February 18, 2017

Greetings My Friend, My new way of studying the Word has me digging deeper than I ever have. I underline and circle as I read the Word. In the past I underlined or highlighted what was speaking to me but now adding the circles seems to slow me down and I delve deeper into the Word. This morning I came across the Word "consecrate" so I stopped to look up the meaning "make or declare something is sacred; dedicate formally to a religious or divine purpose." I went back to the text in the Bible in Exodus when Moses told the people to consecrate themselves for in 3 days God was going to speak to them. Moses then told them to put clean clothes on, later he told them to not lay with a woman and at another point I learned that God did not want them to expose themselves when they went up the steps, I took this to mean our private parts. I understood that expensive clothes did not matter to God but clean clothes did and that God did not want us exposing ourselves in worship. I believe these first outward physical displays were pointing us to our spiritual worship. We need to have clean hearts for God and not allow our minds to be filled with things of this world. After this I went to my NT reading which was in John about the woman at the well. As I circled and underlined I saw a depth to this passage I had never seen before. "But the hour is coming and now is here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." My thoughts were running a mile a minute as I circled and underlined. there was the words "true worshipers, will worship the Father in spirit," a little further "God is spirit" and the climax for me was "the Father is seeking such people to worship Him." The Bible is teaching me yet again that God is spirit and He is not interested in physical acts of worship as much as He is interested in spiritual worship. Physical acts that honor God are many and a few are, to clear our minds of the filth we allow in so that we can hear God, then our hearts will want to worship in the body such as going to church or stopping to take notice of creation. Being blessed by God does not mean how many things we have but how grateful we are for the beauty around us, the food we have to eat, the roof over our head no matter how large or small. The more we hear God "whispers" on our heart the closer we will draw to God and desire to be in His presence all the time. He will lead us if we allow Him to and that may mean some very uncomfortable moments as we learn to let go of things in this world. Once more God reminded me that being in the spirit is not a dramatic moment but a day in and day out walk in the Lord.I likened my spiritual walk not unlike learning a career such as a doctor. When we begin learning about being a doctor we start by studying the human body, then we move into different diseases and their affects on the body. One day you have a degree to help people get better. You know deep down all the things you have studied and learned, you will further study if your patient has something unfamiliar. The same has been going on in my walk with Jesus, I study the Word and have read the Bible through for 19 years now. Each year I find myself learning a bit more, growing some more and life circumstances play out in my life and I struggle so prayer, the Bible will speak to me as to what I need to do. The more I read the Bible and pray the more I empty my mind of hurt, anger, addictions and even lusts that want to consume me. I then fill my mind with God's Word growing to look like Jesus more. In this reflective way I discover my spirit connecting to God and hearing His "whispers" on my heart. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet