Revealing our Blessed Helper

I have to reveal this because He has told me to reveal.  These things happen often w/ the Lord and this posting shows how the Lord can work in our lives when we surrender to Him.  We will see Him working, but we can only see this if we look! Revealing our blessed Helper. Revealing God – We can only look if we draw near to Him (He draws near to those that draw near to Him).  We can only draw near to Him by getting to know God… we can only get to know Him by reading His Word, fellowship, praying, and so on.  All I can say is Praise our wonderful God.  Thank you so much Lord for Helping, Guiding, Teaching, Loving, and Saving.  I love you so much Abba Father.  Please bless these words and speak through my mind and my hands.  Please bind up any glorification of the flesh and any exaggerations.  Lord, I pray for Your Words and Your Words alone to be shown.  If any Words I type are not from You, I pray that You give the readers the discernment to see, protect them from the words, and give them the strength to contact me in order to reveal these things to me.  Thank you Lord Thank you.  Amen.

These things are from a hand written journal I have been writing in.  Burns, if you still keep up on this blog, thank you for the suggestion of keeping a spiritual journal.  Only through this hand written journal can these things get brought together.  Otherwise, the things that happen only remain in my thoughts because I have nothing in my hands to back track, evaluate, etc.  Bless you Burns, thank you.

Personally, this is how I draw near to Him so that I can hear from Him.  I don’t think there is another way.  We must fellowship with God and have a relationship with Him – He’s our Ish (Husband).  I spend time with the Lord, which is a must in my opinion in order to hear from Him.  For my example – He has given me a book or 2 on Christianity that I pick up during the week, He is teaching me 1Peter and Exodus in a cpl of bible studies, I am blessed with daily devotional emails from 2 resources, I am blessed with a cpl daily devotional resources in the bathroom that I read when in there, and lastly, I am blessed through weekly sermons, as well as friends/family who are in-Christ.  Oh, and there’s also a James study I’m working on.  Please keep in mind that we should never ‘flip’ or ‘thumb’ through the bible to find something from God.  I have found that when we do this, the self will find exactly what it wants to find.  He speaks through the normal means of study.  He reveals through the normal means of already established readings, studies, devotionals, etc.  Be rest assured, your fleshly desires/your own will, will always find what it’s looking for when reading His Word unless we surrender our desires to His Will, and seek His Will alone.  I pray for the readers discernment again.. to know what is of God and what is not.

I’m going to pop in a quick sniplet here of 1 example from my journal.  Here is a great example to reveal God, our blessed Helper –
6/23/09 Praise God 1st!
Good prayer time.  Heard from the Lord in a daily devotional. –
I was in discussions on a specific topic last night with a friend, after studying the setting up of the Tabernacle in Exodus.  I was looking at the parallel of our prayer life in relation to the establishment of the Tabernacle.  The sacrifice was first, then the cleansing, and then we walk into the Tent of Meeting with God.  So I was questioning my friend: ” Do we cleanse ourselves first by confession before going into the Tent of Meeting – before Praise and Worship?  Or, as I have heard many times, do we Praise and Worship first, and then enter the gates?”

I woke up in the morning, and in my inbox from a daily devotional… the subject line stated exactly: “When You Pray, Begin With Praise”

Then another daily devotional i have in the bathroom reiterated: The Lord’s Prayer – “…hallowed by Thy Name.”  Jesus taught us to hallow the Father at the beginning of our prayers.

I mean, come on people… How great is our God?  He is the Living God, El Chay.  He not only sees and hears, but He ACTS.  Praise God!

As I..
(A quick side track – He wants me to reveal something here… this is amazing.  As I start to type this paragraph, I typed: “As I..”, and my screen flickers black.  I “look” to see what He’s telling me.  Oh… It isn’t “I” that’s doing these things, it is “He”.  See, the prayer above is already getting answered – “I pray for Your Words and Your Words alone to be shown.”  This is an area He has been Teaching me over the past few weeks, which I have adjusted on, but not fully.  Giving Him all the glory and working self out, completely.  It still comes through of course.. I’m a sinner.  At any rate…   Let me continue or I’ll get side tracked into another 2 paragraphs.) 

As HE works more and more into my life, I see how many passages start revealing Truth.  Things such as how His words will be foolishness to the natural man, how we will be persecuted, falsely accused, etc.  Once life does a 180 and we begin to set our minds on things above, we can be rest assured that our lives will change.  If our lives don’t change, we should take a close look at what has transpired.  When we are born again, we will experience changes in our talk, we recognize bad thought patterns, our walk in life changes, our thoughts take a new meaning, who we hang around changes, what we watch on TV (if we watch any tv at all!!), how we spend our free time changes, how we view the world, and so on.  When we are born again, friends are lost, and sadly, family members start to become disengaged..  Ok, I just got side tracked…again.  Sorry!  haha.

On 6/23/09, I wrote down in my journal:
As I begin my bible study on Peter, I’m thinking of how my dad says I’m losing it, I must be following a cult.  My sister says I need to see a shrink.  They both think I’m losing it and they are worried for me.  My sister says “you’re not the same person”, I say “Amen to that!”.  I’m thinking about my dad’s comments.  I also think of Val my ex g/f.  She doesn’t hear my words, there true meaning.  No one but Christians hear the words spoken – amazing.  My own family.. my ex-g/f of 12yrs.  They treat it as if it’s foolishness.

That same day, the only family member remaining that I always held onto as my worldly rock..(I know, bad thing to do, but watch how great our Lord is .. our Teacher)..  the one person I knew I could always count on to understand me… the one that I, in the back of my mind, just knew that no matter what, I could count on.. This family member sent me an email, in response to my daily devotionals that I was forwarding – Here’s a snip from it: “I am getting worried about you.  I don’t hear from you anymore.  I just hear you quoting the bible,  We love YOU very much.  If your path is to do or say nothing but what the bible says then you are on a different path then us.  We do not want to be preached to or emailed your studies.”
So as one can imagine, when we are addressed with having the last person in our lives as someone we truly knew in your heart would understand you, and back you up no matter what…. when they send something like this, it can devastate someone.  Ah, but not a child of Christ!  Armor on!!!  Yes, I admit, this hurt when I first heard it. My world crashed.  I cried out to Jesus “Save me!”.  And oh yes, He Saves.  Watch how great He is… Revealing our blessed helper.. Revealing God:

After calling out to Jesus, I start my bible study in Peter as I’m pondering these things, and while I’m bothered by them… but I knew.. pick up the word.  He immediately speaks in the next verse I start to study –
(I just realized what happened here.. the same thing w/ Peter – When Peter was sinking in the water after walking on it… when he looked at the waves crashing around him… what did he do?  He cried out – “Jesus save me!” and His Word says… “Jesus immediately reached out…”  This is why I always cry out to Jesus to “save me!” when I start to sink.  it works, every single time as long as after the cry, the bible is picked up.  We have to force ourselves to say it and pick up the word.. It works, every time.)  Praise God!  Man, He is sooo sooo Good.  He cares so much for us.  Bless you Father!  ANYWAYS, here I go off on another tangent.  haha.  Sorry!  I love the Lord, I can’t help it.  So anyways, He immediately answers –

1 Peter 2:11-12 (New Century Version)

Live for God

¹¹Dear friends, you are like foreigners and strangers in this world. I beg you to avoid the evil things your bodies want to do that fight against your soul.¹²People who do not believe are living all around you and might say that you are doing wrong. Live such good lives that they will see the good things you do and will give glory to God on the day when Christ comes again.

As one can see, He speaks.. He Helps.. He gives Peace, He is our Comforter.. He Acts.  He has taught me a lesson.. I am growing.  Blessed be the Lord.  How great is our God? Oh, He doesn’t just stop there.  He is much Greater!  He is the Most High!  This is how Great our God is –

These thought patterns related to the issue with friends/family.. and the Lord’s teaching pertaining to these things are still working in me.  He’s still working on the evil one’s strongholds within me… but man, is He sooo soo Good!  While thoughts are still battling in my mind, I start to think bad thoughts like “Wow, every single person in my family has casted me out.”  Thoughts like this were happening ever since I got that email, spiritual warfare was going on.. The Holy Spirit is helping me recognize the thoughts for what they are – snares.

Then, I got an email from another family member a cpl of days later.  This wasn’t just any family member though.  This is a family member that is quiet.  She doesn’t usually say much, get too much involved, etc.  I thought of the term “least” after this event happened… because it’s exactly what the lesson was.  Of course, this family member is greatest in His eyes and mine – He says that those that are least will be greatest and those that are the greatest will be the least..  AMEN.  The greatest family family member in my eyes, the one I had the highest expectation from, taught me something valuable – The least of us are the greatest to our Lord.  Praise praise praise God.  Anyways, 2 days later, a family member that is always quiet, out of the scene, etc.. A family member that I have never been in communications with in email sent me this (the least.. the one I would have never expected or looked towards): “I am surprised to get these emails of encouragement from you. but I thank you and I like it.   You are a good person, and a kind one.   And I love you for it.”

She edified me.  Praise God!  Awww, how great is that?  My Aunt, the one I barely talk to, the Aunt that is always quiet.. The least (and not in a bad way.. ).. The Lord uses His cherrished Child to Help another one of His Children.  Now THAT’S the Holy Spirit at work!  How great is our God???  He still continues to Teach.  Blessed be the Lord. Revealing our Blessed Helper, revealing God –

6/25/09
During my Exodus study –

Luke 14:25-27 (New King James Version)

Leaving All to Follow Christ

²⁵ Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.

Matthew 10:37 (New King James Version)

³⁷ He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Amen, Amen, Amen.

joseph

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