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I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2 NKJV).

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I will lift up my eyes to the hills— From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth (Psalm 121:1-2 NKJV).

Jesus Christ

Community Organizer

July 26, 2016 by Prudence Leave a Comment

we_struggle

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12 NKJV)

I have had two seemingly different streams of thought running rampant in my head over the last few weeks; however, the more I meditate on them, the more they tie together.

The Lord has been sharing some impressions with me. I don’t have the full picture, but what I have seen is an office space filled with cubicle partitions. Each cubicle has a separate group of like people within. I heard the word “partition” and realized this is tied to one of the thoughts I’ve been meditating on.

When you hear the word “community” what do you think of? What does that word mean to you? Is it not enough to simply be a community? Why must there be defined demographic people communities within one community? Where is the unity and promotion of God’s love in that?

When I think of community I think of a group of people with common unity. This, to me, does not mean we agree on every single thing, but recognize and respect our differences, working together toward a common goal where we are and loving each other in our diversity. What bothers me are the subsets or “partitions” of communities within a community. We have black communities, white communities, hispanic communities, asian communities, evangelical communities, Catholic communities, muslim communities, immigrant communities, religious communities, rich communities, poor communities, school communities, etc. Never are these labeled subsets of community more prevalent than within our media and governmental speech. For many of us, we have become so used to the partitions we don’t even think about it. But I believe this to be an effective way to subtly keep us separated and reminded of who we are seen as rather than as simply a human community.

The other thought stream I’ve had is in reference to dry, desert and barren places. Where I live in the Northeast, we are experiencing a drought. According to our meteorologists, it has been many years since we have dealt with conditions such as these. Our lawn is the color of hay and about as soft as kindling to walk on. Matter of fact, it greatly resembles kindling right now. Much of our nation has been under a heat spell and the west coast is dealing with widespread fires. Basically, we need rain, we need it all over and very badly. We can say our nation, in the natural, is experiencing some dry, desert and barren conditions.

In the spirit, demons are restless in the dry places. Luke 11: 24 “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’” Our fight is in the spirit realm, not the natural, but we see the effects in the natural realm. As I have prayed for this nation, and over the jars of dirt, the Lord has revealed a few things to me: we have an enemy who desires division to the extent of another civil war; corruption is rampant within our current elected government; our borders leak; our land has blood crying out for vengeance, to name a few. Our nation is in a desert place and the demons in the spirit realm are restless, looking for places to dwell.

In Matthew 4, we see Jesus being led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He went fasting, but the bible only tells us He was hungry, not thirsty. Jesus, as the Word, used the Word to overcome temptation and resist the devil, but he had to go to the devil to do it. Desert places are designed for battle; when we enter the desert, we can expect to fight. When we are grounded in the Word of God and abiding in His presence, we will not be thirsty in our desert place, strengthening us. We may not “feel” saturated, but we must continue to have faith and not give up when the heat rises at midday and the cracks form in the dust at our feet. We must stand firm on what we know that we know that we know.

Our country is in political upheaval, division is rampant and Christian men and women are at each other’s throats with no love. This deeply saddens me. God is into community organizing, not community disorganizing. We have allowed the spirits of religion and politics too much freedom and I believe our battle has just begun. This is not the time to sit back, but to rise up in our authority as the Church, to take our seat next to Christ and to enter the desert as a bold conqueror of Christ. The devil seeks to steal, kill and destroy and to do that he will divide, segregate and discourage; but Jesus came to seek and save the lost, to set the captives free and comfort the broken hearted; He is our strength and the source of our courage.

The devil wants to label us with faulty names and separate us into cubicles with only those who are like us to promote his version of “unity”, which is complete and total agreement. In the vision I saw each group of people begin to shake and push agains the walls of the cubicle, breaking the walls down. I saw them begin to mingle with each other, to laugh and hug and talk. It was a beautiful sight.

Let us walk boldly into the desert and take back our human community, giving the desert demons NO MORE GROUND!

Look, a righteous king is coming!
    And honest princes will rule under him.
Each one will be like a shelter from the wind
    and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
    and the shadow of a great rock in a parched land.

 Then everyone who has eyes will be able to see the truth,
    and everyone who has ears will be able to hear it. (Isaiah 32:1-3 NLT)

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. (Genesis 50:20 NKJV)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

 

Posted in: Christianity, Prayer, Praying for the Nation, Prophetic Tagged: be a community not a subset, community organizing, desert places, Jesus Christ, policital, religion

Christmas Reflections

December 11, 2013 by Prudence 5 Comments

Christmas Reflections

Jesus by AkainesI have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35 New King James Version).

This verse has been traversing the coils and curves of my brain, penetrating itself deep into my sub-consciousness, as only Scripture can. Over the course of my life, I have always heard the latter part repeated in the context of giving sacrificial gifts or monetary offerings. While I believe gifts such as these are wonderful, I also believe there is a greater gift we can offer.

I am linguistically challenged; my family knows this and will often stump me by throwing a Spanish word into conversation. Lately, though, I have been thinking about the Spanish word for “more”, which is “mas”. Contemplating this, Christmas has come to mean, to me, “more Christ”, or “Christ more.” This year, my desire is to give more of Christ to others. What does this look like? At the moment of this writing, I have not fully defined it; however, as situations present themselves, the opportunity to give more Christ to others will be revealed.

You see, for me, since I have received Christ as my savior, it is better for me to give more of Him to others who don’t know Him. Looking at the complete verse in Acts, we are told to support the weak and remember the words of Jesus. As I move through this Christmas season and into the New Year, my hope and prayer is to bring more Christ into every area of my life – work, school, ministry, and family – to support those who are weak.

As He is the sustainer of my life, not only am I compelled to share Christ with others, I must also receive more of Him.  The ability to minister to others means I, myself, must be filled with Him in order to recognize the opportunities He presents to me.  Only then, will I be able to fully understand the blessing of giving.

May this Christmas season leave you with a sense of God’s peace, His presence, and a taste for more Christ!

Merry Christmas, or rather, Merry More Christ!

Shalom,

Prudence

Posted in: Christianity, Reflections Tagged: Christmas, giving, Jesus Christ, more Christ

Christ

March 29, 2013 by Prudence Leave a Comment

CHRIST

Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together. Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything. For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.

But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it (Colossians 1:15-23 New Living Translation).

This is an excellent reminder of who Christ is and who we are in Christ. These verses are also encouraging for our walk, and faith-building. We can stop trying to earn our places in heaven; we can stop trying to control and manipulate things in the hopes that it propels us towards our Kingdom purposes. Christ has already paved the way, as believers, we only need to walk it out!

When we want to see the Father, we need only to look upon the Son. All this earth was created by the Father through the Son, including the things in the spiritual realm. There is nothing we can add to what Jesus Christ has already done, and there is nothing we can subtract from it. By His sacrifice on the cross, we have been reconciled to God. We can now stand before the Father because the blood of Christ washed us clean, our filthy rags turned to robes of righteousness. Our belief in Christ and His work ensures our place with the Father for eternity.

Just as Paul admonishes the Colossians to continue to believe this truth, we must also never let go of it, standing firm on the Rock that is Christ. The more we stand and believe this truth, the more we will be willing to share it with others. For, if we can’t believe it ourselves, how effective will our evangelism be? Preaching the Good News should not be seen as “getting people saved” and adding another notch to our belts, it should be seen as the work of the Holy Spirit prompting others to recognize their need for Christ as we simply share what Christ has done. People don’t save people, Jesus Christ does.

Let’s Pray: Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for blessing us with a new day! Each day You grant us gives us new opportunities to share Your Son and His sacrifice with someone else; may we share with humility, stepping aside and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict the heart. May we be reminded of who we are in Christ and who He is at all times. Father, help us to live for You and not try to manipulate others to our ways of thinking. Encourage us in our faith, today. Help us to see our churches as hospitals, where not everyone who enters has eternal life, even those who have been there for years. Change their hearts, God, and may their professed belief in You become actual belief! Father, we love You and offer ourselves as living sacrifices. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today’s Attitude of Worship: Meditate on Scripture today, see just who Christ says you are and see Him for who He is.

Additional Scriptures: Colossians 1

Shalom ♥

Prudence

43.16103-77.610922
Posted in: Christianity, Today's Bible Treasure Devotionals Tagged: belief in Christ, Christ is supreme, Colossians, Jesus Christ, stand firm in faith, who Christ is, who we are in Christ

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