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Dear beloved,
Welcome to Lapis Lazuli Ministries February Newsletter.
The past few weeks have been hectic as we tried to deal with the impact of the change in date of the Elections in Nigeria on us at Lapis Lazuli Ministries. The Presidential Elections date of March 28 clashed with the Kingdom Harvest Conference which had been in planning since August 2014. The challenge was trying to get another date from Global Awakening team, for this year, (as they are booked over a year in advance) and also getting the same venue for the date.
During this challenge however, the thought that kept me going was how amazing God is in that He is all knowing so nothing catches Him unawares like it does to me. Knowing the All- knowing God, then frees me up to trust in His ability to make a way as He knew ahead what was going to happen.
Indeed He has made a way as we now have Thursday the 17 to Saturday the 19 of September 2015 for our Kingdom Harvest conference. We would like to thank all those who stood with us in the place of prayer. Also all who encouraged us in different ways.
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Encountering the One who Loves.
The Lenten season is underway. Lent is a period of 40 days which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter Sunday. I find it is really a good time for reflection and preparation before the Easter celebration. Some may say we ought to always live a life of reflection, so don't need a time set aside. God however gave times in the Bible for His people to celebrate and intentionally remember His goodness to them. For example, Pesach (Passover) is one of the three pilgrim holidays (along with Shavu'oth and Succot) that is celebrated to remember how God liberated the Israelites from Egypt ( Exodus 12).
I find the Lenten season a good time to ponder on Jesus time in the dessert for 40 days and His temptations. I reflect on His determination to go to Jerusalem to face His crucifixion in obedience to His Father and His extravagant love for us. I wonder at the sacrificial, and unconditional nature of this love. I pray, like Paul did for a deeper revelation of the depth, height, breadth and length of this love (Ephesians 3v18 ) that made Jesus offer Himself on the Cross as a sacrifice for our sins thereby defeating death, and giving me access into the Throne room now through His blood, but also Eternal life here after. I think of some of the exchanges that took place at the cross because of His great love, such as His Forgiveness for my sin, His righteousness for my filthy rags, His riches for my poverty, to mention a few.
My vicar Andy Keighley, the other day described Lent as a season of detachment and attachment. This sounds interesting as we can think about detaching from stuff that hinders our close and intimate walk with Our Father. Anything done in excess such as TV, gym, jobs, parties to mention a few, could be stuff we could detach from. We could then use the time regained to spend more time, or attach more to Our Lord by spending time in His Presence, or studying His word, or practise listening to His voice, watch DVDs of great speakers to name a few. Generally the idea is to develop or nourish our Spirit man, and thereby bring our flesh under authority. This is the attachment bit.
The human body is made up of the flesh, the soul and the Spirit. Our flesh is demanding and we spend time trying to satisfy it, appease it, entertain it, feed it and so on. The soul is the seat of our will and emotions and it can either be controlled by our flesh or the Spirit. God engages with our Spirit man, which is the third part of the human body. The challenge we all have is what part of these three do we allow to rule? Is it the flesh, the soul or the Spirit. We ought to desire to be ruled by our Spirit man, as God connects to us thru this so we would know God's will, entertain God's thoughts, and generally be ruled by God's Spirit.
We need to realise that what goes on in the spirit realm impacts greatly what happens in the physical. It's important to learn to navigate both realms.
There are different types of Fast, like the Dry Fast, Daniel Fast, to mention a few. Isaiah 58 v 3-7 tells us about the type of Fast God really appreciates. He desires that our heart motives are right, and we don't just go through the motion. The reward for a Fast acceptable in God's sight is found in verse 8. I encourage you to dwell on these verses.
The simple idea behind fasting is to give more time and attention to nourishing the Spirit man, by trying to silence our flesh, by depriving it of food, TV, drinking etc. In the past I tended to fast at random but The Lord taught me to examine my motives before I do, so my fast would bring Him pleasure. If our motives are unclear, for example if it's to lose weight, or to go through the motions because everyone around me is doing it, or if it is to extract favours from our Father who loves to give them to us anyway, then our fast may not have the right impact. The idea is to detach from stuff that dulls the Spirit man and attach to what nourishes or feeds our Spirit man e.g. reading the word more, spending more time in worship, thus having the space during our Fast to really encounter the One who loves so much that He went to the Cross and suffered the most cruel death ever in history. The main purpose too of spending more time reading the word is so we can encounter The Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who first loved us. He is the living Word, and the One who gives life. Jesus (John 5 v 39 and 40 ) explained this, pointing out that the scriptures all point to Him, so we need to come to Him to receive life, in other words we need to encounter Him.
Our inability to press into encounter is the greatest disservice we can do to ourselves. Encounter implies entering into The Presence of the Lord. It involves engaging such that you feel your heart strangely warmed. You feel Christ love filling your heart, and you listen to His voice or worship in song or in quiet. There really are no set down rules, but there has to be the desire to be abandoned to His love and enjoy intimacy with The One who loves.
My encouragement is that as we journey with Jesus Christ this Lenten season, we will buy ourselves a little journal to write in. Daily we could take time out and pray for a word, thought, picture or passage from the Lord and record that. We will find that at the end of the season, we would have gotten a deeper revelation of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross. Our time in the Presence will cause our hearts to be more tender and open to hearing and understanding what the Holy Spirit wants to teach us about the love of our Heavenly Father and of Jesus.
May this season of Lent draw us closer still, to the One who truly loves.
Love, Mina x |
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Registration for the Easter Kingdom Harvest Conference is closed due to the clash of our date, March 28, with the new election date in Nigeria. Lapis Lazuli Ministries is happy to announce a new date of Thursday, 17th September to Saturday 19th September, 2015.
Registration will go live in June 2015, please register then. We look forward to seeing you at the Landmark Events Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. Come expectant.
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May the Lord continue to uphold and preserve you all.
God's blessings,
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The message of the cross is the unchanging story of Gods amazing love for sinners.
John 3v 16 says..for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that who so ever would believe in Him, would not perish, but have eternal life.
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Lapis Lazuli Ministries
Contact Details
Email
Website
Address
3 Udi Street, Wema Terrace
Osbourne Foreshore Estate, Ikoyi.
Lagos, Nigeria.
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The Essential Guide to Healing
by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark
Healing Unplugged by Bill Johnson and Randy Clark
Seeing through Heaven's Eyes
by Leif Hetland
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Copyright � 2014 Lapis Lazuli Ministries
All Rights Reserved.
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