“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13

“Father, I don’t feel well.  I’ve been asking You for so long just to take this sickness from me!  Why, Lord, will You not take this from me?  You could if You wanted to!”  I was frustrated, not understanding why the Lord seemed to answer almost all of my prayers, except for this one thing.

“Because I have given you the power to do it yourself.  If I do everything for you when I have given you the power through My Spirit to rise up and be strong, and defeat the enemy, then the enemy laughs mockingly as he stands before Me accusing you, saying, ‘I see once again You’ve come to the rescue for Your unfaithful daughter!  The daughter who does not love You enough to treat Your gift with respect–You’ve saved the day once again!'”

The Lord paused briefly.  “You see, you  must be the one to show up the enemy; because when you do it yourself with the power I have poured out upon you, you make a mockery out of him.  I could raise up My finger and defeat him in a split second; but I will not, because you must do it.  He only does as he does because I have allowed him to, and I allow him to do so in order that you will rise up against him, and through Me and what I have given you, defeat Him in My name!”

Pleadingly, I explained, “But Lord, I honestly don’t know how to do this.  I  mean, I know how to tell other people to do it.  But when it comes to myself, it seems different.  Please tell me, Lord.”

“Yes, you do know how to do it.  My daughter, I cherish those times when you were a child, when you did everything that I asked without question or hesitation; you obeyed me.  I even cherished them more because I knew what lay on the path ahead.  Oh how you loved me!  You do know how and I have blessed you with an extra measure of my anointing.  Did you know that you today have more power than Moses himself had?  Yes!  I went before Moses in a pillar of fire and a pillar of smoke; but I am within you!  I live in you!”

I searched my mind and my heart, struggling to understand.  “Lord, I understand You, but I swear I feel I have tried everything.  Please help me out here just a little more.”

His voice softened, “Let me show you.  Imagine your daughter kept disobeying you and living rebelliously.  Every time she got herself in a bind, she came to you.  ‘Mommy, please help me out of this.  I’ve made a mess.  I love you mommy!’  And so every time, you bailed her out to where the evil people she subjected herself to laughed and mocked and scorned.

“‘Oh, here comes mommy again to save her stupid daughter who doesn’t even love her mother or respect her!   Ha ha ha!  Look at her come to the rescue again!’

“Now imagine that through all of this, you gave to your daughter a gift so special, you even sweated blood for it.  In fact, the gift was priceless.  It was special, unique, and precious.  You said to your daughter, ‘Daughter, when you fall in to trouble, take this gift and use it.  Take extra care for this gift and hold it up high in times of distress!  You may be ridiculed and shamed by your enemies, but they can’t touch this gift.  Now take it and use it!’

“But instead of using this special, rare gift that was worth far more than any amount of money could buy, your daughter threw it on the floor and shoved it into her closet, burying it beneath garbage and clothing.  Still, she called you up when she was in trouble, ‘Mommy, I need your  help again!  Please, come and save me!’

“You would then say to her, ‘My daughter, what happened to the precious gift I gave to you?  Did you not use it as I told you?  I have given you the power to help yourself with this precious gift!’

“You see My child, she has hidden her gift as though it was worthless..something so dear that you literally sweated blood for.  She has buried it beneath trash and counted it as garbage.  You are hurt because this thing was so valuable and you entrusted it in her care; and she’s not even using it.  It shines brightly from beneath the clothing and garbage, yet she ignores its call!”

I thought hard, yet I had another question.  “Yes, but Lord, if it’s that obvious and all she  has to do is take hold of it, then why doesn’t she just pick it up?  How, Lord, do I take hold of this gift I have?  Please tell me!”

“Daughter, do you remember I told you that the enemy can’t touch the gift?  No matter how hard they may try, they can’t touch it; for this is a gift they can’t steal.”

I answered, “Yes Lord; I remember.  But what does that have to do with anything?  I asked why I can’t just grab that gift.  What do I need to do?  Or in your example, why can’t my daughter just lean over and pick up the gift?”

He answered, and it was amazing just how simple the answer was.  “Because, when you serve the enemy, your hands cannot touch My gift because as I said, the enemy can’t touch it.  The gift is yours to take, and I have given it to you.  But in order to effectively use the gift, there is something you must do.  You see, when you allow the enemy to operate in your life; or when you hold his hand, rather, then your hands can’t touch it.  It is there for you, but you can’t grasp it.  Using your daughter again as an example, if her hands are dirty, she can’t pick it up. This gift has such an uncommonly slick surface that the oils on her soiled hands allow it to slip away from her touch.  I say that she must wash her hands first and then take hold of the gift! In fact, the gift is so precious and priceless, that to even attempt to touch it with unclean hands would be unfathomable!

“So, my child, in answer to your question–wash your hands and then you may pick up the gift and hold it high for everyone to see, including the enemy!  Oh, the enemy will wage war with you, and he will throw fiery darts at you, but as long as your hands hold high that gift, the storms around you will not engulf you.  Just like Moses; as long as he held his arms high, with his staff in hand, Israel prevailed.  But when his arms grew weak, and he began to let them drop, Israel would begin losing.  So Aaron came and helped Moses to hold up his arms so that Israel, My people, would prevail!  Now you are one of My people; hold your arms high while fearlessly displaying My gift, and the gift, which is My Spirit, will be your helper.

“As long as you hold hands with the enemy, you will look, walk, talk, and smell like the enemy, and therefore not be able to take hold of that precious gift I have so faithfully entrusted in your care.”

I was finally beginning to understand as He continued.  “Do you know what it is that you touch that makes your hands dirty?”

I already knew.  “Yes Lord, I know these things.”

He was quick to answer, with passion and firmness in His voice, “Then wash your hands and be my daughter again!  Put down the dirt and touch not anything that is unclean!  Repent and wash yourself of it!  Have I not commanded, ‘You shall have no other gods before me’?”

It was all hitting me hard.  “Yes Lord, this is as You have commanded.”

“Do you remember the other week when You came to me upset because someone you cared about hurt you?  They hurt you because they were choosing something ungodly over you. They were putting that ‘thing’ before you and your relationship with them.  How you sat there and told the person how hurt you were, and how they could  not possibly love you  more than this thing they were doing…because this thing they were doing hurt you as well, personally.  And, do you recall how disgusted you become when you see this person enslaved by this thing; how they appear glutinous and weak.  Do you remember this?”

There was a moment of silence before I answered.  “Yes Lord, I do remember this.”

He answered, a little softer this time, “My daughter, when you do these things, this is exactly how you appear to me.  Do not ever tell me how much you love me more than anything when you serve other gods before me!

“Now rise up with the power I have given you and wash your hands!  Stand in the face of the enemy and boldly say, ‘I serve the God of Israel!  I will have nothing to do with you, in the name of Jesus Christ!’  Stand in his face and shout, and rebuke him!  Be my daughter, and I will be your Father!”

Goose flesh covered my body from head to toe as I absorbed His words.  “Lord, but it is so hard.  I want to do these things so badly.  I want to please You; how can I do this so that I can please You?”

“My daughter, when I carried the cross that day, I was in so much anguish you cannot begin to understand.  I, the Lord your God, was in a body of flesh, just like you.  I suffered every temptation known to man, for is it not written, ‘For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted,’  and is it not also written, ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin,’?

“So you see, that very day as I was being brutalized physically, mentally and emotionally, My flesh wanted to become angry; My flesh wanted to throw everything down and run!  My flesh wanted to get even with those who were against Me!  But I did not give in to that temptation!  No, I knew exactly who it was that was waging war with me; it was not the people, it was Satan!  I rebuked him and loved them instead, knowing they themselves did not realize what they were doing!  I, in the flesh, overcame ALL temptations thrown before Me in the flesh and waged war against the enemy!  It was painful, and it was tormenting, yet I did it!

“You must rise above these things.  It will torment you, and you will want to do these things; however, you must tell the enemy that you can’t do these things!  You must carry your cross and suffer for what your flesh wants to do and do as I want you to do!  Refuse to live after the desires of the flesh and use the powerful gift I have given you to do so!  For it is written, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you!'”

“Oh Lord, but if I can’t touch the gift, with what power do I use to fight him?  Please, tell me!”  I pleaded.

“The very moment you truly repent and rebuke the enemy when temptation comes is the  moment your hands can touch the gift!  I will not leave you nor forsake you…is that not my promise? Deuteronomy 31:6, ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you!'”

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This, my dear friends, is what the Lord told me today, only a few hours ago, and He told me to share it with you.  Let us not hide our gift, the gift of salvation, beneath the garbage..it is precious and Jesus sweated blood to deliver it to us!  The gift does you no good if it is hidden and treated with disrespect. What’s more, if we are soiled with sin, we can’t utilize it the way we were meant to.  It remains hidden in the ‘dark’ and powerless to our touch.

Let us repent for our sins today, and turn from them!  Serve the Lord your God, and Him alone!  Put away all of the gods that you are serving!  Take hold of the gift today and hold it up high as you boldly go forth with a victory shout!  Run fearlessly toward the enemy with the gift in your hands.  Even if he looks like he’s about to pounce on you, remember, he is crushed beneath your feet, and the battle has already been won!

Romans 8:1-17

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death,but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

And…

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerors

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

©2012 Lyn Leahz

Categories: Bible Prophecy, Christian Living

Tags: Aaron, Christ, God, Israel, israelite, Lord, Mommy, Moses, Mother, Mother's Day, Parenting, People, Psalms, Question, Wine tasting descriptors, Yes (band)