“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” Revelation 2:7
Jesus wants us to hear what the Spirit is saying unto the churches.
God watches over his Word, confirms and performs it. When you hear a word from the Lord more than once in your life it is not something to disregard and say, “He already said that” but rather to recognize God obviously wants to get a point across.
Lately it seems as though everywhere I go people are talking about hearing what the Lord is saying. Sunday morning in church, it was no different when Carl was talking about “Lordship of Jesus Christ”. It was so good to hear and I wish he could have gone on for about another 45 minutes really getting deep into this subject. The basic concept, “listen to God, pay attention to what he is saying. Embrace God, allow his power to free you from things that hold you back from relationship with him and walk in love.”
Listen, pay attention is a word that I heard on a Friday night prayer meeting in Orlando, at a Monday night meeting, in another leadership meeting, in a larger group meeting and in a Wednesday night of worship. These are obviously words of encouragement and confirmations to pay attention.
One Friday night meeting was a strong encouragement to listen to God and share the gifts and callings he has placed upon our lives despite what others might say. God gives us gifts with intent for us to distribute them, “freely you have received so freely give.” Allow his springs of living water to flow freely from you, do not listen to the lies of the enemy and realize that these gifts grow with use.
Another group was about listening to God and forgiving those that continually speak against the things God is doing through you. God gives each of us special gifts, while someone may not understand what God is doing in your life and may make a mockery of it that does not free you from walking in obedience. Listen to what God is saying to you, lay hold of it, be obedient and forgive those that through ignorance attempt to hinder God’s Spirit. Listen to the longing God placed in your heart, embrace what God is saying and obey him. We are one in the bond of love and there is a strong spiritual warfare against the church with the intent to break those bonds. This strategy of the enemy will fail as we forgive each other. It was a powerful move of the Holy Spirit and much healing took place.
Wednesday night a few weeks ago, we were hearing about the Word of God being alive and powerful. He watches over his word to perform it as we speak it forth in boldness and love. We received exhortation to continue to move forward sharing the word of God, the gifts/callings of God and the love of God despite what we see around us.
In my own life, there has been a barrage of attacks with the attempt to hinder me from moving forward with the purposes and callings of God. I made a decision to continue to press forward with God despite these pressures. The joy of the Lord is my strength and the enemy’s plans cannot steal that joy. It has been a battle as the enemy has attempted to discourage me through people reminding me of times I have missed meetings from 1 ½ ago “really?”, missed opportunities, made poor choices, did not like my writing and an array of other things. Yes, these are true, I blow it big time, I have talked with people to reconcile, attempted to talk with someone who did not want to unite, and have ultimately brought these things before God to receive his forgiveness. As we heard Sunday morning, I am recalibrating my affections back to things above where Christ sits and will not allow the criticism of people, the cares of the world or others things to pull me off course of the goal to fix my eyes on Jesus the Author and Finisher of my faith.
Deborah Neiberger © 2014 – Expressions of Heartland
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