FreshBread- A Newsletter from Raven Ministries
Spring 2008
In This Issue:
God Unleashed- Faye Higbee
A Comment About What God Wants in His Church- Abigail Ball
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Ok, on April 21 it snowed. Now I'm a North Idaho native, and I can clearly tell you that even I think that's strange. I'm not complaining, though, as maybe we could grab a few scientists and drag them over here to explain why it's so cold when there's "global warming." Maybe it's the new "ice age" a few other scientists are pushing. Maybe we should trust God instead of science. Hmmm?
Aside from the odd weather, I have the sense that God is about to become even more "odd" than we think He is. Because He's raising up people we don't like, using kids who look strange and hate the old ways, and completely shaking the whole of what we thought we knew, and messing with the world order of things. Hang on to your socks.
A few days ago, I was preparing my breakfast. I have used the microwave oven for eggs for years, spraying a bit of cooking spray in a bowl and cracking the eggs into it. That morning, for some out-of-the-ordinary reason, I put a paper towel over the top of the bowl and punched in three minutes on the timer. Within two minutes I heard a loud "Bang!" The eggs had exploded all over the inside of the oven and even oozed out the closed door! It was probably the biggest mess even in MY embarassing microwave history, and that includes a bunch of really icky oatmeal disasters.
I distinctly heard the Lord say these words: "I'm out of the box."
"What do You mean, Lord, out of the box?" I wondered as I tried to pry the dry, wizened up yolk fragments from the outside of the microwave door.
"If you had pricked the yolks like you usually do, and kept the time to a minimum instead of trying to turn it into Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, the pressure would not have been able to build and cause an explosion. My church does the same thing with Me. You all want me to work your way, not Mine, and you all think you know how everything will happen. You don't give Me room to work. I'm about to show you that My thoughts aren't yours. I'm out of the box."
"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are My ways your ways,"says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8,9 NKJV
It is true, God's ways are somewhat backwards from our own. Take these Scriptures, for example:
"...love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven:" Matthew 5:44,45a NKJV
"But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be done in secret ..." Matthew 6:3 NKJV
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5,6 NKJV
Those of us who have been around the church for most of our lives have a huge challenge: see from God's perspective, see His plan rather than what we think we KNOW. And LOVE the Lord and each other- there's the bottom line. God is about to shake us so hard that we will either move with Him into those heavenly places where His Presence ALWAYS dwells, or stand rigidly demanding something else.
It looked as if Satan had won forever the day Jesus was crucified. But in his short moment of seeming triumph, his power was stripped and he became a mockery to all of heaven. Because the Blood of Jesus ripped away his hold over mankind. It was, in a word, weird, especially to we who have no culture of sacrifice or the Law..
God will be doing some things that in years past would have seemed ridiculous and impossible. They will be off from the norm. Family problems, circumstances, obstacles that seemed insurmountable will be removed, and replaced with righteousness and peace... in the midst of darkness that we can't comprehend. And God is going to do it His way, not ours. All we have to do is let Him out of the box in our thinking. He's already out and working, we just have to cooperate.
A friend had a dream the other night in which the roads beneath her began to crumble and turn into molten lava and sticky black tar. The church as we know it is about to get changed. If it stays on the roads of the past, it will be swallowed up in the fire of God. The dead will stay dead, and the living will come alive in new realms and levels. (Revelation 22:11). We can thrive with even the youth that are being raised up today, or we can grow stagnant and hard. We can forgive and move on, or keep our opinions and die. Our choice. Wonder what we'll choose.
Faye
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A comment about what God wants in His Church: by Abigail Ball (Abby is a young adult)
It's all about getting rid of the religious, controlling, and striving spirits that are in the church of today. Then to truly allow the beating heart of the Heavenly Father in, through, and among us. In order to do that , we have to allow the Holy Spirit to come in and show us where we came into unity with that religious spirit and go through repentance for walking in unity with it-- and ask for God to come in and seal it in so the enemy can't walk right back in. Then have a safe group that will lift you up with that step and celebrate with you through this change and love you through too. For with His Love, Grace, and the depths of His heart, and working heart to heart and spirit to spirit you can change the way the world sees the body of Christ. For you have opened up the spirit of freedom over God's family like they haven't experienced before.
We are coming out of a generation that has been churched most or all of their
lives -- people who have come to the point where they look at the church
asking, "Is this it? is there more to life than this?" So the church has
responded with "read more of the Bible, worship, interact with one another."
When that didn't work, they went to multimedia and then we found out that people
were starving inside. Hope was all lost in the church and they slowly walked
away.
Now there is such a hunger for this deep intimacy with Father God's heart that
they are finding it out with groups of people that there is hope being renewed
in certain places of the world and things are happening in these groups of
people like angels, gold dust, jewels, body parts, oil, and so many others that
have come from God to show us His love. He hears our heart's cry, and is waiting
for you say "Yes! I want that next step with You God! Let me be like be like
David, Peter, Jacob and go further than they even did!"
As the church got wind of this they caused more harm than good... but there is
still hope, for God is a forgiving God and has been teaching many of us to have
the His heart, eyes, grace, mercy and love for the church that it's becoming no
longer a four letter word to this generation.
It is so powerful to have someone ask your forgiveness for harm that the church
or what people have done to you, that it unlocks you from captivity and allows
you to have 100% freedom to be the person that God created you to be.
So, how do you bring that to the church, keep it pure and get higher in God's
glory?
Why is it now that the church is being awakened to this? A.B.
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