Posted on by Sami M

Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt.13

Letting go of your wild

I am the true vine , and my Father is the Vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless youe abide in Me.

John 15:1-4

Little did I know when I started this series of letting go, so I could say yes to God’ s call of let’s go, that it would be this process of epic pruning all the way to the stump at times, like a rose bush that has grown wild and untamed for years. It’s roots are good, but not everything that is growing is healthy. The bush has too many inconsistancies, growing in many directions, taking on a life of its own. If anyone has seen an unkempt rose bush, you know there’s potential for more fruitful growth, more flowers, and better direction. The bush has to be pruned back to its start, to grow it in a better direction, consistently kept up by its keeper. What I have learned in the last year, is we are like wild rose bushes when we grow our own way, despite being grown in the goodness of God.

We can be planted by God, watered by Him, but not allow Him to do regular pruning and upkeep of our soul. I think many times we think that by our good deeds, baptism of the Spirit, our regular commitments to church, and Jesus community that these are enough and by extension that we will walk on the path of sanctification consistently becoming more like Christ. Consistency in our walk with Christ is defined by our willingness to submit to our Vinedresser. I’ve found that without us seeking God with daily intention and looking for Him in moments of each day, we miss His touch on our encounters with the world around us. We miss His provision in the midst of loss, His blessing in moments of joy, His favor in hard fought victories, His pruning in moments of pain, His glory in places of beauty, His guidance in difficult decisions, His peace in times of trial, His patience in our struggle, and His kindness when we falter. We miss so many moments with God, that we lose the direction of God, running wild without Him. The Spirit of God desires to run wild with us and in us, leading us.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15:5

Saying yes to God daily means that the Holy Spirit does a regular pruning of our sinful souls when we abide in Christ, gently growing us in the right direction. We have to seek Him earnestly in our daily lives with an intentional heart. We can get caught up in chasing the look of a Christ like life without the intimacy of it. Intimacy is where God can intentionally grow us, and prune us in a more regular fashion. I think we tend to run off on our own instead and go, “I’ve got this! Thanks for everything!”, but that’s not what abiding in the Vine really looks like. God is really good at letting us grow in every direction, but at some point we meet His boundaries for us and that is where He reminds us of who we are and where we are meant to be going. God wants our total and complete dependency on Him for the direction of our growth, so He can grow us better in every area. Growth requires pruning back even the good stuff. With roses keeping them pruned regularly keeps the branches healthier so they can produce more flowers. God desires to take every single area of your life and make it better in a completely supernatural way that is so indescribable that the His glory shines through. Even Jesus needed continual communion with God in order to fulfill His mission on earth.

But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Matthew 14:15-16

If we look at Jesus before His ministry began in Matthew 4, He is led by the Holy Spirit to the wilderness place for forty days to fast and stand before God to prepare Him for His ministry. God called Jesus to Himself before sending Him out to bear fruit. Jesus didn’t just sit for forty days doing nothing, He spend those days in fasting, prayer, and communion with God. Was it comfortable, probably not, was He very physically weak and tired by the end, yes. At the end of this period we see then, after being built up in the Lord, He is tested by Satan, yet despite being weak, He is made strong, and resists Him. Then after this He steps into His ministry and bears fruit outwardly to the communities around Him. Christ’s time and testing didn’t end there; His complete reliance on the Father’s guidance and character was required right up until the end. There are many examples of Jesus’ reliance on the pruning, watering, and growth from God. In Luke 6:12 we see Christ rely on the Father to provide the wisdom for Him to pick the people of His inner circle. He seeks the comfort of God in the midst of loss when He receives news of John the Baptist’s death in Matthew 14:13. Jesus heals tons of people throughout scripture, Luke 5:16, in this case it is a man with leprousy; immediately after He leaves to commune with God to be renewed and restored in humility. Jesus could have easily run on healing many others, as we probably would, in His own pride, but He didn’t. As we know, for Him to live as He lived, continued humility was key. He sought this through the highs and lows of His ministry by retreating to God’s presence no matter what amazing thing He had done or sadness He experienced. There are many other instances of Jesus need for the direction of God, showing us how to abide in God, but these are just a few. Jesus’ life was no cake walk, He experienced the supernatural miracles we dream of, but also experienced loss to the greatest degree, and lived with His disciples everywhere inbetween. Somehow He managed as fully man to show us what a wild life with God looked like, never once did He run on His own esteem. He had a total and utter dependence on the Vinedresser. Jesus’ life is what we as believers could only dream of living, a wild ride with the Holy Spirit, ministering to thousands while staying in perfect harmony with God’s will. A completely fulfilling and exciting life, even with the difficult choices that He had to make along the way.

Somewhere along the line, we see life in our own way, and think God is done prepping us or teaching us for a while. We go it alone in a sense, never completely, but definitely running on some pride thinking ok, I’m ready, I can go my own way. The reality is we are never ready to go our own way because we live in an imperfect world, in sinful bodies who commune poorly with our Creator, if we’re honest. If Jesus who inhabited a broken body relied on the Heavenly Father for His every move, then why do we think that we have it right taking our growth in our own hands. When reality strikes us, we realize that maybe we are going about our ministry, family, relationships, personal growth, job, etc wrong. Jesus couldn’t do it, so how could we? Pride, yep, simple pride. God desires to strip us of our pride, so that we can see that whether we are in a season of joyful smooth sailing, transition, or a season of loss, we need Him all the same. We get blinded somehow thinking that we should have it all our way or that life should be easy and we only need God when it isn’t working for us. Wrong move on our part, God is equally in our corner whether we are in a constant struggle to stay above water or living through the most joyous season yet. His presence, goodness, and wisdom never stop pouring out, but we are capable of stepping away from the oil He’s trying to anoint us with or we are showing up with a cup thats too small. We are allowed to choose, but we many times feel like we can place anointing and favor upon ourselves just because something is good and He was blessing, when God has moved somewhere else. We don’t follow well. Or we are showing up before God with a kiddie cup with this expectation that He can’t turn our messiest and most painful situation into beauty and glory. Just abide, and throw your pride and small expectations to the wind.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion– to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. 

Isaiah 61:1-3

We are the planting of the Lord, called to be righteous and Holy, giving up our weedy and wild tendencies. Jesus showed us what an amazing and full life looked like without getting caught up in the weeds or growing off in some other direction far off from God’s anointing on His life. This sanctification process through the pruning of our wild is a refinement process, removing from you the baggage of your sin that will keep you from stepping from one place of growth to the next. The Father wants to rip out our pride by the roots; He didn’t plant a spirit of pride, He planted a righteous, holy follower of Christ. When you and I accepted the saving grace of Christ, allowing the everlasting life of the Holy Spirit to dwell in us, we accepted a new identity. As we walk by the Spirit, the fruit we bear outwardly to the world grows in number. The places you’ve always struggled, become less, and the direction of your heart begins to permanently shift in a different direction. Our sinful tendencies start to fade, and our walk with Christ blossoms. The darkest times we walk through become filled with the sustaining goodness of God, shaping us in a more beautiful way. We see the miracles that are possible, hoping in everlasting possibilities, rather than losing faith in God’s character. We begin to trust His character and His motives rather than judge Him by where we are and what we faintly see with human eyes. The seasons of transition no longer become a narrow hallway we want to escape but rather a laser focus on who God is, and where He is potentially pointing us. The joyous and abundant seasons become a place of thankfulness and generosity, not gathering for ourselves, but rather pouring out, just as God does for us. I know where I am, and its not a visibly joyous season, but I do know there is this invisible and supernatural joy I will abide in every day, even when I’m seen to the other side of what seems impossible. I will hope, be steadfast in faith, constant in prayer, doing my best never to show up with the kiddie cup for God. I will show up every day to the best of my reckoning to say YES to let’s go, no matter what is in front of me, and let go of whats hindering me.

Posted on by Sami M

Reflecting Christ’s Character

A prophetic word walking into the unknown.

Your character is refined and defined by Me. Do not be afraid to walk out into the unknown spaces, because I am your foothold. The path you take will be defined in a unique supernatural way. Do not waver in your identity and character as you make way. I am your mirror, and will always reflect the peace and confidence you need to march forth. If you trust in what you see in Me, you will make it through, blazing a new path, taking on new territory. Your confidence is defined by my steadfast character which will see you to the other side. Know that taking on new ground will require a refinement of your soul, be humble and patient in the process. You may be shaken but you will not fall, we will forge a new way together. Trust in my character and goodness for the testing that will come. Active faith, hope, and love will help define the forward moving path even in adversity. Your character will be tested, but will not fail, because I am with you and I define you. It is time to blaze a new path, trust that I will get you there. A supernatural work of My Spirit is at hand.

Posted on by Sami M

Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt.12

Letting go of your stubbornness.

“Yet the Lord set His heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.”

Deuteronomy 10:15-17

I am positive we all get stubborn in our own way quite frequently, unwilling to change without force, compromise, or bribery. Our stubbornness gets the better of us keeping us traveling in the same direction over and over until we have worn a trench so deep it doesn’t seem possible to change course. Other times we keep walking down a path that leads us to a literal or proverbial deathly cliff edge. Well let me tell you God doesn’t find your trench or your cliff hanging path intimidating in the slightest. With Him, course correction is what He does, because He knows when choosing a path on your own, where you are going, and how you will get there . Your path doesn’t scare Him, nor does the stubbornness of your heart that got you there. He sees you, every part, even the deepest depths of your soul. Yet, there is hope, because He knows who He made you to be. Who YOU are in Christ as a co-inheritor of the Kingdom of God means there is always hope for your life here on earth and forever in eternity. Your identity defines your future, not the sinful choices you make or the stubbornness you carry. If God can be faithful and generous with whole of Israel throughout the Old Testament who were stubborn, constantly complaining about their circumstances, and falling back into sin regularly, He will do a work in you. Will it be overnight and with little effort on your part, probably not. Your trek from stubbornness to submission, wilderness to promised land, mourning to joy, and frustration to fruit is on the Father’s timeline (which is almost never on ours). Much of this heart change is dependent on your willingness to let go when He says let go and go forward when He says march, trusting in who He is. When you lay the whole of your identity in who He is and who He says you are, you can allow a course change in your life toward a beautiful direction.

“For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.”

Deuteronomy 11:10-12

God is always moving us to greater glory when we are in alignment with Him. We see this when He speaks of the land the Israelites will inherit. We see above God speaking to the Israelite people telling them their future is not built upon what they make for themselves, which landed them in slavery to the world, the world being Egypt at the time. Our own glory we create in our own toil when we are far from God pales in comparison to the glory meant for us when we stand in God’s light. Egypt was a godless nation which drew the people further away from God’s path for them. Their stubbornness is what made their trek from Egypt to Israel forty years long instead of eleven days. God knew that they would not meet their promised land as a new people, one with God, walking the straight path, in such a short distance or timeline. The lengthy and circuitous route they took during the forty year period is what solidified the Israelites as God’s chosen people who would be set apart from the world. He wanted to bring His people from glory of previous generations, forward to greater glory so they could stand in His promises. In that forty year wilderness, God never left them. He stayed with His people guiding them and providing for them every step of the way. God molded and shaped the way for His people to stand apart throughout time. In our stubbornness of heart, and wilderness places, a big question is are we trusting God will see us through? Will we be obedient in His course correction for our hearts and minds? Will we allow God to take us from our previous glory in another season, to greater glory on the other side of our wilderness and stubborn heart?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Proverb 3:5-8

When you find yourself rinsing and repeating areas of struggle, usually God is trying to reveal to you that there is a stubbornness of heart and unwillingness to change. He wants you to know that if you choose to go through the process of Him pruning away the stubbornness of your heart, He will see you through to the other side. The greatest revelation is to put your trust in His character, know He will see your path made straight, and set you on the other side of your struggle. The Father is more wise than we give Him credit for. In us allowing Him to do a work in our heart, we allow for a refreshment of our heart and soul. Our struggle with sin and disobedience is on going and will never stop. With the Holy Spirit as our guide, and scripture as our standard of Truth, we can trek through the deepest wilderness and find the other side better than whence we came. God desires continual growth in each of us throughout our lifetime, which requires continual sanctification, becoming more Christ like each day. The upward call to live a Christ like life is no easy task, because Christ’s life, death, and resurrection was no easy path. Our path to walk a Holy and righteous life such as the Son of God, requires trial, temptation, and sanctification. We can do it, we can let go of our stubbornness to go our own way. We can let go of the desire to lives as though we are more wise than our God. We can let go of our need to be our own god and know our own way. Jesus is the Way, the measure of Truth, and the eternal Life. If we want Jesus, we must allow God to become the champion of our wilderness, because there is no other way we make it out the other side better than when we entered. We are set apart children of God, living for a higher calling than the satisfaction of ourselves. Trust that God knows what He’s doing when you meet your wilderness and find your stubbornness in the midst. He’s calling you to let go of your old ways, thoughts, desires, understandings, habits, and sometimes relationships. Just let go, He will pull you from your trench and set you on His highest places. You will travel and experience life in an abundant way that you had not yet experienced. In your obedience of letting go, you will find yourself aligned with the heart of God, His plans for you, and for His glory. Keep going and know He has not left you, will not leave you. Trust in His direction and keep marching, your path will be made straight. Let go of your stubbornness and step into greater glory for His kingdom.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

Hebrews 3:12-15
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Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt. 11

Self Justification…A lie

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil. When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues with injustice. The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 16:1-9

The last few months have been a wild ride through some sketchy wilderness on a personal level and that doesn’t include anything that I have seen on a societal level within our country and communities. I have sat in silence since April knowing I needed to write, that the Holy Spirit has been nagging me every day to just sit, soak, and write His words down on the page of all that I do not understand. That is terrifying, writing on what I don’t understand, and don’t trust His goodness and timing with. So instead I have sat with this knowing that I should write even though, I feel like I can’t, and have allowed Satan to come and attack, picking away at my trust in the knowledge and wisdom of the Holy Spirit. Satan strategically got me believing that the distance and procrastination I put between me and writing was justified, and that I had fallen too far from my walk to step back into that Secret Place. Not sure where you are, but if you have experienced anything like I have, then I hope like me, the Holy Spirit has pressed upon your heart that this is a LIE. Last week I finally got to sit for 3hrs reading the Living Word and bam, instantly I realized God was fully present and had been waiting for me to just give into this nagging and stop justifying my avoidance of His presence, believing He wouldn’t show up for me. Somewhere in the last 5 months I began to believe that He wouldn’t show up for me, because other people in my life with a walk stopped showing up. I justified distancing myself from Truth, and came into agreement with lies because of pain, hurt, lack of understanding, and inability to receive encouragement/rebuke from my usual community of people. Satan is sneaky like that, He will make you believe that you are unworthy of the goodness of God, because of the behavior of people. And so you justify your pain, your disappointment, grief, frustration, etc. at the expense of your relationship with a Heavenly Father who deeply desires daily continual relationship with Him no matter what life throws at you. You are never not enough for Him, and no matter how far you fall believing lies of the enemy, the Father will pick you back up.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Hebrews 12:1-6

So this word on self justification, hits home and it hits hard, but I believe is not just a word for me, but for everyone. We all walk each day believing we are justified in all kinds of thinking and behavior, when we aren’t. If it is not of Truth, if it is not of God, the immeasurable, immovable purveyor of wisdom, honesty, and justice, then it is NOT for us, HIS PEOPLE. We forget who we belong to and who we are image bearers of, because we get stuck in the world and believing what we see, when we are called to believe the unseen Holy presence of God that rests upon us each day. We justify what we think and do because we see things, take them at face value, believe them, which then blinds our spiritual eyes from seeing what God is working in us and in our communities. We step away from our faith and take our eyes away from the one true King, and we become what we behold. At some point, like me, you realize Jesus was no longer who you were looking at and your lens changed to what you see, not what He sees.

We are lead to repentance, a place of humility where we no longer wallow, justifying our emotions, feelings, inward, or even outward behavior. Living in a place where you can’t escape swirl of processing your surroundings, passing conclusions or judgements on your current life circumstance is a dangerous, prideful place to be. You have set yourself in the judgement seat, the one who should have answers and solutions, eliminating God’s plan, righteous judgement, and truth to enter into the space. You have attached to and accepted your sinful state as your truth and place of living, rather than committing your pride and passing judgement to God. In an instance you have belittled the work of the cross, and who Jesus truly is in your life. I did that, and justifying my feelings put a wall up between me and a Holy walk with Christ which I hold near and dear. BUT because of the grace God gives, the Holy Spirit woos each of us back into His presence, and leads us into repentance and restoration of our hearts. The Father prunes back the growth that wasn’t from Him, and restores you to who you are called to be. We just have to come to a place of humility in our broken state, allowing the absolute, irrevocable forgiveness of God to wash over us. He goes above and beyond not to just accept us back, but instead tugs at us, convicts us, and then welcomes us with open arms. His faithfulness will always overcome our lack of faith and disobedience. His grace is greater than our circumstance.

Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 

Hebrews 12:12-14

I don’t have all of the answers, nor does God always provide them in the timing I want, but what He does do is call me to look at Him, and not the circumstances right in front of me. You and I are called to look beyond the seen into the unseen. In this obedience we can have full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-39), that the Father will provide peace over our souls (John 16:33), and help straighten our paths (Jeremiah 31:9) so we may speak and walk in a manner pleasing to God (Colossians 1:10). When we get here, where what we see physically, is no longer all consuming; the importance of trying to control, solve, and fix the problem before us fades away. Instead we give way for the Holy Spirit to lead each day and help us live in a way where we are truly justified before God, honoring the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We are called to humility rather than pride that ensnares us into believing we can justify our behavior and thinking. In this we tear down the barrier we built between us and the Holy Spirit. In our acceptance of our sin in feeling justified in our behavior and belief, we deny ourselves the comfort and wisdom the Good Shepherd provides. We deny His pursuit of our whole heart. We make everything loud, busy and clanging to drown out the Truth and revelation God wants to bring to us. Each of us are called to step out of our wallowing, self righteousness, suffering, pride, or circumstance so we an see beyond the physical. We need to acknowledge the forgiveness and grace extended to us by a Heavenly Father who knows us best. Our lives are not comfortable, and we aren’t meant to chase comforts of what we perceive to be true. Our true Comfort is defined by the pursuit of our Father no matter what we are struggling with. We can choose to overcome suffering recognizing God’s hand in it or we can allow suffering to become a dividing wall. Pick up your Sword, and cut down the sin you have accepted as the truth, and let go of justifying your behavior. God is our one true righteous judge, and because of His Son, we are able to be justified before Him, we are just asked to commit our lives to His continual shaping and molding. You are never lost to the Creator, just accept His pursuit, and allow Him to be the refiner and definer of your life.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 5:6-11
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Word for our nation

“Awaken oh sleepers you are called to life, cast off the death that ensnares your soul. You have been revived by the blood of Christ, and are made royal and alive. Bring to the alter all of your transgression and lay it down, commit to Me the Holy One your life daily and I will provide all you need to endure and bring glory to My kingdom!”

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Prayer for the Church

Father provide for us who are to speak, lead, worship, or listen the wisdom and presence of Your Spirit. Help us enter into an understanding of Your radiance, beauty, and glory. Give those present the spiritual calm, peace, and heart of repentance they need in order to have ears to hear, so each person can hear You speak uniquely and individually to them. I pray over each of us to have an intimate encounter with Your presence so we are lead to a deeper understanding of who You are. Bring us into a place of reverence and honor of Your heart for Your church. Unify the body and bring healing to places which are broken or feel dead. Resurrect anything in our hearts that has burned out, fan any smoldering coals back into Your eternal flame.

Thank You, we love You. In Jesus Name Amen

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Prayer for Repentance and Restoration

I pray for each of us as the body that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each of us. God I pray over the body of the church individually and collectively that we seek You with a heart of repentance. I pray that every single believer comes to You with a heart of humility to Your feet with complete admiration and supplication. God each of us desperately need You to restore our hearts and minds no matter where we are. We seek to gain clarity that only You provide so that each of us may walk with an upright heart before the world and before You. Father we need Your wisdom and guidance in order to restore each of us and all of Your people to the level of relationship You desire from us. I pray for peace, understanding, strength in our weakness, that we may come to know how to live more boldly and fully in Your presence. God restore our hearts so that they turn to You, turn us away from the distractions and sin of the world. Help our eyes only gaze upon You in your majesty and glory. You refine us like gold and silver, purify our hearts and minds so that the world may know You more. Be the lamp to our eyes and to our feet, if we wander, straighten our paths. God only You can reconcile with those who have wandered and gone astray and for those of us who have not, bring us to repentance daily so You can restore our hearts. I just pray over the body that we are aligning our hearts with You, and not aligning our hearts with the flesh or the world. You made us for so much more than the world, and we know this is not our home. Remind us of the Heavenly places where we are meant to reside one day. Remind us of who we belong to and help us live with eyes and ears open to receive Your call. Speak to our hearts and make known to each of us who You are. Father, Your church needs restoration, and those who do not know you need reconciliation. Thank you for who You are and all You do, we are forever grateful and in desperate need for You. I pray that Your will is done, in Your Son’s name, Jesus Christ I pray, Amen.

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Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt.10

Peace in the woods

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:14-19

Letting go of trying to over analyze new spaces and controlling hard situations is tricky on our own. I sit here today after having ridden over 100 miles on a new to me mountain bike I purchased weeks previous. In this exciting place of riding the trails on a new bike, I have come to many beautiful revelations of the Spirit and have found myself profoundly wondering about the nature of God and our journey with our Father and Creator. We have a such a unique and beautiful God who can scarcely be described in the english language to a degree that is satisfactory. What I can say is that He is life giving (1 Corinthians 15:45), rich in mercy (Ephesians 2:4), full of grace (John 1:14), steadfast in righteousness (James 1:12), loving beyond measure (1 John 4:18), fair in judgement (2 Timothy 4:8), kind hearted (Romans 2:4), sole provider for our souls (2 Peter 1:11), the everlasting (Romans 8:38-39), beginning and the end (Revelation 21:6), redeemer and refiner (Psalm 19:14), wise beyond our understanding(1 Corinthians 1:25), the King of kings (1 Timothy 6:15), and our greatest friend (John 15:15). In spending time on the trails, I have been taught so many things as to who our King really is, and it has been a riveting journey, that I know will continue for as long as I pursue Him.

Three simple things I’ve come to find when biking:

1. A new bike takes time to become wildly confident to trust it to stay upright on every turn, root, and rock.

2. Consistent rides takes practice, and a commitment to loving what you are doing even when it seems impossible.

3. When you look ahead at the bigger picture, technical sections and scary descents become thrilling instead of second guessing.

When God is calling you into a new season or out of an old one, it can be daunting, and discouraging because it is like navigating a brand new trail, brand new bike, or both and nothing feels right. I am in a place where God has ripped the rug out from under me in one area and is breathing brand new life into another. You may be in a place where all it seems is crashing around you, called to a new adventure, or somewhere in the middle. You know where you are, and if you don’t you should stop and pray out loud over it for clarity. The best part of whatever place you are in right now with your life, is that God is unchanging unlike the bike or the trail. We tend to fall on the rocks or fly over the handlebars, but God surely isn’t, He’s just waiting for you to come to Him with the burdens or questions you carry and rely on Him to help you navigate the roots and rocks. He desires to remind you that the handlebars of your bike may feel different, the gears may not be the same, but your purpose and your God have not changed. God brings us to and through all kinds of change and growth that may feel different or even be painful, but what He wants you to see is that there is fruit and beauty on the other side. God wants you to grow in your relationship with Him and be a conquerer of those new trails or that new bike. In this then you can lead others to be trail warriors as well.

For rides on the trails to get consistent, they take commitment, courage, and love for the journey even when the going gets rough. Getting into a good rhythm with God or creating new habits with God take time, consistency, and love. The ride of life is those mountains and valleys no doubt, but we have a choice. We can either wander around by ourselves stumbling over rocks and roots, get lost somewhere along the way, or look at Jesus for guidance and reassurance. Deep positive change in life requires it to come our of a place of love, sheer will power rarely, if ever changes us. Love drives all things in our lives. So who loves us the most, Jesus, who should we love the most, Jesus. Why? Because there is no greater love than the love God has for us, shown through the life, death, and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ. What is the sure way to create consistency with God, chase the love of Christ and accept the love He displays for you. Prayer time, bible study, ministry work, worship, generosity, joy, healthy friendships, marriage, church community, mental health, emotional health, etc are all places where God may be calling you to dive deeper and become consistent. The only way this can happen is through an understanding of His love for you, and a desire to get to know Him. In this the rocky sections of life you’ve attempted to navigate on your own, the sketchy downhill roots you keep falling on, or places you walk your bike down, fade away. Even those places you just straight up avoid because you don’t think you can handle it, God can, and He desires to do it with you. God wants to get consistent in His time with you in EVERY SINGLE AREA. I mean, literally, every facet of your life, God wants to touch it and make it beautiful. You have to know Him and love Him first, that cultivates change and growth. Then you have to accept what He wants to do in you and say yes. Finally you find consistency and see the fruit of your labors.

Hardest lesson learned on the trails, scary things are way easier if you JUST KEEP GOING FORWARD. The worst thing you can do on a trail when biking is over analyze a technical rocky or rooty section and hit the brakes. It almost always ends in falling of the bike or stepping off and walking it over. Neither of these results help you learn how to navigate the difficult sections you come across. Life is filled with difficult decisions, unknowns, scary situations, and all kinds of oh crap moments. When we panic, overthink, stare at the problem, fixate on one thing, or run fifty scenarios in our head of what ifs, it is like hitting the brakes in a non helpful way bringing you to a skidding stop or a really rough walk around that avoids an issue other than facing it full on. The best question is, where was God in all of that navigation, probably not there, because He doesn’t panic, or lose sight of the greater picture before you. When the going gets tricky, technical, scary, or difficult, that is where God wants to jump in and show you the best path to get to the other side. Relationship with God requires momentum, consistency and trust. You have to trust Him with the bigger narrative of your life in order to trust Him with the little nuances that like to derail you or scare you. He will make the scariest places a daring joyride, that leads you to bold trust in His capability to lead you, and lead others to the other side even when it seems insane or nothing looks ‘right.’ Sometimes He just wants to see if you will jump and trust the bike and tires underneath you to grip on to every surface and keep ripping down the trail or climb up the steep ascent. God will not skid out from underneath you or navigate your life poorly. He is our everything, the alphabet of who we are in Him.

God is the alphabet of our lives, our A-Z, almighty, advocate, anointed, all in all, brother, builder, beginning, beloved, blessed, bright morningstar, captain of salvation, counselor, crown of righteousness, creator, deliverer, days men, dayspring, emmanuel, ensign, everlasting, foundation, forerunner, first born, friend, faithful, guide, governor, glory, God of gods, giver, holiness, health, hope, Holy one, head of all, horn of salvation, great I am, intercessor, judge, Jesus, King, kinsman redeemer, Lord, lawgiver, light, liberator, love, master, mediator, Messiah, mercy seat, meek and lowly, merciful one, minister, naked crucified King, nobility, Nazarene, overcomer, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, overseer, peace, power, pardon, physician, passover, prophets, redeemer, ransom, refiner, refuge, restorer, shield, sanctuary, sanctification, shiloh, song, star, salvation, sacrifice, strength, teacher, truth, treasure, threshold, thrice Holy, tune, throne, unchanging, undefiled, unsearchable, vine, virgin born, word, wonderful, wipes our tears, worthy to open seals, worship, wrath, yesterday today and forever, zeal of our hearts. The alphabet of God, is Jesus, the sweetest name of all.

Jesus is everything we could ever desire in someone as the satisfier of our souls. My hope is that you desire to understand who He is and cultivate relationship with Him, because He came for you, and deeply desires to walk this life with you. God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in His son. Then our lives reflect the beauty of God in our daily lives, down to the deepest parts of who we are. This is God’s greatest desire over your life, to desire to know Him, love Him, and seek to do life with Him guiding you. God wants all of the glory and is jealous for your heart, He wants you, every last piece, so He can refine you into His beautiful reflection as His child, like He originally intended.

Posted on by Sami M

Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt.9

mirrors and truth

For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 2:25

Buckle up and get ready because we are looking in the wrong mirror when we aren’t actively looking at Christ throughout our days, weeks, and life moments. Our life mirror, our inner thoughts, that place we live in our minds, that place can either tear us down or lift us up. Our minds are the most intimate place we spend the most time, so what you hold up as your mirror or sounding board is exactly what you feed yourself on a daily basis. When you converse with yourself or problem solve, you have to ask what or who is the influence on how you draw conclusions, solve problems, or outwardly choose to go forward in your life. The greatest question for me lately has been, is it friends, family, clients, co-workers, or other outside influences? Who is holding up the inner mirror of your mind? Who is defining your deepest character of self? Who are you talking to when you are processing your life and where is your greatest influence coming from? Our answer should be that the Good Shepherd is our sounding board, our standard, the definer of us, the standard of Truth, and the complete totality of what we hold our lives up against to see the truest reflection of who we are. I fear that like me, you, and every other believer who has devoted their lives to Christ, have let another person or people hold the mirror up in front of them, and that is the identity they have believed and held as Truth. We are going to dive into who the Shepherd, mirror, and sounding board of our lives is and why He is SO WORTHY of being the One who we converse with and allow our image to be defined by. So we must let go of the mirror we allow to be held up as our standard of truth and see what our Father, and Creator of our hearts and souls truly intended.

Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.”

Exodus 4:1-5

Jesus is our righteous Branch (Jeremiah 23:5), our staff of Truth (Psalm 23:4), and the Shepherd of our souls (John 10:7-11). Throughout the Old Testament God empowered, equipped, and gave authority to men to be the shepherd of His people, one example is Moses. We all know the story of Moses, but if we look at how God equipped him, He gave him a staff, this staff was representative of the power, authority, and presence of God to wield over His people in order to lead and guide them to greener pastures. We see the rich testimony of how God gives us imagery for the Truth this staff held in Moses’ hands to give Him authority over Satan in (Exodus 4:1-5). Sin is represented by the snake in this passage, God gives Moses authority over it to pick the snake (sin) up by its tail and turn it back into the Staff of Truth (our staff is the Holy Spirit). The scene here is very important, because with God being Moses’ standard (staff) of Truth, Moses was able to confront and face the sin of God’s people throughout his journey and abide in God. The staff of truth, the authority, power, and presence of God was who and what Moses held up before him as his mirror and standard for his life. Was Moses perfect, no, but did God equip him with all that he needed to live his life in a manner pleasing to God, yes. We see this parallel into the New Testament with the life and leadership of Christ, our great Shepherd, the overseer of all of God’s people.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Mark 16:16-18

Christ came so that we could have the standard of God, His truth, nature, holiness, and His full embodiment, walk with us, and commission each of us to wield the staff of Truth (Holy Spirit). With Christ we can pick up the serpents of life by their tails and turn them back to truth just as Moses did. The staff of Truth is the embodiment of Christ, our bread of life, staff of life which we must hold up as our mirror in our lives. Our mirror should be the Shepherd of our souls, Jesus. Jesus empowers us and gives us authority of the heavens to work on His behalf, but how can we do that if we are operating out of a staff of self, our earthly bodies dead in sin, seeking the bread of self, the physical life in front of us? God gives us a lot of imagery in the Old Testament of people of His nation and many others who run around with their staff of self. We see this over thirty times in the Old Testament references of people wielding their own authority and self righteousness. God desires you to look at Him for the Truth, not anywhere else. Discerning daily where you seek affirmation, conviction, growth, and general pursuit of your life is very important. We can easily get caught up allowing others to hold up our mirror in our minds, and not our Shepherd. We see this illustrated in Hosea where the people have fallen from God, and are pursuing their own truth and righteousness and not allowing God into their walk.

My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.

Hosea 4:12

I read this passage on what God thought of His people and I just about spit out my coffee. God equated His people to whores, because they lent their hearts and souls out to all of the passerby of life. His people created their own staff of truth, idols, relied on it, and were led astray. His people pimped themselves out to the opinions and pursuits of others, instead of steadfast dedication to Him, their Father and Creator, who knows the intimate details of their hearts because He created each on of them. The mirror His people were holding up in their hearts and minds were not of Him, but instead lead to a life without Him, without His goodness. They basically pimped themselves out to the world, and who does the world belong to, Satan, he became their truth. How many times in our lives have we allowed God’s standard of truth to be twisted unknowingly and allowed our identity in our one true Shepherd of our souls to go awry? Probably a lot. I’m sitting there, on this cliff of realization and revelation that God desires so much more for us than whatever convenient and/or fun mirror we are trying to hold up as our staff of truth. Those staffs will always rot and fade, worldly mirrors break, and do not lead to eternal joy, or an honest picture of who you are or where you should be going. Satan pulled a nice little magic trick and got you comfortable in believing that God resides in the fun, self fulfilling pursuits of life, oops. Have been there and will probably be again, but thank God for Jesus, and the ability to repent of all of these ways we whore ourselves out to the world. Seems harsh as a term, but that is the depth of God’s love, that He feels we are cheating on Him, when He isn’t our center, and someone else is. Jesus came so we could be able to experience the richness of fellowship with Him, the way God desired from the beginning. Jesus speaks of this in John 10, of how He came to Shepherd our hearts and souls.

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

John 10:14-15

John 10 is a resonant chapter of the bible where Jesus teaches us exactly who He is, why He came, and what God has desired for us from the beginning. Jesus speaks of how each of us were created to come into His presence and be ministered to by Him. Us, the sheep, will go out, always following the teachings of Jesus, even into the unknown places, knowing we are able to come right back into His presence for His guidance. We hear His voice uniquely (John 5:25) because we were created to, and Jesus meets with each of us individually to uniquely minister to our hearts. We see this throughout His ministry in the New Testament of the unique knowledge, and intimacy of relationship He has with each person He encounters. That is the same for us, He calls us by name, and meet in the deepest parts of our souls daily if we allow Him. Then in this space He becomes our mirror, the definer, and refiner of our character, the Truth. We find security and liberty in Jesus and in that Truth we can operate in the power and authority of Christ. Because of Jesus, God has equipped us with our staff of Truth, our daily guide, the Holy Spirit, and with Him, we shall not want for anything.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Psalm 23

Psalm 23 is beautifully rich in God’s love for us, and we see again this theme of the Shepherd’s staff, the most important tool of a shepherd being what brings us comfort and guidance. Jesus left us with the great Comforter (John 14:15-31), our guiding staff, and our mirror to help us see God and seek Him each day with our whole heart, the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the reason we can access God’s presence daily and come in and out of the gates of Heaven on earth as we please. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit allows each of us access to the green pastures and restoration God desires for our resurrected spirits in our bodies. In this space, is where God does His best work as our Father, and where Jesus as our Shepherd is able to minister to our character, knowing us just as well as the Father. God’s generosity allows us to have His Spirit and Christ as our advocate daily before Him, so He can maintain a richness of fellowship that we were made for. Jesus desired for us to each understand and know that He is fully present, so we may be Shepherded by Him each day, through the indwelling of His Spirit.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Hebrews 13:20-21

If by now you have not come to the realization that your life as a believer was created by the God of the universe, and created for more than the earth and the things of it, then I pray that you come to know who our God is and how intimately He knows you. He desires to be your everything, from your foundation, to your highest achievements for His glory, and your lowest places. Do not allow people be your shepherd or any flesh of this earth, there is only One who stands in that place, and He is your King, Creator, and Lover of your soul. God spoke this over me yesterday while riding through the woods on my bike and this word is for the Church as a whole. “You are made for the Heavenlies, your heart and soul were made for Me, and only created to be satisfied by Me. Things of this earth always fade, but the Heavenly realm you were made for, Me, is eternal. I love you and know you because I made you and chose you. Stop desiring fulfillment in the world, because it will never satisfy, you forget who and where you were made for. It is not a dream, for that is not where I reside, live for Heaven on earth, I am here and I am present. I am your Good Shepherd, lover of your soul, and the redeemer of your life. Trust me, know me, and seek me, for I am with you. “

Posted on by Sami M

Let Go >>> Let’s Go Pt. 8

your shame in the eyes of Christ

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 

John 14:25-27

We can face our shame and find peace, or hide from it, your choice. One brings you closer to God, the other separates you. Shame is a powerful thing and it does one of two things to us, promotes Godly conviction which creates space for change in our hearts or it buries us alive, we stay stuck in it, and many times try to hide it. God sees your hurt, shame, embarrassment, guilt, and the other endless ways the Enemy tries to chain you to the world. But guess what, God doesn’t chase our hearts by bringing us to those places; He doesn’t chain us, He frees us through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus died so we could have freedom from the Enemy who so desires to make us believe that we have to live with our shame and guilt of our worst actions and choices. There is no sense in hiding our worst selves from God, because He already sees all of us, there is no hiding from Him. What He does desire, is that we recognize those ugly places where we cling to our shame and guilt, and bring them to Him, laying them at His feet. He seeks to show us that He is greater than any poor choice we could ever make, He wants us to be freed of those things and trust that He desires our hearts to grow from those destitute places in our souls. God sees our deepest darkest, so don’t hide, because He brings all things into the light. He just wants us to do it on our own and recognize that we need Him so we can go forward, moving on from those lonely, shameful places.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

2 Corinthians 7:10-11

Jesus shows us an amazing example through the story of the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-45 (read it if you have not) of what someones life living in shame looks like. In this case, it is a Samaritan woman who has been avoiding the public eye because she has had five husbands, and is living with a man whom she is not married to. Samaria was a community of people who were pagan and put Yahweh up next to all of their gods, but were familiar with the prophecy of the Messiah. They were a mixed people as far as heritage and considered outcast by Jewish culture at the time. The woman Jesus encounters is by all means an outcast of society and living a life of deep shame in her sin. In the time of Christ, men and women did not speak alone in public, nor did a Jewish man interact with Samaritans. In this case, Jesus went out of His way on the trip to Galilee to see this woman, knowing He would meet her at Jacob’s well. Jesus chooses to sit and rest at the well, knowing this woman is going to come and draw water from it at midday, alone, avoiding normal gathering times at the well. Jesus knew her deepest and darkest shame when He chose to go sit, to wait, and meet with her. In the story He reveals Himself to her three times, first in (4:10) as deity by telling her He can give her something everlasting, Living Water, eternal life. The woman doesn’t quite understand what He means, and is so shocked this Jewish man is speaking to her. So she questions who He is and seeks to understand more. He reveals Himself as a prophet in (4:16-19) asking her to bring her husband, fully knowing that she doesnt have one. He’s looking to see if she will confess this shame she carries, which she does. She grows more curious and seeks to understand who Jesus really is. The third time in (4:24-26) He reveals Himself as the Son of God. In this moment, the woman is in amazement of the Son of God coming to meet her where she is. She runs back to her town to tell everyone of what has just happened. In her faith in Christ, knowing what He can do, and who He is, many in the town become believers as well. All of this is because this woman was honest with Jesus about her shame, and put her faith in Him. In this, He restores her and she can now rest in the joy of relationship with God. Jesus came to heal her far beyond the physical, He wanted to heal her heart, and through this, a ripple effect throughout her village took place. Jesus removed that wedge of sin between her and God. Many, many, more came to know the saving power of Christ because of her faith.

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

John 4:7-26

Jesus goes out of His way time and time again to fill up the people living in the most shame and pain. He desires to reconcile our hearts to the heavenly Father who loves us so deeply, that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus came and lived to be unjustly tortured, die at our hands, and then be brought back to life, so that God could show the world that no sin is incapable of being forgiven in His eyes. Your ugliest parts are no match for the greatest sin of all, which was the murder of Jesus Christ, our God. THAT is the worst we can get, and God shows us in that, there is life, by raising His Son through the power of the Holy Spirit on the third day. In that resurrection we find life for each of our souls, if we put our faith in Spirit and in Truth of the cross. We come before God with Godly grief , open hearted with our ugliest pieces and repent, asking Him to do a miracle in us. To top all of this off, Jesus leaves us with His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, so that we may be filled with His wisdom, and one day rise again just as He did. THAT is why we can’t hide our shame, because each of us have the Spirit of God living in us, and He desires to produce fruit in our live to glorify His name and His kingdom. None of this comes without change, cultivation of the garden of our souls, and probably deep uprooting of all kinds of weeds and rocks we’ve held onto. To become more Christ like and walk a good path, we have to accept our shame as a space where we haven’t let God in, and instead have been allowing the Enemy to work. The Enemy thrives on our shame when we don’t bring it before God. Our shame must be put on display before the Father so that He can prune it back and make way for new growth.

My encouragement to each of us is to remember that God desires change in each of our hearts, but attempting to hide from Him, does not help our cause. Instead it actually brings us closer to the Enemy. The Enemy will do everything He can to make you think that dark parts of your heart are just the way you are, it will hurt too much to deal with it, you can’t be redeemed, he will get you thinking you can handle everything yourself, etc. Well all of these are lies, God wants to uproot ALL of your garbage and shine it in the light of day. He wants to uproot every bad thing you ever thought or did, change your heart and soul to be more like Him, so that You can walk in the glory of His kingdom, and just like that Samaritan woman, shine before your village. In this, everyone will know who you belong to, why you are here, and who they need to know, Jesus. God’s glory can shine in our darkest places, bringing us, and others into His bright future, but first you have to let Him in. Do not hide your sin and shame from Him, He already knows, and wants you to know, He’s greater. All is for the glory of the Lord our God, even your darkest when you let Him in, and commit to the work He wants to do in you. God wants you to let go of your shame, so you can say let’s go when He calls upon you.

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

Colossians 3:4-10