Followers

Friday, October 10, 2008

“Sing to Me”

Sometimes we come to a place in our spiritual lives where we must stop the merry-go-round and get off. Our world is spinning from the demands of life and we say, “I have had enough play. I’m getting off here and going this direction.” It takes some evaluation or summing up of circumstances to do this. Drastic changes come suddenly when you get off the merry-go-round and start evaluating what is going on in your life.

There are times when I have felt impressed to fast, in order for the flack around me to subside. This is what I call pressing in, bulldog faith. I see the problem, it is impossible, and I take a drastic measure to start fasting in order to see something happen. I have adopted this verse, “This poor woman cried and the Lord heard her and delivered her from all her troubles.”

I have been praying recently for revival to break out. It needs to break in me, before I see results. I was at the church to pray for the services. I found a wonderful pillowed altar to kneel down on, when the Lord said, “Sing to Me. Get up. Sing to Me! I did. A spontaneous time of worshipful singing came forth. Here is an example. “Lord, My God, I will sing to You! I will sing praise to You, My King. I worship and adore you. You are wonderful! Hallelujah! I will clap and sing, raise my hand, twirl and dance for you have given me joy, great joy! I bless your name! I bless Your name! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

I knelt down again at the cushioned altar. I had just begun praying, when the Lord said,” Get up, Sing to Me.” This need to sing to Him was there all that afternoon. I sang in the car on the way home, and came early to church to sing some more. I sang too loudly in the service, and finally Sunday afternoon, as I was writing this newsletter, the Lord said to me, “Sit before Me. Bask in My presence! I will provide a company of angels to be around you as you worship Me for I am almighty God. There is none like Me. I am your company, the presence you want to be with. I am come that you may have life, life most abundant. Be free in Me. Minister to Me, my child. Sing from your heart to Me. I have placed in your hands an instrument. Clap and sing for victory, for this is the way out of your dilemma.”
You see, I was praying for the Lord to change circumstances. He came through by the first of the next week. The Lord was beginning something more in me, and I needed to persevere with Him for a season. I didn’t need to go out of town. I needed to stay in place.

There are many passages in the Bible about singing and shouting to the Lord, which involve our responses to Him. In my case, He was saying to sing to Him and forget the burden, for He would take care of it as I just worshiped Him. Long ago I learned to make up songs and tunes to Him whether they made sense to anybody else or not. Worship is spontaneous and sometimes we get too bogged down in our worship. Freedom is getting started and letting go of the garments of praise from the past, and receiving the freedom of the Lord to just worship like we love Him and want to be in His presence. He wants us to worship from our heart, like He wants me to write from my heart. I shouted and sang last week when I met with him. I shouted: LORD JESUS I PRAISE YOU! FATHER I LOVE YOU! I WORSHIP YOU! HALLEUJAH! HALLEUJAH! I BLESS YOUR NAME! YOU ARE WONDERFUL; YOU ARE GOD ALMIGHTY, HALLEUJAH!

The Lord gave me this verse which I repeated aloud many times:
Zephaniah 3: 17—“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exalt over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” J

Turn to I Samuel 17: “God will deliver me so that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or by spear: for the battle is the Lord’s and He will give you into our hands.”

David ran quickly to meet the giant. David stands before Saul with the Giant’s head in his hand. When the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled! You have to fearlessly kill the giant and cut his head off with the giant’s own sword. The giant in your life will taunt you until you cut its head off. You have to confront the giant! All the armies of Israel did not have boldness until David, a ruddy, youthful, runt killed the giant with a stone and a sling shot. Then they ran after the Philistines and killed many of them.

David made this statement to King Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep when a lion or bear came and took a lamb from the flock. I went out after him, and rescued it from its mouth. When he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both lion and bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them; since he has taunted the armies of the living God, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.

To the giant, David said, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted.” David said, The Lord will deliver you into my hands and I will strike you down and remove your head from you. I will give the dead bodies of the Philistines to the birds of the sky and wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that the assembly may know that the Lord does not deliver by sword or spear, but He will give you into my hands.”

The Lord wants to give the giant into your hands, but you must do the work to kill the giant of despair, the giant of ________ in your life. What is coming against you the most in your spiritual life? Apathy hits us all, because it is prevalent. Life is hard, God isn’t answering, where is He when I needed Him? He was right there, waiting for you to listen.

Psalm 95: 1 “Shout! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.”

Psalm 81: l “Shout joyfully to the God of Jacob.”

Psalm 66: 1 “Shout joyfully to God, all the earth: sing the glory of His name. Make His praise glorious.”

47:1 O clap your hands, all ye people; shout to God with a voice of joy!

Let’s pray. Dear heavenly Father, Thank you for this time to communicate with the church. Thank you for leading me to stay home, and for forgiving me for rushing ahead instead of listening to your plans. I submit this letter to You, to take it and use it in the lives of those who will read it. Thank you for dealing with me about singing and shouting, and for the good time that resulted from shouting to you in an almost empty building Saturday as I met with you.

Thank you for the freedom in Christ that we have, to go boldly before your throne of grace because of the blood of Christ that He shed for us. Help me to listen and to obey You. Forgive me for the times I haven’t listened. Forgive me for the fears that overwhelm and the anxieties. I release them to you now, and place my burdens at your feet. Thank you for caring enough for me, that you caused my sister to cancel out on my visit. I shout to you by faith as I sit here writing to these precious people.

Lord, will you move mountains in their lives? Will you bring us revival as you melt our hearts? Will you come, Holy Spirit of God, and move in the services at our church? Will you forgive us for apathy, for giving into the merry-go- round of life?

Help us to come into your presence with singing, and drop our problems quickly, in order to worship you and sit at your feet. Forgive us for hardness of heart, and for fears that we would be left with the problem. Forgive us for thinking you are not big enough to handle the giant that has come against us. Cleanse us from our fears, and take our burdens, Lord.
In Jesus name, amen.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Hold Up 2: God, Where are You?”

Matthew 6: 25- 34:

Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body as to what you will put on. Is life not more than food and the body, as to what you shall put on? Look at the birds of the air as to they do not sow, neither do they reap, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life span? And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so as raised the grass of the field which is alive today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?

Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things will be added unto you. Do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them can be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against the house; and yet it did not fall for it had been founded upon the rock.
Everyone who hears and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who build his house upon the sand. And the rain descended and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against the house; and it fell, and great was its fall.

In the last newsletter we talked about God’s love for you personally and about hindrances to our prayers. Once people recognize God loves them, they must reconcile with past sins up to the moment. Many people doubt their salvation and many have guilt that has never been dealt with. They carry a burden of condemnation. It holds them back when they get into the worship service.

When we want God to move things spiritually, we must deal with the garbage the demons are eating. I saw a picture once of someone who came to the church for help; they were very sincere and they received it. On the way out of the building, they had God’s light on them. Then they entered a dark room, climbed up a ladder to a big garbage bin, and began digging in the garbage bin. This is what happens when we refuse to change after being ministered to under the anointing. We welcome the garbage back in our life until we are willing to forsake it.

When revival comes, people break through under the power of God and come to Christ. They feel the need to pray and repent of the garbage that has been in control. The Word as it is preached or spoken breaks up the darkness; it cuts the soul and the spirit of both joints and marrow and is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4).

“There are no creatures hidden from His sight, but all things are laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom you have to do.”

There is an anointing at the invitation time after the message has been preached. Many of us don’t realize that this is the time for God to set us free. We need to be sensitive to the calling of the Holy Spirit as He woos us to come forward and deal with the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Too often we ignore the calling to come and allow the church to pray for us. The anointing breaks the yoke. The Holy Spirit glorifies Christ and convicts us of sin.

Since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things, as we are, yet with out sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and grace in time of need.

Picture the cross where Jesus died and down below is a swirling river of blood. When we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Sometimes we need to confess our sins before we can get rid of the nagging condemnation that is always there. Jesus died for all your sins. As you confess them, see your sins in that blood at the foot of the cross.

A pastor dealt with me about something I was continually condemned over. I confessed it to him at the invitation and I was encouraged to see the cross once more. I saw it, and the blood of Jesus was there like a river. Little white tags were in the blood floating away out of sight. My confession broke the condemnation.

Do you need to be set free, loosed? Have you been harassed by condemnation even though you have confessed privately? Have you accepted Christ without letting Him take control of your life? Is their evidence that your life has changed? Have you been depressed?

Is your life in shambles? Come and let us pray with you. Open the door to Jesus. Satan wants to eat the darkness--- Jesus wants to set you free. Say it aloud to the pastor or someone up front during the invitation.

“I need help and there’s a hindrance to my spiritual growth. I need God to________.”

Proverbs 3: 32:
“The crooked man is an abomination to the Lord; but He is intimate with the upright.”

Our righteousness is as filthy rags. His blood cleanses our hearts when we confess our sins, and He is faithful to forgive.

So what is holding you back? What keeps you from fulfilling the purpose God has for your life? You have to give Him your life to find out; no holding back on a little area. Total surrender means your cup overflows with the presence of God because He loves you and you wear His righteousness. He puts his robe on those who surrender their lives to Him. Has the spiritual house that you have built stood on the sand or the rock?

Jesus is the answer; He is the light, and when you come to Him He expects you to say the truth. There is no way to get to heaven without surrendering to Jesus and giving Him your life. He wants to make something beautiful out of tragedy, something good even though you have sinned, and the only way to do that is through total surrender of your life.

I hope this helps you become free. J

Love,
Ruby