Matches

“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 NIV

For my Christian readers this most likely is a familiar verse to you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really understand this verse. What does this look like? Light is light, how can there be darkness in there? How does it show that there is darkness in the light?

Yesterday I was typing a blog but I just couldn’t get through it somehow. God showed me some great revelations during worship in church that morning and later in the afternoon He continued as I was watching life stream church services from Paula White and later on Kim Pothier (Real Talk Kim). As I started writing I felt that I did not have the complete picture yet. In my mind I was drawn to a photo I ones saw on Instagram and today I decided to Google it. When I looked at it, I knew I was getting closer to the core of His revelation. This is the picture…

                                                                    

Of course I had to try this myself, to see if this is true…and yes it is true…I’ve got the same image. As you can see, the light seems transparent. There is no shadow because it already IS light. To have darkness in the light, it will become visible. “See to it then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.” Luke 11:35-36

This makes me wonder…if the Light from Heaven is shining upon me, what will come up out of my shadow? How much light is there in me? Are there places within me that represents darkness?  I started looking at more bible verses relating to being the light…

“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! Matthew 6:22-23

To stay in the context to when Jesus is talking about the eyes in Matthew 6, it represents what we are looking at as our resource. “I lift up my eyes to the mountains – where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2

In the Amplified Bible we can read in John 1:16-17 that out of the fullness of Jesus we have all received grace after grace, spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor. That the Law was given by Moses and grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. When you believe in His name, you have the right to become children of God.

What God revealed to me during worship in church was the greatness potential that God placed in us the moment we were conceived, just like with Jesus. The potential is there, but it needs to be awakened and needs to grow and develop. John the Baptist had eyes to see the Messiah, when nobody knew. “But among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John 1:26-27

“If we confess out sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Now that we have received the Salvation through Christ Jesus, we became the temple of God. I wonder, do you know what that means? That the Holy of Holiest just entered into your temple and became the light in you?! The great “I AM” resides in you now, so that when you introduce yourself to someone as “I am …” that you are actually speaking from the Name of God living in you. Do you know that in John 18:4-6, when Jesus was arrested to be crucified and He asked who they (soldiers, some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees) wanted, they said that they were looking for Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus replied “I am he” and at that moment they drew back and fell to the ground! Have your eyes already noticed that when you accepted Jesus as your Lord, that He entered into the temple of your purified body and that His power became available to you? So next time you introduce yourself to someone as “I am …”, please remember this moment. But also know that how you look at yourself defines which master you are looking at. Who you perceive to be is what you will speak over yourself. “I am fat”, “I am ugly”, “I am poor”, “I am not worthy” are just a view examples of darkness entering your body. Can I recommend you to daily speak words of Life over you so that the power and the light of the living God will be released unto you? For example: “I am a child of the most High God”, “I am loved”, “ I am a conquer through Christ whom strengthens me”, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, “I am the City of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel”. I encourage you to let this be a match to keep His light burning in you.

Grace, spiritual blessings and favor are yours to take, it’s your heritage. I pray that you and I will fully grasp that fullness that came with Christ Jesus into our lives! It’s okay to tell your mountains that Help has arrived! The Maker of heaven and earth agreed: “It is finished”!

May God bless you abundantly!

From A to Better

The government in the Netherlands has this slogan: “From A to Better” to explain where there are road constructions, so that we can find another route to travel to our destinations. When we are on our journey and we find out that the road is cut off, it can be called a “bummer”…we don’t like that. But here’s the thing; if they don’t take the time to maintain the roads, we will run into much bigger problems such as holes in the road and our cars or other means of transport won’t like that. Not to mention the accidents it will cause. I’ve spent some time in Nigeria and most of the roads are just sand. One day I was in a bus when it went through a big hole. The bus was overturned to one side as we were stuck in that hole. We all had to carefully get out of the bus so that some men could push the bus backwards out of the hole so that we could continue the journey. This we can call a “bummer” too!

In our day to day lives, as we are working to accomplish our dreams, sometimes you find out that the road you are on is cut off. You were getting closer to a intermediate part of your destination, and suddenly you realize that the road is not accessible! This just recently happen to me. I was very close to a huge breakthrough, and suddenly…I was not. This was not the suddenly I felt in my spirit coming up, nor what the people of God were talking about when they were talking about sudden breakthroughs coming. Do you know how easy it is to get angry and frustrated, yell at the road workers there and spend the next hours complaining about this huge iniquity? Very easy to do so, and a couple of years back, this most likely would have been my first response. Fortunately I’ve learned that sometimes it’s an roadblock the devil placed to get you to turn around and give up. In my case it most likely has been this kind of attack, but when you can discern the situation, it has prevented me from driving into a very bad road further along the journey. God allowed the cutting off because He noticed the holes which have arisen.

Where does that leave me?

This can be very discouraging and what if it means that this detour will take up a lot of time that will feel like wasted? I don’t believe in that. I remember years ago when Don Moen was in our country and I went to the evening of worship, he shared with us an example of a navigation system. It gives you the direct turns to take for you to arrive at the destination you gave it. Every now and then you find that the road is inaccessible or you might have taken a wrong turn somewhere. When this happens, the devise asks you for a moment to recalculate the route to the original destination you gave it. When he has it, it will start to tell you which way to go again. What touched me the most, was when he said to notice that this “new” route is not viewed as a route “B” or “C”. No, it might have been a different way then he originally displayed, but this next one is still viewed as a route “A”.

With God, it is the same. If there is a road that does not fit in your means of travel or you might have missed the turn somewhere, it does not mean that the journey stopped and you start over again. Your destination has not changed, just the way to get there changed…it became Better!

“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it on my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead.” Philippians 3:13

If you find yourself in a similar situation, I want to encourage you not to get mad or frustrated. Don’t let it discourage you. It might hurt for a while to accept this new reality, but trust me when I say that it is not over yet! Keep going after the things that God has placed into your heart, it is worth any detour it takes to get there! And by the grace of God…you WILL get there!

Amen!

Are you a colander stream or a mountain stream?

You might be wondering how a colander- and a mountain stream relate to each other? Well, God explained a thing or two about this to me.

Both images have a powerful source that is providing water to flow to the land further down. The colander however has holes in it and when the water flows through it, the power of the current is stopped and the water gets separated and seems to leave the colander all over the place. If not careful, it gets quite messy.

The stream flowing from the melted ice at the top of the mountain, rushes its way down and sometimes gets separated for a bit into flowing creeks and finally the creeks find each other again and pour themselves out into one flowing river or into the ocean.

So what is it that I’m getting at? The powerful water source comes from God Himself, similar to Ezekiel 47. They both have that in common. They also have in common that from that source it gets separated and in the end it will get together again into one river or ocean. The way it gets separated and back together is what makes the difference.

The colander stream:

Here you see tiny holes that causes the water to have a funnel effect. It loses its strength because there is a massive separation going on. This makes the stream vulnerable, turbulent and unpredictable as it tries to find its way through. In the spirit I could see these holes as:

1)      The divisions within the body of Christ. We have taken the perfect, complete and powerful stream of Living water and have started to block out what we found was not as important or we couldn’t comprehend and so we created…

2)      The individual box thinking. We came up with thoughts and ideas that WE find ourselves comfortable in and in that process started to put limits on the wholeness that God is. We humans decided to push the stream of Living water through the holes that we made in our limited thinking and within our comfortable lives. We have the need to understand everything and when the things are not going the way they suppose to go, we draw conclusions and come up with our own solution or idea about it. This is what we push out and bring into this world. It loses its power, effectiveness and it spills a lot.

The mountain stream:

Here is a separation going on that is a bit different. The current remains powerful as it is streaming itself down. We can see it as conductors through specific areas before entering into its fulfillment…the place it needs to be to provide the Living water into the world. Translated into the Christian lives we can see the following:

1)      “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be build up until we all reach unity in faith and the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (-Ephesians 4:11-13)…Which brings me to…

2)      The individual  journey. We are all unique, there is no one exactly like us. So God takes us all apart from time to time to equip us for the next river or ocean He has for us. It is that uniqueness, skills and talents that we developed with God, that adds value to the river or ocean to bring the Kingdom of God in its fullness into this world.

Hopefully does the question: “Are you a colander stream or a mountain stream?” make more sense now. For me I can say that in the past 6 years God certainly broke many box-thinking holes from me. Looking at myself now I know that I am still work in progress, but I finally became a solid mountain stream. I know God has prepared me and I feel, see and know that I am ready and on my way to start to flow towards a river or a ocean. I am excited, prepared and ready for my next intermediate piece towards my ultimate destination.

I hope I get to meet you there, I’m curious about your story’s!…

Many blessings from me to you.

Being a co-creator with God: There is nothing you cannot be, there is nothing you cannot do, there is nothing you cannot have.

For a view weeks God is giving me a different insight on the spiritual realm, and specifically on how we are co-creators with God right now. For a long time I have found myself stuck in a wilderness and for some reason God didn't give clear directions on the why and where to go to. I had ideas about it, but no confirmation from God at all. On Instagram  I made a joke about it and posted the following picture saying: “My preference followed by my reality…Anybody knows how to read a map?”

God decided to step in and is teaching me how to read the map myself. I’ve been chewing on it for a view weeks now and slowly it is starting to make sense to me. Most Christians like myself have been thought or have the idea that we have to wait for specific directions from God before we can move and take action. In that time that we are waiting we have the tendency to wait and just go through our daily routines and pray about it. We ask God, we beg God, we go from conference to conference to seek God and we let others pray for us and yet, it seems that God is just not responding to us. So many Christians like myself, find themselves staring at a map that does not make any sense at all. We have no destination points or no direction to even get to a destination point. Then there are also moments that you do have a destination point but for some reason we are not reaching that point. It could be anything: health, finances, promotion, a job, relations, … you name it. I don’t know dear reader if you can relate to this at all…but this is where I’ve been living from the moment I gave my life to Christ and even before that.

“I (Jesus) am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

I think it’s safe to assume that most of us know this verse. What I am starting to realize is how little I understand it. In Genesis it says that God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them. After the first sin, Adam and Eve were cut off from the tree of Life and lost their ruling position. From now on they had to work for it. But with the work of Jesus at the cross and through His resurrection, He restored our position back to when Adam and Eve were just created. And I believe that the tree of Life is now the vine that Jesus is talking about in John 15. To remain in the vine is not hard work, we simply have to receive the power/ food source coming from the vine. To let the flow of Life from the Holy Spirit run through us through communion, relationship, meditating and studying the Scriptures.

The thing that God is teaching me is that this goes a bit further than that. In life we get to decide what we look at, what we listen to, with what we allow into our lives and what not. This is the first step into remaining in Jesus or not. This is called “the sponsoring thought.” This is the first thought that is the food supply for every other thought that will follow. If our sponsoring thought is based on fear, it will have effect on the thoughts that will follow. For example, I mentioned in a earlier blog that my greatest fear was being happy. This was my first thought, so as I was going though the course of life I would think about how I had to make sure not to enjoy the good things in life, just in case it would turn its back on me like all the other times. I don’t think it needs explanation to tell you the effect that this had on my behavior, choices and actions. This one example alone had a huge effect on the quality of my life and I was a magnet for bad things happening in my life. So now I was using the ruling power that God gave me and co-created my life in a way that did not bear the fruits of the tree of Life. When my sponsoring thought is love however, this will be the feeding source on all the other thoughts going through my mind and from that the words I speak and from that the actions I take.

This in itself is not that big of a revelation, this makes a lot of sense. What is new to me is the power that our thoughts have. In the spiritual (invisible) realm it creates a substance around us. In Matthew 5 Jesus already explains this. He explained that with our heart, thought and words we can commit murder or adultery. In Jesus’ His ministry we read a couple of times that He knew what the people were thinking. We might call it the discernment of the Spirit and that is true. Yet in the spiritual realm this is one of the reasons it gets picked up on. So now we have created with our minds a substance in our environment. The next step/ level of creating is words. This is productive and our thoughts and words together are magnificently effective in giving birth to our reality. From that flows actions, which are words moving, or words and thoughts expressed.

So, let’s have another look at the wilderness map. We see question marks and we see very unclear roads. The first thing God wants us to do is for us to separate ourselves from our slave mentality. Pruning and changing our sponsoring thought into the vine called Jesus which is Love. “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.(…) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:9-12

The top picture is a clear example of the slave mentality. Just like the Israelites were use to getting the command and they just did what was told. The top picture represents just that. The sponsoring thought was based on fear and when the source of commandment (Moses) was gone for too long, they panicked and quickly created something else to follow. They walked around complaining, blaming, not taking responsibility and refused to leave the slave mentality behind in the dessert. It were Joshua and Caleb that changed their first thought from the pharaohs ruling over them into trusting the love that God had for them to walk them through the difficulties into their new destination point.

So, how do I see this work out in my life?

Since two weeks I am placed in a program to reintegrate me back into the marketplace. For a short period I get the chance to get use to the work routine before having to do it on a salary for a company. This means that four days in the week I have to do work that is very simple and not challenging at all. God allowed me to fill in the question marks with dreams He has put into my heart, but He left out the confirmation. This means that I have the idea but not direct orders from God. The door to this (working) place, which has nothing that remotely looks like going into the direction of the destination point that I feel in my spirit, is the only door that is opened up for me right now.

This caused me to be pulled to both sides of the sponsoring thoughts. I had to make a choice which one to pick. As I was there working alongside people that are very negative, complaining and not taking this opportunity serious, there was this one line that continued to rise in my mind: “Don’t despise the small beginnings” (via Matthew Prewett). It made me determined to take this moment in life serious and make the best out of where I am now. So with a positive attitude I started to do the work as I would if I was working for a company. In the beginning they couldn’t stand me, they were gossiping and talking negative about me. Some of them actually hate(d) me. The second day coming in, the atmosphere was as dark and thick as it could be and ‘lucky me’, we were placed together to work as a team. Their thoughts about me was almost visible. But I remained positive, doing what I know God wants me to do and keeping my thoughts coming from the vine and trusting that God would protect me from the knives thrown at me. I decided to create my ‘workplace’ into heavenly culture and not accept anything less. I took interest in their lives, spoke positive words about and to them,  shared a bit about my own life and tried to made them laugh every now and then. On the third day the first changes were becoming visable, they slowly started to accept me. Their attitude changed and our teamwork became more productive and more fun. In this second week I could feel a change in the atmosphere. At one point some even missed me when I left to pick up my daughter from school. They said they should call me and tell me to come back again, because without me it just didn’t work (which means that they started to care about what they were doing). It's still a work in process, but we are all infected by the environment created around me with that what God told me to do.

Because God showed me that I have the power to create the things happening in my life, knowing that I am made in the image and therefore likeness of God, I was able to stand strong and keep my thoughts, words and actions the way they had to be. I see this revelation work in my life right now…even within two weeks.

God has put dreams and destination points and the roads towards them in our hearts and lives. They are waiting for us to come into realization. The reason that the devil is working so hard to come into our thought life, is to make us create the strongholds many of us are stuck in and therefore we won’t co-create our lives with God. We are allowed by God to fill in the question marks ourselves and with our thoughts, words and action we are coloring the road, already put there by God, into reality. We don’t have to beg God, we can thank God. We don’t have to ask how, we just trust that He will make sure we will arrive. Aim high, but know that it usually starts low. When we climb a mountain to reach the top, you know you have to start at the bottom. Don’t settle there, but do make the most out of it. Know that you are big creation machines and you are turning on a new manifestation literally as fast as you can think. I started to be aware of my thoughts, words and actions and check them if they are in alignment with my higher vision. If not, I change them and decide not to think, speak or do it anymore.

I pray this blesses you and that you can use this in your own life. Many blessings from me to you.

(Part of the process of this revelation and some of the knowledge that is processed into this blog, comes from: “Be Inspired” & “You Are Creators” via YouTube)

Stuck in the waiting room!

Am I the only one that quite often finds myself stuck in the waiting room? I don’t think so. Just go to a doctor’s appointment or take a visit to the hospital and have a look around in the waiting rooms. Check out the line of people waiting with shopping bags at the weekly food handouts to the poorest of the poor, wondering what they will be able to eat for the coming week. Psychiatric hospitals are filled with people stuck in a body they just don’t know how to escape from, likewise how autistic people sometimes can feel. These are a bit extreme examples, but they are a reality in our society.

I am fortunate, my waiting room currently looks a bit different, not as dramatic as theirs. The thing that we all do have in common is this: We (sometimes) find ourselves in a place where deep down inside we know we don’t belong…we’re not supposed to be there. There is more, something better then this! When God formed us in our mothers whom, He placed a destiny in us. This destiny is a huge part of who we are. This destiny is also the place where we manifest Gods Glory to the fullest, because it comes from Him in the first place and it will return back to the One who designed it. For this reason Satan is working very hard to keep our eyes away from the revelation of Gods potential in us. From early on Satan will do anything possible to keep our spiritual eyes closed and blocking roads to make us take other directions, away from our destiny’s. In most cases this is easy for him because most people haven’t accepted Jesus as their savior. Without Jesus, we don’t stand a chance resisting the devil. Then there are the Christians that do have Jesus in their lives but not a relationship with Him and have no idea about the spiritual realm. They do not understand that we have a enemy fighting us each and every moment of the day. Then you also have people that do have that relationship with Jesus and are aware of this other realm and they are fighting the enemy on a daily basis to get him of our backs and off our tracks.

In my case; when I grew up I was in a home of the second category where we did know about Jesus and I was baptized as a baby and I did go to a Christian (elementary) school. But there was no relationship with Him and this changed our home into the first category. We became non-believers. Satan was ruling our house.

When I was just a born again believer, I was attacked massively as I was cleaning up my life. For example when I was a sleep I would be paralyzed and I felt myself being pulled down into the darkness. I couldn’t move nor speak, and I knew that this was it, I am gone. In my spirit I said: “Jesus, if this is it…know that I love You, Jesus I love You, Jesus I love You! At the third time suddenly the grip of darkness would leave me, I was back. This is just one example of many that I have. Most attacks I was able to tackle, but at least one time I wasn’t. This is where my daughter was created and this brought on a whole new level of attacks. For example when I was 8 months pregnant, I was in the car with her ‘father’ when suddenly He would just lose his mind and started screaming at me so loud, it vibrated through my whole body. During this he would pull up the car and then hit the brakes again. Everybody driving around us started to take a huge distance from us. During this I quietly prayed in tongues and asked God what is going on. How do I pray about this. When he started to scream about the sins of the church I smiled inside and told God to have His way with him. Now I was sure that it was the devil next to me and I can pray to God to attack the devil. So I continued to pray in tongues and then he got to the point that he would scream: “Shall I show you how crazy I am? (2x)…You see that tree there? I’ll show you how crazy I am!” There was a tree and behind it the water. I visualized us in the car drowning in the water. My thought was: “What if nobody finds us, we (baby and I) would be in this water forever!” Remember, I was just born again, the heaven part was not that familiar to me then as it is now. The moment he wanted to push the gas padel I felt a anesthesia in my body. I was seeing it all, but it was like I was not there. Now I understand that it was the presence of God, an Angel appeared to us. In a split second, we were standing in front of the final traffic light before the impact, and it was green…but now it was red! And not only that, in front AND on both sides next to us were huge cars, we were trapped. And the final miracle was that within that split second he was ‘normal’ again.

You might be thinking: “Judith, this is some heavy stuff.” But did you know that on a daily basis thousands of people, including children are going through these kinds of experiences? Many of them don’t make it out alive. I’ve spend some time in Woman’s Shelters and I can tell you, they are in the waiting room! Just like happened to me, where people  in the cars didn’t intervene but actually take a huge distance from it, so it is happening right now. Jesus said in Luke 10:2 “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.” In John 4:35 Jesus said: “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.”

When I started this topic I did not have this content on my mind. As I was typing the Holy Spirit guided me to this point. Reading it back I can see and feel the call of the Holy Spirit on this message: Let us start opening our eyes to see the reality that we have an enemy to fight against. His name is Satan and He thinks he is ruling this earth. But God is starting to flip the coin and opening our eyes to see all the people stuck in all the waiting rooms, ready to be called by the doctor (Jesus) and receive their salvation and navigation, pointing them back on the track to their place of destiny they originally received from the Father in heaven. Let us have an understanding that the spiritual world is literally darkness against light. When I got baptized in 2010, I was wearing black and white clothing. Before the baptizer started he said: “Black we are leaving behind! White, come on”! Could you and I make this the motto of our Christian Life? Could it be possible to have this desire burning in our hearts to exterminate darkness? I believe it is, for this is the Trinity’s hearts desire…sooner or later, we will catch it up and burn like we have never done before…COME ON JESUS!

Doug Addison teaches us to ask God the following: “Lord Jesus, let me see that which Satan doesn’t want me to see!” I have been doing that and I came to this conclusion…Do it! You won’t regret it!

God is up to something, I pray you and I will have a deep desire to join in on it.

Many blessings from me to you…

How eatable are we?

No, I haven’t completely lost my mind and turned cannibalistic on people. This is actually what the Scripture tells us to be to this world.

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers”. Psalm 1:1-3

David was speaking about the Law that God gave Moses on Mount Zion, the ten commandments. However Paul is very clear that in the new Testament we don’t fall under the law anymore…we have been delivered from it by the blood of Jesus.  This can be very confusing for us. We have to behave good, yet it does not matter because grace has us covert. Jesus explains that the main commandments are to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. In John He actually gives us the new command: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

“If you love Me, keep My commands. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. (…)” John 14:15-17a

This is an introduction to something God is working in my spirit for a week or two now. Yesterday, after I (and some other members of my church) participated and received a cross of ashes on my head at the Ash Wednesday in the Catholic church, revelations started pouring in. Afterwards I rushed home to soak in it and try to make sense of it all. It all started with Ezekiel 47:1-12. Ezekiel describes the water coming from the Throne Room from heaven. As it is multiplying it increases in strength and power. However, what God pointed me at was that only when it touched the Dead Sea he starts talking about how it is turning it into living & sweet water.

What I love about the Catholic church is that they understand that we are talking and walking with a Holy God. They have eyes for details and don’t take anything of God for granted. They are aware of our sinful nature's and at the same time view it with so much love and compassion. As I was receiving these words filled with Grace and Mercy, I asked God why there is not more power released over to the people hearing it. (By the way, not only in the Catholic church, the entire Body of Christ.) Why do we not see more of it released into the world. The walls were covert with holiness, many angels present and the Throne Room in heaven was completely zoomed in and participating in the whole service.

I felt God saying that what we, as the Body of Christ, are missing is the flow from the Holy Spirit. I see this as the Christian walk with God. It is a process with the Holy Spirit and our relationship with God  that in turn will become more and growing in power. It is when it touches the Dead Sea, where Ezekiel sais that it turns into sweet water that actually brings life into the water. The Dead Sea consists of so much salt, that life is just impossible. This we can view as being the world that has not received Christ yet and is cut off the Life support from Heaven. Or people with terrible wounding or addictions and covert with depression and darkness…a hopeless case. However, I also have to think about the scriptures where Jesus tells us that we are the salt on the earth. We bring flavor to this world. However, the Dead Sea has no life, because there is just too much salt. I personally consider the scribes and Pharisees type of Christians as forming a Dead Sea as well. They adopted such a harsh way of carrying out the gospel, with no Mercy or Grace and no relationship with the Living God, that the option of life is pushed out…too much salt. There is condemnation and too much own insight. Doom and gloom talk that brings fear or hopelessness into the lives…

“But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.” John 16:13-15

In the book ‘Keys to the Bible’, David Pawson explains that the whole vision of Ezekiel 47 is a dream that offers people hope, that in the future it will get better. I believe that we are entering into a time where this is actually coming to pass. I believe that we are going to see the Grace and Glory manifested in such a way, this flow will enter into the deathliest of Seas to turn it back to Life.

And yes, there will be swamps and marshes that not become wholesome for animal life; they shall [as the river subsides] be left encrusted with salt and given over to it. Ezekiel 47:11.

It is my prayer that you and I will taste the fullness of what God has for us, that the fruit of the Spirit receives its nutrition from the Throne room of Heaven so that it can serve as food for those who are hungry but stuck in the Dead Sea. How? Worshipping God, reading the bible and speak it back to God, praying and talking with Him and allow Him to fill us with the Truth and let it transform our character… So that the leaves will never wither and brings healing by the lives that we live, in Love and by being the hands and feet of Jesus. To ask God continually to have His eyes to see, and His ears to hear. Some people only need to see the Love of Jesus in our eyes and receive healing instantly.

So, my question to us is this: How eatable are we? Where do we find ourselves planted at the moment? Are we willing to let go of some salt that will make room for what God wants to give us? Shall we be that part of the Sea that allows God to transform us? And maybe you find yourself in that part of a Sea that is suffocating you with too much salt...would you not become part of a swamp or marshes that has given up on God? I see so many people leaving their Faith due to hurt that the churches have caused, but I am here to ask you not to give up on God. He is about to sent out His revival Spirit and it is coming to find you! Please keep your heart open and ready to receive the water that will bring the Life of God back into your soul and your spirit! He wants to bless us over flowingly!

“And on the banks of the river on both sides, there shall grow all kinds of trees for food their leaf shall not fade nor shall their fruit fail [to meet the demand]. Each tree shall bring forth new fruit every month, [these supernatural qualities being] because their waters came from out of the sanctuary. And their fruit shall be for food and their leaves for healing.” Ezekiel 47:12

Past, present, future.

Do you have fears in your life? Maybe spiders give you the creeps (or is that just me?), or maybe you are afraid of failing? There are many things that we can be afraid of. They can be a huge pain in the b…, because we don’t want it, but there it is again! Lately God is working on this area of my life. The good news is: “I am a conqueror through Christ who strengthens me”. However…in order to conquer fears, you actually have to face them. This does not stand high on my priority list.

There are many reasons for fear to enter into our lives. I will keep it close to myself, so I want to go through the fears based on past experiences and wounds we have picked up in life. What can be experiences that causes us to fear and paralyze us? A broken home, rejected by your parent(s), raised by an alcoholic, spirit of death present in your home that causes a lot of uncertainty, abuse, being in relationships where lots of things were done behind your back, or a relationship where you are persuaded into doing things you know you shouldn’t but there is no room for your no and that also has domestic violence present where at times you even face death. These experiences can be very destructive to a person and these situations inflict wounds that absolutely need healing.

One day I was reading a question that said: “What is your greatest fear in life?” As I was reflecting on this question I came to the conclusion that being happy has always been my greatest fear. Because every time things were calm and okay, something (or I now can say “someone called Satan”) came and take that happiness away. The pain that it caused was too much for me, and I knew it would enter my life again. So, if I wasn’t happy, I wouldn’t have to go through that pain of losing it again.

In the Bible it says that we were not given a spirit of fear. This tells us that fear can actually be a demonic spirit. God told me one day that when we have wounds in our heart or soul that we don’t allow God to heal, these places are vulnerable to dirt or infections and this means for demonic to attach themselves to these places. This is not something to be afraid of, because God is in the business of restoration and deliverance, so this is not a problem. However, we do need to address them and give God a chance to heal us.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:25-26

Personally, God has restored much of my heart. The list of situations that I mentioned earlier is a basic line of experiences I  picked up in life. One day God showed me my heart and it was full of craters, scares, and black spots. My heart was a complete mess. However, it was carried in the hands of God. As I was looking at my heart while God was holding it, He released healing power and my heart started to get healthy again. This is amazing and done with so much grace. But this does not mean that it is over. Now it needs to be fed with the truth. Then God tells you that you are ready to open your heart again and trust in His goodness and try it again. He wants you to create new experiences, trusting Him that He has done His part, and He will pull you through to a place of victory.

What I’ve learned is that our happiness placed in the hands of our circumstances, is a very bad investment. What God is teaching me is that our happiness in Christ Jesus means that whatever the circumstances are, we are at peace. The Holy Spirit inside of us has us covert. This is just amazing!

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

We don’t have to walk on egg shelves anymore, looking over our shoulder to see if danger is approaching again, we can be at peace. I mentioned at the beginning that we do have to face our fears, God will put us to the test. This point I have reached. I know the truth now, but I still have to believe it when He actually wants me to put it into practice. I am receiving new experiences to replace the old. I can trust Him to never leave my side, for me this is like walking on water…this is a huge step!

I don’t know if you can relate to anything that I have just wrote down, but if you do, I pray supernatural healing over you. God loves you and He wants to look at you and see a healthy beating heart, full with joy and peace and trust in His goodness. I am still learning and my guess is that I will be learning for the rest of my life. I just want to become more and more like Him, so let this be the sacrifices I make to let it come to pass.

Take care...

Just something you're good at?

Do you know that anybody can glorify God? From a little child to a elderly person, from a bagger to the hardcore businessman, from a fresh born-again believer to the strongly rooted apostle reaching thousands of souls in one evening. This means that you and I can glorify God, and in a way we already are. Let me explain…

I have glorified You down here on earth by completing the work that You gave me to do. John 17:4

…This about sums it up. These are the words Jesus spoke to His heavenly Father BEFORE He was arrested, hung on the cross, died, rose again and went home to be at the right hand of His Father forever. Jesus came as a baby to this world. His earthly father learned Him everything on becoming a carpenter, which by the way has a lot of creating in it. From a piece of wood He could create the most magnificent piece of furniture. This skill He needed in His ministry later on and He is still using it today, for we are that piece of wood. He went through the hard knock life as a human being just like you and I.

He will be eating curds and honey when He knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. Isaiah 7:15

When God created us, He already had a plan for our lives, “…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11b. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5. When You look at the disciple Peter, he learned fishing at sea, before Jesus made him a fisherman of people. Paul learned to build tents before he was used by God to build churches.

We all have talents and gifts that God wants to use here on earth and I believe also later on in heaven. God has given us work that He wants us to do. In Matthew 25 Jesus explains that when you have the assignment or talent, multiply it by practicing it. Grow in it, become an expert in it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Ephesians 4:11 thing (Apostles, prophet, evangelist, shepherds, teachers). Do what you are good at and multiply that. And as you are growing in it, God is going to put people on your path that you can bless with that talent. And who knows, at some point God may ask you to put that skill into a ministry for the kingdom of God. But bear in mind that we are not robots here on earth nor in heaven later on. God wants us to live. He wants us to enjoy life within a righteous and heavenly culture. We need each other’s skills to make that possible. When you pick up on what God has placed in you to do, than you are glorifying Him and He will tell you: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”Matt. 25:23. He will bless the works coming from your hands, He delights in doing that.

God revealed this to me in the morning and I thought it was very encouraging. We all can feel so discourage at times, looking at some peoples ministries, thinking: ‘I wish I could do these things for you God. I feel like I fall short on You God.’ If you find yourself thinking those thoughts, I believe that this is His reply to you.

Note to parents…

 I think it is important for us to help children find this God given gift(s) early on. Satan is very busy attacking children and their parents, making sure that they won’t find these gifts and in that process also we as parents having trouble seeing it. I have seen many looks on parent’s  faces thinking what is to become of the child. As a mother I have plenty of moments where I have those thoughts. Where I find it difficult to look at my daughter and see her God given talent (or anything God given actually). It’s good to pray and talk this out with God. Ask Him to give you His eyes to look at your child. Ask Him to show you what divine talent He placed in your child and how you can be a part of developing it. Ask for grace, LOTS of grace to parent  your child. It has helped me a lot.

For myself, even though my mother gave me everything she could give me at that moment of raising my sister and me, this part is not that well developed in my childhood. As a adult I had to figure this part out and this is not an easy process. There is not much room to move in, to practice new things, to experiment, to make mistakes. There is a responsibility now, it’s not a game anymore. It is real life. That does not mean that it is impossible, just a bit harder. But when we are doing what we feel God has put in us, it builds us up. There is this feeling of satisfaction, wholeness, happiness.

I wonder what your talents are, how you developed it. I wonder what God is going to do with it. I pray God will bless the works of your hands, that He continues to help you grow in it and that it will be a blessing to many people around you. I pray that God will use the skills you picked up in life and use them powerfully to release His Kingdom here on earth. In Jesus name, amen.

From storms of life to lessons learned- class dismissed.

When I received Christ in my life, I have had many setbacks and difficult situations that I encountered. This is not new for me, for my life consistently displayed struggle and survivals, like probably many of you. Yes, since receiving Christ in my life and being serious in my pursuit, it is different. However, to be honest with you, I was convinced  that as a Christian these difficulties would change… in my case it didn’t.

Growing up, I had a very low self-esteem. I didn’t think that I was worth anything and I would look myself in the eyes through a mirror and be filled with hate and actually say it straight into my own face. At other times I would be filled with wonder why all these horrible things and feelings would be poured out over me. I got convinced that God must really hate me and there were moments I would be in my bedroom waving my arms through the sky, jumping up and down and scream at God why He hated me so much.

As a born again believer, the rough times remained, some by being obedient to the will of God and some due to poor choices that I made. I had to deal with the consequences. Yet God told me early on that I needed to hang in there (“Hold on, hold tight” repeated about 10 times or more), for I made poor choices, but He would bless it. That “Hold on, hold tight”  part is still going on after almost 6 years and in great anticipation I am waiting for that second part to fully come to pass. In the beginning of these years of ‘faith’ I would have moments that I would burst open to God yelling at Him that He really is not there for me at all! As a response a hand would lift up my head and as I was looking at the very dark sky outside, I noticed one star that did not have the size of a star, but much bigger. Not the brightness of a star, but much brighter. Strait away I knew God just put me back into place. And to make sure that I got it, this light was still there during daylight. Every now and then I would have these kinds of moments, until a month or two ago. In a conversation with God He compared my behavior with that of a two year old. I laughed really loud, because He was so right! I was that child on the floor, screaming and kicking for not getting what I wanted.

I have been struggling with God about this ‘storm’ topic for a while now. The bible says that He has placed everything under our feet, but as I was taking this authority, nothing happened. I was confused and maybe even a bit frustrated.  Until I realized, here is something that did happen: Now, when things get to overwhelming, I am ok. My thoughts about God remain calm and the truth is still burning inside me as a bright light. When I look into the mirror I’m able to look myself in the eyes and speak the God given truth and words of life to me. So what happened? What changed? Last week God showed me the moment Peter asked Jesus to tell him to walk towards Him over water (Matthew 14:27-33). Jesus did not say: “Wait Peter, let me first take away the storm. Let me make the wind and the sea calm and everything comfortable before you step out in faith and try to do something new”. No, Jesus already had put Peter in a couple of storms to prepare him for this next step of faith. All He said was “Come”. When later on Peter started to lose grip on his focus and started to feel the strong wind, doubt entered in and faith got paralyzed and sank. After this whole thing was over and Jesus stepped on the boat with Peter, the wind and the waves stopped instantly. Lessons learned- class dismissed .

From liquid cement to solid concrete

I’m getting more and more convinced that sometimes God is sending us in storms of life, so that first we get control over our own responses in these storms. Faith is a growing word, it takes one step at the time building a solid foundation and with the experiences that over time will develop faith into this cement to build Gods Kingdom as solid concrete. Three basic things needs to happen before you have cement: 1) Cement powder. 2) Water. 3) A mill to mix the ingredients into liquid cement. This in turn will transform into concrete to build walls, roads, buildings, and so on.

1. The cement powder I consider the word of God (Just like in Matt. 14:27).
2. The water comes from the Throne room of God, given by the Holy Spirit (Just like in Matt. 14:28).
3.  The cement mill would be the storms of life to mix it into a liquid cement. Then we are ready to step out of the boat and put that cement of faith and make concrete out of it (Just like in Matt. 14:29-32). This is where I believe authority will step in, the concrete itself.

As a conclusion, I would say that the storms of life are tough times. But if we want to grow in our faith and authority, we can’t miss any part of this process. The word of God (Cement powder) and the Holy Spirit with prayer & worship (Water) put inside of us, makes the difficulties mixing it into something to help us build our faith, character and our relationship with God stronger, further and of good use.  And if there are moments when doubt kicks in and faith gets paralyzed and makes you sink, remember that you can always cry out to God “Lord, save me.” Jesus will immediately reach out His hand and take hold of you. This is called Grace, we all need it every now and then.

Raising up determination

Have you been blessed with a child that has a strong determination? Or maybe you are a leader blessed by leading people that have a strong determination breathing in them?

Personally I have a daughter that is VERY determent in many things. I don’t know about you, but quite often it doesn't feel like a blessing to me at all. It can be very challenging or even difficult for me to deal with. But the fact of the matter is that it IS a blessing to have determination in you. We need it in the simple things in life like getting up in the morning, even when we don’t feel like it. Going to work, school or appointments. But also when there are dreams that God has put in us that needs determination to make it come to pass. Many of the successful and influential people will tell you that their success did not knock at the door and there it was. No, they had to work hard and make many sacrifices and try over and over again to get to where they are now. It took determination to get there.

So, it is a very important aspect of our lifes, and we as parents or leaders have the difficult task to give these people tools to tame and train this part of their character. For instance, determination without patience will turn into frustration. Likewise is determination with no goal attached to it, a very dangerous combination. You can compare it with a forest fire; it has no focus or boundary so it will release its drive to anything it can crab a hold on. To gain control over it we have the tendency to suppress it. This is not a healthy solution because our character is who we are, it is a part of us. We feel incomplete when we cannot be who God made us to be. Fire itself can be of good use, fire out of control is dangerous.

I strongly feel that God is warning us that we have to stop trying to put the fire out of the determination. But also that it needs to be tamed, trained and go through a period of boot camp, for we are in a race and we need perseverance to get to the finish line.

“(…) and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Our job as parents and leaders is to help the people that have a strong determination in them, to find out what their goal is. What is it that God has put in them that needs this fire to get it to the level where God has intended it to come? I believe that when we start doing this early on in children’s lifes, we will see shifts coming in their behavior and also prepare them to walk into their God given destiny.

Every time Bill Johnson took his children to bed, he said the following to them:

“Remember, you are part of a team that is here to change the world. When you go to sleep tonight, ask God if there is anything that is impossible that He wants you to do.”

God will do the impossible through us, but it needs the fire of our determination to actually get to that point…now, in this age to come, more than ever.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

An introduction of myself as a new Blogger.

Hello reader,

My name is Judith and I am a proud mother of a beautiful daughter Alicia, and we live in the Netherlands.

For a while now I feel the Lord preparing me to start writing down and share some of my experiences and thoughts of my journey with Jesus Christ and the challenges it sometimes brings. My hope and prayer is that it may be a blessing for whoever has decided to read it. I hope it might bring inspiration and sometimes maybe even bring comfort or conformation, if you find youself in that season where you need it. I pray that the Lord God will have His words flow through my Blogs.

To be honest, many people around me think of me as being a bit radical in my Christian walk. Fortunately for me, God calls it hungry and He loves it!

I am a follower of Christ from around 2009/2010. In that time up until now, God has done so much for me! He has grasped all of my attention and I am so grateful for the sacrifices He made to offer me an eternity with Him, from the moment I have accepted and received His grace over my life.

In my following blogs I will share some of the amazing things that God is showing me and explaining to me. Quite often I find myself blown away by what He reveals and Jesus is very clear that what we receive from heaven also needs to flow through us in order to keep it flowing and in that process bless others with it as well.

We serve a living God and Jesus is very much alive and kicking in heaven right now. Be prepared for the glory of the Love from God, to be manifesting itself and poured out here on earth, on a scale never seen before!

I pray that we, the people, will have an open heart to receive it in Jesus name, amen.

Blessings from me to you,

Judith Kleinhout