Tag Archives: Prophetic
Ask! ASK! AAASSSKKK!
Ask ask ask! The Lord keeps reminding me, ASK SPECIFICALLY. He shares with me a message to give to someone, “Stop settling for what you can see, I have more for you than that, but you have to ASK.”
I feel led to send a friend a picture text with a word of encouragement about her gifting and talents from the Lord. She replies, “Thank you! This is an answer the a very specific prayer.”
At the leading of the Lord, I have been asking Him much more specifically when I am in prayer, and He is answering specifically. I almost feel like He is showing off. =) All kidding aside, this is for us. This grows our faith. Everything He does is because He loves us and has our best in mind. He is always for us!
So, when He first said, ASK SPECIFICALLY, I got a little nervous. I almost felt like I would have more opportunity to be let down. Once I realized I was believing this very sad lie, I started seeking the Lord as to why I initially felt this way. Basically, the root is fear. I was afraid of really believing God for miracles because I didn’t want to give Him the chance to hurt me, let me down, or make me feel really stupid for believing with all of my heart. I begin wondering who else do I have this attitude towards, but that’s a story for a whole other entry! =)
Why are there times when we ask, ask, ask and it seems like none of our prayers are being answered? Or maybe the opposite of what we have asked for is what happens? I believe what the Lord has showed me is how He is God and we are not. There are times when we will have to surrender the need to understand why something happened, or didn’t happen, and recognize that there is a bigger picture and all things will be worked together for our good. It is also important to realize the effect of sin. We do have free will, and so does everyone we love and pray for. There are consequences for sin, and we need to be careful not to blame God when sin is the cause of destruction. He is way bigger than sin, but we have to come to Him, and ask for forgiveness, turn to God and away from sin, be redeemed by the blood, to walk in His Will for our lives.
The next question I had was, “How do I know what to ask for?” There is scripture that deals with asking according to His will. then also, there is the one about delighting myself in Him, and then He will give me the desires of my heart. He is teaching me to ask Him to show me what He is up to, before I begin asking for what I think I want, in any given circumstance. It may go something like this:
Lord Jesus, thank you for so and so. Lord I know you created them fearfully and wonderfully. I know you have a plan and purpose for their life. Lord I know you love them. Would you show me what you see when you look at them? Would you show me your will for their life? Would you teach me how to pray for them? How to love them? What is Heaven’s heartbeat over so and so?
Usually, after I ask this way (and often this prayer is about myself and my circumstances) He totally changes my perspective. Most of the time there is at least a sliver of judgement in my heart, and He totally undoes that by humbling me with His incredible love for each person (including me) that I pray for. There is power in agreement, and this shift in my prayers has allowed me to come into agreement with the Father’s heart. It is when I come from this place, that I do not feel afraid to ask specifically, because I feel confident that whatever He wants for whomever is totally possible.
So today, I want to encourage you to allow Him to upgrade your relationship with Him. Allow Him access to the part of you that you have been saying, “I’m not ready to go there yet.” If He is prompting you, it will be worth it. ASK ASK ASK. Do not be afraid. Find out what His will is, what His perspective is, and come into agreement with His heartbeat. You are about to see specific answers to specific prayers that is going to grow your faith like crazy!
P.S. I wanted to share a bunch of scripture on asking, but felt led to take them off because He was telling me that He wanted you to dig for them. Have fun excavating the truth! There is a treasure to be found for sure!
Nothing to be afraid of!
Recently I went through the Lord asking me to surrender my business back to Him. At first I felt a little sad, but then relief set in, which led to guilt. Why did I feel relieved from doing what I felt God was asking me to? He is sooooo good, because the book I was reading at the time was all about being, “pruned”.
John 15 (NLT)
15 “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
There was a chart which describes how we know the difference between being pruned and disciplined. At the emotional level on this chart, the author described the emotion directly related to being pruned at relief. As soon I read this, I knew that I was bearing fruit, but God has more fruit in mind. With this truth now in front of me I went from guilt and feeling like a failure, to excitement to see what God has in store.
I’m sharing this to show you just how much we cannot trust our feelings alone. God did create us with feelings and they shouldn’t be ignored, however, we must check them according to the truth of His word! Sometimes our feelings are out of our flesh, and if we “follow our heart” instead of striving to be “in step with the Holy Spirit,” we will end up way out of the will of God for our lives.
Galatians 5:25 (NLT)
25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.
He has good plans for each of us. It may not always make sense to us at the time, but we know that He loves us and is for us. We also know He is trustworthy and faithful. He gave up everything for us before we ever even thought about sacrificing anything for Him. This is a love that is worth following and investing in.
I also just want to touch on “fear of failure.” One thing I did ask of the Lord when He asked me to surrender my business, was to walk me through every memory and teach me every lesson I could possibly learn out of this experience. I made many mistakes being this was my first time trying, and I wanted them to be beneficial to everything else I will be called to do in my lifetime on Earth.
Before embarking in this business, I suffered terribly with “fear of failure.” The Lord spoke to me through the account in Numbers 13-14 where the Israelites were about to take the Promised Land, and Moses sent spies into the land to scout it out. The reports came back where all but two spies cried out in fear, “There are giants in the Land, we will surely die!” But two spies said, “There are giants in the Land, but GOD has promised us this Land so we should enter into it!” After hearing this account, the Lord spoke to me and said, ” Right now you echo in perfect harmony with the majority, but I think you are one of the two!” Just knowing God believed in me, made me want to believe in myself, that together with Him nothing is impossible, so really what is there to be afraid of?
Matthew 19:26 (MSG)
1 John 4:18 (MSG)
Jeremiah 29:11(NLT)
Colossians 1:27 (NLT)
Deuteronomy 31:6 (MSG)
Misunderstand….ing?
One day not too long ago, the Lord began speaking to me about being misunderstood. He said, “Do not worry if others misunderstand who you are, or why you do and say the things you do. You are in good company with me, because most of my creation will never understand me.” His tone was loving with a hint of sadness. I pressed in for more. He continued, “Especially Holy Spirit, most of my bride will never fully accept Him. Jesus wasn’t even received when He came in your form, and how We are the Trinity, most people accept but never understand how beautiful that is.”
This got me thinking about how much it hurts when you just want people to “get” you, and you can’t seem to find anyone on the same page. There are a lot of people who accept others, but I know for me there is a deep desire to find others who will invest in understanding me, getting me, loving me. Could it be that the Lord feels the same? We accept Jesus as our Savior, but does it stop there? Do we invest in Him, getting to know Him, figuring out why He works, acts, speaks the way He does? We accept that the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, but again are we inviting Him to be intimately involved in our every moment or are we basically ignoring His presence? Do we ever consider the mystery of the Trinity? Three in one, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, working together in perfect relationship to love us flawlessly, this is incredible!
As I looked up scripture on this very topic, I discovered an interesting twist as to how we act on our misunderstanding, but first the scripture and then I will share the revelation.
John 8:43
43 Why do you misunderstand what I say? It is because you are unable to hear what I am saying. [You cannot bear to listen to My message; your ears are shut to My teaching.]
This is Jesus speaking on how we would listen to what He said, but not hear Him.
Matthew 5:17
Blasphemy:
blas’-fe-mi (blasphemia): In classical Greek meant primarily “defamation” or “evil-speaking” in general; “a word of evil omen,” hence, “impious, and irreverent speech against God.”