Overwhelm me with Your love!

This morning I decided to spend my time with Jesus outside on my back deck.  The birds were chirping and the sun was shinning down on my shoulders. I was already overwhelmed the God's beauty.  I asked Jesus to overwhelm me even more. To overwhelm me with His love and His presence.  I wanted Him to lead me wherever He wanted in my quiet time.  I felt Him nudging me to open my bible study material from LifeSchool.  I opened the workbook and realized that I had brought the wrong LifeSchool class outside with me.  Feeling the sense that maybe this was actually what Jesus wanted me to read this morning I began skimming the page.  This is what I read:

"The Father created us so that He might share His eternal pleasure in His Son with us.  Our greatest purpose in life is to love Jesus with the same passion that has burned in the Father before the foundation of the world (John 17:26)."

I went on to read all of John 17 because I just couldn't stop with these few sentences, I wanted more!

In John 17 Jesus is praying to the Father knowing that the time is coming for Him to leave earth and return to heaven.  His first prayer is for himself.  He asks the Father to glorify Him so that He may glorify the Father.  His second prayer is for His disciples. He asks the Father to protect them from the evil one and commissions the disciples to spread the gospel throughout the world.  His third prayer is for us, the believers.  Yes, Jesus prayed for us  before He ascended to heaven.  His prayer was not just for us to hear, receive, and believe the gospel, He wanted so much more from us! He asks the Father to UNITE us with Him as ONE, just as the Son and the Father are one! Wow. 

Why is this Jesus's desire? Why would He pray for this? In John 17:23 Jesus says, "…to let the world know that you sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me." 

Have you ever asked Jesus what He prays for you? This is it! Have you ever asked God what your purpose is? This is it! This is Jesus's prayer for us! He wants us to receive revelation of His great and overwhelming love for us! He desires us so much that He goes far enough to ask the Father to UNITE us with Him and the Father as ONE!  He wants us to share the same love with Him that He shares with the Father. 

Ask the Lord to overwhelm you with His love and His presence today! Tell the Father you desire to be united with Him! Ask Him to give you revelation of His love! Show Him that you desire to be united with Him by fellowshipping with Him through the Holy Spirit and asking Him to empty you of anything that is not of Him. That is my prayer today. Jesus, unite my heart with yours.  Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross so that I can be united with You. 

Straight from the Heart

In honor of February being heart month I thought it would be appropriate to write about what Jesus has been revealing to me about my heart.  

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;

I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

  Ezekiel 36:26

                When I think of Christ’s death on the cross my first thoughts are usually that He died to forgive all my sins.  Jesus has been teaching me that so much more happened when He died on the cross.  Something happened to us when He died. Something happened to our hearts.  

Jesus knows that the root of our sin comes from the condition of our heart.  When Christ died on the cross we were joined with Him in that death.  Our sinful nature was nailed to the cross with Him (Romans 6:10-11).  Because our sin originates in our hearts, Jesus far more than forgave us on the cross; He removed our heart of stone.  Our old hearts were put to death.  The sin that held us back from receiving the full glory of what God intended for us is no longer a part of us.  

Not only was our old heart put to death on the cross, but it was resurrected when Christ was resurrected!  Just as Christ rose from the dead our hearts have been raised from the dead in Christ.  We have been given a new nature and a new heart! Our hearts are no longer bad; they are good!

 Our hearts are good because Christ dwells in us.  1 Corinthians 3:16 says, “Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?”  God cannot dwell where there is evil (Psalm 5:4), so it is true… our hearts are good, not bad!

What would happen if we truly believed this? If we actually lived with the knowledge that our old, bad, sinful hearts were put to death and that Christ has given us a good heart in which He dwells in? Ask Jesus for revelation of this today and your life will never be the same! When we receive this revelation we are able to receive the fullness of life that Christ intended to give us (John 10:10)! We are able to live through the glory of Christ’s spirit in us! We can do anything with Jesus living inside of us! 

Jesus needs us to live through this glorious revelation to bring Him glory here on earth! We must battle to live through this glory! Our flesh does not go down without a fight; we have to choose to live from the new heart! We must crucify our flesh daily and proclaim a life through our new heart.  Our flesh is not good, but our heart is so good and that is what Christ commands we live from!

Imagine a world of Christians living from their new heart! My prayer is that we would all receive this beautiful revelation today!

Spring Cleaning in January

 I know it’s not spring yet, but the Lord has put it on my heart that it is time for some “spring-cleaning”.  I’m not talking about cleaning out the closet or the garage; I’m talking about a “spring-cleaning” of the heart.  I’m talking about ridding my life of things that distract me from the Lord’s presence.  

It was very convicting to me when my pastor defined impurity as "anything that is not Christ-like".  Our goal as followers of Christ is to become more like Him.  We cannot love Jesus and the things of the world at the same time (1 John 2:1-17). We must choose one, and as believers we are saying that we have chosen Christ and not the world.  We must fill our lives with more of Christ and less of this world. 

Purity begins with prayer.  My prayer is that Jesus will reveal to me the things in my life that are not of Him. I want Him to clean out my life of the things of this world so that all that is left is His presence! Jesus so desires a purified bride and that is what I want to present to Him with my life. 

What are the unnecessary things in your life that the Lord is convicting you of today? The first thing Jesus convicted me of when I began this prayer for purity was the TV shows I watch.  They are not necessary and if I’m being honest I only watched them to fill up my time and my mind when I was feeling lazy and bored.  The things those shows filled my mind with were not Christ-like.  I want to fill my mind and my spirit with things that honor the Lord, not things that distract me from Him. 

I am so desperate to see God, to know God, and to love God more.  The Lord is showing me that in order to do that I need to have an undistracted and purified heart and mind.   Matthew 5:8 says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Yes, Lord, this is my desire. Purify me, Jesus, so that I may see you more.

“Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

1 John 3:2-3

"If you love me..."

Jesus has so ravished my heart by giving me revelation of His sweet affections towards me.  I have received so much healing and have developed so much intimacy with the Lord by studying His great love for me.  I am in awe of how loving our Father is and how much He desires, enjoys, and longs for each of us. 

His affections for me have drawn me to love Him more, to seek Him more, and to desire His presence more.  

The other day I was searching through the Bible to see what scripture says about what my love for God should look like.  I want to know what pleases the heart of God.  I want my love to set His heart on fire just as much as His love for me sets my heart on fire.  As I was searching through verses, I noticed a common theme… Loving God and obeying God go hand-in-hand.  Look at these three verses from the book of John:

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” John 14:15

“Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” John 14:23

“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.” John 15:10

To love God is to obey God.  

I don’t just want to feel love in my heart for God; I want to show Him how much I love Him with my actions. In order to obey God’s words we must know what His words are. We must study scripture and we must listen to the convictions He lays on our hearts.  I want to love God in a radical way, so I must obey God in a radical way.  

Thank you, Jesus, for showing me how to love you more. Give me the strength to radically obey you, Jesus.

New Things in the New Year

I love that the new year brings new beginnings, but what I love even more is that it is JESUS who makes all things new!

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  With Jesus we are promised newness.  A new heart, a new mind, a new spirit.  Our old self is gone, washed away, and transformed into a new creation. 

When we believe the Lord has made us new, our minds can’t be stuck in our old ways. Isaiah 43: 18-19 says, “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” Not only does Jesus give us a new self when we walk with Him, He gives us new things, new situations, and new desires for our life. As He brings this newness we must have a renewing of the mind. We must no longer have our minds set on the old things; they have already been washed away.  As He refreshes and renews our lives, we must allow Him to refresh our minds. Jesus can only do a new thing in us if our hearts and minds are open to new things!

Let us walk into this new year holding onto and professing the promise that Jesus makes all things new! Revelation 21:5 says, “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” What a BEAUTIFUL promise. What a beautiful hope. What broken situations, old thoughts, or dried up desires are you trusting the Lord to make new this year? Let us have faith and believe that His promises are true and that He WILL make those things new! The old is gone and the new has come! Let us rejoice in this truth!

Getting Dressed

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”

Ephesians 6:10-18

The attacks of the enemy are real. They are heavy, scary, and sometimes even suffocating. But God has given us everything we need to battle these attacks. He has given us His truth to declare when the devil plants seeds of doubt, the gift of His imputed righteousness, the gift of peace that surpasses all understanding, faith in God’s almighty power and authority, the gift of salvation through the blood of His Son, the gift of the Spirit, who God calls “helper”, to intercede for us, and the gift of His Word, which is sharper than a two edged sword. These are our weapons to battle any and all attacks against the evil one!

The importance and urgency to battle the assaults of the enemy has been so heavy on my heart lately that it drove me to put together a little craft to remind myself to get dressed in the Armor of God each morning.  I typed up Ephesians 6:10-18, put it in a frame, and hung it on the mirror in my bathroom.  For the past week I have prayed this scripture every morning as I have gotten ready and it has truly prepared me for battle! As the attacks come I am overwhelmed with the confidence that the Lord has clothed and equipped me with by using these holy weapons! 

We no longer have to tremble with fear, feel helpless, or become paralyzed by the spiritual forces of evil.  Instead, we will arm ourselves and wage war with these God-given weapons!  We may have several battles to face each and every day, but we know God has ultimately won the war and has given us the same strength and power to win these battles! Praise Jesus!