Shift in Authority

I believe we’re approaching a time where God is going to make some significant moves to shift the authority of his Church out of the hands of men and back into the authority of Christ and His Word. Where the teachings of men have crept in and misled the Body, God is desiring to reestablish His Church on His terms and conditions. It must be this way for God’s pruning always bears more fruit. Where the Church has become stagnant with little fruit to be had and not much of a beacon of light in the world, God will cut off the things that are not productive. Be prepared for a shaking and foundational shift. Let Him have the say and final authority as to how this is going to look. Ready your heart. Seek Him earnestly.

“They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.” Matthew 15:9

“But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. ‘Get behind me, Satan!’ he said. ‘You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.’” Mark 8:33

A Light Has Dawned

BEHOLD, a great light has come into the world! Deep darkness surrounds the people of the nations. It’s the season to celebrate the coming of the light sourced from only One—Divine, eternal, all-powerful. The only true light, for all other lights are merely a dim reflection of its Presence.

No one else can claim to be the Source of this light, but only its carriers. Carrying the light does not make one a little “god,” no. We are not made holy of our own doing neither are we sanctified of our own works. No one can claim to be “good,” but only the One, the Father, the Creator of all things. Apart from Him we have no good thing.

The great light was come into the world through the babe Jesus, the gift of God for salvation of all mankind, to be received in thanksgiving and awe. For if we catch that pure gift from heaven above in our bare hands and hold it close to our feeble hearts, in faith, we believe in the Holy One of God and are saved. This gift has eternal weight, and no price tag could ever be placed upon it. Hold onto it to your last dying breath.

“The people walking in great darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2

New Order of Believers

Today I’m going to release a word I heard from the Lord in the early morning hours as I woke up in June 2018. What I heard was:

“New order of believers will stand on Scripture.”

I then briefly saw a vision of a blank piece of paper with six lines on it.

There was an inner inclination that these six lines referred to doctrine. In Hebrews 6 we read:

“Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Hebrews 6:1-2

Here are the six foundational teachings regarding the Christian faith listed in this passage:

1) Repentance

2) Faith

3) Baptisms

4) Laying on of hands

5) Resurrection

6) Eternal Judgment

The New Order of believers will dig into and read the entirety of the Bible, asking the Holy Spirit to teach them and guide them into all truth (John 16:13). They will read the Scripture and take it at its word—and not only just read it and take it for what it says—but also apply it to their lives. The New Order of believers will not need another man to teach them only pieces of Scripture, avoiding or omitting key ingredients that are clearly stated.

The New Order of believers will hungrily devour the living word, plant the seeds in their heart, water them, and faithfully tend them like a patient farmer as they wait for the Lord’s return (James 5:7). The New Order will let the Lord cause the planted seeds to grow into fruit as they remain in the Vine (John 15:5). The fruit (words and actions) will testify of their humble repentance, their faith planted in their hearts, and their continuous abiding in the Vine.

God bless you.

Book Launch

Broken: A True Story of Spiritual Abuse is now available through Amazon. I wrote the book to share what happened to me and my family while on mission through our local church and missions organization. The book brings to light some of the misdeeds of organizations claiming to represent Christ as well as areas of weakness within the generalized Christian Church today. I pray it would spur us on towards becoming a more purified, mature Church.

Song Sharing

Over the next 8 weeks, I’ll be sharing 18 of my original songs via my YouTube and Rumble channels. I hope you enjoy these unique creations, written from a deep valley in solitude and solace with the Lord. I may not have a “professional voice,” and my piano skills may be meager compared to some, nevertheless, I will sing and make music. Stay tuned!

Removal of All Things

There comes a point in time in one’s life when you realize all that you had looked to, whether people or things or careers or plans, do not meet the demand for your greatest needs. People fail, things deteriorate, careers change, and plans can be brought to nothing. What does one have left? What remains?

There is a deep hunger for love, significance, purpose, and belonging. This is a temporary life, a shadow of the spiritual reality of eternity. We live in a world ruled by the kingdom of darkness in its fallen state. To draw one’s own meaning from the things of this world is meaningless, empty. You can see the desperate cry for these unmet needs in the younger generations especially as they are forming their worldview and their own identity from their surroundings and their life experiences. There is true danger in this method.

The shadows of living in this present darkness will fall away and finally be removed. The time is coming. True love, purpose, meaning, and belonging can only be found in a personal relationship with one’s Creator. The Creator of each truly significant life, the ruler of the Kingdom of light, and the coming King. I don’t know about you, but I’m anchored in the reality of a coming Kingdom ruled by the King of Kings who takes special interest in each one of his created human beings. I’m living for this eternal reality today and look forward to its establishment in the future!

“At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

—Hebrews 12:26-28

Accepting His Mission

Who could imagine what it would take for Jesus to accept the mission from His Father? You must be kidding, right? Enter into that broken, fallen world as a baby and live a human life that would be sacrificed for the sin of mankind? Um…let me think about it first. Isn’t there any other way?

My guess is Jesus looked down upon earth and saw the filth and stench of everything rotten and dying, including the spirits and souls of men destined for eternity apart from God. Death, disease, and decay. The walking (spiritually) dead crying out for deliverance and destiny. Yet, Jesus knew the importance of his mission and chose God’s will above his own, even if he might have wanted to stay in the glory and purity of heaven in the very Presence of God. My guess is he knew that it would involve a human life of suffering ending in the culmination of betrayal, abandonment, and a gruesome death by the hands of the very people he came to save.

Who can comprehend this decision? Jesus had heaven and the glory and Presence of God to compare with a human life on earth. The sacrificial love required to accept his mission and walk in obedience to His Father exudes feelings of awe and wonder within me. No one could ever know how much it cost Jesus to agree to this plan. We may have our ideas, but no one lived the life that Jesus lived. Only he knows through personal experience. And we are ever grateful he said yes and accepted his mission and entered into our world.

For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. –John 3:16

The Power of Love

There is no power or force on earth stronger than love. No water can quench it. Love is a mighty flame that searches and consumes all that is false, all that is evil. The power of love breaks the chains of darkness and sets captives free. The power of love resuscitates those laying in the dust of death and breathes life into the walking dead.

The full embodiment of love without spot, wrinkle, or blemish is God himself. God is love. He is everything good and light and pure and lovely. His very presence makes all darkness flee. His very voice silences the lies of the enemy. The blaze of his flame consumes all impurity.

The ultimate display of love came in the form of God’s son Jesus sacrifice on the cross for the sin of mankind. The power of his love covers, defeats, and obliterates all forces of evil and any powers and authorities on assignment to steal, kill, and destroy. To apply the cross of Christ to your life and to hold the love of God in your very being is to adopt Jesus’ victory as your own.

Potter and Clay

There’s something about fixing what’s broken and restoring what’s tattered and worn that intrigues me. My husband, 3 children, and I have “fixed up” several houses and found joy in the process of removing the old and replacing with the new. In much of the same way, our Father God is also in the restoration business. He takes what’s been battered and bruised, and works his miraculous redemption to create something beautiful out of what’s been broken.

The Bible makes a number of references to the Father as the Potter and we as his clay. This is why I love the theme of pottery and kintsugi, or kintsukuroi, the Japanese art form of repairing broken pottery with lacquer mixed with gold, silver, or platinum. This method treats breakage as a beautiful enhancement of the vessel rather than something to disguise. To me, the lines of gold on these vessels represent the hand of God working in ours lives when we give him all our shattered pieces.

Who am I?

Anchor Your Identity Amidst the Storms of Life

The purpose of this writing is to take a look at life’s disappointing circumstances through which lens we develop our beliefs about who we are. I am more convinced now than ever that we have a crisis on our hands. That crisis is misplaced IDENTITY. Many individuals are on a quest to label and identify themselves, and often don’t realize that the conclusive foundation their belief system is built upon are the shifting sands of trends, culture, dysfunctional relationships, lack of proper support structures growing up, trauma, and the list goes on and on.

Are you walking wounded? Do you have a broken heart? Have the words and actions of other people given you a negative self-image? Do you believe you have a talent or anything to offer the world? Do you hate yourself? Do you feel abandoned, rejected, or unloved? Are you able to receive love or believe that you are worthy of that love?

These are all very real struggles and valid questions. Struggles and questions I myself live day in and day out, for I am one of the walking wounded. I write this not to position myself as any expert or someone who has it all figured out. I write this to help myself, and hopefully others, identify the process through which we come to the ultimate conclusion that life may not be worth living. This is a very dark place—an isolated prison cell of its own.

I welcome you to peek into my prison cell as I wrestle with the entrapment that I have built around me, around my broken heart. A fortress that refuses to let anyone else “help,” for I now associate “trusted” people with pain. A strict guard of my own making, who might lash out at any given moment based on what my mind is speaking to me that day. It is extremely dark in here, almost to the point where I can’t even make out any other images or forms. Sometimes, I wish it would all go pitch dark, for it is much easier to lay down and let go of it all. To numb the pain into oblivion.

One cannot live life in this state, for it is a life not worth living. It is not life at all, it is a living death. Wounds are a dangerous and delicate thing. Left untended, they will fester and slowly spread to other parts of the body, seeking to kill everything in its path. The gangrenous toxicity of open wounds festering in the dark will ultimately destroy oneself, and not only the self, but others surrounding. The same goes for thoughts and beliefs adopted as a result of these woundings. The walls in our minds will close in and suffocate until there’s no life left.

It’s time to strike a match.  I invite you to now enter this dank, cold, lifeless prison cell of mine and sit with me a moment as we light a candle. A single candle, a tiny flame of light representing truth. This truth is unchangeable and unmovable. It is the rock-hard foundation that all beliefs must be built upon. Our life and vitality depend on it.

Can I ask you to do one thing with me as you first step into this prison cell and sit down with me? I ask you to do only one thing, and that is this: Hold On. Don’t give up. If you can sit patiently with me for these few moments as we light these few candles, then you will have persevered with me through the brink of my darkest night. Thank you for sharing this time of silence and of deep meditation on these flames of truth. You will be my witness, and we will walk out different. Transformed. All is not lost. I am still breathing…barely. For it is my heart that desperately needs to be picked up and put back together. Like a shattered jar with pieces scattered all over the floor. I don’t know who I am other than broken. Perhaps this is you too. Hold On! Light is coming.

Let’s dry my tears for just a moment as we gaze in wonder at the dancing flicker of hope. Mesmerized but this new thing, our eyes are alit with surprise as we realize there IS something other than this deep darkness surrounding us and my festering wounds. Let it alone. Don’t snuff it out, for it is real. It is sacred. It is truth. And we discover, there is a second candle and a second match. Scratching strike and fizzling flame. It seems the darkness has altered yet again and is not as deep. Images and forms are starting to take shape and can be discerned with the eye. This one too, must not be rejected, but allowed to glow.

Pleased with the light and warmth, we decide together to continue striking matches and lighting candles as we journey toward truth. The light inside this prison cell will continue to grow larger, brighter, and bring warmth and light to our eyes as we choose to gaze upon and absorb it, until it seeps into our hearts and rests upon our very soul, the core of our being, healing me from the inside out. At the end of this journey, we will be seeing so clearly, it’s as if the light of day is shining and the darkness is gone. It wasn’t real at all; it was only an illusion of reality. We can both now see where the door is, and that I hold the very key to unlock it. Slowly we stand as you watch me approach the prison door, turn the key in the lock, swing the door open wide, and walk right out into a new day.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” -John 8:32

“The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.” -Proverbs 4:18