Inspired Word August 29, 2007

INSPIRED WORD

August 29, 2007

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 100: 2 – 5: ... come before Him with joyful song. Know that the Lord is God. It is He Who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of the pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name. For the Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever, and His faithfulness to all generations.

SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 6: 11 – 18: Put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God that you may be able to resist on the evil day, and having done everything, to hold your ground. So stand fast, with loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as the breastplate, and your feet shod in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith as a shield to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. At every opportunity pray in the Spirit, using prayers and petitions of every sort.

CONFIRMATION

SENSE / PROPHECY

There was a confirmation of that Scripture and just as it was being read, I just had a sense that that is exactly what the Lord is doing for us right now. As we come deeper into His Presence and realize that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, the Lord says, “I will indeed cloth you with all of the armor, so that you will be able to withstand and walk forward; to go higher and deeper, and then come to know Me more and be able to take My love to those out there where the battle is.”

PRAYER

O Jesus, strengthen Your people! O Jesus, we love You!

TEACHING / EXHORTATION

….. the Lord. But that can be in Scripture, but it doesn't have to be. It could be as simple as a sentence, or as eloquent as a song. What is the Lord saying to your hearts? What is He saying to His people in this community? He has no voice but your voice. Do not be afraid to share His Word with the world, starting here and now. Do not put a lamp shade over that light bulb; do not hide the moon in an eclipse, but let the Son shine through you in His Words, in His love and in His sense. He has no voice but your voice to speak His Word to His people.

CONFIRMATION / PRAYER

I want to confirm the words that CeCe has just spoken to us. What came into my mind was the word: prophecy, prophecy, prophecy. That is the Word of the Lord coming to us tonight. The Lord wants to speak to us tonight. Let's be open to His Words! We incline our ears, O God; speak, O Lord!

SENSE

I feel that what is coming to me is: Love Me.

PROPHECY

Yes, My people, saturate yourselves in My love; My love runs rich, deep and warm for you. My love for you is like an anointing. Get anointed in My love!

PROPHECY

Find My peace in you!

SHARING

I wanted to come up here a few minutes ago, but I had to think about what I was experiencing. I want to confirm God's love. I did feel a strong sense of His love here and I haven't felt it in a while. I think I had mentioned to Chuck that with everything that has happened, with the sickness and stuff, it has been very hard to pray. There were times previously that I could worship in Prayer Tongues and feel the Holy Spirit. So it has been a long time since I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I recently received an email from my dad about Mother Teresa and some of her writings about her spiritual darkness. I then realized that that is what I was going through. I just felt like I had to share this with everyone here. We have to remember that He doesn't forget us, even in times of darkness. Thank you!

PRAYER

In the midst of the darkness, You are there with us, O Lord. Deepen our trust in You!

CONFIRMATION

I want to confirm that word ‘trust'. As I was praying, I kept hearing the words, “Trust Me, trust Me! I know that you are afraid, but trust Me!”

SCRIPTURE

Ephesians 3: 17 – 20: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to Him Who is able to do measurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

TEACHING

This is a love story of the utmost kind. If you read the Old Testament, it doesn't always feel like a love story – there is an awful lot of smiting going on. But it was kind of a rough time, it was a rough people, and a rough culture, and there was a lot of smiting going on. God met the people of Israel where they were in their culture, in their time, in their roughness and He started a courtship. He said, “I am your God, you are My people. Love Me, I love you!” Then they would fall away and He would call them back and say,
”I am your God, you are My people. Love Me, I love you.” Each time He came back and each time He met them where they were and He made the promise bigger. He started with an individual, Adam, and then He went on to a community, a family, a tribe with Abraham and Isaac. Each time He shows up with one of the key people in the Old Testament and the promise becomes bigger. From a nation to the world, to the Gentiles, to everybody. By the time Jesus arrived, it wasn't just about the tribe of Israel or the person of Adam or the person of Abraham; it was about the whole world, Jew and Greek alike, Gentile or Jew, it didn't matter. He wanted all to be part of His promise, part of His covenant. With His arms opened wide, in the person of Jesus, He said, “I am your God; you are My people. Love Me, I love you!” Then He sent His Spirit and let Himself become a part of us in the grandest fulfillment of a promise that He began at the very beginning. That is what we celebrate here tonight and every day of our lives. Through our Baptism it is becoming, not committed to the promise with the active words, but part of the promise by allowing God to live in us. That is the miracle; that is the mystery that is what allows us to go further up and further in; it is not the thing in our hearts and our heads that says that I am going to commit to God now because we are going to fall. Every time we say that we are going to commit to God, that we are going to pray more, that we are going to read my Bible more, we get so focused on what we are going to do. But get ready for a fall because it is going to happen. Grace, the Holy Spirit, Baptism and the sacraments all say it is not about you. Jesus says, ”Do your part to the best of your ability and then do it some more. But lean on Me and let Me do My part; let Me give you the strength and the grace to find the time.” Prayer time can be most anywhere if the Lord is with you. It is still important to have the quiet time so that you can hear because that is when we hear the best. Whatever your quiet time is, it is important to call the Lord into it with you. That is how you fan the flame of the Spirit that is in your heart. Then we don't get so hung up on the guilt of failing in what we were trying to do. It is not about guilt, it is about relationship, it is about love, and love isn't about guilt. It is about asking the most from you and giving even more to you – that is love; that is the God we serve when we worship and praise. From the very beginning all the way into the future, He is saying, “I am your God, you are My people. Love Me, I love you!”

SENSE / PROPHECY

Through CeCe's sharing and even before that, I kept hearing, “I choose you! Do you choose Me?” As a lover would choose who they wish to be with, as our God has chosen Whom He wants to be with – we are all chosen people. God has chosen us and He is now asking, “Do you choose Me?”

SCRIPTURE

From Exodus 3 we hear this everlasting God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of My people; I have heard their cry. Indeed I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them. But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you' and they ask me His name, what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.'” God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, sent me to you': This is My name forever and this is My title for all generations.” Tonight the Lord said the same to us, “I have observed your misery, I have heard your cry and I know your sufferings. I have come down to deliver you; for I AM WHO I AM and I am here among you.” (verses 7 – 8, 13 – 15)

SCRIPTURE

Psalm 139: 1 – 18: O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar; You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in , behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your Presence? If I go to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You. For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with You.

PRAYER OVER AN INDIVIDUAL IN PROXY FOR HER SISTER

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