not exist or is not a threat to your life and progress, but because I am. I am good. I am for you. I am sovereign over your circumstances. Trust Me, I am not trembling at the thought of all that you are facing, wondering how in the world we will overcome the mounting obstacles. Do you know that some of the very things that you are freaking out about I have allowed into your life because it pleases Me to see My children trusting Me in the face of the impossible?
I know the beginning from the end. Change your perspective and change your life. Look at everything, every single thing, that is allowed in your life from My perspective. Take a stand against the forces of evil that are coming against all that I have promised you by bold and steadfast confidence in prayer. Relinquish your need to control other people and your tendency to try and have it all figured out, which is just another way to give yourself the illusion of being in control. Let it be enough for you to know that I am in control; trust that I have your best interests in mind.
Free yourself from the prison of your sentiment that imagines the way things are coming together, or falling apart as you often believe, are some random series of events that are leading to failure and more heartbreak.
Lighten up My precious child. In this world you will have trouble and suffering, but take courage- I have overcome the world. What does this mean for you in the here and now? It means that you are to believe wholeheartedly that I am working ALL things for your good if you love Me. Focus on loving Me and let Me work all things for your good and My glory. Your happiness should not hinge on specific outcomes or certain people. Do not set yourself up as a sitting duck for the enemy by allowing anything to become an idol in your life.
You may not believe yourself to be practicing idolatry but if you are unable to experience My love, peace and joy when things are not going the way your opinions says they ought to, you are showing Me that you have placed your trust and hope in something or someone other than Me. Renounce your idols and come boldly to the throne of grace asking Me to give you fresh eyes to see the abundant life I died for you to have already in your lap, today, not tomorrow, not in the sweet by and by, not when your desired outcomes have been realized, but right this very moment.
Pause and breath in the breathe of life. Release your need to understand every detail of how I am moving on your behalf. Trust Me and obey Me. Keep your eyes fixed on My Words and My face. Take My hand and step out boldly into the day eager to do My will in all things. Leave your preconceived ideas and opinions of what My goodness should look like behind. Hold everything and everyone loosely. Nothing else is needed for your fulfillment but to know Me. I do not tire of reminding you to seek first My Kingdom and My righteousness and all of these things will be added to you as well.
I am a generous Father. I am not holding out on you.
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Divine Connections and Appointments
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Change The Lens
Why are you so downcast My precious child? Where is your faith in My love and hope for My future grace to come through for you? Please continue to trust Me in spite of the hurt inside. There is nothing that you can not accomplish if you will believe. Do not focus on the stench of the rotting flesh or mourn the death of your dreams as if I am powerless over your circumstances. I have not ceased from maneuvering, by My Spirit, all of the pieces to the puzzle of your life to fit them together into My perfect design. I know there is confusion as to how I will arrange things in your favor. Many of the pieces are shaped in such a way that they do not match the space in which you believe they are to go. Stop trying to shove a square into a circle and step back in order to gain a new perspective of the overall picture.
You ask Me, “What can I do?’ My answer is that you must surrender your burdens to Me; cast your cares onto My capable shoulders and fear not; know that I am with you and for you.
You have not yet been given some of the strategic pieces that will be needed to build onto what has already been fitted together. Calm down and stop searching for something that I have yet to give. For today, quiet yourself in My Presence and refuse to bow your knee to fear. Give Me the sacrifice of your praise and it will lift you out of the pit of self-pity, confusion and doubt. Let Me deliver you from the enemies plan to lead you into despair by releasing the need to figure out how I am creating the masterpiece that is your dreams fulfillment out of the individual parts of the whole.
Change the lens you are viewing your relationships and circumstances through to take in a wider view. You are focusing on two fragmented sections that are misaligned, not taking into consideration that to everything there is a season and a purpose for everything under the sun. When the clock strikes the eleventh hour I will release the missing piece, bringing into focus the importance of calculating what was formerly thought an undesirable extraneous variable.
I know the beginning from the end. Do not let your emotions run you over and distract you from the tasks I have given you to do this day. If the enemy is unable to tempt you to leave your post or stop your race he is perfectly content to cause you to procrastinate your progress. Fight your battles but fight them bravely from a posture of certain victory. Do not give the enemy the satisfaction of blowing your emotions up in your own face. By your calm posture of assurance he will cower, knowing his days of wreaking havoc in your life are numbered.
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Thy Will Be Done
When you have prayed, given and fasted and are still struggling with doubts that things will ever turn around in your situation, and find yourself afraid to move forward in the direction in which the Lord is leading you, keep pressing forward regardless of how you feel. Feelings are fickly and can’t be trusted.
Let the pressure bring you back to that place in your heart where you once again pray, “Lord, I want to love like you love.” This is a prayer that God delights to answer. His grace will flood in to meet you at your point of willingness to be conformed into the image of His Son.
When you are in dire need, at the end of your rope and wondering when God is going to come through for you, shift your focus to how you can come through for God, He will empower you to become as He is in your situation.
To be as He is, is to want what He wants. To want what He wants, is to do what He does. To do what He does, is to create how He creates. To create how He creates is to say, “Let there be light,’ and there is light. Pray for your daily bread but also pray, “Thy will be done.”
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An Eternal Perspective
Let Me help you see things as I do. I have told you that My ways are higher than your ways and so they are. Part of the reason that My thoughts are higher than your thoughts is because I am not confined to time as you are. Time is a created thing. When I look at you I see perfection. The reality of who you have been, and what you have done, do not trump the truth of who you are in Me. Although your body and mind are bound in time, your spirit is eternal.
From your perspective you experience process; from My perspective I experience product. The finished work of the cross is being made complete in your life and life circumstances and is also complete already. Cut yourself free from the pressures of the clock. Get an eternal, it is finished, perspective.
You are My sons and My daughters! What you will be has not been made known in this earth realm, but in the realm of eternity I see it clearly. There is no sin in Me. My Spirit lives in you freeing you from the power of sin and death. You have My seed on the inside of you and therefore you will not go on sinning. You have My love in you and therefore you will love as I love. Why do you doubt My power to save, purify and empower you to be as I am?
Have you seen Me? Those that believe in the Son believe in Me; those that know the Son know Me; those that love the Son love Me. If you believe in Me you will not believe the lies of your circumstances that seek to convince you that I am not good. If you know Me you know that My heart is to do you good and not evil all of the days of your life. And if you believe in, know and love Me you will hear My voice. Those that hear My voice and follow Me do not recognize a strangers voice and do not follow it.
Come away with Me into our secret place and let Me show you who you are in Me. Bear hardship as discipline. Get an eternal perspective. Let the anxiety and fear associated with the boundaries you are experiencing because of what appears incomplete or imperfect ‘in time’ roll over onto My shoulders and let Me expand your view of the eternity I have placed within your heart: eternal perfection and completeness, eternal purity and glory, eternal wholeness and unity. We are one.
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Decisions?
Do you want to know the direction I am asking you to take but are feeling confused? Confusion does not come from Me. I am not the author of confusion. You have taken hit after hit in recent months from the enemy camp and kept your hope anchored in Me. I have taken notice of your commitment to serve Me and move at the impulse of My love.
I know how you long to know My will and make the correct decisions. You have spent a great deal of time and prayer looking for the answers. I have given you some instructions; which steps to take that are directly in front of you. For now, I am asking you to let it rest. Let your mind rest from trying to figure out exactly when and how I intend to move you forward in the coming weeks. There is nothing more that needs to be decided this week on this matter. I want you to focus all of your energies on being thankful. Trust Me and do not be afraid that the answer will not come loud and clear at the precise moment I desire it too.
I love that you seek answers that I have concealed. I am veiling things for your own protection. By now you know that you can trust Me, then Way, when you can’t see far off in the distance. I have asked you to walk by faith. Confusion doesn’t come from Me. You have asked Me for direction. You have asked Me to make your way clear. I have heard your prayers and have sent forth My Word to illuminate the path beneath your feet. For today and in the days ahead My Word to you is ‘Rejoice!’ Rejoice in the peace that I have all of the details of your life figured out. Rejoice in the truth that I love you and have good plans to prosper you. Prosperity is your portion. There will be no dwindling of your resources as you have feared. Do not hold back your offering of thanks now. I have spoken:
Those who sow with tears
will reap with songs of joy.
  Those who go out weeping,
carrying seed to sow,
will return with songs of joy,
carrying sheaves with them.
You are coming into a new season; of this you have felt certain for some time. Do what I have placed right before you on your path with the most excellent and diligent of care as one awaiting their promotion. Hum and sing and make music in your heart to Me, your Redeemer and the Promoter of your life. Share a smile just for Me knowing that we share secrets. What others might not fully realize, although they are starting to expect, is that you hold the keys to My Kingdom in your hands. Praise Me and show Me your appreciation by scattering your seed along the path where I am leading you.Â
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