Change is in the air....sharing my morning!

Nothing I Hold Onto

I lean not on my own understanding,
My life is in the hands of the maker of Heaven.
I give it all to You God trusting that you'll make
something beautiful out of me.
And I will climb this mountain with my hands wide open.
There's nothing I hold onto.

Will Reagan & United Pursuit Band
Live from the Banks' House

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I woke up this a.m. hearing, all kinds of things about
God always being new and hearing that song in my head.
The significance of the song will make more sense
by the end of this blog. It's very important that we get this.

We've heard it in different ways lately. Jesus
Culture sings, Where You Go I Go, What You Pray
I Pray...Bill Johnson says, "Don't let what you know
keep you from what you need to know."...Larry
Randolph says we are moving from Revival (resurrecting
dead things from the tomb and trying to breath new life
into them), to Renaissance (a brand new thing straight
from the womb). This was shown to us in many ways
by the Renaissance men of the old Testament like
King David and by the very fact that the King of Glory,
Jesus, was sent through the womb of a virgin
girl named Mary. John the Baptist was the END of
the old mindset and Jesus was/is the NEW.

We honor our past Fathers and their history as our
foundation...a foundation to step up on to go up
higher.

John 5:19 says, Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless
it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father
does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
You don't have to have gone very far in English class to
understand that what was said there is in the present tense...
happening RIGHT THEN...and it has never stopped.
Just before that verse, in John 5:17, Jesus had stated that
His Father is always working and so is He. Verse 20 is also
amazing: “For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all
things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show
Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel."
Isaiah 43:19 says this: "Behold, I will do something new,
now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it?
God is always working, always fresh and new. Our movement
must always be forward and new, from glory to glory.
This can only happen out of a real and true relationship with
God. Moment by moment walking and talking with Him, ready
to hear Him...and LETTING GO of what WAS for what
IS and WILL BE.

Larry Randolph said in His teaching Super Shift that Lot's wife
was transition challenged...she couldn't let go and move forward,
so she became a monument to the past. WOW, what a picture!

If you go through life holding tightly, gripping things, people,
places, just trying to HOLD ON...you need to LET GO...open
your hands. We have the Holy Spirit of God living in us, but
we restrict His flow when we HANG ON. Open your hands,
release your grip, trust God. Things will come into your hands
and will flow out of your hands as new things flow in. Don't
block the flow, loosen your grip, open your hands and your
heart/mind. Let His thoughts be your thoughts. If you don't know
how to hear Him, tell Him so and seek Him with all your heart.
Experience is essential, relationship is essential, because otherwise
how do you know what He is doing right now. What He is
doing right now is what He wants us doing. If we miss this
we will be like Lot's wife...a monument to something old and
dead and you will miss out on amazing destiny.
Get your house in order...not necessarily the one YOU live in...
but the one HE LIVES IN! Get ready for the shift that is coming.
The culture, the structure and the expression of the church as
you know it is changing as the new flows in, displacing the old.
The change that you already feel happening is finally moving us
out of religion and into the Kingdom of God. Let go and FLOW!

Blessings and JOY!
Teresa

A Different Kind of Thanksgiving Message...

As I was studying this morning, I came across the following verse and it really

intrigued me, especially in light of the teaching I had just heard yesterday on

Living a Lifestyle of Joy.





2 Cor 7:10 (AMP) For godly grief and the pain God is permitted to direct, produce

a repentance that leads and contributes to salvation and deliverance from evil,

and it never brings regret; but worldly grief (the hopeless sorrow that is

characteristic of the pagan world) is deadly [breeding and ending in death].



The line that catches my eye here is "for godly grief and the pain that God is

permitted to direct". It makes us change our way of thinking and contributes to

the Shalom of God, the wholeness and restoration of all things in us to the original

intent of God for our lives, and it delivers us from anything that the enemy is

intent on for our lives! WOW!




1 Peter 4:13 (NASB) says, "...but to the degree that you share the sufferings of

Christ, keep on REJOICING, so that also at the revelation of His glory you may

REJOICE WITH EXULTATION.



Longsuffering with joy is a paradox...a statement or proposition that seems

self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a possible truth. The

Word of God is full of these truths held intension. When you are going through

the very hardest thing life has ever thrown at you...yet joy just keeps on coming.

That is something that only our amazing God can bring about as we allow Him to

direct our pain...give it to Him as a sacrifice and watch Him bring you JOY out

of it all!




Graham Cooke said so many amazing things in Living a Lifestyle of Joy,

but this one really stood out to me:


I think it's important that we start and finish every day with celebration. No

matter what we're going through that we find just that place of quietness

with God where we just give thanks...where we just celebrate...God is with

us, Christ is for us, Christ is in us, the Holy Spirit is our tutor in life...

we have NO REASON not to celebrate Who God is, and even for me the highest

form of worship is lamentation. Lamentation has a "though and a yet". It says,

"though there are no sheep, though the oxen are dying, though the crops are

failing, YET I WILL REJOICE in the Lord! Thanksgiving is not about stepping

out of your pain and trying to find the place yourself of rejoicing. Lamentation

is about stepping into your pain and making it an offering to God and saying

"I still worship You!" Lamentation is about stepping into a place of rejoicing

and thanksgiving and saying, "even if You kill me, though You slay me,

yet I will exult in You! God doesn't want you to deny the existence of pain

and grief and put it on one side, He is just saying, "No...make it an offering.

Stand in that place and give that to me and you REJOICE, because it's the

chapter, it's not the book and though it feels hard and harsh and painful right

now, it's not your whole journey." All negative emotions at some point must

cease and all of the permanent ones of Heaven, which are always available,

have different strengths at different times. "We're learning that stuff, eh?"

(excerpt from Living a Lifestyle of Joy by Graham Cooke)


Happiness, peace, joy and LOVE,

Teresa