Snapshot: Morning Dew

This morning, I was driving to a new Church called The Bridge.  And right near the start of the drive, I saw a street sign called 'Morning Dew'.  It made me think about the way that the Lord pours His love onto us, even when we first wake up.  How He showers onto us such favor, such a rich anointing.  How the Lord awakens us spiritually and shows us new things.

"Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the droplets on the fresh grass and as the showers on the herb."                                      Deuteronomy 32:2

And I felt God encouraging me to enjoy my quiet time in the car--I had an hour long drive ahead of me, after all.  He was giving me hope for the journey.  So I opened my heart--no, He did--to receiving that.  I felt Him making me aware of this awesome opportunity--this morning dew.  He was telling me to draw near in worship.

And there were some great songs on Christian radio, some of my favorites.  Praise God, He knew that I would like them!  And I felt God's presence in such a powerful way.  I felt such love.  I felt such living water, in me and around me.  I felt the Lord pouring out...the 'morning dew'!  Praise Him, I had such a wonderful time on the way to Church.  Now, all time of worship is amazing, but this drive to Church was truly unique.  I tasted His character in a new way.

And then I get to Church, and it was great, too.  My first time at the Bridge--it was very good. Worship was powerful, and then a missionary from India shared and spoke some prophetic exhortation.  Next was the sermon, and before I knew it, we had all turned to Hosea 14:

"I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout, And his beauty will be like the olive tree And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon"                                                              Hosea 14:5-6

Wow!  What a confirmation!  And this is how God is to us.  He enriches us.  He showers us.  He pours out His Spirit on us!  He rewards us for seeking Him early--He rewards us with the morning dew.  We come in expectation, and we finish satisfied.  Jesus said we'd never thirst! (John 4:14).  He said that living waters would pulsate out of us (John 7:38).

And it starts in the morning!   Come in expectation--that's a biblical command!  Come and expect the Holy Spirit's infilling.  Come and expect God to show up.  Come and expect a revelation, visitation, or exhortation from the Lord.  He has all of Himself to give!

"And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek him."                     Hebrews 11:6

Snapshot: A Divine Exchange

Two mornings ago, God distinctly told me something in my quiet time:

"...It's a divine exchange; your flesh for My Love."

And this hit me.  I realized God wasn't saying I had to earn His Love--no, that was a free gift at salvation.  But I knew that in order to realize His Love again, I had to die to my fleshly desires.  I had to die to myself.  God's taken me to a place of warfare where He requires my drawing closer before He reveals Himself.  He's taken me to a place where I realize that He is so pure.  If I come to Him and want to abide in Him, I need to be pure, also.  So He told me that I needed to give up some things to live in an awareness of His Love.

"For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live."  Romans 8:13

This is the exchange.  We give up our lives in order to find life.  But He allows us--by the Spirit, He helps us!  And again,

"For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it."  Matthew 16:25

Confirmed:  Later on that very same day (1/3/2015), I was reading a book by Bill Johnson --"The Supernatural Power of a Transformed Mind"--that I got for Christmas.  Below is the very last sentence in the book:

"Any price you pay in claiming territory for God is well worth the exchange."

He even bolded it!  The word "exchange" struck me, and I realized that this really went along with thw word God had just given me.  Let's claim the territory of God's Love, first, so that we can be taken onto greater heights and greater victories!

Experiencing and walking in God's Love is worth anything.  It is worth counting any cost for.  Is there an exchange that God's waiting on you to make?  If so, give Him that desire today.  Allow the Holy Spirit to put that thing to death.  Allow God to eliminate any distraction.  The rewards will be divine (Matthew 19:29).

Snapshot: A Heavenly House

Yesterday I was in church and there was a scripture reading on John 14.  Of course, this was made more personal for me because the disciple Thomas was talking with Jesus in that passage.  Thomas was concerned--He wanted to stay with Jesus, when Jesus was talking about a future paradigm with which the disciples felt very much out of concern.  But Jesus doesn't want our hearts to be troubled.

So God began laying some specific things on my heart.  He began reminding me about the house He's prepared for me in heaven.  He's prepared for us a holy house, a glorious house.  And He showed me I can get more than a foretaste now.

Can this life get better?  It can.

Will this life get better?  It will, but we need to aggressively seek the Lord.

He will not punish us for coming to close.  As long as we come through faith in Jesus, we don't need to be afraid.  We can live under an open heaven RIGHT NOW.  We can experience a taste of that Day today.  We can have our spirits set in high places at this very moment.

God wants to reward us.  He wants to lavish His love upon us.  He wants us to be full of Glory.  He wants us to count the cost for this, then gladly obey all.  You'd be surprised about just how much God wants to give to us.  I've been, at least.  No eye has seen, and no ear has heard, exactly how great our riches in Him will be (1 Corinthians 2:9).  And we can start receiving this now.  But we have to really want it.  We have to have Jesus as our mediator.  We have to follow Him all the way to the Father, and with every surmounted obstacle He will strip our sinful flesh away.


Confirmed:  Today I overheard a scripture lesson on Christian radio on John 14.  John 14:2 says, "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?"  Jesus wants to take us to the very same place that He is going.