People want real...

"And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

Revelation 12:11

 28When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.

Matthew 7:28-29

These days have me filled with a depth of understanding of how thoroughly the Lord surrounded me in this last season.  Even the moments I didn't see it.  Between how He lavishes His love upon us, no need of special event there, although there have been beautiful encounters, even without those encounters we can hold onto 1 John 3:1  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. Another translation uses the word "lavished."

These days have had me recall to mind,  This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. Lamentations 3:21-22.  His compassions manifested in His lovingkindnesses that poured forth from Heaven and the Body. 

This afternoon as I was full of gratitude to the Lord, and as I pondered about a Facebook status I knew He wanted me to write, He began to speak upon a subject He has been speaking to me on for a while now... and we landed upon Revelation 12:11.  He tied the three statements together with three words.  Redemption, life, death.

And He began to speak.  Once again He shared His heart pouring over me the truth of how full His redemption is, how fully He longs for me to share my life, and how sincerely He longs to put self-preservation to death in me.  Not loving my life unto death is not a physical death for me while it is within the text, for me it is a laying down daily of self-preservation, a dying daily to any hindrance that would cause me to not open up  my mouth ans share from my life.

I have for a while now been very open about my life and testimony.  These days have me stepping into some of that all the more.  Between writing my story down in fiction and preparing to write, Sanctuary: The Tale of a Modern Day Gerasene Demoniac, which will be my story in a non-fiction form, I have become more convinced of things I thought I was already but now to a new degree.

I know for a fact that the things people aren't saying are the things that are killing them. I know that shame and fear keep the mouths and hearts of people closed.  I know that those things when brought to the light are granted healing and wholeness as fear and death and darkness are overcome.  People overcome when they step into the redeeming power of Christ, open their mouths and speak, and as die to self and live daily to Christ.  They overcome.

People want real.  After Jesus taught the people stood amazed, he wasn't like their scribes and pharisees, He had real authority and spoke forth with it.  He knew where He was from and He knew where He was going.  He knew who loved Him and who He loved.  

The Lord continued to speak to me regarding authority this afternoon and not shrinking back but standing.  Standing firm in an age where the love of most have grown cold.  Asking me if I would let Him lead me into places where again I would share and share as thoroughly and transparently as I know how to,  already one of the most recent posts here on my blog  have been read more than any post I have written, ( http://walkingthepassage.blogspot.com/2013/02/do-you-know-that-you-will-always-be-ok.html )

But it is the realness, it is the transparency, it is in being as real as I know how to get that people's hearts are engaged and changed. We all walk there, in those places we wish that no one would ever know about... we just don't all realize we all walk there.. While our stories are different there are foundational things that are the same.  

There are those places in each of our hearts that can cause each of us to squirm.  My dear friend once spoke to me in relationship to a thing our other friend teaches, that we all have holes (our friend teaches about our hearts and  likens them to Styrofoam cups that are meant to hold the love of God and get filled to overflowing but events and circumstances poke holes in them. We then try to fill the lack and need with all sorts of things but more than anything need Jesus to be the filler of our needs.) 

I was struggling thinking that my holes were too large.  She spoke in a moment a truth that has carried me forward for years. "Mims, we all have holes, what causes them in each of us is different but we all have holes."  It was such an amazing truth.  I'm not any more damaged than any other human being. I'm not any less damaged than any human being.  We all need the redeeming power of Christ in our lives.  

It takes us from a place of getting identity in our wounds to a place of receiving the victory that flows forth from His.

  Listen, I have two amazing churches in my life that only spur me onto this because that is the example they walk in... Renovatus Church in Charlotte, and Dwelling Place in Christiansburg,VA  ....  I have been healed and loved and shown the power of letting go of self-preservation by the examples I get to see walked out and preached in both places.  I am learning how to stand again and walk again because of the truth that gets spoken forth over me and into me.  

So open your mouths and speak, bring into the light those things that would bare down upon you the heavy weights of shame.  Let Him be the lifter of your head, and know and experience the reality of His redemption, the power of opening your mouths, and the transformation that comes as your love not your life even unto death.