What Does It Mean To Be IN CHRIST?

I have a Rat-Terrier, Coco, who’s in her later stages of life. She can’t see nor hear very well and she’s most at peace when resting nearby me.   This morning, the continual pacing of her clickity-clack nails on our hardwood floor alerted me that Coco wasn’t quite at ease and needed something. I remembered we had moved some furniture around and her doggie bed was across the room in an unfamiliar place and too far away from me where she wanted to be. As soon as I repositioned her bed a few feet away from me, she instantly snuggled in and soon was resting peacefully again.   We too need a place to snuggle in or we will continue pacing and wondering why we can’t be at peace and finding rest. Jesus is God’s answer. It’s called being IN Christ.   It is because of God that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God— that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.             1 Corinthians 1:30 (NIV)   We find our peace by curling up in the security of Jesus’ embrace. We belong to him and nothing can change that. In this place, any anxiety of not being enough fades away. Our regrets from the past and our future tripping fears take a back seat to enjoying Jesus in this present moment. Securely in Christ, we are positioned in the loving gaze of our heavenly Father who takes care of every need that we have.   Today, I pray for you a rest from any anxious pacing and the grace to rest in the loving embrace of your Savior Jesus. In Christ is where you were always designed to be!   With Love,                Pastor Brent

Locked Gaze

I’ve been RE-captured by the concept of the locked gaze with Jesus.  I say "RE"-captured because it seems that as life shifts and business comes, or we’re sideswiped or distracted, it’s easy to let the eyes drift away.  But Holy Spirit is so gracious to bring reminders, such as this; “Keep your eyes focused on His eyes.  Stay in that place of being captured, right there at His feet.” Mary was very blessed to have Jesus manifest right in front of her.  Can you imagine the man, Jesus in your house for you to look right into those eyes and listen to pure love spill out in His words?  Martha, (as Luke 10:41 tells us), had so many things occupying her thoughts and causing worry.  She couldn’t see that there was a much more meaningful way to spend her time than making sure everything was tidy.  It blinded her so much that she considered Mary’s “gazing” as laziness. Now we are here in our day to day where we we still have Jesus, but we can’t physically touch Him or see Him, for now. Yet there’s still an invitation to stay in a position before our burning (with love) Savior, locking eyes with Him. How can we do that now? We have the Word, which is living and true. His Word describes Jesus  in various ways.  With intentionality we can collect the passage that tell of His beauty, His love, His eyes and His message (which is shown in HIs eyes). Meditate on the Word. We have our quiet time behind closed doors.  Let’s not bring our huge “to do list” there, but choose to be.  We can be the one He loves and sit there in that place of truth and let that truth make our eyes more open. We have worship, where we tell Him (or sing to Him) the things we know about Him and recall what He’s done. It causes Him to be enthroned right there and our eyes become clearer and clearer to His beauty, majesty and love. We also have other people. Yes it’s true.  When we love or allow ourselves to be loved...when we serve with His heart…there’s a gaze into Jesus’s eyes right there.  One of my very favorite parts of Les Misérables is in the epilogue when Jean Valjean is passing from this life to heaven and the priest sings the line “To love another person is to see the face of God.” That moment makes me cry heavily every time because of the truth in it. Friends, no matter what comes and tries to rip us away from keeping our gazed locked with His, even if it’s friend’s not understanding it, let’s just keep it locked.  His eyes hold the truth about everything…about them, about you, about answers to every question and a billion other facets of truth. We will be transformed. We will have less and less reason to live in strife and self hatred. Open the windows to pure love!                   Love, Todd

The Master Gardener

The Lord showed me that revival was about the seed in the ground that was only soil before without any life in it. He has prepared the right soil with the right nutrients as a Master Gardener. When we see the flowers and all the life, we have called that revival and many have wanted the instant appearing of flowers – the joy, the dancing, the healings, the salvations etc. Revival is about life starting where there was no life. It starts with a dormant period that prepares the seed to begin to emerge. This does not diminish the fact that the soil is now alive with new life. Our hearts are now alive with new purpose that will emerge for sure. It’s a process and what it looks like today will not look like it will in the next season. Anxious to see if my Peruvian daffodil bulbs were ever going to come up, I dug through the soil and found them alive beginning to send up shoots. They take many weeks in the ground before they will come up. The dormancy period is vital to jump start them to release growth hormones. (The meaning of the word “vital”: of or manifesting life, from Latin vitalis “of or belonging to life,” from vita “life,” related to vivere “to live”.) Dormancy is a vital part of the process of revival and yet we are feeling the stirrings of greater glories ahead because the spiritual growth hormones are flowing. This last season is an unexpected glory of a providential deconstruction, as it were. It has been the breaking up of the soil—all the church stuff we did and the trappings that go with it and various distractions from our different walks of life. We have been plunged into vital dormancy. It has been a time of bringing us face to face, one-on-one with Him. It has been a time rediscovering our love relationship with Him. It has been a time of dealing with our stuff or discovering we had stuff to work out before His loving Presence. Currently, I’m hesitant to emerge since I have many internal things to resolve. In time we will resolve all that is required by Him for our lives in this season and then flowering time. Like Spring that emerges gradually, so too will revival morph from us being vitally dormant to us being revealed in full bloom with His purposes for an amazing future just down the road. He reminds us that everyone will be very anointed. We won’t have to go to big events far away to receive because each of us will be flowing with His Presence. We will be portals of His Kingdom for each other. We will activate those around us to be the same. Love, Bill This article is a prophetic word from Bill Hernandez. If you would like to read more of these highly encouraging words rooted in the heart of God, go to www.whisperoflove.org