In my last blog I had asked for prayer because God had give both my husband and I opportunities to minister to His people. I would like to thank everyone for praying. My husband was asked to join the next team that would be going to minister to the prisoners. They had great results during their weekend with many men recommitting their lives or accepting Jesus for the first time. I shared this past Sunday what God had given me about Israel. It is not only a message for Israel but it is a message for the church today or the Bride of Christ. I do thank all that prayed for I know that without your prayers and God's anointing I would have not been able to do what I did on Sunday. I am posting below the message that I delivered to my church family. God wants His Bride to be ready and waiting for Him, are You ready? 

Arise Bride of Christ, Arise

Lord as I start writing this in preparation to share it with all that You have chosen to hear I pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide my words and thoughts and that I will only share what You want me to share. And again Lord  as I prepare to physically share this in whatever menu you place in my path I pray that I will only share the message that You want me to. This is not my message but this is Your message for Your end times church.

I was given the opportunity to visit Israel in June of 2007. As much as I would like to share with you details of the biblical sites and how great the trip was and how it made the Bible come alive in ways that I could have never imagined, that is not what I am to share. I went to Israel without any preconceived ideas. I had never visited Israel before and was looking forward to seeing where Jesus walked and where some of the different stories and events in the Bible occurred. God had something else in mind to reveal to me and that is what I am to share with you.

We as the Bride of Christ are called to be ready. We do not know when Jesus will return but we are called to be ready.

Matthew 24:3-14 “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all^[a]these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences,^[b] and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Matthew 24:36-44 36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven,^[a] but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour^[b] your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Matthew 25:1-13, Jesus tells us the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, five were ready when the bridegroom came for his bride but five were unprepared.

Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells us the parable of the talents. 14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, ‘Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
29 ‘For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

God wants us to be ready and prepared, He wants us to be living our lives right here right now for Him. He wants us to be using the talents that He has given each one of us to advance his kingdom and to draw all men to Him.

As the body of Christ we have become very divided. What do the unsaved, those who have no clue as to who Jesus is, see when they look at us? Do they see Jesus or can they not distinguish us from others in their lives?

God allowed me for reasons which I do not understand to experience what I can only refer to as a small glimpse of what He feels for His chosen people, Israel, and for us today. As I visited Dominus Flevit (which is a dome shaped Franciscan church shaped like a tear, which means The Lord Wept) and the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, I was overcome with such grief.

Jesus knew that Israel would reject Him.

Luke 19:41-44,  41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

The grief that I felt that day was that He is not only weeping over the Jewish nation (He wept then and is still weeping today) but He is also weeping over both me and you. Are there things that He has told you to do but you haven’t yet because you have made excuses? Are there things in your life that you know should not be there but you say, well that’s just the way I am, knowing that it does not please God? I could not be sharing this with you if God had not already been working on me in these areas. I don’t want God weeping over me because I have been disobedient. I want to hear the words that He told the faithful servant in the parable of the talents, (Matthew 25:21,23) 23 His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

The Jewish nation has missed God. They go to the Western Wall and offer up prayers to Him not realizing that they have missed Him. They are so set in traditions and rituals that they can not see that He has moved on. They can not see that He did a new thing over 2000 years ago and they missed Him. How many times have we missed Him because we have said that He does not work that way any more or He won’t work that way? How many times have we missed Him because the person He is using to give us a message is either too old or too young or the wrong gender? How many times have we missed Him because we have placed Him in a box and tried to limit a limitless God? How many times has He grieved over us when we have missed him?

We have a powerful weapon. We have a weapon that if we choose to use it we can move mountains, cut down the enemy and bring life to the lost. This weapon was not allowed to be taken into a Muslim controlled area of Jerusalem. This weapon was not allowed on the Temple Mount. This weapon is the Word of God. Hebrews 4:12, 12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. My Bible had to be left on top of the x-ray machine at security because the Muslims in charge were threatened by the Word of God. We need to learn the Word of God, have it written on our hearts and obey and live it out in front of everyone. When we have the Word of God written on our hearts then no one can take it away from us and we will be ready to use the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit even when we are not allowed to have our Bible physically with us.

There is one more thing that I want to share with you. I visited the Holocaust Memorial. As I started to walk around I also tried to take pictures but God had other plans because for some reason unknown to me my camera stopped working. As you walk through the memorial it is at your own pace. There is so much to look at, listen to and watch. While I was walking around reading and hearing the stories of victims of the Holocaust my heart became so heavy with grief. There were many times that I just had to sit down, crying, mourning and resting for a bit before going on. I could have found an exit and waited outside for my group to finish but I knew that God wanted me to continue. I got to the point where all that I could do was to look at pictures, I could no longer listen to videos or read long stories, for I could only handle reading short captions.

At this point I was not only grieving and mourning the lose of these precious people but I had also started to grieve for the future. If we as the church of God, the Bride of Jesus Christ do not start being the church that is described in Mark 16:14-20,    
14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they^[a] will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Christ Ascends to God’s Right Hand

   
19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.^[b]

then we are headed for a holocaust worst then what happened at the hand of the Nazi’s. We need to be people who are like David who God called a man after His own heart. We need to be people who stop looking like the world but look more and more like Christ each and every day. We need to be people who stop making excuses and are obedient. We need to be people who do not fear man but fear the Lord. We need to be people who know the Word of God and live our lives to His glory. We need to be people who are ready for battle. Ephesians 6:10-18, “10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,^[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; 16 above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. 17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; 18 praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—“

God is moving in these last days, will you be ready? If we do not know Him, follow Him, obey Him then we will be like sheep without a shepherd and have no one to blame but ourselves.

God does not desire what you have left over at the end of the day. He desires an intimate relationship with you that is growing deeper and deeper each day. He desires a Bride who is ready and waiting fully prepared to meet her Bridegroom. Arise Bride of Christ and make yourself ready for the Bridegroom is soon coming.

Lord I feel as though I have done as You have asked me to do. I place this in Your hands, I give it to You to be used as You want it to be used.

When I was watching the news last week I heard of one the weather forecaster make this comment, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". My first reaction was to say 'No, it's not'. This was when I began to think about what Christmas really looks like.

Christmas isn't about the decorations, presents and Santa Claus. It isn't even about the family gatherings. It isn't about the snow or the lack of it. Why is it that we have come to associate these things with what Christmas looks like?

My husband and I had a chance to visit Israel in June of 2007. We lived in Florida at the time of our trip. While we were touring Israel one of the things that I noticed was that the weather in Israel and Florida are very similar. So that says to me that the first Christmas was not a white or snowy one, which is what the forecaster seemed to think Christmas looked like. 

The first Christmas was also very humble. God had sent His Son Jesus to the earth but not in the way that was expected. God chose to send His Son to be born in Bethlehem and then to lay in a manger or feed trough. (Luke 2: 4-7) Jesus left heaven and all its wonder (Rev. 4:2-11) where He was worshiped and came here to a place where people plotted His death, rejected Him, beat Him and then hung Him on a cross. The Jews of that day were expecting a conquering King, One who would free them from the Romans. This is one of those times when I am glad that God did not give man what he thought he wanted and gave him instead what he needed.

So what does does Christmas look like? What does the true meaning of Christmas look like? I believe that it is not the hustle and bustle that the world has made it. But it is recognizing that the Baby that was placed in the feeding trough years ago has come to bring us great JOY. That Jesus was born for each one of us this day and everyday. He was born  because we have a heavenly Father who keeps His promises. He was born because every person that has ever lived, is living now or will live in the future needs a Savior. he was born because through His anointing we are made whole and the yoke and bondage that was a part of our lives is broken through His power. He was born because He is Lord. He is no longer the Babe in the manager but He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the All Powerful One.

Since the beginning we have been at war. Not one which is physical but one that is spiritual. Christmas is not about getting involved with all of the secular celebrations but about sharing Jesus Christ with all of those around. It's about sharing that the Babe in the manager came to give life, eternal life to all who accept His free GIFT.

If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and asked Him to come live in your heart now is the time. Jesus wants to have a personal relationship with you. He loves you so much that if you were the only person on the earth that ever sinned He would still come and die on the cross for you. He does not want you to live in bondage to sin any longer. He came to bring us all life, hope and healing. The choice is now yours, do you accept His free gift of salvation and eternal life or not?

Merry Christmas to all and God Bless!