His Presence!

By June Lorimer

Deuteronomy 7:9  Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps His covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. NLT

I love this verse, I could stop this blog right now as His word and presence is enough, it really is always enough, whether we are soaring high or plummeting the depths of life circumstances. Feast your eyes and heart on these words above. He is God; He is Lord; He is faithful; He keeps His promises for ever; He lavishes His love; (I love the word lavish as a description of his great love towards us, it is so rich in meaning and depth) His love is unfailing and here comes our part, this is true for each one of us….to love and obey him (i.e. to follow Him in all His ways, so that our ways are His ways, that they are so beautifully moulded together into one as we take time to listen to His heartbeat and set our faces towards Him.)

My journey with Jesus began when I was ten years old, I was at boarding school in Belfast with my younger sister. I found His love and grace irresistible and clearly remember asking Him into my life, kneeling beside my dormitory bed one evening and being led to Jesus by a girl in upper sixth.  I remember looking at the sky and seeing the most glorious sunset and feeling that the God of the universe had painted it in the sky especially for me that night and that I was His girl. I was conscious of a deep inner peace and tingling sensation!  So now begins the perfect story of a life lived set apart for Him and His glory…if only !!!! I definitely took being a muppet many, many times to a whole new level of idiocy (still do at times) and I am so thankful for His unfailing patience, love, discipline (not so fussed on this aspect) and care.

The primary reason we were at boarding school was due to the ‘troubles’. My parents had a business, which was blown up including our home in the 70’s, plus many other bombings subsequent to this and an attempted hijacking. We had been brought up in a home of total religious tolerance for all faiths, so it would never have occurred to me that we could be targets. I remember so clearly being given the news of that first bomb when we were staying with relatives during the summer holidays. My parents weren’t with us at the time and the news was relayed to us by a relative. I was completely devastated and an anxiety crept deep inside of me as an unwelcome passenger, in particular regarding the safety of people I love. This was further compounded by my parents trying to shield us from the news of yet another bomb of our family business which one of my classmates inadvertently told me about!  I felt Jesus gave me a beautiful verse, which I fed myself on during those difficult years at boarding school, (it definitely was not my favourite place to be, it felt like a prison!) 

Joshua 1 v 9 “Be bold and strong banish fear and doubt for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” 

This was manna to my soul and I was so delighted to change schools three years later and become a day- girl at a local school, unfortunately that was also the end of my academic work. I was now free and freedom tasted far too good to be bothered with working! I did say earlier that I was a muppet at times and only redeemed this period of my life years later!

The reason why I shared this part of my story is because the Holy Spirit revealed something so significant to me at the latter part of last year, which has been so freeing. My poor boys have had to put up with a neurotic mother, which stemmed from my deep childhood anxiety. Most normal parents like to know where their children are, what time they will be home at etc but with me it induced an abnormal fear/anxiety and I tried to pre-empt potential troubling situations by playing through my head anything and everything which may or may not happen regarding them both.  They were both so gracious at all times but it was pretty ridiculous!  Scott, my youngest son, challenged me regarding the need to see a counsellor, but I knew instantly as he spoke this out that the Holy Spirit would show me and release me from this bondage. As I talked to Him, (the Holy Spirit) He took me straight back to my childhood and pinpointed the primary root of anxiety as stemming from the day of hearing about our first bomb. From then He showed me various points along my journey where I had suffered the pain of loss and He instantaneously set me FREE, meaning also that the boys would be set free from an over anxious mother a win, win situation. I genuinely had absolutely no idea that I was carrying this unnecessary burden all these years.

  

Moving on!

Any of you who know me will know that I love to meet with people and see them set free from any area where they feel trapped.  I love to pray and journey with many of you and see freedom come into your life, it’s always an honour and such an immense privilege to be involved in this kind of ministry.  

John 8v36 “So if the son sets you free, you shall be free indeed”. 

I have come to realize on the journey that freedom really is a choice.  Jesus offers us this freedom in every area and arena of our lives.  He wants us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. (Romans12v2), He desires to make us more like Him, to be Holy as he is Holy (1 Peter 1:15-16). We must go through the refiner’s fire so that we can reflect the utter brilliance of His beauty through the transforming process. I had two visions at varying times in the past 4-5 years where God was showing me the refining that I would be going through, (I would rather he hadn’t shown me these as I knew there was a time of intensive pruning coming up and boy was it painful!) 

John 15 v 2 “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” 

As we become more like Him then those around us are infected by His presence (forgot to say I was a nurse for twenty years, I understand the power of transmittable infections!). This really is the best form of infection being transferred to others through the Holy Spirit working in us and is utterly life transforming. We are set free; He often uses us to set others free….simples really!!

Butterflies!

I was in Stratford upon Avon several weeks ago and I went to the butterfly house, this is on my "bucket list" as I had had a previous vision of majestic butterflies on large leafy fronds, waterfalls etc. The only problem was that my heavenly father hadn’t given this to me in glorious technicolour, I had pleaded with Him to do so but it wasn’t happening, so I have now seen it in glorious technicolour (real life) which was obviously what he had planned and I was completely wowed once again by the magnificence of my creator God. I stood for ages (a couple of hours, and yes I did look as if I was crazy!) beside the pupa cabinet and watched as the butterflies struggled to get out of the chrysalis, even when they did, they simply hung there and underwent even more transformation and I watched as their bodies changed colour and shape…amazing.  Then they hung there for a little while longer before blood was pumped into their wings and they had dried out to be ready for flight. The one which I watched for a long time going through this whole process was a magnificent blue one which was the one God had showed me in the vision and now I was seeing it in glorious techicolour/real life and was well worth waiting for. Why am I including this in the blog…I am not sure really other than that even when the butterfly had emerged there still was a waiting time and further transformation had to take place before it could take flight. I know this has huge significance for some reader’s lives so I am simply going to leave it there and you can ask Him what He is revealing to you!  

I feel that He asked me to stop writing and to talk to you about Him, the great I am who I am! He tells us to 

“Be still and to know that I am God, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth” Psalm 46 v 10. 

I love His presence; there is nothing better than meditating and worshipping Him and feeling the weightiness and love of His presence.  I love the fact that He lives in me, and that I am of noble birth adopted into His family as a daughter of the King of Kings! I love the fact that He comes close to and is a healer of the broken hearted. I love the fact that He says we are new creations because of His great love and the mind-blowing divine exchange which took place on the cross…such outrageous grace! I love the fact that He is our provider, and He has provided well! (scary at times as we stepped out of the boat as a family, but I wouldn’t change it)  

I love the fact that His eyes roam the whole earth looking for those who are fully committed to Him and that He knows He has captivated my messy heart. I love the fact that He is family and that placing people into families physically and spiritually is His idea, and I am so thankful that He set me into an amazing one with incredible parents, a steadfast crazy hubbie, God loving sons and adopted crazy daughter! I love the fact that He is for our town, our nation and the nations, that nothing escapes His eyes of love and mercy. I love the fact that He brings very special people into our lives to reflect the Saviour’s heart. I love the fact that He is a God of justice and evil cannot prevail because of His presence. I love the fact that He is always faithful, always present, always good.  I just love the fact that He is the great I am who I am.