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To Know His Heart

Luke 22:42 (AMP) “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup [of divine wrath] from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.”

My husband and I just celebrated twenty eight years of being a couple. We met on a blind date as teenagers and have been together ever since (we did not become official boyfriend/girlfriend for almost a month). In those twenty eight years we are still getting to know different areas of each other. We have changed and grown. To show you love someone is to get to know them over and over again. You will join in on things they enjoy. You will want to speak their love language. If they do not know your love language, then you should help them discover it. 

Gary Chapman describes our love languages in five different areas: 
Words of Affirmation - words that communicate your love, appreciation, and respect for another person. They're positive words and phrases used to uplift someone. What's more, these compliments and words of encouragement don't have to be said directly to the person. 
Quality Time - centers around togetherness. It's all about expressing your love and affection with your undivided attention. 
Giving Gifts - involves tangible items with thoughtful meaning. Gifts do not have to cost a lot of money. They simply show, “Hey, he was thinking of me today.”  
Physical Touch - expressing and receiving affection through touch, physical closeness, and other forms of physical connection. 
Acts of Service - doing something for your partner that you know they would like, such as filling up their gas, watering their plants, or cooking them a meal.

I was praying over our worship team and over what my husband and I have been teaching about and I kept hearing “Know Your Heart” over and over. God wants us to know His heart. I went to look up the words “know” and “heart” in my Bible’s concordance and all the verses showed up about God knowing our hearts. What does it say about us knowing His? We know Jesus knew His heart. There is another man in the Bible that it talks about being after the heart of God.

1 Samuel 13:13-14 (AMP) Samuel said to Saul, “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, for [if you had obeyed] the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not endure. The Lord has sought out for Himself a man (David) after His own heart, and the Lord has appointed him as leader and ruler over His people, because you have not kept (obeyed) what the Lord commanded you.”

Acts 13:22 (AMP) And when He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king: of him He testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart [conforming to My will and purposes], who will do all My will.’

David was a shepherd when he was anointed to be king. There are many photos depicting shepherds and often they are of light-hearted and laying in the grass next to sheep. They depict them as laid back and day dreamers. This is not the truth of what shepherds were like. A shepherd was looked at very lowly and doing menial tasks. Sheep are stubborn, prone to stray and are defenseless animals. This was a full time job, yet David still spent time with the Lord in the fields. I often look at it like motherhood. Being a mother does not have any off days, neither did being a shepherd.

The very first shepherd mentioned in the Bible was Abel. Genesis 4:2-7, Now Abel kept the flocks [of sheep and goats], but Cain cultivated the ground. And in the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground. But Abel brought [an offering of] the [finest] firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. And the Lord had respect (regard) for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no respect. So Cain became extremely angry (indignant), and he looked annoyed and hostile. And the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you so angry? And why do you look annoyed? If you do well [believing Me and doing what is acceptable and pleasing to Me], will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well [but ignore My instruction], sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you [to overpower you], but you must master it.” What is pleasing to the Lord? We should not come to Him without wanting to know His heart. If we do not do this we will ignore His instruction, and could become disobedient, hard-hearted and rebellious. Cain actually murdered his brother. You do not think murder can enter yours with envy, jealousy and slander?

In order for me to know His heart, I need to listen and obey. There are many ways that God speaks to us. He speaks to us mainly through the written Word of the Bible. He speaks to us in the messages that we hear through our pastors. He speaks to us in the conversations we have with others. He speaks to us through what we watch. He speaks to us when we are doing our day to day tasks. How do I know His voice? We often want it to be loud and booming. He can speak to us that way, but is that the only way He can get your attention? Do you need a prophet to say, “thus says the Lord,” in order for you to have heard from God? If that is the case then we can be easily led astray and have not really desired to know His heart.

What if I only spoke my love language to my husband they way that I received love? I really did not want to know what his was because mine should be good enough. I was doing something right? That is what it is like when we depend on someone else for revelation knowledge. That is what it is like when we say that giving is better than serving. That is what it is like when we say words are better than presence. Nothing is higher than the other. It is in our preference that we have approached God. How about we do all of it? It’s not about our preference, it is about His. It is not my will, it is His will that I want.

Lord, our Jehovah, our Creator, our El Shaddai, we honor Your Holy Name. We stand in awe of You. There is nothing greater. Thank You for sending Your Son to be our Good Shepherd. He paid the ultimate price by laying down His life for us. Thank You for the Holy Spirit. Thank You that we can hear Your voice. We repent for the ways that we have come before You, or lack of. You said that we can come boldly into Your throne room of grace and mercy. We will not take that for granted again. We want to be close to You. We want to know Your Heart. From Your Word You have revealed Your heart and it is through our obedience that we tell You we love You. Please take the goggles of envy, jealousy and covetousness from our eyes so that we can love the way You created us to. We surrender our will to Yours. We choose hope today. We choose forgiveness today. We choose joy today. We choose faith today. We choose love today. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Closer by Bethel

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Quality Time

Philippians 1:6 (AMP)  I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].

God is not going to ask me to do something and then not give me the power to complete it. A few weeks ago I did a post called, “Where is your spot?” I wrote about the importance of having a spot that you can go to throughout the day and spend time with God. My spot just so happens to be in my living room. It is a room that I spend quality time fellowshipping with God. It is also the room (in our house) that holds what influences our lives, if we let it, a television. I remember the days when we did not have televisions in every room like we do now. Now we walk and have the ability to watch whatever we want with our phones!

The things we meditate on, spend time with, is what we will become. The more we spend time with it…the more we allow it to become a part of our thoughts, attitude and behavior. We are all doing to do two things: 1) we are either going to influence or 2) we are going to be influenced. Influence defined is “the power to change or affect someone or something; it is the power to cause changes without directly forcing them to happen. The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.“

God wants to have an open door to come into “Living Room” and remodel what we are allowing to influence our lives. Our success in life is dependent on what we meditate on and observe. The Word of God tells us to think on good things, things that build us up and not tear us down. The things we meditate on and observe will influence our thoughts, our thoughts affect our words, our words precede our actions and our actions define our life.

Philippians 4:8-9 (AMP)  Finally, believers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable and worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God’s word, whatever is pure and wholesome, whatever is lovely and brings peace, whatever is admirable and of good repute; if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think continually on these things [center your mind on them, and implant them in your heart].  The things which you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things [in daily life], and the God [who is the source] of peace and well-being will be with you.

Guard the gate to your heart. Gates allow or stop things coming in and our of our hearts of our home. There are two very important gates: 1) the eye gate, and 2) the ear gate. The things we allow in these gates will either help build or destroy our house. A city can have great walls around it, but if the gates are not guarded (no matter how great the walls are) the enemy has free access to enter.

This was a needed reminder for me as I like to binge watch shows on Netflix. When we are at a restaurant, how many times do I pick up my phone to look at Instagram? This was just came to my mind this morning to help me get back on focus. Getting back to my living room as a place of fellowship. I pray this blesses you as well!

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Who does not like gifts?

Matthew 7:11 (AMP) If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.

We are coming up on what my husband likes to coin the “trifecta.” In May is my birthday, anniversary and Mother’s Day. Each of these days are less than a week from each other. Some years Mother’s Day and my birthday will even fall on the same day, and just a few days after that is our anniversary. This time of the year use to stress my husband out for getting gifts, but do you know that he has learned, to not just gift me on these days. He gifts me just because.

There is a book by Gary Chapman called God Speaks You Love Language (How to experience and express God’s love). If you have never heard of love languages there are five main love languages, and one of them is what you mainly speak. They are words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service and physical touch. My love languages that fills me up are words of affirmation, second gifts and then acts of service. My husband’s are quality time, physical touch and gifts. I have learned to speak his love language and he has learned to speak mine.

When we look at the above verse, then look through it the eyes of God speaking your love language, what can you see in your life? Do you see how God shows His love to you in personal ways? I do. I was crying in disappointment for something that I was preparing for. We are doing everything right to get our church in the place it needed to go. We are speaking the vision. We have had our eyes on a piece of property for a year. We are working on saving up to purchase it debt free. We, in the natural, were nowhere close. However, I serve a God of the supernatural. We found out that the land was gifted to a mega church in our area. It was disheartening. Just as I was weeping in grief, a friend, who I had not heard from in a long time sent me a text, “I was just thinking about your beautiful face…” I have had messages from complete strangers to encourage me not to give up hope. These are the moments that God shows up. I knew that He had something better in mind. He is the God that sees.

I want to encourage you today to look at the different ways God shows you His love. Then I want to challenge you to show God your love for Him. Pick one of these areas: acts of service, quality time, gifts, words of affirmation and/or physical touch. You might say that you already show God love on a daily basis. Then can I challenge you one more time? Show love to someone that you do not usually show love to. Pick one of these love languages to show love to a stranger, a co-worker, your neighbor, your pastor or someone that knocks the rough edges off of you (Paul called him a thorn in his side).

Can I be honest? The love language I struggle giving to those that are not in my family, is physical touch. I can give gifts, serve others, spend time with others, and speak positive words of encouragement to people (right now I am working on jewelry to give to all the women who attend church on Mother’s Day for the message that I am preparing, while serving that day in my usual roles). When I do hug someone, usually they initiate the hug first. I have no idea why, I am not alone in this, and it does not mean we do not walk in love. That does not mean that if it is your love language, physical touch, that I will not refuse to speak it. Why? It is not love when we refuse to try to speak someone else’s love language. We should look at it as a growth opportunity, an offering to the God that we love.

I hope you will take me up on the challenge to look for all the ways God loves you. That you will speak a language of love back to Him. Also, that you will love His creation, those that were created in His image, by being more intentional with speaking these love languages. Have a blessed day!

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Jesus got tired too

Yesterday I had the privilege of delivering the message to my church, and to all of those that connected with us online via Facebook Live. I knew by the beginning of the week that I was going to have to prepare. My husband tested positive for COVID-19. He is doing well and has gotten over the worst of it. The way our home is set up is that the kitchen is in the center. To one side of the house is our grown up sweet. It has it’s own bedroom and bathroom, dining area, and living area with a fridge. The opposite side of the kitchen is another dining area, two bathrooms, the kids rooms and another living area. The kids and I stayed on one side, my husband had to stay on the other (not fun for someone who’s love languages are quality time and physical touch like he is).

God gave me this title right away, “Reset Your Position.” I initially thought ‘okay God you want me to talk about positional authority’…authority of the believer. Then, while in Body Pump Tuesday, it came to me. When we start to fatigue because our muscles are sore, we have to reset our position to make sure we are targeting the right muscle groups. If I do not take the time to reset my position, I will not target the correct muscle groups that I am suppose to be working on.

John 4:6 (AMPC) And Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, tired as He was from His journey, sat down [to rest] by the well.

Remember Jesus knows what it feels like to be us. He got tired too. I think He had a lot of tired moments. What He was about to do was going to take all of His strength. Jesus modeled how we need to reset our position.

Matthew 26:38-39 (AMPC) Then He said to them, My soul is very sad and deeply grieved, so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and keep awake and keep watch with Me. And going a little farther, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire.

Judas knew where to find Him because this was not the first time He had been there. Actually we see Jesus going off to pray a lot (Luke 4:1-12, 45-15; Mark 6:30-32; Matthew 4:1-13; Luke 6:12-13); Luke 22:39-44; Luke 5:16 are just some of the scriptures), especially after time of great ministry and miracles. Why? He had to reset His position.

If fasting is to reset my focus, prayer is to reset my position. I need to reset my position not only when I fast. I need to reset my position when I am out doing what He called me to do. We were not meant to carry this alone. Jesus could not either. He had to reset His position.

If fasting is to reset my focus, prayer is to reset my position.

That was Jesus. What did He say about you?

John 16:13-15 (TPT) But when the truth-giving Spirit comes, he will unveil the reality of every truth within you. He won’t speak his own message, but only what he hears from the Father, and he will reveal prophetically to you what is to come.  He will glorify me on the earth, for he will receive from me what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to me—that’s why I say that the Divine Encourager will receive what is mine and reveal it to you. 

Acts 1:8 (TPT) But I promise you this—the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be filled with power. And you will be my messengers to Jerusalem, throughout Judea, the distant provinces—even to the remotest places on earth!”

Acts 2:4 (TPT) They were all filled and equipped with the Holy Spirit and were inspired to speak in tongues—empowered by the Spirit to speak in languages they had never learned!

Jude 20 (AMPC) But you, beloved, build yourselves up (founded) on your most holy faith (make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher), praying in the Holy Spirit.

Another way I reset is to get in my Word. I love what Priscilla Shirer says, “If you want to hear from God and you never read the Bible, then you really don’t want to hear from God.” When you reset your position in prayer, praying in the Spirit and getting in His Word, all that comes out of your mouth is His promises not what is going on around you.

When what is going on around you is starting to fatigue you, it is time to reset your position.

This year is going to bring different challenges. Did you take the time to get stronger? Are you tired? That is okay, it just means that it is time to reset your position.

2 Peter 1:3-4 (TPT) Everything we could ever need for life and complete devotion to God has already been deposited in us by his divine power. For all this was lavished upon us through the rich experience of knowing him who has called us by name and invited us to come to him through a glorious manifestation of his goodness. As a result of this, he has given you magnificent promises that are beyond all price, so that through the power of these tremendous promises you can experience partnership with the divine nature, by which you have escaped the corrupt desires that are of the world.