Holy Ghost

Hello everyone! This is a little different than what I normally post, but after watching and rewatching this amazing series, I felt compelled to promote these films as truly displaying the heart of God, and following the direction of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Ghost is just one of many movies filmed by Darren Wilson from WP Films. Other movies include; Holy Ghost Reborn, Father of Lights, Furious Love, and Finger of God. These movies are amazing for many reasons but first, for their unusual approach to filming. All their movies are Holy Spirit led, what do I mean by this? They literally get their cameras and ask the Holy Spirit to take them on a journey, and as you will see…he doesn’t disappoint! God takes them, and you, on a journey into His heart and His will for mankind. Be ready to have your eye’s opened and your spirit set on fire for a deeper relationship with God.

I’m promoting these movies because they have no agenda but to follow God and ask Him what He wants to show the world. Our God can’t be put in a box, and He proves this time and again by stepping outside our expectations and challenging us to go deeper. These films are filled with miracles and God encounters that truly ignite passion. Even in areas we don’t fully understand, we find ourselves dreaming with God, willing to explore new possibilities with Him.

I know a lot is going on right now, with New Years and it’s resolutions on our minds. Having the resolution to ‘work out’ is great, but the greatest thing we can do with each new year is go deeper with Him, seek out the heart of God for next year and thank Him for everything this year. Declare here and now, that no matter what this year held for you, next year will be better, full of joy and blessing and greater intimacy with God.

Sometimes we need to see through someone else’s eye’s what is possible. These movies might just do that for you. They did for me.

Advertisement

Hope Is Here

Driving through town, there are many Christmas lights to enjoy, as well as brightly lit Nativity Scenes, where Jesus looks warm and snug in a manger and Mary and Joseph appear quite content and nicely dressed. The animals are smiling and you may even spot an angel and wise men happily peering at baby Jesus. It’s a perfect picture, but is it an accurate one?

The truth is, the manger was cold and possibly wet, Mary was afraid and suffering the pains of her first childbirth. Joseph most likely felt just as uncomfortable and maybe even a bit inadequate as the head of the family, being unable to find a warm dry place for Mary at this critical time. The cute little wooden stable that we see in every nativity scene was most likely a dark cave in real life. A place full of camels, donkey’s, and oxen, doing things that animals do. Mary had to keep Jesus off the ground so he wouldn’t get cold let alone stomped on, the only thing within site was the animals feeding trough. “At least the hay would be fresh and dry,” Mary probably thought. They had no idea wise men were on their way to bless them, no idea that soon after they would have to flee for their son’s life. That is the true Nativity Scene.

It isn’t pretty, but that doesn’t make it less important. If anything, it add’s to the story, to know just what God agreed to. Jesus was worthy of royal robes and a throne, and yet he came into the world naked and placed in a feeding trough. We later see Jesus serve many people, even though he is worthy of being served. He bends down and washes his disciple’s feet….and soon after, he gives up his life on the cross for our sake. That baby in a manger, shivering and crying…is the Savior of the world.

My pastor talked about this recently at church, how we don’t value “hope” until we find ourselves in hopeless situations. Hope becomes a strength in times when it seems the storms of life won’t relent. It is this hope that transforms lives, despite circumstance. It seems only fitting, that hope would be born into a very hopeless world. The wise men weren’t turned away by the scene before them. The smell of the animals is probably what helped them find Jesus once they made it into town. They recognized hope, the prophecy they had been waiting for had come. And so they bowed before Jesus and gave him gifts to honor him in a place without honor.  Hope is here.

I don’t know what emotions Christmas brings to the surface for you. I know of many who mourn during Christmas the loss of loved ones. I know of others who find Christmas stressful and depressing. And other’s still who absolutely love Christmas. No matter who you are, there is one thing I want to leave you with. Hope. Christmas may be hard, stressful, or depressing…but it is important. It is the day hope came into the world. It is that hope which is still yours to take and cling to. That because of Jesus we can truly live, and one day be with him forever. No one can take this hope from you.

 

Hope is Here

 

She felt the rain, as it fell

In sheets of freezing cold

She felt the pain increasing

And fear took hold her soul

 

The place where she was laying

Was dirty, wet, and cold

A realization shaping

This was just as foretold

 

Just as the rain was slowing

A cry rang through the night

Baby Jesus, fragile and thin

Reaching, clinging, alive

 

She wrapped him in a shawl

As he began to shake

Praying, hoping, crying

That he would be okay

 

That’s how the story happened

No warm lit lullaby

No clean and dry stable

The night Hope had arrived

 

Born To Fly

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

-Isaiah 40:31

 

Why did God create creatures that fly? Was it just to amaze us, or was it to show us that anything is possible with Him? When mankind first saw a bird take flight, its wings lifting it effortlessly into the sky, a thought, a dream, rose from within that asked, “why can’t I?”

Today that same sky is streaked with lines from airplanes and jets. But we didn’t stop there. Beyond the sky, we saw the moon and stars and we decided that if we could conquer the sky, we could surely reach a little higher. And today, after men stepped foot on the moon and have even lived in a space station, we are still reaching. What’s beyond that? What is beyond our universe?

I believe that God placed things within sight in the hopes that we would challenge ourselves and dare to reach. When we wonder about God, we are reaching! Reaching into His heart, hoping to discover more. Maybe space isn’t the final frontier…maybe it’s the heart of God we should be striving to know, to explore and uncover. He is so multi-faceted and all-knowing, there is much of Him still unknown to us, much we couldn’t even fathom. And yet, just like the birds, moon, and stars, He has placed Himself within reach, are we desperate enough to stretch, or are we content being earthbound?

I’m afraid of heights, but I love the view from the top. Thing’s become clearer, you see a bigger picture and it’s so beautiful that it takes your breath away. Sometimes it can be scary, reaching into someone generally involves being vulnerable yourself. But then you discover who they really are, their dreams and passions, and a new level of intimacy and understanding wells up in your soul and you let go of your fears and continue to climb, eager to discover more.

Marriage is full of discovery. You begin to climb the mountain of understanding the moment you start dating. You navigate your way past their walls and learn the best ways to speak and connect with them. You marry him/her and believe that you have hit the top of the mountain, looking at the beautiful sight that is uniquely them and now uniquely you but then reality sets in, you discover that there is more climbing to do, some areas steep, some rugged, and the top looks as though it goes into the heavens, this is when the real “I Do” comes in but sounds more like, “I Will.” Will you keep climbing for the rest of your life, discovering, learning, and growing closer to your spouse? Will you stagnate, staking a tent and deciding you’re fine right here even if he/she isn’t? Or will you descend thinking, the next mountain won’t be so tall or complicated?

This concept applies to God. You know, we all have as much of Him as we want. When we look at the Greats, the people that are renown prophets, evangelists, or even martyrs we think to ourselves, “God called them to do more for him.” or “He gifted them and chose them to do those things.” The truth? We all have a great destiny, we are all called to be great, to conquer and reign in power. We aren’t qualified, our yes to God qualifies us! And God will call on those who hear Him, those who can be trusted with more. What is He calling you to? What is holding you back?

We were born to fly

You and I

Past the known and charted skies

To the long-awaited prize

Spread your wings

And start to fly

Don’t fear the shrinking world go by

Your real home is very high

What’s gone is past, now say goodbye

We were born to fly

You and I

 

Graduation Day

For the past 2 years, Aaron and I have been enrolled in the Columbus School of Supernatural Ministry, and now, this Sunday the 10^th, we will be graduating. I must say, that if it wasn’t for this class, I wouldn’t have started a blog or even be where I am today spiritually. Most if not all that I have spoken about throughout my blog can be attributed to this school. They taught me about the Father’s heart, the spiritual gifts, and about how to hear God’s voice. I had gone most of my life believing in a silent God, believing that the spiritual gifts died with the apostles. I believed in a limited God, limited by my perceptions of Him. I had basic Biblical and cultural background knowledge of the Bible, but very little knowledge of God’s message to us today. The Bible is very relevant to our society. Its truth doesn’t change with the times, but remains, if anything, more tested and proven through the passage of time.

Before this school, I didn’t know how to hear God’s voice. Now, I know how to discern His voice from my own and I’ve even seen many things through visions that He has chosen to reveal to me. For one thing, I am sure of, the gifts didn’t die with the apostles, and there is no Biblical proof of those gifts being taken. They are specifically paid for by the blood of the cross for us always. We just have only scraped the surface on how to operate in them.

I’ve learned that there are levels of awareness of God’s presence, and in being aware I have experienced greater levels of that presence. I have witnessed and have gotten to take part in healings, have received and given prophetic words and words of knowledge to students that have been proven unexplainably true.

I will give a testimony of one of those words. I asked God for a word of knowledge for the lady in front of me, I won’t give names but she was a lady that I knew very little about. I saw a vision of a flute in a high school band room, the sound of kids in the background. I told her what I saw and asked her if she played flute In high school (the lady before me was in her late 30’s now), she immediately was amazed, “Yes! Oh my goodness! I loved playing the flute.” She wasn’t just being nice, we are taught in school to be honest, and this is just one of many testimonies that have happened in these 2 years.

I don’t know where you stand on this topic, but I want to tell you this. I understand what you are feeling. Before this school, I was uncertain about such things, I was even frightened…we fear what we don’t know or understand. And we hate what we think we understand based on what we have experienced or heard from others. This is what stands behind any racism, and unfortunately, this is what separates many brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus, who for those who believe should stand united, regardless of difference in Biblical interpretations/beliefs. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior you are a brother, a sister, a mother…as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 1:10:

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.”

I merely share my journey of discovery. God has been so good to me, to all of us. What if He is that good? What if He is more good than we realize, that He would test our boundaries of Him and say, “there is even more to me that you have yet to discover!” This school has opened my eyes to this single revelation, there is more. Jesus paid for more. It’s up to us to learn to walk in that more.

Thank you CSSM for changing my life. Thank you, God, for pointing the way and leading us to such a place as this for the sake of us growing in you and having more to pour out onto others.

We are all born for such a  time as this…

Peter’s Poem

I stared upon the blackened deep

But a light was shining onto me

For straight ahead there stood my friend

Hands outstretched, inviting in

I took a step, a leap of faith

Towards my friend out on the lake

Though storms were shrouding me in fear

 The task ahead was very clear

I felt the water lick my toes

And on the tempest fear arose

T’was then that I began to sink

No time to scream, less time to think

But before the waters swallowed me

My dearest friend had set me free

Next thing I knew, I was ashore

Forever changed, forevermore

That friend who fought away my fears

Had saved my life and future years

Now hangs he on a gnarled tree

my dearest friend who died for me…

The Heart of Worship

“The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.”‘

-Isaiah 29:13

Throughout my Christian walk, I have experienced many forms of worship. I grew up in a contemporary non-denomination church band singing with my dad. I’ve always loved singing; it was one of the few things I knew I could do well. But I loved worship more than I loved singing the next new love song as I often did on our karaoke. I wanted to do more than sing for entertainment; I wanted people to experience God on a whole new level. For that to happen, I had to grow as a singer, and only recently have I learned that there is so much more than simply “singing well.”

Someone once told me, “there’s no unseen power going on during worship, it’s merely our emotions being brought to the surface through provoking sounds.” Hearing this, for a while made me think, “am I only stirring up people’s emotions, like any music genre?” I used to stay up late into the night listening to my iPod. I remember the feelings that would arise with each song, feelings that I often hid and learned to vent through music. Some songs would bring passion to the surface, others anger and the most beautiful of all songs brought sadness. Beautiful? In that, they played a song of understanding into places in my heart and life that I did not understand.

Beyond all the emotions I have experienced through music, what I have felt through worship is unparalleled. I can live without secular music, but I can’t live without worship. It’s more than a feeling; it’s a need. And if you don’t know this feeling, it is because you have yet to know what true worship feels like and have yet to fall in love with the one who died for you. For example, when I think of my past, I can’t imagine going back to a time when my husband, Aaron, wasn’t in my life. Nor can I imagine a future without him, nor do I want to. His presence in my life adds so much more to it, to take him away would be to take a piece of my very heart away. He is a part of me. And even more so, God is a part of all of us.

So, is it true? Does music stir up our emotions? Yes, but not only, God works through our passions, but He isn’t limited to that alone. He designed us all to be worshippers. Study the brain, and you will find many things that can be explained scientifically, many that can’t…and yet, both the explained and the unknown are astounding proof of God. It is proven that music, particularly worship does something to the brain, something that can only be tied to our Creator.

Before I knew any of this, I had experienced something entirely new for the first time. I entered a place of worship that was a celebration. All my life, I had looked out upon the congregation from the stage and had seen people as still as statues, some may have raised their hands, others sitting and maybe clapping..but nothing compared to this. I saw dancing, true David-like dancing, some were waving majestic flags, their rippling sounding like thunder. I heard laughter and singing, so much singing I couldn’t make out who was leading the chorus even if I wanted to. And I didn’t want to; it was beautiful. I heard another language I had never heard; it sounded foreign and familiar, an ancient tongue.

Towards the end, I witnessed something that forever shaped my view of worship. I saw someone lift up a golden crown. Presented on a royal pillow, and they lifted it up to God. I had never seen God honored in this way; I had thought honor looked like silence, bowed heads, and stillness….a somber humbleness. And I do believe there is still a time for that. But what of praise? This was praise on a whole new level, a celebration that didn’t care for fear of man. Like David, do you remember the story? When he brought back the Ark of the Covenant that carried the presence of God to its true home, he celebrated! He danced barely clothed in complete abandon, vulnerable before God. And Saul’s daughter was embarrassed by him (2 Samuel 6:14-23). But what did God do, did he side with her? No, he rebuked her and praised David because of his heart.

Since that moment, my eyes have been opened to different levels of worship, just as we experience different levels of awareness of God’s presence. Why does this matter? Why can’t we just stay where we are with worship in the church? You can if you want, I’m not sharing this to say that that form of worship is wrong, remember I grew up with that worship. I believe God cares about the heart of the one worshiping, more than what we do. But, I also believe that what we do is an outward expression of our heart. Test your heart in this…if God asked you to dance before him in front of others would you? If you immediately felt fear at being judged by those around you, then I say to you, the issue isn’t the worship, it’s your heart. You fear man, and because of that, you worship from a place of safety, when God wants you to be free like David. This question should lead you to others such as, “why do I worship the way I do? Is it because I feel led to worship this way or is it because this is what I was taught. Tell me where in the bible does the church find the template for how worship should look and feel?

Again, I’m not here to point fingers; this is a lesson for me to…I’m not quite free myself, I’m just open to the idea of more. I see no biblical context that goes against us praising God freely. The religious spirit craves order and control; they may try and say something along those lines as if it’s from the mouth of God. I won’t go into details about the spiritual gifts and the guidelines to using them, that is another topic…where caution, and proper discernment must be used, but in worship- I believe that should be free and open to the workings of God. What’s at the heart of it? Relationship. If you still are uncertain, if you still seek answers, draw closer to the one who has them. He doesn’t hide things from us, but for us to find, to seek out. However, he doesn’t reveal himself to strangers, take Jesus for example, he spoke in parables saying that only those who are his, who know his voice would understand what he tells them (John 10:27). Therefore seek to know him, and he will reveal things to you.

I just want everyone to be free, if you experience God freely at your church-please don’t feel pressured to change! This is for those who struggle with the fear of conformity and man. Those who want more and want to give God more than they feel they have given. Is God challenging you to take a risk? To be free? That is who I’m writing to. As for my personal walk, what I’ve discovered most, what I want to leave you with is this….worship is more. There is power in worship…power to transform cities, the lives of those around you, the power to transform yourself. What we say and do matters, God see’s it and our heart. Just as faith without works is dead, so is love without action. The more you give, the more you will receive…so, whether you are worshipping in a large crowd dancing, in a small town church pew with your eyes closed, or at home on your knees….God is with you, He always is.

I want to dance, I want to shout for joy, I want to sing to the lover of my soul…because He deserves it and so much more.

S.O.S

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present…”

-Bil Keane

 

Have you ever been stuck in a loop? Or maybe a hole…a very deep hole? Sometimes it seems God loves building up our anticipation so much that he draws it out forever. What I’m saying is that God doesn’t always give us things when we want them, but on His own perfect timing. That timing can be a few weeks or even years for some. He tends to lean His focus on the “journey” more so than the anticipated “destination.” Most of us, I hope, know where we’re ultimately going…but we don’t know what awaits us in the in-between. What is our destiny? And how do we go about fulfilling it?

There’s a question that leaves you thinking! Before I delve further, let’s talk about the loop again. I feel quite stuck in it myself lately. Time seems to slip like sand, my efforts seem to be in vain, and my anticipated career seems out of reach at the moment. I say “career” broadly because I only wish to do what God calls me to. I want to serve in ministry and yet I also want to go on adventures with God, mission trips around the world where I can experience and be a part of His great work. This takes money. Hence, my loop.

It can be a struggle to get ahead. After bills, unexpected costs, and the paying off of debts you are back to square one, which is typically survival. “Gotta keep working so that all this money I earned can be given back.” It’s an ever hungry monster we are all feeding. Chasing after your dream can be like running on a treadmill. You can run faster but it won’t make a difference.

Something good has sprung up from this loop though. I have been forced to stop and ask God, “what is your will?” Shouldn’t I be content to do whatever God calls me to in the moment? Whether it be to work a full-time job, focus on running my business or to simply be still.  I am always filled with the urge to cram meaning and purpose into every part of my life, even the things that are necessary chores of life. I’ve gone and skipped over the journey, the day to day grind, in my haste to see what’s next. It’s like I’ve flipped to the end of a book I haven’t even read all the way. That’s right, I’ve become a spoiler. Spoiling the present gift of life, its up’s and down’s, its moments of fun and its mundane, the very heart of it all.

How do we fulfill our destinies? Well…the journey is what prepares you. If you rush it, like I have, you will miss the lessons and promotions of God. You will flip to the end of your book and find you aren’t ready for what it says because you never grew up. Never learned patience and hard work. Never experienced a day-to-day walk with God.

So, I was planning on writing my SOS to God…but He showed me something else. I’m in a deep hole, and yet all along God has been putting ladders and ropes over the side hoping I will grab them and climb out. I just have to say yes to the journey, every part of it. What is our destiny? I don’t know…it’ll find me, and you…until then, walk with God. He’s never led me astray and I’m content to simply be with Him, memorizing His words and understanding His heart, encountering His presence….intimacy is the key, and nothing is more important than this moment…this present. This Journey.

–Don’t know how to begin a day-to-day walk with God? Start by listening, He is always speaking to you, reaching out. It’s up to us to discover how He wishes to speak to us. Seekers find the treasure. Lately, God has been speaking to me through journaling. I simply read the Bible, just a chapter or so, and then, with pen ready, I ask God what it is He wants to say or highlight to me in His Word. Or if something is in your heart, tell Him and ask Him any question you like, writing freely what comes to you. Don’t think, just write…and watch God fill the pages.

God bless you all, thank you for reading!