LAM Updates
The Web teaching book is available now. It's 185 pages stuffed full of practical teachings that we offer during our seminars. It's close to the replica offered on the website but with a few extras. Contact us for your copy today!
January 27th, we are holding our first 'Life Skills Seminar" of the year. Together with several others of the LAM team, we are putting together a one day seminar to touch real life issues of today to help you find what is needed in your life to be set free. It's being held in my hometown - Mt. Aukum. You can take a look at the flyer and information on the website under "events" for more information - or call us at (530) 620-2712 for hotel and visiting information. The seminar is free.
A New Year's BlessingI want to impart to you a blessing that God blessed me with in the wee hours of the night this first day of the new year. It has helped me with my focus and my desire to serve Him more in the year ahead. If you want to know what you can do to serve Him more, to know Him more, to find out what the directions for your life is, then I hope this article will help you discover it for yourself as God helped me discover.
I just retired from state service the end of December. At this point, I've been retired 2 days. But for several weeks I had been thinking of what I needed to do. I have so many directions I can go, of which I can bring in extra money for our household. Since I have retired it does reduce our income significantly but we are comfortable, still I won't have the money I used to have that I fed into the ministry. So, I wanted to do something to keep supporting the ministry. So I was thinking of starting an on-line business, or design clothes, or work on staff at a local church, or work at a retail store, conduct marriages, do video work, and the list goes on. I was bouncing around in all kinds of directions.
Then the Lord spoke to me through a little book I was reading called "God is in the small stuff" a book that is a kickoff of "Don't sweat the small stuff." I read a statement that God used this morning to reshape my life. "Love me and I will fulfill your ministry." How simple is that? Could it be that simple? As I pondered on it I began seeing that as truth. See God led me to retire from state service and dedicate my life in full-time service. He has actually promised all my needs would be met and that nothing would be lacking, as a matter of fact, they would exceed my own expectations. Of course, this is all faith speaking and so it hasn't come to past yet, but I am believing God in this. However, fear tries to come in and say I have to do something. If I don't then I'll not have it. So then I began trying to figure things out. But when I came across this little book that talked of God's love, and that true love is not self-serving, that's when the light bulb when off.
"God's love is not self-serving - it doesn't say, "What's in it for me." What a revelation.
I have been all along trying to figure out how to bring in more money. I even shared this with Tom. He, in his wisdom said, "It's not about the money." I said "what?" He said "It's about fear." I asked, "Fear of what?" He replied, "Fear of not having purpose, significance, or of not being used by God." At the moment he said that, I broke down and cried. He was absolutely right! God has already promised provision, it wasn't about the money, it was about my own self-worth. I was in fear I wasn't going to be used and I didn't have any real direction, as of yet, to what God would have me do, so I was trying to figure out ways to fill in the gap by "doing" a bunch of stuff. Tom called it "fillers." He kept saying to me, "Linda just take a few months off and enjoy your life." That was hard to even think of. How can I just do nothing for 3 months?? Well, the truth was I couldn't as long as I had a problem with self-worth.
This morning I was set free. The fear of worth was lifted, as it's not in me, my worth is in God. Yes, I've "known" this for years, I teach and preach on it, I sing about it, and it's come to me in degrees. But I believe I have finally reached the goal I have been waiting for. Where I can just enjoy God, loving people without the fear of not doing enough.
The other area was in self-serving love. He showed me that much of my love has been self-serving. It was a hard thing to admit, but it was true. And it wasn't until I saw that, that I was able to be healed from self-worth issues. See, every time something happens around me, I think inside it's somehow about me or affecting me. That's my initial reaction to everything. And I see clearly it's because I was under the self-serving kind of love. When my husband pulled the covers over on top of him yanking them off me, my initial reaction was, "Hey, he took away my covers." And then after learning this revelation I was able to say,"I'm glad he's now covered with covers." And then added more to him as well. It's a small thing, but it's the small things that impact our life the most. I saw clearly how I would have grabbed back the covers because in my mind I would think, "He took my covers, I'll just take them back, doesn't he know he uncovered me and is making me cold?" But my thinking has already changed, because God's love penetrated me more this new years night because true love isn't self-serving but other-serving.
The Bible says to "esteem others better than ourselves." This is so clear to me now. It's NOT about me, it's about others. It's about God. And instead of trying to love others, I can simply love because it's in me to do so, because I've finally understood what real true love is, and that my self-worth is in His love for me. By acknowledging these two things, it has already made an impact in my thinking. It's cause me to have peace about my daily activities and my future goals. I have been on this love quest for 9 years now once I learned that it's God's love that heals all - and so little by little I've been able to understand more and more of His love. I've gotten to a place where I've obtained more - but I also know there is more ahead because we can never "know" all of God's love. Our love quest is a daily and eternal thing - if we think we have obtained it all we are not walking in truth - his love is higher and wider than anyone can ever imagine - and I for one will keep pressing into that love.
So, my immediate goal is the most important, how to love God more. How to love without thinking "What's in it for me." Scripture after scripture talks of sacrifical love, unconditional love, love one another, forgive one another, overlook offenses, esteem others better than yourself, if you have a coat - give it to one who does not have one, to give is more blessed than receiving, wash one another's feet, etc. The Bible is founded on this kind of love. The love that is not self-serving, the love that has no boundaries and is not from us - but from God who dwells within us. This love builds security in our lives, this love builds structure, and this love is freeing - not only frees us but others around us.
I pray now for those of you who just recognized your love may be self-serving as I did, that you go to our Father this first week of January 2007, and confess it to Him. Allow him to fill you with the right kind of love so you can love others with compassion, non-judgmental, and the unconditional love of God - agape love. Only this kind of love comes from our Father God, all other kind of love that humans can muster up are self-serving types of love.
"What the world needs now is love sweet love, it's the only thing that there's just too little of." We all want to love, we all want to be loved, then why does it seem we are in such short supply of it? Because it's not "agape" love. This shows me that we haven't received God's love for us completely yet because if we did, we would be loving others as God loves, and we would accept ourself as God has accepted us, and we wouldn't be struggling in relationships any longer because we would have patience and tolerance and forgiveness.
I too have a ways to go but I'm on the right track. If this is something you desire to be complete in then join me in this prayer.
"Dear Father, thank you for the start of another year. My desire is to love you more, my desire is to love others more, and my desire is to love myself with a proper love. I recognize that I have been showing love with a "what's in it for me" mentality, without me even knowing it. Thank you for showing this to me. I repent from this kind of conditional love Father and ask you to fill me with your love - agape love - unconditional love so that I can even love the most unlovable. Help me to learn to receive more of your love each and every day, help me to grap opportunities to love others with your love, let me not miss an opportunity Lord. Help me to see clearly through your eyes Lord. I thank you for leading me and directing me in all truth. Help me not to say, "I am" but "you are" taking the focus off me and my situation and placing them on you. Help me to be other-serving not self-serving every single day of my life. I love you Father, I love you Jesus, help me to truly love as you have loved me, and given yourself to me to set me free from sin and afforded eternal life with you in heaven. Thank you Father for this gift, help me to share the gift with others so they can also know of this wonderful love you have given me. In Jesus name, I pray, Amen."
I shared this with my husband and God showed me something further. My husband has loved me unconditionally for the past 17 years. I have been so blessed to have this in my life for it has truly helped me be healed in so many broken areas of my life, but now things are changing. Now he can actually begin loving others as he has loved me because I'm no longer "needy" of it. When we talked in these wee hours of the night, I realized that I have monopolized his love - not intentionally, but it was true. When we are in public he treats people so much differently than he treats me at home, it's like night and day. I realized he was giving ALL his love to me so there wasn't any love left for anyone else. So this night I laid my hands on his heart and said, "I loose you to love others." He received that and we both got a freedom this night to start a new year of service, and self-less love - even with each other…
So as I stated in the opening of this article - what is my focus and what does God want me to do? Love Him More! He will do the rest.
"Many people are still sick even though they say they love God with all their heart because perhaps the people may be loving God with a What's in it for me mentality." Selah
Tom's Tidbits:After sharing what the Lord showed me this night (above), Tom summed it up in this: "Self-serving love is so teenie we can't see it, and it's so big we can't feel it."
As we began talking about it this morning, we agreed that this is why we miss it, but it's the most important detail of our life that can no longer be overlooked. It not only brings us into a better relationship with each other but a better relationship with God and a better understanding of our role on this planet - to love with self-less love. God looks upon the hearts of man not on appearance. He looks to see if we are full of self or full of His love for us. He looks to see if you are seeking His face or His hand. These aren't things to condemn you but to help you see the truth that will make you free!!
NO JOB? KNOW JESUS! NO LACK! By Pete Plitt
As with most everything on this earth that goes bad, lack began with our original parents having a forbidden meal. The curse laid waste to paradise and we have been feeling the impact since. If you’ve ever lost a job or business, you most likely understand the mental challenges that go with that bad news. How do I make my house payments, feed the family, pay the utilities - the list is endless. Regardless of the reason, industry instability, conflict at work, etc., finding one’s self without a steady source of cash flow can be unsettling to be sure, especially if our focus is world typical.
World typical focus is where we believe that our job or business is our source, or we arrogantly believe that we are our own provider. There is no getting around God’s principle that if we don’t work, we don’t eat [2 Thessalonians 3:10], however, this truth can be applied in two realms - either by the sweat of our brow [Genesis 3:19] where under the curse it is by our efforts and resourcefulness that we pay our bills, or by living redeemed from the curse of the law [Galatians 3:13], realizing that our Provider will never leave or forsake us.
In both realities, laziness is unacceptable. We must still submit resumes, look for opportunities, let people know we are looking, applying all of those common sense aspects to generating proviso. On our own, we fight curse and care. The enemy is quick to hound us with failure, insecurity, and a host of other antics, just to keep us flustered. Even those sold out for God are no exception of his relentless attempts towards unrest.
The deal is, we are to be different than the world. Matthew 6:25-34 is a staple set of verses to help set us apart. "No," we are told, "don’t take anxious thought about what tomorrow holds, but rather get to know Who holds tomorrow." As we draw nigh to our Father, He begins to reveal Himself [draws nigh to us] and becomes the giver of witty inventions, creative business, or the perfect job. More importantly, He moves us into His perfect peace that not even our head can grasp. It’s that wonderful fret neutralizing repose that doesn’t make sense to our thinker, but sure works nicely. The sad thing is, too many are so committed to the moment of "no money to pay the bills" that entering His rest is just a good idea in somebody’s lesson.
Can entering His rest take some effort. Certainly! That’s why the writer says in Hebrews 4 that we should LABOR to enter His rest. The coinciding admonishment is to not follow after the same example of unbelief that the Children of Israel did the first time they were about to enter the Promised Land. Twelve men spied out the land. Ten had grasshopper vision, "for we are but grasshoppers in our own eyes and in theirs " They all saw the same giants, but Joshua and Caleb said "let’s go, the bigger they are, the harder they fall." So it wasn’t the giants that kept them out, it was the grasshoppers.
We all see the bills, feel the pressure to provide, and definitely would prefer to not go through these bumps in the road, but what is our vision, our focus. Are those "giants" of ours met with "we are well able to take this land" attitude of the minority, or do we agree with the nay sayer majority that "times are tough, business is rough, and we are but grasshoppers?"
Through doing the basics from the Word of praying in the spirit, worship, studying Scripture, fasting and the such, we get our thinking renewed to the mind of Christ that we already have. Then instead of whining about the so called "giants," we begin to speak to the mountain and tell it to go jump in the lake. We remind all of creation that we are no longer under the curse, and though we may sweat during the course of our routine, it is not by that sweat that we are paid. This is very important to understand. It is not by our efforts that we prosper. We apply the principle of work, be that mental, physical, or in the interim, seeking work, and then we thank our Provider for the vehicle His has blessed us with. This way His provision is not limited to our expectation of getting a job by Thursday or else, but can flow from any source of His choosing. By the way, that means the miraculous too. Whatever it takes. Just don’t dam up His flow.
Any focus on giants that leads to unbelief shuts the Almighty down just as effectively as did the unbelief that Jesus ran into in His own home town. The rest that Hebrews is referring to is the same rest the God entered into on the seventh day. He completed his work on day six and rested the next day. It is that exact rest that Hebrews says we are to enter into. Ponder that one for awhile. We, the we effort, is to stop working. The labor, again, is to enter His rest. Once we obtain His rest, then job "A" or business "B" is no longer an issue. Our attitude begins to adjust to, "I wonder what job or business God is going to assign me, so I can be a blessing to it." The, "I am blessed going in and going out" becomes our profession. The thought of needing employment or lack never enters the picture because we finally woke up to seeking the Kingdom of God first, and the "rest" just falls into place.
But it’s sooo difficult to find time to read the Word and have Worship time - you just don’t understand. No, not worrying about all those debts and no income because no peace abides - that’s difficult! I do understand that the devil has a job to do, and we have a choice to make. I understand that our enemy is there to both talk us out of time with God AND pound on us about our bills. Our choice when we have no job [or any other time for that matter] is to know Jesus. Then we will have peace and no lack.I hope you have enjoyed this month's newsletters and found strength to begin a new year with security and power through the saving grace and love of God our Father through the Jesus Christ our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit. See you next time!