Inspired Word - June 11, 2008

INSPIRED WORD

June 11, 2008

SCRIPTURE / PRAYER

The Samaritan woman said, “How can you ask me for a drink?” Jesus answered, “If you only knew what God gives, and Who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would ask Him and He would give you life giving water.” (John 4: 7 – 10) O Jesus, sometimes in our jugs we carry those things that prevent them from holding the life giving water that You have for us. O Jesus, help us to pour out, to take out, to tear out those things in our water jar that prevent the life giving water from being poured forth in it. O Jesus, help us to let go of those things, help us to pour them out onto the ground. O Jesus, in that empty space, we ask You to give us that life giving water, that living water, that Holy Spirit that flows through us to heal and to bring life. O Jesus, Your living water, O Jesus, Your living water flowing through us, O Jesus, help us to make space!

SCRIPTURE

This is from the Lord for all of us. Revelation 3: 20 – 21 : “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with Me. To the one who conquers I will give a place with Me on My Throne, just as I Myself conquered and sat down with My Father on His Throne.” The Lord is giving us the invitation; He is knocking at the door and asking us to invite Him in.

CONFIRMATION

I have to confirm that. As I was writing in my journal and we sang the song with the lines “Step by step”, many times I say, “Yes, Lord, I want to come, but I want to be better before I come. I don't want to come with all of my warts and wrinkles and I don't want to come before You, Lord, because You are so wonderful and You love me so much. I will come and I will really surrender when I get better.” He is at the door, knocking, and He says, “I want you right now just the way you are with all of your warts, with al of your wrinkles, with all of your faults. And together, step by step, you will become the person that I want you to be.” So if the Lord is knocking at the door, He means you ! He doesn't ask you to lose five pounds, look a little better, or to use a special cream. He says, “I love you and I made you just the way you are, so come right now.”

CONFIRMATION

I confirm that too because when we had one of our opening songs “Unto the House, O Lord”, which is a really old song, I had an epiphany about how marvelous the words “I rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.'” If you have been in a school and a student has been called into the office, there is not a whole lot of rejoicing that goes on. That student is called to the room of authority. I have had that image about that military sense and God being our ruler and leader, and He has called us into His Presence. How magnificent that we can say, “I rejoice in the Presence of our God!” As Laura said, our testimony is about our relationship and we can rejoice because we know that no matter what we have done, it is about Who He is and that He called us and He stands there and knocks. So we rejoice just to be asked to come into His Presence!

CONFIRMATION

One more confirmation – from Romans 8: 35 – 39: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SHARING
In regards to what was said earlier about not feeling worthy, I think that is one of the things which really hold me back the most. There were seven of us when we were growing up and my Mom used to always brag about me and I used to feel so embarrassed and so unworthy. I used to think that if she only knew all of the things that a Mom doesn't really know, that she wouldn't quite feel that way. But God knows everything about us and He loves us anyway just the way we are. It brings to mind as to what it says in the Bible about Jesus came to save the sinners, not the Pharisees or those that thought they were closer to God than anyone else. So I have to really try not to let my feelings of unworthiness get in the way.

CONFIRMATION

I want to give confirmation of an earlier Scripture that was shared in Romans 8 – “what can separate us from the love of God?” Sometimes stuff comes up in our lives and you look up at God and you say, “Alright, Lord, what are you going to do about this situation?” It is as if there is something bigger than God, but there is not! Someone in this Prayer Meeting said one time, “Don't tell God how big your troubles are; tell your troubles how big your God is!” When you read the Romans 8 verses, it really hit me. I came in here tonight, saying, “Alright, God, what about this one?” I praise the power of His grace and His love and His words that come through the people here in this Prayer Meeting to remind us that we follow a God of tremendous grace and mercy and power! He takes us right where we are at, wrinkles, warts and all; in troubles that seem insurmountable, and says, “I am your God! Tell your troubles how big I am!” I don't know how many of you listen to Pastor Ron Vietti on the radio, but he says some good thing sometimes. It is about just following in obedience. They were in Las Vegas and they were ministering to people on the streets. They were asking the Lord to lead them to the people that they were supposed to witness to and it was a powerful story. It convicted me because I said, “Gosh, Lord, if I were in Las Vegas I would probably be at the gambling tables or the slots. Yet here are Your people ministering and touching souls on the streets for Jesus Christ.” That is when I realized that there is still so much in my life that is still about me and not enough about Him. It reminds me of John the Baptist, who said, “He must increase and I must decrease.” ( John 3:30) So maybe I will put that as a challenge to you as well. This God Who loves us helps us to step into that challenge; He helps us to step into obedience, grace and trust. My heart was low when I came in here tonight, but God touched it through your words. That is just proof positive of the power of the Holy Spirit working in His people for the greater glory of God and for His Son Jesus Christ Whom we follow. Nothing, as has been said, can separate us from Him and His love! He takes us right where we are!

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