Legalism verse God’s Detail

 This morning as I sit at my desk, God has been talking to me about this fountain. If you have been walking this journey with me, you might remember me talking about a fountain. It was all about being verses doing. God wants us to be. We have to also realize that God has designed each of us differently. Some are created to be a free flowing fountain, like a river which, when God speaks, moves its bank. Other fountains are created to move within a specific channel, never to move to the left or to the right, but all the same, moving just as God created them to move.

Recently, as I prepared to give a workshop on spiritually cleaning your home, Judy from the Aglow board, who was hosting the workshop, told me that some of the board members looking at the prayer guide for the cleansing prayer voiced concern that the material was too legalistic. It grieved my spirit that people would look upon these prayers as a check list of dos and don’ts. I was really sad until the next morning in my quiet time with the Lord. As I went to the Lord, I told him how I wasn’t trying to be legalistic; rather, I was following His direction. I put these prayers together as He showed me pictures of areas of hindrance in the homes of His children. It was never about being legalistic; rather, it was a road map to begin finding the truth that would set the house free.

As I stood on this truth, God taught me a wonderful lesson. He said; “Look at the centipede and his 100 legs. That isn’t legalistic, that’s my attention to detail.” It was then that I realized God is all about extravagant, extraordinary detail. His attention to detail takes our breath away. The devil wants to destroy our awe by labeling it legalism. When we look at the detail in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, we often see legalism rather than realizing this detail has a greater purpose. We just don’t take the time to flush it out. It takes so much time to look at those 100 legs of the centipede because many of those legs are the same or similar, so we lose focus rather than allow God to loose the awe  that comes when we recognize God’s provision.

God then gave me a prayer to break legalism and choose to embrace the beauty of God’s infinite detail. As I read this prayer and allowed it to break my legalism, I found an amazing thing happening. As my legalism was breaking, I experienced an amazing freedom and new perceptions about myself and life around me.

I have always appreciated all kinds of people, realizing that they all have a purpose. I guess it took this experience to finally let go of always trying to measure up to a legalistic standard that others apply to me. Yet when I looked into the face of God through this prayer, He seemed to be saying another thing all together. I need to accept I am a free flowing fountain that occasionally spills over and makes a mess, like the fountain in my office. Every time I turn it on, it sputters and spills over; it doesn’t matter if it has right amount of water or not enough. I have tried to make sure it doesn’t sputter, but the more I try by making the water level just right, the more frustrated I become. I have now taken a new approach. I putt the fountain on the top of my desk where I can clean up the sputtering, and I know that I will have to get a plastic mat if I want to protect the desk for the duration of both the fountain and the desk’s life!

If you would like to see more on the difference between legalism, God’s attention to detail, and the prayer God gave me to break this legalism, visit http://www.completejoy.org/ and click on Spiritual House Cleaning. I have posted the prayer on that page for you.

Blessings and joy!

Mikki

Blessed by serving others as Christ did!

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Today I find myself watching the Lord bless me.

      About 2 or 3 months ago I went to my hairdresser’s to get my hair cut, as you always do we began talking I shared then she began sharing about feeling drained after a day of cutting hair because she listened and often was left to carry the cares of others. It seemed these feelings at times were piling up in the salon. As she continued to cut my hair the Lord gave me a simple prayer she could say to give all their cares to Jesus as she sweep up the hair putting the hair in the garbage. She finished cutting my hair, I showed her how to use the prayer, paid her and left. Promising to go home and design a business card with this prayer so she could have it to remind her self and also to share with the christian hairdressers she knew.

      I went home and had a lot of funny designing the card in hopes it would make a difference as she gave the cares of others to Jesus. 

      Well as hair does, it grew out and I needed to go see my hairdresser once again. She was looking great, though busier then ever, she shared about using of the prayer and how she was really glad she had it. It was exciting to know this prayer made a difference in her life!

      As she continued to cut my hair we began to talk about how things were going in ministry for me and she asked me about my needs. I shared about the need for a long arm stapler for a current project. She shared her needs as well. She finished cutting my hair and then she looked at me telling me my haircut was free because she believed in my ministry and wanted to sew into it. She told me to use the money I would have paid her to buy the stapler.

Was so blessed I almost began to cry.

      Before I left I prayed for her needs, she said that is all she wanted. As I did God showed me a vision of Jesus ministering to the people;  He was walking among them and ministering to them where they were. It was then I realized; by giving my hairdresser the prayer to ease her burden I was walking among the people as my savior had done. I was so blessed by the vision the Lord gave me I was once again overwhelmed almost to the point of tears by this bounty of blessing from the right hand of God.

What an amazing God we serve!

Mikki

 PS… if you are a Christian Hairdresser and would like to make your own Hairdresser’s prayer pocket cards contact through http://www.completejoy.org I have a PDF file with a sheet (of 10) to copy. (I tried to include the pdf in this blog and was unsuccessful.)

 

Half Truths and Gossip

         Several days ago I was part of a reconciliation meeting with my former boss, the senior pastor of a local church. It began gently enough with small talk, and then quickly turned to half truths and gossip. Our perceptions rule how we see the world this meeting brought this home with big bold red letters.

            So here I sit this Sunday morning, not going to church because of the pain of what happen at the meeting. I can’t turn my eyes from God yet to go to church this morning is far too painful. I have been wrestling with the whys all morning trying to get to a place of peace.

            Well, here is my peace. I can’t allow half truths and gossip to turn my eyes from God. I can’t let half truths and gossip rule my life and color my perceptions and attitudes toward the church and her people. Wheither I stay in this church denomination, is yet to be determined. I am currently going to a church of the same denomination; my pastor is supportive and cares a lot about me as a person. Since first meeting him six years ago, God has blessed me by revealing to him my heart.

            I went into the meeting willing and open to speak about the things I had done that were wrong, yet there was a laundry list of which was so grand one person couldn’t have done it all. I look now and think of Christ sitting in that room going, okay, okay and then just breaking out into laughter as he heard the perception my boss had of who I was. I see him even now putting his arm around me and telling me, he doesn’t see me that way. That is a deep comfort to me and I am also reminded that Christ himself was crucified based on half truths and gossip. He didn’t defend himself and as I sat there, with so much half truth I couldn’t do anything but watch myself in a physiological sense being flogged.

            I wasn’t without sin, but there was so half truth and gossip rising in that room that I began to think once again of the scapegoat yearly chosen to take Israel’s sin. Was I this for my church? Yet a scapegoat after being released wasn’t then hauled back into camp as I was. It really hurt.

            Today, the pain will ease as I choose not to allow half truths and gossip to rule and reign in my life. Nor am I going to allow it to harden my heart. I don’t know how to defend myself and I have decided this, I will give my defense to Christ as He is my judge and  so I stand under his blood knowing “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”!

Blessings & peace,

Mikki

             

Canopy of Blessings

 

 

This weekend, while I was traveling, the pastor of the church I visited spoke about the canopy of blessings we often walk out of in our lives. This got me to thinking about what blessings are functioning in my home, life and ministry.

            I began praying about those blessings, first concerning my home. As I prayed, the Lord showed me that there are four blessings, words that are stationed at the four corners of my home. In the middle of my home is a scripture which has been foundational since we first moved there.

“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15. This scripture sits as a center post from which all other blessings in my home flow. I had to struggle for several years to establish this truth in my home. Recently, as we got ready to paint, the  plaque with this verse from Joshua fell as I was removing it from the wall. I thought a lot about whether or not I should put it back up on the wall, then remembered that we have struggle to make this a deep truth in our home and so decided it is okay to show the lumps and bumps that this struggle has cost us.

While talking with friends in the last several months, I have wondered about what other blessings the Lord had for our home. After listening to this pastor, I went home and asked the Lord to reveal this canopy of blessings. Here is what he showed me about my home, which is one of a duplex in a condo complex facing true north, with a southern exposure attached to my neighbor on the west end of our home, while the east end of the home is unattached.                                                                                                                

          I begin where the Lord began with me, at the southeast corner of my home, where both my office and bedroom are. In this corner is Faith. In the southwest corner, which is next to my neighbor, is Hope. In the Northwest corner, still on the neighbor’s end, is Love. These two marvelous blessings surround the living room and kitchen of my home.  On the northeast corner is the word Trust, which is where my husband’s office is.

            I suddenly saw the canopy above my home with these four blessings, yet as I looked, I saw that the trust corner was falling down. I realized then that I was trying to trust my husband in my own strength. It just wasn’t working. As I thought about this, God gave me a scripture: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6.  Wow, as I heard this scripture and said, “I can do that,”suddenly the corner was strong and didn’t waver! I was amazed.

            I began looking at the other words and asking the Lord for scriptures for those corners. The words “my hope is in the Lord” came to mind when I asked about Hope. I found a scripture in Isaiah 40:31: “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.”  As I inquired about love, it came so quickly: “perfect love casts out all fear.” 1 John 4:18  As I inquired of the Lord about faith, here came; “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20

As I look even this morning at the canopy of blessing over my home, it is strong and secure as I allow the power of the scripture to keep the canopy poles upright and strong.

God, you are so amazing!

May faith, hope, love and trust grow strong and secure in your homes as well!

Blessings & peace,

Mikki

Open Gate in 2008

 

   I found it interesting on Sunday when the word was given, “open gate in 2008″. It was the second time I had heard that word concerning 2008. When you hear something once you can look and say, “Wow that is nice”. When you hear it several times, you begin to wonder what God is doing!

    So I began the inquiry of the Lord about this word. I know that God is going to be opening doors. I have seen the beginning of that in my life as I come closer and closer to 2008. I leave in several days for the first of two ministry trips connected with Complete Joy; this is a new door that has opened that I am walking through.

     Yet I wanted to look at the bible concerning open gates. There are 26 references to open and gate in the bible, of which only one is in the New Testament. I found that interesting. Many of the references in the Old Testament are warnings, others are instructions. Let’s read John 10:2-4 paying specific attention to verse 3.

John 10:2-4 (New International Version)

2The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

     We see in this passage how it is the watchman who opens the gate for the shepherd whose sheep know his voice and follow.

Now let’s think about this word from the Lord, “Open Gate in 2008″.

      We need to look at every open gate and be sure it is the Lord who himself has opened that gate for us. False gates can rise up before us, and the enemy can work to prematurely open gates causing us to walk where God doesn’t want us to walk, but if we look and watch for Christ to walk through before us, then we will hear his call and follow him into the new things He has prepared for us, because the sheep know the shepherd’s voice and follow him!

 So go forth and follow Jesus!

Blessings & peace as you walk through the open gate in 2008,

Mikki