BE ALIGNED - JULY 2013

WORD FOR JULY 2013

After being positioned in May and taking the gate in June, July is a month to be ALIGNED.  

POSITIONED 

We can follow the example of JESUS as He was POSITIONED in Luke 3:17

"And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is My Son, My Beloved, in Whom I delight!"

SWIM AGAINST THE STREAM

Jesus was immediately led into the desert where He had to fight for His destiny and where He 'swam against the stream' as He stood against the temptations of the enemy.  Jesus was tempted on a 

PERSONAL LEVEL - where He became hungry and the devil tempted Him to turn the stones into bread (Matt 4:2-4);

NATIONAL LEVEL - Jesus was taken to the capital city, the gateway to the nation, as well as the turret of the temple sanctuary, the religious high place of the nation! (Matt 4:5-7)

GLOBAL LEVEL - where He was promised 'all the kingdoms of the world' (Matt 4:8-10).

ALIGNED

When Jesus came out of the desert, victorious over the enemy, He was ALIGNED WITH HEAVEN AND HIS DESTINY as angels came and ministered to Him' (Matt 4:11) and He came back "full of and under the power of the Holy Spirit."

Then His ALIGNMENT with the people started.  Jesus started choosing disciples who would learn from Him and continue His work when He goes back to the Father.

I believe that we are in a month of alignment where God wants to align us once again with His plan and purpose for us.  Even before that  He wants to align us in our relationship with Him first!  He wants to align our hearts with His and remove all doubt, fear and skepticism about Him, as you Father, Protector and Provider.

Then He will align us in our relationships and establish right relationships with the right people, just like the choosing of the disciples.  The first two disciples Jesus chose, were two brothers.  The next two were also two brothers.  People who understood family relationships because everything Jesus did, He did from His family relationship:  His relationship with His Father.

It is a time for forming strong relationships based on our mutual love for our Lord Jesus Christ and the lost and not on the functions we can perform.  Love will make us strong and keep unity in the strenuous times!  God will bring like-minded people together, passionate people to whom relationship is important!  He will form strong 'structures' that will not make sense to the world but it will be powerful in the Kingdom of God!

When a new president is chosen, one of the first things he will do after his ordination, is to choose a new leadership of like-minded people that are in unity with him and his vision for the nation.  Because the Word says:

Matt 12:25 "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand."

That is why God wants to align us with Him and with one another so that we can stand strong, be one in unity, love and purpose as we follow the Lord of Hosts!

RISE UP!

Allow the Holy Spirit to reconcile your heart with God again.  Rebuke doubt, fear, skepticism, unbelief and choose to believe again!  Faith in His Word and in Him, as your Father, will align you with Him again.

Allow the Holy Spirit to align you with those people whom God called you to walk with in this season.  

Make God the Lord of ALL your relationships and allow Him to align you and embrace the process.

Expect divine strategy from the Lord for the season ahead!  And start rejoicing!!!!

I bless you in this month to be aligned and to see the Holy Spirit forming His new structure and strategy in your heart as He aligns you with Him and those around you!

Carol Singleton

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JULY – CINNAMON

Eunice van der Merwe

The Hebrew word for cinnamon is qunnamown and means to be erect or upright.

The primary root means “emitting an odor.” This fragrant and well-known bark was considered as valuable as gold in Biblical times. A bark harvested twice a year, immediately after the rainy seasons when the rain softened the bark which is then more easily stripped from the trees.

“Stripped cinnamon bark is carefully packed in layers, one inside the other, to produce long, rolled and layered ‘upright’ quills. These quills remind us to live upright and righteous before the Lord, increasing in holiness as a lifestyle.” (Heaven awaits the Bride, Anna Rountree)

As I read these words from the above mentioned book, I realized that I need to understand one thing very clear, and that is … increasing holiness.

Oil is always a symbol of the Holy Spirit. If, in this case we consider cinnamon oil as the symbol, we will see that the reality, represented by this symbol, is holiness.  Allow me to guide you to a fuller understanding!

In her book, Alabaster box, Annette Ettinger summed it up this way:

“As we know, Jesus lived a life of perfect holiness in every dimension. He walked upright and blameless in all He did. Jesus’ sinless, holy life enabled Him to fulfill every requirement and demand of the law. Thus, He has restored us back to the Father. It is also through His holiness, we are made holy!”

How does this Scriptural truth link to cinnamon?

As cinnamon represents God’s people walking upright, walking in truth and integrity, we find this to be presented by the cinnamon bark. The cinnamon flower however smells offensive. This represents a corrupt and perverted society – the offensive smell of the world and its sinfulness!

In a whole, the tree represents God’s people (the bark) who are living among a corrupt society with a challenge to divinely influence it with the sweet fragrance of holiness.

In Song of Solomon 4:12 -1 4, cinnamon grows in the locked garden that Jesus says is “my sister, my bride”. The new heart of each believer is a garden with fragrant spices – a heart enclosed and set apart for the Lord Jesus alone. Just as the heart of Jesus is undivided in His consecration unto the Father alone (2 Chron 16:9)

THE COUNTERFEIT

In Proverbs 7:10, the adulterous women, “dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart,” has sprinkled her bed with fragrant spices also including cinnamon (Prov 7:17), a counterfeit of the heart of the Bride.

Pro 7:17  I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

She flings her heart open to embrace every sort of spiritual adultery. And as cinnamon means ‘upright’, we see a different form of uprightness here, namely ‘pride’!

The uprightness we are called to, is the paths of righteousness He guides me in, for His Names sake. Ps 32:3

The paths of Jesus’ blameless walk in every way in all He did to glorify His Father!

He gives His grace to the humble! The heart of the Bride will always have to be filled with the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Only then she will emit an odor of holiness. And holiness is a fruit of intimacy!