This is a rich word from the Lord. Directed Faith is faith that gives the greatest opportunity to honor God! Faith will be at its best, when it is directed to something specific!
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Bear with me and think about this on a higher plane. As I walked to the creek, I prayed for my children. I accidently prayed for “MY” children, as if I was fully responsible for bringing them to life. I prayed for the children that I carried and birthed. I even thanked God for the body that was able to bring them to life all those years ago. My thinking quickly changed: I knew even as important as the female body is to the development of new life, that without the counterpart of the seed, there would be no life. I then offered thanksgiving to the Lord for the seed that found the right soil to bring forth new life. I had a light bulb moment: The seed is necessary, but without the soil of the mother, there would be no life. This may seem elemental, but . . .
My thinking changed to the seed of the Word. I began thinking about the soil. We often take the importance of the soil for granted. Without the soil nothing grows, no matter how many seeds one has. I realized that Jesus is the seed; the Word is the seed. Jesus is the Word. He carries the capacity for new life in the seed, but without the soil there is no life, no growth, and no multiplication. Every person has the capacity to be the soil. Every believer is the soil. Every believer is the bride, the female counterpart to Jesus, the bridegroom. Every believer is the place where the seed, once deposited, can grow and produce. Without the soil there is no fruit. Jesus needs the soil so that the seed of the Word will grow and produce new life. “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground (soil) and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24). I never thought about the importance of the soil to the kingdom plan. The soil is indispensable to the plan of God. Without the soil (believers/bride) there is no life and no multiplication of fruit. God has willed in his plan that without the bride, the soil, the receptacle of the seed nothing happens in his kingdom. As a child I remember going to my Uncle Sam Miller’s Hardware Store in Jamestown, Kentucky and sitting by the potbellied stove in the winter. The seed ben was very close to the stove. I loved to run my hands in the loose seeds – corn, beans, and peas. Not a single one of those seeds sprouted in that bin. Be the soil! Receive the seed and produce!  The book of Isaiah speaks about the Kingdom of God: “Of the INCREASE of his GOVERNMENT and PEACE there shall be NO END, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this” (Isa. 9:7). The KINGDOM of GOD is continually increasing. That means that the kingdom that we experience on the earth is larger than the kingdom of God that previous generations have experienced. Consider this: Holy Spirit Revival and manifestation of God’s kingdom on the earth will surpass all that has gone before. It also means that the blessedness of being in God’s kingdom will increase throughout all eternity. The glory that we may experience on the earth will continue to grow and expand. Furthermore, the increase of his PEACE will never end! Shalom, the Hebrew word for peace, means much more than inner calmness. Shalom means prosperity, recompense or repayment for that which was wrongfully taken, compensation, remuneration, reimbursement, make up for, return, reparation, restitution. In other words, all that has been stolen and suffered will be compensated in the kingdom of God in an increasing measure throughout eternity! Over time, recompense and prosperity will continually expand. There shall never be an end to the increase of Shalom. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this! He is jealously zealous for his kingdom to be advanced and his children and loved ones will be blessed in the midst! To God be the glory, Amen!  I have been reading about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a man who suffered greatly for the cause of Christ. He died to himself and gave his life serving the Lord in the most horrific circumstances of Hitler’s Germany. He did not let his life and events color his faith, his faith colored his life and events. He knew that he could not live a “faithless-faith” and be true to the Lord. He knew that he had to serve the Lord Jesus no matter what the circumstances. We are living in a time in which we must make similar confessions of faith. He wrote that there are not two realities – the world without Christ and Christ without the world. There is one reality and that is Christ and the world together. Christ and the world conceived as two different realities is a departure from the reality of the New Testament. Throughout biblical and world history, people have suffered for the Gospel message. This age and generation will most likely be no different. Dear Lord, give us the strength to see this thing through to the end in faith! God help us to see what is needed to make it to the end. "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field" (Matt. 13:31). Apprehend the kingdom of heaven and do not let go. The man TOOK the mustard seed. When he sowed it in a good field, it flourished. We may miss the fact that the kingdom of heaven is open to our bold seizure. All to often believers wait passively for something to happen, when in reality we can lay hold of the manifestation of the kingdom of God now!   Dynamite is wet firewood compared to the power of the name of Jesus. We do not even begin to scratch the surface of understanding of the power of Jesus' name. "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. . ." (Matt 6:9). Have you ever considered that when the name of God is "hallowed" the manifestation of the kingdom of God comes? When the name of Jesus is called in adoration, glory, honor, and magnification (in other words, hallowed), Heaven opens. Through the power of the name of Jesus we have access to the power of God! My prayer is that the revelation of the power of the name of Jesus will be real to you! "The name of the LORD is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe." Proverbs 18:10
 The Kingdom of God is like a bowl of cherries. The fruit is visible, yet there are parts that cannot be seen. The life of the cherry is in the pit. The pit is not visible when you look at the fruit. In fact, one can see a single cherry and not realize the potential. Only after the pit is exposed can it come to fullness and fruitfulness. The pit does not look like much to the untrained eye. It looks like a hard little ball. Treated properly and given the proper environment, it can yield more and more and more. The yield is exponential times infinity. One pit yields one tree that yields numerous pits each year. That tree continues to produce pits upon pits, year after year. Each one of those pits can produce a tree that can produce an exceedingly large and exponential number of life giving pits. In a very short time, there is no end in sight. The kingdom of God is the same way. What we have exposed of the kingdom of God is but one pit from a bowl of cherries. There is so much more, more in fact that we do not have the capacity to understand. The Lord will teach those who are willing and will expand the capacity to understand. Just remember in one season the pit from one tree is exponential, but what about two seasons, three seasons... Each pit holds the power of exponential multiplication and before long the end cannot even be imagined. We hold one pit! Provide a place for the pit to grow. Thus is the vastness of God’s kingdom.
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AuthorDr. Laura Harris is an author and teacher with an apostolic mantle and prophetic anointing. ArchivesCategories |
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