a life changed

At church today we had someone leading the meeting for the first time and he was talking about the difference that God has made in his life. He'd had a powerful encounter with God was trying to describe what a difference its made. At one point he said "I can't put it into words to convey the extent of the change" and a number of us answered back "its ok, we can tell, we can see it on your face" and it was so true. There was a lightness in his face and a sparkle in his eye that hadnt been there before.

Its awesome to see God setting people free and changing their lives

in the secret places

I have so much to say that it would perhaps take a book to detail it all....so this is just a sliver of ice on the iceberg of my experience.

I've been watching a series over the last week entitled "your body, his temple". In this series Caroline Leaf M.D a South African brain guru (can't remember her actual title) is talking about the complexities of the brain and about toxic thoughts and what happens to our mind because of the way we think.....absolutely incredible stuff.

So in it she talks about the need to renew our minds (sound familiar bible readers?) and how we need to take captive our thoughts instead of letting thoughts just roam freely around in our heads.

So my head is conscious of all of this....and then last night at the Leadership Jesus Way extension seminar conference we had a ministry time and God began to help me to renew my mind on some pretty painful memories of my past. It was an incredibly sacred moment. I would think of a situation and ask God "where were you when this was happening?" and then he would show me where he was. Powerful. Let me give you one example....

I was bullied at school and at one of the primary schools I attended I was being bullied after school by one of the girls in my class. In order to escape from her I ran into a classroom and hid in a cupboard and just cried and cried. In that moment I felt so alone, so isolated, so vulnerable...so I asked God, "where were you in that situation?" He said "I was there, I showed you where the cupboard was...I gave you a safe place to hide, I was your refuge" In that moment the many years of heartache and pain over that situation was gone. My thoughts about the situation had been renewed, the incredible emotional turmoil I have relived over the years was replaced by an indescribable sense of protection and care.

There were many more instances that God and I walked through last night and I have a feeling there are more to come. I love that fact that its in those secret places of our heart and soul that we are most found by God.

"Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is -his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12v 2

knocking on heaven's door

God showed up!

At church today we were continuing our exploration about prayer and developing a friendship with God.

We looked at two passages in Luke 11 & Luke 18 and explored three aspects of the kingdom contained in these passages (hat tip Bill Johnson)

1. friendship
2. justice
3. persistence

Sometimes we dont receive from God because we are his friend, or because of his justice...sometimes we receive because of our sacrificial persistence.

We had a fantastic time of prayer for people who are dealing with all kinds of things. We have people in our church facing cancer, major surgery, relationship breakdown, financial concerns and a whole host of other things....

These things are enough to derail some people, to question where is God, why is he letting this happen to us....

Yet we choose to believe that the enemy would want to derail us from the purposes of God...he wants to take out those who are engaged in battle for the kingdom of God....so we embrace the pain and seek the Lord in the midst of it all. We want to be known in hell....because the enemy will only concern himself with those who are a threat to him.

We were encouraged to seek the Lord's presence, because it is out of the intimacy with God that we walk in, that we can minister to others. We cannot give away what we don't have.

Today I choose to sacrificially persist in my prayers for myself and others. I choose to keep knocking on the door of heaven, knowing I am a friend of God & knowing I serve a just God...and knowing that God is good.