God is Ever Present

As I was preparing the message for this week, I asked the Lord, "What do you want me to tell Your people?"
He said, "Tell them I love them."
My first reaction was - that will not fill 2 hours (OK - 45 minutes) so I asked again, "Lord, what do You want me to tell Your people?"
Again He replied, " Tell them I love them."
Finally I set it in my heart and agreed, so

God says, "I Love You!!"

Once I agreed and set my heart, He downloaded an amazing message of revelation, so here is an encapsulation of the message from this week.

As I have been speaking since the beginning of this Hebrew New Year, we are in the last year of a decade (5779) of learning to see clearly and being prepared for a new decade (5780) of speaking forth what we see.  At the same time, with our secular New Year, we are in a year (2019) of being "called out" that our "crooked paths will be made straight" that we would be prepared for a year (2020) where there will be a new dawn of deliverance - a year of "eye has not seen and ear has not heard."

Amazingly, this week we have two celebrations that are not part of the biblical feasts but are overwhelming pictures and celebrations of deliverance.

In Genesis, it says, "male and female He created them."  This week we celebrate the deliverance of two nations, one nations by a male and one nation by a female.

In Romans, it says,"For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,".  This week we celebrate the deliverance of two nations, one nation by a Gentile (Christian) and one nation by a Jew.

While in neither story is there necessarily a direct reference to God, even in the Book of Esther, you can see that God and His abundant grace underpin and provide the foundation for such an amazing deliverance of these two nations.  And we get to celebrate and remember both in the same week.

First we celebrate St Patrick's Day today.  We celebrate a young man of 16 years old born some say in Wales, Scotland or Britain, 100 miles south of Hadrian's wall (depending on the story), born to parents of some wealth, and kidnapped by Pagan pirates.  He was sold into slavery in Ireland and remained there of six years before escaping.

Rather than being bitter, he learned to love the Irish, their customs, traditions and the country in general.  So much so, that after receiving Christ and a period of preparation, he was designated an apostle to Ireland by the Catholic church and returned to bring salvation to an entire nation.

The second celebration is Purim which begins Wednesday evening through Thursday.  A time when the Scroll (Book) of Esther is read twice, once Wednesday evening and again on Thursday morning in the Jewish tradition.  It is so good to know that Psalm 139 tells us that even as Esther days were recorded and ordained in a book (scroll) so all our days were recorded and ordained in a book (scroll) before time.  And, we can read both.

With Esther, we celebrate a young woman who lost her mother and father, was taken in by her cousin, and selected to be the wife of the king.  She spent twelve months in preparation before she was presented to the king and became his favorite.  While learning and following the protocol of the court, she saves a nation.

As we celebrate and remember, Esther and St Patrick, we learn that there is a period of preparation before our speech is ready to carry a level of deliverance that will effect an entire nation.  IT IS - what we are being prepared for - there will be those that humbly submit to God's preparation and will carry a level of deliverance that "eye has not seen and ear has not heard."

Let us not take the preparation lightly or believe it is as good as it gets.  Let us not sacrifice the great for the good.  Let us not be of those spoken of in Luke 5, "... no one, after drinking old wine wishes for new; for he says, ‘The old is good enough.’”

Let us not say, "The old is good enough."  Submit to your preparation that you will carry a sound that not only brings individual deliverance but deliverance to entire families, entire bloodlines, entire cities, entire regions, and entire nations.  Stay humble and do not despise your time of preparation.

Join us in reading the Scroll (Book) of Esther Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.