This year will be a year of completion of the old and stepping into complete and total restoration beginning with grace. This has definitely been the case so far and the New Year hasn’t even begun yet. Grace has been a constant friend over the last few months. I have felt God's grace strengthening me and empowering me to keep going and not to give up on the promises He has given me.
The evening of October 2nd begins Rosh Hashanah 5777, the New Year on the Hebrew calendar. We are in the Hebrew month of Elul. This month is a time of repentance in preparation for the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Tradition teaches that the month of Elul is a time for repentance. This repentance builds throughout the month of Elul until Rosh Hashanah, and finally to Yom Kippur.
I found it particularly interesting that the name of the month Elul (spelled אלול Alef-Lamed-Vav-Lamed) is said to be an acronym of “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li” which is “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine”. Also in Aramaic the word “Elul” means “search” which goes along with the theme of searching our hearts in repentance.
For those of you who know me this verse in Song of Songs 6:3, “I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine…” is very near to my heart and speaks to me of my relationship with Yeshua. (I have been wearing these words around my neck since 2009 and never take it off) I believe the fact that this month is Elul speaks to the love the Father has for His people and He calls us to repentance out of that love. We are His beloved and He is ours so He is ever calling us higher into that love.
The other day I was asking Him about a situation I have been going through for almost three months now. I wanted His perspective on it because when I looked at it all I saw was confusion, hurt, and pain. I have learned that if I ask Him who He is for me in situations and who I am actually becoming in the situation it helps me. I can get through the situation faster and easier. I can begin to agree with His perspective and see myself the way He sees me.
His response to me was this. “My goal is to make you more like me in every aspect of your life. A large part of that is love. From the beginning I have been teaching you how to love. There have been many times that you thought you were loving but then later realized it wasn’t about love at all but more about meeting your need. If you will learn from this your capacity to love will grow exponentially. You are learning to love the way I love. This is possible because you are My daughter, with My DNA, and you are created in My image. Anything is possible.”
With this information I was able to see clearly that the situation was not what I thought it was. It is about love and God creating in me the capacity to love the way He loves no matter the circumstance or person involved. I am overwhelmed by His goodness toward me, always bringing me higher into Him, calling me to remember who He created me to be before the foundation of the world. I know this month of Elul God is using trials and repentance to position me for the New Year to come and all the favor and blessings of complete restoration. He is so good!
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Faith
Faith
The last few months have been such a time of stretching and pulling that I am beginning to feel like taffy. Many areas of my life have been affected. My housing, finances, relationships, abilities, and destiny have all come into question. I don’t think there is one area of my life where God is not at work. I know this is an opportunity for me to grow and mature in my relationship with God. No matter how difficult it may be I choose to allow Him to weed out anything that is not of Him. This is the only safe stance for me in this season.
Faith is no longer a vague, ethereal concept that has no boundaries and no foundation. I have come to know faith as a being that is a part of God and is available to me whenever I decide to engage it. I have learned that God, YHVH (Yahweh), Adonai, Yeshua, Ruach Kodesh (Hebrew for Holy Spirit) is so much more than I have ever realized in the past. Every aspect of God that we may think we know and understand about Him is only a fraction of who He really is. The many attributes of God that we “put our faith in” are not just characteristics of Him but are parts of Him that come along side us and live and breathe within us who believe. They are just as real to us as the person sitting next to us. We can actually engage them as beings and still be engaging God because they are a part of Him.
Isaiah 11:2 says it this way about Yeshua, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirits of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirits of Counsel and Might, the Spirits of Knowledge and of the reverential and obedient Fear of the Lord.” This verse says these Spirits rest upon Yeshua. This means they are all individual and separate spirits that are from God but come alongside and engage with Yeshua. As believers in Yeshua, the Scripture tells us in John 14 and 17 that we are in Him and He is in us. So if this is the case these Spirits rest upon us. We can engage with them and receive from them all that we need.
I know this is a new way of looking at this but for me it helps to see the attributes and characteristics of God as beings I can engage with because it gives more weight to them. Faith, Wisdom, Hope, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Joy, Peace, Rest, Favor, Love, Fear of the Lord, and many, many more are right there at my disposal to engage and ask for help anytime, anywhere. And Scripture tells us in 2Peter 1:2-3, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” By truly knowing the fullness of who God is we are granted everything pertaining to life. All we need is truly in knowing Him and every part of Him.
How can we truly know Faith if we don’t engage with Faith? The same goes for Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, etc.… How can we engage with something that is just a vague concept?
Over the last few months I’ve had to literally call out to Faith to give me strength and encouragement. I’ve had to ask Faith to reveal to me where Hope is showing up in my life so I could engage it as well. I haven’t done this out loud but in my spirit. My spirit man inside has been engaging with these ministering spirits to help me stay afloat in the natural and to strengthen and build up my spirit. This way I can continue to operate out of my spirit instead of my soul.
When we go through hard times it is easy to allow our souls to take over and lead us into destructive and even painful places. If our spirits are strong, we won’t stay in those destructive and painful places for very long because we feel the grieving of the Holy Spirit over our lives. Many times our spirits will kick in and begin to do things that our soul has no concept of in order to bring us back to a place of union with the Holy Spirit inside of us. As we engage with our spirits and really pay attention to what it has been doing our souls will then receive revelation and understanding about God, about our situation, and about ourselves that causes us to grow and mature.
God has allowed me to go through things so that I could more fully understand His attributes and character that are available to me. In the midst of the hardest things we face there are ministering angels (spirit beings), who are a part of God’s very nature, and are available to us. It’s our choice to receive God’s gift of Himself or reject it.
Hebrews 1:14, “Are not the angels ministering spirits sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?”
The last few months have been such a time of stretching and pulling that I am beginning to feel like taffy. Many areas of my life have been affected. My housing, finances, relationships, abilities, and destiny have all come into question. I don’t think there is one area of my life where God is not at work. I know this is an opportunity for me to grow and mature in my relationship with God. No matter how difficult it may be I choose to allow Him to weed out anything that is not of Him. This is the only safe stance for me in this season.
Faith is no longer a vague, ethereal concept that has no boundaries and no foundation. I have come to know faith as a being that is a part of God and is available to me whenever I decide to engage it. I have learned that God, YHVH (Yahweh), Adonai, Yeshua, Ruach Kodesh (Hebrew for Holy Spirit) is so much more than I have ever realized in the past. Every aspect of God that we may think we know and understand about Him is only a fraction of who He really is. The many attributes of God that we “put our faith in” are not just characteristics of Him but are parts of Him that come along side us and live and breathe within us who believe. They are just as real to us as the person sitting next to us. We can actually engage them as beings and still be engaging God because they are a part of Him.
Isaiah 11:2 says it this way about Yeshua, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirits of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirits of Counsel and Might, the Spirits of Knowledge and of the reverential and obedient Fear of the Lord.” This verse says these Spirits rest upon Yeshua. This means they are all individual and separate spirits that are from God but come alongside and engage with Yeshua. As believers in Yeshua, the Scripture tells us in John 14 and 17 that we are in Him and He is in us. So if this is the case these Spirits rest upon us. We can engage with them and receive from them all that we need.
I know this is a new way of looking at this but for me it helps to see the attributes and characteristics of God as beings I can engage with because it gives more weight to them. Faith, Wisdom, Hope, Knowledge, Understanding, Counsel, Might, Joy, Peace, Rest, Favor, Love, Fear of the Lord, and many, many more are right there at my disposal to engage and ask for help anytime, anywhere. And Scripture tells us in 2Peter 1:2-3, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” By truly knowing the fullness of who God is we are granted everything pertaining to life. All we need is truly in knowing Him and every part of Him.
How can we truly know Faith if we don’t engage with Faith? The same goes for Love, Joy, Peace, Hope, etc.… How can we engage with something that is just a vague concept?
Over the last few months I’ve had to literally call out to Faith to give me strength and encouragement. I’ve had to ask Faith to reveal to me where Hope is showing up in my life so I could engage it as well. I haven’t done this out loud but in my spirit. My spirit man inside has been engaging with these ministering spirits to help me stay afloat in the natural and to strengthen and build up my spirit. This way I can continue to operate out of my spirit instead of my soul.
When we go through hard times it is easy to allow our souls to take over and lead us into destructive and even painful places. If our spirits are strong, we won’t stay in those destructive and painful places for very long because we feel the grieving of the Holy Spirit over our lives. Many times our spirits will kick in and begin to do things that our soul has no concept of in order to bring us back to a place of union with the Holy Spirit inside of us. As we engage with our spirits and really pay attention to what it has been doing our souls will then receive revelation and understanding about God, about our situation, and about ourselves that causes us to grow and mature.
God has allowed me to go through things so that I could more fully understand His attributes and character that are available to me. In the midst of the hardest things we face there are ministering angels (spirit beings), who are a part of God’s very nature, and are available to us. It’s our choice to receive God’s gift of Himself or reject it.
Hebrews 1:14, “Are not the angels ministering spirits sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?”
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