Inspired Word October 10, 2007

INSPIRED WORD

October 10, 2007

PRAYER

…. fresh water, He gives me new strength. He guides me in the right paths as He has promised and even though I go through the deepest darkness, I will not be afraid. No, Lord, for You are with me; Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me. Lord Jesus, that is Your Word - here we are! No matter what darkness we may be in, what pain we are in, we lay all of them down! We lay them down and we give them to you! Lord, use them and give us that joy beyond all understanding. Blessed be Your Name!

SCRIPTURE / EXHORTATION

Psalm 24: 7 – 10 : ”Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is He, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – He is the King of glory.” The beautiful thing about gathering to praise and worship the Lord is that as we lift up His name and speak to Him, He does indeed come in. He comes into this place to meet us, to speak to us, to minister to us. So lift up your heads, lift up the gates of anything that might bar you from accepting Him fully; for the King of glory is coming in.

SHARING

In that last song, it said, ‘Tell everyone how great the love.' I have a little story to share with you of what happened today regarding God's love. Barb confirmed that with her Scripture on the majesty and power of God's love and concern for us. I belong to a gym and I go there as often as I can. If you belong to a gym, you know that people just say hello and goodbye by their first names. There is this woman to whom I have been saying hello for some time and her name is Lisa. That is all I know about her. One of the machines that I was using today was down on one end and no one was at that end. About 35 minutes later, Lisa came over and took the machine that was next to me. Almost immediately these words came into my mind, ‘Have Lisa pray for Lisa.' She is the one whom we prayed over here in this place last week. I don't know this woman at the gym, but I just turned to her and said, “Would you pray for a young lady who has the same name as you – Lisa?” She looked at me and said that she would say a special prayer for her today. A second later, she turned to me and said, “There was a reason why I had to come and take this machine that was next to you.” How great the love of God to move someone to pray for someone else whom they do not know. But they feel the compassion for that person in their heart. That love and compassion was put in the heart of this woman, Lisa, to pray for someone with her namesake whom she doesn't know and may never meet. But she knew that the Lord wanted her to do something and that was to take action. That is the love of God and that is all that He asks of us as a community of people who believe in Him and believe in the love He has for us. How great is the love of this God! Amen.

PROPHECY

It is I Who want to breathe afresh and anew in you this night. Sit quietly for a moment. Feel your very breath; the very air that you breath is filled with My Presence. I desire to re-create you; to fill you with new hope, new joy, new trust. I invite you to sit for just a moment in silence. Feel your breath and know that it is I Who am close to you and I am filling you with the very breath of My Spirit.

PRAYER

I ask you to be open to Him, like those gates, the ancient doors. We open our hearts and say, “Jesus, Spirit, come in! It may not be the tidiest place, and it may not be the most beautiful place, but it is a place that You will love and it is a place where you will want to be, deep inside of us. O Jesus, help us to open those places up to You now; open our hearts to You. O Spirit, help us to say ‘Amen' and ‘yes' to You! Permeate, O God, our very being and all of those places where we need Your light. Come, Spirit of God, come!”

IMAGE

I had an image and it was of Jesus on the cross and His blood was dripping - the shed blood of Jesus. Along with what Chuck said about the heart, Jesus gave up His life; He gave up everything for us and He is asking us to receive Him. When the Father looks at us, He sees us covered with the blood of His Son.

TEACHING / EXHORTATION

Often in our prayers, we become very self-focused. In that self-focus, we say, “How much do I know God?”, instead of saying the more biblical thing, which is “How much am I known by God?”. Repeatedly in Scriptures, Jesus tells parables and stories of when we come before the Father. He either says, “Come My good and faithful servant, I know you. Come into My Father's house.” OR He says, “Go away, I don't know you. You are not known to Me.” Opening our hearts and love to the Lord is part of the way in which we are known to the Father. It is that relationship. In the process of that relationship, we come to know Him more, but really the more important thing is to be known by Him; to be identified as one of His children, part of His family. This is really critical. Don't be afraid to be known by God. Don't hide from the Lord! Be proud to be known by God; to be known as His child.

SCRIPTURE / EXHORTATION

Psalm 24: 1 – 6: Earlier when we sang the song of ancient gates and Barb read from Psalm 24, verse 7, I didn't confirm that, even though I was sitting on that Psalm for quite awhile. I didn't confirm it because Barb read verses 7 – 10, but the Lord called me to verses 1 – 6.

In my Bible, this Psalm is titled, ‘Entrance into the Temple '. It says, “The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for He has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.” So the Lord knows His earth; the Lord knows what is in our hearts and for whom we pray. He knows all the circumstances because He created the earth, but not necessarily the illness and the sickness within it. Then it goes on to say, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. They will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of their salvation. Such is the company of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.” The thought that came to me is: Do not lose heart; remain strong; don't give up! Don't go after that which is false because you have lost faith in what God is not doing. Again I say, ‘The Entrance into the Temple ' is the title of Psalm 24 in my Bible and I believe that the Lord is calling us into His temple. I believe that the Lord has been calling us into His temple for each of the last several weeks. He is, I believe, saying, “O yes, lift up your heads, O gates; be lifted up!” He has opened the doors into His temple; and He is asking us to remain strong and faithful, not to lose faith, and not to be afraid, as we enter His temple.

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