04/06/2024
Man, if we could all only stay immersed in His Word…there would no longer be anymore “woe are you”, but hearts full of WOE IS ME! Preaching the kingdom of God from right perspective, from right grace, is what wins souls. There is a time to be aggressive, a time to be silent, a time to be a friend, a time to bring correction, but all must be led by the Spirit of truth which lives and REIGNS in our own heart.
We are indeed an army, ambassadors for HIS kingdom…not our own (research what an ambassador does), yet we have hindered the gospel through strapping our own half hearted lives to His Name and in turn spew confusion when we speak to others. We must be careful to not be more of a stumbling block than a witness and grieve the spirit of grace and truth. I had a revelation hit my spirit Sunday that our God, the One True and Living God, is perceived by others through His children…through His soldiers, through His ambassadors. I cannot put into words the grief that flooded my soul!
In Jeremiah 15, Jeremiah began to complain in a moment of natural frustration and depletion and look at how the Lord responds:
Therefore, this is what the LORD says: “If you return (repent), THEN I will restore you— You will stand before Me; And IF you extract the precious (the kingdom mind) from the worthless (the natural vile pity), You will become My spokesman. They, for their part, may turn to you (spiritually, by your example), But as for you, you are not to turn to them (naturally, because your heart is left unguarded).
When we stay in His Word and in communion with Him, He will keep our heart guarded and our character in check. When we go to HIM in our weak moments, He will keep our spirit strengthened.
I watched my son go through boot camp and it was one of the hardest and proudest moments of my life and I walked away with so much revelation in the spirit!! Those who went in as boys and girls, and endured hardship and discipline, mental exhaustion, chastisement, remaining silent while their natural character was being broken down as they were ridiculed and yelled at, enduring times where everything in them wanted to forfeit and walk away…yet at graduation, those who endured…when I saw that door open and they walked in…you could hear the unity of their footsteps coming from far away…they didn’t look to the right or the left when they come in, no matter how much cheering was going on, no matter how long it had been since they had seen their family, they were UNMOVED, their vision was fixed on what was in front of them, they were silent, those who went in as natural minded boys and girls came out as SOLDIERS READY FOR BATTLE! Each knew their purpose, each knew their place, they helped one another make it, they were stripped of self in every way and trained for one common purpose! I watched those commanders who broke them and yelled at them and disciplined them, now beaming with pride over their creation.
COME ON CHURCH!! I believe everyone needs to watch a military graduation ceremony at least once in their life! Is our heartbeat one that makes the Father proud? Have we separated the precious from the vile? Life will always be hard and unfair, but He gave His best as an example and when we take up HIS cross, we will walk in HIS ways, hallelujah!!! Life ain’t here “to make you happy”, there is an enemy after the soul of man!! Your life is no longer yours to do with and say what you want when you profess His Name. Let’s get a kingdom mind, let’s become true ambassadors with right perspective which is only going to come through the boot camp of His Word and His Spirit!! So many lives hang in the balance of war!!! TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY BOTH NOW AND FOREVER!!!
Rak Chazak Amats!!
Steph
