Peace

Peace can feel miles away when you don't have it. Unreachable, unattainable, non-existent. 

For so long I walked with anxiety and stress instead of peace. 

It sucks! 

Finding peace and holding it can be hard, but I learned a trick to help me hold my peace. 

I listen to podcasts by Kris Vallotton a lot. He is an anointed pastor and very relatable. He is open, honest and teaches the Word of God. 

Check out his podcast for yourself. 

http://www.kvministries.com/podcast

A recent podcast I listened to was talking about keeping short accounts with yourself. 

He said, "when you lose your peace, go back to where you lost it and find it."

Have you ever woke up at peace but throughout the day things happen and you suddenly realize you are stressed or anxious? 

Think back, what happened that set you off course? 

Something that was said, or done. 

It could even be something you saw, read or heard. 

It could be a conversation with a friend where you bad mouthed another friend or gossiped. 

It could be an encounter with the kids that you over punished or yelled when you could have had more grace. 

It could be something you did that you know was wrong. 

Or maybe not doing what you know you should. 

If you keep short accounts with yourself and deal with things as they come up, you won't ever be without your peace for long. 

Go back to that point of distress, with God, and work thru it. 

If you have been so far removed from your peace that you don't even know where to start dealing, pray. 

Ask Jesus to reveal those triggers to you. 

I recently found myself in a state of unrest. I couldn't seem to find my peace. 

I prayed about it and felt I had the answer. 

I had to go to a friend and have a hard conversation. 

After our conversation I had relief, I had gotten everything off my chest. 

We talked thru it and are still friends. Nothing really changed except my attitude, but that changed the whole situation. 

Next time I'm not going to wait several days. 

There is a couple other things I do to help maintain peace in my life. 

#1 keep short accounts with yourself. 

#2 trust that God does, indeed, have the best plan for your life. His plan is way better than your plan. He know how to deal with your problems way better than you. 

Plus, He wants to help!

#3 think about the good things, the blessings I have, and the promises I have in Him. 

How can I have a bad attitude when I consider all He has done, is doing, and is going to do for and in me? 

Try it out, go find your peace. 

Do you hear that? It's Jesus calling.

Serving on the prophetic team at church has changed my life view.
Learning to hear God's voice has changed my life.

I love seeing glimpses of people through God's eyes. 

I love seeing God's vision for others futures. 

I love being able to remind people of their call, their destiny, the opportunities God is laying before them. 

It is a constant reminder of how great God is. How mighty, how good, how full of love. 

Only God can look at a pile of rubble and see diamonds and precious jewels. 

Only God has the power to turn crap into rubies. 

Only God has the power to see all the secret places of your heart and call out the very best. 

As I see bits and pieces of the future, or the potential in someone, it brings hope for this crazy world. Hope that things are indeed getting better not worse. Hope that generations of people aren't just wasting time. 

Their is a plan, there is a purpose.

There is a call on your life, God has big plans for you.

Do you know what it is? Do you hear Him whispering hopes and dreams into your head? Do you take time to ask and stop and listen?

God will talk if you listen. Do you know how to hear?

I have four practical steps you can take to hear the voice of God.
1. Calm your mind
2. Fix your eyes on Jesus
3. Tune to the flow of the Spirit, or spontaneity.
4. Write it down.

Seems easy enough but some of these steps are harder than you might expect.

1. Calm your mind.

• put aside the problems from the day, don't think about what you need to do, just be quite. You might have to re-direct your thoughts several times. You must train yourself to be calm.

2. Fix your eyes on Jesus.

• Just start thinking about His love for you, how awesome He is, picture walking with Jesus in the cool of the day, just walking quietly in a meadow or a beach. 
• Put yourself right in front of Jesus looking into His loving eyes. He is so excited you are there to talk to Him, He is excited to share with you what is on His mind.

3. Tune to the flow of the Spirit, or spontaneity.

• The voice of God quite often is like a spontaneous thought you have while in His presence. 
• Its like when you suddenly think to call a friend and find out they had a bad day and needed a friend. 

 4. Write it down.

• Journal or writing it down is a huge tool you should utilize. 
• While in the flow of the Spirit, just start writing everything that comes to mind. If you remember a call you need to make or a bill that needs paid, write it down. You can then refer back to your notes. 
• Sometimes the Spirit prompt things we forgot to do. Write it and move on. Don't push those thoughts away, or they will persist until resolved.
• Writing is a great way to remember exactly what was said.
• You can also have a trusted friend read things to help confirm if they think it's from the Spirit, particularly if it is a big life decision.

<sup>1 Corinthians has a lot to say about hearing God's voice.

1 Corinthians 12:4</sup> There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. ⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

<sup>God has so much to offer you, all of these things are available to you. You just have to ask.
Notice all these gifts are for the common good? Your supposed to use these gifts given to help others, to encourage, build up, edify.

You might also notice that Paul took time in the middle of talking about Spiritual gifts to talk about LOVE. All the gifts are based around love and should be used in love.
 I love the way the Message version puts this...</sup>
 

1 Corinthians 13:1-8

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

  Love never dies.

The Bible says we are to eagerly desire Spiritual gifts, especially prophecy.

1 Corinthians 14:1  
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. ² For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. ³ But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. ⁴ Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. ⁵ I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy.


So here is the recap...
God has AWESOME plans for you.
He wants to tell you.
You can learn to hear Him all the time.
You should desire Spiritual gifts, especially prophecy.
These gifts should be used to glorify God and encourage people.

Blessed are those who mourn.

Our culture has a way of hiding pain.

We just make it go away, shove it in a box, hide it away in the dark, and never think about it. 

We have forgotten that it is ok to mourn. 

When you greet friends you say, "I'm good, how are you?" But how often do we mean it? 

Why do we say it if we don't mean it? 

It's because pain makes people uncomfortable. They don't know what to say, how to act. We don't know how to mourn. 

John 11:1-44 tells the story of the death of Jesus' dear friend Lazarus. 

I love this story for many reasons. 

One of he reasons is because Jesus met Mary and Martha where they were emotionally. He didn't chastise them for having emotions or feelings. 

They both felt differently. 

(This is the Kelly paraphrase version 😉)

The Bible says... 

The sisters sent word to Jesus that their brother was very sick. They both knew. Jesus had healed many and could and would heal their beloved brother as well. 

However,  Jesus chose to stay 2 more days where he was before taking the 2 day journey back to the sisters. 

Jesus told His disciples He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead to show God's glory and to help the disciples to really believe He is the Son of God. 

So Jesus already had decided, He was going to bring Lazarus back from the dead. 

By the time Jesus arrived, his friend Lazarus had died and was buried 4 days ago. 

Martha heard of Jesus approaching and ran to him. I imagine her kinda mad at Jesus. She questions him about how long it took him to get there, she knew it was a 2 day journey, it had been 4 days she complained to Jesus. She says to Him, "had you been here, my brother would not have died." and followed with, "but I know, even now, God will give you whatever you ask." Jesus doesn't scold her for her feelings, He meets her where she is at and reasons with her. He says, "your brother will live again."
She then ran and told her sister Mary that Jesus was close. Mary ran right to Him still outside the city.
Mary had quite a different response, she fell at his feet weeping, and said, "Lord, had you been here my brother would not have died!" She wept at his feet, overcome by grief for her lost brother.
The Bible says seeing Mary weeping, Jesus was deeply moved in the Spirit and troubled. Then the Bible says "Jesus wept." Seeing His beloved friend in so much pain moved Jesus to tears. He did not reason with Mary like Martha, no, He cried with her. Jesus knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, yet He still cried with His hurting friend.

I love this exchange between the sisters and Jesus because it shows us we can come to Jesus however we are and He will meet us where we are and comfort us in the way we need.

The Bible mentions numerous times when people mourned, they would spend days, week, and even months mourning, they would put ash on their faces and tear their clothes, shave their heads, they would even hire people to come mourn with them. They would mourn for various reasons, death, sickness, lost children, family not following the Lord, family worshiping idols, war time, lost kings, and lots more.

Esther 4:3 says, "there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting, weeping and wailing. Many lay in sackcloth and ashes."

That sounds pretty serious, they were wailing together as a nation.

Micah 1:8
Because of this I will weep and wail; I will go about barefoot and naked. I will howl like a jackal and moan like an owl.

  
Mourning was an acceptable part of culture. It was ok to be upset, to not be ok.

 Romans 12:14

Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 

Mourning is acceptable for a season, as long as you don't move in and live there forever.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

You don't have to mourn forever. There is comfort for you, if you are there.

Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Job 5:11

The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.

Jeremiah  31:13

Then young women will dance and be glad,
    young men and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into gladness;
    I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow.

Don't you love that?


So how do you get from mourning to joy? Be open and honest with God! Bring what you have, despite the mess and offer it to Him, He will meet you where you are. He will heal your heart and mind and make you whole again. He has done it for me so many times.

Recovering from divorce was awful, I thought sometimes I would never be whole, never feel joy, never get over the failure of broken dreams. But, I did! I gave my brokenness to Jesus and He gave me JOY! Real joy, peace in my heart and head, and hope. 
Hope that He is in control and has an awesome plan for my life that is so much bigger than what I can see.

Lift up your eyes to the Lord, lift up your woes, your problems, your fears, and your pain. He will take it and give you a crown of joy. It may not happen overnight, these things take time. But this season will pass and joy comes in the morning!

Isaiah 61:1-3
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendor.

Being tested

I recently walked thru something that was different for me.

It's a place where a lot of grey areas lie for me. A place I'm unsure of. I am inexperienced and unprepared. 

I found myself being pulled in three different directions at the same time. 

My flesh was pulling to satisfy my body's cravings. 

My heart was longing to satisfy my hearts desires. 

And my head. It was screaming at me to be careful, because I was treading on dangerous ground. To slow down. 

This pulling is not unusual for me. 

Often times the pull is stronger to one area than the other. 

This situation, however had me on high alert in all 3 areas. 

Unsure which way to go, I started to stumble and even fell. 

After my knees hit the ground, my eyes went up. 

And I cried out to The Lord for help. 

Not only does He forgive me when I ask, He also picked me back up and put me back on the path. 

He held out His hand and offered to guide me. 

He walked beside me and comforted me. 

He told me to stop beating myself up over something He no longer remembered. He had forgiven me, now I needed to forgive myself. 

My hope is restored. My faith is strong. 

I believe He has the best plans for me. 

I still feel the pulling but the one I'm letting lead is my spirit. 

My spirit cries out for more of The Lord. It hungers for relationship with the Father. 

I'm sure you have heard it said to "follow your heart" but I disagree. My heart in this circumstance was wrong! 

My head was the closest to being right, but still off. 

I drug myself thru way more emotional roller coasters than I needed to, why? 

Because I wasn't listening to the Holy Spirit. 

He was sent as my comforter, my guide. Yet when I needed guidance I looked to myself and fell. 

Thank you Jesus for more chances!