Do not look to man for your spiritual sustenance,  your soul's food and drink. In the Communion service,  it is the Body and the Blood of our Lord Jesus, our Christ that we are to serve one another - but remember  - Christ himself served the first Communion meal - henceforth,  Christ in us continues to serve us his flesh and his blood - by giving us in sacrifice one to another. We are his Body - we are sustained by his blood. We consume his flesh by partaking of each other's lives  - but remember the Lord's command - do not consume flesh with the blood still in it - the life is in the blood - so, he's telling us we must only consume flesh that has died. In the same way - we can only have our flesh (life) offered by Christ to another when we've died to our flesh's lusts and desires, Amen. In our flesh is found all manner of unclean things (Gal:5:19-21) but when we die to all these we become full of his Spirit's fruit - then we become palatable to others! The more dead to your flesh you become  the more alive to Christ, to his Spirit, you become.  You replace your flesh's affections with God's desires. You exchange unrighteousness for righteousness, wickedness for holiness, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for the Tree of Life. 

 I crave Your presence  beyond even sleep.

 I crave Your presence  more than food or drink.

 Come to me now lest my heart faint.

 Come to me Lord, show me no restraint. 

 I am weak and cannot do as You please

 unless You take over all that is in me.

 My soul is shattered and weary and torn.

 My enemies exult and laugh me to scorn.

 I need Your touch, I need Your voice,

 till Your eyes are upon me I cannot rejoice.

 Oh Father, I'm slain as a prodigal son

 given to lusts - I'm a prideful one.

 Deliver me, God, ere i remain unclean. 

 Deliver me from all that's obscene. 

 Wash me, cleanse me with Your Holy blood.

 Holy Spirit within me be as a flood -

 remove the Dam of filth and of doubt

 till I'm clean before You both inside and out 

 consumed by what makes You proud  -

 May the hallmark of my sonship be humility. 

 May all that I do be pleasing to Thee.

 May You use without hindrance my hands and my feet.

 To do as You please is what makes my soul sweet!

HALLELUJAH! Ha le lu Yah!

 Though the nations rage

Though the heathen say

Let us break their bonds asunder 

He that sits in the Heavens shall laugh

and every word that He's spoken shall come to pass

and all the earth shall tremble and quake

and all that can be shaken will shake

as The Lord begins to separate 

His bride from all who hate

From henceforth the plagues shall not come nigh

My sanctified, Holy, altogether lovely   Bride

For I'll remain close by       indeed, inside

The World is about to know such calamity 

as it has never known before,  nor ever again will see

Remain in the Ark of My Presence,  My Bride

for only there can you hope to survive 

yet not only survive but prosper and thrive 

as a mighty oasis in a desert vast

so shall you remain till the Judgments are passed

 Oh come all His people and worship Him true,

 worship with all that's inside of you!

Dance as the trees that have been set free,

 with leaves that won't wither but blossom before Him eternally!

HALLELUJAH! LET ALL HIS PEOPLE SING HA LE LU JAH!

HALLELUJAH! NOW ALL GOD'S PEOPLE SING HALLELUJAH!

Oh come all His saints, fill your hearts with praise,

 for His banner of love over you now is raised!

You'll run and not grow weary, walk and not faint,

 with wings as Eagle's you'll rise above every complaint!

HALLELUJAH! LET ALL HIS PEOPLE SING HA LE LU JAH!

HALLELUJAH! NOW ALL GOD'S PEOPLE SING HALLELUJAH!

Hide in the cleft of the rock carved for you,

 kept safe by the groom who is faithful and true!

Come to the desert place, meet with Him face to face,

 taste the sweet wine of His love in this place!

HALLELUJAH! ALL GOD'S PEOPLE SING HA LE LU JAH!

HALLELUJAH! NOW IS THE TIME TO SING HALLELUJAH!

The blessing of betrayal

 

During my first four years in Ireland,  I endured a lot of betrayal.  Now I see, all things truly do work together for our good, even the betrayal of close, trusted friends.  See, we all must have our very own Judas (some of us need 3 or 4 lol). 

Jesus could not have fulfilled his destiny if it had not been for Judas. Because of Judas's betrayal,  someone he loved and trusted, someone he brought into his inner circle,  our Lord was sent to the Cross, where he died on our behalf.  He was murdered by their hate, his blood flowed, his flesh died.

And so too, must we die to the affections and lusts found in us, that is, in our flesh - that Jesus died for. We too must endure our own personal Cross and we too need our Judas to do it. We must crucify pride - pride in self above all,  and having someone dear to us, that we let down our guard around and wholly trusted, someone we love, when they betray our love and trust, the pain can be a wound from which we never recover, or it can be a tool in God's hands to crucify self, till we're able to love them in return for their hate, till we're able to forgive them and love them while they're betraying us, as Jesus did to the very ones crucifying him "FATHER FORGIVE THEM".  The next level to our maturity in Christ is to not only forgive those who persecute and despitefully use us and betray us -  but to ask the Father to forgive them too. This is truly not thinking of self but thinking of others. I'll admit, there have been times in my past when I've forgiven someone thinking " Now the Lord can heap coals of fire on their head", but maturity says " Father forgive them for what they've done to me" - actually caring about their welfare and their future.

We need betrayal because we simply cannot crucify ourselves,  by ourselves.  So remember this the next time you're betrayed - Jesus knew ahead of time, well in advance,  that Judas would betray him - yet he chose to let him into his life anyway.  He may have even known when he chose him - or rather, when the Father picked him to be one of the twelve. Jesus said "FATHER, THESE WHOM YOU GAVE ME" - so, betrayal can be sent to us by our Father - out of love for us, amen.