God Does Say "That's Enough, NO MORE!"

Jeremiah 15: 6 "You who have forsaken Me", declares the Lord, "You keep going backward so I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you: I am tired of relenting!".

There are many details of this study which have been purposefully not mentioned, here. We will be exploring those when we get to the conclusion of the broad topics.  We all know, the direction each could roll out are unending in wisdom.  We only have a few more spaces to cover, prior to excavating in one spot ;) 

Our main focus has been on finding God's intent or purpose, rather than assuming our limited knowledge is all that wise and being mislead. He promised that we could and WOULD understand this.  He also promises if we search for Him with all of our heart, mind and soul we will find Him.  Which makes sense, because if we could not find Him and His Kingdom then we would have no hope of following this verse in Matthew 6:33, 34: But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We have been looking at the grumblings of God's children, His mercy, grace, provision and protection; ultimately His faithfulness even when we are not faithful back.  We are so very 'me' sighted.  We believe that we are not supposed to be made to do without.  Most of the time God wants us to move away from things which He is attempting to sweep out of reach, but we find a bizarre sense of comfort in the things which are enemies to peace with God and His Kingdom, at times.  We paint pretty pictures to veil what we know is real and listen to the voices of others to help us mask the truth.  

I cannot find very many of God's leaders or followers who were not told to leave things of self importance.  God does this for several reasons: He needs to protect things and we need to be able to get away from what is stopping our maturation in Him.  The Israelites grumbled when they did not have creature comforts, even though they were safe.  Did rich food, alcohol and the thought of waking up to the hand of a miserable taskmaster another day really equate to better than this? 

God promised good things and a bright future with Him.  He promises us the same thing.  He also assures us that we will see good things here in this life if we will trust Him:  Yes, Jesus replied, and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God will be repaid many times over in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.  We cannot help ourselves it seems, we are so ruled by what we crave, how others perceive us, being one of the normal or successful ones, and entitlement that we just go with the popular mindsets.  God warns us that it's enough with focusing on the life of our soul and all that dazzles us into the hands of a miserable taskmaster.  For instance, 1 Timothy 4:8 Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come."

All through out our lives we have choices to make as a follower of Christ and Child of God.  Do I listen to truth, or do I follow my gut. Look at the following verses where God says to us:

• The heart is more deceitful than all else. And is desperately sick; who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the result of his deeds. Jeremiah 17: 9,10 
•  They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. Zechariah 7:12 

Whether we are willing to be honest with anyone else, we should fear God and be honest with Him.  He has clearly told us what is to come and that we can be saved both in this life and in the life to come.  He has stressed that this life will be difficult but not to fear. We will be taking one last step in this prior to breaking off chunks for deeper study.  I will close out with:

The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it.  Jeremiah 23: 20, 21 

Are you willing....He has done everything else? WILL you lay down your hardness, your ungodliness, your greed, your resentment and many other "little" things (in the sight of an unholy world) and simply go the "right way"?  Mind you, it will be very abnormal to others but it is the normal way we were created to go!.

Think about it, His beloved child, in Christ,

Kisses,

Candace

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© Candace Huffmaster 2014, All Copy Rights Reserved

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc°

That Was The Big Idea

Jeremiah 23: 20, 21 The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; in the last days you will clearly understand it.

We Love it when God is for us; when He is our Savior, Redeemer, Deliverer, Healer and Greatest Lover of our Soul.  We really feel super special and can lord it over others when we are walking the walk, talking the talk and being used as a front man for the Kingdom.  As soon as we feel any of those feelings, we need to fervently pray for Him to cover us quickly.  We must seek where our faith is weak and our reliance on things feeling right is too great.  It is in our confident moments, that satan rolls in and whispers.....you can do it....look around you.....you are our front and being noticed ....go ahead and receive your honor, you deserve it this once. After all, there will be a time when you are more like the monkey in the middle than the front man.  Then you will need to remember this to build your self up, or remind others; so make it count!

Self Confidence is not the same as a peace filled countenance.  Usually, self confidence is hiding a myriad of insecurities.  People simply learn what disguises them and settles their unstable emotions.  Just pull on one of our disguises loose threads and you will see the chaos roll out and the clash of thunder begin.  There are many discussions in our archive on countenance, being down cast and paranoia   Today, we are going to look at how God does what He plans, no matter who or what gets in His way; even when those He is attempting to use for His glory fight His Big idea, because they are not comfortable with it.

In Exodus, God articulated His Big Idea in one sentence: "Let My people go, that they may serve Me."

This seems incredibly straight forward doesn't it? His people were being held against His Will, and they were not free to serve Him. Therefore, God had to send someone to tell the person what He wanted.  Ergo, Moses was called to center stage.  Moses heard God, even said "Here I am", but quickly, after hearing Him out, said "Sorry, you must have dialed the wrong number sir". God knew everything, and attempted to instill confidence in His messenger.  God had been working on these plans long before Moses answered, and He would not turn back just because Moses needed some stroking.  My short version is as follows: 

The situation was clarified: You said here I am, Moses, so you know I am here; I need others to see that you believe I am with you, because they do not believe I am here.  Moses needed something physical, which they could see.  God saw that Moses trusted the stick in His hand, to hold him up; so He went with it. I find it interesting that God said, "throw the stick down." It was as if He had to get it out of Moses hand so He would possibly stop leaning on it for confidence.  The next confidence builder was not something in his hand, maybe in case he lost the stick, it was Moses own hand.  God even covered if Moses lost the stick and his hands were too shaky to appear confident by showing him how to use any body of water.

I guess God felt He could move forward, now that they were clear: Moses had been sent by God, He had God with Him, he could perform miracles with things or his person and He knew what the Big Idea was.  But Moses big idea was not budging either, so he said, ""Sorry, you must have dialed the wrong number sir". God would not turn back and Moses need for something self confirming received kindled a bit of heat and adamant directives from God, quoting from Exodus 4: 11, 12:

"Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes dumb or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now then go, and I, even I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say."

And then finally, Moses was exposed and God revealed the truth: Moses just did not want to do it, He asked God to send someone else.  But God would not, instead He allowed Moses to find confidence in something He could see and relate with.  I thank God, that although we weary Him, He will not turn back.  And although we are riddled with disguises, some we even use to hide who we really are from our own consciousness, He will never stop coming at us with the same simple Big Idea; nor will he divert from His path.  

Isaiah 30:1  Woe to the rebellious children, declares the Lord, "Who execute a plan but not Mine, and make an alliance but not of My spirit, in order to add sin to sin;

We all have been rebellious in our lifetimes, may we stop it now and align with His executive decision through His spirit and stop adding sin upon sin, through our foolishness.  We will continue our sojourn in the coming day, as we follow Moses, Pharaoh and the Son's of Israel sojourn. As far as it depends on us, today, do not allow your heart to be hardened by refusing the holy spirit to have His will within you today; because while you have not yet been destroyed and He continues to deal compassionately with you, there will be one day when the destroyer will be allowed to spark all our kindling.  

I pray for water, His water will quench all things whether drought, thirst or a fiery ordeal.

Isaiah 33:1 Woe to you, O destroyer, While you were not destroyed; And he who is treacherous while others did not deal treacherously with him.l  As soon as you shall finish destroying, you shall be destroyed; As soon as you shall cease to deal treacherously, others shall deal treacherously with you.

Kisses,

Candace

Copyrights Reserved ©Candace Huffmaster 2014

Kaleidoscope Butterfly, Inc.®

Are We Stones Comprising The Pathway, Or An Awkward One That Make Someone Trip?

As I was reading the devotion for this morning, different scriptures kept popping into my mind.  The verses in 1 Corinthians 10 where we are being implored to learn from the experiences of the God’s people as they were being led by Moses. “They drank from the spiritual rock that went with them, and that rock was Christ.” and “We shouldn’t put the Lord to the test as some of them did.” 

Think about when Christ was in the desert being tempted.  Satan suggested that Christ turn the stone into bread.  Christ knew he had to trust the love of God, not test Him.  He followed that by stating God’s word, “Man cannot live on bread alone but from every word that precedes from the mouth of God”.

I have often pondered and conversed with God about the reason Moses didn’t get to enter the promised land but only see if from afar.  God wanted him to exemplify that we are to converse through relationship, love.  Striking that rock was a complex reaction.  It was based on Moses’ frustration with the people so he was lashing out.  He wanted to demonstrate power….his power or Gods?”  Christ is our rock, through Him we are delivered, rescued, saved eternally for relationship.  What if symbolized Moses striking Christ himself?  If it appears that we are forcing God to give us what He was wanting to freely give us, I can only imagine how that must make God feel.  There is no liberty or joy in that.  God tells us where there is Christ there is liberty.  I think that Moses conversing with the rock, relating the dilemma and his concerns would have been pretty cool.  That being said, I cannot begin to wrap my mind around all the pressures that Moses must have been under.  So I am going to just thank God for getting him through it all and allowing Moses to see the promise even if from a distance.  Moses must have been elated knowing God had delivered them so he could get finally get some rest.

I pray that we not tolerate insecurity and pride, but that we allow His spirit to transform us as we walk through out the emotional reactions we subject ourselves, others and HIs kingdom to.  May God  be glorified as we trust in Him to provide as He sees fit and in His timing.  Let us exemplify this rock as our alter place where we lay our ways of accomplishing things down and do it the way God has requested, so that His life may pour out and all may come to the knowledge of His saving grace.

Enjoy this day….it is a gift directly from His hand.  And you didn’t even have to force Him to give it to you, did you?

Kisses,

Candace

Management By Force

– by So Hillman TGIF

"Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink." - Numbers 20:8

Moses and the people had been traveling for days without water. The people were thirsty. They were complaining and grumbling about their plight, and Moses became the object of their complaining. Moses sought the Lord for wisdom on how to handle the situation. The Lord instructed him to speak to the rock and water would flow. This would be a sign that God was still in control, that Moses was still the leader, and that God was their provider.

When it came time to speak to the rock, Moses' disgust with the people became so great that instead of speaking to the rock, he angrily addressed the people and then struck the rock twice. The water came out, in spite of Moses' disobedience. But the Lord was not pleased with Moses.

This was a time for Moses to operate at a higher level. No longer was he called to touch things with his staff to perform miracles; it was a time for him to speak to the problem. His very words would have changed the situation. Moses' staff represented two things-his physical work as a shepherd of sheep and his spiritual work as a shepherd of the people. God was calling him to move into a new dimension of using his staff. Up to now, Moses had always been commanded by God to touch something to perform the miracle. Now it was time to speak God's word to the problem.

However, Moses made the mistake many of us make. He used his instrument with force to accomplish something for God. He took something God wanted to be used in a righteous manner and used it in an unrighteous manner. He used force to solve the problem. This disobedience cost Moses his right to see the Promised Land.
Have you ever been tempted to use your power, skill, and ability to force a situation to happen, perhaps even out of anger? God is calling us to use prayer to move the face of mountains. The force of our ability is not satisfactory. God is calling each of us to a new dimension of walking with Him. Pray that God will give you the grace to wait on Him and not take matters into your own hands. Then you will not be in jeopardy of failing to move into the Promised Land in your life.

Add-On's

Good Sunday Morning Everyone!!

What a beautiful crisp day it is. To me, the Garden of Eden must have had days like this. Birds swooping to perch on limbs and sing their little hearts out.  Squirrels racing across the top of limbs rustling all the colorful leaves while the breeze is gently wrapping it all together in a gentle hug.......mmmmm, I love this time of year - can you tell?

Speaking of the Garden we are moving on the verse 3:2 of Genesis today:

(GWT) The woman answered the snake, "We're allowed to eat the fruit from any tree in the garden except the tree in the middle of the garden.  God said "You must never eat it or touch it.  If you do, you will die!"

Wow, so many directions to go with thoughts here.  But to keep on focus of authority I will start with Gods desire.  God granted authority and provision of protection to Adam, right?  Adam was there with them when God spoke his words of instruction, not Eve.  Friday we discussed "Why didn't Adam speak up to protect them from this evil?"  We will now take that a step further to ponder this:

Why did Eve think that they were not to even "touch" the tree or they would die?  God did not say that!  Does it make sense that Eve would make that add-on when she was simply asked this question?  Does it make sense that Adam might have made the add-on to show HIS authority? 

I propose that the reason that Satan even had an opportunity to attack a vulnerability was due to Adam giving false, misleading information.  Satan didn't ask Adam - he knew the truth.  He asked the one who had not received the truth in its purest form.  Satan had a foothold and he knew it.  Did Adam not step up because he knew he had added-on and did not want to be exposed?  Either way the damage was done and he didn't want to fess up, he just wanted it to be overlooked in hopes of nothing too bad happening ...maybe?

Look at what happened to Moses when he was told to give the Israelites water from the rock.  All Moses had to do was speak to the rock and show God's power.  But as a human he felt the need to exude his strength my striking the rock and grandstanding.  He stood right in front of His true identity when he did this and suffered.  However, the people still got their provision of water and Moses was humbled.

God states in Revelation - the end of Book One in His series "The Story Being Told"  Revelation 22: 18,19 from God's Word Translation:

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy in this book:  If anyone adds anything to this, God will strike him with the plaques that are written in this book. If anyone takes away any words from this book of prophecy, God will take away his portion of the tree of life and the holy city that are described in this book.

Let's think on that today - where have we felt the propensity to add on or take away at times to show our strength instead of His.  That my sisters and brothers is the idol of legalism - making God in our image.

Today I lift Him up the one who is holy, lovely and pure,the one who is righteous and steadfast, the one and only lover of our souls.  Jesus said that the spirit testifies with him as a witness of Gods undisputed truth. He ends our love story with these beautiful, inspiring words: 

vs 20,21 - The one who is testifying to these things says, "Yes I'm coming soon!"  Amen! Come, Lord Jesus! The good will of the Lord Jesus be with all of you, Amen!

To that I simply say - Live in liberty my sisters and brothers....Live, Love, Laugh, Share, Embrace and above all be victorious because....."Jesus is coming"  ( I have to say I have the excitement of Elf right now when he was stating "Santa is Coming, Santa is Coming".  If you have not seen that clip of Will Ferrell doing this I am going to load it later so you can get a great laugh - but truly we should be that excited =D)

With a Holy Kiss,
Candace