2018 A Year Of...

What is God speaking about for 2018? As I pray and seek, there are several things that continue and return to the forefront of my mind. I used to pick one word as the defining "Word of the Year" but this year is different. Last year was the "Year of Restoration". That word was spot on because God has restored so much to my life and most importantly, the joy of my salvation. 

This year, however, there are several different words.

• Suddenly! This will be a year of suddenly. Things long awaited will suddenly come to pass, and though we see them that way, they are things long awaited. This year will bring to pass many things long awaited because it is their appointed time. 
• Exposure The definition of the exposure is "the revelation of an identity or fact, especially one that is concealed". This can be both good or bad, depending on what mask you are hiding behind. 
• Expectation! What are you expecting? What we receive is dependent upon what we are expecting. I, for one, don't want my experiences with God capped by my own inability to come into agreement with what God is wanting to do. 
• Shift! It's a year to shift thinking and come into unparalleled faith. Faith isn't something you try to have. Faith is something you express in the face of what is unseen. If you need proof before you can express faith, well, that is not faith at all. As I shift thinking and come into deeper faith I felt God saying I will receive what I partake of. If I partake in negative thinking I will eat of that fruit. But if I partake in thinking like Heaven, keeping my eye single and watching only Him and what He's doing, then I will eat of that fruit. I am full of hope and great expectation!

What are YOU believing for in 2018? 

Here's The Buzzzzzzzz

One day while sitting in church the Pastor was preaching and he said that we should ask the Lord for a new Biblical name. It didn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me because honestly I hadn’t been paying attention, my mind had been more on whether Monkey was behaving in Sunday School so I missed the whole why thing, but I bowed my head and said, “God, I’m not sure why he said we should do this but if You want to give me a new name then I want all You have for me so…uhhhh I’d like a new name please, if that is Your will? Thank you? In Jesus Name, Amen”. Can you tell I was unsure on the whole thing? And that was that.

On to the rest of the sermon, I WAS paying attention, although I don’t recall what it was about now because it was in 2009 and what happened next trumps what Pastor had to say anyway. I’m sitting on the 4^th row from the front. Amanda H. was in front of me to the right in the center. Hubby was to my left and in my right ear (which I’m 40% deaf in) I hear a faint whisper, “Deborah”. I got all hot and sweaty. My heart was racing. No one was next to me on that side, I looked. We were the only ones on the whole pew! I looked behind me. No one. Hubby asked if I was okay and I nodded yes. I’m thinking someone behind us named Deborah must have a loud husband. Again it happened, only this time it’s louder and in both ears but also in my head I hear, “I will call you Deborah”. I thought I would throw up right there. Deep in my heart I knew it was for me but I asked hubby if he said anything. Nope, okay. Did he hear anything? Nope. Am I okay? Because my face is pale and I look freaked out! I picked up the Bible and looked in the concordance and guess what? There IS a woman named Deborah in the Bible. God has decided to rename me that. So, that is my Biblical name, I still go by Ann because it’s easier than telling people…well…this! But on my pray Shawl in Hebrew I have the name Deborah embroidered on the case.

I try to be completely transparent with this blog so I have one more confession to make here. Listening to the rest of Pastor’s sermon that Sunday morning was one of the hardest things I’ve EVER done because after God speaks something like that to you even listening to an anointed man of God preach an interesting sermon is difficult! All I wanted to do was devour the book of Judges! I’d never read it and knew nothing about her so I was itching to get home and dive in!

I’ve looked up why one would ask for a new name and here is what I’ve come up with.

1.      It changes your standing with God. Like Jacob (supplanter or deceitful) to Israel (prosperous). So he went from deceitful to prosperous.

2.      It is a fulfillment of a promise. Sarai (princess) which was a promise to Sarah (mother of multitudes) fulfillment of the promise.

3.      It indicates a change in the direction of the life of the one whose name has been changed. Saul’s name was changed to Paul.

So while my name change is only symbolic I believe it has impacted every area of my life as surely as if I had gone to the court house…

The name Ann means God favored me. I like that, He has favored me. He favored me so much He sent me Jesus Christ and THAT is favor.

Deborah means bee. How peculiar, my husband’s last name means keeper of the bees and my new name means bee…hmmmm?  You don’t mess with a bee. Bee’s sting and they can do quite a bit of damage but they also produce honey that is sweet and a little known fact about honey, it has no expiration date. Bacteria cannot grow in honey, it will never go bad. It is my sincere prayer that my works here on earth for Jesus Christ go on and do not “grow bacteria” so to speak. That I leave a legacy that will go from one generation to the next.

Grace...

We have all sinned…every one of us. Not one of us is righteous. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” Romans 3:23

The sin in my past is so atrocious that I can’t bear to even speak it, the things I did, how I profaned God’s Holy name. I pursued my life of sin with passion; I made it my goal to discover all this world had to offer. But I was miserable, the more I sought to fill that void the worse it became. My sins were not just in my heart and mind, my sin was so public that everyone knew. Everyone. I made no effort to conceal them.

Others have sin that they feel is concealed. No one knows they beat their wives, maybe not with fists, perhaps it’s only with words. That’s not as bad as so and so…No one sees the secret sinful longing of their heart; No one knows about their sin because you can’t see them festering on the inside, they appear holy on the outside, many times even the one doing the sinning can’t see them. Secret sins. Things we do that don’t seem like sin to us but the Word says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” In Proverbs 14:12. We have all been influenced by a society that makes the perverse acceptable and calls the righteous truths of God a lie and bigotry. God forbid we are narrow minded.

So who’s sin is greater? What are the consequences of that sin?

I was told that the consequences of my sin will be worse because my sin was public, that God will never be able to use me as He would have if not for my sin. I bought that lie; hook, line and sinker until the truth of the Word began to show me that the God I serve is bigger than their God; because my God, the God of the Bible, the Creator of the universe, and the Savior of the world is bigger than my sin. His blood is able to cover my sin.

The Bible says “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 Thank you Jesus!

When I give thanks to His Name for what He has done for me it is a sacrifice of praise…“By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his Name.” Heb 13:15

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” I Pet 2:5

God’s grace abounds in my life enabling me to walk the narrow road with Jesus. The Holy Spirit keeps me from many snares and stumbles. I’ve been forgiven much and I love Jesus all the more because of it.

Has this touched a nerve with you? Do you feel like you are unable to be forgiven because what you’ve done is so bad? Do you live like you have no sin but the Holy Spirit is pointing some out to you now? There is a remedy. Give your life to Jesus, surrender to Him and let Him wash you clean. If you have already been saved but have sin in your life you can’t overcome this is the remedy. Confess. Repent.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9