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!

Gross Servant

 God don't let me be a gross servant. This has been my prayer the past few weeks. You see on the outside it would appear I have this servant thing down. I truly do love people and I sincerely love to serve God's children BUT what if you could lift up my sea of servant hood. What would you see there? What trash would you find? If you pull back my servant heart is it completely the servant heart of God?

I wish I could tell you it was but I would be lying to both of us hence my prayer not to be a gross servant.

There is this constant battle that goes on inside of me.

I wish I could blame the devil like this picture portrays but that would be another lie. It's my own selfish desires that I battle. My need to feel important or needed. My desire for recognition or my own sense of pride. I know, I warned you this was going to be gross.

A few weeks ago I listened to a sermon about being asleep.  
Revelation 3:1“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

 I started asking God where I was asleep. Gems as I have told you before if you ask He will tell you.....

 Gross Servant.

My prayer is God will strip me of these motives, that he will take away all my self-contentedness til there's nothing left of me.

He gave me a wonderful example this weekend of how He doesn't need me but in spite of my  junk will still use me with all my grossness.

 

My daughter and I went to the Leesburg Bike festival last weekend to minister to bikers or anyone God would lead to us. I ordered these cool tracks to hand out.

I did get to hand some out but God wanted to remind me He doesn't need me. This was part of my awakening. 

He told me to put the tracks on the table across from me. I called it my Jesus table. I also had a small box for prayer request.

I thought I was going to hand out all the tracks personally but God wanted me to see that He would draw those He prepared for that day. One by one I watched as random people sat in the “Jesus chair” and read His word with no help from me.

Do you see this mans face? He is contemplating the word of God in the middle of a busy street filled with the noise of motorcycles, loud motorcycles, yet he could still hear the Holy Spirit.

I was in awe of the reminder of just how powerful the word of God is and the love that those words represent.

I continue to pray that my servants heart will be transformed. I continue to plead that I will not be a gross servant. I ask God to strip me of my human needs and to open the eyes of my heart and fill me with His Spirit so I may experience the power of the Holy Spirit with a pure heart.

Ephesians 1:18-21 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Help me Jesus to serve like you.

Commitment of a Dove

Well Gems I had a traumatic encounter today I want to tell you about.
It was such a beautiful day I had all my windows open enjoying the day when all of a sudden I hear this ruckus outside the kitchen window. 
I look out and my landlord's dog is running around the screened in lanai with a dove in his mouth.

Now I want you to have a visual here. I was coloring my hair so I was wearing this old t-shirt that is covered in hair dye. I'm pretty sure I had a brown ring around my forehead. 
OK so I start yelling out the window “Tonka, NO NO put the bird down.” I run out my door, around the back yard into the lanai and yell TONKA! 
He drops the bird but still has a mouth full of feathers and there are feathers blowing all over the place. I'm like ahhhhh! 
I'm trying to get the crazy dog into his house when the doves partner flies down to be near his mate and Tonka makes a run for him. 
Now he's got that bird in his mouth and the other dog is coming outside. (you know what a great pet lover I am) So now I'm trying to grab two black labs and save the doves single handed. 
I finally get Tonka to let go of the second dove and dove one is laying on the ground in a puddle of blood.

 I get the dogs in the house and I'm trying not to cry. I look through the sliding glass door and Tonka is now inside with a mouth full of feathers.
I call my landlord and leave a message on his voice mail that I'll explain the feathers later... REALLY I'm just trying to relax here.
I go over to dove two and he won't move. He just stands there next to his dead mate looking devastated.

It was truly heartbreaking. I'm now apologizing to this bird. He's just staring at me, probably wondering what's going on with my hair.
In the mean time my landlord's room mate comes home and walks outside, no doubt wondering why Tonka is growing a beard, he looks at me with the same scared face of dove 2. Again probably wondering whats going on with my head. After a quick explanation I leave. A little while later dove 2 died. It was either a broken heart over his mate or heart failure from the scary human.

I went back in my house and thought that is true love. 

That dove swooped down trying to help it's' mate get away from an animal 50x bigger than it.
As always this got me thinking about Jesus, true love does that.
No wonder He used the dove out of all the animals to appear after He was baptized.

Matthew 3:16 And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him

I made some comparisons of Jesus and the dove.

Doves: perch on telephone wires

Jesus: is always calling us

Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America Jesus is either being hunted for by people who need him or shot at by those who continue to reject Him.

When taking off and landing, Mourning Doves’ wings make a loud whistling that may help startle predators or warn flock mates.

Jesus always has our back using the Bible to warn us and the Holy Spirit to fight spiritual battles.

Mourning Doves feed on the ground and in the open.
Jesus left Heaven and lived among us, right out in the open.

But the thing I loved the most is that Doves find a mate and stay together for  life.

Jesus also stays with us for a lifetime, even in the face of danger 50x bigger than us He will come to our rescue. 
 
And we will spend eternity with perfect love and the commitment of a dove.

Growing Faith

 

Luke 13:18-19 Then Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden.

Have you ever wondered why if faith as small as a mustard seed could move a mountain you're not moving any mountains? 

Matthew 17:20 “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I've been wondering just that. I would think by now my faith was at least as big as a mustard seed right?

But maybe we are looking for great big miracles like mountain moving or raising the dead as benchmarks of our faith growing and maybe we should be looking a the smaller ones that effect our lives daily. I think it starts small and like most plants can continue to grow into something large.

I was at Bible study this week and there is a sweet lady in my group named Alice. Normally I change names but not today. This is Alice.

Alice is one of the sweetest women I know but what I really love about her is her prayers. She shares the most humble sweet prayers to our King.

She taught me about small moments of growing faith in her prayer this week.

Along with her usual prayers for the homeless, the military and our country she thanked God for the long lines of traffic she hit at 3 different churches on Easter Sunday.

She told the Lord how much it blessed her to see so many of God's children worshiping Him on such a special day.

Wow, would that have been my prayer? Would I have been thanking God for being stuck in traffic 3 different times? I wish I could say yes but the truth is I would have probably been complaining about the traffic and wishing I had taken a different route.

I realized at that moment Alice's faith had grown to where she could praise God for her inconvenience because she didn't see it as one. My faith grew as I listened to her. I realized I should be more attentive to what pleases God.

Our faith grows when we grow. Maybe something this elementary could be the start of your mustard seed growing.

Jesus is all about faith, we don't talk about it a lot because we don't want to make people feel bad or make it look like we are bragging about ourselves.

2 Corinthians 10:15-16 Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.

Paul is saying he's not there to boast about his relationship but to help grow the faith of those he was speaking to so eventually they could share to other regions.  You have to have your own personal faith before you can share with someone else.

When was the last time you gave a testimony of faith to someone?

Romans 12:3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted each a measure of faith. 

God gave everyone a measure of faith, however, you have to use it to make it grow.

Hebrews 10:38 “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.”

God's word says He takes no pleasure in the ones who shrink back.

What does shrink back mean? "To pull away from a source of disgust or fear."

Now I know we don't shrink back from God out of disgust so it must be we shrink back out of fear.

The only way to conquer fear is to do what your afraid of. Put your faith in action!

Do you remember the rich guy in the Bible that tells Jesus he has obeyed all his commandments and Jesus says atta boy now give up your dough and come follow me.

(Gena translation to read the story go to Luke 18 )

The guy ends up bailing because he doesn't have faith that Jesus can take care of Him in a manner that he's accustomed to. Luxuries with the world trumped relationship with his Lord.

2 Corinthians 5:7 For we live by faith, not by sight.

For example:

The other day I was at my friends house and I was heating a cup of coffee in the microwave. I apparently was daydreaming and nuked it way too long. When the bell dinged I opened the door and without thought sat it down to add my sugar. I heard the Holy Spirit say “stand back your going to get burned.” It wasn't an audible voice but a strong thought in my head. I didn't process the thought I just stepped back as I added my sugar and

BAM the coffee exploded!

If I wouldn't have moved back like He said my whole hand would have been burned.

You see I have had those faith moments before so now I know to just listen and ask questions later.

No angel appeared with the message, there was no voice from Heaven that caused the earth to shake it was just me having faith that I hear God.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Gems I want to encourage you to start living by faith. I'm not saying you have to walk on water (not yet anyway :) but I am saying you have to start somewhere if you call yourself a righteous one, a believer in Jesus Christ.

Romans 1:17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” 

I challenge you to plant a seed in your own garden and become a faith grower then start harvesting the things unseen with confidence.