If we really believe that we are forgiven and clean before the Lord, we will act like it. If you really get that your slate is completely clean and that God sees you above reproach, fear will begin to fall away!! Perfect love cast out fear!! If you are born again, you have been made righteous!! That’s who we are. It’s a free gift!! We didn’t earn it, and we can’t un-earn it. If we can get a revelation of that deep in us and nail the coffin shut on thinking we can be rejected, then we can get down to the business of fellowshipping with and growing in Him!!

Guilt cannot heal you or even offer a helping hand in getting you healed. (I’m talking about walking in freedom and repentance.) Guilt cannot get you there. Only Grace and love and all that love is can transform. The enemy has tricked people into believing that walking around feeling bad about yourself, and being shocked at your behavior, and walking around for days confessing how bad it was and how you’ll never do it again until the guilt feeling fades, is somehow holy. After the guilt feelings fade, you find yourself faced with that failure all over again. That’s because guilt cannot change you. Only Grace transforms. God does not delight in you feeling bad. True repentance brings release and joy!! Jesus went to the cross despising the shame!! He literally hates shame!! He does not use guilt and shame to change us!! He rushes in every time and washes the shame and guilt off us.

TC

I was sitting out with a really good friend the other day, and we were talking about the Lord and life. One thing led to be next, and we found ourselves talking about how blessed we were to have the kind of friendship that leads one another to the Lord and truth. As we talked, this just came out. It was so the Lord and so good that I wanted to share it. 

We want to be the kind of friend that feeds one another, and not the kind that depletes each other. That just stopped me in my tracks!! A good friend will always lead you to safety and security, so a good friend will always lead you to Jesus!! That looks like leading someone to God’s perspective. What does He say about the situation or person you are dealing with!! His perspective will always produce peace, faith, hope, joy, love, kindness, and forgiveness.

We have to understand that God does not have an attitude toward anyone for any reason!! He took care of all that on the cross!! An attitude only reveals Unforgiveness and lack of mercy in our hearts. There is no thing a person can do that would justify an attitude. It’s not that people don’t fail us. It’s real. They do. Thus, the need for mercy!! (Giving what they and we don’t deserve.)

Jesus is the only one who will never fail us!! It’s so crazy how the enemy tricks us into having attitudes and unforgiveness in our hearts. He knows what it’s robbing us of!! Unforgiveness is actually a poison that we drink, thinking we are hurting others when we are actually killing ourselves. To be merciful and forgiving may be the sternest instruction that God gives us in scripture. It’s Not stern as in angry at us, but it’s stern as in unforgiveness has some very hard consequences. Scripture says that tormentors will be your companions. They come in the forms of deep regret, anger, sadness, mistrust, frustration, anxiety, and the list goes on and on. You can’t be enjoying and basking in the wonders of His mercy and be full of anger and bitterness (attitude) at the same time. When you genuinely encounter His mercy and Grace, it produces the same in you. The same lavishness that He gives, you find yourself giving as well. He actually calls us to forgive as He does. He forgives freely and fully. It’s as if we never failed!!

TC

Psalm 105:19 says that the Word of God refined Joseph until it was finished, and then suddenly, he came out of the testing and the fulfillment of the word was realized.  This is so powerful!! Joseph got his word from the Lord.  The Christian life is a relationship with the Lord. We live by His words.

When you are going through something, you go to the Word to get a personal word for your situation. To some, He may say, “Stand and decree. War in prayer.” To another, He may say, “Be still, worship, rest.” He speaks to us what we need. It’s a relationship. Everything the Lord does is to draw us closer to Himself.

After you get your word, it will test and refine you. His refining fire gives you eyes to see Him. It gives you the faith to believe Him. It gives you the heart to trust Him. It’s always about growing in your experience of Him.

Another powerful thing in this scripture is that it came to an end. Never give up. Don’t take your eyes off the Father, and don’t slow your pursuit of Jesus!!! You will encounter Him!! You will come out of your trial!! When you come out, you will have taken ground that you will never lose, and the enemy will have lost ground that he can never regain!! You will come out of the wilderness leaning on your beloved, walking in your word manifested!!!

Song of Solomon talks of catching the little foxes that ruin our vineyard. We know that the vineyard is our soul, and the foxes are the little attitudes and thoughts that come at us moment by moment. The actual language here is the bride (us) telling the groom (Jesus) to catch the little foxes. We know that He is 100 percent faithful. Holy Spirit cries out in the streets of our hearts, telling us which way to go with our thoughts and attitudes. All that’s left for us to do is to worship Him with our trust and choices. He just wants our yes when He calls out.

This is for every parent who feels like they have blown it and messed them up. REMEMBER, Adam and Eve had a perfect parent, and they screwed up so badly that we are still dealing with the effects.

When we see Him, all the blinders will fall off!! He is so good. He will not destine us to live in regret, but we will wish for a moment we had given more. We will wish we had trusted more. We will wish we had surrendered and pursued more. I don’t believe that when we see Him, it will be disappointment that we feel. I believe it will be a consuming hunger to run into His presence and experience all He is. I believe that while we are running into Him, we will be so consumed with how good He is, and we will see the foolishness we held onto falling off us.

Several times in scripture, the Lord talks about becoming and believing like little children, and that if you don’t, you won’t enter into His realm – the kingdom of God. Further, in his letter to the Ephesian, Paul prays for them that they would see the depth, width, and height of God’s love. If we don’t start believing like children, we will never see just how big God is!!! Sadly, we will then never experience His unconditional, never failing, and unquenchable love for us.

What God is asking us to believe requires us to simply take Him at word. You would think that seeing how much He has proven Himself would make it easier to believe, but we have to remember that we are in a world at war. The enemy of our soul lives to steal every ounce of sanity we have. He lives to bring us down from that high place of seeing and believing like a child does. No matter what a child does, they always believe until we as adults teach them otherwise.

Y’all, it’s going to take believing like a child to see how big, how wide, and how unconditional Gods love is!!!! The doors of Narnia are opened only for the childlike. So be encouraged! The new creation that we are in Christ is already childlike. All we have to do is to learn to live in that awesome reality.

TC

There is no trauma that the Lord can’t and won’t heal. All we have to do is surrender. There is no trauma or life situation that won’t change if we hear God’s words!! If you look back through scripture, there was a lot of trauma and betrayal, and yet, these people grew strong in faith and character.

It says of Job, who suffered more than any other human, that he died full of life. It is also written that he said to God, “I heard of you with my ears, but now my eyes see you.” In everything he went through, he got the Lord’s perspective. He got God’s heart, and he saw what God was doing and heard what God was saying. He got God’s perspective, and it changed and healed him.

Trauma steals our joy, our peace, our security, and our ability to just function. Trauma damages our emotions and changes the way we process life!! The good news is that God RESTORES all that the enemy tries to do to us through trauma!! God literally will speak words to you and heal your emotions with His Presence!! I’ve seen and experienced God doing that in my life!! It’s peace that passes understanding!! It’s joy that is unspeakable and full of glory!!

Don’t let Trauma define you!! Get God’s heart, His perspective, and His word over your trauma, and let what He says define you!!!

TC