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created to worship

Worshiping Through The Highs And Lows

by GOD TV January 12, 2023

written by GOD TV

Worship is one of my favorite Kingdom weapons that we have. Ever since I was a little girl, it’s been one of the ways that I’ve connected with the Lord the most. Anytime I wanted to feel His nearness or feel His presence tangibly, I could just turn to Him in worship and just turn my heart and affection towards the Lord.

I know Bill Johnson talks about that a lot; about turning our affection to the Lord. And it’s such a quick way to access His love and feel His presence. And worship is something that has helped me through highs and lows, all sorts of different seasons. And it’s something that Jesus is so worthy of. I can just look at the cross. I can look at the breakthroughs in my life. Even today, I was driving around and was just filled with thankfulness to the Lord for the different things that He’s done, and even the little things that I have. Worship is something that is an overflow of our love for Jesus and what He’s done, and the Father and who He is and what He’s done in sending in Jesus to be there and save us and bring us new life, eternal life, to give us a brand new start.

I love that we have the hope of eternity before us. I’ve had a couple friends and loved ones pass away in the past season, and worship has been a way that I’ve been able to process that. And I’m sure there’s many people watching, too, who have experienced loss. Maybe you’ve experienced situations that you didn’t expect. And something that was so beautiful is, I was coming before the Lord. One of my best friends recently passed away during Covid. And it was totally unexpected. I didn’t see it coming and I was just in my room, spending time with God. I didn’t want to go anywhere. And I was finding myself in this place, worshiping Jesus and just going, “God, I know you’re good in this. I don’t understand. We planned, you know, weddings that we were going to be in together and all these things we were going to do for you, God, together.” And she had such destiny on her life and I didn’t fully understand.

And I remember worshiping, just sitting before the Lord and letting Him meet me in that place, letting the Holy Spirit comfort as He does. And I remember all of a sudden as I walked downstairs to finally eat for the day, I had this vision drop, because I’d been spending this time with the Lord. I was just in this place of, “What are you saying, Lord? What are you doing?” And this picture, this vision, dropped in my mind and I saw my friend who had passed away. Well, first I saw my grandmother who’s in heaven. She’s been there for quite some time now. And she looked so beautiful and young and she had her arms out like this. And then I saw my grandpa standing behind her and he looked so young as well. They’d both already gone to heaven. And then in the vision, it panned around and I saw my friend Paula, and she looked so beautiful and she was being welcomed by my grandmother and my grandpa, whom she had met before.

But I just thought it was so beautiful, because in these times of worship, whether we worship through highs or lows, God wants to meet us in that place. It’s in this instant place of connection that we can have with the Lord where He meets us, He talks to us, His presence fills us. But most of all, it’s a two-way encounter. Yes, we’re worshiping the Lord because of everything that He’s done for us. We’re worshiping Him because of who He’s been to us. And we worship Him out of the overflow of our love and our gratitude and just how amazing He is, and what an honor it is to know Him and have Him in our lives.

You know, there’s just so many reasons why we could worship God, but what’s so beautiful is that it’s a two-way encounter and you can never out-give God. And as you pour out your love and affection to Him for everything He’s done and redeemed us of; the cross, and then thereafter, it’s so beautiful because He’s constantly pouring out, and He’s wanting that connection, and He’s reaching out to us, and we love Him because He first loved us.

And so, I want to encourage you today, if there’s anything that you’ve been going through that maybe was hard and you haven’t known how to process it, or maybe something happened that you couldn’t quite understand why that happened. I want encourage you to come before the Lord in worship and to get in His presence, because it’s a weapon of warfare to be able to have perspective, to see what God says about your situation. That’s the truth. If you can find a word from the Lord about what you went through, no matter how hard it was, if you can just find what God says over that, the way that God can redeem that, it’ll change everything. It’ll give you that fresh hope to move forward.

After I had that encounter with the Lord and I saw my best friend up there in heaven, I knew it was the Lord, because I wasn’t even thinking about my grandma or my grandpa, or anything. And it was right after I’d come out of this time of worship with the Lord and just to see her being welcomed into heaven, it was beautiful to see the Lord say, “I’ve got this, I’ve redeemed this, she’s safe with me.”

And so whatever it may be that has been something that’s been hard for you to process in your life, I encourage you to get before the Lord, get in worship, get in His presence, seek His face, and let Him speak over that. Let Him comfort your heart and speak truth over what it is that happened and how He’s redeemed that for you.

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January 12, 2023 0 comments

Worship In Times Of War

by GOD TV November 27, 2022

written by GOD TV

Do you feel like you’re facing a battle right now? I wanna encourage you, in times of war, worship the Lord. Hey friends, my name is Rachel Hale, and I wanna read to you a scripture from Psalm 22:3. It says, “But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.” Some translations say, “You who are enthroned on the praises of your people.” Imagine that! God inhabiting our praise, enthroned on our praise. Literally when we worship, it becomes the throne that He comes and sits on. It’s so important to worship the Lord when we are in times of war, because when we were worshiping, God comes and sits there. And when the King of peace and the King of joy is in the room, guess what has to leave? War, death, sickness. All of those things have to go when the King is in the room.

A few years ago, I was on a missions trip in Brazil, and we were going into a favela in Rio. And this this favela was built on a dump site that Rio has literally where they put their waste. This favela was built on top of that. And so their house is built on this dump site. Some people were going through the trash looking for food. It was a very of poor area. And before going into that favela, the ministry that we were serving with let us know, they said, “Hey, just so you know, there are drug lords here and they have very big guns, and we’re gonna go talk to them before we go into this favela, because in order to go into the favela, you need their permission, but good news is they know you’re coming and they’re excited to meet you.” And I was like, oh my gosh, this is not good. You know? And then on top of that, they said, “Oh, and another thing. Sometimes the police come and they have wars with the drug lords, and they come in their tanks and they shoot up, you know, try to shoot up the drug lords in the favela. And so if that happens, there is a chance you might die.” This is literally, truly what they told us. There’s a chance that you might die because you might get hit by, you know, gunfire. And I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified. And they said the good news was the ministry said, “You know, if you don’t feel comfortable, you do not have to go with us today, it is okay. But we do need to let you know that, ’cause that could happen. It’s not likely, but it could happen.” And I was terrified. So we went into a time of worship. I felt peace come, and I was like, okay, God’s with me. I’ll be alright. I’m coming in the blood of Jesus.

So we go into that favela and we get there, we’re going up and walking, gonna go meet those drug lords. And, we get to where the drug lords are supposed to be. And the drug lords aren’t there. They’re not there at all. And I was like, oh, praise God! The drug lords aren’t here. I don’t gotta meet nobody that’s a drug lord. This is good news! I’m just gonna go do my ministry in the favela and then we’ll be done. And, just so excited. And then all of a sudden, this lady just comes running outside of her house, weeping. She’s just crying. And she goes running outside the house and she runs up, she looks at us weeping and screaming like hysterically in Portuguese. And our translator let us know, “Oh, she’s upset because the drug lords aren’t here. And the reason the drug lords aren’t here is because there’s a police tank outside. It’s like a SWAT tank ready to come in, and they’re coming looking for the drug lords, and there’s probably gonna be a war today, just so you know, there’s about to be a war.” So the very worst thing that could happen was about to happen, and I was terrified, and I thought I was gonna die. I genuinely thought, “Well, this is it.” My parents had told me before going on this missions trip, “Rachel, we don’t know about this. Brazil’s very dangerous. You know where you’re going? It looks very dangerous. I don’t know if you should go.” And I said, “Oh, no, I’m going. You know, I feel called to go. I’m gonna go.” So in that moment, I was like, “Oh my gosh, my parents are right. I am dying. This is the day. This is the day I will die.” And I’m smiling now because, well, here I am, I’m alive.

You know, obviously the story ends well, but in the moment I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna die.” And so, I began to think, “Okay, well if I’m going out, I’m going out singing. If I’m going to heaven, I will go into heaven singing. So I’m gonna start singing.” And just right there in the middle of the favela, I just start singing, and I really thought I was gonna die. And I start singing a song that I wrote. It’s a song called Firm Foundation. The bridge of the song goes like this, it’s, “You’re holding me, holding me steady. If it floods I’m gonna be ready. I’m sealed in you. You’re holding me, holding me steady, in the break of every levy, I am sealed in you.” And it repeats itself. So I just began to sing this over and over again. And then one of my ministry partners from the team that was in Brazil, began to play the guitar, and he figured out the chords and he started playing it with me. And then all of a sudden, all these Brazilian kids just surround us. They’re all around us. And these Brazilian kids start singing this song with me that they do not know in perfect English. And these children didn’t speak a lick of English. They only spoke Portuguese. And they began singing my song with me in perfect English. And this peace came. And, do you know, war never broke out that day. And you know, I can’t say for sure that it was the worship, but I cannot help but know that it was. That God came. His presence inhabited that place. And war did not happen that day in that village.

In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, there’s a story and you need to go read it. It’s absolutely incredible. It’s right here in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. And it is about a king named Jehoshaphat. And all these armies were coming against him and the people of God. And God said, “This battle is not yours. It’s mine.” And so Jehoshaphat sent out the worshipers ahead of that army. Imagine that! Singers and dancers and drummers going out ahead of the people, you know, that are armed. They got, the things that you need to fight the people with, you know. But we got singers going out ahead of that army. So king Jehoshaphat sends out the worshipers ahead of the army. And do you know, before the worshipers even get to the people that they’re facing, the army that had come against them to destroy them, that army that they were facing, destroyed themselves. They literally killed each other. All of ’em were dead. And that happened through the power of worship.

So I wanna encourage you today, if you are in a time of war, worship the Lord, because the battle is not yours. It’s His. And like I said, in this Psalm 22:3, it says, and I’m gonna read it again, “But you are holy, you who inhabit the praises of Israel.” God inhabits our praise. He sits on them. And where He is, war has to cease. Peace has to come, because where He is, there is peace.

I wanna pray for you. Jesus, I thank you for every single person under the sound of my voice. I thank you, Father God, that you know what they’re facing. And I ask Holy Spirit, that you would begin to give them a heart for worship. And I ask, Father, that you would bring peace into their circumstance, clarity into their circumstance, provision into their circumstance. And I ask, Father, that you would cease the war that they’re facing. Yeah, I thank you. And I seal that in Jesus’ name. Amen. All right you guys, I love y’all. And remember, in times of war, worship.

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November 27, 2022 0 comments

Faith Today's Encouragement

Let Peace Guide You

by GOD TV September 11, 2022

written by GOD TV

So today I would love to talk to you about peace. One of my favorite definitions of peace is, the lack of disturbance, or the absence of disturbance. I think a lot of times, we can experience a lot of mental disturbance that comes in the form of anxiety, or fear or all kinds of things that can keep us from attaching to the peace of God and the presence of God.

And something that I’ve also noticed about peace as well, is when we kind of get into our own ideas of what we need to do in order to fix a situation, we can kind of get ahead of ourselves a little bit. And not to say that we need to do everything perfectly, because sometimes there are seasons where we just do the best we can, we know we’re being a little bit messy, and there’s grace for it. But I think getting into a lifestyle of functioning that way is pretty unhealthy.

So something that I would like to encourage you with today is just knowing that the peace of God is actually always present for you. His voice is always present for you. His presence is always with you, you know, He actually lives in you. And if you’re not able to feel His peace, there may be some disturbance that’s there, right? There might be the presence of some disturbance. And so that’s when you really get to go in front of God and speak to Him about it.

Another thing that I would like to speak to you about regarding peace, is that I think a lot of times we only, sometimes, and this could not be true for you, this could be true for you, but sometimes we don’t allow ourselves to really rest in the peace of God, because we don’t feel like we’ve earned it. We don’t feel like we’ve done enough in our day in order to relax and feel like, okay, you know, I can just be here with the Lord, because He loves me even though I’m messy. He loves me, even though I didn’t do everything perfectly today.

I think sometimes we don’t allow ourselves to experience those things, because we, for some reason, don’t think that we deserve it. But I want to encourage you today and just let you know that you do deserve it. You do deserve to be in front of the Lord and just completely abandoned to His presence and to His peace. Why? Because He fought for you. Because He came to deliver you. If He didn’t think that you were worth you experiencing His presence, He wouldn’t have come.

So I just want to encourage you and even convince you today, that you are absolutely allowed to lay in front of the Lord on your bed at night and know that He is so willing, and He wants to be with you. He wants to meet you with His presence and with His peace. So today, I just bless you with the ability to be still, to bring those disturbances into a place of peace and really experience His presence in a way that calms the storms in your heart and in your mind and in your body, and just come into alignment with His love and His will for you.

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September 11, 2022 0 comments

Faith Featured

Gaze Upon The Lord

by GOD TV August 26, 2022

written by GOD TV

Today, there is an invitation to gaze on the beauty of the Lord. In Psalm 27:4 it says, “One thing I’ve asked of the LORD, and that I will seek after: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

The beautiful thing about this passage is that David was in the wilderness. He was being hunted, he had everything going wrong in his life, and yet there was this yearning to not only be in the physical temple of the Lord, but to be in a place where he could gaze at the Lord all the time, to be in His temple, to be in His presence.

David was thinking even beyond the physical temple. And the thing I love about this is his heart. Regardless of what happened around him, his desire was to be in the presence of the Lord. And we have that same invitation every single day. Whether you’re doing dishes at home, ’cause you’re a mom or you’re at work, there is this invitation to just gaze at the Lord and to be in His presence.

So right now, I just thank you God, for your invitation. I thank you that you are asking each one of us to just turn our gaze towards you. And I just want to declare over you that it is easier than you think to notice Him. And God, we thank you for your grace to stop what we’re doing and just to gaze on you. Amen.

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August 26, 2022 0 comments

Faith Featured Today's Encouragement

You Were Created To Encounter God

by GOD TV August 22, 2022

written by GOD TV

We are created to encounter God. He’s alive and He’s moving in the earth and He just so desires a relationship with us. I grew up in a Christian home and I knew God, in theory. I knew Him in my head. But as I got older, I really began to know Him in my heart and really realized that God wants to encounter me, that He wants to do life with me. And for me, that looks really simple.

I’ve seen, you know, God come and do just crazy, awesome things, just really big level things. But when it comes to my personal encounter time with the Lord, it’s really simple. And it’s on the foundation of God is for me and not against me, that He loves me and that He wants to encounter me. And I remind myself of that daily, and I make space for Him to encounter me.

I think sometimes we can become so busy doing life, you know, there’s just task after task, thing thing that needs to be done, but we really have to create space for encounters with God. And so for me, in my busy season of life right now, you know, I remember there was a season where I could wake up in the morning and spend two hours with God, because I didn’t really have a lot of responsibilities. But now, you know, working, full-time, having a kid and having other things, my time is very limited. And so for me, it’s my car rides by myself to work is my sanctuary, where I’m driving to work and I’m like, “Lord encounter me with your love.” And you know, sometimes it’s really simple and it’s just Him just reassuring me that He loves me. And sometimes it’s like, oh my gosh, I’m weeping so hard, I may need to pull the car over.

And so I just want to encourage you that God wants to encounter you. And I’m going to pray just for the radical love of God to touch your life and that you would be confident in that encounter being very specific to you, that it’s not meant to look the same as anyone else’s. And so Lord, I just ask that you to release encounters on your sons and your daughters. God, that you would just begin to breathe just a revelation of your love. God, that every encounter would be rooted in your love for your people. God, whatever word you speak, whatever you do, God, whatever, just, you know, crazy thing that you would show us God, that it would be rooted in the foundation of love. That you love us God, you are for us, God. And for people that have never had an encounter with you, God, I ask that you release fresh hope, fresh faith, knowing that it’s not about them, and it’s not about anything that they’re doing or not doing, but that your heart is to encounter your people. And so even now as you’re watching this video, I would ask that you would just say, “God, encounter me with your love,” that you just come into agreement with that revelation, with that truth, that wow, God wants to encounter me.

I encourage you just to begin to see new ways. Like, I feel like even some of you, God has already been encountering you, but you’re expecting it to look like someone else’s story and that you’re actually missing what God’s already doing. And so I ask that you would just begin to say, “Hey God, what are you saying? What are you doing? What are you speaking? How are you encountering me? How have you encountered me in the past?” And yeah, I bless you. You were created to encounter the living God, in Jesus’ name.

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August 22, 2022 0 comments