“I’m a mother,” a friend said to me, “I want my estranged sons to be reconciled. It has been a deep longing of my heart for years. Why, then, when my older son made a gesture to forgive his little brother did I realize that their reconciliation had not really been a spoken prayer, but a deep desire of my heart? But God answered it!” she added.

The answer is really a simple one, as this mother concluded. God not only SEES our hearts but he GIVES us the desires of our hearts.

It was God Himself who said, “It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24 NASB).

What’s on your heart today?

• Is it too hurtful even to speak it?
• Is it something that if spoken would challenge your faith to believe God for?
• Is it something that you want so badly, but you can’t see any way of it coming to pass?

Keep trusting the One who says that before you even call, he will answer you! If it is a desire you cannot utter, it is okay. God answers those prayers too. After all, He gave us Holy Spirit for that reason also: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans 8:26 KJV).

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the gift of Your Spirit. There are groans deep within me! Groans of something that has been tearing me apart. I surrender it to you and trust you to bring it to a resolve in your own timing. You’re pretty amazing to care about the unutterable that is on my heart and then to hear me and answer me EVEN before I call. Yes, pretty amazing! Thank you so much for your attention to me! In Yeshua‘s Name! Amen!

Enjoy this song “Better Than a Hallelujah” by Amy Grant. The essential meaning of this song is so relevant to this blog: (Please click to skip the ad if it comes up!)

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Is God speaking?

He certainly is!

Is He speaking to you?

Yep!

Is He asking of you more than you have the natural ability to do?

Without a doubt!

Case in point: MOSES.

Moses was asked by God to go the GREATEST NATION at the time, to the MOST POWERFUL LEADER in the known world, and say to him simply, “Let my people go.” Then Moses was supposed to LEAD 3 MILLION PEOPLE out of Egypt to the mountain where he had met God. Tough job description for an 80-year-old man! Moses thought so too! That’s why he had his LIST OF EXCUSES for not doing it.

Let’s look at some of his excuses. They might sound familiar! Mind you, I am paraphrasing, but check out the Scriptures for a more exact wording.

“Who am I, God, that you would use me like that?” (Exodus 3:11)

ANSWER: You’re a vessel! You are one who is prone to wandering with a tendency toward disobedience. You are sinner saved by grace. AND you are the one whom the Lord has chosen, despite all your frailties, to bring forth his purposes.

“Forget about who I am, God! But who are You!? What if they ask me about You? Who are You? I don’t even know your Name!” (3:13)

I understand Moses’ question! You must know the One who is sending you. Adonai says something so amazing to Moses! A life-changer indeed! He says, “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew me as El Shaddai! They did not know me as the way I am about to reveal myself to you! ‘I AM!’ I AM and WILL BE everything you need me to be. Watch me be a Deliverer! Watch me be a Nurturer! Watch me be a Redeemer! Watch me be a Father! Watch me be a WayMaker! Watch me be GOD! I AM THAT I AM!

“What if they think I’m crazy!? They will surely tell me, ‘The Lord did not appear to you!’ “ (4:1)

When the Lord gives you a vision, He will definitely appear to you — whether through a dream, a dream, a sensation. And you may appear crazy to most! You cannot allow the enemy to make you think that God didn’t really speak to you. So yes, the enemy may tell you God didn’t speak to you! He may even use family — spiritual and natural — to make you doubt that you have heard from Him, but you must know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He has spoken.

“Lord, I can’t even talk that well! But you want me to talk!! And to the President???” (4:10)

Yes, he wants you to open your mouth wide so that He can fill it! He wants the President to know that God uses the base things of this world to confound the wise. He wants you to go so that the President will see that this is not really you but someone much bigger than you and way bigger than the President.

“Lord, just send someone else!” (4:13)

Been there! Done that! This is the kind of pride that we need to renounce! If you have ever said this, you are telling God that you know better than He does. You are telling him that he’s not even God! Father, deliver us from such pride, even when we don’t understand.

“Tell me why you think that the President will listen to me?” (4:13)  “I tried it out on my congregation and they didn’t even listen.”

He will listen because when the Spirit of God bears up the man of God to deliver the word of God, people will listen with attentive ears! Even if they don’t hear, they will listen! Why do you think Pharoah did not try to have Moses killed!? The man heard and listened but his pride was too great!

PRAYER: Father, we have used so many excuses to get out of what you have called us to do! Thank you for Moses that in his humanity he did the same thing — come us with excuses. But what really matters is that Moses got past his excuses and accomplished what You told him to do. Thank you for being patient with us, Lord! Forgive our vanity and pride and lack of perception. Help us to know You and see You! When we do, we know that if you send us, we can walk into the room of the most powerful man in the world and declare your Word and you will back it up! Amen.

“The Gift of Hunger”

When I taught my high school English students to analyze poetry, I always asked them to explain the author’s purpose in writing the poem. What was his/her intent?

Invariably they would respond . . .

• “How do we know?”
• “We weren’t with him when he wrote it.”
• “He’s dead now.”
• “How will we ever know?”

Even my suggestions of what I felt the author meant were met with “He could have meant something totally different!”

“That is true,” I explained, “but this is not something I made up. My suggestions are sound because I have done something you have not done.

“I have studied his life! You won’t know the author’s purpose if you don’t know the author.”

“Read as much about the author as possible,” I told them! “Then you can understand his motivation, his intent. Then you can understand his diction (word choice), his tone, his message!”

As you study the Word of God this year, I encourage you to get to know the Author. Every word that He spoke is an avenue into His heart. Every phrasing, a sliver of His mind. Every nuance of language, a facet of His personality! This is what Jeremiah the prophet said:

When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight (Jer. 15:16)

The same one who said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5) also said, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons” (Matthew 10:8). What did He mean? What was His intent? What is His purpose?

I pray that this year God will give you the gift of hunger for His words more than ever . . . that it will be the Author of the words that you yearn to know and love! Read His words! Watch movies about his life! Get into exciting Bible studies and prayer meetings! Read books by people who practice His presence! Saturate your mind with as much of Him as possible! Such a hunger will give purpose to your life, and passion to your pursuits!

PRAYER: Abba, that’s our prayer in 2013! Give us the gift of hunger for your words! As we desire your words, unfold your nature to us so that we will know your purpose and all that you want us to know. As your words come, let us eat them! Let them be our joy! Let them be our hearts’ delight! In Yeshua‘s Name, Amen.

Happy New Year from Weiss Ministries as your hunger allows you to feast upon the bounty of His Words!

Let the words of “My Soul Cries” by Misty Lewis minister to you: 

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WHEN!!!! Joseph’s life was full of “when’s”! So is your life! I think that you will gain some insight into what God is doing in your life by discovering the “when’s” in Joseph’s life.

WHEN . . .

. . .others hate you (as Joseph’s brothers did),

• God will criss-cross the blessing and use the scorned one to bless the haters.

(Joseph was the younger and, according to custom, should not have received the blessing, but God raised him up to be a blessing to all of his elder brothers and even the younger one [Benjamin] whom he had never met — all because God criss-crossed the blessing.)

WHEN. . .

. . .others want to kill you,

• God will send you a Reuben (Genesis 37:12-21) and use him to prevent others from taking your life.

(Reuben, the eldest of Jacob’s sons, suggested that Joseph not be killed but that he should be placed in a cistern. His intent was to return later and free his brother. If the enemy is conspiring to take your life, your reputation, your dreams — God says, “There is a Reuben I am raising up for you!”)

WHEN . . .

. . .they reject you (Genesis 37:23-28),

• God will send you the balm of Gilead.

(Joseph was taken from the cistern and sold to a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way to Egypt to sell merchandise. This could have been a caravan of rocks, sheep, dung — anything —  but it wasn’t!  They were carrying incense, spices and balms from Gilead. Joseph was thrown on the back of a caravan that smelled of the sweet fragrance of heaven  . . . of the sweet fragrance of Yeshua who is often referred to as “the Balm of Giliead.” I don’t know if Joseph missed the presence of this sweet aroma on his way to Egypt. He could have been so engrossed in his troubles and hurt that he could have missed it! Don’t you miss the fragrance He has for you as you journey through your situation!)

WHEN . . .

. . . you’re in slavery (Genesis 37:36)

• God will send you a Potiphar.

(Joseph is now in Egypt and it is not to a cruel person he is sold . . . but to a man who sees his worth and shows him favor so that Potiphar puts to Joseph’s disposal his entire household. Now, Potiphar’s whole house is blessed because of Joseph’s presence. God will send you a Potiphar who will bless you and you, in turn, will bless him. When Potiphar’s wife accuses Joseph of making advances on her, it will be Potiphar’s love for Joseph that spares his life. Potiphar had him thrown in prison when he could have had him killed. Oooooooo, BUT GOD! This same One who raised up a Potiphar for Joseph and will also for you!”

WHEN. . .

. . . others forget you,

• God will use a dream as an opportunity for someone who forgot you to remember you.

(When Joseph blessed the cupbearer by telling him the meaning of his dream, Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him. The cupbearer forgot all about him. Two years later, Pharoah has a dream that none of his astrologers could interpret. Coincidentally — NO! — PROVIDENTIALLY — the cupbearer remembers Joseph and now Joseph finds his way out of the prison. That was God’s idea . . . because when you are to be remembered, He will not let anyone forget!)

PRAYER: Father, we find ourselves in all kinds of situations: hated, plotted against, rejected, forgotten. Thank you that you have a way of escape for us and that whatever the purpose you have for our lives, your will WILL NOT and CANNOT be thwarted! If you have to criss-cross the blessing, you will. If you have to raise up a Reuben–one voice of compassion in the midst of all the others–you will. If you have to give us an indication of your sweet presence even on the vehicle that is taking us into our slavery, you will. If you have use a Potiphar, a cupbearer or a dream to prepare us for our destiny, you will. We yield to your great mercy, your undeniable plan, and your amazing love! Amen. 

“Off Duty!”

That’s what the Lord said to those of us who had been “standing watch” for my friend Nadine. He said He was taking her home. She had fought a good fight. She had kept the faith. She had finished her course. We had done what we had been commissioned by His heart and love to do! He had taken her home. We were now “Off Duty!”

Now where did that leave us? Those of us who were now pondering all the prayers of faith and visits and calls and meals and baths and massages and support? Those of us who believed God for her healing in this life? Where did that leave us who were now “Off Duty”?

What I discovered is this: God is so concerned about the heart that He will do anything to get to it so that we can stockpile the greatest amount of eternal wealth. It’s the only thing that lasts. In Nadine’s last year, God allowed her to store up more treasure in heaven than, I believe, she had stored up in the former years of her life.

• He healed my friend’s heart and prepared her to meet her Bridegroom.
• She was able to let go of the bitterness of the past and live in the love of God!
• God was able to heal deep wounds that she did not EVEN know existed!
• She was able to see in a real way the people God had given her for her life and for transportation into eternity.
• God was able to develop in her a love for His people and His land Israel, so that she traveled to Israel and selflessly served the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) in any way that they needed her.
• She connected with the Jewish roots of her faith and joined studies at a Messianic synagogue.
• She was able to know what it was like to bask in the Presence of God and to desire that Presence.
• She was not only able to grasp God’s word for her healing but also to cling to it because she loved it. She realized that a relationship with God  was more than what she could get from God but who she was in Him. It was more than about her healing. It was about the richness of a life lived in Him. “He will always be in charge of my life,” she said. “Oh, how I love Him so!”
• She was able to bless the lives of those she loved with a radiant smile even in the midst of her pain.
• She was able to build a legacy and leave that with us–her family and friends. A legacy of . . .

1. A life well lived and a race well run . . . and WON!
2. Meeting any obstacle head on;
3. Enjoying life . . . with cruises and backpacking in Europe;
4. Fulfilling dreams, like one of being baptized in the Jordan River, of a wedding dress in a shop window in Turkey, and relaxing in DuBai.
5. Loving family, that even in her sickness she traveled to Trinidad and to New York to connect with those she loved.
6. Not giving in to a struggle.

Nadine Lisa Spence was . . .

• A Warrior in the Navy!
• A Diamond among her friends!
• A Jewel in her family!
• A Princess in the Kingdom of God!

…  and was given an opportunity to build a legacy, leaving that as a memory, an example, and a reflection of the life of a Warrior Princess who is now also “Off Duty.”

PRAYER: Thank you for allowing us to serve our sister, Father, so that she would have more time to build a legacy and store up more treasures in heaven. Thank you that her indomitable spirit did not stop her from believing or trusting You which allowed her faith to make room for Your sovereignty.  You trusted us to encourage her spirit. You trusted us to show her the Father’s love. You trusted us to pray her into Your arms. Although our assignment with Nadine is complete, our assignment with You is not. Never will we forget her, but we do hear You saying to us, “Off Duty. Regroup! Reboot your faith . . . and wait . . . for the next assignment.” It was a privilege serving Your daughter! Amen.

When God finished creating each day’s task, he saw that it was good. The Hebrew word for saw is “ra a.” It literally means “to see, look at, inspect.”

• The first time the Bible says that Adonai “saw” is in verse 4 of Genesis 1 after He commanded light to appear. Then He looked at the light and the Bible says, “He SAW that it was good.”
• The second time it is used is in verse 10 of Genesis 1. He literally says to the dry land, “You are called ‘Earth'” and to the water “You are called ‘Seas’.” As the Master Designer, He creates. It’s what He does — making something out of nothing! Then He inspects His creation. Then He proclaims over it that it is good! He took a world that was flawed because of an angelic rebellion and makes something good. (Remember that Lucifer and a third of the angels were cast into the earth.)

Seven times in Genesis God “saw” that what he had done was good! He did not do that for his benefit because He knew His own capabilities. He knew that He could declare something to be and it would appear just as He envisioned it! But He did it (saw) for our benefit.

He knew that one day we would accuse him of creating a flawed universe, or flawed angels, flawed earth . . . or flawed humans. And that one day we would blame our situation on Him. Adam blamed Him even when he was a witness to the “good” state of the world. Eve indirectly blames Him even when she had the same knowledge as Adam.

When have you blamed Him . . . and what have you blamed Him for?

But He inspected His creation for us. He performed such a condescending task of inspecting His creation for us.

Isn’t that encouraging? He sees you, brokenness and all, but He proclaimed that everything He made was good. Now that you are covered by the blood of His Son, you’re better than “good”! You’re extraordinary!

PRAYER: Abba, again we must say that you are AMAZING! How passionately you want us to know of your love for us that from the beginning you would stand back (if that’s what you did) look upon what you had done, inspect, and see the goodness of it! You took away all of our excuses! Thank you! Help us to receive your love and the reality of how extraordinary we are in your Son. Amen.

She has a winning smile and an amazing personality! Almost two years ago she walked into my congregation. When I met her, we connected right away.

Soon, her cancer would flare up (“again” I later discovered) and I was in her life. It was my watch. You know what that means, don’t you? There is a season God gives to us where he brings others into our lives to pray for–to stand guard against the enemy’s fiery darts, and if the truth be told “the enemy’s missiles.” This was my season. This was my watch.

On this watch, I met friend after friend who hers who came to visit whether she was in the hospital or at home. Because she lives alone and is on a strict diet, they sometimes bring her food. I met . . .

• former neighbors who are now refurbishing a ’64 Mustang for her just to bless her! Amazing!
• a former boss from the military who stops by the hospital to visit her.
• another military friend whose whole family (husband, daughter, and mother) offers their home to her.
• another lifelong friend who has seen our friend through previous episodes, and is still standing watch.
• a woman who identified herself as my friend’s Sunday School teacher, neighbor and friend; she had brought goodies: a pumpkin to cheer her and watermelon to help fatten her. She proceeded to question my identity, making sure that my friend had good people around her.
• a neighbor who had mowed her lawn, to whom she had sent me with money for payment for his work. It was only upon her very adamant suggestion that he reluctantly accepted it.
• clergy from a Baptist Church and a Messianic Jewish congregation who came to pray with her.
• Her only sister  comes down from Michigan periodically and swaddles her with prayer, love, and a lot of TLC.
• Aunts from NY and NJ stay weeks at a time on their watch.
• A grandfather visits and bathes her in prayer.
• A daughter comes from college when she can and massages her, tells her all about college life, and graces her mother with her healing presence.

And of course my Bible study group that she joined prays constantly, visits, texts, and calls weekly.

And others in the congregation, one who just battled cancer herself, realizes it is her watch too.

Another who defeated cancer, along with her husband, prepares organic meals, meets with doctors and nurses, transports her family when they come to town, massages her, encourages her, stays in touch with family members . . . actually the list is endless, especially because she also knows that this is her watch, too.

WHAT’S THE POINT OF ALL THIS? Here it is. When I survey all I’ve written, I think about how God strategically mapped his daughter’s steps. He knew what was coming to my friend as a result of this fallen world in which we live. He knew the support group that she would need to beat this vicious, ugly, merciless enemy! He offered her a group that crosses racial divides, socio-economic lines, and religious ones as well. And she accepted and received those whom He sent!

• God knew that when she didn’t have the strength to lift her arms, she should not have to look around for an Aaron and Hur! They would be in place.
• When she could not carry herself to Yeshua, there would at least be four friends around her who put her on a gurney, opened up the roof, and lowered her in front of the Master.
• That when she could not run to him, there would be a friend (as there was for Lazarus) finding Yeshua and proclaiming, “Master, the one that you love is sick and needs you!”
• And when she couldn’t encourage herself like King David, someone who knew it was his/her watch would say to her, “Hope, thou, in God!!!!”

I told her, “Not only is this support group an indication of a life lived well, it is the favor of God upon you.”
“I never saw it as favor,” she said.

“It is His incredible love for you, Sis,” I told her.  “That’s the favor of God.”

We have no idea what we will have to endure in this life, but God does. He’s put people in your life. So this is what you’re to do: Build bridges and relationships that will last . . . just like my friend has. Then you will have those who will be standing watch for you!

PRAYER: Father, thank you for my amazing friend. Thank you for the spirit that she bears that is Your Spirit. There is a reason you have given her this amazing support group.  Raise her up healed and totally free from cancer to reveal to the world what a community of believers can do when we hope against hope in Yeshua’s Name, trust You to do what seems impossible, and rely upon a God who can call those things that are not as though they were. When it is our watch, help us to WATCH as well as pray! Amen.

Enjoy this song: “Friends Are Quiet Angels”

“AND GOD CALLED . . .”
God called! In Genesis 1, Elohim is doing a lot of what scholars would call human actions (anthropomorphisms). If you really looked, you would see that these are really divine actions. God was doing them before He made us. Then He gave us the ability to do what He could do. Isn’t that beautiful?

God called! That phrase is used 3 times in Genesis 1:

• God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” (v.5)
• God called the vault “sky.” (v. 8)
• God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” (v.10)

“God called” reveals the awesome nature of our God. The Hebrew word is “qara.” It means that God enunciated a specific vocal message. If we were there, we would have heard him speak. He would have said something like:

• “Light, your name is day.”
• “Darkness, your name is Night.”
• “You big open space, your name is sky.”
• “Dry ground, you shall be called land.”
• “Waters, you are seas.”

Look at our God at work! Not doing this for himself … but for us.

• I will give them light so that they will not have to live in the darkness around them.
• I will give them a big, open space like a canopy above them.
• I will give them darkness so they will know it is time to rest.
• I will give them land on which to walk, and seas in which to swim.

But God was doing something else. He was asserting his sovereignty over the thing named!

• “Light, you’re mine!”
• Catch this — “Darkness, I’m the boss of you!”
• “Land, I made you!”
• “Seas, since I’m sovereign over you, I tell you how far to go!”

This is what the psalmist says:
He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name (Psalm 147:4).

He gave this ability — “of calling” to Adam:
[God] brought [the animals] to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.

This act was more than just Adam naming them. It was God giving to Adam the authority, along with the responsibility, of being a sovereign over the things that He had created. Wow! He shared that with Adam!

When you name something, you own it!

But the LORD God called to the man, “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)

“Called” here is the same Hebrew word “qara.” God expressed sovereignty over the one He named, so He called out to Adam. “Adam, where are you?” He was essentially saying to Adam, “I’m your Lord — sin is not, nor is disobedience, or the serpent, or your own shame.”

“Adam, where are you?”

Oh, that we could hear a loving, benevolent God call out to us when we are disobedient and ashamed and know that the Father’s love is greater than whatever we’re feeling or whatever we have done. If only we would come forth and say, “Abba, I’m here.”

PRAYER: Thank you, Abba, for calling! Thank you for calling to us! Thank you for calling us your children! Be sovereign over us, Father! We give you absolute permission (not as if you needed it) to call to us out of the mire that we find ourselves in…to you! Enunciate a specific vocal message. Call our names! We will come from among the trees, abandon the fig leaves and say, “Yes, Daddy. Here I am because I know that your love is greater than my shame.” Amen.

AS I approached my street, I noticed something in the road up ahead in the opposite lane. Blown by the wind, a twig with several dead leaves scampered across the road. As a car approached the twig, a gust of wind blew it toward the median. The closer I drove, I knew there was something peculiar about this twig. It seemed to have a mind all its own. It had such precision of movement. Then I realized that what I saw was not a branch with dead leaves, but several goslings trying to cross a three-lane road. Attempting to cross together, they would scurry back to the median because of an approaching vehicle.

Where was the mother? I thought.

By this time I had passed my street and hurried to look after the motherless goslings. I looked around for the mother, but she was no where in sight. I couldn’t stand there and watch them get pancaked, so I waved and yelled, trying to get traffic to stop on a three-lane road with drivers exceeding the 45-mph speed limit.

And there I was, like the goslings, running to the safety of the median from an oncoming dump truck that had decided not to stop for woman or fowl. I was unsuccessful at getting the traffic to stop and the birds to cease their back-and-forth attempts to cross the road.

I saw a worker in the distance wearing an official orange vest, so I got in my car, went to him, and told him the situation. Placating a desperate woman, he said, “I’m coming.” I jumped back in the car and raced to be with the motherless goslings. When I returned, they were gone. I looked for furry pancakes in the road, but there were none. Then I saw that they had made it to the safety of the other side, walking in their synchronized fashion like little wind-up toys. The worker came, and I pointed to the goslings scurrying off to green pastures, a lake, and prayerfully geese that would protect them.

When I got in the car, I thought  how crazy I probably seemed to the drivers who whizzed past, disregarding my waving or yelling . . . but I realized that there are a lot of “at-risk groups” (orphans, widows, the impoverished, the gay community, victims of sex trafficking, etc. . .) needing someone who will not mind appearing crazy in order to save their lives.

Millions are lost and don’t know it, trying to get through life without a scratch, not seeing the obstacles aimed at their destruction.

Yeshua showed us how it’s done. He saw us on a highway moving like robots. He came down in the midst of the traffic, metaphorically stood in front of a speeding dump truck so we could cross the road safely to the other side . . . TO  . . .

• A place beside still waters.
• A place where the pastures are green.
• A place where we’re comforted by His staff and rod.
• A place where we shall not want . . . or fear.

PRAYER: Thank you, Abba, that when we didn’t know where we were going or how we were going to get there, you did. There was this huge chasm between us and you, and you did something absolutely crazy to bridge it. You used a cross and your life. No more scurrying to and fro for us. No motherless goslings are we! We have safe footing on Yeshua the Rock, a place where fear does not exist, where a Father says, “You are no longer orphans.  I found you, I saved you. You are mine.”  Thank you, Abba! Amen.