Dear Friend,
Did it ever strike you how much God loves multiplication?
From Genesis 1 and the creation story, through to Noah and Abraham, Moses and the prophets, God is continuously blessing His people and telling them to “be fruitful and multiply” through the male and female of every living thing. Unfortunately, disobedience in every generation caused men and women not to multiply God’s glory but to multiply their own wickedness, continually. Yet God never gives up on His desire for a people who will worship Him and glorify Him on the earth. Only when God sent Jesus was there hope for God’s people to multiply His glory through the earth as He provided the means through Jesus for hearts to be transformed by His blood and His Spirit living in us to make us into His image.
Yolanda and I have just returned from three days with our Butterflies in North Carolina for our fourth workshop. It was another beautiful intimate time with the Lord and each other. The Holy Spirit restored and encouraged us in His Presence as we spent time in His word.
In previous workshops we have focused on our spiritual transformation and the question ” Who Am I” as a new creation. Last week we were focusing on God’s purpose in our lives answering the question we all want to know – “What Am I Doing Here?”
Butterflies have taught us much about our identity and purpose, through transformation and multiplication. Butterflies bring such a sense of joy and freedom and seem to give no thought to their old lives as caterpillars. They are perfectly at ease in their transformed bodies. We don’t see them doing much as they feed on nectar and fly gracefully from flower to flower around our gardens, but they are silently pollinating, spreading fragrance and reproducing eggs – they are multiplying!
God’s plan for both physical and spiritual multiplication is the result of intimacy. We were excited as we studied God’s plan for multiplication to see how it always comes through blessing and intimacy between the male and female of every species in creation. Spiritual multiplication is also a result of intimacy. God wants us to “know” Him as intimately as Adam “knew” Eve and that “knowing” gave birth to children. (Genesis 4:1 NKJV).
Paul describes our relationship with Jesus as a marriage which is to bear fruit to God (Romans 7:4). Marriage indicates intimacy. Jesus is referred to as our Bridegroom and we who believe in Him are the Church, His Bride. Jesus told us the only way we can bear fruit to God is to be in intimate relationship with our Bridegroom, “Abide in Me and I in you, for without ME you can do nothing. Abide in me and you will bear MUCH fruit” (John 15:4-5).
In our Butterfly groups we discover that confessing our brokenness and need is a process the Lord uses to bring us into deeper intimacy and dependency on Him. Broken women who confess their need experience the transforming love of Jesus who always hears our cries. Just as God transforms the caterpillar in the cocoon in its darkest hour, the Holy Spirit comes to our humble, contrite heart in our weakest moments. He heals us and changes us and leads us out of our shame, pain and struggle, into the light of His freedom.
In the journey we discover that we have come to know Him more intimately. The more we know Him, the more we love Him, the more we love Him, the more we trust Him. When we trust Him we lose our fears and we live in greater freedom, trusting His leading. Living in this intimate relationship with Him we begin to bear fruit and multiply in HIS power. We are delighted to sing His praises, to serve Him by serving and loving others, to “brag” on Him, as one of my friends says, giving Him all the glory.
My deepest joy and desire is helping women find this freedom by leading them to experience this deeper intimacy and knowledge of our Bridegroom so that His glory will be multiplied through them.
This week as our butterflies shared their experiences of brokenness, pain and restoration, our visiting Cambodian butterfly Roath was astonished to learn that American women are broken too! Women are broken everywhere. But our butterflies know that intimacy with Jesus although born out brokenness, does lead to fruitfulness. This is hope for women everywhere. God lives in the humble and contrite heart (Psalm 34:18, Isaiah 57:15). We are not alone, we multiply with Him. “The Spirit and the Bride say Come” (Revelation 22:17).
This is our Butterfly Story; ugliness, brokenness, healing, greater intimacy, greater freedom, greater fruit bearing for God; “that those who first trusted in Christ may be to the praise of His glory” Ephesians 1:12.
God is multiplying our NC Butterflies from North Carolina to Cambodia. Later this week I look forward to sharing some of their testimonies.
Today may this beautiful video link bless you seeing God’s glory Shine across the nations.
In His Love
Liz
ShinePsalm67Prayervideo
https://prayercast.com/shine.html#.UsTtKE5Lh-Y.faceboo