Reports from Lunch With God
| January 9 - "In
our first Lunch With God session for 2008, having heard God say that
this was a time of New Beginnings and that God was getting ready to do a
new thing, we took the time to ask the question of God, "Lord, if
You are wanting to do a new thing, we don't want to assume that we are
already doing it. we don't want to keep doing the same thing if
You are wanting us to do a new thing, but we will not change, just for
the sake of change. So, speak Lord, we are
listening...."
Fairly quickly, Ardie heard God say, "What you are doing here IS the new thing. If and when I want to change it, I will change it." Just a bit later, Ernie spoke what he felt God was saying next...(This is only a partial transcript) "In order to heal the broken hearted, we need to walk in peace. Wherever we go, we are to go in God's peace, because He is the God of Peace. We need to continue in His way, Seek His face, Worship Him. (God said) Seek Me, My Presence. Give me your ears, your hands, your heart, I will show you My ways. ... Obedience is better than sacrifice......You are My agents here on earth....Isaiah 61:1 "I am the light of the world. The Light is in us. We are to light up the darkness, to bring light to the darkness. We need to walk in peace....." Philippians 4:4-10
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| January 30 - "I
was in the back of the sanctuary praying while the worship team was
leading worship. I felt a sharp pain in my gut. In the past,
this has signified a prayer burden from the Lord. I sensed it was
a picture of the pain in the larger body of the church. I asked
the Lord if this was birth pains. The Lord said, "No, My
bride is pregnant but these are not yet the birth pains," The
sense I got was this pain was from something the church had ingested, or
had taken into itself, that was not from God, it was a toxin of some
kind. I believe the Lord said that after the church had dealt with this
toxin that it had ingested, then the birth pains would come and the new
birth would be seen. The other sense I got was that this "new birth" or "new thing" would not look like what it has looked like in the past. God is getting ready to do a new thing, in a new way. He said that in the past, it (or revival) has not lasted, but what He is getting ready to do, will last. God will use this area to bring lasting change." (Cheryl) Hosea 4:15b; Psalm 24:3ff |
| March 26, 2008 As we
sought God today for today, a stream of images came up. My first
was that of nested dolls, usually made of some wood. There are
several sizes where the smallest is in the middle, then each one larger
encompasses the one inside until the largest is the one seen. (The
same is done with boxes in other cultures.) Well, as we continued
to worship, God showed me what the image meant. The smallest doll
was us, compressed by sin. The second doll was Jesus at the point
of salvation. His image covers us and encompasses our sin, making
us new. The third, again, is us at a deeper place. Fourth is
again Jesus, at the point of our infilling with God's Spirit. Each
set of layers is us stretching and growing, and as we allow, the next is
Jesus covering our newly matured human-ness.
Eventually, the final layer is neither us, nor Jesus, but a compound unity, the shell that encompasses both our human nature, regenerated and made wholly whole and holy, bearing the image of Jesus. |