Worker-Bee vs. Weaned Child

written May 2, 2010

Last night leg cramp and heart palpitation woke me up. Took me two hours of lying in bed quietly until the palpitation went away. I asked God why this happened. I felt He said it was the "Worker-Bee" syndrome. I had come back from DC with it and now this engine inside me says I have to do this or that, or else I will disappoint others. I must grab opportunities or I will be sorry. The voice of the "Hard Taskmaster" with the whip was spurring my mind to dart about thinking how to please, how to succeed, how to win favor, how to be important in the eyes of others.

What happened? The Lord had sent me as a "Weaned Child" agent to DC, and I got waylaid by the religious spirit and could not hear His voice. Rather, I had heard so many versions of His voice and that brought confusion. DC is a Land of No-Rest, and my spirit had no rest when I was there. I came back and did not know who I was in Him and I could not remember what it was like to be an inhabitant of His Garden. The acidic air of DC had turned me into a prune, and now the worker-bee poison is in my blood stream, and the danger of that is this spirit numbs me so I am not aware of it.

Today I sense the Lord saying, "Enough!" and I began to hear His wonderful, familiar voice. He is calling me to come be alone with Him, to drop all chores and labor, and re-discover the beauty of His Garden. He is saying, " Just Me, Jean! Just Me! You don't have to set so many things up. Just come be with Me. Remember to be 'Mary,' and not be 'Martha'". You see, when the worker-bee syndrome is on me, I find it hard to be the Mary who sits quietly at Jesus' feet while her sister Martha is all upset trying to cook and serve everybody (see Luke 10).

Now I have been home for a week, and I still cannot just "Be." "Doing" seems more attractive. When I am doing,doing, doing I have momentary sense of importance. It covers up my feeling of neediness and fear and worries. I feel OK, accepted, important when I am engaged in "Doing." "Being" seems so lame. Or so it seems.

This morning I picked up a piece of paper from my table and looked at it. Why, it was the email I had sent out just before I left for DC! It was called, "Weaned child is going to DC tomorrow." dated April 20th. I had totally forgotten I wrote that. When I re-read it, my spirit seemed to come face to face with Jesus.

I said, "Hi! Jesus!" and He said, "Hi! Jean!" Whoa! I felt like I had stumbled into His Garden!

Whenever I am in the Garden, I would know things. I would know what is what. I would not be confused. I knew that was why I went to DC, to declare and decree "weaned child" word over DC. Come to think of it, in 2004 He sent me to New York City to get a painting-word for the United Nations through the invitation of the New York City Intercessors. That trip was murder. I came home dangerously ill. The word I got there was, you guess it...the "weaned child." I did a sketch there of a child sitting on Jesus' lap, and He was saying that He longed to pick up the important leaders of the world, and ordinary people like you and me, and put us all on His lap, so that we would be enfolded in His voluminous white gown, pressing ourselves deeper, yet deeper into His body, resting in His care. And the verses for this painting were, I have stilled and quieted my soul...like a weaned child is my soul within me.(Psalm 131:2) and A little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6) (see painting at my website gallery )

So now I know why it was so hard for me in DC. Because the message of the "weaned child" is dangerous to the religious spirit as well as to the spirit of the "worker-bee." It seems the enemy may not be as threatened when God's people go out to fight causes as he is threatened by us going out as the "weaned child" carrying that word deep inside our hearts. Why? Because he does not know how to fight the weaned child. The weaned child plasters his/her ears against the Father's heart, and gets instruction straight from Him. The "weaned child" knows he/she is weak, so Jesus the Lion of Judah has to fight for and with the weaned child. The "weaned child" comes from the Garden where he/she receives weapons that the enemy can't fathom - weapons such as He laughs at fear afraid of nothing (Job 39:22),for the joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10) and byHis wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5) and many, many more. (I picked up a good number of such weapons while fighting cancer and cancerous lies:see my book, Out of the Wilderness.)

I really believe that the "Weaned Child" word is a key word for the church and for those in high places. In this time of much darkness and confusion, His Garden is His provision to one and all. I hear Him calling out, "Come to Me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy and My burden light... Come and walk with me in the Garden in the cool of the day, and I will share My secrets with you. This is where you gain your authority. I give the weaned child authority to take dominion over the seven mountains of the world: mountain of government, mountain of business, mountain of law, mountain of education, mountain of media, mountain of arts and entertainment, and mountain of religion, bringing these mountains back to Me."

So good to be back in His Garden!

Breakthrough word for us all

written April 12, 2010

In this season of breakthroughs, I am seeing "gates" being formed or are already formed for each of us by the Lord.

 
As we stand before these "gates" to our future, we ask ourselves -  Are these gates really formed for us? What if nothing comes out of our obedience and faith walk? Will we succeed? We do not know what our future holds. We do not know if indeed these are gates prepared by God for us. No matter our perspective concerning our circumstances, all that is required of us is to be obedient and position ourselves before the gates and walk through them when they open. Because we are in the season of the Breakthrough Horse. Micah 2:13 says, The Breaker (the Messiah) will go up before them. They will break through the gate and go through it, and their King will pass before them, the Lord at their head.

The Lord tells us - keep things simple; focus; no more trying to figure everything out, no more striving, worrying. There's nothing to be fearful about. God is equipping us all to be overcomers and we are overcoming many obstacles in our way. We will not be deterred. Many things are happening on earth and there are a lot of movements for God's people, a lot of new placements. He is out to make us sharper overcomers. I am seeing that we are getting healed up, getting braver, putting our arms out to take back the "land" for God, ("land" being our health,  finance, marriage, children, projects, dreams, visions). We are praying for each other more and connecting in deeper and more meaningful ways, getting rid of our prejudices and judgments and religious spirit. We are hearing His voice better, going deeper into the cavern of our hearts in His heart. Most of all, we are learning to laugh at fear afraid of nothing; we are trusting the Lord so much that we laugh and laugh and are full of zest and enjoyment. HO! HO! HO! 

Can you see yourselves in your mind's eyes ? Yes, you are warriors  positioned at the gate of righteousness, with thanksgiving in our hearts. We are in this all the way now with each other. We do not live for ourselves, but for His kingdom, to bring His kingdom down on earth as it is in Heaven. We war by laughter, by trusting, by loving, by the joy of the Lord, determined to enjoy our lives here on earth, taking dominion, and being creative in all kinds of ways.

We are now becoming the "new man/woman", yet we are like the warriors of old, their names mentioned in Hebrew 11:32, And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jepthrah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escapes the edge of the sword, whose weaknesses was turned into strength, and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.

Cultivating the lifestyle of living in His Garden

written May 11, 2010

My presentation of the story His Garden at a La Jolla church Mother's Day Garden brunch was simply delightful and so beautifully set up, where fifty-five women and young ladies seemed to be transported to another place. In our spirit, we were transported to a heavenly banqueting hall as in He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love because God had set up a banquet to dine on His story of the Garden. Many came afterwards to thank me for delivering the Heavenly delicious "food" and that they were nourished and strengthened.

Interestingly, it has been a few years since the Lord called for the presentation of His Garden and it was very powerful. But now, the world has changed.  All over the world people's hearts are deeply troubled and distraught. So many are out of work. Natural disasters - earthquakes, floods, volcano eruptions - are occurring in many lands. In this setting, His voice is more urgent now, saying to one and all, "Come into My Garden! Come in! Come in! Do not stay out in the Land of No-Rest. You must come in now." I am reminded of Noah's ark. How Noah asked everyone to come into the ark that God instructed him to build, but people scoffed and declined his urgent warning.

What is His Garden? It is not a devotional time every morning. It is not a favorite retreat place. His Garden is inside our hearts where He walks and talks with us in the cool of the day as in the original Garden of Eden. He is cultivating a relationship with us so that we know His voice more and more as in they know his voice (John 10:4b) and He has become very dear to us. We grow to love Him so much we want to hang out with Him. We are no longer double-minded, belonging to Him and yet still influenced by the system of the world and our flesh and the lies of the enemy which brings us into turmoil and confusion. He is calling us to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds into the mind of Christ. Garden living is a lifestyle of living by childlike faith and communing with Him constantly. Garden living strengthens us in the inner person as we learn how to rest. We are to carry His Garden inside us wherever we go whoever we are with. In truth we are Garden agents or carriers who know how to impart His peace, love and joy to our home, work places, neighborhood, schools, government, cities, nation, and the world, changing the world one step at a time. And all that starts with our cultivating the lifestyle of living in His Garden. Garden living is living the abundant life, which Jesus says He came to give to us (see John 10:10)

We videotaped my reading of His Garden, with music, and now this story can go out as DVD so that more hearts can be processed into His Garden.

The Soaring Eagle - A call to intimacy

written in March, 2010

In March 2004, the Lord called me to paint a soaring eagle as a word to the President and to the praying church. The verse is Jeremiah 33:3: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.  The Lord wants to give the President an encounter with Him in the secret place and carry him up high on His Wings.  He is asking the praying church to be the thermal wind that lifts him up with our prayers.  Note the faint white lines under the tail of the eagle which strangely showed up when I was painting the sunrise. I sense that the Lord wanted to show us how much our prayers are needed to lift the eagle up.

On March 22, 2010, I received another word for the church pertaining to the "Soaring Eagle."  Psalm 131 says, My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonder for me.  I have stilled and quieted my soul; like a weaned child with its mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.  Hebrew "weaned" means be still, deal bountifully or rewarded. The Lord is calling His bride who has been alarmed and distraught, fearful and angry, to return to the place of stillness and abiding, a place of quiet confidence, of hope and expectancy, of knowing that He is sovereign and good and nothing is impossible with Him, and He can do more than we can ever hope or ask for.  We have been zealous for the cause of the Lord; yet He is asking us to come and lie against His chest, like a weaned child with its mother. It is in the mode of the weaned child that the church can hear and pray the heart of God into the President. May it be that we the church will agree with Him and our prayers will lift the President up to where he will have an encounter with Him and be able to hear and pray the Lord's heart into our nation.

I Timothy 2:1-2 : I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority...

What happens when I lose the Garden...

written in January, 2009

My heart tells me I have lost something special. I have become so sad.The world is such a dark place and getting darker. Emails come to warn of many things, and rightly so, and everywhere there's so many needs. But what good am I when I let concerns pile up on top of my head, and every thought is what am I not doing but should do, or what more should I be doing to help? Ah! I know what has happened to me - I have lost the art of going into His Garden. I am carrying a sack of heavy concerns, worries, forebodings. I am wearing heavy boots instead of the slippers of lightness. The clothes of my spirit are of such somber colors and the material is practically made of sack cloth. I have forgotten what it is like to put on the gown of incredible lightness that the Gatekeeper is waiting to put on me. No, I can't remember the feeling I get when I put that gown on. (this is in my book His Garden)

Four years ago when I was hit with cancer, I had to find out how a person with cancer can enjoy His Garden - a place of childlike faith and ridiculous laughter in the face of death-causing cancer. But I got to go there. I spent one year in the Garden, day in and day out, hanging out with God, acquiring weapons of His word to fight cancer with. He sent His creatures that are in the Garden - the He-Laughs-At-Fear Horse, the Butterfly, the Lion of Judah, the Wild Bird, the Breakthrough Horse, to teach me, teach me, how to laugh at cancer, how to fight fear. I believe that by being in the Garden for a year, cancer was wiped out of my body. Praise God! I came out stronger, lighter, bolder.

And now, there may be another sort of "cancer" I must watch out for. This one will cause me to forget His Garden. It is the "cancer" of worrying and worrying about everything, so many issues crowding in, of health, finance, relationships, our nation, God's kingdom, sense of inadequacy,eating away,burrowing into my spirit, the spirit of a bride of Christ. Suddenly I know that I need to pursue the Garden again. I must! I miss my Beloved! I have forgotten His fragrance, His sweet voice, the feel of His voluminous shining white gown against my face! What good am I wanting to be a light to the world if I am not able to laugh and play and dance with Him. I must have HIM! I am desperate to see His face and hear His voice again.

I miss hearing Him tell me, day in and day out, "I love you. You are important to Me. You are the apple of My eye. I will take care of your every need. Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by praying and asking, with a thankful heart, tell Me your needs, and My peace which is beyond your understanding, will guard your heart and mind as You abide in Me." (paraphrase Philippians 4:6-7)