17 A wicked messenger falls into trouble, But a faithful ambassador brings health.
Proverbs 13:17 NKJV

When we spread gossip, entertain the lies of the enemy, and think on things that are not true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, and admirable, we are being wicked messengers. We are advancing hell instead of heaven. People will disappoint us. We must forgive immediately and ask God what He is saying about them and about the circumstances.

As I grow closer to Him, I am seeing all the ways He shows up. I cast my cares on Him because He cares for me. Our thoughts and words we speak are so powerful. What we think about in our mind births our outward experience. Our earthly reality is based in our minds. Jesus died to put heaven inside of us. We were born into hell, a broken planet. But He has given us the power to colabor with Him to bring heaven to earth.

We can look at the world around us and think it’s bad. It may be bad, but we are world changers! We don’t deny problems exist, but through our prayers and victorious mindset, we deny them a place of significance. Those things that trigger us are the things we’re called to change. What God says about us and our life is superior and more significant than anything in the natural. I may have a diagnosis, but I live from eternity. All of this is temporary. Our words, thoughts, and prayers are set up for bringing heaven to earth not just for now, but for future generations. We are not the center of the universe, called to be selfish and all about our own will. We are called to be selfless and serve one another in love. Call it pay it forward, call it giving without telling anyone, call it sacrificing something you want to give it to someone else.

I know a homeless man who relies on God for everything. He will be hungry and the next thing he knows, someone will buy him lunch and say they heard God tell them to do it. He relies completely on God for everything. He is completely dependent, and knows that this world is only temporary. He’s not really homeless, because he’s made his home in Christ Jesus.

I aim to live a life completely dependent and reliant on Jesus for every need, for every moment of joy. I get to partner with Him and remember the joy He gave me yesterday and bring it with me into today. He treats me like every day is my birthday, and He only wants good things for me. He celebrates me and gives me gifts in friendships, my memories, and ways I can’t explain. Our part of our covenant with Him is getting inside His mind for ourselves and others, and releasing the joy He died to give us. The peace He died to give us. For the righteousness He died to give us, but also commands us to seek along with His kingdom, and we get to discover and explore His heart for us. Some call this pie in the sky thinking, but I would rather it than a pie in the face from the ways of darkness and wickedness.

22 Lying lips are an abomination to the LORD, But those who deal truthfully are His delight.

Proverbs 12:22 NKJV

I was never worried about Big Brother watching me. I had decided in my heart before it was even a thing, that I would always tell the truth. So when it started to cause anxiety among those around me, I was at rest. These days, when you mention a product, an ad appears in our phones and social media. Big Brother is now not only watching, but listening. So is God! Above any fear of man, any fear of technology, we should have a healthy fear of God. 

We should be being honest with ourselves, and Him. Dishonesty delays intimacy. Somewhere along the way, there were situations in my life where I learned to be a people pleaser to tell them what I knew they wanted to hear to keep the peace. Although it wasn’t peace, really. I would appease the person to keep the veneer that if everyone got their way, there would be peace. This was not the case. I lived in a place where my fear would compel me to quickly assess the dynamics of a situation and submit to the will of the other person so that they would never be mad or disappointed in me. I had decided as a child that I would avoid all conflict by just agreeing with people and never speak out my own opinion. What did my opinion matter if it was going to cause division? That was a big lie I was believing. Because after a while, the world I had created stole my voice. It stole my creativity to come up with the very solutions to the problems I was blindly agreeing to in my one man army to battle for counterfeit peace. 

Then there was a shift. I became bold in telling the truth no matter what the consequences. That self protection that was disguised as peace making broke apart like a chocolate orange waiting for me to indulge in a new reality of living a life of bold truth. My opinion matters. My voice matters. If I yield to a lie, I am empowering darkness, and tying God’s hands to move freely in my life to be my protector and deliverer. My self defense was a barrier to being whole and really loving others. My self deception while believing that I was being honest was preventing me from moving forward in pure agape love. 

I took baby steps to kill the dragon of people pleasing, and I didn’t do it by myself! Once I saw the lie coming, that band aid dispenser to calm the dragon from breathing fire, I paused. I let myself think about the truth of the situation, and I said that. It was not my normal, and I didn’t realize until now that my heart posture to always be honest did not match what came out of my mouth in the guise of self protection. I felt brave to speak the truth and let the consequences be what they would. I know now that God goes before me and us always. That He will protect me and guide me into the messy middle to defend me and protect me no matter what. Another shift came when the more I told the truth, the more others around me started to trust me. I think as a society, we deal in lies as currency to test the waters of who is trying to lie to us. But when we live at that level of suspicion, we are not honoring the other person by establishing a trust from the first words we speak to each other. Some lie out of fear of punishment in order to avoid known consequences of abuse or repeated lies from others. My faith is my armor now. And when I express the truth without filtering it through what the outcome will be or how the circumstance will be when I try to control it, Heaven stands behind me and champions me and protects me from the fiery darts. I don’t have to be under any fear of man because that is a counterfeit fear. I only want to please God, and live in a way that honors and glorifies Him. We can’t look past the sinner in front of us when we are aware of the lies we know they’re telling us. Once you become a curator of telling the truth no matter the cost, the lies of the enemy become crystal clear and you dethrone his voice in your life. No longer must you keep track of the last lie you told, but you get to walk in the freedom Christ died for. When we lie, when we gossip, when we live in deception, we empower chaos and are essentially asking Jesus for a refund of the price He paid. Fear established in the love of God is much different than the fear of man that binds us to ourselves as god. True freedom comes from relying on Him, and doing our part to walk in the empowering grace He gives us to be the salt and the light we are called to be. 

God doesn’t, and will never hold our sins against us. Man does sometimes, but God does not. We have to step into our inheritance, which is bigger than we can fully grasp or understand. Part of it, though, is that we are forgiven. God invites us to treat each other as He treats us.

Romans 4:6-9 says,

^6-9 “David confirms this way of looking at it, saying that the one who trusts God to do the putting-everything-right without insisting on having a say in it is one fortunate man:

Fortunate those whose crimes are whisked away,
    whose sins are wiped clean from the slate.
Fortunate the person against
    whom the Lord does not keep score.

Do you think for a minute that this blessing is only pronounced over those of us who keep our religious ways and are circumcised? Or do you think it possible that the blessing could be given to those who never even heard of our ways, who were never brought up in the disciplines of God? We all agree, don’t we, that it was by embracing what God did for him that Abraham was declared fit before God?”

Jesus covered us in His blanket of love when He died for us. To walk in that forgiveness, we must go and do the same. We are called to radical forgiveness over picking up an offense and letting bitterness into our hearts. If we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us. I know this sounds like a contradiction, but stay with me-

In Matthew 6:14-15 it says,

^14-15 “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God’s part.

We are in a partnership with God. His covenant of marriage with us looks like us learning His ways, and walking them out with each other. We are to love each other with the same passion we love Him with. If we are loving Him with our whole selves, we are loving others the same.

In Matthew 22:37-40 it says,

^37-40 Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

This means that we do not withhold our love to punish someone for hurting us. Love and forgiveness are our super powers to overcome any offense. Keeping our love on while establishing honor for others is key. We can honor others because we are honorable. When we stay in the victorious mindset that God is working all things together for our good as He states in Romans 8:28, we can be still and know He is God and He will protect us and take care of us.

^26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:26-28

We get to embrace the mystery of God! He invites us into partnership, but He does the heavy lifting. We can cast our cares onto Him because He cares for us.

“casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” 1 Peter 5:7

Again, we cannot approach God, nor refuse to approach Him out of fear of punishment. He is only loving, only good. He does discipline us because He loves us, but it is not punishment. He gently guides us and directs us, and when we get it wrong, He lets us know. We might feel a brief pang of recognition that we got it wrong, but death has lost its sting, and we can fall into His arms like a child and receive His wisdom on how to do it right the next time. Often, His discipline is grace, that empowers us to receive the correction and walk in closer nearness to His heart. We must have clean hands and a pure heart, unoffended and unoffendable. If we see an offense, we have a choice to either pick it up, or leave that formed weapon alone and posture our heart to ask God what He is thinking and doing in the moment. He is our constant companion, our comforter. We have a lifeline that we couldn’t earn, it is the personal phone number to God most high. We can call, text, or FaceTime whenever we want. Let’s step into His River of life, His River of Love, and stop punishing one another, but love and forgive each other like He does.

I love you, but Jesus loves you more!

I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have called you, and you are Mine. Come home! I have big plans for you.

I am humbled and grateful for your praise and worship. It’s a sweet fragrance and I love inhabiting your praises like floating on the lazy river!

The Holy Spirit is revealing Himself by signs and wonders. He is answering prayers in a three day turn around, if not faster in This season.

I have come to give you life, and life more abundantly through Jesus. I am holy and righteous. The earth is trembling with My glory. I’m looking for the One who’s eyes are fixed on Me. I’m waiting until our eyes meet in tender, intimate affection above all else. I simply want You. I want to shower You with My love and blessings. Selah.

Dreaming With God

How do my choices affect God?

We are called to be creative and dream with God with wisdom. When we display Godly wisdom, we draw all men unto Him. We are called to pursue our dreams, yet not be discouraged if we don’t have them realized. We may be paving a way for another’s dreams to come true. Man’s measurements and our measurements are different. What may look like a failure by man’s standards is a win in the Kingdom and by God’s standards. We are called to be still and know we are God, while also making and keeping Him Lord of our lives. We live in the mystery and the tension of Oneness. We can pray the prayer, All of me covered by all of You, Lord. When we know and understand His great love and great purpose for us, we can walk confident and serve others. We can live the gospel and others can read the Bible of our lives and be transformed. We can speak a better word that releases life and hope and truth. We can have entrainment with God’s voice, and build each other up into wholeness. God’s greatest dream is that we know who we are and that we demonstrate His glory and goodness so that others can know, too. The kingdom of heaven is advancing. The darkness has been defeated. If we can unify in knowing and believing in who He created us to be, we can move mountains and break strongholds and live in perfect love with zero fear. 

We have to learn how to embrace revelation with one hand, and mystery with the other, making the perfect cross. 

We have to be yielded to the Holy Spirit and discern what He’s doing and be sensitive to Him. 

We are both royalty and servants. 

We can be effective at both.  

Jesus served with Heart of a king but ruled with the heart of a servant.

Royalty is my identity, servant hood is my assignment, intimacy with God is my source.  

I am the good soil in Matthew 13:8

 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

https://youtu.be/hpdloYnlQJU

When my older sister and two older brothers were younger, my dad was shaving my brother’s heads. My sister, a Tom boy with waist length curly hair, sat in the chair after my second brother had his shaved and asked to go next. My dad, who was in charge of brushing her tangled curls, didn’t hesitate for a moment. He laughed his amazing belly laugh, and gleefully shaved her head. My sister was thrilled, and ran off to play, “King of the hill” with my brothers. It’s a legendary story in my family.

On March 16, twenty six years ago, we got the call that our legend of a father took his last breath. I went numb. My brothers happened to be shaving each other’s heads. I sat in the chair, and asked my brother, Josh, to shave my head. He joked around and asked me if I was serious, and I said yes. Afterwards, I ran and jumped in our pool, that was covered with a sheet of ice. I screamed under water. I didn’t feel the cold. I only felt my broken heart wretch and twist and grieve.

I walked around with my bald head and my spark dulled way down. I remember returning to college and my poetry professor looking at me like a dad would and he said that I looked beautiful.

I won my college’s annual writing contest in the categories of poetry and short story that year. One day, walking to class, I heard clear as day, “There she is! Miss America!” I had no grid for hearing God’s voice during that time in my life, and it both comforted me and scared me. Had my dad been alive, that’s exactly the song he would have sung to me to celebrate my wins. Every time I got a good report card, won an award, or just because, he would sing that to me.

I miss my dad all the time, but when I think of him, I picture him cheering me on. I can hear his laugh, and I can hear him singing. Not live like that day, but those sweet memories of times gone by. Echoes of the past. I am grateful for him. I miss him.

When I was healed from seventeen years of painful chronic pain in October of 2021, Care Pastor Wayne Ritchie sang, “There she is! Miss America!” as I entered my church on the day I realized I was healed. He’s like a dad to me, so that was very special on so many levels. He had no idea about my history with that song.

When I was a little girl, I would lay my head on my dad’s stomach and listen to his belly growl and digest his dinner as he held me while we watched TV. These days, when I pray, I imagine leaning my head on Jesus’ chest, and listening to His heart. He comforts me. He holds me. He sings over me now.
RIP daddy-o, padre, chief, and friend.

Miracles

Lisa Lancaster was a guest speaker at the Tuesday training last week, and prayed for spines to be straightened. At the moment she prayed, I got encountered with electricity and goosebumps in my spine. It felt like it started wiggling. This happened the other day when I saw my friend, Tonia’s prophetic art painting of a spine. This time, the goosebumps kept coming in a steady wave all day Tuesday. I was also on fire with the Holy Spirit. For like five hours. When my caregiver came to get me ready for bed, it was like someone poured water on my bed from me sweating all day. I was diagnosed with scoliosis at age five, when I was diagnosed with FOP. Doctors wanted to put me in a brace, but my parents left the decision up to me, and I didn’t want it. I said I was going to take a picture of my spine because I was in perfect faith that God was moving on it. My caregiver took a picture, and almost completely straight! It used to have a deep S curve, but now it doesn’t! He’s amazing. My mom celebrates Sukkot. The prayer mentions the spine. I didn’t know that. We read it on the day I realized I was healed, which was Wednesday, October 12, 2022. Here’s the Sukkot prayer-

Sukkot

Earth and sky, rain and sun, flower and fruit speak to us of God‘s creative power. Like generations before us, we give thanks for God‘s goodness. Into the sanctuary we have brought the symbols of Sukkot the lulav, with the palm that resembles the human spine, to remind us that we can stand straight with courage and integrity. May we serve God by standing up for justice, truth, and peace. The Myrtle, whose leaves are shaped like eyes that can behold the grandeur and beauty of the universe. May we serve God by looking with kindness at every living being. The willow of the brook, whose leaves are shaped like human lips. May these lips sing God’s praise and bless God‘s children. The etrog, shaped like the human heart. May we remember that love is the doorway through which we pass from selfishness to service, from loneliness to kinship with all the world. O God of Israel and all the world, with palm and myrtle, willow and etrog, with spine and eyes, lips and heart, we praise you. Spine and eyes and lips and heart come together as Lulav and etrog as we wave them to earth’s four corners, and toward heaven and earth, we are one with all of earth: with people and birds, with stones and with fish, with air and with dew, with each other and with God with a goodness and growing things with all that moves with all that is still.