JOHN 17:21

21 That they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me. Hey Betty, (I wrote this 18 years ago) I was thinking about the little foxes.... divisions, accusations, offenses today, the whiles of the devil to divide and make us covenant breakers. There have been times the last 26 yrs where the devil has spoken to me about Gene...... "he won't listen to you, he won't understand... he will always be this way, he's just a jerk that doesn't get it......... on and on and on..........." It's with our husbands and each other. IT'S THE FIRE, that TESTS OUR SINCERITY. The problem is we are not very sincere in our love. And when we turn to Jesus, he SPEAKS TO US ACCORDING TO HIS WORD............ and it's not the voice of the accuser of the brethren. And seeking the WORD OF GOD, for our offences with others, HAS BEEN THE OPERATION TO CARVE GOD'S WORD IN MY HEART!!!! It is so AWESOME when you see it. It's BEING SINCERE about really being a foot washer, a sheep feeder, a grave clothes taker offer. MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT HAVE THIS MAN JESUS to rule over them. THEY WANT NO PART in this. So the devil has his way in causing divisions...... I don't know if we have run into many other churches where PEOPLE EVEN CARE about HEARING FROM GOD when they are offended. NOR do they care about ESTABLISHING the word to those who offend them. NOR will they get others involved in establishing the word. AND THIS IS THE HYPOCRISY, that REMOVES children too......... children will never do what their parents refuse to do. It's amazing how many people reject being washed by the water of the word....... and they won't take part in the saving and keeping of souls by washing others. THIS IS THE WHOLE BREAKDOWN in most churches today, and why so many are shutting their doors. If I did not go after my pride w/ Gene, lied about my offenses, I would have caused division with my evil imaginations, my hands would have shed the blood of not only him who Jesus is trying to make innocent, BUT I NEVER WOULD HAVE WALKED IN THIS with any of you either. The devil is the master of evil imaginations. Like the word says........... FEW WILL STIR THEMSELVES UP TO SEEK GOD. FEW REALLY FIGHT FOR THE UNITY OF THE FAITH, the bond of peace. A GOOD MARRIAGE The Lord will show you how to be a repairer of breeches if you are sincere in your love, and you will be blessed living to be a peacemaker! God see's the meditation of your heart, and he will help you do what's right with others IF YOU REALLY CARE. WHY I HAVE SUCH A WONDERFUL MARRIAGE AFTER 25 YEARS OF LIFE WITH MY HUSBAND...............I HAVE A SMALL VISION FOR WHERE JESUS WANTS TO TAKE THE CHURCH!! How does passion and unity continue to get better? Well I had some thoughts on the subject today! I got a letter from a friend this morning, which made me start thinking of Ps.133. "Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It's like precious ointment.....it's like the dew on the mountains.....there has the Lord commanded the blessing! It made me start thinking of my good marriage, and why others aren't so good, and why there is such dis-unity in the church. Then I read part of David Wilkerson's newest letter to the church called "Satan seeks to devour you." He specifically addresses marriages under attack! Lives under attack. I thought of the scripture in Ecc. "The little foxes spoil the vine." It made me realize why love and passion is ever increasing in my own marriage..........BECAUSE WE GO AFTER, AND DEAL WITH THE "LITTLE FOXES!" Many married people don't even see the whiles of the devil to destroy them and their relationships. I know that after years of marriage, the offences, criticisms, accusations, divisions (demilitarized zones) cause people to build walls against one another. So instead of becoming closer, DEMONIC STRONGHOLDS set in, and passion and love are out the window! We need to learn to put on love rather than pride. To put on honesty, sincerity, and have the law of kindness in our mouths. If we reject covenant with God and His people, SO WILL OUR CHILDREN. God is not mocked, what we sow we will reap Rm. 12:5 "So we being many are one body in Christ, and everyone members of one another". 1 Cor.10:17 "for we being many are ONE BREAD, and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread." 1Cor.1:10 "Now I beseech you , brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be NO DIVISIONS AMONG YOU, but that you be perfectly joined together......in the same mind, and in the same judgment! THIS MAY BE EXTREMELY HARD FOR YOU TO BELIEVE, BUT I ACTUALLY LIVE WITH A MAN IN A "SPIRIT OF UNITY!" We fight for unity, and to make sure there are no divisions between us! We deal with, kill, the "little foxes" that come to spoil our relationship! Rather than being offended, we look to feed each other with understanding when there are problems. We seek the Lord, and humble ourselves to one another in the fear of the Lord. And we walk in this same spirit with the Christians we relate to. 2 Co.13:11 "Finally, brethren, Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. Eps. 4:3 "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ph.1:27 "only let you conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel." 1Pet.3:8 "Be you all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous." In Phil. 4:2 Paul beseeches two of his loved ones to be of the same mind. Col. 2:2 "That their hearts might BE COMFORTED, being knit together in LOVE, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the MYSTERY OF GOD, and of the Father, and of Christ." DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE I HAVE MET, WHO DON'T EVEN BELIEVE UNITY IS EVEN POSSIBLE? They don't even have faith in what God say's in His word or what He promises to do for those who love Him. He stands behind women who are looking to love and do God's will in their husbands lives. And a woman of God has faith that God will deal with her husband if he refuses her kind words. She doesn't look to beat him into submission, she knows and trusts in God's love and intentions for their marriage. Many marriages get familiar with.........DISUNITY, STRIFE and they take on an unbelieving spirit that refuses to think unity is possible! When you loose a bad spirit into your marriage, contrary to love and faith, do you think it will sprout? If you loose love and faith, and have hope against hope, don't you think the God of all the Heaven's and earth is able to stand behind His Spirit? That's the spirit, the food you should be feeding your family. You need to think about what table you are eating from, the devils or God's? For the bread, your words are life or death. If your mouth is an open grave, and everyone that EATS of the bread, the reaping will not be good! If you fling forth evil things how can you hope good to come from it? I have to say here, There were many things that divided my husband and I when I first met him. And the first few years of our relationship were not really easy, because I doubted God and him, and didn't really know His heart towards me, or the Lord's to help us. He had more faith and trust in the Lord regarding me, while I was the despairing unbeliever, because I was offended and unhealed regarding men in general. I let the little foxes in the door all the time and was a bit slow in chasing them back out the door. (contrary thoughts against him, merciless thoughts, where I didn't have much mercy in what I thought he was doing wrong. I hadn't removed the log from my eye to help remove the twig in his. I had gotten to the place in my life, where I was not content to live with DIVISIONS, and in a spirit of DISUNITY. I had lived in pretense too long in my past, and it had cost me too much. I crossed over a line before I ever met my husband, that I would FIGHT FOR UNITY! There is NO COMFORT, when you have to live in a house divided among itself. When you have to hide, lie and pretend, and play God for someone who doesn't have a grip on their emotions. I decided I wasn't going to play God anymore. I was going to live honestly, and let the chips fall where they may, and let God be God. I got to the place when I met my husband, that I was going to be honest, sincere, speak the truth in love, and I WAS WILLING TO PUT THE RELATIONSHIP ON THE LINE FOR THE SAKE OF TRUTH! I wasn't going to hide, lie, and,only give "most of my heart", not "ALL OF MY HEART." I heard a man talking about Ananias and Sapphira, and the principal of "holding back." Whenever I have chosen to "hold back", a portion of my heart from my husband........not loving him with all my heart, mind and strength, not being open with him about my thoughts and emotions, it has brought DIVISION INTO OUR RELATIONSHIP! I know when I have done this, it's been a reflection of not loving the Lord with all my heart, mind, and strength. When I'm open and honest with Our Father, he helps me to be open and honest with my husband. How to keep the devil from getting ground in our lives. 1. By not forsaking the assembling, but exhorting one another. I see that when we do assemble, whether it be with our husband, or fellow Christian's, if we are half-hearted, we lie, are insincere, pretentious, content to be divided and are not hearing from God and speaking the truth in love.......UNITY ISN'T THERE! God is a spirit of truth and His spirit visits those walking in the light. He doesn't fellowship deceit....the father of lies. 2. Forgiveness.....THE BIG TEMPTATION, Jesus refers to in the Lords Prayer. "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive others......lead us not into the temptation of being unforgiving......DELIVER US FROM THIS GREAT EVIL! If we have a forgiving spirit, we can tell the truth in the right spirit, without sounding self-righteous. 3. If you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, GLORY NOT....(how many people get familiar with running on STRIFE GAS). Strife is part of lying, and pretense. .where strife is so familiar, they cant' even tell they are striving? They loose a bad spirit on the earth and don't even care. DON'T LIE TO YOURSELF....when your in strife. The devil will start talking to you....tickling your senses! It creates all kinds of confusion and evil work! Blessed are the PEACE MAKERS, NOT THE STRIFE MAKERS!!!! So......If 1 Cor. 10:17 is REALLY TRUE...."for we being many are ONE BREAD"????? What kind of bread are you?? What kind of bread is your marriage?? How about the Christians you walk with?? I remember speaking to a woman several years ago who was asking me what kind of church she should go to back in Wisconsin where she lived. I said to her, "what ever you do, look very closely at the pastor and his wife. Ask yourself, do they walk in a spirit of faith, love, and unity? Can they work through their own problems, and do they share testimony about how the Lord helps them work through their divisions, so they can help others too? See what ingredients are in their bread (spiritually speaking). Are they open, honest, do they lie, hide and pretend like they have it all together? Are they willing to share the battles of their relationship and how Jesus helps them, in an honest, open transparent spirit? Do you hear the TESTIMONY OF JESUS in how they work through their divisions, evil imaginations, accusations, and how The Lord has helped them fight for unity and love? BECAUSE........if they don't do it with each other......they won't CONTAIN a spirit to help the children of God do it either! Is there bread full of artificial ingredients?" One thing many of my friends and I have in common is, "we didn't grow up in Christian families, where we heard and witnessed how Jesus helped our parents work through the battles of life. How they dealt with the "little foxes" that spoiled the vine. Most of us saw people who lived a passionless, pretentious, divided life, where they hid from each other. "Hide not yourself from your own flesh", it says in Isaiah. I decided early on, I was not going to hide from my husband......I was not going to hide anymore from the Lord. I wasn't going to be a with-holder and settle for a passionless, dark, deceitful way of life. There are times I wondered if my husband would throw me in the gutter for being honest, but I knew if I really loved him, how could I hold divisions in my heart against him? I went to him (not always, but I try to) in a spirit of honesty, sincerity, humility, and faith because I love him. When I question his integrity, I tell him, because I love him. Our children....and God's children have gotten to benefit from our divisions, and hear how we dealt with them. WE ENDED UP BE AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS WHO NEVER HAD PARENTS WHO WOULD BE REAL, HONEST, AND FEED THEM WITH UNDERSTANDING TO HOW JESUS HELPED THEM WITH THEIR PROBLEMS. We FIGHT NOT TO LET THE BREAD (OUR RELATIONSHIP) get moldy. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisee's which is hypocrisy! We don't practice hypocrisy with each other. And because I'm willing, and He's taught me to walk in a spirit of LOVING THE LORD WITH ALL MY HEART, MIND AND STRENGTH, I can love others the way I have been loved. AND KEEP PRESSING ON TO BE BETTER EACH DAY! The love and passion in our lives is ever increasing instead of decreasing like the couples in the world. Isn't that how we should live as the body Of Christ too? I pray that the spirit of love, faith, and truth? What Jesus has given my husband and I would is a precious gift we can impart to all our friends. So they will want to follow our example..... That the world could see Jesus lives by the way they love each other! Jesus prayed in John 17......that we would be sanctified by the truth of His Word. He SANCTIFIED himself unto the truth, that we might be sanctified unto the truth.....He prayed for ALL THOSE WHO WOULD BELIEVE ON HIM, BECAUSE OF THE WORDS OF OTHERS! DON'T YOU REALIZE THAT YOUR HUSBAND COULD COME TO BELIEVE MORE IN JESUS BY THE WORDS YOU SPEAK TO HIM???? Jesus PRAYED THAT WE WOULD ALL BE ONE!! As He is in the Father and the Father IN Him, THAT WE WOULD BE ONE.......IN HIM! That the world would see and believe in Him by the love we have one for another! His prayer was that we would all be one in Him......and though we might be far from it, we all will be one in heaven, and we can do our best to fight for the unity of the faith on the earth! (Why not take on faith to deal with the dis-unity here on the earth.) It's all going to be seen and known for what it is one day anyway, don't you want to be on God's side when the dust settles? YOU ARE CALLED TO BE A PEACE MAKER, so TAKE ON FAITH, to do God's will in ALL THE LIVES WHICH YOU TOUCH!! Don't be indifferent to the divisions in your heart towards your husband. Life isn't about you, it's about you making it your food to do God's will. I don't want Jesus to have to straighten out my problems for me when we see Him face to face, because I was a fainting, indifferent, give up, complaining girl. The scripture we had put on our wedding cake said......."We pray that the world would SEE AND BELIEVE THAT JESUS LIVES BY THE WAY.......WE LOVE ONE ANOTHER!! YOU HAVE EVERYTHING TO DO WITH THE WORLD, AND ESPECIALLY YOUR CHILDREN SEEING AND BELIEVING THAT JESUS LIVES BECAUSE THE WAY YOU LOVE YOUR HUSBAND AND THEM!

THE REFINERS FIRE IS NOW MY HEARTS DESIRE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX0knHZorb0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=larbuWBZ58k&feature=fvwrel I have been reading in Is 58 for the last couple of days since you sent this, seeing more of my hypocrisy over the years. I've said I sought the Lord, but not being willing to be a doer, and not just a hearer, deceiving myself, and pretended for the sake of man's approval, yet my heart had departed from the Lord because I didn't get life my way. I didn't trust the Lord, who is the only one who forgives sin, and had forgiven my bloody sin of having an abortion. I didn't cry out to him to help me, I just got offended that my world crashed in. I've spent my life according to the spirit of humanism, and being "politically right", another phrase for walking in deceit! That is the way I lived my life, trying to be "nice", (my friends called it "being nicer than Jesus"). This has been my strength for my whole life, trying to do the right thing, say the right words, trying to enter in by my good works, (or so I thought) so I didn't have to be honest about myself, all so that I could be accepted by man. When Jesus saved me, I was such a liar, I had made lies my refuge. I didn't tell the truth about myself to my husband, just hid, and tried to "do good works", & "be nice", but WITHOUT ANY SINCERITY! The truth is, I had been unfaithful to him, and ended up getting pregnant with another man's child, and just had an abortion, because I believed if I was honest, he would never marry me. We lived in fornication for 3 years before that, and I didn't want to risk losing what I thought might be my last chance for someone to commit to me. I already had a son out of wedlock, and given up another son for adoption because of my own "looking to man to meet my needs". Jer 17: 5 says "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD." My hiddeness, deceit, and lying screwed me up so much, that in my heart and mind, I really thought my problems, and our lack of being able to "graft" into one another was his fault! He had his problems as we all do. After 5 years I started telling the truth -- just because I knew I wasn't moving on with the Lord if I didn't. But my heart was not at all pure in these things. I still wasn't telling the truth for HIS sake! Still only because of my own selfishness! Jesus still was so merciful to me, and allowed us to join ourselves to a ministry body where the emphasis was "Speak the truth in love one to another, for we are members one of another", Eph 4: 25. So not seeing my own lack of love, and repenting for it, I just started "speaking the truth in my heart. (A lot of the time without regard for others), or praying first, taking the log from my own eye. My husband of 10 years decided he didn't want to walk with the Lord anymore, and we divorced, and he got custody of our three children. (I didn't see at the time what a hypocrite I was.) I was so devastated, that I reclused into my own world, not even telling God the truth about my pain, or trying to get understanding to my circumstances. This was the beginning of years of darkness for me. I continued walking in my religious ways without much sincerity toward God and the people in my life. I walked in the light of my own sparks, did not hear from the people of God in my life, and made sorrow my bed. A few months after my divorce, I started dating a man who had been a pastor for 23 years before giving up "the ministry". His previous marriage had also fallen apart. We married, and I continued my habits of doing my own thing my own way, and just got offended with his hypocrisies, without looking at my own. I didn't heed Jesus' words about removing the beam from my own eyes so I could see clearly to help my new husband with the "speck" in his eye. (Mt 7: 3-5) I allowed myself to be offended, and it was very familiar to me to accuse him in my heart. Being so deceived that to accuse man is to accuse God. I really exalted myself in my own eyes, and looked down on him for his short-comings. Psalm 36: 1-3 says "The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good." Vs 4 says "he aborreth not evil." That is really my sin, I didn't fear God in the meditation of my HEART toward him. And of course, that heart position was carried out in my other relationships. I continued to accuse God's children in my heart for too many years. I "aborted" people who exposed my darkness instead of coming to the light! Thinking the walls of my pride were keeping me safe. I was the eye, saying to the hand and the rest of the body "I have no need of you." I didn't really understand the principle of the mirror of Pr 27: 19 which says "As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. Jesus has been trying to get my attention for years to look at myself when I'm shaken instead of pointing the finger at whichever vessel HE chose to use to shake me. Heb 12: 25-27 says "See that you refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven: Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of those things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain." In the midst of the BODY OF CHRIST I have been very religious (deceitful, and doing works of sacrifice instead of obedience) and tormented because of it! Holding grudges (Lev.19:15) Ps 119: 165 says "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them." I have excused myself for living in offense for years, accusing others when Jesus sent people to help-- when He just wanted to set me free from it! And all the time calling myself a Christian! Jesus said that not the hearers only, but those who DO God's WILL will remain with Him. His covenant with us is that He will be an enemy to our enemies, and I have to be willing to put away the enemies that I have used to cover me. God forgive me -- that His enemies had become my friends in my lack of understanding! Ex 23: 23 My husband and I are still walking out these things in our relationship, he has been faithful to stick with me through the "operation of God" as he is opening my eyes to God's love, and faithfulness, and helping me to care about how I'm affecting others. Lying is a breech in the spirit, and without hearing and DOING God's will, the word says we will deceive ourselves (Ja 1: 22). I am realizing that I have to receive the one sent with God's word in order to truly receive God's Word in my life. I am having to esteem others that God sends to recover myself out of the snare of the devil. I can't look down on others and really think that I'm receiving Jesus. It's a lie that I have chosen to believe for too many years. I have let fear cast out love, and excused myself for not being a footwasher, and seeing the obligation of brotherly love an honor and blessing, rather than a curse. I'm so thankful that God sent Jesus to live and die for me, so that I can be able to overcome these things, and truely be a witness in the earth for HIM in the earth, and not myself. Pr 25: 27 says "...for men to search their own glory is not glory." 18 Therefore I counsel you to purchase from Me gold refined and tested by fire, that you may be [truly] wealthy, and white clothes to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nudity from being seen, and salve to put on your eyes, that you may see.