Lighted Ecstasy

 I am very much liking the magical aspect of things lighted up.  Everyone likes light and brightness.  We're drawn to light, like moths-- like hurting souls longing for relief-- like children aching for the  Light of the world-- We're desperate for a light within.  Last night a friend took me to the Four Seasons and as I sat in awe in the midst of a panoramic lighted paradise, I recognized why we're drawn to spectacle-- and how much we need spectacle.  Aristotle listed spectacle as one of the 6 aspects of drama.  I remember when I saw "Lion King" on Broadway in NYC-- how I literally staggered with delight at the spectacle.  I've had the same experience in the audience at "Mystere" in Las Vegas.   I could name more.  The spectacle within recognizes the spectacle without.  This is ectasy.  To miss out on the ecstacy of this dazzling season is a shame.  The Chanukah candles, the Christmas lights, the joy of Light.  This is something to experience with enthusiasm --Think of gasping with delight as you applaud the eruptions of fireworks in a night sky -- but here's the thing:  nothing less spectacular lives within us.   Within us is an extravaganza of light far outshining any tree, billboard,  building, theatre, home or park.  We are living lights on hills.  In the One born in a manger, that's who we are. 
My website is updated.  Please check it out.  And be sure to order your copy of "The Room of Wisdom."
http://www.mariechapian.com/  I always look forward to hearing from you.  A blessed lighted Christmas within to you, Beloved one.

FACING THE STORM

Have you ever noticed how people behave in storms?  Bad weather keeps us inside.  We want to stay out of a storm.  We're having some much-needed rains here in southern California now, and I notice fewer cars on the road-- and most conversations include something about rain--  and it's negative-- mud slides, flooding, destroyed property, hydro-planing on the highway--  storm talk.  Every once in a while I encounter some jolly soul who enjoys and thanks God for rain, someone who doesn't jump at the opportunity to complain.  Storms are a great opportunity to complain.  I'm from Minnesota and I know about storms.  Blizzards, tornados, raging winds and blinding snow in subzero weather-- but oddly enough I don't have a single childhood memory of complaining about the weather.  We just faced the storms.
I often joke with native Californians and tell them they don't know what Real Weather is like.  We Minnesotans know about Real Weather.  So do North and South Dakotans and all Midwesterners and Easterners.  How about Alaskans?  How do they handle their storms?  They face them.
There's simply no other way.  Avoiding a storm won't  make it go away.  Hiding from it won't give us what we long for. We meet with endless storms of life-- maybe you're going through one right now-- The Lord empowers you with the Word of His Spirit:  "Be strong and of good courage..."  I pray you
don't run from your storm, or hide under the covers, or complain about it-- be strong and of good courage-- Please check out my website for more.   http://www.mariechapian.com/

Storm's end

The storm ended.  I contended and it ended.  The winds rested, the rains stopped.  (Our little town looks like it's been ransacked by wild animals, however- trees, fences, refuge hurled about-in the storm's
aftermath.)  -- I believe more than ever that we simply must activate the prayer authority God has given us in  Christ Jesus.  Thank God, He answered last night , and the storm ended.  (For now.)   I think of the storm last night as a metaphor for the hundreds and hundreds of personal storms my Power Encounter Intercessors and I pray over and contend for.  We see many mircles each week and we are constantly amazed and constantly humbled and awed, praising and thanking Him. 
Do you need to know how to stop a storm?

This last weekend we recorded a new meditation, THE ROOM OF WISDOM.  It will be available by the end of the week on my website, http://www.mariechapian.com/.  I think it's my favorite meditation in the series. 

Broken Stuff

Big storm here in So. Cal.  Huge winds, rains, and the fence/wall  on my property just went down. 
I see trees down also.  So what happens when stuff gets broken?  Or destroyed?  I'm listening to the winds howling outside, the rains hammering down-- At my feet a dog lies snoozing away, happy and calm and without a care in the world.  If the house came down he'd be okay with sleeping under a tarp in the storm as long as he'd be with me.   If the dog can be without a care in the world while a screaming storm assails us breaking up the property, I can be at peace, too.  So it is with a tranquil heart I rail back at the storm and order it, as Jesus commanded His tempest, "Peace!  Be Still!"  

Be Brave, Be Strong

This is not the time to fall apart or get yourself tangled in frustration or worry.  You're concerned about money, about the holidays, about this and that, and the Lord is telling you the purpose for your trials is not so much to get rid of them, but to trust God through them.  He is telling you, "Let not your heart be troubled..."  He is right there with you.  In fact, He's singing to you.  Have you ever stopped to think He might like to have a little dance with you?  I say dance on your problems.  Dance on them with the Lord Jesus Who loves you and will never leave you.  People may leave you,  (heaven knows I know about rejection) but God never leaves you.  You're a person of triumph, and you are not a wimp for the world or the devil to kick around.  You are a person of power and goodness and strength.  Be brave.

# 4 What is Beauty?

I'm smitten with the idea of beauty.  Today I was leaving the gym and I had just opened the door of my car when suddenly the sweetest beeze blew over me.  I was stunned.  I breathed in the sweet air-- it was like candy, this breeze.  Cool and wonderful.  I stood there, head back, hair flying, and allowed myself to simply feel the air.  I may have looked kind of silly, but when I straightened up I noticed a couple of people a few cars away watching me, and then they threw their heads back, too, breathing in the air. I'm telling you, this breeze was so delicious, it was like being kissed all over by God.   To me it's not the big things in life that thrill me as much as the small moments of beauty-- rare and wondrous,  a simple breeze after a hard workout-- a kiss from God.

What are your moments of beauty?  

#4 Heavensent Friday

How do you define beauty?  A couple of weeks ago  I had my college Creative Writing class read a piece about watching a stunt pilot fly his plane by author Annie Dillard.  She wrote,  "I had thought I knew my way around beauty a little bit, I knew I had devoted a good part of my life to it... " but watching Dave Rahm's performance in the air changed all she had known about beauty.  She wrote, "Even the Boston Museum of fine Arts was never more inspiring ..."

I was captivated by her sentence, "I had thought I knew my way around beauty..."   
It wasn't so much Dillard's artful descriptions of the stunt pilot's performance that captured my attention as the idea of beauty-- of learning something new about beauty.  So I asked my class this provocative question:  I said,  "What are you learning new about beauty today?"  Their mouths flopped open, eyes bulged. "Hunh?"

So now I'm asking the same question of you.  What are you learning new about beauty today?  Will you go on this journey with me?  Send me what you're learning about beauty.  Tell me what beauty means to you.  (Notice I'm not using the word "beautiful" which is an adjective--  I'm talking about the real-life in-the-moment- experience of the noun, beauty.)  Okay, I'm waiting to hear from you.

#3 Heaven-sent

Amazing, isn't it?-- how we can come to a day of Thanksgiving with more trepidation that enthusiasm?  I teach in a college where my students speak of Thanksgiving as an obligatory drudgery.  And today I talked to Christians who are worried and stress-ridden about sharing the day with non-believers.  OhOh, Beloved, when do we get to be happy?  When do we get to have fun?  When do we get to lay down the burdens of wrestling with a negative world? 

Something has happened to me since I was in the Chicago and Wisconsin area a few weeks ago ministering-it's a sort of inner wha-hoo thing--  and I've been recording new brief meditations all about it which I'll share with you... called RadioMarie ...   What a glorious thing the love of God is.  (Please stay with me on my website http://www.mariechapian.com/ -- )
Listen, whoever you are, enjoy this year's Thanksgiving.  I've spent a few of them alone separated from anything that remotely smacks of love or family (those things we associate with the Holidays)--  and I've also spent some of them with people I don't know-- ah, here's a question for you.  Which would you choose?  To be alone or to be with people who don't care about you?
My point is, we create our own Thanksgiving.  I hurl myself before the King of Kings in the utmost gratitude and thankfulness for His love, His goodness, His sweet, sweet Presence--   There is nothing on this earth as happy as celebrating all things with the Lord.  Happy Thanksgiving.   And I mean it.

#2 Heaven-sent just for you

A sweet touch of heaven is coming upon us now as you and I pause and  breathe in the presence of God.

If you've lost loved ones who are now in heaven, as I have, join me and access a reality bigger than ourselves by breathing in the loving atmosphere of heaven.   I pause for a moment and speak a word of truth such as "Perfect love casts out fear" (1John 4:18) and then I allow those words to penetrate every cell of me -- I speak the words, "perfect love--"  (not flimsy-flighty love, not transient love, not false or empty love-- but perfect love -- God's love) -- into every cell.  I breathe in those 4 words, the thought they contain, the idea, and the wild, happy knowledge of the Lord's perfect love for me (and for you) --  I know I am a part of something so enormous, so astonishingly beautiful that every twinge of fear falls from me.  I am breathing in the safety of heaven.  I am breathing in the living presence of God.  I am making my reality under the shadow of the Almighty-- I am living in the secret place of the Most High.
Do you receive my e-Prophetic Word?  You can email me at wordforyou@mariechapian.com to receive it if you like.  That's where the Lord Jesus speaks to us prophetically.  I have decided to blog here on this website so I can speak and share with you from my heart  personally-- be a bit more transparent.
Here's my verse for today-- its the first part of the one above:  1John 4:18-- "There is no fear in love ..."

My first Heaven-sent blog

I've decided to move my blog from my website so that I can post as often as I want.   This will be a new experience and I hope you'll join me on this adventure as I blog heaven-sent words.  (You'll be hearing from me more than once every month or so. ) 

 I've just finished writing my novel, AN ORDINARY DAY IN HEAVEN, (now in the hands of my agent-- so it hasn't found its publishing home yet) -- I'm filled with so much of heaven's realities I feel somewhat like a  stuffed potato.  Is that a good analogy?  Oozing information like melted cheese and chives on a  baked potato?  I should be able to do better than that.  Oh well, you get the idea. 

Here's a heaven-sent word just for you. 

Psalm 14:2 says that God is looking down from heaven on all of us to see if there are any who understand, who are truly seeking Him.  Here in the U. S. we are just on the cusp of our Thanksgving Day, which heralds the beginning of the Christmas season--  and God is busy looking to see who truly seek Him.  His eyes are in every place, according to Proverbs 15:3, keeping watch on the good as well as the evil. 

I want to tell you there is a place of great beauty that you alone are called to live in here on this earth.  It's a place of quiet knowing, of confidence and faith.  You are a person of many colors, vibrant and wonderful.  Heaven knows about you.  Angels are cheering you on.  God is answering your prayers.  Hang on.
http://www.mariechapian.com/