Paris, Tomorrow and the Church

Last night, before my husband made his way home, he called me to tell me he was going to stop by Redbox and get a video game for our son, Noah. Interestingly, he hasn’t rented from Redbox in over a year. I have really wanted to see Tomorrowland so I asked him to pick it up if they had a copy. When I got home he was playing the game with Noah. As we were waiting for them to finish so we could watch the movie, I got on my phone and saw the horrible news about Paris.

About halfway through the movie, something really incredible happened. The main characters Frank and Casey get into a machine that you assume is taking them to Tomorrowland. However when the machine stops and when they get off you are surprised to see them at the Eiffel Tower. This obviously caught my attention. Inside the Eiffel Tower was the real rocket that was going to take them to their destination. This is where I began to see some truths and parallels in the movie I thought I would share:

A picture I took while watching the movie

1. In the movie, the rocket inside the Eiffel Tower had always been there and was the real purpose behind its creation. I believe that what happened in Paris can be the beginning of a turn around for this world. The rocket came out of something, not new, but that something that was always there. An antique that was originally created for this purpose. A beacon into the darkness. A clarion call if you will.
2. The rocket enabled them to travel to a new dimension. Where Tomorrowland was located. I believe that we are being called to a new dimension of living. That we are going to have to shift our thinking and mindsets to be able to overcome this terror. (For example – focusing on a red cup isn’t going to take us there)
3. When they arrive at Tomorrowland it is in a state of decay. It appears mostly abandoned and everything is grey and gloomy. It is not the bright, inspirational place you see at the beginning of the movie. Casey is so taken a back by what she finds there she makes the statement “This place has nothing to do with hope – it is the opposite of hope.” That is where this terror is birthed from. A place devoid of hope.
4. Casey is told that the world is going to end in 58 days. They have realized that she is the key to saving the world – and the one thing that makes her special is that she doesn’t give up. Where everyone else sees the end – she asks what’s the solution. God is calling us to a new level of living and thinking where we stop looking in the natural at the doom and gloom around us and begin turning our eyes upward towards where our help comes from – and asking for the SOLUTIONS to these problems we are facing.
5. Casey has an idea to save the world that is birthed from a story her dad has always told her, it goes like this “Two wolves. One full of hope and one full of despair get into a fight. Which wolf wins?” The answer is, “whichever one you feed.” This is the most important message from this revelation. Whatever we feed is what wins. No matter the terror, the Church, must rise up and feed hope. Hope is the key to this entire situation.
6. Frank and Casey figure out what has been hurdling the world towards its end. A monitor full of some futuristic energy source, was thought to have been showing what was happening around the world. This is also where the future, including the apocalypse, was being broadcasted. But Frank and Casey discover that the truth was this wasn’t a monitor showing the end but an antennae broadcasting the idea over and over. Sound like the media? Look at the top grossing movies over the past few years. The list is full of apocalyptic movies like The Age of Extinction, Hunger Games, Desolation, etc. Watch one, sixty minute broadcast of the news.
7. Frank and Casey figure out that another character was behind this monitor, trying to scare people straight. But what began to happen was a self fulfilling prophecy was being released. Here is a monologue from that character: “They didn’t fear their end – they began to gobble it up like a chocolate eclair. They embraced the apocalypse and repackaged it as video games and movies. Simultaneous epidemics of obesity and starvation. In every moment there is the possibility of a better future but you people won’t believe and because you won’t believe it you resign yourself to it…for one reason. Because that future doesn’t ask anything of you today. You see the iceberg but her you still say full steam ahead to the titanic – because you want to sink – you gave up.” So much truth is held in that statement. We are gobbling up the fear and terror. And we are feeding the wrong wolf. As he said, every moment there is the possibility of a better future, we just have to believe. And we have to be willing to answer the call from a tomorrow that does require some things of us today. All complacency must go. 
8. At this point we see a flashback where the character Frank opened the door for this entire situation when decades before, he gave up hope. Not only did he give up hope but we see that he became angry at the one who gave him hope. This is the key, to our prayers and our strategy moving forward. This is the heart behind radical Islamist and those like them. They have no hope. And because they have no hope they are angry at people who do. The Church and all lovers of Christ must rise up and be the beacon of hope that we were always created to be. The wolf named despair has been fed and Isis and Al Qaeda have came from that. Where there is no hope, a void opens, that can be filled with hate and despair. We need an injection of hope! We must start feeding the right wolf!!
9. Finally, at the end, this injection of hope that the savior of this movie, Casey, was able to bring stops the apocalypse. They realize that knocking down evil isn’t hard, but figuring out what to build in its place is the challenge. Their strategy moving forward was simple. They went into the world and found all the dreamers. All the ones who haven’t given up. All the ones who believe in spite of what they see. They are the ones who will build Tomorrow. And they all converge together in a field of dreams.

I believe this is all what we are being called to do at this time. Look for the dreamers. Unite them together. Realize that knocking down evil isn’t the hard part, but leaving behind an injection of hope is the most critical, non-negotiable part. We must inspire people to have hope and to stop feeding the wrong wolf! As I was adding the picture from the movie to this blog, I realized that last week the Lord had given me the vision of that field of dreams. A field of wheat, a field of Harvest. I remembered it when I added the picture because I saw the pictures of the fields of wheat I had used to make my cover photo on this blog!!

Let us pray that out of Paris a revival of hope and dreams begins that allows a light so bright to shine out of that city that people turn their heads away from the self fulfilling prophecies played on their monitors day after day, and instead begin to turn their eyes towards the way, the truth, and the life. That the dreamers are awoken and realize they are standing in the middle of a field ready for Harvest!

Do You Know Who is Speaking?

I hear from many people that they don’t feel like God is speaking to them. I read an article the other day that, like many out there, gives advice for how to hear the Lord speak to you. The first piece of advice I would probably give (primarily speaking to myself) would be to spend more time reading God’s word then articles! I’m not trying to be dogmatic here (I mean, come on – I’m writing and you are reading an article!) but the truth is that often we, including myself, want a “word from the Lord” and will go to other people, ministers/pastors/prophets, watch a sermon, read an article all in an attempt to chase after a word. But the truth is none of that makes as much sense as simply going to the Word, to get a word.

Recently a friend shared with me a revelation from her mentor, she said “you treat your Bible like it is a book. Don’t you realize, that is Jesus you are holding in your hands?” What a powerful truth. If we receive the revelation that the Bible is not just words on a page but everything it is, is Him – THAT is a game changer. I find it much harder to walk past my Bible in the morning when I realize that I am literally walking past the Word, the Word that was with God from the beginning (John 1). All this still doesn’t answer the question many have burning on their hearts, “How do I hear more clearly from the Lord?” Well I believe some answers can be found in the third chapter of 1 Samuel.

At the beginning of this chapter we find Samuel, in the service of Eli. During this time, the Lord, who verse one shows us was withholding His word from a corrupt and apathetic people, begins to call Samuel. The first three times He called Samuel thought it was Eli.

1 Samuel 3:7-10 (HCSB)

⁷ Now Samuel had not yet experienced the Lord, because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸ Once again, for the third time, the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ He told Samuel, “Go and lie down. If He calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰ The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel responded, “Speak, for Your servant is listening.”

I believe there are some powerful keys to hearing from the Lord revealed in this chapter. First, we see that Samuel had not experienced the Lord because the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. This means that if we want to hear and experience the Lord, He has to reveal himself to us. How do we get the Lord to do that? Well the first verse showed that the Lord was withholding His word and visions from people because they had become corrupt. If you contrast that with Samuel, Samuel had not even experienced the Lord himself, but still was being faithful and obedient. So to hear from the Lord we must be obedient and faithful.

The second key to hearing from the Lord, and I believe one of the most important, was Samuel had to understand who was calling Him. Until Samuel had the revelation of who was calling him, he could not hear the Lord. If we want to hear the Lord, we have to understand who it is that is calling us. Who He is. If we really understand who is calling us we won’t take for granted the opportunity and blessing of His call. We won’t hesitate to say yes to Him if we truly understood that the creator of the universe who holds the foundation of Heaven and Earth in His hand, is the One calling us. Understanding the reality and the nature of God should always inspire us to respond with spontaneous obedience.

And finally, Eli told Samuel to go and lie down, and Samuel responded by going and lying down in his place. If we want to hear from God we need to be in position to do so. Sometimes that means giving God a yes, sometimes that may mean giving someone else a no, or most of the time that means saying yes over and over to the process God has put in place to move us into position. There were a lot of “yeses” that had led to Samuel being in that position, in his place. Many that had nothing to do with him. It was Hannah’s obedience that had sent him to Eli. It was his father, Elkanah’s obedience that had allowed Hannah to follow God’s word to her. It was the disobedience of Eli’s sons that opened the door for Samuel to take their place. It was Eli’s disobedience that kept him from stopping his sons from their corruption. And finally it was Samuel’s obedience that allowed him to grow in favor and stature. What a perfect picture this is of the power of our obedience and disobedience. Our decisions and willingness to surrender to God’s will doesn’t just effect us, but everyone around us. And the obedience of Samuel and his family led him to the place where his life collided with the presence of God. The very first verse of chapter 3 says that Samuel was in the presence of Eli. Being in the presence of Eli had put Samuel in position to be in the presence of the Lord. (This is the same truth we see in the gospels. The first disciples called by Jesus were the ones who had been obedient to the Lord’s calling to follow John the Baptist. Being in the presence of John the Baptist led them to be in the presence of the Word, manifested in flesh!)

This chapter also allows us to see the stark contrast of what happens when you don’t obey God. The Lord was patient with Samuel and called to Him four times. But in the same chapter we see the Lord removing His favor and bringing judgement on Eli’s house because of their disobedience. To me, this says, that

obedience, which is surrendering of one’s will, is the key that unlocks the door to experiencing God and hearing His word.

So if we want to hear the Lord speak, the recipe seems to be pretty simple: recognize the voice of the one calling you, respond in obedience and faith and be in position when He calls. Now…if only that were as simple as it sounds!

Lord, may we all have the courage and revelation of who you are, to respond when you call, “Speak, for your Servant is listening.” 

So Fresh So Clean…Call it 2015

Here I am looking 2015 head on. Ready to not look back, not think back, not go back or sit back. (That’s part of a prophetic word I was given by one of the mother’s in faith the Lord has blessed me with).

And here is a real, honest look at my starting place for the year. The DIVINE in the center (being Christ) but a mess all around. But this year I will do as another great, wise woman of faith prophesied over me to do, and JUMP IN.

   

I’m jumping into Him. I’m letting go of fear…and self preservation…and vain imaginations (not even sure what that means yet). I’m jumping into His word. I’m jumping into my problems. Facing them head first. I’m jumping into each day seeking first the Kingdom of God. I’m jumping into MOVEMENT. Everyday. Just a little movement…because it’s amazing what just a little will do for your soul (another nugget from 2014). And while I am jumping in. I am also LETTING GO.

Forgetting those things that are behind I am pressing on towards the mark of the high call. I’m letting go of the things that kept me walking around these same mountains. I’m letting go of control. I’m letting go of self preservation (because HE holds me in the palm of His hand).

I’m letting go of all the ‘what I haven’ts’ and I’m grabbing hold to gratitude. I’m walking with Him. Talking with Him. I’m following the voice of my Shepard, of my Father.

I’m preparing for my bridegroom. I’m committing to the process. I’m trusting Him. I’m resting in Him. I’m allowing Him to lead me…wherever He wants…I’m abiding in HIM…finding refuge in HIM.

And most importantly I am focused on one word. FAITHFULNESS. Faithfulness to the ONE THING. That one thing that reminds me that even without all the rest of the abundant blessings 2014 has give me – new seasons, new women, new friends, new dwellings, a new understanding of His love, new sisters in Christ, children on fire for God, children filled with love for Him and His plans for their life – even without alllll of those abundant blessings I still have enough to praise Him for forever. Because of that one thing….

So here’s to you 2014. Like a good bag of fertilizer, you didn’t always smell great and sometimes your load was a little heavy, but what amazing things grew out of you!

With Love,

Me

Standing under the shadow of clouds

There’s something about clouds. A cloud can be so magnificent and large, so tiny and humble. How is that so? That they take on character and shapes to match. One time I laid in the field with Noah. For 30 minutes at least. And we watched the clouds. I expected to watch them roll across the sky. But as we watched them slowly stroll along – they suddenly just dissipated into thin air. It took me by surprise.

One of my most favorite things in the world, is when you can see the shadow of clouds on rolling green hills. There’s something magical about that to me. Every time I see it I wish I could lay there, on that hill. Watching the clouds roll by, or puff away.

Standing under the shadow of clouds. 

Here and There….

everything is scattered. everything. thoughts. words. ideas. revelation. i need a system. for like, everything. 

i need to commit. to a blog. to a schedule. to habits.

i can’t even commit to capitalization in this blog apparently.

where to start, the real question….

well. i guess the answer is really always the same. we walk away from it and as it fades into the distance and we squint our eyes we lose sight of the blurry truth we know to be true. 

and so here i am again. back at the start. 

one way. one truth. just Jesus. 

ahh, the “capital”. 

maybe that’s the way all these scattered things are. maybe i’m not lost, and maybe i’m not afraid to commit. maybe i’m just waiting for a reason worth doing so.

that is crap. there’s a million reasons. love. joy. peace. happiness. peace of mind.

to live a life worthy of the high call.

to rise up and refuse to let my children settle in the wake of bad decisions and generational influences.

to be the city on a hill. light of the world.

and there we are again, that one thing Mary knew…..Jesus. 

 

so that’s where i am starting. going to sit at His feet. rest in Him. await further instructions.

Are You There God, It’s Me, Rebecca…..

For the past for weeks I have been going through a weird time, season….I don’t even know how to adequately put it into words. I love the psalms because no matter how you are feeling, you can in God’s word, someone who has experienced the same emotions you are feeling. I feel so far from God lately. I feel like my flesh has grown into a mighty mountain that overpowers and overshadow my spirit. The thing about this, is when it happens I can see it so clearly. It’s like I am lying down on the ground and watching the fertilizer pour down on top of me, like Alice in Wonderland, I just keep growing and growing – and if I would just roll over out of the way I could stop it – but I don’t. When I feel like this, I don’t want to pray, I don’t want to read the word…but the contradiction is i don’t want to feel this way either. I’m angry, so angry. I am frustrated. I’m dissatisfied. I feel hopeless often. Everything seems to be just out of alignment and some things seem to be falling to pieces. I feel like a failure. I feel unqualified to do anything for the Lord. I feel like I fail him daily, hour by hour. I use to go through this every couple months, but before this happened this time, I had escaped this pit for quite some time. I remember thinking, “wow – have I finally overcome that battle with my flesh,”. And it wasn’t a month later that this battle came in like a flood. And now here I am, drowning. I know the answers to this problem are simple, but from underneath the water – they seem to allude me. Does anyone else feel like this ever? I feel like I am saying, “Hello God, are you there, It’s me, Rebecca,” except I know good and well He is there, but my flesh has grown into such a monster that it doesn’t want to hear anything or read anything or see anything or feel anything from Him….why???

 

1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
    or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint;
    heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony.
3 My soul is in deep anguish.
    How long, Lord, how long?

Psalm 6

Grandma Jean

Jean Louise Bennett had a beautiful spirit. She was a mighty servant of God. She led her family in all the ways that mattered. She led them to church. She showed them how to be a devoted spouse, even when it wasn’t always easy. She taught them to pray. Showed them how to love the unlovable. Taught them that all they needed was a  made up mind and the blood of Jesus. At 29 years old I am fortunate enough to not have many regrets. But among the few I do have, not getting to know Grandma Jean better is a big one. I regret not bringing my kids around to get to know her better. I regret not gleaming more of her wisdom. I regret not just sitting around and listening to her make others laugh. I regret not being around to taste her infamous pie – or any of the food she cooked for her family with so much love. Nobody went hungry when they were in Grandma’s house.

With all those regrets it is pretty obvious that my memories with Grandma Jean were limited – but there is one that I truly call myself blessed to experience. As it became apparent that she was making her way towards her eternal home we went to visit her at her house. Grandma’s house was physically small but like her, was large in spirit. When you sat in her living room, on her red sofa, you didn’t feel like you were in a small living room. Maybe it was the love in the house that made it always seem like there was enough room for everyone. As we all squished into the room she sat in her recliner dozing in and out of sleep. The television was playing in the background. As I sat across the room from her, quietly watching everyone around me a friend of hers from church came in. I was silently praying and could already feel the Holy Spirit in the air. Suddenly all the men and children went outside. It was as if God had taken his hand and ushered everyone except the women out of the house. Grandma sat in her recliner with her daughter, who was knitting a dish rag next to her – and her friend came over towards her to pray over her and anoint her with some oil. After she prayed over her – my husband’s Aunt started singing “Jesus kept me, another day, yes he did”. The Spirit was so thick in the room I don’t think an unbeliever would have been able to breath had they walked in. I looked around and myself and the other women in the room all had silent tears rolling down our faces. I think the tears were a mixture of a lot of things – pain, grief, the Spirit, joy. But mostly, I think the tears came from all of us knowing. Every woman in that room knew. We knew it was true – that Jesus had kept her another day and in doing so blessed us all with another day with her.

I don’t have many things I care about accomplishing in life. I don’t care about being a millionaire or climbing the corporate ladder. I don’t care about driving a fancy car or living in a huge house. At the end of my life, if my family loves me, respects me and feels about me the way we all felt about Grandma Jean, I will know my purpose on this earth was met. My life will have made a difference and I will be able to go home to meet my Father with the same peace I saw Grandma gracefully take with her on her journey to her eternal home.

Random Thought

I’m beginning to realize that I can’t even understand how I feel towards God, towards Jesus because there are literally no human words for the supernatural emotions that exist. When I look at this picture of Jesus it stirs up feelings inside of me for which I have no reference. Maybe that is because I am not experiencing feelings.  

The Web of the Spirit

Lately I have been feeling a thirst for the Psalms in my spirit. Maybe that is because they are so full of everything that encompasses this human experience – hope, joy, peace, hurt, heartache.

Often it seems that the Holy Spirit is the least understood and least utilized of the Trinity between believers. When you start talking about the Holy Spirit or the Holy Ghost people who are not “sold out” for Christ often get uncomfortable. That saddens me. If people only knew the depth and fullness that the Holy Ghost can bring to your life and your relationship with Christ….

In the James Cameron movie Avatar the “higher power” or diety is Eywa. She is made up of all living things. Her power runs throughout their land in an interconnected web made up of nuero trasnmitters. This is all centralized in the mother tree, a place where all the spokes of this web kind of come together. The Na’vi people have tails that they plug into this web and allows them to bring balance to things like wild horses or wild flying creatures and control those things. So where am I going with all of this? That is what the Holy Spirit is – it is an interconnected web that all leads toward the Father and the Son. In the web of life that is the Holy Spirit, I find time and time again that God will use the Spirit to start me on an assignment or give me revelation about something and throughout my day and week I will see that theme reinforced over and over and over. This brings me back to Pslams and David. Earlier this week I was looking for scriptures on identity and it took me to Pslams. And then I was looking for scripture on moods and it took me to Psalms. This morning my e-mail devotional (which I hardly ever read by the way) took me…guess where? – you got it – to Pslams. God is pointing me in the direction he needs me to go to find what it is I need right now. And I feel my soul thirsting for it. I have never read the book of Pslams. This has happened to me before – the Holy Ghost has taken me to the book of Acts and the book of 1 Corinthians. Did I ever finish these assignments? No. So what happens when you don’t follow through with the assignment that God lays on your heart? You miss a blessing. I don’t know what blessings I missed but I know I missed them. All because of my lack of follow through, my inability to be faithful when I don’t FEEL like it, my inability to be faithful when I don’t feel covered in the peace and joy of God. I have to get consistent. God has been ministering this to me for quite sometime.    And I have really got to listen. I am tired of missing out on blessings, on opportunities all because I can’t get consistent. I can’t be a finisher. The word says in Ecclesiastes that the end of a thing is better then the beginning. And I know this. But what have I ever finished?

I thank God for the gift of the Holy Spirit. I thank God for the way it drops things throughout my day and week through it’s interconnected web. I thank God for the way the web of the Spirit connects those who are in the body with me – the way we all say the same things even when we say them differently. I thank God for the current that runs through the web of the Spirit. Always below the surface trying to bring forth God’s glory and His will through unity. I want to be a finisher. I want to be in unity with MYSELF and with other believers.

God showed me where to start – but will I find the tenacity to finish? That is today, and has always been, the real question.

How To Love

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 is a verse we are all familiar with “Love is patient, love is kind….”. I’m sure most people are familiar with that verse. A few months ago the Lord started using this verse to really change my perspective on relationships – specifically my marriage. We always are told to love one another – but then no one even thinks about HOW to love each other. Seriously – stop for one second after you read this question and answer it to yourself before you continue reading:

How do you love someone? 

There are so many people and entities that effect our outlook on how to love one another – movies, the media in general, romance novels, what we saw growing up – but here is what I found to be so crazy once God put 1 Cor 13 on my heart. The answer on how to love is spelled out word for word in His word and it is a verse we use often but don’t actually seem to apply. We know that the greatest commandment of all is to love one another but then we never take the next step to actually use His word to figure out how to love one another or how to love ourselves. If we want to love ourselves, our neighbors, our enemies, our children, our mothers, our fathers – then we need to learn how to love them, they way Christ called us to love. There is not ONE relationship in your life that cannot at the least be effected by loving the other person like Christ. Loving like Christ changes people, changes circumstances, changes relationships can even change marriages. I saw something that Joyce Meyers said once and it went like this “Everybody is always searching for a word. LOVE EACH OTHER. There is a word that will last you the rest of your life,” and I don’t think she has ever spoken truer words. Now let’s take a look at this “word” that we can study on for the rest of our life and break it down verse by verse so that we can understand how to apply this to our lives. I pray that as you read this you will feel led to leave your comment so  you can share the insight God lays on your heart. I’m just going to use the KJV here but I think it is always helpful to study other versions as well. (This verse from Corinthians is the first verse that I, on my own accord, took and broke down piece by piece – and if you have never attempted this on your own I strongly encourage you to do so. It is a profound and fun experience!)

1 Corinthians 13 ⁴ Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up

• Charity suffereth long.  So I took the first sentence of the first verse I had ever analyzed and was BLOWN AWAY. Charity suffereth long. The first word, Charity, took me aback a little because I expected it to say love of course. But as I researched I found that Charity first of all did not have the same meaning as it does today when the KJV was translated – but it is used from the Greek word agape – meaning to love in a selfless way that is above and beyond anything sexual or physical. And in the KJV when charity is used it is mean to separate itself from Phileo love which is an affectionate love – the type of love that we would show to someone in our family. So in the first word, of the first sentence we are told that we are getting a lesson that extends beyond the boundaries of our family relationships. This lesson on love is a lesson on all love – the greatest love. The next word suffereth took me back as well. That is not a word with a positive connotation, definitely not as positive as the word that preceded it. So I looked up the definition. Suffereth is Third-person singular simple present indicative form of suffer. Since I had absolutely no idea what that even meant I looked up the definition of suffer, which I thought I pretty much knew but even that surprised me, here is the definition from Merriam Webster:   

1 to submit to or be forced to endure <suffer martyrdom> to feel keenly : labor under <suffer thirst> 2 : undergo, experience 3 : to put up with especially as inevitable or unavoidable  4 : to allow especially by reason of indifference <the eaglesuffers little birds to sing — Shakespeare> 1: to endure death, pain, or distress 2 : to sustain loss or damage 3 : to be subject to disability or handicap

Looking at this definition is where my mind really (I have to go get my kids from school. Will finish this later!)