Get your mind off Covid for a bit – hear some awesome stuff about how to “have ears to hear” God. He loves you !!

Listen till the end!! This is good stuff!!! It gets even better as it goes……

HOW THE WORD OF GOD CAN INTERACT IN YOUR LIFE

It’s easy sometimes to read the Word of God and not seem to get anything from it.  How is it that some people say that the Word “spoke” to them and came to life?  How does that happen?  It can happen in many ways, but I want to give you a small example.

I was reading one of my favorite scriptures, Psalm 91, affectionately known as the protection scripture.  I came to the part that says,  “surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler”.   That just seemed to jump out at me.  It seemed to stand out and beckon me to go deeper.  What is a fowler?  So I stopped what I was doing and looked it up.  A fowler is one who catches birds in a snare, usually by pulling an attached cord.

Now I’m not a bird, and God often speaks metaphorically, but I still didn’t get it.  Yet I felt it was standing out for a reason.  So I stopped reading and prayed this scripture over myself.  “Lord, deliver me from the snare of the fowler.”  I said that prayer for several days having no idea why, just in faith believing that God had magnified this particular passage.

Events came to pass quickly.  I had been diagnosed with crohn’s syndrome for about 7 years.  I had tried many different medications to no avail.  They finally tried a shot that lowers your immune system and I had a horrible allergic reaction (thankfully).  They sent me to UNC Medical center for another opinion on what to do with me.

My first meeting with the new doctor, he looked at my blood test results that my doctor had sent him.  He looked at me somewhat frustrated and said, “I don’t think you have crohn’s disease at all.”  I was shocked – how many tests my doctor done and said it was crohn’s?   Then he showed me some pretty simple numbers on the lab results explaining his conclusion.  Then he asked if he could privately (apart from my doctor) do his own colonoscopy to confirm his belief.  And sure enough I DID NOT HAVE IT!!!

For seven years I had been in pain on and off and taking some kind of different medicines that didn’t work and still not feeling well.  This UNC doctor told me to immediately stop the medicines and gave me something mild to calm nerve endings.  I had been telling all my doctors that I thought something was wrong with my ribs and that something else might be causing pain.  ALL of them ignored me and left me in the crohn’s box, except this doctor.  He almost turned red faced and said, “You are not a guinea pig”  He could not speak strongly against the doctor that had referred me to him, but he was angry that this had gone on.

Then I began to see it clearly.  I had been “snared by the fowler”.  Snared by a lie I was ignorant of.  Even though I did not understand the scripture fully until I actually saw the snare in my life – God answered the prayer and exposed what I could not see.  Actually it was the Holy Spirit that led me to begin praying that line in the Psalm.

I was free from that medicine and diagnosis rather quickly and went on to look for the correct answers.  I was free from a seven year snare.  

That’s just a small example of how a scripture set me free.  “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”   John 8:32

God speaks in many ways.  I hope this will inspire you to pay attention to that “still small voice” or what seems to be a small leading.  Follow the Master, read His word with an open heart – and follow it through in faith believing.  Unless you have some large outstanding sin you are ignoring and not prayed about –  God will not withhold communication from you!  He is no respecter of persons.  And if there is a sin you need help getting rid of – talk to Him and ask for help.  He is good at removing obstacles.  He loves you and is on your side.  He longs to have a deep, sweet relationship with you.  He promises  “seek and you shall find”  “ask and knock”  Take a step in His direction and see what happens!  He will not withhold His voice from you!

God bless you – you are loved!!

STUCK

When I was first saved, it was easy to worship God and bask in His forgiveness.  My life was such a contrast before and after being born again.  A transformation took place and I was very aware of my sins.  Then began the difficult but rewarding journey of sanctification as I began to resist and get rid of my sinful and worldly habits.  

I remember so distinctly the first time I “messed up”.  I had laid down smoking pot and alcohol, but when I traveled to my hometown and went to see my old friends – straight up – I fell.  I blew my witness and I was so angry at myself.  I knew Satan was laughing and mocking God as well.  

I drove to the parking lot of a church and sat there crying.  Beating myself up.  Others lives were at stake too.  My witness was important to God and the kingdom because many were watching me to see if this was real.  Nevertheless – I blew it.  I knew it.  I could not forgive myself.

It was raining and night time as I sat in the car.  Then I felt like the Lord was upset with me.  I had’t felt it before.  He was actually more upset that I was “flogging” myself than He was of the sin I had committed.  As I looked up through teary eyes – I saw what looked like three crosses.  I don’t know if it was a vision or glare from my tears – but then I heard the voice of the Lord inside my heart (John 10:27) – stern and a bit agitated at me.  He said, as I looked at the crosses, “I did this, so you don’t have to do that.”

I wanted to “beat” myself up for being so stupid and blowing my witness, but God only wanted me to repent, forgive myself and move forward.  I was only damaging myself with my “self hate”.   And He did not want that for me.

I have struggled with that during my life.  I hate to miss the mark or sin against God in disobedience and I KNOW how much I deserve punishment.  I hate the flippant way people just trample on God’s grace and I don’t want to be that kind of a person.  Neither does God want us to be.  But sometimes we just can’t fix things and that is how it is.  I could not go and undo my actions.  All I could do was keep walking with God and pray that my old friends would still see that Jesus was in my life and that He would be glorified.  

It is important that we feel remorse.  If we don’t feel remorse for sin there is something wrong with our relationship with God.  He feels our sin.  It hurts and grieves Him, which is why we need to deal with it.  It is not good to let anything come between you and another person or the relationship can be lost.  Same with God – we can slowly become lukewarm when we blow off feeling bad for sins and repenting.

The easiest way to do so is to remember that God doesn’t want us to be stuck in the “feeling bad” place, though it’s important to make sure we still “feel”!  He wants us to give it to Him, ask Him to help us not do it again, and keep walking with Him.  Sometimes we have to have faith that God will fix what we did too.  I have often missed opportunities to witness to someone and had to ask God to bring another person across their path to take care of what I missed.  

May God help us to stay “sensitized” to His Holy Spirit.  Awake to a vibrant and good relationship with Him.  Knowing that He is “for us and not against us”  (Rom. 8:31)

Our life with God is meant to be rich and fruitful, full of adventure.  I pray we are not robbed of that by getting stuck in one place or another!   God bless you abundantly and have a great day.  

A LITTLE LESSON ON SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR BIBLICAL DREAM INTERPRETATION

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – THE “DINKY” LITTLE PRAYER

Sometimes it’s those insignificant seeming prayers we say that can carry a lot more power than we think.  For example “Lord thank you for protecting the house” as you pull out of your driveway, or “Lord protect my kids at school today”, as you drop them off. Sometimes I pray over an important letter that it will arrive on time, or a package undamaged.

We don’t really notice it until we forget to pray and begin to see a difference.  For instance, I always prayed over my luggage when I used to fly.  “Lord keep the plane safe, no accidents, and that You would put angels to keep my luggage from getting lost or stolen. Amen

Pretty regular prayer.  Except the day I forgot to pray about the luggage!  Not only did my bags not arrive at my destination.  It didn’t even make it to the right country!  It went to Mexico!  Whaaat??  I think God must have chuckled and I certainly got the point.  Those “little” prayers WERE being answered.

They may not be said in fanfare, passion, or hardly with any thought at all, but God is listening and things are happening in the unseen realm even when we don’t know it.  That’s where faith comes in and we continue to pray, trusting that it’s making a difference.

Now this is a silly one, but you ladies can relate.  I had purchased some nice bras for myself when I was living in an apartment and had to do laundry in the community laundry room.  I tossed my clothes in the washer and as I walked out, under my breath, and almost without a thought I said,  “Satan I bind you from stealing any of my new bras in Jesus name.”   They weren’t cheap so I guess that’s why I singled them out.  But when I came back to get my clothes, someone had stolen every single pair of underwear – except the bras.  I had to laugh.  That “in Jesus name” carries weight.  And there are some spiritual rules even the devil must obey.

So I guess my point is that there really is no “dinky” prayer.  Even a little prayer to us is being answered by a great and mighty God.  His ways are higher than ours right, and He instructs us to “ask (and keep on asking) and you shall receive.”   I truly believe that He loves to answer the smallest of prayers because He loves us so much and is happy we are including Him in the everyday things of life. We are not bothering Him like the enemy and our own reasoning tries to convince us of.  He loves us and that our thoughts turn towards Him. He delights in you and the relationship that continues to grow for a lifetime if we let it!

Much love and have a great day!

A Thought For The Day…..Dreams

A THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A word about dreams.  We most likely all have them.  Some we remember and most we don’t.  They serve a purpose we are told by science that when we reach REM sleep it is restorative sleep.  But is there more?

We see in the Bible that around fifty times God spoke or sent messages to people through dreams and visions.  So yes, to the question if they can be more than a biochemical benefit to only our bodies.

In my studies I have found that Dreams come from 3 places.  1. Soul (mind, will, emotions)  2. God  (Acts 2, Joel 2  ..old, young will dream and have visions)  3. Devil  (Luke 4 : 5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.”)

We have to be able to judge/analyze them to know where they come from.  It is up to us to accept or reject them.  Certainly the ones from the devil contain fear and torment, failure and dread.  Those we can just toss.

The ones from God always have a message in line with HIs character and His Word.  Sometimes He may reveal the future, warn us of something,  or just invite us into a relationship of seeking and finding.  He loves to interact with us.  It’s sad that most people don’t know that. God made us because He wanted us to be family and have a relationship with HIm.

Thirdly, our souls, or mind, will, and emotions.  You will notice elements of your daily life, a movie you watched, problem you are experiencing etc.  Just normal dreams.

I could go further…..but if you would like to dig deeper you can go to JeanChamblee.com  and find the link to my youtube channel where I do 9 short Biblical teachings on Dreams and Visions.   Enjoy and Have a great day!

HE WHISPERS

So today is an especially sweet day. I woke up this morning hearing in my head the phrase “I love you to the moon and back”. I wondered if that thought could have been from God? Would He use a common human phrase to communicate with me? And for Him the moon is not very far or big. Haha

Just waking up I wasn’t thinking with my spirit but was just in my head!! So I dismissed it without much thought. Then later I finally got around to doing something the Lord had asked me to do, and that was to mail my book to an old friend. I had been putting it off because I couldn’t find an envelope, but the Lord patiently waited. I put the dollar stamps on it which were in the shape of a moon and proceeded to the mailbox. I knew God was happy about my obeying Him and following through on this. Then I looked up and on the mailbox was a beautiful bluebird. I thought to myself “bluebird of happiness”,which was a phrase I had heard in a movie. Then it dawned on me that God had put the bluebird there as a sign to me that I was making Him happy by doing what He had asked.

Then quickly in my minds eye or spirits eye to be more accurate; I saw a visual of the Father picking me up and joyfully swinging me around in His arms like a little girl. Wow. I was really having a divine encounter all morning and it was so subtle I could have missed it, but thankful I didn’t. I knew God was communicating. Then I walked back in the house and picked up the stamps. The stamps were a picture of the moon! To the moon and back!! Right in my face. I love you to the moon and back! Then again, I looked out the kitchen window and the bluebird was sitting on the wire in the 20 plus wind gusts we’re having today and holding on as if to wait for me to see it, then it jumped off.

Wow again. I could have missed this all. It started with a subtle “I love you to the moon and back” thought as I woke up. How amazing is God!!! He truly does communicate with us . Are we listening? Do we miss the thoughts He sends our way? Are we awake enough to recognize Him. We certainly can be and He will help us if we ask! He has so much joy in us. We make Him happy! You make Him happy! He made you and has a dream for your life. I hope this inspires you to actively “listen” with your spiritual eyes and ears as well as the other. He whispers, but He is full of love for you. Receive it! Hope you have an awesome day!

Blessings, Jean

John 10:27

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.