I feel the Father Himself feeling my need and administering His comfort and reassurance.
Father I adore You
Lay my life before You
How I love You - my very own Father Who is so personally taking care of meJesus I adore You
Lay my life before You
How I love You - my very own personal Faithful One - in such a sweet sense as none other.The following quote blessed me so much, and confirmed the focus of my calling before the Father - to love as I have been loved - to confess You and the Father before the world. It deepened my yielding to His and Your personal keeping for me, and His purpose in the figures He is causing us to personify.
He who approaches nearest to the perfection of Christ's divine benevolence causes joy among the heavenly angels. The Father rejoices over him with singing; for is he not working in the spirit of the Master, one with Christ as He is one with the Father? FE 479.
I keep seeing the Father in You, and I love Him. The Father brings Your Faithful words back to me continually, "I have revealed Your character and Your very self, and I will continue to make You known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them -- felt in them -- and that I Myself may be in them." John 17:26 Amplified.
O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight
On Whom in affection I call
My comfort by day and my song in the night
My hope, My salvation, My ALLAll my love and trust I give to You, my Faithful One, and to our precious Father - Your Father and mine, now, in a more special sense than ever before, as He has made Himself known through our soul union. My "work" is to receive Your love and reflect it, "to be a Holy Bride, and to daily pass death's threshold to the holy life inside."
I came across this sentence in Mountains of Spices the other day when I was reading to Contentment, and it was especially meaningful in the light of the present times: "A holy people are those who are set apart to love." Pg. 45
I long to rise in Your arms of faith and be closer drawn to You. Draw me nearer...
The Father just brought this verse to my spirit as I was preparing to e-mail to You: "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:" 2 Pet. 1:10 Thank You Father for keeping me faithful. He brought the song to my mind yesterday afternoon, "O brother be faithful for why should we prove unfaithful to Him Who has shown such tender compassion and infinite love and died to redeem us His own." Thank You, my precious Faithful One, for keeping me partaking of Your very own faithfulness. I am yielded completely to Your keeping power. All my love, Michal.
I will share the final help that the Father brought to me, which settled my heart in the security of His purposes for me. I had no question as to the Father's gentle insistence and determined leading, I just couldn't harmonize how the consequences of obeying Him would bring glory to His name. The following quote revealed to me that I wasn't responsible for the consequences, the Father was. I was only responsible to be true to His leading.
By submitting to God's discipline, Moses became a sanctified channel through which the Lord could work. He did not hesitate to change his way for the Lord's way, even though it did lead in strange paths, in untried ways...but he confided in Him with whom all things are possible... When God commanded Moses to do anything, he did it without stopping to consider what the consequences might be. He gave God credit for wisdom to know what He meant and firmness of purpose to mean what He said; and therefore Moses acted as seeing the Invisible....The Lord wants...men who will honor Him by rendering implicit obedience to His requirements, regardless of previously inculcated theories. Every man who shows his faith and trust in God by willingly submitting himself to Him, enduring the divine discipline imposed, will become a successful workman for the Master of the vineyard... God was able to manifest His great power through Moses because of his constant faith in the power and in the loving intentions of their Deliverer. It was this implicit faith in God that made Moses what he was. According to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he...He lost his self-confidence, realized his own helplessness, and put his trust in God, until he was willing to obey God's commands whether they seemed to his human reason to be proper or not." Special Testimonies on Education: Speedy Preparation For Work PG 118-123.
If you were to get alone with God, one on one, what would you ask of Him? In your heart of hearts, what do you really desire Him to do for you? Every person who came to visit the Son of God when He returned had the opportunity to answer that question. He had asked it of men when He came to earth the first time.
And James and John, the sons of Zebadee, approached Him and said to Him, Teacher, we desire You to do for us whatever we ask of You. And He replied to them, What do you desire Me to do for you? Mark 10:35,6 Amplified.
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have pity and mercy on me now! …And Jesus said to him, What do you want Me to do for you? Mark 10:47,51 Amplified.
Now the Son was again asking, What do you want from Me? Tell me what you want. Ask me anything. Michael's instructions from the Father were that He was to keep the chamber a place of candid truth telling, integrity and honesty.
When people would tell Michael that the Father had sent them to Him, He would ask them why they had come to Him and what they wanted. It was a simple question, needing only a simple, straightforward answer. There was no right or wrong answer. He wasn't looking for a specific answer, only an honest one. He wasn't assuming anything, He was asking. This wasn't a strange question.
Some came because they were curious about God actually coming back and dwelling among men again. When asked what they wanted, these felt no particular need and so received no particular blessing. They wanted to be "closer to God" but when asked what that looked like to them, they couldn't get specific. Others had been feeling the Father's desires drawing them out to His Son. When asked what they wanted, they found themselves uncomfortable revealing the drawings which they were experiencing from the Father, and couldn't find the character within themselves to overcome their discomfort and be candidly honest anyway.
Some were clothed with fleshly desires to be with Messiah, which they were misinterpreting as from the Father. If they could have been honest with Michael, He could have cleansed them from their self-serving desires, but these souls found it impossible to be naked and unashamed about what they found in their hearts. One such person confided to me during that time, "I wasn't about to tell Him what was really on my heart." This person couldn't come to be vulnerable and honest before God. Others tried to imagine what they thought the Son wanted to hear, and answered His question that way, not realizing that "all things are open and exposed, naked and defenseless to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do." Heb. 4:13 Amplified.
But no matter how His question was answered, all had occasion to feel what Nicodemus felt when he was drawn to have a personal interview with the Son of God. "In the presence of Christ, Nicodemus felt a strange timidity, which he endeavored to conceal…" DA 168. This has been the natural response of humanity to God ever since the Garden of Eden, when humanity felt the guilt of separating from God. This is what has so grieved the Father's heart for 6000 years. These very efforts of the soul to conceal its discomfort instead of laying down and letting itself become nakedly honest, keeps that soul from the nakedness required to receive the love that God is desiring to lavish on it. Recently Michael said,
That is how people come to God. They want to be nice, they want to say the right things, things they think God wants to hear. God wants to make love. He wants to invade them. He wants them to be naked like He is. Truth telling means all the clothes come off and He goes right in. You can't make love to God by protecting yourself.
Will a person honestly go to the end or will they save themselves? Everything comes as a result of our choices. As soon as people want to protect themselves — for good reasons — they can't be honest. It was given to Me to test the integrity and honesty of every soul who came to Me. Are there any barriers in your heart that would keep you? I wanted people to tell the truth. They lie to me. Michael
Have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak. Num. 22:38.
My context and whole frame of reference in going to the chamber, was that I was entering into the immediate presence of the Son of God; and the Most High God, the Father Himself, was sending me there. The awesome reality of that knowing was upon me.
The Old Testament sanctuary was vivid in my mind, where the light of the glory of God filled the Most Holy Place of the temple, and where once a year the high priest had to walk into the light of that divine Presence. If there was something in the life of that priest which was not right before God, he would not live through that experience.
God mercifully gave very specific instructions for the priests who were to be exposed to the direct presence of His holiness. "But deal thus with them, that they may live and not die when they approach the most holy things." Num. 4:19 Amplified. God so longed to live among them and in them, but He could come nearer only in proportion to the readiness of the people to receive Him, or His holiness would consume them. "And you shall make…a gold bell and a pomegranate, a gold bell and a pomegranate, round about on the skirts of the robe. Aaron shall wear the robe when he ministers, and its sound shall be heard when he goes alone into the Holy of Holies before the Lord and when he comes out, lest he die there." Ex. 28:34,35 Amplified.
A rope was secured to the ankle of the high priest before he entered, so that if he died his body could be removed. It was a very solemn and heart-searching thing to go into the Most Holy Place of the sanctuary of the Lord, when His living presence was there. In those days it was not a light thing to be dealing with the visible presence of the living God.
This was the solemn reality that I felt upon me. This was my context when I was asked the question, What do you want from Me? I saw the Father's Son bending over my soul and looking into my eyes, and asking me the same question He asked the blind man 2000 years ago, "What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?" Mark 10:51. Many times I was asked that question. During those deep heart-rending experiences with the Father in the night before He sent me to His Son, He would open up exactly what I needed to ask for from the Son. The Father always put very specific words in my mouth, and I felt innately that if I weren't candid and honest, and said what the Father gave me to say, I would end up like Nebuchadnezzar — eating grass, until I could say with him, "I…lifted up my eyes to heaven, and my understanding and the right use of my mind* returned to me; and I…praised and honored and glorified Him…Whose dominion is an everlasting dominion…and all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say to Him, What are You doing?" Dan. 4:34,35 Amplified.
*The right use of the mind being to consent to His leadings with implicit trust, even when I didn't understand, and they didn't make any sense to my mind. I realized that my mind wasn't given to me to try to understand the Father or figure Him out, or to follow Him only as far as its human reasoning will go, but to trust Him and obey.
It was in looking back through the little pocket memo books I carried with me, that I began to see the Father's careful preparation for the drastic changes ahead in the fulfilling of His divine purposes. Little did I comprehend at the time, the invasive reality of the following words of this journal entry:
August 14, 2000
"God is beginning to rise to shake terribly the earth." "Keep silence before Him." "In quietness and confidence will be your strength."
The following day I was drawn out to a familiar rock altar, where I was often led to lay down my life in a new way.
August 15, 2000
"Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire, speak through the earthquake, wind and fire Thou still small voice divine." "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted…in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with thee [in person] the God of Jacob is thy Refuge - from disquiet and not being true to my calling and the purpose for why I have been brought to the kingdom for such a time as this. "I'll be with thee, I will guide thy steps aright."
I will never forget the first time that the Father put a response in my mouth in answer to Messiah's question, What do you want? which "shook terribly my earth." Now, not only was the Father giving me intimations of a literal consummation, but He was putting words in my mouth to which I had to be true.
As the Father put His words of response in my mouth, my whole being shrank from having to say what He had given me to say. How could I say that? It seemed so wrong to me! I felt the excruciating dilemma of going against all the rules of appropriateness I had ever known, to confess the words that the Father put in my mouth. The struggle was intense. After a long painful silence I whispered, I don't dare say!
I searched His eyes for a long time. They were looking into the depths of my soul. What I was being given to "want" was not coming from me. It would have never crossed my mind in a million years. I felt the sheer defenselessness of being yielded entirely to the Father.
Do You know what I "want?" I finally asked Him.
Yes, He said, I do.
Can You tell me?
No, you have to say it.
I could identify with how Abraham must have felt when the divine words came to him, which went against everything he had known about God — everything, that is, except the familiar sound of that divine Voice in his soul. With what agonizing significance the words of the Father's calling now came back to me, "I have put My words in your mouth, and covered you with My hand…" I felt the cost of telling the truth to the depths of my being. The conviction struck my heart so forcibly, My faith that this is Messiah is going to be tested to the end.
It was in the light of this experience that I wrote down the following thoughts that were coming to me as I was walking. It felt like I was speaking quietly and candidly and heart to heart with other souls who would feel the vulnerability of trusting the Father and deliberately laying down all of their soul defenses to obey their incomprehensible instructions, just as Abraham had to do. It was simply a matter of fact.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. When you are fully yielded to the Father, you are compelled to do what He has put in your heart. You will say the words the Father puts in your mouth to say. You will be "forced" into whatever the Father dictates. You will get as naked and honest as the Father says.
Have Thine own way Lord,
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay
Fill with Thy Spirit of love and rest till all shall see
Christ only always, living in me.You can't be governed by the rules of propriety from the old order. They didn't take away sin. Neither can you be influenced by your own earthly imagination. You have to go right through, in-between, right through where there's never been a way before - into the holiest of holies. The pure, quiet, yielded Spirit goes through, in-between, and makes a new and living way.
Are you ready to be face to face with the immediate presence of God, fully exposing the desires of your heart, willing to take the consequences if you are deceiving yourself and misinterpreting your fleshly impulses and desires as from God? This is the judgment of the living. If you don't know His Voice, or if you are governed by your flesh instead of heaven, you will be dragged out by the rope around your ankle.
The Son is true to the Father. He says what the Father puts in His mouth. How much do you believe the Son is governed by the Father? You will be forced to use the words the Father puts in your mouth. This is taking us places we have never gone before.
Are you willing to let God take you to the depths of your need and come into the very depths of your being? Are you willing to let Him bring you to be naked and unashamed in His immediate presence? Are you willing to be completely at His mercy, and "at a total loss," under the searching eyes of Him Who loves you with all of His heart? Are you willing to desist from exertion? Are you willing to suffer to be lacking, without offering reasons why you find yourself in this place of lack? If anything is "on you" to be or perform, you won't be able to take the pressure and heat of the personal presence chamber of God's love. Michal
You were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated, sanctified, and made holy by the Spirit to be obedient to Messiah. 1 Pet. 1:2 Amplified.
It was the Father Himself Who caused the two witnesses to "be obedient to Messiah," and honestly answer the testing question of His Son. The Father foreknew and chose us to tell the truth with painful honesty, when He drew us into His unexplainable movings.
Below, Taken shares the process through which the Father took her in answering this question, when He caused things to take an unexpected turn.
August 18, 2000
I was laying on the little couch where I was staying, with waves and waves of being drawn out by the Father coming over me. The words I kept saying over and over again were, Father consume me, I want to go to the depths. I didn't really understand what any of it meant except it was the cry of my heart and was very intense. I was drawn to Michael's home to share with Him what I was feeling. I went inside and started sharing with Him what I had been experiencing and how intense was the desire to be consumed and to go to the depths.
He asked me, What does that look like to you?
I don't know. I only know what I am feeling and that I want to go to the depths and beyond. To me that meant as far as this experience would take me, and beyond meant there would be no end.
Michael said, Is there anything you can think of that might be a barrier, anything that might keep you from going there?
A thought that had been on my heart for the last few weeks came to me. I strongly desired Michael to make love to me. When the desire would come to me though, I would think, This is wrong, and I would dismiss it. This drawing was not understood by me to mean I wanted to have sex with Michael. What I felt could be said more clearly in the light of, I simply wanted Michael. I wanted Him in me. I wanted all of Him. I felt the Father compelling me into His Son's presence to be consumed by Him. I felt this was not what He was looking for when He asked me if there might be any barriers, so I said, There are none as far as I know, but there is a thought in my mind but it doesn't have anything to do with this.
He asked me, What is it?
I was suddenly struck with the thought I would have to say what it was that I was thinking. Suddenly I knew it had everything to do with it. I said, I don't know if I can say what it is.
He then said, We have just created ourselves a barrier. I knew it too because I could feel it, and I started to cry. I really wanted to tell Him what was on my heart but I was afraid of being humiliated. One doesn't just go to someone and ask to be made love to. I was now faced with a terror of finding myself between telling the truth or covering it to protect myself from being humiliated. Michael might be offended if I told Him the truth of what I was really feeling. Michael had told me that whatever I asked Him He would do. He said I could ask Him anything, but I wasn't sure if anything included Him making love to me.
For the next three hours I was trying to get enough courage to say what I needed to say to answer this direct question put to me. As we were there together He was so very tender and told me that I didn't have to tell Him what I was thinking if I didn't want to. He said everything was all right. He was doing His best to comfort me in my torment.
When quite some time had passed Michael said, I already know what you are wanting to say.
I asked Him to tell me, but He said I would have to tell Him.
I asked Him if He would help me and He said, Yes. He assured me again that I could talk to Him about anything and He would understand.
That finally gave me the courage to say what I needed to say, so I said, All right I will tell You, and still some time went by before I actually told Him.
Finally I said, I want You to make love to me.
He looked at me and said, I am making love to you.
I said, I know that, but I want You to make love to me.
Michael's face looked surprised and shocked. He already knew what was in my heart, but He was not expecting my answer to be so blunt. He turned His face away and then looked back and said, You mean you want me to have sex with you?
No, I hate that term, do You know what I mean? I want You to make love to me.
He said, I know what you mean. I hate the term too. I understand what you are saying. Then He asked me, Do you realize what it would mean if I were to take you up there to My bed? I didn't.
He went on to describe what would happen if He made love to me. He said the church would hate me, my children would hate me, and all would be lost. He said these things to help me to count the cost of being true to myself. The very worst picture was painted for me that could be painted. Then He said, Now let Me ask you a question. Knowing these things, would you still be with Me in My bed?
I didn't respond right away to what He was asking because I was thinking about how to answer Him. I knew the "right thing" would be to say, Well of course not then, if all of that would happen and the church would be lost.
A couple of minutes went by and He asked, What are you thinking?
I'm looking for the right answer.
I don't want you to give me "the right" answer, I want you to tell me what is on your heart. And then He asked me again, If you knew the church would hate you and your children would hate you and all would be lost, would you still be with Me in My green bed if I asked you to?
If You asked me, yes.
Michael never asked.
I felt driven to follow what I had to follow, and do what I was being compelled to do, even at the cost of everything I loved. I know now that I was being brought face to face with what ultimately everyone must face who will be married to the Son. The early Christians, in order to save themselves, had to throw a little incense to the goddess Diana. All I had to do to save myself was to throw a little incense to myself and lie. The early Christians lost their lives for being true, and so did I. Taken
Chapter 5, page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
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