The Valley Church

I’m a Holy Ghost woman

You say you never heard of such a thing

It means I don’t care about that big ring

It means instead of getting down in the clubs

At night you will find me on my knees praying for you

And in the morning I’ll be singing my Saviors’ praises

And in the afternoon I’ll be sitting down reading the Word

Cause that’s the food that I need

I’m not gonna look at you if you got your shirt off and start yelling my way, it doesn’t matter what you say

I’m not here to sing songs about puppy dog love and lust for some man

I was always looking and searching for what I thought I needed

I thought I knew what I was doing

But then one day I let it all go, that’s what I’m here to show

Girls, I gotta tell you its not about the sex, money and body

Stop trying to live up to the world’s expectations

It’s about what your Lord and Savior wants

That void, only He can fill it

I’m writing to the girls in their rooms that wrap there arms around them and scream out for someone to help them

Late at night when the world seems so still but inside your mind your going crazy.

I don’t ever wanna see the devil take another girl like he tried to take me

Please you gotta listen up

I stand up only for one thing

And that’s my Lord and King

Cause He’s the only thing that filled me up

I listened to the lies

All lies straight from hell

My past is not my future

I now stand up strong, I’m a woman of God

He grants me with the patience, love, and grace that I need to live

He surrounds me with angels, and His love so that I may get the Word out that He is the only thing that will make you complete.

-Amberleigh, 16 

Why does He honor obedience over sacrifice?
Why is sacrifice such a sweet aroma to His nostrils?

When we lay down our dreams, our “rights”, we’re saying that His way is better than ours. We’re recognizing that He is God and we are not. That He is good.
When Peter second guessed Jesus about putting down the nets in the book Luke, and Jesus was of course proved right, Peter fell to His knees in repentance. What is in our human flesh that makes us second-guess our Lord? Why do we think we know more than Him?

It goes back to the garden. Humans were deceived in the beginning of time by the snake. The devil. We were convinced that God is holding out on us. That we are His little puppets that are forced to do whatever He says, no matter what. We don’t get a say. Our dreams don’t matter to Him. This has crippled the human race. We are CONTROL FREAKS.

Independence.
Anxiety
Fear of the unknown.
Divorce.
Anorexia
Bulimia

I believe this is just a small list of things we let in when Eve agreed with the Enemy. They all have to do with being in control. She made an agreement, a covenant with him when she believed the lie that God was holding out. She ate the forbidden fruit.
It’s proven all throughout scripture, the human decent into the hell of ourselves. Sarah laughs when she’s told she’ll give birth. “I’m too old, not gonna happen.” What she’s saying is…”God isn’t big enough.” The Israelites complaining all the way to the Promised Land. “Let’s go back, this is hard.” Those words sound like, “God lied. He’s punishing us. He won’t see us through.” Peter denying Jesus three times. He was trying to control his future. He didn’t trust that God would protect Him to the end.

So, now we know why we do it. But, how do we stop it.

“Pick up your cross and follow me.” This is NOT going to be easy. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.” Jesus didn’t live a 5 star life. He was mocked, beaten, ridiculed and rejected. But, He was full of grace. He loved. He laughed. He fished. He lived. “I only do what I see my Father doing.” He was so close to His Heavenly Father. He knew what God was doing and made it happen down here.

“We do not fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities of darkness.”
We would be ignorant to think that the enemy didn’t roam around this earth speaking lies and deception to all mankind. The word says He is “subtle.” He’s sneaking around when you least expect it. He’s lying to you when you’re at work, at school, at Starbucks. The point isn’t to scare although he sometimes does. The point is to freeze you in your existence. To keep you from doing anything because you’re not good enough, smart enough, pretty enough. You need to be in control of your life so don’t trust Him to take care of you because He’ll just let you down.

But, God would want the opposite. You were “fearfully and wonderfully made.” That means your dreams, vision, outward and inward appearances were all made specifically for you. I could say that you are desperately needed to live out your dreams so that this world will revolve properly, but I would be lying. God wants to you use you. That is for sure. But, He can’t and He won’t make you. He’s only going to use those who are willing. Those who desire to lay down their lives to serve Him. The crazy ones who truly believe His will is better than theirs. Ridiculous, isn’t it?

Entrusting the things that we hold so dear, so close to our hearts, to someone that we can’t even see? And that’s when our Eve nature begins to take over.

NO WAY!! Not gonna do it. I don’t trust Him. I won’t trust Him.

Oh, how gracious He is. I think that when we give Him an inch, He, full of grace, gives us a mile. He believes in US! He fights for US! This is a relationship. The greatest relationship you’ll ever be in. The one relationship that will teach you everything you’ll need to know about life, about yourself, about eternity.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep; Is this what we have reduced it to? I am 50 and Pastor an Emerging Church in Mt Vernon Washington that is two years old. Remember the scene in Planet of The Apes when they rode on horseback past the big hand holding a torch that was sticking up out of the sand. Then, slowly it became apparent that it was not just a huge hand but the top of the Statue of Liberty. An entire society, for the longest time thought it was just a big hand holding a torch, when in fact there was 300 feet of structure underground that could not even be seen. 

We have a generation that has no concept of prayer. Did we get busy in the 80s or something? We have not taught our children to pray, and now we reap.

Now it is important to understand the two “emerging’ thoughts on this trend:

They have lost it and it is no longer part of who we are, the Pastor and the prayer “warriors” will tow this cart. Can someone tell who the moron is that came up with the term “prayer warrior” if you use that term in my Church you will be soon visiting another Church. If “my people” not “prayer warriors”…who are called by my name… it is in your bible. Prayer is not for the elite few, the 4 little old ladies with nothing else to do, the pastor after all that’s why we pay him.

The second thought is that He created us to pray, a form of communication that is as precious as worship itself. And I tell you the generation that has not had this taught this to them is more hungry than we can comprehend. Can you not stand with me for one hour? The Pastor must pray more that the leaders and the leaders more that the people but the people must be taught to pray the model…one hour.

…next move is up to the Pastors.
 

Jeff Harter

P.S. Can someone tell me what the bible means when it says that “He will be held in the heavens until the restoration of all things?”