9.05.18 Recap

Good Morning Sisters,

My heart is SO full this morning! What an incredible blessing it is to do life with you beautiful ladies each week. Last night was so very special! We celebrated our beloved sister Karen's birthday before we began our study. Karen is such a strong woman of Christ and brings so much love, compassion, wisdom and leadership to our ministry. We also were blessed to have a beautiful new lady with us last night. Penny was our food service coordinator at GRACE Christian School for many years and has just retired from that position. Her beautiful smile lights up the room and we were so thrilled to have her. For those of you who could not be with us we covered you with an abundance of grace, love and prayer. Special prayers for our sweet sister Stacy Rank who left for Asheville yesterday for her State Tennis tournament. She has 5 matches in 3 days.

We started the night with prayer, nuggets of truth and devotions. A few of the nuggets I shared last night…

*Advancing in age is not the same as getting older. The Bible says Abraham advanced in age... not grew older. All of us are advancing...we are not regressing. We are renewed in our youth... that’s a reality in the Bible if you choose to believe God for it.

*God works the night shift. God cut a Covenant with Abraham while he was sleeping. When you are sleeping you are at rest. You can take no credit for it. Ask the Lord...”While I’m sleeping Lord restore my youth, repair my cells, restore my health. Give me beloved sleep.”

God created the best miracle while Adam was sleeping. That miracle was WOMAN.

*Sometimes it takes things falling apart for better things to fall into place.

Our devotion for the week was “Peace in the Storm.”

How do you keep your joy and peace in the midst of a storm?

 Most of the things we spend our time on won’t last 50 yrs from now…much less 500 years from now. The storm clarifies what your priorities are and shows you what is valuable in your life. Maybe this is why God has recently allowed a storm to come into your life. It’s so easy for us to start sailing in the wrong direction and start focusing on the wrong things. We tend to fixate and focus on things in our lives that are not valuable. Ask someone who has just been through a major illness, tragedy or loss and they will tell you that it has made them re-evaluate their priorities and refocus on what’s truly important in their life.

The most valuable things in life are NOT things. It is our relationship with God and people that count.  So many times we love things and use people instead of loving people and using things. People very quickly see through people who are self serving. To be successful in life period you must be outwardly focused…fixated on other people’s needs and NOT your own. This is one of the primary lessons Jesus taught us while he was on this earth. He demonstrated for us first hand what it was like to live a life focused on serving other people.

It is in the storm that God clarifies our priorities. What are YOU focused on? What are YOU fixating on? This will determine if you will have peace in the storm. You can’t plan, control, predict or prevent the storms but you can choose WHO you focus on in the storm and that is your anchor Jesus Christ. It all comes down to what you’re focused on. Isaiah 26:3 says…”You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, whose thoughts are fixed on you.” You lose your peace when you trust and focus on anything but God. All of these other things can be washed away or taken away in an instant. Paul had a strange and unexplainable peace in the storm because he had the anchor of God’s priorities. Secondly, he had the anchor of God’s protection. Maybe you can’t see God in the storm clouds but He can see YOU! Don’t depend on HOW you feel during the storm.

Your feelings are fickle and they can change like the wind. As a believer God is ALWAYS with you…whether you FEEL his presence of not. It has often been said that one of God’s greatest presents is His presence! Stop praying that God be with you…start THANKING him that He is with you and that He is taking you to the other side!

We’ve taken the past two weeks to study Chapter 10 “All-Encompassing Shalom” as it is so rich in revelational truths. Shalom means “welfare”, “health, prosperity, peace.” Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood…”Go into shalom.” He was saying…”Go into peace and keep your healing.” In other words, stay healthy by not getting into worry and fear. Grace and peace go together. The grace of God makes you well and the peace of God keeps you well. God did not give you a spirit of fear. Fear is from Satan. You bring into your life what you fear. Fear opens the door for the roaring lion to devour.

The Lord bequeathed to us as our inheritance His very own health, provision and peace.  We are not trying to get His peace...His peace is already our portion. We must simply STEP into it. Jesus is our Prince of Peace. The more you know Jesus, by spending time with Him, the more His peace is infused into every fiber of your being. Since the Lord paid the price to bequeath His shalom to us, we must possess it by FAITH and not by what we feel. Our part is to BELIEVE and walk in faith not allowing ourselves to get into fear and worry. When we refuse to let our hearts be troubled the peace that is in our spirits go from our hearts into our souls and bodies. Grace gives, faith takes and peace keeps.

In a nutshell this is how God’s blessings manifest in your life:

GRACE GIVES

FAITH TAKES

PEACE KEEPS

GRACE GIVES

GRACE gives whatever you need.

GRACE is the undeserved, unmerited favor of God. Grace is not a theology or a doctrine. It is the person of Jesus Christ. EVERYTHING that we will ever need to prosper in this life has already been provided at the cross. Whatever you need right now God says “I AM”. You need healing “I am your healing”.

“But by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.” (Romans 3:24).

“For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

“Out of the fullness of His grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another.” (John 1:16)

FAITH TAKES

FAITH takes what Grace has already provided. FAITH is the substance of what we hope for and the evidence of things not seen. Faith is the only thing that pleases God. It is the currency of Heaven. We release our faith through our mouths...through speaking words that align with God’s Word. We TAKE the blessings of the finished work by SPEAKING God’s words. Say out loud…”Since my Lord Jesus paid the price to bequeath His shalom-peace to me, I’m going to possess it by faith and not by what I feel."

“The power of life and death are in your tongue.” Proverbs 18:21

“Truly I say to you, whoever say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,nd does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for you.” Mark 11:23

“You shall decree a thing and it shall be established onto you.” Job 22:28

Because our words have power we have to be intentional with what we speak. We must SPEAK what God speaks, not what we feel or see with our natural eyes.

PEACE KEEPS

Peace keeps what Grace Gives.

Jesus is the Price of Peace. Romans 16:20 says “The God of Peace will crush Satan under your feet.” The peace of God retains and keeps everything that grace has given.

Peace keeps what grace gives. Jesus told the woman with the issue of blood to “to into peace and keep her healing.”

The goal of the enemy is to steal your peace. 1 Peter 5:6-8 says that we must be sober and vigilant because the adversary the devil walks around like a lion, seeking whom he may devour. There are people he can devour and there are people he can’t. How do you become undevourable? When you are casting your cares on to Jesus. If you are full of care and worry, and your mind is always troubled, the enemy can devour you. But if you refuse to allow your heart to be troubled by casting your cares to the Lord, the enemy cannot touch you. Our heart is the gateway of our spirit. All of the shalom will do us no good if our hearts are all clogged up with worry, anxiety and fear. Our heart are the valves by which God’s peace flows out...if our hearts are troubled His peace cannot flow out.

Make a game out of it:

Each time the devil throws a care to you, you throw it to Jesus as quickly as possible. You can’t hold onto it because it’s like poison. Quickly letting it go makes you undevourable. Whenever you feel troubled say “Let not your heart be troubled.” (John 14:27).

The only responsibility you have is to take care of your HEART on the inside by not getting into worry and fear. You take care of the inside and God will take care of the outside. The chastisement for our shalom-peace fell upon Christ. The demand and requirement for the payment of our sins was exacted from Christ, so that peace might come on us (Isa 53:7). He took the brutal scourging on His body for YOU! He bore blow by blow because He was saying “Ani mi shalem” which means “I am praying the price for your shalom. I am paying the price for your well-being, your wholeness, your completeness, and your health.”  All of our sins were punished on His body. He was saying “I am paying the price for your forgiveness. I am paying the price for you to receive double honor.” He allowed Himself to be spat on and stripped of all dignity so that we could walk in His perfect shalom peace. We did not earn it...Jesus Christ paid for it. When He rose from the dead, His first words to the disciples were “Peace be with you” and He showed them His nail pierced hands...the receipts of the payment He had made (John 20:19-20). The price has been paid for YOU my friend. GRACE gives whatever you need. Faith takes what grace has already provided. PEACE keeps what grace gives.

Next week we have a special treat. Our beloved sister Karen will be teaching! As you know Karen is a General of the faith and a gifted teacher of God’s Word. We look forward to hearing what God has placed on her heart to share with us.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS…

EVENTS COMING UP:

Wed. Sept. 12th Karen will be teaching. Food and fellowship from 6:00-6:30.  Study starts at 6:30 sharp.

Wed. Oct. 10th

Bill and Cathy Alsop will be here. Bill has been with us several times and is such a powerful man of God. He has been in ministry for over 35 years teaching about the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, spiritual warfare and the power of grace-grace. Bill has ministered in tent meetings, churches, conferences, and home groups throughout the years and we are so thankful and blessed to have he and his lovely wife Cathy with us in October.

Fri. Oct. 26th  “A Night of Celebration” to launch our website and celebrate ALL that Jesus is doing through this ministry. We also want to offer people an opportunity to lock arms with us as a Partner of Hope. Monthly financial partnership is important as it helps us to teach God’s truth, heal hearts and bring hope to broken lives.

Event will be held at a beautiful model home in North Ridge Country Club (compliments of Wendy & David Schenck) from 7-00-10:00. Event planners and coordinators: Wendy Schenck, Jen Ward and Tracey Margosian. Food and drinks will be provided. Wendy and Jen will send out evites and coordinate the planning of the event. Tracey is going to lead in getting video testimonies.

Who will be invited? Everyone in our email list plus any close friends you would like to introduce our ministry to. House can comfortably hold 50-60 people. If there is a close friend you would like to invite please contact Jen or Wendy.

THANK YOU for sending in your Jesus Story!!! These stories will impact the kingdom for Christ! For those of you who have not sent them in please send them to Karen this week so we can get them on the website prior to launch.YOUR STORY MATTERS!!!

“Ani mi shalom” my beloved sisters! REST this week knowing that our Lord Jesus has paid it ALL! Go into peace and enjoy your week! Love, Sherry :-)