I love the way God speaks to us! Such mysteries! I never get tired of it! At the beginning of the year God always gives me a word for the body, but He also gives me a personal word. This year one of the things He said to me personally was to count my blessings and not my cursings. And He challenged me to be a glass full and overflowing type of girl, not a glass half full or half empty type of girl! And He said that this would be a year of abundance, miracles, breakthrough, fullness, and blessing!
Recently, while I was at a department store speaking with one of the clerks, she confided in me that she was beginning to read the Bible again. She asked me, “What do you know about the Beauty – Tudes?” At first, I didn’t know what she was talking about, but when she told me that she was reading in Matthew, I realized that she was talking about the Beatitudes. LOL! And after I left her I felt the Lord nudging me to read through them again, especially in lieu of counting my blessings!
Let’s read them in the Passion Translation: Matthew 5:3-11
“What wealth is offered to you when you feel your spiritual poverty! For there is no charge to enter the realm of heaven’s kingdom. What delight comes to you when you wait upon the Lord! For you will find what you long for. What blessing comes to you when gentleness lives in you! For you will inherit the earth. How enriched you are when you crave righteousness! For you will be surrounded with fruitfulness. How satisfied you are when you demonstrate tender mercy! For tender mercy will be demonstrated to you. What bliss you experience when your heart is pure! For then your eyes will open to see more and more of God. How blessed you are when you make peace! For then you will be recognized as a true child of God. How enriched you are when you bear the wounds of being persecuted for doing what is right! For that is when you experience the realm of heaven’s kingdom. How ecstatic you can be when people insult and persecute you and speak all kinds of cruel lies about you because of your love for me!”
I heard the Lord say, “The beatitudes are a prophecy of what Christ has already provided for us!” We have the power of Christ living in us to walk all of this out in our lives right now! Right now we can realize the riches of our inheritance in Him! We have found what we were waiting and longing for in Christ and have found our delight in Him! We have the fruit of gentleness living in us that enables us to inherit this earth! We’re filled with fruitfulness. We have His tender mercies greeting us each and every morning. He has purified our hearts so that we recognize Him more and more each day. We have His peace and are recognized as His true children! And as we are persecuted for being His we understand that we are not of this earth, but part of the kingdom realm! And when we are insulted because we belong to Him we love Him even more for true ecstasy is only found in loving Him!!! It’s like when the Father told Abraham to count the sands of the sea and the stars of the heaven. I honestly think that the Father wanted him to realize the vastness of His inheritance. We are so blessed!
And I feel like the Father is saying, “The abundance, the breakthrough, the fullness, and blessing is going to manifest in and through YOUR life this year!” God has blessed you and plans to bless you even more than you can imagine! And miracles will take place as you keep your eyes on Him. Don’t look at self or focus on the enemy. Let your thoughts be full of faith and on whatever is excellent and praiseworthy! And as you do you will overflow from out of HIS fullness. The name of my favorite Bible character, David, means a boiling pot or boiling over. That’s a good description of David. He was a very passionate man for God. This year many of you will become like David. You will become a boiling pot, full of fiery passion, bubbling over!!
Here’s my decree over you taken from the blessing prayer of Numbers 6:24-26: “The Lord has blessed you and is keeping you; the Lord’s face is shining upon you and He is gracious to you; The Lord has turned His face toward you and He has given you peace. You are so blessed!”
And just because I’m Irish, here’s a short Irish blessing with my own little twist. Just to remind you that you’re blessed already!
The friendships you make,
Will be those which endure,
And all of your grey clouds
Will be small ones for sure.
And as you’re trusting in Him,
To Whom we all pray,
A song will fill your heart,
Every step of the way.
Consider yourself blessed or blissed as Georgian and Winnie Banov would say! Your heart is going to need an overflow room if you don’t open the door to let it all out!
TPT Bible School
In-person TPT Bible School Schedule
– Song of Songs – Pasadena, CA – Mar. 30-1
– Romans – Natick, MASS – June 15-17 –
– Intro to Revelation – June 22-24 – Pasadena, CA
– Romans – Oct 5-7 – Pasadena, CA
It’s still not to late to sign up for our Amazing Song of Songs Class!
We’re so excited about our Song of Songs course to be taught March 30-April 1 in Pasadena, CA. We hope that many of you will come! We want to raise up 300 teachers. We only have 100 signed up so far. It’s not too late for you to sign up. We have lovers of God coming from all over the nation to attend. If you’re serious about sharing this message of love then you need to attend! For more information and updates please check out our website at www.tptbibleschool.com
Passion Translation
Brian is now translating Revelation chapter 18! Whoo hoo! I’ve edited half of the book already. This is the last book we have to finish before completing the New Testament! Yay!!! The next books to come out are 1st and 2nd Thessalonians, Titus & Philemon.
They’ll be released in June. We’re so close to finishing the New Testament! We can’t wait to get it into your hands!
REFORMATION BIBLE:
This next year, October 31, 2017 leads us up to the celebration of the 500th year of Reformation of the church, the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Castle Church. It was a day that changed the church and the world forever. I believe we are on the precipice of another reformation of sorts and without realizing it we have been planning all along to roll out the completed Passion Translation New Testament on that very day. We are nick- naming our translation, the Reformation Bible. We believe that it will truly be a great tool in this next great moving of God’s Spirit in the earth which will affect many generations to come!
A Thank you to our Partners
A special thank you to all of our Passion Translation Partners for your monthly contribution! Your contributions are what keep this translation project going! And thank you all for your donations, your incredible prayers and for following us daily on our websites. You have no idea how much we appreciate each and every sacrifice of love that comes from you! If you’re a partner we’ll automatically send you each new book of the translation (This does not include the other books, only the translation.) as it comes out as our gift to you!
You can become one of our Partners by making a monthly donation of $30, $50, $100.
Thank you!
