Saturday, December 29, 2007

How To Fight Fear and Push Through To Intimacy With God

I thought you might appreciate this article from John Paul Jackson.

He sent it out in last weeks's newsleter. iI you'd like to see more of his work or sign up for the newsletter, visit

http://www.streamsministries.com/index.php?cat_id=27&page_id=62

Fighting Fear

By John Paul Jackson

Truthful and forthright people will tell you that when they are angry, they hear very little from God; when they are fearful, they hear very little from God.

The more emotional we are, the less consistently we hear — or we begin to “hear” things that go against what we know God is or what He has told us in the past. So we need help in removing hindrances to our hearing from God.

When we begin to remove rejection, insecurities and these types of things, automatically our gifts are going to start looking a whole lot stronger than they ever did. They didn’t get stronger; we just removed the things that were hindering them.

What’s the best way to remove fear, insecurity, shame and other hindrances to our gifts? Intimacy with God.

Letting Go of Fear

Just by being with God, we are asking Him to remove our walls. We are asking Him to align our soul with His. We are asking to become one spirit with Him. We are asking to be made holy, which is to be made like Him. All of these happen when we spend time with Him.

But the process can be difficult, especially because one of the things we want to remove actively works to keep us from doing so. Fear is the chief barrier that blocks us from real intimacy with God. It keeps us from completely surrendering our lives to Him and being able to walk fully into our destiny.

Hiding from God — Fear's First Step

Fear is not just the enemy of intimacy; it is the assassin. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve committed the first sin in human history, they hid themselves because they felt ashamed; they were afraid to let God see them. How many times do we do that same thing? We’re afraid of what He might say when He sees us, the judgment He may pass on us, if we allow Him to say what’s on His heart.

Because Adam and Eve were responding out of fear, the first thing they did was erect small walls in the form of clothing to keep God at a distance — to keep Him from seeing who they really were. They put up barriers that yelled, "Keep away! We don't know if we can trust You anymore." But obviously, it wasn’t God who had changed in those few moments.

What You Need to Remember

Here's the thing we need to remember about fear: It will lie to us and distort everything we feel. If we allow it to do so, it will convince us that self-protection is more important than releasing our heart, including every hidden thing, to God and being romanced by Him.

Fear will attempt to tell us whatever it can in order to keep us from letting go of the things we are convinced God does not want to know. But we shouldn’t be afraid of God. His intent is not to kill us. It is to have us.

During this Christmas season, remember His heart for you. Remember that He sent His Son to save the world, not to condemn the world — that means you. While you were deep in sin, He loved you enough to come to Earth and be born for you; He loved you enough to die for you.

Could He love you any less now? NO! Don’t let the enemy push you around anymore! Know the truth. Embrace it, and it will set you free.

Monday, December 17, 2007

Something to encourage your heart

God has an appointment with you - It's Time to Seek the Lord.

The Love God has for us is staggering. God has treasures and gifts for us. Zephaniah 2:3 tells us to "Seek righteousness, seek HUMILITY." God has some things to tell us and show us. He is waiting on us to get quiet before Him and let Him talk to us. When we quiet our hearts and spend "quality time" with God, we learn to hear His voice, and He will define the next chapter of our lives for us. There is much ahead and there are things He desires to adjust, add, remove and reveal.

A teachable heart helps us to embrace something we have not seen before. It's not new to God, just to us. Psalm 119 is full of "teach me" Scriptures. It is important that we guard ourselves from bringing to conclusion what God has only shown us in part. We don't have the whole picture yet, only God does. It hasn't been revealed to us. He is teaching us to trust Him, rely on Him, listen to Him and do things His way. Humble, teachable, uncritical hearts attract Heaven because that is the DNA of Jesus, Himself.

Double Doors are Opening as We Have a Tight Grip on His Hand

Isaiah 45:1-3, "Thus says the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held--to subdue nations before him and loose the armor of kings, to open before him the double doors, so that the gates will not be shut: 'I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, Am the God of Israel.'"

Zechariah 9:12, "Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you."

Things are happening in a hurry. God is causing us to inherit even more than we dreamed or thought possible. It is His good pleasure to give good gifts to His kids. When God is holding our hand, we are positioned for God to lead us where He wants to take us. We cease to operate in our own wisdom and strength, and God goes before us to remove obstacles and impossible situations for us. For us to take possession of the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places, we must take a tight grip on God's hand. He MUST remain in charge and we cannot place things or people ahead of Him.

He is leading us into places to accomplish His plan and purpose for this earth. We cannot go alone or in our own strength. There are people in places of darkness and deception who are getting ready to be rescued and set free and God is sending us to them. When we have full dependency on Him, He will show us things, move barriers out of the way, usher us into places we never dreamed of, and His power will flow through us as we allow the Holy Spirit to rule.

In the past year, I have run into more people who are pregnant with twins and even triplets. There is a definite increase and multiplied evidence of life. It is a sign that God, the Giver of life--is accelerating things. When God increases us after coming out of a dry and desert season, we find new strength, new perspective, new direction and a greater awe and respect for God and His government. Change happens around us and transition happens in us. When we transition, we find new strength, new revelation and new assignments to embrace.

We have a promise in Isaiah 41:10, "Don't panic. I'm with you. There's no need to fear for I'm your God. I'll give you strength. I'll help you. I'll hold you steady, keeping a firm grip on you. "

We Have Been Gaining Strength to Engage the Future

When we go through unusually long and pressured seasons, it makes us ready to receive more than what it cost us. This time of difficulty and pressure has only caused us to press into God and take a tighter grip on His hand. Refining times are necessary for strength to come. For example, I was climbing a mountain with a friend of mine who is a personal trainer. When I reached a place in our ascent, I felt like I couldn't breathe. She began to coach me in my climbing. She told me that I needed to use different muscle groups and that I was actually gaining strength in this difficult climb.

Her following words were, "True strength is only developed when met with resistance." These words were like gold to me. I considered this statement in every difficult season I have had since that time. WE ARE GAINING STRENGTH TO ENGAGE THE FUTURE. Every promise He has made to us and every prophetic word we have received that is truly from Him, God fully intends to accomplish in us, with us, and for us.

It's the Season for Life, Healing and Restoration

We are designed by God the way we are for a reason. In times of "aloneness" with God, He will define us--to us. He will tell us why we are put together the way we are and how we are to function. In His light, we see light and things become clearer. It is in these times of being "alone with God," that we discover Him in a new way and discover ourselves in a new way. We experience healing of life wounds and emotional trauma as the Comforter applies His healing balm to our broken hearts, minds, emotions and bodies. His prescription is restoration and healing. Knowing what we have walked through, He makes us new again and brings life to dead places. An infusion of LIFE is available to us when we get before Him and delight ourselves in the Lord.

The God of all hope, comfort, joy, love, strength, power, healing, counsel, light and restoration wants us to come and spend time with Him--AND WE WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.

Bless you,

Cindy McGill
Hope for the Harvest Ministries
http://www.hopefortheharvest.com