Sherri Sand's Blog

Where do we go from here?

So much hatred and division and turmoil and fear leaking out of us.

So. Much. Pain.

What matters most in all of it?

Unity. Love. Connection.

A heart that is open and listening. A willingness to see beyond the world we know, to the experience someone else has lived.

But it’s so hard to navigate the landscape in front of us when it’s filled with so many trigger points.

There are as many opinions and belief systems as there are people. Beliefs formed by family, heritage, history, socio-economic status, density and diversity of your city, and the region of the country in which you live.

How do we honor and understand each other when our vantage points are so vastly different?

One person wears a mask, yet is shamed by those who don’t believe they are necessary. Another person goes maskless and is shamed for not protecting others. Neither person has the data to back up their choice because it’s all so new and untested.

Into this tinderbox—self-quarantining, lost jobs, lost businesses, and our economy imploding—George Floyd is murdered by a police officer.

And our country incinerates itself.

My heart grieves for those who have been oppressed and marginalized, whether for their skin color or their gender or something else.

While we are to bind up the broken-hearted (Isaiah 61:1), we have to be able to see the pain before we can help heal the wounds.

Does the black community cry out over a current pain or a pain that has never healed? From the practice of segregation? Its earlier roots of slavery? Or from the rampant fatherlessness in their family systems?

There are black commentators who say that racism is not a systemic issue in America, yet others insist it is problematic.

Our beliefs invite experiences that reinforce them and ignore contradicting information. It’s called confirmation bias. It’s unintentional and we all do it.

We see and experience what our wounds tell us is “truth.”

We don’t live above our pain to find truth, we just look for what confirms it.

So if we aren’t looking for goodness, we’ll miss it.

The other day as we waited for our dinner reservation, my husband and I took a walk around a university campus that is re-designing their track stadium. A man was walking toward us with his dog. When we stepped off the sidewalk to give him space to pass, I said, “Beautiful dog.” He didn’t even glance at me. This is a pretty benign situation, but I still had a choice to make—take offense or assume goodness.

I gave a mental shrug and assumed he didn’t hear me. A minute later we turned around to head back toward the restaurant and happened to catch up to the man as he paused by a particularly beautiful section of the stadium. When we stopped to admire it as well, he turned and said, “Isn’t this amazing? It gives me goose bumps.”

It’s so much easier—more restful—to believe the best in others. Even when we’re wrong. Another’s anger, pain or offense is rarely personal. And it’s not our place to judge another’s motives. We can’t know what’s in a heart. We can identify the facts of their actions—but not follow that trail and make a judgment about why he or she acted the way they did.

But we do it all the time. “He did that because he thinks he’s better than everyone else.” “She did that because she’s jealous.” But we don’t know why they did what they did. We just don’t.

Jesus said, “Love each other as I have loved you.” This is New Covenant loving. We can’t love well under the Old Covenant which stated, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” I would venture that the majority of us don’t love ourselves well at all, so how can we take our lack and try to love someone else with it?

We need the love of Jesus in us, refreshing and restoring us and filling us so we can love others with that love.

When we work on what is broken in us—the wounds, the guilt and shame, the bitterness and unforgiveness—then it will be easier for Jesus to leak His love through us to others.

So maybe the better question is, “What is leaking out of us?”

Jesus, I repent for my judgments and bitterness and for holding onto the pain that resides in me. Teach me how to bring my wounds to you and allow you to restore my soul so I become the person you designed me to be: a vessel of hope and freedom and love to lost and hurting people. Make me into a giant in your Kingdom. An overcomer and an emissary of your goodness. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Fingerpointing by Gerd Altmann via Pixabay

Faith Love Hope by John Hain via Pixabay

You are liked by the One who spoke light into existence.

But He’s busy (we often think) and we’re busy, right? We might carve out a morning devotional. Read, pray, try to throw up more praise and gratitude than pleas for help or complaints.

But do we connect?

If we see ourselves as insignificant in the scope of all that God has on his plate…wars, famine, poverty, the sex trade, addictions, politics…then we might not fully understand the depth of his desire to spend time with us. One-on-one.

Does that scare us? Maybe a little? To imagine the gaze of Almighty God on sin-struggling and doubt-filled me.

But do we see ourselves the way He does? Are we looking through His lens? I’m don’t think so. At least for my own life. I’m wired in a way to see what is wrong, what’s broken and what’s not functioning properly. And when I do that without love, grace and hope in the process, I come under self-condemnation and shame.

And if we use a lens of negativity toward ourselves and others, our connection with God suffers.

We all have that negative friend. The one who can’t see anything good in her marriage, her job, her kids, other  people’s kids. And that doesn’t touch on the wider circle of politics and social issues.

What is it like to spend time with someone who doesn’t see life, breathe hope, belief for the best in herself or the world around her? It’s a downer.

So my question is, how does our own brand of negativity or self-criticism affect our ability to connect with our Creator?

I think many of us long for more, but don’t know how to get there with God. Maybe we don’t know how to hear His voice or we can’t hear Him well through the chatter in our minds. I love what Bill Johnson of Bethel Church says regarding the bible, “Read until He speaks.”

I wonder how our intimacy with the Lord would be impacted if we woke up each morning with the intention of practicing awareness of His presence. He says He never leaves us nor forsakes us (Heb. 13:5).

I love this verse (Zeph. 3:17):

“The Lord your God is with you,

the Mighty Warrior who saves.

He will take great delight in you;

in his love he will no longer rebuke you,

but will rejoice over you with singing.”

There is so much in that passage that reveals his deep love and delight in us. And we don’t lose his love or his papa’s heart for us. Ever. When we mess up, we repent and receive the forgiveness He has for us and get restored back to who we were created to be. It is simple. The lies of the enemy are what make it seem hard.

And that is part of the process of going deeper with Him. Learning the truth of His longing to know us more intimately and for us to know Him. There are so many ways we can learn to know and relate to Him. They (the Trinity) are Father, Teacher, Comforter, Provider, Healer, Helper, Counselor, Friend…if we took one facet of who He is and started relating to Him along that path, what would we discover about His character and who He is to us from that part of His personality?

Awareness of His presence. A warm papa’s embrace to comfort and help and guide us through the day.

Lord, give me the eyes to see as you do. To love well and to love deeply all those you’ve created, including myself. Deepen my grace and acceptance for myself and the situations I can’t control. I want to discover who You want to be to me. Lead me into deeper waters of relating to You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Pictures via Pixabay

This has been a year of introspection…and anger. The anger piece was a surprise. If someone had asked if I was angry with God, I would have given an adamant, “No. Things are great with us.”

That apparently wasn’t completely true. There was a story in me that I was unaware of. That hid behind a closed door.

An event happened that caused that door to get shoved open and spew anger all over my surprised emotions. Initially, my anger was directed toward the person center stage in this event. And then the anger traveled back, through my personal history, highlighting a few authority figures over the years whose inability to love well had wounded me. And finally the anger landed on the greatest authority figure in my life who had let me down in some of the worst ways.

God.

God had failed me. He hadn’t been there for me when I needed Him most, when I needed rescuing. He let me flounder and sink and drown in some difficult situations.

And I let him have it. All of my anger. And I didn’t gracefully carry my anger to the cross and lay it at his feet. I yelled horrible, angry words at him. I let him have it for all the times He’d left me alone and hurting. What good was all that power when you don’t use it to rescue your kids?

I was raw and honest and horrified. One part of my brain was yelling terrible things at Him, while a small rational piece was apologizing for my outburst. The explosion was immense.

And necessary.

You see, the anger and the lack of trust had always been there, buried beneath my busyness. There was a part of me that felt alone and abandoned when I wasn’t “doing” something with or for God.

And I just ignored that piece of myself. Stayed busy. Scrolled Instagram or read a book.

But once that door was opened I couldn’t close it. All that anger came pouring out. My resentment for believing I had to meet other people’s expectations to gain their love. I was done with that and done trying to please God so He would love me too.

And in the midst of dumping my anger, God said, “It’s about time.”

I was on a path He’d never asked me to walk. The path of doing, pleasing, trying to gain approval.

The issue was I viewed God through the same lens I viewed significant people who had hurt me or let me down. I was trying for His love the same way I’d tried for theirs. And because God allowed pain in my life and didn’t rescue me, I assumed He wasn’t in those situations with me.

But I learned that He was. He’d never left me. In those dark times, He used His power to hold me, though I hadn’t felt it. He used His love to comfort me, but I hadn’t experienced it.

My lack of experiencing Him or seeing Him during my difficulties didn’t make His presence any less real.

He was there. He did hold me. His comfort surrounded me because He can’t help but comfort His kids. Sometimes He intervenes and rescues us, but often He chooses to go through the junk with us.

I needed a lens change. As long as I saw Him through a lens that painted him as conditional, I couldn’t connect at the deepest heart level with Him.

When we can’t look at the ugliness behind our closed doors we just distract ourselves from our true emotions. Those emotions may be ugly, but until they come out we’ll hide a piece of ourselves from God.

Father, if there is any place in me that needs a touch from You, please expose it. Flood me with Your gentleness and Your kindness. Break through the dark places in my life, the places that are closed off and shine Your healing light on them. Release me to walk in all You have for me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

How much of our thinking is built on a lie?

On a lens that is colored through our experiences and belief systems?

The lens we look through flavors everything.

Our lens is our bias.

There is a person on the periphery of my life that I struggle with. I’ll call him Ben. I care for him in the sense that I love and value people and I believe everyone has worth, but I just don’t like how he treats people or how he puffs himself up. I’ve lived the last handful of years believing that I’ve judged this guy pretty accurately and fairly. He’s valuable, but not very likable.

Then one day I was talking to God about my own journey and this is what He said to me:

You must love well. The enemy can still engage you. He’s going for areas you’ve not completely handed over to Me. You’ve judged your lack. Is that fair? Do you judge others for what they don’t have? That’s where My people error. They judge the deficits instead of loving people into the light. Into My arms. Into wholeness and freedom. Where you lack, another has the resource.

But love is the key that brings resources to lack. People withhold resources (time, energy, instruction, investment) because they judge the lack. But the lack needs the resources I’ve given (James 1:17).

Take Ben. Others’ judgments reinforce his weaknesses because that’s all he has. These weaknesses become his fortress and defense. So all people see are the barricades he has around his heart: hardness, pride, judgment, selfishness. They miss that those barricades hide and “protect” the frightened little boy who desperately needs approval. And the more people push away from him, the stronger his defenses become.

It is presumed that he chooses to be pompous and arrogant. But who wants that? Who would choose that mindfully? Pride enticed him saying, “You’re good at (sport). Elevate yourself. Promote yourself.”

It invited him to stop feeling. To feel the self-glory of pride instead of the pain of never receiving his father’s approval. Who wouldn’t make that trade? But it sacrifices relationship and people. It doesn’t allow love in.

And my people judge outwardly, never asking Me what is going on in another’s heart and soul. Not understanding that I’ve sent them as My ambassadors of love and approval. Shackles drop off in the presence of love. In My embrace hearts are healed. I embrace through your arms. I approve through your mouth.

I want to send ambassadors of My goodwill. But My people have believed lies and instead made themselves judges.

Repent and turn from this wickedness that has enticed and lied to you. Drink deeply and be refreshed in My rivers of life and love. Be renewed so you can be a conduit of renewal for others. Be ambassadors of My goodwill and peace.

It changed how I looked at this man and reminded me that God knows people. He understands what formed and shaped us and it’s why He so badly wants us to love them with His love.

Father, teach me to love others with Your love, to see them and myself through Your eyes. Gift me with compassion and a joy to spread your love to the hurting ones around me. I repent for judging and not loving. Give me opportunities to be Your ambassador to a hurting world. Rebuild me into the image of Your Son. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Here is a tutorial from Mark Virkler on how to hear God’s voice in your life:

Pictures via Pixabay

What do we do about the baggage trailing behind us?

My daughter and I were visiting family across the state and went for a run in the beautiful farm country. We were running single file beside a country road and Brie yelled, “Oh my gosh!” I thought she must have spotted a snake slithering away. Nope. It was a goat.

So there we were running along single file, me, Brie and a goat.

It persistently followed us, its little hooves pattering along on the pavement as it kept pace with us.

We turned back and ran to the nearest house and found his owner. A couple mornings later I went on an early morning run by myself and when I reached that part of the country, I heard the patter of his hooves behind me. I thought if I ignored him, he’d give up. And after a few minutes I thought he had.

But I soon learned that he’d stop to catch his breath and then hurry to catch back up. I finally had to tie him to the power pole at the end of my parent’s lane and call his owner. Couldn’t risk him discovering my mom’s garden.

It made me think about what we become accustomed to in our lives. The things that really need to go away. Attitudes. Habits. Persistent goats…

Sometimes it’s easier to let those things hang around instead of doing the work to root them out. It can be a lot easier to blame others for our critical thoughts (“I wouldn’t get irritated if he would just…”)

And the funny thing is…we would be a lot happier and more content with those habits and attitudes rooted out of our lives.

So how do we do that? How do we even identify what needs to go?

One way is to just observe how we feel, how we treat others, what thoughts drive our actions (fear of failure, perfectionism, control, not trusting others to do things well…). When we observe without judging ourselves, there is opportunity to do things differently.

Judgment of self and others tends to keep us moving along the same course we’ve always traveled.

So be kind to yourself and ask God what he wants to highlight to you today.

Father, help me to love others as You love them. Help me to love and accept myself for who I am. Let me see the areas You want to transform in my life. Let me become a beacon of Light to a lost and hurting world. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Pictures via Pixabay

Why does it feel like God doesn’t hear our prayers?

Why does He seem uninterested in our lives? Why does life remain so challenging when we’ve pounded heaven for help?

The other morning as I prayed for my son on the way to school, I asked God to nudge him when an assignment was due. He is a good student, but struggles in this area. Later that afternoon he popped into my office and asked to borrow my computer for a big assignment he just remembered was due the next day.

It got me thinking. How does our belief and trust in God’s goodness aid His ability to answer our prayers?

My daughter is currently half a world away in a predominantly Muslim country and I have no fear. I rarely pray for her well being. But I think my life is her prayer. I really trust God with her. I know He’s got her and is doing tremendous things in her life.

And I trust that if something comes up He’ll give me that nudge to cover her in prayer.

My lack of a focused prayer life used to bother me. I come from a background where being an intercessor looked like a lot of hard work. Drudgery. Painful servitude to a God who was powerful enough to move mountains, but whose attention was very difficult to get; requiring focus and hours of petition.

I operated from a misguided belief that if I didn’t pray, then God wouldn’t intervene and bad things could happen. It put so much responsibility on my perfectionist shoulders.

But as I’ve grown close to Him…as I’ve worked through my bondages and pain, and experienced His unfathomable kindness toward me, I’ve learned something vitally important. He is always good. He is always kind. He always has His best in mind for me.

I can trust Him. With anything.

But I’ve worked to get healed of soul wounds and blockages like unforgiveness and fear that hindered my ability to trust Him and warped my view of His character. Many of us lack the awareness (because it seems too scary and dangerous to face) that our head knowledge that God is good is not what we believe at the core of our hearts. It’s when we can start facing these contrasting parts of our belief systems (belief vs. heart experience) that we can grow in intimacy with God.

And the reason I say that we’ll start growing toward God is that the truth is God IS good. So when our experience says otherwise, we need to poke into that experience and see where we were lied to so we can gain the healing we need for both our heart and our head to agree that HE IS GOOD!

Another way of looking at it, is if our lives were a six-lane freeway, how many car wrecks, piles of debris, and pot holes hinder our ability to cruise along freely with God?

How many of satan’s emissary’s are hiding behind piles of soul debris ready to shoot reminder arrows of fear and unforgiveness to keep us trapped in darkness? And it’s not as if all of our soul is in darkness. We can have areas of freedom and areas of damage.

When we don’t get the debris field of our souls cleaned up, how easily can we hear Him speak to our hearts or experience His goodness?

When we start getting healed up, our lens changes. We see more clearly. Our thinking isn’t clouded by the enemy’s lies of shame and condemnation. We experience His love and delight in us. And we pray from a place of trust, rather than from the doubt of a hindered soul.

Father, show me the path to get my soul healed. Teach me how to break agreements with the enemy’s lies. Show me when I am agreeing with thoughts that are counter to truth and create damage in my soul. Teach me how to be fed by Your word. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Pictures via Pixabay

Why doesn’t God bail us out of hard situations?

I was talking with a friend about a struggle someone we knew was having with finances. To help them out, my friend was considering forgiving a debt they owed him. But it felt like God was saying that He would not have my friend forgive the debt while the other person was in a poverty mindset.

That would keep the other person in self-preservation mode. It would be, “Whew! We got this taken care of.” But the heart issue wouldn’t be healed and the person would not be in a place of rest and trust with God.

And then it hit me. God doesn’t always rescue us out of difficulty when we are begging and pleading as orphans. We’ve heard the tough love counsel offered to parents of drug addicts. I wonder if that parallels God’s heart with us.

Is it possible He doesn’t rescue us from circumstances at times because that does nothing to heal the wound He wants to reach in our hearts? He wants His kids to trust. To let Him break off what is stealing from their peace and finances.

His heart isn’t to let us flounder and drown. He truly is a good Dad who wants what is the absolute best for us.

And I would imagine it grieves His heart to see our struggle. To see us gravitate to self-medicating habits, whether that’s shopping, internet surfing, gaming or porn, when He has balm for our wounds.

He wants us to reach for Him, and walk with Him through difficulty—which many of us do. But do we walk through clinging to grief and fear? Or do we walk through holding His hand and trusting His promises? Trusting that He is good and He will never abandon us in our pain.

There is so much more going on in our lives that we are probably aware of.

We listen to lies without realizing we’re being spoken to. We make agreements with darkness not knowing we are being manipulated.

When we think we are the only being governing our lives, we are deceived.

There is a spiritual realm out there that is more real than our physical one. How do I know this? Because God is Spirit and He is lives in the spiritual realm. How could our physical realm (that He created) be more real than the one He lives in?

If we tune in to the thoughts we are having, we can be intentional about which ones we choose to agree with.

It’s pretty easy to figure out which kingdom you’re agreeing with, you just have to turn your thoughts from auto-pilot to intentional awareness.

I’m so fat.

He makes me so mad.

That kid is never going to make it in life.

Those people deserve what they get.

Do we really want to agree with those kinds of thoughts when they drop into our minds? Is it possible that those thoughts were not created by your mind, but rather suggested by an entity trying to get you to agree with darkness?

What would your internal atmosphere be like if you stopped agreeing with negativity and chose to think the best of yourself and others?

Do you think you’d find yourself living with more peace and love?

What would start coming out of our mouths if we said no to negative thoughts and agreed with kind and generous ones instead? If we operated out of the graciousness, mercy and love that God has for us?

If we stopped our agreement with judgmental thoughts, would we find it easier to accept God’s grace for ourselves?

So how do we stop agreeing? It’s pretty simple. When a negative thought comes, we can just grab it by the throat and say, “No. I don’t agree. Leave.”

We can also clean the slate with a quick prayer repenting for agreeing with negativity in the past.

Father, I choose to align my thoughts with Your thinking. I want to change my internal atmosphere to reflect the fruit of Your Spirit. I want to agree with what is lovely and true and of good report. And I repent for all the times that I’ve agreed with negativity and judged myself and others. Please wash me and cleanse me and heal my wounds. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Pictures via Pixabay

Maybe the question should be: Do we expect God’s goodness in our lives?

Our answer gives us a hint to whether we think His goodness towards us is dependent on our goodness to Him. So many of us think God’s blessings hinge on whether we do the right things.

Graham Cooke shares about a time in His life when he was being rebellious toward God and yet God kept blessing him. It was driving him crazy so he finally said, “God, you know I’m being rebellious. Why do you keep blessing me?”

God replied, “This is who I am, get used to it.” That moment broke Graham and brought him to the end of himself and back into Jesus’ arms.

I’m not making a theological point that we can do whatever we want and be assured of blessing. What I love in that story is seeing the nature of God. His goodness.

God knew the way to Graham’s heart was not through punishment, but through His nature.

Is it possible that we may not see God’s nature because our perspective of Him is clouded by lies? And when we believe lies about ourselves or about God we open doors to the enemy’s torment, like clouds that block out the sun?

My very first plane ride was to New York City on a foggy, rainy day in December. Once the plane climbed above the clouds my fourteen-year-old brain was shocked to see the sun shining brilliantly above fluffy white clouds.

I wonder if that’s how we live sometimes. With demonic entities speaking lies to our minds of stress, fear or anger. Our agreement brings a cloud cover that blocks out the light and truth and goodness of God.

We may not catch the lies bringing fear or offense at first glance:

How will we pay the bills this month?
He never does what he says he will.
I’m stuck in a dead end job.
College is so expensive, how will my kids ever succeed?

How can we identify the lie when there may seem to be a good chuck of truth to it? Bill Johnson says it best, “Any thought you have that doesn’t inspire hope is under the influence of a lie.” Which kingdom are our thoughts in alignment with? Alignment with God’s kingdom keeps us in joy and peace and hope (Gal. 5:22-23). When we aren’t alignment we can ask God to show us the lie. Sometimes it’s obvious. Fear is one of the biggest lies we fall prey to.

To walk in freedom, we need only break agreement with the lying spirit and release it. (i.e. “I break agreements with fear and release it. I choose to stand firm with God as my Victor.”) We have the authority when we are connected to Jesus to send lies packing.

Last night it occurred to me that my fifteen year old had been inordinately tired lately. Exhaustion covered his expression and had for a couple days. As Mat and I drove home from a late dinner, I mentioned it to him and just prayed a simple prayer commanding the assignment of exhaustion be broken off him.

When we got him, I went to my son’s room and asked how he was doing. His expression looked refreshed and he said he was doing a lot better. I asked when he started feeling better. He thought for a moment and said, “Right now.”

Amazing how a simple prayer, walking in our authority as sons and daughters of the Most High King, sends the enemy fleeing.

We don’t have to beg God to fix things. We are no longer orphans, but cherished children, walking with all the authority of our beloved Papa.

Dad, I want to walk in deeper intimacy with you. Deep in your heart. I want to understand the mysteries of Your kingdom. Teach me about the authority You’ve given me and how to take back the ground the enemy has stolen in my life and in my family’s lives. I want to walk as a victorious overcomer in Your kingdom, Papa. In Jesus’ name, amen.

How do I know if I’m worthy of God’s love?

How often do we blow it? Said something we wished we hadn’t? Wasted time instead of being productive? Looked at things we shouldn’t have? Spent money we didn’t have? Lied? Cheated?

How does God look at us in our fragmented messes?

How can He be a holy God and not be disappointed in us? We cringe, so how can He not?

Most of us believe that God loves sinners. LOVES them. Died for them. Made a way for them to be free and love Him back.

But how do we view the sinner who stays messy? Who doesn’t get cleaned up enough to reflect Jesus well?

What does God think of saved people who still look like sinners?

I think most of us are uncertain of how God views us in our messy states. He did so much for me so why can’t I stop sinning…stop being petty…stop being critical…

In our uncertainty, we often fit a human lens over what we believe His perspective is. We apply human emotions and disappointment to a God we may not truly understand.

I wonder if we tend to make Him the size of the Bible we fit into our hands instead of infinitely larger than the expanding universe? But small is safer. How can we relate to a God who is scary powerful?

How can we not humanize Him? What I mean is that we judge ourselves. We judge others. But doesn’t the Bible say not to judge (Matt. 7:1)? So if we struggle with this simple biblical truth, how can we keep from reducing God to our size?

He’s good, but He gets upset (like I do).

He loves but is disappointed and withdraws when I misbehave (the way I treat others).

He doesn’t trust people (it’s safer not to trust).

I wonder if we use our worldview and our experiences to fashion God into a reflection of our humanity rather than getting to know who He really is.

Until we truly get wrecked by the absolute wonder of God’s love for us, we will never feel loved at our core or extend unconditional love to others (Eph. 3:16-19).

If we believe  that God is disappointed with us, then we will focus on the misbehaviors of others rather than their hearts.

God is spirit, we are physical. We focus on what we physically see—-behavior and outcome. But God looks at the heart. Why does this matter? Paul did EVERYTHING perfectly, according to religious law. (Phil 3:4-6) His behavior was impeccable, but Jesus had to wreck him. He didn’t see as Jesus saw. Hence, the scales falling from his eyes.

The Pharisees outward behavior was also impeccable, yet their hearts were so far from God that Jesus said their father was satan himself (John 8:42-44).

Isn’t it time for us to be gentle with ourselves in our process? In this journey into deeper relationship with God?

So how do we get a lens change that enables us to see ourselves through the eyes of love, grace and redemption?

We ask God what He sees and how He feels about us when we fall down hard. And we listen to His voice of love.

There may be correction in it, but it always comes with a smile and outstretched arms. He wants to hold us close. He is the Comforter and the Teacher. He can heal us and teach us strategies (or lead us to people with those strategies) to help free us from what snares and entangles. That is the victory that Jesus died to give us.

Father, help me to see with your eyes, the eyes of love. Teach me how to focus on what is most valuable and eternal. Not my behavior, but my heart and the things in it that prevent me from walking in freedom. Grow in me the hunger for more of You. Teach me how to follow You with my heart so that my behavior will grow into alignment with who You are and who You’ve called me to be. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Pictures via Pixabay

Should the Bible be read or experienced?

What happens when scripture stays in our heads and doesn’t become an experience?

If I read the Bible for knowledge, I can know about God, but does that translate into knowing Him in an experiential way?

Is it possible that knowledge without experience doesn’t really help us?

We can’t know God through knowledge (logic). We can only know Him by the Spirit (Eph. 3:19, Eph. 1:17).

Information that remains in our intellect without an experience to ground it into our reality keeps us from fullness.

I believe that when our minds are filled with the knowledge of God without an experience of God, we often end up as spiritual orphans.

Orphans don’t truly know how their dads feel about them.

When we have knowledge that we’re loved but we don’t experience that love, we tend to believe we’re on our own.

Experiences give us revelations at deeper and deeper levels of God’s goodness and our connection to His heart.

Experiences are the shift from knowledge to revelation. They are what occur when our brains can’t explain what is happening, but our hearts are rejoicing.

Experiences can be subtle such as when we move into worship and there comes an unexplainable moment when our hearts burst into joyfulness and we want more and more of Him. And experiences can sometimes be wild.

I’m not suggesting we chase after experiences, which can be dangerous. I’m talking about the tangible shift into greater intimacy that occurs when we experience Him.

I think too often we live as knowledge orphans rather than sons and daughters, because we don’t understand the “more” God has for us. We don’t understand the demonic and generational hindrances to living in fullness. We don’t know how to utilize the gifts and the weapons, or the stillness that brings intimacy (Psalm 46:10).

Those aren’t scriptures just to be memorized. They are tools for bringing intimacy and reclaiming ground the enemy has stolen (Joel 2:25).

A son knows he is loved, knows his identity, and knows he is heir to everything. When a son finds himself in lack he goes to his dad with confidence, knowing everything his dad has is his. He doesn’t go begging for help. He goes asking, what’s up. What’s keeping my provision from me?

He puts into action Heb. 4:16 and runs boldly into the throne room. He knows he’s welcome. He isn’t sweating bullets hoping his father will give him just enough to get by. He knows everything the father has is his for the asking

(John 14:13-14).

His question is, “What’s going on? Show me what I need to know, Dad.” And he listens and waits. Without fear, in peace and joy, certain of his papa’s warm love for him.

As he listens, He discovers His father’s purpose, “I’m teaching you something here, son.” Or he learns about warfare, “Son, the enemy is pressing in, go to worship and battle.”

As orphans we often find ourselves begging for provision and help, not understanding we already have it. We haven’t been equipped to break off the enemy’s hindrances. We don’t understand (or believe) the depth of His love for us.

We need to know our identity in Him and how to adore Him. Then we can stand firm and resist the enemy.

We are unstoppable when we KNOW we are loved. Not as an idea, but as a tangible belief.

So how do we move from a knowledge of God into a living, breathing relationship with Him?

We pursue Him. We listen. We worship from our hearts…and we rest in that place until our hearts connect. We push through the enemy’s lies into the Holy of Holies of His heart.

Jesus, teach me how loved I am. Show me how You see me, how loved and valued I am in Your heart. Help me to understand how cherished and adored I am. Teach me how to listen to Your voice. Draw me into the quiet place where I meet You and my heart is changed, where I am transformed into Your adored bride. In Jesus’ name, amen.