relationships

Come.

March 19, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

Such a simple 4 letter word. Come.

What does it mean to you?

This week, this word has swirled around me in readings, songs, and spoken words. The first time it popped out at me was in a book titled “Courageous Women of the Bible” by Latan Roland Murphy. This is a book about different women in the Bible who displayed courage during times weakness. In the 2nd chapter, we see the woman with the issue of blood who touches the hem of Jesus’ garment.

This precious woman teaches us that we need to come to Jesus as we are.

Jesus’ love compels us to courageously come – just as we are:

Come Unclean
Come Cast Out
Come Forbidden
Come Forsaken
Come Forgotten
Come Rejected
Come Abused
Come Defiled

The above is an excerpt taken from page 43 of the book and it speaks truth.

Jesus wants us to come as we are to Him.

Our natural inclination is to wait until we’re cleaner, accepted, or better before we go to Him. It’s the fight between our strength and our weakness – a struggle between our doing and our being.

The first time Jesus speaks the word “come” is in Matthew 4:19.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

He asks us this same question today. “Come, follow Me.” It’s not an easy journey and so many turn Him down. When they say no to Him, they do not see the sadness that encompasses His entire being.

Why do we fight His invitation so much?

We say things like, “If I go to church, the building will fall in.”

“I’ll go with you to church when I have a better grip on my issues.”

“If I go to church, I’m going to have to change my ways and I’m not sure I want to do that now.”

It’s sad that we think this way but so many of us do.

How do we overcome this thinking?

We overcome it by love, persistence, prayer and example. When we live our lives with Jesus constantly in our thoughts and in our actions, it witnesses to others around us in a way we’d never be able to otherwise.

It’s the magnetic pull of Jesus in us and working through us that attracts others.

Do you know someone who is different from others in this world?

Maybe they are calm, peaceful and joyful – even when they are going through difficulties. I once knew a woman like this who made me hunger for what she had. She demonstrated Jesus in her speech and her actions.

Sadly, she passed away too young but I’m so thankful that I knew her. My life is changed because of knowing her and I know now that it was Jesus in her that attracted me.

This is my goal in the few dozen years we are given here in this world. I want to be the magnet showing others Jesus through me so they will hunger for Him as I do.

It is through our living that we change lives. It’s that simple. We walk out our faith with grace and love allowing Jesus within us to do the rest.

Jesus needs an outlet here in this world to seek our friends and family.

Yes, Jesus can do anything He wishes but He wishes to do His work here in this world through you and me. If we don’t show Him to those around us, they may never see Him from anyone else.

When we are transparent and allow others to see the brokenness in our life and share with them how Jesus made the difference, lives are changed. It’s not something we have the power to do without Jesus; however, when we allow Him to work through us, all things are possible.

Jesus wants nothing more than to be in communion with us.

Yesterday a friend shared that the word communion really means “come union” – to come into union with Jesus. When we come into union with Jesus, transformation happens – in us and around us.

For more on allowing Jesus to work through you, read this post on circumcision and heart issues.

Be sure to leave me a comment or send me an e-mail! I’d love to hear your own personal testimonies about how your witness changed lives. I’m also happy to help you along the way if you desire to be a witness for Christ. I want nothing more than to see all of our lives transformed day-by-day to reflect the very image of Jesus!

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

A Broken Heart

March 17, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

Issues of the heart are heavy in my own heart today.

Is there an area in your life where you are not where you want to be? An area where you just cannot get a break regardless of your efforts?

I think I’m hearing a resounding YES and I’ll add my YES into the mix too!

I have several struggles and as I learn to rely on Jesus as my Counselor to help me sort them out, I find out they are all matters of the heart.

We are not where we want to be financially. I ask God why and guess what the answer is? My heart.

Our hearts are the very core of our being.

All life flows out of our hearts. The heart is complex with many parts and pieces that have to be in full working order at all times.

The heart never gets a break from beating and flowing blood and oxygen through our bodies. That is the physical heart. The spiritual heart is no different. The Bible tells this truth.

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Proverbs 4:23

So if there is an area in our lives where we are not experiencing victory and freedom, we need to take a look at the condition of our heart.

To dig a little deeper and understand this more fully, let’s look at the covenant of circumcision that God gave to Abraham. This promise is also given to us as well because we are heirs to all the promises of Abraham (see Galatians 3:29). The covenant with Abraham is recorded in Genesis 17.

Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram, your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come to you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you are now an alien, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”

Then God said to Abraham, “As for you, you must keep my covenant, you and your descendants after you for the generations to come. This is my covenant with you and your descendants after you, the covenant you are to keep: Every male among you shall be circumcised, including those born in your household or bought with money from a foreigner – those who are not your offspring. Whether born in your household or bought with your money, they must be circumcised. My covenant in your flesh is to be an everlasting covenant. Any uncircumcised male, who has not been circumcised in the flesh, will be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

Genesis 17:3-14

This is the Old Testament but God clearly states that this covenant is an everlasting covenant with Abraham and all of his descendants. If we are believers of Jesus Christ, we are descendants of Abraham.

BUT let’s not forget about Jesus.

Yes, while we are descendants of Abraham, the minute Jesus died on the cross for all of us, everything shifted from the natural to the Spiritual.

We live by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 5:7

The burden of “doing” shifted from man to Jesus the minute He switched places with us in death.

Do you see that awesome truth? You’ve probably heard these words before but really listen, “HE TOOK OUR PLACE.”

He took our death.
He took our sin.
He took our guilt.
He took our shame.
He took our regret.
He took our lack.
He took our sickness.
He took our rejection.
He took our punishment.
He took our past.

He became circumcision for us.

The circumcision of the flesh automatically shifted to a spiritual circumcision that HE now performs on our hearts!

This is the truth I want to share today.

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.

Romans 2:28-29

We are all grafted in as God’s people (see John 15) so Paul is not just speaking to his fellow Jews in these two verses but he is also speaking to us.

For us today (post-Cross), circumcision is the inward working of our hearts when we give them fully to Jesus.

Jesus is the surgeon performing open heart surgery on all areas of our hearts where we give Him access.

However, just like in physical surgery, if we do not sign the consent form allowing the surgeon to do the surgery, it’s not going to get done. We must sign the consent form allowing Jesus into ALL crevices of our hearts so that He can truly circumcise all.

Circumcision in the natural means cutting away the flesh, correct? So circumcision in the spiritual heart is cutting away all those walls we’ve erected from our past experiences, hurts, mindsets and wrong thinking.

He will cut away all that hinders our walk if we will only let Him in.

Let Him in today to start doing open heart surgery in your heart. I promise you will experience true transformation if you do!

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

Do You Look At Your Waiter?

February 25, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

Do you ever look up at your waiter? Do you look into their eyes and see them as a person?

This post is very important for all of us to hear and share. Here is my prayer before I share what I’m called to share:

Dear Father,

Please open our eyes and our ears to see and hear this message. Open our hearts to receive these words. Prepare us now to receive all that You have for us. It is in Jesus’ name that we pray.

Amen

Okay, here is the message that’s burdening my heart. This past week during a group prayer time, God gave me a vision. I only hope that I can share the emphasis behind it with you in my words.

Picture a large room as in a restaurant. There were round tables all throughout the room and people seated at every table. There was not an empty chair in the place. The waiter was going table to table with a water pitcher. And each person, without even looking up, put their hand over their water glass to indicate that they did not want any water.

Do you look up when you are being served to notice the one serving you? Do you look into their eyes and acknowledge them as a person?

Sadly, not one of these people acknowledged the waiter as a person.

Not even one saw that their server was actually Jesus Christ.

And not one of these people saw the intensely heartbreaking sadness that was on His face as He moved about the room. One after another after another turned Him away without even looking up. Never looking into His eyes. Never letting Him give them all the beautiful and wonderful gifts He wanted to give them. Never letting Him pour into them the Living Water that brings eternal life.

They couldn’t stop their conversations and busyness to be bothered to acknowledge their Waiter.

In the vision, I knew these people to be the same people who occupy church pews each and every Sunday. These people outwardly acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Savior yet not even one of them recognized Him when He stood mere inches away.

We cannot continue to live in complacency in our Christian walk.

Our lives are not the only lives dependent upon us. We are each responsible for sharing with others the saving grace of Jesus Christ. But if we ourselves cannot recognize Him how can we share Him?

My hope is that we are humbled enough to stop living complacent lives and to start living eternal lives. If we change our thinking from our life only being in the here and now to our life really being in eternity, how can we not share the secret of how to achieve eternal life? Let me put it another way. Do you believe in eternity?

If we believe in eternity, how can we reconcile 80 or 90 years against forever?

If we believe in eternity, what are the years we live here on earth compared to FOREVER. So it stands to reason that these few years we’re given on this earth must be for a reason other than to satisfy our own wants and desires, right?

We were created in the very image of God to fellowship with Him. Are we waiting until we get to heaven to fellowship with God? Or are do we fellowship with Him now? Only when we fellowship with Him now while in this earthly body are we able to share His grace and love with others.

This is our calling and our assignment ~ to share JESUS with everyone.

I’m going to propose that long before Jesus walked the earth as a man and long before the apostle Paul was given the gospel of grace, God Himself shared our ultimate assignment and it has never changed. Let’s look in Genesis:

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.”

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Then God said, “Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. And I have given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky, and the small animals that scurry along the ground – everything that has life.” And that is what happened.

Genesis 1:26-30 NLT

God created us in His image. We have three parts to our person: spirit, soul and body. God created every living thing to need nourishment and He provided the nourishment for everything. Not one thing did He neglect. He created food for our spirit and food for our soul and food for our body. It’s important that we feed each part of our being so that we can be properly functioning and aligned as He intended when He created us.

The food for our spirit is the Word of God.

We know this because the Word tells us so.

Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment, now that you have had a taste of the Lord’s kindness.

1 Peter 2:2-3

Peter is telling us to feed the spirit, we must have spiritual food which is only found in Christ Jesus who is the living Word. So as we dig into the Word, our spirits are fed. As our spirits are fed, we are able to discern and recognize Jesus in our lives. And when we can recognize Jesus in our own lives, we are able to share Him with others which is the assignment we’ve been given “Be fruitful and multiply.” He chooses us to be the light to draw others to Him. He chooses us to multiply for HIM.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

1 Peter 2:9 (emphasis mine)

Only when we know who He is, who we are and what our assignment is, can we show others the same. When we get in the Word and start reading, I promise when Jesus comes before you asking if you need filled up, you’ll see His glorious light and let Him begin pouring into you the living waters. You will recognize Him in an instant.

Do you see your waiter?

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

Rewrite Your Vows

January 17, 2018 By Eva Conner 1 Comment

Chasing Hard and Running on Empty

Rewrite your vows!

Here is a word that I received in my spirit during prayer time this morning. This word makes me weep with joy and also with sadness for all the glory and awesomeness we miss because we’re too busy chasing the here and now.

This word is for all of us because we all have moments when we are not chasing hard after the only thing in this temporary land that matters – the eternal. This word makes me sad because we have things so backward and wrong in this world compared to what God truly wants for us. What Jesus died to give us. Here is what He spoke:

I desire to shower you with lavish gifts. I love you as a Bridegroom loves His bride. I AM your Bridegroom. I wish to take care of you in a way that you never have to fear. In a way that you never live in lack or want of anything.

This is the vow that I SPEAK to you:

I, Jesus, take you, my beloved, to be my lawfully wedded bride, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better and never for worse, in richness and never in poorness, in health and never in sickness, forever, not even death can separate us.

I chase after you always.

But you don’t see Me. You don’t look My way. You chase after things that will never bring you wholeness and fulfillment. You look to one another to bring you things that only I CAN.

When will you look to Me? What will it take for you to see me standing here? How long before You accept my vows of marriage?

In this time of prayer and meditation, He brought back memories of new romantic relationships ~ courtships. He brought back those sweet memories of dating and the excitement that came with the newness of the relationship. The memories of wanting to do something nice for that other person who suddenly became so very important to you. The heart to shower them with gifts to show your love. This is what He brought to my heart this morning.

The tenderness, sweetness and innocence that exists in the closeness.

Jesus feels these things for us. He wants to shower us with His good and perfect gifts. He desires for us to rest in that tender, sweet innocence with Him. And He desires for us to not just rest for the moment but to settle in to it. To get comfy and put our feet up and stay there! Jesus is not just our comforter and protector. HE IS COMFORT. HE IS PROTECTION. These things to Him are tangible and part of his DNA that cannot be separated from Him.

He is standing there with His arms stretched out just for you.

Do you see Him there? Do you sense His excitement and eagerness to love you and lavish His goodness on you?

This word completely unglues me even as I am experiencing it again as I type these words. And this is just a mere shadow of what we’ll experience with Him in eternity.

So why do we fight against it? Why do we twist and distort His Word by bringing it down to what we can comprehend and explain?

What He showed me when He spoke the wedding vows is that the vows we speak when we marry our spouses are completely opposite of what He wants us to speak.

Man-made vows speak of illness, poverty and death.

The vows that are most commonly used today are rooted in religion ~ from man. You can do a Google search and find the origins are rooted in the medieval church in England. What you cannot find are the vows in Scripture with one exception. Ironically, the one part of the vow that you can find in the Bible is the piece that most people omit because they find it offensive – for the wife to vow that she will obey her husband.

For centuries, has no one asked where these vows came from? Who wrote them and were they inspired by God to do so? If someone were to say they were inspired by God to write these vows, why do they not line up with Scripture?

These are questions I’m asking myself after hearing Jesus clearly speak His vows to me this morning. He clearly denounced the “sickness, poverty and death” words that currently exist in our vows.

Jesus died on the cross for us a broken man so that we could be whole. He died in lack so that we could walk in abundance. His Word clearly states that death is not final. God desires for us to walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ. And that fullness is not sickness, poverty and death. That fullness is total wholeness in all areas of our lives with abundant fruit and gifts.

Wholeness and nothing less is what Jesus died to give us.

We need to rewrite the vows! The wedding vows must be modeled after the love of Christ and the truth of Christ. They must include grace, complete surrender, covenant bonds of undying love. UNDYING love – not death.

We need to stop watering down the Word of God to accommodate our limited, finite thinking. The minute we begin logically explaining who God is, is the minute we should fall to our knees and repent of idolatry. For when we put God within the limits of our thinking, we are creating a false god to worship.

God is outside the limits of our thinking.

He is SO incomprehensibly huge and powerful that we cannot possibly know anything about Him other than what He’s chosen to reveal to us.

The minute we start putting God in the confines of our mind is the minute we begin rationalizing why there is sickness, poverty and death in our world. It’s okay to not have answers to life’s tough questions. What’s not okay is to try to wrap theological doctrine around not having answers. God is a God who will hide things from us in order for us to search them out. And when we search for the things of God, He is so good to show them to us.

Rewrite your vows today.

Speak life, health and wholeness into your marriage. Take out those things that are not of God. Seek Him above all things and He will show You all things. Don’t stop there either. Rewrite your vows with God. Ask Him to scrub your heart clean and purify you in His Word. His Word is cleansing and it will reveal to you all the things you are searching for in this life. His Word will reveal Jesus from front to back.

Chase hard after Jesus.

He chases after us and pursues us with a self-discipline we know nothing about. He is intentional about US. Let’s get intentional and self-disciplined about HIM.

HE IS all things.

Period. Nothing less than ALL things. And in Him we find our fulfillment and all of our emptiness is suddenly gone.

Jesus Christ is the ultimate fulfillment center.

He wants to be the center of your life. Will you let Him? It’s a decision we make that will alter the course of our life for eternity.

Time is short. Total surrender to Jesus is the only way to live the few short years we have on this planet. You see, this life is not what it’s about. This life is but a mere test for eternity.

I remember as a child I would often lay on my back in the grass staring up at the clouds, trying to think about eternity. I use the word “trying” because eternity is so big that it’s hard to grasp. It’s hard to fully get your mind wrapped around what “forever” means. No end at all. Compare 70 or 90 years to forever. It’s hardly any comparison at all.

When we shift our thinking from temporal to eternal, we find a lot of things in this world that once seemed huge and insurmountable become like mountains that can be cast into the sea.

This is the word for you and for me today.

Rewrite your vows and chase hard after Jesus.

He is waiting and He longs to lavish us with gifts and love.

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva

PPP ~ Privilege. Praying. Partnering.

January 6, 2018 By Eva Conner Leave a Comment

Prepare your plan today and see His provision as You’ve never seen before.

In the professional services world, PPP typically means “Personal Performance Plan.” PPP’s are completed by the professionals stating their goals for the year. However, this morning in my prayer time, God used this acronym “PPP” but showed me something else that ties into our personal performance planning.

Privilege. Praying. Partnering.

God has given each of us the privilege of praying and partnering with Him to do His work in this dark world.

It’s important for our growth to have a gameplan or roadmap that helps us stay on track in doing His work. This is what a personal performance plan is, or a vision board. I encourage you to get before God and ask Him to help you outline some goals for the year. Put pen to paper and list the deepest desires of your heart. Ask away. There’s nothing that we cannot ask of Him in prayer. We have not because we ask not.

As we write our personal performance plans, or vision boards, we’ll see one common thread in our dreams and goals ~ the need for provision. That provision could be the words to write in blog posts that will encourage and reach the hearts of the readers. The provision could be for time to pray for others who He is laying on our heart. It could also be for open doors, closed doors, money, food, faith, strength, good health, connections, platforms, etc, etc.

We need a clearer picture of God’s provision so that our dreams and goals don’t get stuck in lack.

God's provision will launch us into our destiny! Click To Tweet

I believe I could study God’s provision the remainder of my lifetime and never truly grasp the depths of it. But I welcome the challenge to go deeper and deeper as He leads.

This morning, He led me to the two books of Thessalonians. Let’s look in these two books for His provision. And actually I’m just going to share a glimpse of it from the first two chapters in the first book. I encourage you to also read these two books. It is an experience that will change the way you see provision.

1 Thessalonians

1:1 God provides grace and peace.

1:2 God provides people for us.

1:3 God the Son provides us enduring hope.

1:4 God provides us with His love and provides us with family because He chose us as His own.

1:5 God the Holy Spirit provides us with power to know truth.

1:6 God the Holy Spirit provides us with joy.

1:7 God provides our witness.

1:8 God provides our platform or stage to be heard.

1:9 God provides the ability to be hospitable to others.

1:10 God provides our hope for the future and for the return of Jesus Christ.

The first chapter in first Thessalonians has ten verses and each one of these ten verses contains God’s provision! A perfect 10.

So often, when we pray for God’s provision, we are praying for money to meet our needs. His provision is SOOOOO much more than money. Yes, His provision includes money for our needs but we need to open our eyes and ears and hearts to fully understand what His provision includes so that we don’t limit what we receive.

Let’s take a look at chapter 2:

2:1 God provides our success.

2:2 God provides our courage and boldness to declare the Good News of Jesus.

2:2 God provides a way through opposition.

2:3 God provides purity in the words we share.

2:4 God provides the ability to please only Him.

2:4 God provides purity in the motives of our hearts.

2:5 God provides us with a powerful witness in Himself in protecting our motives.

2:6 God provides us with NO desire for human praise.

2:7 God provides us with the discernment to care for His flocks.

2:8 God provides us with the ability to be transparent in our living.

2:9 God provides us with the ability to work hard.

2:10 God provides the strength to be steadfast and honest.

2:11 God provides us with the love of a Father.

2:12 God provides us with the encouragement to build others up in His kingdom.

2:13 God provides us with confirmation that His Word is being spoken through us and being heard by others.

2:14 God provides us with strength to withstand persecutions for His Son’s sake.

2:15 God provides us with strength to conquer death for His Son’s sake.

2:16 God provides vindication upon those who persecute us.

2:17 God provides heart connections among His people.

2:18 God provides open doors as well as closed doors.

2:19 God provides our reward and crown as we share His Son Jesus.

2:20 God provides pride and joy through the love and sharing with others.

Again, every single verse in chapter two is filled with God’s provision.

And chapter two has 20 verses – double that of chapter one! Double the provision. I won’t continue through these two books but you truly can see God’s provision throughout if you are looking for it.

As I mentioned above, in my prayer time today I received these words for the acronym PPP ~ Privilege, Praying and Partnering.

We have the privilege of praying with God as He chooses to partner with us to do His work.

And as we pray and partner with Him, He will provide all that we need! What a privilege it is to be able to not only talk with but to also partner with God Almighty! His ways are so perfect. Let Him start showing You provision today.

Here is my prayer for all of us:

Father,

As we come before You in our time of prayer, open our eyes, our ears and our hearts to receive all that You have for us. Please break down those barriers we’ve erected that hold us back from seeing Your provision in our lives. Help us cultivate a giving and loving and thankful heart. Create in us pure hearts and renew steadfast spirits within us.

Father, use us in mighty ways in Your kingdom. Show us those in need around us and give us Your Words to speak that will open their hearts to receive You. Thank you, Father, for Your Son Jesus and Your Holy Spirit which you have given so freely. Help us to give freely to others.

As we stand before You, enable us to live a life worthy of Your call. Give us the power to accomplish all the good things that our faith prompts us to do. Let us bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. It is in His holy name we pray.

Amen♥

Stay in the Light and Love always,

Eva