Ashes are my Beauty

 

Joel 2:13
Rend your heart
and not your garments.
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love,
and he relents from sending calamity.

Rend your heart not your garments
When you rend you: to tear (something) into pieces with force or violence (Webster dictionary), split or tear apart by violence, to tear (hair or clothing) as a sign of anger, grief, or despair

The Bible’s definition of Rend by cross reference: Psalms 51:17

My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.

So, to rend your heart, is breaking the inner being, not just the exterior. It is changing not only on the outside, but breaking your heart, transforming your heart from the inside out. It is humbling yourself before Jesus, crying out in anguish, and asking for him to make a change. He says he will take your heart of stone, and make it a heart of flesh in Ezekiel 11:19:

“I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.”

Through many trials and infinite error, the only way to accomplish this, has nothing to do with the natural. In and of myself, there is no righteousness in me. I am made righteous through the blood of Jesus. It is posturing yourself to praise first. It is deciding no matter what life brings to always praise him first. To praise him even when life seems so hard, you can’t speak. By speaking his praise in the unthinkable, the war in the heavenly turns to your favor, because speaking praise releases the power of God. Freedom rises and you are not a slave to the things of this world, you become a princess in the Kingdom of your king, Jesus. You are only a slave to whatever you make your master. If the only master you have is Jesus, there is joy in the pain, because you know that this moment, the pain the sadness is temporary. You set your eyes on the unseen and eternal. When your praises rise, you too rise like a oak of righteousness planted by the Lord. As you rise out of your despair, you display the splendor of the Lord. When you rend your heart, or tear your heart, expectant that He will change your heart, posture yourself humbly, you are repentant, knowing everything you have is more than you deserve, you declare what is not over your situation as Romans 4:17 says:

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and
calls into being things that were not.

So today, because Jesus lives in me, If I/YOU SPEAK AS THOUGH IT IS NOT, and declare victory and praise the playing field shifts. When you know your battle is already won, and know you will see victory even if it is seeing it in eternity, have faith, knowing he is always faithful, then Satan’s power is made void. When you are living for the unseen (he has no power in the unseen, the eternity of heaven is where God is), he can not live there, because God is light, and perfect. The book of Revelations says eternity is without sadness and sin:

Revelation 21:4-5
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Do you hear me? Satan does not live there, and he only has power if you give it to him. His word says time and time again when you commit your way to him, to serve only him, HE will deliver you as it says in 1 Samuel 7:3-4:

“So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.”

He will not abandon you or break his covenant, when you seek him as Deuteronomy 4:29-31 says:

Deuteronomy 4:29-31
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

When I declare the attributes of God, I am reminded, and I remind my heart of His truth. The truth is this, what his word says, you either believe everything or nothing. Many times I have sinned, and believe what I want about his word, but today I challenge myself regardless of what this life brings to always declare his faithfulness and his amazing qualities:

Exodus 34:6-9
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”

So today Lord, I cry out, change my heart, I want to seek only you, obey only you, hear only you, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, believe everything, and live like you see me…forgiven and righteous. I rend my heart, not my garments…

Prayer to rend ones heart

Today, I rend my heart
Not my garments
Help me to return to you with all my heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
I come before you with a broken and contrite spirit
You revive the spirit of the lowly
and revive my contrite heart
I praise you that you will not always be angry,
I praise you that after seeing my sinful ways
You will heal me;
You guide and restore me
Please forgive me Lord
I repent and ask for forgiveness for not seeking you always
I praise you that you will not abandon me
I wait for you
I declare today as you proclaimed
You are faithfulness
Compassionate
Gracious
I praise you Jesus
You are slow to anger
You abound love towards me
You love all
You forgive the wickedness of the world
You do not leave the guilty unpunished
You punish myself and future generations for the sins of their fathers
I repent for the sins of my great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents
I break the chain of oppression through repentance and bind the devil in Jesus Name
Lord Jesus Christ, only son of God
Help me to see with my eyes,
hear with my ears,
understand with my heart,
and turn to you only and be healed
Help me to seek you with all my heart
I will be found by you
I take your yoke and learn
I praise you that you are gentle and humble in heart,
I thank you for rest you give me
I praise you your yoke is easy and your burden is light
You are God
There is no god besides you
You put to death and bring to life,
You have wounded and You will heal,
and no one can deliver me out of your hand.

2 Corinthians 4:5-6
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.