Category Archives: Proven Path Ministries

Not All Sex Is The Same

 

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If you have ever heard me share about the first time I read through my Bible then you most likely have heard me share about my anger as I read in Genesis 19 about the time that Lot offered up his virgin daughters to be raped as an exchange for the two male visitors…

You would have also heard me share about how I threw my Bible down when I got to the book of Judges and read about the rape and murder of the man’s concubine, that he threw out the door to be raped, in order to protect himself.

I was so angry at God for allowing that and I confused the recording of the truth of sin within the Scriptures with God’s approval. Just because it is recorded doesn’t mean God was good with it, it simply means He is not doing any sugar-coating with truth and historical fact.

So with all this rape and incest and homosexuality and other “forms” of sex… how in the world could these acts be “yada” if “yada” is God’s word for sex?

Is sex just sex?

Is all sex the same?

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Day Twenty-Seven

The answer to that question is found right there in Genesis 19

So they made their father drink wine that night,

 and the firstborn went in and lay with her father;

and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose.

Genesis 19:33

Thank God the word “lay” in Genesis 19:33 is not “yada“.

The word “lay” in Genesis 19:33 is “shakab” and it is described as a “euphemism of sexual intercourse” It’s often paired with the word sikba, which means “emission.” So basically, shakab means “to exchange body fluids

So my friend, you see,

                            some sex is God’s sex. It’s yada.

Some sex is mere counterfeit. It’s shakab.

Makes sense now why sex outside of marriage is so unfulfilling and leaves you feeling empty and icky and awkward and dirty once the hormones have settled or the alcohol has worn off… you might as well have spent the evening spitting in each other’s mouth.

I’ve been there… I remember it… the saddest part was the way you can convince yourself that this time will be different but it isn’t… it never is and never will be.

Then the absolute worst part is the night that you have your first married sex… after the wedding… after the covenant has been formed and this is the man that has vowed to love you until death do you part and the full weight of what you gave away comes crashing on you in a wave of regret that almost crushes you… and the voice of the liar is right there ready to whisper his words of condemnation to drag you deeper into his pit.

So many marriages today begin already wounded by previous sexual mistakes… and most don’t even know that this is the root cause of the distrust, the lack of intimacy, the jealousies, the walls of self-preservation, and so on.

Oh how grateful I am for the grace of God and for His redemption and His restoration!

So maybe when you first saw shakab, you thought, well good, I can have “shakab” now and save “yada” for later…

Nope, wrong.

Sex can never be reduced to something purely physical. Eventually your emotions will catch up to you… You can try to reduce sex to a simple exchange of body fluids and treat it casually, but reality will catch up with you… Treating sex solely as a physical act has disastrous consequences that our culture rarely acknowledges in its careless approach to female sexuality.

The Miley, Britneys, and Beyonces of the world are rewarded for acting like tramps. They make millions of dollars for shocking shenanigans. But if you act like a tramp, you’ll be trashed and find yourself taking the Walk of Shame, not the Walk of Fame.

Why?

Because what our culture sells us is not real sex. It’s not yada. It’s shakab.

Ladies please do not think that it is just the act of Bill Clinton’s definition of sexual relations that wounds you… I hope as you have gone through this challenge you have realized how important it is to protect your heart and your mind as well as your body… if you are going to protect your soul. And it is the very core of your soul that his hurt by sexual sin.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?

Shall I then take away the members of Christ

and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be! 

Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a prostitute

is one body with her?

For He says, “THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.” 

But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 

Flee immorality.

Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body,

but the immoral man sins against his own body.

1 Corinthians 6:15-18

 

There is no such thing as friends with benefits or just casual sex… God did not wire us that way. God designed our bodies to respond to our marriage beds with addiction. Your brain is designed to crave your spouse. Your limbic system was set up to store his smell, his cologne, the way his voice sounds when he whispers your name, it was designed to crave his touch and his presence and he yours. You were designed to become one— body, mind, and soul.

When you allow your limbic system to get “addicted” to someone who is not your spouse… you go through real withdrawals. It’s the reason you keep going back to him even though you know he treats you like crap. It’s the reason you walk down the isle even though you know God is not in it. You are as addicted to him as any junkie is his drug. You become super-glued to them with dopamine and you didn’t even have to “go all the way” for the gluing to take place. It could have just been deep kissing and roaming hands, but skin to skin with emotional arousal is all it takes for the glue to stick.

Even if you never “get caught” physically with a disease or pregnancy, you will not escape the emotional pain that will follow any and all sex outside of the God designed marriage bed. No matter what the world teaches you… you do not have meaningless sex like an animal… you are not an animal… you were created in the image of God.

When God says you are playing with fire… he means it.

For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light;

And reproofs for discipline are the way of life 

To keep you from the evil woman,

From the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 

Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

Nor let her capture you with her eyelids. 

For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread,

And an adulteress hunts for the precious life. 

Can a man take fire in his bosom

And his clothes not be burned? 

Or can a man walk on hot coals

And his feet not be scorched? 

So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.

Proverbs 6:23-29

Oh and by the way, let us remember that if this is not your spouse, even if they are no one else’s spouse at the moment… chances are good they will be one day… so you are STILL messing with somebody else’s spouse.

Dannah shares about the many girls she counseled in her ministry and she says: These girls had been having fun in the moment. They weren’t abused or forced. They liked the physical act of sex, but when the guys were gone and the high from the brain chemicals wore off, they were left with the sober reality that they’d been used. The aftermath was deep depression and often suicidal tendencies. 

Sex is serious business not a sales pitch. How sad it is that we have allowed our culture to make it so…

Today your challenge is to do something.

Send a letter, an email, make a call and let these advertising people know that they are selling a product not sex. And when they sell sex, it’s not even real sex… just a cheap counterfeit.

Let them know you don’t appreciate the way they shove shakab down your throat and your children’s throat… and it’s false advertising.

You wouldn’t stand for a product to use cocaine or meth as an incentive to buy their stuff? Why are we sitting back quietly and still buying the things that use sex to sell their goods? We live in the land of options. You have a choice. This is something that is just as deadly to the future of our children… and truth be known, it’s most likely the reason many of them are caught in the web of drugs and alcohol… think about it.

I sent mine to Hardees… where’s yours gonna go?

 

Just yesterday, (as in March 10th 2014), I was talking with a beautiful new friend of mine about a ministry that she feels the Lord is calling her family deeper into… she attended a conference concerning this ministry. She shared that she sat in a class under a man who shared about his ministry to help rescued girls from the sex trafficking trade, and taking these rescued girls in, and working with them with hope against hope that Our God of the impossible could restore this child’s heart and soul and mind.

As I talked with her she shared of the horror of one of their girls who had been used by her parents to get money beginning at the age of 3 and then was sold by her parents at the age of 7. Those who sold her locked her in a room with no windows and threw her food on the floor to her and allowed her to be violated for four year before she was rescued at the age of 11…

So beloved the next time you consider watching that movie, or looking at that website, or reading that book, or taking a big bite out of that Hooters shrimp or that Hardees sandwich… those that use sex to sell these things… are controlled by the same spirit that used sex to make money off this precious child… 

So beloved… write that letter… choose not to support this sexual exploitation and choose to take a real stand against it… and pray beloved… PRAY.

 

Wait, There’s More

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Yesterday we learned that the word yada is used in the Old Testament over 900 times… we talked about how it is the word that God uses when He tells us that Adam lay with Eve. It is also the same word that God uses to share that Rebekah was very beautiful and had never lain with a man. It is the word that God used to share that Elkanah lay with Hannah and He remembered her and she conceived.

(Hearing the word “lay” in God’s spectrum makes our worldly term “get laid” sound quite repulsive, doesn’t it?)

Well today we are going to talk about the relationship that God most uses the word yada to describe.

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Day Twenty-Six

Ready?

Trust me this is going to be good… 

Be still and yada that I am God.

Psalm 46:10 

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So the LORD said to Moses,

“I will also do this thing that you have spoken;

for you have found grace in My sight,

and I yada you by name,”

Exodus 33:17

Is your heart pounding yet?

Do you see now how Adam and Eve were in the garden with God and they were naked and they were not ashamed?

We see naked and we usually think nudity… and that’s it.

But it was so much more than that. Yada transcends the physical. It describes the whole knowing of a person… not just their body, but their hearts, their minds, and their souls. It means no secrets and nothing is held back. Before sin entered the world Adam and Eve were naked in the garden before God. They had no secrets with each other and they were not trying to hide secrets from God…

This is the love life we are beckoned to in Christ. We can once again be in the garden with our God and be naked and not be ashamed.

I want you to go back now and read Psalm 139  again, because now you can do so with the awareness that when you read the word “know” you are reading “yada”

O LORD, you have searched me and known me…

Psalm 139:1

Just as a young romantic dreams of his or her future lover, God dreamed of you. Before you were born, His heart longed for you. God has “before love” for you. He has sought you, and He is seeking you. Those are facts. Let’s make every effort not to confuse our lack of feeling God’s presence with a lack of His presence. And beyond that, my friend, let me encourage you to step out of- or never step into- the same pit of Satan’s lies I once was drowning in when I believed that my past made me unworthy of God’s desire and love. It’s simply not true…

Precious one, never forget who you are in Him…

                 and never forget where you were when He called you…

He loved you then,

            He loved you before then,

 and He loved you still even after then… and He loves you now.

Now, in this moment, you are the focus of the passionate and unconditional love of God. He loves you with His entire Being. You have all of His love as if you were the only human being in existence. And He loves you because you exist without reference to your behavior. Understand and live in that reality, and behavior will change in response to such infinite love that leaves us in worshipping wonder. 

~ Malcolm Smith    

Get this: The ache in your heart to be known by and to truly know one man was placed in you to be a revelation of a much deeper love. When you are in intimate physical and emotional communion with your husband, it will be a mere picture of the passionate love of a God who has been seeking your heart since before you were born.

We live in a day of artificiality.

We have artificial sweetener, artificial nails, artificial hair, artificial colors…

We have fake food, fake diamonds, fake furs, fake money, fake lips, fake boobs, fake profiles, fake friends…

We have imitation purses, imitation art, imitation wood, imitation pearls…

We live in a day of cheap fake, artificial, imitations.

We live in a day of counterfeits… and love is no exception.

Honey, don’t settle for the imitation when the Creator of the universe stands before you with open arms welcoming you into the REAL GENUINE TRUE thing. 

Don’t be wooed away from the Lover of your soul by the seductions of the world and the lies of the one who rules here… you are worth more than that. You were worth dying for… He considered you more precious to Him than His own glory, for He laid it aside to come chasing after you. He wants to captivate and capture your heart and sweep you off your feet and carry you off to His kingdom to be His pure and holy and undefiled bride.

Just spend tonight thinking about that and about Him…

Dump The Cliches

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What are some of the cliches you have heard that are supposed to encourage you or at least shame you into saving yourself for the honeymoon?

“Why buy the cow when you are getting the milk for free?”

“If you want it, you better put a ring on it”

 

(As I repost this, I am reminded of a recent car commercial)

 

(It’s cute, but there it is in 2014… that- you can’t touch this, that- keep your hands to yourself, that- no hugging, no kissing til I get a wedding band)

We’ve all heard so many trite cliches through the years. “It’s a gift you can only unwrap once” and “You can become a recycled virgin” come to mind. Something in me just doesn’t like the idea of comparing virginity to a milk carton. But all these repeated messages about “protecting God’s gift of sex” still leave many wondering why? Why does God want it protected? 

~ Dannah Gresh

Yeh, but why, what’s the big deal really?

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Day Twenty-Five

In the back of your head you hear the cliche and then you look over there and they are having sex, and they are having sex, and well they are having sex… and lightning has not struck and God has not struck them with a disease and they seem perfectly content and carefree with it all. They are even excited that they just found out they are pregnant and they are not even married, but everybody is hugging her and is excited for her???

And your daughters and sons are wondering the very same thing?

So why?

Why should you, why should they, wait when it looks like absolutely no one else around is? If you are single again after a marriage… does it even matter?

Yes it does… and this is why:

YADA!

Yes, that’s right yada.

Adam lay with his wife Eve,

and she became pregnant 

Genesis 4:1

Okay… so yeh, as Dannah said he was so not just layin’ there!

The word lay in the Hebrew is “yada.

This is the Hebrew word for sex. It means “to know, to be known, to be deeply respected.” This is what God thinks about sex. It is designed to be something that causes us to be deeply known by another. It doesn’t have anything to do with the actual physical act of sex, it centered on the deep emotional connection and quenching that we yearn for…

Ladies think about it… is it really the physical touch you crave… or is it really a deep emotional caress that you are crying out for?   

What really drives you over the edge and makes your head spin and your heart pound?

Is it when he touches you…

                                 or is it when he took the time to study you and to really get to know you

when he knew what color your eyes where, your favorite color, was it not when he remembered something you said?

Or when he was able to buy you that gift that you had never even mentioned wanting out loud… he just knew you would want it… because he had taken the time and the effort to know you… just you?

YADA!

Married ladies… when does your husband look at you in amazement? 

Is it really when you strut out and blow him away with your sex kitten prowl… or is it when he knows that you know him, really know him, yet still deeply respect him and you show that deep respect in your willing submission to his leading of your family? Is it not when you show sincere interest and real respect for his work and the efforts he makes to provide for your family?

YADA!

Based on the world’s view of sex knowing and respecting each other has nothing to do with sex… it’s just physical… but an emotional knowing and deep respect are essential ingredients to an intimate, lifelong connection. Mingle the two- an emotional knowing and a deep respect- and you have yada.  

The word yada is used more than 900 times in the Old Testament.

Dannah shares a story in her book about a guy names Wes and girl named Stephanie… let me share it with you.

Trust me this one is a tear jerker!

Wes first saw Stephanie at a Pure Freedom  for teens. Wes said he loved her the moment he saw her. When he approached Stephanie to ask her out on a date she informed him that after a very bad relationship in 9th grade, her heart had been wooed by Jesus, and she was only dating Him through out the  rest of high school… which was three more years.

Three years. No guys. Just God.

Well Wes went and had a little talk with God about this. You see Wes loved Jesus too. When Wes went and talked to Jesus about how he felt about Stephanie and God let Wes know that He was courting Stephanie, and Wes needed to back off and give Him His courting time with Stephanie.

Wes obliged.

But for the next three years Wes never stopped loving Stephanie. He stayed friends with her, would touch base every now and then. During this time he was asked out by other girls… but he said no… He was waiting on Stephanie, even though she had no clue that he was.

On May 24, 2008 Wes saw Stephanie again… she was about to graduate high school. 

Then on June 1, 2008 after Stephanie had graduated high school Wes came to see Stephanie. And that’s when he brought them out… the gifts.

One for each Christmas that he’d loved her.  

                                      One for each birthday that he’d loved her.

And a journal that expressed his emotional pursuit of her… three years of giving her over to God and giving himself over to God as he waited for God to give him permission to show his love to Stephanie.

YES THIS IS A TRUE STORY!

For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,

 Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,

Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.

 Isaiah 64:4

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but just as it is written,

“ THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD,

AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN,

ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”

1 Corinthians 2:9

This is why sex is worth waiting for… it’s for YADA.

Let’s dump the cliches, let’s dump the lies, and let us walk in Truth.

Your challenge today:

              if you are married, are you still getting to know your spouse? Ladies, how is your respect toward your husband? Does he know that you respect him? Do you respect him? Is yada a part of your marriage? Maybe you need to make the first move in getting to know your husband all over again…

           if you are single… wait on Him. Are you willing to give the object of your heart over to God? Are you willing to date Jesus only, to let the Creator of the universe court you and then bring “the one” to you? Are you willing to say no to relationships that you know are not God’s will for you in order to wait for yada?     

I am not promising you that if you wait then every marriage will be a Wes and Stephanie experience, but I can promise you that if you wait, if you choose to do things God’s way, wherever you’re at right now… if you choose to submit and surrender your heart to Christ and trust HIM and show that trust by walking in obedience to what HE tells you… then you will experience the love and grace and mercy of the God who is LOVE, who does KNOW you, and yet LOVES you with a love that you cannot even wrap your human mind around. Then you can be a part of HIS great love story and there is no lack of the possibility of what He can do in your marriage… in your singleness… in your life.

 

Getting Strong Enough

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I am a biblical woman who loves God’s Word and feasts on it each day. I am a sinful woman who has been healed by the perfecting love of my Savior. I am a wife and mother who is honored to serve the Father in those roles. I am an author empowered by the Holy Spirit to write and live out Truth. I am a girl who occasionally watches The Ellen Show, and I think she’s sweet and funny and generous. And that’s where it starts to get complicated- when my private, God-loving self interacts with a real world that doesn’t acknowledge Him as God. Just like you, I am trying to live out my faith in a very crazy world.

~ Dannah Gresh

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Day Twenty-Four 

These last ten days I am going to begin pulling from Dannah Gresh’s book What Are You Waiting For. I wanted to start with Shannon Ethridge’s book because it was geared more to married women, and I am a firm believer that God wants us to have amazing marriages. He wants us to experience a level of intimacy in our marriages that somehow helps us understand how up-close and intimate He intends to be with us.

I also believe with all my heart that God can take a marriage that is already hanging off the ledge of destruction and when even just one of the two is willing to let both hands go of the ledge and grab on to God’s hand and refuse to let go… that God can in His power and might and ability to make messes into beautiful miracles pull them both to safety… because after all you are united as one flesh.

I believe many marriages fall apart because we usually are not willing to see our own part in the mess. All we want to see is the part that will justify our choice to be done, to be free of the pain, the hurt, the hassle. It’s easier to see the other’s fault in the mess than our own, especially when we use the excuse that our actions are simply the results or effects of the other’s actions… the whole “well if they, then I wouldn’t have” thing.

We usually want what we have decided is the greener grass because we didn’t have to do any of the work to make it green. Here’s the thing, God wants our grass to be just as green… but sometimes it takes a bunch of “crap” to get beautiful green grass.

Sometimes it has to be set on fire and burnt almost to death in order for the beautiful new green to work its way up through the ashes.

Sometimes it has to have poisons thrown out on it to destroy the weeds that keep creeping up in it and sometimes it has to babied… with extra seed and water and tended often… especially in a dry season.

Green grass takes work…

So we started with Every Woman’s Battle and we ended yesterday with our prayer for God to show us who we needed as an accountability partner. Ladies even if you are not struggling at this time with emotional or sexual integrity… you still need accountability. You need it in so many areas of your life.

Maybe your struggle is staying in the Word, maybe it’s attending church, maybe it’s losing it with your kids, maybe it’s laziness at work, maybe it’s food, maybe it’s health maintenance, maybe it’s stepping out in obedience in a particular ministry. It doesn’t matter what we are struggling with, God built and designed His church that we might be accountable to one another and Him. You need women in your life who know they have the freedom to pull you aside and say… “Honey, I have noticed…”

However, the focus of this Thirty-three Day Challenge remains sexual and emotional integrity. As I watch our nation crumble in moral decay, and as I see that decay alive and well and working in our churches, I am beyond saddened. A little piece of my heart breaks every time a marriage fails because of emotional and sexual compromise.  A little piece of my heart breaks every time I hear of the youth group couple that is sexually active. A little piece of my heart breaks every time I hear of the youth group boy that has playboy’s under his bed and him and half the other youth group guys head off to Hooter’s for some wings. A little piece of my heart breaks when I hear what movies the girls in the church are watching or what music they are listening to or what books they are reading…

I have to confess, that my own personal litmus as to whether or not I think you need Jesus is “where are you sexually?” This is my plumb line. This is where I will begin my fruit inspection as to whether or not you are a genuine sincere believer, especially if you tell me you are called to the ministry or are already in the ministry.

When I was first wholly surrendered I thought everyone was like me. If they claimed to be a Christian and yet had sex outside of marriage then I, with all my heart, thought they were as deceived as I was and really were not saved.

Now I have learned to extend grace in this area and I now know that yes, someone can be a Christian, can be really saved, and struggling in this area. So I have learned to not doubt their salvation so easily, but here’s the thing… they still need Jesus or at least they still need more of Jesus. They still need TRUTH.

Which is why as much as it breaks my heart to see those who compromise their integrity… it breaks my heart even more and makes it fall with a thud to a floor, when I hear those who profess to be Christians call someone else a whore, a slut, a fag… just because they have decided that what “they” are doing is worse than what they are doing.

All it takes is one walk down the halls to hear it.

All it takes is five minutes in the break room to hear it.

All it takes is one “prayer” meeting to hear it.

And as the targets of the judgments and gossip hear it… their invisible walls of self-protection get higher, thicker, and harder. God’s truth is heart-blocked by our gossip and harsh judgments.

Heart-blocking is Satan’s job… that is his work.

Who are you working for? 

So- as we who call ourselves Christians,

we biblical women who are learning to feast on God’s Word daily,

we sinful women who have fallen but are being restored and perfected by the love of our Savior,

we women who want with all our hearts to do all we can to keep our daughters and the other young women in our lives from making the insane mistake of believing the lies of Satan instead of the truth of God… let us be real.

Let us not tell sister-so-and-so about Betty-Jo’s affair, let us go to Betty-Jo and pull Betty-Jo aside and offer her our sincere help in bringing her before the throne of grace. Let us not joke in the break room about how Floozy-Suzie wore those clothes into work yesterday, wonder who she went home with after the office party last night… let us instead go to Floozy-Suzie one-on-one and tell her about real Love. She may not know it exists. Let us not join in our daughters conversation of condemnation about the new lesbian couple in school, let us instead teach her how to share the gospel and love them without getting caught up in the sin themselves…

Don’t get me wrong… I know Jezebel is out there.

 But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel,

who calls herself a prophetess,

and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray

so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. 

I gave her time to repent,

and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

Revelation 2:20-21

…but I will let God take care of her, I will just offer everyone grace and mercy as freely as He offered it to me and at the same time I will be careful not to fall into temptation in the process…

 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass,

you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness;

each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 

Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:1-2

That is our end goal of this challenge. To become women of emotional and sexual integrity who are strong enough by and through His grace to be used by Him in our own weaknesses to reach out to those that God has allowed to cross our path and show them the Way of Peace.

Are you still with me????

Need A Drink?

 

Therefore the people quarreled with Moses

and said, ‘Give us water that we may drink.’

And Moses said to them,

‘Why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you test the LORD?’

Exodus 17:2

 

Here we are again.

Let us recall that it has been only about three months since the children of Israel left Egypt. They have seen many wonders by the hand of their God. They have seen Him turn bitter water sweet and rain manna and quail from the sky, yet still they doubt Him.

Here they come to their camp and they have no water. They could have looked up to their God and praised Him for being a God who could deliver them from Egypt,

                                                                     could split the Red Sea,

                                                                                      could rain manna and quail

                                                                                                           and could turn bitter water sweet.

They could have remembered all this and praised Him and sought Him in hopeful expectation that He would provide for them once again, but no, they didn’t. Instead they turn to Moses and grumble and complain.

They viciously turn on Moses and accuse him of setting them up to die. They always refer back to Egypt. I have to wonder how frustrated God must get with us sometimes. Why is it that when difficult times come in our walk with God we somehow think that our life before Christ was better? What a work God has before Him when He chooses to redeem us.

It is easy to bring us out of Egypt; the hard part is getting Egypt out of us. This is something that only God can do. We have not the strength or wisdom.

Now Moses has no where to go, but to his God. He seeks God’s help and God provides. God does not ask Moses to come alone. He tells him to bring the elders of Israel with him. I believe God is trying to train up these men, He is trying to teach them who He is. God wants the people to see that He is reliable, He is all-powerful, and He is their very present help in time of trouble (Psalm 46:1).

Before we get to critical of the children of Israel let us remember that these people had been in bondage for 400 years. They had been surrounded with idol worship and false deities. God knew this and He was patient with them. I am so thankful for His patience.

God tells Moses to go to the rock and strike it and out of this rock would flow water for the children of Israel. In 1 Corinthians 10:4 we are told that this rock was Christ. Oh precious one have you drank from the rock of Christ?

For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren,

that our fathers were all under the cloud

and all passed through the sea; 

and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

 and all ate the same spiritual food;

and all drank the same spiritual drink,

for they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them;

and the rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

Oh Father,

Thank You for Your patience. I know that when You brought me out of Egypt, out of the world, I was a mess. I know that I grumbled and complained and even doubted You, but You have been patient with me. You keep showing me Your might. You keep showing me Your power. You keep reminding me that You are indeed reliable. You have brought me water from the rock many times. You have never failed me. Please God, keep working Egypt out of me. 

My Jesus, it is in Your name I pray,

Amen

 

Accountability

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We are one day away from the ten day stretch to finish the race of this thirty-three day challenge. We have spent the past three weeks weeding through deception. I hope that these past few weeks have been an opportunity to pull up some if not all of the lies that had been growing and thriving inside of you by their root. I hope that it has been a time of blind eyes being opened and a time of oh’s, that’s why’s, and now I get it’s. I also hope it has been a time of training. A time of learning the right tools to keep you from falling into the snare of the enemy of our souls.

If this has been a time like that, and you have experienced freedom and you want to stay free, but you are done lying to yourself and you know you can’t do this on your own, then what you need at the very least is an accountability partner.

If you need more help… go get it. There are churches all over your area with Christian counselors who would love to be there for you and would love to be allowed to be used by God to help restore your soul.

In light of that, our focus today is accountability partners.

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 Day Twenty-Three 

Do you want to be able to be able to say no to worldly passions?

To live a self-controlled, upright and godly life?

To be purified as God’s very own?

To be eager to do what is good?

 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 

instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires

and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 

looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory

of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 

who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed,

and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,

zealous for good deeds.

Titus 2:11-14

Well there you go…

The answer is GRACE 🙂

So many today think that grace is just the “Oh that’s okay… I understand… I hate the sin… but I love the sinner.” But the problem is… most of the time we really don’t hate the sin.

Let me ask you?

Do you hate spiders?

spider

What would you want someone to do if they saw a spider crawling up your back and into your hair?

Let’s say that unknown to you a spider is crawling up you back. You are just walking along in the mall lost in your own little world and then out of no where some person jumps on you and grabs you by the hair and almost knocks you out trying to get to that spider and then after the dust is settled and you, still clueless about the spider, are about ready to KILL the person for jumping on you… and then… They turn around in desperation and show the dead brown lacrose spider that was about to crawl in your ear.

Would you hit them out of anger for hurting you in the process of trying to get to that spider or would you hug them and say “oh! thank you! thank you!” ?

Now let me ask you again…

Do you hate sin?

Grace is the gateway to faith and faith is the way of salvation… Grace is power and strength and might, it is not weak and wishy-washy. Remember that it was the grace of God that put Christ on that cross. He loved the sinner so much that He showed us how much He hated the sin by the stripes on His Son… this is what it took, but God never once stopped loving His Son.

So before you go to hating someone who has clearly pointed out sin in your life…even in a not so nice way or “Christian” way… first ask yourself and ask God… are they right?

Getting the poisonous spiders out of our hair by a stranger or friend who is not going to be one of those who just stands by and watches without helping or warning, may not be fun or comfortable it might be flat-out painful… but at least they didn’t choose to sit back and watch… and then report the news after your destruction…

“well I knew it was coming, I sat right over there and watched that spider crawl right up her britches leg and up her back and that sucker headed right to her ear and then, wham, it bit her! Sure hate that it happened, but you know I ain’t one to get in someone else’s business…” 

Let me ask you again?

Do you hate sin?

If the answer is yes, you need an accountability partner/partners. You need godly women in your life that you know are not afraid to get the spider out of your hair even if their methods end up shocking you or even hurting you.

Perhaps it will be a friend or a sister, a teacher, a counselor, or a mentor. While you may be tempted to look for someone who can sympathize with you, you may have more long-term success with someone who isn’t struggling herself or who has already overcome such a struggle. Hitching two weak oxen together to plow a field is not nearly as effective as hitching a weak ox with a strong ox.

~ Shannon Ethridge

When you are praying about an accountability partner you do not want someone who is in the same boat you are. Yes, it is fine to have those women,we need those women, but those ladies are your “support group” not your “accountability partners”. The support group is there to help you realize you are not alone, but if this is your only source of help, then you might just find yourself surrounded with people that only say,

“Oh girl, I know, I am right there with you, no matter what I try I just keep on falling

Yet they never say,

“NO girl, I KNOW, you don’t have to stay here, you are stronger than that and by all means Christ in you is stronger than that, now get up on your feet and let’s go”  

See the difference?

When you have a mentor who can show you how to thrive on a diet of humility, you may discover a healing change in your appetite. Remember we can not sin and win. If there is sexual or emotional sin in your life, you must starve it to death. You can’t just “trim it down” or it will just grow right back, even larger than before. Sin must be cut out completely. 

Your boasting is not good.

Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?

 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump,

just as you are in fact unleavened.

For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

1 Corinthians 5:6-7

So don’t boast about how you trimmed out some of the stuff that was causing you to fall and causing you to grieve the heart of God, when you have in full awareness chosen to hang on to the sins you “like” to much to stop…

Admit to God that you “like” this one… and get to work with that mentor, that accountability partner, get on your face before your God and ask Him to help you hate it.

He who tends the fig tree will eat its fruit,
And he who cares for his master will be honored.

Proverbs 27:18

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 Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. 

Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it

and found nothing on it except leaves only;

and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.”

And at once the fig tree withered.

Seeing this, the disciples were amazed and asked,

“How did the fig tree wither all at once?” 

And Jesus answered and said to them,

“Truly I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt,

you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,

but even if you say to this mountain,

‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. 

And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”

Matthew 21:20-22

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As they were passing by in the morning,

they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up. 

Being reminded, Peter said to Him,

“Rabbi, look, the fig tree which You cursed has withered.” 

And Jesus answered saying to them, “Have faith in God.

Mark 11:20-22

Here’s the bottom line… if you tend to the fig tree (sin) then you will eat it’s fruit… but if you care for your master (Jesus) then you will be honored. When you stop tending to the fig tree it will stop bearing fruit and then you will realize this fig tree was worthless all along and you can curse it and then God will destroy it from the roots up… and as you walk by faith in your God and His Christ, it will never bear fruit in you again.

Who/what are you going to choose to care for?

It’s up to you… as Jesus said… Have faith in God, and whatever you curse will be cursed.

Trust, me you can do this. Christ came that you might have life and victory.

You were born again for this!

Fear Not

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Fear…

Today’s focus is fear.

This is something that God has finally gotten through to me on… If fear is controlling me then His Spirit is not.

I finally realized that at the root of most of my stupid choices, at the root of most of the sin in my life, as a lost woman and as a redeemed child of God, was fear. Fear of being left out, fear of being not wanted, fear of being hurt, fear of being afraid, fear of people knowing, fear of disappointing people, fear of letting people know I was afraid… crazy, stupid, fear.

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Day Twenty-Two 

As many times as God proclaimed “Fear not…” it is obvious that fear is a major hindrance to the Christian life. Why is it such a hindrance? Because fear is the opposite of faith. When we focus on our fear rather than having faith in God to deliver us from evil, we are much more likely to lose the battle for sexual and emotional integrity. How can we focus on what we know God will do when we think we are doomed? Such lack of faith says to God, “Even though you’ve carried me this far, you are probably going to fail me now, aren’t you?”

~ Shannon Ethridge

Sometimes we can be in such hurt that the only escape we see is through sin… and that is because we are looking through our eyes and not God’s.

Sometimes we can be in such hurt that the only thing we can think about is relief, even if it is for only a moment, and well sin is usually easily available, quick to get to, and yes, sin’s relief will last for a moment… but only a moment… and then it comes crashing down and it brings an even heavier hurt… that you, once again, reach to sin to numb.

We choose moments over eternity.

God has offered us eternal freedom,

but most often we instead choose the short leash of sin’s chains.

Because it is quick, it helps at the time, and we, in our eyes, either actually think it might work or see no other possibility.

How many women compromise their integrity and do what they know in the depth of their being is against God and His truth because they fear “he” will leave them if they don’t. We do not see that we are choosing the approval of man over the approval of our Creator God.

How many women cross the line, and then they draw a new line. Then they cross that line, so they draw still another line, then another line, and another… because they fear not being wanted or they fear the repercussions of standing firm on their “no”?

How many women stay in an absolutely horrible relationship and fight to the death for it… and this person has not even loved them enough to make them his through the covenant of marriage… yet they fight to keep him… even though he destroys their confidence, destroys their strength, destroys their integrity, stomps on their heart, and is cruel to them (and possibly even their children), yet they stay because they “love” him.?

This is not love… this is fear.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear,

because fear involves punishment,

and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

1 John 4:18

My seven year old daughter was riding with me the other day and it was just the two of us and she asked, “Momma, how will I know the man that God wants me to marry?” (Yes ladies at seven years old our daughters already are wondering about Mr Right… so define him to her now… before the Disney Channel and the little boys at school try to tell her who he is supposed to be)

I shared with her that she would know the man that God had chosen for her by looking for three main things:

1) He loved God more than he loved her

2) He was willing to give up his own life, his dreams, his toys, his pursuits, in order to make her his own, if that was what it took.

3) He will meet your Daddy’s approval. She could trust her Daddy’s judgment on the man. If her daddy did not approve, then he knew this man would not love her and care for her the way he was supposed to.

I told her if she set this as her standard… then she would know “the one” when God brought him into her life and it was time for her to marry him.

Let me ask you… are you currently in a “dating relationship” that doesn’t meet the above standards?

If so… why?

If you do not have an earthly father…

does your Heavenly Father approve of this relationship?

Is it one that honors Him?

Have you even asked Him about His thoughts on this relationship?

My ten year old daughter asked me one day “Momma, how do I know when God is talking to me and answering me when I pray and ask Him a question?

(Yes, ladies, your ten year olds are seeking answers and direction from God, they have real hurts, real struggles, real issues, if we can teach them how to go before the throne of grace of now and seek help in their time of need… wow, that’s all I am going to say)

I shared with her that when she was seeking God’s will, when she was seeking direction, she needed to talk to Him with her Bible open. Have a conversation with Him as she turned and scanned the pages… most often He will answer and give guidance through His Word.  Sometimes God would also send another Christian to her to let her know what she needed to do. If she was really looking for God to answer and was going to do whatever He said… then she would know that it was Him.

Today, ask God to show you where fear is controlling you and not faith.

He will.

I don’t know about you, but I hate being afraid. I don’t watch scary movies because I believe they are another tool of the enemy to numb our sensitivity to our fears and they glorify hell and not my God. I don’t like the knot that fear puts in my stomach or the pounding that it puts in my ears and the thoughts that come with it… I don’t like it at all.

So many times we make bad choices because of our fear of the future. We don’t know what will happen or what we will do if we leave… if we walk away from this that we know… so we stay… even if all we experience is pain.

We don’t know where this other way leads so we keep to this path that we know even though we always end up in the same place…

God has called us out… yet we stay… paralyzed by our fear that He just might not be for real… He just might fail us… after all “look at all I have done… how could He actually and really want me and have good planned out for me… how could God actually use me?”  

Jesus opened your prison door. It’s up to you to walk out! How do you do this? By forgiving every person who has ever brought you pain, including yourself. If God does not despise you for the ways you have tried to fill the void in your heart, neither should you despise yourself.

~ Shannon Ethridge

Sometimes fear causes us to run away when we need to stay and fight.

In marriages… how many times do we walk away because we don’t see how God could ever fix the mess? How many times do we abandon the hope of healing because we fear one more day of living in our current circumstances and we, with our eyes, can not see any possible hope of change?

Please I beg you; I implore you, do not walk away unless you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is releasing you. Yes, if abuse is involved you most likely need a time of separation for healing to take place, sometimes leaving is what is needed for a wake-up call, but give your marriage time to heal before you call it quits.

Give your spouse time and opportunity for God’s redemptive work to take place in their life.

Don’t let fear make you stay, and don’t let fear make you go, be still and know that He is God and trust and obey Him not fear.

He said, “ I heard the sound of You in the garden,

and I was afraid because I was naked;

so I hid myself.”

Genesis 3:10

We have to decide that we won’t let fear control us any longer. We have to decide that we had rather be controlled by the Spirit of God. Then we have to obey His Word… and trust Him with the consequences. We have to not hide ourselves from Him, we have to come out and trust in His love.

The best place to start is admitting that you are afraid.

Ask God to show you exactly what you are afraid of, then confess this to God and ask Him to forgive you for letting fear lead you instead of Him.

You have to confess fear, it is sin, and there is only One who has the power to give us victory over sin…

…Christ in you, the hope of glory

Colossians 1:27

It is confession that cleanses and heals and restores the soul.

It is laying our hearts open and bare before the Lord.

It is trusting in the character and name of our God and not in our circumstances that brings us victory.

It is in surrender to His will and His way and walking in obedience to His Word that we find peace… real, lasting, eternal peace.

Today your challenge is to raise your white flag of surrender because…

 …the white flag you will be waving as you surrender your past pain, present pride, and future fear is not a symbol of defeat. It is a symbol of victory, for it represents purity. You will be washed clean of all compromise as you allow God to transform you- heart and mind- into a woman who forgives her debtors, walks in humility, and faces the future with confidence in her Creator and Sustainer. White is your color, girlfriend! Post it proudly and enjoy the peacefulness and fulfillment of sweet surrender to the Savior.

~ Shannon Ethridge

Oh precious one, choose to surrender to, and to exalt your God… not your fear.

 

The ADD In Me

So I am a little scatter brained…  my husband calls me his “ADD wife”.

I have a tendency to go into a room and forget what I came in there for… or to enter a room to do one thing and get distracted by another thing and then never even do what I came in there for…

My worst one here lately has been the dryer.

I have a tendency to transfer the wet clothes to the dryer and then get distracted and forget to start the dryer.

Then we will go to get clothes out of the dryer

 and there they sit

still all nice and wet…

clean… but soaking wet.

So my husband decided to help me remember to start the dryer… since I did this twice this past week.

 

Yeh a post-it note stuck on the wall in the laundry room…

Just in case you can’t read that it says:

Dryer Favorite Band

Rolling Stones

Favorite Song

“START ME UP!”

 

He’s so silly 🙂

Like that is gonna help, lol!

Surrendering

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Are your hands up in the air yet?

Are you beginning to surrender to Him and His oh so great love for you?

We are going deep again today… get ready.

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Day Twenty-One 

In the book Every Woman’s Battle, Shannon shares a story about a woman who was going through a struggle. The woman shared that she was no longer acting out sexually but was still struggling. She shared how she couldn’t get along with her roommates and how she hated the way she looked in the mirror, how she couldn’t sleep. How she was anxious, stressed, and angry but didn’t know why. She shared how she had been sick for months with one thing or another but the doctors could not find anything wrong… and now she was having suicidal thoughts again.

Shannon spoke with her and asked her to dig deep to see if there was anyone she was harboring unforgiveness toward, but the woman was sure she had forgiven everyone who had ever hurt her. Then Shannon said it hit her. She asked the woman if she had ever forgiven herself… to which the woman burst into tears and cried “No, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to.”   

Regardless of its source, we must surrender the pain from our past in order to stand strong in the battle for sexual and emotional integrity. ~ Shannon Ethridge

That surrender also includes the pain that comes from realizing our own choices have hurt us and no one else… Are you going through what this young woman was going through? Are you walking in self-unforgiveness? 

These are some facts that Shannon shares concerning unforgiveness. According to the January 1999 issue of Prevention magazine unforgiveness causes negative feelings about people in general, failure to recognize and enjoy potentially good relationships, and the following psychological and physical problems:

*chronic anxiety

*serious depression

*general mistrust

*poor self-esteem

*anger and hatred

*resentment

*rush of hormones exhilarate heart rate

*limits or shuts down immune system

*chances of heart attack increase by 500 percent

*risk of high blood pressure and cholesterol

*enhances risk of blood clots and cancer

*a host of other chronic issues

Shannon shares how she herself eventually found God’s grace for every person who had ever left her, let her down, or offended her. But forgiving herself for her own poor choices seemed to require more grace than she could muster.

She shared how when she would reflect on her past choices she would think “How stupid I’ve been!” “I should have known better!”, “No one could possibly love me if they knew all that I have done”

I know what she is talking about… I have been there with those same very thoughts. These thoughts leave you with a constant need of approval. You need someone else to tell you that they love you, to affirm your very reason for taking up oxygen on this earth. Because you hate yourself so much you are almost shocked when someone notices you… and you become an easy target for those who would take advantage of your weakness… you become a weak woman.

 For among them are those who enter into households

and captivate weak women weighed down with sins,

led on by various impulses, 

always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

 2 Timothy  3:6-7

You keep learning and learning but you never come to the truth. To the truth that God has forgiven you… so you ARE forgiven. God loves you… so you ARE loved. God says you are beautiful… so you ARE beautiful. You can’t grasp that God’s grace IS sufficient for you. So you fall prey into the hands of those who will destroy households and the cycle continues…

Ladies, listen closely…

When you believe that you are unable to forgive yourself then you are saying what Jesus did was not enough. You are calling the blood of your Christ insufficient. You also are saying that your own forgiveness of you is more important than God’s and requires more grace than what God is able to give.

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one,

much more those who receive the abundance of grace

and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.  

Romans 5:17

Satan uses unforgiveness as a tool to bring about our destruction. Forgiveness foils Satan’s plots to stunt our spiritual growth.

Now today’s challenge is to look deep into your own heart and see if you need to begin the process of forgiveness… either toward yourself… or someone else.

I had student once say that she knew she needed to forgive. She knew she was supposed to, but no one had told her HOW. She wanted to be obedient. She wanted to forgive, but she did not know how to do it… so here are some steps in case you have this same question.

*Acknowledge your anger and hurt. It is very real and God knows it is there.

*Realize that holding on to this pain only holds you back

*Consciously let go of any need for revenge

*Consider the source of your pain: Hurting people hurt other people. Put yourself in there shoes.

*Pray earnestly for those who hurt you, asking God to heal the wounds that cause them to wound others.

*Pray that your wounds do not cause you to do the same to others.

As you walk through these steps of surrendering your unforgiveness so that you might be healed of your past emotional pain… you must also work on surrendering your pride.

Pride assumes several things:

*I deserve what I deserve

*My needs should be met at any cost

*Life is all about me and my pleasure

*The rules apply to everyone else but not me

*I’m above the consequences

Here’s the thing about pride… you could take that above list and use it as your excuses to commit sin or you could also take that list and use it as excuses to NOT accept the forgiveness of Christ for your past committed sins or His grace in your struggles in your new redeemed life.

We must surrender our unforgiveness and our pride if we are to be free from our past emotional pain. If we are to be able to walk into our future with the freedom that is ours in Christ then we must let go of all this junk that is wrapping us up around our ankles.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us,

let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin

 which so easily entangles us,

and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith,

who for the joy set before Him endured the cross,

despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  

Hebrews 12:1-2

Honey, you are loved!

You are forgiven.

You are accepted.

You are secure.

You are significant.

Trust me… His grace is enough.

His blood is enough… it is sufficient for your forgiveness and for your ability to forgive others.

 

 

Names of God: Jehovah-shammah

While preparing to teach on this name of God I was overcome… I couldn’t make it through the preparation without crying. I would have to say that preparing this lesson brought me into a new appreciation for the mercy of our God. This name of God will be one that is added to those etched in my memory from being called on often, the name Jehovah-shammah.

We discover the meaning of Jehovah-shammah in Ezekiel 48:35

 The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about;

and the name of the city from that day shall be,

‘The LORD is there.’”

Yes, Jehovah-shammah, this name of God means the LORD is there.

Now as we see this name, let’s think about how the Lord has showed Israel that He is there. When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt… He was there.

 Then they set out from Succoth and camped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. 

The LORD was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way,

and in a pillar of fire by night to give them light,

that they might travel by day and by night. 

He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day,

nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people. 

Exodus 13:20-22

When it was time to enter the promise land the LORD was there. At this time the children of Israel had been in the wilderness a long time. Moses had died and it would be Joshua who lead the children into the land. Yet God assured Joshua that He would be with Him just as He had been with Moses… the LORD was there.

No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life.

Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you;

I will not fail you or forsake you.

Joshua 1:5

Even all the surrounding nations understood that the LORD was there with Israel. After they had been in the land and they came under attack Israel marched into the battle with the ark of the covenant and their enemy trembled in fear… because the LORD was there.

The Philistines were afraid, for they said,

“God has come into the camp.”

And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.

1 Samuel 4:7

After the temple was built and Solomon came and bowed down before the Lord and sought Him in prayer, the glory of the Lord came and filled the temple and all the children of Israel knew that the LORD was there.  

Now when Solomon had finished praying,

fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices,

and the glory of the LORD filled the house.

The priests could not enter into the house of the LORD

because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house. 

All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down

and the glory of the LORD upon the house,

bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground,

and they worshiped and gave praise to the LORD, saying,

“Truly He is good, truly His lovingkindness is everlasting.”

2 Chronicles 7:1-3

It was clear to all that the LORD was there. But sadly… even when they knew Jehovah-shammah… they chose to ignore Him, to defy Him, to blaspheme His name. In Ezekiel 8 we read about the time that the Spirit of God reached down and yanked Ezekiel up and took him to show him all the evil that was going on behind closed doors… in the temple. 

He stretched out the form of a hand and caught me by a lock of my head;

and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven

and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem…

Ezekiel 8:3

It was horrible. The elders of Israel had carved images they were bowing down to, they were committing abominations… the women were weeping for false Gods, outside the temple even more abominations were being committed. God was moved to jealousy. He was angry. He was hurt. He was not going to take any more.

So we read further in Ezekiel and we see how the glory of the Lord that fell in 2 Chronicles and filled the temple and the Holy of Holies moved to the threshold of the temple.

Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered,

and the cloud filled the inner court. 

Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple,

and the temple was filled with the cloud

and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.

Ezekiel 10:3-4

God was going to share His glory with these idols. So he begins to slowly move. He doesn’t get mad and just jet away… He just moves to see if the people will look for Him… but He is not missed… He is not searched for… so He moves further still.

Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the temple

and stood over the cherubim. When the cherubim departed,

they lifted their wings and rose up from the earth in my sight with the wheels beside them;

and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the LORD’S house,

and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them.

Ezekiel 10:18-19

Can you see how much God loved the people? He did not want to leave them. He just wanted them to return His love… but they had turned to idols… to carved images… to sin. They did not consider Him or His holiness or His heart. They just went on to whatever they saw fit in their own eyes and went through the motions with God but their hearts were far from Him. God doesn’t want our motions… He wants our hearts. So God leaves the temple and He leaves the city. He will not be second.

Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them,

and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. 

The glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city

and stood over the mountain which is east of the city.

Ezekiel 11:22-23

Can you imagine the crushing blow this vision must have brought upon the eyes of Ezekiel? As he watched his God leave the temple and the temple… knowing that He was just in His leaving because God had shown him what all was going on in the temple and in the city… the abominations were just more than God was going to put up with… so He leaves. 

Precious one let me ask you… is God there in your life. Are you aware of His presence in your life? Are you fully His or are you trying to fill your temple with carved images and idols? What is going on in the inside depths of your temple? Is God there? He wants to be… but He will not share you with idols and images. He will back away… but He will never back to far away to not hear you when you cry out to Him because you finally have come to your senses and realized that He is all you need and all you will ever want.

Notice that God does not leave Ezekiel with this vision of Him leaving…

He closes the book of Ezekiel with Ezekiel 48:5

The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about;

and the name of the city from that day shall be,

‘The LORD is there.’”

God was not done with Israel.

God was not done with Jerusalem.

He would return… but He would come in a different way.

More on that when we discuss our next name of God 🙂