06/30/17
I’m back in the US of A, 9 months later, and over 25 hours of travel from Zambia, I am in WA D.C. at the moment, waiting until almost 5 pm to board a plane heading back to WA State! Heyyyyo! That’s crazy! But I want this blog to speak truth into you, because this is what the LORD spoke to me this morning!
SO today is my 20th birthday, the flight attendants were great and sang to me hahaha along with my squad and everyone on the plane. The LORD is so great, He chose to send us home on my b-day symbolizing the ending of chapter 19 and the being of a new chapter in my life, and I have a lot of peace about what Jesus is going to do next! Greater things than what He did is what He promises us in scripture! And as I woke up this morning on the plane, Jesus spoke gently to my soul and it was such a precious message! I know this will encourage you because our Father is the best Dad who spoke His truth and life into me!
For the first time in 20 years, I have a greater understanding of birthday’s, the LORD gave me a revelation. God formed us with His own hands, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by our Father, we are His precious masterpieces! Let that just sink in! He placed us in our families, this time in 2017, in our circumstances in America and whatever else you live, why? “ From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being…” ( Acts 17: 26-28).
Before the foundations of this earth, the creation of all things that are seen and unseen by the naked eye, the LORD Jesus knew everything about me before I was ever created, and yet my Father knew me, He knows me! Jesus will always unconditionally love us! That before the world ever sinned, He already had the plan to come save us! Oh what a Savior, isn’t He wonderful!! You see our God isn’t a distant God who sometimes hears and other times doesn’t, He NEVER leaves us, He NEVER forsakes us, He is Always with us, always listening, and He is closer to us than our own heart beat! He knows my name, He knows everything about me, He knows what I’m thinking, what I’m feeling, what I’m going through at every moment, He knows the number of hairs on my head.
And did you also realize, our Father loves to celebrate?!? Why do we have all these celebrations? To remember of course! We need to be reminded, we are very forgetful people, Israel’s greatest sin was forgetting. They forgot what the LORD did and didn’t care to remember. Let us not forget the goodness and faithfulness of the LORD through every aspect and time in our lives. I know that heaven, the angels, the saints, our Father, rejoices every time a new baby is born into the world. I know that He smiles and celebrates every time we realize something and it sticks! He is a proud Father! Scripture says that all of heaven and the angels rejoice when a sinner repents and turns to Jesus, and I believe that God smiles a lot looking and thinking about us! He is our dad! He is my Dad! He rejoiced when we came into the world, setting us apart, setting me apart. He named me, He beams with joy to see us walk and grow up. He is a good good Father who teaches us what to do, who provides for us, and has a home prepared for us in heaven ( and also takes care of us every step of the way here on earth!)
He is always there for us to talk with HIm, He is the best listener ever, He is our ultimate comfort in every heartache, pain, suffering, and trial. He rejoices when we obey Him, because that is ultimately love for God, to be obedient to what He says ( see 1 John 2:3, 5:3). He is my Good Good Father who is holding my hand, as I willingly choose to follow as He leads me!
Our Father is truly our papa! He is our daddy, a dad who unconditionally loves us and desires the best for us, that we would become more like His Son Jesus everyday! HE IS LOVE! WE experience real authentic LOVE when we experience who God really is, because God is LOVE. I know how to love because I know God, and I love Him with all my heart!
So today on my 20th birthday, I’m celebrating with my Dad! We are reflecting on the greatness of this last year, I’m celebrating how dearly and deeply I am Loved by Jesus, and I’m excited to see what He is speaking over the next year! 19 has been the best year of my life so far ( It only gets better with Jesus! ) The Lord has brought an amazing God fearing man in my life! He let me go on the WR and make disciples in Ecuador, India, Zambia, and all the in-between stops along the way! The LORD has truly blessed me in so many ways, and I praise Him for this! It all starts with the choice to say “Yes” to say Yes to whatever and all that Jesus is asking you to do! And if it seems impossible and crazy, that’s because it is and He is asking you to walk by faith and trust Him! I love you all, thank you for every prayer, every encouragement, every generous donation! God bless you for the amazing blessing you’ve been to me!
06/28/17
I’ve seen so many people encounter the unconditional love of Jesus Christ our LORD and Savior! God used me to lead people to Him, making the most important decision they will ever make in their lives, to say “yes” to Jesus and follow Him. I’ve seen so many people healed by the name and power of the LORD Jesus, some were believers and some were unbelievers, however I also saw those unbelievers become believers! I’ve seen people experience and walk in the freedom of Jesus, surrendering their struggles and heartache to Him. I’ve seen, I’ve experienced, I’ve walked through the fire that refines! And here I am at the ending of a chapter that the LORD has written, and I praise His name and give HIm all the Glory because this has all been because of Him! I just choose to say “YES” to whatever the LORD was asking of me, and so can you!
“ The place God calls us to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” -Frederick Beuchner
“ Every morning, as I wake up with some impossible task in front of me, I know that God will meet it with impossible strength and love, I serve the God who used Moses, a murder, to part the Red Sea; a God who let Peter, who would deny Him, to walk on water. A God who looks at me, in in all my fallen weakness and says, “ You can do the impossible” – Katie Davis “ Kisses From Katie”
One of my favorite verses is Philippians 3:7-11, I include it a lot in my blogs because Paul is spitting straight fire! It’s real!
“ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I CONSIDER EVERYTHING LOSS BECAUSE OF THE SURPASSING WORTH OF KNOWING CHRIST JESUS MY LORD, FOR WHOSE SAKE I HAVE LOST ALL THING. I consider them GARBAGE, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST- YES, to know the POWER of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like HIM in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.”
I consider everything I use to think were gains to me, as loss, because of the greatness, the freedom the unconditional love I receive from Christ. To gain Christ is more fulfilling! To give my money, my time, my energy, to Christ. To choose to be renewed in Christ and not to conform to the world, in speech, in thought or in action. To live godly lives because Jesus gives us the strength to, and provides the way out in the face of temptations.
“ He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot
Reckless abandonment. Reckless faith. Ruthless Trust. Living fully surrendered to the LORD, and untamed. A difference maker, truly we are world changers! I left it all behind. I lost my life in order to find it, in order to save it in Christ. I want my passion and Love for the LORD to contagiously spread to everyone around me. To believe our God who can truthfully do all things, believing it in my life. The same miraculous God who works in mysterious unexplainable ways.
“ why do you complain to Him that He responds to no one’s words?For God does speak-now one way, now another, though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds.” Job 33:13-15
“ Don’t let the world steal your soul, being a Christian is about choosing Jesus and deciding to do something incredibly daring with your life.”
Shane Claiborne ( Irresistible Revolution) “ He told me that we have insulted ourselves from miracles. We no longer live with such reckless faith that we need them. Their is rarely room for the transcendent in our lives. If we are sick, we go to a doctor. If we need food we go to the store and buy it, we have elminiated the need for miracles.” (pg 49)
“ if sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to turn to God. if hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let no one go there unwarned or unprayed for.” -Charles Spurgeon
“ the truth is that the 143 million orphaned children and the 11 million who starve to death or die from preventable diseases and the 8.5 million who work as child slaves, prostitutes, or under other horrific conditions and the 2.3 million needy children. And through at first glance that looks like a big number, 2.1 billion people on this earth proclaim to be Christians. The truth is that if only 8% of the Christians would care for one more child, there would not be any statistic left. This is the truth, i have freedom to believe it. The freedom, the opportunity to do something about it. The truth is that He loves these children just as much as He loves me and now that I know, I AM RESPONSIBLE” Katie Davis ( Kisses from Katie)
The biggest lie that you can believe from the enemy is to live a life of average-ness. To live a life of comfortability. A life of conformity. A life where you choose to settle with the cup of your life, half full or any other amount other than full and overflowing. Jesus said, therefore it’s truth, “ I came that they may have life and life to the full” ( John 10:10) LIFE TO THE FULL, life in absolute abundance! My cup overflows!
Jesus tells us to count the cost. To arm ourselves with the same sufferings He encountered, Isaiah 53 says, “ He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain, like one from whom people hide their faces.
Why settle for anything less than the fullness of Christ? It’s a real question you’ll need to ask yourselves and it’s a real choice you’ll need to make.
Always Choose Jesus, you can never be a loser if you choose Him. The victory has already been won, we are VICTORS not victims! Love you all, I’m always here for you, feel free at anytime to reach out to me! I would love to hear from you!
Jesus unconditionally loves you!!
