What Does It Mean To Be KINGDOM STRONG?

The Kingdom of God is in our midst.Luke 11:17.  Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God.  He is the King of His Kingdom . When we were born again, Jesus took us out of the Kingdom of darkness (Adam) and placed us into His Kingdom of Light (Christ).  The desire of the Lord's heart is for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven. 1 John says, "As he is so we are in this world." May His kingdom reign in our hearts as we die to ourselves and let the Lord reign through us to save souls.

ALONE BUT NOT FORSAKEN

Recently I was cleaning out some files and I ran across the following word that the Lord gave to me in 1993.  Twenty years later is just as fresh and relevant as it was back then.

"My daughter, there will be times when you will walk in  dry and desert like places.  You will wonder, "Where did I go? Am I still with you?  Have I forsaken you?   You will miss Me and feel frightened because you  don't hear My voice. You will feel lonely, desperate, abandoned and rejected. I am sharing this now to prepare your heart for the days ahead.  In moments like these you will be able to identify with My sufferings.  I was rejected, lonely, forsaken and abandoned. But now, I am Your High Priest and I feel your infirmities.  There is no one in the whole world who loves you like I do. Look only to the cross and experience my death as yours.  All your pain and sorrow I have consumed into Myself at the cross. I have taken it.  Rejoice, my daughter, I am working out your salvation. You belong to me and I will protect you from evil."

A few days later, darkness did cover my soul.   I began to struggle with  unforgiveness. A close friend totally misunderstood me and started spreading a lie about me in the church.  It hurt.  I felt betrayed, abandoned, alone, and most of all rejected.  The lie spread and I could not stop it. I confronted my friend and tried to talk with her to no avail. 

Then I remembered the word of the Lord  a few days before.  He told me that that  I was going to experience the way of the cross.  I would be misunderstood, rejected and betrayed just like Jesus.  Why should I be surprised. But, I was. I had to ask myself,  how did Jesus handle unfair accusations and misunderstandings?


The answer was simply and uncomplicated--forgiveness. It was only a matter of forgiving my friend like Jesus forgave me-- "I forgive you. Dorothy, for you do not know what you did to me. It hurt, but I chose to forgive you." For the first time I understood a 'pinch of an inch' of the sufferings that Christ endured for my forgiveness. 

By the Grace of the Holy spirit, I was able to extend God's forgiveness to my friend as my own. I chose to believe, that if she knew how much she hurt me, she would not have told that lie.  The result was amazing.  Shortly after my forgiving her, she came to me with an apology.  The Lord's ways are so marvelous and too wonderful for comprehension.

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A "Bubble of Peace"

Have you ever been challenged with an illness, believing God to heal you, but don't understand why He hasn't? Your mind begins to play all sorts of games with you and even will accuse God of not caring about you.  It is an ugly place to be. It is not true.  God wants us to be healed, but by His way, at His time and at His place.  Sometimes it is a miracle, sometimes it is a process, sometimes it is a promotion home. Whichever, I believe the truth is that my God wants me healed. I dare not be presumptuous, telling my God how to do anything.  God is good and He ONLY knows how to do good things.

My first experience learning this truth was when I needed an operation and I prayed for a year and a half to be healed.  I stood in prayer lines, had hands laid on me, and fasted and prayed, but I still needed an operation. My blood count was getting lower and lower, and if I  wasn't miraculously healed or had the operation I was in serious trouble. One morning while I was in prayer, I asked the Lord why He wasn't healing me?  I will never forget His answer. "My daughter, do you want a miracle or do you want to know Me?"  I felt at that moment that I had a decision to make. The choice was mine. In my heart I had been crying out to know Him more, so I said without thinking, "Lord, I want to know You." He answered, "Than go my way."  I knew exactly what He meant.  I never again asked.  I set up an appointment for the operation and prepared my heart. I can't say that I wasn't disappointed, but I had His peace. Now, I don't want you to think that I heard the Lord audibly, I didn't.  It was just a witness to my spirit that the Lord had spoken to me. (John 10:27) It was His peace.

The day I arrived at the hospital I was checked in and taken to my room. I didn't know what to expect.  Nurses came in and out poking me with needles, and before I knew it I was put on a gurney, rolled out into the hallway and left there. Doctors and nurses walked by, picked up my chart, looked at it and moved on. I didn't see my doctor for over an hour, but I had the most incredible peace.  I don't like hospitals. Honestly, that was the real reason I wanted a miracle.  I didn't want to deal with  my fear.  But, what I experienced was the Lord's most amazing PEACE through my whole stay. It was like I was living in a BIG BUBBLE of PEACE. Jesus NEVER left my side.  He was there the whole week.

During this time there was another kind of miraculous healing. I received an emotional healing between my mother and I. When I grew up, my mother had to teach school to keep food on the table. Whenever I got sick , my mother had to work and I missed her. My father was always around  somewhere on the farm, but I was alone in the house with a little kitty to amuse myself.  Oh, how much I wanted my mother to be with me, but it was impossible. For years I had stuffed  resentment down in the heart towards my mother. I didn't understand the family's financial stress.

 Now, I needed an operation and how much I wanted my mother to come and care for me and the children.  The most amazing thing happened. Only God could do it. My mother decided to come down from New England and stay with me for TWO WEEKS!  That was huge. Her willingness to come all the way down to care for me and my family was a surprise blessing. It helped to take the hurt away.  God had healed my heart. Now, I began to understand why God had said to me, "Do you want a miracle or do you want to know Me?  I had to got through the trial in order to experience the Lord's presence and especially His PEACE.  By His grace, I was able to forgive for my mother.

Everyone couldn't believe the peace that I had.  I couldn't believe it either. I even healed in half the time and was up to doing my regular routine within two weeks. When I think back, I am so happy that I chose to go His way and have the operation and not just a miracle.   The Lord knew my heart and personally, I think He was more interested  in the healing between my mother and me.  I received God's healing His way that was best for me.

Since then, I know to ask for His healing and to wait upon His timing.  He is my healer and He is my health.   God 's ways are good for each of His children.  His peace to me was the the essence of His presence. A peace that released me from all my worry, anxiety, and fear of the hospital. A peace that brought a deep healing between my mother and I. The Lord knew what I needed to continue to know Him.  I am very grateful that I chose to go His way. In my heart of hearts,I believe it was a MIRACLE. 

Jesus Understands

During my childhood, a common saying among adults was "children are seen, but not heard".  This must sound quite foreign to a new generation which isn't afraid to express anything on their minds.  My church didn't help me much.  Jesus was someone who you admired and tried to be like Him. It was like having a FORM OF GODLINESS, BUT DENYING THE POWER. It wasn't until I was an adult, that I was introduced to someone, who really CARED  for my soul. For the first time, I knew that Jesus wasn't just a religious  person who died for my sins, so that I could go to heaven. What a blessing it was to know that I could have a personal relationship with the God, who not only created me, but  died for me. Jesus not only ascended  to the right hand of His Father, but He now is  resurrected and is living His  life through the Person of the Holy Spirit in the believer..

That was all I needed to hear. My sin had been dealt with and now I could grow to know the ONE who really  DID care for my soul and demonstrated His care.  Jesus was not only the Son of God, but also the Son of man.  He understood emotional pain and how to relate to the human dilemma  He walked the same road as we do, yet without sin. 

Whatever we face, Jesus Christ has already faced it. He knows what it is like:

to be hungry
to be tired
to be lonely
to be hated
to be beaten
to be persecuted
to be misunderstood 
to be mistreated
to be mocked and laughed at
to be betrayed by a friend
to be tempted
to be responsible for employees
to feel forsaken
to feel hopeless
to have no spouse
to have to pay taxes
to live under an oppressive government
to experience extreme pain

"For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." Hebrews 4:15

"Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need"  Hebrew 4:16

How grateful I am to know that we have our precious Lord Jesus Christ interceding for us at ALL times.  That should comfort us every day.

Humpty Dumpty's Great Fall

I have to chuckle.  Do you remember as a kid the old nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put humpty dumpty together again.?"  What a great picture of the fall of Adam. Adam was all together, perfectly whole, until he fell from grace. I think we all can relate to Humpty Dumpty. We all have fallen short of the glory of God.  However, the part about 'all the kings men COULDN'T put Humpty dumpty together again really spoke to me. Why am I trying to put myself together again?

I think one of the MOST deceiving scams of the Devil is for us as Christians to fall into the belief of striving in the flesh to put ourselves back together again with all the self help books and even reading the bible,etc. If it is possible, the devil will even try to deceive us into believing that God is upset with us and that He really doesn't care about the deep pain in our souls or how we feel when tragedy or abuse has occurred in our lives. We are led to believe that we are to keep a stiff upper and bear our burden. However, all that we really  have to do is to look at the cross and see His LOVE for us.  He did not leave us in our sin to struggle against this evil, dark world.  He came to redeem and to bring us back to Himself.

We all were born into a fallen world and wicked things will happen to us, but that is NOT the heart of our Father.. In this fallen world, sinners will act out GOOD AND EVIL. The fruit of the tree of good and evil will be exercised.. As human beings we have NO idea how wicked we are and the evil that we are capable of inflicting on anyone. The nightly news will verify that truth!

 Let's face it. APART from the Lord and His merciful grace, we are ALL LOST, very FRAGMENTED and don't know who we really are! Now that might sound a little ridiculous to you. Of course, you know who you are. REALLY?  I was pretty confident that I knew who I was until after I became a Christian. Then the light bulb went on and I was really confused.  I soon found out that I had no real identity.  Oh, I could say my name and  express the things that I liked and disliked. I could communicate with people, and I knew what I wanted to accomplish in this life. But as to who I really was as a person, I never realized that I was not a WHOLE person. I was emotionally fragmented. Physically, I felt healthy, ate a fairly good diet, and got plenty of sleep. But what I didn't know about myself was that I needed  emotional healing. All the 'kings horses and all the kings men, could never put me back together again,"  UNTIL....by the grace of God, He started to deliver my soul from deep pockets of resentment, bitterness, self pity, covetousness and hidden pride that ruled my heart. It was then that I realized that I had a NEW identity and that everything was changing.  The change would NOT come all at once, but I was NOT the same person.

I had no idea what the emotional effects of my past would have on my new found faith in Jesus. Hidden deep in  my soul were pockets of sin keeping me captive to my old life. Resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness, anger, and self-pity had a strong emotional control on me. They had to be broken. Sin blinds us, but Jesus takes the blindfolds off so that we can repent and be set free. 
 
As believers in the living God, Jesus our savior and Lord, we each have a redemptive story to tell. I don't want to spend time with mine, but to encourage you with the truth.  Jesus is alive and because He lives, we live also.He has the power to deliver us and to heal us from our past.  Jesus Christ is our WHOLENESS.  He is the ONLY ONE who can' heal and make ' humpty dumpty' NEW!  It is a miracle, because 'humpty dumpty became a NEW CREATION. There is no way  all those shattered pieces could be put together again.  'Humpty dumpty' has a NEW identity.

When I started to BELIEVE  that I was a new creation in Christ Jesus and that the old man in Adam was crucified in Jesus, I wanted to repent and turn away from my past.  Satan was NOT going to deceive me any longer . It took time  to repent, to forgive those who had hurt and offended me, to understand  the word of God, to exercise my FAITH and to sincerely  BELIEVE  that God REALLY LOVED ME. He wanted to deliver and heal me. God was on my side!

I just want to encourage you today that if you are a believer and struggle in your faith, know that God is writing His own redemptive story in your life to glorify Himself.. It is an amazing story and one day you will look back and say, "God you are incredible. You have changed my heart to love and worship only you.  I don't know how you did it or when you did it, but, all I know is that You are doing it all the time and it is a gracious mystery of faith."