Revelation of the Spirit - #7 We can trade our Ashes in for Beauty

In my reading of the Seven Longings of the Human Heart I came over a great revelation. Sometimes I feel as though my life is in the pits in neither worth God paying attention to or me contiuing on the track I'm on. Life can feel so stupid sometimes and worthless. And when I try to find entertainment and fascination in TV, Movies and other stupid things life feels worthless. And when the world has told me just how ugly and fat and whatever lies it and Satan and have reached my heart life feels worthless. And without a Savior through all of that it is worthless because we're seeking pleasure else where then the one who gave us these pleasures. But there's hope. When we seek the Lord as Our personal, living-in-our-hearts Savior he makes a trade with us. He takes our ashes(our burnt out worthless life) for His Beauty. Isn't that truely amazing?

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor, to give them beauty for ashes.
Isaiah 61:1-3

God takes our good for nothing worthless ashes of a life and gives us His Beauty. The Lord has beauty like none of us can imagine and to have His beauty is like none other. I don't know about you but I want beauty and the Lord wants to give it to us and I'm going to take it. My challenge to you today is to lay your ashes before the Lord and say "Lord I have nothing but ashes to offer" and I promise the Lord will you his beauty for those ashes.

Be Blessed by His Grace!


Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #6 We are the Ambassadors of Christ

This will sort of be a short post. But I've never really understood the term Ambassadors of Christ til just about five minutes ago. I'm reading this book called Shaping History Through Prayer and Fasting given to me for the price of free at OneThing :) Lou Engle recommended this book because it was what struck up the Lord's fire in his heart to start the solemn assembly out of Joel 2 which is now TheCall which I attended in Kansas City.

So i'm reading Chapter one about christians being the salt of the earth. Giving the Lord flavor to have mercy and grace on the earth instead of judgement and wrath. I get to the last page of the chapter when it says. In 2 Corinthians 5:20 used the metaphor Ambassadors for Christ instead of salt. Derek Prince goes on to explain what exactly a ambassador is and he say in Philippians 3:20 "our citizenship is in heaven". And what struck my heart like a ton of bricks is this.

"Before one government declares wat on another, its usual action of final warning is to withdraw its amabassadors. While we are left on earth as heaven's ambassadors, our presence guarantess a continuance of God's forebearance and mercy toward the earth. But when heaven's ambassadors are finally withdrawn, there will then be nothing leftto hold back the full outpouring of divine wrath and judgement upon the earth."

He stresses alot of divine judgement to come but what I was amazed at that we have a Savior to look forward. We don't have to see the divine judgement or plague or anything that will be brought upon the wicked. We have our citizenship in heaven waiting for us. Isn't that amazing?! God is coming and I believe soon! He is coming to rescue us, He is coming to SAVE HIS PEOPLE! Praise God! He's coming to save me :)

Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #5 The Enemy tell us our Love for God is not sincere.

Ok so I think that God has been waiting my entire life for me to have this revelation. I have always felt as though my love and caring for the Lord has been so insincere. I felt not worthy of even trying to love the Lord. But today I was reading a book called The Seven Longings of the Human Heart, and I'm only on chapter one and it's entitled The Longing to be Enjoyed by God. I'm almost at the end of this chapter really enjoying it and loving the feelings i'm getting from God knowing how much He enjoys me and loves me when I come across these lines.

"The enemy accuses us on two fronts. First, he tell us that we're rejected by God rather than beloved.(Get ready for this next one!) Second, he says we're not sincere in our lvoe of God because our love is weak The enemy tells us that our weak love is pitiable and diluted, and even that it is completely false. When we finally understand that neither of these precepts are true, the enemy loses his ability to accuse us in these areas."

I was flabbergasted in reading this. I can't tell you how many times I sat before the Lord in worship and I tried and tried so hard to prove to the Lord that my love was sincere and wanted so badly to feel God accepted that sincere love and knew it was only for Him that I felt that love. When in fact the Lord knew my heart all along and knew how sincere my love was and is. And the enemy was there lying to me telling me my love is not sincere and not true.

Praise God! This revelation has truely changed my entire perspective and my heart more than I can explain. There's a song called Shout Unto God that makes want to sing now. Here are some words.

The enemy has been defeated.
And death could hold me down.
I'm gunna lift my voice in victory.
I'm gunna make your praises loud.

Shout unto God with a voice of triumph
Shout unto God witha voice of praise.

I have the victory in Jesus and the last stronghold of the enemy in my heart has been defeated! Praise God! I am in true love with MY SAVIOR!


Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #4 We Are God's Purchased Possesion

This kind of goes along with my last revelation. With that crucifixion the Lord bought our souls our lives everything that comes with us. We were sort of a package deal as I like to look at it :)
But with Jesus shedding His blood that day wasn't done for nothing or to prove that God likes to put His only Son through pain. He bought our sin and He took and bore that sin so that we would never have to suffer through it.

1 Corinthians 6: 20
" You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

1 Corinthians 7:23
"You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men"

2 Corinthians 1:22
"He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our heart as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come."

Scripture is screaming at us that we do not belong to our selves, this world or this age. We live for another time and for another Spirit. The Lord owns us. We are His people. He loves us and shows His ultimate love by sending His only heir to the throne of glory, and bought each and everyone of us. He gives us all the chance of inheriting his throne and experiencing His love.

Isn't that amazing? I could never imagine giving up my only son or brother or anyone in my family to die a painful death to at some point or another be betrayed by the people who I sent him to die for. The Lord did and because of that I love him and adore him and will all the days of my life.

Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #3 The Crucifixion is so Powerful

As Christian one of the first bible stories you hear is about how God sent His only Son to die for us on the cross. I've heard this time and time again. I've watched the movie the Passion of the Christ. But I don't I've ever had the understanding of what happened that day on the cross in Golgotha.

Jesus was crucified. He fulfilled scriptures that day. He did what His Father sent him to do. He died a selfless death. In John 19:28-30 it says...

"Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, 'I am thirsty.' A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had recieved the drink, Jesus said, 'It is finished.' With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit."

First point I have is Jesus was human. He was completely man. He was thirsty just as I feel sometimes. He thirsted He felt the way we did. Every whip the ripped open His flesh that day felt like we would have felt if we would've gotten whipped. He bled. He died.

Verse 30 is the most powerful scripture I have ever read. Jesus bowed His head and gave up His spirit. The only thing we have worth anything in this life. Our spirits. Because He gave up his spirit we never have to give up ours. We have eternal life.

This revelation absolutely blows my mind. And my heart is in love. I'm in love with a Savior that gave me the best gift ever. He gave me life. Praise God!

Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #2 We have the Holy Spirit

I listened to another teaching from OneThing today and the speaker was Brent Steeno. He's a 25 year old man who's been at IHOP for 6 years and just recently got married. He explained how simple christianity is, what having the Holy Spirit in us means and many other things that can't be put into words.

The Lord has given us life abundant. Do you understand what that means? I didn't until tonight. The Lord has given us the advantage to live above the things of this world. We are not citizens of this world.

1 Peter 2: 11
"Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul."

We make saying no to sin so hard and such a struggle. But the moment we accept Jesus as our Saviour, the moment we breathe the breath of the Holy Spirit we become a new creature in God. And when we struggle all we are doing is going back to the person we used to be. But all we have is a choice of life and death. Life is choosing good, choosing God and turning from sin. Choosing death is choosing sin, choosing evil and wicked, turning away from what the Lord has given us. We all have the life, nature and wisdom of God. You have all authority over your life and your body.

1 Corinthians 9: 26-27
"Therefore, I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

The Lord gave us his spirit. His holy spirit.

John 16:7
"But I tell you the truth: It is for you good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you"

The Lord left, but sent his Holy Spirit to give us strength. To live life abundantly to live above and away from sin. WE ALL HAVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. We all have the authority over sin to win the prize the Lord is waiting to give us.

It's a simple choice.

Life or death?



Amen.

Revelation of the Spirit - #1 Everyone Ravishes God's Heart

I was listening to a teaching from the recent OneThing conference I attend, Erin and I split the cost to buy an mp3 of all the teachings. And this one was a little about Song of Songs. The speaker said many things but one thing in particular stuck out to me. Many times in Songs of Songs the Lord speaks the truth of our beauty to our souls.

Song of Songs 4:7
" All beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you."
Song of Songs 4:9
" You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes."

Truely the Lord loves the beauty in every single one of us. Now I realize it may be a struggle to understand that YOU ravish God's heart. But how about thinking about others? The speaker challenged us to look at others around you and say to the Lord "they ravish your heart."
Well Today I did just that. And let me tell you, my heart was impacted in a way it never was before.

Each and everyone of us ravish and captivate the Lords heart. My challenge to you is to look at your worst enemy, a person you'd rather not care for and just say to the Lord "they ravish your heart" and see how the Lord impacts your heart!

Blessings,

Kathryn

Revelations of the Spirit

Well i'm kind of stealing a little idea from my mentor, Tawny. She has what are called smiles of God. And everyday she blogs about something that has made her smile that day from God. So since I've begun a deep devotional life with the Lord I want to start what I'd like to call Revelations of the Spirit. I want to make a new revelation on the spirit of God each and everyday of my life. And I believe the Lord has put it in my heart to share these things. So I pray you will follow along with my revelations and maybe God will speak to you through these things!

Blessings,

Kathryn

OneThing - IHOP

Just let me begin by saying a prayer. Jesus I love you and I pray that my words would be nothing without you and that whosoever reads this will be touched by your love and that I will write the exact words you want them to read.

Anoint me Lord Jesus and come now. Amen.





Well my trip to the OneThing conference in Kansas City was absolutely life changing and I can go on and on about my special experiences and just how amazing that weekend was but I have a feeling it wouldn't affect you as much as I would like. You see I went to OneThing not knowing or expecting much and every expectation I had happened within the first night.



I learned so many things there and I worshipped like never before. I went straight into the heart of God and experienced his jealous firey love for me. I realized that because of his jealous love for us He will rip our lives apart until we pursue him whole heartedly.



I learned I have the "Anna" calling. Luke 2:36-38 says " There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying." It would be my greatest joy to pray, worship and fast night and day as my occupation and the Lord has shown that is possible and just where my heart belongs.

The Lord provides His wonderous grace that will give me strength and perservance and that at this time gives me a willing heart to pursue this dream and hope of my heart. Anna was commissioned by the Lord to prepare His first coming and it is the cry and plea of my heart that the Lord would commission me to prepare his second coming in the house of prayer.

The Lord has truely opened my eyes to an entirely new lifestyle of fasting praying and living only for Him. I serve a loving, powerful and merciful God and I wanted to share this revalation of the Holy Spirit in my life. I ask now for your prayers for the Lords will for my life to unravel.

The Lord be with each and every person who's reading this and I pray these words of which are not mine have touched your heart.

Blessings,


Kathryn