Curled up on my couch, worship music playing quietly in the background, I am drifting in and out of sleep - is it sleep or is it deeper rest? I am beginning to think it is not so much sleep as it is a deeper place of rest. The Holy Spirit envelopes me and draws me into a heavenly realm and shows me things. It’s like having mini dreams. Just the other day, as I was coming out of a mini dream, I caught myself smiling at a little girl who was smiling at me. It was so real. Maybe I will meet her one day.
Just last night, angels filled our room before we went to sleep. We were led to pray and got the words “greater measure” and “increase”. I sensed that there was something like an electrical current flowing through my hands but I did not feel anything. Then this morning God gave me another mini dream that was very encouraging for my husband and me.
God has given my family much to look forward to. I don’t know what it is yet, but He has made it clear that something good is coming. He keeps confirming this over and over. I have heard a couple of people share that they feel like they are at the top of a roller coaster and getting ready for the exhilarating ride down the highest hill. I can relate with that.
Wow, I am enjoying the revelation that God is bringing this day. But for the past week or so, things were a bit grey and misty in my mind. It seems I had my feet stuck on planet earth and forgot I wasn’t a resident here. I had fallen into discouragement. I had to ask myself, “Why are you despairing!?! You know, that you know, that you know that God has good things in store! All this other stuff is meaningless distraction!”
Remember last week when I was crabby? Yes, I was crabby, but, I had also allowed circumstances and worries to get to me and I became discouraged. Seeing me in my state of weakness, the enemy saw his opportunity and employed oppression to hang over me like a heavy blanket. Though I tried to rest, I struggled. The problem was that I was not really resting in Him. I was still mulling over everything and asking why and how. I was not submitting my thoughts to Him as I needed to.
During worship on Sunday night, the Holy Spirit surrounded me and drew me close. I could reach up and touch the face of Jesus as I felt His hand on my face. Even though I was still caught in the turmoil of my mind, allowing the enemy to romp around in my thoughts, Jesus was loving on me, drawing me to Himself.
Monday morning when I went back into my resting place I finally heard Him gently and sincerely asking, “What is more important to you, Beloved? Which do you desire more, an answer or solution or do you desire Me?” Oh my Jesus, how could anything be more desirable than You!? You are my answer! You are the solution to any struggle that I face! He is so good! I am undone by His desire to be with me. It makes no sense that He wants to be with me so much. Upon my return, I sensed His laughter and His joy over me. His love is a puzzler but I must receive it, live in it, bask in it, be filled up by it and pour it out.
I repented and renounced my desire to see things made right. I let go of fear and once again clung completely to my King. It took discipline as I had to train my mind to stop thinking about stuff that was bugging me and just enjoy being with my Jesus.
It wasn’t over yet. There was still that stubborn oppression that wanted to weigh even heavier and drive me back to discouragement. It wasn’t easy but I had stand against it. The battle raged a little more as thoughts of doubt were thrown into the mix and I felt intimidated. (You can’t overcome this. It’s in your house. It’s too hard. It will just come back. It will never go away.) I got my husbands ipod, put on the praise and worship music and pressed forward. The heaviness broke. Just as Graham Cooke said, you go into your refuge and come out of your fortress.
Now the Lord has my full attention again and He is pouring out blessings! He always is, I just wasn’t paying attention before – now I can hear Him clearly again and receive all that He is pouring out. As a matter of fact, I can hear Him even more clearly than before and I am more aware of the enemy’s devices.
I thought I was going to share other aspects of the Kingdom in this little M&M “series” but here I am again talking about mindset. There is much to learn and it takes consistent practice and application. With this experience I learned that our focus must remain steadfast on Jesus. (That sounds like a “Duh” statement.) I was thinking a lot about things I do for Him because I love Him and His people so much. For a moment I lost sight of who He is and who I am in Him.
I picture myself holding His hand and looking all around pointing and saying, “Jesus, what about this and what about that! Oh, look there! What are we going to do about that?” Finally, He touches my chin and gently draws my face to look at Him. His smiling eyes, filled with love and infinite knowing, look into mine. “Trust me. I’ve got you covered.” Of course He is smiling at me. He has this way of laughing at me without actually laughing at me. Does that make sense? He is wonderful and patient and kind and good. I love Him so much.
What am I getting at with this devotional? Every moment we must remember who we are to Him and in Him. And in order to do that me must keep our eyes fixed on Him. It doesn’t matter what is going on. He knows, He will handle it. When our eyes are on Him, and His peace is in our hearts, He will show us how to pray. He will flow through us and we will find ourselves doing things we never thought possible.
When we remember who we are to our God and where we stand with Him, then we will not be shaken. Our feet will stay in the Kingdom Dweller’s realm and we will walk in love, obedience, confidence in our God and in the power of His wonderful Holy Spirit.
The more intimate our relationship with Him, the deeper we go into the kingdom mindset, the farther we meander into the heavenly realm, the more we become true Kingdom Dwellers. The heavenly realm is eternal and immeasurable. Yet greater still is our loving Creator, our Daddy God, Our Savior and Friend, our Comforter and Counselor.
Let’s get lost in Him and find heaven on earth . . .
and then share it with others.
Colossians 3:1-4 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
(Let’s consider the truth that we DIED and our life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is our life. So He will take care of all those things in our life that we let ourselves be concerned with. He is our life – He is a good steward. He takes care of things. He will take care of every aspect of our life. Do we trust Him?)
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.
(Since we trust Him with our life, we can busy our minds with things that are in alignment with Phil 4:8. What a wonderful gift and freedom God has given us. He has freed our minds to be filled with promises, hope and life!)