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August 5, 2005
 Greetings
from Australia! My name is Amanda Butel. I'm the Editor of the new non-denominational
Christian women's magazine created in Australia -- for the international market,
called ENHANCE CHRISTIAN WOMEN'S MAGAZINE.
In brief, I believe I represent a growing number of women from my generation, cheerfully
raising our children, and honored to love and serve the Lord with all that is in
us.
I truly enjoy reading the varied ministry that comes through my email each day from
The Elijah List.
Devoted to Him,
Amanda Butel
ENHANCE Editor
editor@enhancemagazine.com
www.enhancemagazine.com
His Breath
God is about to breathe on His promises over our lives. He
is challenging us to embrace the Word He has placed in our hearts, and to invite
His Holy Spirit to breathe on us. He is wanting to restore to us a new hope and
a fresh vision. He is wanting to fulfill His purpose in and through us.
The Spirit of the Lord is searching to and fro, seeking out those who love Him.
He is yearning for intimate relationship with a people who are hungry, holy and
humble before Him. God is wanting to bring form to His Word, and manifest His Presence
to this dying world.
There is an intensity -- a sense of urgency like never before. I don't know about
you, but I want the power of God in my life. I don't want to just get by, acting
out a mediocre and average existence. I don't want to finish this race without having
given my Lord everything. I desire, with all my heart, to live wholeheartedly and
abundantly -- passionately serving Him -- with His mighty hand backing up all that
I do -- for His glory.
In order to be whom God has destined us to be, we cannot afford to become complacent
and lose a sense of expectancy that God is about to move on our behalf. Without
hope, we will be shredded and disintegrated upon the winds of disappointment and
fear. Without courage and trust in God, we will perish to our own devices. So we
need to learn the habit of anticipating His supernatural intervention at all times.
With all the pressures and strains of this world, it is so easy to become tired,
frustrated and discouraged. Often times it doesn't seem as though God is working
on our behalf. It can appear as though the heavens are brass and the hand of God
is far from us. But He is wanting to remember His promises to us, and demonstrate
Himself in and through us beyond what we could ever hope, dream or imagine.
There is a short story of a woman the Bible calls a notable (great, high, mighty,
noble, rich) woman -- the Shunammite woman (II Kings 4:8-37). She honors a holy
man of God (Elisha), and hospitably feeds him whenever he visits town. Eventually
she builds and furnishes a special room in her and her husband's home, and provides
lodging for Elisha and his servant Gehazi whenever they need it.
The Promise Is Spoken . . .
To show his appreciation for her generosity, Elisha asks if there is anything he
can do for her -- but she graciously declines. It is plain that in helping this
man of God she wasn't after a reward -- her heart was to simply assist him. But
the Lord recognizes her humility and, when Gehazi informs Elisha that the woman
has no son, Elisha calls for her and prophesies, "About this time next year you
shall embrace a son." (verse 16)
Her reply reflects many of our own when the Lord speaks over our lives. Sometimes
His promises can seem wonderful and grand -- but unachievable. She cries out,
"No, my Lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!"
In other Words, "Don't get my hopes up . . . This sounds too good to be true.
I couldn't stand it if God said He would grant the desire of my heart and it doesn't
come to pass . . . Surely I can't live if this Word isn't fulfilled!"
Today we are sensing a shift in the heavenlies. God is challenging us to embrace
the promises He has placed in our hearts -- despite how things may appear in the
natural . . . To believe for the impossible and make way for the improbable . .
. To take up the shield of faith and ward off the enemy's accusations of doubt,
fear and hopelessness.
Let's read on to see what happened . . .
True to the Word of the Lord through the mouth of His prophet Elisha, the Shunammite
woman conceived and bore a son when the appointed time had come . . . and the child
grew (verse 17).
The Promise Is Delivered . . .
God breathed life on her womb. Even though her husband was "old," and natural biology's
prognosis was that a child was out of the question, she conceived and manifested
God's promise. She physically embraced the fulfillment of the Word of the Lord.
Notice that this occurred when the appointed time had come.
Know that there is an appointed time and season for the fulfillment of God's
promises in your life. And once God says it, His Word cannot return to Him void.
It is like defying the basic law of gravity . . . It cannot be done. It's a principle
of the Kingdom. God says it, and that settles it!
But this story doesn't end here. . .
The child is out with his father one day in the fields, when he clutches at his
head in pain and is taken up to the house where the Shunammite woman -- his mother
-- holds him in her arms until noon when he dies.
Hang on a minute! PLEASE REWIND!! The little boy dies!? I thought he was the manifested
promise of God! A few years down the track, sure -- but the promised child none-the-less!
Dead!?
I imagine the Shunammite woman didn't just stand by and watch her child pass away
without a fight. I can see her now as she tenderly cradles his small frame and rocks
him back and forth . . . I can hear her heart pounding as she bravely ignores the
hard swelling lump in her aching throat, and sings softly over him. All the while
she is fervently praying -- trying to ease his pain, not allowing him to see her
anguish. I can feel her desperate attempts to impart her own life and strength to
him, so that he might recover, and bounce back through the fields to greet his father.
She is sponging his clammy face and limp hands, and wiping his grubby feet with
her tear-soaked garments -- all the while whispering Words of healing and hope.
Bringing cool water to his gray, chapped lips,
she struggles to fight away Fear and Doubt as they coil their cruel talons of despair
around her heart. Taking evil advantage of her pain, they attempt to drain away
the hopes and visions she has of her boy's future. They relentlessly seep poisonous
lies of unbelief and confusion into her mind, clouding her peace and judgment while
she is at her weakest. What do you think of your wonderful God now? They
torment her. It appears as if He has abandoned you -- right when you need Him
the most . . . He is withdrawing His promise . . . Obviously you don't deserve it
. . . Can't you see He is judging you . . . Maybe this promise wasn't really from
God in the first place . . .
This gut-wrenching scene continues . . . As the intensity of the midday sun reaches
it's peak, I sense this desperate mother feels her young boy's life slipping away.
She grabs his little face and demands him to focus his glazing eyes on hers. Gathering
every smidgen of scattered courage within her, she delivers a final convincing plea:
"Live, son, live! You have so much to look forward to. So many experiences to
partake of. A long, full life to live. It's not time for you to go. Live, son, live!"
But he dies.
Have you ever held a promise in the palm of your hand, or tasted the outworking
of God's Word and power in your life, but then seemingly hit a brick wall, and watched
it fall apart right before your eyes? Have you ever felt like the very life of your
destiny was sliding away between your fingers?
Please, let me encourage you, DON'T GIVE UP! Watch what this mighty woman of God
does . . . Despite her grief and confusion, she gently lays the lifeless body of
her darling baby boy on the prophet's bed in the upper room, shuts the door and
says, "It is well."
The Promise Is Laid Upon The Altar
The Shunammite woman had a determination in her heart that she heard from God. He
had granted her a promise, and she wasn't going to accept anything less! She lays
her promise on the altar of her former sacrifice -- in the room she and her husband
had prepared for the man of God; and without explaining her intentions to anyone,
she has a donkey saddled and heads out to find Elisha -- the vessel of her promise.
Elisha's servant comes riding out to meet her -- asking after her, her husband,
and her son. The woman's response rings true. "IT IS WELL!"
Can you imagine? The thing she holds most dear to her heart . . . That which she
prayed and stood and waited and believed God for all those years and years . . .
The sweetest, warmest, and most amazing miracle of God's manifest power in her life,
is lying cold and stiff, and she says, "It is well."
I think I would be throwing a major wobbly right about here -- wouldn't you?!
She has watched the mighty Hand of God transform her desert, barren circumstance
into a glorious testimony of His loving grace, only to see it distort and vanish
in a fleeting moment. And she says, "It is well!" Is she in denial? Is she
cold-hearted? Is she losing her mind with grief? NO! She is walking in believing
power! She says, "It is well," by faith. She is not looking at her circumstance
as it appears, but looking through eyes of faith and TRUST IN HER GOD! She is single-minded.
She is pure-hearted. And she believes wholeheartedly that the man of God who prophesied
her promise -- her son -- will be used as an instrument of the Lord to resurrect
her boy.
Creating the Opportunity
for God to Breathe His Life into Our Circumstances
Reaching the man of God, she abandons cultural protocol and throws herself at his
feet -- persisting that he accompanies her home. She is desperate. Elisha accepts
her determined plea and instructs his servant Gehazi to take his staff in his hand,
and to go directly to the child without becoming distracted along the way. He asks
Gehazi to lay the staff on the child's face. This is very significant. I believe
Elisha's staff signifies the Word of the Lord.
As we embrace God's Word with everything in us, store His promises and His faithfulness
deep in our lives, and walk in obedience, God can then breathe His life and ignite
the flame of our hearts. His Spirit alights on His resident Word to manifest His
glory, His life, and His power in and through us.
Recently I was going through my morning ritual of exfoliating in the shower, and
the Lord spoke gently to my heart. "You know, you spend more time loofah-ing
your body than cleansing yourself with the water of My Word." We need to ask
ourselves: Is God's Word given absolute priority and securely positioned within
my heart? So often we become consumed and distracted with the much less significant
and less productive "outer" areas of our lives, sabotaging our personal potential
and inner peace.
The Promise Is Resurrected
The servant follows Elisha's orders and positions the staff on the boy -- but nothing
happens . . . that is, nothing happens until Elisha goes into the room, shuts the
door, and prays!
Now look at what this radical prophet does . . . He lays over the top of the child
-- mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, and hands to hands; and as he stretches himself
out over the child, the young boy's flesh becomes warm! He repeats this process
until the child sneezes and opens his eyes. The boy comes back to life! See the
power of the breath of God! He can resuscitate what is seemingly gone!
Allow His Holy Spirit to breathe afresh on You and His Word and promises in your
heart. Set aside any hopelessness shrouding your circumstances and declare, "It
is well." Look neither to the left nor the right as you focus on laying the
truth of His Word across your heart, and invite His Holy Spirit to breathe upon
your life, your strategies and your programs. Then watch Him move!
You see, when we try to complete and manage ourselves and satisfy our agendas in
our own strength, we so often fail. And as we strive to take matters into our own
hands and fix them with our personal knowledge and mere abilities, we tangle, distort,
and hinder our fleshly works all the more. Allow God Almighty -- Creator of the
Universe -- to breathe on your life, your relationships, your family, your work,
your finances, and your future. His breath can create and establish from nothing!
He can breathe upon dust and bring forth life. His breath can cause that which is
rigor mortis to pulsate again. His breath can destroy the works of the enemy.
Because of her maturity and spiritual perception that "ALL WAS WELL," the Shunammite
woman once again held the promise of the Lord in her arms. She once again embraced
her son's warm, breathing, moving life -- brimming with hope and potential. She
once again savored the moment of the manifestation of God's glory in her family.
She once again testified to the goodness and greatness of her Lord.
God wants you to see what He has prepared for you. He wants you to have spiritual
perception where you can look beyond the natural and see what wonderful things He
has laid up for you. God wants to put His eyes on your eyes, His hands on your hands,
His heart on your heart -- and breathe upon you. He wants to resurrect His promises
which lay dormant in your life. He wants to prove His Word!
The question is, will you shut the door on fruitless striving, opinions, and your
own agenda -- to make room to invite His sweet Presence and life-giving breath to
usher in the fulfillment of His spoken Word?
MAKE THE CONNECTION
1) Connect with your God.
Your Heavenly Father has made a way for you to access Him. The Bible says that a
major key to living a victorious life is to honor and praise Him despite your circumstances.
Allow His Holy Spirit to completely saturate you with His fresh, powerful Presence.
Welcome the Holy Spirit to carry you to new places in Him, heal you with His sweet
oil, and consume all that isn't of Him with His purifying fire.
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Ask God to breathe on you. As we come
to Him in worshipful intimacy -- mouth to mouth -- He can breathe His life . . .
His way . . . His truth. Oh Lord, breathe Your fire on the altar of my heart
-- that I might know Your voice, Your Words . . . That I might express what is on
Your heart.
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Ask the Holy Spirit to give You His eyes
-- so that you can see what He sees -- and how He sees . . . Spirit of God, breathe
on my eyes so the blinding scales of this world would fall, and Your revelation
would be unveiled . . . that I would see circumstances and people the way You see
them . . . That I would be Kingdom-oriented, not self-absorbed!
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Ask Him to anoint your hands. Know that
when you reach out to others, you stretch forth His hand of healing and deliverance.
Lord, touch My hands, that I might prosper and be successful in You. That I might
bless others on purpose. That Your mighty Hand would back me up in all that I do.
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Ask Him to stretch Himself out over you
-- heart to heart -- so you can be washed anew with His love and grace. Lord,
breathe on the outworkings of my body, that You would add Your super to my natural.
I want to flow with Your purpose, and bring glory to You.
2) Connect with your purpose.
If you feel frustrated or helpless in a particular area of your life, don't give
up. PERSEVERE! Keep on keepin' on!
Notice that, at the end of the Shunammite woman's story, Elisha has his servant
tell her, "Pick up your son."
In other words, take up your promise and go forth. Claim what is yours and alive
in Christ Jesus -- and run with it! Run with the Spirit. Rest in Him, and run with
the wind of the Spirit! Take the resurrected promise and proclaim His glory and
His power. Testify of God's goodness.
The Shunammite woman does exactly that, she runs with the manifest Word of God in
her life -- but not before bowing first. Not without acknowledging the miracle first.
Not without an attitude of gratitude and a heart of thanksgiving. Ask the Holy Spirit
to breathe on your path; and follow in obedience, gratefully giving Him glory for
all He has done for you. Out of your place of desperation, consecrate your hope
to Him . . . Don't give room to complacency, the fear of man, and religious ritual.
Don't allow carnal methods and the pseudo solutions of this world system to dominate
your choices and outcomes. Ask for more of Him. For His divine love! For His magnificent
purpose in your life!
3) Connect with other God-fearing believers.
Who are you associating with? Are you in connection with people who are believing
like you? Do you fill your conversation with faith and trust in God, and hope in
His Word, or is your chit-chat splattered with phrases such as, "It's highly
improbable . . . Everyone is doing it this way . . . " and the overrated cynical
adage, "Well, we'll just wait and see what happens!"
Take heed and steadfastly guard your eye-gate and ear-gate with tenacious ferocity,
to allow only the succinct truth of the Lord's Word to be enthroned in your life.
This seat is from whence His power will flow!
by Amanda Butel, Editor
ENHANCE Magazine
editor@enhancemagazine.com
www.enhancemagazine.com
Used with permission from the August/September/October 2005 issue of ENHANCE
Christian Women's Magazine.
Getting to know ENHANCE Magazine's Editor:
Amanda Butel
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Amanda was raised throughout most of her primary school
years as a PK on the mission fields of Papua New Guinea. Fresh out of university,
Amanda coordinated the Counseling Department at Christian Outreach Centre, Mansfield,
Australia from 1994-1996, where she pioneered several Counselor Training Courses,
edited Counselor Training Manuals, and facilitated and presented various personal
development seminars. As she felt a different tug on her heart, she resigned from
the Counseling Department in 1996, and served a prophetic ministry based in the
USA called "Generation of Demonstration"
with Ruckins and Roslyn McKinley.
Currently, Amanda and her husband of twelve years Carl, operate a graphic design
business on the Gold Coast, Australia, called Deep Image, and co-own Embrace Media
Pty. Ltd. They believe God is doing an amazing work in their homeland -- and around
the world; and that the powerful vehicle of media will be used strategically as
a tool to inspire, equip, and network the Body of Christ for what is ahead. "While
ENHANCE Christian Women's Magazine is the first publication we have embarked on,
we have been totally blown away by it's progress into the hearts of thousands of
readers throughout Australia, and are currently focused on distributing it further
abroad!"
"My heart's desire is to see passionate and whole people, unreservedly and effectively
serving the Lord."
Although Amanda's overall passion is to resource Christians to fulfill their God-given
destiny, a huge part of her heart is dedicated to responding to the growing international
need to establish rescue homes and restoration programs for orphans, abandoned and
abused children, and young lives freed from forced child prostitution rings in areas
of Asia and Africa. This naturally shines through in ENHANCE Magazine which is very
focused on provoking their readers to look beyond their coffee tables to the many
opportunities we are presented with daily, to extend the heart and hand of our Lord.
Amanda admits though that the most significant occupation and consuming pleasure
(and challenge!) of her life, to date, is nurturing their 7-year-old son Bailey,
and delightful new addition -- Armani Rose (10 months old).
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Foreword
to Open My Eyes, Lord: " . . . One cannot read this book without
becoming hungrier for 'just a closer walk with Thee' type of
experience/relationship. I know that I have a holy jealousy for the intimacy I
see for God in Gary Oates' life. I am no longer satisfied to be able to sense
the presence of angels when they come near me. I want to see them.
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