Reveal Heaven

Today I went to work and lamented about missing my time with the Lord. For the last few years I have had ample time to read the Bible, study scripture and bask in wonderful praise and worship music at any time of the day for as long as I desired, but at the end of May, I took a position helping my husband to run a restaurant. This new assignment has consumed many, many hours of my professional and personal time. I am in the will of God, but being out in the “world” again has been an adjustment. I have not had the two to three hours I am used to having daily with Holy Spirit and for weeks now this has caused some frustration in me. Imagine going from the liberty of continual fellowship with God to one brief little prayer in the car on the way to the job? Its nuts and at times downright irritating to me to have no time for fellowship with God, but I know I am in His will right now, so I do what I can when I can and talk to Him about my next opportunity to have more time with Him.

Today at work I told my husband that I really wished I could be blessed like other’s who get to spend so much time just being with Jesus. He gently corrected me and said, “You are really blessed. We’re here doing this”, referring to our God-ordained assignment to occupy a sphere of influence for the Lord through this restaurant. I agreed with him but added, “…but I want to be in ministry. I want my own church.”

My husband of all people knows that what we’re doing in the restaurant is ministry—marketplace ministry—but I have really been missing those amazing moments with God where He just shows up in my daily life to blast me with His love and power. Being in public places where moments for real ministry are rare is so restricting to me and there’s this little issue with God’s timing that gets under my skin sometimes—His timing is not my timing and sometimes we have to do what God tells us to do even if it means working with some restrictions.

Well because God is so good, He decided to show up and show off for me today, on the job, in the restaurant and to the benefit of those who were there with me to witness the love of God moving on a guest and his wife who came in to eat.

Without going into detail, Holy Spirit prompted me to pray for a man dining in the restaurant and when I finished praying for this man and his wife I also prayed for the father who had just been admitted to hospice today. The couple thanked me for the prayer and the man told me about his travels as a missionary to Russia years ago and his career as a Methodist minister. I walked the man and his wife to the door and returned to the restaurant when I saw tears flowing from one of the member’s of my staff. She said, “I have never seen anything like that and I have no idea what that was all about but I felt it.” She was crying under the presence of the Lord. God was touching her heart and she was full of emotion. Her response was lovely and I marveled at how the Lord used that prayer time to move upon the people He has given to me and my husband to help run the restaurant. It was ministry for many tonight and it was blessed.

As I thought about the special moment that occurred with the power of Jesus today on the job I heard Holy Spirit say, “Reveal Heaven” and I did. Isn’t that what the Church is supposed to do—reveal Heaven?

I thank God for that special moment and I thank God for my husband’s kind rebuke and I thank God for the opportunity to reveal Heaven through me today. It was church, in the purest sense of the word and I was there to share it. God is so very, very good.

May the Lord Jesus Christ be glorified forever and ever, Amen.

You Can Do the Works of God


Sometimes we humans can really complicate matters of faith. In the gospel of John, Jesus gives the people a very simple and direct answer when they ask Him how they too can “do” the works of God. Jesus had just fed the 5,000 on a few fishes and some bread; a feat any common man would like to achieve! Imagine not having to toil by the sweat of your brow to produce enough food to feed thousands? But Jesus corrected the people by essentially saying, don’t seek after the bread that perishes, fulfilling you temporarily; but seek after Me, because truthfully, I am the bread of life and if you will believe in Me, you can do the works you see here and more:

John 6:28-29 Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”

It’s such a simple thing to believe in the power of Jesus and apply it to our own situations, yet we human beings like to muck everything up with long lists of requirements that we need to achieve before we can have what we will; but Jesus never said we would have to meet long lists of requirements to receive from Him. On the contrary, He rebuked the religious leaders of His day for placing those kinds of burdens on the people they were supposed to be serving. The message of Jesus was and still is quite simple; believe in Him and have what you will, even the ability to turn a few fish into a meal for thousands; but He inserts a caveat: never forget while we may carry that kind of power–that kind of faith–that ‘belief in Him’ has to be more important to us than those things we produce when we ‘do’ the works of God.

Are You Frozen?

Are you in a jam or going through a major battle? Is there heavy warfare? Does your situation look bleak but God is telling you to obey?

The end result may look bleak, but you know you have to trust God. You know it’s the only way to victory.

It can be hard to take a step forward, but when we freeze in fear and indecision, we block the blessing.

God cannot take over unless we relinquish control.

So how do you get unstuck?

Picture a friend, a family member or a colleague in the same situation. Now imagine that person has to make an immediate decision–there’s no room for delay.

What do you say to them?

Now, give yourself that same speech. Speak it out loud for your own ears to hear it.

Once you follow this simple instruction, you will become unstuck. You will be positioned to make a decision and God will move.

You will have peace and you’ll be on the way to victory!