Inspired Word June 27, 2007

INSPIRED WORD

June 27, 2007

SENSE / EXHORTATION

....in the Holy Spirit. And when we were singing that song, we really were praying; we really were asking God to let us not only be in that river, but to move in it, in the direction that God has for us. I immediately thought of a little boat. So often when I am on a little boat, I am in the river of life, but I am holding on to those oars trying to go the way I want to go in the river of life. I don't know if that is true for you, but I think God is saying to us, “Put those oars down. Put those oars down! I know the way I want you to flow in this river. I have told you this night that I have new things in mind.” Those new things are different for each one of us. It might be that you will step out of that boat, flow with the river and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It might be that you will share a Scripture that God has put on your heart. It might be that you will speak that word of Prophecy that God gives to you. It might be that you will be quiet, or that you will jump or do something unexpected. Just drop the oars and trust God in that river and freely flow with it.

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 62: 6 - 8: He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. Trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.

SHARING / EXHORTATION

We all know that we have a mighty God. I just want to praise Him, because a couple of weeks ago my heart was heavy for my little nephew who is a little over 3 years old. He was diagnosed with a type of Autism. His parents were, at first, in denial. I put all three of them on our prayer list. You know, there is nothing too great for God and the little children will lead them. I think many of us, early on, before the Lord got a hold of us, were in the things of the world. I know I was - the control, the worry, and wanting things. This beautiful young couple was caught up in that too. This child has this disability that God could heal at any time, but he has a purpose in life. They are now going to church and they are getting their child the help that he needs. I just praise God for that! I know his mother (my sister) has never given up. Don't ever give up on your children! I prayed for years for my son who was involved in addictions and other things. I prayed and prayed, and cried and prayed, and kicked and prayed, but I continued to pray. His last addiction was cigarettes. I am a Radiology Tech and for years I preached against those things. He stopped all the drugs from years ago when his little daughter was born and he conquered cigarettes. He has not had any cigarettes now since March – he quit cold turkey. In my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined that, yet I trusted a God Whom I knew could do all things. I knew that He Who began a good work in us, whether it is children who are going the wrong direction, whether it is a spouse, whether it is us, will be faithful to complete it to the end. So I praise God for what He has done and what He is continuing to do! I just want to give you that hope – never stop praying! A good example is Monica, who prayed continually for her son, Augustine and he became one of the great doctors of the Church. He was a real renegade and a very immoral person, and yet God turned him around and made him great - great, not for the world, but great for the Lord! We now benefit from Saint Augustine's teachings. So don't lose heart, but just pray and pray and be persistent. The rewards from God may not be or look the way we think it should be, but He does all things in His ways and His time, not ours.

PROPHECY

I say it is I Who have called you by name to this place. I do speak of new things, but the new things that I speak of now are the things that I wish to do in you. I wish to do a new thing in your hearts, in your minds, in your wills. You have come to Me and asked Me many times, “What is it, Lord? What is it that You would have me do to draw closer to You?” And I say to you now, “Just allow Me to work in your lives. Trust Me with just a little bit more and watch the great and wonderful new things that I will do.”

CONFIRMATION / WORD OF KNOWLEDGE

I would like to confirm that. The Lord has revealed to me that there is someone, at least one person here tonight, who is struggling and it is in an area of unforgiveness. You have prayed and prayed and you have tried, but you just can't seem to forgive. The Lord is beckoning you to drop the oars and to walk on the water, to trust Him as Peter trusted, to keep your eyes on the Lord and to ask Him to see that person with His eyes, to forgive that person in at least your mind, saying, “Lord, I forgive that person! I don't feel like it and I don't know how to get there, but I trust that You are doing a new thing and that You are going to have this burden cast aside for me.” The Lord wants you to know that you are not unlovable; and that even though you have been deeply hurt and He has seen it, He loves you and He wants to take that burden off your shoulders. Unforgiveness is like that bitter root that goes deep inside of us; it really isn't hurting the other person, it harms us who are in unforgiveness. It keeps us at arm's length from the Lord. We feel guilty and unworthy, but the Lord says, “Put your trust in Me; you are worthy! Trust that I am doing a new thing in you! Allow Me to make it real in your heart! I love your heart and I love that you come to Me. I will do it.”, says the Lord!

TEACHING

All day yesterday and today, the last part of a prayer that we were asked to pray four years ago (and I have mentioned it before), has been going over and over in my mind. It says, Let Your Presence be made manifest to Your people and in Your glory we may be changed.” When Barb spoke awhile ago, the Lord really touched me, because the Lord said, “I want to start a new thing, but I want to start it in you.” We can pray all we want about God's Presence being made manifest and God is always faithful, but that “change” part is us. What has been spoken about earlier is true, because when God comes to change me, I say, “No, God, not that! You can change me, God, and I want Your Presence here, but not that, Lord. O God, You are asking me to speak? I have never spoken like that before, Lord; no, not that! You are asking me to read a Scripture, Lord? I have never read one before! You are asking me to encourage someone, Lord? I don't know how, let somebody else do that! Not me, Lord!” The Lord has been telling us that He is doing a new thing and He has told us the same thing again tonight. But if we don't allow Him do that, if we keep saying, “No, not that, Lord”, then we are not letting God change us. Tonight again, I want to repeat what the Lord said, “I want to do a new thing in you!” When we pray for God's Presence to be made manifest, so that in His glory we may be changed, then God does His part, and we need to do our part in allowing ourselves to be changed. Then we allow that manifestation to truly enter into us, so that God can change us according to His plan.

[A version of this prayer is: “Holy Spirit, come into my life with the power of a mighty wind. Renew in my days Your miracles, as of a New Pentecost. Help me to grow in holiness by spending time daily in prayer, by reading Your Word in Scripture, by being obedient to Your promptings and to Your Will, by receiving the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist, and by avoiding sin. Let Your Presence be experienced by me and all others so that Your glory may be manifest to us and in Your Presence we may be changed.]

SENSE / EXHORTATION

.... that word is “tight.” It is as if we hold something very, very tightly and we don't want to let it go. The Lord is saying, “I can help you! I can help you! I can give you My grace to allow you to open and to let it go. Don't clutch it so tightly; allow Me to help you loosen your hands and loosen your grip that you have on this.” I don't know what this thing is, it differs with each one of us, I am sure. But it is something that we clutch so tightly to us that we don't want to let it go. And Jesus says, “I can help you to give it up, to drop it and let it go. My grace is here for you; ask Me and I will help you, so that you will be more fully Mine.”

SENSE / SCRIPTURE

I think it is a summary of what He has told us tonight in how he wants us to picture Him in this coming week – that He is the great Shepherd, the One Who is going to take care of us, the One Who is going to meet all of our needs, the One Who is going to bring us to good grazing ground, the One Who is going to take care of us in the dark days, the cloudy days and the stormy days of our lives. Ezekiel 34:11 – 16, 25 – 31: He says, “I Myself will look after and tend My sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend My sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I will lead them out from among the peoples and gather them from the foreign lands; I will bring them back to their own country and pasture them upon the mountains of Israel. In good pastures will I pasture them, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing ground. There they shall lie down on good grazing ground, and in rich pastures shall they be pastured on the mountains of Israel. I Myself will pasture My sheep; I Myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal. I will make a covenant of peace with them, and rid the country of ravenous beasts, that they may dwell securely in the desert and sleep in the forests. I will place them about My hill, sending rain in due season, rains that shall be a blessing to them. The trees of the field shall bear their fruits, and the land its crops, and they shall dwell securely on their own soil. Thus they shall know that I am the Lord when I break the bonds of their yoke and free them from the power of those who enslaved them. Thus they shall know that I, the Lord, am their God, and they are My people, the house of Israel, says the Lord God. You, My sheep, you are the sheep of My pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God.” The Lord says that He will break the bonds of their yoke and free them from the power of those who enslaved them. From everything that enslaves us, from every fear, from any hindrance, from everything that holds us back from raising our voices and praising God, He says that He will free us, He will pasture us, He will take care of us, He will send rains in due season and the trees shall bear their fruits, and He will give us the good grazing ground – if only we believe! If only we have faith! If only we expect that He will do what He says in His Word!

CONFIRMATION

I want to confirm that, because as we were praying and praising the Lord, I kept hearing: 'You are battered, you are beaten, you are hurt, you have no hope. But then He says, “But I am your hope! I am your life! I will make you new and restore you; I will give you salvation and I will give you grace, I will give you mercy and love. I am your hope!”

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