Jagged, Dull, Sharp or freely give to Father?

Before I started reading my Bible for today my sister, Angi, called me and said, “Wendi, I know you’re going to be sitting on the first verse. You’re going to want to plant there. Be ready.” We both laughed because she knows how I can read a verse and get stuck on a word  or phrase in the verse, sit and chew on it, then write a whole bunch about what it means to me. Well, I am here to tell you this is exactly what occurred as I was reading the first verse. I texted her to tell her I was ‘planting’ on 2 Kings 10:32 (which was the first verse of today’s reading) and she sent me a text back saying, “I’m sooooooo chuckling.” The following is how Holy Spirit and I communicated to each other when I read it.

2 Kings 10:32 “In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel; and Hazael conquered them…” (Side note: when I read the word Israel, I often like to replace it with the words the Church, His people or my name.)

            Sometimes we don’t understand the why’s and how’s of God but one thing is for sure, He has a master plan and we are a part of it. Today let’s release anything He is asking us to cut off of our lives. Let’s let it go freely, trusting in His master plan and that He will either return it or replace it with something far greater.

Sometimes we hold so tightly to the things, attitudes, emotions, and people of this world, which causes us to lose our focus. We hear Father graciously asking us to let them go and hear His warnings to be careful with what we have so it doesn’t replace His right standing in our lives. When we choose to keep these things He’s requested then He comes and divides those parts from our lives. He often comes gently first and He sometimes comes with a mighty penetrating sword because He knows these things we have held so dear will cause such devastation to ourselves, others and our relationship with Him.

When we offer God our lives, every part, and do not hold anything too tightly (except our undying love and affection for Him), He never has to come with a knife, sword, or blade. He simply approaches us and asks for what He wants and we freely hand Him what He desires. When we do this we are telling ourselves, others, the world and our enemies we are trusting Him to take care of what we have been given, no matter what it is be it our children, hopes, fears, or other precious commodities. I can hear Him saying after He asks for the items from us, “I got this.” He does, you know. He’s embraces us so close and securely we cannot help but understand and know we are knitted into His Kingdom and His being.

Let us be vigilant to give Him liberally of all He asks and not use our jagged knives to separate ourselves from the safe position of being hidden in the shadow of His wings. For when we use our rough daggers the cuts are often tragically more profound and harder to heal than when He comes and slivers away the things that distract us from Him, His Kingdom, His principles, His love, His people and more.

Father longs for us to be the conquerors and not the conquered. Let us then take time to solely and soul-y surrender the things He asks for so we can walk in newness of life. Let us rely on Him to even heal the jagged wounds we have done to ours and others minds, hearts, bodies, will and spirits by what we are continually doing, thinking, saying, hearing, tasting, feeling and more. Let us, by His power and His might, tower over our flesh AND our enemies and boldly proclaim, “Not today! Not this minute! Not this hour! My flesh will not have all dominion, all power, or all authority over me today! But TODAY Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, You Three will have all power, dominion, voice, and authority over, in and through me! Today is Your day, o Lord! Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory, forever and ever. Today, this very minute of this hour, I choose. . .FREEDOM!” We can say boldly today, “The Lord reigns in every territory of my life, not just for a brief moment but for the length and breadth of my days on this earth.”

            11:2 Let us realize that when Father asks for an area of our lives He is stealing us away from those things and enemies who long for death to manifest in and upon us. Let us grasp our Father hiding us and tending to our needs, longing for us to be nestled in His arms. Let us heed His cries for our safety. Let us listen to Him through others He has sent to care for us as well.

            Let us resolve to stay within the house of the Lord. Let us allow the Lord to keep watch, guard and escort us for He will not allow us to be broken down when we are fixing our eyes completely on Him. He surrounds us entirely on all sides with every weapon necessary to defeating those ideas, desires, and habits that we have chosen to cast away from to our death! Let us remember, He is with us when we come in, and when we go out!

            How incredible You are, O Lord! How merciful and righteous You are! Your love knows No bounds, nor does Your protection. You alone are God and our hope is in You once again. We are giving You all that we are, all that we have, all that we have done for You to tend carefully. Our lives are forever in Your hands and loving arms.

            11:11You guard and protect us as far left is from right and up is from down from ourselves, others and our enemies. When we allow You to do this, it enables You to show the true King of kings and Lord of lords, Who has the most glorious of all crowns, through our lives.

You have placed kingdom authority upon and within our hearts and lives as well. 12 You have crowned us with righteousness and anointed us for Your name’s sake. You have saturated us in Your kingdom and Your kingdom has no end! Long live Spirit! Long live Jesus! Long live Father! We choose to make You KING over everything today.

11:17 Let us also choose to renew our covenants (commitments) with the Lord that we should be His people. 18 As He exposes the areas He wants let us break them into pieces. Let us slay them to their very cores thus assigning (19) Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit as Rulers in our lives on their rightful thrones. 20 It is then when we can truly rejoice! It is then when our souls are at peace.

12:1 Since we have chosen to do these things, let us again choose to continue to do what is right in the sight of Father all the days of our lives. 12 Let us trust Father to take care of all damages, gaping wounds and scars that occur to us, for we live in a world where pain, unfairness, broken heartedness, sickness and death are prevalent. It is essential for us to remember He is big enough and strong enough to restore everything the enemy drives our way whether it is through illness, tragedy or people.

17-18 Let us be careful to keep the possessions Father gives us and not walk up and hand it to our flesh, others or the enemies of our souls. Yet, if Father asks us to give these gifts to others, let us do so accordingly, knowing that every good and perfect gift is from above and He will either replace it or grant something fresh in its place.

Acts 18:5 Let us also be very watchful to keep the blessings, teachings, convictions and promises Father gives us near and dear to our hearts while we expectantly wait to be compelled by Holy Spirit in all that we do. Let us also tune our ears to Holy Spirit’s leading to share with others Jesus is the Christ. We must remember although we are led by the Spirit to minister to people they may not receive our message and we, like Paul, (7) can choose to depart from them and go tell others who WILL (8) believe on the Lord with all their households as well as others. Father will send us to those who will hear, believe and be.

9 The same words Father spoke to Paul He speaks to us, “Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent; for I am with You and no one will attack you or hurt you, for I have many in this city.” Let us continue where he has positioned us, teaching God’s word among the people. 13 Let it be known of us that we persuade men, women and children by the power of Holy Spirit to worship Father and trust in Jesus as their Savior, which is contrary to the passions of this world.

Psalm 145:1 Let us praise His works to one another and declare His mighty acts. 5 Let us meditate on His glorious splendor and wondrous works. 8 How gracious and compassionate is the Lord? Has He been slow to anger with us? Has He been great in mercy? 10 Yes! All His works praise Him, let us join in the anthem, join in the song of those whose hearts and lives are fixed on Him.

11 We resolve to choose to speak of Your glory, talk of Your power and (12) will make known Your mighty acts. 14 For You uphold us when we fall and raise us up when we are bowed low. 16 You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living creature. You and You alone are the only One Who can and delights to do so. How glorious! How priceless! How majestic! How magnificent You are!

18 You come even nearer when we call to You and again fulfill every desire for those who fear You. You hear our cries and save us! HALLELUJAH!!! We agree to engage every ounce of our body, soul and spirit to bless Your Holy name forever!

Proverbs 18:1 “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgment.” This is exactly what I was doing when I was overeating in the months of March, April, May and June. This is what I do when I prefer my will over His will; I willingly isolate myself from the BEST He has to offer me. I thank God He is faithful, just and forgiving of my sins as I confess them to Him throwing them as far as the east is from the west.

Selah (means pause and think about this).

  

*The italicized portions of this note are prayers.

Strategies and Prayers for War

My thoughts from NKJV 2 Kings 9 When I am writing “Let Us”, I am not asking Father to ‘let us’ I am calling us to join together and do what follows. The italicized portions of this note are prayers.

15 We must remember that we are in battle and often times receive battle wounds. When the battle still rages or is over, we must remember to return to our ‘homeland’ to recover from our wounds, which were inflicted upon us. Our homeland should always be at the feet of Father. He is the only One Who can and will provide rest and fulfill our longings and heal us in dry, thirsty, war-raging lands.

24 As we fight our enemies, let us remember to draw back our bows of His power, wisdom, authority, gifts, Kingdom and in all (not half or anything less than full strength) obedience with FULL strength, faith and will, so the arrows we shoot will thrust through the strongholds of our enemies and the lusts of our flesh. 27 Though our enemies flee, let us pursue them and shoot them deep enough that they will die wherever they have fled. Let us not leave any of our enemies alive and well.

33 Let us call to others for help and then trample our foes under our feet.

34 Let us also take time to eat and drink in the natural realm but mostly in the spiritual realm so we may be refreshed and renewed, fixing our eyes back on Father.

37 Father will cause our enemy corpses to be as refuse on the surface of the fields. 10:11 We must choose to destroy, abolish, and kill ALL that remains in our lives that is not of Father’s will for us, even if they come across as acquaintances, friends, habits, etc. Let us choose to leave nothing remaining with whom we have made allegiances with other than Father.

15-17 Let there be no distance too great, mountain too high, valley too low, or ocean too wide that would keep us from demolishing the works of our enemies and our flesh in every corner of our lives. May the zeal of the Lord be so evident in us others will want to grasp hold of our hands, climb on board and go with us to seek and destroy all our adversaries. 19 Let us then also act deceptively upon our enemies, with ALL intent of destroying any form of idol worship in our lives as well.

21 Let us make a call to the very recesses of our beings/lives that all things not bound to our Lord will be exposed. We know all worship or belief in anything other than what Father says is true and right is wrong and we command it to be revealed, 25 so we can go in and kill the thinking, actions, and enemies letting none escape. 26 Let us then take out anything connected to them, burn them, break them down, tear them down, thus making all of the works of our enemies and our flesh a refuse dump. Oh God, help us NEVER to go back to this refuse dump or this sewer/ crap hole/waste pile wanting them again. That’s exactly what I did when I started eating foods I knew I should have. I picked up the old habits/wants/tastes/desires from the pile of crap that I had given to Him and took it back, ate from it, played with it, danced with it (I danced with the crappy, sewer, cesspool covered items) and then I even swallowed them! G-----ROSS!

31 Let us then determine to walk in God’s ways with all our hearts and depart from our willful wrong doings, deficiencies, imperfections, shortcomings and sins. Acts 17:6-8 May our lives reflect more harboring of You and Your presence producing acts, attitudes, habits and lifestyles in our lives that are contrary to the decrees, feelings, impulses desires of our flesh and all this world uses to entices us. Let us commit to Father’s cause even if we have to pay security (consequences) to be set free. I thank Jesus, He is and always will be our true security that forever has been paid, even though we might have to walk out consequences due to our choices.

4 Cause others to be persuaded by our explanations and demonstrations of Jesus in our lives, reasoning with them by use of Your word. Grant us even multitudes of devout, leading men and women and even those who are not as lovely in the world’s eye. 11 Grant those as well who are fair-minded, those who are ready to receive Your word with all readiness. Lead us to those who are ready. Place upon these new and old believers a willingness to search Your word daily for what is true and right for their lives causing them to believe.

16 In our times of waiting for our next adventure with You, provoke us to change when we see ourselves and others given over to idols, fetishes, desires, images, favorites, heroes, superstars and icons (even icons on our iPads, iPhones, computers, etc.). 17-31 Cause us to put an end to the relationship between these idols and help us to encourage others to do the same. If it is a new doctrine to our ears cause us to ask you for answers and then be willing to obey what Your direction.

Psalm 144:1-2 Thank You for training our hands for war and our fingers for battle. Even our fingers You train for battle, how cool is that? Every part of us is essential for the war that rages day by day. Thank You for being our loving-kindness, our fortress, our high tower, our deliverer, our shield and the One we take refuge in, all the while subduing our enemies with You as our guide. 7 Rescue us today from those who lie to us and from the lies we tell ourselves, whether they are people or demons whispering in our ears offering their right hand of fellowship, which is FALSEHOOD.

11, 13 Make our sons and daughters (our gifts/abilities/ideas/etc.) be as plants-grown up in their youth and as pillars in Your house. Make our storehouses full, supplying all the needs of others and ourselves. Proverbs 17:27 May we be known to hold/share Your knowledge, sparingly speaking, ever waiting for Your Spirit to give us the words to say, as well one who has understanding with a calm spirit.