Peace in the midst of Pandemic

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” – Tesla

In a time of global crisis most of the world is quarantined, social distancing has led to a neglect in a normal emotional and social support system many are accustomed to; leaving them with only their thoughts and what the news is spewing at them. Left in isolation, anxiety and fear has riddled the masses. They are in desperate need of peace.

There is a promise from God to keep us in his perfect peace if we keep our minds focused on Him. What does this perfect peace look like and how can we access it, even in the midst of a pandemic? Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect and constant peace the one whose mind is steadfast [that is, committed and focused on You—in both inclination and character], Because he trusts and takes refuge in You [with hope and confident expectation].” When we look at this text, we see there is a promise for a certain people to be kept in a sacred space. The promise is this; God will guard and keep you. That is what he said he will do, and that is his job. So where is he going to keep us? In perfect peace. This supernatural peace that passes all understanding, mental reasoning and human logic is a place of no inner turmoil. It is a place where anxiety, fear, panic and worry can not reside. It is inner rest.

So if we know what God will do and where he promises to hold us, even when our natural circumstances may not feel wonderful, what are we supposed to do? What is our job in the promise? We are to keep our minds fixed on him. It is the action of staying focused on God. Committing our ways to God. Leaning on God. Hoping confidently on God. We know the scripture talks about renewing our minds and there are so many amazing benefits that take place in our life when we do this. Here are a few verses to get you started on your own journey of peace.

  • “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2
  • “and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind” Ephesians 4:23
  • “We have the mind of Christ” 1 Cor. 2:16

We know that we can keep our mind fixed on God when we meditate on His Word. We are spirit, soul and body and our soul realm is made up of mind, will & emotions. As we submit ourselves to the reading and meditation of the Word of God we will notice the transformation Romans talks about and the perfect peace that begins to flood our souls. Not only can we read and meditate on God’s Word, we can Pray! It seems so simple. Yet this is vital to our very existence. I’m not just talking about your spiritual life and how it should thrive. I am speaking holistically in regards to your entire being.

Everything has a vibrational frequency, from the chair you are sitting in to your plant in the window. It is all made up of energy and the frequency is the rate at which the vibration occurs. Frequency can be measured and it can be changed. With that, you should know that your mind and thought life can affect your own frequency, whether it lowers it or lifts it. The average healthy human frequency ranges from 62-72 megahertz. When you meditate on Scripture and Pray you will raise the frequency of your physical body.

Doctors have reported in a study where patients were observed via MRI that ‘prayer involves deeper parts of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex- the mid front and back portions’ which are parts of the brain that are involved in self-reflection and self-soothing. These areas are also responsible for controlling emotions. When someone engages in prayer they can shift from a stressful mental state as their brain releases “feel good” chemicals such as oxytocin. This same hormone (oxytocin) is released during childbirth. I found that to be so incredible, because it is the chemical our brains release to create that almost euphoric state a woman enters into when she births her child into the world. This is the power of our brains as we pray.

In a time when many are in such a need for supernatural peace, I would encourage you to meditate on God’s Word and get into prayer. As you do these things to ensure your mind is fixed on Him, I know that he will do what he promised and keep you in perfect peace. You can go from hopeless to hope-filled!

Keep Showing Up

Buzz…

My phone rattled on the counter as I continued unloading the dishwasher and cleaning up the spills and crumbs for the millionth time that day. I grabbed it, pushing the wisps of hair off my forehead. Glancing down at the text, I read “Keep Showing Up” … along with other words from a dear friend. Tears filled my eyes as I grabbed the nearest pen and wrote it on a 3×5 card… a memorial or sorts in a moment of the every day, a sacred space to carve out the divine and remind me to show up. That’s it. Show up… and keep on showing up.

It may feel hard right now, it may seem hopeless for you quarantined in your homes. You may be overwhelmed at times, but we need you to keep showing up. We need you. So dig in deep to the peace that passes all understanding, all comprehension, all reasoning and logic… dig in and show up. You are so valuable, even in the everyday moments!

Rest. Reset. Restore.

While working in my home office yesterday, I was distracted by my friend’s instagram… the one and only creative ninja, Jenny Randle was on live! I popped on to hear her say. “the pressure’s off” and I immediately hit the request to join live button.

Instantly regretting that choice, because I didn’t want to interrupt her, now there was no turning back. So we had a 1 minute convo before my daughter burst through the door with tears streaming down her face and I had to log off. I thought the new baby chickens had all died. But no, she had just pinched her finger and needed a Mama hug.

All that to say, I went back and rewatched what Jenny & I had briefly discussed and wanted to share my heart here in this space. The world is on lockdown and you are all confined to your homes, except for the essentials. Some of you may enjoy this “free time” and others of you may be losing your ever-loving mind. I can’t blame you. I have one homeschooled child, one public school child and one baby. So I was in all spectrums. I work from home, but my husband travels for a living. It has been an adjustment, and my only “free time” is at 11pm after all the things have been done.

I strongly feel this is a time for creatives to deep dive into their process and produce beauty. I know it is a reset from the hustle. Rest is essential to your productivity and now is the time to reevaluate what path you were on. For many there is a heaviness, but know that you have hope in Christ. For those that want to create, the world needs you. Carry on in your humor, your light, your divine purpose. Carry on in your love, your craft, your essence. Be you in the dark, be you in the gloom. Keep your eyes focused on God.

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!”

Allow God to restore your peace if you are feeling worry, anxiety or fear. At the beginning of the year I gave it a name. I do this every year, excluding 2019, because… well, I was just mad. Plain old mad and I didn’t want to do it. So when 2020 was rolling around, I settled on Shiloh. Shiloh in Hebrew means “His gift” and possibly “peace”. I named my year this, and so I settle into it- finding a place to reside in peace. This year is God’s gift to me and so I hold fast to my faith, my promise.

Today, take the time to rest and reset. Pressure is off. You don’t have to produce, but you can. There is a grace for your gift and God will meet you in the middle of the messiest moment in your life. He will pull you out and make you to shine.

The Overshadowing

In the matrix he was formed, in the overshadowing he developed. In the light he dwells and darkness can not understand it. He is the Christ. Emmanuel, God with us. And if He is the God with us, he can never be the God without us. Deep in the dark cloud, deep in the wings of the Most High. Rest in Him.

Luke 1: 28-35, depicts a glorious encounter where the virgin Mary is visited by an angel. It goes like this… “Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”

Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.”

 In the last section of this passage, verse 35, we find the word overshadow. This word is so significant, because the scripture itself speaks of three types of power. We find within the sacred text; Exousia, Dunamis and Epikaizo. These Greek words have varying meanings and it is important to know each one and how it applies to you.

Exousia is the power to act, authority, weight, influence. It is delegated empowerment or operating in a designated jurisdiction. This is the authority of every Believer, given by God through Christ Jesus. (1Cor. 9:18, 2 Thess. 3:9, John 10:18)

Next we have Dunamis which means strength, power, might, efficiency, energy, marvelous works. It is the ability to perform and power to achieve. It is the inherent power, or power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature. It is the super-human energy of the Spirit. (Acts 1:8, 1 Cor. 4:20, 2 Cor. 4:7)

The third form of power is what I want to focus in on. The overshadowing or Epikaizo, as found when Mary was visited by the Most High, is comprised of two Greek words.  EPI and KAIZO.  KAIZOmeaning to block something, and has similar meaning to the word shadow. The word shadow basically being described as the absence of light. EPI simply meaning over.

Therefore, the word Epikaizo in all, is the full manifestation of God’s power where the natural laws are cancelled in obedience to God who is Spirit. This is the power of the Highest (God the Father), where the Holy Spirit has to manifest it when it comes upon someone. With Epikaizo, eternity is revealed at a place or on someone. This is what we find in Mary’s situation. We have a fourteen-year-old girl who has never known a man in the natural. Yet she is obedient to the Word from God and allows the epikaizo to brood over her and cancel out all the natural laws in order to allow the creative energy of God to create in her womb and produce Emmanuel, GOD WITH US. 

Often we can find ourselves identifying with Eve and her disobedience, when we must acknowledge that we are not daughters of Eve. We now must identify with the new supernatural prototype, one who will carry the presence –Christ in YOU the Hope of Glory– and give birth to, or produce solutions! See, you are not the problem; you are the answer. We must become so impregnated with the epikaizo that it changes our circumstances; allowing God to cancel out all the natural laws surrounding us and envelope us with eternity. Once Mary was overshadowed with the Most High and became impregnated with the Emmanuel Seed… the God with us… He has never left. For the Kingdom of God is within.

If we continue on our journey through scripture, we find the next place with the word for power (epikaizo) used is in Luke 9:34. We can see in vs. 28-36 a story familiar to many, Jesus is on the Mount of Transfiguration. See Peter, James and John went up the mountain to pray with Jesus, but fell asleep. As they were deep in sleep, Moses and Elijah came and spoke with Jesus concerning his death. When they awoke, they saw the glory so they said let’s build three tabernacles. Yet before they knew it the (epikaizo) overshadowing had come upon them and they all went into the cloud upon the mountain. It is in the high places, on the mountain, above the snake line where we can go deeper into the cloud of God’s presence. In the mountain there is full manifestation of God’s glory. 

Lastly in, Acts 5:12-15, We see the Apostles on Solomon’s Porch in a spirit of unity. Unity had previously been released in Jesus’ prayer in John 17:20-23.  

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one.I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.”

So you can see here in verse 12 of Acts 5, that there was already power demonstrated. (The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade.) That means that there was already Acts 1:8 power demonstrated. You will never have epikaizo or the overshadowing presence until you move into Acts 1:8 first and it becomes normal with you. 

As you walk with God, it is normal for you to know authority over diseases, germs, viruses, sicknesses, and over demonic power. It becomes normal for your life. Wherever you go demons are afraid of you. You have the authority to lay hands on the sick. It is a normal part of your life. You live in divine health and you know God’s power upon your life. You become familiar with exercising your God-given authority, your exousia. You function daily out of the dumanis of God, the super human energy. Then as you continue to walk in this degree of power and anointing, you develop a deeper communion with the Lord. You walk further up into the mountain and deeper into the cloud. You enter the realm of the Most High, the epikaizo.

Many Miracles, Signs and Wonders happened at the hands of the Apostles. In Acts 5:15, many even thought it was just Peter’s natural shadow that healed the sick in the streets, but here we see the word overshadow or epikaizo. It becomes more than the mere human shadow, following you about in daily life. You become overshadowed with His divine presence and can not help but transform atmospheres and circumstances you come in contact with. Wherever that shadow was, the natural world was CANCELLED! 

Every natural law becomes subjected to the spiritual and higher law. Under that law, there can be no sicknesses. There cannot exist any demon. There cannot exist any disharmony or discord. There cannot exist anything that contradicts the presence of God. See Once you go into the cloud, you never actually come out and you begin to carry it with you wherever you go. Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus and went into the cloud and from that day forward began to carry the very life-giving presence of God with him every where he went. 

My prayer is that we become a people of his presence, through prayer, intimacy and worship that we are so overshadowed by the Almighty that no natural circumstance can stand in the way. Today, let the EPIKAIZO of God come over you and touch your physical body, touch your finances, touch your marriage. Learn to dwell inside of the cloud, because it is there that we have everything we need!

Psalm 91

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
    will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
    he is my God, and I trust him.
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
    and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers.
    He will shelter you with his wings.
    His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
    nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
    nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
    though ten thousand are dying around you,
    these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
    and see how the wicked are punished.

9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
    if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
    no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
    to protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you up with their hands
    so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
    you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
    I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer;
    I will be with them in trouble.
    I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life
    and give them my salvation.”