Our Defender

Have you ever felt like you needed to defend yourself? 

I recently had a dream where I was being yelled at by someone close to me. 

They told me I couldn't speak English or eat the correct way.

It made no sense but they were yelling at me. 

In my dream I instantly felt like I needed to defend myself.

When I tried to I had a tiny voice, it was like a mouse trying to yell at a giant.

Then I turned around and there was a woman behind me. 

A stranger but she had a powerful nature about her. 

She began to defend me and then I woke up.

When I woke up I asked the Lord what it meant and He said," I will defend you."

The woman was a symbol for Him and His defending power over me.

The Lord will defend you. 

He showed me a verse shortly after that. 

He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High

Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

Psalm 91:1

All I have to do is dwell with Him in the secret place. 

I am perfectly safe in the shadow of the Almighty.

In Isaiah 41:10 The Lord says, "Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, For I am your God.

I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you.

I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

When we are weak, in fear, or dismayed, He is STILL our God.

He strengthens us, and we will be held up with His righteous hand.

 All of these hurts, fears, and weaknesses have nothing on our God.

He pulls us into His lap and covers us in the shadow of His wings.

 I asked someone pray with me once because I was extremely hurt. 

 They began to pray for Papa to come and pull me into His lap. 

I saw Him reaching for me and pulling me up in His lap just holding me.

He was telling me He loved me. 

Just the sweet breath and heartbeat of our Father was enough to fill me with peace.

I knew everything would be okay in the shadow of His wings. 

He is our Protector, our God, our Father and,

 OUR DEFENDER.

Let Him defend you.

Revelation

"I do not pray that You should take them out of the world,

but that you should keep them from the evil one."

John 17:15

The most powerful prayer I have ever heard is in John 17.

Jesus' prayer to the Father, His intercession for us.

We are called to so many things. 

NONE of which are to "get through life."

Jesus prayed for us to STAY.

He interceded for us to be protected here and to BE HERE.

After I read John 17 I decided to read some of Revelation. 

As I read it I was amazed.

Why do we take the "end times" or Revelation and manipulate it?

God didn't write the book for us to try to guess when it was.

No, I believe that Revelation is beyond that.

That is the surface view, plus manipulation.

He didn't call us to get through life.

He didn't call us to guess when the prophecy was fulfilled.

God doesn't play guessing games.
The mystery is in Him.
He just wants us.

He desires us to be lovers of His face.

To love His people.

He called us to BE HERE. 

"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only."

Matthew 24:36

We won't know when, so why even try to figure it out?

FEAR.

Fear brings out CONTROL.

Fear of the unknown makes us want to know when the end is.

Fear of life makes us want to get through it.

Life is good if we are in control right?

If today goes how I want it then it's a good day. It's a blessed day right?

NO.

That's living in FEAR. 

Our fear and control puts a wall between us and God.

If we are in control, we haven't given God authority over our lives.

No wonder we can't see that God wants us to love Him. 

Fear is in the way.

Revelation is a PROMISE. 

It is a book of HOPE and conviction.

As I started to read I could just feel The Lord reminding me what it is there for.

It's there to give Hope. 

It's there to stir up a desire in our hearts to know our Father.

To convict us to go deeper and look into our hearts and see what The Father sees.

It is there to tell us why we are called to BE HERE. 

Be Loved.

Teach me how be be loved.

That is my prayer this morning.

It always amazes me how The Lord teaches me through my whole prayer journal then the very last sentence that I write is Holy Spirit smack down. 

Maybe it's just me, but that's what happened this morning.

It appears like a simple concept.

Being loved isn't the hard part, it's loving right?

But what does being loved look like? 

Pure undefiled love isn't repaying anything. 

God doesn't love us because He know's we will love Him back.

Actually, He loves us despite how we feel toward Him.

He loves those who never will choose Him

We love Him because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19

You cannot just love without being loved first. 
We wouldn't know love unless He loved us first.
That means we need to receive love to know it.

The other day I came to this realization that it's hard to BE LOVED.

Being loved is letting someone in your heart and allowing them to dwell there.

You sit back and receive it. Soaking all of it in.

You aren't thinking about what you can do for them. 

You aren't thinking about what is next.

It is just sitting back and letting love fall down.

When you think about what is next, or what you can do, that is serving. 

That's being Martha, when Jesus wants us to be Mary's.

By allowing yourself to be loved it brings out a deeper love inside of you.

A love that you give back subconsciously. 

Being loved overflows your cup into others around you. 

BE LOVED.

Icebreaker

Well, this really is the icebreaker. 

Before we get started you should be aware of a few things.

1. My husband is the grammar/English nazi.

2. I am not.

and 

3. This is my heart, dwelling with the Lord.  

I have been called into a time of intimacy. 

Well, that is what I thought until I found it.

I have come to realize there isn't just a time of intimacy, it's a lifestyle. 

ALL THE TIME.

Intimacy with the Lord is what He designed us for. 

I feel like a lens has been torn off my eyes.

The deeper I go with the Lord the more I come to realize how much more there is. 

Scripture I have read and memorized has so much more depth then I ever realized. 

As I was spending time with the Lord this morning I felt a tug to start a blog.

I thought, "Heck no, I can't even write in my journal and make sense."

He said, "I can."

Well, I guess that is more than enough of an answer to start one. 

I am a vessel. 

My heart is not my own. 

I just want to share the Father's heart in me. 

He wants to share His heart through me and my life. 

So, I say Yes. 

I haven't quite perfected the art of saying Yes the way Philip did in Acts 8:26-40.

He didn't ask questions, didn't pass go or collect 200 dollars. He just said Yes.

We are all growing. 

So, Let's just Dwell with the Lord together.