A Time of Preparation - July 16, 2004 entry

July 16, 2004

Good Morning Lord,

It seems oh so long since writing in this journal. Guess that's because it has been over two weeks! Wow. That time has gone by so quickly. How easy it is to get distracted by the cares and busyness of the world and our own lives. Lord, more and more I am coming to realize how important it is for us to MAKE the time for You.

Lord, it is not as if we've not been communing with each other. I am more aware of Your presence than I've ever been before. It's more a matter of acknowledging that You are here, stopping to incorporate You in my daily activities. Often I just go about doing what needs to be done or what I choose to do and forget how much You want to be a part of EVERYTHING I do! Thank You, Holy Spirit, for reminding me of my Lord's desires, His plans, His heart.

Jesus, as I am using Matthew as a guide line to come to know You better, I was wondering about the time between Your birth and that when You were baptized by John the Baptist. Now we know that Herod attempted to have You killed while You were still a toddler. Things haven't changed much, Lord, have they? The enemy still wants to steal, kill and destroy God's offspring today, those born into the family of God through You. Just as You were a threat to the reigning powers then, so are we as Your body a threat to the prince of this world. What comfort there is found in I John 4:4, "...greater is He that is in you then he who is in the world." Hallelujah! If we are in right standing with God, we have nothing to fear for God will protect us as He did You by telling Joseph, in a dream, to flee to Egypt because of impending danger by Herod to destroy You. Which tells me, we might not always receive a warning directly as it might come through another person. So, Lord, please grant Your people great discernment, in Your name I pray. Amen!

Jesus, what were Your growing years like? How much different was it from ours? The Word tells us that You were without sin so You must have always obeyed Your parents or You would have sinned by breaking the fourth commandment, "Honor thy father and thy mother."

We know You went to the temple not just learn at the ripe old age of twelve. You amazed all who heard You because of Your answers and Your understanding. Jesus, as a child you kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:41-52). Lord, was this something that was innately in You or is it also something available for our children, our grandchildren, to grow as You did? So many questions. so much to wonder about since there is such a span of time in Your life that we know so little about.

Lord, I am hearing You say, "those were the forming years, the preparation time of My life till I was made ready to fulfill the purpose God had brought Me to fulfill upon the earth. HOW I got there is not as important as THAT I got there! And so it is to be with you and all My people. Father wants you to know that He does not dwell on the ups and downs of your growing years. His eyes are upon the purpose He had called you to, the maturity that He desires you to reach. It is not that those growing years are unimportant to Him, it is just that He does not want you to over emphasize them."

Thank You, Jesus. That makes sense as I meditate on those words. How many times do we get hung up on our weaknesses and flaws during our walk with You that we allow those places of spiritual immaturity to hold us back from pressing forward? How many times do we beat ourselves up when we miss the mark and almost give in to defeat, thinking we'll never make it? Lord, I am hearing in my spirit the words of Paul, "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus
(Philippians 3:13-14)".


Yes, Lord, let us not focus on our formative years but let us press on to the calling God has ordained for us in You, our Lord and King, Christ Jesus. Hallelujah!

Wow. This message really spoke to me today, for I had heard this word today in church about babes and maturity. And this today is a confirmation to me.

Here's some things that I learned:

putting on an adult's clothes does not make you an adult. For ex. a little girl who dresses up like her mother, and acts like her and talks like her. All she is doing is "role playing". She does not know or understand the full meaning of being an adult (and all that it costs).

babies want things sugar-coated. For ex. they take their medicine with flavor coatings, like grape or cherry. It's because they don't want the full taste [flavor] of that which is good for them.

babies [or immature ones] get angry and throw a fit or sulk [showing that they are mad]. They refuse to be taught [instruction] because they think they know it all. And they talk about the ones who corrected them (but they do not use that word corrected) because they see it as injury to them selves. {it's the self that is aware and sees it as an attack, and wants to defend it-self by talking about the other person.)

babies have limited understanding. For ex. a child will run out into the street without looking when chasing after a ball that has gone out into the street. A mature person will look both ways before going after the ball in the street.

and being forced out into something doesn't make you ready. For ex. an 18 yr. old who is forced out of his parents home.



Yet, we see that Adam had no experience at all as a child; he was made full grown in natural terms (and so was Eve). He had to fully know God. This Adam was called the first Adam, and Jesus was called the second Adam.
Jesus experienced a mother and father, a childhood, and siblings.

I wondered why about the first Adam? Perhaps it is because maturity is very important to God, and we are to look to Him as Father at all times.

Jesus went through a process - a process of time before He entered into ministry [God's destiny].
Heb. 5:8-10 "though He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, called by God as High Priest."

Through suffering we learn obedience if we are willing to receive from His Word and to use it during those times.
Yes, we can lament, which I have been learning, for it is a time of worship just as Job did. We must bring all unto God.

These tests/trials are to stretch us [to enlarge us] in the arena of faith. It is putting the Word to use. It is the causing of our faith to grow; it is for our maturing in the Word of God (if we will allow it). We can't be reckless, nor can we be immature any longer, but growing up to full stature and becoming strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, so that the grace of God is upon us. {Luke 2:40.)



We need the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to reach their destiny and fulfill it within the church so that the saints are equipped ........ and no longer being children tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine; that we come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of Son of God ........ to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And speaking the truth in love.

The Holy Spirit has been sent to fill us. Won't we receive of Him today?

The Holy Spirit comes to brood over the darkness and the void in our lives even as earthen vessels, and it is He who shall fill, but, we must be made into the image of God's Son, and that comes from confrontations [offense]. It is these confrontations which shall cause us to be conformed into the image of God's Son when we use the Word! We must choose not to be offended because of correction, but to receive correction and be changed! And the Holy Spirit will do His work within us changing us and healing us and making us whole and new in Christ's image.


I know that I have spoken a lot here, but, I hope that is wasn't so broken up as I had wrote. I just wanted to speak up at this time of how God works in us and will work through us.

God bless.
Ilene