One thing that remains Love

When it's all said and done
there is only one that my heart is answerable to
Let my heart hear your voice!
And respond when you call out to me!

On the heels of travelling, I realized something that I want to discuss because it is worth it.

Consider that people call trips when you are going for a holiday, a "personal trip" or a "sabbatical" away from ministry.

People have been asked to do many things on outreach, things they have not wanted to do. People have gone out with a team, and are going to a plan set out for them. People have ridden on the work of others, and planted seeds, and made impact.

People have had to wrestle with unity, and the ultimate question.

What am I going for?

It was then that I had to make a definitive answer. "I am going for Jesus, he has to be absolutely everything"

We are on the heels of a generation that are crying out for intimacy. They are crying out for the God who is ravished by their heart, and they do not even know it.

I have to make it clear, the countries that I am going to I have never been to before, I do not even know what I am doing.

But in the words of a Misty Edwards song

I am lovesick for my Beloved
Only YOU can satisfy

This is the generation of Jacob
the generation who seek your face
and Only YOU can satisfy

Maybe all he is asking of me to share is the REST and satisfaction that I have found in Jesus, and to testify to it

Though I could say many other things, I want my wisdom to speak for me.

The ultimacy of rest

But I will dwell in your courts all my life
like a green olive tree, I will trust in the Lord forever
For this is my desire that will not be taken away
until I have found You here
There is a God in Heaven
I looked for the truth
and I found You

I will be sharing from my own experience today.

There are things that I can share with you,

Which are easy to understand

But there are things that I cannot share with you,

Which I can only speak to you

In such times, I find that the progression usually goes like this

"Their words" then "them" then "Him" then it is simply "you" in rest, and freedom.

His purposes are ultimate in rest.

Consider Psalm 52, where the man replies with his ultimate, being God and His sure safekeeping in His own presence, His own arms. Who would trade these things?

So when I am speaking these things to you, they will have the most meaning to you.

Does it fill you with joy that he makes His most delightful past-time "But I"?

Quietness of Rest

Continuing on the theme of rest.

When I came out of the lunch hall, I had a brain wave related to the way I treat others. Anxiety is not my portion, if I do not have something to say to someone, it's okay.

I have to ask the question, "what kind of anxiety it must have been for David"

Let us go to him and glean from His life.

It says, these famous verses in Chapter 16 of 1 Samuel

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, "Surely the LORD's anointed [is] before Him!" But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For [the LORD does] not [see] as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
So Jesse called Abinadab,
and made him pass before Samuel.
And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."
Then Jesse made Shammah pass by.
And he said, "Neither has the LORD chosen this one."
Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.
And Samuel said to Jesse, "The LORD has not chosen these."
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Are all the young men here?"
Then he said, "There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep."
And Samuel said to Jesse, "Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here."
So he sent and brought him in.
Now he [was] ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking.
And the LORD said, "Arise, anoint him; for this [is] the one!"
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

You are the one that I want, Ye, you are the one!

I have been travelling with the Lord, in being taught, and listening to others, because it is a matter of my heart, that my way is made of peace. Listen!

There is a verse in Isaiah that the Lord quickened to me today

"For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the LORD for a name,
For an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off."

It relates to the captivity of Zion returning, but it also means that there is triumph had in walking in the straight paths of the Lord.

I was observing something quite amazing today, I remembered that in the time that I have now been at Oxford, 4 families/individuals, have had to move on, and YWAM has taken care of them. Here in I saw a pattern of God's heart, that he cares for us.

And that I am on a pilgrimage, a pilgrimage of His heart. In other words, "I am totally abandoned and let loose in the freedom of your love. You complete me!"

In fact, the point of the arrow in this is, God provides. And He rewards us! My prediction is that in the next few days He will provide to get my friend and I to Israel. Because there it is that I marry Him.

My enemy would try to rob me of my JOY, but we have WON. He anoints my heart into worship


He is the Father, where my parents have not been able to take care of me, He restores my heart's praise and worship.

I can be so confident, for in the multitude of councillors there is safety. I can even praise God when things are not going the way that I imagined, because He is my rock and my safety! Surely He will never let my foot slip. I will not be moved

I challenge you to live without any assurance in the circumstances that you are facing, and I dare you to have half the excitement that I have in my heart. This is evidence of God. We walk by faith - my prayer is Hebrews 11:1 would be your testimony in life

This is where the desire to become fully whole-hearted arises from!

The Beauties of Rest

I wanted to do a post on the ruining power of God, but today has been a day of remembering.

I do not know if this happens to be the seventh day, the day of rest, but I also remember that later it is called "Today"

What I am wanting to communicate more than anything else, in teaching and being taught, is REST. in the 63rd chapter of Isaiah is a verse that I will come back to

14 As a beast goes down into the valley,
[And] the Spirit of the LORD causes him to rest,
So You lead Your people,
To make Yourself a glorious name. 

LISTEN TO ME, he says after His action of removing iniquity of His people (a wonderful and amazing work in it's own right)

This is in the chapter 48 of Isaiah:

"For My name's sake I will defer My anger, And [for] My praise I will restrain it from you, So that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do [it]; For how should [My name] be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another. Listen to Me, O Jacob, And Israel, My called: I [am] He, I [am] the First, I [am] also the Last." (Isaiah 48:9-12 NKJV)

Listen to others, to hear what God is saying. This came from my heart after realizing I sub-consciously would not rely on others, but which God has restored. This really is a heart thing. I want to share this with people because I trust them to love them and allow them into my heart.




This kind of REST, is wholeness, it is more than just a freedom of thought, or even of your body, but it is God's commanding REST that exists in the heart. His desire is that we would have REST.

This REST is himself. In Psalm 27:1-4 we find that our desires war against our own sincerity to be totally His.

[A Psalm] of David.
The LORD [is] my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The LORD [is] the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh, My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I [will be] confident.
One [thing] I have desired of the LORD,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the LORD
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD,
And to inquire in His temple.

He Himself liberates us from our desire and we find peace.

Without God choosing us first, we run amock. It is God himself electing us for His own love that means restraints are left to the wayside, and we have what we ask for.

When He spoke to His disciples about this very thing we are talking about, Jesus finished with saying

 "You did not choose Me,
but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit,
and [that] your fruit should remain,
that whatever you ask the Father
in My name He may give you."(John 15:16)

While at church today, I found out the overpowering God finalizing REST that is better than strength. It happens to all be linked in the heart. I cannot do what I do without others. You see, I had this I will say, tendency to get angry and not to rely on others. I came to my friend Steve with all guns blazing, by the end of the conversation, I decided to change tack, and simply listen to what God had been speaking over me. LISTEN, show compassion, and mercy.

I needed to talk to my pastor, because God has been leading my friend and I to travel. The outcome of this conversation was total REST. no more striving on my part, in fact, all the things that were in a muddle became clear, and I knew what I must do. What I want to do.

God will, of course, make all the things happen. he will do everything. And he is everything.

I will reiterate it a THIRD time. LISTEN! This is love, and this is trust.
I will finish with these verses from Ephesians, where we exhort you to love one another by asking God, "how do you see this person? how do you feel about this person?"

For this reason I bow my knees
to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
that He would grant you,
according to the riches of His glory,
to be strengthened with might
through His Spirit in the inner man,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what [is] the width and length and depth and height--
to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge;
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.