February Already?

February-Already?

 

 

Can you believe that January, 2015 is almost over already?!  Has the newness of starting the year started to wear off?  Maybe this is a good time to be reminded of who we are and why we are on this earth: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph. 2:10)

 

This scripture packs a punch, doesn’t it?   In the midst of doing life, we can find ourselves feeling overwhelmed with the responsibilities of daily living.  Maybe we even longingly contemplate how we can slow down the “roller coaster” that we have found ourselves riding. And then this scripture comes along to challenge us to keep the main thing the main thing.

 

  In times like these, I am reminded of King David who gave his soul a pep talk.  Yes, he talked to himself.   Before you start to chalk that up to insanity, let me give you what he said in the Psalms," Why so downcast O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation." (NKJV, Ps. 42.5)   Do you think he wrote that after a day of homeschooling Absalom?!  Ha!

 

Seriously, in the midst of the January blues, we can, and should, remind ourselves that our hope, our sanity, our fulfillment, does not come from the paycheck that we receive each month or even the affirmation our spouse may give us.  Our daily hope and grace comes from our relationship in Jesus Christ.  Like David, we praise Him for being the source of help not only for ourselves, but for our marriages, our children, and our church family.  Our church and family relationships are one of the ways we are daily reminded of our need to look to God, because in our weakness, He is made strong.  (NIV, II Cor. 12.9-12)

As we press on in to what the Spirit is saying for 2015, let me encourage you to look to the Source of all strength.   Ask Him to remind you of the joy of your salvation. Go ahead and give yourself a pep talk. (Maybe you will even need to encourage another Believer with your own hope.) As I write this, I will be reminding myself to relish each day for it is a continued opportunity for me to lean on Christ and allow Him to continue to equip our family for His glory.  ~Niki

 

H is for "Honorable"

H- honorable in weakness

When I was creating the acronym for Faithfulness, I wanted to incorporate the word integrity. Honor came up as a synonym for integrity.  We probably will not exhaust this topic, but I would like to start by laying a foundation about the Biblical view of integrity.  Perhaps that will bring to light what it really means to be honorable in weakness.

If you were to do a word study on integrity, your Strong’s Concordance would list words such as “completeness, full, perfect, moral innocence, and uprightly.”  In addition, it means: “to be clean, to complete in a bad or good sense (literally or figuratively), to accomplish, be wasted, come to the full, and fail.  In my own study, I also found that the word “Thummim” was associated with integrity since it means “perfections” (plural for integrity). 

Wait until you read Exodus 28:30!  Where does God tell Aaron to place the Urim and Thummim?  So, here is a great picture of where integrity begins!  I think this is a great way to encourage you in your study of integrity.

As we walk out our salvation daily, God’s character dwells in us.  When we choose to walk in our own strength, we fail.  When we operate out of flesh, it is not possible to display integrity, “but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26)  Here are just a few scriptures to consider in your study of integrity:

•  Ps. 41:12 integrity brings us into his presence
•  Nehemiah 7:2 Godly leadership needs integrity, it brings rewards
•  Matt. 22:16 even the world recognizes integrity
• Prov. 20:7 integrity is part of the legacy we leave behind
• Prov. 10:9 our integrity brings about a security and confidence in our walk with Christ

I want to urge you to dig deeper into your understanding of the scriptures.  In many places I am reading that 2015 will be a year of “acceleration.”  In fact, my friend from Peru sent me something about 2015 being likened to a “whirlwind.”  These two words suggest that change is a comin’…and it could be sudden.  I think the Holy Spirit is calling us to be firmly planted in the Word, yet, somehow soft and pliable to His promptings.  I cannot articulate how important it will be for us to apply Biblical integrity in our lives.  It will differentiate us from the world.  Beloved, understanding and applying what you learn about integrity is going to be critical in 2015.  I look forward to hearing what other scriptures God shows you about integrity and the testimonies of opportunities to walk in integrity.  You don’t even have to wait until Sunday to share—post on the church FB page, send an email (lifegatechurchalbany@gmail.com) or a text so your church family can rejoice or pray with you.

Faithful in '15 part 1

There was no audible voice, but the sense of God’s spirit was tangible.  This past Saturday, I [Niki] was going about my “usual”, when, suddenly I was flooded with a sense of God’s presence.  In a moment, He revealed old dreams and promises, chief among them, a memory of some scriptures that I had shared over 10 years ago.  Although I submitted these thoughts our church leadership, and we all agreed it was from God, none of us really had a clue what it meant!  Just a few days ago, God graciously revealed the pieces of the puzzle and I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of it.

Stirred up, I quickly began going through my journals to see if I could find where I recorded these thoughts.  By the way, this is a plug for everyone to keep a notebook or journal handy to record what God is doing in our lives, for in doing so, you may find that you will need to go back and reflect on milestones and revelations.  For me, it provided the opportunity to go back and see other journal entries that are becoming relevant once again. 

I shared some of the revelation on Sunday, but my heart is so full that I could not even share adequately.  So, for the next few weeks, I would like to share in the Lifeline Newsletter some segments of these revelations.  My hope is that as I obediently share, you will also be stirred….stirred to engage in the Spirit to seek Him for revelation and opportunities to overflow in the gifts He has placed in you.

Let me close with some brief thoughts that I hope to expound on later.  First, I do sense a significant encouragement for the body of Christ to “shake the mud of the past from your feet and allow me [the Father] to cause you to rise up in a new way.” (Pierce 2004)  Secondly, I do believe that 2015 will be a year where old dreams will be resurrected. As in Zechariah and Elizabeth’s situation, God fulfilled His promises in the appointed time (Luke 1:5-25).  These dreams build the Kingdom and restore hope to His church.  The Father never forgets His dreams/promises: “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” (1 Thes. 5:24)  Have you become weary in the waiting of the fulfillment of promises?  This is a year of break out!  Look for an acceleration of new strategies even this week!

  

Faithful in '15 part 3

            The Passover had just been celebrated and Hezekiah was busy about the reformation of the temple.  We read in II Chronicles about the faithful leadership of Hezekiah who played a strategic role in the restoration of the house of the Lord. (II Chronicles 30)  Not only did he re-establish the structure for the place of worship, but he also led the way by contributing “from his own possessions.” (vs. 3)  This king was invested!  If you continue to read in Nehemiah, you will see how his generosity and leadership was an encouragement to the community, even the writer of this book who chronicles this event. 

            However, that is not really the point I want to make.  I want to draw your attention to six guys who are mentioned just a little later in the chapter.  Their names are: Eden, Miniamin, Jeshua, Shemaiah, Amariah, and Shecaniah. (II Chron. 30:15, ESV)  We don’t read about them raising people from the dead or laying hands on the sick.  There are no written accounts of their prophetic utterances.  The only thing mentioned is that they were “faithfully assisting.”  Kore, the head guy in this region is in charge and these are his assistants. They were not the bosses.  Their duty was to help Kore do his job according to Hezekiah’s commands.  Yet, these six guys are mentioned in the BIBLE.  Whoa!  Just what was the criterion for getting your name mentioned in THE Book?! God inspires the writer of Chronicles to mention these guys and the focus is their commitment to faithful service.  

            If we believe that God is sovereign, then we, in faith, believe that God wanted to remind us about these men and the fact that they are famous for their faithfulness. I am reminded about the specific prayers that I have been lifting up for you about having dreams.  Maybe this is a gentle nudge for you to revisit some of the old dreams and promises that God has given you.   You may recall that both Brenda Bradley and I shared a bit about dreams which God had given us.  For me, it was 3 ½ years before the revelation of that “horse jockey” dream came to pass.  

            I do believe that God is calling LifeGate to walk in a deeper level of faithfulness in the coming year.  Consequently, as we pursue walking in faithfulness both as Believers and a church community, we need to embrace the trials that present opportunities for us to walk in faithfulness.  Oswald Chambers put it this way:  “To be faithful in every circumstance means that we have only one loyalty, or object of our faith— the Lord Jesus Christ. God may cause our circumstances to suddenly fall apart, which may bring the realization of our unfaithfulness to Him for not recognizing that He had ordained the situation. We never saw what He was trying to accomplish, and that exact event will never be repeated in our life. This is where the test of our faithfulness comes,” (www.utmost.org)  ~Niki

 

 

 

Faithful in '15 part 4 -- F is for Fiercely Loyal to the Gospel

I recently had a dream about a woman who was willing to go the extra mile for a desolate soul, but in so doing, she compromised her purity.  It was such an odd dream and I was a bit puzzled by it.   The second part of the dream was this woman trying to recover her reputation by letting the person know that these were not her “normal” actions;  what she did, she did out of pity for this person.  After much prayer, I felt like God began to give me some revelation about what this dream might mean.

 I felt like the woman symbolized the bride of Christ and the desolate person represented the world. Is it possible that we as Christians could compromise the gospel because we fear being offensive?  Do we sometimes make the wrong choices out of sympathy for non-believers, therefore compromising our beliefs, values, and our rewards that come through obedience?  Just like Christ, we are called to preach good tidings, to love on the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the bound,” (Is. 61:1).  So how do we walk this calling out without compromising the gospel?   I believe that one principal we must embrace is a fierce loyalty to the gospel.

The definition of FIERCE means: 1) having or displaying an intense or ferocious aggressiveness.  2) (of a feeling, emotion, or action) showing a heartfelt and powerful intensity” (google.com)

Just about every reference in the Bible about the word fierce, deals with anger (God’s usually).  So, does that mean we are supposed to be an angry folk walking around with scowls on our faces?  No, of course not!

However, being faithful Believers means we must be loyal to the gospel.  Being fierce, means we have to actively defend the truth and refuse compromise.  We must be aggressive about presenting our lives as pictures of the gospel, but we must also passionately speak the truth.  Still, there is a right and wrong way in confronting sin.  We confront in love: “love does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;  does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;  bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor. 13: 5-7, NKJV)

I mentioned in church a few weeks ago my affinity for acronyms.  I am presenting one based on the word FAITHFUL.  I imagine some of you could come up with other acronyms that are just as creative.  In fact, I encourage, no, I urge you for the sake of conversation, to share your acronyms about the characteristics of a faithful believer.  Will you take up the challenge?

 

 

Faithful in '15 part 6 --T is for tenderhearted

This week’s article examines the letter “T.”   Tenderhearted towards the lost. 

Ephesians 4:32 for an excellent answer for the source of tenderheartedness: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  Because we have been forgiven, we can be kind, compassionate and forgiving. Consider Romans 5:8, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (My version: While we were dirty rotten scoundrels, AKA enemies of Christ…He loved us and sent His only son so that we could be free from eternal death!J)  Whoa!  That is something to praise about!  

Our challenge this week is to grow as a body of Believers who are thankful for the mercy we receive daily. I know I can find myself focused on the problems of life….it’s one of the subtle ways I think Satan side-tracks us.  I am THANKFUL that God gently reminds me of the mercies I receive daily. (Lam. 3:23)  Imagine if our praises outweighed our requests?  I am not saying we shouldn’t share prayer requests, but it is our praise and thanksgiving which ushers us into His gates. (Ps. 100)  DISCLAIMER: This does not mean that we all have to share a lengthy praise report each Sunday….but wouldn’t it be cool if our praise time was a part of our greeting one another as we came in the building, or the last thing on our lips when we left?  Perhaps we have to get together over coffee or lunch to finish the story?  Thankfulness renders our heart tender toward the work of the Holy Spirit, moving us to reach the lost.

Do you know someone who has not experienced the love and forgiveness that Jesus offers? Are you in contact with someone who lives with uncertainty and hopelessness about their eternal destination?  If you said, “yes,” perhaps you will dig deeper into your reservoir of thankfulness to share the mercy you have received, the purpose you have been given, and the hope you live in. If you said, “no,” this is a great time at the beginning of 2015 to ask God to reveal at least 1-2 people that God wants you to express His compassion towards. Could this be a year of “breakout” in evangelism for LifeGate?

Could we agree for the new growth of 2015 to also include salvations as we diligently pursue sharing the gospel with the lost?  I am so looking forward to hearing not only how He proved himself faithful to you this Sunday, but also praying with you for the salvation of those that God has placed in our spheres.  By the way, this Sunday I will be at the church at 9 a.m. in the classroom next to the nursery, spending some time in prayer.  You are invited.~ Niki

 

Faithful in '15 part 5

Did you write down any New Year’s resolutions?  Neither did I. Yet, I still believe God has goals or visions for 2015 that He wants to reveal to His children.

In this week’s article, I especially want to ask you to invest yourself in seeking vision for your spiritual growth as Isaiah did: “Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning.” (Is. 5:1).  The word invest means to “devote (one's time, effort, or energy) to a particular undertaking with the expectation of a worthwhile result” (dictionary.com).  Do you want to hear what God is saying in 2015? 

I believe God is looking for His people to make a purposeful investment in their spiritual growth as a mark of faithfulness this year.   Beyond that, I believe He is calling us to expect Him to do what He says He will do.  

I hope this article will challenge you to allocate some purposeful time even this week in seeking God’s heart about His vision for you, your family, your church community, and for the nations. Scripture is full of ways that God speaks to His children.  It is my prayer that you will be filled with great expectations as you invest time in writing down the prophetic thoughts, word pictures, and scriptures He fills you with.  For Isaiah, chapter 8 is filled with the rewards of a man who invested himself in hearing God’s voice. 

Why did I skip “A” in the acronym? Simply, I believe seeking to hear God may lead us to repentance.  It may lead us to seek repentance of others. This is where authentic forgiveness gets put into practice.  First, let’s start with investing in our spiritual growth so that we will develop authentic, tenderhearted, faithful character traits for His glory and the benefit of the Kingdom.

Faithful in '15 (Part 2)

So what does break out look like? Are my feet stuck in the “mud of the past”?  Am I weary of waiting on an unfulfilled dream? 

            Perhaps these were questions you asked yourself when you considered last week’s article.  Maybe not.  To be perfectly honest, I have been chewing on those questions, because my spiritual curiosity is stirred.  If you are wondering, I was one of those kids who didn’t take naps too easily….I didn’t want to miss anything I suppose.  This time, however, it’s an anticipation of what God is breathing into the hearts and ears of His children.  My “knower” (aka the Holy Spirit) is stirring up interest in what God is doing in the Kingdom—right here, right now.  You and I are living in a time in history where the opportunities to know Him more and love Him deeper are unparalleled.  Where is your level of spiritual curiosity at?

            When I think of breaking out, I picture an escape from something.  I envision barriers being destroyed.  Part of the 2004 prophetic word that I read a couple weeks ago in church emphasized that God would “remove things from your [our] path,” (Pierce 2004).  There is a clear challenge to keep on running even when you see obstacles. 

            Ironically, I ran hurdles in junior high and high school, so I can relate to the idea that you cannot, cannot stop running when you come to a hurdle in the race.  In order to leap over it, you need a forward momentum to propel yourself up and over those hurdles.  The good news is that God said that He will remove the hurdles “if we keep on moving.”  (Pierce 2004)  Scripture describes Zechariah and Elizabeth as, “righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly,” (Luke 1:6, NASB). They didn’t stop walking in righteousness, even though the “hurdle “was before them daily.   On a side note, can you imagine the conversation that Z. and E. had after his tongue was loosed?!  This might have been one of those historical moments when a guy had more words to use than a female! Ha!

            When I think of this word, I am aware of the vital calling that we have to move forward.  Ps.40:2 reminds us that He hears our cry and pulls our feet, “out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay,” so that our feet will be established on the solid rock.  (NKJV) Beloved, have you considered what ramifications this has for you as a Believer, for your marriage, for your family, and for our church?  He is pulling us out of the muddy pit.  We cannot, as a church family, live in the past, reminisce about how things used to be.  He has a new strategy that calls us to move forward.  The deception is to believe that LifeGate has run its course.  On the contrary, this is the time to lace up those shoes for the next chapter in the journey.  Some of the prophetic dreams and visions from the past will blend in with the new strategies because He deems it so. 

            With this encouraging hope, there is a great promise that he will “give us new strategies.” (Pierce 2004)  I believe He is starting to reveal those strategies, not only to me, but also to you.  I am praying for dreams and renewed vision to be stirred up in our church family, so I look forward to eagerly watching how He brings His word about.  One thing I am continuing to believe is that there will be acceleration, a renewed strength in this race.  One thing I am sure of: We must not “remove ourselves from the competition.” (Pierce 2004)