In God's Presence is Fullness of Joy!
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Psalm 16:11
Wednesday July 3, 2019
Waking song: I believe in miracles. I’ve seen the lily push it's way up through the summer sod.
I believe in miracles, oh I believe in God!
After waking early at 3 am to pray and be with the Lord, I prayed that God would speak to us today.
Now the song is coming to my spirit - “God said He would
turn it around. What the devil meant for evil, God will make it good - Turn it
around, Turn it around, turn it around!” Little did I know what this day would bring!
Amazing! I didn't even know yet know how the day would unfold and yet I had a sense of excitement and expectation that has caused my
heart such joy!
Beauty for ashes, joy for my pain. Yes every day will be
sweeter than the day before!
Mighty God, mighty God, mighty God has resonated in my
prayer time this morning.
After a long hard battle over things that do not really
matter, I have experienced such breakthrough this week and feel so free I think
I can fly. That was how the day began for me on July 3.
Freedom from bondage and the return of joy is a precious
gem and I am blessed and privileged to be called a child of God!
Heavenly Father,
Thank You for splitting the sea so I could walk right
through it and making a way where there seemed to be no way! Not just for me
Father, but for each and
every blood bought redeemed child of God!
You are faithful Father and You are mighty.
Truly every day can be sweeter than the day before. You
said You would turn it around and what the enemy meant for evil - You will make
it good! Thank You Father.
I experienced such breakthrough yesterday...
- In my thinking
- In my eating
- In my work
Oh hallelujah! I wasn’t focused on anything negative and
felt free in my mind! The glory of the Lord filled my soul and that song stayed
with me all day. His glory filled the space between my ears with good and well
focused thoughts. I am learning to completely annihilate toxic thinking!
I ate when I was hungry and am finding I can eat less
volume at each meal and trust that its OK. When I get hungry I eat and when I’m
not - I don’t. More on this in a few moments...
The word showed me this verse about self control as He is
teaching me to be sensitive to Holy Spirit - that inner knowing, sensitivity to
our conscience...
Proverbs 25:28
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city
that is broken down, and without walls.
Song that came to me as I wrote this: "There’s no mountain too high, there's no valley too
deep, there’s no giant too ugly for Your love love love.
God is teaching me to be more aware of what I am sensing
in Holy Spirit. As I made dinner the night before, I looked at it and thought I could
surely have chosen less than I did and I purposed in my heart to work on this.
So this morning I am hearing the loving voice of God showing me this verse and
that I can choose smaller meals and not be afraid of any lack later. He is
faithful and He is kind! Oh He is the God of miracles.
I worked a regular schedule all day and went about it
peacefully. It had been a good and productive day.
The Lord made time for me to work on my blog so I could
start my work day with the ministry work. The Father’s business of touching
others with these journals came first. Glorious!
Then I had time to walk my Jesse (looks like an adorable dog, but he is a ministering spirit sent by God!) and take a nap before
continuing on in the wonderful work of helping people with their Medicare
insurance as I started making a catch up list and getting organized.
With all the things I am doing as I work the ministry of
Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. , and also start our insurance business - "Stearns Benefit Service
Specialists", I am excited to have so much good work to do and yet be able to
just do one thing at a time: keeping the first things first.
Though I was a good tired at the end of a wonderful day,
I was went to bed so blessed and filled with excitement that I stand in awe
today of looking back and seeing how the Lord has turned it around.
While I had become afraid to eat and dealt with so much
fear on that subject; I went forward in faith yesterday and allowed the Lord to help me as I
went.
There’s no giant to big for God to take out of our lives!
He is a mighty God! What once was a mountain is now a parchment of level
ground! Glory to God!
As we continue to review the Healing School notes from
last weekend, we see that God wants us to be faithful with what we have. If we
prove that we can be, then He will see that He can trust us with more.
Our meet is to do His will. See John 4:34.
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him
that sent me, and to finish his work.
Our cups should be filled daily and then when the
overflow begins, we can be used to pour ourselves out to others.
The power is in the surrender to His will. We already
have been given all of Jesus. Now it’s up to us to give Him all of us.
Going deeper than ever before - meaning new levels of
trust. Greater faith! Complete obedience will cause the sea to part, the
heavens to open, the money to come, etc., and we will see His glory!
That’s what it felt like yesterday.
God wants us to have influence in the world around us. It
has blessed my heart greatly to get back to sending out my blog messages from
heaven!
I had been so active with it a couple years back, but
then I stopped. But even though I stopped posting messages, I have continued to see people from all over the world view what had been posted previously. In
fact I have had close to 5,000 views worldwide 🌎. Glory to God!
Today I go forward in faith knowing that the more I shut
down the noise of the world, and take the time to hear His still, small voice,
I will be filled and refreshed like never before.
There are many voices that try to talk to us in the world
of darkness where there is much confusion.
When we learn to tune everything out, then we will be
able to hear God clearly and He will be able to use us mightily. Isn’t that
what we all want if we are His born again children?
We need to be open to what we need to hear - not just
what we want to hear.
We need to help people break free from strongholds.
Things that were negative experiences in our lives can become a stronghold, but
if we are really willing, we can be set free of that.
I admit that it was difficult for me to learn to manage
my diet in a balanced way when I first began my journey with the Lord on a
somewhat deeper level after my October 1, 2005 experience where I dropped to my
knees and cried out for God to fix me.
The road that I would travel from that day forward was
both painful and glorious. Amazing! The journey has been difficult and has
tried me every which way.
The battles seemed endless. Not just with the enemy of
our souls; the many devils that have tried to take us out, but our ever present
enemy - our flesh!
My story is one of great trial and even greater triumph through Christ who continues to strengthen me!
When I decided to fight the fear and just pray and ask
the Lord to help me go forward in faith in what to eat or what work to do, and
as I pressed in for the deliverance from all that supposed bondage, I had a
sense of victory such as never before. And I still wasn't even where I needed to be - yet.
Where I struggled with what I thought was a food problem,
I had struggled even harder with a “busyness” spirit that kept me from hearing
the voice of God clearly.
Yesterday was such a day of victory for me and as I was
awakened today with that song of miracles in my heart, I bring you with me into
this day to see where God wants to take us...
How Wednesday went - really.
As I look over the notes, the truth is that
Holy Spirit wants to stretch us to go where we were afraid to go before.
Whatever that means for us.
God said He would turn it around. The scriptures are
filled with promise that God would make a way where there seems to be no way.
All we have to do is be open to hear what He really wants
to say to us and be willing to obey. There is the key to breakthrough.
Helping others is what we are here to do. Anything that
has been a “supposed” stronghold in our lives can be snapped in two and
rendered ineffective in the hands of our mighty God.
The Lord takes us out of bondage so we can be used by Him
to go preach and teach others about His mighty wonder working power! God said
He would turn it around - all throughout the scriptures as we see in this one
example.
That’s what has happened for me so today I can share my
story with you and encourage you. No matter who you are, you have a story
to tell others about how God set you free.
Now you can go help someone else. It’s OK if you are
still learning and growing. We all are. Lifelong learners make great leaders.
We just need to be flexible, teachable and willing to to be changed form glory
to glory.
So what has had a hold on you in your mind? Do you want
to be free? Will you let God break you out of that bondage and turn it all
around into a life of joy, peace and freedom?
Today I’m saying yes Lord! I like freedom and I really
enjoy telling others about our God of miracles! You oh Lord have done amazing
things!
Maybe you will relate to this day as it continued to unfold and I explain it in the words that follow...
Songs that came to me in the morning on Wednesday after getting up and getting with the Lord...
More of You Jesus
Praise the Lord - great things He has done
His banner over me is love.
This morning the enemy of drivenness tried to get me to
go for a walk and just start my day when Jesus was calling me to worship before
starting to proceed with my day.
But the enemy and the flesh were trying to just get me up
from my time with Jesus and get going. It’s that distracting spirit to get us away from His
presence.
As it turned out, I went to breakfast too soon. And, I had a meal that was a bit too
much food for what I needed - hence the verse about a lack of self control. More on that in a minute or two.
After such a great success the previous day - this day
was another story of great learning through choices that could have been
better.
Even as I made breakfast I was feeling all kinds of fear. I could sense Holy Spirit trying to talk to me and help me go in another
direction.
I looked over at my Spirit led puppy, Jesse - such a faithful
servant of God as he lay on the day bed all snuggled up as if beckoning me to
come and spend more time with Jesus.
But I ate and started my day. I knew today would be
different as it was the day before Independence Day here in the US.
Rather than start the regular work, Holy Spirit was prompting me to come and be with Him.
Everything else could have waited. I didn’t have to
understand in my own mind what the Lord would want the day to look at. That's where the new level of trust needed to come in.
After the morning I did go in for a long nap. Once I woke, I just laid there with the Lord for awhile so I could hear Him. I heard this as
if it were an audible voice - so loud and clear, "The battle is over!”
That was a good thing, but then the plans to bask in His
presence came to a screeching halt.
My husband called and said he was going to help a friend
of ours so he would be home a little later.
That was just fine and I agreed to it. But what happened
next was something that could have played out differently.
I had made plans to have our friend over for the 4th of
July. That had been a decision I had not really prayed about when it had come
to my mind a few days earlier this week on Monday.
Why was this an issue? Because I didn’t seek the Lord on
this, I made a commitment that I wasn’t prepared to keep unless I went to get
some more groceries.
We already had some food in the house. In reality, asking the friend over was good. But because I promised to get certain food and
again, had not prayed about it, I was now forced to get up and leave my time
with Jesus to go get the food we would need.
So what would have been the better choice? Pray about the
event when the thought came to mind and then lay it down until I heard from the
Lord.
Now I knew that the extra time with Jesus had been stolen
by a very evil enemy who seeks to distract us from what we really should be
doing.
The Lord showed me how the day had not gone the way it
should because of all that. He was kind to me and I never felt any sense of
condemnation.
Each step of the way it was as if Holy Spirit was really
heightening my sense of His presence and helping me to be aware of what I was
thinking and sensing in my gut - that inner knowing.
As the day had progressed I could see that while I made
good choices of what to eat - the volume was just too much.
I could also see that everything could have waited until
after I spent an elongated time in the presence of the Lord through His word,
prayers to Him, worshiping Him and taking the quiet time to rest.
That soaking in Him would be the best choice.
I was disappointed in this and yet because I am working
on detoxing my thinking from the negative and allowing my brain to grow healthy
cells caused by good thinking, I chose to resist all that guilt, shame and
condemnation that we’re trying to come.
I could very clearly see with God’s help that He has had
a much better plan for my day than I could ever cook up (pun intended).
So I bought the groceries and then had dinner.
As I ate my salad, I continued to see that the volume of
what I had could have been reduced a bit. This is helping me to better manage God's food
plan for me.
Lately the Lord has been wanting me to trust Him at a
completely surrendered level with both my diet and my schedule.
A few Bible verses and a prayer and then waiting to hear
before eating or proceeding with the day will allow Him to show us the right
way to go. The right thing to eat for that moment. The right thing to do for that moment.
Then I could have real peace and glide through the day in
His presence and on His power and strength.
At bedtime I opened to Ezekiel 12 and 13.
I went to bed and woke up on Thursday morning to pursue
what God was saying to me.
As I read and re-read the verses while thinking of my day
on Wednesday, I could start to see it more clearly - thank You Holy Spirit! 🙏🏻
God was saying that He would save a remnant - a few
people who would be kept from destruction so they could tell the heathen, the
unbelievers, about how they had messed up and how God had spared them. Oh that's me!
It goes on to talk about eating their food in
carefulness- with fear and shaking. Literally that’s what was coming over me yesterday
morning when I was eating my breakfast.
I was fighting fear and I could hear Holy Spirit speak to
my heart: “Your fighting with fear aren’t you?”
I heard Him tell me to resist the fear. But what I didn’t
understand was that the reason I was in fear was because I wasn’t sure if what
I was eating was what and how much God wanted me to eat.
So there was no peace in my time of having the meal.
Looking at the next page of the scriptures in chapter 13, I saw verse 11 about the people saying, “Peace, peace when there is no peace.”
It was “wishful thinking” that they were existing and
going about things as they were but in their hearts they had no real peace at
all.
That’s just how I felt yesterday. There wasn’t anything
wrong with what I ate. It was the timing of the meal and the volume was a bit
more than I needed. I had not even asked God before hand what He would like me to have. I just moved forward in what I thought was a good idea. Look at how that turned out...
And because it was too much, my stomach didn’t feel right
the rest of the day.
I see breakthrough in that I was able to quickly see what
was happening and recognized what Holy Spirit was trying to show me and I
acknowledged it and moved on.
So the day didn’t go as God had planned, but when I went
to bed listening to the word on my phone and having just read an excellent
article about soaking in His presence, I rested and looked forward to a new day
today.
Now it’s Thursday - Independence Day!
One of the first declarations out of my mouth after saying
good morning to the Lord, was this: “Today is Independence Day - I am
independent of the flesh and totally dependent on God!"
I had dreams last night, and one was about being in a big
place focusing on the word of God!
That also seems self explanatory after what I read
before sleep last night!
A big part of soaking in His presence is soaking in His
word and seeking His face. It is the time of worship, praise, thanksgiving. It is the time to be quiet and listen. All of this is soaking
in His presence which brings me back to the reason I started blogging again to
begin with. Presence! The presence of the Lord! Intimacy with Him. The number one goal for the born again Christian. Or at least it should be.
As I am learning more about soaking in His presence so I can “carry that presence” with me and others can be healed (see the
situation Peter was in as people got healed just being around him - in his
shadow), I can hopefully bring my readers with me into the presence of the Lord
so they can be healed and others they get around can be healed as well.
Hallelujah!
My dear brothers and sisters, I truly hope that today this will set you free in a fresh new way.
Here is a short little poem that came to my mind at the end of my journaling today...
I'm diving in! I'm free.
I can't swim on my own, but on Jesus I can float.
In my power I cannot gloat.
His righteousness is my coat.
No longer am I alone in the sea...
I'm floating on my Savior who sets me free.
Be blessed in all you do as you float with Jesus!
Hanny Lynn StearnsFish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. Hannylynn05@gmail.com
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