God's Perfect Plan

When I was a little kid we used to sing this song at church, "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you!"  My grandpa would sing it. My parents would sing it at home.  One day young Toddy, (who was the quiet and often teased kid at school), was having a particularly bad day.  Last picked on the baseball team and not wanting to play in the first place, I was outfield, hoping the ball wouldn’t come my way. Kids were not very kind about my inability to be “sporty”.  In the midst of some high anxiety, the words of that often-sung song began to go through my head, then my heart.  I was able to recall some things God had done for me and such. Within a couple of minutes I felt like I had a secret little world of my own going on that nobody around me knew of and I felt safe there. God always knows what He’s talking about. He gave us certain guidelines to live the most successful life by. Now it’s up to us to apply them. Check out what He put here in 1 Thessalonians 5:16 - 18: “Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.” Next time something stressful is going on, try turning your thoughts into gratitude. And if, in the moment, you’re having trouble thinking of something, just ask Holy Spirit to help you out. He remembers the whole inventory of goodness in your life. Bless ya’ll and have a great Thanksgiving! Love, Todd

His Eternal Love Reached Into The Future

Todd and I recently had another foster teen placed in our care. One thing that often comes up when we get a new teen is their need to have things happen immediately, whether it’s signing up for extracurricular activities, purchasing things, going places. There’s typically a feeling that if it doesn’t happen instantly, it may not ever happen because many kids have experienced so much disappointment, constant change and instability. It’s difficult to visualize a tomorrow.   For so many, this pervading thought was brought on as we watched the world sit in a lot of uncertainty for the last year and a half. I can see in my own life where I’ve allowed worry and fear to disrupt my hopes for the future. Surrender has become a daily practice as I choose to trust Jesus with my life and with the world around me. I came across Romans 8:28-29 in the Voice translation the other day and it really resonated with me:  “We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love him and accept his invitation to live according to his plan. From the distant past, HIS ETERNAL LOVE REACHED INTO THE FUTURE.”   It’s so comforting to know that God, who is not bound by time, has already been in our future, making a way for us. When Jesus went to the cross, his blood poured out, covering our past, our present and future. His eternal love goes before us, into our tomorrow, guaranteeing that we don’t have to live a day without his presence meeting us there.   I want to encourage you to take some time and ask Jesus, “What does your eternal love in my future look like? What truth do you want me to know about it?”   Worry and fear begin to lose their power when we know Jesus is with us and has gone before us. I pray he fills your heart with new hope today.   Love, Karena

Preparing for the Newborns

I had a vision of parents who were preparing for the arrival of a baby where the mother was gathering baby clothes and blankets while the dad made a cradle. The Lord showed me that we are mothers and fathers being prepared not for just one baby, but a huge harvest of babies. He showed me that He was like a squirrel storing up acorns, storing up in our hearts His goodness for the newborns to come. In this season He has been digging deep into our lives bringing light into every corner and encouraging us to let Him into every nook and cranny of our hearts. By doing so He has demonstrated His joyous love for us. Our hearts as a result have become His storehouses of love, acceptance, friendship, honor, compassion, truth, holiness, safety, healing, patience, joy, respect and many other things that define a passionate, caring devotion toward each other. These are things that we will be giving the hungry newborns. The purpose for this season is to let Him revive, renew and transform our inner man/woman because the coming generation of new believers will learn by our example, by the love He demonstrates to us. We will be disciplers and point the way. They will be a thirsty generation like a deer that is satisfied with the water of His presence and will be characterized by their deep, holy worship and falling down before Him. They will be a generation so focused and caught up with Him. They along with us will be a great light in the dark times to come. There will be a clear distinction between them that walk with Him and them that don’t. It will be clear what is His love in us and what is not love. I saw in a vision the whole land shaking like in an earthquake and saw that the whole earth was shaking. More shaking is coming and them that have faith and hope will ride the storm. Them that cling to Him will get through it.

Meeting God Outside Of Our Boxes

If you were raised and brought up in this world, then you were raised under the standard of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We were brought up to learn how to handle and cope with the adversities of life on our own, independent of God. In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve lived completely dependent on God until the fall when they ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Their temptation was to gain knowledge, ability, and discernment of good and evil independent of God. In other words, being able to know and do things without needing God.  If we are real with ourselves, in many places in our lives this is the norm. As a result, there are many times in life when we feel like we can’t hear God or He doesn’t seem to be present during difficult times or struggles. Many times, our default is to try to handle it on our own.  These times can seem like the most difficult times to connect with God. This is because all the insecurity and pain in us is looking for a place to land that seems safe. This safe space or box that we construct creates walls and barriers to protect us to prevent anything we deem “unsafe” at the time from coming into our life.   When our insecurities are triggered, much of the time we switch to defense mode and need things to look and happen a certain way to feel safe. When God doesn’t meet us within these constraints, it can feel like God has abandoned us or isn’t present. We often don’t realize that our constraints require God to look and feel a certain way in order for it to feel safe for us to meet with Him. While many times God will meet us in this space/box because He loves us, there comes a point in your relationship with God where He will no longer allow you to constrain Him into your box. God wants to show up in your life completely Himself, without your constraints. God wants us to get to know who He really is, not who we want Him to be.   For us to truly know who God is, we need to come to a point in our relationship with Him where we allow Him to set the conditions of how He meets with us. When we get triggered by something, we will find that God is waiting for us with His hand outstretched to us, just outside of our safety box. As we choose to trust Him and take that small step outside of our box, we find out that He was always close and has never left us. He has always been there waiting to fill us with the peace our hearts have been longing for. As we encounter Him more and more, we find ourselves getting further and further away from our box until we can’t even see the box anymore. The more we run to and encounter Jesus as our comforter and our defender, our own protection mechanisms start to feel largely inadequate, causing us to naturally surrender these things to Him more and more. An important thing to remember is that Jesus is the One who does the work, for He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).   As we surrender more of our independent thinking and actions to Jesus and begin including Him in all of our ways (Proverbs 3:5-6), we find ourselves naturally surrendering and trusting Him with our needs just like Mary of Bethany (in Matthew 26:6-13). Fully aware that her own protection mechanisms have failed her, she lays herself and her needs bare before Jesus, and in response, Jesus becomes vulnerable to her about His needs. She was the only one in that dining room with whom He shared the gruesome death He was about to experience. In response, she poured out her most expensive perfume, worth a year’s wages, all over Him as an act of love and adoration towards Him.     When we are real with Jesus, He shares who He really is with us.

An Atmospheric River of God's Spirit!

Last week, the Bay Area and surrounding states experienced a rare phenomenon: an atmospheric river flowed over us and released a deluge of water. Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – carrying an amount of water vapor roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Woah!     What made last week even more rare is that it was accompanied by extraordinarily high winds because of a what’s known as a bomb cyclone, also called bombogenesis, where a cyclone up in the sky becomes intense very quickly.   God often uses natural phenomenon to let us know what is coming in the spiritual: “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual.” 1 Cor 15:46 (TLV) There’s a reason God has been helping us to align our hearts with his true heart of love, teaching us to eat of the Tree of Life, His very Spirit, and leading us to repent (i.e. turn from our own perceptions and think like him) from inferior ways of looking at ourselves and others instead of the way he sees us.   I believe this atmospheric river and the bombogenesis (beginning of a great explosion of wind and power) is pointing to a massive outpouring of God’s Spirit that’s beginning to increase and bring about a great hunger in people in our Bay Area region and all over the world to know God and his beloved Son, Jesus! Friends, during this last difficult season we’ve endured, God has been lovingly drawing us away from our self-centeredness and into his glorious loving presence because there’s a huge harvest of God’s children about to come through the doors of his kingdom and they will need loving support and guidance from people who are deeply rooted in their love with Jesus!   Revival (“to live again”) happens in the hearts of those who know Jesus already (this is what’s been happening) and then quickly spreads like a wildfire to those who don’t know him yet, but are searching and longing for real life (this is what is imminently coming in much greater measure). This is the harvest God is bringing.   The way for our hearts to be revived is to enjoy even more of the Lord’s presence we’ve always had access to: “God has a constantly flowing river whose sparkling streams bring joy and delight to his people. His river flows right through the city of God Most High, into his holy dwelling places.” Psalm 46:4 (TPT) You are God’s choice as his dwelling place!  He’s purposed to make his home in you! So, this scripture is saying the life-giving River of his sweet Spirit is flowing straight from his heart to yours. As in right now, at this very moment! Whatever you are going through, no matter what you think is going on in the world right now, take this moment to center yourself with the one who’s life is constantly flowing right through you: Surrender your anxiety.     Be still and realize that I am God.     I am God above all the nations,     and I am exalted throughout the whole earth. Psalm 46:10 (TPT)

You Are A Healing Presence

You are a healer? We are all healers because we have Jesus in our lives. The power from the Father that raised Him from the dead flows through all of us emanating through our very beings, day to day, permanently. His invisible, glorious light shines through us and influences everyone we encounter even if it’s not perceptible. We are the light of the world. As we interact with others, we can bring healing to broken hearts and those struggling with all sorts of issues. We can do this through encouraging words and actions. We can do this though just listening or just being present with someone who is having a tough time. A simple gift like a flower, a note or food can wash away depression, loneliness or grief. These are simple acts of healing that anyone can do. To be a healer does not necessarily mean you are performing miracles, pulling people out of wheelchairs, healing blindness, or causing body parts to appear. Some of you operate in that gifting, but everyone has a special effect the Lord has ordained for you. The most basic is being a person of compassion, love, and connection. I used to oversee prayer counseling teams in San Francisco City where we would see a person 3 times, listening and praying for them. Having ministered to hundreds of people in this way I noticed that though there were no profound words of counsel, people were freed from various anxieties and issues just because someone took the time to be there with them with a non-judgmental listening ear. Just knowing someone cares can bring tremendous healing. That does not take a lot of skill. He connects with you personally with all patience, kindness and friendship, no matter where you are in your growth or struggles. As He demonstrates His love to you every day, He is demonstrating how to be a lover and how to be a healer. As He heals your heart, you now know how to heal hearts and how to teach others to be heart healers as well. Accepting Jesus into your life started you on a journey of being a healing presence of encouragement, comfort, compassion and helps. Go therefore and make disciples of love and healing. Be a reconciler and a peacemaker. By doing so, you are a healer of the world around you.   "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us." I John 4:12

Discerning Which Tree Is Motivating Me

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil or The Tree of Life?   As a fellowship, we've been considering the theme of the two trees in the Garden of Eden.  About the temptation to decide on our own what is good and what is bad.  And we're starting to realize how destructive this to our planet, our relationships, and ourselves.  The only true antidote to this insidious dynamic is moment by moment choosing to trust Jesus' life in us - and His life-giving leadership of our heart, thoughts, and actions. Most of us find ourselves defaulting back to wanting what we want and judging from self-interest.  Last Saturday I shared some teaching from Scriptures and then invited people to share how they've learned to discern which tree they are operating from and then find their way back to Jesus' heart leadership.  I hoped we would learn from each other and grow in our own walk with God.   People shared their wisdom with vulnerability. You can watch October 9th service on youtube here And I highly encourage you to experience the worship with Todd Lout and Mark Paulson, as well as Clayton Jung sharing a moving story from his life and leading us in Communion.  We also prayed for Todd's mission to Uganda. The two slides I shared about the different motivations and modes of being of the Two Trees are below. With love and gratefulness, Russ Fochler