Inspiration

This week I've been challenging myself to find something in the world to inspire me, something that makes my heart stop and be amazed. One such inspiration was this beautiful tree extravagantly displaying it's beauty in transition.

Transition is something that often seems daunting and yet each year we are faced with the extreme beauty of the transition of seasons. It seems as if we must embrace the beauty of what we have now and let go of what we might have once had in order to fully enjoy the season we are in, and prepare for the season coming. This little tree was beside my car in a parking lot, to me it boldly displays how transition can look in our lives, in my life. It fills me with hope of the great adventures in my future and reminds me that this season in my life is stunning, and worthy of being captivated by. One day I too will have to let go of the leaves of this season to embrace the winter and prepare for spring and summer and fall and so on and so forth as the seasons of our lives continually change and present opportunities for growth. Today is a beautiful day full of hope and beauty it is our choice whether or not we will focus on it. Today I think I'll focus on beauty and hope and enjoy each breath I have and each moment, for life is full of little things that are easily overlooked, but precious when we remember to look at them and be filled with gratitude for the simple, amazing things about life.

Greenville, SC 11/5-6/10

This past weekend I was blessed by traveling to Greenville, SC to meet up with some AMAZING people and serve on a ministry team under Scott Thompson. We met some truly incredible people who are bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to their city. They blessed us by putting us up in this beautiful loft which looked like we stepped into a magazine and there was even a basket with delicious food and snacks for our enjoyment!
We arrived around 4pm and went to the places we were staying and got set up and then we met on Main Street and ate some delicious Mexican food where they had chips that were an entire tortilla! they were huge! I'll have to post some pictures! It was so much fun, I got to hang out with people that I had yet to get to know how amazing they were and now I love them even more.
The service was so fun, the church is called Kingdom Culture and it is full of people college age or slightly older, so it felt like I was worshipping with all people my age which is really fun for me :) I love seeing my generation hungering for God, there is something that fills me with excitement because we really have the opportunity to change the world and when I see a room full of people seeking out the heart of God then I know that the world will be forever changed and drawn closer to Father God! More than anything I think that is what makes me giddy with joy! We had a team of twelve people and we did some prophetic words for individuals and then Scott spoke and brought love of Father and challenged us to be who we are as God's children and what we can do here on earth to bring Heaven down. Scott has this amazing ability to present things that seem crazy radical in a manner that makes you realize you can do it, and it is easy and it is who you were meant to be and what you are meant to do and when you step out and do it then all of Heaven is backing you because you are doing the mandate that Heaven has sent you do and the entire world will be forever changed because you stepped into your identity as a child of God. Every time I hear him speak I feel like the entire world can be won over by the love of God in an instant, and we get to bring that instant by walking out filled with the love of God that just poured out on us.
After Scott spoke then our team went around a prayed for people in the church and after the band played like two or so songs I think that our team had prayed over all but two people in the church which I thought was pretty awesome, we prayed for the two ladies who had been missed as soon as we realized they hadn't been prayed for. :)
Lately I have had this revelation that it is not so much our words that move heaven but our hearts and how Christ is intercession for us, like He doesn't have to speak out intercession He embodies it. Same thing as God is love verses God loves. One denotes an action He takes and one denotes His nature. God is love, that is His nature, He can't act outside of that nature. Christ is intercession, it is not simply an action He takes but His nature is intercession, He connects us to the Father. It has been interesting because I have gone up to people to pray for them and sometimes I have no words and instead of trying to think of what would be "good" to say I simply feel the Fathers heart for them and stay in that mode, trusting that by me aligning my heart to the Fathers and by my laying my hands on them, the Fathers heart is be transferred to them, and I only say what I hear Him saying. It has so revolutionized ministry time for me, it is not about saying the right things or giving them wisdom disguised as prayer or what I think but simply lining my heart up to Father God's. There is no performance, or failure, just love which is incredible and overwhelming and melts the walls of self protection because being wrapped in His love is safe and peaceful and wonderful. He is comfort and when life is chaotic He is the only remedy worth pursuing. So by me having this revelation and by focusing on His love, then I can release it over people simply by walking into their presence or by touching them, or by speaking to them, but once they truly encounter Him, I don't think they could ever turn away from His beauty, once you taste how good He is, nothing else will satisfy, and that is true love.

Opelika, Al 10-29-10

I had the amazing opportunity to travel to Opelika, Al with school and serve under LeAnn Pearson just a few weeks ago. We went to a school down there and were able to teach the students about prophesy and why it is important and how to convey the heart of Father God to each other through prophetic words and art. I was given the role of teaching a prophetic art workshop to the students ranging in age from about 4th grade to seniors in high school. It was challenging to keep them focused and engaged and all but it was incredible the things that they saw and heard from God. It was such a blessing to meet these students and watch them hunger to know more of God and the beauty that He is and to seek out the mysteries of Him, it truly blessed me! I have found myself being given opportunities to grow in my hearts desire and leading prophetic art workshops was one such opportunity, it made me excited and nervous and wishing that I had more experience leading and teaching, which is awesome because it was one of those things that makes you realize what it is that you love. My love is leading people to encounter the Father, His heart for them inevitably pours out on them and forever changes them when they encounter Him, so whether I do that through speaking, leading them in a vision, or teaching art, it doesn't matter so long as it leads them into encountering His love I am satisfied.
One really fun thing was that I realized just how much what I say comes from the place I am with God right now, which is a romantic place. He has been passionately pursuing my heart and teaching me how to be pursued and loved, He does it through all the little things in life, by showing me clouds shaped like hearts, I have so many pictures of such clouds, and by saying things like look to your left, I planted those daisies there just so you could drive past them and know how much I love you right now. See He is the fulfillment of my hearts desire to be woo-ed and pursued and He placed the desires of my heart in my heart before the foundation of the world so He is the one who can fulfill those desires and I can look to Him for such encounters. Anyways since that is the way that I am currently relating to God it comes out in how I speak to people, that divine love that He lavishes on me pours forth onto others. It was revealed to me when two of the boys, probably freshmen or sophomores came up and asked me a question about the prophetic words that I had gotten for people before we met them, and I had written them down as I heard God speak. The boys asked me if that was how God always spoke to me, I said yes pretty much, and then one of them nodded his head and said, it just sounded so poetic, so romantic, and I responded with a smile, yes, that is how He always talks to me. It made me laugh and I realized that where we are with God really is evidenced around us simply by the way we talk. It makes me think about how in the Bible in Mark 14:70 Peter who is currently denying that he is one of the disciples of Jesus was called out, a girl said "Surely you are one of them; for you are a Galilean, and your speech shows it." This verse always made me wonder is my relationship with Jesus revealed by my speech or not, after this weekend, I dare say that it is revealed because the relationship with Jesus is going to pour out of us whether we realize it or not. If we are soaking in His love, then we leak it everywhere that we go, even if we are unaware of the effect we are having. Anyways that was such an amazing revelation to me, I wanted to share it :)