When I fail to prepare myself and the things around me, it actually prevents my ability to love on others.  If I am feeling empty- I have nothing to give.  If my house isn’t at least moderately straightened- I would hate for someone to drop in and therefore I would miss that chance to listen and love on them.  If I haven’t bought groceries for my family- mealtimes and snack times become extremely stressful.  You see the pattern.  Please don’t hear me saying that ministry and loving on others is something that flows from perfection.  That is totally not the case.  But be prepared.  Do your part.  That’s what I am telling myself these days.  I don’t want to miss out on what God wants for my days.  If I am constantly playing catch-up, how can I be proactive for His kingdom?

I have been hearing God call me to come away with Him, to retreat.  And He’s been waking me up early this week.  So I believe that is Him saying get up early, before everyone else, come away with me and let me fill you.  What better way to start it off right?  So, this means I need to go to bed at a decent time.  It’s that whole thought process of our day beginning at bedtime the night before.  I need to prepare for the day ahead by going to bed at the right time so that I am rested.  Prepare.

I believe that Satan uses my need for perfection to distract me.  I have to learn to reject that.  I have to live in freedom, choose freedom!  My house, my life, my looks- they don’t have to be perfect!  If I really thought that way, I would never be ready to live in community with others around me.  I would be walking around with barriers so high that no one could ever get through.  So I reject those thoughts- even now as I am writing this!  True community with others isn’t something that we can just find- we have to create it.  Walk in love.  Walk in acceptance.  Walk in preparedness, knowing that God will give you what you need to offer others.  Authenticity is so much more attractive to others.  It actually allows others to accept themselves as well! I need to know and understand my identity in Christ, so that I can help others understand theirs.  Prepare.

Just like the lyrics of the song say,

Oh Lord, give us new hearts
And new minds
For Your glory
May Your name be lifter higher
And higher and higher

We prepare the way
We prepare the way of the Lord

it’s in our correct thinking and rightful living that we bring Him glory and prepare the way for Him to work!  We must live in wholeness; not settling for brokenness.  He calls us out of that.  He doesn’t want it for us- it isn’t His plan.  He desires for us to know who He sees us as and created us to be.  So, don’t let Satan have victory.  Live in wholeness.  Reject lies.  Allow God to restore you in the way He made you.  Ask God who He says you are and what He says about those lies.  Prepare yourself.  Allow Him to give your a new heart and a new mind toward things…. this is preparing the way for the Lord!  Don’t you love that!  It’s not in your sacrifice that He gets the glory- it’s in your wholeness!  That’s precious!  What a good God!

So, let’s prepare!

in my heart and mind i know it has no power, no victory.  but for the past week i have had a hard time aligning my thinking with that.  it changes you forever.  it’s tough.  it leaves a void.  it leaves brokenness.  it leaves injury.

my sweet friend, Becka, went to be with the Lord a week ago.  our community is grieving. she loved people well.  she brought life and comfort wherever she was.  she brought people into her life with ease.  she really loved well.  and she left behind three amazing, precious children.  my heart breaks for them.

death makes you evaluate things.  death makes you evaluate your own life.  what would people have to say when I am gone?  am i living well?  am i loving well?  am i making a difference for the kingdom and walking faithfully to what the Lord is calling me to?

satan comes to kill, steal and destroy.  he is trying to do that around us.  his presence is evident.  but the victory isn’t his.  victory over sin and death belongs to the Lord alone.  so, in the midst of death, i look to the Lord.  i lean there.  i rest there.  i sit there when i seriously don’t know what else to do.  my head tells me i should fix this.  but the Lord says just be with me, wait on me, see what i can do with this.  he alone can turn beauty from ashes.  he alone.  with death comes new life.  what new life will come from this?

Becka is with Jesus and dancing in the streets of heaven.  one day again, we will dance with her.  one day.

Snow was so much fun!  i laughed so hard with my kids and neighbors playing it the snow.  it will forever be a treasured day in my memory.  i love laughing.  i love laughing with people.  i love laughing with my kids!

just a few shots for you to enjoy.  please notice the incredible igloo my hubs built!  he’s a stud! (see pics)

God is really calling me to position myself so that I can receive from Him- remember that?  It really is just this reoccuring theme- which is how I know it’s the Lord.  He’s constantly reminding me that it’s not Him that isn’t showing up- He’s constant, unchanging, ever-present.  I am the one that needs to show up.  I need to ready myself to listen, to share, to just be with Him. (read on)

So, Galatians…..  Chapter 1.  It’s Paul talking.  Paul has an interesting story to me anyway.  He was a mighty man of God.  Seriously- endured some really hard things in His name.  But he wasn’t always that person.  He had been the one to persecute and harm those who believed before Jesus called his heart to Him.  So, he really understood.  I think there is just something so powerful about redemption and knowing what you have been rescued from.  How could you not share?

In versus 11-12, Paul is saying the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man, now was I taught it, but I received it through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Don’t you just love that?  Seriously, it really moved me.  The Gospel- the Good News- isn’t just stories that we should listen to and just believe man.   Which is where a lot of people reside.  So many depend on their pastor or their spiritual giant to interpret and teach them the scriptures.  But, Paul says, what I am sharing isn’t from that at all- but it’s what the Source has taught me- Jesus is the Good News.  Jesus is the Gospel.

Also, it resounded that it is my responsibility alone to seek His word & Him so that He can reveal Himself to me.  It’s that whole position yourself to receive thing.  It also takes the pressure off of those in discipleship relationships.  As the one discipling- it is our responsibility to teach & equip them on how to position themselves to receive from the Lord.  But that Truth isn’t received through you- it’s received through the revelation of Jesus Christ.  He is the True Source!  And it’s not fostering that co-dependent relationship of them needing you to bring them to Jesus and you needing them to define your success.  It’s each person’s responsibility to position themselves to receive the revelation of Jesus Christ!  Man, I love that!

In verse 15, Paul is telling of how God had called him, set him apart, even in his mother’s womb.  God was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.

Don’t you want that confidence in who God has called you to be?  Don’t you want to know the reason He wants you in the family?  Don’t you want to know specifically the work He has made you for?  I sure do!  I want to walk in that total confidence in my identity in Christ and my role in the Kingdom.  It comes through an intimate relationship with the Lord.  It is listening well to Him speaking.  Paul knew what the Lord wanted for his life and confidently moved forward in that role.  He didn’t question or doubt.  I just love his total abandonment to the call.

Also in the book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), God tells Jeremiah that He called him before he was born to do a special work for God.  So, that’s two cases specifically in the Bible of God doing that- so why would we think He wouldn’t be doing that now?

It tugs on me to seek God out  as to what special work has God called me to?  (And I really feel like I am moving into that place, like it’s upon me.)  What has he called Gabe to?  each of my kids?  I need to pray for those thing to be revealed to them.  I need to speak into their potential.  I want to help give them a vision and understanding of God’s calling and encourage them to seek Him out.  I want them to learn to listen to Him well and find their purpose and direction there.  Our identity is there with Him.  Who else would I want to receive it from but the one who created me, rescued and redeemed me?  Amazing love.

So, what about you?  Are you positioning yourself to receive?  What are you hearing?  If not, what is hindering you from it?  Just try it.  It’s a practice- something we will get better at each time.  So, just try it.  Don’t be afraid or intimidated.  Sit.  Listen.  Ask.  Earnestly ask.  And wait for Him to show up.  You know He’s there- so wait.  I pray you have sweet time hearing from the Lord today!

i am drinking it in.  fall is coming.  and i couldn’t be more welcoming.  seriously, what is better than cool morning, coffee, refreshing temps throughout the day that beckon lunch picnics and digging in the yard, kids playing outside without complaining of how hot it is, pumpkins, mums, and let’s not forget pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks!  i’m excited just writing that list! 

i really love the change of seasons.  i’m really thankful that God was creative enough to give us 4 seasons and to live in a place that actually experiences all 4!  i think it’s part of the creativeness He puts in us that can so relate to the need for change, for something different.  it doesn’t mean i have to move every time i get bored.  He has enabled me to make a difference right where I am at.  and i love it.  i love getting to think about, plan and actually make my surroundings better.  i love being a wife & mom in that way too.  i love that we get to live intentionally.  we are not just floundering around trying to dodge whatever comes our way and just make it through.  but God has empowered us.  He has enabled us.  that’s just good stuff.

so, today, Lord, how do you want to make a difference in those around me?  in my neighborhood?  thank you for giving me purpose and Your power to accomplish great things.  i don’t want to miss out.  i want to see your kingdom come.  i want to see the goodness and great things that You have promised you will do.

and today- i am enjoying my coffee, my pumpkins, my mums outside.  i’m enjoying my kids who are amazing me at every turn.  i am enjoying the chill of the morning and the excitement it brings to my life.  and i bless You Lord because of it.  You awaken my spirit in ways that only You can.  You draw me in and confirm your presence in this crazy world we live in.  so, i bless You!  thank you for being present.  thank you for meeting with me.

Ephesians 1:18-23:  18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Whew!  good stuff, right?  we are identified with Christ, through His death and resurrection.  well, in my family, what I have you have.  and it’s that way with God.  what He has He offers freely to us.  not only that, He wants us to represent Him in His fullness- His power, His authority.

so…. what does it mean to you to position yourself to receive the Holy Spirit?  and i am speaking of a daily thing. practically, what does that look like?  and I am sincerely asking because this is something that i am working through with the Lord.  but i believe it to be one of those foundational things.

for me, right now, i believe the Lord is calling me to slow down.  be available to just sit and listen.  commune with Him.  hear from Him.  how can you hear and receive if you aren’t willing to sit with Him?  i also believe He’s calling me to receive my power, affirmation & identity from Him. those are all huge things!  and lastly, i believe he’s calling me to control my “appetites” in areas- practicing control and contentment.

obviously, these are not things that you just do once and check off the list.  these are daily intentions, patterns, focuses.  but i hope that going after them will help me hear from the Lord.  because i want more of Him.  i want all He’ll give me!  and He promises to meet me there.

jeremiah 29 13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul 14 I will make myself available to you, says the Lord.

One of the things that came up to me through the teaching was the thought of my mental diet.  Mike (the guy teaching us) mentioned that when we are looking to others for our worth or some source of self-fulfillment, then we have a poor diet.  It really resounded with me.  I’m always talking to my kids about a healthy balanced diet.  So, it worked in my brain to equivocate praise from others with simple sugars- like dessert or fruit.  They are very yummy and tasty, and not even a bad thing in small quantities.  And there is that immediate, quick gratification.  But in an hour or so- I’m hungry again.  It’s not a sustaining diet.  It’s one that won’t feed my being for long.  But, then there’s the protein.  The good stuff.  That’s what Christ is in my life.  He’s the one that sustains.  He’s the one that grows me up.  He’s the one that feeds my bones, my soul, my spirit.  And He feeds me so that I can help feed others.  As a mom, if my diet made me weak- I would not be a good wife, mom, friend, daughter.  But when I feed on the true manna, I can have an impact on the world around me.

So, what’s your diet like?  Are you finding true sustenance?  Or are you getting fat on the quick fills?  See out the true giver of life and allow Him to fill you today!