Responding to the 2012 Election results

Sharing with you the thoughts of my heart on the day after the 2012 Election:

If you are a Christian....

     I grieve for the America I loved. We are outnumbered and we must find a way to lead this country to Truth. As a Christ-bearer I believe our concern about losing the Christian values so much of America rejects can only be remedied by a change of hearts.

     We believe in God's omnipotent power to place the rulers in power whom He chooses. Perhaps that is how God intends to answer our prayers. Yesterday, when I expected a Romney win, I really felt a real concern, almost a fear that the Church would go back to "business as usual" because we would think that a more conservative government would make things better.. if our prayers had been answered this way!

     As I have prayed I have come to believe that the old spiritual truth that suffering and injustice brings us to our knees in sincere and passionate intercession. This is the kind of prayer that is so effective.

     It will take more than one election to bring this country back to traditional Christian and conservative values......just look around at the values on display everywhere. It will take an earthquake of continued intercession.....we need to be on our face day after day before the Lord. I'm not sure that is where we really are yet. God may be giving us that opportunity if we really want Him to heal this land.

 

      How much sleep have we lost in order to interceed with passion and real humility. "if my people who are called by My Name will humble themselves[and understand that only God can bring this to pass] and pray and seek My face[day after day]...."  

     Can we be honest enough with ourselves to judge whether or not that describes the intensity of our prayer life?

 

     Or will we just accept our country as it is.....it's easier that way....and learn to adjust? That is the history of the Church in America.

     I know where I'm going to be for the next four years......WITH GOD'S HELP AND THE HOLY SPIRIT'S GUIDANCE. Will you join me?

One more thing.  I'm struck by the connection with where we are now in this country and the narrative of this book/movie.  Give it a read.

READ: THE HARBINGER by Jonathan Cahn
SEE:  The author's interview with Pat Robertson on the 700 Club on CBN. 

Forty Days of Prayer & Fasting for America

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION!!!  You who are closest to me in spirit are the ones whom God specifically called me to write to this afternoon!
     Tomorrow, there will be a huge (we pray) gathering of Christians in Philadelphia for the purpose of calling this nation, especially the Church in America, to prayer and fasting for our country....

• Not for a political rally...although there may be political ramifications
• Not for a media event...although there will be media
• Not for a prayer meeting....although there will be much prayer

     This gathering is a response to the immense grief stricken heart of God, Who cries out to His people here in our beautiful land.  It is the response to the overwhelming sense of the judgement of God which awaits us, indeed may have already began, on a land that has turned it's face from Him.
     The Old Testament stories of Gods relationship with Israel tell the same story, over and over again. Unimaginable favor followed by joy, then complacence, then apathy, then participation in the rejection of their Benefactor. We seem to be on the same track....allowing the enemy to get the upper hand in our culture, our families, our local, state, and federal governments, our media  and even in our churches.
God, who is full of grace (read Jonah) is reaching out one more time.  Will it be the last?

     As I sat in my chair this morning, asking the Lord what and how He would have me participate, this is what He put on my mind:

1. Tune in tomorrow to a live-streaming (God TV)of the Philadelphia event....join them in prayer.
2. Fast one hour of evening TV, spending an additional hour each evening to pray.
3. Contact my Christian contacts via this blog and email, encouraging them to participate for the entire forty days, praying for ways in which each can fast and pray.
4. Use a daily prayer guide:  found at   www.40daysofprayer.charismamag.com 
5. Along with confessing, worshiping, and petitioning, intecede against the  spiritual strongholds  with the authority and spiritual weapons (Word) that I have in His Name
6. Pray earnestly for the event tomorrow....safety, Holy Spirit annointing, wisdom, guidance, purity, and participation.

     Perhaps the Lord would have you also do some or all of these things.
     Check out  www.charismamag.com.  The October issue has been totally devoted to this matter and is being distributed to everyone who attends the Philadelphia meeting tomorrow.  It contains all kinds of articles to encourage and instruct you in your prayers over the forty days.

AMEN AND AMEN!

      And PLEASE PASS IT ON!
             .

What did they see?

     Things are cooling down a little this month, at least in the evenings and during the nights.  This means that the buildings have a chance to cool down overnight and we start the day with lower temperatures.  I, too, feel that I am beginning to revive and enjoy Arizona a little more as I venture more into the outdoors. 
     The newly acquired energy will be welcome as we get ready to launch a new group for widows and single women here that will meet twice a month at my home, along with a welcoming "coffee" before the first meeting each month.  I'm very excited and looking forward to introducing the "Bouquets from My Beloved" message to a whole new group of women.  Set-up will be easier at my house and, since most women of the church live withing one to five miles from here, the location will be very convenient and a little more intimate than in a church room.
     Another of my summer activities is winding down as the "Little House on the Prairie" rewinds has run its course in the four evening  hours of each week night.  I have so enjoyed this wonderful series this summer and, the romantic that I am, I loved the romance between Laura and Almanzo.  I guess last night's chapter was in the back of my conciousness when I began my quiet time this morning.
     Listening on my IPOD and singing to a beautiful piece where the scene from Revelation 4  stimlated my imagination, I wondered with the singer what the twenty four elders saw that caused them to fall on their faces and what did the angels see that caused them to sing "Holy, Holy, Holy".  Then I thought of the word, "GLORY", the glory that surrounds God's holiness, His indescribable completeness.
     And if you know me, you know that the Holy Spirit once described God's glory to me this way:  Picture the delight on the face of a father, full of joy and love as he looks down at his child who has just won the race of his life, or a mother about to burst with pride and love when her baby takes her first steps.
     This picture gives us a hint as to the Father's delight, pride, joy, and love which fill His heart and emanate from Him...His Glory...when His creation pleases Him with obedience and returns His love.  This is why we were created!
     Back to Laura and Almanzo. They are now engaged after many ups and downs and Almonzo buys a piece of land for them.  He is so overjoyed that he races into town, grabs her away from the schoolhouse where she is assistant to the teacher, his sister, tears out of town, taking her to the piece of property. He runs up the hill, and spreading his arms open wide, his face grinning from ear to ear, and convinces her that this is where their future home will be built.  When she finally gets it, Laura leaps from the wagon, and with great joy runs up the hill and throws her arms around him. The camera switches to a birds' eye view of their hug as Almanzo swings her around and around, both of them  throwing back their heads in laughter and contagious joy. As the lens zooms farther and farther out, we are drawn into their joyful embrace and dance of delight.
    This picture seems to answer at least part of my question about the elders and angels.  The immensity of God's joy, His delight and His love for His bride, His church, as she enters into their betrothal (our response to His salvation) is so bright so intense so overwhelming that all in heaven can only respond by falling to their faces and expounding on His holiness.  They see the results bourne out from The Lord's holiness, His ability to create and nurture His people, knowing that in His perfect wisdom they will respond.  They see the complete redemption story!
     One day when the veil is dropped from our eyes, we, too,will see with perfect clarity God's joy, His delight, His love for us.  We, too, will fall on our faces and cry, "holy, holy,holy". He is there in heaven with His arms wide open, just waiting  to pick us up and swing us around as our joy brings more joy, more glory to the Father. We, too, will join that dance of pure delight!

     Well here it is the end of August....monsoon season in Arizona.  Lower temperatures (still over 100) and frequent rain showers and humidity.....reminds me of August in Florida. Only a month or so until I'll enjoy being outside again.
     One of the things I will enjoy doing  is "dancing" in the pool to my worship music.  It's glorious to leap, spin and glide with my arms upraised to My Beloved, all the while letting the water shield my joints and muscles.  I found a way to safely pocket my IPOD in my hat, and the rest was history.
     "I remember the first glance...
         I remember the first romance..
            I remember the first dance....   when I fell in love with You"
                                                                                                Misty Edwards, Eternity-Glance
This is what I wrote yesterday in my journal on that subject:

In defense of God's romantic love for me and of my romantic, passionate love for Him....

Why else would the Lord nestle in His word many descriptions of His love for me using the terms a husband would use for his bride/wife/betrothed?  These passages are there because they best describe the passionate love He has for me. Here are a few:

• The care and precision that Abraham took to choose a bride for Isaac...a very romantic story
• The keening of Hosea over his wayward bride, and his powerful love to restore her....an alagory of God's grief and restoring power over His chosen people
• Ruth's powerfully brave and romantic response to Boaz...courage to trust in the Redeemer
• The whole of Song of Songs.... right in the middle of the Bible....God's love song to us
• Jesus' own words refering to Himself as The Bridegroom
• John's revelations ....the bride belongs to the Bridegroom, the wedding supper
• The glimpses in Paul's writings of his understanding of the Bridegroom's love...as Christ loves the Church

     Jesus is always "romancing" us. But in this sexually distorted culture, these are uncomfortable revelations, sometimes causing distortions and misunderstandings among Christians who want to avoid anything that smacks of emotionalism or eroticism. I choose not to allow these fears to rob me of His romantic gifts to me:

     ~pouring out  His gifts to me both material (provision and more) and spiritual (gifts, revelations)
     ~delighting me with new insights about Him, me and heaven and earth
     ~calling me to His side, to feel His touch, to rest with Him
     ~jealously hovering over me to guard and protect me, not willing to let me go
     ~willing to reveal more and more of Himself to me as we share our innermost secrets
     ~reveling in my times of worship for Him, ravishing His heart with one glimpse of my eyes

Jesus says to me:
     " you are totally special to Me
        you are invaluable to Me above all else
        you are Mine...I bought you with My blood
        you are still free to choose
        you are empowered with My Spirit
        you are My partner in establishing the Kingdom of God on this earth....My helpmate"
    
     My faith, my choice to believe these things is not only indescribably beautiful to Him but also powerful.  It truly ravishes His heart. What I accomplish and live by now in faith will be joyously perceived and seen in eternity. My joy at what I did by faith  will be indescribable ...the glory that I give to my Lord, adding to His Glory which is reflected back to me.

Jesus say to me:
     "As you ponder My romance with you, My beloved, your wedding gown is being woven and           sewn, adorned all in preparation for Our Wedding when I return for you.
  
      Ponder more, My beautiful bride,
      Believe more, My beloved,
      Act on what you've been given, My helpmate.

      I long for you, too."
    

Well, here I am again, my dear friends....

     I am medium well done and it is only late June in Phoenix.  It is almost unbearable to go outside after noon.  Even leaving for a Pet Portrait workshop at nearby PetCo at 6PM  takes all my determination...it is still 100 degrees outside.
     Tonight I have a wonderful Bible Study at my church on "knowing who I am in Christ".  Again I'll have to kick myself out the door. I get up early and try to do chores, shopping and have my quiet time during the morning hours, then often nod off for a nap while watching Fox News Special Report which airs here at 3PM instead of dinner time.  Many changes......
     These boring details point out a life lesson I'm learning.  Stangely it is this: trusting God as my Husband requires real submission to Him. This has always been hard for us women.
      When I tried to fly to Florida two weeks ago to see my friends again and attend a concert with Kari Jobe, I was stopped cold in Las Vegas.  As a long time airline pass user (thanks to my pilot-son's privileges), I was stunned, since the night before  I had been told I had a good chance. Earlier the previous week other blocks to this hair-brained quick trip had clearly been removed and I had been sure The Lord had opened the door for me to go.
      Why had the Lord led me to believe this trip was His will for me?  That was my complaint to Him all day long as I waited for a return flight to Phoenix to open up.  I kept questioning until I arrived back home at 9:45 that evening!  I added questions like:
       "Lord, why are you allowing all this time to be wasted in the Las Vegas airport?  Why have you allowed me to miss the concert I so much wanted to attend. (Kari Jobe's lyrics are a part of my book, Bouquets From My Beloved)?  Why would you let me and my friends, who had been so excited to be reunited for a short period, be so dissappointed?"  I wasn't exactly stamping my feet and demanding answers;  I truly wanted to know.
     The scripture that kept coming to me was, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." Prov 3: 4-5. The only answer I've received is that I must learn to be flexible, submissive to the unknown, but cherishing care of my Husband, the Lord, who watches and guides me jealously at all times.  Perhaps one day He will tell me why.  But until then, like He said to His Father in the garden, "Not my will, but yours..."Mat 26:39. 
     So, I came away from this experience, unharmed, a little humbled, and still greatful that He, my Husband, is guiding and making my way straight....even when it seems a little crooked.  And He is still God and I am still a child learning to know who I am in Christ. 
    

A Dream

     In the dream, my husband and I had just been married.  However, repeatedly, we were surrounded by  events and matters that seemed to demand our individual attention. What we really wanted was to just be together to celebrate our love.  I awoke longing to just be with him. 
     It doesn't take a genius to figure this one out.  Ever since my husband died, I have occasionally had one version or another of this dream. I do not know the man in the dream.  But I like to believe that it is the Lord's way of calling me, of reminding me that He wants to spend more time with me. I love that. I love to know that my Heavenly Bridegroom longs to be with me.
     My life is on hold, it seems, right now.  I have all in place to teach watercolor classes and paint pet portraits. I'm praying for students to sign up and pets to paint.
     I have found my new church.  New Life Church has absorbed me into there midst.  I am waiting for the open door to minister back to them what my Beloved has given to me.
     I love peaches.  And that's why my family and I went peach picking last Saturday and are now gorging ourselves with all the treats that can be made with peaches.  Even my daughter in California seems closer when we talk on the phone.
     As the days of a brilliantly blooming desert give way to the more subtle colors of the desert and its consuming heat, I am rereading Dutch Sheets' book, Intercessory Prayer. I am so inspired to pray courageously and with the Holy Spirit's power for my family, my country, and the world.
     But my heart responds most strongly to this call from my Heavenly Husband. I love it that He longs for me, too. I love it that He wants all my attention for awhile.  I love it that He makes me feel like I'm the only one.  I asked Him how that could be.  He reminded me that He lives outside time and space...of which there is no limit.  When He draws me aside...just me...He can stay there for as long as I wish, without withholding Himself from anyone else. We spent all morning together this day...glorious!
     Sharing a few pictures:  The April desert in bloom.