Monthly Archives: March 2013

Mar20

on the way….

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Just a quick post to share something I have been enjoying….life. I have actually begun enjoying life.There is much joy to be experienced when you decide to live it, in it, each day as it’s own. I have laid down the deadline to arrive, the rush to succeed, and I have chosen to enjoy. It’s been so different, filled with rejoicing, laughter, and at a pace that crisis doesn’t over inflate to insurmountable amounts, and there is time to listen, really listen. It all has begun with a Sabbath, hard in the beginning, but so wonderful….and like dominoes things are taking their appointed places. Joy is wonderful, pressure gone is amazing, and taking the time to healthily process and release the hard is good. Getting to recognize life is full of gifts that I’m tasting, smelling, being  and enjoying for the first time changes perspective. We have nowhere to arrive, we are already here. This is new and still lots to be uncovered, but as for today, in this now moment, I’m celebrating the progress I’ve made! Praise You Jesus! 

Matthew 6: 31-34

31 So do not consume yourselves with questions: What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? 32 Outsiders make themselves frantic over such questions; they don’t realize that your heavenly Father knows exactly what you need. 33 Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be given to you too. 34 So do not worry about tomorrow. Let tomorrow worry about itself. Living faithfully is a large enough task for today.

 
 
Mar15

Jealous vs. Teachable

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I’ve been thinking recently how silly jealousy is. I mean why is it when we recognize someone else has something we desire, our first reaction is a tinge of jealousy? Why do we then start to compare ourselves with them and find some way that it is unfair that they have what we want, AND they probably do not even deserve it? Can I just encourage all of us today to rejoice in what we each have been entrusted so far with and to choose to genuinely rejoice with others? Can I also encourage us to ask that person how they got there? Chances are the answer will be consistent right choices, hard work, sacrifice, and saying no to other things. The things we want are usually attainable if we are willing to align our lives to be positioned to receive them. Next time we see someone enjoying something we want and do not yet have, let’s choose to be humble and teachable, and ask them how they got there, take some advice and move closer towards that goal! THAT’S PROGRESS! THAT IS REPLACING DESTRUCTIVE CYCLES WITH CONSTRUCTIVE CYCLES! And that is how we move FORWARD!

Mar12

Say YES!

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Something so beautiful emerges out of the hardest storms we are called to weather. The Lord asked me to do one of the hardest things I have ever had to do about a year ago. This was an opportunity for obedience that was beyond my understanding. As I said yes to the Lord and walked forward in obedience, many of the steps were filled with tears, suffering, and much judgement. Even so, I chose to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, and move to where He was calling me.

A little more than a year later, I am in awe of how beautiful the budding fruit from this storm is. He asked me to do something hard for the people I love more than I can put into words, and God is working mightily in their lives as a result of many things, including my obedience. Amazingly though, I am watching God unfold incredible gifts in my own life and household that I would not be aligned with if I had chosen the easy road, the path of least resistance. There is tremendous blessing along the road of being in God’s will for your life.

I am not sharing this to boast about my obedience, because I can assure you I am in included in the scriptures when it says, “For ALL have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God.” I am simply sharing this to encourage you. If the thing the Lord is asking you to do will be hard, painful, bigger than you can understand, know this- YOU DO NOT NEED TO UNDERSTAND. You simply need to know the truth of how loved you are, and that the One calling you is always FOR you, not against you, and is always WITH you. Nothing He calls you to is bigger than Himself, and if He is for you, you need not be concerned with whoever is against you.

It is important to know that our choices not only affect ourselves, but everyone we do life with, people we do not even realize are watching, and the generations to come. The only hope for our lives, our legacy, is to be a people, to rise up as The Body, by surrendering our will, and resolving that no matter what the call, the sacrifice, the level of obedience needed, the journey: WE ARE A PEOPLE WHO SAY YES TO GOD!

If we determine to live this way, REVIVAL will come!

Jesus, help us to be fully surrendered to You! Help us to have your heart and be willing to do whatever it takes so that every person will have every opportunity to see You and come to desire You by the example of our lives. Lord ,I so desire to say YES to everything you have created me for.Would you fill me supernaturally with the courage I need to be able to say YES! I want to see revival break out all over the world, teach me how to do my part! Oh Jesus we need more of You, more than ever before, start with me! I love You Jesus! In Your name I pray! Amen!

Mar3

He does not disappoint!

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I have a desire in my heart. I get spoken to by someone who does not know this desire that the Lord wants to bring this forth. Faith is stirred up. Then I see the Lord doing a few things, boom, boom, boom. Confirmation. Hope is swelling. Then, WOW, this MUST be God because x,y, and z are all seeming to fall into place. I give testimony as to how God is moving, and BAM the momentum is halted and consequently I am left wondering why I ever allowed hope to take over the contentment I had with what I had.

Has this ever happened to you? You felt stirred up and excited about something the Lord began speaking to you about, only to be left wondering why He didn’t just leave you alone? I have to ask myself is what I was experiencing previously really contentment? Or was is complacency? Am I being honest with myself if what I thought I was content with was void of hope for a brighter future? Is it really being content or settling because I got tired of being disappointed? And if I was so tired of being disappointed- how did I get there? How did I arrive at the corner of “You have enough to be thankful for,” and “You probably can’t handle anymore than what you have to do already,” at such a young age.

I had to get real with the Lord and ask Him what was the purpose of allowing me to experience this cycle once again. He began to  remind me that my goal for the year is to move forward. I am moving forward by replacing destructive cycles with constructive cycles. This particular cycle is very destructive. This is the cycle that causes me to lose hope. When the enemy can steal our hope, our faith tends to diminish, and Hebrews 11:6 teaches us that without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God. This is a VERY IMPORTANT LESSON TO LEARN!

I am beginning to see what the major problem is, when God speaks to me, I start trying to figure out how what He said could become possible. Now let me tell you He only spoke to the desire of my heart, but didn’t say as to how He was going to bring that forth. Yet in my desperate attempt to be in some sort of control I begin grasping onto anything I can find to see how this could work. When those theories I have crafted fall short, remember this is NOT what God had said, is when devastation and/or a deep disappointment collide with my once soaring hope and hope plummets out of the sky and lies on the ground slowly dying.

Here is how I can mature. I can mature by staying the course He has spoken to me about. I can mature by not running with vain imaginations and becoming fixed on how I think “it” will work out. I can mature by NOT putting my faith in circumstances, results, or outcomes. My God does not disappoint. He never leaves me and He always works everything together for my good. If that is not what I am experiencing, I am learning that means I am the one with a huge misunderstanding. I am learning that when He speaks to stir up my faith and remind me of the desires of my hearts, the one which maybe my little heart got weary in the waiting but He still cares about and still wants to bless me with, I can listen to what He has to say and not add to it a deadline. I can choose not be in a rush for that desire to manifest in my life. I can trust that if He is the one reminding me of something I tried to forget about because in my weariness I deemed it “impossible” that I do not need to take the reins and then try to make it happen. The One who reminded me, will take care of the details. I was reminded this week that my only focus needs to be, “Seek first the Kingdom of God….and all things will be added unto you.”

I have chosen this week that I can stop compartmentalizing contentment and hope. Somehow, as a coping tool or maybe a self-declared limit, I had determined I needed to choose one of the following, 1) being thankful for what I have or 2) hoping for more. But as a conclusion to the ride I have been on this week, I have determined something new. I am choosing to enjoy what I have on the way to where I am going. Already there is an elevated joy and peace. The limits are off and the manipulation of my future has lessened. There is expectancy for God to be God and joy in the waiting because I already have so much to enjoy. What an awesome God we serve. He loves me enough to undo every knot that is binding me when I was not aware I was being bound. He has yet again set me free. He is so worthy of praise.

Dream BIG- don’t settle, and enjoy the journey. This life we have is a gift to be fully enjoyed, not a deadline or rush just to arrive, and where are we hoping to arrive? I just want to see Jesus, and share Jesus, and love love love….and I already have everything I need to live in that reality-everything He chooses to bless me with beyond that is a surprise and I give thanks!