I live the miraculous life you've heard about in your dreams.

I walk among the clouds that the mountains envy.

I ride upon the high places of the earth,

where the wind and the cloud join to give birth,

For the latter rain shall be greater

than all that you've known -

May your faith be a womb

through which my will is grown.

I stedfastly refuse to be a servant of men -

I am reserved for the Most High

who has anointed me and sends -

I've known things that make the angels jealous,

for i know Him in a way they never will,

For I'm called to be His Ruth,

for His desires to fulfill.

I search with Him for the stones of darkness.

I return to Him rejoicing,  my bosom full of sheaves,

thanking Him for all that I am and ever shall be.

The only hands that are truly clean

are those nailed to the Cross with Me.

The only heart that is truly pure

is the heart given to Me, be assured....

 Did you know the Lord will schedule "dates"  with us?  Divine appointments when He expects us, desires us to draw aside with Him, as Jesus did with his Father when He went alone to the mountains to pray "and when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone". Jesus, you see, was practicing what he taught us to do: "But you, when you pray, enter into your closet, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father which is in secret; and your Father which sees in secret shall reward you openly".

Those who do not pray in secret, who do not meet with God privately,  love to pray in public before men, especially in churches,  for they seek the reward that comes from men. Thosr who pray in private as Jesus instructed,  do not usually pray in public - and they too have their reward, which comes from the Father alone. "And it came to pass, as he was alone praying".  Spending quality time alone with God is a vital step on the path to maturity.  

The thing is - these "dates" will sometimes come at inopportune moments. They may interrupt your ball game for instance, or that quiet time you've been yearning for all week. You know, when you're about to curl up on the couch with a good book or movie, with that cup of coffee.  The point is, when we want a "date" with Him, He is more than willing - always ready to drop what He's doing to meet with us and give us His full attention.  Can we treat Him any differently? What in your life is more important than Him? Ask yourself.  Put another way - in your life, what are you more passionate about than Him? Because if there's an  answer to that question besides "nothing" and "no one" then self hasn't been fully crucified in your heart. Remember " you are not ypur own, you are bought with a great price". 

This life is not youra to do with as you please - we are to live for Him not ourselves.  We are to seek to give Him pleasure not ourselves. "If you turn away from.......doing your pleasure on My holy day.....and shall honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor speaking your own words: then shall you delight yourself in the Lord". See it? We cannot delight ourselves in the Lord till we turn away from seeking our own pleasure. America! America - God shed His grace on thee but you took his grace and squandered it on the pursuit of pleasures. We spend, as a natiin, billions each year seeking to pleasure ourselves- enough to feed the world's poor several times over. Hey, let's spend our money on a bigger building to meet in! We must commit our hearts to either seek Him or seek to please ourselves.  We can't have it both ways.

The times we draw aside to privately meet with one another are more precious to me than silver or gold. They're the most precious moments of my life. I've now virtually given up watching TV and movies. I've been fasting from the words of man that i might more clearly hear the words of God. I love you Lord, though i don't always act like it. I appreciate your desire to spend time with me, for desiring me. Thank you for wanting me, i want you too.

I would like to urge you, my reader, to schedule a date with the Lord and keep it. Yet even as i write this i realize your heart is already inclined to do so. Or not. If not, break up the fallow ground of your heart - focus your heart on Him. He's a great date! He's shown mw shooting stars, glorious sunsets,  painted just for me, he's tuned my ears to the sound of children laughing with delight as they play together,  carefree and light hearted. He's shown me countless miracles, large and small, as we've walked and talked together through the years, delighting in each other's company.  He's shared his heart with me not just his mind and he'll do this with you too, if you desire him to. He wants to hear your poems and songs written especially  for him and he wants to share poetry he's composed just for you. You are his bride - starr acting like it. 

Selah.

 We must not deny the power and authority He's granted us. We must not deny the holy lifestyle He's called us to. When we confess Him before men THE BLIND RECEIVE THEIR SIGHT, AND THE LAME WALK, THE LEPERS ARE CLEANSED, AND THE DEAF HEAR, THE DEAD ARE RAISED UP, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. "And blessed is he who shall not be offended in me" Then Peter said, silver and gold have i none, but such as i have, give i thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk. And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up; and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 

The crippled man did not need money, he needed to be healed, and we, dear saints, carry with us wherever we go - the healer of the sick, lame and broken in body and heart of this world. If we confess Him before men they will be saved, healed and delivered.  There is no other way but to " love thy neighbor as thyself".

Tell me, when you are hurting in anyway,  do you not attend to your pain? We must love others at least as much, if not more than, we love ourselves.  Attend to the pain of others, as many as God leads you to. Churches have taught us to give money when we should be giving Christ.  Give Christ and watch them "rise up and walk". Watch their eyes of understanding open and watch them be given "ears that they might hear". Watch the love of God shed abroad in your heart work wonders among them. Watch them walk and leap and praise God win you. And after you have confessed Christ before men to be their healer, you must confess Him as their savior,  as Peter does in Acts 3:11-26 "Repent ye therefore and be converted,  that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ,  which before was preached to you.

Yet notice the reaction of the religious leadership- those who presented themselves before men as God's appointed representatives,  to the demonstration and preaching of the Gospel- "And as they spake with the people,  the priests and the captain of the temple (today's equivalent would be the pastor) and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people ( in today's "temples", or as we call them - churches", leadership still gets very upset if anyone they don't approve of and give permission to,  teaches the people, especially Apostles. Apostles are forbidden to teachb in 99% of all churches on earth today) and preached through Jesus  the ressurecection of the dead. Churches will preach this, but only as a future mass event, not for individuals here and now. They will not demonstrate and live the resurrected life JESUS died to give us. It's always a past or future event to them, never a present blessing.  This leadership took the Apostles,  the leadership approved by God, whom He had used to heal a lame man, (a man they had passed by many times and had only given alms to), and more importantly,  whom God had used to cause about 5000 men with lame faith to believe, and they threw them in jail. This, my brethren, is the typical reaction of leadership instituted by man when confronted with leadership set in place by God. For they ever want to maintain their grip on power. It will be this way till Christ returns, of a truth.

Acts Study continued

 

In Acts 3, some Apostles go to the Temple and enter through the gate called "Beautiful". There, they encounter a man crippled from birth. Oh what a relevant prophetic picture for us today! Hear me you Apostles! For you too will encounter many with "crippled faith" from birth, in today's "temples" we call "churches". Many have never been able to walk with God because they've never encountered real faith, only the pseudo faith religious churches practice. They have a form of godliness but they deny and resist God's power, His very presence, in their midst. But, though the crippled man had never encountered God by sitting outside man's temple, he did encounter Him when he came near to God's temple, the Apostles. 

They met the crippled man rather late in the day, around 3 in the afternoon. Many "crippled saints" today will encounter God's Apostles rather late in their lives. Though they may have lain in their pews all their spiritual lives, they will encounter men and women with real faith and they will "rise, take up their bed, and walk" (they must take their bed with them so no one else can use it and as a testimony - i used to be just like you, sitting around in my pew all the time, now look at me!). It's never too late to have a life changing,  powerful encounter with Jesus! Healing is the inheritance of all God's children no matter how long they've gone without it. If, they answer "yes" to the question- "Will YOU be made whole?"

The Apostles went to the Temple, the place where men continued to meet together,  without God's presence ( remember? He tore the vail and departed?) They kept meeting in the Temple as if nothing had happened. "Oh that vail that used to be there? Ummmm...pay no attention to the fact it's gone now. We'll have it sewed and repaired and back up before you know it! Uh...took it for cleaning, that's it! Just having it cleaned! They kept reading the Word as they always did, no one noticed God had departed from them because He wasn't the focus of their meetings, the religion they created about Him was the focus. But in His mercy, God returned to the Temple in the Apostles,  because His crippled people were there and He still wanted to touch and heal them. The Apostles went to the Temple for the same reason Jesus did - to preach the Gospel to the poor, to open blind eyes, to heal the crippled and the maimed, to bind up the broken hearted. They went to bring them out of the Temple built by man to the Temple God was busy building, that met "house to house". The Apostles were showing by example God wants to meet with us daily, not just once a week and holidays.  

The crippled man was not looking for healing. Remember,  he had no faith, so he wasn't expecting it at all. Meeting people with no faith entering and leaving the Temple, all his life, had taught him to look for money, not healing. He had never encountered or seen a miracle, why should this day be any different? He learned God is a powerful God, healing the sick, raising the dead, mightily delivering His people from evil within and without, in the pages of the Holy Book, but not in his day. After all, God hadn't done a thing for 400 years. Not even a word (until that weirdo John showed up). Like the man at the pool of Bethesda,  he needed man to carry him everywhere and care for him. He was completely dependent on man, exactly like today's churches. Most saints cannot function or do much of anything without their pastor. But though he was looking for money, he encountered God....and the precious faith the Apostle's had was far more valuable than gold or silver, of which Peter had none. What Peter did have was faith, the kind of faith that can only come by spending time with, first Jesus,  then the Holy Spirit.  This, then, is God's purpose for raising up and sending forth Apostles and Prophets today - so God's people can encounter Him and be raised (some from the dead) up to walk and talk with Him as Adam did in the Garden.