The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man (or woman) who is fully and wholly devoted to Him.”
Our heart is our source of life. If the heart stops beating or if the heart is removed, there will no longer be life in the body.
Our hearts are the source of our spiritual life too. If our heart stops beating for God or if our heart is shut down from receiving Gods love, our spiritual life will suffer and may even die.
A love relationship is a relationship of the heart – and it is no different with our relationship with God.
Something happens deep within us, in our hearts, when we wholly devote ourselves to God. Yes, we are radically touched and changed.
I have recently completed a 10 day ‘Daniel fast’ which was certainly a first for me. I have fasted before, but for just a day. This fast was for 10 days on the trot. I was not starving because I was still eating fruit and vegetables and drinking water but I felt totally deprived of the things that are usually my stimulants to pick me up or comfort me, like coffee and sugar and salt.
As the fast progressed, I felt more and more lethargic and more and more detached from myself. In reality, it was very hard and although I did have some beautiful times with God, I didn’t feel changed or even charged up and spiritual during the time.
The change came the day after. When everything else was back to normal but I had been changed and cleansed from within. My heart was changed.
What I had prayed for had come to pass. I am restored and renewed. I am confident again, in God’s love. I feel affirmed by my father in heaven. My insecurity is gone and my life is complete. What a wonderful result from something as simple and easy as a 10-day fast.
It wasn’t a super-spiritual experience for me. In fact, it coincided with the busiest week in my work-life. But it was a refining time. A simplifying time. A time that brought about great change.
During my prayer and journaling, these are the things that the Lord said to me;
I want you to celebrate me in your whole life.
Find your fullness and healing in me. It is in me. You need to remain in me.
Be changed by my love. Find peace and rest in me.
Come to me. Now is your time to let go and unwind. I will make a minute like an hour. Relax in my presence and receive the waves of my love. Saturate yourself. Come deeper and deeper. And everything else will fade away. Just for a time. For a brief escape. You and me.
Come away with me and hear my voice in an uncluttered environment.
Show others my love and encourage them to go deeper in their love and in their faith.
You are my joyful ambassador on the earth. Feel my love and favor shine down upon you. Feel my love fill you up to overflowing. Live every day in this light and this love and this affirmation.
What wonderful truths to hold onto.
What wonderful statements of love. Statements that God wants to say to each one of us that draw near to him and find peace in his presence.
But equally as prominent as his message of His love for me, was his encouragement for me to live out this this love and share His love with others. It was not a burdensome message but rather an encouraging message that ignited a new passion within me.
I used to live in a space where I watched God open up opportunities for me share about his love. It is wonderful to see people’s response and enthusiasm when God is the one that has prepared their heart.
It is so freeing to set aside my needs and concerns and even my dreams so that I can become an active part of Gods bigger picture.
God doesn’t put aside those things that we have been praying for. Those things that are important to us. He just presents them to us in a different way, at a different time and we can see from this new perspective that God’s plans and provisions are always perfect. And so much more we could have ever dreamed of or imagined.
And that was my great revelation. We need to look beyond ourselves. We need to align our hearts with Gods heart and see that there is a so much bigger purpose for us on this earth.
Once we discover this for the first time, or rediscover it as we go deeper with God, we will begin to feel more alive and more passionate and more purposed than ever before.
And over and above all of this, we will feel more loved! What could be more important on this earth, than that.
Isaiah 55 – New Living Translation (NLT)
55 “Is anyone thirsty?
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
it’s all free!
2 Why spend your money on food that does not give you strength?
Why pay for food that does you no good?
Listen to me, and you will eat what is good.
You will enjoy the finest food.
3 “Come to me with your ears wide open.
Listen, and you will find life.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you.
I will give you all the unfailing love I promised to David.
4 See how I used him to display my power among the peoples.
I made him a leader among the nations.
5 You also will command nations you do not know,
and peoples unknown to you will come running to obey,
because I, the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, have made you glorious.”
6 Seek the Lord while you can find him.
Call on him now while he is near.
7 Let the wicked change their ways
and banish the very thought of doing wrong.
Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy on them.
Yes, turn to our God, for he will forgive generously.
8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
12 You will live in joy and peace.
The mountains and hills will burst into song,
and the trees of the field will clap their hands!
13 Where once there were thorns, cypress trees will grow.
Where nettles grew, myrtles will sprout up.
These events will bring great honor to the Lord’s name;
they will be an everlasting sign of his power and love.”