“He (God) reveals deep and secret things;  He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him….there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets….Truly…God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a Revealer of secrets,”  Daniel 2:22, 28, & 47 

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law,” Deuteronomy 29:29 

“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant,” Psalms 25:14 

Who among us does not want to know the “secret” to life?  Such longing is built within us; for our Omniscient Lord who knows all things…has insights to give to us.  He wants to show us His covenant…His agreements and provisions.  These are things He has prepared for His people that fear Him.  He wants to entrust these important things to us so that we can pass them on to the next generation that we may all understand His desire for us to walk in His ways and thus represent Him before a world of people lost in darkness and sin.   

Forty three years ago in 1964, Eleanor Walton, a precious woman of God who taught me as a teenage girl, gave me the Christian classic called “The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life” written by Hannah Whitall Smith.  She simply inscribed:  “To Sandy,  From Mrs. Walton.  August 9, 1964, Matthew 7:7-8.”  This book was kept for 11 years before it was read by me. Though much change came in those years, I could never part with the book and always knew it contained a significant message for me.  Upon reading it at age 28 as a young wife and mother,  my life changed; and I began to understand and realize, personally, the “unsearchable riches of Christ” Paul wrote about in Ephesians 3 8.  He went on to write that the words the Lord had given to him were “to make all people see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ,” (verse 9)  

Secret things are “hidden”.  They are things which are known by God but not know to us…yet He is a Revealer of secrets to those who fear Him….and to those who seek Him.  “Seek the Lord which He can be found. Call upon Him while He is near..for My thoughts are not you thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts,” Isaiah 55:6 & 8-9 

“Ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For every who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened,” Matthew 7:7-8.  Mrs. Walton knew the “secret”.  She was one who “knew Him” and “worshipped Him in spirit and in truth“. Philippians 3:10; John 4:24. And she knew that the only way to find the “secret” was to search for it…to seek Him.  She pointed me in the right direction…and then stood behind me with prayers of faith.  Miss Eleanor is in Heaven, now; but I owe her so very much and long to see her again in my own heavenly future…to give her thanks for passing the “secret” on to me.  She knew that if I would “seek”…I would “find” because of God’s promise.   

I will write out the words of the “secret”; but for each individual, they will only remain “words” until a person “seeks Him with their whole heart”.  The true revelation of it will always allude the one who refuses to surrender with his/her entire heart to the Master and to His ways.  Search your heart to see if you have truly done that.  Are there “hidden” sinful areas you do not want to face?  He cannot heal a broken or a self-centered heart…unless He has all the pieces. Do not hold on to any part…refusing to allow it to be touched by the Master. 

The secret to a “happy Christian life” is to pivot on God and allow Jesus to have full authority in your life.  He must be at the center of your heart as Lord of your life rather than self being on the throne of your heart.  When that decision is made and implemented, the secret applied will produce a “happy” Christian life; and even though “sorrow and suffering and disappointments”  may be a part of living in this “fallen” world, the life lived will be a journey of joy and peace in the Lord.  

Nothing in my life has ever had more impact than seeking the Lord with my whole heart…and finding Him;  for out from that has come a real and meaningful relationship and fellowship with Him, complete with the ability to “hear His Voice”…walking and talking with Him throughout life.  I cannot imagine trying to navigate through the past 32 years of life without Him, the Chief Shepherd; for He not only “knows” the way…He IS the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  I have “found” HIM…who my soul doth love!  There is no real true fellowship or life with Him…apart from this.

 

What are you holding on to apart from God?  Whatever or whoever it is…it is not worth the immense joy you will lose if you do not willingly let it go…and receive Him in its place!

This “Secret” is part of  HIS FLOW!  Knowing and applying it will place you in the midst of it!

Sandy

Online blogging has become an intersting past time for me. What a way to reach to a multitude!  Jesus did that from a mountain top, with no microphone…but His message always brought LIFE; and those who listened and received it, began to FLOW in good things for themselves.  It had a trickle down effect…cause others drank of it, also.

He who created us, formed us, breathed LIFE into us and said LIVE…knows best what we are all about.  He wants to have personal relationship…walk and talk with us and tell us marvelous and wonderful things that we know not…about ourselves, our past, present future, the purpose He had in mind for us from the beginning!  He knows how to “put it all together in us” and make it work! 

I love knowing This One who knows me best and loves me with an everlasting Love.  Cause His Love satisfies, fills, heals, and empowers me to be the best that I can be!

Being in HIS FLOW is the way to go…for IT will take us to heights and destinations that we can never reach on our on.  He is the SOURCE. the HEADWATERS of our being…the Author and Finisher of our faith…of our LIFE! 

Jump in HIS FLOW!  Join HIM in what He is doing…first, in yourself, and then see where He is working and flowing in this earth…among people!  It is always moving, going, being, doing, and it is exciting!!!!  Get in the SWIM!  Get wet in His Living Waters….cool, refreshing, invigorating, life-giving waters!  It makes ALL the difference in YOU and enables you to then, make a difference in others and in this world! 

Learn to FLOW in HIS language from the Word of God…..and FLOW SPEAK! 

GO FLOW! 

Sandy 

“This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea.  When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed,”  Ezekiel 47:8 

One person’s perspective…how one views life, how one thinks…is the pool into which one looks for information on how they make personal choices moment by moment.  Our choices are extremely significant because every one of them results in personal behaviors that have outcomes…good or bad.    But WHO or WHAT are the sources of our private thoughts?    How do they accumulate over time?  And most importantly, are they founded in Truth? 

Are my thoughts shallow, meaning, do I only see them as what is on the surface of life?  If so, I may only “see” myself as a product of my mother and father’s “love life” and not a part of a greater plan or a bigger picture.  But who created my parents?  Who or what is the source of life itself?  What an individual perceives to be the answer to that question determines his or her outcomes in life. Where does the information come from that flows into our personal perception pool?   For the Christian, the true source of life is Almighty God.  Man, a complex human being who masterfully grows and develops over time, had to be “designed” by SOMEONE.  

When we look at a 747 airplane, we know that all its complex parts and systems did not come together by chance.  It had to have a designer and a builder…someone who had a specific plan in mind.  So it is with man. There was a Designer…a Builder… One with a master plan for mankind.  And this Original Designer is God – who is Almighty, All Knowing, All Powerful, and Everywhere Present.  Our God is a thinking Being who has a Will.   He knows what He thinks. He knows what His perspective is.  And He has made choices that affect those He has created.  We not only need to know what they are, but also, we need to make a determination to understand and follow them if our complex life is going to “get off the ground” and fly rather than crash and burn!  Just as the designer and builder of the 747 had a blueprint and an operational manual for the airplane, so does God have a blueprint (plan) and an operational manual for mankind.   Either not knowing that, or ignoring this creational fact, affects the outcomes in every human being’s life on the face of the earth today.  

Each person must make a choice…a very personal choice.  Are you making the choice, daily, to DO the will of God in your personal life? Or are you making your own choices…apart from Him and apart from His Manual…the Holy Bible?

Knowing the will of God is not just a twentieth century challenge. People were struggling at the time of Christ. “There was much complaining among the people concerning Him. Some said, ‘He’s a good man.’ Others said, ‘He leads the multitude astray’“, John 7:12.   Seizing the opportunity, Jesus set forth standards of divine guidance. His first admonition was, “My message is not My own; it comes from God who sent Me. Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether My teaching is from God or is merely My own.” (John 7:16,17).  

The essential prerequisite to knowing the will of God, according to Jesus, is a willingness to do it. And that is a personal CHOICE He leaves to each of us as His children. Author Neil Anderson writes: “What is the will of God? God’s will for His people is that they be alive in Christ for the purpose of establishing His kingdom. He desires that we overcome the evil one (Satan) and fully become the people God has called us to be.” 

Notice the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by Thy name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9,10). When praying this prayer, we are asking for God’s will (God’s choices) to be accomplished on earth as it is presently in heaven. God’s will is being perfectly executed in heaven, but apparently, not on earth.

Are you totally committed to do God’s will without knowing for sure what it is?        

Will you seek Him until you ‘find’ what that will is?

Do you hold any reservations about turning your will over to God?

Do you really believe that God’s will for you is good, acceptable and perfect?

If God is God, and He is Lord, the One with Authority…doesn’t He have the right to exercise His will in your life?

Make choices to allow His changes to come in your life and return you to the “flow” of the Holy Spirit! 

Choosing to go with HIS Flow….

Sandy 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding.  In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths,” Proverbs 3:5-6

www.myspace.com/lifestreamsflow

www.compass.injesus.com  

A little over a year ago, the Lord spoke a very serious word to me concerning stagnancy.  He enabled me to see a situation for what it was:  not flowing or running;  stale, or foul, from standing, as a pool of water;  inactive, sluggish. and dammed up!  Anything – be it a life, a job, an institution, a project, a relationship - that becomes stale or foul from standing has stopped developing or progressing properly.  It becomes sluggish or dull and is in danger of dying or being destroyed.  At the honest realization of such things, we are to step back, take a long look at what is damming up the flow, the naturally expected movement, and be willing to take some action for change…even if it costs us.

Over the past 6-7 months, I have found a new passion in seeking God seriously and specifically about His Flow, no only flowing in what He has planned for me, personally, but also, coming to a greater understanding of these things as they concern all people in the various streams of life that flow and come to a place of convergance in their beings and circumstances.  Dammed up things need to be dynamited by the Truth of God and reactivated to move and develop in His plan and purpose!   This may mean closing up a polluted well and capping it off so that its foul waters pollute no more.  Or it may mean flushing out a stagnant place, reworking some things and allowing them to become fresh again! God knows the plans He has for His man and His woman, and those plans are to give us “a future and a hope!” Jeremiah 29:11  His way will prosper and people will be blessed and refreshed!  

We were created in the image of God, “male and female  He created them,”  Genesis 1:27  God is a being who flows!  He is a being of plan and purpose, and His being and His results are not stagnant!  They flow in power and in might!  We were created to do the same; however, in the Garden, man and women made the deadly choice to act independenty from Him (sin), and forever after, there has been struggle, challenge, and often, failure, destruction and death!  Choice was the pivot that tumbled man out of the intended flow of God, and choice is the same pivot that can release us back into that flow!

For our lifestreams to flow and converge with the divine plans of God, choice is still the lever we need to pull in our lives! Informed choices that are based upon the foundation of God’s Truth will release us from continued failure and destruction!  We must choose to humble ourselves and honestly say, “Teach me, Lord, what I do not see.  If I have done wrong, I will do it no more!” Job 34:32  And this process is true for all seasons of life, all ages, all positions.  Then choose to make the change when we clearly see we should. To ignore such wisdom is to remain in the dark!

“Woe (judgement) to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord and their works are in the dark.  They say, ‘Who sees us?’ and ‘Who knows us?’  SURELY, you have things turned around!  Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me?’ or Shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding?’”  Isaiah 29:15-16

Choose to do the right thing! Choose to say no to your flesh and yes to the Truth of God.  Choose to submit yourself to the counsel of God through godly people and “lean not to your own understanding.”  Proverbs 3:5  Be willing to make a course change or even cap off a polluted pool!  End some relationships and situations.  Be willing to take a financial loss, if necessary, so that you can once again return to the flow of God’s will for your life! Change can be painful, but to remain in a stagnant pond is a precurser to death and destruction! And worst of all…it will take you away from the precious Presence of God!

God knows the plans He has for us…and we should make the choice to humbly approach Him to know them, too!  For man’s thoughts and ways are not His ways and “His ways are higher than our ways.”  Isaiah 55:8-9  For our lifestreams to flow with Him, we must commit ourselves to learn of Him and know His ways.  Then we can choose to forsake our own way and be found flowing in His Stream of Life in Jesus Christ!

Choose to set your heart to seek His Flow…and then remain in it!  The storms of life will continue to come, but the strength to overcome in them and stay on course in the Rivers of Life will be given to the one who yields his choice to God.   Sunlight will return and days of rest will be given.  Times to be refreshed and refueled will be presented.  Saturate yourselves in God’s Truth during those calm times and be prepared to face the storms of life when they come so you will not be thrown off course!

Choosing to go with His Flow….

Sandy

www.myspace.com/lifestreamsflow

www.compass.injesus.com