Beloved -

It has been a while since we last corresponded.  As the weeks and months pass quickly by we find that there are many things in our lives that battle for our attention, fight for our affection, and war for our devotion.  For some, these past few months may have brought new opportunities or difficult challenges, for others maybe you experienced a deep disappointment or an unexpected heartache.  For all of us there are far too many things that keep us busy and distracted - depleting us of either physical strength or emotional energy.  Despite the challenges you may be facing, and regardless of the length of your to-do list, I pray that the hours of your day will be protected so that you are able to set aside precious, private time to spend with the Lord in His Word and in prayer.  There is no higher priority or nobler pursuit than to know the Lord - to really know Him.  I came across a quote recently that said, "We are not called to a special work we are simply called to Christ Himself."  No other pursuit will reap the extraordinary blessings that result from a deep, intimate and abiding relationship with the Lord (reference John 15:1-8).  I pray, as you begin this New Year, that you find yourself more and more abiding deeply and resting confidently in the shelter of the Most High.  God's will is to make us one with Himself and He will not fail in drawing us to Himself until we are.  May we stop striving and start surrendering all other less noble, unholy, and unworthy pursuits for the privilege of beholding His glory this year!

 "Great and marvelous are Your deeds, Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are Your ways, King of the ages.

Who will not fear You, O Lord, and bring glory to Your name?

For You alone are holy.

All nations will come and worship before You,

 for Your righteous acts have been revealed."

(Revelation 15:3-4)

The last time I wrote to you we were celebrating the Day of Atonement and coming to the end of our "Sacred Trust" devotional journey (I encourage you to participate in this important journey if you have not already done so - visit www.trumpetandtorch.org and click on the "How to Fast" button at the top of your screen - scroll down the list of the devotionals to access and print out this 10-day journey).  As we walked through those ten days of testing during the days of awe we witnessed the powerful hand of God at work in the land of Egypt as He moved in a mighty and miraculous way for the purpose of making Himself known: "I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians...Then you will know that I am the LORD your God" (Exodus 6:6a, 7a); "But I will gain glory for Myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD" (Exodus 14:4b). 

The Israelites were graciously given a front row seat to one of the greatest displays of God's power in history; they witnessed first-hand the redeeming acts of the Lord their God on their behalf.  There was no question that the Lord their God had delivered them out of the oppressive hand of Pharaoh and into His own gracious and compassionate hand, setting them on the path towards freedom and liberty.  However, despite the reality that they had finally been set free from their burdensome and very physical slavery in Egypt, they soon found themselves, where many people today find themselves, trapped, out of Egypt, but still bound by the emotional chains of their past life.  Beloved, we, like the Israelites stand at the water's edge, looking at the vast sea of opportunity and promise before us only to discover that we, too, are trapped somewhere between the comfort and complacency of our past shackles and the fear of laying hold of the present and future promises that seem all too wondrous and impossible to attain.

The Lord had just revealed Himself so profoundly to His beloved people Israel.  He made it very clear during the plagues that they were a separated and chosen people.  He gave them a promise from the very beginning and He was faithful to fulfill it.  They had no reason to doubt, no reason to question, and no reason to complain.  How very much like the Israelites we are.  As the redeemed of the Lord, we are the privileged recipients of the greatest display of God's love in human history, yet every day we doubt, we despair, we question, we complain, and we find a hundred other things to occupy our day rather than spend time with the Lord.  His greatest desire is for us to know Him; and to this end He went so far as to step down from His heavenly throne, laid aside His royal robes and adorned Himself with a garment of human flesh; all that He might touch us with His own hands, embrace us with His own arms, tell us how much He loves us with His own lips, and offer His life up for ours; and without missing a beat, we received His gracious and humble presentation of love with continued criticism, complaint, condemnation, and eventual crucifixion.

Instead of laying hold of God's promises we often put them to death with our own limited understanding, our anxious thoughts, and our unnecessary fears.  Instead of receiving openly His grace and forgiveness and embracing the future with hope and healing, we remain trapped in the past, often allowing the fearful, critical voices of others to keep us in chains or by becoming a kink in the chain of another (consider the Israelites' inability to take possession of the Promise Land because they yielded to the fearful voices of a few rather than the powerful promise of God! (Reference Numbers 14:1-4)).  Beloved, as a child of God, you have been set free from the chains that once bound you to sin and all its' consequences.  It is a New Year and it is time to once and for all surrender the past to God and claim your inheritance in Christ Jesus.  Repent of your sin and unbelief, receive His forgiveness, step forward into your future, and lay hold of the promise that He has prepared for you.  You cannot move forward until you do.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).  The shackles that once bound you have been broken and no longer restrain you - the only thing keeping you from moving forward is your own fearful and fretful thoughts.  Don't let the enemy of God, Satan, hold you hostage in your mind - this is his battlefield - he only gains the ground that we let him have.  The enemy of God will keep playing that recording of all your past failures over and over again until you surrender in defeat.  Stand firm, and put on the mind of Christ.  Receive the victory that has already been won for you.  "The battle is not yours, but God's" (2 Chronicles 20:15b).  Do not waste time and energy wrestling with the enemy, you will only wear yourself out, be still and wait on God.  "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still" (Exodus 14:14).  Remember, we do not wage war as the world does (reference 2 Corinthians 10:3-6).  Do not allow the enemy to trip you up with his deceptive tactics; this struggle is not against flesh and blood no matter how many fleshly faces he tries to put to it (reference Ephesians 6:12).

"Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth."

(Psalm 46:10) 

This is a New Year and the Lord is about to do a new thing (reference Isaiah 43:18-19)!  If only we will close our ears to the sound of the dissenting and discouraging voices pressing in around us, and listen instead to His still small voice calling us to Himself.  "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).  He offers us peace and rest and forgiveness and salvation.  He is the only one who can give it to us, because He is the only one who paid the price for us.  The Sabbath was given to Israel as a sign of the future rest they too would one day experience when they acknowledged and received their Messiah (reference Exodus 31:12-17).  Today, our lives should be a perpetual proclamation of that perfect peace and rest we have found in Christ Jesus through His work on the cross.

The Lord's last will and testament was a simple prayer to the Father asking that we might experience His glory by living in perfect communion with Him. He sealed it with the promise of His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our future inheritance (reference Ephesians 1:13-14). Jesus knew firsthand the blessings and peace that accompanied a life that was fully surrendered and in perfect union with the Father.  Jesus lived to do the will of the Father and to bring glory to His name; and it is His desire that we would live in that same perfect union with Him and bring glory to the Father as well.  If we truly knew Him the way He desired for us to know Him we would not wrestle and worry and wonder so much.  We would be at peace and rest, filled with all the power, knowledge, wisdom, and understanding we need to live victoriously in this present life.  We would be powerful and effective warriors willing to take our positions on the battlefield in prayer, singing His praises and exalting His name because victory is assured.

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us

but to Your name be the glory,

because of Your love and faithfulness."

(Psalm 115:1)

May our ears be opened to hear the sound of the trumpet as it is being sounded to proclaim The Year of Jubilee (reference Leviticus 25:8-13); calling the children of God to return to the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; that we might find rest and restoration in Him.  It is time to regain the strength we have lost because we have been fighting too many of our battles in our own power instead of God's (reference Zechariah 4:6); having found ourselves spiritually depleted because we have not given attention to the Word of God and prayer as we should.  It is time to rest under the shelter and safety of the One who will fight our battles for us and offer Him a sacrifice of praise for His constant love and faithfulness.  The Lord knows we are weary and He is calling us to Himself  because He knows He is all  that we need to experience true restoration and revival. His desire is to prepare us and equip us to remain steadfast and firm, in Him, as we face what lies ahead.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love Him' -

but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit."

(1 Corinthians 2:9-10)

Beloved, it can be so easy to lose sight of the goal.  The journey may seem long, but we are almost to the finish line.  We must persevere a little while longer, but rest assured, He is coming soon (reference Revelation 22:20)!  Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of your faith, and throw off everything that hinders, especially the sin that so easily entangles (reference Hebrews 12:1-2).  Before we press on we have a stop we need to make. There is something the Lord wants to show us - something He wants us to know - something that will help us in our journey.  Before we take one step further, we have to go back to the cross.  Prepare your hearts now in prayer and join us as we journey back to the cross for the forty days of Lent beginning March 9th!

 CRUCIFIED

journey back to the cross

This email devotional journey

begins March 9th, 2011

(sign up to receive the Trumpet and Torch Newsletter

at www.trumpetandtorch.org to receive this email journey)

Prepare now for LENT by spending the next 40 days in Prayer

utilizing the DEBTOR: Labor of Love 40 Day Prayer Devotional Journey

visit www.trumpetandtorch.org and

click on the Year of Jubilee scroll

to find out more details about this year and to

access the DEBTOR journey

(click on the Year of Jubilee calendar to

access this and other prayer and fasting devotional journey's

to guide you into deeper levels of intimacy with the Lord in the New Year!)

May 2011 be the year that you grow to experience greater levels of knowledge and understanding of the Lord and His will, and may you discover deeper levels of intimacy with the Lord as you have never known before, as you set your heart to seek Him first above all else and as you spend intimate time with Him in His Word and in prayer.  May His name be exalted above all others, and may He receive all the glory and honor and praise that is due His glorious name.  "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being" (Revelation 4:11).

Resting in (and waiting expectantly for!) Him,

Traci A. Alexander

Trumpet and Torch Ministries

www.trumpetandtorch.org

traci@trumpetandtorch.org

Psalm 27