It's All About Hearing

You know, it really is all about hearing and I don't mean just physical hearing, but hearing in order to gain understanding and knowledge concerning all things spiritual.  The it I just mentioned covers every area of our lives whether pertaining to things, people, courses of action, problem solving, anything and everything.  We need to know who or what is speaking the things we hear. 

Jesus spoke often about the importance of hearing,  emphasizing what He was about to say sometimes with, "he who has ears, let him hear."   This reminds me of something He spoke to me not too long ago which I found rather humorous and actually laughed out loud when I heard Him say it to me.  I had been asking Him for a breakthrough in a long standing situation for a family member which had been of great concern to us.  After I had laid it all out to Him, made my request and had become quiet, I heard inside, "All is well, all is exceedingly well."  My response was, "Is that You, LORD, or am I just talking  to myself."  His immediate response to me was, "I hope I wasn't just talking to myself."  I laughed so hard.  He does have a sense of humor!  I always smile when I remember that, and at times laugh out loud all over again.  It's not the only thing He's said to me which made me laugh, but this was to me the funniest!  He definitely knows my sense of humor...and He knows yours, too.

This only re-emphasized another statement He made to me sometime before that.  One day I was putting on my spiritual armor while literally thinking about what each piece represents. When I got to the helmet of salvation, I was declaring in faith that I have ears to hear and that's when He interrupted me right on the spot.  What He said to me was quite effective and it was this: "You have ears that hear,  you need ears that listen."   Oh my.  How the depth of the meaning pierced my heart.  I had heard Him speak many times, but this let me know it was time for a greater awareness to hear what He was saying to me.  From that day I've endeavored to have listening ears on purpose and to receive by faith greater acuity by His Spirit to hear and respond more readily to what He is saying.  I don't have to strain to hear as I did in years past, but I do have to quieten my soul and be still in order to listen to Him speak, and not surprisingly, He always does.  Sometimes it's without words, an impression,  a knowing on the inside, or simply a sense of peace that all is well.  

I've said all this to share at this point that our surroundings and circumstances "speak" to us, also-our bills, jobs, cars, the news, the weather, our body, our bank accounts, or even lack of them- they all have a voice and speak to us in any number of ways even as the fig tree spoke to Jesus.  It definitely spoke to Him because He answered it!  Take a look at Mark 11:14:

Jubilee Bible 2000

Then Jesus, answering, said to the fig tree, Never again shall anyone eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.  (my emphasis)

And in the King James Version

 14And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.  (my emphasis)

The Word lets us know He answered a fig tree.  Isn't that amazing?  That  statement has always captivated me.  What do you think the fig tree said to Him?  I think it was something like,  "Ha, ha, ha!  You're hungry, but you won't get anything to eat from me!"  Kind of like something the enemy would say, don't you think?  (And just so you know, if a fig tree had leaves it should also have something on it you could eat as well.  For more information see paragraph 4 and 5  Here.)

So, if a fig tree spoke to Jesus, you know our surroundings and circumstances speak to us! Especially when we're in need of something, and you can be assured that what they're saying is always going to try to enforce the negative.  Since Jesus answered the fig tree, maybe we should start answering the  negatives coming from the things concerning our lives and well being.  We at least need to become aware of what we hear because often we've become so indoctrinated to hearing all the things that are wrong, we allow them without opposition and that's what the enemy of our soul desires.  The more unopposed his influence, the greater the damage that can be done to us over time.  

Jesus knew how to answer the enemy of His soul and He knows how to deal with the enemy of ours.  This brings me back to what He said to me that made me laugh so hard.  He really is glad when He's not just talking to himself when He so much desires for us to hear what He says to us personally to help us overcome our problems.  There is no greater help in time of need than He is.  As usual, I must add, it's our choice to receive Him and His help.  He won't force His way or thoughts on us, but He's always willing to bring us up increasingly on His level of seeing, understanding, and yes, answering.  But we really do need to ask Him for listening ears and practice hearing what He has to say to us personally.   As He told me, (if we've received Him) we already have ears that hear, now we need to practice listening to what He has to say.  It will always be for our good. 

I'll say it again, it really is all about hearing....and that's all I've got to say about that....at least for now.

Prayer Time Correction

Correction for prayer time dial in:

Instead of ending at the last day of September, the dial in prayer call will continue through election day, November 8.  

Thanks to all who are participating, and there are thousands with the number of people increasing daily!

Here's the information if you want to call in:

phone number:              1 641 715 0700

code when requested:   230273# 

Prayer for the United States of America

I'm sharing information with you I received today concerning joining in on a literal daily prayer call for the United States during the month of September.  

For those outside the U.S. I do not believe the call is toll free, so please check into what your charges might be if you choose to participate.  The information follows:

Dr. Don and Mary Colbert "Pray for America"

Starting Labor Day, Monday, September 5, and ending the last day of September, a nationally known minister will lead a united prayer conference call every morning from 8:00 to 8:15 CDT; that's 9 to 9:15 EDT.

You can join people from across America on this prayer call.  Here's how you do it:

Dial:    1-641-715-0700

A voice will welcome you to the call and ask you for the code.

Code:   230273#

God will hear and answer our heartfelt, united prayers for The United States of America!

Thank you! 

P.S. About Set Times

Just so you know, I had the greatest difficulty getting  About Set Times posted but, it is posted...and I'm so thankful for that!

Something  happened this morning, though, which I took as a nice confirmation to me about things speeding up in this Set Time we are in.
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Most of you are probably familiar with ordering just about anything online  from Amazon.com.  Most of the orders placed  arrive in 2 business days.   If you order on Wednesday, usually you get your merchandise by Friday evening  by 8:00 p.m. if it comes directly from them.  Of course sometimes it takes longer, say if you order on Thursday or Friday it most likely won't arrive till the first part of the following week.  Well,  yesterday (Wednesday) I ordered two bar stools to use at my kitchen counter, and to my great surprise they  arrived before noon today (Thursday)!

That has never happened before.  It all took place in a 24 hour period of time.  Just one day!  And I think this would certainly qualify for something that happened, "quick, fast and in a hurry!"  How about you?

About Set Times

So, this is the thing, (pardon my colloquialism) but I'd like to attest to the truth and practicality of the message in my last post, Link to a Great Message! and also connect it to a complimentary truth.

Joel Osteen's topic was Emptying out the Negative.  I wrote that the only thing I'd add was to invite God to show you anything that you may not be aware of that needs to be cleaned out, and not to be surprised if He does.  Well, He absolutely did that for me and I am so delighted!  I even feel lighter and freer.  For me, it was an area where I was open to harm and hurt simply because of who I am, my life experiences, where I was born, the family I was born into, and my particular personality-and we all know by now that we have an enemy who hates mankind.  It's not that I haven't been aware of my particular issue over the years, and though much progress has been made, none-the-less, I hadn't broken through to victory.  But now! Yes, now, I can say that I have because the "set time" has come! and that's what I wanted to link to the last blog.

Time-a slice of eternity set aside by God for man's benefit-has definite times and seasons that God set forth from the beginning.  He said in His Word that Jesus, The Lamb of God, *was crucified before the foundation of the earth, and it came to pass in the "fullness of time" or in God's **"set time" exactly as He planned.  He was conceived and born at the set time.  The children of Israel came out of Egypt at the set time after the 400 years of slavery and oppression spoken by God to Abraham many years before,  Genesis 15:13 and referred to in Acts 7:6.  I say these things so we all can lay hold of, believe  and have greater understanding of the set time we are living in right now.  It's our time now-the Church's time, and the time for anyone who desires to receive what God is offering-to begin to come out of all that's held them back in every area.  God's had enough. Really.  It's His time and we can go with God if we want to.  (1)The time has been right ever since Jesus was born into the earth- the angels declared it (Luke 2:14).  I've decided to receive, and it's so much better because His desire is for us and for all mankind is Good,  but we have to decide to receive from Him, He won't make us.  On the other hand the enemy will overrun and break-in and steal, kill and destroy where ever he can get by with it because that's what thieves and murderers do.  But God is a gentleman and respects our choice, He will not force His will on anyone.

Zeroing in on  my theme, where emptying out the old and the complimentary truth of God's desire and ability to reveal areas in our hearts we haven't been aware of, and now, because we've entered the set-time,  and He fervently desires to make us whole, He's also doing it "fast, quick and in a hurry!" (using this popular slang expression fits better than anything else I can think of...and besides that, I like it! 

I listened to Joel's message on Sunday and posted it the same day, and on Monday morning God brought up the root of the problem I mentioned  above....talk about an accelerated rate! And not only that, He continued over the next several days bringing healing and helping me to see more clearly how to live more freely trusting practically as I go about my day to day life in a more unhindered, more relaxed way.  I'm quite amazed at the speed in which He made me aware of these things.   I would have written this much sooner, but my difficulty came in finding words to describe it.  Today I just chose to write it however it came out, so here it is in simple prose.  And the truth of it is, there's been even more He's doing.  All I can say is that He's so much more amazing, Good, and full of Kindness than I ever experienced personally before, but yet He continues revealing His true nature to all who choose to get to know Him....and I know I've been far too slow at allowing this kind of intimacy with Him, though I've had much intimacy, but there are greater levels to everything I suppose. 

I'll close with this simple statement: His responsibility is to watch over His word to bring it to pass,  and our job is the same as what Jesus told Jairus to do in Luke 8:50, and that was to "believe only."   And we do have the choice to continue to trust what we've known and experienced or to jump in and choose to believe what He says.  It really is our choice,  He'd never, ever make us...but if you listen, I'm sure He's calling you there, too even in that still small voice!

*   Revelation 13:8

** Psalm 112:13, Genesis 17:21, Genesis 21:2,  Exodus 9:5 (Just a few of many concerning set times or the fullness of time)

(1)  http://biblehub.com/kjv/luke/2.htm  see Luke 2:1-14

Link to a Great Message!

I'm providing a link here to Joel Osteen's website for a message titled "Emptying Out  the Negative."  I'll give credit for this post to one of my daughters who sent me the link via text, saying only, "Wow!"  And I have to agree, it's a "Wow" message.  It's on point, simply put, and extremely practical though dealing with the effects of life's most devastating  issues such as: hurts, pains, loss, grief, offenses, anything that effects us negatively.  This is what Joel says  what God will replace these with as we empty out the old and trust Him:

As you empty out the negative in your life, God can fill your life with good things. He’ll give you beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and you will have peace in the midst of any storm.

The only thing I will add would be to remember to ask God to show you anything that's hidden away that you may not be aware of at this time.   You may be surprised at what He might bring up.

I also apologize to anyone who reads this who does not speak English since the message at the link which follows is in English only.

                            https://www.joelosteen.com/Pages/WatchOnline.aspx

Though you can only watch the video for a donation, if you click on the screen you can hear the audio without cost. Be sure on the page beneath the video screen, message number 696  Emptying Out the Negative is highlighted. 

P. S.
Not sure why most of this post is highlighted.  I tried to change it a number of time, but alas! couldn't.  The message is what's important.  I can live with how it looks.

Repost: Jesus, the One

This was originally posted Saturday, December 27, 2014

   

In my previous posts I've written mostly about the schism which occurred within man when he was separated from the perfection of his unity with God and the unity within himself because of that divine connection.  It has already been established, in my point of view, that this separation entered man when the Adam fell out of fellowship with his Creator when he followed satan’s voice instead of God’s. You can read more about that in the archived March 22, 2014 post, Three Lives? Revisited.  But now, I’d like to close out 2014 with the answer God provided for man to be restored to such a wondrous position with Himself.  

   

One thing caused the separation, and only one thing can restore it, and it all has to begin at that point.  Just as the separation occurred at once in one life-changing event though the effects of the downfall increased with time, so does the restoration occur with one life-changing event increasing over time as we receive understanding and begin cooperating with Him in the process.  It’s our choice, just as it was Adam’s choice to follow a strange voice.

What is the One Thing?  The Word says concerning Jesus: the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him bodily and we are complete In Him.  It is Jesus Himself, The Volunteer who provided the way to bring us back into Unity with The Father.  Is this oversimplifying the process? Perhaps a bit, but as we know every journey must begin somewhere and that’s usually with a choice.  After all, the great fall of man came with one man’s choice and the reality of it became mankind's journey into the increasing darkness of it.  Our adversary hides himself in that darkness because that's what he is-Darkness-and it's what he has used successfully to keep man from the Light of Truth.  

The choice to receive and follow the One who made the way for the restoration of our perfect unity with Him has to begin somewhere, and the true beginning came at the birth of Jesus when He offered forgiveness and the full benefit of sonship to anyone who would receive it (because the work was as good as finished when He was born into the earth taking on the form of man).  And the great part of this is that it’s our choice and all we have to do to begin a new life journey is to believe and receive His offer!  We are not forced to follow His way, but He graciously provided it so man could be restored to even a greater place than the first Adam enjoyed in his beginning.  God fully intended him to grow in understanding in all things--growing into maturity of who he was really created to be--a living, breathing, powerful son of the Living God including the benefits, rights, authority and responsibility associated with such an exalted position.   

 If you read Psalm 8 you’ll discover that even the angels desired to know more about man.  They wanted to know who this created being was that God Himself visited him!  After all, their understanding  was limited to what they knew, that all of His created beings came to Him.  They had never seen God Himself go any where at anytime to seek out anyone before--much less spend time with them enjoying their company!  I mean really, what a deal! That understanding makes the following scripture concerning God's relationship with Jesus very enlightening! 

 ...God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (my emphasis)  

How interesting!  The person God sent to restore mankind's oneness with Him enjoyed the Presence of the Father with Him!  Sounds kind of like Adam's relationship with God in the Garden of Eden.  Though Adam failed when temptation came, the Last Adam didn't.  Jesus spoke a number of times, about only doing what He saw the Father do, and only saying what He heard the Father say thereby successfully living out what Adam failed to do.  See these confirming scriptures in John 5:19-20 and verse 30; John 8:28; John 12:49.  And the following is very telling, but seldom quoted with  the answer Jesus gave the scribe who asked what was the first (and greatest) commandment.  Mark 12:29 follows:

And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: (my emphasis) 

Most of us are familiar with the rest of the answer, but seeing it all in context is quite revealing.  Mark 12:28-32 follows: 

28 And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? 29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord 30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these. 32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

Looking at these scriptures in the light of the subject at hand puts things in even greater perspective.  The LORD God is ONE even though He is Three in One-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-and there is no schism in Him, in Them, in what they think, say or do.  Jesus clearly explained that He was one with the Father in thought and deed in John 17:21-23 and desired also that we would be one in them so it must be possible. 

That God desires us to be one with Him and has provided the way to restore the heritage of sonship to us is truly mind boggling to consider!  To say it takes time to mature in the wholeness offered to us is a complete understatement, but none-the-less true!   To perhaps say it better, I'll borrow a popular phrase from a character in Toy Story: It will take "infinity and beyond!", but we have that kind of time with God if we'll just choose to start the journey while we're still here having the right and privilege to do so.

There's so much more to say about this and I hope to be able to share more in later posts.  Hopefully, it won't take as long as it did to start on this one.  I trust He will lead us all into that higher and better way of sharing in His way of seeing, speaking, doing and living, while keeping us within the realms of His grace and truth leaving behind all harshness and religiosity.  

Living "a higher and better way" reminds me of what my mother use to say when waking us in the mornings, "Rise and shine!"  Funny though, how that  expression is from the Word in Isaiah.  Since Jesus is the Light of the World, and His promise to us is that if we follow Him we won't walk in darkness, it makes me all the more want to "Rise and shine!"  So, I'll close with that Truth in the Word which we all can receive by faith from Him.  

 Isaiah 60:1-2  kjv

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. 2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and *his glory shall be seen upon thee.  (emphasis, mine) 

 * His glory is His Presence with us!  And in the light of what we've been looking into in this post, it means so much more. 

Second Closing: I just had to add this.  My favorite movie clip of  all time...sometimes people are not too happy with  the way our light shines! 

                    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOehCtqJq7I