Ahava Love Letter - “Love The One You Are With” (Steve Martin)

                  

“Love The One You Are With” 

“For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing…” (Cor. 2:15 NAS)

 ^“For to God we are the aroma of the Messiah, both among those being saved and among those being lost; (2 Cor. 2:15 Complete Jewish Bible – CJB)

Dear family of friends,

Sometimes I feel "conflicted" in my soul. I want to be out with the people, for His heart for them burns with love and compassion; and at other times I want to be with His people, for His heart burns with love and compassion for them.

Over the many years of walking with the Lord, I know His heart is the same for both – those who know Him and seek His face continually, and those who don’t know Him, and are lost, seeking that which can’t fill the void in their hearts. But this I know – His immense heart of love beats with compassion for both groups of people. He is the God of Love, the God of Ahava - that beautiful word in Hebrew for love.

So what do I do when I feel torn, wanting to be with those who don’t know of His love for them, and the time that it takes to be with them? Or use the time to be gathered with His people, whom I have a strong kinship with? How do we know what time it is to do what, when?

Remember the song of years gone by, “Love the One You’re With”?  ("Love the One You're With" is a 1970 single by folk rocker Stephen Stills. The first release from his solo debut Stephen Stills, it peaked at No. 14 in the Billboard Hot 100.) Though I don’t remember the lyrics that once were in my memory banks, I can agree with the title words. The younger generation, my children’s age, may not know this song. But more and more my heart goes out to them, as they try so many things which can destroy their lives.

My current job puts me in contact with college age interns, trying to get their foot in the door for the career they seek. Most often they do not have a clue as to what they really need, in order to be fulfilled. I can at least be a father image to them (who many have not really had) and share His love for them. Even if I don’t say the words, they know the difference. One 20 year old intern wrote in a thank you note to me, sent after she left, of how she had not met many people who had the “spirit” I have. I hope the next place she is at has someone who can plant another seed in her heart. The One she longs for is not far away from her.

I give thanks to my friend, Holy Spirit, Ruach KaKodesh, Who has been given to us to be as our Guide, as the One who will help direct our steps, and our hearts. He will let us know when, where and how, so we can truly love the ones we are with. His timing, as we listen for His Voice, will direct our steps as to when and where we are to be during our daily walk.

Time we spend with those who may have no knowledge of the Lord Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) heart for them will enable them to “see” Him, as the presence of His Holy Spirit in us counters that of other spirits. As the Bible says, we are “a fragrance”, “the aroma” to those currently lost.

Working in the marketplace gives us the opportunity to be “in the world, but not of the world.” Our presence among the people opens a door to share the love of God with them. Sometimes, as it is said, we need to use words when necessary. How will they hear without us being the ones who share His love with them? The ones I work with don’t step foot in a church building. We must step foot into their buildings.

The Lord’s heart burns for the unsaved. His desire is to see all come to know Him, and receive eternal salvation. If you are out there in the world, the marketplace, be the light He has put in you, for them. Shine and allow His Holy Spirit, living within you, to draw them to the Messiah. Then they too can join the community of saints, that we long to be with even more so.

Ahava to my family of friends,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA organization. Fed. ID#27-1633858.

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Todah rabah! (Hebrew - Thank you very much.)

Be sure to get my two books The Promise (CreateSpace/Amazon 2013) and Ahava Love Letters (Xulon Press, 2013). Both available through Amazon.com Xulon Press.com , plus other website book stores.

You can also order both books, The Promise (on Amazon.com for $7.19 plus $3.95 S/H) and Ahava Love Letters Xulon Press for $14.90, plus $3.80) or you can get both from our office for $29. Send check to the address above. I will autograph all copies ordered through our office. (Hey, and please include a contribution for Israel too!)

Please share this Ahava Love Letter with your friends.

E-mail: loveforhispeople@gmail.com  martinlighthouse@gmail.com

Facebook pages: Steve Martin  and  Love For His People    

Twitter: martinlighthous, LovingHisPeople and ahavaloveletter 

Blog: http://loveforhispeople.blogspot.com   

Full website: www.loveforhispeople.org

YouTube: Steve Martin (loveforhispeopleinc)

Ahava Love Letter #81   “Love The One You Are With”  ©2013 Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2013 (10/20/13 Sunday at 7:45 am in Charlotte, NC)

All previous editions of Ahava Love Letter can be found on this Blog:

 http://loveforhispeople.blogspot.com   

What Do You Want (#75)

The Hiding Place (#74)

Why Is A Gentile Like You Celebrating the Feasts of the Jews? (#73)

They Are Loved Too (#72)

Oskars Needed Again? (#71)

Little Orphan Chuckie (#70)

Demons & Fire Trucks (#69)

I Like Mike (#68)

Disappointed with Small Beginnings? (#67)

Rise Again (#66)

The Cities (#65)

How can You Mend A Broken Heart (#64)

Anxious (#63)

Hidden (#62)

Share His love today. 

Love the ones you are with!

Steve Martin

Love For His People, Inc.

Strategies of the Conflict & Countering Evil Strategies - Morris Ruddick

Morris Ruddick

Strategies of the Conflict

Spiritually, at the core of the dynamic unfolding is the battle between God's blueprint and the blueprint of the devil. The heroes of faith are the ones who identify God's blueprint. They pay the cost and prevail so that God's purposes are established. The bottom line in Kingdom leadership is discerning God's blueprint in a situation and in a people and then bringing it forth for those they lead.


One of the more subtle deceptions operating in the Body today is the myopia of those whose focus is in discerning the devil's blueprint for a situation and then trying to stamp it out. That was never the pattern for God's best; for establishing His order. The heroes of faith face the fire and give birth to restoring God's order.

The subtlety is that it is never about what we can do for God, but rather what we allow God to do through us. Otherwise, when the fires come, we are overwhelmed; we're blinded and fall victim to the full impact of the devil's blueprint.


There are firestorms raging in the heavenlies. It's important to be discerning the right things. It's important not to be overreacting. It is likewise vital when God tell us to act, to be prepared and to know how to do it decisively.

Countering Evil Strategies

So it is when I see something in someone else, such as a blind spot, that I begin by searching my own heart for blind-spots. EVEN if it is only at a 1% level, I first repent for the beam in my eye, before I can truly begin to intercede for them.


This truth ties into a subtlety with which witchcraft/sorcery tries to entwine itself within those who love God. This process, in intercession, of first removing any elements of a "beam" in your own eye, helps to flag and remove the subtle snares that so mark the times we have entered.


This process helps eliminate the defilements that can be picked up when penetrating enemy territory. It keeps us in that place of fearing God and no other; a dimension that is needed to break the bondage of corruption.


It is the reason why judgment first comes to the household of faith. When properly responded to, the judgment that first comes to the household of faith, becomes the means of "turning" that brings the restoration of God's order. It's another reason why we fear God and no other.

Signs of the Times

Less than two weeks before this Indonesian mission, I received a revelation. It bears on the timing of this, our first mission to Indonesia. In short, there is a network, an evil infrastructure in the natural that parallels and fuels the activities emanating from the dark spiritual world; being orchestrated by high-level principalities; which has been subtly preparing for intrusions to spread its tentacles.


It targets seats of power and influence. It has epicenters around the world, recognizable only by the "swirls" of confusion, division, counterfeit religious influences, along with demoralization and the dismantling-type of destruction that is manifesting like huge "sink-holes." This evil infrastructure involves shrouded, entangled funding and investors from interests with legitimate business covers which reflect very subtle and distorted connections.


Its largely unreported and shrouded activities range from human trafficking; to the abortion trade, but also pograms reemerging in places like Russia; and initiatives to undermine Israel; and strategies to divide the Body. Insights into this shadowed, creeping evil can be gleaned from the stories of Gideon and the sword of the Lord against the Midianites; as does the story of Joseph in preparing; as does the story of Daniel and his influence in changing the spiritual culture of an infrastructure of sorcery.


A Time of Preparation

The Joseph-type preparations underway by those with ears to hear are a significant counterforce to these hidden gateways of evil. That's why the mobilization of the marketplace is so key; it's one of those "secret things" that the Jewish people have wielded over the centuries. So it has been, as we've ministered around the globe, the Lord is connecting us with those who are mobilized and those who are preparing.


An important key in all this will be the ones to be given a voice and influence that counteracts and disentangles these hidden gateways of evil. The importance of Jew and Gentile, operating as "one new man" in all this is going to be very strategic. Likewise, there is emerging, a very significant and unexpected impact that will result from heretofore under-the-radar and new, unconventional Christian media initiatives; along with alliances with "righteous" mainstream secular media outlets.


All this calls for heightened discretion and discernment; and a need NOT to give in to, nor especially to overreact to the enticements and diversions of "blind passions" or religious spirits. The snare is in premature action which short-circuits the needed preparation.


Back in 2006, after hearing of the tsunami that had hit Indonesia, I cried out to the Lord for the people. The Lord then gave me insight into this event. It came from Psalm 107. Knowing of the tragedies of persecution against believers that had preceded this event, Psalm 107 unveils that when God's people are "brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow," there comes a time when the Lord pours out "contempt" (His judgment) on princes (those who abuse power). Yet He sets the poor on high, far from affliction and makes their families and communities like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice and all iniquity stops in its tracks. So it has happened in Indonesia. The church in Indonesia is a forerunner for our times.


Discerning the Shifts and What's Next

There's more. But in short, there has been a paradigm shift. We need to understand that shift as we discern the times; and glean from the wisdom of what has been unfolding in these most vibrant Asian segments of the Body. We need to understand what's next.


 

___________________________________________________

Morris Ruddick has been a forerunner and spokesman for the call of God in the marketplace since the mid-90s. As founder of Global Initiatives Foundation and designer of the God's Economy Entrepreneurial Equippers Program, Mr. Ruddick imparts hope and equips economic community builders where God's light is dim in both the Western and non-Western world.

He is author of "The Joseph-Daniel Calling;" "Gods Economy, Israel and the Nations;" "The Heart of a King;" "Something More;" and "Righteous Power in a Corrupt World," which address the mobilization of business and governmental leaders called to impact their communities with God's blessings. They are available in print and e-versions from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other popular outlets. 

Mr. Ruddick is also a contributor in the just released five-volume "Aligning with the Apostolic," edited by Bruce Cook with Forwards by Peter Wagner and Bill Hamon. It is available throughwww.KingdomHouse.net.

Global Initiatives Foundation (www.strategic-initiatives.org) is a tax-exempt 501 (c) 3 non-profit whose efforts are enabled by the generosity of a remnant of faithful friends and contributors whose vision aligns with God's heart to mobilize the least of these our brethren. Checks on US banks should be made out to Global Initiatives and mailed to PO Box 370291, Denver CO 80237 or email us at sign@strategicintercession.org for access information on our secure web-site.

2013 Copyright Morris Ruddick - sign@strategicintercession.org

Reproduction is prohibited unless permission is given by a SIGN adviser. Since 1996, the Strategic Intercession Global Network (SIGN) has mobilized prophetic intercessors committed to targeting strategic-level issues impacting the Body on a global basis. For previous posts or more information on SIGN, check:http://www.strategicintercession.org

Morris Ruddick
Global Initiatives Foundation
www.strategicintercession.org
www.strategic-initiatives.org 

Apostate Jewish man tries to sell his 'place in Heaven'

Friday, May 31, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  

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Ari Mendel, a young Jewish man from the US who decided to turn his back on Judaism, tried to make a little money in the process by selling his "place in Heaven."

Mendel turned to the online marketplace eBay to offer his place in Heaven, including all the benefits Mendel believed himself to have acquired due to good deeds.

Mendel wrote in the details of the eBay sale that over the course of many years at yeshiva (Jewish seminary), he had done many "good deeds" before falling away from the "right path."

Mendel claimed he was conducting the sale to help others who might not have lived such a good life. Despite his claimed falling away from faith, Mendel asserted that "surely my place in Heaven is worth something."

In a statement that appeared to cross several socially-acceptable lines, Mendel invoked an anti-Semitic stereotype by demanding potential buyers not be "stingy Jews," and bid a reasonable price for what he insisted was so costly a reward.

By the time eBay put an end to the madness, bids for Mendel's "place in Heaven" had reached in excess of $100,000 USD. eBay officials halted the sale, stating that "the afterlife is not a tangible thing, and therefore cannot be sold."

"Leadership Through Love" - More Needed

"Leadership Through Love"

My latest book, 
Steve Martin

The world needs leaders. Oh, there are plenty of men and women who want to have the power, fame and fortune, but how many of them are really leading because they love people and want to serve them out of a heart of true love? 

There simply are not enough good leaders. Especially ones that our sons and daughters can and should follow after.

Several years ago a friend of mine for over 24 years, Indira Persad, spoke these words to me, “Steve, you need to write a book on administrating.” I passed it off, thinking that no one needed to read another book on administrating, or on leading.

A while later, in church on Sunday, May 13^th, 2007, (Mother’s Day in the USA), I sensed the Lord speak to me that it was time to write this book. This would be for the sake of those who are now leaders in all fields of work, administrators and office staff in ministries and businesses, and for those who earnestly want to walk in the calling that the Lord has for them in leadership and discipleship training. 

I believe this book will be even helpful to pastors, business owners, and other leaders, to further understand those they lead, and who assist them. 

It will be an encouragement for the "average Joe or Jane", who simply want to do a good job, on the job.

For over 37 years of my life, my position in businesses and church/ministries has been given to being the office manager, the manager, the administrator, the Director of Operations & Finance, or the guy who “wore all the hats and got the job done.”

Often during those years I wanted to be “the man” at the top, the one who called the shots, steered the ship, or set the policies. Or the one who traveled the road and airways, while others sat behind the desk doing the 40 hours instead of me.

But the Lord has clearly shown me that my role was very vital to those who did those things, and though I longed to do what they did at times, they could not have done their job if I was not doing mine. I was to do what I had been gifted and called to do.

Where would churches, ministries or businesses be without the administrators, the directors of departments, or the executive secretaries and administrative assistants? Those organizations who have them know their value. Those who don’t may or may not realize what they are missing.

Read some of these concepts I learned along the way, if you too desire to lead in a godly manner. This is for those who believe they have the gift of administration, and seek to better use it; or for the one who simply works in an office, retail business, or any position where good character and work ethics are desired, and want to improve. This will help.

Take a moment and look over the chapter list below.  Look at which I will be sharing over the next weeks, one chapter at a time. And see what you might glean from some of the words, to make them active in your life. I think you will find some very practical and useful lessons for yourself.

I love to share, what the Lord has taught me, with you. And so, as I call them, following are some “adventures in administrating” – practical and actual situations, joys and sorrows, with persistent diligence, in order to express the gift that I have been given from Him, for the sake of His kingdom.

May the Lord encourage you as you read my thoughts and what has worked for me. I hope the stories and suggestions will impart to you further measures of blessing, for those you support and also to those you give direction to. 

Be blessed in your leading and serving. Faithfully use the gifts that He has bestowed within you, for His purposes in all the earth.

Ahava (love in Hebrew) to you,

Steve Martin

P.S. If you'd like to get this via e-mail, to save each chapter in your InBox, please request with a message to me at loveforhispeople@gmail.com. You are welcome to share this at will. In fact, please do!  Thanks very much (todah rabah in Hebrew)!

Chapter Listings

1.      A Gift for His Purposes

- The Early Years

- On the job training

2.      Use the Tools You Have, But Not the Staff

- Treasure the people, while digging the foundations

- Do unto them as you would…

- Bless and curse not: honor those who serve with you

3.      Right Man (or Woman!) for the Job

- All are created equal – make the most of this!

- If the Shoe Fits, Have Them Wear It

4.      Train and Let Loose

- It IS Who You Know and Are Known By

- Hire To Complement Your Strengths

- If you are weak, then they are strong

- Outsource as needed

5.      Burn Candles At Both Ends? – NOT!

- Rest and Sabbath Days

- Mornings with the Lord

- Trust in Him at all times

- We all are given 24 hours each day 

6.       The Visionaries Need You!

-          They dream it - you make it happen

-          It takes a team

-          Head Won’t Get Far without the Neck

        (or heads will roll) 

7.      Field Trips and More!

- Staff Retreats

- Party Time!

- Birthdays and BBQs

- After Hours

8.      It Doesn’t All Depend On You

- The Lord is the Rock – Not You

- Whose strength  - yours or His?

- Key Staff to Lean On

- Trustworthy managers and assistants

9.      Practically Speaking…and Walking

- Handle each piece of paper once

- File so you can find it!

- Early morning – before the others come

- Take a Break

10.  Meetings – Time-manger or Time-waster?

- Do you really need all those meetings?

- Group or One-On-One?

- Why Morning and Mid-Week?

 - Prov. 24:6 “By wise counsel…multitude of counselors

11.  Acknowledge Him in All Your Ways

- Heart of Thankfulness

- Heart of Worship

- Heart of Service

12.  Another Man’s Vineyard

-          Follow & help fulfill their vision

-          Faithful with another’s

-          Learn and growth until your time

-          The proper way of moving on