On the way from a doctor’s appointment, I was listening to the radio. One of my favorite songs blared life and excitement into my car: “O, Praise Him” by the David Crowder Band. I got so excited and started singing with him! Listen to some of the words:

Turn your ear to heaven
and hear
the noise inside.
The sound of angels’ awe.
The sound of angels’ songs
And all this for a King

All to Christ we sing!

O, praise Him O praise Him,
He is Holy, He is Holy

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Another verse says, “Turn your gaze toward heaven and raise a joyous noise. . .” Just as I had turned my gaze and my ear toward heaven, three little blackbirds danced with effortless grace inside my periphery, while I was rapturously declaring, “He is Holy! He is Holy!” and I smiled! The angels declare God to be Holy, Holy, Holy — that’s THRICE holy! That’s the ultimate in holiness! That’s Father, Son, Holy Spirit holy! That’s blood, water, and spirit holy! That’s three blackbirds holy! 🙂 That’s HOLY!

You know the angels told Isaiah in the 6th chapter of his prophetic work that the whole earth was full of God’s glory! Whether it is the blazing sun, the naked trees, a winter landscape, a baby, a child, an adult, an old man . . . or three blackbirds — the existence of each one declares with unmistakable truth and melodious crescendo — HE IS HOLY! HE IS HOLY! Look around yourself — see his glory and declare with creation — He is Holy!

Abba, we are in awe of your holiness! Every chance we get, we want to turn our ear to heaven and hear all that wonderful noise inside (Ez. 1)! Every chance we get, we want to turn our gaze toward heaven! May every fiber of our being chorus — along with angels — the greatness of your holiness! Because Holy is not only what you are; it is WHO you are! We stand in awe of you, Holy God!

My exercise instructor told the class today that she would no longer be working at the gym beginning next week. Of course the class was a bit despondent, for she is energetic, encouraging, friendly, and very helpful. When I went into the locker room to change, I sat and thought about my time under her instruction. At first, I was not able to endure the entire Kwondo-Flex class, a mixture of karate, kickboxing and weights. I would participate in a portion of the class and then work out in another part of the gym. Now, I work out very hard. I stay for the entire class! This morning I even added 2 more pounds to one of the exercises. The same was true for her advanced step class. All I could think is that in the two years I have been with her, I had really developed my strength and endurance and lost a few inches to boot.
Nothing happens in the life of a believer by happenstance, not even encounters and relationships. If this is true, then we should make good use of these encounters. He gives us seasons with people. He brings them into our lives for a moment . . . and for a purpose! What is it that I can glean from this sister? How can I learn from that brother? What would you say to me through them, Father? Who can I bless today? It would be a travesty of God’s mercy to know that he sent a teacher, an encourager, a mentor, a model, a blessing into our lives, and we did not realize it until he/she was gone.

Abba, thank you for all those that you have sent into my life to bless me — the ones that I saw as a blessing from you and the ones that I did not. Thank you for even those who seemed bent on making my life miserable. By contrast, they helped to strengthen my walk with you. Thank you for the life lessons and for the growth! I ask that you would bless all of these of whom I speak! Bless them with your presence and with divine encounters! And Father, thank you for Robin, my exercise instructor. May she go on to strengthen and encourage others as you reciprocate that blessing to her through others. Amen.

Application: Appreciate the time you have with the ones God brings into your sphere of influence.

“Do you know who this is?” a raspy voice asked on the other end of the phone.
“No, I do not,” I replied.
She then identified herself and I realized that I had not spoken with her in a while, nor had I seen her at services. She had been thinking of me and called me. As we caught up on what had been going on in our families, she told me that she always prayed for me because she prayed for leadership at the synagogue, so she always mentioned my and my husband’s names.

There is this prayer in Cindy Trimm’s book, The Rules of Engagement: The Art of Strategic Prayer and Spiritual Warfare, that declares, “I release my name into the atmosphere and declare that prayer warriors, intercessors and prophetic watchmen are picking me up in the realm of the Spirit. I speak that they will not cease or come down from their watchtowers until their assignments have been completed. I decree and declare that they will conduct their intercessory assignments under the direction of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ (Yeshua Hamaschiach) who is my Chief Intercessor” (Jer. 27:18; Ez. 3:17; John 16:13; Lk 18:7; Rmns 18: 26-27, 34; Heb. 7:25).

I have often prayed this prayer! It is always a Yeshua moment when someone tells you that he/she prays or have been praying for you. More often than not, the Holy Spirit releases our names into the atmosphere because we do not know to do it ourselves. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if we did that every day and then were open to the names that the Holy Spirit would send to us when we spend time in prayer? And that we would “not cease or come down from [our] watchtowers until [our] assignments have been completed”?

I knew that I had to be busy every day, not only in releasing my name and others into the atmosphere, but also adding another name to my prayer list. When you have been called to pray or reminded to pray, that is a Yeshua moment. It is an interaction with the Father.

Father, there are so many people to pray for, and so, oftentimes, we pray a general prayer. We want to hear in the Spirit the names of those you want us to pray for. May you use us as you interact in the lives of your people; may you use us to let them know you have given us the/an assignment to pray for them. May they feel your hand upon them when we do. Amen!

APPLICATION: Listen to the whispers of the Spirit today tenderly calling out a name to you! Then pray!

The topic of our Bible study today was “Brokenness.” I started off with a quote by A.W. Tozer: “It is doubtless that God will use a man greatly until He hurts him deeply.” I know, I know, not the best way to start off a discussion about brokenness, but although the topic itself is a difficult one, it is also necessary. We talked about the patriarchs going through their periods of breaking — of Abraham’s 25-year period of brokenness: having to leave his home, to give up Ishmael, to be given a promise which impinged upon his wife’s infertility; of Jacob’s 40-year period: working 14 years for his wives, 6 years for his livestock, his fear of his brother Esau, losing his precious son Joseph; and we ended with Yeshua. Prior to the crucifixion, Yeshua’s greatest moment of brokenness was in the Garden of Gethsemane — the name itself means the place of crushing. It is a garden of olive trees where the olives are crushed so that the pure olive oil is extracted. Yeshua was there! Crushed! The purity of His spirit extracted in a declaration of “Not my will but your will be done.”

The Yeshua moment — one of the ladies said, “I was there when I went to Israel, in that Garden and I fell on my knees and cried. It was all I could do.” Another said, “Imagine standing in that place where Yeshua stood and doing what He did!”

And I thought — Imagine doing anything that He did: loving the Father, working miracles, going through pain, praying to the Father, experiencing anguish,  consenting to the Father’s will — being with the Father.

Thank you, Yeshua, that all that you did in the three years you were here, you did as a man, as a human, as a mortal — even die! Thank you for having felt what we feel, what we are going through, and showing us that there is greatness beyond the trial, but that we will only realize that greatness through obedience. Help us to really know the truth behind the words spoken in 2 Timothy 2:11-12: [It is] a faithful saying: For if we be dead with [him], we shall also live with [him]:If we suffer, we shall also reign with [him] (KJV).

Being with the Father!!!!!  THERE’S THE GOAL!

God is so unpredictable! Here it is snowing in Virginia in mid-December! It is not wintertime . . . according to the calendar anyway! January and February are our usual cold spells. All we could do was behold the beauty of a world covered with a beautiful white blanket.

Okay, God’s love is very predictable! You can rest assured that He loved you yesterday, that He loves you today, and that He will love you tomorrow! You can trust His grace and mercy! But when I saw the snow falling so abundantly and incessantly, I felt a Yeshua moment where God said, “I will come in ways you will not expect because I am God; no one will be able to put me in a box. After all, I came in a manger (sukkah), when the sages expected a kingly advent! I died a despicable death when my people expected me to reign in royal glory. And just as snow falling in Virginia in mid-December is an anomaly, so will my coming be!” Predictable love! Unpredictable God!

Abba, thank you that you do not move the way we expect you to. You are God; we are not! Your ways are not our ways; your plans not ours! But we can rest assured in the fact that your unpredictability is ALWAYS predictably good! Hallelujah! Be God! Surprise us with your wonder! Surprise us with your beauty, so that all we can do is sit back and bask in the awesomeness of an unpredictable God! Hallelujah & Amen!

I stopped by JC Penny’s to do a little shopping before I headed home after my workout. I  saw a jacket that I wanted for my son. He’s 15 so picking out clothing for him is not the easiest thing to do. I have had to return quite a few items in the past, simply because they weren’t his style. I waited in line to ask the cashier if I could place the items on hold until I picked up my son from school and brought him by to take a look at the clothing. As I was about to give the cashier my name, a lady raced forward, a bit frantic, and said, “Did anyone turn in a purse? I can’t find my purse. It was right over there!” Right away I wanted to leave my things and assist her. “Wait a minute!” the cashier said to me. “I just need your name.” “Oh, I’m sorry,” I replied, “but I just want to help her. I know what it’s like to lose a purse.” I quickly gave her my name and proceeded to help another salesperson look for the lady’s purse. I wanted an honest person looking for her purse.

Who do you want to pray for you? Someone who can feel your pain to the point that he/she will drop what he/she is doing and join you in your pursuit? What kind of God do you want to serve? Someone  who will leave His home, come down to yours because he knows your pain (even the pain that you may never admit you have) identify with you, and then meet your need?

Father, thank you so much! You understand our pain! You not only commiserate with us in our distress, but you feel it too. This woman lost her purse, but we had lost so much more! You came so that you could restore to us all that we had lost. Thank you for caring about us sooooooo much!

I didn’t do much really, looked in a few aisles, under a few clothing displays before I heard the salesperson say that the purse was found and turned into customer service. I bade the lady blessings and was on my way. But we have a God who stayed, just so we would never be frantic again.

Very interesting Bible study today — really it was a continuation from last week. We talked about having expectations that are unreal and how to respond when they are unmet. It’s difficult to think that we cannot expect our spouses, children, friends, spiritual brothers and sisters to behave the way we want them to or the way we think they should. When we go into relationships, we do not expect to get hurt, but sometimes we do get hurt. One of the ladies prayed today, “Father we have high expectations of You. You are the only One who will never disappoint us. You told us to be holy, for you are holy.”
My rabbi has said, from the prespective of the Father, “Be ye holy, but don’t be holier than me.” Probably unbeknownst to us, we become holier than God by having higher expectations of others than God does. He knows our frame. He knows that we are dust. He knows that we will fail. He gives us hope by saying that we can be forgiven of that sin and picked up when we fall. Yet we have unreal expectations of each other – even greater than God does. This is the way we behave: Our children will not fail. Our husbands will always be dependable. Our spiritual family will always be supportive! Boy, have we set up ourselves to be disappointed and to be very, very unhappy. When our focus is on others and not on God we will always have unmet expectations because the only One we can put all of our trust in is God.

Abba, help us to realize that the arms of flesh will fail us. Our children, our spouses, our friends and our spiritual family are not divine; they are very human. They will indeed make mistakes. . . but we cannot allow our worlds to be shattered completely WHEN they do. Forgive us for our pride and ignorance in trying to be holier than you. And thank you for removing the unbearable weight of unmet expectations. We expect much of you, O God! Amen!

I watched this young girl — beautiful, talented, and potentially so powerful in the Spirit — beat herself up. Life had been so hard for her! It had beaten her to the point where she felt it was too hard to fight. As I watched her, I thought about those times when I had accepted someone’s opinion of me just out of resignation. It had nothing to do with being a peacemaker or courtesy or even fear. There was no righteousness involved, just resignation! I just did not feel like fighting to make my point.

“There was a song that God sang over you when you were born,” I told her. “You have an enemy of your soul who does not want you to hear that song. He will use the horrible things in you life so that the music of that song becomes chaotic discords and the lyrics just a jumble of nonsensical syllables. But you have a reason to fight to hear that song; it’s your right because it is a song just for you! Fight to hear it,” I exhorted, “because it is full of hope! It is loaded with your destiny and a future of great promise! It’s easy to be resigned to something — but resignation is not righteousness! When you have the attitude of fighting for what is yours, you will see the strength of your Father more and more in your life. You will see victory because you have it!”

I want to encourage the same for you! Fight to hear that song that the Lord sings over you according to Zephaniah 3:9 NIV. It’s yours! Your enemy cannot take it from you but he will try to distort it!

Abba, thank you for the song! YOU sang it so it must be beautiful! YOU wrote it so it must be loaded with powerful words! That’s why the enemy does not want me to hear it! But I will fight to hear the song that you sang over me and sing over me now, and I know with your grace I will live out its destiny. You are for me . . . so no one can be against me! Give me the grace to make every part of me submit to your loving Spirit! Amen!

APPLICATION: What is one Scripture that would reflect the song that the Lord sings over your life?

Every teacher has that harbinger of summer’s end and the school year’s genesis. For me — as a teacher — it was the crepe myrtle. In mid-summer, the small, pink blossoms of the crepe myrtle trees bathe streets and neighborhoods in sprays of rich color. Then their blossoms rain profusely upon streets, cars, lawns, decks and porches. In the fall, their leaves turn a mixture of yellow golds and warm reds. When they fall to the ground, the naked trees stand like sentinels, their gnarled limbs and barks reflecting a ghostly white. Sometimes, landscapers become a bit extreme — i feel — and chop off all the thin branches and saw the thicker ones.

“I hate pruning!” I heard myself say this morning as I noticed the mutilated ones, stretching forth like arthritic hands with severed fingers. It seems so cruel to attack them that way. I know, I know, in the summer, their leaves will be more abundant, their blossoms more numerous and their color richer and deeper because of the pruning. But for now – the look of them against a gray landscape — is downright ghastly.

What do I look like broken from my troubles, practically impotent from my adversity? It’s downright depressing–indeed ghastly! But through my troubles and adversities I learn obedience. Yeshua learned obedience through the things that he suffered (Hebrews 5:8), through his own pruning! Someone — Max Lucado, I believe — said that God is not trying to make us happy; He is trying to make us holy! Pruning is the only way! He sees up ahead. He sees the abundant fruit that will be our harvest! He sees the rich color of a life fit for the master’s use!

Abba, we need your eyes, your vision! We hate trouble! We hate to be in it! We hate to feel it! But it is necessary! Let us think it not strange the fiery trials that have come to try us (I Peter 4:12)! We will be a blooming tree, the tallest in the garden. And all the birds of the air will come and nest in this full tree that subjected itself to the Lord’s pruning.

APPLICATION: Can you imagine how God sees you after pruning? What do you see?

I woke up this morning at 8:15 a.m. My son’s bus usually comes at 8:00. Oh, no, we both overslept! I realized. I got up and called for him. There was no answer; I did not even hear the usual alarm clock bellowing out its loud, steady beat. So I ascended the stairs, calling as I went. As I turned the corner, I noticed that Jonathan was not in bed. He had gotten dressed, caught the bus, and even closed the front door on his way out, something that he failed to do in the past. I was very proud of my son.

About that time, my cell phone rang and it was a friend admonishing me to rise. “The sun is so beautiful this morning,” she exclaimed, like the chorus of a great hymn. “The sky is blue and the sun seems to be so close to the earth! You should be outside on your porch enjoying the morning sun,” she continued. “There is no icy wind like yesterday! It’s just beautiful!”

Well, with all that admonishment, I went to look out the window and there was the sun in a well-defined orb, just as she said, and its powerful rays beaming down on the landscape. I gathered a thirsty blanket, took my Bible and my devotional and sat on my deck. A crisp, fall morning with the warmth of the sun on your face, a thirsty blanket around you, and your dog finally entering into that rest too! Beautiful! I read my Bible passage, Ephesians 6, which encouraged me to be strong in the Lord! My devotional MAKING EYE CONTACT WITH GOD cautioned me about looking at things with “calamitous eyes.” Everything was so charged with the presence of God! My friend’s electric muster reminded me of a passage from Ephesians 5 that I had read previously:  “Awake, sleeper, and Arise from the dead, And Christ [Messiah] will shine on you” (14).

Wasn’t that indeed a Yeshua moment! When we awake and arise, Messiah will shine on us! Did you feel like staying in bed today!? Awake, o sleeper!  Do you feel like not dealing with that son, that daughter, that situation? Arise from the dead and let Messiah shine upon you!

Father, thank you that as we are strong in you by putting on the whole armor of God, that we will not see this world through calamitous eyes. Even the bad things will look differently as we see them with your eyes! As we shake off the sleep and the deadness, we WILL walk in the light of Messiah! Amen!

APPLICATION: Call someone and rouse them out of their sleep, their deadness and bring them into the light of Messiah!