Monday, November 12, 2012

Contemplations of Death and Life

            Why does the death of a loved one hurt so much?  The Holy Spirit ministered something to me a while back that I am yet awaiting the fullness of understanding.  He said that we grieve or hurt most when a loved one dies and enters Hell (at least the contemplation of this possibility, which only God knows), but He grieves or hurts more by their rejection of Him in their life.  Now I ponder, “Why does the death of a loved one hurt so much?”  This question sheds light and understanding on what God was saying concerning grief.  We grieve over the separation of death, and especially the reality or uncertainty of a loved one’s eternal state and destination.  Whereas, God is much more aware of this separation “in life” than us, since in reality, outside of Christ, we ARE ALREADY DEAD!
            Dearly beloved, I do not mean to bring our thoughts or spirits down through this discussion and contemplation of death and life.  Yet, death has a way of putting life in perspective.  When we are faced with death, it does not FEEL good at all.  Yet, it is a gift from God.  Scripture states, "I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business which God has given to the sons of men with which to exercise and busy themselves.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (AMP, Ecclesiastes 3:10-11). 
            You see, the reality of eternity is in our hearts!  We can choose to ignore it, push it aside, and reject this reality or we can choose to embrace it and truly LIVE!  The more we reject the reality and truth of eternity within our hearts is the more we are desensitized to it.  Look at the next verse, “I know that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live”.  Solomon was voicing our human or fleshly response to the reality of eternity in our hearts!  Our flesh seeks out happiness, and what is considered “good” to the flesh is far different from what our hearts know is GOOD (For God alone is Good), due to the witness of eternity that God has planted within us.  Yet, when we are faced with DEATH, no matter how much we have tried to SILENCE Wisdom’s voice, the reality of eternity is awakened within us!
            Now, some may think, “Well, I’m already saved, so I don’t need the reality of eternity to be awakened in my heart.”  Really?  We must reconsider this!  For in our Western mentality we have been deceived into believing that Salvation can be narrowed down to our church attendance, a raised hand, a walk down to the altar or a sinner’s prayer, when this is the farthest thing from the truth!  Salvation is the ministry of reconciliation, and it is a process!  Therefore, if we are honest with ourselves, we still need to be saved in many areas of our lives!  In fact, God has revealed to me that this deception of the American church has deceived many into believing that they are “saved” and ready for death and their subsequent time of reckoning with God, when they are not!  So, God in His mercy grants us encounters with DEATH that awakens the reality of eternity within our hearts.  Through death, God speaks to us and reveals to us the true message of LIFE, which is His call to repentance.  The Spirit of God is crying out as the voice of Wisdom in the streets, "Will you listen to the call of eternity in your hearts? . . . Will you be wholly reconciled to Your God and Creator?"  Then in God's mercy, He allows us to encounter DEATH, which amplifies Wisdom's cry.  Thus, regardless, of what stage of the reconciliation process we find ourselves, God's voice still cries out, "Will you listen to the call of eternity in your hearts? . . . Will you be wholly reconciled to Your God and Creator?"


© 2012 Christine Lombard, All rights reserved, Use only with permission
           
 

Sunday, November 11, 2012

The Fulfillment of Your Destiny

         The Fulfillment of Your Destiny

           God often ministers to me through the enquiry process.  He has ministered to me concerning the importance of asking the right questions.  This morning in prayer God ministered me the following questions and then He replied to me with a revelation regarding the timing of the Lord and the fulfillment of His destiny for us.
Abba Father,
          What do you require of me in this season?  What is my assignment?  What steps do you require of me to walk out the vision you have revealed to me… that the voice of Yeshua within me may be released and the mantle that you have given me to carry may fulfill it’s function?
          God’s reply:  “Live in the NOW of My presence, and I will carry you to the fulfillment of your destiny… When you reach that place in me… you will still be in the NOW of My presence.  Then your future hope will be your present reality.”


© 2012 Christine Lombard, All rights reserved, Use only with permission
           
 

The Wishing Well

                                                               

           God is speaking to me about thirst... There are physical, emotional and spiritual thirsts. At times, thirst can bring the most excruciating pain to the point of causing us to cry out, "Quench my thirst, or let me die!" even as Patrick Henry stated, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Those who have experienced such thirst know that the quenching their thirst is liberty in deed. God is present, giving us hope as He reveals Himself not only as the Source of Living Water, but also the Well, the River and Spiring that will never run dry. There is more to come as He ministers His promises to the thirsty... Isaiah 55: 1 “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

                                                              The Wishing Well

                            A Poetic Journey from the Bondage and Darkness of Night
                                    Into the Freedom of Christ’s Marvelous Light 


Hebrews 12:1-2 - “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.  Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (KJV)

            Amidst this great cloud of witnesses remains one, whose name was never recorded in the pages of man’s history, yet intricately woven into HIStory found in God’s WORD.  Rather, this witness has become known by her previous condition and position before, during and after a defining moment in her life.  As a result, her story remains even now and will remain throughout Eternity.  This witness is known simply as “the woman at the well.”  So, many of us could be similarly called, because we too have experienced daily trips to the well.  Our wells may be of various shapes and sizes, but they are all mere wishing wells just the same.  There are wells of pride, arrogance, abuse, neglect, abandonment, shattered dreams, insecurity, shame, doubt and fear, all of which contain empty promises that could never quench our thirst.  I know what it is to be thirsty, without water to drink.  I know what it is to draw from empty wells that can never satisfy.  Yes, I too could be called that “woman at the well,” and now that I have tasted of the well that will never run dry, I can personally testify that Jesus, alone can satisfy!
   
            My life and my story may never match the grandeur or vastness of influence as the great cloud of witnesses mentioned in Hebrews 11, or so many of those who have followed and are still waiting to be told.  In a sense, I am just another nameless, faceless woman at the well, easily lost in a crowd.  So, why tell my story?  Because I too have a story to tell.  You see, Jesus met me, a nameless, faceless woman, at my wishing well.  He declared to the Father, “I must needs go to this woman’s wishing well!”  Then He reached out to me in my lost, destitute, and desperate state.  Yes, I too have a story to tell.  My story tells of one women’s personal poetic journey from the bondage and darkness of night into the freedom of Christ’s Marvelous Light.  It is my testimony of deliverance, and it is part of my God given purpose and destiny to tell it.


                                                 The Woman at the Well

Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” (KJV)

John 4:1-4 – “When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee.  And he must needs go through Samaria” (KJV).

            Scripture tells us that on Jesus’ way to Galilee, He “must needs go through Samaria”.  To the Biblical scholar, this is significant, because it was a day’s closer route through Samaria to Galilee, but to the woman at the well, this was significant for an entirely different reason.  To every woman at the well, Jesus’ necessity to pass through Samaria represents Divine connection and God’s Unchanging Hand in their lives, as He orchestrates the context and details of their salvation, deliverance, healing and transformational process.  Every woman at the well must trust this change process, knowing that God is the orchestrator of that process.  Therefore, trusting the God of our change process is essential.  In fact, it is the cornerstone necessity of true salvation.  For just as without works, faith is dead... without faith, works is dead!  Without faith it is impossible to please God, the Savior and Lord of our salvation process.
        
            For instance, if one needs their car to be fixed, they must entrust their vehicle to a mechanic.  In so doing, they actively trust their mechanical expertise.  They wait, trusting him to effectively direct their vehicle through the mechanical process, so that it can operate properly once more.  How much more should we entrust God, our Creator with our lives and entire beings?
        
            Oh Women at the Well, Jesus must needs go through Samaria, the deep dark places of abuse, neglect, lost, hurt and pain of our lives.  He will meet us there hiding, pretending everything is alright, and He will ask us for a drink from our broken cisterns, bringing the hidden truth of our broken and shattered lives into the light of His presence.  Will we welcome him or run in fear as He draws ever near to wipe away our tears and pick up the shattered pieces of our lives? Oh, woman at the well, I beseech you to converse with the Savior.  I beseech you to let Him into the most secret part of your soul.  You need not worry, because He already knows the hidden parts of your soul that you protectively refuse to show.  Oh yes, soon we will all realize, He already knows!
        
            So why not allow Him to enter?  He stands at the door knocking.  How long will we keep blocking Him out?  He comes with healing in His wings and a new song for us to sing.  He comes with a hammer to break the chains, so that true liberty will reign in our lives, as showers of blessing rain down from heavenly skies.  He comes with a chisel to chisel away the hardened stone wall protecting our hearts.  If we will only trust Him, He will give us a heart of flesh and clean up our sinful mess.
        
            Oh women at the well, the poetic story I now tell will allow you to know that I know all too well the pain of parched thirst.  At times I felt as though I would burst for the hunger and thirst that became so great till I fell at the feet of my Savior and Lord.  Praise God that now I can boldly proclaim, welcome aboard my personal poetic journey from the bondage and darkness of night into the freedom of Christ’s marvelous light!

The Wishing Well

From out of darkness
I did arise
With a story to tell
Of a child reborn
At the wishing well.
Her hope deferred
Brought such anguish
That death, she preferred
With the darkness of night
Over the threatening light
That would unmask her plight.

From out of darkness
I did arise
As I covered my eyes
At the sight of the bright blue skies.
I awoke at the break of day
To find a Marvelous Light
Present to brighten my way.
From out of darkness
I did arise
From whence I realized
God had truly heard my cries.

From out of darkness
I did arise
With a story to tell
Of a child reborn
At the wishing well.
A story of pain
And hope regained
With a message of temporal loss
And Eternal gain.
Yes, I did arise from my pain
Never again to be the same!

© 2011 Christine Lombard, All rights reserved, usedonly with permission


Body of Christ in America

Body of Christ in America: God is still speaking and moving in our midst. It was the opposition of the Roman government that caused the church to spread in the book of Acts. God is doing a work in and through His Body, and we must seek His face prayerfully to understand His Word, Will and Way in this season. It is the Body of Christ that has the answer, not any Earthly government or political par...
ty, but the Kingdom of God... His church... against which the gates of hell shall not prevail! Now is the time to proclaim and fulfill God's promise...
2 Chronicles 7:14
New King James Version (NKJV)

If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

© 2012 Christine Lombard, All rights reserved, Use only with permission
           

Legacy Life


Although God released this word specifically concerning the Legacy Life
community, He is also speaking concerning the Body of Christ.


Legacy Life
Sunday November 4, 2012
Will you build My tabernacle?
Will you build My temple
Through the praise you render?
Will you be the Arks of My Covenant
Establishing My Kingdom Government
Throughout the Earth?
Giving birth
To My presence
Giving Me honor and reverence
A place for Me to inhabit
A place for Me to dwell
Where I will reveal Myself
As the Living Well
And the Breaker of the gates of Hell.
Oh Legacy Life
Will You truly be
A builder of My Legacy
 In the Earth
Will you give birth
To a new Heaven and Earth
Through your worship
And intercession
A sin cursed people
Will enter permanent remission
It’s My decision
To infuse you
And use you
I will not refuse you
As you build My tabernacle
As you build my temple
Through the praise you render
As the Arks of My Covenant
Establishing My Kingdom Government
Throughout the Earth
Giving birth
To My presence
Giving Me honor and reverence
A place for Me to inhabit
A place for Me to dwell
Where I will reveal Myself
As the Living Well
And Breaker of the gates of Hell…

© 2012 Christine Lombard, All rights reserved, Use only with permission