THE BEAUTY OF GOD - by Todd Benjamin Lout

No one has seen God at any time. But if we love one another (with unselfish concern), God abides in us, and His love (the love that is His essence abides in us and) is completed and perfected in us.  1 JOHN 4:12 - Aplified   Recently I was contemplating, again, the concept of God's beauty. As a worship leader, I lead many songs that speak of His beauty. At times I've checked in with myself about how much I believe it. Like you, I want to see for myself!!  But time and again my heart comes back to the assurance that God, Himself, is so magnificent that He simply gives us glimpses on this side of eternity.  This passage above speaks of this.  For sure, when we allow ourselves to be flooded with love, releasing others of our judgment and letting go of ill feelings, we get clearer eyes. Our hearts become tenderized and we begin to see God's beauty in the face of those around us.  Of course we can also see it in nature, that's a given,  (and a good reason to get in nature as much as possible), but He made us in HIs likeness. When we serve someone out of love, we start to see Him.  He's not left us without. I think He just knows that when we finally see His actual face, we will need our new, heavenly bodies to be able to handle it! Love, Todd

WHAT SERVING OTHERS LOOKS LIKE - by Brent Lokker

To think that Jesus, the King of kings, came to serve us is extremely difficult for us to fathom. Yet, that’s precisely what he told us he came to do, so to ask us to follow his lead in serving others is significant, to say the least.   Following his brilliant leading, we discover that serving is first about seeing each person—truly seeing every human creation as a significant, unique, made-in-the-divine-image child of God. Next, it’s about being present with that person. That requires a choice to lay aside our own agendas, perceptions, and judgements to be Jesus in any way God’s Spirit nudges you in the moment.   This is the only way we can, without resentment, feed the hungry, invite in the homeless, cover the poorly clothed, care for the sick, visit those in prison. And Jesus reminds us that “When you cared for one of the least of these, my little ones, my true brothers and sisters, you demonstrated love for me.” (Matthew 25:40)   Richard Rohr explains our need to identify with the death of Christ to experience his resurrection life, and thus, how to serve in the same way Jesus did:   “Death and life are two sides of the same coin; we cannot have one without the other. Each time we choose to surrender, each time we trust the dying, our faith is led to a deeper level, and we discover a Larger Self underneath. We decide not to push to the front of the line, and something much better happens in the back of the line. We let go of narcissistic anger, and we find that we start feeling much happier. We surrender our need to control our partner, and finally the relationship blossoms. Yet each time it is a choice—and each time it is a kind of dying. It seems we only know what life is when we know what death is."   “We can begin resurrection today by living connected to God. Resurrection happens every time we love someone even though they were not very loving to us. At that moment we have been brought to new life. Every time we decide to trust and begin again, even after repeated failures, at that moment we’ve been resurrected. Every time we refuse to become negative, cynical, hopeless, we have experienced the Risen Christ. We don’t have to wait for it later. Resurrection is always possible now.”     I’ll end with a few word pictures the Apostle Paul paints of what being a servant looks like:   “Take tender care of one another with fondness and affection; esteem one another’s unique value.” Romans 12:10 (Mirror)   “Purpose with resolve to treat strangers as saints; pursue and embrace them with fondness as friends on equal terms of fellowship. Make yourself useful in the most practical way possible.” Romans 12:13 (Mirror)   “Affirm the worth of those who try to put you down. Affirm them, don’t try to put them down harder.” Romans 12:14 (Heart of Paul)   If your enemy is hungry, give him food. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. By your actions you will reveal the contradictions in his behavior. Romans 12:20 (Heart of Paul)   Your life hidden in Christ is the truest version of your authentic self. This is the sweet spot where you experience the joy-filled life Jesus came to share with you.     With Love,   Brent

LIVING RIGH-SIDE UP AS A SERVANT - by Brent Lokker

Jesus had a way of flipping just about everything upside down from the way the world wants to tell us things are. In a conversation with his disciples, he told them “Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave.” (Matthew 20:25-26, NLT)   Come on, you’re just not going to hear that in the “Young Entrepreneur’s Rise to Fame” seminar. Not even in the advanced course! Yet, Jesus not only said this is the way of his Father’s Kingdom, but he lived it!   “Jesus’ mission was not to prove his deity, but to embrace our humanity. Emptied of his reputation as God, he fully embraced our physical human form; born in our resemblance, he identified himself as the servant of the human race. His love enslaved him to us. The man Jesus Christ who is fully God, became fully man to the extent of willingly dying humanity’s death at the hands of his own creation. He embraced the curse and shame of the lowest kind in dying a criminal’s death.” Philippians 2:7-8 (Mirror)   He also demonstrated a life of serving others in remarkable ways: He made time for those whom others would ignore and walk past; He had great compassion on those others would judge; He kept no record of wrongs of those who betrayed him, even washing the feet of Judas who Jesus already knew would turn him in to begin the most undignified and unjust trial in all of human history that would lead to his gruesome death on a cross. Yet, instead of thinking of how wronged he was, he only thought of those whom his death would reconcile for eternity, once again serving us in perfect love: “Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his,  he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation,  and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” Hebrews 12:2 (TPT)   And now Jesus invites us into his realm of servanthood, one in which love rules the day: “Live happily together in a spirit of harmony and be as mindful of another’s worth as you are your own. Don’t live with a lofty mind-set, thinking you are too important to serve others, but be willing to do menial tasks and identify with those who are humble minded.  Don’t be smug or even think for a moment that you know it all. Never hold a grudge or try to get even but plan your life around the noblest way to benefit others. Do your best to live as everybody’s friend.” Romans 12:16-18 (TPT)   Don’t think of this as a try-harder-to-be-a-servant program. That will never work in a million years (we’ve all tried!). Instead, realize this has always been a ‘Christ in me, the hope of glory’ infusion and that his life through us expresses itself in these most beautiful, glorious ways when we yield to his Spirit leading the way. This is the abundant, fulfilling life Jesus promised us. It’s upside down from the world’s ways, but that’s actually because the world sees things upside down from heaven’s kingdom. You are living right side up with Jesus!   With Love,   Brent

DISCOVERING, NOT BECOMING - by Chris Gore

What a joy it was to be at Blazing Fire this past weekend after an incredible conference in Mexico before flying back to New Zealand to enjoy Easter with my family! Having lived 16 years in Redding, I returned to New Zealand in 2022 carrying and burning with the good news message of Jesus!   Having been a minister for over 25 years, it’s only been in the last 15 years that I have really begun to understand the good news of the Gospel. Jesus did not come as a part of a prison exchange program, in which He took us from the Prison of darkness to transfer us to the prison of light, but He came to transfer us from the prison of darkness to freedom (Galatians 5:1). The Gospel is a beautiful message of discovering and beholding—not a message of becoming more like Him, but discovering what we already have in Him!   Today while reading one of my favorite bible stories in Luke 15, the story of the prodigal son, it struck me afresh that the son returned to the HOUSE of His loving Father, when the Father was eagerly awaiting his return and not the FIELD where the older son was working and laboring for what He already had. I have to wonder which of the two son’s was more lost.   I love to see believers come into freedom from the bondage of the law because when we are stuck in the bondage of the law, it prevents us from coming boldly to the throne of grace in the time of need. I totally believe that it should be the normal expression of the believer’s life to have answers to their prayers, yet religion and legalism have kept us in bondage and kept us from the spirit of sonship.   The younger son returned to his Father with his great repentance speech, but never got to give it before the Father lavished His love on the younger son. It’s the Fathers kindness and goodness that brings us to repentance, it’s not our repentance that brings His goodness. When the son finally gets to bring his repentance speech, the Father totally ignores it and quickly calls the son back into his identity by reminding him who he is! In this journey of the Father’s heart over the past 15 years in particular, there have been many times that I have had to remind myself that we cannot have thoughts in our head that our Father does not have in His. Is this why the Father ignored the Son, because his thoughts were not aligned with what the Father thought of him. When we begin to change what He thinks of us and we begin to truly understand the love and goodness of our Father, that He’s actually the loving Father and not your parole officer just waiting for you to mess up, then we begin to approach the throne of Grace with boldness and see answered prayers in our life.   We are not going to become what He thinks of us, but we will become what we think He thinks of us, so what do you think He thinks of you?! I challenge you to stop laboring for what you already have provision and access to and let’s adjust our hearts and mindsets to the spirit of sonship and what we think He thinks of us!   Much Love and Grace Chris Gore chrisgore.org Author of Apprehended Identity and #Positioned

FIXING OUR GAZE ON JESUS - by Joel Pollard

2 Corinthians 3:18 in The Passion Translation tells us, “We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we all become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another. And this glorious transfiguration comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” I am forever grateful that there is no longer a veil between us and the Father, for Jesus came to fulfill the law. I love how the promise of this verse implies how we all with unveiled faces, behold the glory of the Lord as in a mirror. When we fix our gaze on the eyes of our Beloved, paradigms shift, hearts are transformed and we are forever changed in His glory, that’s how come ‘we move from one brighter level of glory to another’. When we do this, we are awakening to the reality of our original identity of who the Trinity created us as, in Their image and likeness (Gen. 1:27). Could it be that us awakening to the truth of who we really are is a prophetic precursor to the fulfillment of Romans 8:19, “For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are?” There is something that is encountered and experienced over and over when we choose to look into the eyes of the One who takes our breath away. He knows exactly where to guide us, leading us into truth that sets us free and reveals who we have been all along. Wherever we are in our journey with the Lord, I want to invite us to give further access and permission to the Holy Spirit to keep revealing the wholeness and authenticity of who He has created us to be. How do we do this? By keeping our gaze on the One who continues to reveal our true nature. Love, Joel

TASTING THE GOODNESS OF GOD - by Susan Fochler

It is good to remember what it was that first drew us to know Jesus, for it can give us compassion for those who are still on their journey to discover Him.  For myself, I distinctly recall 2 people from my high school, a brother and a sister, who just seemed to radiate love and kindness.  Whatever it was that I saw on them I found very attractive.  Neither of them ever talked to me about God, but looking back, I realize that I was seeing the presence of the Holy Spirit illuminating their lives.  It was one point of light among several others that helped me choose to say yes to Jesus.  As we spend time communing with God, we become more and more like Him, and our lives increasingly reflect His life.  In John 15:5, Jesus tells us that “I am the sprouting vine and you’re my branches.  As you live in union with me as your source, fruitfulness will stream from within you” TPT.  In this union with Christ our hearts soften and yield.  We connect to Him, spirit to spirit, and receive direct downloads of His essence.  After all, it is Christ who lives in you, the hope of glory.  Not by trying hard to be good but by turning our thoughts to Him again and again, in worship, in gratitude, in simple acknowledgment. Being filled with His love, we release a river of living water into the world around us.  And this water “tastes” like something, just like I tasted in high school.  Jesus had this to say:  “if anyone drinks the living water I give them, they will never thirst again and will be forever satisfied!  For when you drink the water I give you it becomes a gushing fountain of the Holy Spirit, springing up and flooding you with endless life!” (John 4:14-15).  I can think of many times when I’ve seen someone “taste” that water for the first time, and they are always amazed!  It is so beyond anything the world has to offer!  According to Galatians 5:22, the fruit of abiding in Christ looks like this:  love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, self-control, goodness and faith.  These are the same qualities that flowed through Jesus and impacted His world when He walked on earth, and they impact our world through us as well.  Our hearts are the conduits through which Heaven is reaching earth.  May we continue to abide in this love as those thirsty ones around us have eyes to see what is readily available to them.  Love, Pastor Susan

DON'T DISCOUNT THE SMALL STUFF - by Karena Lout

It’s been important to me to know my neighbors but I found it more difficult when we moved to a new neighborhood several years ago. Recently our neighbor’s dog escaped and was running in busy traffic on our street. After returning her back to their house, the family was extremely grateful. The mom began to share her life story with me and has been sharing family photos and bringing homemade treats over. A small act of kindness opened the door to a new relationship.   Sometimes we discount our small, kind interactions with people because we might feel we’re not preaching the gospel or it doesn’t feel comparable to an encounter from the book of Acts. But I’ve found that staying consistent in showing kindness builds relationship and trust. Your life is an epistle, a letter to the world (2 Corin. 3:2).    “Purpose with resolve to treat strangers as saints; pursue and embrace them with fondness as friends on equal terms of fellowship. Make yourself useful in the most practical way possible.” Romans 12:13 (Mirror translation)   “Take tender care of one another with fondness and affection; esteem one another’s unique value.” Romans 12:10 (Mirror)   At the beginning of this year, I felt God encourage me to keep my heart more open to love and honor those he put in my path. Honor is accurately acknowledging someone’s God-given value whether we think they deserve it or not. While trust is often earned and built over time, honor is God’s gift to us. Psalm 8 says “God crowned us with glory and honor.” We often don’t know if honor is a part of our value system until we’re challenged to give it to someone we think doesn’t deserve it.   A good question to ask Jesus this week: “Is there someone you want me to encourage?” Maybe you smile and complement a store employee or reach out to a family member who needs encouragement. What may feel like a small step has greater impact than you know. To take it a step further, try showing kindness to someone you haven’t been fond of or agree with. The light and love of Jesus in you is brighter than you know.   Love, Karena

REVIVAL OF LOVE - by Shannon Downs

This last Saturday night we hade a long time of worship, lingering in front of the Throne of God, you could say. Holy Spirit moved on a few of our folks to share some things. One in particular was amazing friend Shiela.  Shannon, who moved to Texas a while back but still connects with us online, was so moved as she was tuning in. The things that Sheila was sharing went so very beautifully with a poem that Shannon had written that very day!  We wanted to share that poem with you below:

Revival of Love I closed my eyes and I did see:  Jesus and I sitting on a bench  There are trees all around Yellow flowers blooming on them Like stars in the sky A river flowing nearby I look into your eyes I look away Feeling a little shy I hear him whisper, He did say My child, there is no shame No guilt, just the foundation  Of my Love that is being built So look at me, tell me, child What do you see? I see the night falling Dusk disappearing The darkness has come Yet you are sitting here Shining glory bright Like the noonday sun Leading the way As if the darkness never came My heart is burning with The fire of your love I see you transforming every heart Of those who cry out your name Longing for the same My child, tap into my love  Let it flow so others may know My love is never-ending The river of love is flowing It keeps on flowing  From the throne room of Heaven It is a revival of love that will never end Oh, it will never end…. ©Jennifer Shannon 02/24/24

What Are We Surrendering To? - by Sarah Eom

The word ‘surrender’ used to scare me.  I felt it meant resigning to some bad, painful or uncomfortable circumstance and being ok with it.  A while ago, I had a physical symptom that was very bothersome and debilitating.  A few loving and wise people suggested that I ‘surrender’ this to the Lord.  I thought that meant that I accept the status quo and be ok with never getting better.  I tried but just could not do that!  Then I felt bad that I couldn’t. I felt  my inability to surrender was because I didn’t love and trust God enough.  The result was I now had shame to deal with as well as the original symptom. Then recently, I realized something that I believe is from the Holy Spirit.  The surrendering I am to do is not to the situation.  I am not surrendering to the problem.  Jesus was never a victim of his circumstances and neither is he calling us to.  Instead, I am being asked to take my focus, even for the moment, off the problem and turn my attention to God.  I was being invited to surrender to Him.  You see,  I was barking up the wrong tree by trying to surrender to the problem. Do you feel you are being invited to surrender?  Does the prospect scare you?   It’s ok.  There is no shame in that.  Just remember that you are not surrendering to a dreaded future or a difficult present.  You are giving yourself over to God’s goodness and mercy.  You are yielding to Jesus who is called ‘Faithful and True.’  You are surrendering to the enough-ness of God.

THE GLORY OF HIS LOVE - by Bill Hernandez

The Lord is personally, fully accessible, thanks to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. He has removed any barriers that separated us from Him, making it easy to experience His radiant glory. This glory is an expression of His very being which is Love. Simply opening our hearts and talking with Him opens the door to a deeper relationship. He longs to share His love with us, and in turn, we can become like Him - bearers of His love, His glory. As Hebrews 4:16 encourages, we can "approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." He actively seeks us out, as Revelation 3:20 reminds us: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me." He calls for openness and fellowship, as stated in 1 John 1:7: "if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another..." As we actively seek Him and open our hearts, He exemplifies love in His actions. As a result our connections deepen with Him, our community and beyond. We all have many doors in our lives where we can persistently invite Jesus in deeper. The more honestly and openly we share with Him, the more we discover His loving nature - His tenderness, patience, and kindness. His response to our vulnerability is never what we expect; it's always filled with empathy, understanding, and endless compassion. His transforming glory in our openness with Him causes us to show His glory to others - to show His love to others. We become bearers of His glory to the world. Glorious love bearers. The light of His glory is about to be released in an unprecedented revival. We are His lights of love in the Great Commission. We came to Him and opened everything to Him and He opened up what true love looks like and feels like. Go therefore and shine! I John 4:7-8 "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

For my audio sermone that expands on this topic, you may listen here.

THE POWER OF YOUR STORY - by Brent Lokker

Last week after going through a few challenging days, I said, “Father, I need your encouragement.” Sometimes when we’re needing something, we can forget the obvious, which is asking God directly to provide for us what we can’t seem to muster on our own. Our Father loves this childlike dependance on him.   A day or two after asking for encouragement, I was sitting at my back window looking out at a sky filled with dark grey clouds while also looking down to read from the Mirror Bible. When I got to Titus 3:4, I read “But then, oh happy day. It was the generosity of God and his fondness for humankind that dawned on us like a shaft of light. Our days of darkness were over. Light shone everywhere and we became aware: God rescued the human race.”   At that very instant, I looked up and that sky had opened up right in middle with a golden shaft of sunlight pouring through! When sharing this story last Saturday at our worship service, I failed to mention that after encountering this sudden burst of sunlight through the otherwise entirely grey-filled sky, I looked down to read another verse or two and looked up to see that the sunlight had completely vanished behind the thick curtain of grey once again. It had only been there for that one verse I was greatly encouraged by.   I didn’t think that just maybe God was doing that to encourage and bless me…I knew He was! By cultivating a life that expects blessings to follow me all the days of my life, I try not to miss Papa’s kisses of kindness and I make intentional decisions not to dismiss them either.   This is an example of one small story in my life that has the power to interact with someone else’s story at just the right time. If I were listening to another person’s struggle, I could first empathize and draw out more of their story and at a time that seems right, offer this part of my story as a way to bring encouragement and hope. This is how we get to keep bringing portions of the light we carry to a world full of people often steeped in anxiety and depression who desperately need a ray of sunshine.   You are that ray of sunshine: “The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter until the full light of day.” (Proverbs 4:18)   As we take time to truly listen to someone else’s story, we don’t have to be quick to share our own, but we can take time to draw that person out with genuine interest in the questions we ask. And at just the right times, Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance a bit of your own story to share that will be a bright ray of sunshine.   It’s not our job to fix people nor to tell them what they have to believe. But just like Jesus did, we get to drop a seed of hope into the soil of the heart of the one we’re sharing life with and watch how God causes that seed to grow.   Your story is quite likely the most powerful and inspirational thing you have to share. Don’t believe the lie that it isn’t important or flashy enough or whatever other lies we may tell ourselves. Your story is actually the story of Jesus encountering you in a million different ways. Don’t miss or dismiss it.   Enjoy sharing a bit of yourself as you also allow another to share a bit of themselves with you. This is the beautiful transaction of life.

SEEING GOD IN OUR STORIES - by Susan Fochler

When we pray, “Your Kingdom Come”, we are inviting God’s kingdom to invade our daily lives, both in the big events, and the tiny details.  And when we add “Your will be done”-we are agreeing that His ways are higher than our ways, and that life is better when we embrace His perspective and priorities in how we engage with our world.  In Joshua 3 and 4 we read how the Israelites finally get ready to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land after 400 years of slavery and wandering in the wilderness.  God gives clear instructions on how they are to do this:  1) Keep your eyes on the ark (God's presence) 2) Remember what He has done for you, and keep telling that story to your children. And He immediately gives them something to remember: as the priests carry the ark across the Jordan River the water miraculously dries up just as it did for Mosesat the Red Sea!  Those instructions still apply to our stories today.  But there’s one part of that story that’s been a mystery to me: why they were told to stay so far behind the ark, approximately 1/2 mile.  The priests stood in the middle of the river, and the Israelites were to keep their eyes on the ark as they crossed over to the other side.  God reminded me that sometimes I can get so close to and familiar with my story that I become hyper-focused on the expected outcome and I can miss the fullness of what God is doing in the moment.  In the Kingdom of Heaven, the process is just as important as the outcome, perhaps even more; for God is all about filling our process with His presence and purposes, and allowing the end result to develop as the fruit of that journey.  On my work computer system, a change made on one monitor won’t automatically transfer that change to my computer unless I do a “refresh”.  Sometimes I need to do the same thing in my life’s journey.  I need to step back, invite Heaven in, widen my view and “refresh” my perspective to see where He is and what He’s doing.  And may He continue to do, in us and through us, abundantly beyond anything we could ask or imagine! Love, Susan

PUT ON GARMENTS OF PRAISE - by Todd Benjamin Lout

Sadness, heaviness, depression...these are all too common for so many today. The causes are many many, from societal pressures, to trying to make marriage work in today's atmosphere, from financial bindings to living in regret and so on.  There is NO SHAME to be had for experiencing sadness.  In fact, the shame so many feel over this is another lie! But God, knowing we are in human bodies in human conditions with human emotions, is kind and loving. He offers us a way to ultimately replace sadness, by praising!  Does this mean He's egotistic and refuses to help us until we tell Him how great He is? Not at all!   God created us in His image. We have some heaven in our DNA.  There, (in heaven), the atmosphere is completely flooded with praise.  One enormous component of praise is thanksgiving. God  knows that when we turn our focus on things that are blessings, things God has done, and generally His goodness, that the things we're sad about seemingly shrink. The sting of depression is not so effective anymore.  This is how God has set things up because in Heaven it just IS and always was!  Our Father tells us that He will wrap us in victory, gladness and praise to replace depression and hopelessness.  This is in Isa. 61:3 (the Voice).  Here's the key, we need to open our arms to have this garment placed on us.  Even in the sadness we can allow faith to open our arms enough to be clothed.  This is us making up our mind to shift focus to what is praiseworthy.   We can do this!  God knows best and He has given us free will and we can do this. YOU can do this!  This week, whenever those sad feelings try to settle in, turn your eyes upon Jesus. He's got the answer. He IS the answer.

GO AND BE JESUS - by Brent Lokker

Our Blazing Fire Staff got away on a retreat the first weekend of January to lean our hearts together into the Lord’s sweet Spirit for anything he would want to communicate with us. One of the more tender and fun things we did was thanking God for all the ways he has blessed our Blazing Fire family throughout these many years. Maybe it’s just human nature, but we often have this tendency of focusing on what’s not going well or what needs to change—and some of that can be helpful—instead of celebrating what’s going right. So, we did just that and here are just a few of the many wonderful things expressed:   We give room for God’s Spirit to move and space is made for personal encounter. The worship atmosphere is free with no expectations to act or perform a certain way. We are loved for who we are and not judged. We value and practice vulnerability and authenticity as an important aspect of our intimacy with the Trinity and in our relationships with each other. It’s safe to explore and ask questions, not feeling like we must have everything figured out in this lifetime journey with God. We enjoy a prophetic culture of encouragement as we build each other up and remind one another of our authentic identity in Christ. We choose loving connection over having to be right.   I could share many more, but I wanted to give you a taste of what all of you have been a part of creating and sustaining as we’ve learned to open our hearts more and more to the goodness of God and to Holy Spirit’s brilliant leading. Thank you, fam!   Through these remembrances of what’s going right, God was communicating his deep pleasure to us of how we’ve all been living out our vision together with his help:   Encounter God’s transforming presence Enjoy Kingdom life as His family Equip world changers!   I can see our Father’s beaming smile saying to us, “Well done!”   We also sensed his desire to help us even more intentionally this year to go and be Jesus to the ones who so need to experience his love and acceptance—the entire world full of people who are longing to belong, not knowing they’ve always been included in the Father’s tender heart. Jesus is the one—through his death and resurrection—who opened the way for all to come to our Father in a warm embrace and we have been commissioned to go as the face of Jesus to our family, our office, our school—literally anywhere we are—to love without judging. With his kindness and compassion that has it's source in Christ within, we get to take part in the heaven to earth transformation that continues to happen in the heart of each person we encounter.   Father and Jesus and Holy Spirit have been faithfully transforming us through encounters and by drawing us into their loving union and fellowship so we can know our authentic selves as they’ve created us and let our light within shine this year in a way that will surprise us!   What Jesus instructed his followers over two thousand years ago hasn’t changed:   “Go into the roads and search every nook and cranny, find them behind every hedge and barrier and compel them to come in and fill my house to the brim, because the fields are ripe for harvest!” (taken from Luke 14:23 & John 4:35)

REMEMBER - by Elijah Breon

At the start of December I asked God for a word for 2024. I was feeling a bit behind spiritually and felt that I needed to catch up on what God was doing in my life. So I expected to hear something that would inspire and challenge me going into 2024, but instead I heard quite clearly, “REMEMBER.” Immediately I knew what Jesus was communicating to my soul. “Remember what I have done in your life? Remember where you came from? Do you remember how I delivered you from fear, from anxiety, from living without a purpose?” When we remember what God has done, it always sets us up for what is to come. Our God is a builder and he uses each season of our life as a stone to build a monument before the world of His love and faithfulness. Are you having a hard time looking forward? I encourage you to sit with our Father and remember what he has done in your life. Like the children coming from the wilderness to the promise land, recalling what God has done in our lives will speak to the future generations of the realities of God. ”When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall let your children know, saying, ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land’; for the Lord your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed over… that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever.”“ Joshua 4:21-24 NKJV

2024 - YEAR OF THE HEART CRY

Last Saturday, we were greatly encouraged by Joel Pollard, Tiffany James, and Bill Hernandez as they shared what they were sensing from God’s heart. It was a night of encouragement and instruction for the heart. You can check it out on our Youtube Channel or Facebook page. One major theme, Saturday, was that 2024 is the year of the heart cry. Tiffany was getting this from Holy Spirit for us all.  This cry of the heart is an important one for us.  When we position ourselves before a loving God, fully trusting Him with our vulnerability, we get His heart.  It's like when our own kids cry for us. We know that voice very well and will drop everything else to answer.  God loves us like that and He wants us to come without masks, without us trying to show that we have it all together, without holding back.  In our weakness He is strong. He's not looking for us to be perfected in our own strength.  And God is fully aware that this life we are living on Earth is hard at times. Our cry to Him invites Him to display His love for us through the rough stuff.  In Matthew 5 we read the Beatitueds, which sound like a heart cry: 3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,     for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. 4 God blesses those who mourn,     for they will be comforted. 5 God blesses those who are humble,     for they will inherit the whole earth. 6 God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,     for they will be satisfied. 7 God blesses those who are merciful,     for they will be shown mercy. 8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,     for they will see God. 9 God blesses those who work for peace,     for they will be called the children of God. 10 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right,     for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. The HEART is the core of us....our entire self. This year let's bring it all before Him who is love. Let the heart cry be lifted before the King of our Hearts!   By the way, even our tears are precious to God. Psalms 56:8 says: "You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book."