BABYLON................

What does Babylon represent to you? Babylon represents anything against God!

The reason I have not been writing lately is because Satan has tried to take me back to square one. He has done an excellent job these last two weeks. Do you and I understand that the enemy wants to take us to the one place that God himself has called us to leave?? He wants to back us up and take us to the place of our greatest despair. Don't think for one minute that he is going to come at you with horns and a mean look that is scary. He is not going to tell you that backing you up to start over is going to hurt; or cause turmoil in your life. He is going to come at you as a beautiful light. He is going to say this is going to FEEL good!!!
We are captivated in today's world with friendly captivity. It is even more dangerous than we realize because it is ACCOMMODATING to us. If you don't remember anything about this post remember this: (Captivity never remains friendly) It will turn on you every time.
Ask yourself these questions this week, Are we doing the influencing? Or we being influenced? Who is winning here? Us or the enemy? We can be carried away by the things of this world. Beth Moore teaches us in Daniel that we have been assigned to this world but the enemy has also assigned the world to us. What influence will win? Your self will (aka "the flesh") or the power of the Holy Spirit?

The verse of today: PSALM 27:4; One thing I will ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. 5; For in days of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.....
Our greatest desire should be to live in God's presence every day. Sadly this is not the desire of many believers, we must strive each day to enjoy that relationship that God has so freely given us. Praise him that he is Sovereign!

Trying to live in his presence,
Robbie

comfort zone.....................

As I write this today; I am humbled to say the least. I have had tons of spiritual attacks lately. I feel at times that I can't breath. But God is showing me things and I wanted to share:

Do you feel like God's power is adequate in your life?
How do you know unless you have walked through some dark times? We can't comprehend God's power until we step out of our comfort zone. I know I have been out of my comfort zone this week and instead of relying on God's power, I have depended on myself. I have looked for all my needs to be met through someone or something other than God!
I have questioned his sufficiency! I am so sad that through these trails this past week I have chosen self sufficiency over Spirit-living. The self is weak the Spirit is strong. God's work is not done in my life. He is not done in your life. I long to be the woman God wants me to be. It makes me sad that I have let him down. I just wish that I was further a long in the purification process than I am. It is a hard road but one worth doing. I know God has allowed treasures in my life that are from him like when I hear someone in my bible class say: "I want what you have!" They are beautiful compliments to hear but I have to be honest and tell you I only see all the work God has left to do with me. I am not downplaying the beautiful things God has done in me but I am aware that I want be complete until I stand in the presence of the Almighty and neither will you. That is why sometimes Amy, Jen and I say "COME LORD JESUS COME" I surrender. I am hanging the white flag on my mailbox today, I am done. Don't tarry come!!!!

I have come to realize this week that beauty the kind that comes from God isn't about being perfect and never making a mistake. It is just not possible in this life. But we have a citizenship in another kingdom and that is when we will be made perfect in His site when we stand in the presence of God. Let me share with you a comforting piece of wisdom. You can't sin your way out of Jesus' hands!! Look at the verse Romans 8:38-39; For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, 39, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is such a comforting promise from God himself. We as believers are still going to have hardships in many forms; whether it is with our kids, job, diagnosis etc. We must remember this verse!! Christ will not abandon his children. His death is proof enough of the love he has for us. We must place our security in him and not in people or things.
He has a plan for my life and yours. Look at Philippians 1:6; he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.... God will continue working on us through our entire life. He will finish it when we meet him face to face. We have the power of the Holy Spirit to help us and pray for us when we can't even pray for ourselves. Don't trust your feelings, if you feel like you aren't making progress in your walk with God remember these verses and stop believing the lies of the enemy that he puts in our minds. Read these scriptures a loud and claim the promises God has given us. Remember that God is the same today, yesterday and tomorrow and his word promises he will not give up on us! Don't let satan rob you from growing closer to God.
So if you ever question God's power for your problems, pressures, suffering, stress; remember this verse: Ephesians 3:20; Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us. He is all we need. Lean on him. Cry out Abba Father. Take your focus off of you and your present circumstances. Don't just look up GAZE up at Jesus and who knows you just might see Jesus STANDING at the right hand throne instead of seating.
Jesus thank you for loving us enough to refine us. It sometimes hurts Father, but you understand more than anyone. Help us to not lean on ourselves or the things of this world. Father you are true and righteous, show us how to reflect you in our lives even when we are walking through trials. We praise your name.
Trying to grasp that God is adequate!!!
Robbie

Spirit of Heaviness...................

Have you ever felt like your spirit is overwhelmed? The challenges to great? The burdens so heavy? The attacks so fierce?

That is how I have felt this week. I have cried so much this week that I feel like I have tear stains on my face. I am confused and discouraged! Life is simply just not fair!!! Sometimes life can be so hard on us. To be honest, I haven't even felt like praying. I FEEL like Satan has asked to sift me as wheat.

Think about how much we love our kids with all our hearts and when they hurt, their pain becomes our pain. As a mother of three girls, ages 15, 13, and 10. There is always drama; their tears are my tears!
God is our heavenly father, and he so identifies with us his children (he became human and experienced everything that we do) our tears are his tears! God not only LOVES us; He identifies with us!
When we hit a bump in the road in this life with things that make us question God with the; If only God would;---- if only He had---------; If only He had answered my prayers the way I asked him to.---
Sometimes when God is silent in your life is when He is doing His best work. Maybe the adversity in our life is being used to make us strong! We have to learn to endure!!! We have to endure in this life to the point that we choose to praise Him, regardless of the storms within us or around us. If you look in your bibles David understood the secret to victory over adversity by choosing to PRAISE God! Jeremiah knew as did Paul and many others. We must CHOOSE to praise Him! If you don't remember anything about this post remember this: "Learn to walk by faith, not by what your FEELING!!! We have to make a choice! A conscious choice, no matter how bad your world comes crashing down to PRAISE Him!!! Rejoice!! Happiness is circumstantial. Joy cometh from the Lord!!! This is your gold nugget for today. PRAISE HIM!! This is the secret of victory that Paul, King David, and Jeremiah knew: PRAISE Him! Praise is the switch that turns on your light of joy in our lives even when our world is falling apart. Praise keeps Satan from having a foot hole in your life. Here is the meat of this message: When your world is falling apart and you Praise Him even in your darkest moments, the results of Praising Him will cause others to see the Glory of God in our lives!! Amen!

Look at the verse in John 11: 35; Jesus wept.. Jesus often expressed deep emotion, which shows me to never be afraid to reveal my true feelings to him. He understands! Praise God!
Jesus the Creator of the universe, the I AM, had real tears running down his face over Lazarus's death. Even though he knew he was going to raise him from the dead He still wept! Why? Because He loved them (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus) and their tears of grief were on his face! And he loves us and our tears of grief are on his face. If you ever had to bury a loved one; or hear the diagnosis of cancer from a doctor; or lost your job; experienced the pain of spouse betrayal, discovered your daughter has lost her innocence. Our TEARS are on His face!!!!
If you ever think that Jesus just doesn't care what your going through, and He doesn't love you because if He did He wouldn't have let you go through this. Those thoughts are from Satan himself. Those are the thoughts the enemy puts in your head and if your not careful those thoughts will take root in your head and those thoughts will choke out the truth; which the truth is God Loves you, your grief is His, your shock is His, your pain is His.

I cry out to you Abba Father! Thank you so much for being a father with emotions. You have so much compassion on your people. Our sorrows are your sorrows. You have experienced them. Our tears are on your face. Thank you , Jesus.

Tears of relief,
Robbie

"Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart and lean not on your own understanding....In ALL of your ways, acknowledge Him and He WILL direct your paths."

Whatever it is you need to trust Him with, Trust Him with it. He WILL direct you...Do not rely on your own answers to the situation around you. God wants to direct your paths. Let Him.

I read Robbie's post and it reminded me of the fragrance that comes from myrrh. I think I have shared this in a previous post but I wanted to remind us what I had read about it. Myrrh is not pretty to look at. It is not even a good smelling bush when you walk by it...BUT if you take it and crush it, it lets off the most beautiful smell. If you take it and grind it up, crush it down to nothing, then the fragrance that comes off of it is breathtaking.
Let's be crushed down today and let our beautiful fragrance flow from us. Let's allow God to come and grind us down, tear us apart, rub us between His fingers and then see what we can smell like.
Ladies, we need to get to a place of worship with the Father. Read the previous post. Really study what it says. Let's get back to the Heart of Worship with the Father in the next few weeks. Let's reunite that closeness that may have died off, that we may have lost over the past year or the past months. Let's fall inlove with the Father and truly experience His greatness and closeness and His love and His mercy. If you don't feel like it, do it anyway. Turn on praise music and see what happens as you clean the house today. Get into a routine of worship as you work, as you drive. Spend some time with God.
He will let off a fragrance in you that makes others draw close to you and wonder what it is that smells so good. Isn't that what we are here for? To shine for Him?
Let's do that.
I love you girls.

Jennifer

Pray that God makes a way where there seems to be no way. Pray that God lets you see the top of the mountain that you've been climbing and then lets you look over and see the beauty of what you've traveled up from.
There is a peace in God that surpasses all understanding. There is an answer in the Almighty One that wipes out all questions.
Rest in Him.
Rest in His control over your life.
Rest.

I watched a man dying of cancer last night. He struggled to breath. All alone in a strange hospital room. And all he wanted to do was get up and go home. All he wanted was to be at home in his own comfortable environment with his familiar surroundings so that he could spend the last few days and minutes where he was comfortable. Yet, we struggled to put him and keep him in a bed in a cold, dark hospital room. I sat at the side of his bed and held his hand and watched him for what seemed like an eternity and asked, "Why? Why does he have to go like this?" What a way to spend your last few minutes of time on this earth. He was scared, alone, and all he had was us in those moments. All I could do was whisper, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus". Over and over I whispered, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus". It was the only thing that brought peace into such a confusing, hurting, struggling, and angry environment.
We don't always understand why things occur as they do. We don't always like to watch people go the way that they go, but we have to remember that our ways, our thoughts, our ideas are not like God's. There is a reason and a season for everything, and we just have to trust that He has it all in control.
Sometimes we want to feel good. We want to be happy. We want things to work the way that WE want them to work.
And, sometimes God wants them to work the way He has planned for them to work, and He plants us in those places, in that place of uncomfortableness so that He can use us in those last moments, and we have to take our eyes off of the situation, off of what would make it more "ideal" for us at the time, and off of the chaos that is around us, and see how we can continue to show that love of Christ even to the very end to a dying person, who is taking some of his last breaths on this earth.
He said at one point that "it shouldn't be like this", and all I could respond to that was, "No, it shouldn't".
I don't have an answer to the "why", the one question that seems to be asked more than the others. But I do know how to love. I do know how to hold a dying man's hand and whisper the most precious name of all. I have been equipped by God to bring peace to an unpeaceful situation.
We don't always have to go the extreme to be used by God. Sometimes it is the simple action of speaking the most beautiful name on earth that brings a chaotic room to complete peace.
God is circling the Yahweh Sisters with looking beyond ourselves, looking past to the depths of comfort and likeness. He is showing each of us, with totally different situations, how to love and how to share His love with others. Because we can have the Lord in our hearts, but are we reflecting His love? It's not the good, sweet, Christian people that need to feel and see His love. But the dying, hurting, poor and needy ones that need to see His love and know He is there with them in those last few minutes.
I know that God is my God. I know that when I die, I will meet the Father and rejoice with the angels in heaven. I know that I will stand with the Father one day, but as I sat there last night and looked into the eyes of someone that was about to experience this personally, I thought, "wow, we will be in two different environments, but right now we are together and if I am the last face that he sees I pray that he sees God and feels His love before he stands before him and truly gets to see God and know His love."
Lord, help me with my actions, with my words, with my attitude that rises up so often in stressful situations. Help me to not get caught up in the chaotic, stressful environment, and forget why I am placed in every situation of my life. I want to be your hands, your feet, your eyes, your voice. I want to truly be able to be a glimpse of You on earth.
See, you don't know me, but I can be a very hard and abrupt person, and for years I have prayed for God to soften me and make me one of those kind, compassionate, sweet spirited Christians. I have to die to the fleshly personality of wanting to rise up and control situations A LOT. I struggle in this area. And, just as we all do, I find myself doing so good, and then I start to slip back into that hardness little by little until one day I am in the full blown, down right mean person again. We have to be careful. The devil will stick his pinky toe in the door and if we are not careful, he will have it kicked wide open and will be prancing right on in the room and find himself a recliner to sit in and kick his feet up, making himself right at home. Let's slam the door shut on his toe before this happens. Get accountability partners in whatever area that you need them in. We have to stay righteous in this unrighteous world.
Find at least one person this week to go above and beyond for and show the love of Christ to them. Look for the one that noone else wants to reach. Look for the person at the grocery store or at the mall that looks like they need "something" at that moment. Ask God to show you that person and to show you how to be used. You never know what impact you may have on an individuals life. Let's love like He loves.
God bless you this week
I am praying for God to open doors for us all to walk through that are uncomfortable and a bit challenging.
(hey, my mother-in-law is coming into town so I know the door that I have to walk through already) (JUST KIDDING...I love my mother-in-law).

Share His love
Be His hand
Be His light
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus....There's just something about that name.

Loving,
Jennifer