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April 2024 |
April 2024
Keep our focus on God, Eyes set toward Eternity, to
be Kingdom minded through the mind of Christ.
“Lord, Keep
me in the battle until the Truth of your Word wins out in my life,
Because it always does!”
(Randy Boyd—Prepare International)
“Let us not
get stuck in things past but live in the fruit of overcoming and moving
forward.”
(Holy Spirit through Lisa Barber)
Dear Partners and Prayer Warriors,
About a month
ago, I was saying my usual prayers:
“Father, please place my steps in your footprints that have already gone before
me before I knew there was a path. Please order and direct my every step and
lead my every conversation. Set a guard over my mouth and keep watch over the
door of my lips today”; so on and so forth!
On this
particular morning, I heard the Lord say: “Why not ask Me to take you by the
hand and walk you through this day that I have planned for you?” As I thought
about His statement, I realized that although I was rightly praying scripture
over myself, what I was really doing was telling Him what to do – like I had
control or something! So I thanked Him for showing me my heart and I asked Him
to please take me by the hand and walk me through His day with Him for my life.
When I said that, complete peace came over me and once again I had my eyes and
heart opened to surrendering instead of just going through my morning ritual
agenda.
Since January
of 2022, Doug and I have been walking in a season of learning how to surrender
on a whole different level. It looks different than anyone could imagine. I
believe that surrender looks different on every single individual and the only
way to learn it is to let God teach it! HE loves us most and can teach it best!
During these two years we have been living by the above quote “Lord, keep us in
the battle until the Truth of Your Word wins out in our lives; because it always
does!
Today, on
this April 2024 morning the Holy Spirit gave me the second above quote that
reads: “Let us not get stuck in things past but live in the fruit of overcoming
and moving forward.” I asked Him “How do we do that?” and He answered me. The
rest of this newsletter is what Father said to me through His Holy Spirit (THE
TEACHER).
He Said: We
must choose to surrender! Choose to stay in the moment, in the now, in today
with Jesus. We must choose to stay out of the borrowed trouble(s) of tomorrow
and the “what if’s” of war gaming our issues, problems and circumstances.
We must
choose Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (God) to be first in every area of our
lives. We must choose Him first for every decision we make.
We must
choose to treat people (friends, family, spouses, co-workers, business
associates and strangers) with respect and release God’s love in us to everyone.
We must
choose not to use profanity as a weapon against one another; it only shows
insecurities and lack within ourselves.
We must
choose to be solution seekers and not fault finders. Blame doesn’t change
anything but it does steal, kill and destroy joy, peace, and time. Blame is an
instigator, a distractor, a chaos rebel rouser and a confusion maker. It is an
enemy force that has been sent to break relationships. Blame prolongs a problem
and keeps the solution far away!
The bottom
line is that WE MUST CHOOSE TO SURRENDER! Surrender to God and partner with Him
to make the changes in our lives to be able to treat ourselves and fellow human
beings (aka. spouses, family, and others) with
regard, respect, humility, and honesty. We must choose to
surrender our control to God, our being right or having been wronged and
demanding justice; and ask Him to teach us how to trust Him more and how to make
things right!
The thing
about “choosing surrender” is
that we must make a choice to
choose! The Word says: “Choose this day whom you will serve!” How do we do
that? First by choosing Christ as Lord of your life and partly, by how we treat
others! Either through God’s love
and correction do we learn to surrender to Him and to one another OR through our
flesh which is vanity, a beating the wind, so to speak. But the choice is ours
to make!
Our Father
Sees Everything! Hears EVERYTHING! Knows EVERYTHING! Including our innermost
heart attitudes. He is the only One we must choose because only through Him can
we choose all the other stuff rightly according to His Word. The blood of Jesus
covered our sin and the washing of the water of His Word keeps the worldly
contamination off of us. Let us not get stuck in the things of the past; old
hurts, wounds and offenses that need healing, but surrender the things to Him
and live in the fruit of overcoming and keep moving forward!
Blessings,
Doug and Lisa
Barber
Oh Father, Thank You and
please help me to choose You always and make right choices
in how I treat others. Sometimes I fail miserably but don’t
let that stop me from surrendering to You and trying again.
Help me to lay pride aside to own my heart attitude and
actions; and to ask for forgiveness quickly. Also, help me
to forgive quickly and give grace when and where needed.
Please help me to place my hand in Yours and surrender to
run my race, with excellence in this life so I might attain
the prize You have awaiting me in eternity. In the name of
Jesus. Amen.
LPE Ministries
6203 76th
St.
Lubbock, Texas 79424
Doug 806-790-4757
Lisa 806-790-4756
