Posts

SONG OF SONGS - by Todd Benjamin Lout

Image
This past Saturday night we had worship and prayer based on Song of Solomon. It was quite a sweet, yet powerful time as we contemplated the overwhelming love of the King (Jesus) toward the Shulamite (Us). This morning I woke up with this one passage on my spirit. I mean just look at this poetic, dramatic and powerful instruction from a King to His Bride. When the Bible talks about seals put on something….it means for it to be seriously sealed, not broken! He wants us to have HIM and HIS FIRELY LOVE as a seal on our hearts. WOW! Meditating on Song of Solomon (also called “Song of Songs”) from the POV that He is the King so longing for the gaze of His Bride really changes our hearts. His desire is for us to really know the love of Christ which passes everything else we know! Our true identity as the Beloved realized brings about a shift in how we receive from Him. It causes us to be more confident, more in love, more stabilized in this solid ground that is His passionate love for us. Let...
Post a Comment
Read more

ENCOUNTERING GOD'S PRESENCE - By Brent Lokker

Image
  “Jesus, you’re all I want! You’re everything to me! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you for your sweet presence! Your presence satisfies the deepest longings of my soul!” These were a few of the sentiments gushing forth from my heart in tears and laughter while being saturated and wonderfully overwhelmed by the Spirit in worship throughout last week in a leaders conference at Bethel Church. It was a “Jehovah Sneaky” God set up for Suzanne and myself as we arrived thinking we were there mostly to lean into our dear friends in Redding, but He overwhelmed both of us in the best way imaginable by His Spirit, assuring us of His enduring and endearing love. How do you fully explain this Presence…it’s within you and everything you ever wanted, yet something we don’t yet know how to continually tap into. His sweet presence was intoxicating and it saturated us with His peace, with His joy, with His pleasure and with His passion. It was something we hadn’t experienced like this in a...
Post a Comment
Read more

GOD'S RIGHT WAY OF DOING THINGS - by Todd Benjamin Lout

Image
This last Saturday night we began our exploration of Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” In the next few weeks our team will “unpack” this Beatitude from various angles and depths. Some basics I wanted to cover is what these words actually mean.  To hunger and to thirst for righteousness. Then to be filled.  Jesus was telling us that when we allow ourselves to see our own great need for His righteousness, He will see to it that we will have it to the fullest.  In that state of being full, we are still in a place of hungering and thirsting for righteousness because there is always more. Righteousness, in it’s simplest interpretation, is God’s right way of doing things. We have plenty of instruction in the Bible on how He operates (which always boils down to love, because He IS love). However, doing things His right way also requires communion with Him. Including God in reactions, decisions, and and even our moti...
Post a Comment
Read more

MEEKNESS IS A SUPERPOWER - by Susan Fochler

Image
  I grew up in an environment where I constantly thought I must be in trouble…for something.  I usually didn’t know why.  So when I had an encounter with a neighbor who showed me gentleness and patience when I was in the middle of a temper tantrum, I was shocked; it was so unexpected to receive kindness in response to my behavior.  That moment is engraved in my memory; an imprint of what it feels like to be loved and accepted, even when I was at my worst.  There was something in that experience that gave me hope that gentleness and kindness did exist in this world, and that if I kept looking, I would find it.  A seed was planted in my heart to continue to seek out and cultivate this love, this grace that continues to surprise me-in such a good way.  I was given a tangible touch of God ’ s perfect love, and it helped me recognize the real Jesus when I met Him later on in life.  So why would I call meekness a superpower?  Because I think it can...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE MEEK LAMB AND THE ROARING LION - by Brent Lokker

Image
  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Rev 5:5) who has triumphantly purchased us and included us in his heavenly realm! The meekness of Jesus as the Lamb who was slain on the cross  isn’t the same thing as weakness. Christ’s meekness is his power and authority restrained for a far greater good that impacted all of humanity. The Lamb was slain willingly—by his strong choice. Jesus was never a victim! Yes, horrendous things were done to him that could have made him out to be a victim, but Jesus can’t be a victim when he willingly subdued his power to allow the depravity of humans to play out our power grab against him. I n case you missed the implication of the last sentence, God the Father didn’t kill Jesus. We did. This is such a critical perspective to grab hold of to maintain the integrity of the Father’s character. God didn’t punish Jesus for our sins. Rather, we punished Jesus as a result of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

A SEASON OF ENCOUNTERS - by Lonnie Ellis

Image
“Encounter 1” I was awakened by Father God on Friday, 1/30/26 at 3:01 AM. He asked me four questions. The first three were: What if the Bible is real? What if the Bible is true—Truth itself? Do you BELIEVE what the Bible says? But when He asked the fourth question, I felt the weight of it in my whole body, my soul and my spirit. I knew this was not just for me, but for the Body of Christ. The 4th question was:     4. Do you BELIEVE what the Bible says about YOU? When God asks a question, He is not looking for information He is inviting transformation. I pondered this for a couple of days. Then on Monday evening, He got my attention again and said: “This is NOT a question—it is an INVITATION.” It’s an invitation to step through a door of  REVELATION , and to allow God to take you on a journey to become  who He created you to be . I believe many will begin to experience or see an increase in encounters with God. Whether through visitation, dreams, or their sanctified i...
Post a Comment
Read more

MEEKNESS THAT LISTENS - by Bill Hernandez

Image
In Matthew 5:5 it says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” From my perspective, this is about open doors both ways in relationships. It’s about receptivity. It’s about love. Other things that come to mind regarding meekness are strength under control, patience, long-suffering, forbearance, gentleness, peacefulness, modesty, humility, unpretentiousness, submission, and deference, among other things. Meek people are teachable, self-controlled, yielded to God, and they follow His instructions. It’s a posture of waiting, watching, listening, receiving, and inquiring. In James 1:19 it says to be “quick to listen, slow to speak...” In 1 Corinthians 13:9 it says, “For we know in part and prophesy in part.” No matter how smart or trained we are, we never know the full story of other people’s lives unless we take the time to meekly listen and receive them. In the same way, we don’t know more than God; therefore, we meekly come before Him and let Him bring understanding fr...
Post a Comment
Read more