Australia Kneels : Week 4 – Day 7

Sabbath – a Time of Worshipping the Father and our Lord Jesus through His Spirit of Truth, Leading us to a Place of Resting in His Presence.

The Garden Catalogue For Today

Prepare Our Hearts

Prepare our Hearts for the coming King
Prepare our Hearts for You
Prepare our Clothes to Receive you Lord
Prepare our Eyes to See

For You are Holy Lord
And You are Perfect Lord
Our Clothes are Dirty and Ragged Lord
Only You can prepare Your Bride
Only You can prepare Your Bride

So You may Behold the Beauty of Your Perfect Bride
Clothed in Garments of Praise
Pure and Spotless, A Perfect Sight
And a Face looking only to You
A Faithful Heart looking only to You !

Prepare our Hearts to Face the Trials
Prepare our Feet to Stand
Prepare our Mouths to Speak Your Praise
Prepare our Hearts to Sing

Our Feet are dusty from the desert
Our mouths are parched and dry
We need to drink from Your living waters
And wash in Your Rivers of Life
Wash ourselves in the Rivers of Life

So You may Behold the Beauty of Your Perfect Bride
Clothed in Garments of Praise
Pure and Spotless A Perfect Sight
And a Face looking only to You
A Faithful Heart looking only to You !

(c) Sharon Jane,   www.livingstream.net

Learn to Yield my control to Him

When I was 9 months pregnant with my 5th child I experienced something very frightening. Labyrinthitis is what they call it but it felt to me like I was spiralling into hell. I could not move a tiny muscle without vomiting and even opening my eyes would send me into the cycle leading to blacking out from lack of oxygen. I was tempted to fear for my baby’s life. And I wondered how I would give birth if this sent me into labour.

But God comforted me in the deepest place of my heart and gave me a vision of stormy seas inside a gigantic balloon I was in. There was a boat floating in the middle of that sea and the Holy Spirit told me to go rest on that boat and cling to it. I knew the boat was Jesus! So that is how I got through these agonising few days. Taken by ambulance to hospital then hooked up all over my body, they were very worried I’d go into labour too! Every inch of my being ached trying to stay still. But the peace in my heart passed all understanding, not of this world.

Recovering the Lord led me to John chapter 6. He taught me a huge life lesson I have never forgotten. They were asking Jesus what to DO. And I realised so much of my life was about working out what God wanted me to DO. It was actually about my control not yielding to HIS. And here Jesus told us what God wants us to do…

“They said therefore to him, “What must we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

John 6:28-29 WEBBE

Jesus showed them they were trying to work for their bread yet God was giving them True Heavenly Manna, Himself the Bread from Heaven.

I realised I was trying to work to receive what God provides freely by His Son. Religion does that. It strives. It controls. Yet God strips it all away with His Truth, humbling us to receive His very Life! He is the only One we need. True Life,  bringing us into eternity with Him. And it starts now as we yeild and trust Him!

This song was inspired by my experience and based on John 6 where God revealed the blessing of receiving Jesus our Bread of Life.

I recovered after 4 days and was let out of hospital. And just 4 days later went into labour naturally and delivered my beautiful blessing Jemima. He gave me just enough strength to get through the short labour. He knows exactly what we need. We can trust Him in every detail. But it will be HIS way not ours!

Holy Spirit prepares our lives to receive our soon coming Groom. But we must be willing to yield all control and fully trust Him. It takes an openness of heart to receive Him.

Sharon Jane

www.livingstream.net

Stand in child like dependence without fear

When I was newly born again 35 years ago I found myself giving talks to church groups about cults and the occult. This was to help them understand and be compassionate as well as on guard. I shared about satanism too. And sometimes I’d come home at night afterwards and walk by myself to my caravan. Some weird things sometimes happened. Strange lights that were impossible and once my van shook a number of times. But I realised the enemy was trying to intimidate me. So I would walk boldly with my face to heaven like a child, smiling and declaring, “I love You, Jesus!” Over and over nearly singing the words. I delighted to walk innocently as His child and trust my Father completely.

I learned these words coming from a trusting, loving heart are some of the most powerful spiritual war cries ever! No fear, just perfect love, complete trust.

Since then I’ve learned to stand in this child like dependence without fear through some horrible times when faced with darkness. We know His authority when we are secure as a child of the most High God in Christ our Lord. And we have the boldness to claim this ground in the Kingdom of God, standing against the powers of darkness and seeing it’s hold over others broken too.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

Romans 8:35-39 WEBBE

Sharon Jane

www.livingstream.net

Our Worship Song for the Week:

King of Kings   (Hillsong)

Ps Jeff’s Special Today:  “Failure to observe the Sabbath” 

Today’s issue is ,failure to observe the Sabbath. Exodus 20:8-11 is still alive today: ” Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. ” Taking this one day each week not to work, to focus on Him, we worship Him, we show ourselves to be good stewards of time, we get refreshed in His presence.

Being candid with yourself and the Holy Spirit, is this old pattern of disregarding the Sabbath still blocking your serving your Almighty Creator today? Is there any remnant of this old pattern needing to be confessed to Him, your Teacher (Matthew 23:10)? Are there any old vows you made in this area that now need to be removed? Do you think this is only applicable to the disciples 2,000 or 3,000 years ago? Do you have any residue of a residue of this issue for such a time as this? Was it 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 and Comfort on this issue. May you go forward on His path, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1).