The meaning of doors

On Thursday I wrote a letter to my mum. My husband and me recently moved into a new flat. Before than we lived in an open plan studio flat and the only two doors where from the corridor to the bathroom and from the corridor to the living room. Now we are in a two bedroom flat and there are doors everywhere. Doors are a funny thing, I started thinking while writing to my mum. I remember my brother was asked when he was younger what a door was to establish his IQ. He simply said it was the entrance or exit to a room. We are using doors every day. And when you think about it it is quite important what you do with the doors. If you go to the toilet you better make sure the door is closed behind you. When you need a toilet urgently all you want is an open door so you can close it behind you. (All the women with weak bladders, you know what I mean ;-) )When you leave your house in the morning you make sure you lock it behind you. When you want to be alone you close the door behind you. Just a few examples what we use doors for. In life we often talk about open doors that we are looking for to go through. The bible is speaking about doors or gates as well. In Revelation it says that Jesus is standing outside the door knocking. As children we were told that we should open our heart to Him when he does so to let him in. The bible also says that nobody can open doors that God has shut or can close doors that God has opened. What a great promise! I am at a point in my life where I am looking for new doors and opportunities and to know that God is still in control is the confirmation I need right now. When I was little I told Him I wanted to do things and live my life His way. In Proverbs it says that God directs our steps. Sometimes it is so easy to say that we just have to trust God, but still there is fear creeping in in times of uncertainty. I thought that faith is the antidote for fear, but in 1.John 4 we read that it is perfect love that casts out all fear. Every day I am reminding myself that God loves me perfectly, Jesus loves me the way I am because He died so I can receive and accept and bathe in His love. So when I know how much He loves me my fear has to go and then faith can come into action. If you are reading this today I encourage you to let Jesus love you so fear will have to go and let Him set you free. Jesus is the rock, the solid foundation our feet should rest on. Let God do what only God can do and you will find the doors you should go through opening up before you. And like a driving lesson, do not change your course until the teacher tells you to. I pray this will help you focus on the right thing. Be blessed. Kirsten El-Schaeddaei, daughter of the Almighty God

Who am I?

Last night I had one of my weird dreams again, although I don't see it as a weird one anymore, because I usually ask God about the meaning and I am more than surprised what He tells me about it!
So last night I was following somebody to a place where there seemed to be a secret meeting and I was trying to hide behind a wooden column. The leader of the group saw me before I could hide and asked me to join the group. We all set in a circle and he took out a gun.
I know... sounds weird!
Well, he started telling us how everybody of us belongs to a minority who does not deserve to live.
One after another person he asked a question and if the person answered it with "yes" he shot them. I can only remember one question. He asked a woman if she was from a foreign country. She said "yes" and bang, she was dead.
When he came to me he asked me a different question. "Are you unique?" And I woke up...
The first response in my head was:" So are you!"
For me, that shows how God has changed my thinking! I know who I am, I am everything I need to be in Jesus Christ who became sin for me so I can become the righteousness of God!
But just like God has made me uniquely he has made every single one of us!
Last Sunday we had a presentation about the " I care revolution" in church, a high school program to challenge kids and teenagers to care about the people on their right and left.
If we all care for the people around us we end up being cared for, too! That is what church is all about. The body of Christ caring and sharing for each other, encouraging and loving, challenging and molding.

Then I had to think about Paul when he writes in Philippians 1 that living to him means living for Christ and dying is his gain. So if my life brings more glory to God if I die then I am okay with that. But for now there is still so much to do that I choose to live my life for Christ so my living sacrifice may bring glory to his name and that people may thank God for me while I am just grateful that He loved and chose me first!
What an honour it is to live and serve the living God!
Soli deo gloria!

Know that you are blessed and highly favoured just because of what Jesus has done for you!
More from me soon!

Kirsten Abeke daughter and servant of the Almighty God

Time to think...

Hey lovely people out there!
I hope you are having a great life! The last few days I have been wondering why we get ourselves so often into situations without using our God given brain and afterward are surprised how that could have happened at all.
For me, I am really concerned how I effect other people and I am sure I do not want to hurt anyone on purpose, still I found myself once again in a situation I did not want to be in, effecting another person in a bad way, while I call myself a child of God but did a bad job in representing him once again!
Sometimes it sucks, to be honest! God loves me so much that He does and has already forgiven me, but I hate it when I have to confess and ask for forgiveness once again for something I think I should have learned by now.
I watched a clip on youtube today and it reminded me of how my life is so based on being accepted for what I do instead of for who I am.
Maybe it is this simple revelation of God’s unfailing love for me, that actually breaks the circle of doing what I don’t want to do in the first place.
His love is based on who I am in His eyes, not what I do! And all because my sin was already punished in Jesus about 2000 years ago, so I don’t have to live this way anymore. I am free to live my life out of the assurance, that even if I fail and make mistakes, He loves me and will lift me up again and put my feet back on solid rock so I can finish the race!
What a faithful God have I! Just think about this for a second…
I can’t stop thanking Him and praising Him for His faithfulness and love and grace! Because even if we are unfaithful He is faithful because He can’t deny himself! The same yesterday, today and forever!
Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Amen!
Kirsten daughter of the Almighty God

Preaching in Germany!

Hey!
I know I haven't posted anything in ages! Well, things are going great over here in London!
God has been sooooo good to me and i can't help it but praise Him and thank Him.
I have the coolest friends ever and I learn to love and be loved just for who I am, not because of what I do! Mainly that started with a revelation of God's love for me! Man, He is incredible!

Ok, for now I am preparing my first sermon and I am going to preach in Germany at a youth service in Frankfurt, in my old church. A bit scary but I am more excited about sharing what I have learned along the way!

Ok, my friend is crying for attention.

God bless you!

Kirsten, daughter of the Almighty God

Revelation- Chapter One

Here we go!
Just to clarify one thing: I am writing down what I find out for myself while doing some research on the internet, but also what I believe the Holy Spirit reveals to me, as I asked Him to counsel me. He usually gets excited when we are hungry to understand God's word!

In the first 3 Verses we read John's introduction, the apostle John. The book, or better letter, is called revelation, because it is the revalation of Jesus! We find a promise bound to this book which I did not find in any other introduction. " God blessed the one who reads...and... all who listen...and obey what it says!" WOW! So we better read it carefully so we can understand and obey His word! AMEN?!
John goes on in his greeting to the seven churches of the province Asia, West Turkey today. Why seven? The number seven is the number of completion and perfection in the bible, also called the holy number, which indicates to us, in this context, that this letter was written to all the churches, not only the seven at that time. It is relevant to us as the body of Christ, HIS church!
Paul says in 1. Corinthians 12 there is only ONE body of Christ, we better keep that in mind! Only ONE bride!
As we read on John describes Jesus, the One who is, who always was and who is still to come! This confirms what, again, the apostle Paul wrote in Colossians 1, 15-18. God created everything in and through Jesus! He truly is the Son of God! HE rose from the dead, the first to do so, and rules over everything!
Quite good to know that, especially if you read on and find out that He loves us and freed us from our sins by shedding His blood for us!! It says SINS!!!Plural! All sins we ever comitted and we are going to commit are washed away by HIS blood! We better praise Him for doing that and paying the price for us!
And it goes on! Verse 6:" He has made us a kingdom of priests for God His father!"
Can you see this? Has made, that means already!! We are righteous before Him through Jesus our righteousness! " All glory and power to Him forever and ever! AMEN!"
Verse 7 tells us how he his going to come back to earth one day:" Look! He comes with clouds of heaven. And everyone will see Him- even those who pierced Him. And all the nations of the world will mourn for him. Yes! AMEN!"
I never understood this statement. Why are we going to mourn for him? Another translation says: Mourn because of Him! But why?
Recently I heard somebody speak about this verse and he said that we will mourn because that day we will find out that Jesus is actually much better and greater than we ever thought He would be! WOW again!
In verse 8 Jesus describes Himself, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end, the one who is, alsways was and is to come- the Almighty One! This seems to be important to John that we get that, as it is the second time he mentions it in this chapter( see above)!
John then describes the circumstances in which he got the vison. I love it! On a Sunday in exile worshipping in the Spirit! Cool!
A voice commands him to write everything down and when he turns around he sees Jesus standing in the midst of seven lampstands which, as we find out later, represent the seven churches. Jesus right where HE should be, in the centre of His church!
The apostle describes Him in such a majestic way, man, this is the Son of God!
Jesus is girded with a golden band around His chest. Gold stands for majestic, brilliance and splendour! Just the right colour for the King of Kings! He has white hair! White stands for purity and righteousness! Eyes like fire! For me that means full of passion! That can obviously be negative and positive but in this case positive as it is Jesus, who is passionate towards His bride!
A voice like mighty oceans, so full and beautiful! And a sharp two-edged sword came out of His mouth! The word of God is like a sword that defines what is the truth!
Just keep in mind that John always wrote "like" ! He used metaphors to try to explain the majesty of Jesus. The reason for that I believe is simply that there are no words on earth that could ever describe His majesty! This is GOD we are talking about!
John fell at His feet and what does Jesus say? Exactly what He told His diciples all the time:" Don't be afraid! I am the First and the Last!" He says that He is alive forever and ever and that He holds the keys of death and the grave. A key is a powerful tool as it gives you the power to open or close doors and locks! In this case we can see that Jesus truly has all the power, even over death since the day He defeated death on the cross. He goes on and explains to John the seven stars He is holding in His hands and the seven lampstands! Again we find the number seven, the number of completion. The stars represent the angels or spirits of the seven churches which are again symbolised through the seven lampstands. What an introduction to this book!

For me the main thing that stands out in this chapter is Jesus as the core and centre of His church!
If we replace Him with our vision or other things we rob the King of Kings of His righteous place!
May we make Him the centre of who we are and what we do so everything else will fall in place!

Be blessed!

Kirsten, woman of God

The book of Revelation

The book of Revelation- written to scare us or to give hope?

As my colleague started to ask questions about the end time of the earth I realised that I did not know enough myself to answer these questions. Son on my day off I told God I would start to study Revelation and asked Him to lead me so I would understand what I was reading.

My study bible has an overview of the book and I thought it would be helpful to read it to understand the backround and circumstances better! When I came to the part “ Jesus in Revelation” it hit me!

JESUS! The Beginning and the End, the King of kings, Lord of lords, will be given all authority to judge the world! But here am I, little person on the earth, able to communicate and to have a real relationship with Him, because He gave up His status for a while and died on the cross and rose again because He loves me so!

I started to cry as it sank deep into my heart. And His familiar voice asked me:” Why are you crying?” And I told my father in heaven exactly what I mentioned above. He asked me to write it down and here it is!

It is really all about what Jesus has done for us! WOW!

I am just blown away by the thought that this king is also my best friend and the lover of my soul! How can I hold back and not thank Him and worship Him for His gift?! Now I will start to study this amazing book and will keep you updated about what I learn!

The funny thing is that Bobbie Houston and Joseph Prince spoke about Revelation at Hillsong Conference last week. God is making sure I understand even better what I read in His word and I love it! What an awesome God we serve!

Let Him satisfy you with long life! Psalms 91,10 AMEN

Kirsten woman of God

Dream big!

Sorry, but I have to write this in English! My heart is burning and overflowing with words, which I can not put into German at the moment.

I just came home from church and listened to the new Hillsong CD “ This is our God”. Wow! Do we not have a great God? I mean, we are able to be in relationship with the creator of the universe whose desire is it to restore humanity back to him! I don´t know about you, but I still can not get my head around that, but the bit I grasp leaves me wondering what I can do to help and make his plan become reality on earth.

Matthew Barnett from LA was in church today and his message was simple, but the examples showed how vital and important his message was!

He quoted Matth. 4, 19-22, where Jesus called his first diciples. Jesus gave them first a place to belong before they believed. In churches all over the world it is often the other way round! People think they have to change and believe first before they could even belong to a place like church, a bit like a diners club.

Jesus showed his diciples through his life, his love for people and through miracles what being his follower really meant and still means today! So why are we not doing the same?

At Colour, our yearly women conference, Bobbie told the married women last year to love their husbands into the kingdom. I think, we can apply this principle to all other people in our day to day life.

You may say: “ But you don´t know how horrible my work colleagues are and how mean my family members treat me and my class mates laugh about me!”

Believe me, if anybody understands these situations it is me! I went through a lot as a child and today I have different problems.

I am not just writing this for you, but also for me as a reminder, that it is not by might or power but by the spirit of God!

I am sitting here and dreaming about Africa! A huge continent with such a huge potential, but so poor and marked by injustice and cruelty that it brakes my heart. I just hear the Spirit saying:” Do you think it leaves me cold? Do you not think I am moved by what is happening on the earth?” In Uganda some weeks ago I thought about some things. We as Europeans or white people often try to make Africans think and act like we do, but I don´t believe that is the way to help them!

Our pastor was talking about kingdom culture, the way we are transformed in our souls, minds and hearts when the Spirit of God takes over control of us. The fruits of the Spirit mentioned in Galatians 5, 22+23 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self- controll, they say already what we should be like. We just can´t transform ourselves, that´s where the Spirit comes in and it does not happen over night, I can promise you that!

So how can the world be changed? How a continent, a nation, a people, a county, a city or a family?

Well, it has to start with me/ you! As we let the Spirit transform us we can start to have an impact on our family, on our school or work places, on our city!

That is actually a powerful thing and we can do more than we think we can do!

I decided that I want to make a difference. Not because it is about me or because I want people to know my name. The reason I live is so that people on the earth get to know the Saviour, the lover of their souls! That is such a greater cause than I realised before.

I truly believe that God wants to open up the heavens and bless the earth, but he will always use people who are willing to obey and do whatever he asks them to do.

When I look back on the trip to Uganda I think there was only one reason I had to go there, cause Jesus asked me for something and I obeyed. So I was blessed before to be a blessing and I will continue to listen and do what he says. I realised how much richer my life is with moments like that, when I start to look to Jesus and the need I can meet instead of me and my problems.

I just want to encourage you to let God touch your inner parts and wounds so he can heal you and transform you! You can make a difference! Yes, alone we are nothing, but in Jesus we are everything! Live in his life!

The same power that conquered the grave lives in you and me!

May God bless you and lead you in his paths of life and joy and peace!

AMEN