A Blessing for International Women's Day

What 20 000 Women Can Do - She Loves Magazine

This is my Story on She Loves Magazine this month. Its a story of a personal journey to connect with a lady named Ma Sophia. Enjoy! Click on the link below to read the story.....

 The Women who went Before Us

The warmth of a flower hug

A friend of mine takes the most beautiful pictures of flowers, birds, animals and all sorts of things. She has shared this picture and because of her kindness I can share it here - to bless others. 

Last night in prayer time with my husband, Father broke my heart intensely as we sat in His presence.

Often, He allows me to feel deeply the pain or brokenness in others, but last night He broke my heart for the pain of the earth, meaning the physical earth - the land and the animals. I felt the pain and burden that the earth is feeling and the sorrow in the souls of His creation , which He declared to be "very good."
I cannot explain the depth of this to you - because it is without words and beyond description, although I have always LOVED animals, I now sense a difference in my understanding of them. Today I read about a 19th century woman of God named Zilpha Elaw, I read the following in the article about her which appeared in Charisma Magazine: "One day while milking a cow, Zilpha saw Jesus walking toward her. He appeared to say, "Thy prayer is accepted; I own thy name." Zilpha first thought she was seeing things; but when the cow looked in the same direction, bent its front legs and lowered its head to the ground, she knew the Lord had come to answer her prayer." 

I am tired of people looking at the earth as something disposable and I am tired of people killing animals and putting them on walls. Can we hear the message within these lines? This woman of God only fully realized she was seeing the Messiah Himself, when the cow next to her bowed and acknowledged the King? This should take your breath away.
The animals are part of God, they came forth from Him and He loves them dearly. He spared Nineveh because of the 150 000 animals (if you look at this word in the original it does not say cattle - it says animals, meaning all animals) who lived in the city. I often imagine Papa walking on the bottom of the ocean when He wants to be alone. He walks on the bottom of the oceans we have never even explored (70% of the ocean still lies undiscovered) and there He talks to the whales and exotic fish, sea life and Creation more beautiful then we ever imagined. I believe my Papa enjoys the smell of the flowers and the feeling of the grass beneath His feet and He loves to talk to the animals, to help them give birth, to feed them and cloth them with warmth in the winter months. He loves us to experience the joy in the flowers and the hugs they give us. 

I can never see the earth, the land mass, the ocean, the creation of nature, or the animals in the same way I used to. While scientists can claim whatever they like, Father whispered to me that the earth carries cracks in it, these are cracks of brokenness. Scientists call them 'fault lines' and rightly so - for whose fault is it that the earth is currently broken? None but man's alone. 

The weight of the earth's grief is no longer hidden from Father, it is plain and His heart is breaking for the goodness which He created. I want to urge you to stop playing around by harming the earth but I want to urge you to be kind to the animals and to the creation. The Torah has specific guidelines for us regarding how we are to treat animals and Gods creation - perhaps I will post it for you to all look at, in the days to come. But for now seek Gods heart on the brokenness that He holds within, for His creation and enjoy the warmth of a hug from a flower - flowers are part of His creation, these are tender touches of Yahweh's infinite goodness....

Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls;
all Your breakers and Your billows have swept over me.
(Psalm 42:7)

Yahweh has a depth that the human mind cannot fathom. of course we cannot fathom it because Father is Spirit and we are to worship Him in spirit and in truth. But sometimes, just sometimes, He shares His depth with some. I see this depth as a place in side of Yahweh, a place in His Spirit - a depth that He shares when we have gone deep with Him. When we have embraced a life of surrender, reckless abandonment and sacrifice - when our beings are emptied of ourselves and our spirit is so deep with the desire for Him, then He speaks to us - deep calling out to deep. It's like a waterfall whose waters cascade in to a pool at the bottom, we need to jump in to that pool and allow the billows and breakers of God's Depth to wash over us. For some, Yahweh will wash over them with love, for others Yahweh will wash over them with healing or conviction - make no mistake, I am not referring to the normal love you feel or the healing you long for, or the conviction you feel - I am talking about a DEPTH of love, a depth of conviction, a depth of healing - a depth that comes from the Bosom of the One who sits on the Throne. 

I love the fact that Father's deep ROARS - Lion-like to the deep in us. The Lion's roar is powerful and it awakens the slumberer, no one can ignore a lions roar. 

Amos 3:8
The Lion has roared, who will not fear?

The journey in to the depths of Father is reserved for a few, those of His choice alone. Not all will experience the deep calling out to deep, but part of the road map to getting there, is to be cleansed. Sometimes if some travel to the depth of their own hearts or their own spirits they will find only woundedness, pride, selfishness and darkness. Father's deep cant speak to deep which is defiled - He can only share Himself with the pure, the spotless and those who are desperate to get there. 

Psalm 51:6

 And yes, you want truth in the most hidden places;
    you teach me wisdom in the most secret space.

The deep within us is hidden to every eye except Father's, His eye scans our hearts and our secret places - for truth in our most secret places. For He delights in truth and He delights in the Spirit whose deep is pure, whose springs are flowing with living water from the Ruach Hakodesh. May your spring flow with water that is pure and perfect, so that deep can call out to deep in the Roar of Father's waterfalls! 

You are El-Roi, the God who sees me

Sometime ago Yahweh led me to the story of Hagar, Sarah's servant. I had read the story countless times before, but suddenly her pain become real to me. I think many of us - if not all of us can relate to the story of Hagar and her pain and then her prophetic declaration of "El-Roi." Hagar was the only one in the Bible to call God by this special name, - You are the God who sees ME. How many times do we want God to really see us? To really see our pain, see our hearts and our spirits - well He does see us. I once read that Yahweh sees hearts like we see faces and it gives me such comfort to know this. While I was reading the story of Hagar, I was inspired by the Ruach (Holy Spirit) to offer Hagar's story in a different light, may it touch and revive your spirits, for truly he is the God who really does see you and me....

I left him there beside the road, where the dust fills the air and the wild Terebinth tree grows and expands.

I left them both there; I have no use for their lies and despised looks. I left them there. 

Along with the only life I have known and now I wait beside the road side, my belly swollen and life undone. What am I waiting for? Salvation? Someone to save me, to set me free?  I wait until I can wait no longer and I feel myself sinking to my knees in the dust beside the dead carcasses that litter the way. I am a slave; I know nothing of freedom, nothing of love, nothing of undiluted acceptance. Who am I?

I am Hagar, the slave of Sarah.

And here I wait until someone crosses to find me, a pregnant despised slave sitting beside the roadside, waiting on salvation. My tears fall; my eyes are wells of water that cannot be contained. The pain of years, the pain of confusion, and the pain of not having my own name can no longer be contained. I am a woman despised. Can no man see my pain, can no one see? Silence fills the roadway, no one is coming and I weep, rejected and alone.

I hear the crunch of sandaled feet and peer up desperate. Where do you come from? He asks me. “I am running away sir, from my mistress.” 

“Go back to your mistress” He replies as He wipes my eyes, “go back and I will make you into a fruitful woman who will be mother of many descendants.”

“Who are you?” I ask.

He bends down and places His knees upon the dusty ground; He reaches out and touches my face. Something unexplainable fills my hungry soul and I peer into His eyes, He sees me. He sees ME. For the first time, somebody sees me. 

His sad eyes give me something that understands - something that eases my wounded heart, balm from an unknown place that heals my wounds. He moves to leave but I cannot help myself as I grab His arm; “Sir, who are you?” 

“You are pregnant with a son Hagar; you must name him Ishmael for God has heard about your pain and misery.” 

My tears of desperation fall once more as I meet His sad eyes and feel life grow inside of me. “You are the One who sees me, I know You are God, I am not afraid, Sir You are El – Roi!” He has seen me and I have seen Him, a man of sorrow knowing pain – I can sense it, He knew my pain.

I gather what is left of my belongings, while I arise on weary feet. I have strength to make the journey; I have the strength to return. I turn to thank this stranger but He is gone. I turn to leave no longer a slave but a person, who God sees as me.

The Lion's Paws

I am asleep between the Lion's paws - this is my place of safety.
I belong to the Lion, He roars over me. He closes His eyes and yet He does not slumber concerning me,
for I sleep between the Lions paws and His Roar protects me.
I sleep resting within His Mane of Light - He does not sleep concerning me, He roars over me - Roar over me Yeshua Roar, this is my place of rest.

The Cherokee

I have been thinking so much lately about the Cherokee Indians. Although the native Indian people belonged to many tribes, I have been led to focus particularly on the Cherokee and their journey.
I felt angered at the modern day movie depictions of the beautiful Cherokee people. But of course we know that history cannot and should not be learned on a T.V screen - history is made up of moments, complex and simple. Relationships underlie emotional pursuits and personal realities form peoples decisions, how can we ever understand this! We should not even try.
Anyhow - while I was researching the Cherokee Indians, I discovered one of their stories which touched me deeply. The Cherokee were forced from their lands by the new "Americans" aka Europeans who were hell - bent on power, and they were forced to move to a land that they had never seen before. Their own lands had been inhabited by their own people for generations and generations, their lands were fertile and prosperous -  perfect prey for greedy men.
So the Cherokee were forced from their homesteads which connected them to their ancestors and their family members and they were forced to trek some 1000 miles over a 10 year period on to lands they had never seen before. The journey they walked became known as the trail of tears, it is said that the women of the tribe became sad and started to neglect their children. Despair set in and so the elders of the tribe went out and prayed, prayed that a sign would be given so that the women would regain hope and strength so that they could look after the children again. The women shed tears for their kinsmen who were dieing daily, in one of the groves on the journey many Indians wept. After the elders prayed, the following morning the Cherokee awoke to continue their journey and in the grove where they had been crying - miraculously there appeared beautiful roses in the exact places where the women had been crying.
The roses were a magnificent white colour - symbolic of their tears, while the inside was gold, representing the gold stolen by the white man. The petals budded in a circle of seven, the seven petals represented the seven Cherokee tribes who made up the Cherokee people.The Cherokee rose was enough to strengthen the spirits of the tribes women and give them strength for their journey, today this miracle flower, which I liken to the manna from heaven - still buds along the trail of tears which the Cherokee journeyed onward to Oklahoma.