Birthing The Wind

on Wednesday, August 22, 2007




“As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord. We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind.” (Isaiah 26:17-18, NIV).


Has God given you a spiritual vision that you seem to not be able to bring forth? While talking with Marilynn Griffith yesterday on Today’s Breathing Room I was reminded of my opening text. We were discussing among other things, people who were trying to make their visions come forth before time. There are a lot of people that are keenly aware of the vision but yet in still are not able to execute the vision God has given them.

God wants to give each of us a spiritual vision. He not only wants to give the vision but the purpose and objectives of it. He doesn’t stop there but also wants to reveal the plan on how to bring it to past. First you have to become pregnant with vision and it follows a natural process just like child birth. As you experience the "birth of a vision" you will become a co-creator with Him instead of a spectator.

The natural birthing process which brings a human baby into the world is similar to the process of the birth of a vision in the spirit world. You will experience the following stages as you give birth to spiritual vision."Conception" means to create. A spiritual vision is first created in your spirit by God.

When we first receive a spiritual vision, it is in "embryo" stage. Remember the embryo is a basic cell of life. God develops our spiritual vision as we grow in Him, just like the development of the human embryo. The basic cell of life in the human baby is the embryo, from it all the basic human features are developed. If you try to change the embryo, deformity or death can occur to the child. The same as in the spirit.The vision will grow and develop as you mature spiritually. Its features will not be the same as yesterday, last week, or last month. The same as the child growing within the mother. However never forget the basic vision which is the divine purpose for which you are called.

As the body of a pregnant woman stretches in the natural, so does your spirit house the vision . If the vision does not develop within you it will die. The vision is with you constantly. It becomes a vital, living part of you. It draws from your own life source as well as from the divine source which conceived it.

There are certain things a pregnant woman will deny herself of. These are things that would be detrimental to the development of her child. So to must you do the same as your vision develops. You may have to deny yourself of your own plans and ambitions. You will have to sacrifice time to fast and pray.Ecclesiastes 5:3 says, “For a dream cometh through the multitude of business.” The meaning of the word "multitude" is great. "Business", according to one Hebrew meaning, is travail [difficulty]. So a dream or vision can be seen to come through "great travail.” In natural birth there are facts about travail that parallel the spiritual travail which births a vision. Natural travail is a time of intense, concentrated effort to birth the child. This time of travail is also called "labor.” As in the delivery of a child, a spiritual vision is birthed by intense mental, physical, and spiritual concentration. As you are reading this concentrate on what God wants to birth in your spirit.

I remember with my middle child I was so tired of being pregnant. It was August, the hottest month of the year. I wanted Bryant out by any means necessary! I started thinking like a crazy woman! I created all kinds of scenarios in my mind of how I can get him out NOW! The craziest thought I had was to throw myself down the stairs and that would surly make him come. I told my doctor what I was thinking and she wanted me to be treated for depression. She said plenty of women fell into a depressed state when they were only weeks away from giving birth.
So too are we when the vision the Father has given us is taking to long. By any means necessary becomes our motto. We start rehearsing in our minds ways to bring it to past because we are tired.

We know that physically forcing the child into the birth canal before it opens can kill the child. The same is true in the spirit world. Let God take control of your life. If you try to birth the vision in your own strength it will abort the plan of God. Everything within you may cry out to push and bring the spiritual vision forth with natural abilities. But by self-effort you can destroy the vision. Peter cried out to Christ, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man," (Luke 5:8, NIV) when he realized what Christ was calling him to do. He knew the vision was too great for him to fulfill by his natural strength and abilities.

The Time of Transition

In the natural birth process there is a time during labor known as the time of "transition.” It is the most difficult time of travail right before the birth canal is open to permit the birth of the child. Also when God births in you a spiritual vision you will experience a time of transition. All transition means is change. The vision God gives you is going to require change in your life.

It will call for new commitment and dedication. It will call for strength and fortitude. During this time you must remember where your help comes from. We know that it comes from the Lord.

Why should you remember this? Because you will experience pressure in every area of your life. The heat will be turned up 7 times hotter. Everything within you may cry out for relief from the spiritual birth pangs of what God is bringing forth. This is the point where many fail to receive the vision. Over and over again God has brought His people to the time of transition to birth His vision within them. But because this transition was too difficult many have turned back.

They just couldn’t take the pressure. The heat was on! It required changes in their thought patterns and lifestyle, which they were not willing to make. They could not abandon self-effort and the traditional way of doing things. They could not set aside their own ambitions and desires to embrace the plan of God. This is the same thing that happened to the nation of Israel in my opening text.

We are told in Isaiah 53:11 that God witnessed the travail of Jesus Christ and was satisfied. A vision was fulfilled that day on Calvary ... a vision that had been promised since the fall of man into sin (Genesis 3:15). Through travail, the vision of redemption from sin became a reality.Travail is a painful experience, but it is only through travail that the vision can be birthed: “... yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children. Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery? Says the Lord. Do I close up the womb when I bring to delivery? Says your God?” (Isaiah 66:8-9, NIV).

The Birth

The end of the travail is birth. We must guard against going into labor prematurely as well as a delayed birth. Both of which can result in death, Both in the natural birth process and in the birth of spiritual vision.

After birth in the natural world the child continues to grow and develop. After the birth of your spiritual vision it will continue to grow and develop. It will have new features and form, but they all must develop from that basic cell of spiritual life which is called the vision.

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2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.

Struggling To Breathe

on Monday, August 20, 2007




For the last 3 years I have been having difficulty breathing. I suffer from asthma attacks at least once a year. So of course what have been running through my mind are breath, breathing, and the ability to breathe.


Not only a person suffering from asthma has a hard time catching their breath, there are other things that make it hard to breathe from time to time. I'm sure you can all relate. Maybe some one you are in conflict with walks through the door and it causes you to catch your breath. Or a sense of foreboding comes over you as you anticipate something awful or unpleasant happening, and there is tightness in your breathing and in your voice. Or you fear the unknown, you fear the worst, and suddenly breathing becomes a bit more difficult. Or you feel guilty, you have regret, and it weighs heavily on your chest. Or we feel overwhelmed by everything that is going on in our lives and we have a mild case of hyperventilation.


All of our stress and anxiety and fear seem to locate particularly in our chest, and we say, "I can't quite catch my breath." On the other hand, when we feel a sense of well being and wholeness, we say, "We breathe more easily and deeply." There's both a physical and spiritual dimension to breath and our breathing.

It's important for us to realize that when the scripture speaks of the Spirit, and especially as we ponder the coming of the Spirit of God to people, we're talking about the breath of God. The Ruach of Yahweh. which is both Spirit and Breath.

Genesis 2 declares that all creatures have life from God. To be alive is to have a relationship with God. To be able to breathe is to be sharing the very breath of God. All living beings share, in some sense, in God's Spirit. Yahweh has come to give us Chayah which is life and means to live, let live, restore, revive, make alive, renew, God saves.


I watch my grand baby and see how deeply she breathes from the diaphragm when she sleeps. She is taking in such deep breaths and expelling with the same energy.Have you ever noticed how freely little kids breathe and laugh and live? But as we grow older life happens to us, and over time our ability to breathe get shallower. Fears, anxieties, guilt, regrets and disappointments settle on our chest and weigh us down.Our ability to live the Abundant Life is compromised because of shallow breathing.

What is it that is causing tightness in your chest these days? What is it that is causing you to breathe a little more shallowly? What is it that weighs so heavily on your chest that is stopping you from living life to the fullest?

Can you let it go for a minute and breathe, breathe in the RUACH(Breath/Spirit)of God.

Yahweh is as close to you as your next breath. And just as we share the air he provides daily, so we share the Spirit of God. He is ever as close as our next breath.

Are we so caught up in our day to day struggles that we forget, to breathe, to receive the breath of God, the Spirit of God?


Have you ever seen a little child get lost from their parents? They can't catch their breath to tell you the names of their parents because they are struggling to catch their breath. Their little chest is heaving up and down and they are hiccuping not able to articulate helpful information. You have to first calm the Child's fears by telling them they are not alone and together you will find their parents. Once the child is calm they are able to share the information you need to help them.

That is the same thing the Father wants to do for us. He has sent His Breath to calm us and to point the way to Him and to say all is not lost. "I will never leave or forsake you for Lo I am always with you always, even to the ends of the earth."


Cast aside all of your fears, your anxiety, your hurts, your disappointments, your guilt, your mistake, your sins, your feelings of inadequacy and your need to succeed. Lay them at the Masters feet, and leave them there


"Now Breathe in The Ruach of Yahweh"


http://www.candacehouse.org/
2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.

Can You Bless Me Please?



One of the things we do not do that is vital to our well being and the well being of others is to speak blessings over other's lives. We are to Bless and not Curse. We Curse our own lives and the lives of those we come in contact with by the words of our mouths. On the other hand we also Bless others and our selves with same mouth.

A lot of us are not aware that we are doing so, becuse we take words so lightly. Anything you say that is negative ends up being a curse. We need to be deligent to watch what we say.

The Power of Words: Guard Yours! The New Testament is rich with examples of Jesus speaking with power?and things changing because of His words. Then He gives us a stunning bit of information about our words:

Matt 12:36-37 "But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."

Jesus is making the point that words are so much more powerful that we have ever realized. They are a power source that has almost been overlooked.

I read where Neuroscience is beginning to come up with explanations of why this is true! As we look at this, you and I, we start waking! What you and I have been saying is actually shaping our worlds.

We are given the opportunity and privilege to speak out words of power and life in the Spirit of Prayer?. To speak out words that originated in the heart of God and carry his life-force in them. To speak light into the darkness, to speak order in the chaos.

Ps 33:6 By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made and all their host by the breath of his mouth. (Ampl)

Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the Word of God so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible. (Ampl)

We have the opportunity, as God did in the beginning. The world awaits our stepping up to the plate. Therefore my brothers and sisters I thank my God for this opportunity to bless you;
Dear One, listen with your spirit to Colossians 1:12-13 "?giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of Light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves?"
.

I bless you with sharing in and with a family of faith who lives in the light. I bless your spirits with being flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future He has promised you.

I bless you with knowing your dominion over all the power of darkness. I bless you with the eyes of your heart being enlightened to know your Father's incredibly great power for you, the same working of His mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms.

I bless you with knowing with certainty that He is far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given in this present age. Dear friends, you are blessed that God has put all things under the authority of Christ and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church., which is His body. You are blessed in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Yeshua Ha Machiah, who fills everything everywhere with His presence. Amen.



www.candacehouse.org
2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.

Sleeping In Peace




This morning I was looking at a movie on lifetime. The girl in the movie was having nightmares. Circumstances dictated she had a good reason to be afraid. Someone was stalking her. Fear had completely taken over her life and the life of her family members. It affected every area of their lives.

I thought about David in the scriptures being stalked by King Saul. Saul was trying to kill him as well. In the movie the girl was depending on the court system to protect her and they were failing miserably. However David called out to God and knew where his help came from. His sole trust was in Him.

For those that are troubled for whatever reason and are vexed in your spirit, try doing what David did. Give God a try and He will give you peace that passeth all understanding. What is this kind of peace? It is peace that comes from knowing YOU don't have to take care of the situation. It is already taken care of by Him. So no matter what it looks like, you know that HE is in control.

Psalms 4:8 " I will lay down in peace and sleep; For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety."

Dear Ones, you are under the protection of God who can do the impossible. I bless you with peace that comes from God who created light in great darkness, who brings light into the very shadow of death.

I bless you with knowing that God makes peace regardless of your circumstances. I bless you with knowing you can walk in the light because God decrees that the light of His presence shines in darkness.

I bless each of you my friends, with not being dependent on circumstances in your world, but receiving from your Father the peace that He offers in your life, no matter how dark it is around you. I bless you with peace that can only come because the Prince of Peace rules you.

I bless you with an anointing for taking the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who do not know it, as an overflow of your life. When you walk in this peace, the peace of those around you will increase, although they carry turmoil.

I bless you with being known as someone who carries the peace of God with you everywhere you go, so that people will seek you out because they are so desperate for the Shalom of God.



www.candacehouse.org
2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email candace@ruachchayah.org for permission to use.

What Defines Us?

on Tuesday, March 27, 2007

When God breathed a soul into human flesh, He separated us from all other beings, giving us a sense of destiny, a need for meaning in our existence. In so doing, He guaranteed we would be drawn to something greater, more inimitable than our humanity affords.

Almighty God, who was and is and is to come, instills in each of us a longing that can only be fulfilled in seeking first His kingdom. He promises one day we'll hear Him say: "Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Matthew 25:34).

But the pride of life compels us to conclude that we are our own destiny. Slogans are every where that reflect this attitude: Just Do It, Have it Your Way, Break All the Rules. As self-made women and men, we glory in our achievements, and take comfort in our status in mans eye on this earth. And most of that achievement and status is measured by what we possess.

Eternity is not in our vocabulary as we determine to prove ourselves, and obtain the applause of men.

Messages from the media assure us hundreds of times a day that we can be a little better than we are. The lie that our homes, our cars, our careers, our clothes, and even our physical appearance defines our destiny, keeps many of us restless

We must consider our ways.


When the Israelites were settled safely back in their homeland after years of captivity, they began to enjoy unique prosperity. But all was not well. Through the prophet Haggai, God painted a graphic picture of their real condition:
"Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate?" Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to put into a purse with holes." (Haggai 1:4-6, NASB)

As with the Israelites who neglected the temple, we may be starving our souls while stuffing our selves with the treasures of this world. We must consider our ways.

What do our deepest longings and daily drives tell us about the condition of our souls? Are we settling for toys and empty experiences when the unfathomable, God bids us taste and see that He is good? Are we building a kingdom destined for destruction, when a city awaits us whose architect and builder is God Himself?

God has been dealing with me concerning loosing weight. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago and she told me to be careful of what I ate. I was addicted to the candy, DOTS. I would eat them morning noon and night. I also would use 7 packs of sugar in my coffee every day. Every where I turned someone would say, you need to cut back on your sugar intake. Of course this irritated me to no end because I needed that sugar. I relied on that sugar as a booster to my emotions.

One morning I was lead to read Jeremiah 2:12-13. What in the world did I do that for? When I read that scripture there wasn't any excuse left for me.

God was calling the heavens (the stars, suns, moons, planets, and galaxies)to be appalled and desolate because His people (Me) have forsaken Him, the Fountain of Living Waters, hew out for ourselves (Me), cisterns. Not just any kind of old cisterns but broken ones that can hold no water.

Now if that is not enough to give us pause I don't know what is.

Broken cisterns are the idols of our heart that we use to feed our starving souls.

He led me to another scripture, Psalms 81:10 " I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the Land of Egypt;
OPEN YOUR MOUTH WIDE AND I WILL FILL IT".

He said in the next verse " But My people would not heed My voice"

What might be the broken cisterns we run to? What are we feeding our souls?

It could be reading several hours a day, hours upon hours of television, listening to music, shopping, sports, volunteering, church ministry, working long hours,or just plain busyness.

Whatever it might be we need to determine for a time to give it up. Instead of rushing to fill up the empty places we need to wait on the voice of the Lord.
We are desperately needy and may not even know it. We have turned to broken cisterns instead of turning to our Father and the only way out of this bondage is through repentance.

There is only one guarantee of fulfillment and that is our all-satisfying God who ever live to fill us with the knowledge of Himself.
Because He is our Shepherd, we shall not want. Daily He sets before us the bounty of His goodness. He promises we'll never hunger or thirst again. This is the secret of being content with what we have; for He Himself has said, "I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU" (Hebrews 13:5).

So let us not settle for anything else!!


Candace House

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2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved