Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Dwell… Abide.

 

I woke up on Thursday May 25th, 2017 to another beautiful day.  Just like normal, I put on some Bethel worship and started out my day with a spiritual breakfast in His Word.  I haven’t always had quiet mornings for reading, I’m a mother of 3 kids under 7, so it’s a treat when I can start my day with my heart focused and full.

As caretakers, we must first be cared for.  Anyways, I was randomly flipping through my Bible and reading whatever popped out at me (I recommend a plan but I’m adventurous, haha).  And here every verse I came across was about abiding, dwelling under His shadow or being covered by His wings and His feathers.  Neat!  I can feel Him leading up to a point, Holy Spirit just highlighting every word.  So I get really excited and start playing around and boom, another verse on wings and feathers.  As you can see, more than anything, I get really excited when I’m getting taught on a new subject by Holy Spirit.  He’s a wonderful teacher.

So the kids wake up and I open my closet to change for the day, and out floats a white feather.  Huh.  Neat!  I get dressed and go to open the living room windows for some morning light and outside the window on the ground in plain view is a big feather with a beautiful pattern and tones.  I couldn’t NOT see it.  Haha, now its getting fun.  My heart is just thrilled at how my Father invests in me at this point.  So I go get the feather of course, and like every morning, my husband Ron pulls up from working all through the night.  We greet him, and once the children all settle down from excitement,  I begin describing how my morning has gone so far.  Upon telling him, he responds “That’s funny cause when I was at work about to get into my car and come home, a bird swooped down so close it almost hit me in the head!”.  I’m laughing, but at the same time I’m counting that a third sign.  Haha, yes, a bird almost hitting my husband in the head is a sign from God to me! Hahaha… I know He has a sense of humor.  God knows he’s tired, how else would He get his attention?!

So I go on with my morning, just pondering and meditating on these things… and I began getting some vision flashes.  I sketched them out and planned to create some prophetic photography portraits, but time passed and I set it aside for a bit.  Now it’s been on my heart recently and I decided to go ahead and create them.  For this one, the Holy Spirit inspired me to use the actual feather in them, so I did. Upon attempting a few shots, I realized the stripe patterns lined up perfectly with my eyebrow and eyelashes!  I love Him, He is so much fun.  So I finished my first out of a “collection” I am creating, and I thought I’d post this one.

SO, what is Daddy saying with these things?  In my heart this is what I hear:

“Beloved, I am your resting place.  Be with me, in my presence, and you will be overwhelmed by the peace & security you will find here in Me.  I am your source, everything you need.  Stay in my presence, in intimacy, in My Love and in my Word.  Put your trust in Me.  When you put your hope in Me, you will not be disappointed.  Put your trust in hope in Me, not this world or man, or even your own strength and abilities.  When you hope in man and in your own strength and abilities, there will be striving and you will exert yourself.  Stay under my wings, where there is no striving, only rest.  Remember, I created everything as a mirroring image of my ways and my character.  Remember when birds fly in sync, they do this to preserve their energy on their long journeys.  Catch the wind.  Stay under my wing.”

I hear Him speaking about intimacy, rest, alignment, security, trust and protection.

Here I will post the verses I read.  Do you have a favorite verse on His wings?  Enjoy & please comment or message me if you’d like to talk need prayer.

With Love, Abbie.

Psalm 91

“I AM therefore, I CREATE”

In 2016, Holy Spirit began to give me revelation during worship.  I had always been one of those people who wanted to be able to do everything artistic, but never really thought of  myself as “creative“, though I did have a desire to be.  A lot of healing happened the first half of 2016 in my one on one time with the Lord.

Once I was in a place where I started to understand that my Identity did not come from any other source but Jesus and my confidence as His daughter was growing, another area He began to highlight in my Identity was creativity.  He said “You are creative because I AM Creative.  You are made in MY image…”.  He showed me a vision of His heart, His Love (Himself cause He is love) being distributed into every person.  I saw that the fragments had reflection & resembled pieces of mirror.  I understood that we are all a product of love and how a marriage is a model of this truth (another great topic).  I understood that each individual being was made to reflect an aspect of Him and His ways.  I understood that no one could ever reflect Him in the way I could and same for ever other person.  We each have the privilege of revealing Him in our own way.  God is that great- He literally needs that many people to reveal His ways,  His love. (I ask for this revelation for the reader by the Holy Spirit.  Lord, make this personal to him/her)

Then I began to ASK (Matthew 7:7) about specifics on what to do- pertaining to something I would enjoy doing, since He knows me and made me (duh!).  About a week or so later I heard very randomly during worship “prophetic photography“.  I had a vision of a woman with writing all over her that I knew were prophetic words.  I believe this woman was the church, His bride- which is also me (and you)…

So here I AM on my journey discovering what this prophetic photography is.  I had never heard anything like this EVER!  Let alone ever take photography.  A lot about me made sense in this moment.  This was mind provoking for me.  I did begin reaching out to others in the church and on the internet to see if others had done similar things.  I have seen a few aspects of this creative outlet of expression but I knew what He was saying to me was different.  It is so important not to get fixed on trying to copy others or stay “on the line” of what other’s have done before.  It’s also important not to get lost basing your identity in performance or measuring yourself based on talent.  I had to let go of some barriers there!  I had been getting visions during worship, and it took me a little while to realize THAT is what He was talking about.  So I have been in the process of recreating these visions and dreams.

 The one I have here called “Elevation” was a dream, I had a while back in 2012.  In my dream I was walking in the night and was elevated from the ground, up into space.  I was brought up to this star and others were also surrounding.  I then looked down and my core was glowing with fire….

I remembered 3 verses:

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you and to give you assurance of these things for the churches. I am the Root (the Source, the Life) and the Offspring of David, the radiant and bright Morning Star.” (Rev. 22:16 AMP).

And, “For the Lord your God is a consuming fire; He is a jealous (passionate) God [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely His] (Deuteronomy 4:24 AMP) &

“Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, and offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship with reverence and awe; ²⁹ for our God is [indeed] a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29)

So, in closing, I want to declare a blessing over the reader.  I specifically ask Holy Spirit to give the reader a personal encounter with Him, exposing false identity and revealing true Identity in Him.  I bless you to receive freedom and confidence in your Identity first as a son/daughter and as a Creative, created by our Creative Creator!  I also bless you in the area of prophetic creativity.  Let it be so.

For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are [all answered] “Yes.” So through Him we say our “Amen” to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:20

 

Have you ever stopped and really soaked it in? Have you stilled yourself lately and observed the beauty created in and around us? There are endless details, delicate and profound. The eyelashes intentionally placed just above your eyes. The wind? Fire? How it is all interlinked somehow- one needing the other? Sounds? Music? The perfect placement of our solar system? The force that literally holds everything we know together.  Symbols in the bible and in our world.  Like numbers- ever notice how certain numbers God used a lot in the Bible are infused all over our world and in science?  What about the 12 tribes of Israel?  And 12 disciples…12 hours of day and 12 of night… and so much more that fascinates me but that’s for another post. We should be always conscious of these things.  These things are whispers of His ways; His love.  We’re not always aware.  We admire it, maybe take notice but we become so used to it.  Used to breathing or being- and we miss the message.

But why?

Something I came to understand about all these things, our very selves as well, is that we are not only loved by God- but are active expressions of His love. Of Himself.  We are a divine expression of our Master, our King.  The eternal & everlasting God, Yahweh. When God spoke us into being- He breathed life out of HIS very being. Out of Himself, out of pure, divine Love.  Awaken to His love.  It’s all around you… You can’t escape His love.  Like the air we breathe.  This life has message.

That is why sin is so unacceptable to Him. It is our misalignment with our created purpose. Sin is translated literally as “missing the mark“. This revelation goes so deep and is so infused with such intense love- it’s impossible to completely understand.  We have been made out of love.  Both physically and spiritually. This is why for example, intimacy must be kept pure between a man and a woman…. this is so precious to Him. It is a representation of the Artist and Author.

The Devil himself knows it.  He knew about this Love from the beginning.  So from the beginning he had a plan to destroy that image; the understanding of our identity in Love.  He set out to pervert marriage, sex, the idea of love…every little thing he could hack up to ruin the very core of our reason for existence- the message… and mostly the image of who our Maker is.   And the only one who can restore this truth is Truth Himself.  Satan set out to sow strongholds in your mind.  The Devil hates God.  And he hates you because your meant to look like God.  Pretty simple.  And he’s not stupid.  Since the beginning he knew to go for THE MIND.  If you can get to the mind of something, you can control it and from there- destroy it or others.  That’s why the first encounter we have with him in the Bible is of him manipulating Eve into questioning whether or not God REALLY did say not to eat that fruit.  But lets not be an Eve.  WE now have the honor of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling.  And with our submission and His leading- we can be set free from mindsets we didn’t even know we had…and receive the MIND OF CHRIST.

How can we fully understand this?  How do we get the mind of Christ?  By asking for and receiving the Holy Spirit.  Then by reading His word (a good place to start is between John and Jude in the new testament) and speaking His promises over our lives and believing them.  Because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.  We have to let the Holy Spirit redirect us to the Father. If you still have strongholds (wrong ways of thinking- any thinking patterns that wedges between the ability to love others or be loved by God or others is my simple definition) that hinder this understanding- you can ask Him to help you.  There really is no strict list of steps because it’s all a supernatural inner healing that the Holy Spirit gently works out.  It’s really about believing what He says and yielding to His work.  It’s a wonderful thing to be free and have the mind of Christ & see things from His perspective. Then you will finally have a true sense of Identity.  We were created by Love, to love and BE LOVED.

I’m in awe of His splendor.  Just sitting here meditating on how amazing His intentions towards us.  I look around and let it settle in how His thoughts are so high toward us.  He has literally done everything around us FOR US.  Words can’t even describe it.  I can’t even find a way to express His awesome love!  He first loved US.  Starting from the very beginning of life.  He formed the earth and everything in it FOR US, presenting it before us as a token of His love toward us.  The earth decorated for us as a gorgeous wonderland filled with wonders to be discovered.  With mysteries and expressions of His immense love for us permeated throughout it all.

The reason I emphasize that this was all FOR US is because of the simple revelation that it took Him “5 days” to fully ready it all for us.  Like a welcome party He dreamed up, designed and decorated the entire universe from the greatest detail to the smallest so that everything was fully set and displayed upon our entrance.  One thing somehow collaborating with another- all weaved together…nothing without purpose.  Then like an amazing Dad awakening His beloved child on their birthday, He crafted and breathed us to life.  He awakened us to the fully perfected wonderland of love at last… in a garden full of treasures to behold, on the 6th and last day of His creation process.  And on the 7th day, He rested.  He gazed upon us pleased and fully content with the expressions of His love through and toward us.

We have little understanding of His views and thoughts toward us.  The enemy will try to destroy this understanding by implanting lies in our heads.  One is that we are a mistake.  Another is that we are a disgrace to Him, and so many more.  But however you see yourself, your life, value and the world around you, I encourage you to ask Him to let you see through His eyes! Just go before the throne (your secret  place of prayer) and ask Jesus to show you what He really sees when He looks at you.  Ask Him how he really feels.  I pray that the personal revelation will blow your mind!  It has to me.  I see everything differently in life after encountering Him and listening purposefully to his pure and true small voice.  Anything that does not align with the words He said over Jesus, “this is my BELOVED son/daughter in whom I am well pleased” is a lie.  Reject it and replace it with the truth.  You are now made right with God.  It’s now your responsibility to tear down those strongholds (lies) and renew your mind.  You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

What would life be like if everyone had a full & constant understanding of LIFE as a gift?  If we were conscious of every breath and heartbeat as a whisper of God’s words “I LOVE YOU” love, the verb- His love, the endless verb.  I don’t mean our shallow, tossed around version of I love you.  I mean His.  His version is constant action even if in His stillness.  His love is the giving of Himself.  In our very creation and existence we are a product of His love, of Him who IS LOVE.  A very great thing to be a product of in my opinion.  How much more would we value ourselves if we knew our specific makeup, talents, dreams and creative abilities were a facet of who He is?  Or if we were aware of how He paints the sky uniquely for us everyday.  He delights in you, and His eyes are fixed on you.

Don’t forget to thank Him today but mostly ask Him to make you more aware of His gifts to you in this Life.  Of course the very best gifts of all, His Son who saw you as valuable when He came to die in your place.  And then sent the Holy Spirit to live IN you and never leave you.  He is thrilled about you! You are a treasure to Him.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.”

I am Authentic.  I am Creative.  I am hand crafted.  I am profound.  I am beautiful. 

I am custom made.

No one else can do what I was designed and destined to do.  I am not to be restricted by regulations of man and religion.  I am not to be confined to the pattern set by the men and women before me.  I was made with an authentic mind and with creativity engrafted into my being.  Because my Creator is creative, I am a Creative.  I can’t be someone else’s design & they cannot be mine.  When I am in my right identity and I break free out of the container the world has put me into, I will naturally worship and glorify my Creator because I am aligned as His perfect design.  I am designer quality.  I am pure.  I am not determined by the value “this world” places on me. 

My Creator says I am priceless.

I’ll use the analogy of a diamond.  Would you trust just anyone to determine the value of a diamond? No.  You would be absolutely sure to choose someone who is qualified/accredited for this.  And if you possessed an uncut raw diamond would you allow just anyone to determine and perform how it’s cut? No.  You would surely choose an Artisan that was skilled and an expert at performing this task.

“No two diamonds, even with the same numbers, handle light or “perform” the same. Cutting, more than any other factor, determines the beauty and brilliance of a diamond.  A flawless diamond may lack beauty and brilliance due to poor cutting.  In order to find a diamond that is both beautiful and brilliant, it is necessary to first search for a diamond that is well proportioned and balanced in color and clarity.”

…and if you would be so particular with a DIAMOND, why then would you be so lenient with your very own person? Your life, dreams, identity, worth, value?!

Allowing just anyone to handle the dreams God has placed in your heart.  Allowing just anyone to determine your value, purpose, “cut’.  Allowing your destiny to be shaped and conformed to the destinies of those before you? When we believe the lie that we are not who He says we are and listen to any other voice, we are allowing others to determine our value.  Diamond’s don’t have a say in how the gem cutter should cut it.  “a flower doesn’t compare itself to the flower next to it, it just blooms”.  When we allow others to pick apart, confine or quench our God given desires- we are allowing THEM to cut us into shapes that deem our lives and purposes a value LESS THAN what our very Creator has intended it to be.

You were not meant to STAY on the very path OTHERS set before you.  The only person’s path your to walk is Jesus’ and that’s cause He’s the only one who can walk you through your true destiny in His love an grace.  You were not created to be a model of another person’s life.  You were not made to just sing the same song as everybody else.  You are not an echo.  Or paint the same painting.  Or dance the same dance.  You are an attribute expression of our Creator.  A masterpiece of the Master.  And He wants to “chisel” you out of the mold.  He wants to shape you into the perfect fragment meant to reflect and filter His light in a way no one else can!

So ASK Him (Matthew 7:7) to shine His light on how you’ve may been restrained, bound, conformed in any way!  Just ask the Holy Spirit to come (where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom) & give you the wings you were always meant to have.  His voice is the ONLY voice you should allow to determine who you are and what you’re about.  Ask Him to silence every other voice.  Whether it be the world’s, traditions, religion, voices of fear or insignificance.  Most of us have lies we’ve believed for so long- it’s impossible to expose them without the help of Holy Spirit.  He is the Way, Truth and the Life.  We will know our true identity the closer we get to the Maker of that identity. You’re a valuable work of art which without would make the Kingdom of Heaven incomplete. Be all you were designed for! When you know who you are in Him, then you can be all you were made to be and do all you were made to do.

He died, bled and conquered death all for that you know…