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The Matter of Growth
No matter how you feel about yourself, the Lord is in the business of making you new. He is going to plant you by the River of Life and make you grow.
I have told you before that I felt stupid growing up. There has always been a sense of not knowing or understanding in everything that I have learned.
I have spent many brain cells sitting in front of a book wrestling with the pages to put them into order so I was able to fully understand the action I was about to take. I was looking for the hidden path to reveal the mysterious answer hidden from me.
A Woman with Answers
I wanted to be smart at math, at music, at French, at my latest craze but I would hit a road block and have to hunker in to keep it going. Most of the time I quit saying it wasn’t meant to be.
But that wasn’t really the answer. The answer was that the Lord was not shining His light on that for me. The answer was that it was not a need but a want. The answer was that it was not part of my vision from God to play an instrument, speak French or be a scientist.
A Woman with a Conflict
I was conflicted because there was really nothing I was good at that the Lord shined His light for me to excel with. I had no natural abilities to speak of. This created a zeal in me to know who I am and what I am naturally gifted to do.
I tried everything that I could think of but my life conflicted with my need to know. I got better at designing cars when the computer age came. So, obviously I am going to excel at that and I did. What I really got better at was listening to this still small voice I kept hearing.
A Woman with a Passion
The most amazing thing that has ever happened in my life happened right under my nose. I became a Christian. I began reading the Bible. My brain was open to every story, every line, every word. I became passionate about reading and learning the Bible.
I excelled at remembering every detail of the stories I read. Then I excelled at relaying what I learned. Then I excelled at giving women hope. Then I excelled at making Christian living a priority in my life and doing what the Lord has assigned to me.
A Woman Called
This became the only subject calling my name for continuous growth. The River of Life is the only place I felt free to learn. The only thing I became passionate about. I had no idea what reading the Bible was going to do in my life. I didn’t know it was alive.
I just knew I was called to dive deep into it.
I knew I had to swallow it.
I knew I had to be planted by the River of Life to feel alive.
The still small voice I heard before I was a Christian became understandable to me as a Christian. The Holy Spirit was and still is directing me into His vision for me in every area of my life.
I knew I has a called to this.
A Grown Woman
This passion for knowing and following Jesus has lead me into many situation where I have had to use His words to break free from it. Even this morning I had to use them to break free from bitterness.
His word is a lamp for my feet and the light to my path (Psalm 119:105).
There has not been one day since, when I read the Bible, that I don’t hear the Lord preaching, teaching and leading me into me to grow into my vision in every area of my life and ministry.
Join me in Midlife Ministry Makers for The Peaceful Pace Part 4: Peace in Growth, A Firm Foundation this week to discuss make every day a day of growth in your life and ministry (Lifistry) using the Lifistry Disciplines as a guide.
We are diving deep for divine direction into Tool #170 Every day has an Appointment with God to Grow You.
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The Amazing Vision for Samson’s Mother
My first vision from God was not a burning 🔥 bush moment nor was it from an Angel of the Lord appearing before me. It was simply a picture of what is to come. A two dimensional picture followed by many years of shifting my direction to walk in it.
That is why I love reading these amazing stories of God Himself appearing 💦 before people in the Bible. They show me the possibility of my own story. The evidence of my own vision from God becoming a reality.
Our Biblical Ground Work: Judges 13
The wife of Manoah was barren and the Angel of the Lord ✝️ appeared to her to tell her she is barren but will bear a son. The Angel gave her instructions in what she should do during her pregnancy because this boy would be a Nazarite from conception.
After the Angel was gone she went to tell her husband what had happened. She describe Him as a Man of God with the countenance of the Angel of God 🌟🌟 very awesome 🌟🌟 but that is all she knows. She did not get His Name or ask where He was from.
Manoah asked God to allow Him to return and God listened to Him. As his wife was sitting in the field again the Angel of God came to her. This time she ran and retrieved Manoah.
Manoah questioned Him and was told the whole vision again by the Angel of the Lord. He believed and wanted to worship the Angel when the vision became reality. The Angel shifted Manoah’s direction toward 🔀 God and as he obediently gave to the Lord, he was rewarded with a vision he will never forget.
Our Biblical Life Lesson: The Rewards of shifting our direction are not always tangible but will always be memorable.
If you look at my life, and probably other women’s lives, you would not call us successful but we have rewarding lives. We might have been barren in our own eyes of the visible fruit of God. We have not had that burning bush experience when God tells us what we are going to do in understandable English. There have been small victories 🥳 that got us just a bit closer to our vision than yesterday because we shifted our direction just a hair.
I don’t know why Manoah’s wife was sitting out in the field those two times but when I am sitting out in the field, I feel like I am watching seeds grow. Watching something grow is pain staking and slow. More than once I have gotten up from my seat to plant something faster growing, only to end up back in the field watching the original seeds 🌱 grow again.
With almost every amazing story in the Bible 📖, waiting on the Lord’s plan to grow in you takes just a small shift in direction and obedience to that direction. Just as Manoah and his wife received a great reward, you will reap great reward as well. It may not have been tangible but it will be something they will have NEVER 🤩 forgotten.
Join The Bible Gals here to discuss the 3 Biblical Power Tools for shifting your direction toward Jesus.
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3 Reasons to Enjoy those Periods of Adjustments
We have special insight into the life the Lord wants us to live. He reveals information about who He is to us and transforms us using that knowledge. It is during that transformation time that we find ourselves inside a “period of adjustment”.
I know sometimes we see this period as mundane and boring because it is a time of reflection and growth. There isn’t too much going on because we are learning how to be, who this new knowledge requires us to be.
If we allow ourselves to linger, just long enough, in each period of adjustment we will grow into our vision significantly faster than someone who is bucking the change. We can enjoy those periods of adjustment as much as we enjoy the work involved in the working out of our vision. We always need reasons to comply with the Lord so here are three.
Reason 1: Enjoy Your Heart Receiving the Head Knowledge
Remember back to the day you were saved or the time period (I have to use time period because I cannot remember the date.) You walked away from that so stoked and ready to be a Christian BUT you just began a “period of adjustment”.
You have no knowledge about how to act or what to do, so you go back to what you do know, secular living. Christian living is not even on your radar let alone a setting on your GPS. You begin to ask questions about how to live as a Christian. As you ponder the answers to your questions the Lord starts moving some of the answers down into your heart. It becomes a truth building experience with Him.
Reason 2: Enjoy a Wonderful Understanding of Your New Relationships
There is not doubt about salvation changing relationships. The first relational change is your relationships with Jesus. Before there wasn’t one and now there is. Adding a relationship with Jesus tends to complicate. Who are you in this new Christian life with Jesus? Who are you with your spouse, kids and family members? Who are you in every aspect of life?
This period of adjustment gives you the time to ponder who this person is who has this knowledge and how you will relate to others with this new knowledge. Your relationship with Jesus, self and others can be wonderful when you take every period of adjustment as a time to obtain an accurate understanding of theses relationships. It becomes a relationship building experience with Jesus.
Reason 3: Enjoy a Faith Empowered by Jesus
As you spend time in any period of adjustment Jesus has an opportunity to grow you into the person you need to be. Each session of adjusting you go through your faith grows. As your faith grows your vision for the future you grows as well.
Knowing this alone is enough for me to want to sit with Jesus for a period of adjustment, but that is not what is required of us. We are becoming who He created us to be so we can do what He has created us to do. This faith building experience with Jesus is just what we are going to need to move into our vision.
When we walk away from these periods of adjustments we are changed beyond measure. We have had a truth building adjustment, a relationship building adjustment and a faith building adjustment. That is what they are meant to do.
Each adjustment made in your life is a change in direction toward knowing your vision, growing into your vision or growing from your vision. They are all measured and calculated by Jesus to get us into each place we need to be.
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
