Batteries Required

"Batteries Required. Not Included"
There is nothing more frustrating than bringing home a product you are ready to use, only to realize that you failed to notice this "minor" detail.
Especially when it calls for a 9 volt, or "D" battery...the ones you never have on hand.
And so, you pull it out and pretend to use it, right?
Or...you try to generate your own power to make it operate, right?

Yeah...let's hope not.

You either drive back to the store, or you stick the product back in the box until you can get a hold of the necessary power source.
Why? Because batteries are required.
Necessary.
It just won't work without them.

Have you ever asked this question of yourself:
"Do I live a life that requires God?"

Think about it.

If the Spirit of God was removed from your life, is there anything that you are striving for, involved in, attempting, believing for, etc., that absolutely could not be accomplished with human effort alone?

I know this seems a drastic scenario, but it is one that has made me look at my life through the honest lens of the Holy Spirit.
All too often, I begin with the best intentions, seeking to fill my life with God things-not just good things-but then, I set out to accomplish them apart from Him.

I forget so easily that being a true disciple of Christ isn't just about trusting Him to impart the plan; it's also about trusting Him to impart the power to accomplish it.
Otherwise, bringing the plan to fruition gives glory to me rather than God.

I believe Him for the revealing the way, then I default to trusting my own will to walk it out.

Comfort zone.
Safety net.
Failsafe.
Operating from that place of, "Just in case God doesn't show up, I will be ok."
Face saved, and all that.

It just seems simpler and safer to live a life that doesn't require a power source.
That is...only if you enjoy living in the dark.
But God calls us out of that confusing, powerless, comfortable place:
"for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."(Ephesians 5:8)
Light.
Power.
Holy Spirit required kind of living.

How can I be content with living a life that minimally requires the presence and power of the One True Living God?

Even worse...how can I be content living a life that repeatedly functions without Him altogether?

I want to live a life that requires all that He is replacing all that I am.
I want to live a life that screams "Impossible!",  so the world sees that, "With God all things are possible."(Luke 1:27)
I want my life to shout HIS glory, not mine.

I want to live a life labeled: "Holy Spirit Power required."
A life that just won't work without Him.

"Let all those that seek and require You rejoice and be glad in You; 

let such as love Your salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified!"

Psalm 40:16(AMP)

My Chained Heart

"My heart is chained to the unchainable Jesus."

This statement by Louie Giglio at Passion 2012 has been planted deeply inside my spirit.

Who would think that a statement about being chained could be the
catalyst of freedom,
of life for these dry bones?

But my destiny, my purpose is not chained
to what I was,
what I've done,
my failures,
my losses,
my insufficiency...
NO!

My destiny, my purpose is chained to the
Grace-Giving,
Failure-Forgiving,
Always-Winning,
More than Enough God that I love!

I don't have to try live my life FOR victory...I have the privilege to live my life FROM victory because I am a daughter of the King!

I have chained myself to the unchainable Jesus!

 John15:5 

"...Apart from me, you can do nothing."

So what HAVE you chained yourself to?
addictions,
wrong beliefs,
circumstances,
acts against you,
actions by you,
the past,
the future,
...and the list could go on and on and on...

Let it go! Grab onto His Grace! Move the chain!
Learn to remain....remain in Jesus!

So what WILL you chain yourself to?

Bishop T.D. Jakes speaks to this truth-in his own unique way- in this clip from "Let Them Walk"...see for yourself...

Chain yourself to Freedom.
Chain yourself to Victory.
Chain yourself to Peace.
Chain yourself to Wisdom.
Chain yourself to Truth.
Chain yourself to Love.
Chain yourself to Power.
Chain yourself to Healing.
Chain yourself to Deliverance.
Chain yourself to the Lover of Your Soul.
Let the rest of it WALK!

Chain yourself to the unchainable Jesus!

Tweet/Post this: "My heart is chained to the unchainable Jesus."@louiegiglio #forHisglory

9/11 Remembering What I Felt...

I usually don't remember a lot about how I felt on any particular day.
Maybe what I experienced, but rarely the specifics of what I felt.

But then, something happens that sears a feeling into your core, into your mind, into your memory....and thats what happened on September 11, 2001.

I have always remembered what happened that day, what I was doing...but I don't aways let or allow myself remember what I felt...to go to that tender place in my memories.

This year, as I was doing a unit study about the events of that day in our Homeschool, I thought about getting out my journal from that time to see if it might help convey my heart during that time to my children.
I had never re-read what I wrote.
But when I did, it brought back not just memories, but deep seated feelings that had flooded over me that September 10 years ago, as a 24 year old wife, mother of 2 (at the time), seeking my place and way in the world and His Kingdom...

What follows is that journal entry from Friday, September 14, 2011...my first after the attacks:

"I have so much sadness inside of me...I just don't know how to let it out.
I feel at times as though I could cry for days, other times I just want to scream, others times I could do it all at once.
Our nation has been attacked...but more than that, our spirits have taken a blow.
I keep taking deep breaths to try to get it all out, and it just can't reach deep enough.
This is affecting me in a way I just cannot explain.
And I know that it has only just begun!
God show me, reveal to me what it is that You want me to know, what it is You want me to do!
How do You want me to change?
How do You what me to react?
Right now I am scared.
I am sad.
I am mad.
I am overwhelmed.
I am so many things that I can't put into words.
But I feel them.
I definitely feel them.
I am drawn to the stories and the pictures. I can't pull myself away.
I sing constantly in my mind. I feel like it's the only way to push through...I feel like I can get it out that way.
The words that flow from my mouth comfort my heart and my mind.
Thank you Lord for song, for words that can be lifted to You in praise, in longing, in thanksgiving.
You restore me through the gift you've bestowed on me.
How precious, how priceless.
Your love is so great!
I know Your arms are all around me.
You call me to Your lap to sit for a while and I settle in the comfort of Your never-ending, ever reaching, constant and healing love.
Thank you Jesus for holding me for more than just a little while.
Thank you for understanding that it feels so hard to smile.
The emptiness that seems to grow is something that only you can touch...with You only will it fade.
I praise You Lord for Your comfort.
Thank You for healing and caring about my fears.
Jesus, please help me to hold You through them, to know that You are greater and stronger than anything I could ever encounter.
God, please show me- clearly and surely- what You want FROM me, what You want FOR me!
Speak to me loudly and clearly, Jesus!
I want to know You more!
Use me Jesus!
Amen."

So on this tenth anniversary, I will remember.
I will remember what happened that day...what I felt that day...what others may have felt and experienced...
I will remember what the Lord planted in my spirit that day and I will nurture it further so that the life and fruit He desired to see in me as a result of it all will be evident...so it will bring Him glory...so it will make Him obvious!

I flipped back a page and saw the last pre-9/11 journal entry:

"Be open! Sometimes God doesn't change your circumstances; He changes you!!"

Wow.
Choose to remember how you felt that crisp blue-skied day of Septmeber 11, 2001... and let it fuel your passion to press into the Lord and go forward with a battle cry to further His Kingdom in the face of whatever may be on your horizon!
And I will never take for granted the opportunity to do so.

Yes, I will remember.

 Spread His Word, Tweet/Post this:
#IWillRemember #IWillMakeGodObvious #911

In the Course of Time

1 Samuel 1:20
"So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, 'Because I asked the lord for him.'"

Every step of faith, every breath we utter a petition before the Lord, we must realize that there is a course of time.
God ordained the course of time for human pregnancy and birth.
We understand that and accept it because it is known.
It is generally understood that nine months are needed to grow and birth a baby...

But what about the thing you have gone to God about and have fully believed him for and have been assured it will be provided, yet the pregnancy lingers on?

These are the days, months and years that weigh heavy...because we do not see the end in sight.
We don't have a pregnancy calendar or tracker to tell us what developmental stage the thing we are giving birth to is in...we simply must move forward each day in FAITH.
We must keep making choices that bring health, life and growth to the promise that was planted in us, that we carry deep in our bellies, so that we are ready for labor and birth and the LIFE is to follow!

Faith that there was a planting.
Faith that the seed is growing.
Faith that labor will begin.
Faith that birth will happen and we will survive it.
Faith that it's life will be gloriously God's......all in the course of His time.


Tweet/Post this:
Make faith choices 2day that bring life n growth 2 specific promises God has planted in you. #trustHistiming

Reluctant Beggar

I am a reluctant beggar.
And my guess is maybe you are, too.

It may be pride that stands in our way. It may be a sense of duty that rises up and convinces us to try harder, telling us that with just a little more effort we can see those results, find those solutions.

It is so easy to seek our own answers to our places of need, our areas of infirmity.
Try everything else...then maybe Jesus.
Healing and restoration seem so far out of reach that we never even come to the place where begging is even an option.
Our hearts cry out,
"Jesus isn't in this place of struggle! Jesus is too far away from my point of need!"

We fail to stop, look and listen in that place to recognize Jesus as He moves into this area of need in our life.

"And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed."
Matthew 14:35-36

The life changing encounter these people ultimately begged for all began at the point of recognition. Recognition positioned them to cry out for, then receive the healing.

Recognition led to
Declaration led to
Action led to
His presence led to
Desire led to
Petition led to
Healing.

When is the last time that I begged, petitioned for Jesus?

Do I want Him so badly that I beg for Him...that I will do whatever it takes to get nearer to Him because I know that He is the answer to my need and desperation?
That kind of longing only comes out of someone who KNOWS the reality of the very thing they are begging for...they cannot live without it...they are determined to not live without it!

Desiring, craving Him because you know nothing else will do...

The moments in which I find myself swept away first and foremost in the "doing" of ministry, of life, of kingdom living...those are the moments I find myself a reluctant beggar.

I cannot recognize a face I am not looking for.
I cannot declare truth I haven't take time to know.
I cannot take action when I resist receiving direction.
I miss out on the sweetness of His presence when I am constantly choosing to go my own way.
I dilute my desire when I pass by those moments of encounter.
I become a reluctant beggar.
I come in the proximity of healing yet never receiving it.

Wherever you are, Jesus is there.
Whatever need you have, His provision is far better than your best intentions and self sufficient strategies.

Beg for Him.
Beg for Him!

I want my life to be marked by my desperation for more and more and more of Jesus.
I want my life to unashamedly beg and plead for the Father to reveal and pour more of Himself out to me and in me.

What about you?
No more reluctant beggar.


Tweet or post this:
I want my life to be marked by my unashamed desperation for more and more and more of Jesus. #NoMoreReluctantBeggar #ForHisGlory

The Night Before the Step of Faith

"Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!' 'Here I am', he replied. Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering...' Early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey." 
Genesis 22:1-3

I wonder what it must have been like. 
The night before, God tells Abraham to go sacrifice, aka kill, his precious son...and then Abraham has to go to bed.
What? 
That had to be one crazy night! 
I can imagine that night was a night of an epic battle between spirit and flesh...heart and head...seen and unseen....
Faith versus sight went head to head during the night. 
Thats probably why it says he got up early the next morning....because he wasn't sleeping anyway!....
...or was he?...

Abraham was obviously a man of stellar faith, but he was also human. 
Did he simply take God at His word, no questions asked, and sleep like a log that night?
Or did he plead through the wee hours of the night for God to choose, or to find another way?
But, here's the thing...in the end, no matter how he spent the night, it's what happened when the sun crept above the horizon that matters:

He loaded his donkey. 

When it was time to move, he moved. 

When it was time to step out in faith, he stepped. 

He may have been bright eyed and bushy tailed, or he may have been baggy eyed and sleep deprived...but...in faith he began the journey. 

Maybe it was in those wee hours that God, in His sovereignty, also began the journey of a certain ram up a specific mountain called Moriah. 

Maybe it was in those wee hours that provision had already begun making its way to the exact place and time of need.

The night was that time in-between time where we wrestle with the choice to remain on the path of faith,
where we seek the face of God for a glimmer of understanding, 
where we live through the discomfort of the necessary alignment of our flesh with His perfect unsearchable will...
where we see the near daybreak of the realty of what we must do, and we wonder......

Can I really load that donkey? 

Because that, well that makes the trip real. 
That puts feet to the command. 

Early the next morning. Early the next morning. Early the next morning.

Abraham didn't know exactly what God would do or would not do.
But I am sure he rested in the fact that he knew God...and that was enough. 

He had only to release his faith and he knew God would do what needed to be done because only God really knew what that need was anyway. 

So Abraham did what he knew to do...he loaded the donkey.

How will I choose to emerge from the night in-between the call/the command and the step out in faith? 

Will the doubt of the in-between time be victorious and cause me to sleep in? 

Will I get distracted when my feet hit the floor?
Or
Will I prepare and load the donkey for the specific journey of faith to which He has called me?

Will I focus more on my lack of rest than on my position of being just outside the circle of obedience? 
Or 
Will I care enough to plunge into that obedience regardless of what my flesh may say or likely experience?

Who God is. 
THAT is my strength, my focus, my drive.

"Here I am."

I have only to step out in faith. 
To obey.

Time to wake up and load the donkey.

Tweet/Facebook this: 
Who God is.THAT is my strength,my focus, my drive.He is enough...enough for me to step out in faith n obey. #forhisglory