Consider the butterfly.....

Just the other day, I took my four boys along with my mom to a local arboretum to visit a butterfly exhibit. This is the time of year to see butterflies in all their stages. Butterflies are one of my favorite creatures. They are so whimsical. I just love them! We got to go inside a special butterfly house, or habitat created just for them, as well as for us to observe them up close and personal. It was delightful! The boys were so intrigued as they went around searching for caterpillars and spotting the various butterflies, that would flit and float by. Summer dreaminess at its best! Anyway, I wanted to share this little picture my mom took. It inspired me to create this poem. It came to me as a New Covenant version of a Proverb. 

Consider the butterfly 

consider it's life and let it free you....

Look at the process 

of fantastic wonder

into true beauty and freedom! 

Before it finds its way into the world as a new creation, 

emerging from egg, to caterpillar, 

and then it must go through a greater process,

a transformation.....

to become it's true form as a butterfly!

Time spent bound inside itself, 

as a chrysalis,

it hangs on a thread waiting to be released.....

and one day, it happens, 

as nature would only predict, 

the hatching from the coma,

and slowly it let's out its tender wings, 

it is fragile and weak, yet it was born to fly and fly it will.

Time allows the butterfly to adjust 

and out of nowhere, it takes flight.........

gracefully flitting and floating to and fro, 

lightly and easy, flowing along

tasting all of natures goodness in each and every colorful flower

so many riches, so many good things to taste and to see.....

such a life of freedom, of pure simplicity, 

allowing itself to be nurtured by nature itself.....!! 

This is a life of pure freedom, 

one that is meant to be enjoyed,

and lived to its fullest, in it's final truest stage of life

as it was intended to be -unbound and living free!!

Walking by the Spirit....

I have been contemplating about walking by the Spirit a lot lately. What does it really mean or look like to walk by the Spirit? Is is proactive or require much effort on our part......I think it can mean that, but I think first and foremost it's important to believe and understand we are now new creations, spirit beings, not flesh or soul beings......we are alive to Christ and our old nature has died, and we now have the very same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead alive inside of us, in our spirit.....I believe when we truly lay hold of this truth, by renewing our minds with it, we can sort of just flow, or should I say the Spirit is able to flow freely through us.....I am noticing more and more the Spirit flowing through me and I feel so free, so liberated.....to some this may sound a bit weird, almost New Agey perhaps, but it is so true.....if it was for freedom we were set free, should we not literally feel the freedom that Christ has purchased for us, should we not feel "alive" to Christ......

I know for so many years I did not experience this freedom genuinely, I truly felt bound, for lack of a better word, just bound up, trapped even, longing for something and I couldn't tell you what.....I was spiritually blind, deaf and dumb......that was due to being placed back under the law, which only brings death and curses.....I didn't know about my freedom in Christ or about my amazing inheritance either.....thankfully, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom and He who began a good work was faithful to see me being transformed into His likeness and that simply wasn't possible under legalistic sin conscious teaching and mentalities.......thank God, He set me free from that and is still freeing me from old mindsets......He truly longs to heal us in every way, not just physically.......I do not minimize the suffering of physical blindness, deafness or dumbness, but those things in the spiritual sense are life robbing, sucking away joy and true inner peace....but God has His ways of healing our broken hearts and restoring us as He intends to do and really it's all Him.....I believe a lot of our partnering with Him has do with our mindset, our thoughts and beliefs......in the past I tried to "do" things, so many things to improve myself in the spiritual sense, but I simply could not succeed, I would have brief victory only to fall back into frustration and disappointment.....

honestly, I was trying to measure up to the "law" which is simply not what God intends whatsoever, the law was added so the trespass might increase, no wonder I couldn't move forward in my walk......now most often I simply believe the truth of His Word, the truth of the pure Gospel of Grace, it's all been done and I can't do one thing to add to it, but I can accept His wonderful free gifts, of righteousness and allow His Spirit to just work in me from the inside out.....you see the Pharisees had it the other way around, that's why they were called white washed tombs......I am now so aware of this inside out transformation that God is doing in me and that is what is so freeing......he carries the burdens, His yoke is easy.......now trials will come, affliction will come, life will look messy, (actually is should from time to time and it's okay....) but when we have the Spirit of the Lord within us to draw from -we can breeze through trials as difficult as they may be, and believe me I have a had a number of them, some without awareness of the power of the Spirit within me, and recently with such awareness of Him living His life through me, and the difference is incredible......He truly does take us from glory to glory.......wow......I love God, honestly, I love discovering His mysteries these days......I love the beauty of the Holy Spirit, I long to find out more about Him and what He is like.......and I know I will get to since He and I are partnering together to bring forth the kingdom on this earth......I hope you don't mind my random post, it's kind of an out loud thought process, actually a written out thought process......I would absolutely love anyone else's thoughts on what walking by the Spirit means to them......I think it would be encouraging and edifying.......please feel free to share.....much peace to all who read here...........!!!

Where the Spirit of the Lord is ~ There is FREEDOM!!!

I decide to include a favorite passage of Scripture of mine, that goes with this post. 

ROMANS 8:1-16 

Important Message!

God said that before He saved us we were powerless, ungodly, sinners and enemies of God. Ouch!!! Rom 5:6-10 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Now we are a new creation, born again, the old has gone and the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

we are chosen by God, holy and dearly loved. Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved

Our position in Christ is as firm as Gods word says it is Hebrews11:14 Perfect forever. 

It gets better too. He loves us with the SAME love He loves His beloved Son Jesus with. John 17:21-23 (Jesus prayer for all believers) Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Wow!!! 

Romans 8:31-35, 37, 38. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

God wants us to get revelation of our position in Christ before we ‘Go’ anywhere or ‘Do’ anything. 

This is the empowering message of Grace. It is not about striving. It is about receiving. As we come under the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and ‘get’ that we have ‘already got’, we can experience unbroken fellowship and intimacy with God and the manifestation of Gods presence in our lives that will draw us deeper and deeper into the infinitude of Gods Love, Grace and Power. Heb 11: 19-25 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 

(these are notes I found from City Church International's website, from a foundational Grace message,"Our position in Christ", Adam Howell)

Important Message!

God said that before He saved us we were powerless, ungodly, sinners and enemies of God. Ouch!!! Rom 5:6-10 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Now we are a new creation, born again, the old has gone and the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

we are chosen by God, holy and dearly loved. Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved

Our position in Christ is as firm as Gods word says it is Hebrews11:14 Perfect forever. 

It gets better too. He loves us with the SAME love He loves His beloved Son Jesus with. John 17:21-23 (Jesus prayer for all believers) Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Wow!!! 

Romans 8:31-35, 37, 38. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all— how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died— more than that, who was raised to life— is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

God wants us to get revelation of our position in Christ before we ‘Go’ anywhere or ‘Do’ anything. 

This is the empowering message of Grace. It is not about striving. It is about receiving. As we come under the spirit of wisdom and revelation, and ‘get’ that we have ‘already got’, we can experience unbroken fellowship and intimacy with God and the manifestation of Gods presence in our lives that will draw us deeper and deeper into the infinitude of Gods Love, Grace and Power. Heb 11: 19-25 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 

(these are notes I found from City Church International's website, from a foundational Grace message,"Our position in Christ", Adam Howell)

There is so much more to the Gospel, than just the Cross!!

For most of my Christian life I lived believing that the Gospel was about believing that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath for sin, so that I could have a way to be in a relationship with God. God being a just God, a holy God, had to have sin punished - so He sent His only son Jesus to live and to die for me, so that I could come to God and be cleared of my sin and have a relationship with Him and one day go to heaven. So to me salvation meant I was saved from my sin so I could now be free from God's wrath and one day I would get to go to heaven. Essentially, that is what I believed and what I thought summed up the Gospel. However, this version of the gospel left me in a confused state as to what do I do in the meantime. I mean it's great that Jesus saved me from going to hell, which was what I thought God's wrath represented, and that I would be with him in heaven for all eternity, but what about now...now what do I do, what does life me for me now??? Well, as you know I have shared what my life was like for many years, trials, confusion, struggles, striving, condemnation.....but no Victory, no peace, you know that deep inner peace that I was supposed to have. Well, thankfully, there is more to the gospel than what I had understood. SOO much more...I won't even be able to really scratch the surface in this post, but I will try. What I didn't understand, in my heart, although I had heard it here and there, was that God's wrath that was satisfied, didn't just mean I was rescued from hell. It means that God poured out all his wrath for all sin on Jesus and it was fully satisfied...allowing Him to forget my sin, and see it no more..it is gone, as far as the east is from the west...and God made a promise, through the prophet Isaiah (see Is. 54) to never be angry with me again! Wow!!! I do not have to fear that I am not in right standing with God anymore! Also, I learned that when Jesus died He became sin for us, so we could become the perfect righteousness of Christ....this is a supernatural exchange....and by Faith I believe it, not that I look like the perfect righteousness to anyone else, but that is how God sees me, and this is true because I, in the spiritual sense died, my spirit that is, with Christ and rose again and now I am a new creation in Christ, I now have the very life of Christ in me.....wow....So I died to sin, myself...and one more thing....the Law...I am not under the curse of the Law, the tutorship of the law in my life is now over....I know have it written on my heart, and I have the gift of righteousness along with the Holy Spirit, my helper and I have and indwelling Christ......I also want to say, the cross is important, but Jesus rose again...ascended to Heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father, He is alive and we can serve a risen Lord.....these are amazing truths that unfortunately get glossed over because as Christians we don't get it....we don't feel righteous, we don't necessarily look righteous so we think we still have a sin problem...yes, we will sin a bit......but if we lay claim to these truths and take them by FAITH and trust that God isn't lying to us, because this is all in His Word...we can then begin to see victory and we can have a peace deep in the very core of our being..because that's where Christ lives and we begin to KNOW it, really KNOW it, not Know about it...but sense it ....I suppose I could go on there is so much more to speak of.....I just want to say also, our feelings aren't the greatest thing to rely on when it comes to believing this, and other people's opinions and wary words do not change the fact that this is true....after all it is clear in the Scripture!!!!

There is so much more to the Gospel, than just the Cross!!

For most of my Christian life I lived believing that the Gospel was about believing that Jesus died on the cross to satisfy God's wrath for sin, so that I could have a way to be in a relationship with God. God being a just God, a holy God, had to have sin punished - so He sent His only son Jesus to live and to die for me, so that I could come to God and be cleared of my sin and have a relationship with Him and one day go to heaven. So to me salvation meant I was saved from my sin so I could now be free from God's wrath and one day I would get to go to heaven. Essentially, that is what I believed and what I thought summed up the Gospel. However, this version of the gospel left me in a confused state as to what do I do in the meantime. I mean it's great that Jesus saved me from going to hell, which was what I thought God's wrath represented, and that I would be with him in heaven for all eternity, but what about now...now what do I do, what does life me for me now??? Well, as you know I have shared what my life was like for many years, trials, confusion, struggles, striving, condemnation.....but no Victory, no peace, you know that deep inner peace that I was supposed to have. Well, thankfully, there is more to the gospel than what I had understood. SOO much more...I won't even be able to really scratch the surface in this post, but I will try. What I didn't understand, in my heart, although I had heard it here and there, was that God's wrath that was satisfied, didn't just mean I was rescued from hell. It means that God poured out all his wrath for all sin on Jesus and it was fully satisfied...allowing Him to forget my sin, and see it no more..it is gone, as far as the east is from the west...and God made a promise, through the prophet Isaiah (see Is. 54) to never be angry with me again! Wow!!! I do not have to fear that I am not in right standing with God anymore! Also, I learned that when Jesus died He became sin for us, so we could become the perfect righteousness of Christ....this is a supernatural exchange....and by Faith I believe it, not that I look like the perfect righteousness to anyone else, but that is how God sees me, and this is true because I, in the spiritual sense died, my spirit that is, with Christ and rose again and now I am a new creation in Christ, I now have the very life of Christ in me.....wow....So I died to sin, myself...and one more thing....the Law...I am not under the curse of the Law, the tutorship of the law in my life is now over....I know have it written on my heart, and I have the gift of righteousness along with the Holy Spirit, my helper and I have and indwelling Christ......I also want to say, the cross is important, but Jesus rose again...ascended to Heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father, He is alive and we can serve a risen Lord.....these are amazing truths that unfortunately get glossed over because as Christians we don't get it....we don't feel righteous, we don't necessarily look righteous so we think we still have a sin problem...yes, we will sin a bit......but if we lay claim to these truths and take them by FAITH and trust that God isn't lying to us, because this is all in His Word...we can then begin to see victory and we can have a peace deep in the very core of our being..because that's where Christ lives and we begin to KNOW it, really KNOW it, not Know about it...but sense it ....I suppose I could go on there is so much more to speak of.....I just want to say also, our feelings aren't the greatest thing to rely on when it comes to believing this, and other people's opinions and wary words do not change the fact that this is true....after all it is clear in the Scripture!!!!

Who I am in Christ!!!

I am currently going over and over and over who God says I am in Christ. I can't get over it! I am psyched, pumped and fired up! (haven't used any of those words since I was a kid:) Tonight, I heard a message that reiterated it and so I wanted to share it here.
The bible tells me I am a New Creation, that I am a Saint, an Ambassador for Christ, I have the perfect righteousness of Christ given to me, I have all the riches of Christ...........

I want to repeat myself again, and again over the days, weeks and coming months! I can't hear this enough! Knowing who God says I am has a huge impact on how I will want to live my life for Him!!! It also drives me to delve deep into His Word and revel in the life given to me from it!!

I am so grateful that God is revealing his grace more and more to me, I have a whole new perspective of his character as well, he's way more loving and patient than I ever understood him to be -since I was living like I was in the Old Covenant still, and had a legalistic mindset, so naturally I didn't think God was happy with me often since I could never live up to the standard of the law!! But now that I understand the New Covenant of Grace, I feel like a new creation in Christ!! God is so Amazing and so desirable, I just want to spend time with Him truly learning who He really is!!