Just One Step Away

What if I told  you that you are just one simple step away from receiving healing in every area of your life? Would you take that step? I know that I would. I'm talking physical healing, emotional, spiritual...the list goes on and on. Well it's true, we are all one step away from our complete healing and deliverance from whatever affliction is afflicting us.

You ready? Here's the key...are you sure your ready, because once you know this, you are accountable forever! Okay, so here it is, the step is...CONFESSING THE WORD OF GOD. Yep, that's it. Here's the thing when we CONFESS the Word of God it is a "declaration that we fully agree with it and are submitted to it's authority" (Kynan Bridges "Possessing Your Healing").

Instead of taking a person's word for it, let's go to the Word. In Romans 10:9, " If you declare with your mouth, ' Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." The word save means (according to Strong Dictionary) to deliver or protect, it implies deliverance and/or restoration. Isn't that powerful.

I don't mean to be prideful in any way when I say this, but throughout this journey of mine I have been saying, " It can't be that hard to receive God's healing. God wouldn't have made it that hard to receive what He paid the price for already." I have been searching for that simple step that God has been pressing me to find. Through that pressing He has been teaching and refining me. But this is it. Confessing the Word.

Honestly, I had to repent. I have been hiding God's Word in my heart. Even the enemy knows this and he's like, that's good, let her hide it away and I will just do my best to keep her from confessing it. Because here's the deal, and I believe this with all of my heart, "the place from which we believe and submit to the Word of God, and declare that Word out of our mouths, is the place of power and authority"(Kynan Bridges). The Word of God says this.

The thing I have struggled with the most is that healing is not a feeling. But it will be. The more I align myself with what the Word says and actually confess it with full authority, my body has no choice other than to align itself with what I am saying.

Proverbs 18:21, " The tongue has the power of life and death, those who love it will eat it's fruit." So are we going to confess our affliction (death) or the Word of God (life)? What have we got to lose?

We are in a series at our church called " Be Opened". And I just thought, we need to not only open our eyes and ears, but we need to open our mouths. As I am challenging myself, I also am challenging all of you to CONFESS the Word of God. Say it and just keep saying it. I am confessing almost 60 scriptures a day. Yes, saying them out loud. Do you know, it only takes me 10 minutes. 10 minutes to bring life into my situation. That is nothing compared to the price that Jesus paid.

Take the step and let me hear how God transforms you!

How does He do it?

I found myself sitting in the waiting room of my neurologist office this past Friday. It's been awhile since I've had to visit there but there was some concern of infection that was confirmed, but no new ms stuff...still healed, like I ever doubted it! Anyway, as I was sitting in the waiting room, I found myself having to fight back the tears for those I was surrounded by. That whole room was filled with some very sick people. Tormented, no doubt, in their bodies, in their minds and in their spirits even if they do or don't know God. I have NEVER felt this kind of burden like that the whole time I have been dealing with sickness and disease. I know for a fact that it was the burden of the Lord for those people welling up inside of me.

Isaiah 61:1-3, " The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair..."

I didn't know any of those people, yet I was so burdened for them. There are also people that I know by name and I have been so burdened for them and praying for them to be delivered as well. I had this thought this morning and I asked God, " How did You do it and how do You do it now?". In other words, how does He do this, how does He see all those sick and dying and desperately in need of His touch and not totally break down and feel the weight of that? Well the obvious reason is because He is God, but when He suffered for us, He was reaching out to us in that suffering saying, " I am suffering, so you don't have to. My grace and divine healing power is there to set you free. My Word is living and active in you. I left the Holy Spirit to be your Helper, to empower you and anoint you to be free! And not only that but set other people free by walking in that authority!!!".

Come on somebody!!! I think that God grieves more over the fact that we don't walk out what He actually suffered for. Don't you? I mean, if it were me, I'd be like, " I died for you people, I changed the world and you aren't taking advantage of that??? I went through all of that for nothing???" Probably good that I'm not God LOL!

See if we are bold enough to walk out God's promises then Matthew 11:30 is true for us, " For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." You know why? Because instead of sitting there holding back the tears in that waiting room, I could have gotten up and started praying for those people. I know, it sounds charismatic and off the wall, but Jesus did it. He didn't wait, He just prayed and did as God said in that moment. He was led by the Spirit of God every moment of His life.

I don't think I can ever achieve that level of perfection , but man, I want to come pretty close. I DESPERATELY WANT TO SEE PEOPLE FREE! Just free, no matter what that means in their life.

Blinded by Love or is it Grace?

On my walk this morning I was doing my usual submit to God, pray, worship, stomp the devil with my tennis shoes through the pavement to get my day started ;-) and as I was doing that I was listening to a particular song that could be one that I could have written myself because of the message of it. I got really emotional over it because it's a song that speaks of freedom and breakthrough and deliverance because of Jesus and what He has done for us. At the same time that I am crying out to God in thankfulness for what He has done in my life over this journey, my body is telling me the complete opposite!!!

Then the title of this post came to my mind. Am I blinded by the love that I have for Jesus or is it His grace that makes me able to be thankful for what He has already done as opposed to what I am feeling in that moment? Or are they the same thing? I tell Chad (for those of you don't know, that's my husband) all the time that he is blinded by his love for me! But God has put a grace on him to love me the way that he does and same for me to.

I really do find it funny, that I can be so thankful to God for healing my body of sickness and disease and at the same time I have been so physically challenged this week, actually more than I have in these past months. I know it's because of my increasing love for Him and His grace...they have to go hand in hand.

Ephesians 2: 4-5, " But because of His great LOVE for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by GRACE you have been saved."

I love it, because of His LOVE, Jesus has made us alive EVEN WHEN we were dead in our sin, it is by His GRACE that we have been saved. Wow. Jesus paid the price for me EVEN WHEN. How could I not be so deeply in love with Him and remember that He did that for me? That He already paid the price for perfect health in my body and because of that I have grace in my time of need to believe that wholeheartedly?

Love and Grace...I have never put the two together like this. I'm not blindly in love with Jesus because He is perfect, there is no reason I have not to love Him. Even if my body is the way that it is because He already showed me how much He loves me by reaching out to me in His suffering. Loving me enough to be beat to death, even though I am completely imperfect and then not only that but also extending grace to me in order to love Him in the moments when I struggle to believe and trust and love Him. WHAT?!?! How amazing is that? Overwhelmingly amazing.

If I type anymore I will be rambling, you get the point....think on it...Love and Grace :-)

Submission to Affliction vs. Submission to the Holy Spirit

Okay, so this is a total download from the Holy Spirit. It's nothing I've read or heard but just God revealing to me what the differences are between submitting to the affliction in our lives or the Holy Spirit in our lives. This all comes from my personal experience as I have been in a place where I have been in submission to both. I love it when God breaks it down for me like this!

Submission to Affliction in our lives causes:

Agony

Fear

Failure

Loss

Ignorance

Captivity

Temptation

Isolation

Opposition

Negativity

Submission to affliction causes extreme agony(torture and torment), fear(we all know the meaning of this), failure(to see God and walk in a way where His Word is living and active in our lives), loss(we can't walk in victory), ignorance(because we are so blinded by the affliction itself), captivity(no freedom, feeling completely held captive and trapped), temptation(to completely walk away from God and to sin just to feel better in some way), isolation(the enemy loves to get us alone in our affliction so he can beat us to death), opposition(the Word says we are opposed on every side and we will feel the pressure of that) and finally, negativity(the words out of our mouths are negative and speak death and our attitude is extremely negative if submitted to affliction). 

Submission to the Holy Spirit in our lives causes:

Happiness

Overcoming attitude

Life

Yielded spirit 

Smarter

Power

Integrity

Restoration

Intuition

Triumph 

Submission to the Holy Spirit causes happiness(His yoke is easy and His burden is light Matthew 11:30), overcoming attitude(we can conquer the affliction as opposed to being afraid of it), life(we can live because His Spirit brings us life in the midst of the affliction), a yielded spirit(no conflict in and of ourselves when we are submitted to the Spirit of God because He is in control, not our affliction or us), smarter(when we submit to the Holy Spirit, we are smarter because He is our Helper), power(we can walk in complete authority and power over our affliction), integrity(a right spirit, we can walk in righteousness, people will see the Spirit of God shining through our afflicted selves), restoration(absolute recovery and redemption), intuition(the ability to have quick insight and react to the affliction the way He would) and finally, triumph(victory over our affliction whether or not it stays or goes).

So much to chew on here, but I just had to share it with all of you. I have to make an intentional choice to submit to the Holy Spirit every day, seriously, sometimes every minute of the day. But when I do, all these things are added to me (Matthew 6:33). Trust me, it's worth the effort!

Immediately

Immediately: without lapse of time; without delay; instantly; at once. Matthew 14:30+31, " But when he (Peter) saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ' Lord, save me!' IMMEDIATELY Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. 'You of little faith, ' He said, 'why did you doubt?"

The reason for my post today is not to bring up the subject of fear and doubt once again. I am truly at a place in my relationship with God where He has just proven Himself to much for me to sink back into fear and doubt. I am not saying it won't ever happen again, I am just saying that my faith is in a place where I am not struggling with that to the extent that I used to, Praise God! I trust Him because I know Him so much better these days.

As I was reading this scripture this morning the word IMMEDIATELY looked exactly as I typed it. Big and in my face. Neon sign. There have been so many times in my doubt and in my fear and in this journey that I have cried out to God and honestly He hasn't answered me immediately or at least our Webster's dictionary definition of immediately. But when we look at this interaction between Jesus and Peter, Jesus did have to act without lapse of time; without delay; instantly; at once or Peter would have drowned.

On my walk this morning, I was submitting to God and just getting things going for the day and I found myself asking God for immediate relief from a lot of the physical things that I am still having to overcome on a daily basis. I know this sounds really bad, but I don't usually get an immediate reaction from God and the affliction that I feel doesn't immediately go away. But I learned something new about affliction. Affliction is a force, whatever kind it may be, that wants you to submit to it (thanks Beth Moore :-). So if we can get ourselves to intentionally submit to the Holy Spirit in our lives as opposed to the affliction in our lives then I really believe the IMMEDIATE can happen.

I don't know about  you, but I need some immediate in my life! I'm not saying that this will happen every time, obviously, I'm not God. But I know God desires more than anything for us to be in constant relationship with Him and His Word. And as it is a living and active force in our lives it will immediately change us if we submit to it.

Our church is going into 21 days of fasting and praying and God has already spoken to me about what I am to fast and what I am to really focus on within the 21 days and I am excited about it. I am excited to see how my submission and obedience to Him always and will continue to change me from the inside out. It's not going to be the easiest thing for me to do but I would do anything to hear God's voice and know Him better!

I pray that God will IMMEDIATELY answer you today as you submit to Him and His Word. Sounds hard, but we are all just 3 words away from our IMMEDIATELY, " Lord, save me". That is total and complete submission.

He Gives and He Takes Away

I woke up with this thought this morning because yesterday was an extremely bittersweet day for me. The bible says in Job 1:21, "He said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised."

I haven't ever fully understood this, because why would I want to praise the name of the Lord for taking things away! Besides the obvious, He's God and He can do whatever He wants and we should be in that place where we can praise Him in the good and the bad. But I have a revelation that God taking away isn't such a bad thing.

So to break it down, God gave a lot yesterday to me and others in my circle. Victory was had.

1. I sang for the first time on a Sunday morning in over a year. I had to fight through it, but I was obedient and I was extremely honored to be used by God in that venue and I know that He accomplished what He wanted to.

2. A dear friend of mine has had a vision to open an Performance Arts School for a long time and yesterday that vision came to life! Such an amazing victory.

Those are just two major things, but really getting the chance to live the day was a victory, right?

God also took away, or should I say He welcomed someone very precious in our family yesterday to His world and took him from this one. My Uncle Larry. A sweet and precious man who has struggled physically with various things over the last couple of years. He had a heart attack yesterday afternoon and went to be with Jesus around 9pm last night. Chad and I were at the church for a young married's event so we were close enough for me to go to the hospital and say my final goodbyes to him in this world. Very hard, but rejoicing that he is not being tormented any longer in this world.

It seems Chad and I are in a season of God giving and taking away. It's been that way all year long really if we think about it. He has given us truth and has taken our unbelief away. He has given us peace and has taken our anxiety away. He has given us His Holy Spirit and has taken away any desire to do anything else other than listen for His voice and His guidance.

I guess the point that I am trying to see myself is that God's way of giving and taking away is bittersweet but results in victory and progress so it's all good whether it's being given or taken away. God's ways are so amazing and gracious.

Whether or not it's a physical death or death to ourselves (taking up our cross everyday and following Him) it all results in us growing and getting closer to Him.

I will leave you with this scripture, but don't just read it with the perspective of physically dying. Look at it from the standpoint of dying to oneself as well.

1 Corinthians 15:55-58, " Where, o death, is your victory? Where, o death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give  yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Death is not a bad thing when we are submitted to the Spirit of God in our lives. It's growth, think about it...