Inspired Word April 19, 2006

INSPIRED WORD

APRIL 19, 2006

SCRIPTURE / PRAYER

.....worship and praise the Lord tonight. Let us remember what it says in Psalm 22(:3): “You are holy, O Lord, and You are enthroned on the praises of Israel.” He is enthroned on the praises of His people and as we give praise to our Lord, He comes and sits among us. Enthroned upon our praises, to meet us in this place. So we lift up our voices to praise You, O Lord.

SHARING

Brothers and sisters, the Lord has asked me to share a couple of insights with you. If you are not familiar with insights, they may not be for everybody. But if they are for you, the words will burn within your heart and you will feel the resonance within you. The first insight I got was on the Monday following Easter. That word was 'God formed us, sin deformed us, and Jesus transforms us.' The other insight I had received ten years ago; you can't forget these things. I was driving in my car and it was pouring rain and the Lord said to me, “Are you getting wet? Are you going from point A to point B?” And I had to answer, “Yes.” The rain was really pouring down on the windshield. He said, “Why are you concerned with the storms of life?” But over the past few weeks and months, I had forgotten that. Here at this prayer meeting, there were those who got up to ask for prayer because they had lost a baby, or they were fighting cancer and this had troubled me. I kept asking, “Lord, why, why, why?” This morning He gave me the rest of the message from ten years ago. He said, “I never promised to shield you from the storms of life, but I did promise to be your shelter in the storms of life. So if those are for you, those words will resonate within you. Amen.

CONFIRMATION

I would like to confirm Barbara's words from a few minutes ago because the Lord has been telling me that He is exalted on our praises and He sits on our praises. So I think we are definitely pleasing our Lord here tonight.

CONFIRMATION

I confirm, too, what Barbara had spoken about earlier - that our Lord is enthroned on our praises. I am sensing a very, very heavy anointing of the Spirit of the Lord here tonight. The thing that has been echoing in my heart is that when the Spirit of the Lord comes, He comes to heal; He comes to set people free; He comes to give new life; He comes to lift the burdens; He comes to bring joy and He comes to bring hope. We have to thank our Lord for so many things. He has done such a marvelous work for us on the cross. The thing that has kept burning within me is this: accept and receive and fan into flames whatever gift the Lord is giving you.

SCRIPTURE

Revelation 7: 11-17: And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “Sir, you are the one that knows.” Then he said to me, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and worship Him day and night within His temple, and the One Who is seated on the throne will shelter them. They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and He will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 12:1-3: Yahweh, You were angry with me, but Your anger is appeased and You have given me consolation. See now, He is the God of my salvation. I have trust now and no fear. For Yahweh is my Strength and my song; He is my salvation. You shall draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation.

SCRIPTURE / PRAYER

Luke 15:18-20: “I will get up and go to my father and say, 'Father, I have sinned against God and against you; I am no longer fit to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired workers.' So he got up and started back to his father. He was still a long way from home when his father saw him; his heart was filled with pity. The father ran to him and put his arms around him and kissed him.” O Father, You look upon Your children and You forgive all of their transgressions, all of their sins, as they turn and come to you. And not only Father, do You open Your arms to receive, but Your heart is moved toward us and You come toward us, Father; You come toward us from the throne of Your glory; You come toward us with Your arms wide open. You run toward us, Father, and You embrace us and throw Your arms around us and You kiss us and You take us to Yourself. O Father, thank You for Your love; O Father, thank You for Your mercy and Your forgiveness. O Father, thank You!

PROPHECY / PRAYER

As I prayed the last two songs that the Music Ministry was playing for us, I thought about the words. It is amazing that this God became man only because He loves us. In our sinfulness sometimes we can't accept that love. I have asked the question, “Lord, how can You love me so much?” No matter what I do to You, You still died, and You rose again. The amazing thing is that not only did He do it, but He continues to do it. He comes here and He says to each of us, “I love you; I love you, My beloved ones. I love you not because of what you do; I love you because you are. I died for you once and again I would die for you. There is nothing that you have done and nothing that you will do that would keep My love away from you. I come now, My beloved ones, to ask of you only one thing, that you love Me as I love you. Open your hearts to Me; think not of what you have done; think not of your unworthiness; think not that you have strayed or not of the distractions, the concerns or the problems; only one thing, My beloved ones, hear the words in your hearts. I love you and I call you to Me. I ask You, as I have run to you, will you run to Me? Will you reach out with open arms and say, 'Hear I am, Father! I strayed from You, but here I am; I love you because You have loved me. Though I am unworthy and sinful, I love You and I come to You because You call me.'” Thank You, Father! Thank You, my beloved Jesus! It is amazing and I don't understand, but I accept and I say, “Take me, Father, take me as I am and transform me, that I may be what You want me to be.”

PRAYER

Lord, we stand immersed in Your great love, and Your holy Presence just surrounds us. Your hand reaches out, O God, to meet the needs of Your people, to strengthen, to heal and to enable forgiveness. Lord, we ask You now, to begin to touch hearts here, individual hearts, of those whom You call for special prayer this evening. Lord, we want it to be You Who touches our hearts, we want it to be You Who makes the call. So, Spirit of the Living God, we ask You to begin to touch hearts here; to let the people know who they are; let them know who You are calling to come for special prayer.

SCRIPTURE

Acts 5:17-21: Then the high priest rose up and all of His supporters, the party of the Sadducees, filled with jealousy, arrested the apostles and had them put in the common jail. But during the night, the angel of the Lord opened the prison gates, led them out and said, “Go, stand in the temple, and tell the people all about this new life.” They did as they were told. They went into the temple at dawn and began to teach again.

SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 3:14 -21: When I think of the wisdom and the scope of God's plan I fall down on my knees and I pray to the God and the Father of us all that out of His glorious and unlimited resources He will give you the mighty inner strengthening of His Holy Spirit. And I pray that Jesus be more and more at home in your hearts, living within in you as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and to understand, as all God's children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high His love really is; and may you experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great you will never see the end of it nor fully understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God Himself. Now glory be to God Who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of - infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes. May He be given glory forever and ever through His master plan of salvation for us, His Church, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 43:18-21: Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. Wild beasts honor Me, jackals and ostriches, for I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for My chosen people to drink, the people who I formed for Myself that they might announce My praise.

EXHORTATION

....with the touch that I have touched you, now you touch others. He has told us tonight that He is the shelter for us in the storms. He is that shelter for us; He heals us, He frees us, He holds us and He gives us joy. Then He told us in no uncertain terms that He loves us because we are. The challenge is to think about that - to think about who we think we are and then to remember that God isn't thinking about that. He says, “I love you because you are.”

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