IN DEBT to the Believer and the Unbeliever
"Both to Greeks and to barbarians
(to the cultured and the uncultured), both to the wise and to the foolish,
I have an obligation to discharge and a duty to perform and a debt to pay."
Romans 1:14 (Amp
)

29 September 2013

Hear God's Heart






As the Holy Spirit led us through worship this morning with "Magnificent God" and then into this song "All Honor All Glory" the Lord began to speak to me.......He said, "When you worship you invoke My presence and I come and enthrone Myself upon your praises, and I bring My power, I bring My anointing, and I empower you with My anointing to do any and all that I have called you to do. Worship Me more in spirit and in truth.....love Me with your whole heart and I will come and fill your life and your heart with all of Me. Everything you need is IN Me. Worship and love Me more."
Then the message that came forth from our pastor confirmed these words that He was speaking to me.

Although I could never share the message with the fullness of the anointing that was on it, the heart and essence of that message was: What is it that God wants most?.......it's not our serving, it's not our evangelizing, it's not our preaching and teaching of His Word....although all of these are good and necessary. But what God wants most and is looking for is for us to LOVE Him.......it's answered in two scriptures: Matthew 22:37 and John 4:23.

In Matthew 22:37 Jesus answers the Pharisee that had the question "What is the greatest commandment of the Law?"  In other words, "What is the greatest of all the commandments?"  Jesus answered by saying, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind."  This was God's heart. It was not a stern commandment, but God was unlocking His heart through Jesus and telling us what He really wanted. He was saying, "THIS is what I want most......I want you to love Me."  God is looking for someone to love Him, to truly love Him. It's the longing of His heart. Our worship shows and speaks our love and devotion to Him. It opens our hearts to lavish that love upon Him. When we worship we go deeper into that expression of love than our praises speak......Simply put, praise says, "Thank You" and worship says, "I love You."  Worship from a heart of devotion and love speaks volumes to God as we lay all our cares and agendas down to focus on Him, to love Him with all our heart, and to lift Him on high with our worship.

God tells us that He's looking for worshipers. Jesus speaks and shares this through the heart of the Father in John 4:23 when he is speaking to the woman at the well. He says, "But the hour is coming and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers." It's God's heart......He's gathering worshipers. He's looking for those that will love Him, those that will abandon themselves with all their heart, with all of their soul and with all of their mind, and express their love through their sincere and focused worship. God wants it all, hearts of love and devotion to the Father, to the One that created us, to the One that continually loves us and forgives us, and to the One that gave His only Son for us so that we could be reinstated back into right relationship as the family of God. God is truly worthy and deserves our worship, our passionate, heart felt and abandoned worship.

Help us Father, to lay it all down, to give You our hearts fully and with reckless abandonment, to hold nothing back but to give our hearts, our lives and our devotion to You through our worship. Set Your Church and Bride free from all restraints and come with Your holy fire. Holy Spirit.....we wait on You.....for Fire, for Holy Fire.

28 September 2013

God's Dream



When you give yourself to God,
your life becomes a seed that He sows
into the earth for His Kingdom purpose.


God has a dream........a dream that His Kingdom would come into the earth as it is in heaven. When we give our life to God, our life becomes a seed that He sows back into the earth for His Kingdom purpose to be revealed in us.

The Lord began to reveal this revelation to me in a greater degree and depth over the last few days as He showed me a life and seed that He had planted in the earth with His dream planted in that life. God was showing me that He had a dream to have a house where He could come and be with His family, where He could be with His children, and pour into their lives and manifest His presence and power and glory and reveal His goodness to them. He planted this dream with His Word into this man's life. He said, "Where is the house that you will build for Me? And where will My resting place be?" (Is 66:1) This house that God was dreaming about wasn't one filled with programs and the busyness of church work, or filled with meetings and classes to attend that would minister to the needs and issues of His children, but it was a house that was built for HIM to come and just BE with His children and manifest His presence to us in peace and power and in all His glory.
This dream of His became more real to me last night at service as He unfolded His heart to me in response to our pastor's invitation to bring our tithes and offerings to the altar during a high time in the Spirit that we were in. He shared with us about "sowing up", sowing "into the Spirit", sowing "where we wanted to go", and that yes we sowed our seeds for the needy (there would always be the poor), but how important it was to "sow up". I understood about the Spirit and that all that we needed and wanted was IN the Spirit, but I wasn't quite clear on what God was speaking to me about this. So as I took my seed and planted it at the altar, lifting it up for His blessing to multiply and increase it as He did the loaves and the fishes and then went back to my seat, the Lord brought me to my knees in a place of prayer and intimacy with Him as the worship team ministered to us through the Revelation Song. This is where the Lord began to unfold His heart to me. He began to show me that as we "sowed up" that we were sowing into HIS DREAM, and this made Him smile, this really blessed Him. (I could see Him smiling in the Spirit)  He was showing me that we were sowing past our own selves, past our own dreams, and we were reaching for HIS dream, we were putting Him and His ways first and showing that we believed in His dream and wanted to see it manifested in the earth. He began to speak to me about His love and His desire to fulfill the dreams that He had placed in us, but how they were attached to His. He said, "Your dreams are part of My dream.......all of their dreams are (referring to the congregation). But when you "sow up" into My dream, then I make YOUR dreams come true, because when My dream is manifest and I can have a house that I can come into and be with My people, then I bring all heaven with Me. You see, when I come I bring all of My power and all of My prosperity with Me. Everything in your dream will be made possible when My dream is fulfilled."
This really spoke to me and showed me that when we "sowed up" into God's dream it went past the "bring your whole tithe and offering into the storehouse so that there is food enough in My house, and I will open up for you the window of heaven and pour out on you a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it" and it went past the "bless My house and I will bless yours" words......it went straight to the heart and pure dream of God Himself to come and BE with His people and manifest His presence and glory in that House. He really wanted a house of His presence, a house built for HIM where miracles and manifestations of His power and presence would be revealed. I was SO feeling His heart with this, and He was SO wanting us to know it.

So I share all of this with you as I help to water the seed of this Word that was planted in the life of my precious pastor and that has been sown into the earth for the Dream of God to come into the earth and be made manifest. It's God's dream house, the house that He's always wanted. The Father's heart truly has His children's heart in His, and when we make His heart and His dream our priority, He makes our dreams His priority.

"Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?"
Isaiah 66:1


26 September 2013

Give Yourself Away



Lord,
Take my heart,
take my life as a living sacrifice.
All my dreams, all my plans,
Lord, I place them in Your hands.
I give myself away....
So You can use me.

My life is not my own....to You I belong.
I give myself, I give myself to You.


14 September 2013

Prayer, Giving & Debt Cancelation

"God so loved the world that
He gave....."
John 3:16

As I live in the Father's house feasting at His table and learning His ways, waiting upon His perfect timing of His blessing and grant, there were some truths that I needed to grow in so that I could live the life and be the conduit of blessing that God desired of me. An area that the Father was working with me on was my giving and my learning to trust Him so that I could be the generous and committed giver that would honor and glorify Him. He had been teaching me good stewardship and management, but He was wanting to stretch me into a new level of giving and blessing. He wanted me trusting Him that when I gave He would give back to me even more so that I could continue to flow in this generosity that He had placed in me. He was teaching me His principle of The Law of Resupply, and that I first needed to empty "the gift card" before He would resupply it. There were promises that the Father had me feed on and get into my spirit, so I would understand and walk in confidence in this area of giving. He was making me a Sower, sowing seeds of blessings, financially and spiritually. He said in His Word that He loved "a cheerful giver" and that He would supply seed to the sower and bread for food, and that He would supply and multiply my seed for sowing and increase the fruits of my righteousness. He said that He would cause all grace to abound to me that having sufficiency in all things that I would have an abundance for every good work, and that He would make me rich in every way so that I could be generous at every occasion, and that through my generosity it would cause others to give thanksgiving to God. (2 Cor 9:7,8,10,11) I needed to get this in my heart and spirit and trust Him to supply and bless me as I gave cheerfully and generously at His leading. Sometimes my budget didn't show the abundance supply for that giving, but as He brought needs into my path, He encouraged me and stretched me to trust Him that as I gave to that need that He would take care of the budget and meet my needs as well, learning that I couldn't out give God. He said, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." (Prov 3:5-6) So I was determined that I was going to trust Him.

I had received revelation that there was no lack in my house, because in the Spirit I lived and dwelt in the Father's house in heaven, and I knew that there was no lack in His house, but that there was an unlimited supply of wealth and resources to draw from as His child living in His house. So I began to put this revelation to the test and give with increased faith in the Father and His promises and the Principle of Resupply. He said, "Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, they will pour into your lap. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return." (Luke 6:38)  He said, Ask, seek and knock, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Matt 7:7) So I decided I was going to give, and I was going ask, seek and knock on the door of His heart, trusting Him to resupply my "gift card" so that I could continue to give as He was leading my heart to give, and that as I gave I would watch Him resupply. The Father also impressed on me that as I gave to lift up my seed to Him and ask Him to multiply it like He did with Jesus and the loaves and the fishes, stretching it supernaturally and making it go supernaturally further than it ever would be able to go in the natural. So I began to do this. I wanted to truly partner with a supernatural God to do supernatural things and see Him glorified through my giving and faith in a supernatural way. The Father gave me opportunities, and I committed to Him and to myself to take them and give Him the opportunity to show up and show off. So as I did, He did......my Father was faithful and began to show me that His Word was true and that I could trust Him as I stepped out of the boat and onto the water. I honestly blew the budget and just gave as the need arose and as He impressed on me to give, seeding something into each opportunity. And with each step of obedience my faith grew stronger.

One of my first opportunities came as our budget got really squeezed to make room for a car payment for a new/used car as my husband's car got wrecked in a car accident that weekend. (Praise God he wasn't hurt) My husband's car being almost 20 yrs old was ready for its eternal rest. He had been resuscitating it for years determined not have a car payment, but now we knew it was time we were going to have to put it to rest and replace it. So we squeezed our already tight budget and made a way to make it possible and then together said "Let's go".  Bless the Lord....immediately after this decision is when several pressing financial needs came across my path from others. I said, "Ok, Lord, this seems like the best time to put Your promises to the test, so let's do this. I will give, and You take care of the budget. You said You would get it to me if You could get it through me. So I am going to make a way so You to get it through me. I am going to send these seeds off in faith, asking and trusting that You will bless them and multiply them and resupply them so I can not only take care of their needs, but that I can take care of our needs as well."
Well before He had time to resupply I begin to think about something.......I said, "Lord, I would much rather give this money that's going out for this car payment to others in need rather than make payments to the bank, in fact if we were debt-free and didn't have any loans or debts payments to pay on each month, think of how many people we could help with that money". So having taken this to the Lord and truly receiving the heart of the Lord on it, I went to the Father to petition Him.  I said, "Father, I come boldly to Your throne of grace to receive mercy and to obtain grace in my time of need. Father, You said, 'Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened to you.' So, I have come to ask, seek and knock. Father, I have come to You to ask for a blessing, for Your Anointing, for a portion of my inheritance. Father, You are LOVE, and You so loved the world that You gave Your most precious possession, Your only Son Jesus, to save the world, to bring everyone that would believe in Him back into right relationship with You again. And Father, as I have received Jesus and given my life to Him, He has lived His life through me through His Holy Spirit, changing my heart, teaching me His ways and changing me into His image, and I now share Your heart of love for this world as well.  Father, Your heart of love for others is in me, and it's my desire to help them, to see them set free from the bondages of this world, to see them free from debt and living lives that glorify You and that are free to help others themselves. Father, I want to plant seeds in people and move mountains. I want You to live BIG in me! So, Father, I lift up this debt of mine to You, these loans and credit card debts that we have accumulated, and I ask You to bless them and wipe them away, blessing us with debt freedom so that we can be a blessing to others, and so that we can help them know and experience Your love as they come and live in Your house and receive the benefits of their inheritance as children of God. Father, I ask that You release a portion of my inheritance to me and guide me in helping others to be free from debt and be a good steward in their giving and financial management. I ask You to anoint me to be a channel of Your blessing and an expression of Your heart of love and mercy to this desperate world. Father, this world is in such dire need of seeing the power and love of a gracious and forgiving God that loves them. So, Father, here is my debt.....I lift it up to You. Everything that is mine is Yours, the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I ask for an exchange for all that is Yours to bless all that is mine, so that all that I have may glorify You and advance Your Kingdom. I thank You, Father, for the supernatural power of Your love and grace. I thank You for loving me, for redeeming me and for bringing me into Your house to live as a daughter of the Most High God. I thank You for using me to flow Your life and love through and for taking this broken and imperfect vessel and using it to make a difference in this world. Thank You, Father, for Your love, Your grace, Your faithfulness and Your Anointing. And Father, I ask all of this in the Name of Your Son, Jesus."

As the Father listened to my petition He smiled. And when I was finished He took my hand and He led me into another room. It was a Board room, a room with a large executive table with many chairs around it. We sat down together and He began to pour out His heart to me. He said that He had been waiting for this day, that He had created me for this purpose and prepared me for this time so that He may work this work through me. He said it truly was His desire and heart to see His children free from their debt, to see them living in the freedom and inheritance that was theirs as His children. He said He wanted to set up a family business, to channel His blessings and inheritance to His children and show them His love and mercy and the grace that His Son Jesus purchased for them. He said we would do this together, that if I would just listen to His voice and stay close to His heart that He would guide and navigate me through each step and that I would not have to worry about anything, because it would be a work and business that we would do TOGETHER as a family. He would supply all that I needed to carry out its success, the wisdom, the finances, the help and support, and anything and everything that I needed along the way, and all I would have to do was come to Him and ask and He would help me........Wow....I was blown away. The things that the Father was speaking to me were things that He had placed in my heart and spirit years ago, and now He was telling me it was time to do them.....I was speechless and felt very inadequate, but inside my spirit was saying "Yes, I'm ready! Let's do it!" So looking to Him I said, "Thank You, Father, for this assignment and for this privilege to serve You in the Kingdom. I receive it and step into it through the power of Your Son Jesus. Together we will be about the Father's Family Business and see many lives changed and brought into the Kingdom." I took the Father's hand and He squeezed mine and released His power and Anointing to do this work, and He said, "I am giving you the ability to create wealth so that I may establish My covenant in you." We embraced, and I felt His heart of love, and then we walked back into the banqueting hall together where He invited me to sit beside Him as He sat down on His throne of grace.

Wow....what an experience.....amazing grace.

The next day someone asked me out of the blue, "Connie, what do you want?" But the person went on to something else before I even had a chance to answer, which was good, because I'm not sure I had an answer for him right then. But the question made me really think about what I DID want. As I spent some time in thought and prayer on that question later, many things raced through my mind, especially concerning my family and children with the many desires and prayer petitions that I had in my heart and had desired to see God do, but knowing that if I would "seek first the kingdom of God, all these things would be added" to me. So my answer was: I wanted to fulfill the assignment that the Father had spoken to me. I wanted to fulfill my destiny. I wanted the power and Anointing of God to destroy debt and release prosperity into the hands of His Bride. I wanted to move mountains. I wanted to change people's lives by the power of God's love and the supernatural increase that results from the release of that Anointing and my giving. That's what I wanted and that's what I had asked the Father for. (The thing is, He knew my heart and He knew my thoughts already for He had made me for this before I was even born. Ps 139:1-16)
So at night before I went to bed and in the morning when I woke up, I began to lay my hands upon our bills and our debt and pray in the Spirit releasing the river of God on the inside of me to flow over them. "Everywhere that the river goes shall live." (Ez 47:9) I was releasing the power of the Holy Spirit to heal our finances, to bring life to them and cause them to prosper. I was releasing the supernatural power of God through the power of His Holy Spirit. My eyes were on the Father as I received the Anointing by faith and as I looked to Him for the manifestation of His power and miracle upon our finances, thanking Him for His love and His mercy and grace and for His kingdom coming into our finances drawing upon the truth and revelation that 2000 years ago Jesus took our debt and all the decrees that were hostile against us and He nailed them to the cross, paying our debt and disarming rulers and authorities, and He made a public display out of them as He triumphed over them at the cross.          (Col 2:14,15) As I prayed in the Spirit His kingdom and this manifestation was being released over our finances.

A few nights later as the river of God was flowing and I was having a wonderful prayer time praying in my understanding and in the Spirit, Jesus walked into my prayer time, and He said,  "Connie, it's not you living anymore, it's Me, Jesus, living in and through you. I am living in you and through you and in everything you do." And He proceeded to tell me what He was going to be doing through me. He said, "I'm going to heal through you. I'm going to break yokes and chains and addictions through you. I'm going to open blind eyes and deaf ears through you. I'm going to cause the lame to walk and the dead to rise and live again through you. I'm going to break debt and release prosperity through you.'   Then He took my bills and debt that I had listed and totaled and bundled together that was laying there on the table, and He said, "Connie, I took these to the cross with Me 2000 years ago, and I paid for them in full with My life and with My blood. I atoned for them." He held them up to His heart and chest and said, "I took from you what you deserved and I gave you mercy. In exchange for them I gave you debt-freedom and prosperity." And He flipped the bundle over and wrote PROSPERITY and DEBT FREEDOM on the back of it. Then He said, "See it tonight and receive it. It's yours."

It became reality to me that night. His tangible presence and anointing was there. I saw clearly what Jesus had done for me. He had given me mercy and released grace. He took and withheld what I deserved, which was being yoked with the weight of debt and working a lifetime paying it off, and He gave me mercy and grace, which I didn't deserve. He blessed me with the grace of Debt Freedom and Prosperity. It was mine right then. I just needed to receive it and take it by faith.
So I did.  I took it, receiving it by faith and began thanking Him for it and living in the reality of it, first in the reality that it was not I that was living anymore, but that it was Jesus that was living in and through me, that He had taken my life and all that it included (the good, the bad, and the ugly), and He had given me a new, redeemed, born-again, life of freedom in and through Him. THAT was something to celebrate right there.
I tucked the bundle of bills and debt back into my notebook, continuing to pay on them as they were due, and during my prayer times in the days ahead I would take them out and hold them to my heart and chest as I saw Jesus do that night, embracing the revelation, and I would praise Him and thank Him for what He had done, not only for me but for all of us. He had paid the price for our debt. He had paid the price for our healing. He had paid the price for our deliverance and freedom in every area of our life. I expressed my gratitude for the reality of His grace and mercy. I knew the grace, truth and reality of His atonement would manifest as I received it in faith and walked it out with Him. His love had set me free and brought forth a fountain of thanksgiving within me. He had lifted the burden, and His river of life, gratitude, and blessing was flowing!

Jesus made it real to me that night. I thank Him for this experience and revelation and for the reality of what He did for me, and what He's done for you. It's ours for the taking, and it's ours for the sharing and revealing to others.
God is a faithful and will do supernatural things when we believe and trust in Him, and when we praise Him with hearts of gratitude before we even see the manifestation of it.

So, I invite you to step into this Grace of Giving, to trust God at a new level of faith and see the Father's hand of blessing upon your life and your family as you do so. I invite you to draw upon this revelation of what Jesus did for you 2000 years ago and apply it to every area of your life.
God is faithful.  He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. God says, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart." (Jer 29:13)



2 Cor 9:7,8,10,11; Prov 3:5-6; Luke 6:38; Matt 7:7-8; Matt 14:13-21; 
Heb 4:16; Is 9:4; 1 John 4:8-10; John 3:16; Rom 8:29; Col 2:13-15;
Eph 1:11; John 17:10; 2 Cor 4:7; Dan 1l:32; 1 Cor 1:9; John 14:13-14;
Eph 2:10; Is 30:21; Ps 32:8; Phil 4:6; Phil 4:19; Is 6:8;
 Luke 2:49; Deut 8:18; Eph 2:5,6; Matt 6:33; Ps 139:1-16; Gal 2:20;
2 Cor 5:17; Heb 11:6; Jer 29:13

06 September 2013

The Secret Place with Jesus



My feet are on this earth, but my spirit lives in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In the Father's house there's a "secret place" that I go to with Jesus. It's at the top of a high tower that has a large open window that overlooks the valley below. It's where I go often in the Spirit to pray and to feel His heart. It was in this place that I was with Jesus one evening feeling the pain and grievance of His heart as He looked out over the multitudes in the valley below in their condition of poverty and lack, seeing and feeling how they were living in conditions that were far below what He had purchased for them. I felt Him reaching down with His heart and pulling them up into His. He was broken in heart and could hardly look out the window as He grieved over their condition and situation. He had given His life for them that they would not live like this but that they would live in their kingdom inheritance.
My heart grieved with Him, and sobbing I thought, "O Jesus, what can I do? What do You want me to do? You gave Your life for them. You paid the price in full for their deliverance and redemption to come back into the Father's house and back into His hand of blessing. O Jesus, what can I do? There's nothing left that You can do. You have paid the ultimate price. You've made a way for them to come back. What do You want me to do as Your vessel to show them the way that You have made for them?".........He said gently, "Be My voice. Just tell them the truth. Point them to Me, and release My power and love through your life of giving."

I looked out the window, and I felt His broken heart again as I saw the people and pondered the situation. It was overwhelming to me........then I saw something that caught my eye and attention and began to share what He had placed in my heart years ago.  I said, "Jesus, see that tiny nugget down there? (pointing to the lottery) Well it doesn't look like much from here, but it's big in the earth's economy. The Father created it. He said, "All things have been created by Him and for Him for His good pleasure." .....If the Father would get that to me, I would set up a Trust fund with it, a "Trust in the Lord" fund, and with the help of the Holy Spirit we would make a roadway in the wilderness for these people, a roadway in the wilderness for them to know and experience You through by the avenues of our giving. We would make rivers of blessing and refreshing in their desert that would let them drink of Your presence so that they could come to know You in fresh and new ways. And by the power of Your Spirit within us they would be drawn to You and follow the path that You have created and illuminated for them by Your Word. We would help them to learn good stewardship of the money and blessings that You have entrusted to them. I would like to do this, Jesus. I would like to present this suggestion to the Father."  Then I said, "Jesus, I didn't chose You, but You chose me and You appointed me that I should go and bear fruit, and that my fruit should remain, and You said that whatever I asked the Father in Your name He would do it for me so that You would be glorified. So I am going to go to the Father and ask Him this."

So I did. I went to the Father and said, "Father, I come humbly but boldly to You in the name of Your Son Jesus, and I ask You to bless me through this vehicle of the lottery. I would like something tangible that I can use to touch the people with. I would like to use this lottery to set up a Trust fund in the name of Your Son Jesus for this family business that You have spoken to me about. I would like to use it to create avenues of blessings that will express Your love and point people to Jesus and that would connect them to His heart. Father, this lottery is not much in comparison to the riches of Your glory, but it will BE part of Your glory when You breathe on it, because it's something that has been created by You and for You for Your good pleasure, and others can be touched and come to know Your love and generosity through it. It's something in this earth's economy that can be used for Your good, and can release Your hand of blessing, and that can help many people experience Your love and faithfulness in their desperate situations. It can be used to teach good stewardship and how to be good managers of the blessings that You have entrusted to them. So Father, I ask You to bless me with it. I am making an application today for this Grant from the riches of Your glory to be released into my hands. Father, I ask You along with this to grant me out of Your innermost treasury of Your glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power through Your Spirit in my inner man. I ask You to anoint me and empower me, Father, to share Your love and grace through the knowledge of Jesus and what He has done for them.......So Father, I thank You for hearing my heart and for meeting my need."          
The Father smiled.....Then I went out with joy and was led forth with peace, knowing that He had heard me and that He would grant my request.  Jesus had told me a few days before that "mountain moving faith was going to the Father and telling Him your need, and then going out with joy and being led forth with peace, trusting and knowing that what you asked, He would do, having childlike faith." Jesus was encouraging me and referring me to His Word in Isaiah 55:12  
"For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; 
the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy 
before you, and all the trees will clap their hands."


Matt 6:6; Ps 91:1; Prov 18:10; Col 1:16; Prov 3:5-6;
Is 43:19; John 7:37; John 6:44; Ps 119:105; John 15:16; 
Eph 3:16; Is 55:12