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October 6, 2014

Clare: Well and you don't want to ignore your duties. You want to be faithful if you're taking care of your children and be present to your children. That's why I had four children as a single mother and I would get up at 4 o'clock in the morning or five o'clock in the morning and I did have two hours with the Lord before they woke up. Those two hours were glorious and beautiful because I was strengthened. I mean, there were times when it wasn't easy, when it was hard. And I'd like to say, too, there're times for worship music and entering into worship, and there's also times for repentance. I have a little book called The Imitation of Christ by that I use for a conscience check. I pray and I ask the Holy Spirit, "Holy Spirit, please show me what I need to amend in my spirit, what I need to change in my life." And I'll start out with a reading from that book before I do anything else and something will come up and I'll start repenting. That is so important for us to humble ourselves before the Lord and to repent and to be aware of the things that we're doing that grieve Him.

Ezekiel: So, if we're not working on our stuff and we can't do it, He has to do it. But if we're not open to the Lord maybe, working with us and guiding us and correcting us (and correction word has a little sting to it sometimes), but it's not really a bad thing. But I guess it would keep the Lord to stay back a little bit, if we've got things in the way - and I'll tell you, it's probably pride and covering it over. "Well, I confessed everything to God and I'm OK, bought by the Blood, and it's cool, we're good." Well, He's not just a good old boy, right? He is still God Almighty. We can be familiar and close and personal, but I guess we don't want to grieve the Holy Spirit. And I know there are times I've caused the Lord to, to maybe draw back a little, I've grieved His heart at times and...

Clare: Maybe, because you didn't examine your conscience, you didn't look to see?

Ezekiel: Never even thought about it. Just jumped right in there you know and...

Clare: "I'm okay. Let's do this Lord, let's..."

Ezekiel: "We're buds..."

Clare: Oh no! Poor Jesus...

Ezekiel: It's important to listen to your Commanding Officer, so you don't fly over the wrong area and get shot down. He just does it because He loves us, you now. So, we're kinda diverging a little bit, but still, I said now is the good stuff, here we go, hang on.

I would say and you possibly agree, to invite and ask the Holy Spirit and Jesus, to first of all, to come and be with you, would you think?

Clare: Oh absolutely, ask Him to pray through you. "Holy Spirit teach me how to pray, teach me how to worship." I mean. I've been doing this for 30 years and I'm still asking him. You never master it.

Ezekiel: Yeah, well I like to be invited. I mean, I like it when you come and say, you know, "Honey, would you come in here and listen to something" or "I want to share something with you". You don't normally just bust in and say "Hey, let's drop what you're doing, get over here, let's talk". So yeah, I guess there's something to it. He likes to be asked. Of course He's there always. But, this is what I meant about hanging out for the good stuff.

Someone many years ago talked to me about the Lord and how He uses our imagination and that tweaked my interest. I thought because I love artistic things and colors and memories and childhood, you name it, (you know, I'm a 55-year-old kindergartner.) But one another thing He said was, "Call to mind some kind of place, remember a place, like maybe when you were a little kid or sometime in your life. Or maybe some place where you like to go, and just kinda put yourself in that place, in your imagination, in your heart, in your mind and invite the Lord to come in, be with you there... just kinda see what happens". I mean, is that valid?

Clare: Well, I've gone through some guided prayer for healing and...

Ezekiel: This isn't like guided meditation, the New Age weird thing...

Clare: No! No! No! This was for traumatic situations from my past, in my life, where I've been guided to relive that experience - except with the presence of Jesus and He shows up. He shows up, You know, I think one thing people need to understand more than anything else is that, He is more anxious and desirous of being with you and interacting with you than you are of Him. You could never imagine His passionate love for you, you never could you imagine! And He's just so excited and so happy when someone says, "I'm going to make this the highlight of my day, Lord. I'm so excited to be with You in Your presence, whether you speak to me or you don't speak to me. Just to be in Your presence." And more often than not, He knows when to speak to us and He knows when to step back a little bit, because maybe we're getting a little presumptuous or getting a little prideful. Or maybe we're uncharitable to a child or to another person in the family or someone at work and that - that has a tendency to cause a break in the relationship. Because you've offended Him. And so when you go into prayer if there's something like that, a lack of charity, where you shout at somebody - He may stand back and not greet you in the usual way.

Ezekiel: Wait, wait a minute now. So, like, we have open Heavens and everyone's having these Heavenly experiences... so you're telling me that we're gonna go stand in line, get up there and get ready for the Lord to take us into these places... and He's going to like, check our credentials - or what?

Clare: Well, No. If He's grieved, He wants to straighten that out with you. That your character is far more important than some flighty, colorful experience, you know, and He'll use your desire to experience things as a point of getting your attention, so that you will pay attention to your behavior or your character.

Ezekiel: Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,  leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Matthew 5:23-24 (NKJV)

Well, that makes sense.

Clare: There'll be times, you know, when you and I have got sideways with something. I'll be sitting there, I'll just know that the Lord wants me to go and humble myself and apologize and to make it right with you.

Ezekiel: If you're sensitive, you can tell, you know. He sees and knows, hears everything. We think we're sleek, quick and cool - we're gonna scam and sham, and just get right with the Lord... and He's like "Woah, big fellow." I want to bring up the fact that I mentioned imagination. I would say, pay attention to your imagination and don't feel weird like "this is me" or "this is childish". You know the enemy, the accusers and good people who mean well will come along, (but particularly the demons, before, during and after) the voices "Occult! This is childish! You're deceived!" What do you do, I mean?

Clare: Yeah, all, all the above. And one note on this. When you come into prayer and things seem dry, the big question is (and things have been going wrong,) the big question is "Am I guilty of something Lord? Have I lost your covering and your protection, because I did something I shouldn't have done? Or is there a kind of a kink in our fellowship here, because of an attitude of mine or a sin that I'm not aware of?" And that's where seeking a Rhema really comes in handy. That's where, like going to the Imitation of Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to pick a reading. I can't tell you how many times I've done that and it's just been nailed on the head and that was a quick piece of business, you know? The Lord showed me what it was, I was grieved, I repented and we moved on. But sometimes you can get stuck at that point, and you wonder, 'What's happened to my prayer life?" And it can start to spiral downwards and but you need to know what's going on with Him, what is He... why is He holding back from me?

Ezekiel: Yeah, it's always a temptation when you start getting into Scriptures about His judgment or His correction and you think it's "Hmm... yup, I can see so and so in the church - yeah, I know He's dealing with those people and that's a prophetic word. I mean, bring it to the deacons..." Be careful of too many deacons - you'll be deacon possessed. (chuckle) No, God bless deacon and brothers and sisters and those who serve. But yeah, you have a very good and valid point there.

Clare: So, you mean deceived in the sense of, you know, really hearing from the Lord?

Ezekiel: Yeah like "This isn't real, this isn't the Lord." Wow...

Clare: Yeah, yeah and there's a lot of that. Well, the proof is in the pudding, you know. A good tree can't bear bad fruit and if the fruit of your prayer time with the Lord is peace and joy and answers to questions that you have - an understanding. And you find that you're being more patient, more loving, more forgiving with people, that's good fruit. And there's some communion going on between you and the Lord, if that's what's going on. And so there are ways to tell. I mean discerning of Spirits is huge, but for those who haven't walked with the Lord, for you know many, many years, He starts out protecting that prayer time ...

Ezekiel: A lot of grace...

Clare: A lot of grace. And that's the biggest thing, I think, that inhibits this intimacy with the Lord that we're talking about - is fear of deception.

Ezekiel: Well and I would say, fear of ridicule. Because you wanna tell someone you experienced something and the first thing they do is shoot you in the foot, you know, shoot you down. And we don't think about the things that we say that are just dumb, so like, come on guys. We don't have to be the expert on prayer or anything else. Let's encourage - boy, do we need encouragement. But I promise you, I promise you, I promise you. First of all, you get to a certain age when you don't care about who thinks what, who does what as much anymore. You're not bucking for circles in the church or positions and you just love the Lord, you just want to be with Him. And I promise you, first of all, if you will give Him permission and give yourself permission to just let it go and go where He takes you, that He'll protect you from the little nasties and all the weird. Everything's not occult or New Age, in fact, you're a Christian, most of it's not. Jesus is with you and you've asked Him to come be with you.

Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Luke 11:11 (NIV)

He is with you. So unbelief, first to like if you ask Him, He will come. It's not a surprise that you start thinking these things, seeing, feeling and hearing these things because let Him take you, first of all. He's no respecter of clocks and times. He loves childlike innocent situations, start getting these little dreamy, little child like things, you're on a swing or He's in a meadow with you, it's okay, just go with it yeah and don't pull back, unbelief wouldn't you say stops everything?

Clare: That crushes the Lord's heart. When He's met you in that secret place and there's a tender exchange going on and you are falling into unbelief, first of all, we have a very real enemy who'll be trying to bring that up but we also have our own fault. We also have,

So, here you are coming to the Lord, expecting the Lord to speak and yet you're questioning, "Is it the Lord?" I mean, I go through that a lot and there've been times when he's told me, "Please don't grieve me", you know. But the thing is that, yes, He will use our imagination. People think God is so boring. Walt Disney had all these wonderful ideas, you know. But Walt Disney can't hold a candle to the Holy Spirit and to the Lord as far as the creative genius. And understanding who we are, and what motivates us, what we love, how to communicate with us and he uses imagery.

1 Corinthians 2:9 (NKJV)

Clare: When we start to see him or sense Him and, some people - they'll write a prayer and they'll begin to hear the Lord answering that prayer, speaking to them and they'll write that down. Journaling is very effective. In fact, I still do it now and the messages that I share with you on Youtube are basically from my journal where the Lord begins to speak to me and He wants me to present it to the Youtube family.

Ezekiel: Well, remember, He knows your nature. He knows what you like or you don't like, He knows that we need healing in areas, who knows. Just a very, very, quick, brief little anecdote and that is: I know a young woman once who was very, very broken, crushed in relationships with men, scared really to death. And she was sitting in prayer one day quietly and she pictured herself in a meadow by a rock, this big boulder. She saw the Lord coming toward her and she got a little nervous, but she waited. And He came and sat down beside the boulder with her and then it just kind of ended. She thought "Wow, that was interesting." So, the next day she goes into prayer, the same thing comes back - but this time, He puts His arm on the boulder. It made her a little uncomfortable but she stayed with it and it ended. And the next day (I'm telling you the truth) the next day, same thing: the Lord comes back, sits beside the boulder by her and she got the courage to put her arm up on the boulder. Didn't touch it, but put her arm up there. And little by little, at the end of a few days, she was comfortable enough to reach over and touch His hand. He didn't... He is a gentleman, and He doesn't push the door open. But can you see how such a healing for someone who's so sensitive, afraid, broken and scared? That He would come up in little by little by little, let her become comfortable with approaching Him? So, remember these are, you're asking to go to heavenly places, now these are places...

Clare: Let's talk about the book now.

Ezekiel: Oh my gosh, yeah they should not, like, be a Disney ticket, but when the Lord comes and brings you into these special places, you've already asked to go under the Heavenlies. These are the splendorous places in eternity that you're gonna spend forever and He's given you this beautiful preview.

You mentioned a book. We have a website, Heartdwellers.org. And there's a book of some of our initial experiences that we have put out a few years back Chronicles of the Bride. You might wanna add something to that? You download or how do you get it?

Clare: Oh yeah I was gonna show the book itself. Yeah, I'll put a link on this message for you to be able to go directly to it and it is a free download and this is really beautiful how it started. The Lord has for many years spoken to me and spoken to you and we've seen things in the spirit and experienced His presence and heavenly things in the spirit. But one particular time, we got together for some dwelling prayer and the Lord came to me and took me on a journey in Heaven.

Ezekiel: With the group or?

Clare: Yeah, there was a group of people and we were listening to very, very soft worship music. I happened to be lying on the floor with my famous cup of coffee and...

Ezekiel: And it was better to be with other people, right?

Clare: Not necessarily, but it was nice. We were all - we were all praying, we were all on the same place. We were all being open to the Lord's presence and in a worshipful mode, but ready to be passive if He approached us, you know.

Ezekiel: Individual or corporate, you can maybe do this by yourself?

Clare: Yeah, yeah. So, that's what happened with us. We started out this way in a group and I just think this was New Year's Day or the day after New Year's Day and the Lord came and took me to Heaven and showed me the place that He had prepared for me. And I was absolutely dumbstruck, for I think probably three weeks. I couldn't even find my head.

I was so blown away by what He had done and I told Him, the first incident is in the book, it's the very first chapter, and I told him, "Lord, I haven't done anything for You." and He answered me and He said, "You obeyed."

And so, I mean I can look back on the little things that I've done for Him, what I've given up for Him, which I don't consider really anything for the kind of reward that He gave me in Heaven. And that was the beginning of the book, Chronicles of the Bride. You had a similar experience and we both ended up coming home and doing this together.

Ezekiel: I remember we said "Gosh, I wonder if the Lord only comes to us like this in a group? Do we always have to drive 40 miles away? Do we just do this? Do we just sit with you, Lord? Would You come to us, just here?"

Clare: "...Can we continue this conversation?" And it ended up being a book and you know the whole point of Chronicles of the Bride is to communicate how sweet, gentle, loving and fun He is.

Ezekiel: That's what blew me away. That's what still blows me away, how approachable, natural and normal He is.

Clare: A totally different side of the Lord. It's not a side that is talked about. I mean, we tend to keep our relationship with Him just kind of solemn and distant, like I talked about the table with the Scriptures on it. And, I mean, He longs for that intimacy with His Bride, where she just comes and lets go of everything and rests in Him. That's such an act of faith, but He longs for that tender, loving relationship with His bride.

But He also loves to have fun! I mean we went hiking, we went horseback riding, we went flying, we went swimming...

Ezekiel: You went flying?

Clare: Unbelievable.

Ezekiel: Don't know if I remember that part but this sounds pretty cool, perhaps I have had some similar...

Clare: Flying off the bluff and waterfalls with opals embedded in the rock behind it...

Ezekiel: I told you the good stuff was coming...

Clare: Northern Lights! Northern Lights, where the Lord would put a shadow. He put a shadow in Heaven to make it a little darker and then an angel would play these beautiful Northern Lights against it. Because I love the Northern Lights! And flowers that would turn and look at you and if you wanted to pick them, they will fly right into your hand. And people - you know, famous people and not so famous people - all very sweet and loving. And everyone knows everyone else's thoughts, you know that's one thing - we're transparent.

Ezekiel: You know, one thing I noticed was and I have noticed now, though it's been what three or four years at least, more or less, that I remember. One experience where the Lord took me to a place that looked kind of like Greece. I've never been to Greece in my life, but you know: the whitewashed buildings and beautiful blue trail. I was a kid, I grew up on a bayou in Louisiana. I lived on the water. I know certain sights and sounds and smells... and I remember waking up in this cottage with Him and through these drawing doors that had opened, then out onto a veranda where you looked out over this city and this beautiful azure, beautiful blue water. Instantly, I could hear these fishermen talking: I could, I could see, I could sense - it was just like a waking dream. It's like - you are there.

And I thought, 'Wow!' But you know, if you don't believe us, check out Jesse Duplantis and his testimony about going to Heaven.

Believe me; these things are so real once you allow the Lord to...and if you're gifted. You can't make it happen, you can't earn it you know, but if He chooses to take you to some of these beautiful places, if you don't remember anything else, remember its real! It's yours and we'll be sharing more about some of these things and maybe a little bit from some chapters in the book here along the way.

But you know, we really appreciate your comments and your suggestions, your writing like you've done. We're not really staffed real big, we're just little mom-and-pop, little Mission House, prayer house in Taos, New Mexico here. But in time we hope to be able to answer all the emails personally and take care of this and the other. but please continue to pray for us, trying to run a little food bank here, a little outreach and take care of folks as they come and go. But we love to hear from you, we've never, I don't think given our address on the programs here, but we're at 220 Montoya, Taos, New Mexico, 87571 and would love to hear from you.

Clare: God bless you and will hopefully be able to get together again tomorrow night.

Ezekiel: Alright. So, thanks for joining us again on Heaven Talk. Dreams, visions, comments and discussion on all things Heaven. See you there.