Tag: align

the magnetic pull of focus

Karla Lees

One day spent in Your house, this beautiful place of worship, beats thousands spent on Greek island beaches. I’d rather scrub floors in the house of my God than be honored as a guest in the palace of sin. Psalm 84:10 MSG

I love to worship. It is the one thing I like best after spending time in His Presence, and diving into the Word.

When I get really busy, I tend to rush through my day beginning with a quick devotional instead an unrushed time at His feet, focusing solely on Him.

This quick fix mentality opens me up to selfishness, hurry, and distraction. Spend too long with that crew, and the enemy begins to make his play.

When sin comes knocking, sometimes what looks good in the moment can appear better than what we know to be true. For the enemy was an angel of light, and very beautiful in the eye of the beholder. (2 Corinthians 11:12-15)

However, beauty is only skin deep, and the truth about all things will be revealed the more time we invest in it. A handsome man or gorgeous woman isn’t always so lovely once you get to know them when their personality becomes revealed.

Sin is the same.

Just because it looks good, doesn’t mean it is good.

If it sounds too good to be true, it may just be a lie.

Only God IS good, and so are His ways.

Nothing can ever beats being His, and being with Him.

●How we live magnifies our priorities.

●What we love reveals the desires of our hearts.

●What we focus on attracts more of the same….

If we zoom in on our lack or selfish desires, our mood will become increasingly dissatisfied and depressed. If we seek Him first and His Kingdom, its standards will be reflected within us.

What most appeals to His Beloved should be the things which most appeal to Him: community, truth, holiness, being with the one you love.

Lord, may we choose to regularly worship You, and keep our gaze focused on what is good, true, wholesome and pure. (Philippians 4:8) Be the fixed point of our devotion, and ever clarify our focus so we can see you better. Let Your character magnify our vision, and replicate itself within us.

May the gift of Presence be the one we unwrap the most, and may our heart align up with Your passions the more we spend time with You, and focus on what will last a lifetime instead of a fleeting moment.

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slave no more

Karla Lees

So He brought His people out with joy, His chosen ones with singing.
Psalm 105:43 ESV

When we are in the bottom of the pit, we cannot yet see the joy which awaits ahead.

The slave within us cannot hope for the freedom it feels is beyond its grasp.

He knows.

God’s Word is full of the overflow of His heart for His people:
freedom
love
blessing
hope
future
mercy
grace
and yes, even joy.

If you have been a slave for longer than you can recollect, the concept of joy can be a startling one to accept.

Freedom can take some getting used to, not because you don’t see it. but because you haven’t yet accepted it is yours.

The Israelites spent 40 years of wandering around in the desert, when the route God had had for them was only months long. Because they couldn’t escape their mindset of slavery.

Slavery brings along depression, whining, complaining and rebellion when it lingers & takes hold.

Unless you believe all of you is set free, including your mind, you may return to the bonds God has set you free from.

For the battle is won on two fronts:
by His actions, and our acceptance.

God has completely set us free through the one time action of Jesus dying on the cross.

The legal bonds of slavery have been obliterated for all eternity.

Hallelujah!

The mental bond to slavery is the one which we need to break, through our acceptance of His act of freedom- regardless of whether we can see or not.

It was finished – His action.
It is finished – our acceptance.

When we agree with His freedom, and align ourselves to show our acceptance…we remove the last tether to the chains God has already broken off of us.

When that happens, we go out with joy, knowing we are His beloved, singing Him the songs of love welling up within us, filling the expanse where freedom now reigns.

The battle is ultimately won through Jesus, but conquered in each of us when we accept the truth…

He is the freedom we seek,
we are the vessels He longs to remake & restore.

It’s our choice whether we allow Him to finish the freedom for which He paid the ultimate price.

Our minds need to choose His freedom, agree with our Maker, and allow the fullness of all He has for us to fall upon us.

When we are overflowing with love, we long to be with the one we adore.  We long to serve them, because they show us their care & devotion in all they do as well.

We are no longer slaves.

He has served us first with the offering of freedom, hope & a future, and awaits for us to take and eat, sip from the cup, and begin to live free.

If the slave mentality is lingering because you have severed that last tie, the one trying to lure you back in….

Begin to pray.
Worship Him.
Call on His Name.
Proclaim the truth, in Jesus you are no longer a slave.
Speak out your true identity, free one in Christ. Chosen, Beloved.
Cut the cord of the lie tying you to the former things which are no more in His Kingdom.
You are His.
Sing out your thanks as you soak in His Words of hope, truth, love.
Shout your freedom from the rooftops at full lung capacity.
Go and walk in joy as He leads you out, once and for all, into the Promised Land in His Presence.

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God-feeling

Karla Lees

I just had a God-feeling. I try to pay attention to those.

#TheMercifulScar

Hearing His voice doesn’t always look like one would expect.

Take Moses for example.

Moses, the one who saw God’s face, and was visibly changed so all the Israelites knew it was him?
His father in law Jethro had to tell him to slow down and share the work load. You would think Moses might have heard that directly… but like us, maybe Moses was too wrapped up in his work to hear it.

Take Paul.

Well raised, gifted with education and position, Jesus had to get his attention by blinding him before Paul could hear His voice.

Take Joseph.

God spoke to Him through an angel in a dream, telling him his wife was expecting the Messiah, and then a second dream warning Joseph to take his family and make a run for it into Egypt.

A donkey speaking to Balaam.

A hurting woman drawing water from a well.

Coins in a fish, enough to pay Peter’s taxes.

Three rooster calls worth of denials, but I will build My church on you, Peter.

There have been many times where I have been surprised by the source God uses to speak to me.

A timely bible verse as I read the Word.
A song coming on the radio that exactly addresses a concern or is an answer to prayer.
A letter in the mail, email in my inbox and tweet of encouragement.

But sometimes it is a bible verse that comes to mind in the heat of the moment, when Holy Spirit speaks to us.

Jesus did so when the enemy tempted Him in the desert. He responded to each of the three temptations with the Word- even though He was fully God & fully man all in one.

If Jesus relied on His relationship with the Father & Holy Spirit for the right direction, help to stay the path ahead, words of knowledge & the words to speak, we can too.

Listen for His voice. As you ask Him to speak to you, don’t be surprised by the three results:

1. God will speak to you. He answers all who call our to Him, and ask for wisdom.

2. God’s reply may not look or sound like how you think His answer will come. Keep your eyes and ears open.

3. The counterfeit will try to sneak in past your defenses. If it doesn’t agree with the Word, it isn’t from Him. Meaning if you get a sense of doubt for any reason, wait and ask God to reveal whether it’s from him or not. One good indicator is its fruit. Like the snake in the garden, be wary of what sounds to good to be true if you have no sense of God in it.

Tuning in to God is a process. The dial may slip from time to time as you seek the right frequency, but as He is constant, you will be able to hear Him as He speaks to you. when you hear or sense a prompting, don’t be fearful. Be open for His answers to come, but cautious in confirming it by lining it up against the truth we do have, the Word, and Holy Spirit.
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A line…

Karla Lees

We spend a great deal of time in a line.

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Image from:
http://www.640toronto.com/files/2014/07/lineUp1.jpg

At the grocery store, bank, registration, movie theater or fast food place… like sheep, we automatically join the cue and wait our turn.

In Old Testament days, this even happened in the temple: lining up to enter, especially on holy days.
Lining up to buy your offering.
Lining up for your turn to offer your offering.
And if you were a priest, you lined up to receive the offering, burn the offering, or receive your assigned portion of the offering.

God’s presence resided in the Holy of Holies, and was only approached once a year by special choosing. 

But God wanted more.

And then there was a line written in the sands of time for all to see, spelling out the Name above All Names, Jesus.

The Word became human, and walked among us.

God with us.

Jesus.

And turned traditional lines on their heads.

People didn’t just line up to see Jesus, like well behaved sheep.
but flocked, sometimes to the point where Jesus was overwhelmed with compassion for the crowds. (Matthew 9:39, Mark 6:34, Matthew 14:14) They could sense He loved His life in a way they had never imagined possible.

With the Living Word came a new way to live.

Align.

Align ourselves with His Kingdom.
Follow His ways, His leading.
Love with His heart.
Offer His hope.
All in.

When we accept Jesus for who He is, Holy Spirit moves in and takes up permanence residence inside of us. The Presence of God moves into the temple again.

When we try to do things in our own strength, drawn back into the old way of living mindset, or in sheep talk, baaaaaaaaad ways 🙂 we need to realign ourselves with God:

Come back into His Presence, and worship Him.

Lay our burdens down at His feet.

Speak out our wrongdoings, and ask Him to cleanse us again.

Invite Him to speak to us anew, and ask Him to teach us to hear His voice loudly, over the other voices vying for our attention.

Tired of lining up?

I am.

Jesus erased the barriers in worship keeping us from God directly.

You can go to Him at any time now.

No lining up, just aligning required.

Aligning with the God of everything will change your life, both here on earth and eternity to come.

It will be costly, aligning yourself up to a Holy God, for you will see how much you don’t line up.

His grace, mercy, and love will be waiting to minister to you through the process.

Align to His design.

The rewards will be so worth it.

For eternity.