Lyrics of 12/15

Listening to a Kari Jobe playlist while studying for finals, I kept hearing encouragement run through my ears.

"Come find peace

everyone needs a little -- rest

everyone needs a little -- joy

and a song to sing in the darkest night.

life -- even when its gets you down

hope -- will turn it all around but

love -- is the greatest of these."

... "Everyone Needs A Little"

"Your mercy and Your grace will be my dwelling place."

... "Joyfully"

"I know that You are for me, I know that You are for me

I know that You will never forsake me in my weaknesses.

I know that You have come now, even if to write upon my heart

to remind me who You are."

... "You Are For Me"

"I'm singing to a God who brings redemption to the nations,

kings and oceans bow to Him in praise.

I'm singing to the God who wrote the book on our salvation,

to the One who covers me in grace I'm singing.

...Only one man took the nails."

... "I'm singing"

"You hold my every moment.

You calm my raging seas.

You walk with me through fire

and heal all my disease.

I trust in You.

Lord, I trust in You.

I believe You're my healer,

I believe You are all need.

I believe You're my portion.

I believe You're more than enough for me.

Jesus You're all I need.

Nothing is impossible for You

Nothing is impossible.

Nothing is impossible for You

You hold my world in Your hands."

... "Healer"

"Healer", by virtually any artist, happens to be my favorite worship song. You can't sing this song, and thus proclaim these words from your heart, without having a change of attitude, reverence and a re-posturing of your heart. If you're not giving the Lord lip service, then listen to what you're saying!

(reiteration of lyrics) He is in my every moment. He brings peace to my storm. He walks with me through refinement. He brings me physical, emotional and spiritual restoration. And knowing what He does as He walks with me in my every moment I say... Jesus, Savior, Father, King! I trust you to heal me and make me whole. I PROCLAIM that You are all I need. Jesus you are my portion! You are abundantly more than enough nourishment for me! I KNOW again Lord, that You are all I need. And proclaiming what you do for me... Father I see that nothing is impossible for You, that with the world in Your hands, I am surrendering to the creator of the universe, of night and day and life in between. I surrender and know that nothing is impossible for You God.

Worshiping the Lord with this song you are doing these three things:

1. Recognizing that He is constantly walking with you & giving what you need in each moment.

2. Proclaiming His place in your life!

3. Understanding He holds power over everything created & thus nothing limits Him.

Once you've gone through this process in worship, you have re-centered the purpose for all your actions, and have placed God as Lord over your life. I hope you too find peace in having God taking His place as Lord over your life.

Mmm.. now there is power in that!!!

Merry (almost) Christmas! & hey, do me a favor. Say a prayer over Tim Tebow today. Pray that he would continue to seek Christ as his strength & continue to fear God and not man.

Whitney

Can I have more of you?

Day 1 of [Manna]: a deeper level of trust- submission

God I love You and all You do,

Your joy lives inside and does me good

Can I have more of You?

Amazing grace how sweet the sound

oh my God You'll never let me down

Can I have more of You?

"Can I Have More of You?" - Kim Walker

This song is a good preface to the next fourteen days for me. Today is the start of a 14 day "fast" of sorts. A fast based on Exodus 16, at which point the Israelites had been led out of imprisonment in Egypt, experiencing true freedom and grace from the Lord after which they responded in selfishness.

"In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, 'If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.'" Exodus 16: 2-3

When I was reading this in August the Lord just burdened my heart. I remember being angry at the Israelites for acting so callous and selfish. I couldn't fathom receiving such a blessing as freedom from slavery and persecution and only a few days later be ungratefully complaining. Through Holy Spirit intervention & revelation I realized that this was a reminder of how quick we are to return to our flesh, and how quickly we so earnestly give our flesh and our sinful nature power, of which our emotions, attitude and actions are a reflection.

Throughout Exodus 16, the Lord daily provides ENOUGH manna in the morning and quail in the evening, straight from Heaven. A daily portion. The Lord said, "I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions." I believe there is much more beyond obedience in this 'test'. Within obedience is a level of trust, and an even deeper level of trust is submission. I believe the Lord was asking the Israelites if they would be satisfied with having Him, with being His people, with having His love, joy and blessings in abundance, or if they would continue to revert to their indulgences in Egypt.

For the next 2 weeks, I am going to run from indulgences, I will fast eating only plain oatmeal and water for 14 days. My prayer and my heart's cry in the midst of this fast is for more of Him! I want to be filled to overflowing with the Lord, I want to be supersaturated(which in Chemistry terms means a solution that contains a higher than concentration) by the Holy Spirit, so that my actions are constantly a reaction of being supersaturated, and thus are rooted in divinity and direction from the Lord.

I want to take you on this journey with me. I can't guarantee to blog everyday, I will certainly try, but I know I will fall a bit short.

My prayer for you, is that the Lord will show you areas in your life that you need to learn submission, areas where you need to hand back to the Lord and be expectant that He will guide the desires of your heart because you want to walk in His plan, and not ask Him to come with you in your own.

James 2:17

:)

My Father's Shadow

This past weekend I went home to Appleton, still my favorite place on earth, to go see my family. Life never ceases to be abundantly full of love and encouragement when I go back to that house on Apple Creek Road.

My dad, who is an avid biker and happens to be training to ride 100 miles for JDRF in August, mentioned he needed to get a 25 mile ride in on Saturday. So I excitedly, and naively, jumped at the opportunity to go with him. As we prepared our bikes, checked the wind speed and direction, got our water and filled our tires with air I was a tad anxious, ready to get on the road. We finally jumped on our bikes and commenced the trek. Not even three miles into the ride and I was panting. I consider myself an active person, but my heart and my lungs were getting a tough work out. At about the fourth mile my dad, his skill and his fancy speed/racer bike got ahead of me pretty good as we coasted down a hill, and when I caught up to him he said with concern, but not inferiority, "Are you tired Whit?" My indignant response, determined to not seem weak, was that I was fine. "If we need to slow down Whit, just say so."

How many times does this happen in our lives? As we prepare for the spiritual wilderness, making sure our lives are tuned and focused in the right direction, and then the moment comes to jump on the bike, into the hardship of life, and almost instantaneously we get weary. How many times does our father in Heaven tell us the same thing my dad said to me, "If we need to slow down Whit, just say so." Daughter/Son, if you're tired, exhausted and you feel weary--tell me. Our God who so compassionately and deeply desires for us to be free in our circumstances so that He can grant us a supernatural confidence that we are safe with Him and loved by Him. All He is asking us to do, is tell Him, confide in Him so that He can bring your heart rest.

We were about halfway, and biking against the gusty wind and hitting some pretty tough hills and my dad saw my exhaustion and offered me rest, "stay within a foot or less of my bike tire that way I break the wind for you so you can ride easier." Selfless.

How can we forget so frequently that close to our Father we find rest? When life and all of it's trials (1 Peter 1:6-7) tend to make us lose sight of our hope can we not hear the Lord telling us, stay close to me and you will find rest, draw near to me and I will draw near to you, though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death I am with you. I don't know about you but man sometimes I need to bike a little closer and let the Lord break the wind. The devil can be so devious, so adamant, so determined to make us fail, to make us insecure and bring out our weaknesses. But we have to know that the Lord is offering to break the wind! He's desiring to take the brute of the pain so we can coast close behind him.

It's not always easy to get within a foot of my dad's tire. It takes extra endurance and strength in the midst of exhaustion go the short distance. But know this, He wants you to be close to Him more than your body aches for the rest you know you'll find. So in that moment, when we need a supernatural bout of strength and we ask the Lord to empower us with courage and perseverance to make it into the rest of His shadow, we will not only be empowered to get there, but when we do arrive we will be restored.

I about lost it in the middle of this bike ride when I heard my dad offer me selfless love and compassion, it was the ever so soft reminder that I am never alone, and that I can be confident that I always have My Father's Shadow to rest in.

Hebrews 12:28

:)

Redeeming Love: aftertaste

I finished reading Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers, for the second time in three months yesterday, it took me the same amount of time to read the 500 pages as it did the first time--2 days. There were just as many tears falling from my eyes this time as there had been the first. The same fears crept through me as I read. But what was different was my reaction to the whole story. More so this time did I see why Rivers wrote the book. Not as a truly endearing love story of forgiveness, unconditional love (which means way more than we give it credit for), perseverance, grace, mercy (in abundance!), freedom and so many other desiring qualities I could go on forever, all of which this book encapsulates, but I kept relating to the truth within the metaphor.

So often we fight the embrace of the Lord's love. We tell ourselves we're asking too much of Him, that soon the blessings and answered prayers will run out, we taunt ourselves to think that He doesn't speak to us but twice a week and we shouldn't waste those revelations on meaningless emotional shortcomings, that our sins are continually pushing Him away from us, and so many other lies we continually feed ourselves that widen the non-existent "gap" between us and our Heavenly Father which weakens our understanding of His love which bridges the gap.

First truth: The moment Christ came down and walked this earth, becoming son of man, the infinite gap, formed by sin starting at Adam and Eve, between Christ and His creation forever bridged.

Second truth: As Christ, first-and-foremost son of God, became son of man we, sons& daughters of men, became sons& daughters of God--IMMEDIATELY givings us authority.

We have authority over emotion.
We have authority over sickness.
We have authority over hatred.
We have authority over our sinful nature.
We have authority over the enemy.
We have authority over ________. You fill in the blank with what the enemy is using today to help you feel claustrophobic.

Third truth: Unconditional love. We hear God's love being described as unconditional all the time. We have authority over condemnation. Unconditional by definition means without conditions or limitations, absolute. The further we run from the Lord, His love remains the same. The closer we draw nearer, His love remains the same. When we catch ourselves in continuous sin, His love remains the same. When we keep fighting against Him, His love remains the same. This is not a love of human nature, it is not a love we will ever experience through sinful, fallen, imperfect, humanity

My prayer for you today, that you would recognize the things in your life that you feel are separating from your Heavenly Father. And as He reveals those separations to you, that you would understand first of all that you obtain an unconditional, absolute love from your Father and He has given you power over what is constricting your breath.





Revelation 3:19 (The people I love, I call to account--prod and correct and guide so that they'll live at they're best. Up on your feet, then! Run after God!)

My prayer for today.

Lord, reveal to me what it means to fear you-help me

understand. Lord, humble me, I want to be a servant. Lord, reveal to me

your h.o.l.i.n.e.s.s-impart your holiness on me-make me peculiar.

Show me how to walk in the Spirit.

Bless me with a life abundant with freedom.

... repeat.

repeat until your heart senses comfort &accepts truth.

stop looking for an earthly resolution to a spiritual matter.

Look Fear in the Eye

I started reading a new book today, The Battle Belongs to the Lord by Joyce Meyer and this book is so incredible! Not only does Joyce Meyer pinpoint the emotional connection with fear but she tells you what to do to counteract the controlling enemy. Assuming this first chapter is a preview of what the rest of the book will look like I don't know that I can not share it with you!

We all deal with fear. For some of us it takes a tighter grip on our heart, creating anxiety that manipulates our emotions squeezing rest, trust and faith from our very being. It takes a great deal to acknowledge that the fear in our lives has become a roadmap, making decisions for us.

"When we have a deep understanding concerning God's perfect unconditional love for us, we realize He will always take care of everything that concerns us--that knowledge will eventually delivers us from fear." --J.Meyer

The knowledge of the understanding of God's love for us is what delivers us from fear. Sometimes we profess the we know the greatness of God's love, but in our hearts sometimes its hard to believe. When our heart believes the depth and perfection of His great love for us that knowledge is what will continually, daily, hourly, set us free from fear.

The resounding concept through this first chapter is that we need to focus on Him rather than our fear. When we turn our attention to the Lord the size and importance of our fear seems to digress. Know that fear is satan trying to distract us. (Notice word choice: trying.) Fear is a consistent, nagging hindrance to our direction. It's like if you're trying to walk straight in a straight line and someone is pushing your shoulder first on your right, you stumble a bit, then on your left, you stumble again, then back to your right and so forth until finally you give into the shove to your right shoulder and start veering to your left. No longer are you walking on that same straight path. Fear manipulates our direction. As a result of the satan's constant nagging we become afraid of what is ahead and take shortcuts around what we know is the "straight and narrow."

When we fear the first thing we need to do is to set ourselves to SEEK God. We need to develop the habit of running to God when we have trouble instead of to people. When we go to Him first it shows the Lord that we honor and trust Him. The second thing we need to do is learn to combat our fears by hearing from God. Romans 10:17 teaches us that "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Joyce Meyer compels us to understand and believe that, "when we hear from God faith fills our hearts and drives the fear away."

If you're anything like me when you heart that we need to "combat our fears by hearing from God" you wonder well hearing from God can mean a lot of things? What specifically? So because fear is a feeling and an emotion rather than a fact or a statistic we cannot fight an emotion with simply words. We need to battle a feeling and emotion with another feeling and emotion. The combative effect of hearing from God comes when we hear His voice in the depths of our heart. How exactly would God speak to us in the depths of our heart? He may give you a strong, internal peace. He may give you a creative idea. He may simply calm your troubled emotions or He may give you assurance. "God speaks in various ways, but if we seek Him we WILL find Him. He will lead us and guide us if we acknowledge Him in all our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6)." If we know that we find relief from fear when He speaks to the depths of our heart than I implore you to ask him diligently for that still small voice to speak to your heart.

Jehosephat, in 2 Chronicles 20, needed desperately to hear from the Lord because all the nations were building alliances against the nation of Judah and were going to strike against them. Jehosephat knew the only successful battle plan would be one from the Lord. So he ordered a fast throughout the nation in order to seek the Lord earnestly and passionately for guidance. Jehosephat knew that having God's direction was vital.

God wants to speak to you more than we want to hear from Him. So we need to seek Him by giving Him our time and I promise you will not be disappointed. When we earnestly seek Him and we give Him our time, we fast, pray meditate on His word and wait in His presence, are our actions say that hearing from God is vital? Yes. Our actions must be align with earnestly seeking our desires/answers!

"The reason so many people have problems all the time is because that is the only time they would seek Him." If we seek Him all the time, in every season, do you believe your troubles would diminish? I hope you do, I do! "If He removed the problems, He wouldn't get any time with His people." We have to recognize that the Lord is not just "our problem solver, He is our everything!" Just like you would hope that a friend would not just come to you when they need help, but also come to encourage you, fellowship with you and love you. We also need to treat our Creator and God as more than our "fixer". Do we honor Him enough to praise him and glorify Him before we ask Him to help us, or fix something?

But we can learn to pray like Jehosephat! And pray in a way that does honor our God. The solution is simple. We need to, like Jehosephat, turn our focus off of our fear of the problem(and its potential outcome) and turn our attention on how mighty our God is and that He is big enough and strong enough to conquer our fears and problems. And learn to pray from his example.

1. Acknowledge how great the Lord is, worshipping and exalting Him.

2. Remember relevant and similar "Mighty acts" the Lord has delivered you from.

3. Remember promises of the Lord that pertain to this specific problem.

4. Present the request to God and do so by

5. Expressing your confidence and faith that the Lord does know best

and that you do trust Him with the outcome.

The Lord hears us the first time we ask, we don't have to act any special way or follow any sort of routine in order for our request to reach the ear of our God. That law died with the sacrifice of Christ Jesus at Calvary. We have the ability to speak to God and to move Him readily available to us.

Your fears do not have to control you. Remember that fear is satan trying to distract you, so acknowledge that the next time you recognize any debilitating fear. The next step to clearing fear from your heart and mind is to hear the voice of God at the level of your heart. Seek Him and ask Him to whisper to the depths of your heart so you can experience relief. And pray like Jehosephat. Pray in a way that honors the Most High who we call our Creator, Comforter, Peace, Shelter, Refuge, Healer, Provider and Friend.