"Take My Life and Let It Be"

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

(Words by Fran­ces R. Ha­ver­gal, Feb­ru­a­ry 1874)

"Intimacy With God" Class 2 Notes

The three realms of prayer are:

Asking - Where we make requests and ask forgiveness from the Lord.

Seeking - This is where we are no longer giving Him our needs, but are instead seeking His fellowship. This is initiated by God and is the "waiting" portion of prayer.

Knocking - This is when we arrive at his home and enter into heart-to-heart communion with Him.

This is where we experience the promise of Isaiah 40.31:

"But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint."

This is where we enter into the "secret place" of Psalm 91, where we enter into the fullness of intimacy with God and are completely safe and protected.

Not many make it to this stage of fellowship with God, but stay at the asking stage.

God works from the inside out. When He gave Moses the plans to build the tabernacle, He instructed Him to build the Ark of the Covenant first. Outward transformation starts from inward communion with God.

God desires our fellowship, the fellowship of human hearts. Unlike the angels, He made us for fellowship.

If we live where our needs are, we will be defeated. But if we go beyond our needs and experience fellowship with God almighty, our needs vanish and our hearts become knit together with his. This is where communion begins.

Rushing in and out of God's presence insults his glory.

If you are repeatedly repenting of the same sins, you are not living in freedom and are not in fellowship with the Lord.

It takes time and persistence.

Angels live in God's presence. If we want the help of angels, we need to enter into God's presence. We don't see and experience angels because we don't live in his presence.

Psalm 103:20 tells us that angels "excel in strength" and hearken to the word of God spoken. And who speaks it? We do. Peter's release from prison was an example of this, as angels responded to passionate, persistent prayer on his behalf.

We need to bask in his presence.

Healing takes place in his presence. If He is not there, healing will not happen. But sickness dies in the presence of Jesus.

The deeper the worship, the quieter the soul. When you get that close, anything can happen. You can ask for anything and it will happen.

We can experience Jesus' presence as real as Peter, James and John when He was on the earth.

When in fellowship, when in intimacy beyond words, the words that we pray are not of the flesh. In this place, the words we pray will surprise us.

The intimacy we have with our human spouse is only a shadow of the intimacy we will have with God.

Many people experience the soulish realm and call it spiritual. Our emotions are soulish because they are all about feelings. But if a person is just experiencing feelings and emotions, once they leave the atmosphere of that moment, they are just as empty as they were before.

When you experience the spiritual, you take it with you. You don't leave empty.

You can only "pray without ceasing" in the spiritual realm.

In the ‘Third Realm’, where the voice of God is now clear; your words actually become offensive because it is here where silence rules. In that realm tears become your language and the Holy Spirit is in full control.

God will not allow us experience this realm if we are distracted. When we let go of the things that come to take our attention away; then what will happen will be so intense, so powerful it will absolutely impact your life.

Even entering this realm just one single time is enough to change your life.

Identity, Pt. 3

I was writing the message on a door-hanger to advertise our new children's program at Christ Fellowship Church today and mentioned that we teach the children their "worth and value." The phrase "worth and value" is common, but I could not actually define the difference between the two words. So I looked them up! The words are certainly related, but have very distinct meanings.

Value is inherent to the product, meaning value is built into it. All items have a certain value often based on who made them and what products were used to make them. A product's worth is often used as a measure of its value, but the words are not interchangeable. Worth is the highest price a person is willing to pay for a product.

So an item's value comes from its origin and its worth comes from what one is willing to pay for it.

We all have both worth and value. Our value come from the fact that we are each unique, special creatures made by God. We are his children and He loves us because of it. So what then is our worth? What is the price one is willing to pay for us? Our worth to God was settled when Jesus died on the cross. We are worth the death of God.

There are no creatures or other creations with as much worth and value as God has given us. If we learn to look at each other and honor our worth and value, we treat each other as God wants us to. It's a matter of perception. I know my own worth and value, so I know yours too. No person has more worth or value than another. If we see each other in this way, loving our neighbors and enemies will no longer be a religious struggle but will be a natural reaction to who they are.

My worth and value was settled by God, and so was yours. Let's honor that together.

Identity, Pt. 2

"You can't work hard enough to 'be holy' or to become holy. Holy is a by-product of receiving and agreeing with our 'complete' status in Christ--holy being a 'condition' not an activity." -Scott Schang, The Rhema Code.

How often do we spend our energy trying to make ourselves into what we already are? Can we add to what Christ has already done on our behalf? Did his sacrifice fall short of redeeming us, leaving us with the responsibility to finish what he was obviously unable to accomplish? Do we really have such a low regard for his death and resurrection?

I, for one, want to live every moment of every day out of the reality He purchased for me. And if I do stumble, I know it was a case of my living a false reality, not a matter of me being incomplete.

I am reminded of Abraham and Isaac. A sacrifice needed to be made, but before Abraham could sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him and provided a ram for the sacrifice. So Isaac climbed down off the altar and Abraham sacrificed the ram. But how disturbingly wrong would it have been for Isaac (having already been saved from the sacrifice) if he had then jumped into the fire with the ram which had been given in his place! My point is this, what good is a substitutionary sacrifice if we feel we need to jump into the flames with it?

Jesus was our substitutionary lamb, and He took all judgment and condemnation upon Himself on the cross. We have no right to subject ourselves to the fires of self-judgment and condemnation.

When Jesus said, "It is finished" He was telling the truth.

So are we going to live out of his finished work? Or are we going to live a false reality, trying to make ourselves into what we are already are?

I know who I am. I am his. And I am going to live out of the reality of his finished work.

A Testimony of Jesus' Love

Riley Joy came to me this morning and her belly was hurting (she ate too much or something). She asked me to give her something for it. We are out of papaya enzyme, so I gave her what we always do have :-). I excitedly told her, "Jesus is going to heal your belly, come here and we'll pray." I put one hand on her shoulder and the other on her belly and prayed, "Thank-You Jesus for Riley Joy's perfect belly and perfect digestive system. Belly be perfect in Jesus' name, no more pain and no more discomfort. Digestive system be perfect in Jesus' name, no more pain or discomfort. Thank-You Jesus." As I started to say "Thank-You" Riley Joy had a small burst of giggles and grew a big smile. She told me her belly did not hurt any more and bounced off to play.

That seriously rocks my world. It it one thing to tell her over and over every day that Jesus loves her, but it's another for her to feel His love in a tangible way like that.

Miracles have become common in our household, but that was the first time Jesus has healed Riley Joy on the spot. I pray for Hannah and myself most often and we currently see nearly 100% of headaches, stomach pain and even mild back pain leave instantly. Amity had her first bellyache healed a few days ago before bed.

This just gets neater and neater. Bill Johnson has said, "If you can't praise Jesus for a headache gone away, He won't trust you with an empty wheelchair." I have not yet experienced an empty wheelchair, but I am praising Jesus constantly every day for His wonderful love displayed in our home. I have been praying for healing in our family (an in public) since 2010 and it is only within the last couple months that we have begun seeing instant results. Outside of our family I have seen a co-worker healed of a headache and minor neck-ache. I look forward to seeing much, much more.

Isn't Jesus' love incredible! Praise Jesus!!!

Identity

It breaks my heart how few Christians understand their true identity. They live lives at the mercy of their present and past circumstances. Their faith becomes a pain management program.

I want to live in my identity in Christ. I want to be so completely built on the completed work of Christ in me, that I can live without offence. When I am hurt or abused by people around me, I respond with love toward those persecutors because I understand that Jesus' blood was shed for them too. There is no person alive who is not worth the death of God. Jesus did not just die for me, He died for everyone.

And even when people hurt or abuse me (by the world's standards), I leave without scar or bitterness because they truly cannot hurt me. Rather than me being the victim, the reality is that they are the victims, as ecvidenced by their actions toward me. They are victims of false identity, the Satanic lie that we need to spend our livs trying to find in this world the peace, fulfillment and joy that can only be found in Jesus.

I have no right to judge my persecutors because Jesus alraedy took their judgment upon himself up on the cross.

Nobody in this world can hurt me, becuase I live out of the identity Jesus purchased for me on the cross. I am not trying to make my life better, I am already a "new creation" in Him. I am perfect and complete and this world cannot hurt me.

Praise Jesus for what He has done for us!!!

Asking, Seeking, Knocking

I began a new course today on the topic of "Intimacy With God." I am happy to say that the opening class was well worth the money I paid for the entire course. I wanted to record some notes here on what I took away from the class because it really blew me away.

Speaking of prayer, Jesus told his followers, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." More than this just being three ways to petition God, it is a pattern for prayer which leads us into deep fellowship with Him. One way to look at this is in terms of Israel's temple. "Asking" is the Court, "Seeking" is the Holy Place, and "Knocking" is the Holy of Holies.

When we pray, we start by asking. The tragedy is that many stop at that. So at the end of our prayer time, we have done nothing but laid out our problems to God. We have not necessarily received anything other than peace, and peace is good, but peace is not fellowship with God. For some people, the asking can take five minutes and for others it could be hours, but we will not grow closer to God or receive directly from Him if we stop there.

When prayer extends beyond asking, it becomes seeking. Having laid out our troubles to God, we then seek Him, to feel Him and his presence, to know him, hear his voice, etc. This is us drawing near to Him and trusting Him to respond by drawing near to us. But if we stop here, we have still not actually met Him in deep communion.

When we diligently seek Him in prayer, He will meet us. This becomes the knocking stage of prayer, where we have arrived at His house and enter in to dine with Him. This is where we hear from Him and receive more than we could ever ask for. This is the wellspring of a life like Jesus. This is the point of prayer, this is fellowship.

The goal of prayer is fellowship with Jesus, but unless we press in through each step, we will not find the fellowship we were made to enjoy. For some this might take hours of prayer to move from asking to seeking to knocking on a daily basis. Fellowship is to be had everyday. This is where diligence and passion come in. If we are passionate about meeting God and diligent to seek Him all the way into fellowship, we will find it is easier and easier to meet Him there. What might have taken hours of diligent prayer might only take ten minutes to one who have been passionately and diligently fellowship with Jesus every day. But if our loves grows cold and we let up from seeking Him daily, it will take longer and be more difficult to reach that deep place of fellowship.

Many ministers begin their ministry out of deep fellowship with God, but then over time lose the fellowship while maintaining the ministry and just going through the motions. Many even are unaware that they have little or no Spirit in what they are doing. But those with discernment will notice that something is missing.

It is our place to draw near to God, to get so close that we understand the "fear of the Lord." Not that we are afraid of Him, but that we get so close to Him that those things in our lives which are not totally surrendered to Him must drop off of us or we must step back from his presence. It is in that deep communion and fellowship that we become the people that God has made us to be.

I have decided to follow You, Jesus, and I will press in daily for that deep fellowship with You. I will let nothing hold me back or distract me from You. There is nothing in life more important than You and I know I will never truly be love to everyone around me unless I receive your love in the secret place. I am yours and You are mine, and I love You, I love You, I love You. Take my heart and let it be, consecrated Lord to thee.

Amen