Matthew 25 verses 34-46

I have been puzzled by what Jesus said in verse 40 of this passage of scripture. What does it mean when He says , "you do it to me?"

It seems to indicate that when you give food or drink to someone, you give it to the Lord as well. If I give something to someone in need, is the Lord standing there chalking it up as a good deed, or is He standing there receiving it also? Scripture says, "The Lord is close to those who are of a broken heart, and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent." (The Amplified Bible).
He is close to those who are brokenhearted. The definition of brokenhearted is, "overcome by grief or despair, sad, cast down, dejected, depressed, despondent, downcast, downhearted, heartbroken, heartsick, heavyhearted, inconsolable, joyless, miserable, wretched" - and more. Even better He saves them.

Is He so close to His creation that He continues to walk among and with those who are poor and broken
and those who are wretched, miserable and joyless? And when we walk among those people and minister to them are we also ministering to the Lord in a way we don't even realize?

While we were in Bulgaria the weather was hot, and we were going through a lot of water. We had spent three days in the capital Sofia and had been buying easy to carry 500 ml bottles of water regularly. By the time we got back to Stambolovo, where the mission house is, we were back to large bottles, carrying them in the van wherever we went. One morning John and I and two other team members had to go to Pavlikeni, which is the closest main town to the village we are in. As we started out an old woman crossed our path in front of the van, bent over and struggling in the heat. We let her go past and continued on our way, when John suddenly realized he had to go to the post office in Stambolovo, so we turned around and he jumped out and went in to the building. As I was waiting in the van, the same old woman we had passed minutes earlier walked up the steps to the post office and sat on the concrete with her back up against the wall, to rest and find some shade from the heat. I could hear her struggling to get her breathe and compose herself from the strain.

As soon as she sat down I heard the words “give her some water”.

Now I have to tell you, I didn't immediately jump out of the van and run over and shove water at her. I actually went into a complete panic, not knowing the language, not feeling very confident of myself, and not quite knowing how to do it. Duh.

I had a large bottle of water which I knew she wouldn't be able to handle, so I found an empty 500ml bottle from Sophia and poured the water from the big bottle into the smaller bottle and thought I would wait for John to come out of the post office to ask this lady in Bulgarian if she would like some water. As he come out of the post office I met him and said “ask this lady if she would like some water”, which he promptly did. She indicated yes and I took the top off the bottle, bent over and gave it to her and held her hand and blessed her. She waved as we drove away and we of course waved back. Simple eh?

As we continued on our way all I could say was Lord thank you for not letting me miss giving this lady a drink of water and I burst into tears as I realized how I had been honoured with the privilege, how God had allowed me to minister to this woman in such a way.
Did I feel I had done something great for the kingdom? No. I felt great compassion and love for this woman. What about the feeling of honour for such a privilege? Was it because I handed her the water? Or was it  because I was also in the presence of the King. I don't know. All I know is that in some small way I'm changed.

A great ending to this experience is that I had another empty 500ml bottle from Sofia. As I looked at it I saw that it was from a town called Hisar which is a spa town, known for the health benefits the mineral water brings. The label said it was pure drinking water. The name, in bold letters, was "Living Water."

Blessings.

Jane

We were at a worship meeting the other night and the Lord showed me the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37. The scripture tells us this is a picture of Israel and God's plan for her. However, the Lord showed me that it is also a picture of the church. There are many lying in the valley and there is a great army that is without life for whatever reason, and there are many.

But as I looked I could see that this army had skin . It says in verses 7-10 that the bones came together, sinews were on them, flesh grew, and skin covered them but there was no breath. So what I saw was complete but without breath.

Then the Lion from the tribe of Judah leapt forward and began to roar. Although I couldn't hear it audibly I knew that it was a loud, loud, loud roar and it was very long. As the roar went forth the breath of the Lion covered the army on the ground and it rose with a fresh, new breath fit for battle and strong in Him.

The Lord is starting to roar again over His church. It is a long, loud victorious roar that is filling that which looks and feels dead with His breath.

I delivered this word at the front of the church on Sunday morning service. I had to ask the Lord several times if this was to be spoken now, because of being unsure of myself . As I finished and walked to the back of the church to get back to my seat, a sister was standing at the back with a flag with the Lion on it. I touched it as I went by. As I turned to go up the aisle to my seat a brother at the front of the church was just laying another flag with the Lion on it, down on the platform, and as my eyes looked right from where I was sitting there was a banner with the Lamb and right beside it another banner with the Lion. I had not seen any of these until after I had spoken the word God gave me.

How incredible that the word was confirmed three times in a matter of seconds and how great is our God who is about to breath fresh breath into His church. Not just any breath but the breath of the Lion of Judah.

I have a growing frustration that doesn't seem to want to go away. It seems everywhere I look there are those going about doing the things they feel God has for them to do. There are those who are walking out the vision, following the Spirit, filled with excitement, etc.etc.etc.

I was there. Walking out the vision, following the Spirit, filled with excitement, etc.etc.etc.

However, at this moment - and it has been a very long moment - I have not been able to see the things that I saw before, to do the things I did before, to be filled with the excitement I had before. This has caused great turmoil in me and great distress. Am I backsliding? Am I tired and weary of it all, am I not hearing, not getting down to it, in rebellion, lazy? My constant cries and appeals to God seem to not be hitting the mark as it were, and I am left wondering what is wrong with me.

It really is a feeling of being put on the shelf. Of feeling maybe I'm past it, not part of the emerging move, lost my niche, lost my place, lost my groove. Oh boo-hoo.

I was at a worship service last week. It was a great time of worship and God's presence filled the room. Yes, a great place to be. I worshipped but the thoughts were still there. Why am I not part of something like this. Then He spoke.

He gave me the verse from Acts, when Jesus told His disciples to “Wait for the Holy Spirit.”

Now you may be saying, I'm already filled with the Holy Spirit. Absolutely. But I felt that the Father was saying that there is a new thing He wants to do. There is more about to be given if we who are feeling this way, will wait for the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was crucified. He rose again and He told His disciples to wait until the Spirit was given. There are things in us to which God wants us to die (could that be a whole lot of self?). He wants to resurrect something (a new thing that He is doing in each one of us that will honour and glorify Him), and He wants to breathe and release the Holy Spirit in us, with fresh strength and power to get the job done.

You might feel like you're on the shelf at the moment. But take it as a gift of time that the Lord is giving you to rest in Him, worship Him, seek Him and be refreshed and renewed for the next phase that is coming soon. Wait for the Holy Spirit.

I say again. Wait for the Holy Spirit. 

I was worshipping one morning and the Lord gave me a picture of Himself holding a child in his arms. It was one of those classic pictures where the child has its' father's face cupped in it's small hands and is nose to nose with dad, both of them smiling and giggling.

He said, “this is where My children need to be this coming year. Face to face with Me, as close and as intimate as they can get.”

As He expanded the picture I could see people standing apart from the Lord looking at Him, some were at his feet, some were on His lap. These all seemed to be good places as they could see Him and even touch Him.

But the Lord is longing, desiring and instructing His people that face to face is where He wants us to be. It is that intimate, that close and the safest place.

A friend of ours treated us to the movie The Dawn Treader over the New Year Holiday. What a great movie as are all the Narnia stories. As is often the case with me there was one line in the whole movie that I could not get out of my mind. It stayed with me throughout the rest of the movie and the rest of the holiday.

Aslan was talking to Eustace who had been changed into a dragon and who needed to be changed back into not the boy that he was, but into the boy he was meant to be.

Eustace was in such pain and torment and Aslan said to him, “To conquer the darkness out there, we first have to conquer the darkness inside.”

I came home and picked up a book I have been reading by Graham Cooke and there it was again. He said, “We have to win the internal battle before we can win the external one.”

Oh that battle that we all go through. I sometimes wonder if it will ever be done. And that's the thing isn't it. I would love if it were a one time deal and we could just get on with it. However, I have found that it is a daily battle that we have to contend with and that we are not able to do it without the help of the Holy Spirit who is the teacher, comforter, strength and help that we need to conquer.

For me there are things that we can be rid of once and for all, and there are those things that are a constant giving over to the Lord in order to win the battle. And in that there must be a willingness to always be open and ready to deal with those things that are holding us captive.

Some of us won't go there at all, even when the Lord himself brings the darkness to the forefront to deal with it. We are either blind to the understanding of it, or we are in too much pain, numb, or feel it's everyone else.

Be that as it may, the fact is that we will always be in need of forgiveness, deliverance, healing, etc. The things we want to do we don't do, the things we do we don't want to do. But Praise Be To God! He is the one who brings His light and grace and what ever else is needed in any and every situation.

There is a life process that we are all involved in on the journey and the thing I have come to realize is that the process is always there. The bigger question is are we willing to submit to that process and when the Lord fingers something, to take the time to see what He says about it and show us how he wants to deal with it. It is that openness and honesty before God that allows Him to deliver, heal and strengthen for the journey.

Let's face it. We are pretty limited in what we can deal with out there until we deal with what's in our hearts and then we will be able to comfort those with the comfort we have been given.

 I felt the Lord was saying a while ago and is still saying, it's time to trim the wick. The young virgins who weren't ready when the bridegroom came could easily be any one of us if we do not take seriously the need to keep ourselves in that state of watchfulness and readiness. We are all meant to shed His light into a cold and dark world. So be ready to shine so others can see, and be ready to greet Him when He comes.  

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