Good Etiquette: A Romantic Idea

Good Etiquette: A Romantic Idea

 

 

    On one occasion or the other, we have all taxed our minds and our resources trying to find the most creative or the most expensive gift to present to the love of our life in order to express our deepest affections, or we have been the recipient of such lavish efforts.  An initial consideration might find this practice acceptable, but upon second glance, it might only be flattery (an attempt to gratify by undo praise).

 

    In a day where truth has become so vague, and personal or individual value has so declined, we as a society could possibly counteract this misfortune by responding to each other with acts that define another's value to us.  Holding another in high esteem and causing them to know it is a good place to begin.

 

    Good etiquette and romance might appear to be opposing ideas, but I believe that we can make them compatible.  World Book says that "the most important function of etiquette is to provide a general guideline for courteous, considerate behavior in everyday life."  We might say that it sets protocol (rules for procedure) in situations or that it simply shows us how to have "good manners" in the presence of others.  The word "romantic" takes our minds to thoughts of passion rather than reason, and imagination rather than logic.  It causes us to conjure up scenes of fantastic and extravagant happenings instead of customary and practical things.  Both ideas are valuable and wonderful, but there are lines of demarcation.

 

    A great romantic idea may momentarily extract the most satisfactory response from your mate, but daily and consistent efforts to show appreciation to your mate's personhood will more than likely produce lasting results.  We tend to value the relationship in which we make frequent and sincere deposits because it becomes an investment instead of just a passing fancy.

 

    Certainly we would never dream of squashing the practice of giving exquisite gifts to the recipient of our affections.  We simply want to be sure that we are adding our tangible or corporeal gifts to the ones that we daily deposit into the souls and spirits of our counterparts.  The sweetest romance flows out of our character and has a nurturing quality.  When we return to "please" and "thank you," sharing special time togrther, speaking kind words to and about each other, being real friends, writing love notes, asking forgiveness, opening doors and holding chairs, being on time, and just sincerely enhancing our relationship, then our presence will become a most esteemed gift.

 

    An occasional gift of a diamond, a trip to the islands, a shopping excursion, or seasonal athletic tickets should be the proverbial "icing on the cake" to a lifestyle of loving and sharing.  Out of the resources of our love and respect for each other, we can give our most creative and our most  expensive gifts.

 

    What about it?  Is good etiquette a romantic idea?

 

 

Taken from:

"His Daughters Do Prophesy"

    (With A Word For You)

Marion Clark Ingram/author

      www.amazon.com

 



The Importance of Romance

The Importance of Romance

 

 

I am still receiving revelation and understanding why the Lord encouraged me to write and perform romantic poetry among His people over twenty years ago.  As I traveled to churches and homes across the land, God would show me that the component of Love called romance was practically non-existent among leaders and their spouses.  He told me that that was one of the reasons that their anointings were so dry and forced. 

 

 

He taught me that there had to be a passion for life in order for there to be true passion for the things of God and His Kingdom.  And now twenty years later, I discern that it is still more comfortable for married Christians to speak of their love for God, but not for each other.  This is not natural because Ephesians 5 speaks extensively about the unique relationship between husbands and wives being "a great mystery...concerning Christ and the Church."

 

 

God wants His people to be authentic instead of offering Him what we think He wants.  Sometimes we're looking so hard for answers that are right under our noses.  He wants us to observe His Word with open hearts and open minds instead of with pre-conceived ideas.  We can use Isaiah 55:8,9 as a framework for trying to discrn the difference between His thoughts and ways and ours.  His are higher, and ours are base, and higher does not mean harder.  Since God is Love, we should be committed to study and to research Love in all of its facets because since God is Love, then Love is power.

God's Overwhelming Love

Gods Overwhelming Love

 



That's what I am experiencing this morning...the overwhelming love of God! 

 

I have walked in this place with Father for years now as He offered me when He invited me to relinquish my will for His will. On this journey with Him, I have been able to do just that because each time that I looked into the unconditional love in His eyes and heart He became more than life to me.  He became my life!

 

God is Father, Savior, Lord, Master, Friend, Healer and Deliverer...but His true essence is Love!  Love empowers Him to be all of the rest to us.

 

I am realizing, the more, that God wants us to celebrate His love for us and our love for Him. On Christmas Day (2012), one of my young Prophets In Training (PIT), Alicia Thompson, gave me a quite extensive letter that expressed many attributes and actualities of the Spirit that she has observed and experienced through me in the short time that she has been training with Kingdom Institute.

 

She received a "word" for me which was "love" and it expanded into "The Ultimate Love Letter" as Father continued to deal with her about me. Her direct quote is "Prophetess Ingram, I believe the Holy Spirit is calling on you to write the Ultimate Love Letter.  He says there have been so many moments in your walk with God that he has showed you love in big ways and in simple ways.  He says that it is your love relationship with the Father that causes you to be so effective.  This will be an easy task, a relaxing task, a task that will tickle you and move you."

 

Well, I have had such an intimate walk with the Lord that I don't really know how to share it...what He reveals to me and how He uses me...but I will try to do just that in the near future.  Possibly I will put it in a booklet.  Yes, I celebrate this wonderful love walk that I have been priviledged with, though it cost me much. I share a little of it in my book, "Without Apology: On Call For God."

Challenging Our Biases

CHALLENGING OUR BIASES

 

The title, Challenging Our Biases, is the title of today's H2H Eletter.  This movement is the House to House or The Organic Church Movement.

 

I will share two statements that capsulized the entire Eletter for me, and then I will share a piece that the Spirit of God formed through me two years ago from the Prophetic Poetry Section of my book "Without Apology: On Call For God."

 

 

1) "Confirmation biases means we favour things that agree with what we already believe.  So conservatives listen to conservative talk shows and news sources, while liberals listen to liberal talk shows and news sources.  Because the sources agree with what they already think, they do not get any new data or any new ideas to consider; instead, they have their bias confirmed."  2) "Let what you think you know be challenged - what is  right will survive, what is less than right just might be exposed."

 

 

WHEN DOUBT COMES

 

When doubt comes...and surely it will,

Will you command your thoughts to be still,

 

Or will you investigate the nagging gloom

Which opens the door to an unknown room?

 

Is the knowledge you have tried and true,

Or will it falter in the face of something new?

 

If what you believe is the real thing,

Then put it on exhibit in center ring.

 

If we don't ask questions, how can we know

That what we believe is truly so?

 

Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding too

Were afforded by God to me and you.

 

He said to ask and it shall be given,

But it comes to those who are passionately driven.

 

Just accepting status quo is not always safe

Because it keeps us stuck forever on first base.

 

Jesus questioned the  protocol of His time

And left us a legacy that is simply divine.

 

 

We all need to allow God to expose our biases and our "holy cows" so that He can give us fresh and clearer revelations/mysteries of our King and his vast Kingdom.  After all, there are "higher heights and deeper depths" in the things of God.  He wants to take us "from glory to glory."

 





Acts Of Sabotage

Acts Of Sabotage

 

 

There is a reality that is almost shameful to acknowledge concerning the envy, jealousy, and strife that exist in the "Body" of Christ.  This ought not to be...but it is.  often I hear these reports and have witnessed such malicious behavior myself while wishing that these conditions were only imaginary.  How can a body sabotage its ownself?!  How can I not rejoice that my eyes see, and my ears hear, and my feet walk, and my mind functions well, and that my fingers work.  A house nor a body can stand nor prosper when divided against itself.  Our tongues and our thoughts must be disciplined in righteousness in order for us to manifest in the power and authority that we so desire.  How you think is just as important as how you speak, and there are many ways to speak what you are thinking.

 

Actions speak even when you don't verbalize your sentiments.  So often, I have heard the Holy Spirit say, "Something should have been said right there."  There is a natural and even a holy progression of events that should be the offshoots of a move of God.  It is amazing how many "saints" won't exalt the work, the anointing, and the mantles of God's expressions through each other, but it is indeed time to understand that your silence causes you to look small, not the vessel or vessels that you are trying to ignore or conceal.  These attitudes only cause God to magnify those persons even more.

 

As you closely study and observe the character of God, you will notice that "He resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."  It would also benefit us to be reminded that the Lord God Almighty is a Sovereignty .  He does what He wants to, through, with, and for whom He pleases.  Wouldn't it be better to be in agreement with the Lord's program instead of attempting to oppose it because of your personal "druthers"?  I am very careful concerning the Lord's people because you could foolishly be "touching His anointed," and remember...He said that "no weapon formed against them shall prosper."  In fact, Isaiah 54:17 further states "and every tongue that shall rise against them in judgement they shall condemn." 

 

So go ahead and stop being stubborn and rebellious "which is as the sin of witchcraft" (I Samuel 15:23), and become a cheerleader for God's team.

 

 

Be Warmed:  You cannot sabotage who nor what God sets His approval upon.

We're Coming...We're Coming...Oh Yes, We're Coming!

We're Coming...We're Coming...Oh Yes, We're Coming!

( A Declaration for the Children)

By Marion Clark Ingram/Director

Kingdom Institute

 

We're Arriving in the Earth by the Design of the King,

 

And Even as Toddlers our Gifts and Talents Can Already Be Seen.

 

From the Crib to the Boardroom Our Mission Is Ordained.

 

Through Us, the World Shall Honor His Great Name.

 

We're Really Here on Purpose...Can't You See!?

 

So Please Train Us Early for Our Destiny.

 

Observe the Light in Our Eyes and Never Allow It to Grow Dim.

 

Remember, We're Not Here Just on a Whim.

 

We're Coming as Prophets and Teachers with a Clarion Call,

 

Even While Riding Our Bikes and Playing Kick Ball.

 

So Often We're Sent to Fulfill Your Dreams and Visions,

 

And Our Wise Creator Made These Profound Decisions.

 

Now, the Mothers of Samuel and Moses Were Aware of the Honor Placed in Their Hands,

 

And They Were Indeed Their Children's Greatest Fans.

 

So Yes, We Too Shall Be Great Because of You.

 

copyright 4/2012

 

 

I was commissioned to compose and present this piece at the Governor's Wife's (Tenn.) "First Ladies for Healthy Babies" Luncheon this year hosted by Neighborhood Christian Centers, Inc.

 



Battling The Unseen

BATTLING THE UNSEEN

(A few days ago, the Lord instructed me to share this information.)

 

 

I don't do well in dark surroundings, and I don't care for unpleasant and ugly sights; so you can imagine that I am the last person who cares to see demonic presences.

 

Well, almost thirty years ago, on my first assignment to close down a "Christian" cult, the Lord woke me one night to be a witness to an "unseen" battle that was taking place at that very moment.  The battle was taking place right there before my eyes in my room.  Angels and demons were in a full fledged battle.  I blinked and blinked, but the scene did not change.  I was neither shaken nor frightened, but I do remember thinking that some cartoonists and some sci-fi artists had been privy to the darkside because I had seen some of these "beings" before.  Well, as the angels won the battle, the scene disappeared.

 

I was not completely knowledgeable as to where I had been sent, but I became more alert when the Holy Spirit said to me on day, "Daniel prayed three times a day."  I was already praying all of the time, and I even led the prayer ministry as that leader sort to use my gifts and anointings.  But when that statement was made, I became reconnaisant of the depth of prayer in which I was being appointed to engage.  Much later during that assignment, I realized that the enemy knew why I was there before it was revealed to me. 

 

On another night, I was awakened by the feeling of something trying to take over my body.  It felt like what I would image a stroke would feel.  My face was twisting; my limbs were becoming stiff and contorting; and I couldn't speak.  But I was very much alert!  I immediately realized that I was under some kind of attack; so I calmly and forcefully began to "plead the Blood" and to rebuke this attack from within my spirit.  Shortly, I felt something release me and leave my body.  I became very angry and indignant and went into focused warfare for a number of days after the incident.

 

Many such attacks came against me during that time, especially when we began to close the cult down because a stronghold was being obliterated by vessels of God under the authority of God.  I saw some horrible sights, but God strengthened me...spirit, soul and body. This is the work of the Kingdom which has been my life's work.  ALL power is in God's hand; so who or what shall we fear!?

 

When that period was over, and I returned to my home state and home church, I tried to put all of that behind me and get back to a "normal" life.  When I told the Lord that I preferred not to see those grotesque manifestations, He posed this question to me "Don't you think that you would fight an enemy more fiercely if you actually see it than you would if you just thought it was there?"  Yes, you can sense their presence and even smell them sometimes, especially the presence of witchcraft.  But you are even more indignant when you have to look at them.  You feel as insulted and as aggravated as David did when he offered to bring down Goliath.

 

When I was in boot camp, the Lord informed me that warfare was a reality and that when I set myself to rebuke and to war against the "unseen" that I needed to be aware that I was engaging with an actual opponent which required my living a consecrated life, putting on the whole armor and irradicating that foe called fear.

 

I have had spirits to actually show themselves and confront me during meetings when I called them out to be evicted. At other times, I have seen them leaving by a side door  after I was introduced, and the congregation never understood what I was saying good bye to nor why I was laughing.  God reminds me that we must share this knowledge because warfare is real!  We must live so that we can operate in Kingdom authority. Surely God's way is indeed a walk, and not a talk!

 

We love to quote Ephesians 6:11,12Amp "Put on God's whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.   12)For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms,  against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere."

 

With proper knowledge we can become effective in the Kingdom instead of creating more confusion than we found.  We won't find ourselves opposing Matthew 12:28-30 "But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.  29) Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?  and then he will spoil his house.  30) He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad."  Without proper knowledge, we can cause a lot of confusion in Kingdom work.

 

I pray that this information blesses and enlightens someone in their labors for the Lord.  I will share some further teachings and experiences at another time.

 

Blessings and Strength to You!