The Promised Land A.K.A. The Kingdom of God

In the Promised Land, aka the Kingdom as God has allowed me to glimpse it, we can't write off relationship. Relationships will bring confrontation, but that's meant to help us merge in those intersections rather than repel one another with our hurts and disappointments. We are to see these as challenges that Jesus calls us to rise above not only to forgive but to take back the ground the enemy has taken from us!

BloodnFire-ites had and still have a strong revelation to go to the poor. It comes from the strength of their relationship with Christ and one another.

Taking relationship to the streets and avenues of poverty, despair, depression and disease costs everything. By cost I mean just like the twelve, it requires us to lay down our lives for the poor, despondent ones to whom God has called us. When one is lost in the depths of despair they often cannot see the forest for the the trees right in front of them, let alone the way out! And as we were willing to venture further to find those in the depths of the woods we encountered its thickness, too! Having given up salaries, homes and the security of the American Dream we unknowingly entered into a realm of wilderness prepared to give out faith, hope and love. We were not expecting encounters with doubt and unbelief that came from within. But this is where God began to truly define compassion as Nouwen experienced and wrote about it.

Venturing out there, God allured us into the wilderness to speak tenderly to us. The costs hurt and hardened us as we had not understood the light that overcomes the darkness. We threw ourselves into the works rather than the faith and relationship we were so rich in and ministry became like the Valley of Achor. We were desperate to locate the door of hope but our feet seemed stuck in thick, gooey tar. Instead of wrapping ourselves in the stinking thinking we should have had our eyes on Jesus and His promises! In Hosea 2 God tells us He's going to allure us and lead us into the desert but the good news is He is speaking tenderly to us! He promises to give back our vineyards from there. Where? From those desert places where we are to sing as in the days of our youth. This is our restoration! It's going to be like the day when the Israelites came up out of Egypt! What word comes to your mind?

D-E-L-I-V-E-R-A-N-C-E! No longer slaves but His Sons! As sons we enter into a covenant with our King! He removes all the bitterness from our lips. He abolishes bow an sword and battle so that we may lie down in safety. And the greatest yet! He promises to betroth us, His Bride! Forever!!! Betrothing us in righteousness and justice; in love and compassion in faithfulness where God will truly be acknowledged! How do we get a world to act justly? Walk Rightly? By realizing we are the Beloved! His Betrothed!!!!! Allowing Him to show His love to us, the ones called not my loved one. He will say.."you are my people and we will say, 'You are my God!'

God asked Hosea to go show his love to his wife again- to take her back, forgive and love her as God loved Israel, though they turned to other gods. Do we do this? Do we know how? Honestly, I don't think most of us have it within ourselves to do this. Our hearts are too offendable still! We respond and react out of our emotions rather than from our place of peace and authority God has given us. We've forgotten we are His Bride! We've lost our way, our identity, our vision and our purpose trading it for position and power in a material world.

Righteousness, Justice, Love, Compassion and Faithfulness. These are the bride price Jesus has paid for His Bride!

In the promised land, aka, the Kingdom of God, we may walk through the valley of the shadow of death. But Jesus is by our side and that valley is only a shadow! He is the Lord, Our God! the Holy One of Israel! He says, "You are precious in my sight! Fear not, for I am with you. I have called you by your name and you are mine!

We need to know where we come from and where we are going! Eternity really IS our home! His name is written on our foreheads and ours is written in the palm of his hand. This is powerful to know, leading us to walk in our destinies, where God has called. He is ours and we are His! Our soul He keeps! Rightly do we love Him! Even though we walk in the valley of the shadow of death and destruction, it's only a shadow! He IS our strength. He IS our song! He WILL be our Light! All, the whole night long! These are not mere words to a song, but the power, the rhema winds from heaven that Joann McFatter sings about. The Rhema Winds are blowing!

John 1:1-5:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.'

vs. 12: "Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God- children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision of a husband's will but born of God."