Rest Already!

Matthew 11:28-30

28Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This passage is so true. I was just sitting here and verse 30 popped into my head as I was reflecting on the events of the past two days. Things got a little scary for me, I'll spare you the details, but I surrendered it all to God completely and it's already so much better! God's presence and guidance is so peaceful. Lately I've been feeling like He's wanted me to "rest" but I didn't know what He meant or how to do it. This verse shows me that surrendering all to Him is a form of rest and that's what He meant. I love revelations! Haha! He totally meant that my soul wasn't resting and I was overthinking this and trying to figure it all out by myself. He didn't mean a literal physical rest... that's why I was confused because I haven't done much of anything lately because I'm just at home, doing nothing... until 2 weeks when I leave for summer project.

Anywhos. That's all. Life is good. Rob and I have been together for 6 months and I love him more than ever. :-) Things are going good for us and God is working through us. It'll be cool to see what God does with us once I leave. I think it'll be all good.

That's all for now.

Attacks...

Being on the front lines of spiritual warfare sucks. I've felt that I have been on them a lot lately, because I have been rekindling the romance in my life with Jesus AND I'm going to do the Lord's work in a few weeks, so the enemy really has it out for me and is attacking the most sensitive areas of my life.

Roger Webb, the revivalist/evangelist who came to our church a few weeks ago came back today for the Sunday service. He said when you're in the storm to keep your eyes on the Lord and not the enemy... maybe that's my problem. I'm so busy fighting under God's authority, but I'm not always focused on Him as much as I am the enemy and defeating him. Yes, the enemy is a target and must be defeated, but every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! I don't need to fight for Him, the battle's already won. I just need to know my place and keep my eyes fixed on Him... like a child learning how to walk, they keep their eyes on mommy or daddy and make their way straight to them. Sometimes they stumble a little, but they are determined to make it. When Jesus' calmed the storm in Mark 4 He asked the disciples if they had no faith. He didn't understand why they were afraid when God in the flesh was on the boat and just chillin. Nothing is different now. It seems like I've been trying to do to much, change to much and I just need to receive when the Lord wants to give me and just let Him do it already! Who knew it could be so hard to just receive... lol. I don't need to do anything but ask most of the time. If He needs me to do something, He'll tell me.

God been talking to me a lot lately and showing me things. He's been answering my prayers when I intercede for people, especially for my summer project group. It's just been awesome. God is so good and wonderful. There's no way that I'm going to give up and stop persevering. Nehemiah 8:10 says that the joy of the Lord will be our strength. Nehemiah wouldn't have said that if we wouldn't need the joy of the Lord and if we didn't need strength, which means following God isn't easy and through the valleys we need to remember what the Lord has done and take great joy in that. We need to remember the deposits He has put in us in the past and draw on those. When He tells you something, gives you something, imparts something, He doesn't take that deposit away and He wants you to continue to withdraw from that in the future. We need to hold on because breakthrough could (and probably is) right around the corner.

As always please keep me in your prayers right now... God is good, but the fight is tough. I can't wait to get to Australia and be over the "getting there" hurdle and onto the fight for souls for God's kingdom! :-) Then my hands will get really dirty!!! haha.

Hannah's Barreness

I finished the 1st Chapter of "Prophetic Evangelism" last night and one (of the many) eye opening point really caught my attention. Desperation. We need to be desperate for Jesus. And I don't mean wishy-washy only sometimes need Him desperate, I'm talkin hardcore desperate! The example the author used was from First Samuel 1. Hannah's (mother of Samuel) womb had been closed up by the Lord. Hannah was the wife of Elkanah, but he had another wife, Peninah, who was a baby making machine. This provoke Hannah and made her want children even more. Elkanah increased the amount of blessing he gave Hannah and even said "Am I not worth more than ten sons?". This whole bargain deal didn't slow Hannah down. So she got desperate and prayed and fasted before the Lord. She then made a covenant with the Lord, that if He opened her womb, she would dedicate Samuel's life to Him. So the Lord opened her womb and she bore Samuel.
I agree when the author says that God more than likely used Peninah's over-active baby maker to draw something out of Hannah. The same could be said about our possible spiritual barrenness! I know when I see someone else who is spiritually fruitful, I wonder if I'm doing something wrong and I feed of off that sort of thing. I think God let's certain things provoke us so that we get desperate and run to Him with questions and for help. Hannah was so determined!
The author suggests that there are 4 stages of desperation.
Stage 1) Awareness: This is when you first realize something is missing, but at this stage, you more than likely have little to no motivation to figure it out, let alone fix it.
Stage 2) Embarrassment: This stage is when we feel a slight negative feeling about what we are lacking. We see what other people have and are self-conscious about what we are not doing.
Stage 3) Frustration: When that nagging feeling is consistently present. You start to get more distressed about your situation, but many people who get to this stage do not push through and never make any change.
Stage 4) Intolerability: This is when the above feelings release an "momentous change". You get to the point where you can no longer go against the feelings. Desperation like this releases fresh intimacy, inspiration and a much needed impact. Change will not occur without a high sense of urgency! This desperation can be looked at as a divine way that Christ is trying to make you go one step further.

All of that makes a lot of sense to me and has shed some light on why I feel the way I do sometimes. This was only the last 4 pages of the chapter. There were so many other awesome and encouraging things in the first chapter, but this is one I though I should share and dive into deeper. :-)

The Valley of Dry Bones

So I started to read the book I got yesterday called "Prophetic Evangelism: Empowering a Generation to Seize Their Day" by Sean Smith. I just finished the prologue... yeah, I know, exciting, right? haha. Well it had a good amount of info in it that I need to process so I'm going to do that here.

After reading the prologue once, I decided to read Ezekiel 37 in it entirety so I could really understand the full version. After doing so I re-read the prologue and grasped everything a lot better! God was showing Ezekiel the dry bones and asked "Son of man, can these bones live?" And Ezekiel's reply was like "Only you can pull off that one big guy!" So Ezekiel seemed to realize the impossibility of himself trying to make these bones live again. He knew no matter what he said or did as a man would do nothing to these bones. So God tells Him what to say and do under God's authority! So he tells the bones what God said and the bones came back to life. Ezekiel become an "divine agent for 'dead' humanity". God could have brought the bones back to life without using Ezekiel, but He DESIRED to use Ezekiel as a vessel for His grand plan! In John 5:19-20 Jesus says
"...I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these". God wants us to get with the program, jump on board, join in on what He's doing and pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying and pointing out specifically! We can't do anything without our Heavenly Father, so why even try to? We should be abiding in Him and being more focused on growing His Kingdom!

I highly recommend that you read Ezekiel 37 if you haven't recently. It is a great example of Prophetic Evangelism and just all around inspiring!

Final Round

Christ’s Power – Acts 1:8
Do you experience the power of the Spirit for witness?

(8) But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

I think I can tell when the Spirit urges me to talk to someone. And whenever the Spirit does this He gives me the right words. I know that He is in control and that He will tell me what to do. I went shopping today and picked up a book about prophetic evangelism which sounds pretty sweet and I'm excited to start reading a little bit. I hope it'll help me listen to God more when it comes to evangelism and to be able to identify divine appointments in advance. With the power of the Spirit, anything is possible! I have yet had the opportunity to lead someone to Christ and I really hope that God will use me that way in Australia. I know I'll be sharing there, I would just really love to lead people to Him and be able to keep in contact with a new brother or sister in Christ. I can't wait to experience the adventures for this summer...

Round 3

Round 3
Christ’s Plan – Matthew 28:18-20
Do you embrace the Great Commission?

(18) Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So the big question... do I embrace this passage? Kinda...? I mean I totally understand what it means... Jesus commanded us to go share the gospel with EVERYONE! Not just in foreign countries, but even in our hometowns. I think lately I've been stuck in the rut of, 'Well I'll do my part in Australia this summer' and just kind of ignoring my responsibility to this passage until then. It's not easy for me right now because I'm not working much at all... I just basically go to church and that's about as much excitement as I get. BUT I do have old high school friends that I could be inviting to church. And we had a revival meeting about a week ago and I invited people, but it was short notice which made things difficult. I should be praying for more opportunities... heck even just with my family. My dad's side is not as spiritual as my mom's side... but they are just so hard to talk to about anything at all! I am totally pumped and prepared to go share the gospel when I'm in Australia... I really should be praying more about RIGHT NOW! Practicing now would be amazing preparation for Australia. I need to pray for more wisdom and boldness I think. More zeal. It's been pretty easy to grow stagnit in some areas since I'm stuck at home, but at the same time this is the perfect opportunity to spend lots of alone time with God. For as many times as I've heard or read this passage, it amazes me how convicting and powerful it is!

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In other news...

Rob left for New Staff Training today. I didn't think I'd get to talk to him today, but I was pleasantly surprised to have my cell phone wake me up from my nap. I got to talk to him for a little over a half hour when he was on his way to pick up the guy he's carpooling with. I'm so excited for him! He's going to be playing drums for the worship team down there, which is really cool! I can't wait to see what God does with Him over the next month and a half! In just the past week I've seen strong, spiritual growth in him and in the relationship! God's def. doing something. :)

At midnight, I have only 25 days until I leave for Australia! It's so insane. I feel like I'm on a rollercoaster... and the rollercoaster experience for me means that the slow, clicking to the top is nerve racking and all I want to do is get off the coaster, but I know that I can't turn back now... and at the same time I don't want to, I just want to get to the top already so that the anticipation goes away and I can experience the free fall and the awesome twists and turns. This rollercoaster is one the requires my legs to be dangling... which is a very terrifying but fun feeling for me! haha. It's more vulnerable. Also, on the way to the top, I don't look around (mostly because I'm terrified of heights)... this aspect can be positive, because it means I'm focusing on the goal and God, but at the same time, I'm not looking around at the other possibilities. That pretty much explains it. Don't get me wrong at all--I am so excited to go... I just want to get rid of this nervous energy and be there already! :)

Round 2

Christ’s Passion – Matthew 9:35-38
Do you have compassion for the lost?

(35) Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. (36) When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (37) Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. (38) Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

I think sometimes my compassion for the lost is only surface level. I don't think this attitude is intentional. It's like when you see those commercials for orphans that are always sad and depressing, but then you get distracted and kind of forget about them. I think I can be a little compassion ADD, if you will. My heart DOES break for the lost, but when it comes to doing something, I'm scared, too busy, or just plain lazy. I need to start working towards being one of the workers in this plentiful harvest. People ARE hungry. People ARE lost and they ARE looking for something to fill the void in their heart. So many times they turned to the wrong things, how many of those times was it possible for us, as the workers, to possibly prevent some of that? I know I need to make more of a conscious effort.

I'm so excited that this summer I'll be somewhat forced to learn to deal with my fear and laziness when it comes to talking to people. It's really hard for me to maintain friendships. I've been burned a lot in the past with friends who only want to talk and not listen. They ended up sucking the life out of me. It's a stronghold I need to get past because not everyone is going to do that to me and I need to give people a chance before I label them. I really hope that my friendship building skills grow a lot this summer and I'll kind of learn how to do that all over again. I know that I have friends now that would be here for me in a heartbeat. Sometimes I just have a hard time realizing it.

Anyways... that was a really random tangent at the end. Isn't it fun when God leads you to a passage to make you realize something else in the chain of events of your mind? lol.

A little sidenote.

This is my address and the place I'm staying in Australia.
42 Denison St.
Newcastle NSW 2303

Our hostel: newcastlebackpackers.com

Seeing the hostel got me more excited about going. We're just a few blocks from the beach too, I'm really excited to spend time with God by the ocean... it was so much fun to do that during Spring Break, so I'm ready to do it again for sure!

:)