Vine chapter - the Importance of Abiding

(In part from Our Daily Bread)

 Fruit of Vine - John chapter 15

Jesus’ words in John 15:5, “Without Me, ye can do nothing,” are similar to Paul’s statements in Acts 17:28, “In Him we live and move and have our being,” and Col. 1:17, “by Him all things consist.” 

 

All of these verses emphasise the necessity that Christ is to our very existence.
This is the key. As John 14:5 says 
" Without Me ye can do NOTHING.".
In John 15, Jesus is speaking specifically to His followers. He’s talking about the fruit that comes from the branch connected to the vine.

When Jesus says that without Him we can do nothing, He means that without the source of life—the vine—the branch can’t even produce a leaf or a flower, let alone the fruit that brings God honour.

"I am the vine, 

ye are the branches: 

He that abideth in me, 

and I in him, 

the same bringeth forth much fruit: 

for without me ye can do nothing." 

John 15:5 

The key word is abiding, abiding in our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Abiding is only accomplished as we commune with our beautiful Saviour in prayer... in a busy world full of Satan's distractions its difficult to abide, rest peacefully in those everlasting arms of our Jesus.
Yes, Christ is necessary to our very existence.
This is the key, abide, rest, trust then it will be accomplished in Him. 

For as John 14:5 concludes 
"Without Me ye can do NOTHING."

John, the beloved apostle, knew what it was to abide in Jesus. On the isle of Patmos John was truly abiding, see Revelation 1:9
I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

John was truly abiding, with minimal distractions in the Isle of Patmos. I've read Revelation innumerable times as each time I finish the bible I read it 3 to 5 times. On the first or second time I'm slowly regrasping the flow of the book. BUT one thing is clear in that book, John is truly abiding in the Spirit in an amazing way (an excellent message specifically on Revelation is here). One day we will more fully grasp it, but with our limited finite minds we can't really understand what mighty servants have experienced.

Daniel was a mighty man of prayer, he knew deep communion and abiding in the Spirit. In Daniel 9:3 his prayer begins, then in v.23 it's interrupted by  Gabriel:

 Daniel 9:23 - "At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee; for thou art greatly beloved:..."

Another servant in deep communion, abiding in the Spirit is the Apostle Paul in 2 Cor 12:4. 

2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)

4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. 

We could go all over the bible and see examples of faithfulness in prayer, abiding, truly resting in Jesus, those before were looking to Jesus' as the coming Messiah, we are now looking back, to the cross and Christ's Resurrection. 

We are so VERY blessed to have the indwelling Spirit to guide us, interceding for us, and we know the teachings of the Spirit through the WORD of God, teaching of the risen LORD Jesus! 

Let us remember that our prayers are in the eternal, they never die but are lifted continually as incense to heaven. We see them mentioned 3 times in tribulation - these are the references:

Revelation 5:8, 8:3, 8:4.

 Revelation 8:4
And the smoke of the incense, 

which came with the prayers

of the saints, 

ascended up before God 

out of the angel's hand.

 Isn't that wonderful?? our prayers, our urgent, fervent prayers are lifted continually in heaven. 

I often think of saints like Bro Mac who've gone before, he prayed for 8 hrs a day, he prayed for souls over maps of China, God is still hearing those prayers of that faithful saint, though he went to heaven long ago. 

BE ENCOURAGED! 

Prayer is the most important thing we can do, we are saved by it, yes - we and others are saved and kept by faithful prayers! how precious!

So let us walk in the Light

 as He is in the Light.

And continue keeping on.  

Thanks for reading this post, and especially commenting. I’m sorry I don’t post very often these days, health is the main reason, also these posts take a long time to write, and much prayer for wisdom.

May God richly bless your day, wherever you may be.🙏🤗

Shaz in Oz.x 

 

If you're not sure if you're a Christian , please read this post here Who or What is a Christian? 

 

 IF you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

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The Immediacy of Answered Prayer

There is a verse in scripture line upon line precept upon precept... its rote learning. Yes, rote learning is scripture based even if the world ignores it.

 

Isaiah 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little.

 We Ignore God and His word at our own peril, God wants us to heed his Word and to “pray without ceasing”, as we grow in LORD, prayer becomes as natural as breathing and then we truly do pray without ceasing. 

 

It has occurred to me that the prayer realm is separate from the earthly and heavenly realms (these two have subdivisions eg paradise, Sheol, place of dead, and hell lake of fire  (Luke 16) in OT and “heaven” - first and second heaven mentioned in Rev 21 and third in 2 Cor 12 so three in NT.

Heaven and earth created in Gen 1:1 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 Recreated in Rev 21

[1] And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

Paul in 2 Cor 12:2 speaks of being caught up into the 3rd heaven, he was in prayer when this occurred and it has happened too in many places to various NT and OT saints. 

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.

 So there is much to contemplated upon, however another day perhaps.

Truly, LORD, this is the current situation… against hope we are believing in HOPE! 

Today it often looks like TOTALLY like a lost situation in the prayer realm.. compare this to the occasion when the Angel, Gabriel said to Zacharias re birth of a son “.. the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard;”

Zacharias was literally dumbfounded at the angel’s words! He and his wife were aged, I suspect he’d obviously not prayed this prayer for a good while.

Yet this was our Eternal Father God in HIS immediacy of the reply.

God is not in our time zone, not in our limited human mind, the LORD of Glory can see what we cannot.

Let’s believe that we have a HEARING, prayer-answering God, .. against hope believing IN HOPE.. and “hope that is seen is NOT HOPE…. But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with PATIENCE wait for it. “ Rom. 8:24, 25

Dear loving Father, no matter how dumb it might seem to keep on praying, striving re so many things in prayer I’m going to keep on praying, pleading, interceding on these things, especially the two main aspects, salvation of all everywhere, and that Thy RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH will prevail the world over.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. 1 Cor 3:19

 

And Faithful Father please work this moment, this day for Thy glory, in our nations, in all judicial ruling decrees legal processes to protect the little people from loosing theirlivelihoods! Mercy abounding please for Jesus sake, Amen.

Thanks for reading this post, and especially commenting. I’m sorry I don’t post very often these days, health is the main reason, also these posts take a long time to write, and for some reason the formatting on this post is all over the place.  I'm sorry. I do post a little more regularly on my craft blog. 

May God richly bless your day, wherever you may be.🙏🤗

Shaz in Oz.x 

 

If you're not sure if you're a Christian , please read this post here Who or What is a Christian? 

 

 IF you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

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"..the time is AT HAND"..

(This has long been in my drafts pile awaiting my attention, sorry for quiet in 2023, DV will do better in 2024 🙏)

Greatly enjoying a series of messages by Pastor Peter Mitchell, from the Book of Daniel.

The Seventy Weeks Explained and Applied.

 (link here if it's missing)

Today we need to drink deeply of the Word of God, not skim across the surface, but the meat of the Word. I've read through the bible every year for more than five decades, loving Genesis again in past week.

It's most important to live in here and now from a BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVE... not simply a world perspective. 

Satan is the Prince and Power of the air of this world, the Father of lies, and much out there are wild goose chases of half truths to distract us from God's Holy Truth.  

 

Reading through the book of Revelation, a chapter each day, as well my 4 chapters to read bible through is something I'm doing as it  is most needful I believe.

 

Revelation shows us clearly, explicitly what is ahead. 

Except for chapters 1-3 (the epistles to the 7 churches) there is no reference to the church after that! Why? Because the church is not there in the Tribulation. 

 

Except for chp 21-22 on new heavens & new earth vision, the central theme of chapters 4 to 20 is the Great Tribulation, and it's viewed by those in heaven (Rev 6:10) but the church is not mentioned = not there on earth.  https://heraldofhope.org.au/can-there-be-a-partial-rapture/  

 

If you really want to up to date knowing on things, you need to know Revelation very well.

 Especially because there's an imminent return for Jesus promised in Rev 22:20, ".. surely I come QUICKLY".

 

 God so much wants US TO KNOW it well, He promised this BLESSING (only book to begin thus and contain such a promise): 

"Blessed is he that READETH,  

and they that HEAR the words of this prophecy,  

and KEEP those things which are written therein:  for the TIME IS AT HAND." Rev 1:3 

 If I dont know these words in Revelation, how can I keep them?  

How can I pray accurately for the lost around me?

 

 If I dont have the VISION of THESE PEOPLE'S FUTURE WITHOUT Christ, how can I be truly accurate or have urgency in my prayers?  

 

Where there is no vision the people perish. Prov 29:18 

In Rev. 6:8 1/4 of world's pop has been slain = 3/12 

By Rev 9:7 1/3 slain = 4/12  

By near midpoint of Tribulation then 7/12 of all the people you can see around you, ie more than half have been killed!!

 

A 1/4 of sun, moon, stars are darkened Rev. 6:13, 8:12. With unbelievable catastrophic events of mountain ranges flattened, islands disappear Rev 6:14,  with earthquakes like never before! Australia will suffer much in that time as will US I believe and many heavily populated areas. It's hard to grasp really but much prayer is needed. 🙏🙏🙏

ONE GREAT JOY - there is also the greatest time of widespread evangelism starting in Israel, as God's chosen people (see Rev.7) are won to know the LORD Jesus Christ, this greatly encourages me and we must pray fervently for its success especially for those who are currently unsaved whom we love.

 

May we regularly READ REVELATION, heed its warnings for all around us. May we pray for a real fervency for all around us, who are so blind on this matter.

 

And so earnestly, fervently PRAY it's truth to be revealed to many !

God bless you all who've taken time to read this post..

AND thanks you so much if you are able to comment.

Love in Him, 🙏🤗

Shaz in Oz.x 

 If you are not sure if you are a Christian, a Christ follower, please read this post here 

- Who or What is a Christian?

PS. If you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

If you'd like these posts in your inbox, you can add your email to email link option on side bar. If you're on a mobile device on which there is no sidebar, then scroll down and select "View Web Version" at very bottom of post. This will bring up sidebar and "follow by email" link, which is on the top of sidebar. 😊 thank you! 

PRAYER IS POWER - aching, hurting prayers - POWER WITH THE ALMIGHTY!

 Today's topic is one that often fills my time, thoughts and heart:

The prayers of the saints.. 🙏🙏🙏

Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are saints according to the Bible. They trust in Him as their Saviour alone. 

Yet too often as believers we underestimate the POWER of PRAYER. 

For to quote a dear saint now above, Bro Mac:

“Prayer is Power, it brings about the Mighty Action of the Almighty”.

As a result of our limited understanding, we also under-utilise the power of prayer.

We breathe. 

We never or rarely think of how to breathe. 

So prayer ought to be exactly the same as breathing. 

As we grow as believers, it becomes as natural as breathing. 

I'm closer in my chat with my Lord than to anyone else I know.

I've been saved 50+yrs. Right from salvation at 12 years, two key things were practiced daily. My Father God drew me, met my deep hunger, I was so very lonely, and sad too in pre-teens and teens. He met the deep need. 

1. Reading of God's word daily. A habit never lost, unless very ill. 

2. Prayer of heart - fellowship of the Spirit, communing, praising my Father.. a growing, deeper relationship. Very simple at first .. as child-like, but hunger drew me on.

 When saved I was not in a strong Bible teaching church, my family were unsaved or not walking with LORD. However in spite of this, I trusted in the LORD Jesus as my Saviour for sin.

The key truth I recall was the sudden realisation that MY SIN put our LORD Jesus on the cross!

It was locally at a Scripture Union Beach Mission. I was largely untaught, except by the Spirit, and my own gleanings with God from 1966 to 1974. However these two habits of prayer and word ie daily quiet time habits kept me anchored, alert aware of God’s truth in His word when the attacks of the evil one surely came.

The LORD in His wisdom brought very hard and extremely rough, sad, lonely paths in my life as a teen. These extremities almost to death, great tests of faith,  also kept me anchored. Jesus gave me HOPE.. And this was reflected in His word.

So it’s rough now, dear ones?!!

Oh, YESS! its for our good.

Most of all it is for our Loving Father's glory, as He works in and through us.

May He be glorified in us today!

Do you long for our Father God to be glorified in you? 

Then expect hard things.

I love how very much God values prayer. 

Prayer to an Eternal Father God - that prayer is eternal.. your heartfelt cries, weepings, pleadings, rejoicings to the Eternal One all live on.

Rev. 5:8 And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

Rev. 8:3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

Revelation 8:4-5 And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. 

And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

Every single one of our yearning, hurting, intercessory, or praising prayers are there in heaven before the throne of God.

.. or even as Romans 8:26 puts it of prayer “the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us, with groanings which cannot be uttered..” none of them are lost, or left unanswered. 

Unanswered prayer is a lie of the evil one. God answers - like our earthly parent may have said - “yes”,”no”or “wait” .. but all are answers.

The hardest answer to a prayer maybe no, but it IS an answer. As is WAIT, or yess! The wait maybe more than a decade, or with my dad's salvation, more than 5 decades. 

And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you,

 and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: 

for the Lord is a God of judgment: 

blessed are all they that wait for him. Isaiah 30:18

*****

Revelation 6:9-10 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 

And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Recently I was just thinking or it was as I was praying actually - a beautiful thought came ..

It was of Revelation 6 above and the praying tribulation saints in heaven, who were praying for the avenging of their death, having been slain for their faith, yet they saw others still suffering the same - I wondered if there are praying saints who’ve gone before who are praying for those suffering below, now! and for those before us also?

We are a finite being, limited.. and God is infinite and eternal, as is heaven. We really don’t know what it’s like in the life to come, unless we are caught up as for example Paul was (2 Cor.12) and shown unspeakable things.

How do we know that saints before are watching as witnesses even now?

Hebrews 11 is the Faith chapter describing many saints of Old Testament. 

THEN Hebrews 12 the very next chapter begins thus:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, 

let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, 

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us..

“Wherefore seeing (= BECAUSE) we are also compassed (SURROUNDED) about with so great a cloud of witnesses”..

Yes, the Heavenly witnesses, spoken of in Hebrews 12 are those of Hebrews 11 - remember this letter to the Hebrews had no chapter verse divisions, so as Chap 11 ends it follows immediately with “wherefore seeing we are so compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses” in my minds eye the passage turns to those who've gone before, they’re watching on, above.

As Hebrews 11 says it’s truly those of the FAITH who’ve gone before! 

Their prayers on earth prayed even now live on, even though they are no longer here to pray them. eg Daniel for Israel in Daniel 9, Jesus for ALL those who follow Him in John 17, etc., so will ours when we are gone - and even now those who've gone before!

Indeed they are the "so great a cloud of witnesses”, 

SO “let us lay aside every weight, and the sin that does so easily beset us..

….  let us run with patience the race that is set before us... looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith."!

Why? run with FAITH as they did "seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses"..

How LONG indeed,  before You come, Lord?

.. even so come Lord Jesus ... perhaps today.

While we wait - let press on doing the best we can as those who’ve gone before, be not discouraged or cast down look up and fight and be not weary! (If not showing - Hymn link)

Praying for you all who read this. I wrote the bulk of this over many months - starting more than two years ago when a very dear sister in the LORD went to be with Him. It greatly grieved her that she wasn’t staying here to keep praying for her dear ones!

The lovely LORD gave me this word back then - saying her prayers last longer than her sick physical body - our prayers of faith are eternal in heaven in ..“those golden vials full of odours..” UNTIL they’re ANSWERED - and I believe perhaps even then preserved as a testimony to God’s faithfulness in “those golden vials full of odours”. 

It is God Who is glorified in ALL this, dear ones!

Remember GOD is not finite as we are!

He is infinite, not limited and communication with Him is limited only by our FAITH. 

It’s truly something we cannot fully grasp until heaven how great a tool and how VERY important our prayer is!

So use it every moment of every day.

(I’m sorry for my silence.. as my craft blog said I’m in an unwell patch, but I’m hopeful I maybe on the improve. Thank you for popping by, I truly pray this blesses you as it has me - as I write, rewrite, meditate and pray ...

I’m sorry it’s a bit long, I didn’t want to do two posts as was concerned I may not get back to it as it has happened before.)

AND thanks you so much if you are able to comment.

Love in Him, 🙏🤗

Shaz in Oz.x 

 If you are not sure if you are a Christian, a Christ follower, please read this post here 

- Who or What is a Christian?

PS. If you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

If you'd like these posts in your inbox, you can add your email to email link option on side bar. If you're on a mobile device on which there is no sidebar, then scroll down and select "View Web Version" at very bottom of post. This will bring up sidebar and "follow by email" link, which is on the top of sidebar. 😊 thank you! 

Prayer with Purpose 🙏☝🐑❤

One of the best things about prayer is God's omniscience. 

It doesn't matter when you pray, God is not in our time zone, in His eternal eyes its relevance is never lost. Even if for example another's request is sorted before you pray.. 

If you don't know, keep praying. 

I remember in my youth discussing this with a very dear sister in LORD, she was saying no point in praying, it is decided. 

I said, I don't know result, so I'm praying, God is big enough to figure that.

(yes, God figures that all out, eternally our time zone is irrelevant.)

Praise His holy name.

The verse attached is my calendar today.

A beautiful passage.

Good one to pray for all dear lost ones and for ourselves:

Jer 29:11-14

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 

[12] Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 

[13] And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. 

[14] And I will be found of you, saith the LORD.. 

Promise for Israel but also for us as Christ followers.

 

Key point is 

Then shall ye call upon me,

 and ye shall go and pray unto me, 

and I will hearken unto you.

Whatsoever ye ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive. ... if its according to the Father’s will. 

1 John 5:14-15

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, 

if we ask any thing according to His will, 

He heareth us: 

[15] And if we know that He hear us, 

whatsoever we ask, 

we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

The LORD ... is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Souls, heart requests for another in eternal perspective.. 

This is prayer our Father hears.. "for He is not willing that ANY should perish". 

Pray on in faith to the Living God.

🙏☝🙏Prayer with purpose.

For souls 🙏🐑❤🙏and ETERNITY. 

As believers it's important to "encourage ourselves in the LORD", as David did, as all his friends were about to stone him. 

(See 1 Samuel 30:6) 

This is especially so in prayer.

May God richly bless you and those you love, wherever you may be! 

Thank you SO much for popping over for a read, a meditate and especially if you’re able to stay for a chat. 

Prayer hugs, 🙏 🤗 

Shaz in Oz.x  

If you are not sure if you are a Christian, a Christ follower, please read this post here - Who or What is a Christian?

PS. If you haven’t I'd love it you to join as a wonderful encourager of this blog ...  link HERE.  Thank YOU to those who have done so already. It really encourages me to keep on. 😁

If you'd like these posts in your inbox, you can add your email to email link option on side bar. If you're on a mobile device on which there is no sidebar, then scroll down and select "View Web Version" at very bottom of post. This will bring up sidebar and "follow by email" link, which is on the top of sidebar. 😊 thank you!

I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice - Treasures of Darkness

 Some of you may know this hymn, but this hymn was re-etched afresh in my heart just before the beginning of 2022; a most memorable night after our wonderful family Christmas Day. As often happens, I was slow unwinding. So about 2am, standing at my bedroom window, and ready for my night-time chat with my LORD.

Have you had almost audible times when God speaks out aloud in the quietness of your heart?

So love the dark contrast to the bright twinkles of our amazing southern night skies (the northern hemisphere I’ve seen is half of what ours in southern hemisphere, to my eye, even in April on lake in Finland or balmy, summer Florida)! 

This night after Christmas Day, standing at the open window - it made me blink, then look again! Hurrying out to back door and outside - there high up in trees in our yard and rear neighbours, all were full of twinkling lights, myriads of them! Moving gently, pulsating in the breeze.

I knew there were no Christmas lights of any sort, so it was momentary puzzlement!?

Then suddenly I realised the warm ‘after-storm-humidity’ of our summer night had brought out this ‘never-seen-before’ spectacle of about 80 fireflies some flitting, some just swaying on the trees, moving in time with the beauty of the gentle summer breeze; some were brighter and some different colours.
I started to pray, praise turned into a hymn.. 

"Draw me nearer, nearer blessed Lord to the cross... 

I stopped mid line of that refrain, taking in the meaning of next line.

” .. to the cross, where Thou hast died, 

draw me nearer, nearer to Thy precious bleeding side”.

I knew what God was saying. How or details I've no idea, but know there is crosswork ahead.. 

 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

Yet one thing is ALWAYS sure, my Father knows the way through the wilderness, ALL I have to do is follow.

It’s most unusual to see fireflies here, we are not in the zone. None in my family have seen them before, but it was definitely a God gift, for a purpose yet to be known.

I managed with mobile phone to get one photo with three bright lights in darkness. Only three out of all the myriads of twinkles and they were different colours, that was miraculous too.

(I’m not sure if they’re visible on screen, but this from a large full size photo with just three fireflies shown and in different colours, how amazing is God!)

The next night there were just three fireflies again, moving around at similar time. However they were in side yard, next to the courtyard, nowhere else, just three, flitting moving in time to breeze.

 

I thought these verses so apt to think upon with this post.

2 Chronicles 6:1 

Then said Solomon, The Lord hath said that he would dwell in the thick darkness.

Isaiah 45:2-3,5, 7, 22

 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: 

And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. 

I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

There are many choice verses and treasures in Isaiah, my favourite O.T. book, along with Job. 

This last verse holds the key to the treasures of darkness referred to in verse 3. 

“I am God, and... none else!”

Darkness and treasure are not usually associated together. 

How like God’s ways, which are higher than our ways, to put them together!

(*note these verses with notes section above was written in July 2021, this is a paste from Blog Drafts. Long before that night, yet how apt is this passage for this event? 

Who else but God does these sorts of things?

AND I’m also very sure, this is not shared just for me, but written for others blessing, too.

God’s ways are past finding out) 

Another night looking into the starlit sky it struck me, I’ll never do this in heaven, look out upon a clear, starry night. 

Darkness CANNOT be seen in heaven - where God is, for He is LIGHT. 

On a moonlit night, or lit up night sky, the stars are less bright, in God’s bright light they maybe there, they are simply not seen.

So that’s why there are no lesser lights to rule the day and night - no stars or moon or sun, and no more sea… what a changed place the heavenly realm is for those of us, who now are earth dwellers. 

HOWEVER, there is still the promise a pure, unspoilt by sin, a new earth AND new heaven to contemplate upon (see Revelation 21) and we have Eternity to enjoy it all, as we worship our loving Father God, King of Kings, LORD of Lords.

To close, in the months since that night, another verse from this hymn has echoed frequently, strongly in my heart and mind (the section in red, especially the last part, my will = Thine).

I am thine O LORD, I have heard Thy voice , 

And it told Thy love to me… 

Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,

And my will be lost in THINE!

Or link here if not showing.

1	I am Thine, O Lord, I have heard Thy voice,   And it told Thy love to me; But I long to rise in the arms of faith,   And be closer drawn to Thee.
	Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,   To the cross where Thou hast died; Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,     To Thy precious, bleeding side.
2	Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,   By the pow’r of grace divine; Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,   And my will be lost in Thine.
3	O the pure delight of a single hour   That before Thy throne I spend, When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,   I commune as friend with friend!
4	There are depths of love that I yet may know   Ere Thee face to face I see; There are heights of joy that I yet may reach   Ere I rest in peace with Thee. (Hymn lyrics “Draw me nearer”copied from Hymnary.org)

By Fanny Crosby - based on Hebrews 10:22 link here.

There’s a passage in scripture that applies to this sort of period of life … the stirring of the 🦅 eagle’s nest.. ever so lovingly.

Here are the verses (passage link here, in Deut 32:11-13) AND there’s a post on it in my Christian section in craft blog here.

It has an illuminated Prov 3:5,6 on it too. Most apt.

Yes, there IS cross work, heart work, or a moment by moment dying to self in various ways going on. To be honest there always is, in a growing Christian walk. 

Nevertheless, as I think upon that night, I know its ACTUAL purpose is not yet mine to know yet, or may never know this of glory.. 

So I leave it in my Father’s safe hands till it is. 

In the meantime, I strive to do my best for whatever He sends, for His grace is ALWAYS SUFFICIENT.

(The Lord spoke also like this in Christmas 1983/ New Year 1984. 1984 was indeed an unforgettable year,.. that time it was on pruning, in the vineyard 🍇.

This post dedicated to Diane Ronzino, - see “Hadarah” blog, link here or on sidebar. She wrote a post at this time about the way God speaks to us as believers, it caused me to write this experience down.  Thank you, Diane. Her post here.)

May God richly bless you and those you love, wherever you may be! 

Thank you SO much for popping over for a read, a meditate and especially if you’re able to stay for a chat, and a cuppa, eh? 

Wouldn’t that be grand!? The kettle is always on! 
Prayer hugs, 🙏 🤗 

Shaz in Oz.x  

If you are not sure if you are a Christian, a Christ follower, please read this post here - Who or What is a Christian?

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