Tag: Abundance

Clean Slate Club

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Growing up in the Midwest we heard often at mealtime it was important that we “cleaned our plate” for there were people who had nothing to eat. When I think back to those days I realize there was no connection between me finishing my vegetables and someone who had no food to eat. What were we going to do send my uneaten broccoli to another country? 🙂 I still smile with a chuckle as I think about this. I was a member of the “clean plate club” not because I liked brocolli but because it was a value in my home that we eat all we put on our plate.

I was praying Psalm 32 this morning and the Lord said, “I have a clean slate club and you are a member!” I love how the Passion Translation says it, “What bliss belongs to those who have confessed their corruption to God! For he wipes their slates clean and removes hypocrisy from their hearts. Before I confessed my sins, I kept it all inside; my dishonesty devastated my inner life, causing my life to be filled with frustration, irrepressible anguish, and misery.” You and I, when we confess our sins are members of the clean slate club. Now this is a club I want to be and remain a member of.

A friend of mine and I have been digging into some new areas of life together. In doing so what I have discovered is when you let someone else into your shame, your history, your ornaments on the back of your tree that you think no one can see, it eradicates the lies that are lingering in the shadows. It sheds light on what was dark; it removes shame from what felt so daunting; it truly brings bliss in a way only authenticity and integrity can. The Lord has been showing me how individualism and isolation have been like termites hindering us from the abundant life found when intimacy and community connect.

Friends we are members of the “clean slate club” our sins are forgiven by God and when we share our stuff with others it takes the residue out of the shadows and it is swept away when someone else knows what we wanted no one else to know. Then intimacy becomes accountability not to avoid sin, but to live the abundant life together. The freedom is palatable, the laughter is audible and the coconut milk ice cream is delightful. Intimacy and community is the proximity that is enjoyed in the “clean slate club!”

Never Diminishing

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When I was a camp counselor in Park River, ND under the leadership of Rod Crystal Lundeen Quanbeck, we would have to make announcements to the campers and we had a way we said it, but it was always a call to hear announcements, announcements, announcements. I can hear that little tune in my head even now as I write this. It is amazing how some memories will be with us forever and pop up in the most unseemingly unusual times. I loved working at that camp, it was a summer I will never forget. I wonder if I am remembering this today, because my son leaves for his first summer camp this afternoon, oh the memories he will make just like I did as a counselor in that ever so remote city in North Dakota.

I said all that to say, the Bible releases announcements of good news every time we read it. Whether from a passage we have read over and over again or from some place we have not frequented as much. Today I was praying Psalm 23 and the Lord had me dig into the word want. So often we think we know what a word means, but there is depth in words, there are pathways in words, there are discoveries, treasures and truths in words that unlock us if we lean into them. Psalm 23:1 says, “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.” We know this verse, but do we know this verse. I didn’t until right now.

To not want in the Hebrew means, to not lack, to not decrease, to not diminish, to not be deprived, to not fail, to not make lower, to not have need. Oh my goodness, when the Lord is your Shepherd, the good Shepherd of John 10, when we make Him our Shepherd, we will not lack, fail, diminish, decrease. This is powerful, when the Lord is our Shepherd there is no fear of failing, falling back, diminishing. When the Lord is our Shepherd we continually increase, we win, we are ever ascending, this is such good news. We set goals and fail, because we want to be our own shepherd, so we go to conferences to learn how to be a better me, but the Bible says, all you need is a Shepherd. He will lead you and as you follow His voice you will not want!!! Being a sheep has incredible benefits if we are willing to let Jesus be our Shepherd. We get to be sheep, bah, bah, bah, bah and we shall not want.

Abundance on Arrival

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Is it just me or do you sense something has shifted in the spirit toward a move of God like we have been praying for, believing for and hoping for? Many have tried to describe what they see coming. Bob Jones’ prophecy is lingering that a billion-soul harvest is near; others have said the death of Billy Graham will usher in a worldwide revival; Lance Wallnau and Johnny Enlow are declaring the taking over of the 7 mountains and still some are speaking of a financial windfall for the advancing of the kingdom of God on earth. Sometimes I think we hear what our heart beats for, our heart desires, our dreams that long to be seen and that is not wrong, it’s just our desire. So, what actually is coming that all of us can jump into and see on a macro level that will affect us on a micro level? I can only share what I am seeing in the spirit and what I am waiting for the manifestation of on the earth. I see abundance coming and upon its arrival it will release a repentance that only abundance can bring. Look at these two scriptures:

Isaiah 6:1-5 says, “I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Luke 5:4-8 “When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.  So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”

When Isaiah saw the Lord as a victorious king, for the train of a kings robe is a statement about all the battles they have won, of which we know the Lord never loses a battle, so the train filled the temple, he had won a lot of battles. This vision of the goodness of God, the victories of God, the picture of God as victorious, didn’t bring pride or arrogance into Isaiah, it actually brought humility, repentance and a returning to the Lord God Almighty. The same thing happened to Peter, this professional fisherman, who worked all night and caught nothing, was not puffed up when the nets full of fish were breaking, he was actually humbled by the abundance on arrival.

What I see coming is an abundance of God’s goodness that is going to lead people to repentance not to arrogance. It is going to come with an abundance of healing, finances, reconciliation of relationships, return of prodigals and salvation of loved ones. God is going to shower us with an abundance of rain and upon its arrival, we are not going to rise up in pride, we are going to fall to our knees in worship. Weeping will proceed dancing, not out of sadness, out of being overwhelmed at how good He really is. We have a generation that believes God is mad, distance, untouchable and not interested in helping them, but God is about to show up and show out in a way that, like Isaiah and Peter is going to cause us to repent then rejoice because of the abundance.

Remember Paul said in Romans 2:4 “do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” I believe abundance on arrival is going to bring us to our knees in worship like wrath, judgement and condemnation never could. Honestly, we all know we have fallen short of the glory of God, but how many of us know that He wants to pour out His abundance on us anyway? This unexpected, undeserved act of generosity from God is going to turn nations to the Name that is above all Names. Are you ready for abundance? It’s going to be bigger than you could ask or even begin to imagine.