I can honestly say that the past few weeks with the Lord have been the riches and sweetest that they have been in a while!
Each day I can feel Him with me from the second my eyes open. I wake with an anticipation of His power moving that day and I long to hear His voice and be in His presence. I find myself wanting to spend more and more time with Him and in His Word, being disappointed when I have to put it down and get to work on the obligations I have for that day.
I started 2018 like never before, at Passion Conference spending 3 days being poured into by some of the leading pastors and servants in this day and age. It was 3 days filled with seeking God and worshipping Him for hours at a time. I left that conference with a sense in my spirit that 2018 was going to be different. It was going to be a year filled with excitement and newness. This year will be filled with more of God than I have ever experienced.
For years a main thing I have been seeking in my time with the Lord is how to connect with Him and get to the root of who He is and His love for me. Day after day I would plead for God to show me His love and to let “it” click in my mind in such a way that it transformed my heart.
I have read Ephesians 3:17 so many times. Every time I ask why can’t I grasp the “strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
I’ve looked at this verse and have just pleaded with God for that understanding only to get up and leave just as confused and hopeless as before I started praying.
Since the start of the year the Lord has been revealing simple truths to me that have set me free from this merry-go-round of lack of understanding. I keep coming back to this simple truth that I believe the Lord whispered into my heart at Passion while I was singing and worshipping Him,
Time and time again in scripture we see Christ and the disciples call people to believe and have faith.
In Mark chapter 9 a man meets Jesus with his son who is possessed by a demon. He tells Jesus he sought out his disciples to help but they could not cast it out. Jesus respond to them, “You faithless people!” The man continues to explain his situation to Jesus and he says, “have mercy on us and help, if you can.” Jesus responds with what I imagine is a sarcastic high pitched, “ IF I CAN?” Jesus then says, “ Anything is possible if a person believes.” The man who is lost and searching desperately for a solution responds with a statement that my soul has been crying out for years, “I do believe, but help my unbelief.”
It was in reading this passage that God spoke to my heart and said,
“My child you have been searching for Me for years, you have been longing to have access to my heart and my love. My darling you have it within you, in my Spirit you have access to Me, the God of the universe. I AM LOVE! You simply have to believe that truth and walk in it daily.”
God spoke so clearly and tenderly to me. I have been pleading with him for years and getting so frustrated because I felt like He was holding out on me. I felt like I was not given the same access to Him that others were. But that was not the case at all! It was my unbelief that was crippling my connection to God.
In Mark chapter 5, Jesus says to the women who was burdened with blood for years, “your faith has healed you.”
In Mark 11 Jesus tells us that “whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours.”
Paul tells us in Ephesians that “the eyes of our heart will be enlightened when we believe.”
Let me say this again, “faith and belief are the key to the heart of God.”
It is all about faith. We take a leap of faith when we come to salvation in Christ. We have access to the freedom, shamelessness, forgiveness, etc. that comes with the Holy Spirit. To access it we must simply believe it and life in it. Every time something comes up that tries to revert us back to our old way of captivity we must mentally put a stop to it and speak the truth and freedom we already have. It is how we are set free, this is how we access the love of Christ. Simply believe that you already have it and speak it over yourself daily. Remind yourself that you have full access to God, remind yourself that you are free, tell Satan that God calls you shameless so you choose to walk in that freedom!
Feeling God’s love and freedom has seemed so elusive the last few years. I never could figure out how to access it. When I finally understood that it wasn’t something I could figure out or something that I could work towards and just rested in the fact that I already had it, it rushed over my like a wave.
Believe my brothers and sisters. Believe and have faith that you already have access to the things you seek in Christ. You have His Spirit. You have a direct line to His heart, believe in what He says in His Word and let His love, hope, and freedom wash over you!
