Restoring Vision

Not long ago I started to recognize I was losing focus and a sense of direction. I felt like I was going through the motions. I couldn't quite put my finger on what the problem was. I was journaling and processing with God, but felt pretty stuck. Then I saw something in a movie, a biography about a woman who herself was doing a lot of "processing with God" and a truth about God's heart jumped out at me. I was focused on getting a specific answer when He was wanting me to gain a greater understanding of His heart for me.  The message to me was that when things start going sideways in my life, it's time to remember who I am and what I'm alive for. I looked back over my journals and recalled the important prophetic words over my life. I started to agree with what God said about me, even if I couldn't see it fully yet. I focused on the primary calling in my life, and heard Jesus as He validated that call. I sat with Him, simply experiencing Him enjoying me, as I enjoyed Him. As I started to re-focus on "the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 3:14), His beauty and His goodness regained pre-eminence. That sense of wonder and awe at His kindness and relentless, attentive love, softened my heart and restored the confidence of His favor that ever shines on my life. God created us to seek a sense of purpose and direction. The need for a sense of reward and wellbeing is engrained in the very neurobiology of our brain. So if we aren't finding satisfaction in our lives, it can be tempting to seek out something, whether it's a substance or an activity, to help fill that void. These things aren't always bad, in and of themselves, but can quickly become recurring habits or addictions that drain the vitality of our lives and keep us from God's best. Our need for a reward is not the problem, but the way to seek to get that need met is. God has a better plan for each of us! He is calling us to sit with Him to learn, just as He spoke to Abraham, that He is our exceedingly great reward. The more we live in that reality, seeing Him in everything we do, the more satisfied we will be in life, in both the big things and the little things. I bless you with fresh vision and a renewed sense of purpose in your life. That you may recognize how He is growing you in the experiential knowledge of the height, the depth, the width and the length of His love in you. God is doing a work right now to establish the reality of our union with Him as never before! With love on this journey with you,                                                         Susan

The Bigger Picture

Anxiously awaiting great moves of the Holy Spirit gripping every part of the globe, many of us are feeling largely like we are in limbo. Life as we once knew it a few months ago before the coronavirus outbreak has been severely disrupted, plowed over by circumstances beyond our control. This has been very trying universally and globally across every nation. In the midst of this, the Lord has been speaking to His people. The world is in His hands and He just recently showed me that He will turn the affects of the virus around for good. There is hope ahead and a way out of this into something far better than where we were before. The virus has an expiration date and when time is up, it will be time for an amazing future to unfold with unexpected victories. During this time the Lord has been showing me how very important it is to engage Him in relationship in the deepest, honest and intimate ways. He’s calling on us to be proactive and to prepare ourselves. This is the time to load up on things from His storehouse for the world; things like compassion, mercy, miracles, healings, hope, restoration, love, joy, peace, wisdom and divine objectivity. We are being imbued with all of these and more everyday while we engage Him and acknowledge His friendship and tenderness. He shows Himself most tender and loving the more honest we are with everything. He is teaching us deep, tender love in the midst of our  drawing close to Him. The postman goes to the post office depot first to get the mail and packages to be delivered. Just so, we postmen and postwomen are being called to the depot (our relationship with Him) to get all the goodies we are going to bestow upon the world. We are at a purpose and destiny crossroad. He showed me that we are being prepared as a massive army of light to assault the forces of darkness in the world. We are getting readied with weapons of love and compassion. Many of us are going to be called up to be captains, lieutenants and generals in this coming push back of the enemy. It’s going to look like a revival we never expected. Some parts of it will look like things we’ve seen in the past, but there are new experiences up ahead. He showed me people in the market place across the world will be experiencing His touch and coming to us for explanations. We are being prepared for an evangelism explosion like no other. This will be the answer of the Lord to a world ravaged by the virus and darkness. Stay in intimacy with Him. Welcome Him in all you do. Tell Him everything - every secret - every mistake - every desire - every joy - every little thing. He is the Great Psychiatrist for sure. He will embrace you with His warmth, tenderness, understanding, wisdom and insight. Nothing nor accusation can possibly separate us from such a bond of friendship. Such was the result of the blood Jesus poured out for us. Make intimacy a habit in every part of your day. We can focus on all the trauma going on around us if we want to. It’s a choice. That will only serve to exhaust and discourage you. I know it takes time to shift our attentions away from what appears to be an unrelenting catastrophe. Focus on the bigger picture and find peace and courage. He has won. We are His glorious army of light that He is perfecting. We get to bless the world with treasures from our storehouse of intimacy with Him and it’s going to be alright. The more we see Him, the more we become like Him to the world.

Ephesians 6:10-18  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Love, Bill

The Light That Leads Us Home

Recently a good friend of mine was praying for me. She (and Holy Spirit) acknowledged times in my life as a young teenager that I had to make some very difficult decisions without any guidance. These were painful and traumatic experiences. I didn’t know how to ask for help and I didn’t know who to ask even if I could. Since Todd and I have become foster parents, we’ve found many children and teens in the system have the same difficulty. They often feel they have to be overly responsible and have trouble acknowledging when they need help because they’ve become so accustomed to caring for themselves.  A few years ago, Jesus said to me, “I don’t only want to be your Savior. I want to be your King.” He wants to lead us. Our American culture often gives us the message that we need to be self sufficient and muscle our way through life. It requires a great deal of vulnerability to invite Jesus to lead. Control can appear more appealing than trust because it gives us a false illusion of protection, especially during these times of uncertainty. I’ve found that surrendering areas of my life and in my heart that still feel “in process” can be scary. But Jesus continually reminds me that my unanswered questions are just as important as the answers I’ve already been given. He wants to meet us in the middle of our stories, in the middle of our “messy” and guide us through.

“I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with my eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make me tug you and pull you along. Just come with me!” Psalm 32:8-9 (TPT)

“The government will rest on His shoulders. And He will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

When you know the true nature of Jesus, inviting Him to be your King is the safest place to be. For those who don’t know the goodness of who He is yet, there is an uncertainty about how He will use His power. In the earthly sense, we sometimes associate power with control or even abuse. But Jesus always uses His power to heal, to love and to make all things work together for our good. We may not fully understand His ways, but when we know His true nature, surrendering becomes much more inviting.  I pray that in the middle of uncertainty and unanswered questions, you would find Jesus lighting your path. I pray you would have courage to acknowledge any area that self sufficiency has taken the driver’s seat and allow Jesus to show you a different way. Your needs are valid. You don’t have to muster up strength and do life alone. Jesus is right there to guide you, to care for you, to lead you back home.  Love, Karena

Straight Ahead

Admittedly, I was such an Amy Grant fan back in the day. (still am, actually) Yes, I saw her in concert about seven times when I was a teen.  In 1984 she released an album called, “Straight Ahead”. That thing played on my record player and my cassette player, (That’s right boys and girls. I said cassette player), over and over and over again.  That whole album reached me deeply, but all the more so the title song.  Every time I heard it I committed my path to the Lord, again and again. “Straight ahead, I can see Your light. Straight ahead, through the dark. Straight ahead, there’s no left or right. Straight ahead to Your heart.” I just knew that nothing would ever make me look to the left or right…… ….But life has countless things to look at on the left and on the right.  In fact, there are voices on both sides, and behind, calling us over.  I’m convinced, now, that there are millions of distractions in this life, trying to steal away our time the the One Who Is, the One with all the right answers, the One Who loves us more than we love us. Social media has got us looking everywhere but up much of the time.  For me, it’s very disheartening to see Jesus followers bickering back and forth, looking over to the left to see what this one’s saying, looking over to the right to find more fault in what that one’s doing.  We’re looking toward media and what they are bringing us. We’re numbing out in various ways because all of this is so overwhelming. Yet, the Maker of the Universe is still ahead of the path we said we were going to take in the first place.  He’s got a big bucket of peace to pour over us.  He’s got the know how to navigate through everything. What if we all stopped looking at each other and started looking only at Him?  He is looking at all of us with perfect love, so when we look at Him, we’ll start seeing what He’s seeing. Part of that would be seeing each other rightly.  Also, strife would disintegrate. This has been on my heart so much that I’ve been thinking of writing about this for all of you this week.  Interestingly enough, (and not a coincidence), a dear friend messaged my wife and me this morning and said this: “I dreamed that I was in the middle of a search on the internet.  I wanted to get back to the original screen, so I kept pressing the left arrow over and over but I couldn’t find the screen I wanted. Then I heard a voice say, ‘You can’t go backward.  GO FORWARD.’ I woke up, and as soon as I opened my eyes, two Scriptures came to me in a flash":

I would say that God is confirming my writing this email today.  I believe He wants us to recommit to looking straight ahead toward Him. He’s there with a constant invitation to “Come up here. Come up now.” no matter how many times we wander. Praise God for His desire to see us live a better life!                                                                                                         Love, Todd

The Winds Of Change Are Here

As we’ve all been experiencing this time of extended uncertainty and upset, it’s also been a partial “break” from normal routines for many.  God has been inviting us to look with Him at hidden dynamics of our heart.  And at our cherished opinions and judgments towards others.  Has this been true for you?  It has for me.  For several years, many have had the sense God is fixin’ to move.   One of the key ways to prepare for this  -  is to let Holy Spirit “in” to the messy gardens of our heart.  I believe the fruit will be: Changed Hearts (sensitive to God’s heart, and to our neighbors instead of hearts of stone) New Wineskins for the new wine of the Holy Spirit New Freedom to trust God more fully, to live from God’s goodness rather than focussing on self-protection and self-survival During a recent phone conversation, Tim Vogel exclaimed to me “Winds of Change Are Here!”.  As Tim shared more, my spirit began to vibrate with Holy Spirit.  Below is part of what Tim later wrote out.  Tim is dad to 2 children, a practical businessman, and what I would call a “mystic” - a prophet.  He is humble, thoughtful, kind, and passionate for God’s beautiful will to be established on earth as it is in heaven. Warmly,            Pastor Russ Fochler

As I write this, I am at the beginning of an encounter with God and the fullness of what He wants to say hasn’t been revealed yet. The beginnings of the word started with the wind.  Followed by a stirring in my spirit for His arrival.  I feel like there was a shift in my own life today and I sensed something shift in Heaven’s realm as well.  I also sensed a divine push towards His will. The part of God that moves upon a nation, or a region.  I don’t know what the move is, but I know there was one.  God doesn’t give prophetic people all the information.  Sometimes He just says “I’m moving” and then it’s suddenly upon us. I was having a stressful day at work and was dealing with some emotional stuff.  The concoction of the two, made it difficult for me.  I pushed through it and went on a run.  I certainly didn’t break my previous day time record, but I went nonetheless.  As I was running I began to realize I was being carried.   Deep things began to open up in my heart.  Experience has taught me to give permission.  It’s fun if you do!   Yes to God, yes to His ministry, yes you can do whatever you wish, God. And thank you God.  I am always brought to tears by His tenderness as he meets with the emotional part of me.  That part has required a serious amount of time and love. He has been so faithful to my sprit.  He is truly “good”, “all the time”.  The Ancient of Days within my soul resonates as He meets my longing to be well of spirit.  Thank you God for meeting me today!  Your confidence is better than any amount of worldly power.   As God began to meet with my heart and help me work through some junk, I experienced a dramatic shift in my sprit.  The old was gone and replaced with new.  The new within me was revealed.  Scales left my eyes, heaviness lifted and I began to see clearly. The change was sudden.  The shift was quick.  Many times when I experience God in this manner I am also shifted into a different realm. Many of you are suffering with the scariness of the times we are living in.  You’re struggling with circumstantial stuff in your lives, maybe news has got you down, maybe something more difficult.  I want to remind you that we serve a huge God and he is all powerful, loving and fully capable of bringing to pass all the prophetic words you have been given.  Do not pay attention to what the world is telling you.  God is still working for your good!  God still loves you.  His justice is restoring every violation of love.  Disconnect from skewed and tainted information sources - and connect to the frequency of Heaven.   You will shift into heavenly realms and ride on the wind of the Holy Sprit.  Shift what you are listening to and connect with His Presence.  He has many things that He wants to tell you and it’s all different from what you’ve been listening to.                                                                                                                Love, Tim