Thursday, February 26, 2009

Appropriate God's Promises by Rejoicing

This was a word from a prophet of the Lord, MARY ELLEN GILLILAND, on February 24, 2009, and it was very encouraging to me.

Appropriate God's Promises by Rejoicing

Go in peace I have it all in hand. I am calling upon you to rejoice in what I am doing, although it is behind the scenes. You can't see it but it will manifest - if you receive it by faith and rejoice. All I have told you and promised you -

"Heaven on Earth, Here And Now"
the appearing of Christ, The Messiah
filling the temple with glory
the arising and shining, living on a new plane, or level, in the kingdom
the claiming of the victory, and
healing -

all these are to appropriate by faith, and that faith expresses itself at the highest level by rejoicing. Mary appropriated the promise of a Savior coming through her womb by the Magnificat. If you want to know the moment, the instant she conceived, it is the moment of that prayer of praise. So rejoice! I will count it to you as righteousness. I will call it high faith and I will act upon the praises of My people. I will inhabit the praises of My people, for these joy-filled praises are the highest expression of their faith.

Isaiah 60:1-2 Arise ! Shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth and dense darkness the peoples but the Lord shall arise upon you and His glory shall be seen on you.

This reminds me of another prophecy where the Lord was saying He is asking us to praise Him for the promises not yet seen. My dancing has commenced!!!



For an explanation of "Heaven On Earth, Here And Now," go to zoebooks.com

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Need for Plenty of Room

I love my dog Lucky. Well, he’s mine for now, since I moved in with my sister Rose. He’s the best pal, and most loyal. At 94 dog-years he is mostly blind and deaf. Walks and bones are the joy of his life, besides us of course. We are Nigerians and we cook a great spinach & melon soup called ‘egusi soup’. I cooked one the other day, with chicken. You know the fresh, tough ones that you have to boil for awhile before anyone can chew it.
The soup now, two days old, it’s even more delicious. I warmed up some and paired it with pounded yam (that’s another recipe story), sat on the couch and ate. Lucky was sleeping somewhere in the house and I don’t know if it was just naptime-over or he smelled that soup, but after I had finished eating he arrived. Now I was kinda lazy, so I perched the empty plate of chicken bones, on the back of the couch. Lucky came sniffing around. I knew he was allowed to have bones, but I texted my sister to ask her if he could have any bones:
“Can Lucky have any kind of bones’ ‘Cos he’s smellin’ my egusiJ”
She answered: “Ha ha ha. Yes he can. I usually rinse it off, and Manny always gave him bones from his soup. He is a greedy dog!” Manny was her late husband and he cooked a mean egusi soup too.
Well, Lucky may be greedy, but he’s smart. I didn’t rinse it off just picked up a nice clean bone from my plate and put it in front of the dog’s nose. He can hardly see and he can’t hear “over here Lucky”, so you have to help him get to the bone without losing a finger. Finally he got it and chopped down, mumbling to himself as he enjoyed the bone.
Suddenly, he was frantic and I realized he had dropped it and couldn’t see where it was, but I could hear it being shoved up under the couch. As you can see Lucky is a pug/corgi mix and has no snout to fish out a little arrant bone. But, somehow, miraculously, he got the bone back from the brink of no return, without my help. He grabbed that bone and escaped to the dining room where he had plenty of room and no low furniture to contend with.
It was as if he said “Let me get me some room. There is too much going over there by the couch – her shoes, the rug, the couch. I need some room, so I can really enjoy this bone and not lose it.”
As my family would say, “There’s a sermon in there somewhere”, but immediately I thought of the verse that says something to the effect, He is bringing us out into a wide open space. That’s how I feel right about now – “I need some space, Lord! I’m ready for You to bring me out to a clear open space, so I can get the work done that You have commissioned me to do.”
The waiting continues.