Cart is empty Each of us will experience moments where we want to give up. In these moments, we have to trust God. In 2018 I set out to climb a 14-teener in Colorado.
Wilderness Journeys
Wilderness Journeys
Every person experiences some kind of journey in their life. Some good, some bad, and some ugly, but one way or another, life takes us on an adventure. These adventures can include traveling to a new location, a new job, the birth of a child, a celebrated marriage, a new house, not to mention the joys of answered prayers for healing and salvation. Each of these wondrous events brings with them an opportunity to celebrate. All journeys come with one denominator–change. Generally, we welcome these beautiful changes to our lives and usually end up loving these journeys. But if we live long enough, we will also experience at least one journey of hardship. These changes are very different from the ones listed above. These opposites may contain challenges like sickness, death of a loved one, loss of income, experiencing injustice, destructive addictions, divorces, or the loss of a home or location. We do not like these changes or times. These challenging times could be defined as “Wilderness Journeys.” I don’t know about you, but I have personally walked through each of these difficult experiences and have learned valuable lessons. But of all the lessons I have learned from these seasons, one truth stands out above all the rest. Are you ready for it?
Walking through a desert will always reveal your vulnerability and your dependency to rely on God.
The word Wilderness in the Bible symbolizes an intense experience, like a lack of food or water, danger, encounters, and a need for a divine deliverance. That’s a lot to ponder.
Have you ever wondered, like I have, why God, when delivering His people from slavery, did not lead them straight into the Promised Land?
Do you think, like I do, that maybe the mentality of these generational slaves of Egypt needed some character changes first?
Do you, like me, comprehend the fact that the rulers of Egypt were the ones who gave the Israelites their food and water as they served as slaves for those 430 years? Because of this, their dependency on Egypt may have been stronger than their dependence on God as a provider.
Are you convicted like so many of us at the revelation of how quickly man forgets God’s great acts and starts in with crying, murmuring, and complaining, allowing his narrow-minded flesh to speak so much louder than the voice of the Sovereign One?
Do you agree with me that maybe God was actually protecting them with His divine timing because He knew they were not mature enough in their identity as His children to go to war with the giants in the Promised Land?
And lastly, do you now look at a wilderness experience a little differently than when we started this short piece?
You see, I did not enjoy my difficult and intense journeys. I definitely did not like the lack of substance that reverberated through my soul or the dangerous emotions of desperation. But I can tell you this, in a weird way, I needed every one of my desert experiences.
I needed to learn not to have a poverty mentality. I needed to stop thinking from an orphaned perspective. I needed to work on my vulnerabilities and my dependencies. I needed to develop my identity in Him before I slue the giants He had for me to take down. I needed to learn that God and God alone was my protector, my provider, my strength, and my deliverer.
So together, let’s walk our roads to our Promise Land as we go tasting and rejoicing in the manna served to us from Heaven. Let us, like Jesus, be called to a desert wilderness in order to declare our triumph over our enemy. May we never despise our roads to Damascus; for on them, we find important points of change, new perspectives, and a stronger belief system to stand on Christ’s all-sufficient Cross.
Now, may your walk through your desert journey be with joy as you strengthen your relationship with God. Remember, it is a blessing to have vulnerability and dependency on Jesus; because He alone is your protector, provider, and deliverer.
Since we have been acquitted and made right through faith, we are able to experience true and lasting peace with God through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King. Jesus leads us into a place of radical grace where we are able to celebrate the hope of experiencing God’s glory. And that’s not all, we also celebrate in seasons of suffering because we know that when we suffer, we develop endurance, which shapes our characters. When our characters are refined, we learn what it means to hope and anticipate God’s goodness. And hope will never fail to satisfy our deepest need because the Holy Spirit that was given to us has flooded our hearts with God’s love. When the time was right, the Anointed One died for all of us who were far from God, powerless, and weak.
Romans 5:1-6 Voice Translation
Blessings,
Melissa Norris
Sanctioned Love
A Living Epistle
A Living Epistle
Jesus said, “Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at My feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.” Luke 10:42 TPT
I count it my greatest privilege to sit at Jesus’ feet undistracted. I hunger and thirst to know Him more intimately. I have a desire and an ache deep inside me for the deep of the heart of God. I desire Him above all else.
One morning as I was praying and watching the sunrise come over the mountains where I live, spilling its color over the waters of Klamath Lake. As the light inched its way into the day, so did my desire for the King of kings. A great ache formed from my deep longing for Him and Him alone. A burning hunger to know the movements of His holy breath. While I sat in the silence of His presence, I saw a picture of Jesus walking into the Temple and opening the Scroll to Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:16-21). As this image of Jesus unfolded, I heard Him reading about Himself, and my spirit leaped within me. Jesus said, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” I asked the Lord out of deep desire, “Would You please walk into my temple and read Yourself through me?” Then, I saw the Lord walk into my temple, open the Scripture, and read Himself through me! My desire is to be a living epistle from the heart of God and that people would see me and read Jesus. I never want to lose this wonder of Him. Jesus is my story, my desire, and I desire that when people see me, they are reading Him.
Years ago, I asked Jesus, “Will You come and sit next to me and read Your love letter to me?” WOW! Did He ever take me up on that invitation, and I am so grateful He did! Whenever we ask Him to read His heart to us, we know that He will. He will come and write His heartbeat onto ours and leave a passionate, burning heart for Him, the revealer of all love and truth. When Jesus opens His Scriptures within our hearts, it becomes revelation and not religion.
The Scriptures speak of our Jesus and His choice to become flesh and dwell among us. How He literally dwells on the inside of us. He wants our full gaze. He says, “Eyes on Me with singleness of heart. Wherever you open the Scripture, it speaks of Me. Look ahead; I am doing a new thing.” Let Jesus open His Word to you and read Himself to and through your temple. His Word is living, and we meet the Lord every time we read Him, the Word that became flesh. Ask for understanding. May we long to gain His understanding so that our hearts burn within us as we gaze at Jesus, an audience of one.
Blessings,
Lynda Renne
Sanctioned Love
Error On The Side of Love
Mel’s Blog
ERROR ON THE SIDE OF LOVE
I wrote a snippet the other day for our Sanctioned Love Media platforms. It comes from a personal statement I have stood on for many years in my efforts to grow in prayer ministry. Whether it is a prayer for a brother or sister that I know or for an individual I have never met either way, it always takes my willing heart to trust the leading of the Holy Spirit. As a Jesus lover, I never want to pray for others in His name and be amiss. But let’s face it, I am often just doing my best. I do not always know facts or their needs, but I do know that Jesus is always the answer. So I respond.
I purpose to respond to an individual who has a need by praying for them as an act of love and brotherhood. This response, this act, is not just for them or for me, but it is most definitely to lift up the name of Jesus. Sometimes these needs are very great, and I feel that I should pray for them the way I would want to be prayed for–someone who is thoughtful, willing to listen, and would take the time to speak loving-kindness with the Holy Spirit’s care.
Below is the statement I mentioned earlier. It is a personal statement that has helped me to keep willing and active in the open exposure of the prayer ministry.
“As believers, we are all practicing our walk with God, and we do miss it and fall short to errors. So if you do error, error on the side of love, for love will always make a way.”
Let me give you an example of a time a few weeks ago when I was traveling back from a Sanctioned Love Event. I stopped at a rest stop about midway home. As I was coming out of the restroom, there was a woman who was also exiting. I only saw her from the back as her (I assume) husband took her arm to help her walk to their car. The first thought I had was that this woman had a spirit of infirmity on her. I paused to ask the Holy Spirit about this and then lingered to see if He wanted to direct me. I heard, “It doesn’t matter right now if it is a spirit of infirmity; what matters is that she is in pain, so step out and offer to pray for her.” I stood for a moment as her husband assisted her into the backseat of their vehicle. When he came around to get in the driver’s seat, I walked towards him and spoke.
“Sir, excuse me, but I noticed your wife was having difficulty walking out of the women’s restroom, and I wondered if I could pray for her?”
He frowned protectively at me as he said with a defensive voice, “We do our own praying!”
I responded gently, “ Yes, sir, I understand, I just noticed she was in great pain, so I wanted to offer.”
He softened. “Yes, she has been having back pain for a month now.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry to hear that; I will pray for her today while I am driving home.” He actually thanked me as he climbed into his car.
This could be considered an error on my part as he did reject my offer, but I knew that as he drove away that he had to be thinking that there is still love in this world. I errored, but I erred on the side of love.
I am sure that I have not always hit the nail on the head in praying for someone. I am sure I have not always understood all they were going through, but one thing I purposefully do in Jesus’ matchless name, is to put His love into action. Love is not easy, love costs, love is vulnerable, and my love is more than imperfect, but Jesus’ love is perfect love.
In 1 Peter 4:8 (AMP), it says,
“Above all, have fervent and unfailing love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” [it overlooks unkindness and unselfishly seeks the best for others].
Jesus gives us an important teaching in the gospel of Luke. It’s the parable of the Good Samaritan. Here is a man who took the time to care, a man who opened himself up to serve in love even though he was a Samaritan walking through a street in Jerusalem. Jews did not like Samaritans, yet this man did the right thing for the right reason. A man who came upon a dangerous situation where there was room for great error. Yet he went the extra mile and stood on the side of love, even an act of love to a complete stranger.
Luke 10:25-37
One day, an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” Jesus replied. “How do you read it?” The teacher answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” “You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this, and you will live.” But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus took up this question and said, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But when a Samaritan on a journey came upon him, he looked at him and had compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return, I will repay you for any additional expense. Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? The one who showed him mercy” replied the expert in the law. Then Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
(Often, the word mercy is translated as loving-kindness)
So as you journey forward, do not be afraid to try, do not be afraid you may fall short and do not be afraid to error; you don’t have it all, but Jesus does, so if you error, error on the side of love, because God’s Love, His perfect love, never fails.
By His Courage,
Melissa Norris
