!Everything!

Disclaimer: This topic will probably make you feel uneasy and it is meant to because in order to walk in God's freedom and receive the exceedingly, abdundantly, above in your life-you need to hear this!

Every Friday my husband and I sit down and look over our budget because we know that in order to be good stewards over what God has given us we need to account for every dollar that he has placed in our hands. The first 3 things that we go over in our budget are "how much have we brought in, how much did we gross, what is 10% of our gross?"

Are you tracking with me??

So, this morning as my husband goes off to work, I sat down to give our tithe because we believe that God gets his 10% first. There are so many reasons why we do this. We do this because we have seen and we have experienced the Lord as our Jehovah-Jireh: God who Provides. He has provided in so many ways for our household and there has never been a time where we have lacked to the point of being without food, or housing, or anything that the Lord has promised to provide us. God has provided, even when we cannot see how or even when it has made no sense and we still cannot figure out how he did it-where did the surplus come from? How did the bills get paid?

Before I tithed this morning, I wanted to visit the website of the church that we tithe to (our home church)-Elevation Church (Elevationnetwork.com). We have an online site where there are constant sermons and music and so I went to the site to see what God is doing with the very money that belongs to him, that we are privileged to give back into his church. YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS PREACHING ON! It was on giving, and he spoke of these people in Uganda who have nothing but as he spoke God's word were throwing all the money they had at his feet to honor the word of God coming from him and I tell you, I just cried.

God has been so faithful over our giving and he has never never never never not shown up in the midst to provide our needs. He has provided financially and it is so much bigger because his finacnial blessings are nothing in comparison to how I now know him.

I now know God has a trustworthy Father who loves to bless me and loves to pour into me. I know him on a level that most of you will not because you refuse to trust what he says when he says...

"¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe, ” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty." Malachi 3:10-12

We have tested him, we have seen him, we now know him because we simply gave him what is already his-our lives and our heart-Everything!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_M0H5nrY8E -Check this out!

Jabez Who?

 Jabez' s prayer is a prayer that you never hear about and yet within 2 quick verses you learn the heart of a man and of a God who can take our broken lives, past, even our name, and create something amazing out of it.

⁹ Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez,^[a] saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” ¹⁰ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested (1 Chr. 4:9-10., NKJV).

When I first began reading about this verse in a book called "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson I was encouraged and taken aback by the simple truths pointed out in this verse But as I began reading it for myself, something stuck out to me......

"that I may not cause pain!"

It instantly hit me, the connection that is. Here was a man who from birth was given this name that meant something negative. He essentially went his whole existence constantly reminded of what he was/had meant/had been to someone (and not in a good way).

So what about you? What from your past keeps pulling you back, reminding you of what you shouldn't have done, shouldn't have said? For me, it is debt, for someone else it may be a person that you didn't forgive, a bad alliance that you made that cannot be undone. Whatever it is, God is the God of the impossible and can take our broken lives, what the doctor reports, what the world may say, and turn them into miracles.

What is your pain? What bad alliance did you make? I dare you to pray audaciously as Jabez did and ask the Lord to intervene and cause miracles that only he can receive the credit for in Jesus' name. I don't know about you, but I plan to pray this daily over the next few weeks and see God intervene in only ways he can. Prayer and expectation!

Blessings!

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Waiting On A Promise....

Great reminder on @elevationnetwork.com today..

I got to hear the sermon that I remember hearing on 1/17/11 before God prophesied my husband into my life just a few weeks later. God reminded me in that sermon to make my waiting room my work room by digging a ditch because rain from Heaven was coming. One of his biggest promises to me was on the way. He reminded me to get busy even more so becoming THAT person for THE person that God was preparing me for.

I believe that this sermon is even applicable to my current season of Promise as my son is right now 2.5 weeks away. You see, it is so easy to get busy getting upset about our waiting periods when we are still waiting on that promotion, that great guy/gal, the pregnancy, the freedom from debt, the house, for the diagnosis, etc. I urge you, that while you wait, get busy, stay focused. It is going to take some work on your part, in some situations more than not. And, simply doing what needs to be done may not mean that you have to get up and go go go but pray pray pray, spend time in his word, visiting others, volunteering, attending the conference.

For me, in this moment I simply want to get my house packed, find a cheaper place to live, etc. BUT my body will only allow me to do so much so I am making the choice to get busy praying for my son, for my husband, reading, relaxing, enjoying this part of the season that I am in. Easier said than done but this is where God has me.

So dig, dig deep and allow God to fight in your future on your behalf.

"Ask the Lord for rain in the spring,
for he makes the storm clouds.
And he will send showers of rain
so every field becomes a lush pasture."
Zechariah 10:1 NLT

Where is my time Spent?

"I will seek to devote the best of myself, my time, and my talents to the primary roles the Lord has entrusted to me in this phase of my life."


I will be getting to the other resolutions that I missed shortly but wanted to share this one:

The next resolution in my courageous women's study (for women book) is about Godly priorities...such great timing! There is such peace in acknowledging that this is the season I am in, these are my roles, and although I may want to do this, see this person, go there, here, etc. "there is a time for every season" (Eccl.3:10). God's word brings such peace! No pressure, just walk in obedience and be who and what I have called you to in this time. When the time is right, you'll know.

As women, our roles change so much and so often. And not even our roles, as much as how much we are to dedicate to each of the many roles that we play. In this portion of the resolution book we were asked to color in some boxes, each a different color with the different roles that we have and fill them up (color wise) with the amount of time we dedicate in each of those particular roles/boxes. Pretty neat way of looking back and prayerfully examining which roles are primary and which are not.

Also, great for those like me who realize that although I may not be giving as much to friends/family but I am dedicating a lot of my time (as I am supposed to) to the Lord, my marriage, and my son. Funny thing was, I had forgotten to make myself a box as well. How easy that happens for us women.

With that said, I have decided to dedicate some more time for me. Not necessarily a whole lot of it but enough of it to where I am not left being a leaking, empty cup, but an overflowing vessel (a peaceful one at that).

Go ahead and try this exercise, see what you think, what you find out about yourself. It is pretty eye opening.I promise you, in the end, you will find such peace in embracing God's priorities for your life.

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

I've Accepted Jesus But.....

I think one key thing that many believers miss is the face that we come to know Christ believing in him and what he did but there is also the a piece where we fall to our knees and acknowledge that our plans will fail but his plans will not. Where we surrender to his plans, his ways, fully, open and ready to do what he calls us to do, who he calls us to be, where he calls us to go. Why does my life not seem to be changing, why do I not sense his presence in my life? Have you surrendered to his way? Have you decided that whatever it takes, whatever?! It wasn't until I reached that place of surrender on January 17, 2009 that things really started changing. It wasn't until then that the changes started. It has been a journey with some bumps in the road and some mistakes on my part But old sins that I struggled with I am now free of, things/people, sins that I never could seem to be delivered from and would continue to stuggle with-when I surrendered they began to melt away because it is much like Israel Houghton spoke about at church yesterday,

"The atmosphere of expectation is the breeding ground for miracles!" It wasn't until I surrendered to God and stood firm in the belief that, he was going to take me places far better than I could have ever gotten to on my own. Surrender, that is what it is. So, stop fighting for your will and your way and simply surrender to the God who came down to Earth, suffered, died and rose again to set you free. Surrender and walk FULLY in that freedom!

Examples of this surrender in his word..
1-The Surrender of Simon Peter after denying Jesus-  "Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” John 21:18-19


2-"¹⁴ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. ¹⁵ Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. ¹⁶ I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there." 2 Chronicles 7:14-16

*Lord, I pray today that those of us who have not surrendered and don't understand why things are not seeming to be any different. They don't understand why they accepted you and years later cannot seem to break those old habits and cannot see the miracles that other believers speak of in their lives. I pray today that they get to a place on their faces, bent on their knees, to a place fully open to you and your plans realizing that it their plans are not going to work but that your plans are far greater and they trust you fully in those plans.  I pray that they surrender. In your precious name Jesus! Amen!*