He Imagined our Freedom Flowing in a River of Love and Grace.

Is it possible to imagine our lives from a place of love and not condemnation; to construct a vision of ourselves on a canvas of love?  Brush strokes, paint, color, growing each day into an image of love and intimacy with the Father that cannot be quenched?  

Imagine!  Try and imagine.  It can be difficult for us. 

HE imagined it first.  And He imagines you in love. 

Love is envisioning and imagining power.  It flows as an enveloping current, like a river crystal clear.  In the eye of the ONE we are jasper and rubies translucent.  The waters of love tumbling over us shape us into beauty, calling us ever deeper into HIS love; into knowing HIM.   HE dresses us in a grace that quenches fear and makes it an outcast.  

Love, surges out from the heart of the Father, swirls and foams with creative energies beyond our imaginations.   More compelling than earth's mighty powers, Love shaped the earth’s every molecule.   And so it groans for the Saints to be revealed, for the day when earth, stars, space, heaven and humanity will be ONE.  We are surrounded by HIS love in every moment as all of creation was fashioned to spark desire, longing and witness to HIS pounding heart of love.  

The Imaginative ONE has imagined you in love and grace.    

 

Heavenly beings are graced with love.  Flowing like blood it courses through their bodies out to their touch where their lives meet the substance of the world of Heaven.   They know nothing of the ONE but love, awe, joy.   A love so deep it defies their understanding.  The mystery is played out before their eyes.   Our destiny flows in the same river.  

The ONE who imagines us in love sparked the power to make HIS creation live in love.   

You will live.  Condemnation, the imagining power of hell, does not have the creative power to hold one touched by a drop of HIS love.    The power of blood and perfect sacrifice, the power of a life laid down for friends, the power of grace envelopes the willing soul with the garment of freedom.   Yes, the blood of Jesus is enough.  It is the power that turns away the rot and decay.   HE imagined you as HE hung above the earth, our freedom born in a river of love.   Nothing has the power or authority in all creation to separate you from HIS love.  

Your BELOVED calls out, "Come into the Rivers of MY LOVE"   

Float on the currents.    "Come away with ME"  "Come away with ME"

Imagine yourself from the HEART of LOVE that formed you.   The heart that calls out to you.  

Now is the time to steal away with your beloved and float on the river of love.

 www.mycapstone.org

Hunger and Longing for God: Encounters that Wrench the Depths of the Soul

In the 32 years I have followed Christ there have been only a handful of overwhelming divine encounters.  Like a branding of my spirit each encounter burned deep in my spirit and left the mark of God.   Years apart, these encounters appear to have come at random moments in my walk.  They slash away the dead wood of entire seasons and leave me with a fresh inner skin. 
I've had many much more regular experiences with the Lord.  Spiritual happenings that are amazing but they do not compare to the wrenching of the depths I have known on a few ocassions. 

Just a few weeks ago I found myself alone at home.  My wife and boys were gone to grandma's house and I had the day to myself.   The night before I spent reveling in the awe of the Lord with two brothers in what has now been dubbed "meat night".  Steak in the natural and steak in the spiritual.   Meat night provided a very powerful level of revelation.    The Lord had been talking with each of us and we unpacked, listened and shared our hearts.   One of the men had a 2011 word he felt was for the fellowship (www.mycapstone.org).   We were talking through the many dreams and words we had received over the past few months and shared our stories in regards to the new fellowship the Lord was forming.    
 
Meat night lead to an encounter the next day.  

I slept in just a little and headed downstairs about 7:30 a.m.  Went into the back room and started praying and seeking the Lord.   I threw on some worship music and as I often do and opened up a prayer and reflection word doc on my computer.   As I began to focus into the Lord I was overcome with His Presence.   So overwhelming was the power of the Lord I found my body convulsing.  My spirit was overwhelved with the reality of the Love of Jesus Christ.   Tears began to flow and I continued to move into greater and greater levels of both revelation and effect on my body.   I was lost in the amazing beauty and love of God in such a way that I could not control my emotions or even the incredible shaking of my spirit.   I would stop, breath, gather myself and as soon as I re-engaged I was overwhelmed again. 

I thought of the salvations I was praying for and brought that to the Lord.  The response was a revelation of his heart for me and all those he loved the same way.   Then I found myself looking at the past years of my life in the Lord.   They looked like dead wood compared to the vision I was receiving.  Repentance filled my heart and I saw my walk with God compared to the beauty of the Lord.   All I could do was cry,  repent and ask for more of HIS love.   Nothing compares with Jesus.  Seeing more of him is the awesome reward of the Saints. 

His love was showing me so many things while at the same time blessing me deeply.   Total freedom swept over me.   I grabbed my guitar and started writing a worship song in the midst of tears.   I had been reading Ezekiel and listening to the song about Skeleton Bones.  "skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found."   I called for the skeleton bones in the Central Oregon valley to rise up.   I agreed with the Lord and HIS love poured out to save the world. 

More into the depths I went.  As I responded and moved with the things being spoken in me, I found myself moving into other revelations.    Seeing into heaven,  I could feel the love of Jesus.  Vast.  Powerful.  Full of authority.  Another way of living, relating and being flooded into my heart.   All I wanted to do was please HIM,  be with HIM, know HIM.   My recreation.  My joy.  My life.

I started getting hungry, as I did not eat anything before I started praying and looked at the clock.  12:30 in the afternoon.   I thought about taking a break and getting some food but the song that was flowing out of me kept coming and I didn't want to miss writing it down.   I played the worship song over and over and moved in the words.  One section says, "Get UP you dry bones".   And the chorus cries, We desire YOU, Desire YOU.  Nothing else can satisfy.  You are my hearts cry.  No one else can satisfy our hearts.    

The dry bones of my christian life were melting away for the new fire of God's grace and power.  It felt as if I had never been saved at all.  That 30 some years of walking with Jesus were dead and dry bones in the face of His love and beauty.   I wanted to start out, get going all over again. 

The reality.  New revelation leads the heart, mind and spiritual sight to new and amazing heights.   Nothing compares to knowing Christ Jesus.   Nothing on this earth can fill up the soul like the love of God.   In recounting this I feel the pangs of my shortcomings and weaknesses.   And I remember the penetrating power pouring through my spirit calling me to step ever closer to the LORD of GLORY and to believe for radical and amazing streams of salvation in Central Oregon and beyond.