Commune In The Garden

 

The most important thing we can do as Jesus’ disciples is to spend time alone with Him – seeking His presence, His voice, His face, His word, His love.

We are already one in Spirit but we must experience Him in our soul, having all of our senses awakened to His intoxicating love and transforming us into the person He created us to be; pulling our souls into this union of love, letting Him wash our mind, heart, will and emotions to be brought closer – conforming us into His image (Himself) in every way.

Our souls (mind, heart, will, emotions), need to catch up with the understanding of who we already are in spirit – His Bride. We are perfect and one with Him. We must see ourselves as He sees us to respond as the Beloved Bride that we are.

Jesus, You died for your Bride.

You came for me!

 

 

Love is the most powerful force in the universe. Nothing can conquer it – not even the most vehement hate or distant apathy.

Love will embrace you and overcome in you until you surrender to its power and passion. It will swallow you up in its intoxicating embrace.

God is Love.

I see the true Church – the Bride of Christ, as a living entity full of love for the world. Full of the presence of God, alive, moving and pulsating with this overcoming love so great that it embraces everyone in its path.

No one can resist Love.

  Picture by Brandon Cole.

 

In prayer this morning I heard the Lord as He ministered to me about coming to Him in our quiet place together…

“Don’t focus on your soul. Focus on the Spirit. Your spirit and My spirit are One – perfect in Me. But it is about the soul being conformed (converted) into the image of Christ. Just access My presence by your spirit and quiet your soul. Rest in Me. Be still and know that I am God.

You become conformed into that which you focus on – by gazing upon Jesus and His word, you become conformed into His image.

The enemy tries to deceive and lie to you. He puts thoughts in your mind that the flesh is still alive and is still a vital part of you, but I say it is dead – sin is no longer a part of you now that Christ has made you alive to Me and One with My Spirit.

Satan appeals to your senses and memories which stir up your emotions. Now that your soul and emotions are being saved, (sanctified, made new in understanding and experiencing Christ within), you are no longer affected – you no longer need to respond to the old buttons Satan pushes to get you to react to them as if you still lived in that old nature.

You aren’t that person any longer. You are made completely new, you have a new nature by which you have access to Me. You are able to choose to respond in your spirit to Me  – in the freedom that Christ died to give you.”

The Grace of God allows us the walking out to follow Him. We stumble and fall because our minds are being renewed, they are not yet perfect; but your spirit is perfect in Christ. Grace allows us to get up and keep going. Grace is the influence upon our heart and soul that enable us to keep pursuing Him in this life – in our souls, that which we already are in the Spirit… perfect, just like Him!

 

 

 

I want to share what the Lord spoke to me after I returned from Brazil at the Nov. 2017 Power and Love conference, where many healings and miracles took place. I was spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally stretched beyond anything I had ever encountered before.

Isaiah 54:2-3 (KJV)

² Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

³ For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

“It is your part to enlarge the stakes of your tent – this is something you do. It is by your will, your choice – that you step out in faith. Your tent also includes the sphere of influence that I have given you.

Breakthrough comes from Me, says the Lord. I am the One who breaks through from the outside in – into and upon you. I am the One who brings the light, increase, revelation and illumination to your understanding. I bring motivation, wisdom, inspiration, love, joy, peace and healing. I, the Lord, do this. For without Me you can do nothing.

Do not let the enemy steal these things from you (understanding, revelation, joy, faith and love.) Remain steadfast! Don’t allow doubt and oppression to have any place in you.

You have experienced My presence and My Spirit. Now hold fast to what I have given you and have done in and through you. Continue by faith and not by sight. You have enlarged the stakes of your tent, now let Me fill your new claimed territory with the increase of all that I have for you as I continue to breakthrough in you (spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally).

Did not I say that if you seek Me, you will find Me if you seek me with all your heart? I will be found by you.”

2 Samuel 5:20 (NKJV)

²⁰ So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there; and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

 

If you’ve seen Jesus in the truth of who He is – you’ve seen the Father whom He represents perfectly in every way. Jesus, the only begotten son of God, is the perfect representation (or reflection) of the Father. Jesus said if you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father. He and the Father are one.

Who is man that God is mindful of him? We are God’s masterpiece creation, created in the image of God – to reflect God; not physically but in the nature of who God is and in spirit because He breathed His Own Spirit into us, thus giving us life.

We are worth more to God than we can possibly comprehend.

If I held a crisp new $100-dollar bill in my hand, you would recognize its value. What if I wadded it up and wrinkled it badly? Is it still worth the same? What if I crumpled it up and threw it on the ground and stepped on it? What if it got dirty and muddy? What if the edges got frayed and a corner got torn off – would it still be worth the same $100? The answer is Yes!

This picture of the $100-dollar bill represents mankind. It’s called our ‘created value’. It’s the same for every person on the planet; no matter what color your skin, where you live, rich or poor, educated or simple. What you do for a living doesn’t matter – whether you are a doctor or a drug addict living homeless on the streets. Everyone’s created value is the same. Your worth to God is the same as anyone else, no matter what!

God sent His Son to redeem mankind from the Fall by dying as a perfect sinless man. Jesus was fully God, but also fully man. He did everything on this earth as a man in complete obedience to the Father, being filled with the Holy Spirit. If He had not been perfectly sinless in all of His ways – He would have been disqualified as our eternal savior and all of mankind would have been lost forever – there was no plan B. This is why He is to be praised and worshipped – because He overcame death, hell and the grave for us.

God wills that no one be lost but that all mankind is saved through Jesus Christ. No one can come to the Father except through the Son. There is no other way – Jesus paid the price to get us back to the Father. If we could get to heaven any other way but through the Son, then Jesus would have died in vain.

Do you think the Father loves the Son more than us, who have called upon the name of Jesus to receive salvation? Anyone who receives Jesus as his Lord is now a new creation in Christ. We are now hidden in Christ. The believer and Jesus have become ONE Spirit. When God looks at us, He doesn’t see the old us – He sees us as complete in Christ. He literally sees Jesus because we are now in Him and one with Him. What does that do to our perceived created value now? Doesn’t this mean that the Father loves us JUST AS MUCH as He loves Jesus? Do we love any of our children any less than the other? If you had to choose which of your children to kill, which one would you chose? We love them all the same.

God said that all men are created equal – I believe this includes equal value. If you can understand anything in this life – understand how valuable you are to God and how much He loves you personally! He sent His Son to a planet of His very own (now lost orphans), who desperately want to know their Father. The conduit to this reality is faith. We must believe to receive this reality. Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean it’s not real – it’s just not real to you.

Reach forth in Faith, accepting Jesus as your Lord and realize all God has for you as His very own child. I can promise you will never be disappointed! Your eternal life is at stake.

 

My friend recently had a second knee replacement operation. The first one had been very painful with a long recovery period. The doctor told her the second one would be much harder since that knee had been operated on several years prior and had a piece of metal imbedded into the bone that would need to be cut out. She almost backed out thinking, “forget it, I’ll just live with it the way it is.” She realized how much fear she was in because of the pain she went through with the first one. The doctor reassured her that she needed to go through with this especially since it was now an inch shorter than her other leg.  Realizing how well the first knee recovered, she hesitantly agreed to the second operation. (The Lord convinced her it would be well worth it!)

She came through the operation and 2 days later, walked out of the hospital on her new knee! My friend was ecstatic by the outcome! The Doctors and nurses called it a miracle because she recovered so quickly and didn’t have nearly any pain as before, not to mention they told her she didn’t need physical therapy! This was her answer to the prayers she received from her church family 3 days before the surgery.

She explained to me the process she was now going through to learn how to walk correctly after years of compensating for pain. She told me how she no longer needed to lock her knees with each step. She was able to flex her feet, toes and ankles and not walk flat-footed as she always had done before. She was using muscles that she hadn’t used in decades. Even her thigh and calf muscles were waking up.

As she related her story to me, the Holy Spirit began to show me what she is going through in the natural is what many of us are going through spiritually. God spoke to my heart and said, “You are going to use spiritual muscles that you haven’t used in a while.” Because of what I had gone through, I was compensating for my pain (spiritually, mentally and emotionally).

We are given time to heal from the soul-injuries of our past, but now it is time to submit to His process of walking again. It’s time to move ahead without compensating for the pain we once knew.  We need to flex our faith (muscles) and live out of who God has made us to be. We are new creatures in Christ Jesus. The old is gone, the new has come. Forget the former things. Do not cling to the past – don’t even remember it. We will still see the scars because they are now a part of us – just not defining us any longer. Remember, Jesus still bears the scars in His hands and His feet, but He doesn’t ever let that hold Him back – that would be silly! It’s because of His scars He is who He is – He’s overcome everything! We are in Christ and as He is; so are we in this world, scars and all!

Circumstances and situations are always going to be there, but the process and the battles are not to be feared!  Take into account that God is always doing a new thing in us. We brace for the worse, not realizing that this new thing He is doing will be different – even necessary for our spiritual growth.

Isaiah 43:18,19;  Do not remember the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

The key to our spiritual growth is to surrender our all to God. By that I mean, look to Him for the process and the outcome of what He wants to accomplish in us (Christlikeness). To move forward, we need to let go of our past perceptions, fears and mindsets of what we’ve been through. He also does not waste anything. He will use our pain, our failures, our heartache to lead us forward. He causes all things to work out for our good. By surrendering to Him, we are in essence saying, “Go ahead (with this operation), I know that it will turn out for my good because I submit and place myself in your capable (surgeon) hands. We can absolutely trust Him with our lives even though we don’t like it at the time – knowing that what God wants to do in our life is necessary. He doesn’t need our permission to perfect us – because we already belong to Him. However, the process goes down much better when we willingly submit. He knows what He’s doing and how to bring about His desired results in us – He is a skillful surgeon!

Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.   Psalm 37:3-5 (NKJV)

God seldom shows us the whole path… just the next step. If He showed us the entire path or all the ‘workings out’ in our life, why would we need faith – why would we need to trust and obey Him? We would say, “I see… I will take if from here!” Our loving Heavenly Father usually shows us one step at a time – to keep us close to Him. We know not what lies ahead, but He does. Learning to wait on the Lord is a difficult thing to do. Trusting and obeying His leading is the only way to live a life without regret. He is the author and finisher of our faith. Only He knows the ‘what, where, how and when’ to guide us. When we leave it up to Him, we leave the outcome in His hands as well. This is truly walking by faith and not by sight. God is the only one who has true understanding of our lives because He is the all-knowing, all-seeing One – we are not! We are to choose life in what He puts before us.  Life for the Believer comes through seeking, trusting and obeying Him; seeking Him first and foremost above all else, believing His word, then doing what He says or shows us to do in obedience – one step at a time to the best of our faith. Even if we miss it, we get to repent! God looks at our heart and puts us right back on the path He has for us.

On a recent trip down the Grand Canyon, I became so impressed with my mule. I was told to put all of my trust in the mule. Why? Because the mule had made the trip down that same trail hundreds of times before and he knew what he was doing. I was told to just sit back, look around and enjoy the ride. He did all the work and I did not once have to know where we were going! I trusted that he wasn’t going to fall over the side or get lost. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey and took hundreds of pictures as we traveled.

That experience brought clarity to the way we are to trust the Lord. He really does know what He’s doing with our lives. He has a hope and a future for us, plans for good and not for evil (Jer. 29:11); and He is the only One who knows how to bring it about! He cares for us and loves us more than we can comprehend.

Father – not my will but Yours be done. Jesus – lead me every step of the way as my faithful Shepherd. Holy Spirit – think through me, love through me, live through me.

“Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.” 1 Thess. 5:24

 

What is a vow? The dictionary defines it as a solemn promise; one by which a person is bound to an act, service or condition. It’s an oath, pledge, troth, a word. The most common vows are the ones made by husbands and wives in their marriage ceremony. We promise to love, honor… until death do we part. Interestingly, the Old Testament is full of men making vows to God and to one another. The Bible doesn’t say that God vows to us – it says that He has given us His Word; His Promises. He is not a man that can lie; He is able to keep His promises – unlike us.

I remember lying on my bed with a ruptured disc for 3 days. I was in so much pain, I couldn’t move – I’ll spare you the details! I was so desperate for God to touch me and heal my back that I started to ‘bargain’ with Him. “God, if you heal me and take this pain away, I vow I’ll never watch TV again!” (I was really reaching for stuff I thought would move Him). Come on, haven’t some of you been there (at least in desperation or ignorance)? “God, If you get me out of this mess, I promise to (whatever).” “God, if you help me through this, I promise to serve You for the rest of my life!” Oh, how we think like mere men (or little children).

God did miraculously heal my back on the 3^rd day. I was so amazed by what He did that I really didn’t know how to respond – almost like I needed to pay Him back or something. Oh wait, I vowed if He healed my back I wouldn’t ever watch TV again. So, I started out keeping my vow to Him pretty well, sort of… but, then I forgot and flipped on the TV. I instantly felt so overwhelmed by this self-condemning thing that came on me. What was I thinking? Who am I kidding? What a deceptive web the enemy weaves! God is the author of our FAITH, not our confusion or deception!

I finally stopped, looked into His face and cried out to Him, “Daddy… save me! I can’t make sense of this! Show me what’s going on!” I saw myself as His little child; confused and upset by what had taken place. I repented of my ignorance and my emotions. I knew He was there, smiling at me and loving me as the perfect Father He is.

The understanding I gained was that it’s not wise to vow a vow to God, and if we do, we need to do it with His wisdom and understanding and then keep the decision we made to Him. A vow is really a choice we make out of our understanding at the time we make it. There is no bargaining or making deals with God. He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness by the Blood of Jesus. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. We are forgiven, we are accepted, we are the apple of His eye! He is the Father, we are His children. His Word instructs and corrects us and that is enough! He corrects us through His Word. There’s no punishment, no time-out, nor being grounded like some earthly parent would do. He’s (more than) happy to instruct us in the ways of Righteousness. Repentance is a way of life for the believer because we don’t know everything and He already knows when we are going to miss it. We’re learning – we are to practice righteousness and practice the Truth. (1 John 1:6, 1 John 3:10)

Ecclesiastes 5:4,5 says, “When you make a vow to God, do not delay to pay it; For He has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you have vowed. Better not to vow than to vow and not pay.”

Consequently, I’m not likely to vow a vow to God. It’s not like we are supposed to declare some hard and fast rules or regulations that we need to keep to stay in His grace. I do make a list of things I want to do for Him. #1 is loving Him more, then knowing Him more and loving my fellow man more. I desire to please Him in every way with my life, my thoughts and actions. I ask Him to correct and instruct me when I miss it. Most of all I’m aware of the blood covenant He’s made with me for all eternity! As His Bride, I vow to keep my part of the covenant with Him by loving Him with all my heart, mind, soul and strength; and to love others as myself. I know I can’t do any of this on my own. (My spirit is willing but my flesh is really stupid.) He is the one who first called us, who first loved us and He is the one who sustains and draws us. We can’t even come to Him or walk with Him without the help of His Holy Spirit who lives in us.

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Romans 8:14

Our walk with the Lord really boils down to obedience. Obeying the voice of God is the most important ‘vow’ we can make to Him and to ourselves. What is the voice of the God (especially if you can’t hear Him in your heart yet)? It is His voice inside of us, but mainly  His Word. We need to read the Bible consistently – like we eat, drink and sleep. Not many of us miss a meal or a night’s sleep. Why would we not carve out a few minutes of our day to study the Bible and talk to God when we know it is so vital to our spiritual health? Like eating, drinking and sleeping is to our bodies, having our minds renewed by the Word and our fellowship with Him keeps us from all kinds of deception and error.

You do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Matt. 22:29

God keeps His word, He keeps His promises to us. He is not a man that He can lie. We would do well to rely fully on the Holy Spirit to keep us in all of our ways and leave our vows for the marriage alter.

Life gets messy sometimes. Just when you think you have a handle on your life and situations, something changes. Life is always changing. When you think about it – does anything really ever stay the same?

Glory to God that Jesus remains the same! He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the anchor of our soul. He is always in a fixed position in our lives. Can you imagine what it would be like if God changed from one day to the next? It’s hard enough to keep up personally with our own changing world, attitudes, thoughts and circumstances – let alone try to figure out what God is thinking today! Jesus is the sure foundation under our feet – one that will never change like the shifting sands of this life.

We can always experience a place of peace, rest and trust in Him that we will never find in this world. No other name brings us comfort and assurance but the name of Jesus. Just saying His name transports us to a place in Him where all is well with our soul.

We don’t have any problems but what He cannot fix. There is nothing wrong with us that He cannot change. There is no lack in our life but that He won’t provide. He has given us all things that pertain to life and Godliness. (2 Peter 1:3)

It’s OK to feel out of control and not know what’s going on in our lives. He has promised, to the believer, that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God.’ (Rom. 8:28) and ‘all things are possible to him who believes.‘ (Mark 9:23) We don’t have to figure out our lives. He tells us over and over again in His word that He’ s already got it figured out. We are to let go and trust Him – putting everything in His hands.

Most of the time, it’s our perception of the things we are seeing and holding onto. What are you holding onto that you need to give to Him? What are you facing that you think you need to fix on your own – by your own intelligence or understanding? What are you trying to figure out apart from God’s wisdom and direction?

Some days I feel the urge to tidy up my surroundings and put everything back in its place, as if that’s going to change my spiritual perception for the day. In actuality, God is asking us to give Him those things that seem out-of-place in us. Put them in His hands where they belong! We are to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us.

We walk by faith and not by sight (or our feelings). Our carnal way of thinking has this insatiable urge to try to fix everything on its own – like a default mode of operation. Remember to ‘Think Jesus’! Remain calm and like my son used to say, “Put the cookie down and step away from the counter and nobody gets hurt.”

I don’t want to make light of anyone’s circumstances or situations. There are Christians everywhere that are struggling to the point of suicide, turning to drugs and alcohol to take away their pain (whether spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, financial or relational). Turning to these are man’s remedies – not God’s. He would never want us to come to the place where we think we have to take matters into our own hands. We must submit to God. “For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, (2 Cor. 1:20).

Ask the Holy Spirit to show you the root of your pain and agitation. Pray, cry out to God – even seek Godly council with a trusted source, but do not think you have to figure out how to get relief on your own. God has the answer to our every need. Believe that He loves you.

Have you ever really thought about the definition of fire?  It’s energy, it’s hot, it purifies, and it consumes – yet what it consumes is changed from one form to another such as wood to ash and smoke. In the natural, fire is a destructive force for certain! Webster’s definition of fire is 1) The phenomenon of combustion (the act or instance of burning). 2) Burning passion 3) Inspiration 4) Brilliancy, Luminosity.

This sounds a lot like the definition of fire in the spiritual realm. In Matthew 3:11, Jesus is saying that He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Hebrews 12:29 says “God is a consuming fire.” The Greek word for fire is (G4442) ‘pyr’ – meaning ‘to purify’.

1 Peter 1:7 “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”  Our faith is referred to as gold being tried in the fire. The process by which gold is purified is that the gold is heated up so the dross comes to the outside. It’s then cooled and the dross is brushed off. The gold is then put back into the fire to be heated up and purified again – over and over until the gold is pure. (Even we desire pure gold over impure gold!)

What is consumed in us by the Fire of God is changed from one form to another. Although the old man was crucified and died with Christ, there remains a residue of the carnal thought patterns we were born into such as pride, immorality, idolatry, arrogance, perversion, worry, discord, doubt, anger, wrath, etc, etc.  We must submit our souls to pass through a furnace of affliction to be purified and refined of all that would hinder us as a new creature in Christ. Isaiah 48:10, “Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

When we accepted Jesus as Lord over our lives, we in essence, gave Him permission to do His work in us. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds in order to be transformed into the likeness of Jesus in every way. The old thought patterns and structures of how we thought in the past need to be consumed, burned up and purified in order for the transformation from the carnal mind of man to the Mind of Christ – His passion, His illumination, His way of thinking and His inspiration! How is this done? I say; not by our own doings! Man is not capable of delivering himself from old mindsets anymore than he can pull himself up by his own bootstraps. This is done only by the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot change ourselves by ourselves – it is not possible because the carnal man (old self) is all about self-preservation.

Romans 8:7, “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” 

God purifies our souls through His Wisdom – His Wisdom literally destroys our impurities! The book of Proverbs is so important for us to study and meditate on concerning Wisdom. So, what does the Fire of God and the Wisdom of God have to do with each other? Everything. Without the Wisdom of God to apply to our minds and hearts, we would literally have no lasting benefit from His Fire! The instruction of His Wisdom mixed with our faith brings about our purified minds and hearts (the soul). He doesn’t do a work in us apart from our knowledge of it. He wants us to be fully aware of the work He’s doing in us – even though we don’t fully understand how He goes about accomplishing it at the time.

That’s His Wisdom – His Fire is working in us to burn up all that would hinder our new man from surrendering and abandoning our all to Him. God knows exactly what He is doing! He knows the what, how, when, where and why. He plans out our course very strategically. He will not hurt the preciuos fruit of the vine (our souls)! No, never! However, He will prune back that which doesn’t produce fruit. Read John chapter 15.

When you are being refined in the Fire, things seem to look blackened and sooty – not so much like polished gold; either on the outside or the inside of us! I dare say this is a process that may last a very long time. Do not be discouraged. Do not give up. Know that your Heavenly Father loves you more than you can comprehend. He doesn’t leave you in the fire for long periods of time without refreshing you. He knows perfectly how to purify, purge, consume and change the very essence of who you are designed to be. This process is most important! They are not true sons of God who do not submit to His process of purification. At times, your old self will not like it – but rather think it’s dying! Isn’t that the point? However, He promises that when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned nor the flame kindle upon you – the Jesus in you; your true identity.

“It  is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Gal. 2:20

Surrender to God until you are wholly absorbed in Him. He is Love and His Love draws you upon the Potter’s wheel. In love, stay on the wheel and respond to His work in you. There is no other way. You will not be ashamed or disappointed. You will wear the victor’s crown. Remember, we are just passing through this life, this is not our final home. We have an eternal reward in Heaven (Matt. 5:12). It’s all good.