‘Let Us’ (Lettuce page)
What are the Blockages in my Heart + Mindsets of Wrong Beliefs that Obstructs my Relationship with God ?
Chef’s Menu For Today
Let Us consider the faith of Abram
On this Salad menu today, Let us consider the faith of Abram, as he had a hard decision to make when there was strife between his herdsmen and his nephew Lot’s herdsmen in Genesis chapter 13.
Abram did not assert his authority of age or position, but instead humbly asked Lot that there be no strife between them and for Lot to separate and chose the area of land he preferred. Lot chose what to the natural eye looked best; the river valley of the Jordan plain that looked lush. But, it was a place of exceeding wickedness against the Lord.
However, Abram humbly accepted the rocky high places of Canaan that appeared to be ‘worth far less’ than the land Lot had chosen. God honoured Abram and came and gave him great Promises, to give Him and His seed, His Holy Covenant land of Israel which He would later seal in a covenant; (restoring that which was originally Eden, starting again)
Gen 13:14-18
14 The Lord said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, “Look around from where you are, to the north and south, to the east and west.
15 All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.
16 I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.
17 Go, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you.”
18 So Abram went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he pitched his tents. There he built an altar to the Lord.
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Wisdom Challenge: When we are faced with hard decisions to make – on what criteria do we decide?
Do we ask God for His will and direction as the Lord our Shepherd and do we trust Him to show us His will, or do we work it out from our own desires and preferences to get what we think we want or what looks best?
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Let us Delight ourselves in the Lord and trust as we do He will grant us the desires of our hearts
Ps 37:4. (The Lord alone knows what will really satisfy us and bring us into His purpose and call).
SO…
Let us Turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face and the things of this earth will grow strangely dim in the Light of His Glory and Grace.
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God’s Light of Truth – His Living Word is Medicine – Heb 4:12-13
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Coleslaw Salad – Mango Dressing
Check out the Ingredients of the LIES of Worthlessness
From Thom Gardner’s Book Healing the Wounded Heart ch 10, p 113-124
Spiritual Beliefs –I don’t meet God’s expectations. I’m of no value, I’m second rate, worth less than others, I have no value or place, I’m unworthy, there’s something wrong with me, I’m not blessed or favoured by God as I’m a disappointment. So, I despair of ever making it better, feeling loved less by God if at all, as if I’m under a life sentence of condemnation, as no matter how hard I try, nothing changes; I close my heart to God and other’s in bitterness.
Soul Beliefs – I’m not loved or wanted as others are. I’m not honoured as I’m not worthy of honour. I have no self-worth, I’m ‘less than’, as in ‘not as good as them, I’m a failure, I’m a mistake, I don’t measure up. I’m jealous of their favour, giftedness, and opportunities. I’m ignored, found wanting, so I’m tolerated, ‘put up with’ or sidelined.
Soul Sense – of being of less value in another’s eyes or priority list, feeling that I don’t meet other’s desires, standards, or expectations in some vital way, as I compare myself with others who I perceive to be far more blessed than me. I believe that I am flawed, there’s something wrong with me, I’m a mistake or ‘not what they wanted’ in comparison to my siblings or others. I feel like I have to fight or excel to get any attention or advance at all.
Symptoms socially – I seek approval and desperately try to earn it. I appease people I perceive as a help or threat and compromise in the hope of validation. I focus on my own performance and results in comparison to others. I’m ego driven, competitive with selfish ambition striving to prove to others I’m worth having more than another who I’m perceiving I’m competing with.
Emotion Focus – I’m constantly self- conscious, hypersensitive to other’s belittling me, feeling jealousy towards others who I perceive get more attention, more affirmation, more job advancement than me and they don’t deserve it in my judgement. So, I either seek ways to be noticed, to gain the focus of other’s so I get attention, either positive or negative or I retaliate subversively with criticism and blame shifting, undermining others.
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For too many years I and so many of us have lived under these false beliefs about our false identity that was established in our hearts from our mother’s womb. However, these thoughts of worthlessness are not what God showed David in Ps 139:13-17:
13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skilfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them!
Green (Let us SEE) Lettuce, Avocado and Artichoke Salad – very nutritious for the heart!
Expels the Lies of Worthlessness that Blind & Block us seeing the Revelation of the heart of our:
Isa 43:4, Hos 14:1-9 & Isa 40:1-2- True Heavenly Father, who speaks to His straying people Israel, who had been robbed and plundered and were hiding and feeling worthless, through his prophets in Isaiah 43:4;
‘Since you are precious and honoured in my sight and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you nations in exchange for your life.’
In Hosea 14:1-9
‘O Israel, return to the Lord your God, For you have stumbled because of your iniquity; 2 Take words with you, And return to the Lord. Say to Him; “Take away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the sacrifices of our lips. 3 Assyria shall not save us, We will not ride on horses, Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”
4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, And lengthen his roots like Lebanon. 6 His branches shall spread; His beauty shall be like an olive tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon. 7 Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be revived like grain, And grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’ I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.”
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.
- Jesus Messiah, God’s Beloved Son who sent the ‘Angel’ of the Lord in Judges 6:11-18 to Gideon understanding his feelings of powerless, threshing wheat in the winepress, hiding from the oppressors of the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said; “The LORD is with you, you mighty man of Valour!” Gideon replied with a complaint in his distress….saying ‘The Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.’V 14 Then the LORD turned to him and said “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?’ v 15 So he said to Him…. (Gideon’s sense of worthlessness and unbelief speaks next) ‘O my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.’ V16 And the LORD said to him; ‘Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.’ (So Gideon then asks for signs and eventually surrenders to the Lord – surely this is the mercy of the Lord with us too -calling us into His identity)
- Holy Spirit’s speaks words of Comfort and Compassion, that He yearns for us to receive from Him as we experience the pain of a wounded spirit and sense of being dishonoured and treated as worthless, possibly because of our own sin consequences or through our families or with our peers. Jesus at His last supper with His disciples before facing His death said to them in Jn 14:26
But the Comforter, will teach you everything and will cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send to you in My name.
Also, God the Holy Spirit speaks this to His broken people and Holy city Isa 40:1-2.
“Comfort, yes, Comfort my people! Says your God. Speak Comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sins.”
Holy Spirit Salad with fruit bites – God’s Antidote Medicine for His Truth Replacement
- Fruit of the Holy Spirit – Instead of Worthlessness – God’s Spirit of Goodness
- Gift of the Spirit – of Heavenly Tongues and Holy Spirit interpretation
- Isa 11:2 Holy Spirit Attribute – Spirit of The Lord, His Glory – the central Servant Spirit
- Revelation of Jesus to Church of Ephasus; He holds the 7 stars in his right hand and walks among 7 lamp stands – He is the Light of God’s Truth, the Light of the World
- His Promise to Overcomers – of the loveless church, busy proving their worth with religious works and theology, who had lost their first love; Jesus’ promise is the restoration of Covenant Love in the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God – walking with Him and the Father in His presence in intimacy, devotion and adoration of the Lamb who alone is worthy of all Honour and Praise
Blessing Dressing from 1 Pet 2:4-5,9
Restoration of God’s True identity worth and value into our hearts as we receive Jesus and come to Him wholeheartedly and receive what He calls us and How He values us who love Him -He’s the One who IS The Precious Cornerstone
v4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
v5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
v9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;
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God promises to bring restoration of our true identity in Him, as we allow Him to set us apart with Him, for His Holy fire to purify our heart attitudes and desires, until we become like His merciful loving nature, because He has first loved us. It is His zeal as the God of Peace, to prepare us to stand blameless before our Father 1 Thes 5:23-24.
Hannah in 1 Sam 1:8-18 felt forsaken in bitterness of soul crying out to God for a baby in her barrenness was mocked by the priest thinking she was ‘drunk.’ But her heart was sincere, and she promised to return to God a son if He would grant her to give birth to one. God heard her prayer and honoured and blessed her with the baby Samuel who she surrendered to be a priest to God, who was God’s instrument of redemption for Israel. Hannah’s sacrifice is eternally remembered in God’s Word. Let us ask the Lord how He wants to turn our heartbreaks around, to give Him Glory in the process as we are mightily Blessed.
As we seek God’s face and allow Holy Spirit to bring up the spiritual and sin issues in our hearts and we then repent of and forgive God, others, or ourselves for all the deceptions we have come into agreement with through our sense of ‘worthlessness’, God hears us. As we press into Him where we feel dishonoured, disrespected, sidelined, worthless and perceives as ‘less than’ others or simply ordinary, or different, let us surrender these preoccupations to the Lord, and re-focus on how Worthy He is!
Let us receive God’s Holy Spirit inspiration to shift our gaze off ourselves onto Him, to shift our identity away from our looks, our gender, the colour of our skin, our race, our capacities or incapacities and bring these pain burdens to God. As we repent, forgive and receive Jesus’ forgiveness, He lifts the traumas and burdens from us as He has already paid the price for our sin on the cross and declared,’ it is finished.’ As we listen to God our Father and read His Word and receive what He says about us and let go of whatever we perceive that has made us of less value than others, He will heal us by giving us revelation from His word. He shows us how He wants to elevate us to Rule and Reign in and with him in His Kingdom authority.
Why not explore how He sees us from His divine perspective of the Truth of His Word?
God delights in all nations colours tongues and peoples worshipping Him, the Lamb of God, around His throne. He enjoys our uniqueness, just as He has created us to be.
He passionately desires us as part of His Bride to live for His Glory by the power of His Holy Spirit and to be thankful that He has redeemed us through His precious blood at calvary;
Rev 5:9b-10
9b ….For You (the Lamb) were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
Restoration Blessing Dressing
Why not enter His presence with praise and thanksgiving in our hearts and listen to this worship song and video and discover The God who sees, knows and Loves you and His compassionate merciful Lamb nature
Let Us Listen to:
The God Who Sees | Featuring Nicole C. Mullen LIVE
I pray that as you listen to this beautiful song, you will allow the Lord to minister His Truth into your heart and mind, about how He sees you, how He cares so deeply for those like you if like Hagar you feel worthless, cast out and desperate, as well as many other Biblical characters mentioned. Let Holy Spirit Truth and Peace fill you and Bless you.
Ps Jeff’s Special Today: “Failure to ascertain (seek out), and then carry out His call”
The Risen Messiah, Jesus Christ, has a call for each of us; coming into His Kingdom through repentance, you and I become His disciple, now a vessel of His Holy Spirit, and He then has a unique call for each disciple. “The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29).
And 2 Timothy 1:8-9 states: ” Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began…“
John 15:16 is awakening many disciples today to this Truth given to His first disciples: ” You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. “
But being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is there an old issue needing to be confessed: failing to ascertain (seek out) His unique call on your life? Even knowing His call on your life, is there an issue of failing to carry out His call, to glorify Him? Do you think His Word is only for the disciples 2,000 years ago? Do you have any residue of being passive about having His call on your life, wishing to simply “attend church” and continue life as usual? Is this passivity connected to your upbringing as a child? Was it a family pattern in any way?
God bless you as you seek His Holy Spirit Wisdom on that issue.
May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).
