Tag: Anxiety

Scripture Medicine for 2023: Do Not Fray

On By happyreignIn Heather, Reflections & MusingsLeave a comment

“All who love me will do what I say.
Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.
I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. (John 14:23, 24, 27 NLT partial)
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” -Jesus (John 14:27 KJV partial)

Let – allow, permit, give admission, authorize, sanction, grant, empower, enable, agree, permit to pass, rent out, let
Not – the negation of, the opposite of a verb
Your – belonging to, possessive, ownership
Heart – the central innermost part of something, the vital essence, the thoughts, the feelings, the mind, center of physical & spiritual wellbeing, seat of understanding, character, the soul, innermost part
Troubled – disturb, worry, anxious, agitate, distress, torment, plague, nag, irritate, gnaw at, prey on someone’s mind, lie heavy on the mind, oppress, weigh down, afflict, burden, bug, bother, fret, agonize, upset oneself, be concerned, hassle, be afflicted with, bedeviled, beset, incapacitated, suffer from, ail, be a martyr to, experiencing distress, anxiety, beset by problems or conflict, a difficult situation or time, a cause of worry, an aspect of something regarded as unsatisfactory or difficulty, cause distress or anxiety to or about
Troubled. Greek 5015. tarassō
1. to agitate, trouble, cause inward commotion, take away calmness of mind, disturb equanimity
2. to disquiet, make restless
3. to strike one’s spirit with fear and dread
4. to render anxious; distressed
5. to perplex the mind by suggesting doubts and scruples

Neither – additional negative statement
Afraid – frightened, scared, fearful, nervous, apprehensive, intimidated, uneasy, alarmed, tense, worried, panicky, frightened, beside oneself, frantic, shaking, cowering, cowardly, funk, nervy, fluster, jumpy, jittery, reluctant, unwilling, hesitant, slow, shy, averse, sorry, sad, distressed, regretful, apologetic, unhappy, remorseful afraid of someone or something, worrying that something undesirable will occur or be done, unwilling or reluctant to do something for fear of outcome, anxious about well-bring or safety of, express polite or formal apology or regret
Afraid. Greek 1168. deliliaō
1. to be timid
2. to be of fear
3. to be fearful
From Greek 1167. deilia
a. timidity, fear, cowardice, fearfulness
From Greek 1169. deilos
a. Dread; that is by implication faithless
Afraid derives from the latin word, Affray – Afrayer, disturbing peace.
Afrayer derives from latin word Fray – Disturbance, startle; the unraveling of peace or safety

Jesus’ commandment to his followers restated in different ways:
Do not permit your heart to be faithless.
Do not allow the peace in your heart that I have given you begin to fray by any mental or emotional agitation or threat.
Do not give room to any thoughts that intimidate the safety I have bought for you with my blood.
Under no circumstance allow your spirit to shaken about anything, ever.
Keep the cords of your peace soundly and stoutly entact. Do not tolerate imaginations that fray your stillness and restfulness.
Be still. Give no permission to agitation within yourself.
Make no allowance or space inside of yourself for any expectation of negative outcomes.
Your faith and focus on myself is what pushes out or eliminates room for cowardess, timidity, or hesitation.
The world does not have the ability to restore or keep your peace. You will not be able to look to a change in your circumstance for stillness and soundness in your spirit in mind. What you need for that I have given you freely but it is up to you to defend, maintain, and enforce the entactness of this gift. Thoughts and feelings that result i this gift beginning to fray are lies that do not originate from the Father that need to be refused and refuted.
You have authority over your own heart to refuse participation and agreement with fear.
Unwavering fixation on Christ in our heart and mind enable the broadband defense, restoration, and maintenance of this kingdom of peace in our inmost being. It cannot be shaken. We are either standing on thoughts of sand or the rock of himself.
It is obedience (worship, expressed love unto Jesus) to no longer tolerate, permit fear to have governance in the core of your being.

This general directive is stated 365 times in the bible.
God is trying to tell us humans something from his perspective as we walk through our lives here on earth.
This year is not an exception. Every generation has needed to hear and heed these words.

May this reflection afford you clarity. Blessing and Happy New Year

Good News

On By happyreignIn HeatherLeave a comment

The below words aren’t mine. I listened to an online prayer meeting last night and heard the message I could listen to everyday for the rest of my life. I have heard this all over the world and spoken it to others myself. I get absolutely emotionally lost in this good news. My spirit becomes so satisfied and rich with the presence of God basking in this truth. I couldn’t help but go back to the recording, transcribe it, and share it here. May it bless you.May it touch you. May you feel God’s spirit, his presence, his life in the room with you as you read this.

“In last January and February I did a deep dive into Romans.

I want to meditate together on what’s been purchased for us, on what Christ has done in us. How many of us ever look at yourself, or you make a mistake, you do something stupid, and you feel bad. Right thinking produces right living. Often times in religious cultures we try to do right living first  before right thinking, right believing. But repentance is to change the way we think. It means to go up to the next place. And so let’s just meditate.  I’m not going to preach at you.

Romans Chapter 4,5,6,7 and 8. I’m convinced you can’t actually know your identity in Christ outside of these passages. When I begin to read these, Romans 4 really shows how faith works. 

Abraham is the father of faith.  He believed God before he had the sign of circumcision. Before you feel the breakthrough, before your family is saved, before your healing is manifest. Before you feel saved, before your prayer language. Before he saw all those things, he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That’s how faith works and he’s the Father of faith.

Romans Chapter 5 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Peace of mind starts with God. Peace of mind starts with Faith in Christ.

Faith in what he’s done.  And you can’t add to the blood of Jesus.

How many of you have felt the unrest and the anxiety and the fear of America and all that’s going on in the world.  How many of you guys have felt that? I have to continually go to the heavenly places, Ephesians 2.  I’m present with Christ in the heavenly places and just dwell above the storm.

We’ve been justified by faith. Just as if we’d never sinned. Thank you Jesus for Peace.  Jesus thank you for peace. Somethings you have to cast out. Other things you crowd out. We’re going to crowd out anxiety right now. Holy Spirit come. Peace rush in like a river. If you have been battling anxiety and fear, lift up your hand. We just release the peace of God over you right now.

We have access by faith into this grace by which we now stand. We stand. We’re standing and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Thank you Lord. Peace is not the absence of chaos, its the presence of a person. Thank you for your peace Lord.  Come Holy Spirit, thank you Lord.

You know it says in Romans 5:17, If by the one man’s offense, death reigned through the one man, much more those receive the abundance of grace, ABUNDANCE of grace and GIFT of righteousness. How much grace do you need? It’s never going to run out. No, you don’t understand Tom, I’ve had a tough week, tough day. I know me too but its an abundance tho that is never going to run out. It’s a gift of righteousness that we reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.  How do we reign in life? Through receiving the abundance of grace, the gift of righteousness. Put your hand on your heart and say, “Thank you God that you have made me righteous. I am righteous in your sight. Thank you Lord.

How many of you need grace today? God is my source of everything. I have nothing without him.  How much do I need? An abundance of grace. Romans 5:20 says where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. Grace abounded much more. I feel like some of you guys we’ve been listening to accusation. We’ve allowed the enemy to make ourselves the worst enemy and we’re accusing ourselves. How many people need to let that go right now? Yes, let that go right now.

Speak to yourself, “Heather, time to receive some grace. Time to give yourself some grace. Time to give yourself some grace. God has more than enough grace for us but sometimes we’re the hardest on ourselves, right? Say this over yourself, “Say Heather, You’re not the judge. You’re not God. Jesus Christ is Lord. 

Chapter 6 So What are we going to say, that continue in sin so grace may abound? Certainly not! How should we who died to sin live in it any longer? Don’t you know that those of you who were baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? There we were buried with him through baptism into his death, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life. If we have been UNITED together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall be in the likeness of his resurrection.  We have been made one with Christ. He is Lord. We’re made ONE with Christ. We are united, co-crucified, co-buried and co-raised in Jesus. 

Oftentimes we get a religious mindset and we say I am going to go and I’m gonna pray to God, and that’s okay, but more than that God wants us to commune with him, commune together. The blending of two pitchers of water. They no longer cease to be separate entities, they become one. Impossible to separate. This is a perfect picture of our relationship with God, because we have become one with him. One with Christ. Isn’t that a good word? You are one with the superpower. You’re one with somebody who is gracious and kind, he is constantly true, it’s who he is. 

Put your hand on your heart, we’re going to receive this. This is an encounter time, say “I’ve been united with Christ through his death, burial, and resurrection. I am crucified with Christ. The old me is dead. DEAD DEAD. Dead dead dead. Dead to offense, dead to lust, dead to lying. Dead to everything else that ’s not Jesus, so I let it go.  Thank you for the blood of Jesus. That we’ve been made one with you Lord. One with you Lord. Knowing that our old man was crucified that our body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

We died to the husband of sin as the authority over our lives. I died to my overshadowing husband of sin over my life and my perspective of my life, and now the wife has been set free to marry another. And this other that she just married wasn’t another man but the spirit of God, Christ. So she has been united with Christ. There is a marriage union that has happened. There has been a death, I have died to the law, I am no longer married to that, instead I am united in one spirit with Christ. I am one, united with him. Forever.

And the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now lives inside of me.  This is why God has taken away our ability to enjoy sin. Which is why sometimes stuff starts kicking up and can come to God and there is a fountain that has sprung up, it’s never going to dry out.  That’s a fountain called the blood of Jesus. There is ONE hope for a life burdened down with guilt and shame and that’s the blood of Jesus that the cross of Christ has purchased.  Can I say it’s not your enneagram number? It’s not your personality profile, its the blood of Jesus, one blood. Amen. Makes us new.

Romans 8:1 Therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death, for what the law was powerless to do, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh that we might be united with Christ.

This is the gospel.  There is only way to the father, one way to hope and that’s through faith in Jesus, that’s through trusting in him and what he’s done in our lives. We have been set free from the spirit of this air.

An untrained, unschooled, unqualified woman meets the son of God, goes home and becomes the first missionary evangelist the world has ever seen, possessed with conviction of the Son of God she has seen face to face.  When you see the Lord as who he is, you don’t have to have all the qualifications, you’ve seen something and you’ve come alive.

Quit managing an image for everybody else to think that your something and step into freedom! Do not let pride keep you from getting right with God. I’m going to lose my life to get right with him, washed clean in the blood of Jesus.  You’re going to get free tonight and leave here so full of HOPE.

Thank him for righteousness, peace, and joy in his holy spirit, the free gift of righteousness. I feel like there’s about to be a blast of supernatural risk. The currency of faith of heaven touching earth. Taking risk, going for it, its messy sometimes, terrifying, ABIDE IN HIS GRACE, ONE WITH CHRIST.  When I realize I’m united with Christ, that puts me on a foundation, to look at all the thoughts that come across my screen and to sift those things that are not him, and drink the things that are him. When condemnation comes across my screen, keep going, when accusation comes across my screen, nope that’s not it, keep going, and I just worship. Just stay seated with Christ in heavenly places.

Jesus thank you that we are united with Christ, one with you, we worship you God. Come holy spirit, fill us up. For the rest of this meeting I want us to come with authority.  John 1:12 says as many as who have received him he has given the right to be called sons of God, a badge to cop, its the authority to come as sons and daughters, with risk and faith, we are going to pull down heaven, peace, salvation. We have the authority of heaven as ambassadors in Christ to declare things that are not as though they were and see heaven come!”

–Tom Crandall, Bethel Church Sunday Night Prayer Meeting, June 13, 2021

WATCH HERE

The Greatest Commandment

On By happyreignIn Heather1 Comment

We live in a world, in an unseen kingdom, where the person that created this world, this dimension, set a primary ground rule for our temporary existence. The greatest commandment is to love, full stop. The greatest rule to follow, admonish to strive to implement, is a feeling, it gives me the identity that I am a source of love. And I have the ability to direct it wherever I want or don’t want to. When I woke up today this thought undid me. My greatest commandment in life is to love. It’s not to defend or protect or fight or shout, it’s in my heart without anybody being able to see or know, but He Himself is to love him. There’s no controlling dictation for its expression, no outline of what my power to love must look like or that it even must be expressed. I love the complete offensiveness of our real freedom. No ability to quantify, copy, meet any external expectation, because if any of that existed those would for sure be met, but they wouldn’t matter because the ONLY thing that matters here in this command, is the existence of love, loving affection, towards the one who created me. . . for love.

This command to love is expanded to include every single territory that exists in all of your unseen world where you live and have complete control every day; the entire universe we exist in beyond our physical body. Your heart, your soul, your mind. All of these things have undefinable walls. Whatever world that exists inside you, enjoyable or not at the moment, the purpose of this space, this area is TO LOVE. The greatest commandment you’ve been given is to love, to be a lover. You begin this life knowing someone loves your affection, your attention, your time, you longings, your hopes, dreams, and self.

God chose to be vulnerable one first, unafraid of rejection, unafraid of our misunderstanding him, he said I want you to love me. I love when you love me. You will be most satisfied in all those unseen places when you love me. You will come to know yourself best when you love me. It will be enjoyable this way. This is a light burden, it is not heavy to carry. This is my invitation to peace and rest and joy and purpose for you. Love me. Love me with all of yourself. Anything you withhold from my love will spoil in your possession, in your fear, in your restraint, it will not go well for you in your own holding back apart from my love. Today, in this moment, apart from all other externals, inside the internal universe that IS YOU, love me. Love me with all of yourself, don’t hold back, don’t be afraid, do not limit your own capacity to love me. How big can this get, how big can this grow, how enjoyable can this become. Find your place, find your peace, and LOVE ME.

Dusting off the Stories of what God has Done

On By happyreignIn Heather1 Comment

God is always the same and what he did once he would do again.  God is not a respecter of persons and what he would do for one he would do for any.  These two statement encourage the hope and possibility of what God did once for someone else, he would do for me.  In saying that, something he did twenty years ago for me, he can do for you now.  So I’m walking down the memory lane of life as it is always the front page of who God still is today.  Take anything as hope of what can do for you.

  1.  I trusted God with my love life and he brought me the most amazing husband any woman could ever dream of.  As I’m writing this he is charging my cell phone for me and asking if I have water because he was going to refill it for me as I’m sitting in bed on a Saturday typing this about him.
  2.  I’ve never made over $10,000 a year in my entire adult life yet God has financed sending me to 23 different countries over the course of my life. For whatever reason, the way my heart is wired is that I feel most romanced by God when he sends me to travel somewhere. I know I couldn’t, and wouldn’t want to do anything without him sending me.
  3.   I’ve screwed up, meaning I’ve failed at something he’s asked me to do, and yet he’s never fired me, punished me, abandoned me or quit being kind to me.  Because of this I really realized the grace of God is truly a gift.  It is not earned.
  4.   God redeemed the ending of my family when we were younger.  My parents separated and both happily remarried.  My siblings are all risking love in some measure in their life.  This sometimes requires the greatest courage.  I am proud for the measure they continue to risk being known and loved despite how we’ve seen it can possibly end up.
  5.   God has given me peace.  In different seasons of life due to different things I have different measures of peace but in all of life I have a strong underlying trust in God that always imparts to me a steadfastness that I feel all the time.  Like I’m being held, or embraced, or hugged and I feel safe and sturdy.  I love God for imparting this feeling to me on an ongoing basis.
  6.   I realized through frequency to get over myself, my understanding, my ways, control, anything I would hold on to for fear or security.  From plans to stuff, he really does take care of everything and often, when I let him, way better than I could ever put things together.  Like I really am blind and dumb compared to all he sees and knows.  It is wisdom to trust him, let him lead, and put everything in his hands.
  7.   Unity, relationships, connection, obedience, service, humility, love, faith, truth, these things really are the majors in life and everything else is truly unimportant and meaningless in comparison.
  8.   I really feel like my death is in God’s hands as much as my birth was. I didn’t control my birth, God did.  In the same way, I don’t think anything is random and he knows all of the days of my life and will work out the plans and dreams he has for sending me here in the first place.
  9.   I don’t fear death in any way.  Almost daily I feel the fragility of this realm of life and time.  It is such a thin veil and my true self is timeless and in an always state.  I do not want to miss what he wants to show me and teach me and also truly enjoy the day with him as this is me loving to be alive with him.  This is living.
  10.   I feel humbled by God’s goodness and love.  I definitely don’t deserve any of it, but he shows me that I’m worthy because he says I am.  Who am I to disagree?!   😉
  11.   I thought I was going to go into tangible stories about specifics God had done for me–
  12.   Oh-my father’s transplant was an answer to prayer-he met my husband and is still alive!
  13.   And also my grandfather’s life was spared in a time where he was being killed by being given the wrong medication in the hospital but the error was found out and he became himself again to pass in peace at a later time.
  14.   Also I was filled with the holy spirit, a tangible experience in my body that overcame me that I still feel today and a way I interact with God directly spirit to spirit rather than just mind to mind, early morning alone in a gymnasium in a Lutheran church!
  15.   I received God’s forgiveness and being made right with God through what Jesus Christ suffered on my behalf on the cross, making a way for me to stand blameless and confident before God because he has made me his family and his friend.
  16.   I thought I was going to write more specific stories like the ones above, but it appears God is an active living miracle in my life.  I am so grateful to have the ability to see and breathe and feel and taste and express myself and sit in peace and have freedom.  I am so thankful to share life with my husband and spend the passing of time in his company.

These are a few thoughts that come to mind when thinking about what God has done for me in my life.  May it be an encouragement and blessing to you.  Oh yeah – don’t waste your time overly concerning yourself with what other people think of you.  It is not your responsibility nor does it matter beyond your upright heart before the father.  Acceptance or praise of man is not the bread that that gives life but rather the word of God.  Blessings!