Monday, August 5, 2019

Loving Jesus For Who He Is - Not Just What He Does For Us


Loving Jesus For Who He is – Not Just What He does for Us.
 

Return to what you did to fall in love with Jesus!

The text for this blog: 2 Chronicles 16:9, Job 22:28 and John 4:20-24

2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may support those whose heart is completely His.

Job 22:28

Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

John 4:20-24

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.  Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.  Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
If we are decreeing things and not seeing it, we are putting the healing as more important than the Healer.

I can decree that I am closer to Him than ever. I can decree that I am so close to Him that others can feel His presence when I entered the room. We can start decreeing that “Jesus is the First Love of my life - not just the blessings He gives.”

Make declarations that He is the love and purpose of our life. We fill the air with our own words every day. If I make a decree, He will confirm it and light will shine on my ways when I am doing the right thing. What hurts? What doesn’t feel strong?

On Friday, I spent the day looking at the word and seeing how people like Stephen, Paul and suffered for the sake of the gospel.

We must remember to just love Jesus! And receive His love and allow Him to do what only He can do in our life.

Keep the word going and all of that, but keep the love relationship first and foremost. Be real and be tender in your conscience toward Holy Spirit. We can make a decree that You are near me every day and I feel Your tangible presence.

He wants to meet our needs and things for the work and ministry, but it should never take the place of our love relationship with Him!!!!! Begin to make the right decree.

Job 22:28. What we say will be established…

Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.

Don’t be so selfish like it’s your healing and your money and ministry that matters. It leaves God feeling used! Take your focus off you and keep it on Jesus and just have fun doing what you need to do each day. It will be easier than you can imagine. (This is what I was hearing.)

No person or blessing can replace Him! Nothing. Not food, busyness or success. Don’t be all about my healing and chasing the money. Be all about Jesus and our love walk! That’s where it all belongs all the time!

Sitting with Him in the garden. Looking at Him. Adoring beautiful Him! Worshiping awesome Him! There is only One found worthy.

“I decree Your presence in my life and You talking to me. I decree more about You than me.”

He said “If I be lifted up”. Keep this journey about loving Jesus! Our Father who is awesome.

Get the whining and complaining and depression out of your spirit. Say “I’m thankful for the clothes I got and the place I live, etc.,” and just praise Him.

Jesus reminded me on Sunday morning… ”Trust Me with the food and trust Me with the schedule. You will enjoy all your work and your rest and above all your time with Me. The One who loves you more than anyone.

Last night I opened to a verse that says just this…

2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. 

May that be said of me!

Saturday night, our pastor mentioned “it is not by might or power but by God’s Spirit” from Zechariah 4:6-7.

I opened to that very same verse in my time with the Lord Sunday morning. He wants me to see that I cannot get myself where I need to be with Him. I need to “declare a fast” of trying to do things my way.

I have to go back to just loving God, loving people and loving me through the process of sanctification. Keep loving on Him, let Him love on me and go my way and do my work as I yield to Holy Spirit!

Monday August 5

Last night was amazing at our healing service – as always! Praise the Lord! I wasn’t feeling to good, so I stayed back and my husband went on to the healing service while I rested and ate and then went. When I got there, the woodpecker appeared as if to remind me to not allow anything to chip away from my experience with Jesus. That’s the second little red headed woodpecker I had seen in a week. We don’t normally see those birds here in Florida.

The service was so powerful and Holy Spirit was moving so strongly - it was glorious!

My songs that the Lord brought to me was “To be with You” by One Worship and “Your Love Never Fails” by the Newsboys.

How grateful I am for His unfailing love.

Song: The Potters Hand – came to me as I was journaling tall this today. If we listen to that song, we see how he can…

·         Lead me
·         Walk beside me
·         Guide me
·         Use me
·         Mold me

I give my life into the Potter’s Hand!

All Jesus wanted was to be with me and it started off ok, but I went a little too soon to go eat, rather than lingering with Jesus because I have many things on my calendar to do today.

I was fighting the distractions; stopping to answer texts when they come in, regardless of who they are instead of turning off the phone and not letting the distractions come and interrupt my time with Jesus.

I opened to John 4 about the woman who encountered Jesus at the well. While the disciples went off to get lunch, Jesus stayed there to minister, and the woman got a drink that no well could provide!

What she got during that encounter was priceless! What I am learning is that the hardest thing for me to do in my own ability is to sit still and just be with Him despite everything in my the natural that is trying to draw my attention. If I let things continue to draw from my well, I will quickly run dry. In the natural, we can only draw natural things, but in His presence, we can get so filled that our well overflows - the deepest part of our souls that only Jesus can fill.

Now my heart heard that song that He brought to me earlier saying, “I just want to be with you.”

I had started off right with Him this morning, but as I ate and finished my meal which I didn’t even start until almost noon, And I proceeded to start laundry and go make the bed, I could feel something in my spirit that wasn’t right. Then I was led to come back and sit down and open the word of God and landed right here in the encounter with Jesus.

But how can we have an encounter if we won’t stop and drop the bucket long enough? I had to drop what I was doing and listen to what He wanted to say.

After last night’s powerful service of a move of Holy Spirit, the Lord wanted that to continue to flow into this morning with Him. But I was too busy “carrying my bucket” to stop and linger just a while longer - just to be with Him.

I was too focused on what time it was and what I had to do. I allowed that to steal our sweet time together, when Jesus must matter more to me than anything else in all of life – including my menu and “to do” lists.

It steals our fellowship with Jesus. It robs us of getting answers to the questions we have and the wisdom to know what and how He wants us to do things in our life that bring great success and victory in every area.

Who out there is struggling with being too distracted to spend quality time with Jesus? Do we love Him, really just for who He is? Or do we seek Him for just what He can do for us?

Like the song says, truly the measure of a man is the measure of his heart. In this life, did we learn to love? And who or what do we love the most?

Matthew 6:21

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Like our pastor said in the service on Saturday, we worship Jesus in Spirit and in truth.

It’s not where we worship - see verses 20-24. It’s a matter of the heart! ❤️♥️💕

John 4:20-24

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
In closing, I had a dream on Saturday night that I never got the answer for. It was about a waffle with strawberries on top and whipped cream. I had a tuna salad on my back in a backpack.

I never really understood the meaning of the dream all day. I had come to a conclusion in my own mind of what it meant, but it wasn’t that at all.

As I began to write this journal, a pastor friend of mine wrote a text to me about their experience on the way home last night from that powerful healing service we had all attended.

She tells about stopping at a fast food restaurant to get something to eat. In that event, they were able to pray for a waitress who had back pain and didn’t even know Jesus as her Lord.

By the time they left, they had prayed for her and she came back from the kitchen exclaiming that the pain was gone! She was so happy that she knelt down there at the table beside our pastor friends and she asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior.

This text cut me to the heart! After reading that I thought about what my husband and I could have done last night to go get a bite to eat after the service. We were both quite hungry. Had we stopped at the local place that is open all night, we might have had another encounter similar to the one our friends had had.

It had happened a week ago where we were able to minister to a lady who served us for our late-night meal.

So why do I share my experiences like this with the entire world to see?

I believe that when we see what someone else is going through, it can be used by Holy Spirit to help others see and learn from their life’s events. So, if this ministers at all to you, or causes you to think, stop and drop your bucket to linger a little longer with Jesus, then I will consider the baring of my soul more than worth it. If I can encourage you while He is encouraging me, then I believe we already have the victory that He promises to give us – not by our own might or strength, but by His Spirit.

Be blessed as you wait. 😊

Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc. 

Hannylynn05@gmail.com










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