Mannaword

Those who know me know that I have always read the Bible from cover to cover each and every year. I have done so for many years. However, at the beginning of 2021 the Lord began to move me to make some changes – at least for that year, or so I thought. I knew I was to make a change, so OK I would only read three chapers instead of five. I would read a Psalm, a chapter in Proverbs, and a New Testament chapter. Well, that did not work, as I was seeing so much in each passage, I simply did not have sufficient time to finish it all. So I cut that down to a Psalm and the New Testament chapter. That was also too much, so I have spent that entire year reading, pondering, listening, and wrapping in the Psalms – twice. 

It is now late September 2023 and He h as continually, year by year and season by season, continued to adjust my reading for our time together each morning. At the present time, I read in the New Testament, sometimes a chapter, sometimes a section, and sometimes as this morning when I read most of Colossians in another translation. In the evening, before bed time, my portion is a Psalm. Our time together continues to be rich in content as well as appointment. He continually enlarges the Word in my heart to see and know things about Him, His Word, and myself, that I did not know before. 

What an absolutely tender and loving Lord He is! The changes that He is working in me are so intimate and loving. How deeply He knows our very fiber of being and how precious it is when He makes some change (we could call it transformation and we would be correct) deep within. 

Faith is built and life is realized and exploded. 

His Word is truly alive and vibrant – like living water flowing into my Spirit and through my soul and body. (Hebrews 4:12) 

The Word is so alive in me that I immediately am drawn into study and thought far beyond the passage – and it happens in every passage. So often I find I can only do a few verses at a time. 

I am delighted in this change in me that He has done and wouldn’t trade our time together each morning for anything. His movement pours over me like warm oil and my spirit, soul, and body find healing in Him. So the day is for the two of us to spend together – regardless of my calendars appointments. Oh I do try to make them, but a constant awareness of Him is with, in, and through me. 

What joy – unbounded joy! He truly is our Emmanuel (God with us). “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” Colossians 1:26-29.

The Lord Jesus arrested me the other day. He stopped me in my tracks as I was going about my day. I had been on social media often between naps on my resting day, and my mind was swirling with the events of the past week and the past few days. It was all awful. In helplessness, my mind was trying to find ways to help and to make a difference. Needless to say, I was not peaceful, and I continued to be burdened in my soul. He is so amazing! Suddenly, there was this, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. …and the God of peace shall be with you.” Philippians 4:8 and the last phrase of 9. The entire passage is worth taking the time to read. Bottom line – if we want peace, we must think the way He tells us. If we want to make a difference, we must be willing to leave all our striving and desires in His very capable arms. Otherwise, we are lost in a swirl of helplessness and fear. We become adrift in a sea of pain and darkness. It is only when we choose to receive His rebuke and begin to build our thinking blocks from His supply of goodness and peace that our days and years are blessed with His peace. 

Thank you, Lord, for that rebuke. Now, Holy Spirit, lead me into thoughts you inspire. Thank you for always being with us in those struggles and questions. Thank you for relieving us from the burdens of our minutes, hours, and days. 

This grand exchange is always worth the effort it takes to take my wayward mind and submit it to His mind. Thinking the thoughts of God is a gift to us, but it does take our participation in the action to activate the benefits of that gift. This is true of all He gives to us. He gives freely — “all things for life and godliness.” 2 Peter 1:3. Our part is to believe that is true and to participate by allowing His truth to be our reality. 

I pray you have a day of interaction with this awesome Lord of ours! 

I know that is an obvious, but as I sit here in my home study, it doesn’t look or feel much like Spring. We had snow day before yesterday so it doesn’t seem too obvious with our eyesight. However, the miniature iris’ in my front flower bed are ready to look like the photo above. I took the photograph a couple of years ago and am really looking forward to seeing them shortly. The white board slats behind them (in the photo) are not from a fence. In fact, those slats are only about a foot tall and are meant to put in front of the bed. So the actual flowers are about 2-3 inches tall and about an inch to 1 1/2 inches wide. They are very sweet and are the first heralds of Spring among my plants.

Spring brings with it so much new life, that of course, it reminds me of what happens to us in the life of the Lord. Whenever the Holy Spirit begins to move He always brings new life to us. It is time to embrace joy and begin to take walks outside in the freshness of the fresh breath. I will wait a few weeks for that walk, to insure no ice is left to trip on, but soon, very soon.

You see, Jesus comes over and in us and to us. He is the ever-present Lord of all, adding new life to old things as He moves. I am so deeply thankful to Him and for Him. New discoveries in the Scriptures add to the excitement of what is just around the corner. In Psalm 19, we are experiencing a newness of the Lord in His presence, movement, and His power. It is happening all over. I am deeply blessed by all the reports among my friends whose church body is experiencing a new “presence” in their services as well. How wonderful it all is.

As we move through the next few days and months, let’s be eternally grateful for all He is doing! Oh I know our country and our world is a mess, but He is moving among us!!! That is what we need to embrace and live in it.

Let’s (me and you) do this today and begin to allow to Lord to pour His goodness and fire on, through, and to us as we move forward into warmer weather – and a deeper embrace of that life-giving breath.

“But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:” Galatians 3:15-16 KJV

The gospel is simply Christ in me, the hope of glory. Present day evangelism does not know this — it only knows ‘Come to Jesus.’ But we have not truly responded deeply enough until we have begun to purposely ‘see’ the mystery — Christ in ourselves. This calls for me to be willing to be seen (not just waiting on whatever, but actively moving in His glory), so He can be seen. It is not the elimination of me, but the becoming of me into His form, nature, image, reflection, and manifestation; to be the miracle of the incarnation — to have Christ revealed in me and through me. This is the gospel! 

Paul is not talking about behavior modification, but behavior transformation. The life of faith in His glory called me to die to all I thought I would become and purposely submit to His person (the Holy Spirit) in me that this Lord of mine can been known, seen, and heard though His incarnation in me. 

“But we all, with open face beholding as in glass the glory of the Lord, are changed (transformed) into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV

“Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” Philippians 3:13-14 KJV. 

Now we also press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus — Christ in me the hope of glory! May He be unfolded and manifested in every thought and movement as we press forward into this mystery revealed in us

As the seasons of my life continue, I find that the learning process in the Holy Spirit doesn’t quit. I am one of the older ones now and am sometimes shocked by what faces me in the mirror. However, I am learning to look into a new mirror and see myself in our Lord Jesus Christ.

This “learning” is not like any other, for it challenges all my preconceived ideas about myself. Instead, of thinking of my lack (and there is plenty of that to think on) He has me rejoicing in His sufficiency. Instead of my failings, He has be thinking on His provision for all my wrongs and mis-steps. Instead of what I don’t know, I find Him reminding me of His mind in me and that He knew it all before the foundation of the world.

So as I live in Him every day, my heart rejoices in the years He has given me, instead of decrying what is no more. That is sometimes hard, as in my only sibling going to Jesus in October. It’s not always easy to thinking on how he is enjoying his Jesus! But that is the true reality. So my tears of sorrow soon get replaced with tears of joy that my brother knew and lived in Him here, so he does that now fully! That’s something to be really blessed by!

So the seasons of the year, and of my life, continue to move across the days, weeks, months, and years, I rejoice in Him and learn in my daily life to “flow with Him in the Holy Spirit.” Then when I gather with those who are also flowing in Him, my life is lifted out of the mundane and into the glory of His being. Now just how awesome is that!? So let’s not despise youth, nor old age, but lets joyfully surrender to His provision and likeness in us by His will, His power, and His glory.

And so, I greet another day; …thank you, Precious Lord Jesus!

Beloved Readers, thank you for staying with me as we journey in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ together. Some of you have read here for years, and others are just joining us, thank you. I have had this blog since 2005, and have written and written over the years. During this past year, I have written little. But, that is changing – simply because He is Calling for me to begin again and write His Heart through me. So we begin again.

As most of you know, I have taught Bible for many, many years and I am not a young thing at all. Instead, my 81 years have been spent in Him and with Him. In past days, I have not been as aware of His presence as much as now. So the writing may seem to have changed – I truly pray so. My awareness of His presence with me day in and day out has proven to be a “changer” in all ways. As I explore Him through the Spirit that dwells within me (according to His Word), I am discovering how much He really wants to share. So we will share.

I am certain that at times, some of my own thoughts will leak out within His, as they do now and again, but that is what He loves – Him and me interchanging thoughts and reality through His lenses and my own. I have discovered that He considers me His treasure and therefore He delights in my thoughts. I find that even though His thoughts are so much more profound and prophetic, He allows and delights in mine as well as His own.

So as we develop that more completely through the next few months, join me here and let’s see what we have to say, for He lives within, if we have been born from above. So since those who are His are one in Him and with Him (“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.”1 Corinthians 6:17 KJV) we will find marvelous things, not only as we study His Word, but also as we study how He moves in us to speak and to do. May it be His breathe that flows through our thoughts as we travel further upward.

Holy Spirit, Lead. Thank you!

• Our Guest author is Cindy Rosenau of Christ Living In You Ministries. This entire article is wonderfully expressed. Thank you, Cindy, for this truth!
• Cindy Joy Rosenau
• • May 17, 2020
  • 4 min read

And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. ~Luke 4:4

A great many things have been said and done in the name of Jesus. However, only those works and words that the Father initiates will produce fruit that remains. All other works, regardless of how “good” they might seem, are fraudulent! I know, those are strong words. In other words, works produced in the name of Jesus, yet not initiated by Jesus or led by the Holy Spirit are counterfeit; it’s not truly a work or word of God unless He has initiated it. Jesus said that those who performed works in His name without seeking to know the will of God were workers of iniquity! (Matt. 7:21-23)

There is, therefore, a rest that remains for the people of God. He that is entered in His (God’s) rest hath ceased from his own labors. Therefore labor to enter into the rest of God…” (Hebrews 4:9-11)

The REST spoken of in the above scripture is not speaking of Heaven! Rather, this is a description of a realm or a position where believers choose to dwell in utter dependence upon God resulting from a cessation of self-direction and self-dependency. This was displayed in the life of Jesus and is the mark of Christian maturity; the choice to lay down our own thoughts, words, and actions in exchange for Gods!

THIS IS THE REST OF GOD.

Since there is a rest that some must enter, we are exhorted to, “labor to enter the rest of God.” LABOR & REST. These two words seem to be an oxymoron. This is, however, not a contradiction but rather an underscore, emphasizing that I must make a conscientious effort (labor) to move away from self-directed ways and deeds, turning rather to God’s explicit direction and will (rest).

Paul said it another way; “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me…” And herein lies the problem; Many times we just plain forget that God’s Spirit is living in us.

And… ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ~2 Cor. 6:16. This is the glory of the New Covenant relationship that I have through Jesus Christ! If we let him, He will walk in us and with us. The promise of the Spirit is given to us so that we might commune with God, resulting in a co-shared life; walking, working and talking in oneness with the heart and mind of God!

When we enter into God’s rest we find ourselves living in the fullness of the New Covenant! “…For ye are the temple of the living God”. Many of God’s people have received the blessing of the New Covenant but are not living out of the fullness and reality of the Covenant that God made and keeps for us! What joy and peace have those who are confident in the Great I AM and His finished work!

As we become more and more sensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit and The Voice of God, we can become His instrument, His voice, His hands and His feet, but we must choose His will (desires). Jesus said, “Learn of me.”

Jesus said, I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me,” ~John 8:28

Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. ~John 5:19

When Jesus was tempted by satan to turn stones into bread his response was this; “…man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” To begin with, satan’s strategy was to undermine Jesus relationship with the Father, or to try to get Jesus to doubt His sonship or that he was an heir. “If thou be the son of God turn these stones into bread” Jesus certainly had the power and the authority to turn stones into bread. But He refused to do so because he had not received a “Word” or direction from God to do so. Jesus was teaching us the way of a sonship. Through His submission and utter dependence upon God, Jesus was not only modelling for us the walk of sons but a life lived in the rest of God.

Many of us are presumptuous when it comes to serving and working for God. We believe we can go out to battle without first meeting with the King for His instructions and leading. When we speak ~ when God has not spoken, our words become like stones; they can condemn, bring division, and a host of other death-like symptoms. Even the letter of the word brings death when it is not ignited by the Holy Spirit! Only God can cause our words to be turned from stones to bread or the life-giving quality that only His Spirit-directed words possess! If we long to see greater miracles and the greater works that Jesus said we would do, let us exchange our works for His and enter into the rest of God!

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” -Romans 8:14

GO TO THE SECRET PLACE. SUP WITH JESUS. ABIDE IN HIM. REVEAL JESUS.

Praise God for this great glory that has been shared with us; that we have been called into a co-operative relationship with the Covenant keeping King…who lives, walks, rules, and reigns in us through Jesus Christ! Amen.

(A few days ago my friend, Michael McBane posted this on Messenger. I was delighted with it and received permission to place it here. Read and enjoy! Thank you Michael).

By Michael McBane

I said to the Lord in my conversational prayer,

“Jesus I don’t believe we are supposed to be less than heaven. So brood over me, brood in me and around me so that it is you that remains.” I paused and absorbed the wave of His love that gently graced me. I continued, “ Lord, I want the DNA of your life to fit me, I want the sound of who you are to be my life.”

Then I felt Him say, I agree, but you do not know what causes another to see or hear me. So don’t contain that cry within your perspective of all things being perfect in heaven. Many see and hear by who you are in the storms of life, the everyday of life.

I absolutely believe that God, in asking us to pray that His Kingdom come on this earth as it is in heaven, is foundationally perfect. But the transference of such abundance is first found and contained in the fullness of the life of Christ in us, which is authored by His present word that comes to us and out of us. His perfection is allowing His life to author how His life flows into us and out of us. Our sorrows are warranted in the actuality of the completion of the reality of Marantha but these sorrows are at times absent of the joy God has deposited in us by the misappropriated understanding of allowing Him to author the present word of heaven in us as it is in heaven. Because we become detached to His eternal purpose by the pain of this life, the constant attacks of the enemy of God upon us in so many ways.

I am taken by this often, Jesus chose a crucified life. He made a way for our eternal adoption that is a recreative process of merging us into the expanding flow of His love to us and for us allowing it to be that to this world. It is by our present obedience. We obey in the present moment and in the eternal expansion of the present word we are subjecting our life to by His life, by His strength, His grace and His mercies. The reality that we might say is He is my life I cannot but God. It truly is the essence of, the fabric of, the fragrance of who we are. It is His brooding in a constant way. The ever present life Of God is the percolating of our faith. And our faith is given to us by God.

Jesus prayed that we would be sanctified by His truth or set apart. Our will to be set apart allows us the ability to merge into the oneness that He created our life to be with He, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus makes no compromise as the word is filled with the heart of God for family, to restore us in health, to heal our wounds that we cannot even explain. HE created us and He will not let His life in us to remain visibly unfinished. But even when we are told that the plans He has for us are for life and not destruction we must see this as the great invitation to live out of Him and to let His life be the interpretation of who we are.

This is quite a quest. It is not an invitation to be presumptuous but to adapt to His ways by allowing His life to challenge our fruitless understandings and to see His life lifted up. We must constantly return to allow His definition to define our wisdom and understanding. What then is love. For many would say it is this or that but God will not be mocked.