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"Rose Rally for Terry" - Supporters
of Terry Schiavo Will Gather at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Sunday - to
Rally for Her Life
March 10, 2005
(Tallahassee, Fla) As the clock ticks
down the hours before a feeding tube is set to be removed from disabled Florida
woman, Terry Schiavo, her parents and many other supporters are planning to meet
at the Capitol in Tallahassee, this Sunday, March 13th to make their voices heard.
Josh Montez / FNIF
Aimee Herd reporting, BREAKING CHRISTIAN NEWS
Read full story . . .
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/
articles/display_art.html?ID=334
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March 10, 2005
"Prophets
are Formed, Not Born, and God's Chiseling Tool is Your Cross"
by Dena Smith
Email:
DEEDEE3737@aol.com
Dena Smith Ministries
 DENA
SMITH PROFILE,
DENA SMITH MINISTRIES
Dena responded to the call of God in 1981 and has served Him throughout the years
as a Missionary, Church Planter, Pastor, Bible Teacher, and Conference Speaker.
Dena has ministered throughout the nations training, equipping, and releasing believers
into their destinies and callings. She has a very strong anointing as a Prophetic
teacher and strategist, and moves in this anointing to help build into churches,
regions, and nations. Dena is devoted to training and equipping leaders in all areas
of apostolic and prophetic ministry. Dena's gift will bring you into a deeper inner
life and a new discovery of His Presence.
THE SAYINGS OF THE ANCIENTS
CONCERNING THE CROSS - DRAWING FROM THE ANCIENT WELLS
Here we are again at the time of year when our Christian focus turns towards the
death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I believe God's purpose is to bring us
into a Kingdom focus to desire Christ so deeply that we would pick up our cross
daily and carry it into our everyday life. The death, burial, and resurrection must
be our daily focus. We must make it a habitual practice so it becomes our way of
life.
The way of life in Christ is to die
daily in the fellowship of His sufferings, and live daily in the power of His resurrection.
When a Believer chooses to travel this Cross-road, then that Believer not only sees
the Kingdom of God, but also truly enters the Kingdom, and wherever he goes the
Kingdom of God comes.
It has been my life journey to know Him and the power of His resurrection, to know
the fellowship of His sufferings, to be conformed to His death, and to attain to
the resurrection of the dead. How does one do that? The first and most important
thing you can do is to meditate and abide in God's Word.
There is a cry in the depths of every Christian's heart to know Him more. To desire
more than one experiences through Sunday sermons or TV preachers. Because of that
cry in me, I began a spiritual quest to find Kingdom Keys to unlock treasures of
wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that would lead me to the knowledge of His
abiding Presence. My treasure hunt led me to the writings of ancient Christian mystics
and fathers in the faith. Within their writings, I began to discover spiritual practices
that opened spiritual highways, leading to the Kingdom within where He dwells. That
is the place where we seek His face and experience His Glory. Nevertheless, no man
goes there except he goes through the cross.
Out of the pain and suffering of our life Cross-roads we discover a place of healing,
transformation, and power. Therefore, I want to share one of the precious keys to
unlock, "The Way of the Cross." This simple meditation leads you through the journey
of Christ's passion. Within each significant moment of Christ's passion Journey
to the Cross are deep wells of healing that beg to be drawn from by whosoever will.
THE WAY OF THE CROSS IS THE WAY TO
HIS HEART
From a child I was taught about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, with
the emphasis being given to the resurrection. However, through the years I began
to discover the bittersweet beauty and power of the suffering of Christ and His
cross.
If you desire to be intimate with God, then endeavor to be intimate with His
Cross. This is accomplished through knowing the fellowship of His sufferings.
When you have made this the center of your life, you will have discovered what's
precious to God and thus find yourself drawn into the King's innermost chamber where
He will meet you face to face.
I believe the Holy One is bringing His body into a deeper revelation and understanding
of the power of healing through the passion of Christ. This became more tangible
to us through Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion of the Christ." Through the movie,
Mel depicted the Christ's passion through powerful images that allowed us to understand
more deeply what He suffered on His journey from the garden to the tomb. Just imagine
being able to go there through meditation and allowing the Cross to impact you at
an even deeper level. I believe the Cross of Christ is something we should learn
to meditate on daily -- not just once a year, on Sundays, or only through movies.
I'm going to share with you a simple form of ancient meditation that can become
a tool, which trains you to daily pick up your cross and embrace it.
THE CROSS-ROAD IS THE CHOSEN ROAD FOR
PROPHETIC PEOPLE
Although Jesus has called all who desire Him to deny themselves, pick up their crosses,
and follow Him, I believe there is an even stronger spiritual prerequisite of God
upon His prophetic people to pick up their crosses and follow Him -- before they
can realize the fullness of their callings. Remember, prophets are formed, not
born, and God's chiseling tool is your cross.
Many prophetic ministries have not realized their fullest potential from God because
they have not realized the role the Cross plays in their everyday life and ministries.
God, out of His infinite wisdom and love, will delay your day of manifestation until
the "I" in you, that's not in Christ, finally dies. It's not a one-off event in
your life, but rather a pattern that should be followed daily. Until that happens
and you learn to recognize the process, you will not only hurt yourself but you
will hurt others. For to know the Cross is to know His sufferings, and to know His
sufferings, is to know that "I" no longer lives except in Christ . . . who does
whatever He sees the Father do, and speaks only what He hears the Father speak.
You will know the "I" in you is alive in Christ when, in the midst of suffering,
you come to a place of knowing that it's not about what everyone else is doing to
you. It's about how you respond to what others do that matters.
There is coming a deeper release of the prophetic as we see a greater revelation
of the Cross. Until prophetic people learn to plant the Cross in the center of their
hearts, they will forever carry their offences into their tomorrows; and their perception,
which leads to revelation, will be clouded and polluted with yesterdays, rejections,
betrayals, abuses, and sorrows. O dear ones, pick up your cross and embrace it that
you would be healed and empowered to respond in your life's passion as Jesus responded
in His.
Every heartache you will ever experience
in life or the prophetic, and every response to it, was epitomized in the last hours
of Christ's Passion Journey. To know that He took upon Himself the punishment for
our sin and sorrows will not only take the sting out of our wounds, but it will
heal them. To know the fellowship of His sufferings is to know I Peter 2:19-24:
"For this is commendable,
if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For
what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently?
But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before
God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us
an example, that you should follow His steps: 'Who committed no sin, nor was deceit
found in His mouth'; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He
suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins,
might live for righteousness -- by whose stripes you were healed." (NKJ)
HOW TO USE CHRIST'S PASSION FOR MEDITATION
His Passion is also referred to as "The Way of the Cross" or "The Stations of the
Cross." The stations of the Cross are to be found in the gospel accounts of Christ's
Passion. One way to ponder His Passion is through slow meditative reading called
Lectio Divina. This contemplative style of reading leaves behind speed-reading and
instead strolls through the garden of God's Word by taking the time to read slowly,
as you stop to pick the flowers of revelation when the Holy Spirit illuminates them
to you.
Of course, there are a plethora of different prayer and meditation books dealing
with the Passion. However, aside from the Scriptures, I prefer many of the older
writings on this subject. The ancient writers could say more in a few sentences
than we could say in several pages. Often, it's as if every word draws us into deeper
intimacy with Him. At other times, the writings of the ancients seem almost pregnant
with a revelation of God waiting to be birthed in our souls.
One such writer was a man by the name of Jeremy Taylor. Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)
was commissioned by king Charles the First to be his private chaplain. He wrote
the classic Holy Living Holy Dying. In his writings he penned a most eloquent
and beautiful meditative prayer on the Passion of the Christ. It is from this work
that I want to share with you, if by any means it might become a simple map to guide
you through a meditation concerning the Passion of our Christ by way of the Cross.
GETTING STARTED
To draw the most out of this spiritual practice, allow me to encourage you with
suggestions regarding ways you can enhance your experience.
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Over the next few weeks let you devotional
reading be from the gospel accounts of the Passion.
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Pick a time when you can spend 20
to 30 minutes of uninterrupted solitude. That might mean you will need to get up
earlier or go to bed later in order to be still so you can know God . . . and by
all means turn your cell phone off.
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Pour yourself a cup of coffee, or
better yet, prepare the sacraments so you can have communion with the Lord during
your time with Him.
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Light a candle and pick some instrumental
music that's conducive for helping you to meditate. Personally, I listen to the
soundtrack from Pearl Harbor when I'm reading Jeremy Taylor's meditation . . . Hey,
it works for me. Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in creating an ambiance for Him
to move and touch your heart.
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On the first day read the entire passage.
Then, each following day, take it a section at a time and ponder it throughout the
day. Identify with Him.
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Remember, His Cross-road prepared
the way for your cross-road because He suffered at every level so that you can walk
victoriously upon the road your cross will take you.
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As you read, allow the Holy Spirit
to reveal your betrayals, rejections, abandonment's, sicknesses, and sufferings
as you identify with Christ's. Then allow Him to mark you with His grace to respond
to suffering as He responded.
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The cross is a powerful shock absorber.
It will absorb the pain from the blows of your enemies and friends if you will carry
it with you into your everyday life.
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Read aloud. There is not only beauty
but also power that comes from reading aloud.
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At each Selah pause when you recite
Psalm 8:4: "What is man that You are mindful of
him, and the son of man that You visit him? (NKJ)" Take a moment to reflect
on what you just read and allow the Holy One to illuminate what it means to you.
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At the end of the meditative prayer
close with saying the Lord's prayer.
Meditating on the Cross plants the
Cross in the center of your heart so that it can begin to grow the fruit of the
Spirit. Only The True Vine, which was nailed to the Cross, grows the fruit of the
Spirit.
I'm going to include some sayings from different fathers in the faith along with
Jeremy Taylor's meditation so that you can meditate on them as well. I encourage
you to print this prayer and carry it in your Bible over the next few weeks.
I have taken the liberty of revising Jeremy Taylor's work ever so slightly by emitting
some of the "thee and thou" words, while endeavoring to maintain the integrity and
beauty of the old English style. I hope that it makes for an easier read.
Be blessed as you drink from this ancient well, and may the waters refresh you:
spirit, soul, and body!
WISDOM OF THE CROSS
"The passion will inevitably remain extraneous to us until we go into it through
the very narrow door of the "for our sake," because only He who acknowledges that
the passion is his fault truly knows the passion. Everything else is a digression."
Raneiro Cantalamessa
"Organized religion has domesticated the crucified Lord of glory, turned Him into
a tame theological symbol. Theological symbols do not sweat blood in the night."
Brennan Manning
"Christ is to us just what His cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth
was put into what He did there . . . Christ, I repeat, is to us just what His cross
is. You do not understand Christ till you understand His cross." P. T. Forsyth
"Come now my soul, and worship this man, this God. Come believer, and behold thy
Savior. Come to the innermost circle of all sanctity, the circle that contains the
cross of Christ, and here sit down." Charles H. Spurgeon
"The very existence of the cross, and of the crucified Christ, forces us to make
a crucial decision: Will we look for God somewhere else, or will we make the cross,
and the crucified Christ, the basis of our thought about God?" Alistair E. McGrath
"Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you remember Christ crucified
and be silent." John of the Cross
"As you gaze upon the cross, and long for conformity to him, be not weary or fearful
because you cannot express in words what you seek. Ask him to plant the cross in
your heart. Believe in him, the crucified and now living one, to dwell within you,
and breathe his own mind there." Andrew Murray
"Stand at the foot of the cross, and count the purple drops by which you have been
cleansed; see the thorn-crown; mark His scourged shoulders, still gushing with encrimsoned
rills . . . And if you do not lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you
have never seen it." Charles Spurgeon
"In the cross is an ocean of love yet unrevealed, a mountain of power still unreleased,
and a sea of truth not yet fathomed . . . There is something utterly exhaustless
about the provisions of Calvary." S. Franklin Logsdon
"Nowhere do I more find such fruitful stillness as when I am near the cross. Nowhere
do I feel so inclined to take the shoes from off my feet. And how do you account
for it?" John Henry Jowett
A Prayer of Christ's Passion, being
a short history of it: to be used especially in the week of the Passions, and before
receiving the Blessed Sacrament.
All praise, honour, and glory be to
the holy and eternal Jesus. I adore You, O blessed Redeemer, eternal God, the light
of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel; for You have done and suffered for me
more than I could wish; more than I could think of; even all that a lost and a miserable
perishing sinner could possibly need.
You were afflicted with thirst and hunger, with heat and cold, with labours and
sorrows, with hard journeys and restless nights. When You were contriving all the
mysterious and admirable ways of paying our scores; You did suffer Yourself to be
designed to slaughter, by those for whom You were so in love; for those, You were
ready to die. "What is man, that You are mindful of him; and the Son of man, that
You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus; for You went about doing good, working miracles
of mercy, healing the sick, comforting the distressed, instructing the ignorant,
raising the dead, enlightening the blind, strengthening the lame, straightening
the crooked, relieving the poor, preaching the gospel, and reconciling sinners by
the mightiness of Your power, by the wisdom of Your Spirit, by the word of God,
and the merits of Your passion, Your healthful and bitter passion.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, who was content to be conspired against by the
Jews, to be sold by Your servant for a vile price, and to wash the feet of him that
took money for Your life, and to give to him and to all Your apostles Your most
holy body and blood, to become a sacrifice for their sins, even for their betraying
and denying You; and for all my sins, even for my crucifying You afresh, and for
such sins, which I am ashamed to think, but that the greatest of my sins magnify
the infiniteness of Your mercies, who did so great things for so vile a person.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, who, being to depart the world, did comfort
Your apostles, pouring out into their ears and hearts treasures of admirable discourses;
who did recommend them to Your Father with a mighty charity, and then did enter
into the garden set with nothing but briars and sorrows, where You did suffer a
most unspeakable agony, until the sweat strained through Your pure skin like drops
of blood, and there did sigh and groan, and fall flat upon the earth, and pray,
and I had deserved, and You suffered.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, who has sanctified to us all our natural infirmities
and passions, by vouchsafing to be in fear and in trembling and sore amazement,
by being bound and imprisoned, by being harassed and dragged with cords of violence
and rude hands, by being drenched in the brook in the way, by being sought after
like a thief, and used like a sinner who was the most holy and the most innocent,
cleaner than an angel and brighter than the morning star.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be Your loving kindness and pity,
by which You did neglect Your own sorrows, and go to comfort the sadness of Your
disciples, quickening their dullness, encouraging their duty, arming their weakness
with excellent precepts against the day of trial. Blessed be that humility and sorrow
of Yours, who, being Lord of the angels, yet would need and receive comfort from
Your servant, the angel; who did offer Yourself to Your persecutors, and made them
able to seize You; and did receive the traitor's kiss, and suffered a veil to be
thrown over Your holy face, that Your enemies might not presently be confounded
by so bright a luster; and would do a miracle to cure a wound of one of Your spiteful
enemies; and did reprove a zealous servant in behalf of a malicious adversary; and
then did go like a lamb to the slaughter, without noise or violence or resistance,
when You could have commanded millions of angels for Your guard and rescue.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that holy sorrow You did suffer,
when Your disciples fled, and You were left alone in the hands of cruel men, who,
like evening wolves, thirsted for a drink of Your best blood. You were then led
to the house of Annas, and there asked ensnaring questions, and smitten on the face
by him whose ear You had but lately healed. Then from there You were dragged to
the house of Caiaphas; and there all night did endure spittings, affronts, scorn,
arrogant contempt and rudeness, physical blows, and intolerable insults. All this
for man, who was Your enemy, and the cause of all Your sorrows.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be Your mercy, who, when Your servant
Peter denied You, and abandoned You, and He renounced Your friendship, You looked
back upon him, and by that gracious and chiding look did call him back to himself
and to You. Then You were accused before the high priest and railed upon, and examined
to evil purposes, and with designs of blood. You were declared guilty of death for
speaking a most necessary truth. You were then sent to Pilate and found innocent
and sent to Herod and still found innocent. You were arrayed in white, both to declare
Your innocence and yet to deride Your person. You were then sent back to Pilate,
and examined again, and yet nothing but innocence was found in You, yet malice still
surrounded You to devour Your life, of which You were more desirous to lay down
for them than they were to take it from You.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that patience and charity, by
which for our sakes You were content to be smitten with canes, and have that holy
face, which angels with joy and wonder do behold, be spit upon and be despised,
when compared with Barabbas, and scourged most rudely with unhallowed hands, till
the pavement was purpled with that holy blood, and condemned to a sad and shameful,
a public and painful death, and arrayed in scarlet, and crowned with thorns and
stripped naked, and then clothed, and laden with the cross, and tormented with a
tablet stuck with nails at the fringes of Your garment, and bound hard with cords,
and dragged most vilely and most piteously till the load was too great, and yet
did sink Your tender and virginal body to the earth; and yet did comfort the weeping
women, and did more pity Your persecutors than Yourself, and were grieved for the
miseries of Jerusalem to come forty years after, more than for Your present passion.
"What is man, that You are mindful
of him; and the Son of man, that You visited him?"
Blessed be Your name, O holy Jesus, and blessed be that incomparable sweetness and
holy sorrow which You suffered, when Your holy hands and feet were nailed upon the
cross, and the cross, being set in a hollowness of the earth, did in the fall rend
the wounds wider, and there, naked and bleeding, sick and faint, wounded and despised,
did hang upon the weight of Your wounds three long hours, praying for Your persecutors,
satisfying Your Father's wrath, reconciling the penitent thief, providing for Your
holy and afflicted mother, tasting vinegar and gall; and when the fullness of Your
suffering was accomplished, did give Your soul into the hands of God, and did descend
to the regions of longing souls, who waited for the revelation of this Your day
in their prisons of hope: and then Your body was transfixed with a spear, and issued
forth two sacraments, water and blood, and Your body was composed to burial, and
dwelt in darkness three days, and three nights. "Lord, what is man, that You are
mindful of him, and the son of man, that You thus visited him?"
The Prayer
Thus, O blessed Jesus, You did finish Your holy passion with pain and anguish so
great, that nothing could be greater than it, except Yourself and Your own infinite
mercy: and all this for man, even for me, than whom nothing could be more miserable,
Yourself only excepted, who became so by undertaking our guilt and our punishment.
And now, Lord, who has done so much
for me, be pleased only to make it effectual to me, that it may not be useless and
lost as to my particular, lest I become eternally miserable, and lost to all hopes
and possibilities of comfort. All this deserves more love than I have to give: but,
Lord, turn all of me into love, and all my love into obedience, and let my obedience
be without interruption, and then I hope You will accept such a return as I can
make.
Make me to be something that You delight
in, and You shall have all that I am or have from You, even whatsoever You make
fit for Yourself. Teach me to live wholly for my Savior Jesus, and to be ready to
die for Jesus. To be conformed to His life and sufferings, and to be united to Him
by inseparable unions, and to own no passions but what may be servants to Jesus
and disciples of His Kingdom. O sweetest Savior, clothe my soul with Your holy robe;
hide my sins in Your wounds, and bury them in Your grave; and let me rise by Your
glory into the life of grace, and abide and grow in it, till I arrive at the kingdom
of glory. Amen. "Our Father," etc.
by Dena Smith
Email:
DEEDEE3737@aol.com
Dena Smith Ministries
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"Becoming
the voice of God ultimately makes you the greatest witness on earth. You don't actually
hear the voice of God, you perceive it." - Kim Clement
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