Believe it or not, the year 2015 is just about over and I can’t help but wonder to myself, “Stephanie, have you lived this year well? Has the Lord’s character been reflected in your thoughts, words, and deeds or has your flesh won out?”  Who has maintained court in the kingdom of your heart and life?

Without being morbidly introspective, I pause, look back and I wonder.  Instantly, my mind comprises a list of personal failures; daily little compromises that lack the level of integrity that I ought to have as a child of a King.  I can see all the days I neglected time resting at His feet, hanging on His every Word.  Multiple moments of self-pity, faithlessness, and unbelief rise to the forefront of my mind and seek to whip me with condemnation.

Were it not for the Word, made alive in me, I could easily be crippled with discouragement. Praise the Lord that Romans 8:1-4 tells me; tells us, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  Why?  “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”  Why?  “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.”  How?  “By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

In my pondering, I am increasingly aware of the enemy (this enemy, this created being, Satan, who from the beginning has sought to rule His Creator) who seeks to steal, kill and destroy all that belongs to God.

While all the things I listed above are very much true.  It is also true that the enemy has no right to use them against me.  His goal is to make a mockery of the Cross and in so doing seek to discourage and render me ineffective for Kingdom work.

Dear sisters, let’s collectively shout “No!”  Let’s, together, bend our hearts low to worship and adore the Risen One.  Let’s also remember 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Stephanie Dale

Stephanie serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy.
Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

“Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip was tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness. And he came into all the district around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;” Luke 3:1-3

Recently in all of my reading I am seeing a common theme – God’s timing is perfect! As I began to read Luke 3 I was reminded that there were 400 years of silence before John the Baptist came and began to preach repentance. Seeing God’s timing is so much more discernable in the rearview mirror. All the pieces fall into place and looking back I get an “AHA” moment. As we look forward, however, our sight can be blocked by our circumstances. It’s hard to see through the trees, so to speak, and it is harder to know that God’s timing will be perfect.

Today I want to remind us to simply trust God. I struggle with staying in the moment and not projecting into the future. Trusting God looking forward is an area I seek to continue to grow and rest in. As you wait for all the pieces to fall into place in your here and now…. know that God’s got it!

Blessings,
Kathy

Kathy Withers is on staff at America’s Keswick and serves as Acting Director of Partner Care. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 30 years. They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local Church and teaches a Bible Study for women. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God’s Word.

I am doing a Bible study on prayer with some of the ladies here at Keswick. The book we are going through has really been challenging what I do/do not know about prayer. The topic of this past week’s lesson was “The Author of Prayer”. In this lesson the author stated these words.

“Powerful praying is not a matter of knowing the right words to say, rather it is having a heart that is at God’s disposal- open to hear every sigh and whisper and to echo it in prayer. As God molds your heart so that it matches His, your heart overflows in prayer. What God has spoken in your innermost being guides your lips in prayer.”

I wonder how many of us have considered how great a privilege and responsibility the gift of prayer is. It is a privilege to be able to come before the throne of the Creator of the universe and present your needs to Him knowing that He alone has the power to care for them.

However, it is a great responsibility because when we pray we need to remove us and our selfish wants and desires from the equation and pray as Jesus did about what God would have us pray for.

The Bible tells us that the condition of our hearts will determine the focus of our prayer life. Matthew 12:34 says “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” Proverbs 16:23 says “A wise man’s heart guides his mouth.” The condition of our heart will also determine the effectiveness of our prayers. In John 15:7-8 Jesus says “If you remain in Me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”   Here Jesus is telling us that if we want to see prayer answered then we must pray according to His will. How does one pray according to the will of God? Think about the person in your life that you are closest with.

You know everything about them- their likes, their dislikes, what makes them happy, and what causes them deep pain. You can look at a situation and determine, based on your knowledge of them, which outcome would please them most. This is the way it should be with God. We should know God in such an intimate way that we know all of His likes, dislikes, what brings Him great joy and what causes Him great sorrow. When we know Him in this way, it will become easier to pray in a way that will please Him most. The only way to truly know God is by reading the Bible. In that book are all of the characteristics and commands of God that will reveal to us who He is. For instance the Bible says “…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” Matthew 5:44. We can take this and apply it to all the persecution Christians are facing around the world. It is easy to hate the persecutors, to curse them, to wish evil upon them, and to choose to not even lift them up in prayer, but that is not the heart of God. He loves His enemies. He loves us. We were at one point His enemies. He sent His Son to die for us. He loved us that much.

Do we love our enemies that much? Sincerely? Imagine if we did. Imagine if we started praying prayers straight from the heart of God. How different would our prayer life be?

Allison Lang

Ally is married to Keswick’s Guest Services Director Jim Lang, and served as our Snack Shop Supervisor this past summer.

Yesterday I wrote about doing a word study on the word “vision”.  Today I would like to share about the word vision when it is used as a verb or the Hebrew word “hazah”.  It means to see, behold, select for oneself, prophesy, provide, see, to gaze at, to perceive, to contemplate with pleasure.  This word appears 54 times in the scriptures.

One reference you may be familiar with is in Proverbs 22:29, “Do you see a man skilled in his work?  He will stand before kings; He will not stand before obscure men.” (NASB) This seems to mean that someone who works hard to do his or her job well will not stay hidden, he will be recognized.

The word “hazah” can mean to see as in a prophetic vision as in Numbers 24:4.  “The oracle of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered…….”  Here Balaam had to bless Israel because despite Balak’s orders to curse Israel he could not because of the vision God had given him.  It would seem that having vision from God can release the discernment we need.  In that way we can clearly discern the truth from lies.

The last example I want to share is from Lamentations 2:14: “Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; And they have not exposed your iniquity so as to restore you from captivity, But they have seen for you false and misleading oracles.” (NASB) Here Jeremiah warns the Jewish people that false prophets are predicting peace and prosperity rather than telling them the truth, that they must confront their sin and repent.  This begs the question, am I testing those who may come to me with a word from the Lord.  1 John 4:1 warns us:  “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

God must be very serious about wanting us to know His vision for us.   It seems He wants us to have a vision for excellence in our work, to know Him so well that we can’t help but be blessed with discernment.  We are living in a time when discernment and recognizing God’s vision for us is surely a blessing to have.  Once again it would appear that to walk in His vision for our lives we must know His Word and rest in His presence.  By His grace, ladies, we can do this!!

Blessings,
Patricia L. Wenzel
WOC Graduate

Resources:
W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White Jr.  Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996

James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990

Recently I did a word study on “vision” in the Scripture.  The noun “vision” in the Bible comes from the Hebrew word “hazon”.  “Hazon” almost always signifies a means of divine revelation, a sight, a dream, or a revelation.  The first of the 34 times it is in the Bible, the noun “hazon” is in 1Samuel 3:1. I will share with you verses 1-4:

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli. And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.   It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well),  and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was,  that the LORD called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.” (NASB)

It would seem that Eli was no longer in a place that he could receive a vision from God, but young Samuel, who was resting in the temple of the Lord, had ears to hear what the Lord wanted to share.  Eli encouraged him to be still and listen.  This made me consider if I was resting in the presence of God long enough to hear or see what God wanted to show me.

Another interesting scripture using the noun “hazon” is from Proverbs 29:18: “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law.” (NASB) It would seem that if people can’t “see” what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.  But when they attend to what He reveals in His Word they are most blessed.  This made me think of the times I came up with “good ideas” to solve a problem but totally wasted my time for I had not sought the plan God had.

Another word for “vision” and also used as a noun is “hizzayon”.  This noun is used 9 times in the Scripture.  It refers to a prophetic “vision” as in Joel 2:28 – one of my favorites I love to pray: “It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.”  (NASB)

I believe God continues to desire to communicate with His people through visions, and the revelation of His Word.  Perhaps God is calling us to be “more than overcomers” in this time we are living.  “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7A, 11A, 29; 3:6, 13,22) and receive vision that will be confirmed in His Word.  I believe the challenge is to be submitted to the study of His Word and resting in His presence.  Let’s go for it ladies!!

Blessings,
Patricia L. Wenzel
WOC Graduate

Resources:
W. E. Vine, Merrill F. Unger, William White Jr.  Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996

James Strong, LL.D., S.T.D. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible,Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990

If we were to pause for a second and consider the grace that saved us, that fact alone is enough to bring us to our knees in worship of the One True God. Let’s take it a step further. Considering our own individual life situations and circumstances—pause and reflect on the present-tense evidence of God’s grace. Do you see it? Are you aware of the tangible reality of grace at work in your very life?

Psalm 139:1-3, 23-24 says, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways…Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Powerful words from Scripture to remind us in the simplicity of our humanness that God is ever-present, all the time, and intimately acquainted with us in the inward details of our thinking, feeling and being. That same God is willing and able to show you the deepest parts of you and, by grace, lead you into an everlasting way, forever changed by grace.

Dear sisters, these facts alone are evidence of His grace, and we don’t ever want to lose sight of it!

Today, I invite you to get still and quiet with me. Consider the God you love and serve and allow more of Him to invade your thinking and feeling. Let Him show you the error in your ways, the stink in your thinking. After all, that too is grace. He loved us with Calvary’s Cross! He is therefore committed to molding and shaping us into the image and likeness of Himself in and through the Son, which is all the more evidence of His grace in our lives.

He sees, He hears and He knows us. He is with us always, which means, we are never ever alone. In or out of distress He is near.

Be intentional today to see new evidence of God’s loving care and faithfulness on display in the details of your life.

Stephanie

Stephanie serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy.  Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said,  “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?”–2 Samuel 7:18

Who are you, O sister, and what is your house that God has brought you thus far?  Think about that a bit.  Just who are we that God has, thus far…brought us?  Who am I and what is my house that God has thus far, brought me?

Who I am is a subject for another day, month or year.  One thing I can say is He has thus far, brought me through 15 months of grieving the loss of my one and only daughter.  In fact, though I continue to grieve her loss and long for her with each passing day, I am certain that God is—in the midst of it—drawing me closer to Him than ever before.

Life goes on, after all, and somehow (by His grace) we have to show up in our minutes, hours, days and do the next thing—both at home, in church family life and here at America’s Keswick where I am extremely blessed to serve.

One of the many things I get to do is write Victory Calls. Most days it is a joy and delight to write what the Lord has placed on my heart. There are also, quite honestly, times when writing feels like a chore, something I have to do…just because I have to.

So today, I decided to go back in the Women of Character file and once again read why it is that we write these Victory Call devotions in the first place. The following is what Diane Hunt wrote to all of us way back in 2005 when VC began:

“The Purpose of Victory Call is to encourage and challenge women to live in visible victory in their daily lives, through their walk with Jesus Christ.”

The two words from her original statement that quickly capture my attention are: “visible victory”.

In a previous VC I encouraged you who were willing, to meet me at the merry-go-round with your dancing shoes on.  If I were to pick an actual park with a real date and time, for some, the act of showing up would be visible victory.

In so many ways we get comfortable and set in how we do life and we can sometimes (often) forget to visibly express the joy that we possess in our vessels.  We forget that our feet were made for more than tapping; our arms were made for more than folding and our hands were not made to sit on nor our fingers made for pointing.

Who are you, O sister, and what is your house that God has brought you thus far?

Who you are is a daughter of the Most High God and why you are is simple – you are made for worship, to love God and enjoy Him forever!  Remember, dear sisters, we serve a big God and He is worthy of all our praise and worship.

I leave you today with this prayer for spiritual strength that you may (NO MATTER WHAT!) continue to reach for the prize, to live in visible victory corem deo—before the face of God.

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory He may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ ma dwell in your hearts through faith-that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. -Ephesians 3:14-21

Stephanie Dale

Stephanie serves as part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Director of Women of Character. She has been married for over 30 years to Sesky Paul who is a graduate of the Colony of Mercy.  Her single focus in ministry at Keswick is to image Christ in grace and truth to wounded and hurting women, encouraging them to make Jesus the truest Lover of their soul and the One in whom all hope lies.

“ And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.  And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s [a]Christ. 7 And he came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, [b]to carry out for Him the custom of the Law,  then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God…” Luke 2:25-52

The appointment was set, the timing was perfect…Simeon was about to see Jesus just as he was promised by the Holy Spirit. This was a divine appointment!

Simeon had an advantage in that he knew the appointment would come. He waited. Did he wake each morning wondering if today would be the day? I sense he would have excitement as he anticipated this promised meeting. I can also imagine that he may have tired from waiting. But he had word from a “very good” source. Verse 25 tells us that he was a righteous and devout man, full of the Holy Spirt.  He came to the temple in the Spirit: This is how he lived.

Today, you and I have promises of a divine appointment.  We have the written Word, which reveals to us what God can and will do. Our advantage is that we also know this appointment will come; we don’t know when, but it will come. We will have days of anticipation just as we will have days of wait. But we can trust, hope and rely on the promises that we have been given.  Until that final divine appointment, when we see Jesus face to face, may we continue to be righteous, devout and filled with the Holy Spirit.

Blessings, Kathy

Kathy Withers is on staff at America’s Keswick and serves as Acting Director of Partner Care. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 30 years. They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local Church and teaches a Bible Study for women. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God’s Word.

Prayer is a topic that I’ve struggled with for so long, up until about a year and a half ago. I’ve always wondered why prayer was important. If God knows everything, why do we tell Him about our day? If God already knows the outcome of a situation, why do we pray for it? I knew that prayer was important, I just didn’t know why. I had kept that struggle to myself, though. My pride had always gotten in the way, so I never asked these questions – even to people I trusted most.

The Lord revealed to me a while ago how precious and powerful prayer really is. God doesn’t need it to “activate His power.” He is so amazing and loves us so much that He chooses to allow us to be part of His plan through prayer. We are able to engage in conversation with the Maker of the universe – the One who created the stars and knows them by name. He created this form of communication so that we can grow in our faith and have such intimate relationship with Him.

God really did a work on my heart when it came to prayer. I had so many misconceptions about prayer. I thought of it as a checklist – as if it was something to present to Him so He could do what I wanted Him to. I also thought that it was this “formula.” I thought that if I didn’t say the right words, my prayers would not be effective. Since I didn’t understand the topic, I would try to come to Him in prayer and get distracted.

The Lord revealed to me the importance of putting Him first in all circumstances. When I come into His presence, all of my attention and focus needs to be on Him. He also revealed to me that I needed to have a “praying life.” I needed to spend my day in conversation with Him and pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). It wasn’t something that I should set aside part of my day for. My day should be centered around prayer and a strong focus on Christ, and everything else should be of secondary importance.

The truth is, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective (James 5:16). If we want to be close with a friend or family member, we need to talk to them. It’s the same case with God – if we want to have a rich and growing relationship with Him, we need to talk to Him. Prayer is the most powerful tool we have, because God is bigger than all situations. We have such an amazing Lord and Savior – the fact that we have the opportunity to be in communication with Him just brings me to my knees. I want to encourage everyone with this truth – prayer works. It will help us when we are hurting, it will draw us closer to our Heavenly father, and it will strengthen our walk with Him – and that is amazing. God is good, amen?!

Erin Culleny
Marketing Assistant

A woman who had had a hemorrhage for twelve years,  and had endured much at the hands of many physicians, and had spent all that she had and was not helped at all, but rather had grown worse—  after hearing about Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His [d]cloak.  For she [e]thought, “If I just touch His garments, I will [f]get well.”  Immediately the flow of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.  Immediately Jesus, perceiving in Himself that the power proceeding from Him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My garments?” Mark 5:25-30

The Gospel of Mark reveals many who were healed by Jesus. Each one that came to Jesus had a different measure of faith.  Some only wanted the miracle or some food for their bellies. It wasn’t Jesus that they wanted.

Then we see an amazing act of faith by a woman who was sick for twelve years.  My precious sister- in-law fought ovarian cancer for six years before her ultimate healing. This woman had been ill twice as long. I can’t even imagine. Yet, she had faith in Jesus and what she had heard about him. Her faith compelled her to come up behind Jesus and simply touch the hem of His garment. A simple yet faith-filled act. She was healed. “Daugther, your faith has made you well; go in peace and be healed of your affliction.” Mark 5:34

What have you heard about Jesus? Do you believe Him? A simple out-stretched hand towards our Savior may bring healing to us as well.  Are you willing?

Blessings,
Kathy

Kathy Withers is on staff at America’s Keswick and serves as Acting Director of Partner Care. Kathy has been married to her husband Dave for 30 years. They have two adult children. Kathy is active in her local Church and teaches a Bible Study for women. Her passion is to encourage women to deepen their walk with Jesus Christ by finding and living out the truths of God’s Word.