peripherally

The topic in a prophetic forum I follow centered around knowing God’s Voice, as opposed to your own or the enemy’s.  The answer was so simple, I almost stumbled out of it.

Him.

He is The Answer.

Getting activated and developing the gift, and practicing and learning how to hear His Voice, those are all great things to do, great tools for your arsenal, fabulous to have in your repertoire..

But they mean nothing if you are not led by Him.  They are nothing apart from Him.

And He is Love.

Knowing His Voice means.. you know Him.

How many times do you say to yourself, “Oh, I believe that’s my wife/husband/daughter/son/dad/mom talking to me, I think”?  Most of us don’t even give it a second thought.  Why?  You know them.  You are around them all the time.  You talk with them almost every day.  You know their voice in a crowded room.

You’re familiar with one another.
You’re comfortable with one another.
You’re closer to them than any others.

So should it be with the Voice of God.

You’re familiar with Him.
You’re comfortable with Him.
You know His Voice even in a “crowded room”.
You’re closer to Him than to any other.

You know Him.

Therein lies the Key.  There is explicitly no other way.  He is the Door.  He is the Gate.  He is the Path.  Get close to Him, get to know Him, allow Him into your life.  Let Him know you, and He let’s you know Him, and all the rest is added unto you.  Seek Him while He may be found.

Get so close to Him.. that you get lost in Him.  I began to get close to Him (I used to be afraid of Him, He is God Almighty, after all), and all my fears began to melt.  Sure it takes time, its still dissolving for me, I’m still melting into His Arms, but whoa, what warm gooey Love He is.  He is Altogether Good, Altogether Lovely.

I remember the first time I sang a love song to Him.  I was petrified, but He held my hand, He held me, as I sang to Him.  We whispered sweet things into one another’s ears.  It was the most intimate moment I had ever had with Him up to that point.  I felt as if I had begun to open up and let Him in.

O, and for sure, I was petrified.  It seems almost comical to me, now.  Why?  Because I was afraid for nothing.  He is not a frightful Guy.  Sure, He’s the Lord Most High and all, but, wow, nothing like I had thought.

He’s actually sort of a Pushover, if you catch my drift.  He loves me.  Already.  With all my flaws and blunders, even my blatant, I-knew-it-was-wrong-beforehand-but-I-did-it-anyway sins.

He’s wild about me.  He adores me.  He gave His Life for me.  He shares His Throne Authority with me.

Same for you.

Get to know Him.  Really, its painless.  Does He still correct me?  Sure, every time.  Does it sting sometimes?  Yep-per.  Do I still feel loved and pampered when He does?  Every Single Time.

Human terms just can’t do this, they can’t really tell of this Love Man, and of His Love.

It just won’t hurt.  It may make you cry, but not of pain, or fear.. but of Love.

peripherally.

The Word of God exists in Logos (written) and Rhema (spoken) forms.  Considering that this is the beginning of a new year (2009), and so many prophetic and end-time words have been brought forth, it seemed pleasing to Holy Spirit to discuss a bit about the Words released in this season, the Word in written (Holy Scripture) about this season and the intended audience for these Words.

Every Word in Holy Scripture is for the Christian Believer to read, to study, understand, meditate, search out it meanings.. but not every Word is to the Believer.  There are, basically, three groups of people that any particular Word from the Lord may be addressed to:  The Jews, the nations and the The Body of Christ.  Each group plays a role in these last days.  Each has a different ‘itinerary’, if you will.  Within each, of course, are warnings, instructions, admonitions, etc, based on, for example, which ‘church’ you belong to among the Body of Christ as listed in the Book of Revelation.  Another example would be the general Jewish population as opposed to clergy within Judaism, and within those groups, the higher ranking levels.. God has, at times, different messages for His chosen people in general compared to high level clergy and leaders who are charged with informing, educating and shepherding the Jewish people.

The same thing holds true for prophetic utterances.  A prophetic Word may not be intended for you, though you may be meant to hear it.  This is why it is important to know your position within these days, in these seasons.  What group are you in?

For those who have a true, authentic Covenant with the Most High God, the outlook is far better than for those who do not.  Conversely, those who do have a Covenant with the Living God will be held to a higher standard of accountability than those who do not.  Greater privileges (which indeed are available to any person who will receive Christ) come with greater responsibility, greater expectations.  While we can never ‘earn’ our way into God’s Good Graces (its a Gift, already paid for through the finished work of The Cross), we do touch our Eternal reward levels and such based upon how much we live for Him in this lifetime.  Moreover, God’s chosen people, the Jews, still have an active Covenant with the Most High God.  God is not through with them.  Its a forever deal (particularly when you talk about land on the Earth and the Jews).

Those who do not have a Covenant with the Most High God (the nations) have Words addressed to them, too.  To reach the lost, to snatch a soul from the grips of the fiery pits of hell, is a Great Commission of the Body of Christ.  The Holy Bible speaks to, and about, this population extensively, especially in the Revelation chapters.

With so many of the ‘gloom and doom’ vs ‘warm and fuzzy’ utterances in abundance, I felt led to try to clarify things amid the seeming cacophony of prophetic voices.  It is absolutely vital that you understand which group you are in, and within your group, what category (ie, repentant, back-slidden, living for Him, etc).  If you are in the Body of Christ, you have no reason to fear.  In fact, you are commanded not to fear.  Do not ride the fearful waves with the rest of the world.  Do not participate in the world’s economy.  You may be experiencing economic recession, depression, inflation, etc, but you don’t need to.  The coming storms (and they are coming) to the world and all its systems are not to come to you.

What does this mean, then?

Unplug from the systems of the world now.  If you have a Covenant with Almighty God, you should know your Benefits Package, your Inheritance.  The certainty of the dooms of the world need not be your certainty, unless you are still too attached to the world.  You are part of God’s economy.  There is no economic crisis in the Kingdom of God.  Heaven’s Economy is stronger than ever.  We can, and indeed are empowered to, and are called to, flourish despite the crises and collapses in the world around us.

How can this be so?

That is where Holy Spirit must turn the lights on for you.  You must know where you are, what is your position, where you should be to take advantage of your Kingdom Ambassadorship/Diplomatic Immunity protective guarantees, and how to get to the position(s) you need to be.  He will direct you.  He knows everything about everything.  And if you let Him, He will do it in such a way that not only will you  not miss a beat, but it will be as if you were never out of place.

God can even help you redeem the time.  He is not subject to time, we are, in this realm, but He is outside of time.  He has wanted to teach us how to master time for a good, long while now..

So in which position will you be this year?  Which would you prefer?  The choice is yours.  The doors are open.  The keys have unlocked them.  There are many, multiplied dimensions of treasures and treasure rooms waiting to be explored, appropriated.

We in the Body of Christ will be held accountable for how well we handle these treasures, what we do with them and how we bless the Jews, the nations and our Family in Christ.

Amen,

periphery

OK, so I did something I don’t normally do: I confronted someone in the Body over what I considered maltreatment toward me.

Interesting, to say the least.  It gave me a healthy infusion of confidence.  I think I did it while staying in the Love of God.

Mind you, I had no designs on ever mentioning this maltreatment, just wanted to silently slip away, stay in prayer over the situation and roll the care of it over onto God.  Nothing more.

Something (SomeOne, Holy Spirit, I discern) encouraged me to explain, to vent, as it were, in a loving way (thank You, Jesus), just to do a quick “reality check”.  Just to ensure that I was not in error, not being hypersensitive.  I brought it to my Father and also to a spiritual mentor who is prophetic.  They both advised me to confront the issue with this person, for their own good primarily.   I agreed.

Taking my mentor’s suggestion, and after much prayer for Holy Spirit’s unction and heavy influence of His Love, I contacted the person, voiced my concerns about the pattern of “frosty” behavior from them toward me, and then opened the door for clarification, as I said that I could have been wrong.  Let us reason together before parting ways, I said.

I got the expected response.

“Its completely not true.. I just don’t know you.. I was preoccupied.. it takes a while to warm up to people unlike my compadres..”, etc (paraphrased).

I replied advising that its exactly because we just met that I was perplexed by their behavior toward me, which began seemingly without cause.  Again, I asked if I had offended them, or was there some characteristic of mine that was aversive/abrasive to them.  I also had to reiterate that this was a pattern, citing examples of how not only my contact info, but my very name, was “forgotten”, and , “now I have your personal email address” was a puzzling thing to say, since I have received several personal emails directly from this person to my personal email address since about October, 2008, and have submitted all my other contact info repeatedly online, in application forms, on sign-in sheets, et al.

I got no reply back to that.

And so it goes.

I will stay in love toward them, and their ministry.  I will keep them in prayer, they are a beautiful family and ministry.  But love says the things that are hard to say.  As I am learning, to not say anything would mean I would be outside of love toward them.  Jesus said to turn the other cheek, but then He also stormed through the Temple and cleared it out of thieves.  There is a time and a season for everything.  His Love for the Father compelled Him to do so.  The slivers of insight about the underlying issues that the Lord revealed to me by Holy Spirit pretty much required gentle action on my part.

Moreover, I’m not so sad anymore, and also not so irritated in my spirit about it.  I feel like I’ve done my job, and done it with Love.  I leave the rest in His Caring Hands.

Amen,

periphery

I turn 41 this year.

Call me wonky, but that actually makes me dance!

When I hit 35, I felt like I had finally arrived.  By the time I turned 40, I had been promoted and transported, both employment-wise, and in the realm of the Spirit.  I am still in training, both vocationally and ministerially, still finding my kinship-cluster, as it were.  I turned 40, and I relaxed.  I focused.  I was catalyzed.  It was downright enzymatic.

So, imagine how I feel thinking of turning 41 this April!!

Yes, I know I’m weird.

My friends, my family, many of them, exclaim as much.  Not all, but many.  They also fall into all of those expected patterns of perception, and perspective.  Even one of my radical, prophetic mamas in the faith, Patricia King, calls this the ’second half’ of life.

Second half?  Second THIRD.

(PK, I forever love ya, gurl, but I gotta call ya out on this one!)

I plan on 125 years, minimum should the Lord tarry, that is, of a lengthy, strong life worth living, myself.  At 40, I entered the second 3rd of my life.

God has been counseling and teaching me on Redeeming the Time.  On the fourth day, God created Time.  The evening and the morning of the first day, He created Light, but it was the fourth that He made the sun, moon and stars, etc, and ordained them to be for signs and times and seasons (Genesis 1:14-19).  

If God created it, that means He is not subject to it; He’s outside of time.  If we are in Him, in Christ Jesus, new creative beings, with the spiritual DNA of our Daddy… then we also are not subject to it.  We are, in the spirit, outside of time, inside of Eternity.

Now, our physical bodies are definitely inside of time, and subject to it.  But note what this means.  Spiritual always, always, always, always rules over the natural.  Spiritual is more real than natural.  Spiritual created natural.  Spiritual is not subject to natural, unless we capitulate to that imbalance.  We are spirits, we have a soul, we live inside a body.  We have a free will, and we choose what rules over us.  Give that choice up to the world, and the choice will be made for you.

A lock has been clicking open for me in recent hours about this.  I have had the key all along, I just didn’t know it, certainly didn’t know what it unlocked, nor how to find that treasure and use that key..

We can redeem the time:

14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.  (Ephesians 5:14-16)

I am awakening from slumber in this area.  He has come to give me Light, on this and many other pursuits.  I am seeking His counsel, His mentoring.  Interpreting The Times, by Dr Chuck Pierce, is in my possession, now.  I claim that power, that anointing, that calling, that assignment, that wisdom, that gift, right now, in advance, by faith, before I even intellectualize it, before I even attempt to ascend mentally to it, before it is input into my subconscious.  I deposit that into my spirit by faith in advance (and retroactively), in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I am quickened right now to claim that “older gets better” anointing, that Sarah anointing.  God had to change her name and do some work in her, but among the results: the older she got, the better she got.  To the point that men began to covet her.  We have modern day versions of her, in that sense: the late, great Eartha Kitt, the illustrious Josephine Baker, the silken-voiced Sade. .

There are certainly men in these categories, too, but, hey, I’m a girl, so I’m spotlighting sistas.

That anointing?  Mine.  I’m taking it.  I appropriate it now by faith in the Name of Jesus. 

So, yeah, no disrespect to youth, but we are still here, and we still have a plan, too.  We still have work to do.  Forgive those of us who have awoken late in the day, but please remember our father in the faith Abraham.  He was something like 75 before God even began calling him.

I am in good company.

Amen. 

periphery 

I’ve made a painful decision, because I have had to face some things about myself.  

I have apparently made an alignment mistake.

I won’t beat myself up over it.  Certainly not the first, likely won’t be the last.  It was an honest mistake, one not intentioned; I honestly thought I was responding to the gentle pushes and pulls of Holy Spirit.  Its likely that I actually was responding to Him in that way.. it just may not be meant to endure, at least not at this point, perhaps.

This pains me, as I feel sort of like a complete failure.  I have experienced this before.  A tremendous release in my spirit when I decided to let something go.  It had been a source of immense pressure and such.  I make the choice to just stop, to cease and desist, and I was immediately relieved.

Same thing here.

You know how you know when something is over before it actually is over?  

Same thing here.

Wow, and, from the first, from the beginnings, from the intake process, to the first interactions, I knew.  I just doubted.  I doubted myself, really.  I thought that it was just my own insecurities, or even my allowing the enemy to intimidate me through other people.  

Even recounting it this far makes me tear up a little.  It hurts, kind of near the core.  

I may as well be as transparent as I can, translucent, at the least, with you all.

I go through self-worth struggles from time to time; a result of a very difficult past which, though waning, still lingers.  Deliverance is a wonderful gift from the Lord our God.  Nonetheless, bad memories and self-destructive habits still need to be dealt with, and replaced with the Love of God.  Its a process, as I am learning.  He is most assuredly helping me in these areas.  I have the Very Best Therapist In The Universe.

But, yeah, I am grateful for the times I experience these things (not for the experiences/incidents themselves, I know they are not God’s doing, but He allows them so I work my faith-muscles).  

I am also quickened just now in remembrance of that scripture that says that whatever makes manifest is Light (Ephesians 5:13).  I know that I am a carrier of His Light and His Presence.  I also know that He has needed me to establish His Kingdom, His Presence, in certain areas of darkness and remain there for a season so He could bring some things down.  I could name a number of areas, like in the corporate setting, where He has done this, going back 10-15 years or more.

Perhaps that’s an anointing, perhaps that a calling, perhaps a gifting, or perhaps I am just obeying His leadings, His Voice.  I dunno, and not all that concerned at this point, I mean, He’s my Daddy, He keeps it all in Heart.

If I truly believe that I was sincerely and accurately following the Voice of my Beloved, then I gotta believe that He led me there to bring another level, or facet, of His Light into a darkened/hazed-over area of a particular ministry.  I could be completely wrong, and self-serving about this, though, so, I will let Holy Spirit correct me in everything.  

If that is the case, though, then perhaps it was extremely good that this has happened.  If it is true, then that is exceptionally good news for this group: The Lord is pleased with them, and is exposing all areas of imperfection, hidden dark areas, in preparation for the Glory!  In either case, I am led to believe that the Lord is calling me into prayer and intercession for this ministry, this family, these affiliates and the plans and purposes of God.

Though I stand in tears outside the gate, it is quite the esteem given to me by the Most High to have assisted Him in breaking up that hardened ground.  Lord, help me remain ever-humble, ever pliable to Your Spirit, ever-prayerful, ever-interceding on their behalf.  Holy Alliances and Alignments, whether recognized of man or not, are put into place by Your Doings.  I receive, Lord.  I submit unto You, Lord Jesus.

God said to me last night two things:  “Straightening Alignments” and “Strengthening Alliances”.  Somehow, I knew it was about this (and other things), even before I came to the decision.

Yes, Lord.  Even so, come quickly, Lord.   Amen.  periphery