Disarming the enemy with the anointing of beauty and grace

Was given this word by a friend in ministry in the States this morning. I think it is actually for us all, here at Women At the River in the lead up to Advancing Women II.

What I saw was you dressed like an Esther. It is a paradox because in the natural we think of POWERFUL LEADING WOMEN as almost muscle bound, but, I see you absolutely lovely and with grace that almost makes you glide. God said, "I will be able to take these women before kings of the world because their anointing will be beautiful and disarming.

I love that - disarming the enemy with our anointing of godly beauty - grace, peace, joy, hope - some of you who are studying the epistles will be able to add to that. I guess those studying Ruth and Esther will also add in their tuppence worth of riches!

I might also add that we disarm the enemy with the beauty of Christ!

Hosea - like a garland....like a bee....

Someone writing of the book of Hosea says,

His discourse is like a garland woven of a multiplicity of flowers; images are woven upon images, metaphor strung upon metaphor. Like a bee he flies from one flower to another, that he may suck his honey from the most varied pieces.

What a lovely description of what can be at times a very complicated book!

Does anyone know Lynsey Mackenzie and have her email address? She is our Hosea gal!

Petrina's thoughts from 2 Kings

I'm LOVING studying 2 Kings and all that the Holy Spirit is revealing, for the present day, through it. There's so much in this book. Israel is like a model of the church - God's people and how His heart breaks over their disobedience and openness to wicked practices.

I see similarities to the modern church: the establishment and worship of structures and practices, kinda like golden calves (ie religion and control); the shaking of its foundation in order for evil to be exposed; prophets kinda coming out of nowhere to bring warning of judgment (referring to 1 Kings) and repentance - and the prophets being rejected by Israel / the church; God's faithfulness and long suffering grace even in the midst of wickedness ......but God's fervent commitment to see them restored back to Him.

Sounds similar to present day and many comparisons can be drawn.I'm getting so much out of Elijah and Elisha's story also and the implications for our lives today. Elijah made decrees or declarations. He spoke the purposes of Heaven into earth.....and it was done accordingly.

He was so connected to the heart of God he didn't have to ask or pray that something might be done, He decreed it ..to be done! I love this picture of the authority God wants to release to us here and now. He wants us to decree heaven into earth and know the authority He's given us to do so.

I'm aware there is a cost for operating with this level of authority, though. Allowing God to crush the independence out of us is painful but yet the aroma of a heart of submission is the sweetest scent, like when a rose or spices are crushed - they emit powerful aromas...and a little bit goes a very long way.

The aroma of a heart submitted to God is so lovely.He showed me a picture of a human body and how in form it is intact - it looks like a human, it has all the right parts and features BUT without God breathing His breath into the body it can't move and have purpose. Features and parts are useless unless they are activated with breath.

I sure want the breath of the spirit of God to awaken me to a life with passion and purpose.I felt as though the Holy Spirit was saying to me we are entering a time where God's eyes are roaming the earth for hearts that are pure and courageous; a people with a fear of God and not of man. People who are willing to lay down their lives with passion for the purposes of bringing heaven to earth.

I believe He wants to breath again the 'Elijah Spirit' onto the earth. They will be a generation who will be marked by God's power - signs, wonders and miracles, to turn the heart of the church back to pure worship of God.Elisha was tenacious and he hung on and hung on and hung on for the anointing, blessing and release from his master, Elijah. He contended for the double portion and was in no way going to miss the moment of impartation, when Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirwind.

He was tested and tested and God rewarded him for his tenacious faith with the double mantle. These chapters are such a powerful illustration of submission and aligning oneself to mentor ship. How much do we need this in our church/ lives today. Submission is becoming a foreign concept (we've turned away from living our lives in service of others - our husbands, our children etc) and we are missing out on living lives of power and authority because we are not receiving the mantle of the generation before us. If we are to become successors in the prophetic we must align ourselves under an established mantle ie get mentored.

double edged sword

Hi All,

I was thinking of Ehud tonight and how he forged a double edged sword in the secret place, and then kept it handy for the right time to whack into the enemy's gut. What we are all doing is forging a sword like Ehud.

What must it have been like to make a sword in secret? You would need a strong fire, hammering out the metal....

Let's all hammer out the metal, get into the flames of fire and make this sword so sharp we can use it like Ehud to bring deliverance to our nation!

Love

Wendy

PS if you do not know how Ehud is, ask Amanda Jenkins....she will encounter him soon!

Rick Pino

Hope you manage to get down to PCLC to receive ministry from Rick Pino and band. They are awesome!

GROUP 66

What is GROUP 66?

The deal is that 66 women each pick one book of the Bible to study in as much depth as they want. I didn’t set out to do this, it just kinda emerged...call it organic Christianity! I didn’t think about this either when we started but it is a bit like a prophetic act together across the churches, declaring we want the women of this city to be women of the Word.

It started when a few younger gals, in their 20s, told me that they were hungry for God....so I asked them what they were reading the Word...turns out they didn’t read the Word much at all, so I told them they were not genuinely hungry. Told them to come back when they were!

After a bit, they did and I set them the task to read a book of the Bible, a small one, and find some meat and email me something about it. So they did. At first, it was not meat they found, and I realised they didn’t actually know how to study the word well. So I began to quietly prod them. More gals found out about it and wanted to be part of it. Some of the older women, even those in ministry, said they needed more accountability in their study of the Word...so we put it all together.

Some will read a book and write a song based on it, some will write a bible study booklet, some will blog their findings, some will simply read it till they soak it up. No pressure. It is up to each one to determine what they want to get out of it, but we will all get together at the end for a meal....maybe in the new without walls centre in Northbridge...and maybe one or two will share a few words.

One lady in Africa, missionary, asked me if each of the 66 could write a page about what the book is all about, main themes, etc etc and we put it together into a booklet for them. It can even be translated into their languages. SO we shall see...for now I just want to encourage women to read the Word, study it a teeny bit more than they do already and then share their bread with their friends!

Let's see what you all discover - praying you hit gold!


Hugs,
Wendy







Group 66 now has 65 members. Since a mother and daughter are sharing the same book in one case, then this means we have two books left! Yay!