My heart for everything that I’m going to share is not to give you information. It is to give you an opportunity for an impartation, an opportunity for an encounter with God.
We go from glory to glory. We are hugged into holiness, right? We experience our true identity only in our intimacy with God; only in the secret place with Him do we discover who we truly are. It’s not something that happens in the head space. It’s something that happens in the heart space. This has been my prayer for you: that your heart would be open, receptive, and ready to receive because God wants to encounter you today. Ready or not, right?
Experience His love in a transformative way.
Recently, I had an experience where I was ministering to somebody who was going through an intense struggle in their life. I poured out my heart, and I shared scripture. I shared what I felt God’s heart was and felt so much love and compassion for them and wasn’t being preachy at all.
Afterward, their response to me was, “I already know all that.”
I felt that. I said, “I love you,” and just continued to pray for them. But I share that because afterward, I wondered what would make somebody respond that way to your goodness.
We’ve all been in that place, right? Where there’s hurt or there’s pain or there’s some confusion about why God would allow disappointment and unfulfilled expectations. We feel like God let us down or somebody let us down. Whatever it may be, there’s something there in our hearts that makes it a little bit hard to receive God’s love or God’s truth at a particular pain point in our lives.
I want to start off with us letting all the walls down, not for me, but for the Holy Spirit to come in, envelop you, and for you to experience His love in a transformative way. I pray that He gets through all the crusties in our hearts, all the reasons, all the excuses that we’ve made, all the self protections—everything that hinders His love from penetrating deeply.
Let’s pray:
Father, no matter where we are in our journey, we need you. We want you. Today, we lay everything down. We do, Lord. Nobody knows us like you know us. Nobody sees us like you see us. You know every intimate detail of our lives, Lord, and you love us completely. Just like the old hymn says, Lord, just as we are, just as I am, I come, Lord. We come before you, not compartmentalizing, but bringing all of who we are before you, Lord. We lay every single thing down: the good, the bad, the ugly, everything. All of our accomplishments, all of our failures, all of our hurts, all of our hopes, all of our dreams, all of our wants, all of our prayers, everything. Lord, we lay it at your beautiful feet. It all belongs to you.
We belong to you, Jesus, and we know we are wanted. You want each one of us. We are treasured in your heart, wanted, dearly loved, sought after, and pursued by the king of heaven. We’re not just one of many to you, Lord. We are your dearly loved sons and daughters, irreplaceable in your heart.
So, we come to you today, Lord. We lift our cup. You’re the only one who can truly fill us, and we ask you today to fill us, Lord, with the truth that sets us free. Thank you, Lord. Your promise to us is that loving you empowers us to obey you. You give us the power to live the beautiful life that you have planned for us. It’s all in you. It’s all by your grace. Thank you, Lord. Amen.
The only one who truly knows you: God, your maker.
There’s only one person. The only one who truly knows you: God, your maker. He made you. He knows you. He designed you outside of intimacy and friendship with him. We’re lost. That’s why we call unsaved people lost. They don’t know the love of their creator. They don’t know who they really are. They’re wondering, What do we do when we are lost when we don’t know the love of God? We wander, and we search for meaning. We search for significance. We look for hope, even in the world. We chase the fountain of youth and long-life longevity. We try to make ourselves our own god.
But we only come into our true identity and find that peace in Christ. Religion, in all of its many faces and names, says, “Try harder, do more, be more.” But Jesus says, “Listen to me.” He’s the polar opposite of religion. He says, “Come to me. I am your oasis. Simply join your life with mine, and you’ll find rest. I’m easy to please.” Matthew 11:28-30 (TPT)
