"You answer our prayers with amazing wonders and with awe-inspiring displays of power. You are the righteous God who helps us like a father. Everyone everywhere looks to you, for you are the confidence of all the earth, even to the farthest islands of the sea." Psalm 65:5 TPT Is there anything too hard for our God? No. Nothing. The God of the whole universe, who knows us down to every hair on our heads, lives in us, abides with us and desires us to know Him in a very real way.
When God created us, He knew every ounce of breath it would take to make our bodies function, every ounce of blood that would flow through our veins, and every cell that would have it's own function. Every living thing has a purpose, and creation declares His glorious name too. Such a loving Father knew our hearts needed sunrises and sunsets, and the colors that we see and how they mean so much to us as creatives. In fact, He put within our hearts the desire to be creative because He made us in His image. What a generous and loving Creator we have!
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"And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery in Egypt into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey.’"
Exodus 3:17 NIV Israelites awaited entering their Promise Land - a land flowing with milk and honey.
But before entering it the Lord reminded them not to seek the peace and prosperity of the nations around them. They should not serve other gods but rather follow the LORD with all their hearts, soul, mind and strength "Break open your word within me until revelation-light shines out! Those with open hearts are given insight into your plans."
Psalm 119:130 TPT Did you know that darkness is just the void of light? In other words, where light fills a room, darkness can't invade it and overcome it. Where light exists, darkness cannot stay. Even the smallest amount of light has removed darkness. As a believer, we are filled with the Light of the World.
Have you ever experienced a time where the Lord felt far away, or all you felt was heaviness and darkness around you? How is it possible to have the Light of the World in you, and yet feel far away and only see darkness? “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. And He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were dry. And He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord GOD, Thou knowest.’ Again He said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’”
Ezekiel 37:1-4 The verse above has held special meaning to me as I have often applied it to my own being. I know what it feels like to be walking around as if I am a pile of dry bones. I may be functioning, but there is no life within me that I can grasp onto. Has anyone else felt this way at some time in their life?
"Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes." Romans 12:2 (The Passion Translation) These last few weeks have seen me fine-tuning my purpose and artistic medium with Father God. At the end of June I felt exhausted from learning, striving, pushing forward into new creative territory, so much so that I began to have doubts about whether fine art was really my “Gift” like I had thought.
Father is so, so good: no matter what we ask, so long as we ask Him, He’ll answer. Identity is a tricky thing. The world grabs us every. single. day. and yanks us around with messages about who we are, what we should be doing, how we should be thinking. If we aren’t spending enough time with Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, it is easy to find ourselves lost in the weeds. "I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!" Philippians 1:6 (The Passion Translation) I've had an old worship song stuck in my head all day,
"He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it. Will be faithful to complete it. He who started a work will be faithful to complete it in you." Have you been there lately? Looking at your circumstances and they don't quite match up with what you know God has promised you, or what you know to be true? I have too. "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand."
James 5:7-8 ESV Many of us have heard the phrase, “Patience is a virtue”. But have we really stopped to think what exactly it means to be patient and why it should be a virtue for us all? While the scriptures often emphasizes the importance of patience, we now have quickly forgotten the very idea and the reason we have to tolerate seasons in our lives to realize incredible fruits of blessings.
Advancements in technology have brought us many good things. But, one entity it has also brought forth from the depths is this nasty character of impatience. We live in a generation of the instant; where we all need things done as soon as we begin them. We expect to have things in our hands right after we order them, we expect a perfect relationship with our partner without putting in the effort or expect growth in our businesses just as we set them up. While these are rather simple examples of impatience, we realize a similar pattern through our journey of life. "The Lord Yahweh empowers me, so I am not humiliated. For that reason, with holy determination, I will do his will and not be ashamed. The One who makes me righteous is close to me. Who would dare challenge me now? Who would be my opponent? Let him stand before me! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Lord Yahweh who empowers me; who would condemn me? My accusers will all fade away like worn-out, moth-eaten clothes."
Isaiah 50:6-9 (The Passion) Isn’t it great to be empowered? I looked up the definition of this word; this is what I found:
The Lord Yahweh gives me power, so I am not humiliated. For that reason, with holy determination, I will do his will and not be ashamed. The One who makes me righteous is close to me. Who would dare challenge me now? Who would be my opponent? Let him stand before me! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Lord Yahweh that gives me authority; who would condemn me? My accusers will all fade away like worn-out, moth-eaten clothes. “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy servant. You were trustworthy over a little, I shall set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.'"
Matthew 25:23 (The Scriptures Bible 1998) Most of us have heard of the above scripture and about the servants who were faithful with the talents given to them and those who were not. I ponder on the fact that many a time we are given things and what we do with them, whilst in our hands, is so important.
Something I have observed, and I believe Master Yeshua / Jesus has brought to my attention, is when my 3 ½ year old would cry for something, something he would want to play with and I would give it to him in the hopes that he would explore and learn something. I would give it to him wanting to see what he would want to do with it. Or when someone gives him a gift but the box says 5yrs and older, yet it is given to him to enjoy. Unfortunately, days go by and the toy or item is broken into pieces or pieces are missing and scattered all over the house or even completely damaged. At the time the gift was given to my son, he was actually not mature enough to receive the gift. "Once your life was full of sin’s darkness, but now you have the very light of our Lord shining through you because of your union with him. Your mission is to live as children flooded with his revelation-light! And the supernatural fruits of his light will be seen in you—goodness, righteousness, and truth. Then you will learn to choose what is beautiful to our Lord."
Ephesians 5:8-10 TPT Where light exists, it's impossible for darkness to remain. Even a small light changes everything. Can you imagine how we must look in the spirit? We are bright lights! The Lord shines in us, and then shines through us bringing His light, and His life everywhere we go! We need to remember who we are in Him, and the authority and life that we carry in us.
On a regular basis, we're accused by the accuser. He's good at that, and He works hard to try to remind us of who we were, our failures, our problems and every negative view of our present circumstances. That isn't enough though, for He tries to bring fear of what is to come. The Lord has delivered us from all darkness, and brought us into the Light! As long as we stay in agreement with the accuser's lies, we stay in the dark once again. |
AuthorsHere you will find a mix of encouraging and inspirational articles written from members within the Community of Christian Creatives. Archives
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