From Gwen Lord
Received on 21-12-2007 for 2008
Be holy in all that you do.
I want to take you deeper into me and reveal more of myself to you.
Do not be afraid of my ways – they will bring you good not harm.
Till now you have been paddling in my river. Now I will take you into deeper waters where you will enjoy more of my presence, more of my love and learn more of my ways.
My aim is to take you into the full measure of Christ – my Son whom I love.
Learn to delight in Him, take pleasure in Him.
Remember the deity – the three in one:
God the Father - His heart of love
God the Son – Jesus your saviour and redeemer. His shed blood that brings healing to the nations.
God the Holy Spirit who convicts men in regard to sin and righteousness, who leads you into the truth and empowers you with resurrection power.
Recently I turned on my pc and opened my digital Bible. No I wasn’t being spiritual or good or anything like that. I was, to be honest, in a bad mood. What I really wanted to do was retaliate to someone who had greatly annoyed me.
I was in such a bad mood that I couldn’t think of what to read and somewhat grumpily told the Lord I was too angry to read.
“Look up grace”, came the response.
Muttering a huffing I started a search. It wasn’t long before I was able to forgive and bless the person who had upset me.
The grace of God seems to have the effect of calming and soothing the heart and mind making it easier to forgive and forget. But, reading through the various verses that my search brought up, it soon became clear that my view of grace was just a teensy bit limited.
I also questioned what is the evidence (Acts 11:23) of God’s grace?
Grace, it seems isn’t just something to help you through the difficult times. Nor is it just the goodness and mercy of God.
It is divine love and protection. It is sanctification, favour and indulgence.
It’s also excellence or power granted by God.
Grace is powerful, dynamic and effective. It is everything we need to become a new person in Christ and it comes from God.
No wonder God said to Paul “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
The Greek word for grace is Charis (χαρις).
The original meaning of charis was “that which produces joy”.
Just imagine Stephen doing great wonders and miraculous signs while filled with great joy! Acts 6:8
Can’t hide that under a bush!
Access to grace is through Jesus.
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
Many blessings come from God’s grace:
From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:16-17
When I read this the words grace and truth stood out prominently. I previously shared the ‘Belt of Truth’ with you all and now realise these two things go hand in hand. They are building blocks to prepare us to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven
We cannot earn His grace it comes freely by faith through Jesus. Romans 5:1&2
And there’s lots of it – that indulgence thing again. And it ensures we reign in life!
Those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17
I believe that God wants to pour out His abundant grace upon us but we have to do our part. We have to be committed to grace. Acts 14:26
Looking at the following definition of grace helps us to see what our commitment is:
Grace is enabling power sufficient for progression. Divine Grace is an indispensable gift from God for development, improvement, and character expansion.
It brings eternal life -
Romans 5:20
Belt of Truth
At the end of 2006 I had this dream:
I was walking along and saw something on the ground. I got
nearer to it and was wondering what it was when I heard a voice next me. I
turned my head to listen and the voice said ‘It’s the belt of truth’. Curious,
I picked it up to have a closer look. The belt was made of the thickest, strongest leather I had
ever seen. I started to turn it in my hands looking for the buckle and
became fascinated by what I saw.
All round the centre of the belt there were precious stones
in many different shapes and colours. Both edges of the belt were studded with diamonds.The stones and diamonds were held in place with fine gold
filigree.I was unable to find a buckle. It was a complete circle
without any breaks.
I asked the Lord ‘How do you wear it’ then woke up.
Writing the dream in my note pad I prayed for understanding
of the dream but after several days I still had no answer. A picture of the
belt kept flashing through my mind constantly. It was so beautiful I just had
to know what God was saying and decided to do a study. After that I spent
several days seeking the Lord about the significance of each part of the belt.
Interpretation
The precious stones represent truth - the foundations of the Holy City
The gold represents the Holy City– Its streets paved with gold.
The leather represents strength.
The complete circle of the belt represents the continuity of
truth, having no end.
The diamonds represent the river of the water of life that
flows from the throne of God and the Lamb.
(The rarest, purest diamond is called the diamond of the first water. Collins dictionary)
A belt is worn somewhere around our middle- the centre of
our body. This is a spiritual belt and we are to wear it – the foundational
truths of God at the centre of our being. The first piece of armour we are told to wear is the belt of
truth. Be firmly established in the
truth. Remember it is the truth that sets us free.
This year 2007 The Lord has spoken to me further on this
subject and laid on my heart the importance of building firm foundations. In particular
He spoke of the need to rebuild old foundations. To reinforce them - to dig
deeper – to lay stronger and firmer foundations.
There will be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We need to
be firmly grounded in the truth of God so we can correctly handle what’s
coming. God wants to give us heaven on earth!
Gwen
Tonight I felt like the valley of dry bones. I could see myself as the valley. A team member called forth life and it really shook me. I found myself coughing. The bones are significant.. this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled (?) from the bible and it is a major one.. I will look into it perhaps. Team member mentioned someone had had a similar word on monday. This is Ezekiel again.. matthew
