Monster or Lover?

The picture I have in my mind’s eye of my walk with the Lord right now is like the picture of the giant monster (not that God is a monster, but just bare with me), named Sully and the little girl named Boo from the movie Monsters Inc. It is this wonderful analogy of a complete and unfailing trust in the Lord. This little girl Boo throughout her time spent with Sully developed an unwavering trust in him. She was completely free to enter into Sully’s giant, warm and secure embrace. For Boo, Sully was completely trustworthy. Here is this little girl, with this giant monster, whom most of the world sees as extremely scary, this creature who slays, but the little girl knows the heart of this monster, the character and nature of this monster. She will joyfully jump up in the arms of Sully for a giant hug and she will cry with the ache of her heart just knowing that he will embrace her with his wonderful presence and sweet aroma of love.


This is who the Lord is to me, each day I seek to enter into His warm embrace. I want tell Him everything from the pains of my heart, all my hopes, dreams and dance with him in freedom and joy. There is a full and complete trust that even though He may be a God who slays, a God who brings justice, He is a God who is on my side and I can freely trust Him with every part of my life. To live not as the world lives, but to live in the Glory, as someone who has been saved, redeemed and set free by the Blood of Jesus Christ. To live not by the sight of my human eyes, but by the eyes of faith that are a gift from the Father through the Spirit paid for by the suffering of Jesus on the cross. This is the greatest example of Love.


I pray that every soul would come to know this intimacy with our wonderful Abba.



Blessings,


Alicia

Chased by a Bear

I had this dream in the early morning hours. I was in a forest, by myself, trying to find stillness to hear the Lord speak. The next part I remember is walking back on a narrow path, kind of like a ditch with a mud wall on one side, forest on the other, trees everywhere, fog and the sun was almost set. As I am walking back I see a bear in the tree above me, I start walking faster and wonder if it noticed me. I look back and see that it is following me, I start sprinting as fast as I can as the bear picks up its pace. The bear wasn’t an ordinary bear; it was like one that you would see on a scary move with extra large pointy teeth and human like movements as it chased after me. In the dream I remember not having any fear, but I knew that if I didn’t start moving faster I was in big trouble, so I ran, trusting the Lord, If I died then it was the Lord’s plan, if I lived, it was the Lords plan, I knew that He, the Lord, was there with me.

When the bear almost reached me it took a huge leap at me, then I heard a still small voice say “duck”, so I crunched up into a little ball, which just so happened to be at the bottom of a slight slope, and the bear flew right over top of me. I stayed low and the confused bear looked around, could not see me and then took off over the mud wall. I was safe; I thanked the Lord and continued on my way home.

I woke up calm, but then realized that the dream was a little out of the ordinary, I haven’t been in any forests lately, I certainly haven’t been thinking about bears, and I don’t watch scary movies, so I asked the Lord, what does this mean?

I got to thinking about something one of the speakers said in the School of Circuit Riders, we were talking about Daniel in the book of Daniel and he said “satan has a lion’s den for every prophetic intercessor”. This really stuck with me after the school and I felt that I needed to learn to better guard the gifts God has given me. Satan worked extra hard on me in Haiti and I allowed him to steal the gifts of the Lord from me. Honestly, none of that mattered because I was not only restored the things stolen to me, but I also came out of the battle much stronger, built with much more character and a deeper relationship with the Lord. I never can find the words to describe how absolutely amazing our God is and growing in relationship with Him is above all the most important and satisfying thing on this earth.

Upon arriving home I felt the Lord calling me to do a 40 day Daniel Fast, so for that time period eating only things that came from a seed, so things like fruits, vegetables, grains and lentils. The grace of the Lord was upon me as I spent much time in prayer seeking wisdom and understanding. During this time I did experience very real attacks of the enemy and I truly learnt the power of the name of JESUS. I also began learning the gates that were open in my life at home that was allowing the enemy in, so I worked in prayer with Lord at cleaning out house, and putting guards up. Along with the name of Jesus, I learnt another depth to the power of fellowship and how isolation is such an easy tactic of the enemy, I know that if I am not in one way or another connecting with my brothers and sisters in Christ on a regular bases I quickly begin to get swallowed up in darkness.

One of the greatest challenges for me was fully admitting that as Christians, we are in a battle, we have a real enemy and a real God. Our God always wins and by the blood of Jesus and the Spirit that lives in us, we can persevere through anything. I had to learn to stop shrinking away from the enemy thinking if I back away he’ll just leave me alone, that’s exactly what he wants us to think, but really he’ll just trample us with no mercy. Now I take up the Armour of God and I say, I know who my God is, I know that Jesus Christ has authority over everything in heaven and earth, and that one day He will come again for His Bride. I live daily to keep the oil in my lamp burning and to become more like Jesus.

Thinking back to the dream, it is a clear picture to me of the battle we face, the enemy is on our tail, and yes for now we must stand strong in our faith, until Jesus returns, but as sheep who know the voice of the Lord, when the time comes to make a move we can be sure that the Lord is there to tell us exactly what to do. Getting to know the Lord more through scripture, worship and fellowship is so powerful. Knowing who God is completely removes any fear! What a privilege to be able to co-labor with the God of the universe until Jesus returns! We are so blessed, keeping the first commandment, falling in love with Jesus, is fighting a battle! I love it! God is so good and so worthy of all our praise!

May God Bless you and keep you in the light of His presence and comfort. May He reveal to you the power of His majesty and the Love of Jesus Christ.

All Glory and honor and praise to the Lord our God in heaven.

Love
Alicia

Still Full of GRATITUDE! Hmmm day #???

Now I realize that this 365 day count failed miserably, but I’m glad it did. I began taking pride in the fact that everything in my life was so regimented, I was doing a 40 day Daniel Fast, I was worshiping and praying regularly, I was sharing the gratitude on my heart with others, I was putting on that ‘picture of perfection’. My days of gratitude started to become religious and I couldn’t stand it, it was taking me away from the Lord, Jesus is my everything and I do not want to be like a Pharisee showing off my dedication to the Lord by disciplining myself everyday to write a blog that my heart was no longer in. Not to say that it is wrong to discipline yourself in that way, but for me, it became a thing of pride and my heart motivation was totally wrong. This blog has always been very special to me, I have shared some of my deepest thoughts and most intimate moments with the Lord on here in hopes of inspiring others in their own walk. I did not want this to turn into a robotic act of religion. So I actually had to make myself stop writing, the discipline was there, that wasn’t the problem, but my heart was not.

The Lord has been prompting me to write over the last few weeks, which I have not been completely obedient in, but I am excited to begin again sharing some of what the Lord is teaching me now in this new season of my life.

I had a dream last night that prompted me enough to actually write something, so I will post it in the blog following this one.

I can humbly say that I have been overwhelmed with thankfulness and gratitude over the last few weeks. I constantly find myself sitting and weeping over the graciousness of our Father in heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ. Even now as I sit here, I have tears in my eyes at the wonderful Lord’s provision of all my needs. I pray that you too will have your eyes opened to how much the Lord is doing for you on a daily basis.

I listened to a sermon the other week, Bill Johnson from Bethel Church; he was talking about breakthrough in prayer. Personally I was so frustrated with how many prayers I was waiting on, some for a number of years. Bill made an amazing point that revolutionized my prayer life, it was something along the lines of this; “You need to be constantly praying for all things big and small, when you pray for the small things, you will constantly be experiencing breakthrough while you wait for the bigger things”. He also made the point that if God answered some of prayers now, it might actually ‘kill’ us. This illustrates a great example of how much more the Lord knows our needs than even we do. But remember, never stop praying and asking! It is not that God really needs to be reminded of what He wants to give us, it’s just that we forget and need to be reminded! God will answer our prayers even more beautifully than we can imagine and we need to keep our hearts and eyes open to this or we can miss it!

That morning after listening to that sermon I said “okay Lord, there are many things that I am still interceding for and I will wait for your timing, but Lord, I need some encouragement, so I ask you for someone to buy me a coffee today, thank you, amen”.

Sure enough as I met with my friend to go to a meeting, she says “I need to get a coffee before we go”, and she buys me a coffee! God is so loving, so good, and He is listening to us!
Praise the Lord! His wonderful mercies are new everyday!

Love
Alicia