Second Week at Yale: God is Good

And Jesus said, “So do not worry, […] your heavenly Father knows that you need [these things]. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew6:31-34

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 God is good 😀

I was experiencing a bit of “blogger’s block” today and wondered why. Haha, but when I got home this afternoon, the Lord showed me it was because He was purposely not giving me any new material (in terms of being inspired to blog) until I wrote the blog I have been saying I would write. That blog was going to be about the recent transition the Lord and I have made together. For many of you who may chance upon my blog as God leads (hehe), it might be interesting for you to note that I’m presently (as of August 2014) a student in Yale’s School of Public Health, focusing on the Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases. I don’t necessarily have an express interest in writing about myself too much, but I did feel like the Father specifically wanted me to write about my time here. In doing so, I hope to magnify Him 🙂 As for family and friends who do know I’m here, I hope you enjoy the update!

As of this Friday, I’ve been in New Haven, CT at Yale for two whole weeks, and all I can say is that the Lord God, Christ Jesus, has been keeping me in absolute AWE everyday 🙂 Haha, the fact that I’m even here is a testimony in and of itself, and on full scholarship. That was a prayer of mine if going back to school was His will, and clearly it was His will 🙂 I have numerous, numerous stories, but I’d simply like to highlight these:

• When I first was looking to move to New Haven, I got very excited about a BEAUTIFUL apartment that was close to the school of public health. At the time, I hadn’t gone through my financial budgeting as fine-toothed-ly as perhaps I should have, but I went ahead and put the deposit down on the apartment, despite some feelings of reservation. After I did put the deposit down, however, I really felt uneasy. In prayer, I emailed the leasing agent and asked what would be the repercussions for needing to step out of the lease, and she explained that I would forfeit my deposit. That wasn’t a good option for me, considering my deposit was $1,000+. Therefore I thought that was the end of it, and I trusted the Lord to provide (He will cover over your mistakes 🙂 ). Later on, I got an email from the leasing agent asking me what my assets would be each month. I explained, and didn’t hear back that day. The next day though, she called and said my situation had “been in her mind”, and she hadn’t been able to shake it (ha! Jesus :D). Having seen my available assets, she not only was willing to let me out of the lease, but also return my deposit in full!! Hallelujah! I accepted immediately! Once I got off the phone, however, all the sudden, I realized: I don’t have another apartment! Yikes! Haha, so the search began. Fast forward, and basically, the Lord provided a new apartment on the same street (yes! still close to the school of public health) with a variable leasing option (much better for me to rent 10 mnths vs 12), on-site laundry (the other place didn’t have that), and off-the street parking included in the rent (awesome, and perhaps rare here in New Haven!). So when my dad and I get here to New Haven, I was SO surprised to see that the place I originally was going to rent is literally RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from my new home-apartment! HA! God is so good. When I stepped into my apartment, I had such peace. It was tremendous, as He is. Here are some pics!

• Here’s a funny one: Once my neighbor moved in next door, I noticed I could hear him playing guitar and singing. He seemed nice, and so on. So one day, I’m sitting on my couch, and I get this idea that I could take a copy of some sheet music of a worship song and write on it, “Can you play this? :)”. Now, my intention was simply to say hello and potentially see where the situation could lead. So I did it! Stuck it in the door crack and everything. (Mind you, I did ask the Lord what He thought about it beforehand, and I didn’t get a no.) I heard him come out and get it and be on his way. Suddenly, the anxiety kicked in. OH NO! What had I done?! He could have TOTALLY misunderstood me – especially if he wasn’t a believer! So basically, I lived in constant prayer over the issue for some days. Finally, having decided that I had just definitely messed up and now definitely needed God’s intervention to redeem the matter, I simply asked that the Lord would arrange an opportunity for us to connect and me to explain myself. So low and behold, one day after shopping, I come home and am getting out of my car when my neighbor is simultaneously walking to the dumpster! This was it! So I said hello and asked if he got my note? Yes. Then I went into apology mode: “I realized that could have been really misunderstood! I’m sorry if that was confusing…” and then I noticed he was saying, “No, no. It’s okay!” Then he asked, “Are you a Christian?” and I was like, “Yes!” and he said, “Yeah! Me TOO!” GASP! Can you imagine my relief? HAHA! God is so good. The Lord is kind.
• My God supplies all my needs according to His Riches and Glory in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus is a very rich king. All things are accessible to Him when He needs them/wants them. So that means I too have all that I need in Him. Before I came to Yale, I knew there were still a few costs that would need to be met monthly. All the big stuff was taken care of, but a few necessary things were still required. So I began believing the Lord for a job months ago, and just knew He would take care of it. So around August, I signed up to get job emails and when I got to New Haven, I started to pay more attention. However, I felt like the Lord kept telling me to wait and not apply to any of the jobs I was seeing. So I waited. I have learned, by God’s kindness and love, that if He says wait, just wait. Whatever He has for you is perfect and that’s what you want/is worth waiting for. So I waited. And…I waited. And then once classes started, I started to sort of… wait with some questions 🙂 So finally one day I came home and sat down at my computer and began to speak with the Lord about my concerns. Surely He knew what I needed, but was I missing something? The Lord told me to pray, and so I did, with thanksgiving. Then I asked if I was missing something, and He said, “No, you’ll see it.” A little vague on the surface, but the Lord is super literal. I mean really literal. I.E. He is the Word? Makes sense to me. So anyway, I decided to check the student employment website again, from whence I was getting all the previous emails that He told me not to apply for. Nothing stood out. Then I went back to this link for “Community Service Positions”. These positions would be paid through work-study, which I have. When I had checked that link earlier in the summer, there was virtually nothing there. But I went and looked at it and scrolled down. Suddenly, my heart exploded!! A non-profit called New Haven Reads Book Bank was hiring READING TUTORS! Now here’s a quick aside about me: Literacy is very important to me, and I had the blessed experience to be a reading tutor in high school. In coming to New Haven and seeing the disparities here in the community, it was already in my heart to get involved in an after-school program in the community as a tutor, particularly for reading. So imagine my thrill when I see not only that opportunity, but that I could get PAID to do so! And mind you, the pay is good ($13/hr) – Praise the Lord! I knew that was what the Lord had me waiting for. So again, fast forward: I applied, had my interview today, and was hired (which the Lord had been assuring me would happen). But look at this special treat: During my interview, I mentioned that the job was really an answer to prayer, and the woman interviewing me stopped me and said, “I knew it! I thought you might have been a believer because you put ‘blessings’ in your email! WE ARE TOO!” HA! Haha!! 🙂 So imagine my joy 🙂 I got to tell them the ‘real’ story of how I was lead to the position, and we all praised God together. I’m so excited to start. God is good 🙂
• Two more amazing things God has done, and then I’m almost finished: the first is that on my first Sunday here, the Lord led me to a church called City Church here in New Haven (the fact that they had a website was very helpful, lol). But the first service really blessed me tremendously, and I felt the Lord say He had brought me here for a special purpose and this is where He wanted me to stay. So I knew to come back the next Sunday 🙂 During my personal quiet time that week after, I was really looking at Abraham’s life and relationship with the Lord. Although I wanted to see Abraham’s faith, I was more interested in seeing the Lord – seeing Jesus and the Father and Holy Spirit and their response, words, and actions. Love them. At some point during the week though, I came across a question I had inside about the sacrifice Abraham was asked to make. Although I kept pressing into God’s heart about it, I didn’t seem to find my answer. So the next Sunday came, and I went to church. What was the sermon about? Abraham’s sacrifice and God’s grace 🙂 Oh yeah – confirmation. The following week, in my personal time with the Lord, He drew me to Jacob wrestling with Him; it was very quick how He led me to focus in on that particular part of Jacob’s journey, but He and I spent some time looking into it a bit deeper. So the next Sunday comes, and I go to church. What was the sermon about? Jacob wrestling with the Lord and God’s grace. HA! God is so fun 🙂 He’s beautiful. I’ll be joining soon, having worship auditions on the 14th, and starting small group to be apprenticed as a leader-in-training around the same time 😀 The Lord is worthy.
• Lastly, community. God has categorically wowed me in this area of community. He actually led me to see that I have a friend from high school here that I hadn’t seen in a very long time 🙂 It was beautiful to see her again. In the school of public health, from day one of meeting with students at a pre-orientation event until today, He has been gathering people to me and around me constantly. I really love my fellow classmates and friends at church, and the Lord has quickly introduced me to fellow believers here on campus! The people are all very interesting, and it has just been thrilling to share and get to know others, including my teachers and advisers. To go into some of the amazing details, consider this very unique story: I have a friend who is getting married soon, and she’s in Maryland. I met her at a summer internship while I was at Iowa State in 2010. She and I stayed in touch and reconnected once my relationship with the Lord really began to grow and blossom. We were talking this past Sunday evening, sharing and catching up, and she asked me if I had met a young man she knew from Maryland. They had gone to church together, and the name sounded familiar. Turns out, I had JUST met him that same evening at a student organization event (that the Lord wanted me to go to, so I went, haha)!! Thrilling! Not only this, but just before this happened, I had been praying about going to her wedding by myself. I wanted to go with someone, preferably male all things considered, lol. I had thought of one person, but I could feel Holy Spirit saying that wasn’t His preference. Haha. So I decided I would wait, and I trusted He would prepare me to go with someone of His choosing. Who do I get to go with do you think? Her friend! How awesome is the Lord Jesus Christ? How amazing is He? Am I orchestrating these awesome events? Clearly not. Please see that these things are not coincidences! The Lord is good, and He’s amazing 🙂

 

So just to wrap up, I want to let everyone know that things are going well – haha 🙂 I love my classes, I love the life God is giving me here. I love how every moment of everyday, I feel Him, I sense Him, I know Him. My time here has been marked by His incredible presence, and I am so pleased. The Word is true: Take your delight in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4). These are only glimpses of all He’s been doing, and all He will do. I cherish the Lord. All He does is amazing; all He gives are good and perfect gifts. Father, Christ Jesus and Holy Spirit are amazing. Also, please note, that all of these things were bathed in prayer. I so appreciate the Lord’s faithfulness to hear our prayers and answer in abundance beyond all we could ever ask, think, or image 😀 Haha, and He has been rapidly expanding my imagination, so there’s surely no ceiling in what He can do 🙂 Faith believes in the Lord’s goodness and trusts Him. He’s doing amazing things. May He be praised 🙂 May you delight yourself in the Lord, and may you know that it is He who provides for you and works in you to will and do unto His good pleasure ❤ More pics below! Love ❤

Pics from the pre-orientation hike in this fort-thing:

Around Yale:

 very interesting building designs this building that looks like a beehive? The panes are made out of very thin marble that still lets light in, but protects the special collections inside 🙂 Neat!

Possible with God

“A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’”

“All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said. [Jesus looked at him and loved him.] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” (Luke18:18-27)

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So precious. God is good!

How often do we walk away from the Lord because we don’t really understand what He’s saying? (BTW, try not to do that, lol) I was reading about Jesus being with the rich young man, and it says Jesus looked at him and Loved him. Can you imagine the look on Jesus’ face for perhaps Peter (it’s recorded in Mark, and likely Peter helped Mark write his gospel) to have realized that Jesus was really in love with that young man? Imagine what must have been going through the Lord’s heart when He recognized the potential and the quality inside of that young man, that he was meant to be a Spirit-filled life-giver just like Jesus was and just like the other disciples became?

So the Lord says, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything…” and I imagine right about there, the young man’s heart dropped. Sell everything? But notice what Jesus said. He said “You still LACK one thing,” implying one that the rich young man wasn’t as rich as he thought. But also, what one thing was Jesus talking about? Was He talking about being generous or not being covetous? I don’t think so. I believe the Lord was saying, “I love you. You lack this one thing: life! You need life! You need me! So C’mon! Sell all that other stuff that’s holding you back and come with me! Follow me! I’m the way, the truth and the life, and I’ll give you life! And the fruit of your life and walk with me will far outweigh these initial costs. You’ll get it all back, but you’ll have life, and you’ll realize that’s all you ever needed in the first place. It’ll be fun! Let’s do it :D”

But the young man didn’t understand. He walked away sad, and I just imagine that the Lord’s heart was hurt in that moment for a time. Ever see potential in someone and watch them walk away from it instead of walking towards it? Yeah. That was that moment to the Lord. So my question is to you, do you understand? 🙂 Do you understand what the Lord is really saying and what He’s really trying to do? My friend, He loves you. This thing is rigged for your victory! Let’s go get Him 🙂 He’s so good ❤

You’re Free.

This song was so in my heart today. I wanted to share it with you… and also this.

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Gal5:1

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Have you ever felt like there was just a recurring temptation or issue in your life that wouldn’t go away? You’ve struggled with it in the past, and may have even given in, but now you’re in Christ and you want freedom. However, even with all of your joy in the Lord, a new thought and that old familiar feeling come to your mind. You cast it down and keep moving. But not long after, another new thought, the same feeling. You rebuke it, you keep moving, but you begin to wonder… am I really free of this thing?

You still move forward, but the same thing happens. Another thought, that same old feeling returns. You begin to question God’s work in your life. You resist it, but now you feel less secure. Another round of temptation returns, and now you’re sure it’s you. That you have this trouble, this issue, this problem. Clearly the perversion lies in you, and now that you’re sure, you do all you can to “get free” – because clearly, you weren’t free before.

You pray, you fast, you seek His face. Perhaps you’ve even just given up and given in. Either way, your hope for freedom has now been hurt, and there’s a growing suspicion that perhaps you’ll never be free.

God is so good 🙂

First and foremost, Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. The devil is a liar, and the Lord showed me something today that I had not seen or considered in fullness before. Please, walk with me.

The devil himself is not a creator. I’ve become more convinced over time that with the exception of inspiring, or “creating”, wrong thoughts, the devil can only work with what’s already in existence. So if we sense that there is something in us that’s in common with the enemy, or that the enemy has a hook in us somewhere, chances are he is using something in you that already existed. If he can’t use whatever it may be to pull you into sin, he’ll try to use it to pull you into guilt, shame, or
despair. However, the Lord has shown me something that brings hope to the light again.

The reality is, when you have had or struggled with any kind of active sin in your life, (including in your mind) even though you are cleansed of it and are totally free in Christ Jesus, any participation in the sinful nature leaves behind memories. These memories are most strongly connected to our feelings, or emotions, and from this point forward, I will call them “feeling-memories”. Feeling memories become etched on the soul, the same way music is somehow etched onto a record. Although you are free of remembering a lot of the pictures or exact words/details associated with many of those memories (praise God!), there can often be the feelings themselves that remain. Our emotions are what most get damaged in the soul realm, and they can inflict a powerful influence upon our thought-life (the mind), which then too impacts our will, whether we want it to or not.

What the devil then does is comes and superimposes his perversion – “twisted” or “opposite of what they should be “thoughts, which can trigger images with ease – upon those existing feeling-memories. By doing that, he tries to manipulate the person into thinking that the new thoughts being superimposed onto the old feeling-memory is something new, or based in their present reality. If he can confuse the person into thinking it’s something present (i.e. like a present desire, etc), he will then try to lure them into thinking that the perversion itself is real and in them versus being somthing that he’s trying to impress,
impose upon, or bring against them in their soul. (Does that make sense? Leave me some comments if it’s not clear to you or email me at gdan1201@gmail.com.)

However, this is the Good News of God: If you can recognize and separate the fact that the feeling-memory is not part of your present reality, but was created in the past, and that the perversion is not something in you, but is of the devil, then you can come against the temptation in Christ Jesus’ life, and stand firm against anything the devil is trying to bring you into be it shame or even acting on the thought itself. It is important then, however, to bring the feeling-memory to God for healing. Once the feeling-memory is healed in Christ Jesus, it will no longer be an area in your soul that the enemy can use to manipulate you with.

But you might ask, how does healing come for a feeling-memory? What I have found is that faith and healing have much to do with understanding and receiving God’s life into that area. Anyone who has ever been pulled into sin or perversion started on that path in their minds first. There had to be some level of misinformation or misunderstanding happening, and eventually it led them away from God’s life. Even Lucifer himself was deceived before he fell. Adam and Eve did not understand what death fully meant, why the tree of life was so much more valuable than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and to some degree, they were still learning about the absolute certainty of God’s word and goodness. So when the serpent came and tempted Eve, he used deception, and in deceiving her with misinformation that played on her misunderstanding of
the situation, she was lead away in her thought-life first. This, coupled with emotions that were starting to grow from the wrong
thoughts, caused her to act out, apart from the life of God, and take from the wrong tree. Thankfully, God had a plan, and as we know, He is accomplishing it even now.

God always informs that which is real. In other words, He brings understanding, gets rid of misinformation and false assumptions to get to the truth. Every sin is created out of first misinformation and misunderstanding or false assumption (James 1:15); so that is the place the Lord has to go back and inform in our hearts and pour His life into in order to heal the source of where the feeling-memory ultimately came out of.

Today, the Lord did this very practically in my life. Although I won’t go into much detail, I will say that when I was younger, I struggled with issues surrounding sexuality and my personal sexuality. This is a difficult area for many people. I had a lot of wrong thoughts and confusion, and as mentioned, sin is naturally birthed from those things. The things I did apart from God’s life left me with damaged feeling-memories that at any point after receiving Christ Jesus fully into my heart would make me feel very ashamed. (Shame, btw is never of God, and is an indicator that something isn’t right on the inside of us.) Before
today, I had not received full healing for those feeling-memories that were created in the past, and so, the devil could still bring them up in my mind at opportune times for him to superimpose a new thought related to my present reality on the old feeling-memory. What does that look like you may wonder? For example, say you’ve struggled with tobacco addiction in the past. Perhaps there’s a feeling-memory in you that causes you to still FEEL a desire for tobacco, even though the desire
itself does not really exist in your heart in Christ Jesus. The devil will come along, and in an opportune setting, dredge up that old feeling-memory associated with that desire and perhaps superimpose a thought or image on it of you sitting in your present-day bedroom enjoying a smoke. Notice, the feeling-memory itself may have been created years ago in an entirely different setting. But if the feeling-memory itself has not been healed, it remains in you, and the enemy can wait for the right time to re-trigger it and simultaneously superimpose a thought or image onto it that relates to your present reality. This makes it look like you are presently desiring a smoke (in this example), when in fact, you aren’t and in truth, want nothing to do with it. Make sense?

So before, when I did not see that the feeling-memory was really based in the past and not in my present reality, I would feel ashamed, as if “that issue” the feeling-memory pointed to was still a present issue I had. But today, when one such thought came to my mind, instead of running from it, I turned to look at why that feeling-memory had ever existed. I sought the Lord, and He showed me where my misunderstanding had always been in that area, and why, unfortunately, so many people
fall into a similar trap. (I’ll talk about it in another blog later) Once I understood the source of where my confusion had always been in that area, I was free in my thought-life of feeling like I would always have to struggle with that wrong desire. I was also free to recognize that in God’s life, that desire no longer existed in me. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.
Although the enemy still tried to bring up shame because it was always so strongly attached to that old feeling-memory, the Lord spoke to me very clearly and said, “Sweetheart, you’re free.” Now, by faith in Christ’s life in me, and with understanding, I not only know with certainty that I am free of that old issue, but I never have to fear or worry about acting out on it or it overtaking me one day. In fact, this is the operation of God’s grace in your life – God’s life working in you to will and do unto His good pleasure. For as the Word says, sin has no dominion over those who live under the freedom of God’s grace. I also
now understand God better, myself better, and others better, as well. God is good 🙂

All in all, Christ Jesus came that we would have freedom. He doesn’t want us to remain in bondage to anything the devil tries to throw at us. Freedom is available to you today and in every moment in Christ Jesus. The keys here are to draw close to God and stay close to the Lord. Love Him and know how He feels about things (this can be found in His Word). When things come to the surface that the enemy is trying to bring against you, instead of running from those things, present those things
to God and ask the Lord where any confusion or misunderstanding may be, and He will show you. Once you know and realize you are free, stay free, and carry your freedom in Christ Jesus to those around you 🙂

Love and Be Blessed!!

Otherness…

“[and Jesus said,] ‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.'” John 15:5

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God is good 🙂

In the movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, one of the main characters (if not the main character) is a chimpanzee named Ceasar. (Please humor my quick explanation if you’ve seen the movie already.) Ceasar is given a brain-enhancing chemical that grants him super-intelligence at an astonishing rate. He’s taken into a man’s home where he is taught, cared for, and loved. Events transpire and sadly, Ceasar is transferred to a petting zoo of sorts full of abandoned apes. In one scene of interest, Ceasar is at a stand-off with a very corrupt facility worker who is trying to exert his rather cruel authority over Ceasar. In the instance of this scene, Ceasar looks at the guy and suddenly yells, “NO!” Everyone is shocked.

Ceasar has expressed “otherness”.

Otherness might not necessarily stand out to anyone in the scriptures on a first or even 50th reading of the Word. But God reveals His secrets. God is FAR from the cruel task master presented in the movie above. Yet, even though God, through Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15-17), made all things, placed His life in them, and blessed them, He too had to contend with the issues of otherness.

The issue of otherness is distinctly related to the fact that for God to create a being beyond the extent of being a robot, He would have to chose to give them free will. This free will we experience, at it’s core, is not necessarily the choice to do right or wrong. Rather, in its most essential characteristic, free will is the freedom to choose to either live in the Life of God or apart from the Life of God. We see then why there can be no middle ground.

The issue of otherness first appeared in the heavens when Lucifer (aka. the devil) started having “issues”. Where were these issues coming from? He lived in the heavenly places. He was made to be a beautiful creation of God, holy, who stood in the presence of God. He knew God to a greater extent than we do when we are first born, and God knew him. Yet, the Word talks about him being deceived, even by his “own beauty”. This goes deeper than we imagine. His beauty here was not the primary issue because the Word says that God makes everything “beautiful” in its time. So beautification is of God. The problem was that word “own”, in relation to the self. His recognition of self. The perception of otherness, apart from the life of God.

Many things played into Lucifer manifesting his “otherness” in the way it came to pass. I could say many things about that, but what I will say is that from what I have seen in the Word and in experience, I believe that the desire for otherness over the Life of God essentially begins with misunderstanding and lack of revelation. The impetus of it tends to begin in the heart, but once it reaches the mind, it’s a disease that destroys the soul, draining it of God’s life and light. If the being who is experiencing the pull of otherness in their life does not receive the healing, truth, or reconciliation they desperately need in God and His life alone, it is only a matter of time before they step out and say “No” to God, just as Ceasar said no to the man in the movie. From there, apart from the life of God, only death, curse, and destruction remain. To be dead is to be devoid of life. Again, there is no in between.

The Life of God, the presence of Father God and Christ Jesus in our lives through Holy Spirit, is joy beyond comprehension 🙂 We are born disconnected from God’s life to a great degree, and we grow up living mostly out of the mind – the soul – shuffling between the knowledge of good and evil to guide us. Yet the Father is constantly drawing us to His life 🙂 He makes His life accessible to us through Christ Jesus, and through Christ Jesus alone. Christ Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and The Life, and apart from me, no one can come to the Father.” (John 14:6) This was more than just a sentimental expression from the Lord, but the reality of who He is as it relates to our existence. There’s much more to say on this – too much for this one post! But it’s important that we consider whose life we’re walking in 🙂 His life is always better ❤

A Guarded Heart

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

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God is good 🙂

Not everyone knows that gem of scripture from Proverbs, but hidden in it are secrets to life and the Kingdom of God. The heart (synonymous with spirit) is the vessel that God’s life flows into, fills, and essentially lives through. The condition of the heart effects all parts of the being – soul (mind, will, emotions), body, and the outer-life (i.e. your progress, circumstances, and surroundings). There are many things to be said about the heart and the condition of the heart in a man, but one thing is for certain: a heart that is not well guarded is subject to any design or scheme of the enemy. If the devil can get a foothold where your heart is not guarded, your soul will immediately begin to be thrown into confusion. And from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, affecting all that surrounds you.

God’s desire for us in Christ Jesus is that we would have fully guarded hearts. In Ephesians 6, it talks about the full armor of God.  While some may associate that with guarding the body or the soul, I would suggest it most deeply applies to guarding the heart. The heart needs all the essential elements listed in Ephesians 6:14-18, and with any one element missing, the heart is exposed and open to attack. The first element listed is Truth, which is purely that which is of God and the Word of God. The next being Righteousness is what we are assured of having by faith in Christ Jesus. The third being the ‘Gospel of Peace”, which speaks of many things, but overarching points to understanding what the Gospel is to you and what Christ Jesus has done for you to reconcile you to the Father and redeem you from the curse. The fourth then being Faith, without which we cannot please God, but furthermore, without which we cannot “extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one”. These arrows include (but are not limited to) wrong thoughts, stresses, fears, worries, pride, and essentially anything that comes from the sinful nature of a man. We are to take up the “Helmet of Salvation” and “the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God”, and we are to exercise these things above all else in Prayer, for the prayer of the righteous man or woman does much.

When our hearts are guarded diligently, they remain in the life of God and the life of God remains in them. The enemy purely comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He can only kill that which has life, so he comes after the life of God in a man. The spirit of a man living apart from the life of God is easy for the devil to overthrow and control. Indeed, it is already defeated. But the life of God is always able to prevail and overcome because greater is He – our Father and Lord Jesus Christ – who is in us than he that is in the world.

One of our many goals then should be to guard our hearts. That looks like protecting it from anything that would drain it of life. The Lord showed me that if the enemy cannot drain you of life through sin or wickedness, he will use that which you love to drain you instead. Often this comes in the form of worry or concern that leads to wrong thinking and wrong meditations. The life of God in us through Jesus Christ is always seeking to overcome. It’s His nature to be entirely victorious. However, when we meditate on a worry or concern, the problem or the frustration, even concerning that which we love and feel we should rightly be concerned about, we allow the enemy to drain us of Life.

Our lives are not our own, in the sense that they belong to Christ. But also, as it says elsewhere in the Word, we also belong to each other in the Body of Christ. When we do not assume the personal responsibility of guarding our hearts in the Life of Christ Jesus, we expose not only ourselves to attack and burden, but also those who care for us or are simply in our sphere of influence. Likewise though, when we are affected by someone else’s burden, it is equally as important that we guard our hearts deeply in God’s life within us.

It’s God’s heart and purpose to overcome through you as He works in you to will and do unto His good pleasure; yet it is His desire for us, and thus should be our desire as well, to continue moving towards His life, asking for more of His life by faith, and responding to His life at work in us. A guarded heart is able to do this more and more. Truly, as we walk this out, we begin to see, there is no better way to exist ❤

Safe People

“It takes humility to ask people to help you work through perfectionism, guilt, or merger wishes.

But safe people are the last to throw stones. They’ve got too much experience with their own issues.

From the book Safe People by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend, authors of Boundaries

Humble Love

Dear Father God, Lord Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit,

Please help me to be humble enough to love myself, more. How dare I think less of myself than You think of me? How dare I not love myself the way You love, with the love You’ve given me?

(True Love)

Praise

I will sing to the Lord, and give Him praise. His love is greater than we know.

With every day, I see His face. More and more it shows.

His love is beauty; it’s grace and truth. It’s more precious than gold.

The Lord is Good; He is Just; His Love endures, forevermore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fruit

“Even if I don’t feel anything, one day I will live in the friut of this moment.”

Kim Walker on the fruit of Worshipping the Lord, even if you don’t ‘feel anything’ ❤

Details

Since becoming a believer, I have heard a wide range of views regarding where God is, “in the details“. Some people believe God isn’t intimately involved in the details of our lives – and this is presupposing you believe in God at all, let alone in Father God, Jesus Christ and Holy Spirit, separate but One. The range of “God doesn’t care” to “God picked out my shirt today” is pretty wide.

When I hear what people think, those on the former end of the spectrum tend to make my heart sad. Those on the latter end tend to make me at least thankful that they see the Lord as intimately involved. That’s where I am with the Lord. As I receive and allow more of His love, and the truth of who He is in Christ Jesus, to shine into my heart daily, I come to find Him more intimately involved than any of us could ever think, dream or imagine.

One thing I wondered was whether this viewpoint of God in the details had a clear linkage to a person’s belief in the story of creation, told in Genesis. A very clear example was a scientist, whom I’m very fond of, who is also a believer. This person didn’t think God was very involved in our lives. This person also doesn’t really believe what the Bible says in the first book of Genesis, either, reasoning that God + evolution = life as we know it.

Though I don’t take that viewpoint, my thought was this: God took six full days to create the earth and all therein. On the 7th He rested. Now, if you know the Lord and accept the fact that He’s awesome, almighty, completely powerful, and good, then you see that He (1) took His time and (2) wanted it to be perfect for us to live in. The Word says that a day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years, like a day. What that tells me is, if the Lord took 6 days to do anything, He was not taking His time for nothing. Is not everything on earth entirely intricate, down to the smallest molecules, to the largest trees? Are we not “fearfully and wonderfully made”, as King David sang to the Lord in a psalm? We certainly are. God is entirely detail oriented. That’s His nature.

Everything God does for Himself, through Christ Jesus, by His Spirit, is good. After every day He made, He said, “This is good.” Now if the Lord took that much time and detail to simply (ha! as if I could do it, too) develop the construct in which He would place us to live, how much more attention, focus, and detail do you think He took when He made you? Do you know that He loves you and would have only desired the best for you? Sadly, we lost perfection long ago. But God said He has prepared plans (i.e. details) for you – for your life specifically – to unite you with Himself and give you hope and a good future. That’s love in the details.

I think as humans, we tend to project our abilities onto God, and then reason, “Well that’s how God must be”. But that’s not what He says about Himself. Also, if we choose not to accept what The Lord says about Himself, about His abilities, and about what He’s done, as given to us in His Word, the Bible, then surely we already set ourselves up to not interpret His Love or even His Being, properly.

If you’re a parent who really loves their child or children, I’m sure you would want to try to construct as many ‘details’ of their lives as you could to ensure that they were well loved, well nurtured, protected, empowered, blessed, educated, and equipped before stepping out from under your wing. The Lord is the same way. He thought of you before you were you! He saw you. He knew you. He loved (and still does love) you.

Realizing I was a thought of God’s mesmerizes me. How many thoughts do we have, actually think on, keep, and then act out or on to bring to life? You were just that to the Lord God and Jesus Christ, His Son 🙂 You are loved, and God is at work in the details of your life.

(Encouraging references: 1 John 4:17, Jeremiah 29:11, Psalm 139, 1 Corin 2:6-7)