You CAN Fly!!!

After the first retreat that Four Oaks did, I was sitting on my patio and a big red wasp landed next to me on the couch. Usually, I would have jumped or swooshed it with my hand. I’ve been known to run! I even remember when I was in my early twenties, a wasp, bee or some dangerously threatening bug with a stinger was making a lot of noise against my back window. He was fighting to get out of the car. I was driving down the road with the windows rolled down and he must have flown in at some point. I remember hearing him, seeing him, and then jumping from my car. Yes, I got out of the car!! I was coming to a stop sign so I had already started slowing down but didn’t even take the time to apply the brakes and stop the car. I just opened the door and jumped out! My car was still heading for the stop sign. I had to run to catch up with it. I jumped back inside, stopped the car, put it in park and then jumped out again. I stood there blocking the intersection until it found its way out of my car. So you can see how scared I would normally have been of a wasp landing so close to me. But, for some amazing reason, I wasn’t! I wasn’t afraid at all!!!

It crawled up on a pillow and just sat there. Finally, I bent down to examine it more closely. Obviously, I had never been that close to one before. I was amazed at all of its intricate little parts and how they all seemed to work together. I wondered what it was planning to do. I wondered why it didn’t fly away. Then I thought; its wing must be hurt. It can’t fly!!! I began to have compassion on this once frightening nuisance. I picked up the pillow and began to walk over to the grass knowing full well that if someone stepped on it they could get stung. For some reason, I had total peace about assisting this little guy to freedom. I sat the pillow down next to the grass, picked up a twig, and gently gave him a push. He suddenly flew! I gasped out loud, “You CAN fly!!!!!”

I was so stunned and excited when he flew off!! I had prayed about it when it first happened but really didn’t get anything. However, I thought of it again a few days ago and began to pray again. This time when I asked the Lord, I felt like He said, “If you set them free, they will fly.”

There are so many hurting, confused women who need someone to believe in them!!! Someone who will set aside all pre-qualifiers and judgments and take the time to look past the outward appearances and gaze at the inward beauty found deep inside. They need to be accepted, embraced, mothered, loved, mentored, stretched…. They need someone who can take them to the grass, give them a little nudge and celebrate how high they fly!!

Isaiah 40:31

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Who can you edify, encourage and strengthen today? Someone who needs validating, a confirming word, or maybe they just need to be seen. It is healing to be seen! God is El Roi – the God who Sees!!! Ask God to show you someone to reach out to, be watchful and let’s help each other fly!!!!

The Dance

Music, friends, laughter and of course beautiful dresses! It’s PROM! Oh My Goodness! Here comes the cutest boy in school! Is he looking at me?!? He’s walking toward me! He’s really looking at me! I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s soo dreamy!!!! “Do you want to dance?” He asks. I can feel my heart start to race and my face start to blush. In my heart I’m screaming and jumping up and down but can only manage a whispered ‘yes’ that follows a small giggle of uncontrolled excitement. Immediately, I run up to a group of friends and blurt out, “You’ll never believe who just asked me to dance!!” They see my excitement and ask me who. Right before I start to tell them, I feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around to see Him standing there smiling at me. In the sweetest, most gentle and kind voice I’ve ever heard, He suggests, “Why don’t you stick around for the dance?”

This was a vision the Lord once gave me. Yes, He was the one who asked me to dance!

Last week my friend Maty said something on our video blog that reminded me of this vision. She said that if you take someone out to dinner, you don’t want them to eat and run!! You would want to fellowship with them; visit with them. Maybe, have a few good laughs, hear about their latest accomplishment or how their family’s doing. That’s the best part!!! You wouldn’t want to take someone to dinner you didn’t want to fellowship with.

I have done this to the Lord. So many times I have needed something to speak on in my life group, an answer to a pressing prayer need, a direction on how to minister to someone, or perhaps help in finishing a project or assignment. I have gone to Him and devoured His precious word, absorbed all the necessary nutrients from it as fast as I could only to run off as soon as my stomach was full. I have eaten and run to finish whatever assignment or project needed my attention. Many times I have gotten a revelation and instead of spending time with the Lord marinating in it I have prematurely run to share it with someone.

I feel like the Lord gave me this vision to remind me of the best part and encourage me not to miss out on -- The Dance!!! Spending that time with the Lord; one on one! Just the two of us! Listening to Him share His heart with me as He holds me on the dance floor!!!! The next time He asks me to dance I know I will be so excited to share it with you but I plan to stick around for The Dance!!

The Unprofitable Servant?????????

We have six children; two boys that I birthed, two girls that we adopted from Russia, and two girls that we got when they were teenagers. Morgan was 14 years old when she came to live with us. I knew immediately that God had brought her into my life to be apart of our family. I never once woke up and wondered ‘what in the world am I going to do with this teenager living in my house?’ I loved her right away as if I had given birth to her. She’ll tell you that the more I loved her the more she pushed me away. She has her own testimony through these years and it's amazing. Even though I have loved her the entire time, I am so proud of the young woman she has become and perhaps she will share her testimony with us some day.

We went through a very long, very tough season. It wasn’t just ‘POOF’ everything was great!! I won’t share all the details of this tough season but let me say that as hard as it seemed for me at the time, I can’t imagine being fourteen and watching my dad fall apart, losing my family and then moving in with a family I didn’t know. There were many tears, many prayers and many frustrations. I will also say that in spite of all my mistakes, God was faithful!!!

After Morgan graduated high school and then cosmetology school, she moved out! It wasn’t easy to see her go. Mainly because I was scared that we hadn’t built a strong enough bond in the few short years she lived with us to maintain a life long relationship. I was scared that I had lost her! I wanted a relationship with her, a friendship with an adult daughter. I felt like I had put the time in and this was the reward that I wanted. It’s all that I had ever wanted, a relationship.

However, after she moved out, through a series of miscommunications and hurtful circumstances on both our parts we stopped talking. After three months, a zillion tears, hundreds of prayers, a ton of frustrations, and many pity parties the Lord began to speak to me. I was reading the bible and I came across the story in Luke of the unprofitable servant.

Luke 17:7-10

And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’

I actually said out loud, “Why would anyone want to work and not get paid?? That’s ridiculous!! Why is that even in the bible??” I slammed my bible shut and tossed it aside and went about my day, which included one of my biggest pity parties ever!!! My sweet friend called and got quite the ear full!!! I hadn’t talked to my daughter in three months and it didn’t look very promising. Just when we were about to get off the phone, my friend asked, “Are you the unprofitable servant?” I could have screamed!!! Instead I told her that I needed to pray and I hung up. God knew who to use to speak to me that day because she was the only one that could have said that and it be received.

I cried out to God and spilled my heart! I told Him how I only wanted a relationship with Morgan and that I had put in years of hard work towards that. I felt like I had just come in from the field and was being told, "Sorry no reward for you. No relationship for you. Keep working." I had gone above and beyond the call of duty for her and for Him. (Just being honest – this is how I felt.) Then, He reminded me of two conversations my husband and I had several weeks earlier. My husband had asked, “What if we adopted thirty children from all over the world. What if we adopted from China, Africa, Russia, Argentina, and where ever else we could think of? Do you think that all thirty of those children would love us or like us?”

I said that maybe some of them wouldn’t.

He said, “If we knew up front which ones wouldn’t like us, would we skip on them. If we knew we would change their lives, they would come to know the Lord and have a relationship with Him, their children would have the chance to know God, and they would be provided for, protected and loved would we still do it? Or would we only pick the ones that would choose to love us back?”

Of course the right answer is ‘yes, do it anyway’ and that’s what I told Monty when he asked me. I mean, I knew the right answer…but, as I sat there that morning broken in front of my Father I began to realize that that was exactly what Jesus had done. He paid such a high price for us all and not all of us choose Him. I realized the pain that I was feeling in this season of my life was not foreign to Him. How desperately He wanted a relationship with everyone. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord isn’t slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Jesus wants us all to have a relationship with Him, but even knowing that we all wouldn’t, He still died for all.

Then, the Lord reminded me of the other question my husband asked me about why we had adopted in the first place. He asked, “Did you need someone to pat you on the back, someone to say you’re a good person, a good mom? Why did you really do this anyway?”

This sounds much harsher on paper. He was very gentle in his tone and was simply asking the hard questions that most people would shy away from. My husband isn’t afraid to “Go There” when needs be. It may be hard to have these conversations and I need to prepare myself; but they hit the target every time. They lead me to the prayer closet each time to do a heart check!

I started to realize that there was a much bigger picture here than what I wanted or what I thought I was entitled to. I began to realize that if I never spoke to Morgan again I would still do it all over again. I would do whatever Jesus wanted me to do. Would I really do it all over again knowing that I would cry all those tears and have all those pity parties, yes!!!

It was in this moment that I went from the servant’s quarters to my Father’s house. See, one of the things that makes a difference between a slave, a servant, and a daughter is motivation. A slave may be motivated by fear; fear of consequences for a job not done well enough. A hired servant may be motivated by payment for a job well done. But a daughter; a daughter is motivated by love. When I resolved not only to give up my reward but also that I would go through all of it again even knowing the heartache and the struggles if it pleased my father and brought Him glory; that’s when I was set free. My heart turned from what I didn’t have to the One who had me. I would knowingly do it again. Why? Because at that moment, I became a daughter who longed to serve and please her Father whom she loved.

The story doesn't stop there. It was only weeks later when Morgan called and came over to talk with us. God had done such a work in both our hearts. After we cried, hugged, and forgave each other, we began the best mother daughter relationship I could have ever hoped for.

God is so good and so faithful!

Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us

Lord, thank You for Your faithfulness and goodness. Thank You that You are a good Father!! May Your Spirit of Reconciliation and Your peace and joy fill our homes. AMEN

Fighting To See

My oldest son is turning 15 next month and all I hear him talk about is his permit!!! Is it really that time already?!?!? I know this is so exciting for him but honestly, for me, every time he starts talking about it I’m swept back in time to when he was just a baby. So many memories! Homeschooling, his first bicycle, the huge train we built together out of Pampered Chef boxes, his first puppy, and the list goes on.

As I started reminiscing, the Lord reminded me of a past situation that actually related to what He's been talking to me about presently. For the last several months we've been discussing vision; vision statements, His vision for my life, His vision for my family, ect....

The memory that I began to recall was one where we fought for my son's eyesight. He was born with strabismus and had surgery on both eyes when he was only six months old. He recovered and we went to several doctors over the next few years. When he was almost four I took him to a very negative eye specialist. (I didn't know he was going to be negative.) He asked my son to read the eye chart. Of course, it was pictures because he was too young to know any of the letters. The left eye was covered and with the right eye, he flew through the pictures. I thought to myself, “YES, he got everyone right!” Then, the doctor covered the right eye and my son got very quiet. He looked up at me with an expression on his face that to this day pierces my heart when I think about it. Through tears he said, “I can’t see it, mommy!” I immediately scooped him up in my arms and started reassuring him that everything would be ok. The doctor said the brain had stopped using the eye and he was going to basically be blind in his left eye. He said we could patch but it would be months before we saw any improvement; if any at all. He told me several stories about people he knew and how the process was irreversible. He didn't have one positive word to say. Not one!!

Needless to say I left there very upset. Upset with the prognosis and with the callous tone in the doctor’s voice. I went home and put Mason down for a nap and started praying. I remembered a book I had just finished on Isaiah 26:3 You will keep him in perfect peace (nothing missing; nothing broken), whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.

I knew three things. This was my verse to stand on, it was not coincidental that I had just read this particular book, and I knew what my battle strategy was. This verse took on a very personal meaning for me that day.

I still remember part of the prayer that I prayed. ‘Lord, Your word says that if I keep my mind stayed on You, I will trust You because I will see You and Your promises in Your word. I will trust that You are who You say You are and I will trust that You will watch over Your word to perform it. As I trust You because I have kept my mind stayed on You, You will give me perfect peace (nothing missing; nothing broken)! And Lord, if my son loses his eyesight, then I won’t have perfect peace because something will be missing and something will be broken. So in Jesus Name I declare 20/20 vision over my son’s eyesight and I thank you for my perfect peace. AMEN!’

Let me say that I didn't just pray this once I declared it repeatedly; many times a day! I wrote that scripture on note cards and I hung it all over my house. It hung on the bathroom mirrors, next to every potty, on every kitchen cabinet door, on the walls, television, mantle, lamps and on every door in the house. I would walk around my house declaring his 20/20 vision and healing. I went to war!!!!

We did patching also and I made the cutest, wildest patches for both of us to wear together! The doctor had told me to patch for three months and make a follow up appointment. He was very clear that he didn’t expect to see anything different. This was simply protocol. I couldn’t wait three months. So in just a couple of weeks I called and wanted to have him retested. This time, to the doctor’s surprise, my son had 20/20 vision in both eyes.

God’s word is powerful, His promises are true and He is faithful!!

I asked God how this memory applied to me now and realized that just as the enemy tried to steal Mason's eyesight; his vision, the enemy has tried to do the same to me. The enemy doesn't want us to see who we are; who God created us to be. However, just as God restored Mason's vision, He is doing the same for me. I am declaring the same scripture over my spiritual vision! If I can't see spiritually then something is surely missing. I believe God will continue to speak to me on this subject because I will continue to ask

and... I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. Habakkuk 2:1

You Don't Know My Daughter!!

Ever been at the end of your rope? There was a time in my life when the end of the rope would have seemed relaxing next to where I found myself hanging. I was dangling from the ever dreaded single thread! Then, the Lord reminded me of a story.

This story begins in the book of Job as a conversation between God and the devil. God asked the devil what he’d been up to and satan said he’d been ‘looking around and checking things out’ (Job 1:7). Now we know that satan is the 'accuser of the brethren' (Revelation 12:10) so it would go to reason that satan must have been ‘looking’ for a brethren to accuse.

I believe there was a tone of sarcasm in satan's voice that day. However, because God sees past our words, straight into our soul and discerns the very intent of our hearts(Hebrews 4:12) and knows the end from the beginning, (Isaiah 46:10), how easy it was to see right through the devil and his manipulative comment. To the untrained ear it might simply have sounded like a pleasant response to a question, ‘Just looking around, checking things out’ (my interpretation). But I believe there was more behind that casual comment. See, satan would have loved to have shown God that there was no one on the earth He could trust. He would love to have shown God there was no one devoted, loyal or dedicated to Him. Perhaps, show Him men that were fair-weathered friends at best.

Although the war was waged in the unseen realm, the brunt of the battle was fought in the natural and God used a man. A man He could trust.

How much could God trust Job? He trusted him so much that He didn’t even tell him how important this battle was.

Did you get that?! The Lord didn’t tell Job that he had been chosen to prove there was a man devoted and loyal to God. A man that could lose everything and not ‘charge God with wrong' (Job 1:22).

Job didn’t know the magnitude of the battle. He didn’t know everything happening to him was repercussion of a war raging in the unseen realm. It was a fight between Almighty God and the enemy.

No, Job didn’t know. Job didn’t know it wasn’t about him. Job didn’t know God trusted him. Job didn’t know he was making a difference. Job didn’t know his story would be told for thousands of years and inspire millions of believers. Job didn’t know God recognized him as ‘blameless and upright, one who fears God and shuns evil’ (Job 1:8). Job didn’t know he was chosen to prove the enemy of our Father God was a defeated foe and a liar. Maybe if he had known it was a test of that magnitude, it would have been easier for him and he might have handled some things differently. However, even in the midst of the storm when his own pain and loss were screaming at him, he had the where-with-all to say….

Job 1:21

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!

This war is not only still being fought today in the unseen realm, but we are still feeling the weight of it in our everyday lives; our marriages, our families, our health, and our finances. The enemy still comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) I pray in the powerful Name of Jesus that we never have to endure the pain and loss that Job endured. However, no matter what trial we’re in, no matter how big or how small - we still have to walk through it. We have to decide how we are going to make that journey be it a short one or a long one. What if, like Job, we are the proving ground in this battle, this trial that we are facing right now?

What if, right now, my Father and my accuser are having a conversation similar to the one they had about Job? What if the accuser is doing what he does best and is accusing me to my Father?

What if he's saying things like, “She’s not strong. She won’t make it. This is more than she can handle.”

What if my Father responds with, “You don’t know her like I do.”

Then satan counters with, “Turn up the heat and watch her crumble.”

Just what if Almighty God, Creator of all things, looks satan square in the eyes and says, “You don’t know My daughter.”

What if I’m the proving ground in my battle? What if my Father is watching to see how I will handle this trial and if I will prove to not only the enemy but to all those watching that I am strong in God and in the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10). What if I choose a testimony that declares God is able and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13). What if I trust God enough to believe Him when He says His Grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9), that His mercy is new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23), that He'll never leave nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5), that He will perfect that which concerns me (Psalms 138:8), that He loves me (John 16:27)and that He has, according to Luke 10:19, given me authority and power to stand against all the power of the enemy.

What if, like Job, I am (you are) the one who is chosen because God trusts us more than we trust ourselves. Why, because He sees the potential that He placed in us even when we don’t. Oh to see ourselves the way our Heavenly Father sees us.

Honestly, there are those days when the heat is turned up and I feel like I’m barely hanging on. However, on those heated days, I’m glad there are things we do know. Unlike Job, we DO know that we are not limited to our circumstances. We know everything that manifests itself in the natural realm is a reflection of something that’s going on in the spiritual realm. We know we’re in a battle. We know who our enemy is and we know from where it is our strength comes from!!! (Psalm 28:8) We are not uncircumcised giants but we are daughters of the Most High God and we know who we’re in covenant with. We know that it’s not all about us but about the One who enlisted us (2 Timothy 2:4). We know that our defining moments (how we go through trials) impact history.

Unlike our Father, we can’t see the end from the beginning. We have to trust Him and His vision and believe that when we’ve come through we will have grown to another level in the Lord, proven that we can be trusted and are able to say:

Job 42:5

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.

In this lifetime, we may never know the absolute magnitude of the battle we’re fighting or how our part in the battle impacts the overall unseen war. But can we be trusted to do our part? To continue standing when we’ve done all to stand? To fight the good fight of faith and not waiver? Dear sister, no one said it would be easy but may we scream at the top of our lungs in the midst of, in spite of, and over the roar of the battle,

“BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD!”

The Deposit

Philippians 1:6

Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ

The Lord had rejected Saul as king and wanted the prophet Samuel to anoint the new King. God told Samuel in 1Samuel 16:1 ….for I have provided Myself a king among his (Jesse’s) sons. So, Samuel grabbed his oil and headed out. When he had gathered them all together, he looked at Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, and of course assumed that he must be the one. However, the Lord said in Verse 7 ….Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

Jesse had seven of his sons pass before Samuel, yet Samuel didn’t hear the Lord select any of them. He asked if there were any other sons not present. Jesse told him of David who was tending the sheep. At Samuel’s request, they called for him and the Lord said in Verse 12 ….Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!

Because David was merely a shepherd and the youngest of Jesse’s sons, he didn’t even get invited to the shindig. All outward appearances prevented anyone from believing he was to be the future king of Israel.

However, when God looked at David that day, He didn’t see a boy who had taken down a giant, a man who had commanded an army, or a king who was leading a nation. These things had not yet happened. What God saw that day was not based on what David looked like or on what he had accomplished. God saw past the outward appearances that misled man. God saw the deposit that He had already placed on the inside of David. The deposit that would enable him to kill the giant, command an army and lead a nation.

So what does God see when He looks at you? God sees who He created you to be. The deposit He's placed in you that enables you to be everything He has called you to be and to do everything He has called you to do. He has planned for you, prepared for you, and empowered you.

Ephesians 2:10 (NKJ)

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Thank you Father for the deposit You've placed on the inside of us. Open ours eyes that we might see others and ourselves as You see. Lord, we will prophesy and speak to the destinies in our husbands, our children and ourselves today!!! AMEN

Are You Being Squirted with Orange Juice???

John 4: 39-40

And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.”

So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.

And many more believed because of His own word.

Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

In these scriptures, the Samaritan woman has an encounter with Jesus. Pretty powerful one because she goes back to her city and begins to testify. This peeks the interest of the Samaritans and they actually end up asking Jesus to stick around for a couple of days so they can see for themselves what He's all about. I love that they wanted to check Him out themselves. They should!!

Someone else’s experience, teaching or testimony may encourage you briefly, but it will not sustain you. You need that encounter with Jesus for yourself to produce lasting fruit in your life. Your tree won’t produce oranges just because the tree next to you squirted you with orange juice. Don't get me wrong, orange juice is delicious!!! However, it's better to grow your own oranges.

One word to you from God will run circles around any sermon, lesson, devotional or teaching you might hear. It can penetrate your soul and last forever; producing eternal fruit.

Look what happened when they gave themselves the opportunity to be alone with Jesus. “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Thank You Lord for speaking directly to us with Your word that breaths life into every situation and penetrates our very soul. I declare in Jesus name that we hear the voice of our good shepherd. Lord, we will be looking to see what You have to say to us today. AMEN