(Note: this blog was pretty much taken from one of my
journal entries when I was trying to get way too much information out at once,
so my thoughts are definitely a little jumbled. But hopefully you can follow.)
🙂
I have a dream! I
got this life vision of what God might want to do in me the other day. I’m not
declaring this all at, but I just think it’s sweet that the Lord is giving me
VISION… this is what we’ve been praying for as a team! Uganda has been a month
of crazy revelation and redemption for me; it feels like every day God is
revealing something new in my life and the ways that He wants to redeem all
things for GOOD! Whoa. It’s really intense.
Yesterday morning I was just listening to a song and I was
struck with how much the Lord loves me – how much He sacrificed on the cross to be in a relationship with me. I just
started to cry because this revelation of His heart was too overwhelming and
all I could do in my immense gratefulness was bask in His loving arms. It was
sweet. I love intimacy with the Lord! Some of the lyrics of the song were:
“I’m singing to the God who brings REDEMPTION to the nations, kings and oceans bow to Him in praise, and I’m singing to the God who wrote the
book on our SALVATION,
to the One who covers me in GRACE, I’m
singing…� Good ole Kari Jobe. Love her. Listen to some of her music if
you haven’t already… you won’t regret it. 🙂
I was asking God what He had gifted me in, what I was
passionate about, and what He had created me to do in this world. How can I
best bring kingdom to the earth? Where does God want to use me? I had been
feeling a little off earlier in the day and frustrated by that, but God truly
redeemed those feelings and the day in general (YAY for redemption! Love it.)
As we were in the car on the way to prison ministry the Lord gave me this
dream. I love dreaming with God! (As
I said in a previous blog, I just started reading the book Dreaming with God by Bill Johnson and it’s pretty legit… I love how
the Lord is bringing what I’m learning to LIFE! Praise God!) Again I have no
idea what this is going to look like, but it got me fired up so I thought I
would share it with you as well.
I was thinking about the things in my life that get me
pumped up – times that I have had my “bursts of the Spiritâ€� or instances when I
was serving but what I was doing didn’t even feel like service because I was
doing what I was created to do. When have I felt like there was nowhere else I
would rather be in this world? I can think of a few examples in my life, and
most of them have been when I was talking to people about JESUS. There was a time
I was talking/ praying with a boy in Cape Town who had just given his life to
the Lord, another time I was talking to a man at a Christian drug rehab center
in Ireland whose life had been REDEEMED by Christ, another time I was talking
to a homeless man on the streets of Dublin about his questions about God, etc. Each
of these instances (and others throughout my life), I have been completely
invigorated and ALIVE in the Spirit; joy and peace were bubbling over inside my
soul and I felt this deep sense of, “YES!
This is exactly where I’m meant to be.�
I was continuing to think about the things that God has
recently been revealing to me about my past and how He is literally
transforming thought patterns and mindsets right before my eyes. He is
redeeming me. Whoa. I get so excited every time I articulate that. The God of
the universe is redeeming my life! He is turning the hard times into tools for
ministry to bring light, hope, and freedom to this world! This is the good
stuff. This is what it’s all about. This
is the GOOD NEWS of Christ! (Ok, so you can tell I’m fired up, right?
Exhibit A. I can’t even write about redemption without getting pumped in the
Spirit! Yes, Lord!)
Ok, back to my dream. 🙂 Let me see if I can actually get this
out without being sidetracked anymore by my own excitement, haha. (I warned you
this was gonna be jumbled!)
I think God gave me a picture of how I could use all my
passions, talents, and the ways He’s redeemed my life (up to this point of
course… I know my journey is just beginning) in one place. Wouldn’t it be sweet
to have a Christian rehabilitation center for
girls coming out of the sex trade?! Yea, it would be LEGIT! Let me
explain this a bit more.
I’m passionate about/
have giftings in/ am learning more about/ get pumped up by: talking to people
about Jesus (evangelism); talking about God’s REDEMPTION; explaining things to
others and having true understanding occur (teaching/ education); understanding
God’s immense, passionate LOVE for us and not striving to find worth,
affection, or attention anywhere else; working with youth (the future of our
generation!); being active and enjoying God’s amazing creation (ex. playing outdoor
volleyball… yea, I love it); creativity through Christ/ artistic expression
(drawing, painting, music, etc.); praying for others (intercession); Christian counseling
(emotional healing); discipleship/ mentoring (especially when people have
experienced redemption in their lives and in turn help others in similar
situations who need to see the hope and light of Christ); understanding the
true freedom, reconciliation, and grace of the cross; and seeing an end to
slavery in all forms (Jesus came to set
the captives FREE – read Isaiah 61!)
So yea, that’s a little about the deep desires of my heart.
🙂 I believe God can use all these things to bring light, truth, and freedom in
the form of a Christian rehab house (and I’m sure in other ways as well… but
this is just one idea). It’s just sweet to think that everything in my life has happened for a
purpose – even the rough times. God created me for a specific reason and He is
going to use everything I’ve experienced in order to fulfill the plans He has
for this world. He wants to use IT ALL for HIS GLORY to bring KINGDOM to
this world! Whoa. That’s incredible. Thank you, Lord!
A little more about this idea… it would be sweet to have a
center that had a few different functions. It could be a place for general
education, Christian counseling, discipleship/ mentoring by other girls
who have already come out of the sex trade, perhaps some leadership
training, a trade school, etc. It could have a prayer room with a place
for worship, an art therapy room, outdoor activities (such as volleyball
and hiking cause it would of course be in a gorgeous location!), etc.
The possibilities are endless! It’s simply exciting to DREAM with God.
🙂
Another cool thing about this is the fact that it was my feedback
night the day God gave me this dream. During feedback BP told me she had
this vision of me that day. She said she saw me standing in the doorway
of a house with a wooden sign next to it that read: HOUSE of HOPE. I was
summoning/ welcoming people into this home with a smile and she
could see the hope in my own eyes. She also got the verse Zechariah 9:11-12 for me which reads:
“As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will FREE your PRISONERS from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of HOPE; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.”
Good stuff, right?! God is putting dreams inside of me and slowing allowing His heatbeat to become my own. PRAISE the LORD! 🙂
