I have been telling God that I want to be a living sacrifice that is acceptable to him. Being a living sacrifice means that he is all you live for. That all you do is for him and because of him. I have never really understood the living sacrifice concept. Jesus really lived it out though.
Jesus said that even the words he spoke were what he heard the Father say. He said that he only did that which he saw his Father doing. Again he said that his Father was always at work, therefore he too had to keep working. And ultimately, he died on the cross for us because the Father wanted him to. That is a living sacrifice.
As a living sacrifice, you are no longer your own. You belong to God in every way. Your relationships, your words, your thoughts, your works and everything about you is governed by God's word. If God does not do it, you don't do it. If you are not doing this, no matter how much you claim to be a living sacrifice you are missing the boat and God cannot accept that.
I usually pour out my heart in this blog and there are many things in this blog that I consider private. Because of that, I have chosen to be anonymous and not put up my pictures. However, the other day the Lord urged me to put this blog address on my facebook profile so that all my friends could access it. That was difficult. Then the Lord reminded me that I was not my own. He wants to use this blog to bless others and to bring them into the Kingdom of God.
Anyway, I am going to put up my picture and the like so you all can see me now. But not today... I have to run to church so I can get a good seat at the Daughters of Zion Meeting. See you there!!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Power of Covenant
I feel the need to talk about this for a second. Covenant is powerful and binding. When you put God in remembrance of his covenant to Abraham he has to step into your life and confirm the covenant. If you have been following my blog any at all, you know that I speak about covenant a lot. This is because God has given me a greater understanding of the covenant as I have sought him on it.
Deuteronomy 8:18 states that he gives you the ability to gain wealth so that he may confirm his covenant with our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Money must come into your hand as a confirmation of the covenant. None of our covenant fathers was poor. In fact God went against nature to ensure that wealth was put in their hand. He preserved them in famine and when people were trying to defraud them.
Genesis 26:12-14 and 31:6-13 are perfect examples of covenant in place. Even in the famine, when all was going wrong around him Isaac sowed and reaped a hundred fold. Last year I began to pray to the Lord that I would not work for others all the days of my life and that he would cut me a flock like he did for Jacob. I did not know what I was praying about, but God knew that I would need to start my own business and had planned for me to do so this year. As I worked for my employer, I gained knowledge and skill that enabled me to start a business so that I too could cut a flock for myself.
If you will learn the power of covenant you will realize that nature cannot stand in the face of it. It does not make sense that sheep would change their DNA just by looking at stripped branches. If they changed their DNA with everything they looked at we would have a ton of green sheep from looking at grass!! But when covenant kicks in the supernatural takes over suspending the laws of nature. Jacob says that an angel appeared to him in a vision and told him in vs 12 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled and spotted…" God changed the DNA of the male goats such that the flock had no choice but to multiply in Jacobs favor!
We are in a time of recession and it does not make sense that my income would almost triple within months, when huge companies are shutting down. But I held on to the covenant and God has done it for me. I know that his desire is to prove his covenant true for each one of us. On April 15th this year the Lord asked me a question. He said 'what do you see?" and I replied just like Jeremiah had done in Jer 1:11-12 "I see the branch of an almond tree." And he said to me "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to fulfill it."
What are you seeing at this time? The word of the Lord says that 'At destruction and famine you shall laugh' (Job 5:22). Are you laughing during this recession? If not, begin to put God in remembrance of his covenant and let the covenant work for you. Let the covenant speak on your behalf like it did for Isaac and Jacob. I pray that you will begin to know God by experience. There is no better way to draw near to the master than by hearing him for yourself and walking in obedience to his word.
Deuteronomy 8:18 states that he gives you the ability to gain wealth so that he may confirm his covenant with our fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Money must come into your hand as a confirmation of the covenant. None of our covenant fathers was poor. In fact God went against nature to ensure that wealth was put in their hand. He preserved them in famine and when people were trying to defraud them.
Genesis 26:12-14 and 31:6-13 are perfect examples of covenant in place. Even in the famine, when all was going wrong around him Isaac sowed and reaped a hundred fold. Last year I began to pray to the Lord that I would not work for others all the days of my life and that he would cut me a flock like he did for Jacob. I did not know what I was praying about, but God knew that I would need to start my own business and had planned for me to do so this year. As I worked for my employer, I gained knowledge and skill that enabled me to start a business so that I too could cut a flock for myself.
If you will learn the power of covenant you will realize that nature cannot stand in the face of it. It does not make sense that sheep would change their DNA just by looking at stripped branches. If they changed their DNA with everything they looked at we would have a ton of green sheep from looking at grass!! But when covenant kicks in the supernatural takes over suspending the laws of nature. Jacob says that an angel appeared to him in a vision and told him in vs 12 'Look up and see that all the male goats mating with the flock are streaked, speckled and spotted…" God changed the DNA of the male goats such that the flock had no choice but to multiply in Jacobs favor!
We are in a time of recession and it does not make sense that my income would almost triple within months, when huge companies are shutting down. But I held on to the covenant and God has done it for me. I know that his desire is to prove his covenant true for each one of us. On April 15th this year the Lord asked me a question. He said 'what do you see?" and I replied just like Jeremiah had done in Jer 1:11-12 "I see the branch of an almond tree." And he said to me "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to fulfill it."
What are you seeing at this time? The word of the Lord says that 'At destruction and famine you shall laugh' (Job 5:22). Are you laughing during this recession? If not, begin to put God in remembrance of his covenant and let the covenant work for you. Let the covenant speak on your behalf like it did for Isaac and Jacob. I pray that you will begin to know God by experience. There is no better way to draw near to the master than by hearing him for yourself and walking in obedience to his word.
Double For My Trouble!
I have not yet blogged about this because it has blown my mind. When I quit my job in February it was because I had a director who just turned against me for no good reason. She is the person who had introduced me to this group of people and sang my praises and now all she had to say about me was bad stuff. I couldn't do one good thing.
Well, the devil intended it for evil but God intended it for good. In that time of trial and transition I realized that I was not going to stay there long. It was quit or get fired so I decided to quit. I started applying for various jobs that I saw on the internet. I really did not have a game plan and was only trusting that God would take care of me.
God is faithful! I put in for a job that I frankly did not think I could get. It was way beyond my league. This company in South Africa was expanding to East Africa and needed an East African Regional Manager. Come and see me applying for the job when the most I had ever been was General Manager of a start up call center.
The doings of God are stranger than fiction. I got the job! Just like that. God opened that door and gave me the job. I start on Monday June 29th with a trip to South Africa. The director who had been hating on me in the other job had said that I was overpaid and had even put forward a motion to reduce my salary by quite a bit. Secondly, by the leading of the Lord, I had turned down two very good opportunities while I waited for this particular opportunity.
God did not disappoint. My salary was more than doubled in my new position. Talk about double for my trouble! Additionally, while I was waiting on the Lord to open up this position, I had begun a business on the side and that too has flourished bringing in a good amount of income as well. Now instead of one source of income I have two. Everything is coming in doubles! That is the power of Covenant.
I am so blessed by the Lord and his goodness. Perhaps the most important change is what is happening on the inside of me as God is bringing me closer to himself and teaching me to become the prophetic entrepreneur he has called me to be. What a wonderful God we serve. He will come through for you too because he is faithful. God bless!!
Well, the devil intended it for evil but God intended it for good. In that time of trial and transition I realized that I was not going to stay there long. It was quit or get fired so I decided to quit. I started applying for various jobs that I saw on the internet. I really did not have a game plan and was only trusting that God would take care of me.
God is faithful! I put in for a job that I frankly did not think I could get. It was way beyond my league. This company in South Africa was expanding to East Africa and needed an East African Regional Manager. Come and see me applying for the job when the most I had ever been was General Manager of a start up call center.
The doings of God are stranger than fiction. I got the job! Just like that. God opened that door and gave me the job. I start on Monday June 29th with a trip to South Africa. The director who had been hating on me in the other job had said that I was overpaid and had even put forward a motion to reduce my salary by quite a bit. Secondly, by the leading of the Lord, I had turned down two very good opportunities while I waited for this particular opportunity.
God did not disappoint. My salary was more than doubled in my new position. Talk about double for my trouble! Additionally, while I was waiting on the Lord to open up this position, I had begun a business on the side and that too has flourished bringing in a good amount of income as well. Now instead of one source of income I have two. Everything is coming in doubles! That is the power of Covenant.
I am so blessed by the Lord and his goodness. Perhaps the most important change is what is happening on the inside of me as God is bringing me closer to himself and teaching me to become the prophetic entrepreneur he has called me to be. What a wonderful God we serve. He will come through for you too because he is faithful. God bless!!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Train Up a Child
As I read the book of 2nd Kings it blows my mind how one King can be so good and his son so evil. Hezekiah was such a good King who followed the Lord so faithfully, but his son Manasseh was the most evil of them all. He worshipped all manner of idols, everything in the heavens and burned his own son as a sacrifice. In addition to that he was into sorcery and divination, consulted mediums and spiritists and killed so many innocent people that Jerusalem was full of innocent blood from one end to the other. This guy was nuts!! He desecrated the temple of the Lord by putting a statue of asherah in it. He was so bad he became the last straw and Jehovah decided that he just had to take them away to Exile in Babylon. What happened between Hezekiah and Manasseh?
Then comes Josiah whose birth and what he would do had been prophesied hundreds of years before during the reign on Jeroboam son of Nebat. They found the book of the law, he read it and went to work. He made great reforms and did a beautiful job of cleansing the land. However, his son Jehoahaz did evil in the eyes of the Lord. I kept asking my self what happened and why there could be such righteous Kings with such evil children.
And the Lord said to me 'It's all in the training.' Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. The Kings were not responsible for the training of their children but put them under the care of servants most of the time. They learned from those people and not from their parents. Children learn by observation.
The question becomes, who is raising your children? Have you left their care to their teachers at school and the house help? Are you raising a Manasseh while you are a Hezekiah and wondering why your child is not going the way you want? Prioritize your children over work and material things. Even being over committed at your church could be a problem if you are not careful. When I read about these stories it strengthens my resolve to be a stay at home mom when the time comes. If I am a Josiah, then my children will be twice me.
Sela
Then comes Josiah whose birth and what he would do had been prophesied hundreds of years before during the reign on Jeroboam son of Nebat. They found the book of the law, he read it and went to work. He made great reforms and did a beautiful job of cleansing the land. However, his son Jehoahaz did evil in the eyes of the Lord. I kept asking my self what happened and why there could be such righteous Kings with such evil children.
And the Lord said to me 'It's all in the training.' Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it. The Kings were not responsible for the training of their children but put them under the care of servants most of the time. They learned from those people and not from their parents. Children learn by observation.
The question becomes, who is raising your children? Have you left their care to their teachers at school and the house help? Are you raising a Manasseh while you are a Hezekiah and wondering why your child is not going the way you want? Prioritize your children over work and material things. Even being over committed at your church could be a problem if you are not careful. When I read about these stories it strengthens my resolve to be a stay at home mom when the time comes. If I am a Josiah, then my children will be twice me.
Sela
Monday, June 8, 2009
Where is the God of Elijah?
God has been so faithful in so many ways over the last few weeks. I have been working hard but most of all I have been seeking his face. I am reading the Bible through this year and have made remarkable progress (if i do say so myself). And I can't help but wonder if we serve the same God as some of these guys.
Elijah was fire happy. Called down fire like there was no tomorrow and God honored his word. Peter, Stephen and Paul are seeing miracles happen in the New Testament with visions and angelic visitation almost being a normal occurrence. I mean God talks to these people by any means necessary.
Elisha asks after Elijah is taken away 'Where is the God of Elijah?' He was in essence asking God to manifest in his life like he did in the life of Elijah the Tishbite. My heart has began to cry out for some of these things to happen in my life. Where is the God of Elijah, Elisha, David, Ezekiel, Peter, Paul and all the other men of God I read about every day?
I yearn to know him more. I want to come up higher. To go to a new dimension where he speaks to me in visions and dreams. A place where he sends angels to give me understanding like he did with Daniel. Where is the God of Daniel, Joseph, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Where is the God of Moses and Joshua? The God who can part the sea and bring down a wall at the sound of a shout and trumpets? Where is this God of Miracles who would manifest so powerfully for these men of God?
If he is indeed the same yesterday, today and forever - A God who changes not and shows no partiality, he can manifest in my life the same way. I want more. I want to go in deeper. I want to be filled and submerged in the Holy Spirit of God who is the power of God. I don't know when or how, but I want to go to a new dimension and God, by his Spirit, is taking me there.
The word of the Lord says that the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. And he does so that he may reveal them to us. I want to know more Holy Spirit. Reveal more of this God to me. Lord, it is the cry of my heart. More of you. I want more of you. Where is the God of Elijah?
Elijah was fire happy. Called down fire like there was no tomorrow and God honored his word. Peter, Stephen and Paul are seeing miracles happen in the New Testament with visions and angelic visitation almost being a normal occurrence. I mean God talks to these people by any means necessary.
Elisha asks after Elijah is taken away 'Where is the God of Elijah?' He was in essence asking God to manifest in his life like he did in the life of Elijah the Tishbite. My heart has began to cry out for some of these things to happen in my life. Where is the God of Elijah, Elisha, David, Ezekiel, Peter, Paul and all the other men of God I read about every day?
I yearn to know him more. I want to come up higher. To go to a new dimension where he speaks to me in visions and dreams. A place where he sends angels to give me understanding like he did with Daniel. Where is the God of Daniel, Joseph, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Where is the God of Moses and Joshua? The God who can part the sea and bring down a wall at the sound of a shout and trumpets? Where is this God of Miracles who would manifest so powerfully for these men of God?
If he is indeed the same yesterday, today and forever - A God who changes not and shows no partiality, he can manifest in my life the same way. I want more. I want to go in deeper. I want to be filled and submerged in the Holy Spirit of God who is the power of God. I don't know when or how, but I want to go to a new dimension and God, by his Spirit, is taking me there.
The word of the Lord says that the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. And he does so that he may reveal them to us. I want to know more Holy Spirit. Reveal more of this God to me. Lord, it is the cry of my heart. More of you. I want more of you. Where is the God of Elijah?
You Missed It!
You missed it when you focused on the hips, the lips and the finger tips.
You missed it when you looked at my face and noticed the blemishes
You missed it when you thought I was not skinny enough
I am everything you need in a woman
But you missed it!
A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman who can find?
You should have looked at my capability as a wife and mother.
Knowing that one day my children will rise and call me blessed
You should have noticed that I was industrious and capable.
But you missed it!
You should have stuck around to find out that I can throw down in the kitchen
Like the merchant ships, I bring food from afar
You should have stayed long enough to see me organize and delegate
Rising early to ensure that my servant girls have all they need
But you missed it!
And when I graduated from school as one most likely to succeed
When I went into business selling purple and linen
When I considered a field and bought it from the proceeds I made
When I tasted and saw that my gain was good - you should have been there
But you missed it!
And in the evening when I gird myself with strength
Readying myself for my husband
That he may drink from his own cistern and enjoy the wife of his youth
You should be here by my side as I ready myself for you
But you missed it!
Strength and dignity are my clothing
My position is strong and secure
As I wait on my Lord for a husband
One that will see clearly – Oh that it were you
But you missed it!
It is this man whose name will be known at the gates
When he sits among the elders
It is this man who shall boast and praise me
Whose heart will have found a safe resting place
But you missed it!
Ah my brother, my friend
Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain
But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
She is the prudent wife who comes from the Lord
But you missed it!
You missed it when you looked at my face and noticed the blemishes
You missed it when you thought I was not skinny enough
I am everything you need in a woman
But you missed it!
A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman who can find?
You should have looked at my capability as a wife and mother.
Knowing that one day my children will rise and call me blessed
You should have noticed that I was industrious and capable.
But you missed it!
You should have stuck around to find out that I can throw down in the kitchen
Like the merchant ships, I bring food from afar
You should have stayed long enough to see me organize and delegate
Rising early to ensure that my servant girls have all they need
But you missed it!
And when I graduated from school as one most likely to succeed
When I went into business selling purple and linen
When I considered a field and bought it from the proceeds I made
When I tasted and saw that my gain was good - you should have been there
But you missed it!
And in the evening when I gird myself with strength
Readying myself for my husband
That he may drink from his own cistern and enjoy the wife of his youth
You should be here by my side as I ready myself for you
But you missed it!
Strength and dignity are my clothing
My position is strong and secure
As I wait on my Lord for a husband
One that will see clearly – Oh that it were you
But you missed it!
It is this man whose name will be known at the gates
When he sits among the elders
It is this man who shall boast and praise me
Whose heart will have found a safe resting place
But you missed it!
Ah my brother, my friend
Charm is deceptive and beauty is vain
But a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
She is the prudent wife who comes from the Lord
But you missed it!
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