Sunlight streaming into the forest, my favorite place to be still and hear God speak to me. Photo taken this past Sunday.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Colossians 3:3-4 HCSB
I bless us to pour out our hearts to Jesus in trust and to rejoice in the LORD’s never forsaking presence with us always. I bless us to recognize and embrace His grace that is sufficient for us and our loved ones in all circumstances. I bless us to recognize that the barriers He has raised are not His withholding of good things from us, but Him protecting us and our loved ones from harm and Him leading us and our loved ones into His best for us.
I bless us to become pregnant with great expectation of what the LORD is about to do in the lives of others and in ourselves, as we look not to ourselves or man, but to Him. I bless us to be in awe of God our Father, and the finished work of His Son, Jesus, at the Cross. I bless us to rejoice in the LORD always and not to forget His benefits, but to be filled with thankfulnessfor all He has done.
Can I sing your praise Can I just lift up my hands And say how much I love You, LORD?!
Can I lay low here Before You spreading out my all My hands and knees bowed low Lifting up my soul to You alone.
Can I just cast down in Jesus now Every argument set up against Your Word, may Your will be seen Papa In Christ's laying low 'n casting down
Of all these walls, ashes to ashes of all The ways I'm holding back my heart My body 'n soul 'n mind 'n strength My all from glory's weight of gold.
Melt my heart and pour it out Releasing Your Son's meekness now In my humbling, let my body's laying Down low, Your Body freely glorify.
Unashamed and unafraid to sing And dance in Holy Spirit abandon Declaring You now the King of Kings And Lord of Lords, no other Name
Will do for me, but Yours My reputation I am laying down low In Jesus to arise, awake to Him My soul's delight in incense rising.
For He's ever interceding Before the throne for you and me The King of Kings and LORD of Lords No other Name, my God, but Yours.
I know You alone to shield And cover Me, hidden in Your Son I am righteous, in the shadow Of Your wings alone, oh YES I'm Yours.
Egmond aan Zee 17 July, 2020, a beach my Mum also walked upon with my Dad, before going to be with Jesus. This sunset was God’s balm of peace to my broken and weary heart, filling me with fresh hope and rejoicing, as the song Your Glory is So Beautiful by All Sons and Daughters began playing in my ears.
7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ESV
I bless us to deep down know that our true life is hidden with Christ in God. I bless us to see how we have lost and are losing our life for Jesus to find it. I bless us to see how we have lost and are losing the world’s affections, are being emptied of all our fleshly desires and are rising up in the affections and pure delight of our God alone.
I bless us to see how we have followed and are following in the footsteps of our Savior by making ourselves nothing in taking the very nature of a servant. I bless us to see how His humility has grown and is growing in us, and how He has and still is compelling us to humble ourselves, even unto death, for the joy set before us: salvation and deliverance in Jesus’ Name not just for us, but many many more. I bless all our places of deep loss, pain and anguish to overflow with the hope of glory and the joy of our LORD Jesus Christ.
I bless us to daily experience afresh the truth that Christ Jesus dwells inside of us in all His fullness. I bless us to deep down know that we have been crucified with Christ and that it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. I bless us to acknowledge God in all our ways, to recognize, embrace and intimately know and discern His presence in our thoughts, our feelings and our actions, and in His sovereign directing of our paths. I bless us to know that though we may make our plans, it is ultimately God who determines our steps.
I bless us to embody the truth that the life we now live in these earthly bodies, we live by faith, not in ourselves, but in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself for us.I bless us to rest in the beautiful and freeing truth that Christ Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.
Gather, You tell me Gather, my broken dreams? Gather, my heart broke in two? Gather, all I've poured and emptied out? Gather, here my broken self?
What do I gather? When all I have is broken Shattered? Mara, she said to call her Mara is the word I'd choose A bitter hand dealt.
Gather, You tell me Gather, Your tears here for me wept? Gather, Your heart here broke for me? Gather, all You've poured and emptied? Gather, Word made flesh?
It's then I see You There beside me strong Hand in mine Walking to the Cross
Your Body broken Shame and mocking On You laid Pierced and bled in pain In the tomb You lay.
Till Your heavens Darkness rent Curtain raised, Now in two I hear You rip.
Christ, You raise My broken life In the breaking Of Your Body From the tomb New life unwrap.
Your songs releasing Now my human soul Awakening Your Living Word Declaring me Whole.
Embraced in love Steeled in truth Sent in Grace's Own true Breath Into Your world That's yearning For You:
I AM mercy's hands And mercy's feet.
Broken, You make beautiful Dark, You shine my night to Light Tears, You cup and pour to Joy aflame Fear, You still in Perfect Peace My feet, On righteous path You tread Sure and steadfast Held.
Gather, You tell me. YES I shall gather These tears You wept This heart You broke All You've poured And emptied out of me Your jar of clay I shall now receive:
The Word Made flesh.
Garden of My Lord Enclosed and sealed For a time such as this Your spring has broken Your fountains I hear Crashing, pouring.
For, Your love and mercy You've gathered Now to rush and pour Into Your waiting world Through jars of clay
Sovereign
For Your own delight In all.
For, wondrous Are Your works My soul knows it Very well.
Praise You, Jesus!
Today, I would also love to bless you with a prophetic Word God spoke to my own heart recently that I pray speaks to and encourages you, His Holy Temple, too:
Slow to lean in and listen. Don’t be afraid of the silence: seek it and delight in it. I haven’t come to condemn you or to rush you through it, but to savor your presence with Me and to share My secrets with you: to make you laugh and cry and sing with joy. I have come to give you life and life abundant. I am not like man that I should lie to you.
Feel the earth beneath your feet, the leaves crunching, the wind brushing your face, the new day’s light gently resting upon your face and awakening you to my touch. Hear your pure white dress swooshing, your heart beating in unison with Mine.
Feel safe with Me, as you walk into each page of My choosing for you: knowing each moment, even the hard ones I gift you, are good and true and breathing life and love into you, as I lift off each heavy weight of this world to make that hard moment one of delight and rejoicing.
See and feel the golden chord of hope resting upon each page of your story and heart, as with each page I turn, I reveal more of My heart and story to you. I have got you covered by my mercy, sweet child of mine.
This is a new season of unfolding now with ease. Feel my hand rest upon your head and my smile of pride rest upon you, the work of my hands. I am well pleased with you, my daughter. I am drawing you away with me again because I like being with you. I like hearing your voice. I love it when you feel safe enough with me to share the tiniest of shifts in your heart with me.
I love it that you are editing posts with joy in the growth I have brought. I love it you are no longer ashamed of what you didn’t see or worried you might have pushed people in the wrong direction. I love it that you are rejoicing in My discipline of and My grace for you and others.
I love it that you are learning not to rush through into what you see needs doing. I love it that you are beginning to embrace my quiet promptings to wait and slow and let Me move you into deeds of love flowing from my heart in you and for you, as I transform your “I must do” into “I get to” and “Oh how I love to”.
I love it that you are releasing yourself and others into My sovereign care and completion, believing that I have already righted all wrongs and healed all hearts, including your own. I love it that You are inviting me into your struggles and letting me untangle the mess and reveal My blessed heart beating inside of you, over and over again. I love it that you are Velveteen-rabbit-real with me, just as I am with you too.
Remember that vision with your Mama in the forest, how she turned around to smile at you but then turned back to run after Me? Remember how I showed you how happy she was with me, now walking with me on the beach, her happy place, hand in hand with Me? I am taking you there too, precious one. Do you see how you too are glancing back to invite others in, but then turning toward me to go after me with your whole heart? I delight in Your delight in Me.
Shalom Aleh 