I don’t know where this idea became fully formulated along the road but I do know that it started with a prophetic word I received in the spring of 2013. I used to have the recording on my phone and would listen to it every so often but the one part that massively stuck with me was something along the lines of this: “your life is going to be fulfilled, your hearts desire is Papas hearts desire. don’t try and make it happen, Papas going to do it, don’t you make it happen. Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness.” there was more included but that spoke to me so deeply that it rocked me.
“Seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness” just clicked in that moment ….its a relationship and I just get to go after Him …to let my life be lived in such a way that I’m intentionally after Papas heart and the things of His Kingdom… thats all…His heart is happy for me before I do anything but as I pursue His heart or seek first His Kingdom He just explodes with joy.
Fast forward about 9 months or so and Papa just keeps slamming me with this word and this idea of “Overflow” …that we don’t just go after Him until we are content but to pursue until my life overflows directly from His heart.
These two ideas were married in my mind…. seek first the Kingdom and let it overflow…thats the gospel…thats relationship …thats it boiled down to its simplest form for me and I just find it so beautiful. Thats how I want to live my life…one of first relationship with Papa so much so that I just get to overflow without thinking about it because I’ve got the heart of my Papa.
Im not sure when He gave me the vision for these as a tattoo but I’ve known that I wanted these tattoos for a while…Papa had given me a vision of where to put them on my body, the size, font …everything. He had literally given me this tattoo idea.
So here I find myself in Nepal where I know that I’ve wanted this thing for a solid year and that there is a super trusted place not 30 mins away. So get this…I am talking with the artist about what I want and He’s having me pick through fonts and I see the font that Papa had given me. I tell him which one I want and we do some tweaking and moving around and all of that jazz and I sat there looking at the vision Papa had given me and now I was holding these sample papers in my hands.
I had set an appointment for a week out but several of my squad mates went back two days later to get consultations for their tattoo ideas so I went with them just to see if I could possibly get mine that day. So I went and asked and found that they had an opening so I went for it.
The artists looks at what I want as I’m laying in the chair and reads the words “Seek first the Kingdom”… and asks if thats scripture from the Bible, where I get to explain my heart behind the tattoos and what they mean to me.
He then says “Can you help me understand something?”
I jump on board and just say that I can try haha and he asked for me to help him understand the serenity prayer…he had heard it years back and had forgotten how it went but wanted to understand the meaning of it. (funny story…my dad loves this prayer ..however I don’t know much about it other than the first like two lines) Knowing that Holy Spirit will give me interpretation and words for something I don’t know a whole lot about I just open my mouth in faith that He will fill it and I was able to share what it meant and He seemed to really appreciate it.
So we are sitting there and he is working on my tattoo and then asks me if I’m religious and I just say that I love Jesus and have a relationship with him and then asked if he was religious to which he said no and that neither were his parents. A little while longer goes by and he asks if there is meditation in my faith at which point I got to explain what relationship looks like and having conversations with Papa and being filled with Holy Spirit and all of those good things.
some more time goes by and he asks about the idea of forgiveness and for me to explain what forgiveness means and what it looks like and I got to talk about the different kinds between us as people and us and Papa.
He asked about our group and I got to share what we were doing here in Nepal and over the course of this next year and what our hearts were and all of that good stuff.
At some point I asked the Lord if I was supposed to ask if I could pray with him before I left and He told me no but then gave me a vision of me writing out the serenity prayer on a small piece of paper with a prophetic word on the back and giving it to him to have on his desk at the shop. Ill get to go back in a few days and give that to him and I’m really excited about it.
Also as he was doing my second one (“Overflow”) I had a minute straight of deja vu and I just thought it all too neat for Papa to confirm that moment right there for me..as if the conversation wasn’t enough.
We also touched on offense and bitterness and some other random stuff that he was just curious about and I was just so blown away and not expecting for that to happen all because of a tattoo but Im guessing that I need to be ready for the next time someone asks about them haha
I came back to the aquad and was sharing the story and one of my squad mates just got so excited and made me realize that at the very moment these words were being written on my body that Papa was bringing them alive that from my relationship with Him there was a literal overflow in that moment happening! So amazing!!
In the shop I was just aware of what it meant between me and Papa for these words to be a proclamation about my life and our relationship and I hadn’t even realized how powerfully He was using His own artwork at the very time it was being created and that He was the artist who came up with the idea but that this artist here in Nepal was being blessed by Papa as he wrote these words too…that the Lord opened a door where questions were welcomed and clarity was given and I just can’t believe that! I’m floored haha its amazing …
It was such a sweet moment with the Lord and Holy Spirit was just so amazing during the time I was actually getting it and man Its just something that I won’t soon forget or get over and now its something that I get to walk with thats so personal to mine and Papas relationship but I also believe He is going to use His artwork for encounters where He is just massively glorified!
