To Truly Live

“The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.”
(John 12:23-26)

Life as we see it naturally is nothing if we don’t have life spiritually through the only Way–Jesus Christ (Jn. 14:6).

God by His own hand brought salvation to raise fallen man to true life. He sent Jesus to undergo the punishment we ourselves deserve. The very fact that human beings are fallen means sin, and sin means judgment, punishment, death. God had to bring death and punishment to atone for sin, so that life could come to us who are dead without Christ.

In John 12:24 Jesus speaks of the grain of wheat that must die before it can truly live and bear fruit. “Once the seed falls into fertile ground, the outer shell begins to open as it dies; and inside the dead shell, new life awaits. Then, in the right conditions, the new growth will begin to emerge” (quote from this page). If the seed doesn’t die, the new life of a plant could not spring forth. And so it was with Jesus–Son of God, Son of Man–who died and rose again, becoming the “firstfruits” of many.

To be part of the many, we too have to “die.” We must turn from our sinful actions, thoughts and desires–from self, turn to God. We repent [turn away] from sin and make Jesus Lord over our lives–He becomes the One we live for, whose desires we seek to fulfill; we are not lord over our own lives any longer. It is a continually process in our lives as believers, at any time in which we disobey God. We seek to live not for self–doing as we please, but for God alone. We live to obey our Father in Heaven, knowing that disobedience is sin and sin has consequences (Gal. 6:7-9).

So we have to die to truly live. We don’t live out of do’s and don’ts of religion to appear good, but we ask Christ to reign in us as we seek His grace in denying our own personal desires. It’s not that we are His robots in this, but it’s because we love Him and desire to please Him (or that we desire to desire to please Him! Ask Him, He will help you even to have the desire.) Even in times when we don’t see the eternal good in it, we can hold to His promise that the eternal glory far outweighs any suffering our obedience brings (Rom. 8:18, 2 Cor. 4:17-18).

We live as God’s yielded vessels, filled as He desires, broken and poured out as He desires. We, the children of God, live to do His will as His Holy Spirit leads us. In this there is true joy, in this we truly live.

“…those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
(Galatians 5:24-25)

“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
(Galatians 2:20)

To God be the glory as we deny ourselves and allow Christ to live through us as His yielded vessels of holy love expressed!

Filed under: Christian, Devotional, God's Word

If If Then

“On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive…”
(John 7:37-39)

If #1: If you come to Jesus

If #2: And if you believe in Him

Then: Rivers of God’s living water will flow from your heart.

Let us continually come to You, Lord. Let us put off all unbelief. Let us be filled with Your Spirit and have rivers of Your living water flow forth from our hearts. Let an ocean be formed from Your pouring forth into us and pouring forth from us!

Filed under: Christian, Faith, God's Word, Heart's Cry , Holy Spirit, jesus, living water, rivers of living water, Yeshua

No Greater Love and Delight

“The LORD your God in your midst,
The Mighty One, will save;
He will rejoice over you with gladness,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing.”
(Zephaniah 3:17)

Do you really believe that God is rejoicing over you, that He really, really loves you and delights in you? Do you live your life with this truth embedded in your heart?

God is singing over you, delighting in you constantly. Even in your weakness, He loves you. Even in the midst of His discipline over your sin, He loves you. He knows all your weakness and failings, yet He loves you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3).

He sings over you as you continue to press through your pain, weakness and sin to pursue Him time and time again.

He loves you, really truly loves you, His son or daughter! After all, God so demonstrated His love and delight in you by sending His Son to die for you, taking the punishment deserved by all of us because He wanted communion with us. That’s how much He loves you! For,

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.”
(John 15:13)

And,

“…whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
(John 3:15-17)

He loves you and laid down His life for you. He wants union and communion with you, the intimate relationship of Father and son/daughter and friend. We so well know the above verses, but have we truly and deeply pondered them in our hearts, allowing God to encounter us with all reality through His truth in them? Oh, how He loves us so!

May we seek to know the true depths and heights of God’s love and longing and the truth of His delight in us.

“The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:
‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;
Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’”
(Jeremiah 31:3)

Further Study – IHOP Teaching Archive:

Beholding God’s Glory by Beholding His Emotions
The Father Heart of God
Wholehearted Love Starts Now

Filed under: Christian, Devotional, Encouragement, God's Word , God's delight, God's love, true joy

The Joy Set Before

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
(Hebrews 12:1-2)

You endured the Cross for the joy that was set before You.

That joy was us for whom You died.

Help me to endure and live in the midst of whatever details are ever in my life, for the Joy set before me.

For that Joy is You…

Knowing You.
Loving You.
Being with You.
Growing in You.
Living for You.

No matter what is going on around us or in our lives. It’s all about You.

Help us to live worthy of Your calling, for Your glory.

Filed under: Christian, Devotional, Encouragement, God's Word, Heart's Cry , Hebrews 12, true joy

So There Arises…

Quotes from John G. Lake:

“So there arises in the heart the desire and prayer for the Spirit of God to eject, crucify, and destroy every tendency of opposition to the Holy Spirit. Think not that thou shall attain the highest in God until within thine own soul a heavenly longing to be like Him who gave His life for us possesses thine heart.

Think not to come within the court of God with stain upon thine garments.  Think not that heaven can smile upon a nature fowled through evil contact.  Think not that Christ can dwell within temples seared by flames of hate.  No! The heart of man must first be purged by holy fire and washed from every stain by cleansing blood. Know ye not that he whose nature is akin to God’s must ever feel the purging power of Christ within?”

Yes, Lord. Do it. Purify us and purge us of anything and everything in opposition to Your Spirit and Your Kingdom coming and Your will being done. Make me a vessel of You, a vessel of Your holiness, Your truth, Your love, and Your glory. You be greater and I less and less, it’s all about You! Make me into a habitation for You alone, a dwelling place for You, God.

Prayer of Consecration from John G. Lake:

“Dear Heavenly Father, I come to You boldly in Jesus’ name. Take me as I am. I now give myself – my heart, my mind, my body, my time, talents and treasure to you. Fill me and possess me. I renounce all sins, self and satan. Jesus, sanctify me. Cleanse me, purge me, purify me. Your will be done in my life, on earth as it is in heaven. Let me manifest a faithful spirit, a pure mind and a sickless body to your glory. Amen.”

Filed under: Christian, God's Word, Heart's Cry , consecration, God, habitation, holiness, Holy Spirit, jesus, John G. Lake, Prayer, Refiner's fire, vessel of God's glory

You Are the Potter, I Am the Clay

…love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord.
Many waters cannot quench love…

Lately God has been tenderizing my heart with reminders of His love. He has been deepening my revelation of just how deep and wide and high it truly is. By His Spirit this is transforming me. Less and less do the details of what this life will bring matter, and more and more my heart longs merely to know God and live for Him in every aspect of this life – no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like. The touches of His revelation upon my heart are softening me in His perfect, all-knowing way. He is preparing me for whatever His purposes hold during the next few months and beyond, and also as a vessel wanting to be yielded to Him alone.

Without Him I can do nothing.

God is blowing my mind as He paves the way for me to embark on this time of consecration and growth in Him (as I’m seeing it). His preparation for me seems to be touching every area in my life and needs. This so tenderizes my heart… I don’t deserve this and never could! We never deserved even the sacrifice paid for us by Christ on the cross, and yet He paid the price because He so desires the restoration of unbroken fellowship with His people. That is something we can never cease to grow past knowing—after all, His love is unending and so is He!

Let my heart beat in sync with Yours. Let me live for You alone… to fellowship with You, living for the glory of Your name.

All I want is You to have Your way:
You are the Potter and I am the clay.
All I need is You to have Your way:
You are Creator and I am what You’ve made.
(Misty Edwards – “Finally I Surrender”)

Filed under: Christian, Heart's Cry , consecration, egress0902, finally i surrender, flame of love, Holy Spirit, jesus, Jesus Christ, love of God, misty edwards, spiritual growth, surrender, tender

When We Remembered Zion…

Psalm 137:

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat, we also wept when we remembered Zion.
2 On willows in its midst we hung our harps.
3 For there our captors asked us for words of song and our tormentors [asked of us] mirth, “Sing for us of the song of Zion.”
4 “How shall we sing the song of the Lord on foreign soil?”
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill].
6 May my tongue cling to my palate, if I do not remember you, if I do not bring up Jerusalem at the beginning of my joy.
7 Remember, O Lord, for the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem, those who say, “Raze it, raze it, down to its foundation!”
8 O Daughter of Babylon, who is destined to be plundered, praiseworthy is he who repays you your recompense that you have done to us.
9 Praiseworthy is he who will take and dash your infants against the rock.

Pray: Pray for Israel today — pray for peace. Pray that Jerusalem will be a praise in all the earth. Pray that God will set watchmen on the wall to pray night and day. Pray for the Jewish people to know salvation through Yeshua (the Hebrew name for Jesus), God’s Son. Pray for Israel every day. Ask God to give you His heart for His chosen people.

Filed under: God's Word, Heart's Cry

Israel – A Seal Upon God’s Heart

I was listening to Misty Edwards’ song “You Won’t Relent” while driving home one night and God began revealing more of His heart for Israel to me. I’ve been praying that He would do this, and little by little God is opening my eyes and syncing my heart with His.

This song expresses the relentless nature of God’s love–the jealous flame of His love so unquenchable that not even death can stop it. Jesus, after all, died on the cross to take away our sins and conquer death, rising again to life and now seated at the Father’s right hand: THAT is real love!

“You won’t relent until You have it all…”

The Law and the Prophets, the Psalms, Song of Solomon and so forth–the entire Bible is the story of God’s love for His people and how He will do anything to bring them to return to Him. And He has set Israel as a seal upon His heart, desiring to this day that any of the Jewish people who do not know Yeshua as Messiah to be saved through Him.

“I’ll set you as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm,
For there is love that is as strong as death,
Jealousy demanding as the grave,
And many waters cannot quench this love.”

I see two different meanings in this:

That we pray for God to seal our hearts with His jealous, unfailing love:  “I’ll set [God] as a seal upon my heart.” And second, how He loves us so much that we are like a seal upon His heart:  “I’ll set [My people] as a seal upon My heart.”

And so I pray for Israel, that you would know God’s love in that He has set you upon His heart, and also that you would encounter Yeshua, setting Him as a seal upon your hearts.

As it is written in Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (ESV):

“Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it…”

God, I pray that Your beloved Jewish people would know You. Pour out Your great love upon them even more fully. I pray that You would set watchmen on the wall and that You would make Jerusalem a praise in all the earth. Let them and let us, too, know Your vehement, fiery love for us–a holy love that never ends. Give us Your heart, God.

Further Reading on SOS 8:6-7:  Set Me as a Seal Upon Thy Heart

Filed under: Christian, Devotional, God's Word, Heart's Cry , Christ, Christianity, God, God's heart, God's heart for Israel, God's love, Israel, jesus, Jesus Christ, Jewish people, Jews, Judaism, Messiah, Messianic, misty edwards, Song of Solomon, Yeshua, You Won't Relent

I Have Heard Your Prayers – Part 2

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“I HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYERS…”

With the revelation of God’s promises comes trust and strength in the waiting period between the voicing of our prayers and His answers to them. We hope in the unseen and not the seen, walking by faith and not by sight. We can rest in the promise that He will do above and beyond our imagination (Ephesians 3:20-21), for what is impossible with man is possible with God!

“From ancient times no one has heard,
no one has listened,
no eye has seen any God except You,
who acts on behalf of the one who waits for Him.”
(Isaiah 64:4 HCSB)

As David exclaimed the preciousness of God’s thoughts to him in Psalm 139:17, we can also know that our thoughts and prayers are precious to God as we seek Him with all our hearts.

Let the breath-taking thought of God’s delight in you cause you to run the race with even greater fervor. Let the humbling thought of God’s care for you awaken even deeper love for Jesus in your heart. Let the awesome thought of God moving on behalf of those He loves inspire you to intercede even more unceasingly — praying the very prayers He’s already put on Your heart.

Let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done on the earth as it is in Heaven!

Filed under: Christian, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, God's Word, Writing , Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, God's love, God's presence, God's Word, i have heard your prayers, Prayer

I Have Heard Your Prayers – Part 1

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“I HAVE HEARD YOUR PRAYERS…”

Your words echo in my mind… What more could this daughter of God long to hear? They carry such intense meaning for this young woman after Your heart.

To one seeking after Your heart,
those words bring healing.

To one desiring to live worthy of Your calling,
those words bring determination.

To one preparing the way for Your return,
those words communicate life.

To one with the heart of an intercessor,
those words communicate love.

To one with the heart of a worshiper,
those words stir up tears of joy.

To one longing to know You more,
those words stir up wholehearted devotion.

“Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God,
your request has been heard in heaven…”
(Daniel 10:12 NLT)

Filed under: Christian, Encouragement, Faith, Writing , Daniel, Encouragement, Faith, God's presence, God's Word, i have heard your prayers, Prayer, words of life