I just posted this on facebook.  I injured my foot a month ago, reactivating my brain injury causing it to lose center.  I made a working paper of strengthening and centering verses. They have transformed me in this new trial.  I just have to share this.

Picture this. You are standing at the bottom of some stairs. You are too weak to climb them by yourself. Then two strong supporters come and help you up. You could not have made it without them.

Strongholds make us spiritually weak. Let’s take the stronghold of fear. It not only weakens us spiritually, but physically as well because there is a constant drain on our adrenals.

You are too weak to fight this stronghold of fear on your own. However, you type out verses such as Isaiah 41:10. Then as you meditatively read them several times during the day, they will support you with truth and grace to overcome.

HIS Word is alive and powerful. As we meditatively read it, it comes to dwell in us. It penetrates our bone marrow and brings transformation spiritually and physically. John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of GRACE and TRUTH.”

Here are the notes for the Inner Truth class.

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

HIS WORD TRANSFORMS

His word is living.  Jesus Christ is alive, seated at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us.  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever according to Hebrews 13:8.

John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Nothing has changed.  He is still the Word.  John 1:14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”

We still behold His glory today.  2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”

God’s Word is everlasting.  Isaiah 55:11 says that His Word will never return to Him void.  Jeremiah 1:12 says that He watches over His Word to perform it.  Therefore the words we read in the Bible are the same yesterday, today, and forever.  They are the truth that never changes from one generation to another.

Deuteronomy 8:3 says, “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.”  This was spoken to the children of Israel.  The Lord is still working today in our lives through His spoken Word.

Hebrews 4:12 Amplified says, “For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power (making it active, operative, energizing, and effective); it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and (the immortal) spirit, and of joints and marrow (of the deepest parts of our nature), exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.”  The Word God speaks is living.

As we take His living Word into our hearts, our thought patterns are transformed.  The word transformed is illustrated to us in the metamorphosis of the caterpillar to the butterfly.  The caterpillar becomes liquid in the cocoon, and from that liquid He forms the butterfly.  Romans 12:2 says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  Our old, destructive thought patterns are metamorphosed into inner truth that brings the radical change. Ephesians 4:23 Amplified says, “And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude).”

Meditating on God’s Word is His essential best.  There is no other way to be free of the destructive strongholds that defy change.  His Word, brought into our hearts through meditating in it, is the catalyst for that change.

It has nothing to do with will power, but everything to do with His power.  The same power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead, is in us to work that transformation.  Ephesians 1:19-20 Amplified says, “And (so that you can know and understand) what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His (own) right hand in the heavenly (places).”

Take the area in your life that has stubbornly resisted change.  Ask the Holy Spirit to show you verses that will be His demolition ball to destroy that stronghold.  Then write or type them out.  Every day meditatively read them several times a day.  His living Word will penetrate your bone marrow.  As each new red blood cell emerges, it will be impregnated with truth to be carried to every cell and tissue in your body.

The health of our bones determines the health of our body.  Job 2 is where satan challenges God to destroy Job’s health.  Job 2:5 says, “But stretch out Your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will surely curse You to Your face!”  Whew!  The heart of our health is our bones.  David sinned against God, and Psalm 51 is that acknowledgment.  Verse 8 says, “Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice.”

How healthy are your bones?  No matter what state your health is in, it can be changed through the living Word of God.  His Word penetrates our marrow.  That is the fatty substance in the cavity of our bones where new red blood cells emerge.  Negative thoughts, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, anger, hatred, etc. all affect our bone marrow.  They get carried to every cell and tissue, constantly circulating in our blood stream.  No wonder we get sick!

His Word is not a bandage.  It is a sharp two-edged sword that will surgically penetrate where no doctor’s scalpel can reach.  Nothing is impossible for God.  Take His living Word in, and allow Him to do what no one else can do.

j marilyn adams ~ December 10, 2015

Until this morning the only thing I knew about hallmark was the name of a card sold in Hallmark stores.  I looked it up.  It means: a mark stamped on gold, silver, or platinum in Britain, certifying their standard of purity.  A stamp of authenticity.

James 1:4 says, “But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”  Trials bring out that essential character quality of endurance.

Our trials supply what is lacking in our lives.  A note in my Bible says that endurance is the hallmark of a mature believer.

Our trials purify our faith, like gold is purified in fire.  Endurance is the stamp of an authentic follower of Christ.

It was HIS extravagant love that caused Him to endure the cross, to die in our place.  It was the joy that was set before Him, that caused Him to endure and finish the work.

He left His joy for us.  John 15:11 says, “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

His higher way to endure is through joy.  James 1:2 in the J B Philips says, “When all kinds of trials and temptations crowd into your lives, my brothers, don’t resent them as intruders, but welcome them as friends!”

When a friend of mine unexpectedly shows up at my house, it is a joyful occasion.  I welcome them with a warm embrace to express my delight that they chose to grace me with their presence.

Trials are always unexpected.  Do we welcome them like a friend?  His joy is in us.  It is His extravagant gift for endurance.  I woke up with this song.

 Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee

Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love;

Hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above. 

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; drive the dark of doubt away. 

Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heaven reflect thy rays,

Stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise. 

Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea,

Chanting bird and flowing fountain, call us to rejoice in thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest,

Well-spring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest! 

Thou our Father, Christ our brother, all who live in love are thine;

Teach us how to love each other, lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals, join the mighty chorus which the morning stars began;

Love divine is reigning o’er us, binding all within its span. 

Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife;

Joyful music leads us sunward, n the triumph song of life.

 

 

 

This morning, before it was time to get up, I was letting my mind stretch through a kaleidoscope of meditating on the Lord.

The title above Job 26 in my Bible says: Man’s Frailty and God’s Majesty.  Verse 14 says, “Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him!  But the thunder of His power who can understand?”

Here are a few mere edges.  He does not grow weary nor faint, and His understanding is unsearchable (Isa. 40:28).  His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways are past finding out (Romans 11:33).  His thoughts towards us cannot be numbered (Psalm 139:18).  1 Chronicles 28:9 Amplified says, “…For the Lord searches all hearts and minds and understand all the wanderings of the thoughts…”

Everyone that every has drawn breath.  He is beyond our human scope of thought.  He loved each one of us enough to die for us, and bear all our sins plus God’s full wrath.  How can we but praise Him!!

Why would we even want to entertain futile thoughts?

I posted this on facebook

Are you carrying a burden?

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.”

Commit – Hebrew word galal means to roll, roll down, row away, remove. The picture is that is that of a camel, burdened with a heavy load; when the load is to be removed, the camel kneels down, tilts far to one side, and the load rolls off.

Here is a Thanksgiving bouquet to grace the table of your hearts.

 

Here is a verse to bring joy to your heart on this Thanksgiving Day.

Zephaniah 3:17 says, “The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you in His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”

Delight in His delight of you.

 

 

I posted this on facebook this morning.

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

WATERMARK: YIELDED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

“Let us go to the house of the Potter, and see what he does with a lump.  How He carefully and skillfully shapes each vessel for His purpose above” (Holy Spirit song).  Jeremiah 18:3-4 says, “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.”

Clay is dry and solid.  It has to have water worked into it in order for it to be shaped.  So it is with our lives.  Strongholds that the enemy has been able to set up in our hearts cause hardness of heart.  Hebrews 3:13 says, “But exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

You can see from the picture that clay needs much water to be pliable in the potter’s hands.  It has to be malleable with no resistance.  Do you have areas in your life that resist change?  Maybe you have tried by the strength of your will to overcome a stronghold, but it stubbornly remains. God’s water of the word is the only way to permeate that hard surface.  Ephesians 5:26 says of the church, “That He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.”

Let’s take a stronghold of anger and see how working God’s word into this stronghold will bring change.  There is a great verse in Proverbs 29:11.  The Amplified says, “A (self-confident) fool utters all his anger, but a wise man holds it back and stills it.”  When we take other verses about anger and write them down, they become our “working” paper.  We speak these words out loud because faith comes by hearing the Word.  As we speak them, targeted truth begins to penetrate and weaken the stronghold.  Once it is weakened, it can be successfully torn down and destroyed.

Another stronghold may be fear.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  We must recognize that fear is an enemy tactic.  This verse says that it is a spirit.  Fear is a fiery dart.  It is a convincing suggestion.  It only gains ground if we dialogue with it.  It has no power over us, unless we give it that power through our thoughts.  God is love.  1 John 4:18 says that perfect love casts out fear.  When we ingraft the strength words of His promises, fear has no ground to stand on.  His promises are backed by His faithfulness.  2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.”  Titus 1:2 says that it is impossible for God to lie.  As you speak verses that fortify you against the lies of the enemy, the stronghold of fear will weaken, then be defeated.

2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.”  God gave Jeremiah the sequence.  First it must be rooted out, then the ground can be replanted.  Jeremiah 1:10 says, “See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.”  As we are tearing down the enemy’s stronghold, we are building a new stronghold of truth with the same verses.  His word is a double-edged sword.  His penetrated word renews our mind.

James 1:21 says, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”  Here are two key watermarks of an authentic follower of Christ.  One is the spirit of meekness.  The other is a meditator of God’s word.  The two go together.  Pride will resist the discipline of the ingrafting.  Humility opens the way for the word to penetrate deeply through His grace.

It is all a work of grace.  He is able to do far above what we can even ask or think because of His power that is working in us, AS we work His word into our hearts.  His grace is the transforming power.  It is not our own strength.  Our flesh profits nothing.  As we continue to hide His word in our hearts, it will strengthen us to overcome and be more than conquerors.  He came to give us abundant life.  That life is found through our communion with Him, and as we minister it to others.  Freely we have received, so we can freely give.  May you overflow with His abundant grace.

  j marilyn adams ~ November 19, 2015

Inner Truth~The Effective Messenger

WATERMARK: A SEEKER

1 Peter 2:3 says that a new born babe desires the sincere milk of the word.  As we grew in our walk with the Lord, our desire for His word and intimacy with Him increases.  We follow hard after Him.  Psalm 63:8 Amplified says, “My whole being follows hard after You and clings closely to You; Your right hand upholds me.”  Our whole being is our spirit, soul, and body.  Our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. 

Psalm 73:25 says, “Whom have I in heaven but You?  And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.”  David was a seeker.  Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I see; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”  Verse 8 says, “When You said, Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face I will seek.”

The word seek implies diligence, and diligence implies wholeheartedness.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  David’s heart is revealed in his seeking,  Psalm 63:1 says, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land.”  Seeking expresses a yearning for Him.  Psalm 42:1 says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.”

WATERMARK: A WORSHIPPER

John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”  True worship is so focused on the Lord, that all else is paled in the background.  He is the center of all our thoughts and words of expression.  His Presence is always with us.  As we worship, we are seeking a deeper place of communion through our adoration until we enveloped in awe.

Here are three expressive words that will take us beyond the surface of just singing a worship song to engaging our heart.  Marvelous, infinite, and matchless.  Marvelous means: causing great wonder; astounding, awesome, breathtaking.  Infinite means: limitless or endless in extent; impossible to measure or calculate.  Matchless means: unable to be equaled; incomparable.  When we focus on how He is in these words, He will reveal Himself through our heart expression.  Worship is intimacy. 

The things that are hidden in our unconscious block our desired intimacy.  Not only in our relationship with the Lord, but they carry over into our personal relationships with others.  Jesus came and died to set the captives free.  Luke 4:18 says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed.”  The Amplified describes the oppressed as: who are down trodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity.

The things in our past are passed.  2 Corinthians 5;17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  The more we seek the Lord and His righteousness, the more He reveals Himself to us. 

Psalm 34:5 says, “They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed.”  2 Corinthians 3:18 describes what happens as we seek His face, and gaze upon Him in adoration.  It says, “Be we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  One of the attributes of a seeker is transparency.  They so desire the Lord, they walk before Him with openheartedness.  They have nothing to hide because they understand that He knows their heart and loves them unconditionally.  They gaze upon Him without shame, as He gazes upon them.  They behold Him as He beholds them.

A seeker-worshipper goes deeper in intimacy with the Lord as they release the things from their past.  Our past is only in our mind.  We only hold onto it through our thoughts.  A seeker-worshiper’s thought patterns change through their focus on the Lord.  He fills their thoughts and desires.  Psalm 107:9 says, “For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.”

Song of Solomon 2:14 are the words of a lover seeking her beloved.  I’ve capitalized it to depict a seeker expressing their love to the Lord.  It says, “O my Dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see Your face, let me hear Your voice; for Your voice is sweet, and Your face is lovely.”  That secret place is intimacy.  There is no greater place of security and desire fulfilled then through our intimate communion with Him.  In that intimacy we find contentment that is unequaled by anything on this earth.  A seeker-worshipper drinks deep of His abundant love and is satisfied.

  j marilyn adams ~ November 19, 2015