I love that in the personal devotion book, The Bridegroom’s Voice, you will walk and listen up for four weeks with God, learning and growing in His Word. And then on the 5th week, you will have a “Selah” where you look back with “heavenly hindsight” at what you have learned and how you can apply it to help you decrease and God increase in your life. It is an amazing journey with God as He speaks and then as we reflect, learn and grow through in our Selah. In reflection, we see the places He must increase, We must decrease. This is the main growth focus of the devotional book, “The Bridegroom’s Voice”. It is a 9 month devotional, with each week having a specific topic, where The Bridegroom’s Speaks About it. The first four weeks The Bridegroom spoke about Love, Questions, Peace And Hope. Instead of moving forward with the next 4 weeks, this devotional book gives you a “Selah” break where you go back in your Groomsman Journal and see what God has spoken to you. Has this increased of wisdom taken hold, being acted out in your life? I will share with you today what spoke to my heart and is changing up in me from the first 4 weeks of the Book: The Bridegroom’s Voice. Selah.
“Pour out your heart before the Bridegroom. For each of the preceding four weeks, use the space below to talk to Him. How have you increased in His love, peace, and hope? Have the questions on your heart been answered by His Spirit? What new goals have you developed for your growth? Write below the things you hear the Holy Spirit speak to your heart.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
The Bridegroom’s Voice – Selah Week One Love
“My heart’s desire is that you discover how intimately I love you and you learn to love Me with an undivided, personal fidelity. Oh, My church, worship Me heart-to-heart! My bride, I have asked you many questions, ponder them in your heart. Remember, I chose you and I will love you always and infinitely forever.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
Where Are My Expectations?
The pitfalls of love. God’s love for us, my love for God, it all has pitfalls. There is really no downside on the giving end, that is for sure, God gives to us so faithfully, so unconditionally, so abundantly. The downfall is our humanity, our side, the receiving and giving of love to God and others. We have many pitfalls, doubt, unbelief, expectations, so much of our humanity is a pitfall. I do realize that God’s love is for us, no matter how we are feeling. Sometimes things in my life just don’t work out the way I thought they would, not even close. This becomes a pitfall to me because my expectations of God get dashed. Expectations can sometimes be so disrupting for our faith. It is best to just put our expectations in God’s hands. I am learning this. There is something about His Love, this week one Selah, has pointed out to me. I have to leave room in my life for God to do things the way He wants to do them, because they always turn out so much better than I could ever have imagined. So, this is where I grow in my faith, trusting when something hurts, when something feels so very hard that it disrupts my emotions, flipping them to negative attitudes, I must learn to share those feelings with God, ask for His perspective and let Him teach me how to grow through my emotions and respond godly.
Proverbs 3:13-15 Blessings pour over the ones who find wisdom, for they have obtained living-understanding. 3:13 The Hebrew text here implies that wisdom gives the ability to take raw facts and draw right conclusions and meaning from them. 14 As wisdom increases, a great treasure is imparted, greater than many bars of refined gold. 15 It is a more valuable commodity than gold and gemstones, 3:15 The Hebrew word translated here as “gemstones” can also refer to rubies, coral, or pearls for there is nothing you desire that could compare to her.
What Is Real Love?
God Discipline Is Love? It is hard to envision this as love because our culture has made love a comfortable-mushy-feel good word that is relative. Yet, Kingdom Love Has Eternal Sustenance Where Human Love Is Temporal And Based On Conditions. Teach Us About Real Love Jesus! God’s love for us is tough to bear at times and it is only this kind of love that can usher in Kingdom heart change. God’s Love shapes Kingdom character in us through its very nature of being: Infinite, Powerful, Purposeful. God’s love is not affected by our human culture, it is stabilized and unchangeable in Kingdom Purpose. As God increases His Kingdom purposes in play in me, I will be experiencing the depth of His love for me and stepping out into the flow of His Purpose for me. It is my part to decrease the human rationalization of what love is, understanding and experiencing Kingdom Love daily through my heart open wide to God. It is in yielding wholly-holy to God in personal, vital-vertical relationship with Him that is my increase. Let it be so Lord Jesus, transform the human love I know, to the Kingdom love I need to grow in. Way-Maker, increase Your Purposes, make them my way of love.
Increase My Unconditional Love ~ Decrease My Religiosity
If I continually take my expectations to God, I avoid the pitfalls in my love relationship with Him. I am taught by Him how to wait patiently, how to not prescript my love relationship based on what He does or does not do. I am increasing in the learning of how not to presume that God will do something my way. I am taught, I am learning to see that God loves me no matter what is happening in my situations and I am growing in God’s way, learning to lean into His Sovereign Sway and patiently endure, as He works things out in my life, knowing that He is a great finisher.
Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-bridegroom-speaks-about-love/
The Bridegroom’s Voice – Selah Week Two Questions
Matthew 8:24-27 Suddenly a violent storm developed, with waves so high the boat was about to be swamped. Yet Jesus continued to sleep soundly. 25The disciples woke him up, saying, “Save us, Lord! We’re going to die!” 26But Jesus reprimanded them. “Why are you gripped with fear? Where is your faith?” Then he stood up and rebuked the storm and said, “Be still!” And instantly it became perfectly calm.27The disciples were astonished by this miracle and said to one another, “Who is this Man? Even the wind and waves obey his Word.”
Followship The Path Of Peace
Jesus is the forerunner of my soul-peace, and if I stay in followship of Him, I can walk in peace today and every day. If I am constantly leading out with questions and insecurities, I will be stumbling and falling into anxiety, fear and doubt. Jesus goes before me, He anchors my soul at the perfect time of the storm, so I am not tossed to and fro. I am kept by the Promises of God’s Word and they anchor me. God’s anchor holds and He is faithful to shelter us, keep us steady and right side up in every angry sea of life. This excerpt from week two of the devotional book: The Bridegroom’s Voice, as evoked a lot of growth in me.
“My bride, will you change your course when life gets tough and the violent winds of your generation fiercely whirl doubts around your heart? Spend more time with Me. I will teach you to not be intimidated by deceptive fears and negative thoughts. I will teach you how to sidestep the tornados that suddenly arise in your path and I will give you the wisdom to stand safely outside these temporary whirlwinds of your enemy until they spin out. Rise above the clamor of these unsettled days and see beyond your panic into My steadfast eyes.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice By KimberlyMac
Godly Inspiration Tips The Scale Into Peace
Decrease time wasted in trying to self-medicate myself with comfort through DVD watching. I convince myself, instead of picking up a good Christian book to read or the Bible, that I need to watch something on TV to help me to settle down my thoughts from the day. Instead of spending time taking in something good, some reality of truth, I take in something not real, some fake reality that may not give me anything of substance. I need to spend more time with God, less time on my comfort. My time needs to be balanced where my time with God and godly inspiration tips the scale. Therefore, I believe I would have less times that I step out without God’s discernment, and more times I step right into a whirlwind created by my enemy. I do hope to increase the time I make the right choice the first time.
Increase My Gratefulness ~ Decrease My Questions
We have a bad habit of asking questions for things that are way past or way down the road. God is in the now. His Kingdom purposes are in play in our now. Our questions about our past and future are not relevant to our now. So much changes from our past to our now, or from our now to our future, that our questions about them are not relevant in our now. My questions are not relevant in God’s Kingdom, because all things are new and what I am questioning God about may be a worldly issue that does not even concern Kingdom principals. So many questions I probably need to decrease, spend more time in gratefulness then in questioning God.
Lamentations 3:17-32 Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. 18 I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the Lord is lost!” 19The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words.3:19 Or is wormwood and gall. 20 I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. 1Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! 3:22 As in Syriac version; Hebrew reads of the Lord keeps us from destruction. His mercies never cease. 23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” 25 The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him. 26 So it is good to wait quietly for salvation from the Lord. 27 And it is good for people to submit at an early age to the yoke of his discipline: 28 Let them sit alone in silence beneath the Lord’s demands. 29 Let them lie face down in the dust, for there may be hope at last. 30 Let them turn the other cheek to those who strike them and accept the insults of their enemies. 31 For no one is abandoned by the Lord forever. 32 Though he brings grief, he also shows compassion because of the greatness of his unfailing love.
Got Habitual Doubt And Anxiety?
I am thinking that if I am having habitual doubt, fear, anxiety and questions that batter my mind, then it shows I don’t know God’s heart. I need to know HIM more! My perspective of Who God is, is not large enough. It does not encompass eternity as much as it does this world. I need to increase my AWE of God! If God is my portion? What portion of my life is He? If I am constantly questioning Him? Have I surrendered all? Respect! I need to develop more of it! Who am I to question Almighty God!?
Got A Side-Effect
Questioning God in the light of the TRUTH of Who He Is, is just my unbelief making me a fool! Help me believe… completely! My mind gets overtaken by emotional tornadoes and when I chase them, I end up truly beaten! I must be a God chaser 1st! Today is new and I should be anticipating the adventure I will be on with AWE-GOD, not dreading the things the enemy “might” throw in my path. Dread is a side effect of doubt as anxiety is a side effect of fear. Joy is a side effect of HOPE as peace is a side effect of TRUST.
Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-bridegroom-speaks-about-questions/
The Bridegroom’s Voice – Selah Week Three Peace
“Church, look beyond the surface of people idolized by the world. They are living relatively by their own made-up morality. These self-driven men and women have many different personalities and can switch faces as quickly as the cultural coin toss of popular political tides. What is the true condition of their hearts? How can they be peaceful, when they arrogantly expend their will-power in an endless pursuit of trying to prove their human clout? If you look closer, you will discover that they secretly substitute temporary fixes of generic tranquility for My peace and it leaves them sickly in their inner man. Independent of Me, human beings do not live on the edge of heaven, but live on the ledge of eternal death.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
How To Keep Your Peace
You think that people have peace by the way their “selfie” looks, but this is not true, peace runs deep. The way to keep our peace is to stay in the Word of God. Then when we take a “selfie” it will reflect the true peace of God from the inside out. The more I eat of the worlds media, I become fat on myself wanting more and more for me; becoming lazy, ungrateful, selfish and a true blob of would be nonsense. Foolishness is grounded in the perception of self-gain and constantly changed by the variables of social trendiness. I have found that the world’s wisdom is like living off of disposable foolishness!
Psalm 29:1-11 Give all credit to the Eternal, O heavenly creatures; give praise to Him for His glory and power 2 Give to the Eternal the glory due His name; worship Him with lavish displays of sacred splendor.3 The voice of the Eternal echoes over the great waters; God’s magnificence roars like thunder. The Eternal’s presence hovers over all the waters. 4 His voice explodes in great power over the earth. His voice is both regal and grand. 5 The Eternal’s voice shatters the cedars; His power splinters the great cedars of Lebanon. 6 He speaks, and Lebanon leaps like a young calf; Sirion jumps like a wild, youthful ox 7 The voice of the Eternal cuts through with flames of fire. 8 The voice of the Eternal rumbles through the wilderness with great quakes; He causes Kadesh to tremble. 9 The Eternal’s voice brings life from the doe’s womb; His voice strips the forest bare, and all the people in the temple declare, “Glory!” 10 The Eternal I enthroned over the great flood; His reign is unending. 11 We ask You, Eternal One, to give strength to Your people; Eternal One, bless them with the gift of peace. The Voice
Are You Positioned In Restlessness
Our cultural trends tend to have messages that violently sway in hellish whirlwinds of human political powers and principalities not of this world! The workers for our enemy are driven by crafty intentions that include the outright stealing of our inner peace, destroying all true light in us and keeping us out of our position of peace – our inheritance of His promise. Our enemy wants to position us in restlessness, unrest, dissatisfaction because these are the pathway of internal despair and eventually will lead us to spiritual death
“Before Jesus died, He willed us His Peace. But we forfeit His gift through strife. God’s desire for us is that we live in peace with Him, with ourselves and with our fellowman. He wants us to have peace in the midst of our current circumstances–peace in the morning, at night and all times in between. Peace is our inheritance! And it is a wonderful possession.” Joyce Meyer
What Are My Roadblocks To A Soul Saturated With Peace
Selfishness really does damn up the peace of God. Selfishness is a roadblock for relationships and a stumbling block for God Presence. How foolish it is to think and boast that we are wise, when wisdom begins and ends with GOD Foolishness is to point a finger in pride or judgment because there are always three fingers pointing back at you. You Lose! The Peace of God is something you can count on as sure as His Presence is Omnipresent! AWE-GOD! No one can take away my peace from God. I give it away out of bad actions and reactions! I need to increase my intake of worship that creates in my and AWE of God, because everything else will then take a second place in my life and peace in my soul will increase.
“The craftiness of the media is to overload your senses and covertly maneuver into the centerpiece of your thinking. Your enemy has devised the perfect strategy of successfully jamming your mind with the disinformation of the world and deprive you of My communication of truth, discernment, and peace.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-bridegroom-speaks-about-peace/
The Bridegroom’s Voice – Selah Week Four Hope
Romans 15:13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.’
“My hope will strengthen you and help you endure the long days of lawlessness in a time such as this. Church, when feelings of confusion influence your soul with hopelessness, always come to Me before you act out your discouragement. I will renew the hope in your heart and it will ascend above the negative emotions in you. My hope is like a winter rose fragrantly breaking through the cold icy ambiance, bringing optimism for the newness of spring, a spring that by My Spirit, will come.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
Increase The Faithfulness Of My Belief – Decrease My Doubt
Belief is synonymous with hope! You stir up the one and the other flows in abundance in your life! Strengthening your belief and faith in your life by trusting completely in Jesus, surrendering to Him, will increase your hope in a HUGE way! Hope streams into our anxieties as we quiet our loud thoughts and silently submit to AWE-GOD. Hoping in God is my source of unyielding strength as I fully face HIM, I am not moved by circumstances! Hope is stirred up as I trust AWE-GOD and confidently lean into His Sovereign sway. I need to have an increased belief and a decreased thought life of doubt. Selah!
Increase My Hope – Decrease My Focus On This World
Renew our hope Lord Jesus, purify it in Your resurrection power. Replenish our hope by the tenacity of Your Holy Spirit. Then, God’s favor will encompass my heart desires, cover them in a Sovereignty that is strong enough to relax my will in hope of His! Dark, Darker or Darkest, it doesn’t matter the degree, what is significant is that the Light of God’s hope shatters all darkness. Hope In God! Hope is not just a glance in God’s direction- it is a fixed focus on AWE-GOD! Fully Face God And Know His Great Hope! Jesus your hope is in everything, there is nothing that it does not or cannot saturate, impact or strengthen. Everything about Your Hope is authentic, pure and powerful. Saturate us in it today Lord Jesus! Jesus Your hope is a persevering power that opens our heart, creating a Kingdom All-In attitude in our will!
“My hope surpasses all discouragement, despondency and despair. I will pass on to you My hope and you will experience the authenticity of My Kingdom joy! I will renew the hope in your heart and it will ascend above the negative emotions in you, My Bride.” Excerpt From The Bridegroom’s Voice
A Nourished Hope
Lord increase in me the wisdom to be able to consistently fully face You, because I realize this is where my hope is nourished. Help me to stand in AWE of You, Jesus. Increase my Awe of You, because this will increase the hope in my heart attitudes! Increase your hope in me Jesus and decrease the tension in my will.
Dig Deeper: https://thebridegroomscafe.com/the-bridegroom-speaks-about-hope/
Thank you for stopping into The Bridegroom’s Café today, where your soul is always nourished and we have the best Chef ever, Jesus! The Groomsman’s Table had a special meal today for all of those wanting to take a Selah break. We hope you are soul fed by this meal today. Please share it with others through your Social Media platforms. So appreciated. There is never a day in the Bridegroom’s Café where we don’t hear The Bridegroom’s Voice. God bless you, KimberlyMac