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Jump In!

7/18/2018

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My daughter and I are enjoying the swimming pool this summer. It’s funny because even on cloudy days we will drop whatever we are doing, as soon as we see a break in the clouds to go jump in the pool. I noticed today when my daughter jumped in the pool that she said: “I jump into the water of your Spirit”. When coming up out of the water she said: “I am submerged by your Spirit”.  She continued to do this over and over again for about 45 minutes. I thought to myself what a beautiful reminder of how we should have fun and never tire of jumping into His Spirit and being submerged.
The after effects of jumping into His Spirit lasts much longer than the act of jumping itself. Galatians 5:22-23 tells us that there is fruit that comes from the Spirit and there is no doubt if we spend time splashing around, jumping into His Spirit there will be fruit that will be produced. Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

I wonder if we would spend 45 min just “jumping in His Spirit”, how much fruit it would produce? How long would stress overtake us before peace became our reality? How long till joy would overflow us? Would we learn that in order to endure (longsuffer) we must find our strength in trusting him and His love for us? We truly have nothing to fear because His love casts out all fear. We don’t always call fear what it is, we call it worry, stress and anxiety but all these things can be wrapped up in one word, fear. Fear is a natural response to life’s challenges but If only we would splash into His Spirit, maybe we would respond differently. Maybe our response would be one not of the natural but one that comes from being in His presence and resting in His love. Maybe we would see the Word of God come alive in our lives and experience through it all a peace that just doesn’t make sense.  Philippians 4:7 7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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 Imagine if we were constantly, no matter what we faced, what life threw at us, the good and the bad, if we would consistently jump into His Spirit, then we could and would handle things from a different perspective. A perspective of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance.  A “Spirit” kind of perspective. No wonder the Lord told John “come up here” in a sense God was telling John, come see things from my perspective. Come see from the Spirit what things really look like. When we see things from the realm of His Spirit, impossible things look so small, so easy. The joyous things become even more joyous and we experience peace upon peace and grace upon grace and joy upon joy. All the things that worry and stress us seem to fade in the light of His glorious face. May we always remember that Psalms 34:19 tells us that “many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers them out of them all”.Isaiah 12:2-3 2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
If we have lived long enough and have been able to keep any form of sanity, then we have learned to run to the Spirit or run to His presence. Life gets hard but we must remember that God wants us to run to him in good times too. He wants us to have fun with Him. How long has it been since you had fun with the Lord? How long has it been since you enjoyed His company? He is our friend and He loves us so much and He longs to have real relationship with us. He wants us to run to Him in bad times but He also wants us to remember He is a friend that wants to share in the joys of our life also.

My daughter thoroughly enjoyed jumping in the pool and the pure excitement as she jumped and said: “I jump into your Spirit” was contagious. I quickly joined in and we laughed and splashed around enjoying the water, each other and His presence. I noticed my daughter was just having fun, she wasn’t depressed. For her, there was nothing to worry about except having fun jumping in His Spirit. All I could do was thank her for reminding me that sometimes, we just have to have fun and enjoy God. Romans 14:17 tells us that there is righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. My thought for today is what can I do to enjoy God and give Him pleasure today? What good things can I share with Him today? After all, I am quick to run to Him when trouble is around the corner. Today I want to enjoy my friendship, my relationship with Him. My desire is what can I do to make Him smile today? Life is hard and there are always obstacles, issues, problems, and circumstances but my hope is that as you read this it will act as a reminder for you to look for opportunities to have fun with Him, enjoy Him and enjoy His company. 
2 Comments

Put A Demand On It!

7/3/2018

6 Comments

 

I recently heard a minister say “put a demand on your tears”. Have you ever felt the more you cry, the more you cry, the more hurt you feel, the more hurt you feel, the more abandoned you feel, the more abandoned you feel, the more rejected you feel, the more rejected you feel?  The list can go on and on, you can fill in the blanks with your “tears” or area of discomfort.

The word tells us that Proverbs 23:7 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:... We make statements like “my heart is broken, you broke my heart, that did my heart good, that blessed my heart” because we tend to associate deep emotional feelings with the heart.  No wonder Proverbs tells us that our of the heart flows the issues of life, it is true because it is the heart that is so effected by life’s experiences.
Proverbs 4: 23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

As long as we have dealings and relationships with people we will experience hurt and no doubt sometimes that hurt will make you cry but like the minister said “put a demand on your tears” put a demand on your hurt,  your abandonment, your rejection, your pain. Put a demand on it! What does that mean? Every tear, ever sting of pain, every time the memory of all the hurt, the pain the rejection, the abandonment rises up within you put a demand on it. I will make it through this! All things are working for my good! My pain will not have the victory over me! I will come out stronger and better! I will not be defeated by rejection, abandonment, pain. PUT A DEMAND ON IT!

Let us not forget that we cannot continuously ponder/focus on and/or revisit the memory of the past hurts because this is how the issues flow from your heart and effect every aspect of your life. If your past hurt, pain, and abandonment are at the forefront of your memory, every relationship you have will be affected. You will look for everyone to hurt you, abandon, or reject you. You may even subconsciously try to get people to reject you, abandon you by creating issues or problems. Maybe you will even test your friends and family by saying hurtful things, starting arguments, doing things to try and get them to abandon, hurt or reject you.. It’s called self-sabotage and creating your experience of  “everyone hates me, everyone hurts me, everyone rejects me”.  Many times this is done from the subconscious level of your mind but it validates the mindset of rejection, abandonment, pain and hurt. Sometimes we create situations that confirm what we believe about ourselves. We may not even realize that we are purposely doing these things to justify what we think based on some past hurt of experience.  Lets put a demand on our past pain and decree that "NOT ANOTHER DAY WILL I CONSCIOUSLY OR UNCONSCIOUSLY  CREATE A CYCLE OF PAIN! TODAY I FORGET THOSE THINGS BEHIND ME AND I PRESS TOWARDS HIS CALLING TO BE HEALED AND FREE . I WILL NOT SABOTAGE MY RELATIONSHIPS! TODAY I HAVE A MIND SHIFT! I AM FREE AND I ACCEPT THE FREEDOM THAT IS ALREADY MINE BECAUSE JESUS HAS ALREADY MADE IT AVAILABLE FOR ME. I RECEIVE IT"!
 
 I love how Apostle Paul shared with us Philippians 3:13-14 13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul was saying, I don’t know everything but I have got this one thing down, forgetting the things of the past, forgetting all the past hurts, past rejections, past abandonment to the point that nothing will stop me from pressing towards what God has for me.  He understood that focusing on his past issues, pain abandonment, and rejection could and would hinder and delay what God had for him.
 
Put demand on your tears, your pain, your abandonment, rejection …your hurt. Demand that it make you stronger, take you deeper in Christ than you have ever been, demand that instead of hindering you, it will cause you to be even more focused on all God has for you and the next time someone abandons you, rejects you, hurts you or causes you any kind of pain, don’t revisit the pains in the past by saying things like “ well, what am I to expect, this always happens”. Instead look at it as what it is, you got hurt this time, the last time you got hurt has nothing to do with this time unless you “THINK” it does. Imagine this, you’re a kid and you are riding your bike and fall and hurt your knee, 5 years later the same kid (now prob a teen) was running and fell and hurt their elbow and the teen said, “this happened because 5 years ago I was riding my bike and hurt my knee”. Do you see it? This is how we do with past hurts, rejection and pain.

That scenario may seem silly and that is my point. Let’s stop being silly and allow the finished works of Jesus to be at work in our mind, hearts and therefore in our lives. Let’s put a demand on our tears our pain, our rejection and that all things, the good and the bad can work for our good if only we will allow the word of God to work for us. The word works but you gotta work the word!
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Romans 8: 28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

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    I have always enjoyed writing but am new to blogging. It is my hopes that as I share my thoughts and or devotion through this blog that you will be blessed and highly uplifted. May something I say help draw you closer into a deeper relationship with Christ.
    ​-Lydia Chapman Blair

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