Loved and Protected

As I was basking in the presence of the Lord tonight He gave me a word for the church. He has shown us love in every way, saving and redeeming us from sin and death and eternal hell, fighting our battles for us, lifting us above the circumstances, giving us peace that passes all understanding, along with discernment, joy unspeakable and full of glory, healing, and equipping in ways only He could do. And that list scarcely scratches the surface. So how do we show our appreciation?

For the most part there is no life in us at all that distinguishes us from anyone else in the world. Our hearts are cold and hard as we sit on our hands in church on Sunday and go home feeling quite satisfied and spiritual, especially those of us over thirty. But the Lord says He’s tired of dead worship, He’s tired of empty Christianity that is powerless to deliver anyone or heal anyone or raise anyone from the dead. He’s tired of churches full of people who care nothing for His opinion, and have no desire whatsoever to please Him or operate in the supernatural for the gospel’s sake.

He’s tired of those who play church but are not the body of Christ as He intended, empowered, bold, passionate about loving God and loving the outcasts, the poor and sinners. He’s tired of the way we argue and gossip and think we’re superior to others when, without Him, we are still blind, and wretched and naked and poor, though we don’t see ourselves that way at all.

He’s weary of trying to woo believers back to their first love, and He is saying something very specific, very hard, harsh even…but truth is truth, and either I give the truth as He gives it to me, or I will stand in judgment for disobedience. And the truth is this: He is losing patience with us because our hearts are hard and we will not respond to His call to repentance and revival. If we can’t get excited about Jesus we are of no use at all to the kingdom and last days revival, and we are in danger of being put on the shelf for good.

In Scripture He preached the gospel with love extending it to “whosoever will.” But if they did not respond, He went elsewhere to where hearts were responsive and tender to the things of God. To those with ears to hear.

So what does that say about us? It says we’d better examine our hearts, for if we can’t get passionately excited about Jesus, if we can’t warn the lost about hell or speak the truth if it’s too harsh, if we’d rather please men than God, we’re in deep trouble–in danger of losing His very presence. He wrote Ichabod on the door of such a place in Scripture when they would not receive Him. The word “Ichabod” means the Lord has departed. A tragedy if there ever was one, because any place where the Lord has left is empty and hopeless indeed.

Would to God we would hear the voice of the spirit wooing us before it’s too late. Get on board, and ask God for a brand new heart, a heart of flesh to replace a heart of stone. One that breaks over what grieves God, weeps over the lost and dying, and loves what God loves. A heart that’s crazy in love with Jesus and cares nothing for the things of the world! For time is short, and He’s recruiting for front line warfare, and the rest will be left to fend for themselves. And that means that if things get tough there, those left behind will bail and deny Christ.

What about you? Which side are you on? Let a word to the wise be sufficient!

Because of His great love,
Nancy

Many of you have been reading and some have been asking about Gideon and the move of God in Kenya. Well, God is doing amazing things there. Gideon has begun to hold what he calls “Repentance Rallies” in more far removed areas, calling people to come and repent before the Lord to end the drought and famine, and they’re coming in droves. They’re rushing to the altars without hesitation, falling on their faces before God and weeping and repenting for their sin. And God is showing up in all His glory, pouring down rain on the repentant at the altars and on the parched, arid land that has born no crops or green things for more than a year.

I’m so excited to see how God is moving there. People are being saved, delivered, healed and God is opening the windows of heaven to pour down that beautiful, life-giving rain. Praise the Lord!

We have recently tried to help them buy seed to plant, because people are still starving from lack of food. Please join us in prayer that God will bring a miraculously huge and sustained harvest from the planted crops, that the people would see all this as a gift from God’s hand, and that as a nation they would fall passionately in love with Jesus!

And pray for our own country, that we, too, would see ourselves as God sees us, naked, poor, wretched and blind, without Christ as our covering. Pray that we would fall in love with Jesus again in America–that God will restore what the canker has stolen away.

Would that we would yearn after God’s own heart, would seek Him as a nation. You’re right if you think it will take a miracle. But our God is a God of miracles, and nothing is too hard for Him if you and I press in and make it happen in the spirit.

Because of His great love,
Nancy

I know many believers who are struggling to understand where the Lord is in all that’s happening today. From the looks of things, if God doesn’t do something miraculous, our future as a nation is a sad one that will bury our children and grandchildren in debt, and government control, to say nothing of humanism and godlessness.

From what I see, however, we as a nation have begged to rule ourselves just as the Children of Israel did when they said they didn’t want God to rule them. And what happened then? God gave them their desires, including meat that made them sick and killed many, a wasting disease, and repeated losing battles with their enemies that ended in slavery. They had to learn the hard way that without God they were sitting ducks for the consuming armies of the devil. And that’s where America is today.

We have made money our God, exalted “alternative lifestyles” and promiscuity, aborted the millions of babies that resulted from such behavior, taken “In God we trust off our money,” the Ten Commandment off our public buildings, taken Christ out of Christmas, and believed our own press that said we were a mighty nation that no one could conquer. Well, we’re rotting from the inside out having walked as far as we could away from God. And as Christians who should’ve been praying and standing for righteouness were, to say the least, sleeping and apathetic.

However, while there’s still time we have one more chance to change the course of history, if we fall in love, passionately in love with Jesus, and lift up His name, and move in the spirit as if our lives depended on it. They actually do depend on it. Where there is life there is hope, if we choose not to waste another moment doing nothing.

Scripture says to pray without ceasing. But do we care? Are we praying diligently and fervently, seeking heaven’s intervention in the affairs of men? Do we weep over those who are dying without Christ, those who will be eternally lost and tortured in hell?

Or are we only concerned about our own skin?
We need to examine our own hearts and ask God to revive us again, with old-time, Holy Ghost passion for Jesus and for souls.
I want to see fire! I want to see people saved, set free, and living out their destiny in Christ. What about you?

Because of His great love,
Nancy

You’ve heard that phrase, right? I know it sounds like a cheerful, upbeat, easy thing to do. But what if the time comes when, as believers, we are no longer free to share the gospel, read our Bibles or go to church? What if they legislate Christianity out of existence in America? How do we bloom then?

Now I’ll be the first to admit this is not an easy subject to discuss, but guess what? We’re already there, folks. If not this year, then next. So we’d better decide where allegiance lies. If we truly love Jesus, we need to picture ourselves choosing to be joyful wherever we are, because, after all, happiness is a choice.

That doesn’t mean we won’t struggle with these notions. It’s horrendous to think we could ever be jailed and lose what we own for the sake of the gospel. But it’s already happened in many other places in the world, so we must ask ourselves this question: Do I love Jesus enough–am I passionate enough to give it all up to go to jail? To lose everything I own and cherish?

It’s a vital question we must answer right now, because as the heat gets hotter on believers, there will be a dividing line, where the goats say, “No way, man. Jesus isn’t worth losing everything for. I’m out of here.” While the sheep say, “I know my Master’s voice, and I will follow Him anywhere. If I go to jail, He will be there. If I die for the gospel, He will be there, just as He promised in Psalm 139.” There will be grace for whatever comes next as we press in to God.

How much do we really love Him? We talk the talk, and even live as if we believe, but if He isn’t the end all and be all of our existence, we’ll become frightened and desperate and give Him up and run away.

This is the time to run toward that revival spirit, to get into the Word and eat it, to bask in that secret place, loving God and everything He loves, including those who don’t love Him, even those who hate Him. Apart from living completely in the spirit, we won’t make it. It will simply be too hard. So it’s time to examine our hearts, to determine which we love more–our comforts or our salvation.

When it comes time to take the mark it will be clear who loves Jesus and who doesn’t. The time is coming, and maybe you’re saying, “We’ll be out of here by then.” You may be right, but what if we aren’t? What then? Will you and I be able to trust God to provide for us–to protect us when we can no longer buy and sell?

Well, now is the time to decide. One thing though. If you decide against Christ, you will be throwing away your salvation, your relationship with Christ, and slapping Him in the face. And at that point you will have chosen to walk away from heaven and all He has promised. That means hell will be your destination. That’s what the Bible says. Wow, heavy stuff!

This is a serious subject, and we skirt the issue all the time, hoping that if we pretend it’s not there, it will go away. But do we really love Him, or is it in name only? It’s time to think on these things, to prepare for such eventualities, so we are not taken by surprise like the five brides with no lamp oil. And if we find ourselves wanting in this area now is the time to say, “God, help Thou my unbelief. Help me fall in love with You all over again. Make it all brand new and worth more than gold–worth dying for.”

Let him who has an ear hear the warning of the spirit.

Because of His great love,
Nancy

What are we to do when it looks like all is lost? I mean, look around. What are we as believers to do? We are to do what we should’ve been doing all along. Praying, asking for wisdom, worshiping God with all that is in us and declaring the works of the Lord over our country, our lives, our children, and our future.

So does that mean God will make it all go away? Probably not, because, as I said earlier, God has a greater purpose in allowing judgment to fall. It isn’t that He wants us to be consumed, in fact, as a loving God He never desires the worst for us, but He knows that while there is still a job putting money in our pockets, food on the table, and the electricity/television is on, many of us will not get serious about spiritual things. We have become like mechanical drones, just going about our business at the edge of eternity, as if nothing will change and there is no judgement to come.

Well, things, they are a changing, and not for the better. But our God is a big God, for whom nothing is impossible, and He sees the end of this story from the beginning. So what are we to do? We are to press in and love and worship God as never before, asking for wisdom, then obeying what He says. We are to operate in the spirit and warn people that Jesus is coming soon. We are to see and be alarmed at the sinking of the ship of life, and the souls that are on board who will perish unless we share the message of the gospel. Do we care?

We dare not just sit there anymore, taking up space in a comfortable pew! It’s time to ask God to remove the scales from our eyes so we can see with the eyes of heaven what we must do to please God–to win souls.

While God cares deeply about us He isn’t concerned with our comfort as much as He is with accomplishing His purposes. And if you and I aren’t willing to step out and obey we have left our first love and are spiritually cold and dead. It’s true.

So often I’ve shared things that are good and encouraging, but the gospel is not a balanced message unless it also includes warnings about the judgments to come, as well as what God expects of His children.

Let’s press into God, choosing to focus on Him, doing what we can to be that light and salt, and asking Him to move through us to change our world. Nothing is too hard for God. But if He depends on us to get it done, what will happen if we refuse to obey?

Are we willing?

Because of His great love,
Nancy

What is a Sunday-only Christian? What does the term mean? It means that on Sunday we act like Jesus is Lord over our lives, but the rest of the time we scarcely even consider Him.

Life is distracting, which the devil loves, so you and I must guard ourselves from calling our lives our own, calling our own shots, and doing our own thing.

The indwelling Holy Spirit should make a difference in how we do everything, like dealing with problem people, slow traffic, wrong car parts, flat tires, unexpected bills, sudden illnesses, grumpy mates…you name it, having God in us should change the way we respond, shouldn’t it?

So how does that happen? It happens when you and I set aside our own agendas and ask the Holy Spirit to respond through us, flowing through us so we are mere vessels, living sacrifices who reflect God’s glory. It means we get up early, get organized, give ourselves plenty of time, make lists, and plan, committing our plans to the Lord. It means that when things go wrong we stop and take a breath before responding, and say, Okay, God, you’re on. I need you to move now, as only you can.”

So do I do this all the time? Not always, but I’m working on it. The times it’s toughest, as you probably already know, are when we’re tired, overworked, worried, hungry, ill, or harried. At those times our resources are in short supply, and we often find it hard to even think about options, let alone choose them.

That’s why we need to walk in the spirit everyday. So that from the time we get up till the time we go to bed, Jesus is first, asking Him what He wants us to do, and letting the Holy Spirit move us along, according to God’s plan. At those times we are practicing the presence of Jesus, aware that He is in us and wants to use us, and He can stop us midstream and change our direction, so that someone gets ministry when they need it.

What kind of a world would it be if we as believers actually lived that way? I can’t even imagine, but I believe the time is coming when there’s no fence to straddle, no middle of the road. We’ll either be sold out to Christ or we won’t, and we’ll see God moving in ways we’ve never imagined because we need Him so much.

I can’t wait.

Because of His great love,
Nancy

The power of our words is amazing. Now I’m not one who believes there’s magic in them, nor am I afraid to admit when I am ill or have problems so I can ask for help. But the Lord is more powerful than any problem or any illness.

This morning Jentzen Franklin spoke on this subject and said to take negative words back, even in mid-sentence. Say, “I take that back, I cancel that, because Your Word says this…” Rather than speaking death we must speak and believe life words. The truth is when we speak death we give an opportunity to the devil. We need to learn to declare what the Lord says instead of the scary things we see coming, because that gives place to fear, adding a crack in our armor through which the enemy can sneak in and torment us. We need to take authority over things that need to be changed so the Lord can give us victory in those areas.

If you and I can choose to step out of our timidity and be bold we can take godly authority over our lives and the lives of those we love, in Jesus’ name. We can speak into being the things that are not, as though they were, according to Scripture. We can speak into being restoration to marriages, obedience into the hearts of our children and grandchildren, health and healing into ailing bodies. God has given us that authority, but often we fail to step out in faith.

Another thing Jentzen Franklin said was this. We can birth something with our lips, and we can make it grow by nurturing and repeating that declaration in faith. And God will respond to the prayer of faith. He always does.

So does that mean I can get anything I want from God, as if He were Santa Claus? If our hearts are right and our motives pure God will move, but not if we plan to use it on our own lusts. And believe me, God can easily distinguish our motives.

Once we have taken up our cross, though, laying down our own agendas you and I can boldly declare the things God has birthed in our hearts. We can speak in confidence and faith, knowing mountains move when God is behind it.

What will we boldly declare? What is it we really need from God? He says, “Ask Me and I will give you nations.” So what will you declare starting today?

Because of His great love,
Nancy

What does it mean to walk in the anointing? It means to have no other gods before God, no other agenda, and to love what He does and hate what He hates. It means to saturate ourselves in His presence, giving Him His rightful place in our lives. It means that when we go about our daily lives we are mindful that He is there and that we are His servants. And if that means setting aside our things-to-do list, we do that, knowing He will help us accomplish the list before our deadline.

Lately I’ve been telling the Lord each morning: “Here’s my list, but if You have other ideas, show me.” And He has done exactly that.

In fact, my things-to-do list is huge, with family coming for Thanksgiving to celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving and three birthdays within a three-day period. So cooking, cleaning, decorating and shopping and wrapping last minute gifts–the list looks impossible in the natural.

But the other day when I offered my list to the Lord He said, “Wait on Me.” And it wasn’t five minutes later when a dear, elderly friend called to say she had locked herself out of her house and was sitting in her car in front of another small building she owns.

Well, if you knew me, you’d know I’m not technically gifted in the least, but I said, “Okay, Lord, I’m going over there, but You’ll have to make a way.” And it wasn’t long before she and I took a ladder and tools from my garage planning to remove a storm window to get inside the locked house, but upon further inspection we found that all the windows were locked.

Because she has no extra money, we decided against a locksmith and just kept praying that God would open a way. Within a half hour, we studied her front door and noted that there were three small glass insets, that were attached with screws. With the help of a neighbor we removed an inset and were able to unlock the door. Praise God!

To be honest, early on I was hoping He would make this easy and just send an angel to unlock it from the inside, but He didn’t choose to do that. Instead He had us use our problem-solving skills, and in the end, the answer came. In the end it wasn’t an angel who arrived to make things easy, though it might have happened that way.

Once I realized that no angel would arrive my prayer was: “Okay, Lord, then give us another answer. Open another door.” And He did, literally. Once the crisis was past we took time out to eat lunch and then had another key made just in case. And do you know that the whole time we laughed and had fun, and called it an adventure for our memory books?

Where there is no other way God makes a way, but He does it through people, through you and I if we are willing to give Him our lists.

Now is a good time to admit that I’ve often had trouble giving Him my list, because I’m a very single-minded, goal oriented woman–perfectionists often are. But there’s no joy in a list. The joy comes in being with people, loving each other, and being supportive when things are tough.

Try giving your to do list to the Lord, and ask Him if He has other, better ideas. And you’ll be blessed–I promise.

Because of His great love,
Nancy

Did my title confuse you? The term “fuzzy love” describes the warm and cuddly feelings we get knowing we’re loved. But is that all there is to real love? Nope. Not at all.

Real love wants the best for those it loves. Real love is willing to do the tough things in someone’s best interest.

What do I mean by this? Not long ago I mentioned a Christian speaker who stopped a service to address a man in the back seat of the building, and he told him the Lord had a message for him. He said something to this effect: “What are you doing? The Lord had a great anointing on your life, but you’ve walked away from it. The Lord says, ‘What are you doing?’” And that declaration– as humbling as it must’ve been, given before a crowd of who knows how many people– instantly set the man free of drug and alcohol addiction that had kept him captive for twelve years. He had even lived on the street.

Real love will risk offense if it will set someone free. Real love will lovingly confront the sin in someone’s life with a gentle, loving spirit, restoring a brother or sister and encouraging them not to veer from the narrow way.

Real love will be tough on occasion, just as Jesus was when He lived. Real love demands that the truth be told, that sin be confronted, so that people can live out their destiny in Christ. Anything else is not real love.

Before confronting anyone else we must examine our own hearts for sin or wrong motives. And the Lord showed me something crucial. If I have a desire to confront, or I enjoy the notion, I’d better not do it, because my motives are wrong. It should cause me pain to confront someone. It should only be done after much prayer asking God to fill our mouths with His heart and His words rather than our own.

But we dare not let our children, loved ones or friends, keep on sinning, because God is looking to catch up a bride without spot or blemish, and no one who keeps on deliberately sinning will see heaven. That’s what scripture says!

We dare not wink at sin, pretending we don’t see it, when God prompts us to declare words that will set someone free. And though a believer might think he’s getting away with something, the truth is, that sin is an inroad through which the enemy comes with the legal right to hinder, torment and humiliate that person.

We dare no longer pretend that it’s okay for a believer to live or sleep with someone they’re not married to. We dare not live with compromise of any kind, for compromise is not godliness, and we will be judged for the things we did in our flesh.

Let’s let holiness and true worship in spirit and in truth move us in love to do whatever God says to do, including confront sin. Otherwise their blood will be required at our hands.

Because of His great love,
Nancy

Last night I was watching Mike Pavalachi from Australia and he said something I totally agree with. He said we tend to major on the minor things of God and ignore the key things.

He went on to explain: When he was a brand new believer he told the Lord he wanted to be the best Christian who ever lived, so he went to the Bible book store and found a book that said to be the best Christian you had to be a witness to everyone you meet. So he did that, by buying and pasting up Christian stickers on every car and shop window he could find. Of course he was a baby Christian at the time and knew no better, but it wasn’t long before he overheard the book shop owner say that people were very upset at whoever was defacing their property. And she herself had been identified as the one who sold the stickers so she got the laborious task of removing all the offending stickers.

Embarrassed, he looked around the bookstore for another key to being the best Christian who’d ever lived, and found another book. He went through this same process over and over until he had spent a great deal of money on books. I won’t go into everything he said, but suffice it to say that no matter how many books he read none had the answer to his question.

I thought his conclusion was stunning when he said this: The key to it all is worship! When we get worship right everything else falls into place: power, passion, love, and the insight and ability to move in the miraculous. And he’s absolutely right. If you and I spend time with Jesus in the secret place everyday and fall in love with Him we will want to please Him in all we do and say. We will want to love others with the love of God, and we will want to minister in the supernatural, not for our own benefit, but rather to prove that God is alive and loves them on a personal level. It’s the secret place where we become like Jesus!

He also used a phrase I’d never heard before but really love: Beholding is becoming. The more we contemplate something the more like it we become. Think about it. The things we watch on television or read or listen to make us what we are. Let me say that again: The things we watch on television or read or listen to make us what we are. Do we really want to be like those things?

I would say an emphatic no. We need to let go of those things, because they aren’t merely temporary distractions, rather we actually become like them. We resemble them over time.

As believers we need to be soaking in the presence of Jesus, becoming like HIM! How is the world going to see Him if we have instead spent all our time with ungodly friends, listening to ungodly music, or watching R-rated or even worthless movies? They won’t see Jesus in us at all, because any resemblance is accidental if it’s there at all.

How sad when we get to heaven and have to account for our time and talents. It won’t take but a glance for God to know that we resemble Him very little.

And more importantly, we will have gone our own way instead of living out our destiny to be the light and salt God called us to be. By going our own way you and I will essentially have sentenced unbelievers to hell, because we didn’t care enough to warn them. If that statement feels condemning, it’s time to take stock before it’s too late.

Scripture says this: Your life is not your own. You are bought with a price–the precious blood of Jesus. Once you and I become believers, it’s not time to sit back and gloat and think we’re better than others. It’s time to be about the Father’s business, loving the lost and reaching out in compassion to the poor and ill and lonely and unloved. This isn’t a you and me and nobody else tea party. We’re commanded to go into all the world and share the gospel. And that commandment doesn’t just mean pastors and evangelists. You and I are the light of the world! The glory of the very God Himself resides in us in the person of the Holy Spirit, and God expects us to multiply and use that gift or He will take it away and cast us into outer darkness exactly the same way He did the man with one talent.

This is not a game. We aren’t to merely accept Christ and then do our own thing. God says we will be judged if there is blood on our hands.

Personally it breaks my heart to think I may have passed by people who needed Jesus, those who were ready to hear and I didn’t get it. May God forgive me and send someone else to minister to each one.

Would to God we would all ask for the mighty Holy Spirit unction to be discerning and listening when the spirit says to speak. He says, “Open your mouth and I will fill it.” But do we do that?

Let’s be about our Father’s business moving in the spirit while it’s still called today.

Because of His great love,
Nancy