A Birthing Experience

My second daughter, Israel Rose, was born this past Tuesday at 4:53 pm.

Isaiah 45:3 "I will give you treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."

Her existence, her being formed into being, has literally been a physical and prophetic sign to me of the fire being birthed in my own heart. God has out-done Himself again! He has used what is happening in the physical to voice what is happening in the spiritual.

God has really been bringing me into the reality that if I really want a life unhindered in the presence of God - then I need to keep my mind and thoughts on the things that are not seen. So many times what we see in the physical can be a mislead image. a lot of times that's where human reasoning and understanding speak louder than God. But God's been teaching me how to hear Him and respond to Him in light of what's happening in the physical. Things are never what they seem - I always find God is working something far deeper than what I am seeing or experiencing. It's learning to live in the Spirit...to see things with the eyes of God. every moment, every circumstance, is an opportunity for God to show us who He is and to hear His voice. in fact, I believe the deepness of our relationship with God goes as far and wide as we allow it to. God has always made Himself available and never withdraws Himself from us. It's us who choose to withdraw ourselves from Him. It's us who choose to make ourselves unavailable to God. So as I learn to make myself available and exposed to the Lord every moment of my day, my eyes are being opened to more of God's intimate desires for myself, my family, and for others.

Now I am even more confident that Israel was born to us for a specific time and purpose under heaven. her birth has been fire to my faith. My husband over the past few months has been seeing the numbers 444. Every where he went - on the clock in the middle of the night, on a bill when he served tables at work, as a password given to him to use a copy machine, etc. With no understanding in his heart, it was the week Israel was born that God began to bring crazy clarity to the things he was seeing. Through finding out about The Wilderness Outcry, Dutch Sheets was calling believers to be a part of a vision coming from Isaiah 44:4.

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon your seed, and my blessing upon your offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, 'I am the LORD's'; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand 'unto the LORD', and give himself by the name of Israel. (Isaiah 44:3-5)

The fear of the Lord fell us on us as we read from Isaiah 44:3-5 and realized Israel's name and birth has been chosen and aligned as a prophetic sign to the times and seasons we are living in! Her birth was physical, but a birthing has also happened in my heart and spirit. i've become alive and my walk with God feels fresh and renewed. Like when your body arouses to the smell of coffee brewing in the morning, so my soul is awaken to the Spirit of God moving and speaking. It's a fresh wind to my spirit and a fire to my relationship with Jesus. I've been in dry places and I know what it feels like when your soul is longing for water - maybe that is why I so appreciate times like this with the Lord. A place where my spirit just keeps drinking and rivers of living love, hope and revelation never stop flowing...