This beautiful song is based on Isaiah 66. It blows my mind that God desires to dwell among men. He says "where will my resting place be"? In Genesis, God walks with men in the garden in the cool of the evening. After man sins, the entire bible chronicles God's singular mission to reconcile man to Himself through the death of Christ, so He can dwell with us once again.
Rev 21 shows His heartbeat and what happens at the End of the Age: "Then I saw 'a new heaven and a new earth' for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."
I am just awestruck by the Father's great love for us!
While that is what happens at the story's end, in the meantime, our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. What an amazing privilege that God Himself should dwell with us, in our hearts!
Heaven is my throne
And earth is my footstool
Where is the house you will build for me?
Whom of you will hear the cry of my heart?
Where will my resting place be?
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared for You a home
Long have I desired for You to dwell
Here Oh Lord
Have I prepared a resting place
Here Oh Lord I wait for You alone
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Running in a time of acceleration
Of late, there seems to be an acceleration of events around us. A sense of the need to fasten one's seatbelt, because of the time compression all about us. God is fast-forwarding events, and also His saints, because time is short.
I am reminded of a couple of verses where God says RUN! (not meandering about, or taking a leisurely stroll, but RUN!)
In Habbakuk 2:2-3, for example, He says, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
Or Jeremiah 12:5, which is all about running with horses. Horses! "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Interestingly, Elijah in 1 Kings actually outran King Ahab in his chariot... which must surely count as a miracle. It is a lesson in the supernatural strength and enablement that only the Holy Spirit can give.
Then there is what I call Holy Spirit transportation, which is even faster, as illustrated in Philip's encounter with the Ethopian eunuch in Acts. After Philip explained the gospel to him, and baptised him in a pool of water, "the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus."
The closer we get to the end of the age and the imminent return of Jesus, the shorter time becomes. The time is coming when seed time and harvest will be the same time. The speed at which souls are swept into the kingdom will take place at an unprecedented pace!
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, and the planter by the one treading grapes." (Amos 9:13)
God says in 2 Tim 4:2 "Be ready in season and out of season." If we are called upon to be ready even out of season, then how more so in this season of acceleration. Lord, make us ready to partner you for this great work of yours that is coming upon us! In Jesus' name, Amen.
I am reminded of a couple of verses where God says RUN! (not meandering about, or taking a leisurely stroll, but RUN!)
In Habbakuk 2:2-3, for example, He says, "Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."
Or Jeremiah 12:5, which is all about running with horses. Horses! "If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?
Interestingly, Elijah in 1 Kings actually outran King Ahab in his chariot... which must surely count as a miracle. It is a lesson in the supernatural strength and enablement that only the Holy Spirit can give.
Then there is what I call Holy Spirit transportation, which is even faster, as illustrated in Philip's encounter with the Ethopian eunuch in Acts. After Philip explained the gospel to him, and baptised him in a pool of water, "the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus."
The closer we get to the end of the age and the imminent return of Jesus, the shorter time becomes. The time is coming when seed time and harvest will be the same time. The speed at which souls are swept into the kingdom will take place at an unprecedented pace!
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, "when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman, and the planter by the one treading grapes." (Amos 9:13)
God says in 2 Tim 4:2 "Be ready in season and out of season." If we are called upon to be ready even out of season, then how more so in this season of acceleration. Lord, make us ready to partner you for this great work of yours that is coming upon us! In Jesus' name, Amen.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Living your prophetic destiny (Graham Cooke)
All of the tests you presently face are there to develop you into the person you need to be to live your destiny. Everything you are going through has been aligned by God to forge you into the person He has called you to be. Your destiny is unfolding before your very eyes. You have a battle to win, and He must prepare you for it.
When we embrace the idea that God has a plan for us, no issue should be able to stop us. The statement, “This situation will be the death of me,” is completely incorrect. The truth is that this situation will make you into who you are destined to be.
God partners with our present situation to prepare us for the future He has designed. He uses every test, every challenge, every hurdle, every issue to sharpen us for what is to come.
We can use the prophecies over our life to navigate our way through our present circumstance. God wants to establish intimacy as a way of life. He wants to cover us in His favor. This process starts by God establishing the fact that He is our source. Quietly and deliberately, God will strip away every crutch we have been relying on and obliterate anything that detracts from His ability to provide for us.
He wants to take away the false sense of security most of us have been clinging to. God is not in the business of playing second fiddle to anything—and certainly not to the many ways we try and take care of ourselves.
Lesson one is to go into the future and bring back the traits and intimacy we will need to fulfill our destiny. We must understand what that intimacy will look like. How must our relationship with God evolve and grow in order for us to become the person He has destined us to be?
When I was 31 years old, I had a dream about the kind of relationship with God I would have when I was 45. It was so alluring, so magnificent, so amazing, that I did not want to wait 14 years to get there. I was so hungry when I woke up that I immediately began to pray for that kind of intimacy to happen right away. I discovered something in the process of fighting for that word—I didn’t have to wait until I was 45 for it to come to pass. I had been looking prophetically at a 45-year-old who had lived in that intimacy for ten years!
Our timeline is not always God’s timeline. He often wants to bring breakthrough far sooner than we dare hope. I wanted that intimacy at age 31, thanks to God creating a deep hunger in me for it. I thought about it, meditated on it, prayed for it, and began to come into powerful times of worship. An hour worshipping God would turn into two and then three and sometimes six. I desperately wanted to know God, and God always answers an extreme desire for intimacy.
Prophetic words come to pass as our intimacy and reliance on God develops. Intimacy is a part of our destiny. Look at the prophetic words over your life and ask yourself about the intimacy you will need to live in that kind of wonder. Become hungry for that relationship, and your destiny will come into focus.
In Genesis 18:9, God says a remarkably simple thing about Abraham, His dear friend: “I have known him,” (NKJV). God wants that same intimacy with us, and has guaranteed that it can occur through the love and motivation of Jesus. Intimacy draws us and keeps us in the presence of God. Jesus taught on the importance of this relationship in John 15:4-5—Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Intimacy is a reciprocal act; there is exchange and dialogue. It is not a one-way street. There is interaction between us and the Lord Jesus, and that interaction results in us staying, dwelling, and remaining where God has put us in Christ.
The enemy wants to knock us out of that place of intimacy. He knows how key that relationship is to everything the Lord wants to accomplish, so he tries to poison it from the start. Without water, a seed won’t grow; the enemy wants to kill the seed of our destiny before we grow even a single inch. But our job is to be so established in an intimate relationship with God that nothing can come between us and Him.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” David sang in Psalm 139:23-24. That is the very crux of intimacy—allowing God to look deep into us and remove any blockage between Him and us. Everything in our lives, every situation we go through, is about growing our intimacy with God.
When we embrace the idea that God has a plan for us, no issue should be able to stop us. The statement, “This situation will be the death of me,” is completely incorrect. The truth is that this situation will make you into who you are destined to be.
God partners with our present situation to prepare us for the future He has designed. He uses every test, every challenge, every hurdle, every issue to sharpen us for what is to come.
We can use the prophecies over our life to navigate our way through our present circumstance. God wants to establish intimacy as a way of life. He wants to cover us in His favor. This process starts by God establishing the fact that He is our source. Quietly and deliberately, God will strip away every crutch we have been relying on and obliterate anything that detracts from His ability to provide for us.
He wants to take away the false sense of security most of us have been clinging to. God is not in the business of playing second fiddle to anything—and certainly not to the many ways we try and take care of ourselves.
Lesson one is to go into the future and bring back the traits and intimacy we will need to fulfill our destiny. We must understand what that intimacy will look like. How must our relationship with God evolve and grow in order for us to become the person He has destined us to be?
When I was 31 years old, I had a dream about the kind of relationship with God I would have when I was 45. It was so alluring, so magnificent, so amazing, that I did not want to wait 14 years to get there. I was so hungry when I woke up that I immediately began to pray for that kind of intimacy to happen right away. I discovered something in the process of fighting for that word—I didn’t have to wait until I was 45 for it to come to pass. I had been looking prophetically at a 45-year-old who had lived in that intimacy for ten years!
Our timeline is not always God’s timeline. He often wants to bring breakthrough far sooner than we dare hope. I wanted that intimacy at age 31, thanks to God creating a deep hunger in me for it. I thought about it, meditated on it, prayed for it, and began to come into powerful times of worship. An hour worshipping God would turn into two and then three and sometimes six. I desperately wanted to know God, and God always answers an extreme desire for intimacy.
Prophetic words come to pass as our intimacy and reliance on God develops. Intimacy is a part of our destiny. Look at the prophetic words over your life and ask yourself about the intimacy you will need to live in that kind of wonder. Become hungry for that relationship, and your destiny will come into focus.
In Genesis 18:9, God says a remarkably simple thing about Abraham, His dear friend: “I have known him,” (NKJV). God wants that same intimacy with us, and has guaranteed that it can occur through the love and motivation of Jesus. Intimacy draws us and keeps us in the presence of God. Jesus taught on the importance of this relationship in John 15:4-5—Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
Intimacy is a reciprocal act; there is exchange and dialogue. It is not a one-way street. There is interaction between us and the Lord Jesus, and that interaction results in us staying, dwelling, and remaining where God has put us in Christ.
The enemy wants to knock us out of that place of intimacy. He knows how key that relationship is to everything the Lord wants to accomplish, so he tries to poison it from the start. Without water, a seed won’t grow; the enemy wants to kill the seed of our destiny before we grow even a single inch. But our job is to be so established in an intimate relationship with God that nothing can come between us and Him.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” David sang in Psalm 139:23-24. That is the very crux of intimacy—allowing God to look deep into us and remove any blockage between Him and us. Everything in our lives, every situation we go through, is about growing our intimacy with God.
Tough love
Just last week, a tumour started growing on the foot of Tom Yam, my pet hamster. Took him to the vet, and because he's a small creature, surgery isn't quite an option. Amputation is, and the vet assured me that Tom Yam's quality of life would still be pretty good even if he were down to three legs. But we thought we would defer that drastic move. In the meantime, I am to swab the tumour every day with a disinfectant to prevent an infection.
I know it hurts or stings badly when I swab the foot because Tom Yam struggles and winces every time. The other day, this mildest of hamsters even bit me because I insisted on putting him through the pain for his own good. It was the first time he ever bit me, probably because he really wanted me to stop putting him through pain.
It reminded me of this principle: In the fire, and trial, it really is about understanding and trusting God's love. It may be tough love. But it is love alright.
Graham Cooke writes:
"If we really are going to rise to a place where our own personal anointing and faith level is high, then we need to know what real communion with God is. All ministry comes out of relationship. Power comes out of suffering and anointing comes out of intimacy. It is in communion with God that we learn how to humble ourselves under His hand. There is no point in complaining.
In communion, the Lord works a new level of intimacy into our lives. Standing still under the hand of God, wanting His will to be fulfilled no matter what cost to ourselves, is one of the most intimate responses we can make to Him. Kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God."
I baulked when I heard the line "kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God", because it is so hard to do! When God is stripping away the things in our lives that hinder love, it will hurt. And it will hurt bad. The human tendency is to resist, to decry the process. Would it be that we will have the grace to endure, knowing that when God puts us through a stripping process, it is only out of love.
I know it hurts or stings badly when I swab the foot because Tom Yam struggles and winces every time. The other day, this mildest of hamsters even bit me because I insisted on putting him through the pain for his own good. It was the first time he ever bit me, probably because he really wanted me to stop putting him through pain.
It reminded me of this principle: In the fire, and trial, it really is about understanding and trusting God's love. It may be tough love. But it is love alright.
Graham Cooke writes:
"If we really are going to rise to a place where our own personal anointing and faith level is high, then we need to know what real communion with God is. All ministry comes out of relationship. Power comes out of suffering and anointing comes out of intimacy. It is in communion with God that we learn how to humble ourselves under His hand. There is no point in complaining.
In communion, the Lord works a new level of intimacy into our lives. Standing still under the hand of God, wanting His will to be fulfilled no matter what cost to ourselves, is one of the most intimate responses we can make to Him. Kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God."
I baulked when I heard the line "kneeling down to kiss the hand that hurts creates an intimacy that truly glorifies God", because it is so hard to do! When God is stripping away the things in our lives that hinder love, it will hurt. And it will hurt bad. The human tendency is to resist, to decry the process. Would it be that we will have the grace to endure, knowing that when God puts us through a stripping process, it is only out of love.
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