20100506the-main-thing-revisio

Tuesday May 8, 2012 — Listen In

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. Psalm 19:1-2

God speaks a lot more often than we realize. His voice is like a river running through us, always there, always speaking, always available to draw upon for life, sustenance, and refreshing.

In our old way of thinking we are looking outward when we are in a dry season or a valley of decision. We expect a prophetic word will come regarding where we are and what God is doing from out there, somewhere else. But God is looking for us to make a shift in our expectations. He is looking for people who will continually be living in that river of communion with Him. He desired face to face relationship with you. He wants to pick you up and carry you along in the river of His embrace, speaking a word into your spiritual ears whether you turn to the left or right, "This is the way to go." He wants you to know Him so your relationship is deeper than a set of directions and formula for spiritual success. He desires you.

How can you awaken your senses to hear the roar of His waters? Start with setting aside time everyday where you are simply beholding Him. Some simple ways you can do this are to pray in tongues, worship Him. Step out of your daily routine and busyness to make His throne big in your heart. Read the Word, and if one Scripture jumps out at you, stop to chew and meditate on it. As you do, the spiritual reality of heaven all around you will become clearer, and your spiritual senses will be tuned to listen in for His River all day long.

He is speaking. Let us listen in.

Bonnie Chavda, 5/8/2012

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Sunday, April 8, 2012 — Singing Voice

An excerpt from The Power of the Cross:

“The Lord told Cain, “The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:10). Blood has a voice. Life is in the blood (see Lev. 17:11). Since the beginning of time and human history there is a radical link between the blood exchange for the life of the soul and the abiding Presence of God called His glory. The blood makes the way. Christ’s intercession through His blood sends the Holy Spirit to seek us out. He knocks on the door of our hearts and reveals Christ in order to bring us home. It’s usually a surprise visit, or at least it appears that way to us. Sometimes it is in the middle of painful or even frightening circumstances that He takes opportunity. He comes looking for us. The Prince of Heaven takes up His priestly ministry of intercession for all who run for refuge to His blood. The epicenter of glory is the blood of the Lamb where life for humanity’s soul is secured. Here is love’s final destination. It’s a song to be sung by men and angels forever. The song of the Bride and her Bridegroom. The song of the Lamb.

Sometimes we lose perspective when God seems a long time in coming. It’s important you don’t lose your singing voice. Song is an expression of many elements coming together to make one sound. We each have many aspects of living we experience day to day. God desires that we find our voice of praise and bring it all together in a melody of peace in our own soul and praise to God that others hear. The atmosphere within and without shifts into harmony.

“The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.” Is. 51:3

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/8/2012

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Friday, April 6, 2012 — Hero

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

An excerpt from The Power of the Cross:

I would it had been me instead. They did crucify women, too, though it was rare. I suppose I hoped, somehow, still believed, there would be another way before it came. The last time I touched Him with my lips, those same that had pressed His soft brow as a babe, the same that had caressed His busy hands when He was a child, and brushed His cheek with its first sprig of beard; the last time when my son was still my son was on that terrible day. His blood was on my lips as John helped me away. I pressed blood-wet palms hard against my face taking in the last smell of Him, the last living remnant of what had once been His life. As if somehow I might breathe Him back to me through that blood.

His last words were to me.
“Mother, behold your Son.”

I had not seen Him since before the feast when He entered Jerusalem and was hailed with joyful shouting. I had wondered for a moment if, as the angel had said, His name would be great then. That perhaps He would in fact drive out the Romans and ascend the throne in triumph. My son, the king of Israel. And we did think Him rash when He called our people “His kingdom” as if He were already king when He was only a rabbi. My son, the rabbi. It wasn’t until after that terrible day that even His own disbelieving brothers finally bowed the knee like Joseph and his sheaves, though we had seen His miracles. My son, the miracle worker—something every Jewish mother says. But mine was!
The cries of “Crucify!” seemed impossible and my world went black as the courtyard rang out with them. He had done nothing wrong. He was so far from my reach, standing with the crowd between us and the procurator there beside Him on the dais. He already dripped with blood. His hands that had rubbed my shoulders at the end of a day or brought me milk or took the hearth brush away and finished my chore for me—“Sit down, Mother,” He would tell me gently, “Let Me do it for you”—were bound in prisoner’s ropes. John assured me that on the night He was betrayed He told them exactly what would take place, though they, like me, didn’t grasp it until we witnessed it with our eyes. The air was tense with assurance that we were coming to some kind of climax. But no one could have convinced me it would be that. If I had known I would have poisoned Judas’ soup one of those times I let him into our house. He never fooled me, and I told my son as much. In those days I simply thought He was not listening to the warnings of his mother.

“Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthani?”

We stood huddled together on the wind-whipped hill. I had died a thousand times already since the morning sacrifice. He was not recognizable anymore by then. His face and hair were like those of a beast for slaughter. And yet He lived on as they hung Him up before us. His outstretched limbs, blackened with bruising, skin hanging in shreds like the corners of a too-much-used prayer shawl, ragged, holy, and dyed red with self giving, were bringing the cosmos back to its Creator. My son was bringing many sons home to His Father. The victor’s wreath they gave Him was a crown of thorns, and He wore it that day like a young hero. The cheering crowd that should have hailed Him to His race’s end only shouted abuses. Still He ran on toward the finish. My Son, the Hero. But He was not mine—He belonged instead to Him. He belongs to us.

It is Christ in you Who is the hope of glory.

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/6/2012

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Thursday Evening, April 5, 2012 — The Tree Still Speaks

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:35-36).

An excerpt from The Power of the Cross:

It was Pesach. Passover, the night of the lamb. In the distance a cur howled as it roamed about under the cover of dark alleys. The rest of the city was filled with the sound of the Feast. Remembrance hung on the atmosphere. Jerusalem picked up her glittering skirts and tripped backwards in time. She was gathering her children as a hen her chicks. She bore them back retelling the Great Deliverance. That night they all remembered. Around every Pesach meal they were resettled for a moment along the banks of the Nile in Egypt, the old fathers repeating to their children what the Lord had done. They were in Goshen. And while Egypt fumbled in darkness, Israel had light. The blood of the lamb freshly struck on post and lintel as midnight approached, Jacob’s children prepared for Exodus. Their time of escape had come. The time of going out from bondage amidst the sounds of the cry of the firstborn of their captors.

The Man lay prostrate on His face at my feet. Once He reached out and took hold of my roots for His anchor, as if the floor of our garden were a ship tossed and I might keep Him from falling away into a great storm. His head was wet with passion and tears and once when He raised His troubled brow, I saw that He was red. Sweat drops of His own blood covered that graceful countenance. Drops of it fell on my root and soaked into the earth where I was planted. I had heard His words the many times He came here with His own before that night. Right words. Words of life. Words of promise. Word of God.

He cried out in anguish.

“My Father!”

What could He be so troubled for?

“If it be possible let this cup pass from Me!”

He was wrestling against powers, malevolent spirits that swirled about us in my garden. I didn’t see Him again after that. He never came to me anymore to keep His watch and pray beneath my limbs. Some time later others that seemed to know Him came. They sat in huddles at my feet whispering about what had taken place. His fate had joined Him to another tree outside the city gates. There, they told one another, He had been hanged up as a traitor. And on that tree, they said, He died.
That was the night heaven wept, and the earth around our garden opened, up and down the valley where the graves are. They said the Temple veil was rent in two from top to bottom. A few of us remain now. Bent with age we still keep watch over the ancient city just across from the gate He once rode through in triumph. It is sealed now. But they say He will come again riding through it like a king.

We still give our olives to the press. And our oil still gives light in darkness. I still remember the look of Him on that night last. I still hear the sound of His praying, the night of keeping watch when He clung to me.
The night He cried, “My Father!”
That night His blood was sprinkled on my root.

Complete surrender to the will of our heavenly Father is never a defeat.

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/5/2012

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Thur, April 5, 2012 — On Display

The young hero stripped himself—He, God Almighty—

strong and stout-minded. He mounted high gallows,

bold before many, when he would loose mankind.

I shook when that Man clasped me. I dared, still, not bow to earth,

fall to earth's fields, but had to stand fast.

Rood was I reared. I lifted a mighty King,

Lord of the heavens, dared not to bend.1

The divine exchange for man was settled before the foundation of the world. In that pre-time of perfection, the Father had you already formed in His mind. You existed to Him before there ever was a single cell of your mortal substance. He ordained to have eternal fellowship with you. With the future advent of sin set to bring separation in God-man communion, the remedy was the blood of Jesus. He made the plan to draw you into His life-giving embrace. (An excerpt from The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory)

Think about this: In the beginning God planned to put Christ on display through you in this life. The lines of an ancient poem above are as if the cross itself is retelling its story of the day Jesus was lifted up on it. Whether in suffering or in glory, every event and experience of a Christian is designed to put God on display through us in this world. So stand up straight and strong today. Jesus is on display!

“If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Myself.”

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/5/2012

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Wed, April 4, 2012 — Justice for All

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:24

Where do we go for righting of wrongs?

The Hebrew words for justice and bloodshed sound the same. The language God gave the Hebrews speaks in such a way that whenever bloodshed is mentioned, justice whispers, too. Or whenever justice is called for, the necessity of blood echoes in the words. The blood says, “Justice is satisfied.” “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1 ESV).

The first time “glory” is mentioned in the Bible, Jacob is speaking about the fate of his sons: “Let not my soul enter their council; let not my glory be united to their assembly; for in their anger they slew a man” (Gen. 49:6). Jacob’s “glory” is the honor of his name among present and future generations. God’s glory is the same. He reveals His glory to reveal His Name and demonstrate His character. He is jealous for His reputation in the sense that He is completely holy and He will not give His honor (glory) to that which is unholy or unrighteous. Glory, blood, and communion between persons are intermingled. There is only one blood that brings fellowship with glory: Jesus’ innocent blood. It is the unbreakable bond creating ongoing communion (An excerpt from The Power of the Cross:Epicenter of Glory).

If we receive Jesus’ gospel, we receive His power to make it real in our lives. I experienced this when my father was murdered. His killer was never “brought to justice” in the world’s legal system. My response to that injustice has impacted my own life and affected many others. The ultimate injustice is taking a life. God remedy is life for life—His life that was given for ours that the whole world might find life in Him. There is power in the blood of Jesus for righting every wrong today. Let the blood speak. Let His blood have His way.

“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 1:20-21

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/4/2012

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Mon, April 2, 2012 — The Answer

An excerpt from The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory:

“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God…let the rough ground become a plain—the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed…”
The words played over and over again in his mind. Mingled with the words were scenes of John's cousin and himself playing near the banks of the river that had become the preacher’s pulpit, the river in which he had baptized the Lamb.

Are you the One?

The preacher had sent his disciples to ask Him once again—but John’s heart burned within him. He knew. The One before whom John, while he was still in his mother’s belly, had leaped like David before the ark.
The melody of the Spirit carried strains of glory in a Voice from beyond the confines of the watery cell where John was held in chains and his spirit still said, “Amen! He is the One.”
Suddenly, the Baptist seemed transported to another era. Elijah stood in the distancesurrounded by what began as a cloud of dust. As it rose, the cyclone began to gleam until its brightness was swirling flames of heavenly fire, engulfing the old prophet as he was taken up on the horses of angels.

“My father!” John heard himself cry.

The image disappeared as his voice echoed off the slime-infected stones around him. This cell had been a birthing chamber of lepers.

Every believer will experience times of tremendous opposition from spiritual forces. The faith of every heir to the kingdom will be tested in the course of our mortal life. Times of difficulty present us with the opportunity to settle the big questions firmly in our faith! The devil questioned Jesus: “If you are the Son, make these stones into bread.” There is only one answer to all the questions that arise during times of testing, temptation, opposition or failure. The Word. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every Word of God.” Let the Word who was made flesh, was dead and is alive forevermore, BE all the answer you need today.

Had he not seen the Spirit descend and heard the Voice speaking?

“This is My beloved…listen to Him!”
At risk of their own lives, the disciples he had sent again to the Master should be returning by now—unless some greater ill had befallen them.

John sighed. A tear escaped the same eye that had beheld Him as He passed among the throngs coming to be baptized. No longer just his cousin or his brother from the hearth. Not anymore John’s junior by half a year, the taunt John had often sent Jesus in their youth.

No. He was the One—the Word made flesh and walking in their midst.
Though the words were given sound through his own voice, it was the Spirit who hadtestified and the preacher knew it.

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world!”

Often times it is darkest just before the Light of God's Presence rises in the midst of our journey. Take heart as you remember your destination is a Person who really is The One we seek. If you look just beyond your circumstance your heart will see Him standing with you. He still has all the answers!

Experience the LOVE, POWER, GLORY God displayed for you at the Cross this Passion Week in our book, The Power of the Cross: Epicenter of Glory, and our daily Glorynomics blog.

Bonnie Chavda, 4/2/2012

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Wed, Mar. 21, 2012 — Becoming

He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe!" It happened. They saw....Matt. 9:29.

John saw Jesus on His throne when John was a political prisoner in the salt quarry on Patmos. Stephen's face shone with heaven's glory as he beheld Him in the midst of being stoned! Two recognized the Stranger walking beside them on the road to Emmaus. Peter saw Him and stepped out of the boat onto the stormy sea! Mary came to His tomb and saw He wasn't just the gardener! Joshua saw Him with sword drawn at Jericho! Moses saw Him on the mountain and came down with His countenance on his face.

Where are you? What's happening right now?

"We all with unveiled faces are beholding in a mirror...and being changed." Believe it. Believe Him. He believes in you. It's faith not fantasy. God with us. God in us. That's the real power of this life-pact we have with the Beginning & the End of all things. So when you are seemingly stuck somewhere in Middle Earth, allow the scales of what you see to fall so you begin to look at things with what you believe: HIM! And become.

Join Mahesh and I on the journey, and get a fresh word every day in our new blog, GLORYNOMICS. This is God's set time. Let's get positioned for His favor!

Bonnie Chavda, 3/21/2012

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Fri, Feb. 24, 2012 — Defiant Joy

I have an appreciation for the legendary strength of Spartans whose history has been popularized in books and movies. The famous battle of Thermopylae saved western civilization and ultimately made way for the gospel to spread.

Spartans trained their whole lives for Spartan destiny: victory in battle. Two disciplines that fascinate me when I apply them in spiritual terms are mastery over fear and commitment to humor as a means of a boosting warrior's psychology under the meanest duress. Beyond drilling and weaponry, Spartan training inured the senses against what they called the twin unmanning evils of fear and insult, either of which have potential to undermine a man when face to face with opposition. They also observed that the mind which can maintain its lightness (joy leading to optimism) will not come undone in war.

One of modern Christianity's greatest sages, G.K. Chesterton, tells of a black period in his development when morality and meaning of life was assaulted by the cultural rise of secular humanism, pessimism and nihilist philosophy. In what he called the valley of despair he recalled the fairy tales his father read him as a child. He wrote they "are true not just because they tell us dragons are real, but because they tell us dragons can be beaten." The key to G. K.'s ascent out of the valley was what he called the "thin thread of thanks" and described as an "almost invisible unbreakable bond." Allowing the sense of childlike wonder for the miracle of life itself as evidence of his own connection to the Creator, Chesterton's destiny unfolded before him. He became a defiant warrior of joy.

What "dragon" are you facing? It can be beaten. Lay hold of your "thin thread of thanks" today. Take a Spartan stance. Defy the things that enrage or make you afraid. Come together as one with like-minded warriors of joy!

Our Chief Warrior of Joy was exuberant when His friends took down dragons:

"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven...rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Then Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure!" (Luke 10:18-21).

Join Mahesh and I on the journey, and get a fresh word every day in our new blog, GLORYNOMICS. This is God's set time. Let's get positioned for His favor!

Bonnie Chavda, 2/24/2012

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Thu, Feb. 2, 2012 — Days of Double Favor

I dreamed I was entering my kitchen at nighttime. The lights were off, but I was so “familiar” with the layout of the space, I assumed I didn’t need to turn on the lights to navigate my way. I moved forward and suddenly stepped into something very slippery, and I almost lost my balance. I realized I must have stepped into a puddle of oil covering the floor. I peered through the darkness to see that a corner cabinet where we keep all of our oils was open. Two, brand new bottles full of oil had fallen out; the caps had come off and their contents had emptied onto the floor.

That's when I woke up. I asked the Lord if the dream had a spiritual meaning, and He immediately gave me understanding that the dream illustrates His Word, “This is God’s Year to Act!” and that we need to respond strategically.

Double anointing is opened upon God’s people in this season. We will find ourselves in the midst of His oil of favor when we least expect it and even when it seems we cannot see clearly where we are stepping. We will be stepping into His Presence and provision. Don’t assume the old familiar to be the predictable path forward. Realize the foundations God has given us up to now are firm but His Presence now may present the necessity of a new mode of approaching the way forward. We need His light in order to perceive how to navigate in the double portion of fresh oil He has poured on the old foundations.

This is what we are expecting this year as we enter the dimensions of His glory and favor.

“…when the Almighty was with me, when my children were all around me, my steps were bathed in butter, And the rock poured out for me streams of oil!” Job 29:5-6

Join Mahesh and I on the journey, and get a fresh word every day in our new blog, GLORYNOMICS. This is God's set time. Let's get positioned for His favor!

Bonnie Chavda, 2/2/2012

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Fri, Jan. 6, 2012 — God's Year to Act: Miracles

“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.” John 2:11

Want to know what God thinks about miracles? It’s simply this. Pray for miracles, look for miracles, expect miracles, and experience miracles because God reveals His glory through miracles!

Miracles are the outflow of His glory. They are part and parcel with the message we speak. They release faith for more miracles, and turn hearts toward salvation. The next time Jesus came to Cana, the father of a sick boy came to Jesus. “The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way” (John 4:49-50). The miracle happened as Jesus spoke, the father entered into the word as he took it and went away in full expectation of a miracle. His son was healed from that very hour. “And he himself believed, and all his household. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee” (John 4:53). The final result was that the father and his entire household came to salvation through that miracle.

We are in a season where the Lord is releasing His favor. The atmosphere is pregnant with signs, wonders, and miracles. It is time to shift our thinking, and get in harmony with what God wants to do for you and through you. This is God’s year to Act! Let us all respond to the living word of the Lord, and enter into it today.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising (Is. 60:1-3).

Bonnie Chavda, 1/6/2012

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Tues, Jan. 3, 2012 — His Voice

I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Luke 7:28

What does it mean to be great in God’s eyes? It recently hit me that John the Baptist, who was the Elijah of the New Covenant, had a ministry built on one thing. It was his simple ability to recognize and obey the voice of the Lord.

You see it at its very inception when he leapt in Elizabeth’s womb. At the sound of Mary’s voice, baby John recognized the glory and everything in him responded. Then for 30 years, John and Jesus grew up, cousins, familiar with each other and I’m sure with each other’s stories of miraculous birth. But God kept Jesus’ identity hidden from John until the day the same Voice that had led him to the wilderness, given him the message of repentance, and drew crowds out in response, spoke and John recognized Jesus, the Messiah, with his eyes. John’s leadership came not from what he was familiar with. He heard the Voice of the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus came to stand before him in the waters of baptism, the Voice he had been following his whole life said, “This is the One. This is My Son.” And John’s eyes were opened in a different way. For John, it was Mission Accomplished. The key was the voice of the Lord.

This just exploded for me when I read it afresh. The simple and essential basic equipping for power ministry and moving in your prophetic gift and calling boils down to just being a disciple of recognizing and following the voice of the Lord.

Each one of us is equipped for greatness by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. He is in you and with you to speak to you and lead you. There is nothing to fear. His plans for you are good and to give you a hope and a future. Your pathway to get there is simple; listen to His voice as He speaks.

I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God. Jn 1:33-34

Do you want to know how to hear His voice more clearly? Find out how you can know the Holy Spirit at a deeper level, hearing His voice, discovering His gifts, and fulfilling your calling in our latest book, Getting to Know the Holy Spirit.

Bonnie Chavda, 1/3/2012

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