Simplicity of Serving Him

My Dearest Brothers and Sisters in our Lord,

I praise God for each and every one of you. We are so very blessed!; For we are filled with the very spirit of the Deity that created us for His good pleasure. And because He experienced our carnality through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, He understands the need to be in contact with others of like faith.

How we hunger to hear from others who worship our God and Lord, in the way we do. How we long to hear of the pristine love that flows from others of like faith, and sharing it all in the spirit of glorifying our Father. None of us desires to be found except in Him. No longer do we have to worry about our flesh raising its ugly head, trying to become something we were never meant to be. But preferring one another, by letting our self to be the least among the brethren; for this is the way of the cross, and the desire of our heart is to glorify our God, and our King, and to be found purified in Him. This is our heart’s desire.

God has made us all in His own image, and yet has created us as individuals so that we become one particular facet of Him. Just as a diamond has many facets, so is God. And it is His good pleasure to give unto His children a part of Him, yet His fullness. Each of us clothed with His glory, pressed down shaken together, till the pressure of the things of this world, causes a life giving affect turning carbon into diamond. A jewels whose light reflects and refracts the light of the life given whom dwells within us. When coming into this understanding, cause us to sell and give away all that we could be in this world to obtain that jewel ourself; the jewel of God Himself; everlasting life.

I feel compelled by God to share something with you, something so very precious to me, and yet what is happening in my private life is in such parallel with what is happening in our group right now. I would share a part of my private life with each of you to show many things that God has taught me of Himself; which  is coming forth in the dynamics of my own family.

To give you a brief background of our family, I have shared this already with some, but want to give you my background again. My husband and I were married on January 28, 1977. Within the second month of our marriage, I became pregnant with our first child; Norman Benjamin Maxwell, 111, who was born December 3, 1977. Before I became pregnant, Norman and I wavered between wanting five children or eight and had this matter before God. So while I was pregnant with Ben, God gave me the names of each of our five children to be born, and in doing so, He gave the order in which they were to be born. Now in my carnal mind, I wished for boy, girl, boy, girl, boy. But God had another plan. These are their names.

Norman Benjamin Maxwell, III (Deceased June 16, 1994 at the age of sixteen due to drowning)
Micah Aaron Maxwell
Nathaniel Isaac Maxwell
Cassandra Angelique (Maxwell) Cecil
Jessica Renee’ Maxwell

Now all of their names have specific meanings of which I will share with you at a later date, but one in particular I want to focus on is that of Jessica Renee’. Jessica being the fifth born, five being the number of grace, her name Jessica also bears the meaning of God’s grace. And her middle name Renee’ means to be born again.

Upon the revelation of her name, Father spoke to me and said, I have given you five children, eight would be a burden. So we knew in that hour that we would have five children, no more, no less.

On November 22, 2000,my husband of 23 years passed away of a massive heart attack.

A promise was given to me of God when I became pregnant with Ben, our firstborn. God planted a seed within me by speaking to my heart and said, “Your family will be an example to the world.” I have held onto the promise all of my life, and have instilled it into my children. Let me explain.

When my children were growing up, we choose not to have a TV in our home. We spent day in and day out with our children. We did not have babysitters, after all, who would babysit for five children? When the world began to encroach upon our family through schooling, I prayed and God gave me release through my husband for me to homeschool our children.

Because I did not work, because I took the commission of being the mother of our children to heart, we often lived in or below poverty level. Yet God provided for us. I have to say, no matter how hard times were, we never went hungry. Not only that, but He blessed us abundantly, over and over again.

Through the years, I watched my family grow up and move away. When I was younger in my faith I became anxious about this promise. Not giving up, but not understanding either when things did not developed as I thought they were going to.

I must say here that everything, and I mean every dream, every word, every vision that God has given to me, directly to me, or through others, has come to pass. Those things which God prepared my heart for, and allowed me to receive, they have become life within me. But this word of our family, I never saw come to fruition.

But through the years, family life was the most important thing to me inside of God. With God’s help, and that of the Lord Jesus Christ, I nurtured my children, and raised them up in the way they should go so they would not depart from God. So it was stressful to see my children grow up, and begin to leave the nest, not seeing the word of knowledge that God had given to me concerning my family.

So in the course of events, I let go, and let God. I let my children leave, let them follow their own pursuits, and gave them up to God. But in doing so, the family always maintained contact with each other, even if it was stressful at times. But the gift that God gave to me, that I had faith of a mustard seed, allowed the word of knowledge, a promise that God given to me to be planted and nurtured in the hearts of my children.

Not quite a year ago, my children called a family meeting for all of us to be together to hash things out. I was at a very low point in my life, and my children came together to work out what could be done. This past year has been a growth in that. But just this past week, something came up in our family, I guess you could say, “all hell broke loose”, and so once again we found ourselves in a family pow-wow yesterday.

This speaks volumes to the power of God. For as some families would have their feelings hurt, stomped on, it would most likely result in everyone going on their way. But God has given a gift to our family not allowing us to shy away from our problems, but to confront them and work them out.

What came of yesterday’s meeting is something so powerful that I cannot really express to you, but to say that I saw the Lord in each and every one of my children. God called this meeting, and He facilitated this meeting. What needed to be accomplished was accomplished, and we came out on the other side victorious.

God has made things so much clearer today about that meeting, but the one major thing is that my children are looking to me to lead them. They feel that I have stopped leading them. They feel I have given up on them.  But the reality is, God had to do a work in each of us, and that takes time.

So as I awoke this morning, God told me to never let a day go by that I do not communicate with each one of my children; to set the standard of staying in constant communication with them. My heart is overflowing with my love for them, and it is not only my love, but the love of God.

But it parallels with what we too are experience in our spiritual family: communication. Now is the time to let God be heard in each one of us. Now is the time to rise up into that which He has given. We have need of one another, and if we have this need, how much more does the world need  not only what we have, but the need for us to share it with them? God said that they would know that we belong to Him because of our love one of the other. I know that it is hard to always share what is within us. Many of us have been hurt in the past by sharing deep from our heart, only to be shot down by others. But God is bringing us to a point where we understand, that unless they say blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, they will not see Him. And how can they see Him if we do not share Him with the world.

Please do not think that I am saying that anyone is at fault. Heaven forbid. Unless we have the unction of the Holy Ghost, we cannot move into anything. And what God is saying to us now is to share with one another, and build up one another, and hold up one another in prayer. This is the body ministry that God has given us. But there will come a time when it will begin to spill over to others. It is a natural law that God has put into place, because when the vessel is filled, it will spill over, because God is ever increasing. So He will not hold back what He gives to us. But also, He adds to the church daily as He sees fit, so He will have other vessels prepared to receive of the life that we have to give. We are merely the vessel in which He uses. Molded and created for such a time as this.

I now want to refer back to the email that brother Danny shared with us concerning prayer. I must confess to all of you of something. When something becomes too commonplace, too methodized, too structured, too complicated, too much of anything, I shy away from it all. So I ask God to give me wisdom on how to share with you what I am about to share with you.

I have always been a free spirit, ever since I was a child. I always looked at life with hope in my eyes. I always believed in great things. And I suppose I was like a princess, waiting for my prince to come and carry me away. I looked for him my whole life, and I must tell you that I have found Him in Jesus Christ. And He has taught me of His Father, our Father, whom I have come to love, honor, and respect with all of my heart.

When I fell in love with Jesus, it was like having a friend. I talked to Him about everything. I asked hundreds of thousands of questions throughout my lifetime. I shared with Him things I could not share with anyone else. And He always came to my rescue if I ever strayed away.

But something changed in my life. I no longer desired to stray away. I wanted to be with Him all the time. I wanted to ask Him how I was to handle a situation. I asked Him for words to speak. As our relationship grew, He brought me to His Father’s table and I ate there often. And His Father became my Father. And Father began to teach me Himself. How thankful I am to Jesus Christ  for His obedience to Father, and for His sacrifice. I do this because I truly do love him, and it is His due honor. How thankful I am to God that He chose me before the foundations of the world to be the bride of His Son.

So I have shared all of that to say this, I have never sat in prayer. When others had prayer groups, in the beginning I joined because they asked. But I could never agree with their prayers, they were foreign to me. I view God differently then what they did, and I felt that if I had to sit for hours on end, praying, praying, praying, then I would never measure up to what God wanted of me.

But later I came into a different understanding. A liberating understanding.  You see, the Spirit is the only one that knows how we are to pray, and we have to be sensitive to the spirit to hear what He is saying.

When I feel lonely, and I want to communicate with God, and I feel He is not near,  I follow what my bridegroom has taught me about how pray. Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed would be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in Heaven. Give me this day my daily bread, and forgive my trespasses as I forgive others. Lead me not into temptation but deliver me from evil.

For me prayer is about honoring God above all. I express to Him that which I hold in my heart that I know there is no other God but Him. I acknowledge His supremacy above all. And pray for the advancement of His Kingdom within myself so that I may be a vessel overflowing of that which He has deposited in me. I praise Him for His many blessings daily, because I know that He will takes care of me and my needs without asking. I ask for forgiveness if I find my spirit at aught with someone asking God to make my heart right so I may forgive others for what they have done to me. For I know that I have not always done things right, and being a son of God does not give me the right to say, “How dare you!”

For me, prayer is my communication with God in humbleness. Knowing that I am His vessel, and that I must hear from Him what it is He would have me to do. Always giving honor to Him in ALL things whenever I have the opportunity, even if no one is around, I thank and give Him praise. Because we all are supposed to work out our own salvation, and the only way we can do that is to fall in love with Him.

My relationship with our God is a simple one, because I have fallen in love with Him. I speak with Him all the time, and when I do not hear from Him, I sit quietly at His feet waiting upon Him. I no longer ask for anything for myself, nor for others, knowing that God is in control of all things and He will bring things to pass in His own timing, or give me unction to what to do, say, or pray.

I found long ago to pray for things we know nothing of is to pray amiss. Yes how we long to see someone healed, or someone set free from their infirmities. But God has a plan that includes each and every one of His creation. And He interferes in the affairs of men as He sees fit. He is a Master Weaver, and He weaves the patterns of our lives to interact one with the other; good and evil; spirit, and carnality; life and death.

How can we pray for anything to come to pass the way we want it to when we do not know what it is God is bringing to fruition? We have never been in control of people or situations. Only God has that control, as controls the interplay of everything.  What does it profit us to pray that someone be healed if that is not what God has planned for that person? We end up praying amiss and looking foolish in the eyes of others. Therefore they begin to doubt our relationship with God at all which could cause them to miss their opportunity in Him through us. Where we could be the one to sew the seed, it would then be given to someone else to do so.

So getting back to my free spirit, it is a gift from God. It has kept me always seeking and searching for the truth. While others become bogged down with methodism, I rebel time and time again and will not become a part of that. I have to be free in Him to be who I am in Him. So I never set aside a time to get on my knees and pray to Him.  But I will give you a brief history of my prayer life.

When I was a child, I would go out into the fields or the woods on my dad’s property, and speak to God, and commune with nature for hours on end. I had not friends, and I was taught at an early age, that Jesus was my friend. So I confided in Him about all things.

But as I began to grow up,  I found my prayer life become selfish. It was all about me. Father, bless me with this, Father, bless me with that. Father, I need this, Father I need that.  But when I was filled with His Holy Spirit, and accepted Him as Lord, I stilled prayed selfishly, but it was to bring glory to His name. Father, bless me with this gift, bless me with that gift so I might show the world of you. I would pray over my family, pray over our situation, sometimes God would answer my prayers, sometimes He would not.

But as I grew and matured in Him, my prayer life began to change. My prayers became more centered on God, and my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Father, thank you! Jesus, thank you for being faithful to that which God called you to.  Father, what can I do for you today? Father what would you have me to do for you today? Then again it changed to Father, use me as you would today to glorify you.

But now I find myself so much one with Him, I am cognizant of Him always. I speak with Him always. I awake to find myself smiling and telling Him good morning. I find myself at night before I fall asleep thanking Him for the day, telling Him that I love Him, and telling Him good night.

But now my prayer life has changed again. He is my Father, my God, my Lord, my bridegroom. I am in love with Him. Every breath I take, it is unto Him. Every move I make it is to glorify Him. Every action I take it is to be about His business. I no longer stress over my communication with Him. I love Him with all of my being, and everything inside of me lives and breathes and has my being in Him. I do not desire to do anything that would bring any shame upon His name. I honor Him with in my daily life with every fiber of my being.

Am I perfect? No, but He is. Do I make mistakes, yes, because I still have this fleshly cloak upon me. But in Him, I am perfect as He is perfect. Sin is not present within me, because it is not present in Him. My whole being, my heart, my soul, my spirit is His heart, His soul, His spirit, because I was purchased with His blood, and I belong to Him. It is no longer “I” but Christ that is within me.

I thank God that I was born into this world a female, because I know that submission was easier to me learn than most. I accepted the role of being female, learning to submit at an early age to my headcovering. First my earthly father, who taught me of our Heavenly Father. Then to my husband, and again to my second husband. Now I totally and completely submit to Jesus Christ my Lord, and to my Father, God.  For I am a widow of the church, and no longer have a man in which to submit to. To learn submission at an early age made it easier to see and understand the submission required to serve God. I thank God for this gift. I was born to serve. I never wanted to be in the limelight, always preferring to be in the background serving. Yes, my flesh craved recognition for my part, but I never wanted to be that front man.

But to wrap this all up, I don’t know what all of your prayer life is like. All I know is that for me, it is just speaking with my Father God, and my Lord daily. Serving them in whatever way they have need of me for that day; having total trust and faith in them, not needing to ask for anything. And yet if I do become anxious for something, I merely say something like, “Father, you know the hot water heater needs to be replaced, I know you will supply my every need.” I speak it once, and then I trust and believe that He will take care of it in His timing. I do not stress over it, I do not repeatedly ask for it. I just simply believe, period.

To know God is to trust and have faith in Him. To know God, we understand that God knows us inside out, and therefore knows our needs. To know God means that as our Lord taught us, if he clothes the birds so graciously, how much more will He take care of our needs. What we need to be cognizant of is being about our Father’s business. Let God take care of the rest.

In this then the body has ONE mind, ONE vision, ONE hope, ONE course, ONE movement, ONE God, ONE Lord, and we are blessed to be a part of His body at this time. Praise God for His gift of predestinating us by His grace to be a part of the firstfruit company. Praise God that our journey upon this earth will end with the transformation and the gift of our new bodies. For it has not been without a transformation in us. We have willingly run the course of our race, denying everything but Him, to receive the mark of the high calling.

To honor God we must always keep Him in the forefront. He is the mark; His life within us. That is our goal that is what we are after. And even though there is a deepness within God, and He shows us very many deep understandings, that liberates us and causes us to rejoice; the act of serving God is not a complicated one, it is an act of simplicity. One of love, having the opportunity to serve our God, and our Lord daily; being in submission to them, to be hungry to sup at our Father’s table of everlasting life. To be transformed by the renewing of our mind through our Lord Jesus Christ. And in all of its complexity, serving God becomes very simple; as simple as ALWAYS preferring God, and our Lord above ourself, loving them with all of our fiber and our being. Always bringing glory to our Father, and loving Him above all!

That is the key, loving God above ALL. There is nothing more important than Him. He is everything, always has been. There is nothing above Him. His is all that exists, and He has given us our existence in Him. So all that we are, all that we do, all that we have become, all that we will become, it is to show our love, our honor to our Father God, for all that He has given to us; the ability to live; the ability to be in existence, the ability to give back to Him ALL that we are, in our service to Him. Never being ashamed of, but ALWAYS honoring Him in ALL our ways.

This is the law of circularity. We are because He made us. Therefore we give honor to Him because He made us. We love because He first loved us, and we love Him because He made us. We live because He gave us life, and we live for Him because He made us.

He has given to us, therefore we give back to Him everything that we are, because we are His beloved, we belong to Him. Amen.

Love,
Lenella