Dove's Eye

Watch next week at Gramz Kidz the amazing Dromedary. God's creation leaves me in awe!!

Friday, January 24, 2014

Letter to My Daughter

But as for me, the nearness of God is my good;

I have made the Lord God my refuge,
That I may tell of all Your works.

l am sharing a letter I wrote to one of my daughters. So often when we struggle we will not share it, because our pride worries about what others will think. May we receive grace to be truthful and walk by faith, instead of walking as a hypocrite dressed in the deceitful robes of sanctimonious spirituality!

My daughter,

You have been on my heart, I see your face in a crowd, on TV, and I see no smile. I feel the pain in your expression. I want to enfold you in my arms and pray for you, undoing the distance between us.

I have tasted struggle until I am sated with it. Week after week, wrestling in mind and heart. And now coughing to exhaustion. But the most difficult is my inability to focus. When my Savior pulls back and allows me to totter along in my faith unable to sense Him, my mind wanders without permission. I feel like a failure and I deeply miss His sweet nearness; as when He attends my way. I miss His amazing comfort and gentleness and prayer that is quickly answered. Albeit, I mostly miss the fellowship that fills my day. Instead it's struggle!

Why? I wonder. Am I being strengthened for greater difficulty? My muscles tense as I wait for the other shoe to drop and the trial be over! I just want to go back to His comfort, His sweet Presence. I want to walk away from the pain and leave this alone-ness behind. In spite of the struggle I KNOW He is here and He is comforting, and carrying and loving and providing, but my feelings want the throne and the control. I am aghast at how insistent my unbelief is!!! I repent, I claim, I resist, I soak my mind in God’s word and I praise even when the words sound empty and echo in the chambers of my heart. I wrestle with feeling like a hopeless failure, yet a loved child. I force myself to live in the moment refusing the whispers and lies, as I resist the enemy. One look in the mirror and I wonder how God can love me, when I do not even like myself. He ‘feels’ so far away!

Yet, I long for Him with such a voracious appetite, I wonder if my hunger can ever be truly and deeply satisfied here in this world, for am I not an alien? Not to be satisfied in the now, in this realm of emptiness and brokenness. But in spite of or because of the pain, I always arrive back at the truth that... "HE IS GOOD! period! I must stop making this about me."

Job 19:25-27

I know that my redeemer lives,
    and that in the end he will stand on the earth^.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
    yet in my flesh I will see God;I myself will see him
    with my own eyes—I, and not another.
    How my heart yearns within me!

This scripture doesn't say "I 'feel' my redeemer is alive..... It says 'I know' , it is the 'know' of choosing to believe by faith.

One more question: how do restore what I feel like I have lost? I don’t. I trust, I lean hard into Jesus and with great effort and in obedience I focus, I choose to rest in Him. Yes! Even if it means I never 'sense' His sweet victory, His sweet Presence, or answered prayer. Living the Christian life is about Him. HIM. Not impressing others with how spiritual I am or how kind... not about me. He must increase, I must decrease. "LORD, establish your word to me, Your servant as that which produces reverence for YOU." Psalm 119:38 Free me to be occupied with You! Crucified is my old sin nature and I am blessedly placed in the Son, Jesus. I am not to live by feelings... and I find it impossible, so I am thankful God that what is impossible for me, is His expertise!
My mentor once said to me after an emotional appeal for prayer "O, bummer!"

Not scripture, but two words which grabbed me by the collar and gave me a shake! My tears stopped …. Peace fell like warm Light over me and I could stand. "And having done all to stand, stand. (Ephesians 6:10)

Lord, You love us far more than explanation can justify. I am an alien on planet earth. Thank You, compassionate One, You always attend my way whether I feel You there or not. Thank You. I realize anew I am not home yet.

love to you daughter, having done all to stand! stand, mom

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Three Magic Words?

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What’s in a name? or Three Magic Words?

Q: Why do we pray ‘In Jesus name’ when closing our prayers?

I think a better question is: What does it mean to pray in Jesus name? Are we praying in His name when we tack on those three words at the end of praying all we want to pray? Is it the only prayers God will accept?

Then up-pops another question, “Wherein lies my acceptance? “ To mentally empower those three words as if they were magic, is to reason from man to God. Will He give the same consideration to our supplications if we do not add on those three words?

Better to first answer the question: “On what basis does God accept me?” He has only one ground on which to do so and that is on the basis of His Son’s finished work at the Cross.

J.N. Darby has said,

“God’s basis must be our basis for acceptance. There is no other. We are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6) Our Father is fully satisfied with His beloved Son on our behalf, and there is no reason for us not to be. Our satisfaction can only spring from and rest in, His satisfaction. It is from God to us, not from us to God. When the Holy Spirit reasons with man, He does not reason from what man is for God, but from what God is to man.”

So too our prayers are only accepted through the Son; who shed His blood and paid our debt in full.

Q: What is ‘Jesus’ name? It doesn’t matter how you answer this question if using God’s Word as your premise.

His name is:

I Am ( The Way, The Truth, The Life John 14:6) As His Word says, we must pray in truth. ‘God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’ The words, ‘in Jesus Name’ will not make praying our ‘opinions and finite, fleshly desires acceptable to God.

Savior David prays the following: The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior. Notice David doesn’t wait to tack on the Savior’s name at the finish, but begins with it! Did he get it in the wrong place? Will his prayer be unacceptable? May be we are to do the same as David for he knew his prayer would be heard for one reason… because of who God is. David’s responsibility was to be on praying terms, God is always on listening terms. II Samuel 22:3.

I have not read of Paul praying ‘in Jesus Name” but all he did was in Jesus name, for His glory. Paul lived his acceptance. Jesus lived through Paul. He only needed to deny himself and daily take up his cross (count himself dead to sin, crucified with Christ) and follow the Christ, the crucified One.

High and Exalted One- Isaiah 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One
Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit, In order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

When we pray, it requires humility not the misuse of Jesus precious name, out of rote familiarity (in the negative connotation). But a deep, sweet, knowing, from a contriteness of heart because we are ‘in Christ’.

I have read of demons being cast out in Jesus name again and again. Miracles were done in Jesus name. Believers were baptized in Jesus name. So if you operate in any of these arenas it is Biblical.

Mark 9:38-39Now John answered Him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us.” But Jesus said, “Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me.

It is the living… the Holy Spirit in and through us that is the definition of ‘in Jesus name’.

God’s names of are many and each name is an omnipotent peek at ‘who’ He is.

Why not try addressing Him with as much meaning as you feel in your heart?

EX:

“Oh mysterious One, You who love beyond understanding. I come just to be near You. Thank You for hearing prayer and planning such an amazing gift for us….

Or “Namer of the stars, who is like You?....

Oh Compassionate One, You who share my grief and loss…

Rejected One, You who carried my sorrows to Calvary’s tortuous Cross… You alone understand my pain and my need for You to hold me now.

Albeit our acceptance doesn’t depend on who we are! We have nothing to recommend ourselves to God. Only What Christ Jesus did in His birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension is acceptable and provides great freedom. Why? because, He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

What I love about God’s Word is that it gives understanding in regards to the Truth of who we are and reveals who God is. As we walk by faith, we are living out ‘in Jesus name’! It will also faithfully and deeply reveal who God is while filling us with reverence for Him

We are to live Christ. We are to live Christ in every word we speak, every hug we give, and in every act and sacrifice. I count that a lot more difficult than tacking on three words at the end of a prayer, trusting it will get your prayer to the ear of God! Do not make the Christian life a legalistic marathon, which is, in reality, making the Christian life about you. Excuse me, but as I found out over many years experience, that is not acceptable to Holy God. He wants us to come to the end of our ‘fleshly’ self. Paul said, ‘I die daily.’ And you know what.. he didn’t utter the three magic words, he lived them. Seeing himself ‘in Christ’ in every way. May Jesus Christ be glorified.

Love you my sisters and brothers,
Happy New Year
az

http://www.gramzkidz.com

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Reasoning Makes All the Difference!

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Brothers and sisters

My mentor taught me early on ‘trying’ is not trusting. Trusting is…. well, trusting! We are created with a mind, emotions and a will. We have a body, soul and spirit, being created in the image of the Holy God. We know we are to walk by faith and yet we so easily live, pray and work in our own strength. The flesh is in control. To walk by faith is always a faith-choice of our will. It is trusting God with all we do not understand, trusting Him for each trial, each success.

When we choose instead to live by our own understanding, (living by our ‘feelings’) we are allowing our flesh to rule our mind, emotions and will. Either we are filled with God’s Spirit and He is in control or our flesh reigns. A scary thought. No peace, no joy, no strength! Our experience will either ratify or repudiate Truth. What we believe does not change Truth. Bottom line: we are called to walk by faith. Faith comes by the Word of God. No other option. We must be in His word and the New Year is such a great time to add this discipline if you have not already established it.

What I love about God’s Word is that it explains and gives understanding in regards to the Truth, the Truth of who we are and gives us answers to life's difficulties that we will all face. It reveals how to walk by faith and please God, while enabling us to receive all that is our in Christ. It will also faithfully and deeply reveal who God is while filling us with reverence for Him who loves us perfectly.

I have struggled this last few months with thoughts that trip me emotionally, inviting me to insist on understanding while it makes living in the flesh comfortable. It just ‘feels right’.

But the opposite is true resulting in guilt, fear, anxiety, unbelief and a myriad of other well-established methods of attack by our enemy, making us unfruitful and ineffectual. My greatest need today and every day is to saturate my mind with His Word to keep sane. When I focus on circumstances, how easily the enemy can shift me into neutral. I begin to reason from man to God, forgetting Truth reasons from God to man. All our efforts at ‘trying’ and struggling and failing or settling for second best, are born on the slippery slope of the flesh, that is unwilling to wait on God. We are not embracing the Truth of our position, possessions, or privileges that are already ours in Christ. Once we see that which is ours, we will begin to appropriate these Truths, choosing to die to our flesh daily and thereby receive by faith, all God has already provided in Christ.

Too often I reason from what I know I am…. powerless, selfish, critical, unkind, judgmental, foolish and easily discouraged, unfaithful, unbelieving and easily led astray. I feel badly about myself. Unloveable. It takes years to really get to know ourselves, and during this time struggle, our failure leads us to Him. The Holy spirit uses it all. It is meant to lead us into a succession of not only getting to know our failures, but to know His provision and love and forgiveness. My feet are dancing now! And by faith, we are able to prove His faithfulness and grow in the intimate ‘knowing’ of our Savior. The more we find Jesus in our sorrows and in our desires; the more we are drawn to Him. There is no sweeter place to be.

We must see that our acceptance with God is not defined by what we decide it will be, but God’s basis must be our basis for acceptance. J.N. Darby has said,

Souls reason from what we are in ourselves as to whether God can accept us. God cannot accept you this way because you are looking for righteousness in yourself as a ground of acceptance. You will not get peace this way.

How often when trouble comes we immediately begin figuring out how we can fix it or change it. Panic sets in and we don’t even hear ourselves fretting. When I struggle with God’s acceptance of me, (even though I would not call it that), and I am not living as one He delights in, one loved by the Great God, His acceptance of me has not changed, my faith is weak at best and my joy is gone.

Sometimes we just do not want to call sin, sin! Unbelief is sin. Insisting on understanding the ‘why’ of our struggle, is sin. Living in fear is sin. Refusing to take up your cross and deny yourself and follow the crucified Savior is sin. Instead of waiting for the LORD to meet my needs, as I operate in the flesh, is sin and I miss the blessing of waiting on Him. Refusing His timing, His answers, yes, tis sin. We have one life to live for His glory. Let’s make a difference in 2014 by putting Jesus as our first love and let’s make the business of growing in our knowing of Him our top priority, no matter the cost or what anyone thinks.

What better way to start the year than to surrender in faith to the Truth that God accepts you and delights in you. Ask God to make you aware of reasoning from man to God, instead of reasoning from God to man. There is no cause for God to show us love and mercy, to give us joy and rest and hope, it’s who He is.

Our enemy would love to keep us down and unaware of what we have in Christ! Let this year 2014, be one of being in His Word. His Word lives and gives wisdom and insight and a living hope and it will free you from trying to change yourself. It will change you. Trust Him. Ask Him to give you a love for His Word. Apply it to your life. Memorize His Word. Pray His Word.

Psalm 119 is all about His word, though labeled by many different words: precepts, commands, law, commandments, statutes, testimonies, judgments, and may be more. Read Psalm 119 and mark everywhere it refers to His word. Then write down what it says His Word will do in you! You will have your socks blessed off. Make the following your prayer! It states the results of being in His Word!

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Colossians 1:9-12

God of all glory and power, great are your Purposes, great is Your plan. Thank You for Your living Word and for making it available to us. I think and pray for my brothers and sisters around the world that would love to have a copy of Your Word but do not. Help them stand strong and miraculously provide them with a copy of the Word of God. We thank You for accepting us in Your Son Jesus. You are a great God. We rejoice that our acceptance is entirely because of Your Son’s life and death and resurrection. He is the same yesterday today and forever. Hallelujah.

A blessed 2014

Sunday, December 22, 2013

CHANGE!

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‘Change’

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. For the glory of your name, O Lord, preserve my life.
Because of your faithfulness, bring me out of this distress. Psalm 143:10-11

Dear Brothers and sisters,

Change can be devastating for this reason: most real change happens through crisis. It is like crisis is required. Real change rarely happens without crisis. Think back over your life, what has had the most powerful impact resulting change in your life?

Crisis come in many sizes… whether it is moving, losing a job or some other great loss such as a pet, or your reputation has been successfully attacked, or it may be a child has stubbornly gone astray wounding you deeply. Another painful time is the death of a beloved family member. Or it could be a tear in a family relationship resulting in a deep, bloody tear in your heart. Things we have no control over can beat us up, leaving us tearfully black and blue and betrayed. The enemy of our souls isn’t particular about using his weapons against us, as he knows just what to use in his diabolical attack. He senses where we are weak. He wants us discouraged, hopeless, and fearful.

When we know Jesus personally and have the sustaining power of the LORD, He holds our hand and walks right beside us; at times He even carries us, protecting and providing in ways we could never imagine. It is then we are given ample opportunity, because of our trials, to prove Him! Prove He is faithful, absolutely, completely and always. Our mind is the vehicle the Holy Spirit uses and so we must keep our minds renewed. I shared about the battle for our minds last week… but this is so important I must pursue it further. I have been in a non-stop battle for my mind this week and wonder if it will ever end. I know I am being given opportunity to count myself dead to sin and chose with my ‘will’ to trust Him who never fails. How? I am to see in every situation a chance to die. (to self, my flesh)

What does faith look like in crisis? E. Hopkins writes:” “Faith needs facts to rest upon.” It is on this basis that JBS can say “Real faith is always increased by opposition, while false confidence is damaged and discouraged by it.”

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I Peter 1:6-7

It may not have occurred to us that much of what we have considered a ‘natural’ disability such as confusion in the use of our mind, is really the enemy battling for our minds, knowing that if he can disable us and control our thinking he has won a huge victory over us. A mind that is not renewed is prey for use by the predator. As I have said, repentance, a change of mind, is the beginning, there is more; our minds must be renewed in His word daily. This is war. He wants to destroy every testimony, every family that loves and serves Jesus. The Bible says Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. One way is to deceive and blind our children to truth and divide our families.

We must recognize we have an old sin nature we are born with, that is capable of any sin, and unbelief (of God’s word) is the most rampant sin. Our mind can only be renewed in His word. Hear me! The unrenewed mind is part of the old nature in us. That is why the Bible teaches us when we are ‘in’ Christ we are new creations. Trust God to give you a renewed mind and feed your mind with Truth, with God’s living word; while remembering the “mind” is the strategic battle ground and the devil will never give up. Never.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. II Corinthians 5:17

The enemy is actively at work seeking to disable the mental powers of God’s children and he does this through the strain of conflict, trials, and crisis! This is war and so God has provided armor. Put on the whole armor of God…. Ephesians 6:10-18

If you have never taken your mind out of the control of the enemy, do so now! Many of us know our minds are not under God’s control and by faith we can receive a new mind. In fact the Bible says we have the mind of Christ when we receive Him as Savior and invite Him into our lives; believing He died for our sins and shed His blood that we may be forgiven. I John 1:7-9

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:15-16

When God is in control of our mind, we are able to decide when to speak and what to say. Here are some scriptures that will help:

Hebrews 10:16 I Corinthians 2: 13 & 16 Philippians 2:5-8

I Peter 4:1 Ephesians 1:18 I Peter 1:13 niv

Roman 12:3 II Corinthians 10:5

Pouring the Light into our mind, according to His written Word, will enable us to circumspectly and prayerfully walk with Him who is Strength and Hope daily.

God of all, Daddy, You who know my every thought, my every word before it is on my tongue! I run to You. Renew my mind. I believe You have given me the mind of Christ, let me stand strong in faith. I know too, that whatever You have allowed in my life, You plan to use in my life, for my good and Your glory! This includes whatever uninvited crisis I am facing. Just like a small child, I put my hand in Yours and trust You to work in the lives of those I love. Where there is misunderstanding, bring clarity of thought. Where there is hurt, heal. Where they may be believing a lie, bring the Light of Your Truth. You are the mighty God, move in ways I am not even able to think of and bring hearts to the Light, so they will see You love them and sent Your Son Jesus to die to set them free. We have sinned, You are the Sin-bearer. And lastly and so important, help me get into Your word daily that I may renew my mind and receive Your strength and the peace and living hope, You speak of in Your word. I want to thank You for loving me unconditionally and eternally. In the Name of Jesus the Holy One, I pray expectantly, amen

In Your love now and forever,

We have 5 million receptors in our nose as humans, deer have 300million!! Go to Gramz Kidz and click on 'By Design' and check out God's amazing creation in this mammal!

Friday, December 6, 2013

Battle For Your Mind!

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. II Corinthians 10: 3-5

Dear Fellow Believers,

I have had such mental wrestling matches with my mind this week! Attention: There is a war around the clock for followers of Jesus Christ. Have you noticed how using the word ‘God’ in a conversation may be acceptable to a certain degree, but if you speak the name ‘Jesus’, the conversation becomes uncomfortable and people are offended? You can feel the intolerance happening and see it on their faces. In contrast, now hear this: our mind is thee vehicle the Holy Spirit uses to instruct and guide our steps. He gives us strength and wisdom, thereby enabling us to recognize the world’s system of thinking; along with discernment to know when our enemy is perpetrating his lies 24-7.

God provided armor knowing we would be in a relentless battle for control of our minds. Paul infers that one aspect of our mind, is that it in itself is a stronghold and satan wields the power of deception to grasp control of our minds! The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds and ‘casting down’ of imaginations, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ! We should shout hallelujah, amen!

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. II Cor 10: 3-4 nas

A stronghold is usually held by an enemy. And we have one who is in constant tension to control our thinking. We must take seriously the need to renew our mind by saturating it with God’s word.

Realize our mind by nature is under the curse of the fall of mankind. Romans 1:28 describes our mind as depraved, other scripture states that our mind is blinded, darkened, and carnal. The carnal mind (Romans 8:7) is enmity against God. I remember those days and years. I was religious but not right with God. Now I am ‘in Christ’ and have the mind of Christ. I am so thankful that my mind was also redeemed and made new. But it is still the strategic center of satan to wage war on the saints with ferocity! His goal is to get us to make our Christian life about us instead of Jesus glory. He wants us unfruitful and discouraged.

Seriously our mind is the vehicle of the Spirit and it is absolutely necessary the Holy Spirit have full control, complete possession of our thought life. We must focus on Christ and His word so God can lead and bless others through us. When I came to Christ I was given a new heart and a new head. We must have our minds fully expunged and then, filled with Jesus ruling every thought.

Why is it that in spite of years of Bible study and church sermons, an abundance of truth, that so many of us struggle, and fail to verbalize or apply it to our lives? We are carnal. We should ask: where am I believing a lie, Father-God? Our carnal minds are unbelieving, our focus is the world and ourselves. The carnal mind, is like a car with plenty of gas, but one really flat tire. So also our minds are filled with a mixture of truth and the worlds system of thinking. This negates God using us as He desires, for we are going no place. Our minds need to be renewed.

So how can believers have our minds renewed? At salvation we are renewed to a degree. Now, how can I have a fully renewed mind? Repentance. This is a ‘change of mind’ on the one hand, and a change of heart on the other! As we count ourselves crucified with Christ we are told to ‘put off’ and ‘put on’…

that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, Ephesians 4:22-23

But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. II Corinthians 11:3

This is an act of faith.

Today give God your old mind and ‘trust’ Him to give you a renewed one. Remember the enemy will not just walk away! He will not give up any ground easily. Ask God to hide you under His wing, hidden by the bloody pinions; the sacrifice of Jesus the Lamb of God. The mind remains a battle ground even following surrendering of every thought taken captive for Christ.

Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples under me.

God of compassion and grace, we long to have our minds renewed and be used by Your Holy Spirit to affect the lives of those who know and those who do not know You. Teach us daily to renew our minds in your Word! Thank You LORD, you are good. Jesus we love You. In Your name I pray,

Prayerfully,

Humans have 5 million receptors in their nose. Deer have 300 million. See this amazing creation of God by going to Gramz Kidz! Click on By Design.