Got Storms? – Look Up! He is Walking towards you!

Live and love again

Read this verse, and thought about you my friend:

Matt 14: 24 But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea.
26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

We are like these disciples sometimes: when we find ourselves in trouble, and cry out to God, and He actually shows up in power, many of us get scared of the very one who has come to deliver us.

It has been said: If you live in a graveyard too long you stop crying when someone dies.

I remember after the death of a family member, how I hurt. I had spent months, perhaps years in fervent prayer for their healing, but they died anyway. Inside my heart, I simply gave up. I attended one of myriad conferences down at what was then known as ‘The Toronto Blessing’, and like many times, went for prayer and ended up knocked down on the carpet, as several pastors gently laid hands upon me and were praying in the Holy Spirit. I whispered to the Lord, ‘Lord, I hurt…My heart feels like a stone inside of me” Suddenly, in a vision, Jesus was kneeling beside the pastors that were praying for me looking at me with deep, intense, love. I asked Him, Lord, “Why will you not heal my heart?”

Suddenly His countenance changed, and He was angry, and He said: ‘Because you will not let me!”, and I suddenly saw it. I had walled Him, and everyone else out of my heart, a prisoner of my own pain. It hurt too much.

Yet He knew! He cared, and like a dam breaking, I began to shake and sob and say, ‘Lord, I’m sorry, it hurts”, and like a rush, His power shattered the dam, and I wept until I could weep no more. Felt like pus being drained from a wound, but the pressure, the pain, was gone. My grief, sorrow, heartache, and ‘clinical hardness’ of heart were washed away. It was such a deep experience, that I went home after the meeting, and slept 12 hours.

Yet, the burden was lifted, I was free to love, to live again!

Maybe you are right there. Something horrible happened in life, and perhaps for years, you compartmentalized God, keeping Him out of the most painful areas of your life, because it simply hurts too much.

He is coming to you, over the wind and the waves….

‘Jesus, do for them, what you did for me. Give them the courage to receive your love, your touch, your savage inbreaking of your love. Take out the bitterness, the hardness, the trauma, and break down the walls so that we can live and love again, Amen’

The Heart of a Curse!

Galatians 3:13The Message (MSG)

^13-14 Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham’s blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God’s life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing—just the way Abraham received it.

2 Cor 5:20 (Phillips)For if a man is in Christ he becomes a new person altogether—the past is finished and gone, everything has become fresh and new.

This is our positional truth, that we behold and marvel upon as we understand our new birth, and adoption into God’s family as His child!

Yet, even as a Christian, there can be cycles of defeat, despair, that seem to helplessly continue in our families and children. This, theologians have identified as a ‘generational curse’.

Yet, we are redeemed from every curse!

So why do certain bad things continue to happen? Cycles of addiction, defeat, abuse, brokenness in yea even, Christian homes?

Let’s take a look at a couple of Scriptures: Joh 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Mt 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

Mr 11:26 But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.

The kingdom of God, is a kingdom of love. It is also a kingdom of truth.

We are called to love people, to overcome evil with good, and to: Mt 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; Lu 6:28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. Ro 12:14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.

Ever had a series of bad things seem to keep happening in your life, a seemingly unending cycle of heartache, betrayal, and bad things?

Seems that as soon as you begin to get over the last heartbreak, bad relationship, or betrayal, another one looms on the horizon of time…. Makes you want to give up in hopelessness…

HOW A CURSE WORKS

This is a curse, and here is how it works. When someone does us wrong, it hurts.

Heart Wounds:

Just like a regular cut or wound, if a wound in our heart is not cleansed and tended it too, it can become infected. An infection in the heart of man, is called bitterness, and it not only hurts us, in making us cynical, sarcastic, and hateful, but it also poisons the every atmosphere we enter.

Heb 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;

So, how do we end the cycle of brutality, and create a better future? You need to see this verse again: Mt 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. When you refuse to forgive, you judge. When you judge, that which you wished would happen to your enemy, continually happens in your life. Simple, forgive! You don’t understand! I have a right to be angry! They ripped me off, (or in many cases, performed much worse atrocities than that!) I did not say you couldn’t, or shouldn’t be angry, but I did say you MUST forgive!

It is a command of God, not a suggestion!

You have a right to be angry, but you do not have a right to judge them, or hold a grudge, and become bitter. Let me make it plain. You have a right to forgive. You have a covenant right to be healed from what they did. You do not have a right to unforgiveness, bitterness, and judgment. In fact, this law of God, of judgment, is what will keep you in your cycle of defeat and betrayal, as you baste in your bitterness. The Bible is the Word of God, eternally established before the throne of God, in the heavens, it is eternal law. Now reread these words of Jesus, in light of this: Mt 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

When we judge, we are judged!

The judgment, is simple: “what goes around, comes around.” The exact same thing that we judge others for, we get judged for, and it opens the door for the cycle of destruction in our lives again. Ugh! We can forgive, heal, love, and go free, and discover that: Pr 26:2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come,

Or

we go around the mountain one more time….

I believe you will forgive. As you do, I would like to pray for you:

I command, all the horrible things that have kept happening in your life, now stop! In the name, power, and authority, of the Lord Jesus Christ,  it has become your time to heal, and walk in a brighter, more glorious life and future!

Let’s pray together: ‘Father, You know, You see, and You have seen what has been done to me, and what I have done. Forgive me, for my judgment, hatred, bitterness, and for taking offense. I declare right now, before Your throne, that I forgive! Every time I think of what has been done to me, I will stand upon these words, I forgive. Now Father, heal me, restore what has been stolen, lost, broken, betrayed, and shattered, in my life, and the life of my family, for You alone are big enough to do it. In Your name I pray this Lord Jesus, Amen!’