Meditating On The Word Of God!

I want to share something with you that God has taught me this morning when I was meditating. I have to say I had no idea how to meditate. But, in 2005 after I lost my job God was preparing me to learn to buckle up for the ride that was going to change my life forever, because things were going to get messier and way worse than I ever thought possible. So the Holy Spirit taught me to “still” my heart, not by myself but with His help. Then, I let my mind, my heart and soul be taken up completely with God’s Word, the beauty of it, how each iota of His word is true, how He works things out in our lives, how to apply each verse of the Bible to our lives, etc… As you learn to do this with the Holy Spirit, not only it becomes easier to apply in all circumstances in your life, but you learn to become so immersed and so taken up that you could spend hours in His Company. It is as if time does not exist. As the matter of fact, when I first learned to meditate with God in the wilderness, I could meditate on His word for hours and I never knew until I snapped out of it, that most of the day was gone.

For those of you who are tempted to say this is what it means to be caught up in third heaven, let me tell you it is not. Because being caught up in the third heaven changes your soul in a way that you can never explain and the thing is, you never know when God is going to take you there. What I explained above is simple meditation done in the spirit and with the Holy Spirit. But, anyway, as I was immersed in my meditation this morning, God felt the need to help me understand something deeper. The past two days I wrote about how a life of oneness with God takes you from fearing His wrath to appreciate it as an attribute of His holiness.  What I learned this morning reminded me of something very important, as Christians, it is so important we do not take lightly our postings whether through social media, Blogs, websites etc. Because in the end, we are what we think and we are what we write about. (If we do not use ghost writers)

I don’t know about you, but as I write my posts, I too am learning from God. It gives me an opportunity to meditate on things that I might have forgotten to thank Him about or take for granted. It keeps me living with an awareness of God constantly on a daily basis to the point where, if I spend time thinking about anything that did not lead to God, I need to know what did I waste my time with? Through my postings, I learned to acquire more gratitude as I recall the things He has done for me and the grace He lavishes on me.

So, this morning was not any different. I was having such an awesome time with Him, and then He told me “do you know why you wrote the past two days about finding balance between God’s wrath and His Holiness?” Do you understand why this knowledge and its effect are suddenly part of who you are? I smile and though to myself, “no I don’t know because you never told me”. Before I finish my thought, He said to me, well this is part of what it means to behold me like in a glass of glory. It is also part of changing into the same image.” As he said that to me, I smiled with joy and gratitude in my heart, then I came out of the meditation time.

I was elated with what He taught me, but at the same time it was a learning process that corrected some of my faulty thinking. Why? Because a few years back, I thought (from what I lived with Him) 2 Corinthians 3:18 was mainly about God’s face being etched in yours and my face based on a life spent looking at Him through sitting at His feet. Today I understand that beholding His face is just part of the process and this little verse means so much more to God, in the way He plans to do it in us. I understand that we are learning to behold Him as He works it out in us, in all His facets. It is about our whole spiritual makeup from head to toes.

The funny thing is, I used to see my transformation from the wilderness walk with Him as having gone through the process of being a caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. But unlike the butterfly after its transformation, God has just begun the process of transformation through those who belongs to Him. My dear brothers and sisters, if you could only take a pick out the work that is left to be done in us by Him, you would definitely make different choices with the time you are allocated to live out his life on earth. (Look who’s talking! LOL - I did not know that until he hit me with a 4X4 to get my attention)

Just so you know, yesterday, God has given me instructions on the subject of my post for today. But, after my time with Him, I obtained permission from Him to switch things around. And like a true daddy, it was okay with Him! I actually got His blessings with gladness in both of our hearts. 

I love my God & I truly love you guys!

To my litte community on Wordpress, you  are so precious to my heart, you will never know how much! I appreciate the time you take to write me, encourage me and to comments.  God showed me how not to worry about fans lost on Facebook, because you remained faithful and you matter. Thanks so much

VIDEOS

I am including these very short videos. The reason being is that, the seven years I spent in the wilderness with Him, truly reflects what you see in these videos. When He first started with me after I lost my job, not only my life was turned upside down, I could feel as if there was a demolition and construction happening inside me. It was so real, like an idiot I sent an email to my pastor for help because I did not know it was normal with God.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY-Fiyq8jc4

2) Then for a while it was this video. It represents all the changes that he was doing within me

http://gizmodo.com/watch-a-caterpillar-transform-into-a-butterfly-from-ins-506894053

Through this stage I learned the meaning of what Paul said in Galatians 4:19 and why He was in pain for the Galatians to go forward claiming what they were missing. I also learned first hand why the first work that truly matters to God and in the absence of this work, whatever else we have done in His name has no importance and no value. This change that comes only from the power of the cross is what true salvation is about. I learned the true meaning through the Holy Spirit’s teaching what God had in mind when He penned James 2:18. This transformation process is “faith by your deeds.” Your only deed as a human being is the willingness to embrace this life in Him and allowing Him to move freely in your life through your faith in Him.

As He showed me the whole process He allowed me to see the extend of my involvement.  Only then, I understood how greatly we Christians misunderstand the grace of God. Because, even the willingness to allow Him to move freely in my life through all the circumstances, is still a work of grace that I received from Him through Salvation. I just put it to work through faith in Him. Without salvation entering my soul, I would never feel the urge to let Him move freely in my life. Why would I care? So, this process is also the work of our Salvation.  It is pure and unadulterated grace. So when the word of God says to us “unless you believe in vain…” Yeah! There is something there you should take into consideration. God did not pen those words down to hear His Holy voice. He was talking to you and me.

3) Then, on the third stage where the butterfly came out… http://www.wimp.com/monarchbutterfly/ He taught me what His word meant in Song of Solomon 8:5 “Who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, Leaning upon her beloved?” You see, through this process He teaches you to trust Him and to depend on Him. You can lean on Him because your will is handed back to you, but not before it has become His will. Your soul takes Him on as your lover. Through each stage I had a song in this one I learned to sing the song, “Jesus lover of my soul….. It’s all about you”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD-ZdMOx_HY

Are you truly born again? Examine yourself… Unless you believe in vain!

 

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2 Corinthians 3:18 – King James Version

“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 

God's Holy Wrath!

Early this morning the Holy Spirit made it clear to me what my subject for today and tomorrow would be. I will spare you the details of the experience, but God has a way of changing our plans and He never ceases to amaze me when He does that. Even when I told Him that I did not want to talk about tomorrow’s subject because it is part of my next book, His answer was tomorrow is not today, then He moved on about the order of the day.

He reminded me that I was not always living a balance life with His wrath and love and there was a time I was truly afraid of Him. That is true. Even without Him saying it, I know some Christians might misunderstand my view on God’s wrath from yesterday’s post. For instance, I know Christians who have never reached a point in their relationship with God where they learned to fear God’s wrath. They simply feel and think that God’s love for each of us and mainly Christians, automatically cancel out His wrath.  I also met someone who has the audacity to believe the wrath of God is related to the Old Testament and there is no longer anything to fear. This idea came from such a long time and eloquent Christian.

When we have an incorrect view of God’s wrath, we do not grow spiritually in the Lord. Furthermore, these incorrect views of God’s wrath are not Biblical. If His wrath is a thing of the past how can you learn to fear Him? How can you learn to give Him the reverence that is due to Him? If you do not have a healthy dose of reverence for Him, then everything is permissible. If the Salvation you have received did not teach you or led you there, then you can assume you have a defective salvation, or some kind of man made one.

Another thing that is true as well is that if you live your whole life in fear of God’s wrath, you will never know Him and your life will be like the servant who received one talent in the parable of the talent in Matthew 25:14-30. True Salvation from God takes you to a progression where there is an awareness of His wrath and you do not quite know what to make of it. You fear Him because of what you read of His wrath, and in your mind it is a negative attribute.  Even when you keep telling yourself that it cannot be a negative attribute because in God there is no blemish, but your attitude toward God will reveal that your heart cannot buy into it.  Then as you grow in grace, you will stop being scared because you find that He is a gentle and loving father who cares for you deeply and want only what is best for you.

As you continue a steadfast walk, you grow in your intimacy with Him; you will find you have left behind the stage where you were scared of Him. This is a normal progression of our walk with Him and it shows us we have actually worked toward a real relationship with Him. Then you find that, the more you live and walk in the spirit and remain at His feet through a life of surrender and abiding, there is no fear in you at all in regards to His wrath. But this lack of fear comes from living a life of oneness with Him. You have acquired a balance because you know Him intimately and the wrath you used to fear so much is just one of His Holy attributes.

I still remember when I discovered the harmony that exists between God’s love, wrath and holiness it was a time where I felt I was being wasted in a never ending holding pattern. But even though I felt this way and I could not explain God’s purpose for this stage of my life ---- after the wilderness time----I decided not to take matters into my own hands to make things happen with my own understanding.  I felt, the safer investment was to trust Him through it all. I kept praying for the strength to remain steadfast and persevere.  So when He showed me the beauty of having acquired the understanding of these attributes of His, and how they merged within me as if the knowledge had become part of who I am in Him, I remember saying “WOW!  I uttered, “How did I get there?”

I uttered those words simply because I still remembered vividly, the day when God gave me the choice to either move forward in an intimate relationship with Him personally or remain in a life of second hand Christianity. I still remember how afraid I was. Like the Israelites in Exodus 20 who did not want to deal with God directly, I felt if I move forward in a close relationship with Him I would die. In my mind, all I kept thinking was that His wrath was going to cause my death.  What compelled me to go forward and choose Him, was that my heart could not take the idea that I was no better than the Israelites.

I kept thinking, not choosing to go forward with God directly has not been a good thing for the Israelites at all. I also remembered how they rejected dealing with Him directly in first Samuel from chapter 8 to 10. When I read those chapters, I recalled how God was hurt by their rejection and my heart melted. In my fear, even though I did not have much bible knowledge, I said to myself, “but God’s word said in one place in the Old Testament and another place in the New Testament that their story has been recorded so that we can avoid making the same mistake, I think I need to apply it here.” This was me, thinking in the span of a few minutes but as it was happening to me it felt like a lifetime. I then said okay God, even though you are going to kill me by the time I get to you, but here I come.

It turned out He did not want to kill me, He simply wanted an up close and personal relationship with me and He used His word to test my obedience. Years later I understood much more. Going to God the Father for a personal relationship in intimacy, is the goal of Salvation. In 1 Peter 3:18 we are told that Christ died He might bring us to God. Bringing us to God is much more than saying the sinner prayer and activities. Going to God has to start with us truly going to Him “in the spirit”

God’s wrath is a response to our disobedience and since He loves us with a passionate and jealous love and since His holiness cannot tolerate sin, then His wrath is perfect and always justified.

 P. S

I am still sick, it took me all day to write this and I hope you can make sense of what I wrote down.

Hear God's Plea With Your Heart,Through The Book of Hebrews

I have been somewhat bedridden with a sinus cold, fever and a cough that makes me feel like my bronchitis is coming back. To be able to spend time with God, I need to take two pills in the morning which allow me to feel better for a little while. I found myself stuck in Hebrews, unable to move on. Furthermore, I kept feeling overwhelmed by the revelation of His word in the Hebrews book. There are times I would read two or three verses and that’s enough for me for the day because it is too much to take all at once. So, I would close my Bible and meditate. But, in the back of my mind I am always rushing my mediation time to get to those people that I pray for on a daily basis, just because I am afraid the pills would wear off and I would be useless.

So, yesterday I was meditating after I closed the Bible, I decided not to rush myself and not to pray for anyone else. I felt the need to minister to God and I wanted the time to be about Him alone. Finally God got my attention. I realized that’s what He has been trying to do for the past few days. Then He asked me if I noticed the difference in the way I read the book of Hebrew now compare to a few years ago when He was using Hebrews to teach me about my walk with Him?  I answered yes I notice you are teaching me as if I am a pastor reading some verses to prepare a sermon. I have no idea why this comparison. It just felt like it.

The difference is when He was training me few years ago to prepare me for a walk of holiness and faith He focussed on this book with me and taught me why certain passages had to be imparted to me. He did that, to help me understand the pain I was going through. Through this kind of training with Him, I learned that when we are suffering, He uses our trials to impart this life in us. So, the frustration disappears or at least it becomes more bearable when we understand the process and all the benefits intended by God. We know the pain serve a purpose so we can focus on the goal instead of the pain.

God turned things around this time. The first time there was joy, I was learning, and the word was coming alive in my life. This time around is so painful and the only way I can describe the pain that I am feeling is that I feel like I am carrying the world on my shoulders. I am frustrated that God chose to show me these things. I am frustrated because I feel powerless. I am also frustrated because I do not know how to help people understand how important it is to heed to God’s words. As I was asking God what gives? He told me to blog about it. Honestly, that’s not what I wanted to hear for several reasons.

Right away, I thought about the last time I posted the Godly wife’s post; I lost over 500 people on Facebook. Secondly, I have a craving to be normal, even a little bit superficial so that I could attract more people. (Confession time) I hate the fact that my ministry resemble to the prophet of doom. There is a beauty in God and a beauty in being His heir that I would love to be able to talk about all the time. Yet, I know God’s plan for me is to help people understand how to get to the beauty we find in Him. That’s what we Christians tend to avoid. We want the beauty but not the pain we have to go through to get there.

Times like that, I find solace in knowing what God is asking of me is the size of a fly compare to Noah. Imagine, having to live more than hundred years warning people about something that was totally unreal to them. But, I supposed because he would have needed tons of strength to persevere in faith and to take on the ridicule that he must have been exposed to, God must have lavished His grace on him to help him keep the faith alive. I find solace in knowing that as ridiculous as I sound sometimes when I warn people of the danger of a shoddy Christianity, when it matters most, they will know that I was right. Sadly, it will be too late.

When you think about Noah, he preached every single day for over hundred years, warning people of the flood and calling them to make things right with God, yet he was not able to save a soul except the members of his family that God granted him. I would not have understood why if God did not explain it to me. You see, it is extremely important to God to use others to warn people. The funny thing is that God usually chooses people who do not like this task.  God already knows the majority of people you are warning do not care about your message. But, like He said to me before and gave me a glimpse of an image, when judgement time comes, He will have an answer for those who are planning on using “ I DID NOT KNOW” as their excuses. This is part of God being a just God.

You see, as Christians, we are so in love with what we understand with our intellect and in the flesh when in reality God’s word have to be grasped with the Spirit to understand the full scope. For instance, when we say something like, “NOTHING COULD SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD” people feel all warm and tingly, they get a buzz, they say amen with all the strength they have and if you post this on Facebook, you will have hundreds of “likes.” Then, they go on with their shoddy Christianity feeling really good. In reality, it is awesome to know that, but there is so much more to it that we cannot grasp with the flesh and with the intellect.

While we should be grateful for knowing this truth, we should know that God love for each of us is so wide, so deep and so humongous that it feels and look bigger than the world.  But, when He teaches you about His love, you realize there is an intensity to it that could cause you to suffocate within seconds of being closer to His love. The intensity you find in His love has a consuming passion, jealousy wrath etc. As you get to know Him intimately, through loving Him and walking with Him in the spirit, you realize none of these attributes are negative. In fact, the word negative does not even come to mind. You are not scared of His wrath either. His nature in you, teaches you how to accept them and see His beauty through it all. His love is as intense as His wrath and knowing the two, it brings some sort of balance in your walk with Him. But, this is not something you can grasp over night and neither in the flesh. Only as you live and walk in the spirit you learn these things at his feet. – You see, TALK IS CHEAP!

Another reason that I find it hard to have my ministry is because I know how hard it is to tell people they are in reality spiritually blind. They find so much satisfaction in “doing” Christianity. They have lots of activities in their lives, they attend church, bible study,   they feel passionate about things etc., and you cannot tell them they are spiritually blind. They simply do not understand what you are talking about. Yes, these things are good things to have in our lives, but if we remain spiritually blind throughout our Christian walk, well, a caterpillar that has not morphed into a butterfly is not a butterfly.  

Through the book of Hebrews the warning is about the Jews who remained on the side and did not want to have anything to do with Christianity. But most of the book, the writer dedicated to us Christians, to also warn us about how important to have true faith and go forward with Him for the inward transformation to take place so that we can all become butterflies. When it comes to blindness, we have an example of Job right in front of us. When I read job, I don’t care his problems stemmed from Satan having given permission by God to bring him down. What I take from the book is how we are to grow through our trials. It is how to worship God, live for Him in good or bad times and be all that He wants us to be. Even though I read the book over and over again, I cannot wait to get to chapter 42: 5-6 where Job said: “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.” Job was referring to the eyes of his heart there. I find the book beautiful because I know without the shadow of a doubt, that we all need to go through some major trials in our lives to get the eyes of our hearts open, and only then we can say “oh I see” – Job had no idea he was spiritually blind, I had no idea I was spiritually blind either, until I was able to see. Another thing we find out is that as we can see with our spiritual eyes, we also realize we have no use for those ears we have on the side of our heads.  God wants us to hear with our hearts I remember saying “oh!” That’s why even deaf people have no excuses for not knowing you intimately.  

So, I have no intention of revealing all that God has revealed to me from the book of Hebrews. But, for the next few weeks, I will be using some of the puritan and those classic pastors like Spurgeon perhaps to blog about the book. I will make sure to include some of my own experiences and thoughts.  

I feel so lousy, I have to stop but I hope all that I said make sense and prepare some of you to learn to hear with your heart. I hope you crave intimacy with Him and that you learn to live just to know Him more.

I love you all,

MJ  

Wholesome or Unwholesome Living!

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Excerpt from Forgiveness of Injuries 

by J. R. Miller

The word wholesome means whole, sound, having perfect health. It is applied usually to conditions. Thus we speak of a wholesome climate, meaning a climate that is healthful; or of wholesome food, meaning food that is nutritious. But the word may be used also of a person. Hawthorne speaks of a thoroughly wholesome heart, and of the purifying influence scattered throughout the atmosphere of the household, by the presence of one such heart.

There are wholesome people who indeed exert a purifying and healthful influence wherever they go. They are sound and whole in their make-up and in their condition. They are healthy, not in body only-but also in mind and in spirit. Such people are blessings wherever they are found-full of life and of inspiration. Even unconsciously they diffuse strength, cheer, hope and courage-by the mere influence of their presence.

But there are also unwholesome people, whose influence is not toward the things that are beautiful and good. Their unwholesomeness may be physical, or it may be in their mental, or or social, or spiritual conditions.

A common form is what in general we call morbidness. Whatever its cause, it is the result of over-sensitiveness. Morbid people are easily disturbed in their feelings. They yield readily to depression of spirits. The smallest cause makes them gloomy. Their imagination plays a mischievous part in creating unhappiness for them. 

They imagine slights when none were intended or even dreamed of. They are apt to be very exacting toward their friends, continually demanding renewed assertions of faithfulness and constancy, and often expressing fears and doubts, and raising questions. Thus they make friendship hard, even for those who love them best.

These morbid people see all life and all the world through tinted glasses-tinted with the unhealthy hue of their own mental condition. They see their neighbor's faults-but not the excellences of his character. They have an eye for the blemishes and the unlovely peculiarities of others, and for the disagreeable things of life. They fret and chafe at the smallest discomforts in their lot, and fail to get happiness and pleasure from their many and great blessings. 

They are unhappy even in the most favorable circumstances, and discontented even in the kindliest conditions. The trouble is not in outside things-but in themselves. They are like a fever patient who tosses restlessly on his bed and complains of the heat of the room, while all the while the fever is in himself, not in his room. It is the unwholesomeness of his own spirit, that makes the world and all life around them, so full of discomfort for them.

There are many forms and phases of unwholesomeness in life. Some people are unwholesome in their religion. They find no happiness in it. It does not make them joy-givers. They are somber, gloomy Christians. They are lacking in the grace of cheerfulness and in heartiness. They are severe in their judgment of others, sometimes uncharitable and censorious. Their own religion is a burden to them-and they would make religion a burden to all who profess it. It vexes them to see a rejoicing Christian; for they suppose that joyousness is a sign of triviality of heart, and of the lack of a due consciousness of life's gravity and seriousness. They think of religion as always severe, stern, solemn, sad.

Some people are unwholesome in their affections, giving way to envy, jealousy, and suspicion, unmistakable symptoms of unhealthiness. Some are unwholesome in their temper, lacking the power of self-control, permitting anger to dominate them and lead them to unseemly outbreaks......