I'm asking for me and mine today what my oldest daughter (Prissy) asked for me to ask for her two days ago, some of His "daughter-of-the-Most-High-King favor" in all kinds of out-loud out-doing Himself flavor in every way that He chooses to shower us! May we bask in His Presence while seeing Him and enjoying Him while watching and participating with Him in His work! May the Glory of His wonder radiate from our faces... and in all that we do, may we be about our Father's business and in doing so be about Displaying His Splendor! For after all, as 'children of the Most High King'.. should we be expected to exude any less than such?
I had posted what you just read above on my Facebook page. I don't post often anymore, but this morning, I was just too full not to! I found I had to spill out (or explode if not!) somewhere.
A close friend commented by saying, "Don't we ALL just need/want/desire His lavish mercy & grace! BTW... I saw something new as I studied yesterday!!! LOVE THAT!!"
I commented back: ""Don't we ALL just NEED/WANT/DESIRE His lavish mercy & grace"? Indeed so!!! And so much more!!!! I DESIRE/WANT/N.E.E.D. to serve Him, as well! For as we both know, it is in serving Him, spending ourselves for others, that we are more filled ourselves. I want to "spend" better!!!!............ "Saw something new" just yesterday??? YES! It's a favorite "LOVE THAT" moment and feeling of mine myself!!! OH, at the wonder of our Lord!!!"
I've thought a lot about what I've said since then. What I said in prison this week to those beautifully-faced women that I talked to there. We've had a majestically, royally, Divinely, WONDER-FULL time this week in our classes. Our God blew our minds in our spellboundness at all of His saying! We literally all left after meeting together soaring! No prison razor-wired fences nor steel-slamming bars kept those girls in prison captured. They may have gone back to their bunks, and their legs may have been forced to stop, but our hearts were dancing to The King of kings at the song of the music that He had given us to sing! These imprisoned inmates may have been wearing their uniformed white, but His royal daughters have never looked more lovely!
That was our Monday night and Tuesday morning and Tuesday night, but then our Wednesday night service took us to a whole new wonder. Upon arriving I still was unsure of exactly what we'd talk about. I had a hodge-podge of some thoughts jotted on a piece of paper, yet I didn't feel we had a main text for the night. I was a bit fearful of how it would go, of what I would say; but I was trusting my God and His Spirit to fill me up and take control of my heart and my mind and my mouth, and to say only (and all) of what He alone wanted to say.
Needless to say, He answered prayer and took control, and He did just that! And as it is when He does, it was magnificently, overwhelmingly awesome. His message was perfect. We were fueled up and left with a greater want-to. A more determined determination. A new focused fascination. We left having heard Him! We left wanting to serve Him! We left not only refueled and renewed, we left leaving on a mission!
I could type for the next three hours attempting to recapture and sum up what was said, but bottom line, God reminded us of one thing that He constantly says, and though constant, a thing that He continually needs to remind us. He told us (again!), to love our enemies! To bless them! To pray for them! To do good to them! I told them that we are constantly wanting to get well, but that if we instead started focusing our attention on someone else and "spending" ourselves on them, then that's when we'd receive our healing! If we truly loved our enemies... if we looked for ways to bless them... if we prayed for them... if we really, really, really did things to "do good" to them(!!), then we'd be filled up with fullness, and it'd heal our anger, our meanness, our madness, our unforgiveness, our bitterness, our backbiting, our gossip, our slander,.........our "healing would quickly appear," "our righteousness would go before us," and "the glory of the Lord would be our rear guard,".... "our light [HIS Light!] would rise in our darkness," the Lord would "guide us," He'd "satisfy all of our needs," and our "frames would be strengthened" (see passages below).
If we quit being so focused on ourselves and we were "being about our Father's business" as Jesus was (and still wants to be), then we could turn upside-down until right-side-up in a prison!!! :)
I can't quit thinking about it. I've written myself a note to tape to the mirror of my bathroom, "I want to love better! I want to 'spend' better! I don't want to waste time, I want to be about my Father's business!"
May we all both love well (both love ourselves until we're well.. and love others until they can get well), and may we spend ourselves well on others!
"Shout it aloud, and do not hold back,
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to My people their rebellion
and to the house of Jacob their sins.
For day after day they seek Me out;
they seem eager to know My ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right,
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask Me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
'Why have we fasted,' they say,
'and You have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and You have not noticed?'
Yet on the day of your fasting,
you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fasting I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter -
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help,
and He will say, Here am I.
If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing of finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves
in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
He will satisfy your needs
in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings...
(Isaiah 58:1-12)
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