Living Light

Stirring The Deep

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The Ultimate Beauty Secret

The Ultimate Beauty Secret

 

Here is what the Spirit has been teaching me this week. And this one is for the MEN as well!

People hold different images of what beauty is and true beauty comes in many varieties. In my opinion, true beauty isn’t just about outward appearances. The outward appearance can be very deceiving about the true self. True beauty moves from inside to out. The inside and outside are connected. A huge mistake in this society’s wisdom is that it too often tries to separate the two and deal just with the outside (medications, diets, surgeries etc). If you want outward changes focus inward because when we attend to the inside then the outside will follow.

True love is the defining element of true beauty; love of God, others and yourself. Yes yourself, because you can’t truly know the love of God and not have a love for the creation He made and loves, you. I realize this can be a slippery slope – this love of self – because it can be be a negative false love in terms of narcissistic, self-absorbed and so on. But when the love of self comes from the love of God it is as it should be.

What is the ultimate beauty secret? Love. And how do we gain this true love of God? Stir the Deep, the one thing that changes everything else. I know I say this is the answer to everything, but I have found in my life that to be the case. When I read Matthew 6:33 – I decided to live it. And found it to be true. As we draw close to God in truth and abide in His Word as a bride (what I call stirring the deep), our spirits born of Him grow and strengthen in us. As a result we become more united to Him, and His love, truth and wisdom fill our beings – our thoughts, actions and lives. Many “issues” that we have, which resulted in broken down bodies and a lack of care for ourselves, are resolved as we draw near to Him in truth. It isn’t an instant process by any means. But it is the only path to true life.

When our spirits are NOT rightly connected to God– then this is what we see:

Destructive stress, bottled up resentment and bitterness, festering anger, jealousy, emotional pain, lack of self-worth, envy, unforgiveness, endless worry, and the list goes on. These things eat away at our lives destroying them. They wreck havoc in our spirits thus our bodies. All these affect us starting inward moving outward. For them we eat too much or not enough. We live with stress, lack of balance, harmful addictions and habits, and self-loathing. We don’t take care of ourselves. We treat ourselves worse than we treat our cars. We make poor decisions, which leads to more problems. What’s happening in our physical bodies is often a result of what’s happing inward. Our spiritual health affects our physical health and treatment of ourselves.

When our spirits are rightly connected to God and anchored in His love this is what we see:

As we learn the truth about us, God and others, the jealousy and envy flee and instead we enjoy uniqueness, freedom, and joy in which we flourish. We experience the love of God which gives us a love for God, others and ourselves, which affects how we attend to each one of these. As we understand our value as His cherished creation and child, we start to take care of ourselves and treat ourselves with respect, which spreads to others. From the wisdom gained, we make good decisions in all areas of our lives and the self-destructive behaviors and habits dissipate. As our relationship with God grows, our trust in Him expands and the stress and worry wane and balance, rest, peace, courage, and power increase. As we experience His mercy, forgiveness floods our hearts and resentment, anger and bitterness flee.

We start to live as the new creation that we are in Him – and that changes everything.

Our lives are governed by our spirit – our thoughts, words, actions, reactions. When our spirits are rightly connected to God, then we live as we were created and God created us very good. Everything is affected by our relationship with God. If you are wanting to make outward changes in your life – start inward with your relationship with Him – because then your efforts won’t be in vain. What we need is a daily diet of God’s Word.

Proverbs 4:22 For they (God’s Words) are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

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The Mark – About Our Minds, Not a Chip

“The Mark”

About Our Minds, Not a Chip

 

When we look to the entire Word of God and not just one verse, the mark of the beast appears to be the one who has left their imprint or mark on our beliefs.

Corinthians 1:21-22 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

I was meditating on the above verses. What is sealing? How does it relate to the mark? This is what I’ve been exploring . . .

It seems receiving a mark is being sealed and sealing is related to our beliefs. First, the mark can be for good or evil.

Good:
Revelation 7:3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.

Ezekiel 9:3-4 Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side; 4 and the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

Evil:
Revelation 13:16-17 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

How we are marked depends on what/who we trust in. Our faith is either built on man’s ways or God’s. If we trust in Jesus Christ, if He is Lord of our lives and our only hope for salvation and sanctification then we are sealed in Him. Along with the illustration of having the seal of a king, I was thinking that being sealed is also like sealing up a jar of preserves (I know, but stay with me), the freshness is maintained so it isn’t ruined. When we are sealed in the truth we are preserved in Christ and can’t be corrupted. We are shut in, preserved and maintained by our faith alone. Sealing or having His mark means God’s truth is written on our minds (foreheads) and hearts. It is the truth we live by, therefore what we trust.

The guarantee that we have been sealed is the Holy Spirit abiding within us. When we have His Spirit, our desires become His desires. We long to know and follow His will and that desire testifies that we are His. 1 John 3:24

If we receive the mark of the beast, name or number, then we are sealed for corruption in its truth. The beast’s number is 666, the number of man. Rev. 13:18 Those bearing this mark are simply those who trust in man’s ways.

Ezekiel 9:6 Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

Those in His sanctuary bearing His name, yet having a foundation of trust in the religious systems and religious men don’t have the mark of God and as the next verses tell will enter into judgment for following man’s wisdom instead of God’s. Ezekiel 9

This life is all about what we believe, what and who we truly trust in. That faith is the foundation of the Christian walk, not works or anything else. Without faith in God we have nothing. He is our first love, our source of truth, and our life, we either live by His truth or this worlds. Whichever truth we trust is the one we are marked with.

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Left Standing – Ashamed or Glorified?

Left Standing …

Ashamed or Glorified?

When the purity of God’s truth invades our souls it exposes our true beliefs.

After spending a couple years of consistent time one-one-one with God in His Word, I had a life/spirit changing awareness about myself. I realized most of what I believed about Christianity was based on other’s words. Therefore the source of my trust was in others not God, which meant my confidence was in them. Up to that point I assumed I trusted God, but when prompted to take a closer look by God’s Spirit searching in my soul I found a different reality.

As I examined where my truth came from, who and where I went to hear and know truth, it was all centered around others and their words. True their words were supposedly based on God’s truth, but it was still their interpretations and opinions about God’s Word. Along with the multitude of warnings in the Bible about not trusting in others, but God, at that moment I set out to seek God and His truth from Him. Over the years, God has been an incredible and faithful Teacher about Himself. It seems I talk a lot about trust in my blogs, but who we really trust is the core of our faith. It affects everything.

I’ve been reading through Jeremiah and Revelations, some heavy books to say the least, yet amazingly rich. The verses below jumped off the page reminding of this awakening I had some time ago about my belief system, and reminding me to daily examine my beliefs in light of His truth because other’s philosophies can easily creep in unnoticed. 2 Corinthians 10:5

Jeremiah 48:13b “As the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel (house of God), their confidence.”

Jeremiah 48:7 “For because you have trusted in your works and your treasures, You also shall be taken. And Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, His priests and his princes together.”

Verses like these are what compelled me to a paradigm shift in my beliefs – seeking truth directly from God. If we take time to pause, these verses prod each one of us into a deep self-examination, Who do you trust REALLY?

Who do you trust for spiritual protection? Church, or God Psalm 18:30

Who is your shepherd? Church, or God. Ezekiel 34:23

Where/Who do you go to be fed (spiritual nourishment)? Church or God 1 John 2:27

Where do you learn about God? Church or God Jeremiah 31:33

Where do you learn about truth? Church or God 2 Peter 3:16-18

Who do you trust for the surety of your salvation? Church or God Hebrews 7:22, Proverbs 11:15

If we chose the first option – our trust and confidence is in the wrong place.

Many of us need to take an honest look at our spiritual lives – is the source of trust the church and others or God? And if it is the church (Bethel or House of God), then one day, as Jeremiah says, we will experience great shame for that trust, because we should have been trusting God. If it is God then we will stand with Him glorifying Him with our lives.

We all trust ourselves, the wisdom of the world and others in areas where we should be trusting God, but the question is – are we seeking God and spending time with Him so that our trust will be in Him alone? One reason for the multitude of denominations is that people are really following a multitude of different teachers and not the Teacher – one area of great misplaced trust. Matthew 23:10, 2 Timothy 4:3 A teacher’s role is to teach us to learn of God from God. I see very few actually giving this type of instruction. Most of them are spoon feeding us what they call truth, but it is their point of view from where they are on their spiritual journey. It may or may not be truth, and according to the vast warnings in God’s Word most aren’t teaching truth. Fellowship is great for sharing insights but the source of our truth, our Teacher is to be God.

God is to be the source of our trust. When He is it means we go to Him directly, to the Bible which is His words, to Him in prayer, to Him in stillness to hear His voice. He calls us to come to Him one-on-one with the Spirit as our mediator not man. Jesus came not to bring another religion but a relationship – an intimate personal relationship with our Father where we commune with Him one-on-one. So many have neglected cultivating this intimacy and will fall for it. Most have lost or never had a love for the truth, and will be lead astray. 2 Thessalonians 2:10 If you love the truth – you want to dwell in it daily, seek out its mysteries, live by it, and dedicate time to abiding in it.

Don’t give your life, your beliefs over to another. Don’t be one of those who stands ashamed at the end because you looked to others when God was calling you to Him and waiting to open up His magnificent kingdom to you. Listen to others this week – listen to yourself – where are you getting your truth – are you saying he said, she said or God said?

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Lost Art of Reflection

Lost Art of Reflection

 

Journaling = connecting and listening to your inner life.

In this busy world, who has time to sit down and reflect on life? Most people don’t. We obsess about things (now we were treated, worrying about the future, children, marriages, work and so on) as we busily try to get through the day, but that isn’t reflection. That obsessive mind talk is our soul creating mayhem because we haven’t given it time to truly process what is going on.

This world has moved far from God’s truth. With our self-wills running wild without the truth to guide us, we are creating all kinds of evil, madness, and out of control behaviors. And one is a busyness and lifestyle so consuming that we have no time to engage in the art of reflection; an art that brings harmony, centeredness, and truth to our lives. A life of reflection is a vital aspect of spiritual health.

The art of reflection is taking time to journal. Why journal? Because for most of us when we think without the guidance and focus of a pen or a keyboard our minds wander so that we can’t complete the thought we started with. Writing guides and grounds our thoughts. It puts a thought in a form we can grab a hold of and contemplate. Without the pen, we end up with a mind swarming with broken and uncompleted thoughts. Journaling allows a thorough reflection of what’s going on in our spirits and how the outside world, circumstances and people are affecting us and how we are affecting others. It allows us to process what is going on, to reflect and mediate on it. We start to see ourselves, others and situations from a clearer perspective – and when we dwell in the presence of God we see more inline with the truth. For Christians the act of reflection is extremely powerful because it isn’t just us trying to work out what is happening in our inner world, but we have the spirit of truth, the spirit of God, searching our depths and giving us the ability to see the truth.

In his book, “Ordering your Private world”, Gordon MacDonald realized how journaling helped him to come “to grips with an enormous part of his inner person that he had never been fully honest about.” I found this very true in my own life. There have been numerous times when I have sat down to write in my journal that I gained tremendous insights into myself and my situations. I thought an issue was about one thing and it ended up being about something else. Sometimes it amazes me what is truly going on in my soul, and I often wonder where I would be if I hadn’t taken the time to stop and reflect. I would probably still be trapped in my old ways of thinking and acting in a stupor and that means doing things I wish I hadn’t and creating a life I didn’t want. Once aware of the truth then we can act and respond in a way that fosters truth and life and not lies and death.

Journaling within the presence of God brings truth and thus freedom and true life to our lives. It is a time of quiet and focus which allows us to hear not only ourselves but the spirit of God dwelling in us shedding light, wisdom and truth into our souls.

If you don’t journal or haven’t in a long time, now is the time to start.


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Guarding the Windows to the Soul

Guarding the Windows to the Soul

 

William Shakespeare said the eyes are the windows to the soul. God says they are the lamp of the body. If the eyes are good, the body is full of light. If they are bad, the body is full of darkness. Luke 11:34

The eyes, representing what we focus on and attend to, can fill us with light (goodness) or darkness (evil). They are the opening of our soul through which things flow. Therefore, we have to be very careful what we focus on and bring into our soul because it affects our entire body, soul and spirit.

The past couple of days I have been thinking about the significance of this truth.

What do I focus on throughout the day? What am I taking into my soul? Is it good, helpful, productive or is it negative, destructive, and misleading? What we allow to come into our souls either leads us to or away from God and His truth. And lately little things have been trying to slip in that shouldn’t be.

It is amazing how the world’s philosophies creep into our lives. Constantly the world is pursuing us to trust in its ways, to focus on its concerns, and to be enraptured by its fears. And it is relentless in its pursuit. It wants to own us and take us captive to do its will. 2 Timothy 2:26 And often it is so subtle we don’t recognize it for what it is – contrary to God’s truth. Here are three subtleties that often try to creep into my life.

Our physical health. Who or what do we look to for healing; drugs, pharmaceuticals, doctors, or natural remedies? God is our healer. The things of this world can remedy pains but without God they are useless. Asa, one of the kings of Judah, looked to the physicians and not to God and died as a result. 2 Chronicles 16:12-13. God created many wonderful remedies and often uses them to heal and restore, but without God working in them, those things are worthless. He is their potency. He is life. The only reason they work is His mercy. When we start to trust in them, we lose focus, the world creeps in and darkness starts to take over.

Our soul’s health. What or who do we trust for our soul’s health; self-help books, programs, seminars, or therapists? There are many truths out there about our inner health and what helps and what hurts, but who are we trusting to do that work in us? We are to trust God. Philippians 2:13 He works in us as Master Creator. When we follow the world’s methods it is like putting band aids over gushing wounds. When we trust God He is a diligent surgeon who heals us through and through. I have walked both paths – there is no comparison between the work we try to do and what God does in us. Yet, sometimes the world’s ways still tempt me.

Our provision. Do we trust in this world’s system to provide? When our paycheck comes from our boss it is easy to start trusting in him, our work, our abilities, or our skills to provide for us. When we think God is too slow in bringing what we want or need we become like the Israelites at the bottom of Mount Sinai. Exodus 32 When Moses was gone too long, they made a golden calf to trust and worship. When we feel God takes too long in providing we justify He needs our help and we start concocting our own schemes to provide. God is in control of our paths, not us, and not another man. God gives us a job to do. We need to do that work following His lead and leave the provision up to Him.

Those of the world only have this world for their help and hope. They have to trust it because it is all they have. But as God’s bride, we are called out of this world and are to trust Him for everything. We are no longer alone in this world or left to its whims. As our Husband, God wants to provide all. We live by a different set of rules. We live by a different power and strength – not ours but His. We have God Almighty on our side working for and in us. Therefore, we don’t have to worry and chase after these things as the world does. We are free from being concerned about them because God has moved in as our provider in every area. He takes care of our lives so we can focus on Him. Matthew 6:24-34

When we focus on God and His truth, we are pouring light into our souls. We are filling our eyes with His goodness and our bodies, souls and spirits thrive. If we flood our eyes with the concerns of this world then we are pouring in darkness and our lives will suffer.

Guard your eyes, the windows to your soul, for they determine if you live a life abundantly in Him or a life of lack trapped in the schemes of this world.