He brought me out into a spacious place....2 Samuel 22:20

Whenever you get somewhere you haven't been before, you can be assured that it will not be at all like you assumed. We have this uncanny habit of referencing everything we're experiencing back to something we've experienced before, and can find ourselves disappointed when the new thing isn't anything at all like the old thing. But, funny thing is, that is exactly why it's called "a new thing."

• new   [noo, nyoo] adjective, -er, -est, adverb, noun –adjective unfamiliar or strange: ideas new to us; to visit new lands: Ring out the old, ring in the new.

So, fancy that this new place, with new people, new experiences, new ways of living, new everything, would be so entirely different from the old things we were so nicely used to.

Don't get me wrong, I would be the one that would intentionally go to a restaurant I've never been to, eat the strange food I can't pronounce, sit somewhere I never sit, and visit different countries just because they are different. But get me just a little bit too uncomfortable and I start looking back at what was.

The word I felt God was giving us as we moved was 2 Samuel 22:20 - "He brought me out into a spacious place." Sounds exciting and promising and...big! What I didn't realize that once the boundaries of what had become so comfortable were removed, and I was faced with that "spacious place," I would want to default back to whatever looked familiar, just because I don't yet know how to be here.

There are things that make me uncomfortable here. No job. No permanent home. No idea where things are. But these things have been strategically placed in my life to make me uncomfortable so that I learn peace and trust and rest. Because who needs those things when life is easy?

And for this I have Jesus.

r.

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Heaven's Provision

I was reading Genesis 22 after praying one day about provision. The word provision was highlighted to me. Pro-vision. I looked up the word and saw it meant foresight. To look ahead.

In the story of Genesis 22, we see that the provision for worship was already provided. God had arranged for what is known in eternity to break into earth's time-line.

Abraham packed up his provisions for worship. He packed the donkey and gathered and split the wood. He then set out towards a predetermined mountain set up by the Lord. God already had in mind what he was about to do. Issac asks, “We have the wood and the fire, but where is the sacrifice?”

Abraham prophetically declares, “God will provide a lamb for Himself.”

If you are wise, provision is something you have in your possession on the outset of the journey, not something you come into along the way. With every turn in the journey you acquire provisions for the days ahead. That is why the word means foresight. You look ahead and see what is going to be needed and you pack it and take it with you.

When I used to fight forest fires, we would take our provisions with us when we were flown into a fire. Those provisions enabled us to work for a set period of time. On one occasion the job was longer than what we had provisions for, so we had provisions flown into us via helicopter.

I see that God sent Abraham on a journey of worship in which heaven already possessed the provision. The Lamb that was slain. Abraham was about to unlock and come into the knowledge of that provision.

Through Abraham's obedience heaven's provision was released. The provision for the journey is given to you before the journey begins. God saw fit to look ahead and in grace satisfy our needs with well thought out provisions, which He hid in Christ. We now have Christ, which means we are not coming into provisions with don't yet have, but that we are on a journey to discover the provisions we now possess.

mjh

Seek First...the Spirit

Psalm 1

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Joshua 1:8

Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Here are some thoughts on the passages above for your consideration. I believe David picked up on key points of the life of Joshua and took them to heart. Both equated a blessed, prosperous and successful life with the delight and meditation of the Book of the law. How do we come into a lifestyle and capitalize on the benefits of law mediation?

God's law is His sovereign rule. Law has to do with government. We know that His government is one with a King and a Kingdom. To meditate on the ruling of God (his law) is to understand the kingdom. We know that the kingdom of God has everything to do with the Spirit. I believe that by mediating on the rulings of the King against the kingdom of darkness and making decrees in the Spirit (prophecy) is one aspect of seeking first the kingdom. I also believe that mediating on the law day and night can now be done by praying and speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is done by the Spirit which is kingdom. Another aspect of seeking first the kingdom is to make a concerted effort to speaking in Spirit (kingdom) speech, which must include prophecy. Cheers.

mjh

Treasures of Grace

Treasures of Grace.

I believe there are certain seasons, when what has been known in eternity has its beginning in time. Treasures of grace were buried inside of us the day we came into the faith in Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority

Just like a buried treasure is found by someone only because it was first buried by some one else, so it is that our Father packed into us the wealth of His Son because we are now found in Christ.

There is abundant provision of grace made available to us who receive it. (Rom 5:17) Even though we have all of Christ and grace within us it take the event of time to come into an experience of what has been granted us in the kingdom. It takes time to reveal all the grace which has been poured over us.

Ephesians 1: 9 And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

When the times have reached their fulfillment...the eternal manifests in time at that moment.

Ephesians 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

It is going to take the coming age of eternity to see the depth of the incomparable riches of his grace which God worked on our behalf in Time. And yet heaven is ruled by Grace, which means there is a view and experience of grace reserved for us in a timeless eternity.

We need to realize that we have a grace filled future because we have a grace fill past. Everyday we have encounters in life which call up the grace God has granted us. He is eternal and knows the end from the beginning. He has thoroughly equipped us with everything we need in life and godliness. A grace from heaven as been revealed which teaches us to deny ungodliness to live godly, self-controlled, upright lives in this present age as we wait with anticipation for His Return.

In God's wisdom, He has buried grace within our hearts, and certain life situations activate that grace and call it into action. It is because of our glorious past, what we entered into when we came into Christ, that gives us confidence and hope for glorious days ahead. I believe that is why at times we have a deja vu experience. Who we are known as in eternity breaks into our experience in time and testifies to His grace. We are living in time and eternity at the same time. Eternity is not something we are coming into, but something we have access to now. It is good to ask ourselves some questions. Who am I in eternity? When in time will that person be revealed as though I have always been that way? I had a friend tell me that once you have kids it is like you always had them. Memories before you had kids seem to include your kids after you had them. The eternal “us” is the mature accomplished us. If we could look back from our end to our beginning, we would see how God has set up our every step, because that is his perspective. I don't know how to end this, so I will leave here for your consideration...

mjh.

Pentecosts--david

He crowned the mountain with fire

With a never setting sun

and scribed stone with laws all angle and edge

that men and mankind would fear him and draw close

Did they know that when they in unlawful fashion forged His face in bronze and moses shattered the tablets against the hard rock of their hearts?

So, he set a flame on us. Crowned us with a fire, this second moses, descending from the mountains of High Heaven to give us law of livingbreathingflesh—growing—curved like the branches of a tree of Life once denied

That we would forge ourselves (even as he forges us) in his image

That men and mankind would fear him and draw close

An ever encircling, tightening embrace that no chisel could etch or sever

HS.

I was in a time of prayer with a close friend when I had a flash of a vision of a characteristic of who Holy Spirit is.

I saw Him sitting in a white, wicker chair with his back toward me. He had long brown hair and was wearing a white suit coat, white slacks, white shoes. The place was white and it was all very pure.

I knew that He was looking over the whole earth, although I couldn't see it. He was reclining in a relaxed fashion, legs crossed, left arm resting on the arm of the chair.

In a moment He shifted. His weight moved, He uncrossed and recrossed His legs and leaned over onto the right arm of the chair. And in that one confident, comfortable, simple move, the earth shook. Things were set right. Set in motion. Released.

Pure Simple Ultimate Powerful
He is beautiful.

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Psalm 68 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may his foes flee before him.
May you blow them away like smoke—
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
But may the righteous be glad
and rejoice before God may they be happy and joyful.

I am willing to bet this is a Psalm packed with prophetic declaration. Jesus is the God who has risen. Risen from the dead and risen from the earth and ascended above all powers and rulers and dominions. With the rising of the Lord, His enemies have been scattered. Death, sin, hell the devil have all been scattered forever. They will remain scattered forever because Jesus will always and forever be the risen Lord. That work will never ever be diminished or undone in effectiveness and power and importance. He will always be risen ascended even if he descended into the deepest parts of hell or the sea. His status of being risen and ascended always accompanies Him.

When you, God, went out before your people,
when you marched through the wilderness,
the earth shook, the heavens poured down rain,
before God, the One of Sinai,
before God, the God of Israel.
You gave abundant showers, O God;
you refreshed your weary inheritance.
Your people settled in it,
and from your bounty, God, you provided for the poor.

The earth shakes because an eternally risen Lord walks in the Land, even through his people. We don't just have the Lord living in us we have the Risen Lord extending His risen reign through us. Which means shock waves of His ascended reality radiates through the earth as his people move on the earth while embracing the result of Jesus' ascended work.

When you ascended on high,
you took many captives;
you received gifts from people,
even from the rebellious that you, LORD God, might dwell there.

This is where Paul gets this revelation for Ephesians 4 wisdom:

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned , this is why it says: “When he ascended on high,
he took many captives
and gave gifts to his people.”

What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The power and authority of Jesus' ascension scatters His enemies before our feet, because He enforces His risen status through a Church that embraces the result of His work.--gifts. When we embrace and value apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, pastoral, and teaching gifts, our enemies which are His enemies scatter. I will give you every place where you set your foot. He has risen! His enemies are scattered!

m.