Heart/Head

Hey,

I enjoy 1 minute awesome teaching from wise people of God, whilst passing in corridors. I grabbed hold of one of those moments, and began reflecting on it today when I went away. 

It went like this...

- "How was your trip?"

* "Fab, it makes me sad leaving."

- "Your heart's going there isn't it?"

* "Yeah, is that a bad thing?"

- "No, but sometimes you need to lead your heart not just follow it."

* "What do you mean?"

Then Proverbs 3:5-6 was quoted to me.

"Trust in the Lord with all you heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take."

There are three things packed into that verse that were revealed to me:

1)TRUST

2)Don't try and do it alone!

3)God will keep you on track.

• Trust. We have to trust God, trust that He knows best, that He can help and that He will help us in whatever we're facing. But in this case, God was teaching me about timing. If I was following my heart, I would probably be in a different place or even a different country tomorrow! But sometimes we have to lead our hearts through trusting God's timing, and acknowledging that He knows best! (All comes down to trust!)
• When we trust God, we will realise we don't have to do it alone, or feel like we have to make things happen, or even worry about the future. Things that you think about in the future may be rooted in what you're learning now, however, these all need to be surrendered to God's timing, no matter how big or small they are, or how near or distant they seem. He can figure out the next step, and let us in on it when it's the right time, we can just enjoy the lessons of today with Him.

God has amazing plans for our lives. He will 'make our path's straight.' We need to step in and live out these plans, instead of spending too much time worrying about them! Any worry is from a place of fear and insecurity and we know that "perfect love casts out fear" (1John 4:18) Our God is ever-lasting! 

Lets learn to lead our hearts, by building a connection between our head and our hearts, with God. 

Phillipians 4:6

"Do not worry about anything, instead pray about everything."

Building this connection comes from investing time into the quiet place with God, becoming more in tune with His moves and His words, and learning lessons with Him.

The Bible says, pray about everything...everything! That's a lot of topics to choose from. God can drop things into your heart to pray for, and perhaps one topic could be your future. But remember everything... means everything. So, with any little worry that's hidden away, expose it and chat about it to God. 

Let the exciting adventures begin and press in! 

I'm sure there will be more posts on heart/head. It's a connection worth exploring.

C.

Survival Guide

Hey!


This post is inspired from an epic texting session me and my AP had the other day! Hope you enjoy!


Basically, God really sparked something in me a few days ago. He revealed to me that I need to throw out the survival guide.


Huh?
Yeah, that was my response too. 


Let's rewind, and start with the text. You know when you're speaking/texting/writing or whatever, and the words just flow and you end up with an EPIC revelation that by no means you could have come up with yourself? Well, this was that kind of situation, God showed up while I was texting.


He said this to my AP, but I believe that this is relevant for all of us!


"YOU have a calling on your life.
 YOU need to realise that you're significant.
 YOU need to stop comparing your walk with me to other's walks, because no two journeys are the same.
 YOU need to realise and believe that I have put something in you that the world needs."


Now to the crux of the text message that sparked this new revelation about survival guides (It will make sense at some point, and yes... it was a long text!)


"OPEN UP. LOOK UP. SPILL OUT."


That's the key. We need to be open to God, we need to look to Him and we will spill Jesus out. So, how did I get from that to the survival guide?

Well, God said, "You're not just surviving, you're thriving."

    This has really stuck with me. God's been showing me that in certain areas I've taken back control, referred to my own edition of survival guide and tried to fix or work out a situation myself. God's saying we need to depend on Him. We need to lean on Him. 


So that when things get tough, we can realise that God is saying in the midst of it,
 'Open up to Me more.'

When we feel down or 'struggling' God says,
'Lift your eyes to Me.'

When we feel pressured to let people know about God, God says,
 'Remember I spill out of you anyway.'


God created us to thrive and to sing of His name. When we lean on him whole-heartedly we will soak up so much of Him and learn so much, that it would be impossible to not thrive. God is for us. He cheers us on. He has everything we need to not just survive, but to thrive. 


Colossians 3:2


Living the New Life

 ¹ Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. ² Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. ³ For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.(New Living Translation)

I think The Message's translation is cool, check this one out too! 

He Is Your Life
 ^1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.
(The Message)


   It's so easy for us to get 'absorbed' in the activities of our lives, what our challenges are for today and what we need to get ticked off that 'to-do list'. God's convicted me of this recently, there is a bigger picture. He is more than willing to share it with us if we could only lift our eyes to Him, instead of pandering to the circumstances of now.
   When we get so involved and focussed on the 'now' it's easy to feel run down when things crop up or become too much. It's easy to feel like we are just surviving. But God has so much more for us, when we come to this realisation, that is when we thrive. Knowing that God is for us... wow.

And guess what? When we thrive with God, people will notice, and God will open up opportunities to sow into people's lives and tell them The Good News.

C.

Wipe away

Hey!
So God spoke to me this evening, as I was washing my face! I went to scoop some water into my hand and splashed my face, only after the first splash did I remember that I had forgotten to take off my mascara!
It began to stream down my face, like little rivers of black water... ooops. As I looked at my face in the mirror, God said to me: "Take it all off, just wipe it away." 


I was just thinking about this short sentence, what did God mean? I know He meant more than the obvious, so I asked Him. What God was really saying to me, wasn't about the application of make-up necessarily; (although girls, we do need to remember that God made us truly beautiful inside and out, and we should use make up to enhance rather than to hide, more on this in another blog!) but to be aware of the things that I try to 'cover -up' from God. 


God was telling me to take down all the façades, wiping away the illusions I try to create. To just be real and to just be myself with Him. We don't need to 'conceal' any parts of ourselves. God asks us to be completely raw and honest with Him, showing Him and letting Him into all aspects of our lives, even those shadows we can try to hide. He sees it all anyway, so how much better would it be if we let His light illuminate the corners of our lives, so we can begin to see ourselves, our situations and ultimately our lives, the way He does.


So I decided to put this into practice by basically just sitting on my bed telling Him exactly how I felt. Everyone connects with God in different ways, but I wrote it all down. (Writing may not be your way, don't worry! Do whatever it is that helps you connect with God!) I wrote down every last little thing that was fluttering around in my mind, even the faintest flutter of things in the background. You know what, it was great! It was so refreshing to just whack it all down onto paper and then say, okay God what do you say about this stuff? Show me what can/should I do? But basically just laying everything at His feet. Everything. 


I challenge you to try it! Come to God with all that you are, and all that you have, and all that you're carrying and allow Him to give you rest, for He says: "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."(Matthew 11:30) 

C. 

Keep coming back.

Hey there!


Recently I've been listening to Jon Thurlow's tracks over and over again, I've found so much truth and life in these lyrics! Check the song out below, (Just click the little bit below!) and see what God speaks to you about!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NVv2x90XwE


So my blog today is about what God spoke to me through the lyrics of the song above.


"Keep coming back to me."


Amazing.
It's repeated over and over again. I imagine that is what Jesus is saying to us constantly. It's so simple. That's all we have to do. He has EVERYTHING  we could ever need; He already knows what we need, even before we do. Crikey.


So I asked Him why I personally find this difficult to do sometimes? (Encourage you to do the same!) And He said:


-You think you're bothering me.
-You think you should sort out at least some of the situations in front of you, and then let Me do the rest.


Wow. I didn't even know that I thought some of those things! So I had to chat with God more about what they meant...
-God said to me so clearly, "You could never bother me. I always love it when you come back to me. I love it when you chat with me. Always come back to me. Always come home." He says the same to you, we're His children! He loves spending time with us! He loves it! 
-God showed me that in my way of coming to Him, saying 'I've done this bit, could you do this bit' mentality, that I wasn't surrendering my situations completely. I was still hanging on for a smidgen of control. That's not what God's asking us to do. God asks us to lay our lives down completely, the good, the bad and the bits you want to sort out yourself. God sees it all. He's got like the premium TV set, with all the channels of our lives! Surrendering means to lay it all down. And when we don't, we can count on God to remind us to hand it over, because ultimately: GOD KNOWS BEST! Things are going to crop up, but the more we learn to surrender, the more easily we will recognise when we're holding onto something, that we need to lay at Jesus' feet. It's a process, and God can help us with it.

I definitely recommend running into God's arms, and asking Him to show you areas of your life that you're still holding on to. Our pastor today shared this: "Don't nurse your hurts, because it only makes them grow." We need to allow God to show us our hearts as He sees them, and be ready to allow Him to do some work with them.


I'll leave you with this quote:


"You can not mess up His promise, because it's His, you didn't make it."


All He asks is for us to 'Keep coming back to me,' because He has everything we need.


C.

Be Aware.

Recently I've been reading Proverbs with God and the phrase: 'Fear the Lord,' came up a fair few times in my reading. After the first few times, I stopped and questioned it; I wasn't really sure what it meant to fear the Lord? So this post is basically my exploration of this with God. 


The crux of my understanding so far being: Not to be scared of Him. But to be aware of Him.
(I'm sure it's an ongoing one, as He shows me new ways to do this!)

"Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
Proverbs 1:7 


Fearing Him doesn't mean being scared of God, He wants us to be in a relationship with Him, how could we do that being afraid? Fearing God, I think means to be aware of Him, to acknowledge Him in every aspect of our lives, to honour and obey Him.


Fearing God means to acknowledge how awesome He is! That His will should permeate our understanding and views of the world, our heart attitudes and our actions. Everything we do or say should align to His purpose.

So how can we do these things? How about choosing Him... first, everyday?Waking up in the morning and declaring that God and His will is what we choose to seek first today.
God's really put these 3 words on my heart, that I just keep repeating to myself (and repeatedly to a few others!) Seek His face. That's all we have to do, and it's SO much fun!


If we constantly seek His face, and spend time with Him, we will become even more aware of Him and even become more like Him. God's ready to chat to us and share things with us whenever: on the bus, at school, in our rooms in silent, when we're walking the dog... whenever and wherever.


God seeks our hearts:
"Listen! I am standing at your door. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in and we will eat together."
Revelation 3:20

The key is in the "fearing."
Being aware of God. Acknowledging God. Listening to Him.


Consider this: if you 'leave the door of your heart constantly open to God, you won't need to worry about hearing his knock.'




C.
P.s. Just Seek His face. (Okay, 4 words now! :P)

Doodles.

Proverbs 1

A Father’s Exhortation: Acquire Wisdom

 ⁸ My child, listen when your father corrects you.
      Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction.
 ⁹ What you learn from them will crown you with grace
      and be a chain of honour around your neck.

Proverbs 2

The Benefits of Wisdom

 ¹ My child,^[a] listen to what I say,
      and treasure my commands.
 ² Tune your ears to wisdom,
      and concentrate on understanding.
 ³ Cry out for insight,
      and ask for understanding.
 ⁴ Search for them as you would for silver;
      seek them like hidden treasures.
 ⁵ Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord,
      and you will gain knowledge of God.

Proverbs 3

Trusting in the Lord

 ¹ My child,^[a] never forget the things I have taught you.
      Store my commands in your heart.
 ² If you do this, you will live many years,
      and your life will be satisfying.
 ³ Never let loyalty and kindness leave you!
      Tie them around your neck as a reminder.
      Write them deep within your heart.

Hey! (So I've learnt how to put pictures on here...woop! This will be a short but hopefully encouraging blog!)

So one day this week God told me to read Proverbs, so I embarked upon this not exactly sure what to expect... I definitely wasn't expecting what God said next! He told me that... I didn't need to sit down and read this in complete silence!

He told me to read proverbs, and as I went, allow Him to show me pictures/scenes in my mind, and then capture them by asking the Holy Spirit to help me express that visually. I had done this before, (but awhile ago!)  so I was SO happy to be learning about God and His word in this way. 

It made me smile that God was reminding me to use the gifts He's put inside of me, as worship to Him. He removed the box that I had put up, trying to contain strategies about how you should read the Bible and spend time with God. Sometimes, we can do this without even noticing! We can fall into certain patterns or ways of doing things, just because others do it that way, or because it's been a success before. However I believe that God does like to shake it up sometimes! He knows what's going to work for us at different times and in different seasons. 

 He showed me again that He enjoys sharing His creativity with me, and as silly as it sounds...once again reminded me of how well He knows me. He knows us. He knows how we think, how we learn, how we feel, what we enjoy, what excites us, and so on... so why shouldn't we do those things as worship to Him! Open up those doors with God and: 'allow Him to show himself to you in a new way.' We can often say that sentence, but I'm not sure we always live it out, I know I sometimes don't.

So, that's my challenge to you today. God's challenging us to seek Him, so let's have fun finding Him and learning about Him in a completely different way to how we are now. He wants to capture our hearts, and release us into something new in Him... 

C. 

Pass it on...

Hey,


So this post is hopefully going to be an encouragement to you, because God blew my mind with it!
God gave me this new revelation, about revelation yesterday! Basically, He showed me something that I didn't completely understand yesterday, but I knew it was a good lesson! (Everything from God is good!) I knew that God was going to explain it more, but I wasn't sure when and what it meant for me completely...


So, I went about my day as usual, until later that evening I had an amazing but spontaneous conversation with an awesome woman of God, in which God did something completely new! I wasn't having to think of what to say when it came to be my turn to speak and give advice; the Holy Spirit was stirring and just providing me words, there was no effort on my part, it wasn't head knowledge that I had just collated from other experiences, I believe it was heart knowledge spilling out. It wasn't until after the phone call, when I spent a few moments just reflecting on the conversation, that I realised what God had done. God had taken the heart knowledge he planted earlier in that same day and then got me to speak it out to this girl because she needed it too! 


God provoked me to question the way I perceived the concept of revelation. As I though about it, in the past whenever God's showed me something or taught me something, its been a habit for me to ponder on it for awhile before sharing it with others. I'd usually just think about for awhile or so, praying and reading the bible trying to figure out what it means more... when actually in my pondering I could be missing opportunities for God to use me to bring his breakthrough for someone else! Of course I'm not saying that sometimes this it isn't necessary to pray into something first before sharing it, but it's made me realise that perhaps we should seek God's purpose for sharing certain knowledge with us first, and ask Him if anyone else needs to hear this too and if so, who needs to know it.


So basically, my new revelation, is the fact that new revelation isn't any less than revelation you've had a while ago. It doesn't mean we have to hang on to new revelation for awhile before we can share it! Revelation is revelation. We should pass on whatever knowledge we have to whoever needs it... regardless of whether we have had it for long or only understand some of it! Because if its from God and it needs to be said, then the Holy Spirit can work things out with us! 


Ultimately, I ended up learning more about the revelation He gave me in the first place from sharing it with 
someone else, God's the best multi-tasker right?!


C.