a house of prayer for the nations

I am Yours, Father…

I trust You…

I give myself to You…

You are the only Worthy One…

There is no one else like You…

I love You and I choose to trust You with the rest of my life…

It is no longer mine…

It is Yours…

I was reading Psalm 130 last night and I believe the night before and the Lord showed me an interesting fact…

But there is forgiveness with You, That You may be feared. (Psalm 130:4 NASB)

I’d never seen that verse before…

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…

Our experience of the Lord’s forgiveness leads to wisdom…

Similar to the scripture from Romans…

The kindness of God leads us to repentance…

Same thought…

Repentance is the first practical step of wisdom (baby steps) which we take in the Lord…

We take this step by faith in our hearts…

So we fear (or revere or respect) the Lord based on our experience of His forgiveness of us…

We know what we did…

We know what we were…

And we now know that He has forgiven us…

This bows our head internally in our own heart and we give up and respect Him…

We give ourselves to Him because He had power over us and He didn’t use it…

Instead, He took the rap Himself and we have been released scot-free…

This bows our head before Him…

We don’t understand You Lord but we love You…

We don’t understand why You would do this – to bring us close to Yourself – but we appreciate You for doing it…

We are nothing without You…

You are everything to us…

We love You and we ask that You enable us to grow in our devotion – in our reverence for and respect towards – You…

We love You…

Andrew

“I will give you true Friendship with Myself”…

“After you – your flesh – are annihilated I will give you true Friendship with Myself”…

“When you come to Me you will be entirely satisfied”…

“Nobody loves you – unless I have placed that on their heart”…

“There is nothing you can do to make somebody love you”…

“My Love is unconditional so anyone who truly loves you loves you unconditionally – not based upon your performance”…

“Anyone who loves you based upon your performance does not love you with My Love”…

“Take Me at My word – I Love you unconditionally – I do not see your sin”…

“I have purchased you for Myself – and I Love you”…

“I have many things to show you”…

“Everything has been necessary”…

“You are free in Me”…

“I AM – The Eternal God – and I speak to you outside of time”…

“Believe Me and live”…

I am yearning for friendship Father, yearning…

Longing with all my heart for friendship…

I am empty Lord and I need You to fill me…

Empty…

I have nothing…

I give to the best of my ability but it’s not enough…

It’s not fulfilling…

I want to give all the time but I also want to receive – I want to receive Your Love through others…

This is what I do not have…

And this is the aching void in my life…

I do not experience Your Love through others…

I hear Your Voice telling me that You Love me but I do not experience the reality of that through anyone else…

I want connection…

I so want connection…

Life is so empty without connection, without givenness and without sharing deeply your life with other people…

I have no outlet Lord in the natural…

No one who I can safely share my innermost thoughts with…

No one who won’t judge me…

No one who will understand…

No one who has seen what You’ve shown me…

No one to walk my path with…

I am completely alone…

I so long for friends…

I really do…

Please Lord, as I have asked You previously, please give me genuine friends…

Those who You bring into my life to walk with me so that we can encourage each other…

So that we can minister to each other…

I feel crushed…

I feel defeated…

I feel exhausted…

I cannot do what You have called me to do…

You have revealed so much to me and I can do none of it…

I am a continual failure in my own eyes…

But I know that You have forgiven me…

I know that You are working with me…

Why does it take so long?

Why do we go ‘over and over’ the same issues ‘over and over’ again?

Some things change but others just remain the same but You keep encouraging me that I will be free…

Why?

Why can’t You just set me free?

Why do I have to wait?

What is the purpose of all this waiting?

It is killing me…

I hate it…

I hate waiting…

My life feels like I’m in a state of suspended animation…

What is the purpose of this?

Take me deeper…

Don’t stop…

Take me deeper…

Establish in me Your will, whatever that is…

Worship You Jesus…

Bring me to the point of death…

To the point of submission unto death…

Deeper and deeper and deeper…

Everything of this world is empty to me – it is hollow…

It is empty…

I am not fulfilled by it…

I need You…

I need You living through me…

I need release from all selfishness…

Release me Lord…

Let me know friendship…

If it’s not possible to receive through others minister to me directly…

Please fill me with Yourself…

I am not going to lie to You, I long for connection with other human beings, deep connection…

Why have You hidden that from me?

Is there something wrong with me?

Am I not ‘fit’ for others to be my friends?

What are You doing Lord?

It hurts…

And I am in pain…

Love You,

Andrew

The Lord is faithful to His word…

Those who wait upon the Lord will mount up on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint…

The Spirit of the Lord within them will lead them to streams of living water…

He – the Holy Spirit within them – is the Stream of Living Water…

He – the Holy Spirit within them – is the River of Life – He is the River of Eternal Life – and He flows from within them – streams of life giving water will flow from their belly – their innermost being – the center of all creativity and life giving potential within them – from their core – their innermost being will flow rivers of life giving – living – waters…

What He does is to possess…

He changes our minds…

He brings us into agreement with Himself…

He liberates us…

He removes all ‘stinking thinking’ from us so that we understand the truth – the truth is like the purest possible mineral water from deep aquifers in the center of the earth – and it satisfies our righteous souls – it makes sense – we buy into it – it is the truth – it is undeniable – immutable – indestructible – undeniable…

He – the Holy Spirit – is the Truth – He – the Holy Spirit – is the Spirit of Truth and He is radical freedom…

He is the Purpose – He is the reason that we live – He – the Holy Spirit – is God – He is God and He – the Holy Spirit – inhabits us – He possesses us – He takes over – at our consent – He does not force Himself upon us – but if we want Him – and if we invite Him – if we give Him permission – then He – in His own time – will take possession of our lives – and flow through us like living waters – like the wind which we do not understand, where it comes from and where it is going – that we have no control over – as we lie back in His arms and allow His flow to cover and move us we begin to experience the lift of His Spirit and we begin to fly – lifted up on His currents – in His will – in His Purpose – in His Calling – at His disposable – without effort or striving – but carried along on His Uplifts – His Currents – His thermals – He is the one carrying us and we are enjoying intimate fellowship with Him…

He is the center, He is the core, He is the lifeblood – and His Presence pervades our lives…

“I will give you everything I have promised you but you need to wait for Me”…

“I will be found by you when you search for Me with all your heart”…

“How do you search for Me with all your heart?”…

“You wait for Me”…

“You give up”…

“You stop”…

“You live and don’t ask questions”…

“You believe Me and no matter how unlikely what I have told you is – you believe Me and live and don’t try to make it happen”…

“I have spoken to you before and I have promised you things – you have believed Me and now you are wondering, ‘How long?'”…

“John the Baptist wondered too”…

“And I encouraged him”…

“And I will encourage you”…

“Wait – that is all that I will say – wait and don’t worry if no one else around you believes what you believe – you will see it come to pass and your joy will be complete in that day”…

“It is worth the wait – all of it Andrew – don’t try to make it happen – wait and let Me fulfill My will for you”…

“Enough”…

“Wait”…

“I love you”…

Jesus…

Thank You Jesus for Your Presence in my life to date…

I worship You…

I love You…

You are my Best Friend…

You are my only Companion…

You are my Closest Confidant…

I love You…

There is no one else like You…

No one…

You are Perfect…

And You Love me…

You have forgiven me…

And You keep forgiving me…

I am not perfect in my behaviour but You treat me as if I were…

You continually lift me up…

You never put me down…

All the discipline You allow in my life is necessary…

Very necessary…

Thank You for disciplining me…

Thank You for the shaping which You have been doing in my life all these years…

This year it will be 40 years since I came to know You…

I worship You for the journey to date…

There’s a long way to go but You have been shaping my life and I am appreciative to You for it…

I love You…

Worship You Jesus…

You are Worthy…

And You have forgiven me…

You have welcomed me into Fellowship with the Godhead…

Through You I am accepted in the Beloved…

I am part – forever – of the family of God – I am one spirit with God Himself in my new creation…

What priviledges are mine…

I am Yours…

You belong to me…

All that You are has been given to me so that I can live the life which You lived on earth…

Worship You Jesus…

You are Everything and You are Awesome…

I worship You…

Through the pain and through the extrication of my flesh from myself – You are Faithful…

I worship You…

Father, Thank You for choosing me…

I had nothing to do with this but I feel so incredibly blessed that You chose me – to save me – to bring me to Yourself…

I am Yours…

And I worship You…

Holy Spirit – You are my Comforter – You are my Constant Companion – You whisper truth and leading and guidance to me all day long – and Your whispers are true – You are leading me in a true path and one which leads to You – and yet You focus me on Jesus and on the Father – You do not draw attention to Yourself – and I am learning from You that the joy is not in the recognition but just in doing what You have been instructed to do – in love – anything done in love is powerful – and You – Lord Holy Spirit – are demonstrating truth to me through Your loving and service towards me even though I don’t deserve it and am not like You – Practically Perfect and always correct in everything You do – You put up with me – living in the same skin as me – and co-habit with me without complaint – I am astounded by You – You truly are my Hero – Lord Holy Spirit – I love You – and You focus me on Jesus – who showed the way and laid down His life so that we also could live in laying down ours…

I will worship…

I will worship You…

PROPHETIC SPOTLIGHT | AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND

Beautiful worship… 🙂

If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2 NASB)

I’ve often been scared of the unknown…

I suppose because of my prophetic giftings the Lord has told me quite a bit about the future and also about my own personal future…

But there are always things we don’t know…

There are always things I don’t know…

The unknown…

I was training for my first marathon recently when out of nowhere I got injured…

My left calf tore…

I was disappointed as I’d been training really well and wasn’t pushing myself so there was no reason why that should have happened…

I didn’t take it well and decided to do aqua-jogging (non-weight bearing, running in water without touching the ground being held up by a flotation device around your waist) while it recovered – its wise to not run for around a month when you tear your calf…

I was so keen not to let it affect me that I over exerted myself in the aqua-jogging over extending my left foot as I tried to mimic a sprinting style in water for around 2 hours straight…

I ended up getting excruciating shin splints on the front of my lower left shin…

After trying one more training session doing breaststroke in the water trying not to use my left foot to kick and damaging my shin further I finally let it go…

I’d believed that the Lord wanted me to complete that marathon but now needed to let it go to get healing…

Yesterday I was able to commence training again on land after two full weeks down time from the end of the water training and basically a whole month from the time I tore my calf…

I felt it was OK to begin again…

My marathon training has now gone to three training sessions a week to get me where I need to be by race day in early June…

What I learnt was that it’s OK if the Lord tells us something and then let’s us get injured as this brings out how much of our flesh is trying to make it happen…

I am to run to know Him…

To enjoy Him…

To rest in Him and to relax – just to enjoy my running and as I enjoy it naturally I will relax and won’t tense up my muscles which will mean I’m less likely to get injured…

Life is also like this…

If I end up training and enjoying it and getting injured again or even during the marathon itself I’m OK with this now – it’s about the experience and knowing Him in the experience…

The unknown is an invitation to know Him – to know Him in the unexpected where truly we have no control left and don’t have a clue what to do – to know Him in these times teaches us the deepest lessons…

So whether you’re running or living, every unexpected turn, every eventuality which you didn’t see coming – every quirk, every impact from outside ourselves, all these unexpected things – they are all of Him to allow us to see more how we really need Him in every life circumstance…

His Presence in our lives is our life – He is our Eternal Life – our Eternal Quality of life – we are nothing without Him and living with Him and experiencing His joy in all things – whatever the outcome – is better than actually finishing a marathon – I get that now and I’m sure He’ll test it… 🙂

This is a very simple post…

A very simple thought…

And yet so very profound…

Trusting God…

It is impossible to feel depressed or discouraged or disheartened or sorry for yourself when you are trusting God…

The simple belief that everything that happens to you has been allowed to happen by a loving God who will always cause everything which He allows to happen to you to work together for your good is what keeps you from bitterness, caustic-ness, disillusionment, despair and giving up on the dreams which He has so repeatedly given you…

Either God is good or He is not…

Once this decision is made for you, i.e. which of the above you believe, everything gets a whole lot simpler…

I’ve seen people who are sorry for themselves and frankly it gets to a point where I can no longer have anything to do with them…

Why is this?

Because I don’t share their world view…

And clearly they don’t share mine…

Our world views just don’t mix…

And two people who have different world views can’t walk together…

Can’t be united…

Can’t have fellowship with one another and can’t make any progress together…

Choose your side…

Either (a) God is right and everything He does – even when you can’t understand it – is loving and kind and for your ultimate good or (b) He isn’t and you should take control of your own life and try to ensure that everything happens for you the way you believe it should because after all in this world you are the only person who cares about you…

“Jerusalem, hear the Voice of the Lord Your God”…

“You have been chosen for salvation”…

“All Your People will know Me”, declares the Lord Your God…

“You have been chosen for greatness in this chosen generation – the generation who will see the salvation of the world and the coming – after this time – of the King”…

“I will visit your streets with salvation – I will visit your women with child-birth – not in the natural but in the spiritual – they will bear children for God – the children of the desolate woman will be more than of her who has had a husband”…

“I will be married to you – Jerusalem – in the spirit and I will bear fruit for God through you – through your union with Me”, declares the Lord your God…

“You will go forth into the Nations with My message of truth – it will be proclaimed in full through you – the time of My coming is near and the time of My salvation is at hand”…

“I am coming upon you – Jerusalem – with power in Anointing to raise the dead”…

“To raise the dead who are dead in their sins to bring them back to life in Me”, declares the Lord your God…

“The miracle will be in the hearts – yes, there will be miracles – many miracles – in the natural – but the miracle will be in the hearts – all the hearts of the inhabitants of Jerusalem – from every nationality represented there – will be one in Me”, declares the Lord your God, “and in unity you will petition Me for the salvation of the nations of the world and I will hear you”, declares the Lord your God, “I will hear you for you will petition Me in truth and in accordance with My will”, declares the Lord your God…

“The time of your visitation is at hand, I am coming upon you with power – no one will resist Me and I will woo you – I will woo you into salvation and I will woo you into service for Me”, declares the Lord your God…

“I will love you and I will save you”…

“I love you”…

“And I will save you”, declares the Lord your God…

I’ve been listening to quite a few TED Talks lately and a common theme which has been coming out is the theme of shame…

Shame is so debilitating…

I’ve been listening to these ones share about guilt and shame from a perspective of someone who doesn’t know the Lord and I realize that for those who don’t know the Lord this is such a huge issue…

Even for those of us who do know the Lord until the Lord delivers us more and more and more from that spirit we are so bound up in it and are vehicles of it to others around us…

But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. (Isaiah 53:10 NASB)

Jesus rendered Himself as a guilt offering, i.e. all our guilt was laid upon Him…

He became the Scapegoat for us (Leviticus 16:10) and bore our iniquity outside the camp (Hebrews 13:12) so that we do not need to bear it any more for our sin, yes, we still bear the stigma of being scapegoats for Him as we suffer for being His in the world but this is a very different story…

Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.  (Hebrews 13:12-14 NASB)

So we see that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1) but those who are not, i.e. who haven’t believed, are condemned already (John 3:18)…

We also see that Jesus has carried all our guilt so for those in Christ Jesus there is no further guilt as His Blood has sanctified us (Hebrews 10:2) but for those outside of Christ Jesus there is continual guilt for their sin…

We finally see that no one who puts their trust in Jesus will ever be put to shame (Psalm 25:3) but those who do not put their trust in Jesus will shrink away in shame before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28)…

So for those of us who know the Lord the Lord will never put condemnation, guilt or shame on us…

Never…

He will deliver us from these debilitating diseases – and these spirits do cause diseases in our bodies…

We are new creations which cannot sin and as such we have nothing to be ashamed of…

Our flesh – sin which dwells in us – is dead – Jesus became sin for us and has forgiven all our sin…

Anything which we had – Jesus took it.  Isaiah 53 is the most amazing passage.  Anything we had as a result of the fall – Jesus took it.  He healed us completely on the cross…

Completely…

Worship You Jesus – by Your stripes we were healed…

Praise You Lord…

You are worthy of all our praise – to You belongs Eternal Praise!!!

You’re Worthy…

And You are Worthy of all our praise…

Love You Lord…

Andrew