What Is Your Will In Christ?

Lord, By your grace, grant me your perspective. Help me to see things as you see them, because the way that you see them is the truth that exists before me. Help me to hear things as you hear them, because the way that you hear them is with true discernment. Help me to think as you think, for your thoughts are truly wise, righteous and holy. Help me to have a heart that is constantly seeking your own and that is moved by the things that move yours. For your heart is the pinnacle of beauty. Help me to reside in your spirit always, for your Spirit leads me on the pathway ever closer to you. Lord, teach me your ways and help me to walk in them firmly, for your ways are not the ways of this world that seeks to deceive me. Remind me constantly of your great works and all that you are as I walk through this place so that I may always worship you in spirit and truth, properly respecting the God of my creation. Lord, being the created, I cannot and have no desire to be my own

Lord, In your great presence I am far too small to be counted I’m a mere speck under the foot of a towering giant I’m an ordinary grain among the sands of the oceans And you Lord, are the waters of the seas that move me at will I’m helpless against you and wholly dependent on your mercy I’m common and short of greatness, destined for obscurity But by loving grace alone I’m now chosen to become more Through the fire of your spirit I’m refined and made molten Shaped by your own Holy breath, you call me now special With praise and thankfulness I am transformed to have worth And with others I’m now cast as a part of the Kings cup Now, so honored to bring sweet wine of loving gratitude to your lips Let my praises forever exalt your glorious wonders For against you there are none worthy to compare You’re the source of all that is good, righteous and holy Your vast compassion, beyond the explanation of men You lift up the humble and soon humiliate t

Part 2 Beholding the Bud Some of the most hurtful things in my past seemed hurtful because I lacked the ability to understand why they happened. I couldn't understand the motives and presumed they were against me and meant for my harm. Having been taught that our God is omnipotent and powerful to rule over everything that exists, I had a tendency to ultimately "blame" Him. But I struggled with this. After all, why would the God who claims that He loves me allow me to be hurt? I didn't dare to challenge Him - I believed that He meant what He said, but things didn't add up. It only stood to reason that He had to have allowed it, so confusion prevailed ... until He crushed all of my previous incomplete perceptions. At times we may make presumptions in order to reason or "understand" things that aren't clear to us and we measure the motives for these things with worldly perspective. It's what we're taught by the powers that exist in this w

Part 1 The Emerging  Tender  Bud I believe that one has to be willing to invest time and interaction with another in order to truly know them to any degree. I also believe that it will be some who claim to know and to follow our Lord and yet fail to make the investment who will come to the horrific realization of their ultimate failure too late one day soon.  Jesus' words in Matthew 7:22-23 (NLT):  22   On judgment day many will tell me, 'Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.'   2 3 "But I will reply, I never knew you.Go away. The things you did were not authorized." The awesome power of His name is one thing - truthfully incontestable in the universe, the intimate and knowing relationship with the Lord Himself is yet another ... To truly understand another person and to begin to recognize what it is that inspires them in any event can require a great deal of investment. Truly u

Lord, You are the judge of all that is ... nothing escapes you. So what you declare to be right is righteous ... and what you declare to be sin, no man can overrule What you declare true ... stands unshaken for all eternity and what you call good is truly good without right to question. There is no other word that shapes my existence beyond what you speak and no other judge that determines my fate in eternity but you. These things in mind, I pray Lord, make your declarations clear to my understanding - not only in statute, but in completeness of spirit that I may be found pleasing in your sight and a joy to the heart of my Lord Let me speak with your heart ... guard my tongue to speak only in pure love Let me think with your heart ... guard my mind to produce only holy thoughts Let me hear with your ears ... guard my perception to hear with discernment Let me love with your love ... guard my motives that they may to be true to your spirit Let me act in your sp

I don't think I've ever posted the same thing twice, but in this case I think there might be good reason.  In thinking about the following statements, the Holy Spirit made me realize that it is not only a compilation of statements that speak my heart,  but they are true statements that we can speak boldly as His children. They provide something for all of us to hold onto in the midst of a world whose spirit tends to be oppressive and negative toward us. They give us courage and speak truthfully of our place and identity as we walk though this place on our journey to Him. Because of all that He has promised, because He is who He is, and because of all that He has spoken, we can with deep conviction state that we believe ... that we are persuaded to hold the following to be true:  I am persuaded ... ... that no matter where I am or what I may face throughout the breadth and length of eternity, my name is on the very lips that spoke all of creation into existence ...

I am persuaded ... ... that no matter where I am or what I may face throughout the breadth and length of eternity, my name is on the very lips that spoke all of creation into existence ... ... that before trouble even conceives to approach the threshold of my life, my defense has already been made and incontestable victory is my gift in the face of oppression ... ... that though I walk lowly, contemptible and unworthy on the earth in the hierarchy of men, my place has been made ready in the highest court of the Sovereign God of the universe ... ... that though I may be called to suffer in this place, His compassionate and forbearing spirit of love for me dictate His intention to prosper me for my future in eternity ... ... that His wisdom is perfect and profitable against the advent of any situation though it may found to be consternating and confusing to the wisdom of men ... ... that the laws of nature and of men are subject to His omnipotent perspective

The message I bring here pierces my own heart. For in it I recognize my own weakness and yet at the same time, I revel anew in God's grace to have patience and such love for me still. So it is with humility and hopeful expectation that I present it with the understanding that in Christ we are all as one unified body of brethren bearing one another up to succeed together in the completion of our journey as Christ's beautiful bride. There may be some who would say that I'm over the top in my pursuit of my Savior - that my passion is excessive, that my heartfelt gestures in worship of His greatness are beyond what is necessary or acceptable. Perhaps they would see my tears of compassion for the burdens or suffering of others as weakness or find it contemptible. But to any of these I would say with conviction that all that they have witnessed from me is lacking - they are insufficient to be worthy of His greatness or to reflect the deep compassion of Christ's heart.

Psalm 106:5 NLT "Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones. Let me rejoice in the joy of your people; let me praise you with those who are your heritage." In the view of the eternal, what are the definitions of success and prosperity? By exposure, we know the world's definitions of these terms even if we can't eloquently put them into words. We've seen and heard the examples of them in the world around us. They're highly touted in the world's media with increasingly shameless promotion. They're shoved in our face at every opportunity and they're rooted in vanity, temporal pleasures, self gratification and self importance ... and they have a purposed date of expiration. But to my simple mind, comes this self assessing question: do I worship and aspire to tout what is perishable, or do I seek Godly wisdom to pursue what profits me eternally knowing that I am created by God to be an eternal being? As an eternal spirit,

How much faith does it take to stay safely inside the shell of social conformity and comfort? What does doing that say about our belief in our God? What if the social norm doesn't agree with what God has said? Will we ever realize the truth of our identity in Christ by playing it safe? More and more I find an attitude and spirit of disdain, even revulsion to God's wisdom and teaching in most forms of the world's media and social conversation. I see carefully devised and compelling argument gaining ground to compromise, disregard and even discard God's wisdom and direction in order to gain social approval and acceptance. It's becoming increasingly apparent that to be socially acceptable to the world's view, one must distance themselves from God. There's a growing culture that revels in the desecration of things once held sacred and an increasingly acceptable reasoning that perverts the pure wisdom that God in His grace has given us and it&