In the Presence of God

From My Vantage Point looking out my window.....Meri Ford August 13, 2015

"For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:17).

Another translation puts it...”we speak in the presence of God......”

This jogged my attention this morning. And got me to thinking of the recent David Orton piece that discussed the difference between the prophet and the prophetic minister saying something like the latter share a word from God, and the prophet speaks the word of God.

As NT Christians indwelt with the presence of God, when we speak, we truly speak in God's presence whether we realize it or not. What an awesome awareness or reality! Lately as I have traveled I have not been praying for God to be with me, etc. Rather I have been thanking Him for being there and for the angels which are there ministering “to the heirs of salvation.” As I learn to live in the Presence I see things differently.

This whole sense of what is real as Christ lives in us and we live in Him is changing so many of the ways I see things. Healing is seen in a whole different perspective as is so many other aspects of “life in Christ.” If I live in Christ and he lives in me, where is healing? I am gaining a fresh insight into Sabbath Rest! Learning to live daily on earth knowing Christ who is not just my healer but my healing and my health lives in me and I live in Him, my focus begins to be to rest in Him, to trust Him to be all that He is in and through me.

Some call this kind of thinking “kingdom thinking”....and it does seem to line up to that kind of definition as one learns to walk out day by day what is the reality it in the Heavens and learn to rule and reign here on earth in and out of the reality of who Christ is in me and who I am in Christ.

Someone shared a dream some time back a in which the man saw a man standing before God begging him for His blessings. God seemed to be ignoring the beggar as he pleaded with God for what he was wanting God to do for him. Then in walked what appeared to be a soldier in full dress uniform and weapons. He was greeted by the Lord and give orders to take the beggar out and kill him. The man observing this asked God why he had the beggar killed and God replied. There are no beggars in my kingdom. All that I have is given you.

Learning to not just mentally assent to my status as a son of the King, but learning to actually rest in the King and allow his life and power, wisdom and counsel to flow through me is somewhat of a new part of my journey with the Lord.

I've been following the saga of little Justus' fight for life at Children's Hospital in Portland through Pray for Justus #TeamJustus.(Pray For Justus #TeamJustus)  I have literally read posts of those who write saying they are begging God for healing for Justus!   My heart cringes and I weep realizing so many of us don't know yet the generosity of our Father. My heart has broken in prayer groups when I hear the beggar's cry from those who are so wanting the blessings of God's love in some way that they don't have. Almost as sad was hearing others affirm those beggar prayers as their own! I won't say much more other than I am just learning to walk in the security of His love and don't often see much “flow” of His supernatural nature “out of my own life” into situations. Granted I don't always “see” what is happening when I speak/pray into situations and rarely have those holy shivers that some have indicating God's Spirit is mightily at work. But in increasing manner I am learning to “let” God as I focus on things that I trust He's brought into my awareness that He is working in. Letting God often means a conscious focus on resting in Him and releasing who He is into a given situation sometimes by words but often just by total resting in Himself...knowing HE IS there.

I sit in services in congregations and am learning just how wonderful it is to be together with those who name the name of Jesus. That half don't really believe that God is among us, so what? I can rejoice that HE IS among us, that he is there and I don't have to plead or do some religious mechanics or sing so many worship songs to get Holy Spirit to be present. Yes, I may have to do some heart work to quiet myself so as to become aware that HE is there and to allow Him to not just “be there” but be in me all He is and to be in the midst of His people all he is.” And my “prophetic” nature can easily see everything that isn't what I think it ought to be rather than it can see what “Is”....and HE IS!!! In my current “assignment” I have been sent to a place to rest in Him and allow Him to be in the congregation what He wants to be. My focus is just on Him. Yes, it means sometimes seeing things that are out of alignment, but He sees them too and He has said He is at work, so I can truly rest in Him knowing He's told me He's in charge and He is doing what He wants to do as I rest in Him!! And that is the labor that I am expected to do...to labor to rest in him, casting down every thought (and as a prophetic I really have lots and mostly critical ones...grin!) that exalts itself before the throne of God...before what God wants and is doing in that place!!!

Where does this fit with “ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking and it will be opened unto you?” Somehow I think this has more to do with our seeking Himself than “getting him to answer our prayers.” At the same time, I see my God doing stuff because of the generosity of His heart and not because we are in any “right order”. Does that change the fact that He's at work to bring us into maturity as His sons in Christ Jesus? I am reminded here that in various stages of our journey with Christ as we are being conformed to His image, God deals with us in different ways. Things I did when first filled with Holy Spirit in 1970s He will not find acceptable today. And He didn't expect me to do things I know He is doing today back in the 1970s.

As I read the many prayers for little Justus, I remember we are all in different stages of this journey. And there are “mature three year olds” and mature teen agers and then there are mature adults. I don't expect a mature three year old to be a mature adult! He is still at three year old!! But mature adults no longer act like three year olds. When I became a man a put away childish things. I can be conformed to His image as a three year old as well as a 70 year old.....doesn't mean I am perfected or you wouldn't see me still hanging around earth's corridors.

So as God looks at his body he surely sees us in the “stages of growth” that we are in. And He knows just what measure of Christ each is given to be conformed/filled with. (Thanks Mario Liu for that article on Stages of Growth!)

At the same time, my heart longs for us to begin to come together in new ways as members of His body, learning to allow Him to be and do through us what only He can do. How often we want Him to do something “separate” from his body. And sometimes it seems that he does...or does he only work where someone has gone before and prayed...maybe a grandmother or great aunt, or maybe someone prayed in the spirit in China for something God wanted to do in little Justus' life in Portland Oregon?

Part of this means learning what it is God is doing and what he wants to accomplish in a given situation versus what our human hearts long to see done.

From my vantage point looking out my window..........

Meri Ford

August 13, 2015

Light in the Darkness

The Light Shines in the Darkness

 March 31, 2015

What an exciting day we live in. For the promise is to us that as things get darker and darker in this world, Light will shine brighter..and those who walk in the light will shine brighter. However, we might also remember, that when Light shines in the darkness, there are those who prefer their deeds they do in the darkness more than the responsibility of living in the Light and the freedom it gives. Light always brings separation from the darkness and shows a way out for those that want to walk out.



Years ago I had a dream and in that dream I was reminded, don’t fight the darkness, just SHINE. The greatest thing we can do in this day as it seems the darkness is enveloping the earth and especially this nation in the minds and attitudes of men is to let our Light shine and not put it under a bushel. Yes, the Light doesn't come to bring peace, but it comes as a sword to cut through the darkness even as a laser cuts through the object it shines on and through. For as many as are looking for a way out of the darkness that envelops their lives, Light will be seen as a Saviour and a big Exit sign which gives Hope and a Future for God still has a plan for those that are even now seemingly trapped in darkness of mind and deed and understanding.




Let us not be seen attacking the darkness but shining the light of God grace and mercy and even more so His Power to deliver as many as desire to escape the bondage of darkness. So great is the power of Light…of Him who said He was the Light and the Life of men and that we who believe in Him are the Light of this world that we live in. And his name is Yeshua the Christ, the Son of the Living God…the full image and reflection, the fullness of the Godhead personally….

A View From History

March 19, 2015  

     I don't often read books that are considered top sellers, but for Christmas I bought several copies of Killing Patton for friends and my husband, people who tend to read that type of books. My husband hadn't spent much time reading it and I figured I could read it before he got back to reading it.  After all, didn't want it to go unread after I spent money on it. LOL!

     Even though I was a history/political science major in college, I can't say that I knew much about WWII other than what I have seen in the movies and from glimpses of things I've picked up over the years. Reading this book is like being given a fresh perspective on the world's condition in 2015. I trust the Lord has a very specific purpose in my reading it. I have almost no stomach for violence and my husband knows I don't knowingly watch movies that have much violent content. As a babe in arms, my folks went to see South Pacific and got to the theater before the first movie was over.  Some of you will remember they often had a war movie on before the second feature which was the prime feature. Such was the case that night.  Despite the fact that I was in my father's arms, I was so wiped out by the war scenes that I screamed and screamed. And still so affected by the end of the war movie, I seemed to have found everything in the beginning of South Pacific to be terrifying  including when the main actor was singing and walking through the corn field.

     So my sensitivity to the brutality that is recorded in Killing Patton is rather heightened along with the prediction of the future of relationships with Russia that are so clearly defined in the book.   This brings me to make a few points which the book has stirred in my mind:

     ISIS or ISIL is not a new phenomenon and it's savagery is little different from what I read that the Germans and the Russians did during WWII, and which sadly, on some occasions American soldiers also did. As we listen to the news today, I realize ISIS is little different from many of the Middle Eastern soldiers fighting against ISIS or what other armies throughout history have done in war.  They are fighting for supremacy and such at attitude always justifies the use of whatever necessary force or brutality to secure personal and military supremacy. When you combine that with the religious fervor that is present on both the Sunni and Shia sides, nothing is outside the real of possibility.Such an attitude opens the door, no matter the nationality, to the forces of evil to come in and inhabit a person and feed them with the insatiable desire for conquest both of individuals and nations at any expense.  Maybe I am a latecomer to this knowledge, but to be frank, I had not seen the ISIS issue as a common aspect of humanity which we are now seeing also in the Iraqis and Iranian forces battling ISIS. We have already seen some of this in the Syrian forces with their use of gases and other type of control mechanisms used to destroy the power of human resistance.  It doesn't take much to look back through history as I have been doing to see this isn't anything new, though today perhaps is more publicized and ultimately affecting much more of humanity due to the modes of travel and communication we have in the 21st Century. As I reread what I have written, I wonder when I  realize that an American military leader might be similarly disposed to deal with the American people if they were to rebel and threatened the supremacy of the ruling powers of this nation and/or global economy.

     Another point which reading this book has stirred in my understanding is something  General Patton said;  "Keeping our forces intact. Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to these people. This is the only language they understand and respect.  If you fail to do this, then I would like to say that when we have had a victory over the Germans we have lost the war."  He was of course referring to the Russians, for he understood that even as now,"they were relentless in its quest to control as much of Europe as possible, with Stalin taking full advantage of Dwight eisenhower's timidity. The Russians are seizing more land, and more people are coming under their occupation."  (page 260 Killing Patton) And we can see today that this is true, and that even today in the face of the timidity of the West, that the Russian bear is creeping into much of the area that it formerly held, led by a man who headed the KGB during the Cold War, an agency known to do the most vilest of atrocities to those who it disliked or that it distrusted, behavior which still is being engaged in today in the secrecy which only such totalitarian leadership can maintain.

     Another thing I found to be most intriguing was the comparison that Patton made of himself to King David.  While Patton was very much of a vulgar man in many ways, arrogant, and self-centered, he had a standing dependence upon The Almighty as he referred to Him, regularly seeking His direction and help in time of battle. And according to this book, and Patton's journal, the Almighty regularly was involved in the battles that Patton engaged in, not always in the way Patton expected!  Some of the military strategies that were so successful were often given in specific and full detail in dreams which Patton attributed to The Almighty.  

     How this stirs me in amazement at the nature of our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Patton regularly relied upon the Lord, cried out to Him, shared his heart with Him, and not just the good stuff but much of the behavior which he himself knew was not godly he shared with the Almighty.  And Patton made great enemies of those that had goals other than the success of the overall success of the Allies.  While Patton was an egotist and wanted the honor that he thought he deserved, he wasn't a compromiser and paid a high price for being a man who spoke truth.  That isn't to say he didn't lie at times, for which there were always some consequence which he acknowledged at times.


     As I read this book, I was also amazed at the similarity to the news broadcasts/media  of the time of WWII and what we have today and the lack of "truth" that comes forth.  I realize that much of politics is like sausage, you don't want to see the process by which it is made.  And the end product is what most human beings want to hear, not the ways that it was achieved or lost.

    So what are my conclusions as I come to the end of this commentary?  The time of the enemy is drawing close to an end and there is an acceleration of his plan to establish a global  kingdom on this earth. And much of what we are seeing around the world today is the fulfillment of that goal that isn't going to be so different from the areas where the enemy of our souls got hold of governments and powers in days past, except it will be on a much wider, more global scale.  Similarly there is an acceleration of the refining of the Sons of God for their role in the Kingdom of Heaven for its rule and reign upon the earth one day. As darkness increases so does the value and ability to see even a small light in the increasing darkness.   

     God's  Kingdom was neither  in the Allies or Axis camp during WWII, nor is it ISIL or Iraqis or Iranian or USA or Russian.   The Kingdom of Heaven is within His people and they will shine as lights wherever they are and will stand as Light even amidst organizations that may embody the depths of darkness. And as we move on into the closing of this age, it behooves us as those who are called by His Name, to consider the ways of the Lord. For they surely are not the ways most of us as human beings have come to practice throughout history.  It is our nature as humans to criticize those who violate truth: men such as FDR who gave away much of Europe in compromise with the Russians, a price we are still paying today with a weak Europe.  We readily criticize government officials who are timid for one reason or another in the face of the onslaught of a religious fanaticism that is destroying lives around the world.  

     Yet, what are we as men and women who live in and dwell in Christ Jesus to be doing?  How do we proclaim Truth without criticizing and attacking those who differ in motivation and awareness from us?  I have been reading and rereading Jeremiah.  He didn't criticize the kings. He spoke only the Word of the Lord. He spoke what God said God was going to do.  Sometimes I wonder if we (I) hear the Word of the Lord good enough to be confident that we (I)  even know what God is doing?  This comes to a really sticky point when we talk about Israel today, so divided is the "understanding" of  the plan and purpose of God in relationship to Israel among even devout believers in Jesus Christ.  Yet, how much of it is our human understanding, even our "biblical" understanding and not the insight and "word of the Lord" as spoken and revealed to our hearts by Holy Spirit?

     As I close I call upon the name of Jesus, and ask  You, Father, that You give each of those who read this post a hunger to hear from You, and the desire to share their own heart with You, the good bad and the ugly, that  You might "know them", and empower them to lay down every aspect of their own understanding at the cross of Jesus Christ, that Your Word might find entrance to their minds and they might gain Your understanding to the praise of the name of Jesus that they indeed might shine as Light in a dark and evil world. Amen and Amen!

His servant,

Meri Ford

   

Meri Ford

516 Park Rd
Winlock, WA 98596
360 520 4503
Blogs
http://meriford.blogspot.com/
 http://www.renewedhopesite.wordpress.com/
website: http://www.renewedhopesite.com