We're in a preparation stage -- getting ready for the Bridegroom. And the Bride/we are making ourselves ready. We want to be beautiful. We want to be pure, clean, bright, radiantly white for the Bridegroom. 

Everyday we need to be attentive -- not waste time on unnecessary things -- lusting after the world, lusting after the flesh.

It requires a pure heart. We need to be intentional. Periodically, we need to examine the heart -- allow God, through the Holy Spirit, to circumcise our hearts. 

Ask God: Would you take your flashlight, and would you shine that flashlight all over my heart? And, if there's anything that needs to be cut away, anything that is (unholy, unrighteousness) inhibiting me from freely loving you, God? Would you cut it away? 

And where He cuts, also ask Him to heal that cut. Heal it with righteousness. 

Take a moment. Focus on giving God the time to circumcise your heart. Willingly expose yourself so that you can confess (acknowledge, agree) the sin. 

You want t...

I'm making my wedding garment -- my spiritual garment. I want it to be right. 

Every day I'm paying attention to the details.

"Fine linen" refers to the righteous acts of the saints. "Bright, clean" refers to purity. 

A wedding is coming.

Jesus is the Bridegroom. God is the Father of the Bridegroom. We, that have received Jesus (that's the Church, the believers), are the Bride. And, we're making ourselves ready -- for the wedding ceremony, the marriage.

The Custom of the Jewish Wedding

First, there's an arrangement -- usually the parents of the bride and groom agree. There would be a price to pay for the bride. The next phase is a betrothal ceremony. There is a cleansing. They would promise to one another and would be legally married, even though they still lived in separate houses and had not consummated the relationship. The next phase is a preparation period. The bride would go back to her home and prepare herself for the bridegroom. She didn't know when the groom would be co...

God has a plan and purpose for our children and grandchildren. 

Be intentional to pray for your child - and pray with them.

Prayer is a privilege. It's the most important thing you will ever do. 

1. Be intentional to pray for them. Do it! Consider it as essential as eating a meal. 

We're seeking Him because we need Him -- inviting God in. Otherwise, we are being presumptuous; we are taking Him for granted. 

2. Pray specifically. The more specific your prayers are, the more the Holy Spirit will move according to your prayers. 

3. Pray the Word. That is God's will. Pray it aloud. 

As you pray that Word over that child, do you know the Holy Spirit can take that Word that is spoken, put it into action, and when that child needs that Word to keep themself pure in a moment, the Holy Spirit can use that Word with power to help keep that child pure in their way. Why? Because you were faithful to intentionally pray the Word. 

4. When you pray, pray believing. 

God is on the move to bri...

Sydney: What is our purpose? What are we seeking? What are our eyes fixed on? It's crucial. 

To what end are we doing _____? Maybe it's a sport, a commitment. Maybe as a parent it's something you're committed to, something you're gone for a good amount of time -- whether it's a job or just a volunteer. 

Jo of Sydney: Make sure you trace it all the way back to truth -- that you get truth to your children. 

Sydney: Is this draining or will this give us some life? It goes back to knowing them -- will it help them? That takes discernment from God, and He'll give it. 

Again, predeciding -- having thought this through before the signups get sent out. Take the time to pray and think it through before you have to make the decision -- have the time to think it through with your husband. 

Jo: You don't let the outside voices distract you from what your aim is. 

Sydney: Stay confident. God will give you that confidence when it's in Him, trusting in Him.

You don't have to play the compariso...

In seeking to point our family in God's ways, "No one has it all right but your heart is to seek what is right and right for your family." (Jo)

Jo: What is your schedule going to be to educate your children so that you raise them up in the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord? 

Sydney: Three points: Our Gaze (What are we focusing on?), Staying Anchored, Finding Freedom 

Our Gaze = choosing a school and extracurriculars and schedules > To what end are we doing these things?

Aim for what is bringing Him glory. It's hard to connect at home, to have discipleship, to have peace in the home if there's too much scurrying, busyness, and I think the enemy loves to use it to have families drift away from His ways. You can have good aim, but what are we doing to stay anchored?

Jo: The enemy will always be working behind the scenes to steal, kill and destroy what you've decided -- the aim. What about these things that come along the way that busyness creeps in? that competition creeps in? What do...

Let the Word of God sink deep down into your heart. 

Jesus is at the right hand interceding for all of us. 

"You are just waiting for us to come to You and join with Jesus and Your heart to seek You, Father, with all our heart on our behalf.

I pray right now, Father, that You would reach down with Your righteous right hand and You would put Your right hand on this beloved one, and they would know Your presence, they would sense Your presence, they would know You are all in for them."

God loves us with an everlasting love.

There is nothing that we have done, there is nothing that we will ever do that can separate us from the love of God.

"Lord, I thank You for just the thought that You love us with an everlasting love.

You are the God of all hope.

God, right now, would You give us the grace to take our eyes off of those [things that aren't You will for us] and put our face like flint before You, that we see You as we know You, that we hunger and thirst for righteousness and that...

What a privilege to pray for needs. 

What if you have prayed and prayed and prayed, and you really need to see the hand of God? 

Have you fasted about the matter -- asking God to intervene with a supernatural power to move in that situation?

Let's talk about what fasting can do to move the heart of God. (biblical, spiritual fasting)

Remember: Put fasting on a situation. 

Spiritual fasting is just a period of time that you voluntarily abstain from food or drink. And, during that time, you seek the heart of God. Within that, there's always an implied sacrifice. 

Fasting, according to the Bible, is to cover the mouth, to abstain from eating/ drinking. 

It's time where you sacrifice your flesh. It's a time when you're willing to use that time to fee on the Word of God -- not just going without eating. 

* "God, I need Your supernatural power working in this situation." 

In the example of loneliness: 1. Get God's opinion 2. Let Him be your close companion

If you do a 24 hour fast, ...

I not only have a physical family, but I have a spiritual family. God is my Father. He is my authority. He's at the head of the table. I look up to Him. He imparts wisdom to us because He wants to take care of us. He wants to keep us together, unified. 

God reminded me:

• I do have value, that I am a child of the King. 
• I have been accepted in this family (with Brothers and Sisters) and I belong -- I have a place at the table. 

This vision of my family generated within me such a love for all believers, even those I'm not close to. 

The world is hungry to see true life--life with meaning. And we, as the family of God, we've got that, but we've got to see it and believe it, joining with one another. 

I believe this is the answer to unifying the body of Christ: first seeing who we are in Christ, together as a family -- Brothers and Sisters and God our Father. 

We know whose we are, who we belong to, and we trust that God knows the right thing to do. He is growing us up to know ho...

Be a vessel of honor, sanctified, prepared for any work that God has for us.

This is the surrendered life. 

To deliver something to someone on His behalf, not that you would be seen, but so that God is glorified -- that it would be done in such a way it would be exactly the way He would do it if He were here on earth, in the physical. 

Glory reflects God Himself. 

God wants His presence to dwell among us -- He will send us, who are filled with the Holy Spirit that God's countenance rests upon, so that God's presence will minister to another person

* If the Holy Spirit is hand picking you to go and deliver His presence, then be prepared out of a pure heart overflowing with the love of God and the compassion and mercy of God -- just show up. 

God used other people as His vessel to hand-deliver God's presence to me so that I could be encouraged, I could have hope, I could get through the hurt. 

God wants to use you to hand-deliver that message. You're the vessel that the Word has b...

Love. Joy. Forgive. These are powerful Biblical concepts. 

When I see Jesus' humility as He walked here on earth, I see my prideful self. Every day I have to get on the altar and cleanse my heart of pride. When I see Jesus' humility, it makes me want to humble myself before God.

Andrew Murray says: One of the first things that Jesus did for us was to forgive us of our sins, and in doing so, He considered it a joy. Because Jesus considered it a joy to forgive us of our sins, that Jesus would want us to join Him, to participate in that -- that we might forgive others and consider It a joy in our lives to do it. 

• Through forgiving (an act of the heart), it was a joy for Jesus to do what He did -- to forgive us of our sins -- all because He loved us. It was out of love.

It was a joy for Jesus to go to the cross because it was an act of forgiveness that He stepped into, on our behalf. He was willing to be afflicted, to pay that price for your sins and my sins so that we would be for...