Category Archives: Listening to His Voice

Hanging on His every Word…

Continuing with Holy Week Remembrances today! I would love to hear YOUR memories of Easter. Feel free to share! You can read Palm Sunday’s post here. Be blessed.

I can remember so many Easter Sunday mornings when I was a little girl. My sister and I loved to dress up! My mother or aunt always did our hair in long banana curls the night before. (Think Shirley Temple…or Nellie Olsen). We were all decked out in our little 1960’s white hats, white knee socks and white patent leather shoes. We were adorable. (Unfortunately I couldn’t get my hands on an actual Easter picture for this post. Boo.)

When I was very young, I was privileged to go to church with my cousins. Four sisters. Yes, four! They had one each in similar age as my sister and me, and two more for good measure. I loved them so! I can remember hunting for Easter eggs at the church and my grandmother’s house.

We would sit in church and listen to their father preach, everyone was hanging on his every word…some because they knew he was the only thing that was standing between them and a great Sunday dinner. Others were anticipating the big Easter egg hunt and as much candy as they could stuff in their mouths at one time.

Yet, we all knew Easter was about so much more than bunnies, colored eggs, candy and Easter baskets.

It was about Someone Else whose Words were so impactful that men dropped everything they were doing to sit at His feet.

It was about Someone Else whose Words were so powerful that He emptied a temple.

Jesus had just entered Jerusalem where the crowds shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The next day He saw the money changers and sellers in the temple, desecrating the house of God.

“And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” Matthew 21:12, 13 ESV.

He emptied the house. But it didn’t stay empty.

And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.” Luke 19:45-48 ESV.

Here are those that wanted to destroy Jesus, the Teacher. But they cannot do anything about it because the people were hanging on His words! They wouldn’t leave, they were at His feet, waiting to hear the Good News.

The King James Version says it this way, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.”

Are we listening for His voice today? Do we cherish the Word of God? Do we look forward to being with Him, sitting quietly in His presence and soaking up the Bread of Life?

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” John 10:27, 28.

Come Resurrection Morning, no matter whether you are wearing your white hat and patent leather shoes or your best jeans and t-shirt, listen for His voice.

And may you find yourself hanging on His every Word.

Kingdom2

What Place is This?

What Place is This? #FiveMinuteFriday! Say what??! I know I have been absent and this post will explain a few things, hopefully. Join Kate and the others and check out their take on the word prompt, Place!

Habakkuk 2:3 “For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.”

Places. I’ve been to quite a few places in the last several years. Seventeen fabulous countries, countless states in the good ole’ United and untold adorable and quaint small towns. As Johnny Cash so ably crooned, “I’ve been everywhere, man.”

But there are other places I have found myself in that were not a dot on the map. Some might call them seasons instead of places. Whatever you title them, they have been times of learning, listening and hopefully, growing.

When I first came home from Latvia in 2012, I was restless because of some severe back pain and SI joint issues I was battling. My days were long and painful and I was discouraged because I didn’t seem to have a place to land. Enter Hope in the Healing. I struggled so when God first nudged me to start a blog. Oh, how I resisted! I cried, I wrestled like Jacob and prayed like Moses. Surely, God didn’t mean me!

He did. And I gave in and for the last five years I have tried to write what He has given me.

It was a wonderful place to be, meeting so many new people, making friends online and in real life all because of a blog. A book was even born because of a season of fasting with online friends. All of these things were God-ordained at the time and I know my life was impacted. I hope a few others were as well.

But, every season transitions and the last year and a half have been quiet on the blog. I cannot explain it but when I go to write there is just silence. I have countless, amazing titles for articles that I just am at a loss to put a body with. There is calm, there is stillness at the edge of my pen.

So, what does God want for Hope in the Healing? What does He want for me? I wish I knew the answer to that. The anointing to write may return, I pray it does. But if not? There will be another season, another place that He wants me to land, minister, glean, give, and pour into. The key is being willing to be led, willing to be used and willing to go when He says, “Go” and to stop when He says, “Enough.” Until then, much as I look forward to fall when it is a stifling summer or spring when winter is brutal, I will look forward to the next season, guided by the One who is in control of all things and resting in the peace that only He can give.

Do you find yourself in an unfamiliar, uncomfortable or even, unwanted Place? Wait for His voice, His prompting; His guidance. It will come, it will be clear and it will be right. Your Place, your Season, is in His Will and sometimes there is quietness, a stillness that will be even more strengthening and relational than any platform could ever be, preparing you for your next step.

For the kingdom

 

 

Light a lamp for me!

I’m not crazy about the dark.

I struggle driving at night anymore. 

I have always feared going blind! 

I would claw your eyes out if you put me in a room with no windows and no lights.

Seriously.

Now you know a little more about me. Let’s look at someone else who didn’t like the darkness.

The Apostle Paul is standing before King Agrippa (the same one who says, “Almost, you have persuaded me to become a Christian.”) and explaining to him how he went from persecuting Christians to preaching the Gospel. He relates how he was on the road to Damascus to gather up more Christians and “put them in chains” but then a light came down from heaven, blinding Paul, and he head a voice say, “ ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’…” (emphasis mine)

Paul was blind for three days until Ananias arrived and told him that he was to be a messenger for the Lord.

You light a lamp for me

In Paul’s darkness, God lit a lamp for him! 

This “chief of sinners” was raised at the feet of one of the greatest scholars of that time, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.” Acts 22:3 NIV

He was zealous for God but did not know Him! He had been in darkness all of his life and was still blind to the Truth, he did not know Jesus until the Lord came and turned on the light!

“In darkness God’s truth shines most clear.”
― Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place

In that darkness, God’s light shined through and reached down to the most dangerous man of that time. God transformed the Apostle Paul into the most influential and powerful preacher who ever lived. Something miraculous happened on that road to Damascus and Paul was never the same.

Will we be like Paul, allowing the Light to come in and push away the darkness? Or will we be like those Timothy speaks of in the last days? “…having a form of godliness but denying its power….always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 2 Timothy 3 NIV.

Lord Jesus, help us to allow the Light of Your Truth to shine in our lives! Push back the darkness and fill us with Your love, making us more like You so others can see Your glory!

It is crucial in this dark hour that we, The Church of the Living God, allow the Light of the Holy Spirit to shine through us. We must share this Gospel and not be laden down with the cares of this world. Our most important job that He has given us is to reach the lost. When we are filled with His spirit, others will see that Light and be drawn out of darkness to the One true God, Jesus Christ.

He will light a lamp for you! He will light up your darkness…if you allow Him to.

Light a lamp for me!