Inspired Word June13,2007

INSPIRED WORD

June 13, 2007

EXHORTATION

He deserves our praise! He deserves everything we can give Him – our hearts, our minds, our spirits, our very physical beings, so that we can praise Him with abandonment. He is truly the God Who loves us, Who cares for us, and Who is working all things in our lives together for the good for those who love Him. We are here tonight because He loves us and we love Him. So let the love flow and receive His love!

SCRIPTURE

Hagaii 2: 6-9: This is what the Lord Almighty says, “...in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all the nations will come in, and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord Almighty. The silver is Mine, the gold is Mine, declares the Lord Almighty. The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house, says the Lord Almighty; and in this place I will grant peace, declares the Lord Almighty!” ....but what is going to happen now can be even greater; we will be even greater, that was God's promise!

SCRIPTURE

....angels and the saints who even now stand in Heaven singing that praise and glory. In Revelation 5: 11-14: Again I looked and I heard angels, thousands and millions of them. They stood around the throne and the four living creatures and the elders. They sang in a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb, Who was slain, to receive power, wealth, wisdom, and strength, honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in Heaven, on earth and under the earth, and on the sea, and everything in the universe, singing: “To Him Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor, glory and might, forever and ever.” The four living creatures answered, “Amen”, and the elders fell down and worshiped.

IMAGE

....It was kind of dark, but not totally dark. It was open and full, where you can just fully release yourself. Then walk into the light; that is the last image I got. It kind of felt like outer space, like stars or something – I guess maybe free just like the universe.

EXHORTATION

...to place our troubles, our weaknesses, the things that we are struggling with, the situations concerning other people that we are struggling with, and to embrace that cross; to be one with Him at the cross. Yes, He died in a moment of time, two thousand years ago, for our sins, but Jesus is everlasting and His love goes on and on; and we get to participate in that moment at the cross here and now. Like at the moment of Pentecost, like the moment of any unity with the Trinity, when we step into that moment in space that is the Lord, we are in the present now, at that present moment. It is not past and it is not future, it is right now. We can unite our sufferings with His sufferings. Our sufferings become redemptive with His sufferings. It is one of the greatest gifts He has given us because we do have troubles and challenges; we do have hard, hard days. It is in the hard days or in the hard moments of the hard days that we can embrace the cross. We can hug Jesus on the cross and say, “God, this hurts really, really bad and I can't make it go away, but I can make it one with You!” It gives it meaning, it gives it value. The best part about this is if we can unite with Him on the cross, He takes it from us, but we have to give it to Him, we have to totally surrender it to Him first.

EXHORTATION

The Spirit of the Lord flows upon the waters of your life, there is stillness and holiness of heart. This is the place that is before the throne of God and your place in your mind can be a quiet forest, at the cross, maybe in a church, maybe in your home. Everybody has a special place where they go and meet God – that most quiet place. It is where He comes often to meet you. That place is unique for each person, because you are a unique child of God. He loves you more than you can imagine. Don't be afraid of that place; don't be afraid to sit with Him; in the quiet of your bedroom, at the kitchen table, in a rocking chair on the front porch or in the back yard, it doesn't matter. Just find your special place and let Him sit and talk with you. He is your friend; He wants to be your friend. Friends spend time together, they enjoy each other's company. The gift He has given us is His friendship, His fatherhood, His brotherhood. He calls the apostles His friends, because a friend knows what the master is about.

PRAYER

.....whoever believes in Me should drink, whoever is thirsty should come to Me. Whoever believes in Me should drink, whoever is thirsy should come to Me. Whoever believes in Me should drink, whoever is thirsty should come to Me. Lord, create that thirst in us, our thirst for You. O God, let us drink deep of Your Presence! O Lord, let us be thirsty for You, hungry for You, Lord, and let us drink deep of Your Presence. O God, help us! Whoever is thirsty should come to Me, whoever believes in Me should drink!

PROPHECY

....a God of deep things. I am deeply mysterious, but I also deeply reveal Myself to you. Right now, I reveal My deep compassion, My deep mercy, My deep forgiveness, My deep love, and My deep healing to you. Come to My waters; come into the depth and receive. Come into the deepness and receive!

CONFIRMATION / SCRIPTURE

A few minutes ago, when Cece asked us to look into our hearts and welcome the Lord, I invited the Lord into my heart. Once He was there, I felt ashamed because He could see everything that I was. I didn't know what to feel, so I looked through my Bible and I found something that I think confirms what you had said, Laura. It is in Jeremiah 31:31-34: The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke My covenant, and I had to show Myself their Master, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will place My law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God and they will be My people. No longer will they have Me to teach their friends and kinsmen how to know the Lord. All, from the least to the greatest, shall know Me, says the Lord, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.

TEACHING

The words to this prayer are familiar; we have done this song before, but not for awhile. I just want to take a minute to talk about it before we sing it because it has several layers of meaning. The words are: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound; amazing love, now flowing down from hand and feet that were nailed to the tree; grace flows down and covers me. It covers me, it covers me.” The first part of that meaning is exactly what it says, that God's grace just comes down upon us like water; it washes away everything. It hides sin, but just doesn't hide sin, it washes it, it cleanses it and makes it clean. So in some ways this song is: “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound; amazing love now flowing down from Jesus' hands and feet that were nailed to the tree.” As we talked about earlier, we are nailed there with Him, if we choose to be. His grace flows down and transforms me, it changes me, it cleans me.

PRAYER OVER INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS BACK PAIN DUE TO BULGING DISC

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