Inspired Word - February 27, 2008

INSPIRED WORD

February 27, 2008

PROPHECY / EXHORTATION

“…will soar with you, Your Spirit leads me on in the power of Your love.” This reminds of what Saint Therese of the Child Jesus said, “I am like a little bird and I cannot soar into the heights, but my Lord comes down with His giant eagle wings. He spreads them out and I, the little bird, climb on and He takes me soaring with Him.” I believe that is what the Lord is asking us to do tonight. I think there are many of us here that feel like little birds, but the Lord says, “Tonight I come down, I come and I spread My big eagle wings and I say to you, ‘Little bird, climb on, climb on and soar in the power of My love.'”

CONFIRMATION

I have to confirm what Barb just said because I just watched that movie about Saint Therese today.

PROPHECY / EXHORTATION / SCRIPTURE

….when we were singing earlier, and as CeCe had said that we are the Body of Christ, I had this amazing sense of looking at each person here and seeing the Presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit was saying, “I am here; I am right here next to you. I am around.all of you.” Many of you have heard my story of how the Lord touched me in a very special miraculous way. But I am really feeling a sense from the Holy Spirit that there is someone here tonight who needs to hear that, so I am going to share it again. When I was going through the Life in the Spirit seminar here at Holy Apostles Church a few years ago, I had gone back to my seat and I was praying. All of a sudden, Jesus was right before me and He was clothed in white. He had His arms outstretched to me. I would like you to close your eyes and try to imagine this because it is so hard to put into words, and yet I know that the Lord wants you to feel it tonight. He is standing in front of you; He is smiling and His arms are outstretched. He tilts His head and without really saying anything, He beckons you to come into His arms. He is beckoning you to come to Him, to hold Him; He wants to hold you. When this happened to me I was weeping and felt so unworthy. And yet the Lord held me and said, Oh, My precious child”, and He spoke my name. He poured out, in that moment, His amazing unconditional love to me and He is doing that same thing for you right now. He loves you regardless of, in spite of, it doesn't matter what has been before. He loves you now and will forever, no matter what. That is what He is pouring out upon you, holding you as your father may have held you, and as your mother may have held you. But He is pouring out so much more than any kind of human love we can grasp on this earth. It is so amazing and unconditional, all powerful and all loving! He wants you to know tonight that He loves you! He loves you where you are and whatever you have done, He loves you! He has given me this Scripture to share with you tonight. Romans 8: 28 – 39: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all – how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against God's chosen ones? It is God Who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus Who died, rather was raised, Who also is at the right hand of God, Who indeed intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we face death all day; 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 powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

CONFIRMATION / PROPHECY / EXHORTATION

There have been several snatches of phrases that the Lord has been giving me. It is a confirmation to what has happened so far. The Lord wants us to know, as was spoken in Scripture, that He loves us so, so much and that He wants us to know the real depth of it. He wants us to have this sense of freedom to soar like an eagle with His Holy Spirit and to drop the burdens because they are not ours to keep. Yes, they are there, but His yoke is easy and His burden is light. “It is not by My might nor by My power,” says the Lord, “but by My Holy Spirit.” The freedom is in surrendering, especially those things that we have no control over anyway. We worry, we fret, we stomp our feet and say, “Why God?” He has a plan; the Lord says, “I will be faithful to you! I, Who have started a good thing in you will be faithful.” And sometimes that means that we have to go through the valleys of life because He is making us and honing us into holy people, into people who are on a path with Him. Sometimes we just have these raw edges and they have to be trimmed. It is like a vine that is growing out of control. But like the vine that is trimmed properly, God is honing and refining us in that same way. He wants us to know that sense of freedom, I can't even put it into words. He wants me to encourage all of you to drop those burdens. Pray, pray, pray!! Let go and let God!! I know that this sounds trite, but it does work! When we are holding on to our burdens so tightly, we can't open our hands to the love and to the freedom that He has. If we are to do something about it, He will let us know; He will guide us, He will protect us; He will give us the words, otherwise, we are just to be in peace with Him. He doesn't want our heads to drop with our burdens; He wants us to look up to Him and to believe His promises. And what I do is keep reminding Him of His promises. God's Word is true and He is always faithful! I encourage you to pray for that sense of freedom, to pray that your hands will be open to Him, so that you will receive that love from Him. It is not a one time thing, we have to surrender to Him over and over again, to the greatness of Who our God is and to the great love He has for each of us!!

SHARING

I was blessed to experience that great love today. Sometimes we have days in which we feel that the world is beating us down, and other times we have very good days where the power and the grace of God are really working in our lives. I heard “Body of Christ” twice and that is what is on my heart today. I went on a retreat today with some Sophomores and the topics were love, relationships and sexuality. It was such a blessing that so many things came together – the speakers that came to help out – it really was watching the Body of Christ in action. They are so gifted. There was a time during the retreat in which the boys were separated from the girls. There were four speakers there – two men talking to the boys and two women talking to the girls. These speakers were sharing their vulnerability, their brokenness, their journey, and their conquering. Someone spoke earlier here of conquering, we conquer in Christ. It was so awesome to see these young people being edified by such gifted adults. I wanted to share that with you; it was such a great blessing to see this. I think that you and I are being called to be that same blessing to others. The awesome thing about this is that we can do it in our own brokenness. It is not easy to get up in front of many people and wear your heart on your sleeve, but we can do it in God's grace and strength. There are young people out there who are hungry for the Lord and who are seeking for the Lord; they don't do it perfectly, but neither do we as adults. They are allowing God to work through them.

CONFIRMATION

I want to confirm what Michael just said and also the Scripture that Sheila was inspired to read. I was sitting back at the cross while we sang that last song. All of the Apostles are up there on plaques surrounding the cross. I was meditating on each of them and God was bringing to mind the “biggies” of the Bible like King David, Moses, and Apostle Paul. Then I heard CeCe say, “We are the Body of Christ now.” That really hit me! We ARE the Body of Christ now! It is up to us to receive His mercy and love and it is up to us to make sure others do too. We can't do it by ourselves; we are not capable of that job, but if we allow God in us, we can then do it. We will do it through Him and we will do it together.

SCRIPTURE / SHARING

Psalm 69: 30 – 31: “ But I am afflicted and in pain; let Your saving help, O God, protect me. I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify Him with thanksgiving.” We all have our own pains and afflictions and different struggles. About a week and a half ago, I passed out in church and was sent to the hospital. I praise God and I thank you all for all of our prayers from this group and from the group at Saint Patrick's Church. It turned out that my problem wasn't anything serious. I felt such peace during this time because I knew that I had my prayer community and that Body of Christ with me and praying for me. Just remember that God is with us, no matter what we are going through in our lives.

TONGUES

INTERPRETATION

You are beautiful to Me, My sweet, sweet children! I will tell you again - My love and mercy for you are real and they are deep. My love and mercy are here now. It is like a sweet, sweet fragrance falling upon you now. Breathe it in! Breathe in My love and mercy; believe it, for it is real! You are My Body on earth - it is you! Take My love and mercy out, that it may rain down on others like it rains down upon you now. I love you!! You are beautiful, My sweet, sweet children!

PROPHECY / EXHORTATION

…..the Lord told us everything tonight in just those few words – regardless of, in spite of, and it doesn't matter. Then He says, “O, that My people would listen to Me!” If we listen to Him and we hear those words – regardless of, in spite of, it doesn't matter – it gives us a whole new perspective of where we need to go with the rest of this journey in Lent. The Lord isn't telling us to simply come here , but to COME; TO COME AND BE BEFORE HIM. He showers us with His mercy, His forgiveness and His love. We have to open our hands and our hearts to Him. If we don't hold so tightly onto our burdens and the things that drag us down, then we can come to Him.

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