Clean the Kitchen

The Lord challenged my thinking again this week. Not that it's hard for Him to do I am pretty much blown away by most of what He shows me.

But as you know when I get convicted I like to take you down with me:)

I want to share my lesson in picture form cause that's what I do. 
 

The Holy Spirit was talking to me about all the things I (we) get involved in. 
For this jewel I'm talking about good things. Things we do as we wait for His return.

But let's say God asked us to do certain things while we wait. Are we doing them?

For example, let's say God gave each one of us a really expensive house complete with pool, cars, waiters, clothes, the whole package.

Suppose He says, I'm letting you use this house for free. While I'm gone you can enjoy everything the house has but, I want you to make sure the kitchen is ALWAYS clean. One day I'm going to come back and check it. You won't know the day I'm coming so make sure you clean it every day. If you do you can inherit the house forever.

The problem is we clean the bedroom and bathroom. We spend hours making sure the living room is perfect just in case Jesus shows up. We bleach the walkways and hire a pool boy. We dust every light fixture and shine every window. BUT we never actually make it into the kitchen.

We wake up one morning and there's Jesus at the door and as He's walking to the kitchen we show off all the other perfect rooms. Especially the living room cause that's the room we like best and we know He will be impressed by our efforts.

We  proudly give Jesus a play by play of all our hard work, however, He's there to see the kitchen.

I made it simple for the example but that's exactly what will happen one day, only the Bible tells us what the rooms represent.

You see Jesus is coming back for us and we have no idea exactly when that will be.

Matthew 24:44 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.

And He is coming to see if we followed His instructions so we can receive our inheritance.

Matthew 25:34-45 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
I started thinking of my own life. What does my kitchen look like?

 Am I taking care of the rooms He asked me to or making a list of things to impress Jesus with. Am I feeding the hungry?

Do I know anyone in  prison?

Will I be saying look at my living room! I went to Bible study and led a small group. I hosted a woman's retreat or spoke at a conference. 
Gems these are not bad things and they may be very helpful maybe even honorable in Kingdom building BUT are they what He asked?

Am I so busy with my chore list that I'm not even looking at His? 

Am I doing the things that make me feel good or I'm comfortable with or am I obediently putting myself into what God commands?

I gotta tell ya Gems this made me stop and think.... I seriously don't want the first words of Jesus to me to be “depart from me!”

We need other rooms, doctors, realtors, zoo keepers, baby sitters, whatever job your doing. We need writers and singers, painters and gardeners. It's OK to dance and swim and eat and even sleep. It's good to go to church and attend socials, learn the word and pray for each other. These are all good rooms in a house. Let's just make sure we are also adding God's to do list to our agenda.

Let's not put so much focus on what's not in the Bible and hone in on what is.
It's great to know the word and to study the Bible but what are we doing with that knowledge? Are we sitting on our religious butts  and showing off our spiritual library? Or are we taking it to the kitchen?

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’” (Mark 16:15)

Perhaps we all need to start cleaning our kitchen first.

Feel the Spirit

So I was having one of those conversations with the Holy Spirit that are probably best not shared. But when has that ever stopped me?

I was thinking how God came as a man so we could relate to Him and Jesus was obviously human so we had conversations with Him. We know angels have been on earth because the Bible tells us they have.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

So I asked the Holy Spirit if He ever showed up in a human body and if so could He do it again so I could talk to Him face to face. I thought about this for a couple of days and casually brought it up to a few other believers that went into a theological dissertation of why Jesus left and sent His spirit which I know I just wanted to have a care free imaginative conversation.

My friend Dino said “some conversations are best left unsaid.” This was probably one of them.

Any way last night the Holy Spirit decided to finish the conversation. It was a real DUH moment for me.

He said “to answer your question Gena, yes I do show up in human form all the time, everyday. The questions is not if I show up but do those who have me inside of them reflect me? When you are around a child of God do you feel my presence?

Like I said I know He's inside of every person who has accepted Christ I was just wondering if He ever made a body for an hour or so just to talk to someone. I went Sci Fi apparently. But He reminded me He should never have to do that with all the professing believers He has to choose from.

So what would resemble the Holy Spirit in us so we would reflect Him? We go to the Bible for this answer.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

If you are a believer this is not news to you but I want you to take my train of thought for a moment.

How many times have you said to God I need to hear from you? I need you to tell me what to do, say, think. I need to know what my next move is. Should I go forward or is this a closed door? These are questions that we are constantly praying about and God answers in many ways but most times it's through the Holy Spirit.

Because we always seem to wonder, was that you God or me? God is kind enough to send us a person to confirm what He's saying. This is the Holy Spirit showing up face to face to talk to us. But are we feeling His presence and moving in His power?

I worship at the Underground and Brian was talking about 

prophets last Sunday. He was reminding us that we are all prophets. God can speak through Christians and non Christians but we should be able to tell the difference.

Before Nathanael got married we went dress shopping with Alex. We were in a bridal shop and the woman who was “helping” us was not very friendly. Just before we left another woman stopped us and said she would help. There was no halo above her head and she didn't have wings but I knew she was a Christian. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Do you know what I'm talking about? Have you ever felt someone's Spirit?

Brian made a great point in his teaching, he said the difference between a critic or someone just giving advice is love. A prophetic word or word from the Holy Spirit is always motivated by love. The real key is are we listening to the Holy Spirit when He speaks to us especially when it's about someone else?

And when we do hear it are we being obedient to share what we heard with the one it was meant for? 
We get so busy that a lot of times we do hear Him but we never get around to delivering the message or we let doubt rob us of being used. The other person will get the message but not from you. 
If it appears the same person is giving a word from God we think they are special and hear from God and we don't and that's not true. It just means the one who acted on it respected not only the message but more importantly the messenger.

Gems we need to remember that the Holy Spirit is a person and a part of the Trinity. We need to take His position seriously.

Matthew 12:32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

We should be honored and humbled by His choosing to speak to us at all and be diligent in passing the message on.

John 16:13-15 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you. 

Gems honestly even as I write this I am in awe of the Holy Spirit and pray He is honored and glorified by this jewel. I pray I have done him justice in my meager way of expressing my gratitude to be in His presence. I pray we will all bear the fruit of the Spirit and allow Him to clone us. To look and sound like Him and for others to feel our Spirit in love.

The Anticipator

So I was blessed to serve at a women's retreat recently and one of the requirements of this particular event is if your married the husband has to go through the retreat first then the wife the following weekend.

I was standing behind a young couple that caught my eye. The husband had his arm around his young bride with an excitement I could feel 2 rows away. He had this huge smile on his face and was looking at her with such anticipation for her coming weekend.

The wife on the other hand appeared annoyed by his constant speechless cheering. Her body language was stiff and pretty much saying go away. He kept trying to make eye contact with her to no avail.

In spite of her apparent rejection he seemed clueless. (I'm going to leave that comment alone)

He continued looking at her so lovingly and even attempted a few quick kisses which apparently annoyed her even more.

In all fairness to our young couple the husband was excited because he had experienced the retreat and knew what his bride was in for. His life had been radically changed by his time with Jesus and he couldn't wait for her to feel the same way.

But for now it caused a gap between them instead of bringing them closer together.

A few rows up however was a very different scene.

Another couple, further down in their walk with the Lord, were arm and arm in a very united embrace. 

They were both excited as they had been through the weekend and knew how much the things they learned enhanced their relationship.

They chatted and laughed and had huge smiles on their faces that were infectious. They too slipped in a few kisses but it was definitely a mutual embrace.

They shared the joy and anticipation for the women getting ready to experience their retreat.

It was at this point the Holy Spirit spoke again. He said if new couples started off their relationship with me and truly made me the foundation of their lives they can be years down the road with all of life's challenges and still look like the 2nd couple. 

If they encounter me on a regular basis they will anticipate great things when they know we are going to spend alone time together. He said it's never too late to begin this kind of relationship. It can start at any age it just has to be a mutual decision.

How encouraging is that and yet I thought of so many married couples I know, Christian and non Christian that NEVER have anything good to say about their spouse.

The Holy Spirit reminded me that if a spouse, boyfriend, family member or friend spends time with the Lord and the other doesn't it will inevitably cause distance between them.

1 Corinthians 2:14 The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.

One will anticipate spending time with the Lord and the other will not. The Lord can almost become a rivalry in the marriage or relationship.

The question it posed for me as a person, single or married is do I consistently anticipate the Holy Spirit?

There's a woman that worships at my church. I don't know her personally but from what I've observed I can tell she loves the Lord. She genuinely loves God's people and has a servant heart. She loves to praise and pray but in spite of all these admirable qualities, I cannot sit near her.

Why? Because she is a word anticipator.

You know the type, they anticipate what your going to say and say it with you. Maybe a word here or there would be OK but she anticipates entire sentences! I have trouble focusing on the sermon because I hear her talking with the speaker and sometimes she get's the word wrong but just keeps going. That Gems is just plain distracting for this attention deficit person.

This week I sat down forgetting about the anticipator and then there she was right in front of me. Great...

Once again the Lord spoke to me. What if you were so engaged in what I had to say that you anticipated my every word. OUCH! Do I sit on the corner of my seat not wanting to miss a thing?

Do I anticipate hearing from the Lord that way?

These are some of the definitions of anticipate:

to expect; look forward to;

Do we look forward to spending time in the word? 

Do we get to church early so we are ready for the message?

 

to perform (an action) before another has had time to act.

Do we hear someone start a scripture and finish it with them?

Do we jump into serve before we are asked?

Do we steal away personal moments like spiritual hugs and kisses with our God?

to answer (a question), obey (a command), or satisfy (a request) before it is made:

Do I anticipate the assignment the Lord has for me each day?

Do I do the right thing before the Holy Spirit has to convict me to do it?

I pray my spiritual life will not become robotic and terminate my desire for Jesus. I pray to look less like the terminator and more like the Anticipator!