Thank Who?

This morning as I was busy doing my webber net thing and copying down recipes for the upcoming Thanksgiving festivities, I happened upon this article.

It brought tears to my eyes...

The More Important Thing by John Paul Jackson

Several years ago, when Streams Ministries was still located in New Hampshire, I started hearing footsteps. Some of the time, it would be my editor coming into my office to tell me I had a phone call or something else, but at other times, no one would be there. I would hear someone enter, but the office would be empty.
Well, this is strange, I would think.

The Busy Body of Christ
All of us have experienced different seasons of busyness in life. I don't mean periods of time when we are swamped for a week or two; I mean entire months and years of busyness, when we don't have time for God because we are trying to do things for Him. In this story, I was in one of those seasons. I had not slowed down in a long time.
One day, I was in the office by myself. I heard someone come into the room and assumed that my staff had returned. I was on a roll, so I kept working, figuring they would tell me what they needed.

But no one said anything. The steps stopped right behind my chair, and the next thing I knew, I felt arms around me. The physical presence was so real that at first, I thought I was being hugged. But when I looked down, nothing was there.
I began to weep, overwhelmed by incredible love and compassion. Conviction dropped over me like a blanket. In a moment, I knew the Lord was showing me that I had gotten too busy for Him. I wasn't giving Him time to touch me.

No Substitutions
We can have phenomenal experiences in God: visitations, translations, transportations, trances, dreams, visions, etc. We can learn to recognize His voice and have angels bring us messages of profound revelation. We can have extreme prophetic gifting and direct the courses of nations. But none of these things can act as a substitute for Him. Doing what God has called you to do is an excellent thing-but not when it takes His place.
Obviously, walking in our calling is very important, but we can't ever forget why we are walking in our calling-why we wanted to take this road in the first place. Our focus can easily shift from God Himself to being busy with what He has given us to do.

Practice the Presence
Around the time of our move to New Hampshire, it seemed like everyone wanted a piece of my attention. I felt constantly pulled on. I love people and I want to help them, but that day in my office, I felt the Lord was letting me know, "John Paul Jackson, you've gotten so busy working for Me that you don't have room for Me to touch you. You don't make time for Me to touch you, like you used to."
It may seem like an oxymoron, but sometimes we are so busy going after Him that we fail to wait for Him. As Isaiah 30:18 declares, God moves and acts on the behalf of those who wait for Him. They give Him time, and He responds.
No matter what happens in our relationship with God, what level of gifting we have, where we feel God has placed us in His body, the influence we may or may not have-we need to keep our gaze on the more important thing: God Himself.
Throughout our lives, there will be times when God calls us to hard work and other times when God calls us to rest; in both seasons, He is here. Where are you? Learn to hear His voice. Seek Him out. Let Him touch you. Practice the presence of God and grant Him the desire of His heart.
From: identitynetwork.net jpj article
Oh, how He loves us!

Linger Under the Canopy

As the Feast of Tabernacles comes to a close, the Lord asks us to linger one more day--the eighth day of assembly or Shemini Atzeret. This indicates His great desire for intimacy and communion with those He loves. When I shared about how I decorated our library during Sukkot, I said that when I had finished draping the white sheer panels, it looked like a wedding canopy. There's a reason I did that.

Like the cloud by day that led God's people, the cloud also represented a chuppah or wedding canopy:

And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies ], a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory [shall be] a defence [2646]. - Isaiah 4:5 KJV

The word 'defence', according to the Strong's Concordance note No. 2646, is the Hebrew word chuppah meaning 'canopy; chamber; divine protection'.

In a Jewish wedding, the couple is married under the chuppah signifying their new home together. The chuppah can be made from a piece of cloth or other material attached to four poles, or a prayer shawl (tallit) held over the couple by four family members or friends.
I believe it will be during Tabernacles that the Bride of Christ will marry the Bridegroom, Yahshua.

The word chuppah originally appears in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Joel 2:16; Psalms 19:5)...In biblical times, a couple consummated their marriage in a room. In Talmudic times, the room where the marriage was consummated was called the chuppah.(Excerpt from: wikipedia.org)

Let us linger under the canopy of intimacy...He is the Beloved!

The Heat is On!

The heat is on and you know I’m not referring to your thermostat! Do you realize that the crazy weather patterns we’re experiencing were foretold years ago?

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets. - Amos 3:7 KJV

Almighty Yahweh does reveal things to His people. In the Old Testament times it was primarily through those named as prophets. Since Christ has come and sent the Holy Spirit, now those who make Jesus Christ their Lord have the Spirit of God born within them and are able to hear from their Heavenly Father themselves (see I Corinthians chapter 12). And God continues to also speak through individuals to people. Not that everyone who prophesies is a prophet, but we all are able to prophesy as the Holy Spirit pours into us:

For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted. - 1 Corinthians 14:31 KJV

From time to time the Lord has inspired me to speak a message to His people. Most of the time it was words of encouragement, exhortation, and comfort. However, beginning in the nineties, the Spirit of the Lord had me bring forth a warning over and over again. The first time I spoke it was one Sunday before the congregation in the little country church we were part of. It is difficult to explain the urgency I felt as I delivered the message…

“There is a time of great trouble coming upon the earth and unless you are intimate with the Lord, you will not make it.”

I trembled as the urging of The Holy Spirit had me speak this three times in a row to the people.

I didn’t know it then, but the following week we were led by the Spirit to leave our beloved little country church and eventually move to another area.

This will sound strange to many of you, but the same thing happened in the next three churches we were members of. One time, I was inspired to pick up an instrument made of a gourd wrapped in small seashells. As I shook it, it made a loud swishing sound and I said, “Shake! Shake! Shake! Everything that can be shaken will be shaken! Enter into your prayer closets—seek My face.”

I believe this is why I repeatedly blog about entering into a place of quiet before the Lord of Glory. He wants to speak to us. He wants to fellowship with us. He wants us to live expecting to hear His voice. We NEED to hear His voice—one day it may be a matter of life and death.

More and more earthquakes have been occurring around the world. This too has been prophesied. Today I feel urged to write about a great earthquake prophesied to hit the U.S. This has been foretold not just by one person, but by many. A man of God named David Wilkerson wrote of it back in 1973 under the title, The Vision, and in 2003 republished it under the name, The Vision and Beyond. Here is an excerpt:

The United States is going to experience, in the not-too-distant future, the most tragic earthquake in its history…I am not at all convinced that this earthquake will take place in California. In fact, I believe it is going to take place where it is least expected. (The Vision and Beyond by David Wilkerson, page 28)

Why am I writing this? Most of the people who read my humble blog already know many of the things I have written here. Who knows. Maybe a blogger will stumble upon this article—someone who doesn’t know he can commune with the Lord of Glory—and BANG! receive a lightening bolt in their mind and spirit. I pray it is so.

Next time I blog, I would like to share with you why this earthquake is almost certainly destined to happen.

Trusting in Him~

The Inner Chamber

Many of you reading this will know what I am referring to when I write of the inner chamber and many will not. What I am referring to is the secret place in the spiritual plane reserved for you and your Heavenly Father through Christ Jesus, Yahshua, by way of the Holy Spirit.

You might call it the prayer closet. But prayer is only a part of our worship to the Almighty. Just when I believe I have ‘worship’ defined, He reveals more to me. I believe when I write as led by the Spirit of God that that is worship. Does it take the place of communion in the inner chamber? At this point in my life, I cannot be sure. I simply know He wants that exchange of intimacy. When I go to that trysting place seeking Him, many times writing ideas manifest. He is my inspiration. He is my guide, comforter, healer, and lover of my soul.

Not that a believer has to be in a particular physical location to experience a holy encounter. I remember the first time I saw the Lord Jesus. I had been praying for a few days asking to see Him because a friend of mine had told me that this was available—to see into the spiritual realm. I had gone to bed before my husband one night. Although my eyes were closed as I lay there, I sensed that someone had entered the room. I sat up and in the bedroom corner I saw a figure of light. “Lord, is that You?” I whispered with trembling lips. He did not speak, but I had a knowing within that it was Him and tears coursed down my face. Suddenly the door opened causing me to turn and see that it was Tom coming to bed. When I quickly turned back to look upon the Lord, He was gone.

It was the beginning of many more adventures in the spirit. Sometimes I recognized whether it was the Father (as I related in my recent blog entry titled Mental Illness--Hope and Forgiveness) or Jesus or the Holy Spirit, and sometimes I did not. My manner is to converse with the Lord throughout the day. One particular day as I was putting laundry into the washer, I was apologizing to the Holy Spirit for something and was surprised when I was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of love. Oh, there is nothing like it!

One of my favorite movies is Amazing Grace. It’s the story of William Wilberforce who was the leading abolitionist in Britain who persuaded Parliament to ban the slave trade in 1807. In one scene a servant finds this man of faith sitting in the middle of a meadow disheveled and with a silly grin on his face. Wilberforce shares with him how God has moved upon him and caused him to come undone.

Like William Wilberforce, I am thrilled, undone and truly humbled by these encounters. I simply live for those waves of love! You probably see my point in writing all this. I want to encourage you to seek His face. Whether it is by going outside, in a private room, or in your car, just do it. Go to the secret place--He is waiting for you.

The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe...Ephesians 1:18-19 in part