Poem

This is a poem from the pages of my journal written from the perspective of the lies/accusations of my enemy vs. the Truth from my Creator.

Format:
1st line = enemy
2nd line = Truth


Enjoy. :) Hopefully you can relate to one or more of these and recognize the lie and replace it with the truth next time you hear it echoing around in the back of your mind. I've found that you can't get rid of lies by mere recognition, but you have to REPLACE it with dwelling on the Truth and the Author of Truth. Be encouraged! Truth CAN be known. :)


"You'll never be good enough!" My enemy chants,
"You're my chosen one." My Love says with one glance.

"You can't do this, you are crazy!"
"My ways are not your ways, my sweet little daisy."

"You don't have the strength, You can't make it through!"
"Your heart is resilient, I would know - I MADE YOU."

"You think you will make it? Ha. See and you'll fail."
"My strength in your weakness will surely prevail."

"Don't dream anymore, get realistic. Be real."
"Behave like my daughter, you are marked by my seal."

"He won't come through - take control, it's right!"
"Those who act like little children -- Precious in my sight."

"Don't believe Him - Look at what it might cost you!"
"No where will I lead where I won't carry you through."

Grace - Cooke

Grace

Grace is a weapon of mass destruction. It will overthrow every negative. It neutralizes everything contrary to God’s nature by being the revelation of that nature. Grace is always firmly placed next to any sin or error. Where sin abounds grace shows up much more powerfully (Romans 5:20). Grace is God’s abundance in the place of man’s deficiency. Grace is the foundation for confidence in God. All growth is built on grace. It gives people a place to stand in favor. Whilst they are learning to be Christ-like, God does not punish for mistakes. He provides for them. It is a huge adjustment to move from sinful man to beloved son.

The journey into being made in His image would be terrible were it not for grace. At all times people would be beset by fear, anxiety and doubt about their performance as a believer. Man can never be good enough by his own efforts. Without grace they would be enslaved to a religious spirit and at the mercy of doubt. Grace is the enjoyment of God that empowers people to love the learning in the freedom He supplies. Grace makes love, mercy and truth accessible in a way that elevates people without downgrading them first.

you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord

“See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon for its work. And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord….“ – Is. 54:16-17

THE WORD OF THE LORD GIVEN TO ME IN OCTOBER 1990

A. In October 1990, while on a 30 day ministry trip to the UK, the Lord spoke to me. He said that He was establishing an “international family of affection” in preparation for His End-Time purposes. He would bring strategic shifts and re-alignments of ministries and people. I believe that as we grow many shifts will come in the IHOP structure and teams. We must respond in faith instead of fear and rejection when the Lord makes shifts.

B. The Lord spoke to me about this in a trance in Cardiff, Wales on Oct. 5, 1990, at 4 AM. Jesus said, "No one with a control spirit can fully experience My Kingdom.”

C. The Holy Spirit told me a control spirit consists of having a spirit of possessiveness and being entrenched in religious opinions against other ministries. (It is more than being pushy or nosy).

D. Jesus continued to look into my eyes and said, "All personal rights must be relinquished."

E. The Holy Spirit then gave me Ps. 24:1 and Rev. 4:10 saying, "The Father’s will is central in His Kingdom. The earth belongs to the Lord. All must cast their crowns down before Him."

1 The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness…and those who dwell therein. (Ps. 24:1) 10 The 24 fall down before Him…and cast their crowns before the Throne, saying: 11 "You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power..." (Rev. 4:10-11)

F. We naturally make decisions that give us an advantage over others. We must seek to always take an extra step in the decision making process to specifically ask the Holy Spirit what He wants.

G. The Lord told me to say these things. I argued saying that I should not say these things because I was in the midst of a controversy. The Spirit said, "I have a controversy with My people.

H. After the trance lifted, God’s power came on me violently for about 15 seconds. The Spirit impressed me saying, "I will release My power to establish this truth. Some will experience small measures of My power without embracing this. No one will experience the fullness of the power I want to release if they have a control spirit."

It is easy to pass judgments based on outward appearances. It is easy to judge other ministries or the decisions some make to move to another city or change teams, etc. We must ask God for discernment so that we see people and their ministry assignments through His eyes. We must not base all our opinions by what we see and hear with our physical eyes and ears.

16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. (2 Cor. 5:16)

B. If we had all the available information about what God has called one of our co-workers to and why, we would still have less than 1% of the information that God has about His purposes and strategies in calling a person to do a certain thing.

C. Jesus made judgments (evaluations) by discernment not by what seemed obvious in the natural.

3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, nor decide by the hearing of His ears. (Isa. 11:3)

DIFFERENT TRIBES IN THE BODY OF CHRIST: STRATEGIC RE-ALIGNMENTS

A. The Holy Spirit gave me a picture of the nation of Israel being established in 12 distinct tribes. Each tribe was given a different assignment that involved much diversity. However, they were called to be unified in war and worship.

In a similar way, the Body of Christ is composed of different tribes that each have different mandates and assignments from God. The diverse mandates in the Body are not the cause of division. It is the attitude in which we hold our mandate and resources and how we view others.

C. Unity does not require the removal of the distinctions of the tribes in the Body of Christ, but an attitude of blessing, generosity and release that celebrates who others are in God’s eyes.

The principle of our inheritance: we have an eternal inheritance in every person, city orministry that we sowed into with love (time, labor, intercession, money, tears, encouragement,etc.). We do not lose our inheritance when we have a wrong spirit, but we lose the joy of it.

38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and

running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. (Lk. 6:38)

B. The Lord is orchestrating strategic shifts and re-alignments of ministries and people. If we bless and celebrate people going to other ministries or cities (or departments or worship teams at IHOP), then we have joy and an increased inheritance (for both parties). If we resist the shifts, then we lose the joy and suffer with unnecessary strife and wounded relationships.

Those who walk in a Kingdom spirit do not lose people but gain friendships and Kingdom alliances. Instead of losing spiritual sons and daughters, they gain spiritual families and a spiritual inheritance in different cities and nations.

E. Without blessing and joy in the relationship we cannot see how God sees the other person.

F. We naturally seek to protect our honor, money and influence. A spirit of self protectiveness creates anxiety and division and much unnecessary pain. Unity occurs when we approach relationships with a free spirit that can ask for God’s will regardless of what it costs.

The Purpose of his Will - that we might be for the Praise of His Glory

In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, ¹² in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
eph 1:11-12

"Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing you praise

Your light will shine when all else fades, never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame

In my heart and my soul
Lord I give you control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise become my embrace
To love you from the inside out"

Ever Devoted

I'm so tired of chasing worthless things
Seems they never satisfy
So disappointed, groping for more
I'm left more empty than before
I'm crying out to be more intimate
To walk more deeply with my Lord
Whatever's standing in the way
Isn't worth it anymore!

There's no other way
I want to live my life
Than to live it
Devoted to the Lord
To belong to Him
Faithful to the end
Ever devoted
Devoted to the Lord

I'm through demanding all my problems to be solved
Insist God meet my every need
I've got to die to my selfish ways
Lay myself down at His feet

There's no other way
I want to live my life
Than to live it
Devoted to the Lord
To belong to Him
Faithful to the end
Ever devoted
Devoted to the Lord

Worship

The Lord is speaking to me a lot tonight about a restoration and renewal in community with a rededication of the Temple in WORSHIP. 1 Chron 29-30

Bring it Lord, New beginnings, purifying the Levites and the worship leaders and a renewal.


Worship is the submission of all of our nature to God.

It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness, nourishment of mind by His truth, purifying of imagination by His beauty, opening of the heart to His love, and submission of will to His purpose.

And all this gathered up in adoration is the greatest of human expressions of which we are capable.

I rejoice when the Lord is worshiped wholeheartedly.

I give priority to the public worship of the Lord through music.

I am careful to keep my life pure and available for the Lord's use at any time.

New beginnings!

Purify and rededicate the Temple.

I respond quickly to the call to serve the Lord and lead his people in worship.

I come with other leaders to repent and worship before the Lord.

I ask the Lord to forgive the sins of my nation.

Being radical means going back to the root

I encourage the leaders of God's people to purify their lives for worship and service.

I openly admit the sins of my family and forefathers.

1 Chron 29

My sons, do not neglect your duties any longer! The Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him, and to lead the people in worship and present offerings to him.”

These men called together their fellow Levites, and they all purified themselves. Then they began to cleanse the Temple of the Lord, just as the king had commanded. They were careful to follow all the Lord’s instructions in their work. ¹⁶ The priests went into the sanctuary of the Temple of the Lord to cleanse it, and they took out to the Temple courtyard all the defiled things they found. From there the Levites carted it all out to the Kidron Valley.

¹⁷ They began the work in early spring, on the first day of the new year,^[a] and in eight days they had reached the entry room of the Lord’s Temple. Then they purified the Temple of the Lord itself, which took another eight days. So the entire task was completed in sixteen days.

The Temple Rededication

¹⁸ Then the Levites went to King Hezekiah and gave him this report: “We have cleansed the entire Temple of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering with all its utensils, and the table of the Bread of the Presence with all its utensils. ¹⁹ We have also recovered all the items discarded by King Ahaz when he was unfaithful and closed the Temple. They are now in front of the altar of the Lord, purified and ready for use.”

King Hezekiah then stationed the Levites at the Temple of the Lord with cymbals, lyres, and harps. He obeyed all the commands that the Lord had given to King David through Gad, the king’s seer, and the prophet Nathan. ²⁶ The Levites then took their positions around the Temple with the instruments of David, and the priests took their positions with the trumpets.

²⁷ Then Hezekiah ordered that the burnt offering be placed on the altar. As the burnt offering was presented, songs of praise to the Lord were begun, accompanied by the trumpets and other instruments of David, the former king of Israel. ²⁸ The entire assembly worshiped the Lord as the singers sang and the trumpets blew, until all the burnt offerings were finished. ²⁹ Then the king and everyone with him bowed down in worship. ³⁰ King Hezekiah and the officials ordered the Levites to praise the Lord with the psalms written by David and by Asaph the seer. So they offered joyous praise and bowed down in worship.

³¹ Then Hezekiah declared, “Now that you have consecrated yourselves to the Lord, bring your sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings to the Temple of the Lord.” So the people brought their sacrifices and thanksgiving offerings, and all whose hearts were willing brought burnt offerings, too. ³² The people brought to the Lord 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 male lambs for burnt offerings. ³³ They also brought 600 cattle and 3,000 sheep and goats as sacred offerings.

³⁴ But there were too few priests to prepare all the burnt offerings. So their relatives the Levites helped them until the work was finished and more priests had been purified, for the Levites had been more conscientious about purifying themselves than the priests had been. ³⁵ There was an abundance of burnt offerings, along with the usual liquid offerings, and a great deal of fat from the many peace offerings.

So the Temple of the Lord was restored to service. ³⁶ And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for everything had been accomplished so quickly.

1 Chron 30

Do not be stubborn, as they were, but submit yourselves to the Lord. Come to his Temple, which he has set apart as holy forever. Worship the Lord your God so that his fierce anger will turn away from you.
⁹ “For if you return to the Lord, your relatives and your children will be treated mercifully by their captors, and they will be able to return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful. If you return to him, he will not continue to turn his face from you.”

The two words, spirit and truth, correspond to the how and the whom of worship. Worshiping in spirit is the opposite of worshiping in mere external ways. It's the opposite of formalism and traditionalism. Worshiping in truth is the opposite of worship based on an inadequate view of God. Together the words "spirit and truth" mean that real worship comes from the spirit within and is based on true views of God. Worship must have heart and worship must have head. Worship must engage your emotions and worship must engage your thought. Truth without emotion produces dead orthodoxy and a church full of unspiritual fighters. Emotion without truth produces empty frenzy and cultivates flaky people who reject the discipline of rigorous thought. True worship comes from people who are deeply emotional and who love deep and sound doctrine.

The fuel of worship is the truth of a gracious, sovereign God; the furnace of worship is your spirit; and the heat of worship is the vital affections of reverence, fear, adoration, contrition, trust, joy, gratitude, and hope.

But something is missing from that analogy, namely, fire. The fuel of truth in the furnace of your spirit does not automatically produce the heat of worship. There has to be fire, which I think is the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus says in v. 23, "True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth," some take him to mean "in the Holy Spirit." I've taken him to mean that worship must come from your spirit within, instead of being merely formal and external. But in John 3:6 Jesus connects God's Spirit and our spirit in a remarkable way. He says, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." In other words, until the Holy Spirit touches our spirit with the flame of life, our spirit is so dead it does not even qualify as spirit. Only that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So when Jesus says that true worshipers worship in spirit, he must mean that true worship only comes from spirits that are made alive and sensitive and vital by the touch of the Holy Spirit.

So now we can complete the analogy: the fuel of worship is the grand truth of a gracious and sovereign God; the fire that makes the fuel burn white hot is the quickening of the Holy Spirit; the furnace made alive and warm by the flame of truth is our renewed spirit; and the resulting heat of our affections is worship, pushing its way out in tears, confessions, prayers, praises, acclamations, lifting of hands, bowing low, and obedient lives. Notice verse 34. When his disciples come back with food, Jesus says, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." The work of God is to seek real worshipers. Jesus was sent to accomplish this work. Therefore we should see the whole interchange with the Samaritan woman as the work of God in Jesus seeking a real worshiper. In verse 35 Jesus applies his example to us, "Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest? I tell you, lift up your eyes and see how the fields are already white for harvest." There is a white harvest of harlots in Samaria. I have just made one into a real worshiper. That's why the Father sent me; so send I you. God seeks people to worship him in spirit and truth. Here comes the city of Sychar white unto harvest. If you love the glory of God, make ready to reap.