Physical Connection to Wholeness and Healing

The Apostle Paul connected food and worship in First Corinthians 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
 

God made us as whole beings, nothing missing. As followers of Jesus, we can have wholeness starting from within (God’s Spirit dwelling in us). Alignment of God’s Spirit with our spirit, our spirit to our soul and heart, our soul and heart to our bodies is wholeness. We have been weaved together as intricate, beautiful reflections of our Creator.  How we treat our bodies is a key part of being whole physically, aligned fully with God, having power and intimacy.
 

 “You are what you eat”, you have probably heard. Literally, the building blocks of how your body cells are formed, makes up your physical body. For example, the fats we eat make up our cell walls. Choosing unrefined oils, allows our body to have healthier cell structures. May our identity in Christ be consistent with how we treat our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
 

God is not only concerned about our spirituality. As a church, we have become good at seeking whole spirituality, aligning our emotions, memories, and heart with God. I want to challenge you today, to continue to align in the physical as well. Can we declare a cancer free zone, but still consume carcinogens? To host the healing presence more, we can be responsible with the knowledge we have of how to take care of the body. This really changes how we can pursue healing. Not only is it our responsibility to pray and take authority over sickness, we can take authority by how we choose to treat our own bodies.
 

Brother Lawrence, from the 17^th Century, known for his intimacy with Jesus, practiced the presence of God, while cooking. Eating for health and nutrition are byproducts of a healthy spirit connected with God.  By making healthy choices of what we put in and on our bodies we are pursuing wholeness and healing in the physical and the spiritual.
 

 I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.  Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. Romans 12:1-2, Amplified Version

 
Prayer: God, I give you permission to change how I think about food. I give you permission to change how I think about eating. I give you permission to change how I think about taking care of your temple, my body. Show me, how I can worship You to the fullest with my whole being.

Humility

Humility is a key to unlocking the supernatural into the natural. This doesn't mean false humility, which is a degrading of yourself. That form of  'humility' is actually a way to cover up our insecurities. Here I am talking about humility as a new level of vulnerable trust, just as a bride becomes vulnerable on her wedding night.

The bride is trusting that as she presents herself to her groom she will be loved, taken in, and completely protected in her vulnerability. The Bible talks about how we, the Church, are Christ's bride. That means that we have the privlege of coming humbly to Jesus as a safe place. This is often a hard thing to do spiritually and emotionally. So many times we come before the Lord not completely naked. Why?

We might be afraid of what will be seen; different issues we are hiding. We might be afraid that we won't be accepted as we are. And we might be afraid that as we are completely exposed we won't be protected and could get hurt.

The common theme here is fear. And where there is fear in our life we can be sure that something is being stolen from us.

We were made with the intent that we would have no shame attached to nakedness. Coming into the fullness of our destiny includes the ability to be naked before the Lord without shame; knowing that we can trust him with our heart in that naked state.

 Worshiping God with an open Spirit gives Him room to encounter us in new ways that we might have not been open to before. The meaningfulness and deepness in relationship that were once being stolen by fear become abundant as we walk in humility. As we allow ourselves to drop any walls we've built, we also allow the Holy Spirit to come closer to us; into the deeper places of our spirit.

-Jaci Terjeson

Prophetic Worship for our church pt 1

Worship has always been a BIG deal in our church from the very beginning.  Our hearts are for everyone to move in freedom thus releasing an atmosphere of freedom. This has got to be supernatural and not manipulative.

It is said that prophecy is either foretelling the future or causing a change in the present.  Our hearts have been all over partnering with the Holy Spirit to help change the atmosphere in worship to that of heaven if it's not already.  How we have been doing this?  Listening and doing, listening and doing is what we do.  Making mistakes and still being OK with that. Also, backing each other up and cheering each other on for trying to move in hearing and doing what the Holy Spirit is leading us to is so awesome.

Being able to abandon what we've practiced song wise and do something completely different is gotta be welcomed.  We have got to be skilled enough to play the songs and listen to the Holy Spirit at the same time and move when He moves.  Asking God "what is happening in the room" and paying attention to the atmosphere and bending near to His heart for that moment and being willing to do what He asks.  This may be giving a word of knowledge about what someone is going through and releasing the opposite, this may be hearing a phrase that needs to be sung like "I trust You Lord" as many times as it takes to release a heavenly safe place, or if God puts a certain sound or melody to sing or play then do it as it may just bring healing.

This also goes with prophetic painting and dancing.  Being willing to listen and do.  If we have specific painters or dancers as a part of the worship team that particular Sunday it's nice for a certain skill level to be had so they can listen and do.  If the Holy Spirit gives a painter a picture in their imagination of an apple then it's really nice for them to be able to paint that apple.  Same principle for the dancers. 

I love our worship team.  It's a hard place to be because we challenge each other and we don't have a set way we do a song from beginning to end.  I also love that our church allows us to try things and fail and knowing that we are just running after Jesus for Kingdom release.

Abbi

The Gift of Healing

            When my boy was two he was beating up on a passenger in the back seat of our car.  We encouraged him to be nice and to be like Jesus.  Immediately he put his hand out toward the pummeled passenger and said, "be healed".  It had taken him mere months to come to a conclusion that I didn't reach for thirty years--to be like Jesus is to heal people.

 Ask anyone unfamiliar with Christianity to read the gospels and tell us what they notice, they will most definitely remark on Jesus' habit of healing everyone who came to Him.  Jesus was the original and most normal Christian, the watermark, and He has modeled for believers what our practice toward sickness is to be.  We are to do as He did (John 20:21).  Healing people is to be one of the most normal virtues of the Christian life.  Our exceeding "niceness" is noted as diseases leave people's bodies.  "Heal the sick, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, cast out demons" (Mt. 10:8).  Our Body is fueled and driven by this verse which describes how the original followers were sent to preach and demonstrate the kingdom of God.  This message was not just for the first disciples but for everyone.  They were instructed to teach the nations all that He had commanded them (Mt. 28:20).  Go, teach everyone else what you have learned in my presence.  So, they did.  All Christians are supposed to move in the gift of healing, the most recognized aspect of Jesus' life.

 Approaching the gift of healing believers will often remember Paul’s words more than they will Jesus’ words.  Does everyone have the gift of healing?  In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul goes over the nine gifts of the Spirit and then begins to explain that not everyone has the same gifts.  “All do not have gifts of healing, do they?” (12:30).  It is my understanding that Paul is describing what is taking place in a believer’s meeting.  As the Spirit is moving in a meeting someone may be used to heal that “Sunday”, another may have a prophetic word, another an interpretation to a message that was spoken in an unknown language.           

However we interpret 1 Corinthians 12, we must allow what Jesus said to help us interpret what Paul has said.  Jesus has directly instructed us to heal the sick, so regardless of what Paul may be talking about we are all still supposed to heal the sick.  Yes, actually heal the sick, the diseased, the dying, the injured, the demonized and the dead.  

We usually conclude that someone has the gift of healing because people get healed when he or she prays for others.  I believe this approach has contributed to the dying out of this gift.  This gift is available to every believer because every believer has the Holy Spirit within.  And within the Spirit are the gifts of the Spirit.  The moment we receive Jesus, Holy Spirit sets up shop within us and every good thing, fruit and gift is now available to us.  And it is faith that makes what’s available accessible.  We receive all of the Holy Spirit, not just parts of His nature and power.  He’s all in there!  Putting the gift to work with expectation allows that gift to mature.  

Here's a fact:  pray for sick with faith and expectation and you will see people get healed.  Everyone may not get healed, but that is the standard that Jesus has set for me.  And He's pleased with me as I lovingly and joyously long for His likeness to be seen in me.  I'm excited for the coming day when my Christian profession is responded to with "Oh, so you heal the sick, right?"

Our Personal Destiny

I believe God made us all wonderfully different.  When we were in the womb He gave us personalities and destinies, which should be unique and in their own way bringing heaven to earth.  It's our job to find out what they are.  It's not that hard though really.  It's just being us and no one else.   

Some of us mistake our "destiny" as something that has to look or be of a certain magnitude.  It may seem big or small but in the supernatural reality they are all earth shaking.  This can look like anything  from a simple farmer that is praying over his/her crop that when people eat the food the Holy Spirit will be ingested as well, to a mom that raises up godly children with the principles like healing the sick and bringing heaven to earth at the age they are, to someone that is on a Hollywood type platform declaring the love of God in the media. 

When we get closer to God we become more us, not less of us.  We are made in His image and He is love.  When we allow the Holy Spirit to get near and we are honest with who we really are, the false identities that we and others have put on ourselves melt off. 

Most of our ministry it seems in this season is administering His revelations that we are in fact amazing and powerful.  Despite what we have done or are doing, God only sees us as that.  Jesus talks to the Father on our behalf.  He is our filter.  Father God just can't see the bad in us.  He only looks at who He made us to be and He loves us perfectly without wanting to change us.  He just wants to love us.  Isn't that incredible? If God doesn't have any other agenda but to love then it's amazing how we end up becoming who we were made to be from the beginning.

If our goal is heaven coming to earth and doing so with who God made us, the whole world can be changed by us just being us.

In our community, we encourage people to dream big and make mistakes.  If something is on your heart and in lines up with who Jesus was, go for it.  Don't waste time.  Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty (freedom).  So Holy Spirit I ask You to fill every person reading this blog.  Freedom reigns in you.  He has called you out.  Go change the world.

Abbi

A Destiny of Rest

I used to think that the Christian life was about walking a tiny tight rope, which was the plan God had for my life. Any misstep and I’d plummet to unthinkable depths, possibly throwing off God’s plan for my whole life! This created a frantic, ‘walking on eggshells’ feeling for me about the future.

Remembering the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we see that there is no toiling or striving in Him. I believe that toiling and striving in life came as a result of the curse of sin.

“What am I supposed to do with my life? What if I choose something that isn’t in God’s will?”

Sometimes we let these questions and unknowns lead us to a place of stress, anxiety, and fear that paralyze us, and we beg God to show us where to go next in life so that we can stop waiting and make a move.

But God is always speaking! He has given us desires and passions to drive us to our destinies. He has given us free will because he trusts us! God isn’t a red light that turns green when we’ve toiled and strived hard enough; He’s a green light that’s cheering us on to explore our destiny and follow our dreams! Through the cross the curse of sin is broken and we can experience heaven on earth!

When we understand how deep God’s goodness and love is, the fear begins to leave. Instead of walking in fear, we can walk in grace. And no matter what happens through this process we can hold on to the higher reality that the Spirit that lives inside of us offers unrelenting peace and rest. 

Jaci Terjeson

Living in mystery

The full nature of Father God was found in the person of Jesus.  Jesus was the exact representation of the Father.  That means any view we have of the father that can not be found in the life of Jesus needs to be brought into question.  There was so much confusion on who God was and Jesus cleared up all of the questions by demonstrating the Father.

This truth brings up many questions.  Scripture, Gods nature and why we are on earth.   The biggest truth is Jesus.  Jesus even told the disciples that he is the Truth.  All truth is in him.

QUESTIONS NEVER TRUMP THE REVELATION OF JESUS

We can all come up with a million questions about the nature of God.  From sickness to scripture.  But there is not a question big enough to out weigh the person of Jesus.

It is important to live in mystery regarding this subject.  If we can fully explain our christianity than we are not living by faith.  Religion wants us to be able to explain everything then eventually we are back under the law.

The measure of mystery we are willing to live under is equal to the amount of revelation that God can give us.

We dont need to know everything.  All we must know is that he is good and does not cause harm to his children and bride.

The goodness of God must be the anchor of all theology and thought life.

Landon Snoddy