Invest in the Becoming and the Doing will Glorify God

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Dear Child,

Through everyday life I am teaching you!

Living, breathing, and responding to everyday life produces maturity that will bear fruit!

Through maturity you are BECOMING!

Through fruit bearing you are producing seed!

                          but 

Through gifting you are DOING!

You have to grow from everyday life to have the maturity to use the gifting.

 I need the balance of fruit and gifting.

I need the balance of BECOMING and DOING.

Without the tests of living, your gifting would lack the flame of passion and conviction, which only comes from character building as your life ripens to the fruit of the spirit.

The seeds you are sowing through your gifting are from the fruit and maturity of your life which is the BECOMING

The using of your gifts is the sowing of those seeds which is the DOING.

Do you see, child, the balance!

Both are needed. I do not want only the gifting, I want the gifting used through your living, the defeats, victories, joys, sorrows, up and downs, testings, questions of life, and the wisdom gained through your time spent with Me.

                                       Thus saith Papa

God commanded that the edge of the robe of the High Priest of Israel would be embroidered with pomegranates. In between the pomegranates were to be sown gold bells. This serves as a typology lesson for us:

The pomegranates speak of the fruit of the spirit which is the BECOMING.

The golden bells speak of the gifts of the spirits which is the DOING.

The placement speaks to us of balance between the fruit and the gifts.

Both were needed but not without balance. Each bell was separated by a pomegranate.  What a clanging noise the bells would have made if not separated by the pomegranates. Does not this remind us of Paul’s exhortation in : 1 Corinthians 13:1-2 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

In other words, because the gifts can be misused, abused or even faked, they are not a sign of spiritual maturity. Only the fruit of the spirit is evidence of maturity of character. That is why Jesus warns in Matthew 7:20-23  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Therefore gifts are not a sign of maturity! If we desire to grow up in the faith, our character must  ripen to the maturity of the fruit of the spirit. 

If we are to hear Matthew 25:21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord., we must be consistently growing in the character of righteousness, that we may faithfully use our gifting in authenticity and integrity for His Kingdom.

CHALLENGE: Is your spiritual life all outward show with no inner substance?

                             Is it all DOING and no BECOMING?

                             Invest in the BECOMING and the DOING will glorify God.

Excerpt from “Developing a Secret History with God” for further study see pages 35-36

Book and Study Guide available on Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Lulu/ itunes/ Kindle/ Nook/http wwwclfrance.com/ Rhema Publication or a bookstore near you.
Languages: English/ French

Study Guide “Developing a Secret History with God”

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My inspiring book “Developing a Secret History with God” reveals truth regarding an intimate relationship with Christ. Now we have an accompanying Study Guide that will help apply these truths to our lives by learning to:

  • Overcome the struggles that rob us of intimacy with God
  • Remove the mystery of hearing God
  • Develop a listening ear
  • Maintain our spiritual root structure.

The Study Guide for “Developing a Secret History with God” will not only inspire you and equip you to “Develop your own Secret History with God” by removing the mystery about hearing God, but will also give you practical tips to help you on your journey into His Presence, giving you the opportunity to put all you have learned into practice.

CHALLENGE: What better time than the New Year to consider the following :-

Are you willing this year to make a commitment between you and God to daily go down to the Potter’s house where you will hear His voice?

Signed this day —————————————————————————————

Yes, I will arise, and go down to the Potter’s house, and there He will cause me to hear His words. (Jeremiah 18:2).

If you like this challenge please SHARE IT.

The Study Guide is suitable for individual or group study

WALK WITH THE KING AND BE A BLESSING

Book and Study Guide available on Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Lulu/ itunes/ Kindle/ Nook/http wwwclfrance.com/ Rhema Publication or a bookstore near you.

Languages: English/ French

Walking by Faith in Your Wintery Season

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At this season of the year when the earth is blanketed in snow and ice, I am amazed as I consider the ugly  tulip and daffodil bulbs that are frozen under the soil which will soon sprout and bear beautiful flowers of hope as the earth is rejuvenated during spring time. And even in the dead of winter when shivering hope appears to be frozen God gives a glimmer of hope as the snowdrops pop their heads bravely through the fallen snow. Oh the joy of seeing that first fragile yet hardy snowdrop – what a wonderful window to our souls of His desire to feed our faith to believe for brighter days. I thank God for His faithfulness in the seasons and look forward in faith to the spring.

Dear Child,

I am also faithful in the seasons of your life! Each season has its own unique beauty and purpose, the same is true with the seasons of your life. The same is true in the ministry of your life.

A time to believe in naked faith, a time to sow, a time to water and tend the potential harvest, and then a time of reward and reaping! The winter season is a time of hidden dormancy on the surface, but oh! under the surface what preparation is going on to burst to life in the spring! Be prepared for the spring! child.

Every season of your life has its own winter of faith, planting time in spring, watering time in summer, and reaping time in the fall. But this winter time of dormancy and darkness without any fruit, is when you must walk by faith and trust my hand to be working in My sovereignty under the surface, to bring beauty to your life in the spring!

You trust me with the seasons of the earth, trust me with the seasons of your life!

                                                              Thus saith Papa

Ecclesiastes 3:1  To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Hebrews 11:1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

WINTER — The Season of FAITH

SPRING  — The Season of HOPE

SUMMER —The Season of LABOR

AUTUMN — The Season of FRUITFULNESS

CHALLENGE: If you are in the season of a fruitless winter, in faith hold unto hope, don’t give up, spring is on its way, for He is faithful!

 

Have you Unwrapped His Gift?

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Christmas month is almost over for another year. And again I find myself trying to reach out to help people who can’t, by themselves, “unwrap” Christmas. It is, you know, “wrapped” for many.

……..Wrapped in bandages of bygone hurts and disappointments

……..Wrapped in plastic of sophistication which shuns childlike wonder

……..Wrapped in the tinsel of a materialistic binge

……..Wrapped in the confetti and streamers of empty partying

……..Wrapped in the busy-getting-ready preparations

……..Wrapped in the artistically designed whiskey box of bombed-out, so-called celebrations.

The wrappings represent the cluttered residue of a man or woman’s private history. They are the wadded packaging of Christmases ruined in other times, at other places. Sadly the impact carries on, souring year after year. 

I’m speaking of people who:

* Had a heartbreak one yuletide and now always associate the season with that tearful memory.

* Have been burned out over family stresses surrounding the holidays, so that now these days are dreaded instead of anticipated with joy.

* Became wearied with the carnality of superficial gift giving when love seldom attended the presents, and wince at the idea of Christmas shopping.

How many cases? How many varieties of death wrap a God appointed celebration of life?

I come to you today, my disappointed friend in Jesus’ name and I come with this word, “Be free!”

Confront and reject those ghouls of past pain. Refuse to let the prince of darkness smother the season of light. The one who sought to murder the babe of Bethlehem now seeks to ruin your celebration of His coming.

Jack Hayford’s book “Come…and behold Him!”

John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

CHALLENGE: Unwrap the gift of God’s love and be free as you step into a brand New Year.

The Vital Truth of the Virgin Birth

 

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Since we all are born with our Adam nature and born as sinners separated from God, where could we ever find someone who was sinless, who could take the penalty for our sin by taking our place of judgement? It had to be someone who did not inherit the Adam nature. The only way this could possibly happen was to have someone born physically without an earthly father since sin is inherited through our fathers’ bloodline not our mothers’. But everyone male or female inherits that Adam nature since we all have earthly fathers.

There was only one born who did not have an earthly father, that one was the babe in the manger in Bethlehem. Yes, even He did have an earthly mother who had been born of an earthly father, but biologically the blood of the mother never intermingles with the blood of the fetus, thus He could be born without a sinful nature. The chemistry is in the blood, sin is in the blood, and life is in the blood.

If this babe had an earthly father He would have been paying for the penalty of His own sin.

He had to be the perfect Lamb to be found worthy to take away the sin of the world.

If He wasn’t born of a virgin we are still in our sins for His sacrificial death would not have been an acceptable sacrifice when He presented His blood in the Holy of Holies in the heavens.

When the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit plants His seed in our spiritual wombs we are “born again” of a different bloodline through the New Birth as we now can become the children of God.

Surely the Christmas story is The Son of God becoming a man to enable men to become the sons of God.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

CHALLENGE:

Except we become as little children we cannot see the Kingdom of God.

Celebrate the miracle of the Virgin Birth this season with childlike wonder and faith.