Rescuing Rose Mary

If your a regular Gena's Jewels reader you know my family and I have been in a year long battle to get my mom out of a nursing home in Upstate NY and moved to Long Island, NY.

It has been a battle that ONLY Jesus could win.

I had money saved for my flight to NY and was just waiting on the call to move. A call I had been crying out to God on a daily basis to get. Finally it happened. Jesus, being the maker of a way where there seems to be no way sent His marching orders and within a couple of days I was on a plane to Long Island.
As I sat in my seat on the plane I started thinking about the days ahead and all that was involved with the trip. There were so many areas where things could go wrong so I started to pray. When I finished I looked out the window and this was what God showed me.

You can't totally see from the picture but this one ray of bright light came from the cloud  all the way down to the ground. The Holy Spirit told me He would be my fire by night and cloud by day, just follow Him. It was spectacular.
I arrived in New York,  met my sister and we headed out on the Long Island Expressway to rescue Rose Mary!

Just to remind you, my mother has alzheimers so taking her on a long car ride had many challenges, the first hurdle was getting her into the car. My mother doesn't bend, she is totally stiff unless she is walking on her own and then for some reason her legs bend.

I don't know if you have ever tried to put someone in a car that doesn't bend but it's not that easy.

The master plan I had in my head went something like this.

I would have my sister get in the back of the car on one side and I would fold my mother in half then push her into the car where my sister would put her arms around her waist and pull her in.

In my mind it worked, in reality it was not that easy. My sister and I were laughing so hard as I realized my mother had absolutely no Gumby qualities.

We did finally get her in the car and began our 5 hour journey home. It was an interesting ride and one of the highlights was laughing with my sister who had become my accomplice to the nursing home heist.
I teased her that I could see the news headlines "local woman folded in half by offspring, film at eleven"

The Lord truly was a light unto our path and we made it safely to my mom's new home. Now I don't know if you have ever been in a nursing home but they are a little freaky. If you know me you know I use humor to cope and there was plenty of material in my mother's new home. First there was the bib that came with her meals, I thought it only fair that we both wear one.

We also met some of her new fun friends. One lady, which I loving named Miss Echo. She was holding a doll and came into my mother's room. I asked her what her dolls name was and she replied "BABY, baby, baby, baby" I said "oh your a lady and an echo all in one." I then asked where she was going and she said "to find daddy, daddy, daddy." Of course every time my sister asked me a question that day like are" you hungry?" I would reply "YES, yes yes yes.:" This went on most of the day until she gave me "the look."
My sister is so good with my mom. She would talk to her for hours and had the most gentle way of feeding her. My abilities were not as smooth and we quickly realized why they gave us the mega bibs.

Gems I don't know what kind of relationship you had with your parents. but whether they were good to you or not, we MUST take care of them when they can't take care of themselves. It was a long emotional journey for all of our family and the new place may not be perfect but she will be surrounded by her family as much as possible and no matter where she is physically I know our sweet Jesus has promised to never leave her.

On my last day with my mother I prayed Psalms over her and reminded her of the love of God.

Even though most times she didn't seem to know what was going on I know how powerful the word of God is. The Holy Spirit reminded me her disease may hinder me but it never hinders Him. He said He would bring her to happy places and she would always know who He was.

Gems we all need rescuing of some sort at some times in our lives. I pray you have friends or family that will be there for you in your time of need. If you don't, remember you can always call on the name of Jesus. He will never leave or forsake you either and He can rescue you from whatever you need to be rescued from.

Thank you Jesus for using us to Rescue Rose Mary!

Extinguish Every Arrow

 

I watching TV the other night, for me that means clicking from one station to another which really annoys my children. Sometimes I land on a channel for a few minutes to see if I want to invest time in watching it. To my kids amazement the channel does not have to be in English, even though that's the only language I understand.

On this particular day the show I landed on was in 日本人 (Japanese.)

The scene was of a group of Samurai in what appeared to be a classroom setting. They were standing in front of their desk, I think they were desk. All of a sudden you see a bunch of arrows coming over the wall of the castle randomly hitting some of the students. They all make a run for the door screaming and yelling whatever a Samurai would be yelling. 
Just as they get to the door, it opens and on the other side stood a very small elderly man who apparently was their teacher.

 He starts yelling, in Japanese, and it appeared to me he was yelling at them! They all stood silent. He then pushes his way past the men into the room with the wild arrows still flying all over the place. He makes his way to the front of the classroom and starts chanting or meditating not sure. There are arrows hitting above his head and on both sides of him but NONE of the arrows hit him. 
The camera pans back to the Samurai students who stand looking at him for a moment then one by one they go back to their desk.
The camera now pans outside to the army who is shooting the arrows. As they pull back their bows for the next assault there are so many flaming arrows the sky is almost black. 

The arrows fly over the wall into the classroom but this time they miss the non moving targets!
The Holy Spirit spoke to me at that moment and said, in English, “this is what spiritual warfare looks like."
The enemy is shooting so many arrows at us BUT if we stay focused on the teacher, Jesus, not one of them will kill us.
This was such an amazing visual for me. I started thinking about the arrows in my life right now. What's written on them?
Have you ever felt so attacked you feel like your walking around with a target on your chest?

Over the next few days I was hearing about other friends being shot by the enemies flaming arrows.,
My friend Paige has a new baby girl with liver issues, another has immigration problems, marital problems for some that don't seem fixable. People with cancer or depression. All arrows from the camp of the enemy.
Have you ever felt like one of those Samurai? Wanting to run for the nearest exit?
The Bible of course talks about this very kind of war. God is good like that.

Ephesians 6:10-16 The Whole Armor of God 

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench ALL the fiery darts of the wicked one.

Verse 16 is the one I want to focus on. It doesn't say the darts will stop coming, we know they won't because God also tells us the enemy comes to kill, steal and destroy.

John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

The Holy Spirit's reminder that the darts of the enemy will come at us BUT we have to stay focused on the word of God and the promises He gives us in His word to bring us life.

That is not always a simple thing to do. It is so easy to get side tracked by life's circumstances, some of them are almost unbearable.

A few days ago I felt a strong urge to go visit my youngest son at work. Being the amazing mom I am I showed up with pizza.

I called ahead and told him to meet me outside so I could do a drive by, however, as he walked toward my car I could see by the look on his face he was walking through his own attack.

When he got to my car he shared what was happening. There is nothing more heart breaking than to see someone you love suffering and there is nothing you can do personally to fix it.

The Holy Spirit reminded me of my Japanese warfare scene so I shared the visual with my son. I reminded him of his armor.

 It not only encouraged him hearing the story it encouraged me again telling it.

He felt better and as I drove away I yelled out my window to him.

神は制御していると、彼はすべての矢印を消すでしょう！

Which means “God is in control and He will extinguish every arrow!”

Of course I don't know Japanese so it sounded more like

yukoooo wanna ahh shune lom u vee! :)

He smiled and nodded his head knowing I'm a little crazy and  the people  standing near by just smiled and I'm sure thought, that's just Gena, she's a little weird.

Gems I don't know what arrows are being shot at you today but I want to remind you that we are in a battle and you are a warrior.

 Like any battle there will be some wounds, some physical some emotional but we have weapons to fight with so make sure you put on your armor daily.

And don't forget

神は制御していると、彼はすべての矢印を消すでしょう！

“God is in control and He will extinguish every arrow!”

 

ジーナの宝石

Gena's Jewels

What Time Is It

One of the hardest parts of my Christian journey is waiting on God's timing, or on the flip side, moving when HE says move.
I am reading 1 Samuel and I think I found someone who understands my pain.
Saul's getting ready to go fight a major battle BUT Samuel the prophet tells him to wait for 7 days until he arrives and then they would offer a sacrifice to God.
1 Samuel 10:8 “Go down ahead of me to Gilgal. I will surely come down to you to sacrifice burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, but you must wait seven days until I come to you and tell you what you are to do.”

As always I will remind you to read the passage for yourself, this is the Gena version.

It was customary for a priest to offer sacrifices and pray to God. He would then tell the people what God said, God would tell them how to not only fight but more importantly how to win the battle. The people trusted God to help them (what a novel idea.)

Now the Philistine army was HUGE they had lots of chariots and lots of soldiers so as you can imagine the Isrealites were scared. They start to freak out which in turn makes their leader Saul start to freak out. When Saul sees some of his soldiers are leaving he gets nervous because Samuel still hasn't shown up so he takes matters into his own hands. He didn't trust Samuel or God because they didn't show up when he thought they should. Does this sound familiar to anyone other than me???
Later Samuel says that it is better to obey God than to sacrifice to Him.
It's easy to wait on the Lord when your circumstances are easy BUT when they start getting out of your control it is definitely harder. When time is going by slowly and each moment feels like an insect stinging your flesh we want God to put us out of our misery and tell us this time in our life is over.
We want God to fix it and fix it NOW!

It is at this place and time Samuel tells us it's better to be obedient than to sacrifice. Saul made the sacrifice to God hoping it would please Him and He would overlook the fact that the wrong guy was doing it. He was trying to finagle God. (when was the last time you used the word finagle? I like it finagle finagle, sorry.)
I shared with you in a past jewel that the Lord recently moved us. Well I want to take you back and share part of that story. I knew God was letting me know we would be moving when my lease was up but to be honest I was kind of liking where I was. We had lots of friends in our complex, my grandsons were within walking distance, we had a pool, a gym (I intended to use some day) and a great porch with an awesome view of the lake.
I was getting comfortable. If you are a regular reader you also know the Lord provides for me and my family in unusual ways so I am 100% dependent on Him and He has never let me down. So wasn't I surprised when one month I had no money for my rent. I began feeling like Saul, freaking out a bit, and reminding God of my sacrifices which of course He was not impressed with because He's about obedience and did I mention He told me we would be moving?

The Lord did come through in His perfect timing, however, I got the message loud and clear it was time to leave.
Once again I'm happy in my new place because I know I'm where God sent me but that doesn't mean the leaving wasn't difficult.
Then there's the flip side, staying put when you want to move. The dreaded

We say that to people all the time, “you just need to wait on the Lord” but when your the one waiting you just want to slap someone. Sometimes that wait feels like forever!
Like many of my single friends I think I would like to be in a relationship one day.
What do you think the pat answer is when you mention that to Christians in a relationship? You guessed it “wait on the Lord.” I have been single for 17 years. I'm pretty sure that counts as waiting. I'm not saying I have been ready for 17 years. It has been a process and partly a personal decision but it's still been a long time.

Being in a bad relationship is also hard and praying for things to change so you can be in a better place can be exhausting.

Gems I don't know where you are in God's timing for your life but I want to encourage you that His timing is truly perfect and waiting on Him is honestly the best answer. It is here that God not only shows you how to fight but more importantly how to win.
I'm sure you can think of a time in your life when you got ahead of God or waited some where too long, either place is uncomfortable because you know you're being disobedient.
I have found the best way to get through it is not to use “man's” clock. To understand everything has happened in the spirit and we are just walking it out in the natural.
I have to take my focus off my timing which is so limited and know God's timing has no bounds and His perfect plan will be completed, it's His promise. So throw away your natural clock and rest in the fact that Jesus always knows what time it is, His perfect timing.

A Table Before Me

I realize the more I learn the less I know. Have you ever felt that way?

I love learning new things and as always I like to share them with you, my Gems.

I'm sure many of you have read the 23^rd Psalm. 

If you have you are familiar with the verse that says, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

Every time I have read that verse I pictured a banquet table where David sat to share in a feast with his enemies sitting across from him ticked off that he was there.

However I now think I wasn't even close.

I have changed my mind according to the excerpts from: A Shepherd Looks At Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller.

"In some of the finest sheep country of the world, especially in the Western United States and Southern Europe, the high plateaux of the sheep ranges were always referred to as "mesas" -- the Spanish word for "tables." Oddly enough, the African word for a table is also "mesa" ... the use of this word is not uncommon in referring to the high, flat-topped plateaux of the continent.

So it may be seen that what David referred to as a table was actually the entire high summer range."

Big difference from an actual table to this right?

But isn't it just like us to read something from God's word that is so massive and huge and make it so small and simple? 

It made me think of things God has prepared for us and how we minimize His vision?

I'm going to use Gena's Jewels as an example. If it's sounds like I'm boasting I am, not in me but what God has done through me!

I always felt close to Jesus even when I was at my worst. On February 28, 1993 I publicly went before God and offered myself to Him.

This is what I wrote in my Bible.

Today I publicly offered myself to God to wait on Him to show me what service of missions He would have me to work in. I hope He will not be disappointed in me.

In 1999 I had a very vivid dream. There was an angel in it that proclaimed to me that I was called to be a crier. At first I thought he meant crier like crying which I wasn't to psyched about, but he said “no, God will use you to cry out His love to His children.”

It was here Gems I saw a plain small table.

Fast forward a few years. 

I started writing my thoughts and lessons from God and would email them to a few close friends. I kid with people that it was cheaper than therapy but quite honestly it was and is my therapy.

These friends started encouraging me to write more which I did and they began to share them with their friends who shared with their friends and before you know it Gena's Jewels was born.

I had no idea God had a much bigger picture than what was in my little self conscious mind.

Most of Gena's Jewels is shared by email however now with Facebook and blog sites there is a bigger audience. I was surprised to find a stats page on my blog site. Those who know me are surprised I figured out how to use a  blog site.  What I found was a glimpse into God's table.

Pageviews by Countries

Entry	Pageviews
United States	57
Latvia	9
Russia	5
Australia	3
Canada	3
United Kingdom	3
India	3
Germany	2
Hong Kong	2
Sri Lanka	2

This may not mean much to big writers but for me it was AMAZING!

Now let's go to, in the presence of my enemies, using the same excerpt from Phillip Keller.

“Another task the attentive shepherd takes on in the summer is to keep an eye out for predators. He will look for signs and spoor of wolves, coyotes, cougars and bears. If these raid or molest the sheep he will have to hunt them down or go to great pains to trap them so that his flock can rest in peace.'

David understood being a shepherd meant not only caring for his sheep but protecting them as well. Once again he is using the symbol of the great shepherd being Jesus Christ.

God truly goes before us to not only prepare the land we will live on physically and spiritually but He will protect us from our predators.

The first time a predator emailed me to correct my spelling or grammar from a jewel I freaked out. And you remember the “My Space” days the guy who wrote to tell me I was an idiot.

The enemy of course reminded me of my parents opinion of me, how they would constantly tell me I was stupid and should quit school. I remember one day the devil said “are you seriously going to email people and prove how stupid you are?”

It was only the love and grace of God and friends that encouraged me that kept me writing.

Today God honors that simple dedication I made in 1993 by using my meager offering as my mission for Him. What I thought would be just a small group of women has grown to hundreds of readers and even devotional books. Only GOD!

Gems what table is God laying before you? Do you see a local carnival when God is trying to build a Disney World?

Are you letting the enemy point out your short comings instead of allowing God to be your source of strength? 

Whatever is on that table I want to encourage you that God has and will prepare the way before you and just like a shepherd He will protect you along the way.

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!