Funny how God talks to us. Last week in church, the guest pastor was exhorting us to change the way we think by literally fixing our eyes on Jesus—His hope, peace and power. The pastor explained how we receive a lie into our thinking, it becomes a stronghold, and the way to break that stronghold is with scripture. An evil word replaced by a God-breathed word. It was a beautiful and needed message.
Holy Spirit kept the revelation going this week.
As Chuck and I have been “fixing our eyes on Jesus”, we have been trying to temper our unbelieving talk. Negative and faithless talk creates negative and faithless pathways. So I caught a cringy comment and said, “Chuck, we not only have to speak better, we have to believe better.”
We both paused. That was Holy Spirit speaking.
Truth be told, your mouth is advertising what your heart believes. Remember overflow of heart, mouth speaking, and all that? So we prayed together for an increase in heavenly beliefs in the middle of earthly messes.
Then yesterday, I went outside to swing and enjoy some time with the Lord. The sky was full of storm clouds. The Lord prompted me to keep watching. Gently, it appeared. A rainbow with so many repeating ribbons of color. I saw at least three purple lines. I was just giggling to myself and the Lord asked, “Do you see the clouds?”
The same clouds hung in the sky as before, but now the rainbow was a translucent banner in front of them. Our problems don’t necessarily go away, but His presence changes everything. God reminded me of a word from our last lake retreat. “Look for My Presence, more than the promises.”
A storm was coming, and yet so was the Lord God Almighty.
Finally today, I was typing two different words and my typos were holy re-directs.
Trials were misspelled as Trails.
Crave was misspelled as Carve.
When we fix our thoughts with Jesus, trials become trails that we travel together. And the temptations to crave lesser lovers (reputation, wealth, power) become areas carved out for worship and His Presence.
It’s a work in progress for sure. But this I can testify. If you turn your heart, thoughts, and actions toward Heaven, you’ll find Heaven is already there waiting to help you.