For the past two (2) weeks I have been studying the Biblical term watch. Before I really delve into this blog, I want you to know that my desire is to be a blessing to you in such a way that your desire to know God strengthens.
This morning the Spirit of the Lord led me to pray on grass. Yes, to stand between trees, look up at the sky, the clouds, and feel the rain; just to spend time with the Lord. Yes, I am speaking of praying outside!
How often, do you fight with the inner voice that says to you, "Go outside and be with Me!?" Well, the voice that I am speaking of is the voice of the Lord. We cannot make the leap of experiencing the voice of the Lord in a different atmosphere unless we are at a maturity level to desire God in a different way. Unfortunately, we cannot be deceived into believe that our experience with the Lord will be greater by praying the same way we prayed when we were 17 years old. Some people that are 48 years old, 35 years old, 55 years old pray on a second grade and third grade level and are not experiencing breakthrough! I will be 31 years old in less than a month, and I refuse to pray to God and spend time with God with the mindset of a child.
My encounters with God are becoming more and more unexplainable, but intimate. I do not know if that make sense to you, but it makes a whole lot of sense to me! In all seriousness, I cannot explain the mandated purpose of God that is brewing as a result of stepping out of my comfort zone in prayer. Conceptually, it is equivalent to consistently exercising while increasing the intensity, challenge, and weight of the exercise plan. Which means, that your time that you spend with God must be pre-meditated. Our time with God must be intentional and deliberate along with keeping in mind the great expectation of growing in greater knowledge of God.
When our knowledge of God is greater, i.e. spiritual wisdom and knowledge, our language changes. Our vocabulary that we use when we pray has greater understanding and purpose embedded in the words we utilize. Some people do not understand why they are praying and what they are praying for themselves or someone else. Many people just pray and do not believe what they ask and say to God! Because of this, many people that pray, pray on a first grade level.
What does this have to do with getting from under the roof? It has everything to do with getting from under the roof! Getting from under the roof means, upgrade your time that you spend with God! It means take your prayer life to the next level. Do not always pray at 6:00 p.m. Experience what God is doing in another watch! Go in your backyard and stand on the grass and look up at the clouds and thank God for surrounding you with His glory!
People of God, we have been educated so well that we miss God everyday when we walk out our house doors. I remember when I was in a science class learning about the clouds and how they are formed. I have not done any recent research with how clouds are formed or what is in a cloud. I have, maybe, a 1st grade level understanding of clouds. However, I do remember hearing that clouds are caused by pollution. I am not sure if this is or is not a fact, but I do know that it is a lie from hell. Pollution may play a part in some other aspect of the formation of clouds, but I know that God purposely led Israel on their journey with "a cloud" during the day and fire by night. The purpose of God releasing His cloud was to surround the Israelites with His glory. The Israelites were actually privy to experience God hovering His glory over Israel by the cloud. This is called God's Shekinah; God's glory! Moses was so illuminated by the knowledge of God that his face shined brightly to the extent that the Israelites could not recognize Moses.
In the Bible we witness why God sent clouds and we should know that God is the Creator of heaven and earth and everything that is in it, but we overlook that there are many clouds in the sky. It is the glory of the Lord! You must realize that the glory of the Lord hovers over you and what it means when God's glory hovers over you!
This is when I recognized that I needed to go back to experiencing God in a different way rather than what I am consistently accustomed.
Go outside and listen to God, talk to God, pray in the Spirit of the Living God, listen to God, write what God says on paper, and go out at different times to know the different moves and waves of the Holy Spirit!
Do not limit yourself to a closet! There is limited revelation in the closet; but there is more revelation in the garden. There is only a certain level of miraculous understanding and awareness in your living room, but there is more out in the wilderness.
This is the second installment of the series: WATCH
I promise to share what this watch term is all about, but there must be a foundation that is set before we can move onto understanding the mandate of watching. Before I end this blog, I must share with you that you have an established time with God. A time when God is waiting for you to speak with Him and wine and dine Him; i.e. intimate time with God! You have a pre-ordained time slot when your anointing will skyrocket. This time is a heavenly ordained time in which you, before the foundations of the earth, were thought of to grab hold of all that God has for you. You have a time slot in the heavens, when God is waiting for you to sing to Him; for you to play your instrument to Him; to adore Him, and love Him.
God is telling me that there is more for you to gain than there is to lose! Whatever you have that must be lost is necessary for you to lose because you cannot transport the cargo that has to be lost where God wants you to go! You must lose all that is stopping you from all that God wants you to be! I believe the next installment will be this time next week! God has given me this word watch when a prophet told me that God was going to give me a word for His people!
And this is the word: WATCH!
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Three Hours of Silence: A WATCH
While Jesus suffered on the cross, the God of heaven and earth, God the Father performed six miracles. The six miracles are as follows: mid-day darkness, the supernatural tearing of the curtain, an earthquake that spit rocks, the opening of the graves, the emptying of Jesus' tomb, and the resurrection of the many saints who had died. Although the book that I am reading, entitled the Six Miracles of Calvary by William R. Nicholson, identifies six miracles, I am going to contribute another miracle; i.e., the stone rolled away. Although, this miracle is not a miracle that was actually done at the cross, it continues the gospel of Christ with the working of God's miracles even after the cross. God worked these miracles as an effort to capture the attention of the world that dared to believe that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is the Savior of the world and King of the Jews.
C.S. Lewis, in his book entitled, Miracles, discusses the miracle of the stone being rolled away from the tomb as an unexplainable event that occurred after Jesus died. Lewis did this to explain and define miracles. It is not necessary to compare any of the miracles with each other. All of the miralces that were done by the hand, plan, and mouth of God occurred because God planned and established these miracles for the sole purpose of attempting to awaken the belief system that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Redeemer of sins for all humanity.
I am going to discuss the miracle of mid-day darkness because I have not been able to move further in my quest to come into greater understanding of the cross and the power of the cross. In other words, this mid-day miracle of darkness and silence has so much of my meditation and thoughts of God that I cannot go on to any other topic in the Bible, as of yet, to begin to pray and study. I feel like I am, yet again, at another beginning stage in my walk with the cross and Jesus Christ.
Although, God the Father performed every miracle from His written plan, this mid-day miracle of darkness is an authentic miracle because it was not like the miracle when God sent darkness over Egypt for three days. The Bible says in Luke 23.44 that, "darkness was over all the earth." Therefore, as Jesus was dying on the cross in Golgotha, God the Father, whom Jesus prayed, suspended the purpose of the sun for 3 hours to allow all the earth to experience darkness. This was not a darkness that only occurred in Judea, but this darkness was over all the universe. Scientific knowledge can not explain this nor can any demigod accomplish what God has done.
Every person alive at that moment was caught off guard with the abrupt cancellation of light. And this was no solar eclipse! Eclipses can not last for three (3) hours let alone over five (5) minutes. Attention readers: THIS WAS A MIRACLE FROM GOD THAT LASTED THREE HOURS!
Not one person spoke! We do not know what happened in the dark, but the Scriptures tells us that Jesus gave His life into the hands of His Father. In other words, while it was dark, the only thing that Jesus could do is die. Jesus knew why He was dying and what was ahead of Him, but this miracle of darkness is important to our understanding and knowledge of the power of the cross. The power of the cross is that God made it His business to shut everything down so that the entire world and the world for ages to come would know that God had full authority over everything that would transpire for these three hours. If one did not know that God had control and rule over the universe before this event or let alone three minutes, they knew that day, that everyone had at least an inclination, thought, feeling, or revelation that God was the author of all that took place during this time.
Nothing else greater than Jesus' death happened during these three hours that could have usurped the attention from God the Father at work. Mind you, these are my reflections and the revelation that the Lord has given me as I daily re-visit and mature my understanding of walking in the power of the cross. Many of us do not understand power because we do not understand the power of the cross. My desire is to have a greater understanding of the cross because that is where Jesus thought of me. The cross is where my power comes. Not only did Jesus think of me, but He definitely thought of you as well. The cross is where your power comes. I feel sorry for those that do not believe and live by what took place at the cross. We need not to be ignorant of the cross because as we start with the cross, it will shape and form everything that we do from here and further. God performed a miracle on that day so that you and I would know that that He, indeed, is the True and Living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Ruler of the World, the Savior and King of the Israel. He is our Father, and the Father gave His only Son's life and the Son was obedient to the Father to die so that we can have eternal life. No Other god can and will come before God!
One of the most awesome components of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus does not require that we do any work, labor, ritual, or recite a phrase that allows us to receive eternal life. I do not want to say the phrase many people state as in, "all God wants...." Making that statement can be deceptive because God does require a lot! What is a lot? Our lives! Is your life valuable enough? Are you worth God? Or is God worth you? It is your life that God wants! God gave us this life, but when we have Him, we have life more abundantly; i.e. eternal life! God wants your life!
Do you think your life is worth God having? God did all of these things, which was not a big deal on His behalf because God speaks and the earth responds, but He allowed all these things to happen just to get your attention.
There will be more miracles to follow these three hours of silence and darkness. There will be events that occur in your life that will literally silence you to the point where you do not have enough time to strike a match or light a lighter to create light. In fact, it will be so dark that your light will not be light enough to light! But you can have the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, that lives in you that the next time God decides to allow the universe to be covered in darkness, your light will shine, and you will not be afraid to move, speak, or figure out a plan! Why? Because the next time there will not be any time for a plan.
Every living thing experienced the darkness of God during Jesus' death. Even those that were sleep, I believe, knew something occurred on earth that they did not have any power or wherewithal to act or respond. God did something so powerful and so great that no other demigod had enough power to achieve. I am sure there are stories where demigods have done some miracles, but no miracle can overpower the Generator and the Orginator of miracles.
Remember, this miracle of darkness took place during the middle of the day; during a time when no one would believe that darkness could occur. To understand the power of the cross is to understand the miracles of the cross. To understand the miracles of the cross is to also understand what will take place during these last days.
My prayer is that we gain an understanding of the power and miracles of the cross. This is just the first installment of an overall mandate that God has been ministering for generations. This mandate commands and calls us to be watchful! We cannot understand the importance of our posts if we do not fully understand what Jesus told Peter and John in the garden of Gethsemane. "Be watchful, alert, and prayerful." Jesus was saying something that we witnessed Peter and James miss after Jesus was arrested. Jesus told them to be prayerful and watchful so that they will overcome the temptations of their flesh. Peter's flesh caused him to deny Christ three times. Our prayers and watchfulness will help us to maneuver through the temptations that are ahead so that we do not repeat the behaviors that Peter showed as a result of falling asleep.
Our eschatological or end time calling is to be alert, watchful, and prayerful. It will help us out in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years ahead!
Blessings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus!
C.S. Lewis, in his book entitled, Miracles, discusses the miracle of the stone being rolled away from the tomb as an unexplainable event that occurred after Jesus died. Lewis did this to explain and define miracles. It is not necessary to compare any of the miracles with each other. All of the miralces that were done by the hand, plan, and mouth of God occurred because God planned and established these miracles for the sole purpose of attempting to awaken the belief system that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Redeemer of sins for all humanity.
I am going to discuss the miracle of mid-day darkness because I have not been able to move further in my quest to come into greater understanding of the cross and the power of the cross. In other words, this mid-day miracle of darkness and silence has so much of my meditation and thoughts of God that I cannot go on to any other topic in the Bible, as of yet, to begin to pray and study. I feel like I am, yet again, at another beginning stage in my walk with the cross and Jesus Christ.
Although, God the Father performed every miracle from His written plan, this mid-day miracle of darkness is an authentic miracle because it was not like the miracle when God sent darkness over Egypt for three days. The Bible says in Luke 23.44 that, "darkness was over all the earth." Therefore, as Jesus was dying on the cross in Golgotha, God the Father, whom Jesus prayed, suspended the purpose of the sun for 3 hours to allow all the earth to experience darkness. This was not a darkness that only occurred in Judea, but this darkness was over all the universe. Scientific knowledge can not explain this nor can any demigod accomplish what God has done.
Every person alive at that moment was caught off guard with the abrupt cancellation of light. And this was no solar eclipse! Eclipses can not last for three (3) hours let alone over five (5) minutes. Attention readers: THIS WAS A MIRACLE FROM GOD THAT LASTED THREE HOURS!
Not one person spoke! We do not know what happened in the dark, but the Scriptures tells us that Jesus gave His life into the hands of His Father. In other words, while it was dark, the only thing that Jesus could do is die. Jesus knew why He was dying and what was ahead of Him, but this miracle of darkness is important to our understanding and knowledge of the power of the cross. The power of the cross is that God made it His business to shut everything down so that the entire world and the world for ages to come would know that God had full authority over everything that would transpire for these three hours. If one did not know that God had control and rule over the universe before this event or let alone three minutes, they knew that day, that everyone had at least an inclination, thought, feeling, or revelation that God was the author of all that took place during this time.
Nothing else greater than Jesus' death happened during these three hours that could have usurped the attention from God the Father at work. Mind you, these are my reflections and the revelation that the Lord has given me as I daily re-visit and mature my understanding of walking in the power of the cross. Many of us do not understand power because we do not understand the power of the cross. My desire is to have a greater understanding of the cross because that is where Jesus thought of me. The cross is where my power comes. Not only did Jesus think of me, but He definitely thought of you as well. The cross is where your power comes. I feel sorry for those that do not believe and live by what took place at the cross. We need not to be ignorant of the cross because as we start with the cross, it will shape and form everything that we do from here and further. God performed a miracle on that day so that you and I would know that that He, indeed, is the True and Living God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the Ruler of the World, the Savior and King of the Israel. He is our Father, and the Father gave His only Son's life and the Son was obedient to the Father to die so that we can have eternal life. No Other god can and will come before God!
One of the most awesome components of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus does not require that we do any work, labor, ritual, or recite a phrase that allows us to receive eternal life. I do not want to say the phrase many people state as in, "all God wants...." Making that statement can be deceptive because God does require a lot! What is a lot? Our lives! Is your life valuable enough? Are you worth God? Or is God worth you? It is your life that God wants! God gave us this life, but when we have Him, we have life more abundantly; i.e. eternal life! God wants your life!
Do you think your life is worth God having? God did all of these things, which was not a big deal on His behalf because God speaks and the earth responds, but He allowed all these things to happen just to get your attention.
There will be more miracles to follow these three hours of silence and darkness. There will be events that occur in your life that will literally silence you to the point where you do not have enough time to strike a match or light a lighter to create light. In fact, it will be so dark that your light will not be light enough to light! But you can have the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, that lives in you that the next time God decides to allow the universe to be covered in darkness, your light will shine, and you will not be afraid to move, speak, or figure out a plan! Why? Because the next time there will not be any time for a plan.
Every living thing experienced the darkness of God during Jesus' death. Even those that were sleep, I believe, knew something occurred on earth that they did not have any power or wherewithal to act or respond. God did something so powerful and so great that no other demigod had enough power to achieve. I am sure there are stories where demigods have done some miracles, but no miracle can overpower the Generator and the Orginator of miracles.
Remember, this miracle of darkness took place during the middle of the day; during a time when no one would believe that darkness could occur. To understand the power of the cross is to understand the miracles of the cross. To understand the miracles of the cross is to also understand what will take place during these last days.
My prayer is that we gain an understanding of the power and miracles of the cross. This is just the first installment of an overall mandate that God has been ministering for generations. This mandate commands and calls us to be watchful! We cannot understand the importance of our posts if we do not fully understand what Jesus told Peter and John in the garden of Gethsemane. "Be watchful, alert, and prayerful." Jesus was saying something that we witnessed Peter and James miss after Jesus was arrested. Jesus told them to be prayerful and watchful so that they will overcome the temptations of their flesh. Peter's flesh caused him to deny Christ three times. Our prayers and watchfulness will help us to maneuver through the temptations that are ahead so that we do not repeat the behaviors that Peter showed as a result of falling asleep.
Our eschatological or end time calling is to be alert, watchful, and prayerful. It will help us out in the minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years ahead!
Blessings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus!
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