God is so good to His people! He is faithful and true - the same yesterday, today and tomorrow! Regardless of how the situation looks my friends, we must trust in Him for God is not finished with us! This is the season upon which our faith for tomorrow is built and we must press in and allow His work to be done in us. Last Friday, as Mom and I talked about the hits we (the intercessors) took last week, the fire of God began to fall upon her, I could hear her shaking through the phone and suddenly, she proclaimed; "We must bring the people together at the Church - at Pastor Matt's - the Lord has a message for them! The fire of God is all over me!" 

The fire of God is about to fall my friends and I encourage you to join us July 10th as Nita shares the message the Lord has for the Church today. For those in the Seattle/Mountlake Terrace area, we will be at Bethel Chapel. For those outside the Seattle area, we will broadcast via livestream through our website. Gather your friends, intercessors and loved ones and prepare to hear this critical message! 

Please continue to pray with us over our finances. In addition to our monthly expenses, God instructed us to build a storehouse in order to assist those in need during the upcoming crisis. We are working toward that now and will share more with you soon - but we need your help. God is blessing us as our ministry continues to grow and for that we are grateful. However, we cannot do this alone. It is through your steadfast giving and His faithfulness that we are able to do all that He calls us to do. Thank you for taking part in this work – remember - God will bless those who care for their brothers and sisters in need. 

Following is the next installment in “Be Bold!” - I pray it blesses and prepares you for the days ahead. 

Blessings & love,

Ricci

 Click here if you would like to contribute to our Cedarwood Blessings

Think about this. Abraham was really the first Hebrew. His father was an idol worshiper. Now, of course, Abraham's ancestors were Hebrews as well, but they were not called Hebrews until Abraham. The word Hebrew means “one from beyond.” He certainly became one from beyond, I can promise you. When he had Ishmael, Ishmael was half Hebrew and half Egyptian. Isaac was the first full-blooded Hebrew. Everyone else in his camp were Gentiles who served the God of Abraham. They did not go around saying, “He's my God” because the revelation of God was destined to come through Abraham. They received the revelation of God through their relationship with him.

The Bible does not tell us that God revealed Himself to Isaac in his childhood. I am not aware of anything in history that tells us that, either, so I am assuming God did not reveal Himself to Isaac until his adult years. The one who received the revelation and showed forth the glory of God to the Gentiles was Abraham. He was set aside from the rest of the peoples of the earth by name: Hebrew, or “one from beyond,” and his name Abraham, or “father of many nations.” He was no longer just a tribesman, but he was the father of twelve princes. God separated him. He made the nations understand that the God of all the earth had put His hand upon this man. It was shown in the natural, and, far more importantly, it was shown in the supernatural. When God finally has the right to circumcise you, principalities and powers know it. Things change. You walk in a new authority and in a new presence. You are of this world, but more and more, you are not a part of it. You are most likely not separated yet, but God wants you to be separated. He wants to do with you what He did with Abraham.

It does something to my mind when I think about what He said to this man, “I want to be a God to you.” (Genesis 17:7) Do you realize what He said? “I want to be the One to carry you on the wings of eagles. I want you to be the one to whom I reveal Myself. I'm going to cause your name to be written throughout posterity and eternity. I want this to happen by My revealing My Godhood to you. I want to do even more than reveal My Godhood—I want it to be an intimate relationship. I want to say things to you I will not say to others. I want to reveal to you what I will not reveal to others.” He could have revealed Himself to everyone on the face of the earth at that time. He could have, but He chose one man who had proven himself true. Abraham was tested and tried, over and over again, and he was found faithful. He was so faithful that God called him His friend. Through this man, God wanted to reveal His greatness. Now He did that through Pharaoh, too, but I like the way He did it through Abraham much better than Pharaoh. He can reveal His greatness in His wrath, or He can reveal His greatness in His goodness as He did with Abraham.

The Bible tells us that Jeremiah was set apart in the womb. (Jeremiah 1:5) When God has set you apart for the purpose of His plans and the destiny that He has determined, you cannot undo it. Notice that even today, Jewish people have a difficult time with Gentiles even if they really want to be great friends. Gentiles will only tolerate them, it seems, so much. Why? God, through circumcision, separated them from the Gentiles. What God has done, you cannot undo. Through this one man, God gave a special revelation to the whole world forever. He started it by saying to Abraham, “I want to be a God to you.”

What do you want from God? Are you walking with the sacrifices of your soul and flesh as described in Romans 12? Are you passing the tests? Are you learning how to be godly, humble, broken, and pure? Are you learning how to walk in faith? These were all lessons that Abraham had to learn as he grew and matured in God. Abraham walked on a very high pinnacle because God wanted to use him to speak to the world. But first, he could not be of the world; he had to be separated. Now there was a separation that took place through His blood which was applied to you when you gave your heart to Christ. I do not want to diminish that at all, but that is not what I am talking about. If you really want to walk with God, make a note of this: the greater the separation, the greater the revelation will be. Do you want revelation? Go through separation. I promise that you cannot separate yourself and say, “I don't want revelation” because it is automatic. The separation begets revelation. That is just the way it works.
 

To be continued next week...

In His Amazing Love,

Nita Johnson