Teddi, Lovest Thou Me? Feed My Sheep 5/24/2012

How great You are, God!!! How great You are!!!

As I listen to that song, How Great Is Or God, playing to me as I write what You are laying on my heart just now…

I mean right now…9:33 a. m…Thursday, May 24, 2012…

How so amazing it is…How unworthy I am…but because I love You, my Shepherd…and I hear Your voice…I sit before You now…

Not because I have nothing to do…

I have clothes washing…I have my granddaughter watching a movie…just having had her breakfast…

I’ve gone out and looked over the plants in the yard…and as I go …I hear You…

You talk to me…You walk with me and talk to me in the garden…just like You have always done from the beginning…with Adam and Eve…

One of my favorite songs…I Come to the Garden Alone…and I walk with Him and talk with Him…and He tells me I am His own…Woo Hoo!!!

I can hardly sit here…LORD…rocking…trembly almost…Your presence…LORD!!! How great You are!!!!

Listening now to When I Survey the Wonderful Cross…O the Wonderful Cross…

Thanks to Beka, my niece, and Mary…that I’m even on this blogsite that I had quite a mess of when I sat with her…then, they talked and worked on it…

And, here it is!! Anointed of You, LORD!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!!

Love so amazing…so divine…!!! Sing to me computer…J!!!!!

Now, let’s see…I’m hearing from two older things that I’ve written…combined with what I’ve heard from our leader on Shinegirls…

You know sometimes I hear things or see pictures…that I have to shelf until I know what to do with them…that’s been my younger years of hearing and holding…meditating…and writing…

I’d hear write…and I’d have the writer’s block of all writers’ blocks…couldn’t write a thing…at least…not until I sat down and the Holy Spirit would take over and write …things that I still have to go back and read…

I don’t understand it all…believe me…but when He says Trust me! It’s not just for that 1^st step into this marvelous race we’re in…

It’s for every trek of the way!!!  I mean even vocabulary that I may not know much of only heard…and sometimes not…have to look up to be sure…comes up! 

Now, I’m hearing Amazing Grace!!! I once was lost, but now I see!!!!!!

Woo Hoo!!!!

I may have to turn it down…to stay focused…but I’m loving it, LORD!!!!

Thank You for the writers of these songs!!!

My God, My Savior, rescued  me!!!...unending love…amazing Grace!!!!

The first picture I see today…or saw…bringing back to me was that wonderful story about Judy…that old goat…

No sense in re-inviting the wheel here…I’ll copy paste from the other writing this part…and edit where led by my Shepherd…

When I learned this…My Purpose ( the name of the post on this blog)…it was sooo wonderfully real…I still owned Judy…and this was burned in my heart forever…and I’ve shared many times over…
,

Here goes…(excerpt from My Purpose dated Jan. 10, 2012)

Among the thoughts…today…came a wonderful memory of a teaching God gave me many years ago..when I was pondering my purpose.  At the time I had a big ole’ goat named Judy. The old woman, who sold me Judy, was named Bernice…and she shared with me about goats…all who in her herd loved her much! Bernice dressed a lot like a man…working outside…and had a cigarette that hung out of her mouth when she talked..and Judy loved the tobacco as Bernice would give her like it was a treasure.

I bought Judy in order to milk her. I had read about the Proverbial woman in Proverbs 31, and I had actually wanted a cow but did not have enough pasture…in fact I had a rough pasture. Judy loved it though..just right for a goat.  I did milk her and my children and I drank the milk.  As they got older, they hated it because nobody liked goat milk. However, I used the milk…sold it to people with bone and digestive problems. It became a ministry.

Well, one day…I don’t know if I was sleeping or awake ..but I could see a man …a caretaker of the goats…like a shepherd of sheep.  He was feeding the goats that were in the fence…older ones and babies.  He was throwing hay over the fence. 

The LORD asked me who was he and what was he doing? I described just as I said above, and I realized that the LORD was teaching me a lesson. This man was a pastor…he was feeding the flock…and Judy was eating and being filled.  

The LORD said, “What about the babies?”  “They can’t eat the grain or the hay,” I said. “They nurse their mothers…like Judy with her babies.”  The LORD said,  “You are a Judy.” You eat the meat.  You chew and chew..digesting…and nurturing with the milk.  Then, you teach the baby to eat the hay…at first it is so bad…they keep trying to bypass the hay and get to the Mama for milk.  She has to kick…to push them away…to cause them to have to eat the hay and the grain…to be able to fend for themselves.  

Enlightenment!! So illumined in the Truth of it all! I wasn’t the shepherd, but the Mama…the older woman…teaching the younger woman…

Again, this picture is so powerful!!! Notice that Judy 1^st nurses her babies.  Judy eats the hay and grain…digests the food…and then allows the babies to suck at her breasts…to get the nourishment needed to live!

Then, what does she do? Judy would kick the baby away, continuing to eat the grain or hay…modeling before those babies how to eat…I’m tearing now at the wonder of our God!!!

The same one that nurtures from the breast must be the one who shows by doing how to make it…how to fend for themselves…how to be the adult goats…the future mothers to pass on the goat-life…

I think of the birds…we have had a wonderful bird nest for the last couple of years under the eave of our roof…sooo precious, watching the birds sit on the eggs…squawk at the predators…feed those babies from their mouths…and then, what is their job???

After modeling how to fly before them many times, they push the babies from the nest!!!  Sounds cruel…huh??

Can you imagine if they did not do this? 

Can You hear Holy Spirit speaking to our hearts???

There’s more...

LORD, help us take it all in today…I mean this day!!!  May we hear You today!!! 

I was talking to my prayer warrior partner of nearly 30 years just here lately, how thankful I am that my predecessors…my mentors …have not been easy on me. 

Funny, just before that came up, during prayer time, in voice 3 of the prayer blanket…I was praying and until I added, “We bind that coddling spirit especially from mothers, in Jesus’ Name. 

I meditated later and brought up in this discussion with Emily…and as we talked the revelation of that spirit not only preventing children from maturing into adults in the natural…

That wicked spirit is preventing children in the body of Christ…in the Church…from gowing into mature Believers…

The prayer in Ephesians is on hold…smothered by that coddling spirit…

I could hear it when I sounded the alarm of the LORD’s coming that I hope you read already…(www.womenwhopraybiblestudy.blogspot.com )

I can hear it when I speak to friends and family of mine’s children…

LORD, forgive me if I’ve done the same thing.  We pray for disciplers for our children and then get in the way of our spouses, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, friends from being the disciplers.

Why is that? I’ve done it.  We are jealous? Or what? I’m not accusing…I’m not judging…I’m in here, too. 

We think that if our children have an easier time of it than us…they will somehow make it?

We think that if our children don’t know He’s returning soon that that will stop anything??

What if we die? What if we are not here to help them get there.  We can’t cut their meat…or chew it…we can’t nurse them until they are school-age.

I know that’s disgusting…I nursed my children…all of them until about a year…and I know women who did longer…but only 6-months or a year or so longer…

I was sooo incensed that that mother made it look sexual!! I was angry. 

Until today…this day…right now…as I write this down…I did not see that this is the state the Church is in…

Our children…can’t fend for themselves!!! It’s not only mothers who coddle, today…but coddling mothers become coddling grandmothers to the children who will let them coddle…

And, don’t we see men coddling today?  So amazing to me when I hear children talking rudely to their fathers…and their grandfathers??  More amazing is when that “man”? allows that.

My grandgirls hear from Mimi if they talk back to their Dads or Pop!  I try to correct all disrespect but I have children correcting me for correcting the disrespect…or rolling eyes…or moving on.

Respect starts at home…what about the future? Will they respect teachers? Policemen? Judges? The law?

Of course not…not if they don’t respect their nurturers.

This next except was written in the early 80’s, in a book I wrote and published.  There are no more copies, except in my computer…but here’s the excerpt…

One day, I was really finding myself quite concerned about the body of Christ, the Church.  Everywhere I looked, there seemed to be strife, bickering, arguments, and confusion among Believers.  There was fighting going on between denominations and within denominational lines and just plain old squabbling going on between brothers and sisters in Christ.

There were judgments and condemnations being passed off as rebukes of love as well as one denomination accusing another denomination of being of the devil.  There were arguments over baptisms, gifts of the Spirit, women wearing men’s clothing, legalism versus license to sin, an on and on.

As I studied God’s WORD, I read about how Paul rebuked the Church at Corinth for this same reason:

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? (1 Corinthians 3: 1-3)

I said,“Lord, that’s exactly what is going on in your body. Jealousy, quarreling and division abound.  I meet people who I know love you and are serving you to the best of their ability; and the next thing I know, they are criticizing someone else who I know is also your child.  I’ve been guilty of doing the same thing, myself.  Please forgive me!”

Then, the Lord said,

“My children are just like your children.  They begin on milk, and just like any newborn baby, they cry out to me for every little thing.  As tiny babies, all they can do is cry.  If they study my WORD, they begin to crawl and jabber; and, then they toddle and speak one word at a time.  As they begin to walk, they should also begin speaking a little louder and a little clearer.

Learn from me.  Do not give your children more responsibility than they can handle, but do not allow them to remain babies with no responsibilities either.  Do everything in order.  Let you toddler get up on his feet.  Let Franklin walk, and let him fall.  Be there as a loving parent, just as I AM there for you when you fall.

In the spiritual realm, the toddler’s fall represents sin.  As you confess your sin, I forgive you and help you to your feet.  If you fail to confess your sin, you continue to struggle and cry, sometimes never returning to your walk.

Do not carry your children while they are learning to walk, unless they are tired, for they must learn to walk if they are to be mature men.  It is the same with your spiritual children, both your husband and sons and your brothers and sisters in Christ who follow behind you.  Let them walk, but let them know that you are there to lend a helping hand.

Do you hear it?  Holy Spirit is saying that we all must learn to walk if we are to be mature.  The Word says in Ephesians that we are growing into a mature man. 

We, mothers in the natural, or mentors in the spirit…we wonder why we are exhausted?  We are carrying ones that should be old enough to walk…some us lifting and carrying ones with long legs almost touching the ground…

We are cutting up their meat? We are waiting on them hand and foot.  We cook.  We clean.  We run them everywhere.  And, we are soooo appreciated??? Not on your life.

It becomes expectation…not appreciation.  Words become bossy and judgmental from children about parents and grandparents that become doormats.

Sorry, if I’m stepping on any toes.
 

I was saying to Emily in that discussion this morning, how thankful I was for my tough parents…my tough teachers…my tough mentors…in the natural and in the spiritual things…

My Mama…Baba...would say, “Is your leg broke?” …if I asked her to wait on me when she was busy. 

Or, after she saw that I wasn’t hurt…she’d say, “That’s enough crying.”

If she corrected me and I cried, she said, “Do you need something to cry for?”

Daddy’s…Paw Paw’s…favorite words if I said, “Wait a minute..” was “Do you want some wait a minute medicine?

We did not interrupt adults who were talking.  That was a problem.  We did not take a 2^nd helping of chicken in case someone else wanted it…especially and adult.

All my teachers…my favorite ones that is…taught me how to get it for myself…whether it was Algebra…or diagramming sentences…and all made me wait my turn.

In the spiritual realm…when Barbara, a precious black woman, obeyed God and came to my house to share the power of the Holy Spirit with me…and how did she do that?

She modeled before me.  I spent a lot of time with her. 

When I’d be a softie…she’d remind me of my sanguine temperament (Tim and Bev LaHaye’s books)…

She was tough as a boot!! (my mother’s words!)

She would speak the Word!  Deliverance would come!

She would pray the Word, and I saw people healed.

I wanted her anointing!  I wanted what she had that I didn’t have!

And, precious saints, she couldn’t give it to me…I had to get it for myself!

Barbara would spend much time in prayer and ministry…and she still does…and she’s about 5 years older than me give or take a year…

Emily entered the picture and Ray her husband…I attended the same church with them for awhile…

Ray would teach me something new every time I called Emily!

I was probably just like you are about now…wishing this blog would end…because Ray would expound on the Word…teaching it simply…

I watched as Ray prayed for my son…and healing was present in that room…

I was delivered from rejection under his ministry…

I learned to pray in the spirit and in my understanding every day because of my friendship with Emily…

I’d call on her to pray and she’d ask, “Have you prayed in the Spirit yet?”  When I said not yet, she’d say, “Call me back when you do?”

I learned from these precious ones and from Word-based books that I submerged in…that I had to work out my salvation…just like the Word says.

I had to lean on Christ, myself. 

Yes, I minister corporately each morning…and I use a script…one the LORD told me to write…much, much Word in it.

If I were not to be there, I believe the Prayer Blanket would continue…because it prays itself…regardless of who joins us…We pray His WORD that goes forth to accomplish what He has purposed everyday…

I have ones that come on and don’t come back…or who show up sporadically … or who come on the fb…ask for prayer…

I never don’t say, “Do you have the prayer blanket?” or, “Are you praying daily…tarrying an hour…is what the LORD asked His disciples?”

I sound like a broken record…but…

Aren’t we the last days Church?…and aren’t we preparing for the LORD’s return?

Are you interceding for your tent daily?

Matthew 24 says in says…like in the Days of Noah…when they are eating and drinking and being merry…going about their business as if there is not a storm brewing…

Not paying attention!

I mean, if I was telling you to prepare for an earthquake or volcano eruption…or for a tornado? Or hurricane? Or terroristic attack?

Would you be preparing a place of safety?

Would you?

Would you be teaching your children?  Would they know what to do?

I love seeing mothers spending a lot of family time doing fun things…

I love, as a grandmother doing the same…

But, I hear the Shepherd say…

Prepare Your heart. Clean before me by the washing of water by the Word.  Cleansed from the inside out.

Take time to be Holy…You make time to be Holy…

If you don’t have time to be Holy…you don’t have time to do anything else…

We worry about how we look…and if we have the right clothes…and the right food and drink…but the LORD says do not!!!!!

Is this disobedience?  Yes!!!

He says, Be anxious for nothing! Fear not!!!

Each time He tells us how …

Seek first the Kingdom …pray in the spirit and with our understanding…

Pray with all prayer and supplication for the Saints…

We believe that it’s just us and ours! Our 3 or 4 or 5 or however many we have in our family…and if we cover them that’s our purpose.

That is step 1 …but we can’t stay on step 1
…

Yes, we’ve begun well to get to and do step 1 correctly…

But…on to step 2 and 3 and 4 and on and on…

Picture if all of us who pray for our own would join arms and face outside…placing our families and friends that we interceded for behind us…

Instead of say 1,000 small groups of 4-8 or so all turned in leaving the back uncovered…

We now area 1,000 strong…with all our tents together under one big tent…

We are all facing out…arms linked…and standing and armed in the armor of God…with our shields and swords between the enemy and us…all that is ours is behind us…

Instead of only 4,000 or 8,000…with each one of us chasing 1,000.

We are 1,000 with each one chasing 1,000…7 of us chase 1 billion…10 chase 1 trillion…and on and on…God’s multiplication table.

I love you, family and friends of mine…I love you!!!!

I mean regardless of whether you ever listen to me…I love you. 

Also, I please my LORD, because I believe Him when He says He’s given us all talents…and some are planting…sowing and reaping…multiplying…

I pray that’s you!

I pray you are not hiding yours under a bushel…leaning on others…moving from one place to another never finding your place in this Army of God…

I pray you decide today to stop and hear Your Shepherd, calling you …

Can you hear Him?

Prepare yourself and your children. 

We are not promised one more day.

Today is the day of salvation.

I used think that that meant that one-time thing we do to become a child of God.

But, we are working out our salvation…

We have entered the race…and some of us have been on rabbit trails…stopping and being totally off focus…

While others like the tortoise are making headway…even with all the obstacles…one step at a time.

I hear You LORD!!! I’m coming!!!!

And, all that will come with me, I’ll bring with me!!!

Follow me as I follow the LEADER!!!

JESUS the CHRIST!!!!

Woo Hoo!!!!

What a glorious day that will be when we all see Jesus …face to face…and hear…

Well-done…Thou good and faithful servant!!!

Love you,

Teddi