The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
(Revelation 21:21)
Hey bloggers...thanks for the good reports from Sunday, and especially for the testimonies about the supernatural returns on your giving...I'll probably ask for you to share some of them in the next several services, or you may want to write something about it here...good things are still happening at CITN as we all continue to respond to the wake-up call we've recently received concerning our beloved community, and our responsibility to the preservation of it...
On a personal level, I want to reiterate some of the things I said Sunday...things like the importance of having NO REGRETS...like loving your life, and loving it as it is NOW...don't second guess anything...there's really no such thing as a "crisis" in your life...there's only "process"...your gate to the City of God is made from one PEARL...remember, the grain of sand...the thing that causes the oyster pain...is the very thing that makes it so valuable...Paul said "I prayed three times that it would be removed, but He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you'"...when you embrace it...when you embrace your thorn in the flesh...your grain of sand in the oyster shell...your streets (your path of experience) will be paved with gold...when John had this revelation, he noted that the golden streets were "transparent like glass"...transparent...real...purged of all pride and pretense...tried in the fire...I believe that what is happening at CITN right now is much bigger than just paying the bills and keeping the doors of the building open...Jesus said your heart is where your treasure is, and we are actually in the process of creating one heart...
What do you think?
20 comments:
Talisha Rene Bills said...
1 heart!
Aubrey Gallimore said...
When taking it all in as you have stated...I can see that. 1 heart. Even in regards to COTHS. You may know more than I but God is surely up to something and it's return season but there is some shaking up and wakening up needed as well. We'll understand it all upon the manifestation of it all. Oh the great orchestrator is he!
Cliff Hancock said...
We have filled up in our body what was missing... there is nothing missing any more .... what could separate me from the love that I have found ...
Mekeba H. Bryant said...
Awesome...
word verification - snaseses; that's a whole bunch of snazy (fifties for cool) people. That is what we have at CITN.
Great word from an original now teacher and the listeners get it.
Go CITN
I totally agree. I was at church the Sunday you asked for the extra above what we would give and I looked at my checking account and I looked at my bills and I thought I've given all I can give, but the spirit began to speak to me and said you don't have enough anyway but if you put it in my hands I can do more with it than you. So I take out my check book and I write another check. I was like $500.00 short on paying my rent and it was due that Tuesday. I want you to know that by giving him the dime he gave me a hundred fold and my rent got paid and my other bills that I wasn't even thinking about. Little does become much if you place it in God's hand. If you take care of God's house you open up the door for him to take care of yours.
From the CITN blog:
The first Sunday of the New Year 2010
I decided to act on Bishop’s call to sow $2010.00 for 2010. I was acting on my faith that God would provide the funds. Today I found out that my yearend bonus exceeded my expectation by over $10,000, proving once again that you cannot out give our God. He is the way maker.
EIN
Amalia Amaki said...
speechless...
Bishop,
We are sooooo in the process right now. So much has happened in the last 24 months. At first I was a nut. I have been used to a place for everything and everything in it's place mentality. So used to change but change that was managable or that I felt I could control. Wow! Everything has been out of place and out of my control for a while now. I think it was God's way of trying to tell me, "I've got this"! I've always been the one that had to make things happen and be the McEyver of life to create something that would work out of nothing. Just a survivor! God is giving me some new tools, not just shoestrings, a tube sock and a gum wrapper, but learning how to listen again to that still, small voice and trust that the hard things only fit me to better understand and help others once my class in it is complete. Thank you for being so real with us. We need truth that's not sugar coated. Jesus didn't sugar coat anything. Real love will tell the truth.
NO REGRETS !!!
Peace,
Northern Light
His steps are ordered for us. We choose how to walk them steps out.
No Regrets.
Hello Bishop and everyone, - my own therapy time.
I have so much relied on my faith and gut for most of my life. It is nothing I can actually explain to anyone. In the big picture it has always worked, but there have been many times anyone could have challenged me on it, and I would have had nothing concrete at many moments to show anyone why this was the way to go. The good news for me is that generally I did not have to. Each time it worked out.
In these last few months or more, I have had a number of reasons to think I have lost ‘it’. My gut said I didn’t, but what I saw said differently. However, each time there was Grace and Mercy handling the situation. I cannot even begin to explain why.
The last few months, especially these last several weeks, the last thing I could do in the natural was tithe or offer. But I did anyway, even in December to pay my mortgage in the last few minutes possible on Dec 31 (online) to get it in and that the holidays would delay the hit to the bank account until funds were available 6 days later. It worked, even when online option made me call the bank because of the timing, I had to do it ‘live’ with a rep. They took the checking info to run it, waiting for the confirmation seemed quite long. Once they confirmed it (when there was no money to pay it expecting a HUGE negative balance) it went through, and no charges later.
This last Wed when I gave, I just thanked God for the Grace, and gave from a much higher commission than I had calculated. A slow client had paid off on Dec. 31 (after I had made the payment to the mortgage company).
I just know tithing and offering saves --- (bank fees):).
In these last few or more months, the company I work for, which I am responsible for bringing in clients, has struggled. 2009 was our best year ever, but the last few months we struggled. I could blame the economy, etc. But really, I doubted myself. Maybe I had used up in all of my previous years my portion. If so, it is what it is. Confidence on the outside is extremely hard when I doubt on the inside, even when my gut tells me differently, even as my company has doubted me.
Literally in these last 2 weeks, clients I have worked on for years and months came through with bona fide tangible and active opportunities that in themselves exceed what we did in 2009. There are contractual issues and company internal doubts about me to overcome (given the dearth of new opportunities in previous months, which compliment my own doubts) there are hurdles, however at the beginning of December, none of these were solidified, and now they are within reach within a few weeks.
I cannot even plead circumstances, all I can do is ask if convenient and anyone feels like it, send agreement my way – my current circumstances are of my own doing and allowing doubt to gain hold. Confidence is so strong and doubt is so weak, I can only now derive hope and strength from my weakness. The interesting thing is that as weak as I feel and as much doubt as I have, my hope and strength come from giving.
This is a place where I can say that I doubted myself and be OK with it. I cannot express this elsewhere, where I am depended upon.
I know my tithing and offering has made the difference.
...in the process...of creating one heart...
This is almost too holy to talk about...too huge to comprehend with a human mind...too humbling to add a thought to...
I spoke with someone Monday about the service and he said he "felt" the message. Yes. And it had a sound. A new sound...and yet it felt very ancient...like something we all heard from the beginning.
I am thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the understanding of God's Love represented by His life, death, resurrection and ascension. I can see God's face in this and in the unconditional acts of love that randomly occur all around me in others and myself.
There is only One Heart.
“Success is not measured by what you accomplish, but by the opposition you have encountered, and the courage with which you have maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds-
Orison Swett Marden
...nice transparent clam picture.
Ditto on the clam with its pearl pic, Karl. I've stared at it...a LOT.
Actually, it's an oyster, but thanks for noticing the prophetic symbolism...someone gave one of these to me several years ago...very nice piece of crystal...but I didn't really get it until recently...while the pearl is being formed in us, the fire is burning out all of the phoniness and pretense...it's all a part of the process...beautiful...
Doh! A seafood lover ought to know that...Thanks, Bishop...(Smile)
oops, sorry for leading you astray with the "clam" Avatar, maybe I was just testing everybody to see if they'd notice...maybe that pearls are only formed in your "oyster body" experience and no other shell will do (ha).
Erik,
I am in agreement for you to STRIVE AND SURVIVE........your will & knowledge in that tithing and offering is in the least, GOD's thank you, will pull you through our earthly job doings and you will be BLESSED in 2010 !
Peace ~
Northern Light
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