Momentum

I sat in my favorite chair, praying over my lackluster state and confessing the selfishness and self-centeredness that had crept back in to my life the last week. I felt ashamed of how I'd handled many things of late as well as how I'd lost my focus on God. Not a pretty picture.

Without focus we wind up running on our own steam. And that's when I received a clear picture of momentum from God. It's like being in a soapbox racing cart at the top of the hill. You get that push to get you going and then you sail down the rest of the way, relying on the steepness of the road and gravity to keep you going as long as possible.

But then things level out a bit and your momentum begins to wain. Before long, your cart peters out and you come to a stop.

As I received this imagery I could hear God say, "You went back to relying on your own strength." Yep, I did. And I didn't even realize it until my cart came to a stop.

That's one of the dangers we have to be aware of. We have these great starts in whatever area God is calling us to walk. All the pieces seem to flow together and we can see so clearly the path God is calling us to walk. We move forward and take off, but then seem to lose our oomph.

Somewhere along the line we've shifted from functioning in God's strength to using our own. It's subtle and sneaky. I think this is one reason why God doesn't give us the complete picture when He draws us to a path because He knows how easily we switch to our own ability and perspective.

Our reliance on Him for every step may feel like weakness, but I find it takes greater strength, commitment and focus to wait on God in this manner than to barrel forward with my own plan.

And waiting on God is by no means a lack of movement or direction. It is our most challenging state of action as Believers in Christ and our highest form of trust and worship.

You know, God has the best ways of letting us know He's right there with us. As I sat and worked through this and prayed for His strength, my phone buzzed.

This was on the screen: "@JesusStrength is now following you."

I’m shaking my head and laughing. God even uses Twitter. There are no true barriers to God's presence and strength. I'm reminded again of that verse that says we have not because we ask not (James 4:2-3).

I firmly believe God loves it and is highly honored when we ask for more of Him, of His strength and His presence. He knows our own momentum will only carry us so far and He loves us so much that He will allow us to peter out to understand the difference between His unending strength and momentum verses our own limited capacity. In fact, I sense His great delight when I step back into His presence and ask Him to take over again. And that delight never seems to wain or diminish either. No matter how many times I have to ask.

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. — 1 John 3:21-22

And what are His commands?

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. — 1 John 3:23-24

I think we complicate things sometimes, thinking we have to meet a performance standard. I know I still struggle with this at times. I judge the state of my relationship with God with how I feel, what my circumstances look like and from my own perspective of how “well I am doing things.”

Where is my focus when I do this?

God breaks it down so easily for us. Believe Jesus and love each other. It’s all about abiding in Him, focusing on Him. This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about keeping our focus on God and it won’t be the last, I’m sure. We need constant reminders.

So, my precious friends, I leave you (and me!) with this mental image as a reminder. You’re in that go cart and God is about to give you a mighty shove down the track. That cart holding and protecting you along with that surge of excitement is the Holy Spirit in and around you. And Jesus is there at the finish line, cheering you on. As long as you hunker down (abide) and keep your eyes on Him (focus), you won’t lose momentum.

Grab your helmet and get ready to fly!


Love you!

Dineen

Image credit: 3quarks / 123RF Stock Photo

Our Righteous Trust Fund

Yesterday my daughter Leslie and I set out to handle transferring her trust fund into her possession. It’s such a small amount. I wish I could say as her parents that we’d managed our financial picture the best we could as there’s always room for improvement.

I didn’t think much of this small pittance. I only saw it as failure on our part. A failure to grow it more, add more, provide more. So I was totally caught off guard when she came to me in tears of gratitude. Didn’t matter that the amount was so small. She drew more from our love and intent behind the action than the result.

Sometimes we get so caught up on how things appear on the outside. Lately I’ve become very aware of how this manifests in our words and how we interact with the world. We worry about how we look in the sense of how others will perceive AND judge us. We worry about how our family appears to others, be they neighborhood or family friends or our church family—worrying how we are perceived AND perhaps judged there as well, especially when we are mismatched.

I’m learning that those things I’ve spent so much time worrying about often don't mean squat. In fact, when those thoughts or concerns creep in, I find myself saying, “I don’t care.” Or, “It doesn’t matter.” What matters is what God thinks.

And that’s what I felt like my daughter showed me yesterday. She showed me an unexpected perspective. God’s. Didn’t matter that the result hadn’t turned out the way I wanted it. She received something from it that I never expected.

Validation that she mattered..

And that’s truly what we want, isn’t it? As moms. As wives. As God’s children. We want to know that we matter, that our efforts makes a difference in the lives of those we love, like our children coming to know Jesus and walking in a faith relationship with Him that continues to grow and grow, right?

But what I’m also learning (and a bit painfully I might add) right now is that the results God has planned are so often different than what we think. At times they even seem counterproductive, like when God brings the most amazing fruit from our failed attempts.

Like when our weakness makes His strength all the more apparent.

My daughter received something much more meaningful than money from her parents’ meager attempts to provide. She received the intention in our hearts, to want only good for her.

And if that’s our hearts as parents, think about God’s heart for us, His children. When God shows up, we are validated as His children. We grow in our faith and trust, which brings us more boldness and freedom.

And His heart for our children is even bigger than ours. All those things we pray for our children—God wants them too. He wants them to know who He is. He wants them to know His goodness. He wants them to have a relationship with Him that rocks their world for Jesus.

I love what the second part of James 5:16 says:

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

My friends, we are the righteousness of Christ. That’s part of our inheritance, part of the trust fund Jesus set up when He died on that cross for us. We receive it when we ask Jesus to save us and as coheirs with Christ, we bear His righteousness.

So our prayers are powerful and effective. Statistics will try to tell us how ineffective we are, and based upon our own ability alone, they are probably true.

But the prayers of the righteous are effective because they are powerful and ongoing. The Greek word for effective is the same as the word we get energy from: energeo. And if you pay attention to the law of physics, energy continues to work. It doesn’t diminish or run out in a defined system.

In other words, our prayers don’t just peter out and fizzle. Every prayer of the righteous is ongoing, present tense and working. So in God’s system of prayer, righteousness and energeo, we are effective and our loved ones will be affected.

Those are statistics worth noticing and caring about. Ones we can believe and trust because God is the fuel behind them. And I’ve never known Him to run out.

You have my heart and prayers!
Dineen

Image credit: sqback / 123RF Stock Photo

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My friends, how has your week been? Have you faced some "giants" this week? I know I have and I'm feeling a little battle weary, but gave me such joy through it this week. I love how our God does this, right in the middle of our circumstances. 

I want to share a little verse I stumbled upon this week and find HUGE meaning in it. 

"What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs." — Matthew 10:27

Jesus spoke this to the Twelve as part of what He instructed them to go out and do. In this I see two key truths. One, remember what we know to be true. God spoke this to my heart this week when I cried out to Him in a dark moment, "What do you know to be true." It came not as question but as a statement. This is our strength, to take the truth and speak it out. It brings God's light into the darkness. 

In this moment, I literally spoke out loud—God is good, God is in control, God is an equipper and God is a redeemer (Romans 8:28). The darkness lifted and my peace was restored.

And two, that's what I'm doing right now. I'm proclaiming the truth from the rooftops of the internet, namely our blog. We can share God's truth more easily now than ever before. We live in amazing times!

So, my friend, remember what you know to be true and go shout it from the rooftops! God won't ever let us go!

Love and treasure each of you so very much!
Dineen 

How Does God Prepare Us?

So often we look at our circumstances, trials and challenges as contrary to what we think or thought God was doing in our lives. We see them as setbacks, deviations and mishaps—out of our control and seeminly out of God’s.

But lately I’m seeing the seemingly out of control chaos of life in a different light and I think many of you are starting to see this too, in terms of being mismatched.

We’ve talked a lot about how God redeems not only us but everything in our lives as well. Good and bad, He uses it all. But what I’m trying to get at is, what if we looked at even the hardest parts of our lives as preparation for whatever it is that God has called us to? What if in our attempts to just persevere we’ve limited ourselves to just the next step when God is working on our lifetime picture?

I want to show you some incredible examples right from the Bible—ones you and I are familiar with but sometimes need to see as a whole and in a slightly different perspective.

Specifically, God’s.

Take Esther. Her story is definitely ours. God put her in a position to move from simply being one of “the people,” an Israelite, to a queen who would use her influence to save her people. She went through a year—an entire year!—of preparation to step into this position. And God prepared the way for each step with His favor and provision in the form of a eunuch who saw her potential and a king whose heart was softened by her gentle presence.

How about Joseph? God gave Joseph a glimpse of his future purpose in dreams. His brothers’ jealousy led them to throw him into a pit, which led to slavery. As a slave, Joseph learned to run the household of an Egyptian official.

Joseph most likely learned the customs, culture and laws of this foreign land during this time. He organized and ran everything for Potiphar until his lust-driven wife falsely accused Joseph of assaulting her.

He’s thrown into prison where God’s favor leads the captain of the guard to put him in charge of an entire prison. All of it, including those incarcerated there. Joseph must have taken what he’d learned in running a household to now run a “household” of a much larger scale. Here he meets the cupbearer and the baker whose dreams most likely remind him of the ones God gave him as a youth.

Two years later the restored cupbearer remembers Joseph and suggests him to Pharaoh as a dream interpreter. Joseph is brought from managing a prison to now running an entire kingdom! All that he has learned again is crucial to managing the biggest “household” of all.

His journey begins and ends because of dreams and everything he’s endured, suffered and experienced has prepared him for what God first showed him—to be the saving presence and provider of a race of people. From pit to prison to palace, Joseph’s legacy would go on even after his death.

And what about Moses? He grew up in a palace and saw the workings of a kingdom managing its people. He’s then “thrust” into the seemingly menial task of managing herds of sheep for forty years. He’s gone from being an observer to having hands on training in managing masses.

All this was his preparation to step into leading over a million people from slavery to their promised land. From 40 years of corralling thousands of sheep to 40 years of managing an entire people population.

I’m sure at times these people must have wondered how God was working, just like we do. Or was God even in the picture! Just like we do at times when we see only the impossible standing in front of us so much taller than we are.

But what if instead, we faced down our giants? What if we began to see the potential instead of the purgatory? What if our entire mindset were to shift from just looking for how God would get us through to what is God preparing us for? Teaching us?

How is He growing me through this so that I am equipped to manage and do what He has next for me?

Many of you have shared in the comments recently that you are seeing how your mismatched marriage has drawn you closer to God, and that you even wonder if you would have gone so deeply and craved God’s presence otherwise.

I say let’s not waste time wondering but instead expend that energy asking God to show us what we can learn and jump in with both feet with expectation for what comes next.

Because this is our trust in action. This is our faithfulness to God. And right now I am astounded at how strongly, greatly, massively (I can’t find a better word) God responds to even the smallest step of faithfulness on our part with His great and overwhelming faithfulness to us.

We walk with the Holy God of the impossible. My friends, let’s walk like we believe it. I know it’s not easy—trust me, I’m struggling to do this myself right now, but the more I determine to do this and see things from this perspective, the more I walk in the Spirit and the joy of the Lord.

I begin to see what is impossible for me as POSSIBILITIES with God!

These are exciting times. We are living in a time of great revival, awakening—whatever you want to call it, God is doing it. And He’s preparing us—each of us—for our unique part in this great movement. Right now, right where we are. We are in training.

Let’s look for and walk in His presence, my friends. Every day. Every moment! Call out for Him to pour out His Holy Spirit over all the nations, over all His people, over all of us, and especially for those who don’t know Him.

Now is the time to get ready. God has big stuff for us!

Love you all so very, very much. You have my heart!
Dineen

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My friends, no matter where I go I keep hearing this same message. Special thanks to a friend who shared that a specific verse was on her heart and mind. When I read it, I knew it was meant for us and for all of God's daughters whom He's calling forth in amazing ways right now all over the world.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, Gods special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. — 1 Peter  2:9

Right before the last conference Lynn and I spoke at, God gave me a dream that I shared with the women who attended. I've had prophetic dreams before, just a couple that were directed just to me. But this one, this is the first one I've received that related to a global scale. I believe He wants me to share it here as well.

I was half awake, half asleep (it's possible it was a vision...I honestly don't know). I stood before a tall crop—corn I believe. Jesus stood next to me.

He gestured to the crop and said, "This is the Great Harvest."

I said, "Lord, I can't see past this, can you show me more?"

Suddenly I was up higher and could see tall mountains in the far distance. The crop spanned all the way to the mountains!

My friends, pray and seek God for how He is calling you forward. These are exciting times! God is moving in such a large scale right now. Many of us are hearing the same things! Share in the comments what you are hearing. I'd love to hear your thoughts and impressions of what God is doing.

I am so thankful for each one of you. That I can share this amazing journey with my fellow SUMites. God has so much and even more for us! 
Love you dearly!
Dineen

This is the entire worship session with Jesus Culture from the 2013 Power & Love Prophetic Conference at Bethel Church in Redding. Listen to all or bits and pieces, but do listen to Beni Johnson's message at about the 59 minute mark. You will be blessed with hope!

Wedding Pictures!!!

My friends, I'm so happy that I get to share these with you! The entire weekend was amazing! So full of love and joy. I felt all your prayers through the weekend for the wedding, for my daughter, for my health—all of it. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

As we drove to the wedding venue, my daughter Leslie excitedly pointed out this in the sky. Can you see the dove? It was so big and clear. I know this was God's sweet message to tell us His blessings were all over this event and marriage.

My biggest fear was having a coughing fit during the ceremony and I was fine for the entire day. The reception afterwards was truly the celebration I'd hoped it would be and more. Most of us danced and laughed into the night. It was glorious! 

Here are some pictures that are the highlights of the day. The photographer, Nerinna Valera, has even more on her Facebook Page here: Nerinna Valera Photography. She and her team are amazing!

 

Dad and Mom getting the bride ready...

Rachel with her sister Leslie 

A sweet moment between the bride and her grandma (my mother, Donna).

"First Meet" (Gives the bride and groom a private first meeting before the ceremony.)

Bridal Party!

Dad (Mike) walking our girl down the "aisle."

Mr. & Mrs. Silva!

Yes, that's Princess Leia with Han Solo (May 25th is the release date of all the Star Wars movies.)

Leslie giving a toast to the couple (and making us all cry!)

Thank you for sharing my joy, my friends, and for indulging me in this photofest. God so exceeded my expectations and answered all our prayers for an amazing and joy-filled day. I can't believe I have a married daughter! I can't believe I have a son-in-love! And I almost can't believe how richly blessed I am, but God keeps reminding me. 

Love you all so much!
Dineen 

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Weekend Worship — A Story of God's Faithfulness

Mr. and Mrs. Keith Silva

I call on you, my God, for you will answer me;
turn your ear to me and hear my prayer. — Psalm 17:6

My friends, this is a special day for me and my family. It's my oldest daughter's wedding day. For me it's also a testimony to God's faithfulness.

For years as I prayed over my girls, I have also prayed for the future men in their lives—for their future husbands. I prayed for men of integrity—godly men who knew Jesus and lived it out in their lives. I also prayed that God would prepare my girls and help them to be godly wives and helpers to their future husbands.

Today my daughter, Rachel, will walk down the aisle with this young man, Keith, who started "courting" her six years ago and is more than I prayed for or imagined. God answered my prayers far beyond my expectations. He is so good to this praying mama.

I'm so excited to see these two start their lives together. Already they exhibit the love and respect for each other as God intends it to be. I am so very proud of both of them and will now continue to pray for them to be united in their marriage and to love and respect each other as Christ tells us in Ephesians 6. 

So, rejoice with me, my Sumite family. Besides seeing my daughter and son-in-law speak their love and unite as one in marriage before family and friends, nothing gives me more joy today than sharing it with you.

I treasure and love you all so very, very much. Thank you for sharing this special day with me!
Dineen

Weekend Worship — Come Away!

My friends, Lynn and I are speaking at a women's retreat at Rancho Community Church in Temecula, CA this weekend. We are anticipating an amazing work of God in the women attending. As I write this, I'm days away from the event and Lynn and I are both anticipating the rebirth and renewal of faith, the release of the Holy Spirit and healing on so many levels. It's all part of what we've been sharing on the blog—God is moving in HUGE ways and calling His daughters forth.

In other words, a completely astonishing work of God!

I am already in awe of what our Almighty God does when we just let Him into our hearts and lives and give Him everything!

Have an amazing weekend drenched in the love and power of Jesus, my friends. I'm praying for the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn brighter than ever before in all of us! Amen!

Hugging you tight with love and prayers!
Dineen

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Weekend Worship — Overwhelmed by God

Then David the king went in and sat before the Lord and said, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far? This was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; but You have spoken of Your servants house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the standard of a man of high degree, O Lord God. What more can David still say to You concerning the honor bestowed on Your servant? For You know Your servant. O Lord, for Your servants sake, and according to Your own heart, You have wrought all this greatness, to make known all these great things. O Lord, there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. — 1 Chonicles 17:16-20

I love this part of David's story. He wanted to build a house of cedar for the ark of the covenant, to create a permanant home for the presence of God. But God totally turns it around and basically says He will establish David's kingdom through his family line and even speaks of His plans for David's descendants. God promises David He will never take His presence away from David and his family lineage.

Then David goes before the Lord and says, "Who am I, Oh Lord God, and what is my house that You have brought me this far?"

As I read this I felt myself overwhelmed by God's goodness. Imagine how David felt in this moment? He desired to honor God in the best way he could think of and God takes his offering and turns it completely around and multiplies it back to David. Our Lord is that GOOD!

Wow. Now think of our offering of ourselves. We become the temple of God's Holy Spirit, not a home of cedar but a home of the heart. And God takes our humble offering and multiplies it over and over again. We are blessed to be this "temple" to His Holy Spirit in ways we will not completely understand until we are made complete in Christ and stand in His presence.

I am overwhelmed by God's grace, generosity and goodness. We can't outgive God. His delight in us exceeds perception and understanding. His faithfulness endures forever!

Oh Lord, who are we that You would give us Your very Spirit to live and dwell in us? We are Your children, Your chosen and loved ones whom You bless over and over again with Your very goodness. Thank You, Lord, for bringing us this far. Thank You, Lord, for regarding us and loving us in such high degree. Thank You, Lord, for Your greatness and all that You do in and through us. Abba, there is no one like You! We adore you, Jesus! Amen!

Love you, my friends, so very very much. We belong to the Most High God and we are His delight! 
Dineen 

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God is an Equipper

God is an Equipper

My friends, we are witness to amazing times right now. God is doing some really big stuff right now all over the world. First, I want to share some Bible verses that caught my attention years ago and now God has brought front and center again. Take a look at two often overlooked people in the Old Testament by the names of Bezalel and Oholiab.

Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you: the tent of meeting, and the ark of testimony, and the mercy seat upon it, and all the furniture of the tent, the table also and its utensils, and the pure gold lampstand with all its utensils, and the altar of incense, the altar of burnt offering also with all its utensils, and the laver and its stand, the woven garments as well, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons, with which to carry on their priesthood; the anointing oil also, and the fragrant incense for the holy place, they are to make them according to all that I have commanded you. — Exodus 31:1-11

God literally put this ability into these two men and all who were considered skillful to create and build the Tabernacle as God designed it. We tend to think we are born with a skill set and it’s done. According to this, the specific skills and knowledge needed came at the time of need. Not only that, God called specific people forth, namely Bezalel and Oholiab.

Remember this is Old Testament times where God chose specific times to give His Spirit to specific men and women He called to specific tasks. And in each case God gave these people wisdom, understanding and knowledge and equipped them for their specified calling. (Consider David, Samuel and Esther to name a few.)

Now let’s jump to the New Testament, to another piece of Scripture that also captured my attention years ago and has intrigued me ever since. This one is about you and me.

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. — Ephesians 1:18-21

Let me just interject here how amazing I find it that Jesus was also known as a carpenter. To think of His earthly profession in light of Him also being the One who created and all was created for (Col. 1:16-17), it makes perfect sense He would create with His hands as a man as well. Just a thought...

Now back to the equipping part. As I said, in Old Testament times God gave His Spirit according to a specific need or task or calling to specific people He chose to accomplish His purposes.

Then Jesus came to give all of us His Spirit, once and for all—not just a portion in accordance to a task or purpose here on earth but in the full sense of a heavenly calling.

According to Ephesians 1:18-21 God’s complete and great power is “toward us who believe” and is in accordance to the “strength of His might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.”

In other words, the same power that resurrected Jesus—brought Him back to life—dwells in us who believe—God’s complete and Holy Spirit.

Let that sink in deep for a moment, my friends. If I were speaking, I would stop here for a “pregnant pause,” because I am absolutely desperate for you to understand this. We are not given just a portion to accomplish a momentary task. No, we have been given “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” for now and all time—eternity. God has given what He holds dear to whom He holds dear. We are His saints and Christ’s inheritance (vs. 18).

And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. —Ephesians 1:22-23

When I first stumbled upon this truth and spoke it out loud, I’m sorry to say my church family at the time thought I was a bit “over the top,” and me being so new to this walk of faith at that time thought I had overstepped my ability and knowledge to understand God’s Word. In truth it wasn’t me interpreting or understanding this truth, but the Holy Spirit—that same power that resurrected Christ, living in me and equipping me with the knowledge and wisdom to understand God’s Word.

When I first stumbled upon this truth and spoke it out loud, I’m sorry to say my church family at the time thought I was a bit “over the top,” and me being so new to this walk of faith at that time thought I had overstepped my ability and knowledge to understand God’s Word. In truth it wasn’t me interpreting or understanding this truth, but the Holy Spirit—that same power that resurrected Christ, living in me and equipping me with the knowledge and wisdom to understand God’s Word.

That same power lives in you, my friends. Why wouldn’t it? Ask yourself that. Why wouldn’t God equip you just as He equips all of us with the power and authority Jesus came and died for in order to give it to us? Will He give you less or more than anyone else? No, He came for all so that all would be filled and completely equipped!

My fellow Sumites, we are all part of the church, the body of Christ. The question is not whether the Holy Spirit lives in you but how much do you want Him to fill and empower and equip you on a day-to-day basis?

Ask for it, walk in it, live it. That’s what God is calling us to do right now—to ask for His Holy Spirit to fill and over flow in us, to walk in this place of boldness and reassurance of His presence in us in complete fullness, and to live as if we are seated in this power with Christ in the heavenly realms, looking down at our trials and challenges from a heavenly perspective instead of looking from the depths of our fear and wondering how God will show up.

God is already there. God is in every situation we face because He’s in you. In all of us. We are completely equipped.

So here’s a final question for you: If Jesus is seated in the heavenlies and also dwells in us, why do we think of heaven and earth as being so separate? What if the gap between heaven and earth is much smaller and thinner than we ever realized?

I'm pondering that one with you!
Love you!
Dineen