Love for God Is A Never Ending Open Country - An Undivided Heart - Wholly Devoted - a place to follow not hide.

Undivided Heart – Wholly devoted.  

What is a divided heart? What is full devotion to the LAMB? 

For discerning believers the loss of passion, revelation and deep waters in worship should signal heart trouble.   

Deep fountains abide in the heart.  The heart is deep waters.    Rich wells of understanding and revelation abide as inheritance in the heart (Ephesians 3:14-21).  

Love for God is a never ending open country.   
The heart has no limitations in exploring the deep waters of the Love of God.  The Father's heart is an expanse of welcoming grace; through the blood of Christ and his perfect sacrifice.   

Make music in your hearts.  Explore.   Run Free.  Go for deep desires.  Focus. Pursue.  Relentless.  Never settle.  

If we run with an undivided heart we find the open country.  
Somehow, we seem to have lost real vision for the Kingdom of God's endless country.   Those we admire have known the country.  

Are we more like the Pharisees?  Doing site tours of the prophets tombs and honoring the idea of a move of God?  Who is ready to let go.  Are you ready to let go all the protections of the heart and surrender undivided to the Father's heart? 

Why do we settle for a walk that lacks connection in passion and deep abiding love with Jesus?  
Do we think it is not possible?   Have we been led into teaching that is not in "Spirit and Truth"?   Teaching that does not drive us in passion and love to the Lord Jesus?  Teaching that satisfies us without Christ?  Without more and more and more thirsting for him and his presence.  Without real and ongoing encounter with the depths of his love?  

We are human.  We are subject to the same stumbling as those that have gone before us.  But we are also subject to the open country that some have found.   

The pathways to the undivided heart is bathed in the realities of Jesus' work.  
Blood, grace, mercy, truth and purity all meet us on the way to the open country.   It takes courage and total dependance in the person named Jesus to walk in the new country.   To run in the open country with the Spirit requires a childlike trust.  Open freedom rooted and established in ABBA knowledge of the Father God.  That freedom is rooted in the love of Jesus. 

As soon as we accept the proposition that the Kingdom of God is not a endless abiding in the grace, love and power of the victory of Jesus, we settle into hearts seeds for a divided heart. 

Easy to fill, this void cannot go empty.   The fountains of the deep and the places of the heart that long for HIM will not be satisfied with any other thing or person.  

Stumblers:

1) TASTE - God uses the weak things of the world to confound the wise -Taste and see that the Lord is good!  Not that we are.   Good at packaging the expected, easy and naturally tasty with no sight of God or water for thirsty hearts after the Father. 

2) TRUTH - The Spirit is true.  He knows the condition of the deep places of the heart.  There is no hiding from the righteousness and glory He brings us to understand.  It is a good thing to see the condition of our passion, hearts, love and grace.   We have a Savior!  We can turn from those dark places and pour out our love and hope for the deep places to arise again and begin walking in the open country.    

 3) TRUST - We trust you God.  In the face of all can you trust that the Father will "bring all things together for good"(Romans 8:28-29)?   Do you know and have revelation of the goodness of God?  Trust is essential to walk in the open country.  Trust is the energy for the footsteps of faith and the motion of hope. It is a place of following not leading or hiding.   

There is really no pause button on spiritual pursuit.  Lukewarm appears safe, but is actually a place with no friends.   

Other streams start trickling into the divided heart.   The stream of offense and anger, the stream of bitterness and  condemnation.   The world will send it's streams to the divided heart with no effort on your part.  It will come to you like packages on your doorstep. 


The natural wants to flood the eyes of the heart with the smoke of vain conceit and the embrace of the spirit of the world.   
Weeds grow up in the fresh water of spring.  They sprout quick and invade the glory of pure spiritual encounter with Jesus.   The cares and distractions of the world divert us.    Our identity and our source for security love and surrender must be fueled with the fresh streams of the deep waters.  The divided the heart is muddy waters of love and surrender. 

 If Christ Jesus is anything less than our identity and passion, we find there are millions of meaningless and two dimensional streams ready to flow into and pollute the deep places. 

The Pathway looks something like this

Wholly devoted – fragrant offering – fires of sacrifice – sufferings of Jesus - 

Patient Endurance

The pathway looks something like this. 

The last day of the Gladiator Games.   Martyr in the city.  On vacation after years of serving the Lord, this Saint could not stomach the wanton murder and bloodshed of the gladiator games.   He went down into the amphitheater and tried to meekly appeal to those who sought life while inflicting death.
  

Saint Telemachus (also Almachus^[1] or Tilemahos^{[citation needed]}) was a monk who, according to the Church historian Theodoret,^[2] tried to stop a gladiatorial fight in a Roman amphitheatre, and was stoned to death by the crowd. The Christian Emperor Honorius, however, was impressed by the monk's martyrdom and it spurred him to issue a historic ban on gladiatorial fights. The last known gladiatorial fight in Rome was on 1 January 404 AD, so this is usually given as the date of Telemachus' martyrdom.

Wikipedia 

Deep fragrance – is that which arises from sacrifice that touches heaven as spirit and truth worship.  It is a worship that connects with the culture and essence of the way of Jesus.   An offering that speaks of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 

There is no worship without sacrifice.   Deep love is laying down our lives.  Deep worship is laid down lovers in Him, through Him, for Him, by Him. 

Love and Mercy  -  resting in the power of Jesus’ finished work and serving in the power of the indwelling Spirit, love and mercy gain a voice in the heart.   The eyes of the heart start seeing.   
 

A temple is laid out.  The plans are set.  The building is receiving the large cut stones smoothed by the sufferings of Christ and the patient endurance of undivided hearts free in worship and intercession of the open country.

Worship “describing what we hope to be”  vrs  worship emanating from those who we are  citizens of the Kingdom,  speaks a word of truth and power into the atmosphere.    It calls heaven on earth.  The reality of what the eyes of the heart are seeing.  

Lips speaking the truth from true hearts of undivided love pour fresh streams of grace and power on mustard seeds of the Kingdom.   The seeds are looking for water and good soil.  

Surrender.  We don't carry ourselves.  Jesus does. 

Psa 86:11

Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Fall into the promise that comes direct from the Father's Heart.  

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them;  I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Ez 11:19  Receive.  Do nothing and receive.  Believe.  HOPE.  Lay there with the flow of worship bathing your heart in healing.   Let Jesus come and be the doctor of the heart.  Let Him direct the conversation.   The Father gave all things up to be connected with you.  It is easy.    Open your heart wide and ask the Spirit what may be blocking the deep knowledge of the heart.    Ask to see the country you are invited to run free in.  It is easy.  My yoke is easy.  My burden is light.  (Matt 11:30) For freedom Christ set you and I free.  His ways are righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.   The heart, dwelling in the fullness of Christ, is rich in these three amazing graces. You can do it.  YOU can keep Pressing ON! Here is a series of blogs about the heart that may help. 1. The Unhindered Heart - Sharpening the Arrow Point of Grace and Glory - https://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-unhindered-heart-sharpening-arrow.html 2. Undivided - Undaunted - Unhindered Heart After God - https://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2017/02/undivided-undaunted-unhindered-heart.html 3. Love for God Is A Never Ending Open Country - An Undivided Heart - Wholly Devoted - a place to follow not hide. ://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/03/love-for-god-is-never-ending-open.html 4. Five Thorns to Pull From a Wounded Heart -https://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2015/10/5-thorns-to-pull-from-wounded-heart.html 5. Personal Unity.  Can the Heart and Mind be United in the Spirit Always? https://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/02/personal-unity-can-heart-and-mind-be.html Thanks for reading.   The dialogue is awesome.  Thank you. Testimonies?  Share em with me.   I am hoping to do Google Hang Outs Soon on Friday's. Uganda was amazing. Thank you for your prayers and support! So appreciated.  Such an offering.  Makes all the difference. With much love in Jesus You can do this thing!  He's got you.   Jeff Reynolds   --- Brother Jeff www.mycapstone.org www.jeffreynoldsministies.com   jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com Jeff Reynolds, Sr. Leader  Capstone Christian Fellowship www.mycapstone.org jreynolds@mycapstone.org Comments?  thoughts?  Please send them on or commitment below.

Deep Intimacy / Seeing Jesus - Hearts Who Have Shaken Loose All Affections and Believe

 Deep Intimacy.   The wells of heaven are beyond imagination and deep enough to lead us in abiding love through our life times and into eternity.  

 You've heard the saying, "Deep Cries out to Deep"?   Those words call out images of wells and cisterns deep inside us.  They can echo through our mind body soul and spirit like loud cries in deep caverns.   Reverberating off the walls, the sound seems to gain momentum.  Gathering up into even deeper cries, longings and affections.  Our seeing, worship and abiding in His presence opens even more doors in heaven and in our hearts.   The wells of heaven are beyond imagination and deep enough to lead us in abiding through our life times and into eternity.    Jesus is heavens deep cistern.  

Col 2:3

in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Deep intimacy with Jesus is our inheritance.   Renewing moves of the Holy Spirit seems to be the Father's joy.   So why are so many believers divorced from the depths of encountering Jesus' love as a continual abiding? 

Consider these things....

"My people have committed two sins: 
 They have forsaken me,
      the spring of living water,
 and have dug their own cisterns, 
      broken cisterns that cannot hold water."  Jeremiah 2:3

Our "cisterns" have been overcome by powers and principalities.   The prevailing culture in America has deeply distorted the pathways of the heart and ways of love.   We are surrounded daily with the message; "build you own cistern.  Find your own way."   The new identity search sends young souls wandering off in search of themselves in hostile and violent environments.   Hostile?  Violent?  Yes, to the soul.   

Each doorway, outside the abiding grace of Christ Jesus, opens to deeper captivities of the heart.   Soon we find ourselves digging cisterns that do not satisfy, cisterns that ensnare us.  The heart and mind work the same way.  The heart finding affections and worship of our new cisterns.  We spend our effort and time maintaining them and sowing into them.   The mind builds new supporting structures to keep us in the way.  These are referred to as strongholds.  They "captivate us".   Why?   Two reasons:

1) God always lets us follow our desires and then allows that way to reap its normal fruit. 
Ex. Israel would not serve their God in the land he blessed them with, so God said they will serve foreign gods in a land not their own.     Why are so many believers so empty?  They are living off broken cisterns they have dug themselves.   The natural can only satisfy to limited extent and can never satisfy or touch the deep cries of spiritual inheritance.  We are marked with longing for deeper cries.   All else falls short.  

2) The world order (kosmos - controlled and ruled in fallen hearts and minds by the Enemy of our souls) is designed to captivate us and in turn shut off the deep wells of abiding love.    
Ex.  Beauty gets ugly.   We walk in step with the powers daily and don't even know it.   
I just finished a 10 day detox on the Daniel Plan.  Really awesome journey.  I lost 10 lbs in 10 days.  Sweet.  I feel better.  Clearer.  My skin looks more healthy.  My body aligning to a more healthy way.  But I encountered the powers of the food industry.  Thank the Lord the government makes food processors place what is in the product on the outside for us to read.  Eating well is difficult.  The prevailing culture surrounds us with what tastes good and looks good but in fact kills me and brings me into disease.    My addictions to sugar, dairy, bread and cheese were real.  They yelled at my on occasion and I realized I was dealing with a power.  Something in the world that was captivating me. 

We are pounded on with endless messages that store up in our hearts and minds.   What will make us happy?   how we should live to be legit?   In what do we find significance, purpose and deep satisfaction?   

The Kingdom of God with its pathways perfectly call out the deep cries of the heart because of it's King.   

While the world order is built, temporary as it is, to close off the cisterns of deep cries in the Spirit, the Kingdom when placed first will draw us into never ending pools of abiding grace.  The eyes of our hearts drink up more and more revelation of the Lord Jesus as we abide in his presence.   An enlightening needs to occur in us.   We need breakthrough in the heart.  A shaking has to occur.   The deep needs to be broken up.   

Ephesians 1:17-19 reveals the three parts that need freedom.

HOPE - know the hope to which he has called you.  Prophetic encounter raises hope.  As the heart is understood and clearly known by the LORD at a given moment through prophetic encouragement, it breaks free and begins to run again in hope.   Hope is one of the deep cisterns of abiding.   Love always hopes.   It is an affection that we cannot let fall out of our hearts.  Hope revives the cisterns of the deep and into that hope and new sight Jesus pours encounter, revelation and love in abundance.  

Riches of Inheritance - When hope arises again new pieces of the glory are revealed to us.  The riches of inheritance that are present in the followers of Jesus.  You and I have rich inheritance in the heart of the Lord.   When hope's cistern spills over into inheritance revelation and vision our wells go deeper in understanding.   We no longer find ourselves clinging to a few key hopes.  Rather we find ourselves swimming in the riches of inheritance worship, praise and intercession; abiding in the realms of heavens depths.   We are part of the inheritance.  Going deeper still, we find our inheritance in the heart of the Father as orchestrated in the victory of Christ.   Jesus carries these inheritance victories as the High Priest of the Fathers Heart.  They are ever before the throne of heaven.  These inheritance visions overflow and bubble up in the deep wells producing encounters with his love over and over and over.   

Incomparably great power for us who believe - hope and inheritance vision are kneaded into a dough that when mixed with a clear vision of his incompatibly great power and belief release streams and rivers of his love.   This is where the inheritance and hope display the love of God in the world.  This is where the smoke of the offering of love, lives laid down to Christ in adoration and worship, rises as a fragrance in the world.  It speaks a better word than all the cisterns dug by our own hands.   

So, consider Mary Magdalene.

This picture is of her fist vision of the resurrected Christ.  Her hands, having just been reaching over his body, now in an instant hold nothing.   Her face is captivated by the resurrected Jesus.  Her mind and heart whirling.   In seconds she jumps to him to hold him.   Grabbing hold of the Resurrected Jesus in his new body!   Imagine all the Spirit said to her, without words.  


unknown author. 


If we want to go deeper and revive the cisterns of the deep we need to break away from the powers.  We need to revive the hope in us.  Restore vision of our inheritance in Jesus and believe in his incomparable great power for each of us to walk in the fullness of our inheritance in the Lord Jesus. 

Spring is here. Winter is past. Learning to Identify the Ways of Spirit - Walking in Fearless Love

I closed the September 2013 24/1 (24 hours of continuous worship and prayer) in Redmond with what I felt was a word from the Lord.  

"...for behold, the winter is past; 

the rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth, 

the time for singing has come, 

and the voice of the turtledove is

heard in our land."  

Song of Songs 2:11-12   

In my minds eye I saw a small stream and felt the Lord was saying a stream has begun to flow. This was our second 24/1 and it was an awesome time in the Lord's presence.   

The next day a new friend was speaking at Capstone, Harold Eberlie.  Epic Center's Ron Griggs and I worked together to bring Harold and everyone joined together Sunday after he had ministered at Epic Friday and Saturday.   

Harold Said....

"For indeed did I not birth something here out of that which proceeded you?   Was there not a seed of the blood of the Saints that was shed here but it is now blossoming and coming forth?   Do I not do things in seasons?   Well yes, spring, spring now comes.   I promise you.   

I'm not sure who recalled the close of the 24/1 but I definitely focused in when Harold said those words.   The biggest reason being that the Lord confirmed the previous nights word and spoke more deeply into the presence hosting calling of Capstone and the Region.  

 

Then in November Capstone hosted an ART - Apostolic Round Table, with friends local and family from further away.   During the round table it became clear to us that the Spirit was calling for a deeper righteousness and that a new season was upon us that would refine us anew.  

The stream was flowing with righteousness and as it spread it was like a fire that burned up the chaff inside and refined the desires of our hearts.   

The Spirit moved in graceful power at the ART as we celebrated the family and unity God was growing.  Some of the highlights....

1) The Spirit will give us opportunity to focus on what is important to the Father. We need to be asking "is this important to you God?".   The Spirit is speaking and pointing to what is valuable.   He is exercising us in His Ways.   His ways carry the fragrance of spring

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control

2) Usually, the new wine comes first.  this is why we put it in old wine skins.  We don't have anything new to put it in.    The Spirit is calling forth a prototype ekklesia (church) to carry this new wine.    

                             We have to lay everything down and find our life in Christ

                             It is hidden in him in the heavenlies

3) Habitation is a place of rest not production.   Jesus is the somewhere we are going.   Prayer, worship and intercession need to be an abiding and resting place.   The Spirit is leading in the ministry as it flows out of the deep realities of the Kingdom.   

                             House of Prayer for all Nations

4) The way of LOVE is a matchless doorway through which the Spirit is leading the assembly.   The prototype church "looks like love".   The Spirit is calling for the same love, the same heart, the same mind.   Walk in fearless love.  

At the New Years 24/1 about 8 weeks ago, Dave McRae had an open vision.   He saw a stream, deep and clear,  flowing quickly.  Riding on the top of the water was a white lily.   

White lily -
"In the Canticles its beauty and fragrance shadow forth the preciousness of Christ to the Church."  Easton's Bible Dictionary 

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin;      Matt 6:28

The Spirit is leading hungry, desperate followers of Jesus into some amazing pathways.   We are not going to toil and spin to get there.   The Holy Spirit is leading and calling for trust.  He is moving in grace, power and the signs of the Kingdom.   The flower is flowing along in the stream.



Jeff Reynolds
Part of the Capstone Family and hungry for the new flower

Comments?  Ideas?  Feedback?  

Write me an email or comment on google.

www.mycapstone.org
jreynolds@mycapstone.org