Monday, September 12, 2011

The old is gone, the new has come...

I’m baaaaaaaaack!  And, strong in the Lord!!!!

My Daddy is so BIG, so STRONG, so MIGHTY!  He is so faithful.  He keeps His promises.  He binds up the broken-hearted!  He is speaking loudly to His children…even today!  He is jealous for our attentions.  He is revealing a righteous anger (in protection) over His flock.  He is taking us back (from our bondages), building us up (strengthening, lengthening, deepening and widening) and making us whole (as we were created to be).

I can’t even begin to tell you all that I have learned about Daddy, about myself, about others during this process.  Today, I am a different person.  I am a whole person.  Whole does not mean perfect.  Whole means content with who God purposed me to be.  Whole means to accept every part of myself, but to be flexible enough to allow God to change that in which needs to be changed.  Whole means being restored and healed to our original intent.  Whole isn’t easy, let me tell you!  My transformation was a horrible, painful, beautiful process.  There were multiple times of agony, on my knees sobbing before the Lord to put me out of my misery because the pain was so bad.  The spiritual, almost physical ache of Daddy tearing out the shrapnel of my past was almost unbearable.  Burying the old man, and forming someone who is strengthened in Him – a new creation, was inevitable because what He had purposed, there was no way that anyone could stop Him!

Ephesians 3:16 – That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His spirit in the inner man.

Isaiah 58:11 – The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Daddy – thank you for how faithful you are.  Thank you for wanting us, desiring us, delighting in us, being jealous for our hearts, changing us, sifting us, replacing those broken places in our lives with wholeness.  Lord, I pray over my friends that they might find joy.  I pray that we learn to live our lives abandoned to you.  I pray Your healing (restorative surgery) in lives this day.  I pray victory over things that have taken our time, taken our hearts, and robbed us of joy.  I pray free living!  Daddy, I claim that today be the day that people walk in confidence in who they were created to be!  I pray your healing balm over the crumbled clay pots that we are.  I pray that you revive us!  Restore us!  Renew us!  I pray your oil of joy, full to overflowing.  I pray that the Spirit indwells us so completely that whenever someone even steps in our space, they are filled too.  I ask for an awakening in our hearts, God.  I ask for new beginnings and the end to that which harms us.  Daddy, thank you for changing me.  Thank you for sifting me.  Thank you for loving me so much that you sacrificed yourself so that you could save my life.  I love you my Daddy, my King.