Learning to speak

You know sometimes when I pray and talk to God I just don't know what to say or I just feel my words are empty and meaningless, like I've been saying the same thing over and over. That really makes me feel a little stupid when I can't find enough words to pray and then think to myself but I can use so many other words to talk about different things? That doesn't make sense. So I do what most other people do when they want to know more, I steal from the professionals. Basically, I take songs that I hear and use their words when I talk to God. Worship music and just songs in general really help me to expand myself and communicate effectively. David Crowder songs are beautiful prayers to God. I don't know how he does it but I love his music. Jeremy Camp is really starting to pick up his style to that level. But even just regular song lyrics can become so touching to me. They really just open my eyes to what I either need to hear or need to say. And so I just take those songs...fall on my kneess.......and just say to God what I need to. For example Skillet's song Forgiven:

Chorus
Now I’m in our secret place
Alone in your embrace
Where all my wrongs have been erased
You have forgiven

All the promises and lies
All the times I compromise
All the times you were denied
You have forgiven

V2
Forgive me I’m ashamed
I’ve loved another
I can’t explain cause I don’t know
No one can take your place
And there is no other
Forever yours and yours alone


These words just flow right into my heart and just sit there. If you listen to it, you'll understand. I couldn't explain my emotions concerning God's grace and forgiveness any better. I couldn't explain why I need to be forgiven any better. Particularly the chorus...That message is just so powerful.

This is just one example. I could put some of David Crowder's lyrics and just blow your mind away, but I'll let God do that, try it, you'll see. Anytime you challenge God, He will meet and then challenge you right back. You can't win against Him. Music is just one way. You can use movie quotes and plays and books to find ways to make your prayer life and communication skills more effective and enriched with God. If you let Him, God will show you all the ways He can speak to you. He'll find a way and you will hear Him. And the you can use that to respond to Him.

Finally digging in

Well in this final series of healing, I realize that there is one more point to mention and that is the struggle of healing. And I'll end with some tips that I found super helpful.

Well let's dig in. Here's the truth...the healing process is very intense. Why is this? because change is intense. It's totally necessary though. God has created you for one purpose, His glory and guess how you give Him the most glory? By being the person He's always wanted you to be. That makes God happier than anything and when you realize how messed up you are, you understand that there's a lot of work to do to become that person. But the good news is that God knows you can't do it on your own, so He provides ways, people, books, messages, songs, movies, pictures, anything possible to remind you that He loves you, cherishes you, adores you, and wants to forgive you. Basically what God will do is make you from someone who always wanted to be or feel loved into someone who knows how to love and understands they are loved. And to do that, God has to get deep within your heart and break you down, show you all your issues, your problems, and then show you how to fix them. It's a rough process, a tough one. You have to become vulnerable, you have to desire intimacy with Him. And for most people that's tough because intimacy is what hurt them in the first place, they are in this healing process because they were intimate in the wrong way or were more intimate with a human than God. If your that person, then your first reaction is fear. But what does God say? "Do not be afraid. I stand at the door and knock. Please let me come in." When you open up to God, then He begins to mold you, shape you, strengthen you like a potter and clay. You begin to understand how situations in your life were placed there and why. You begin to make sense of your life and realize that even the worst of situations God can use for good. It reminds me of the story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers. But what happened to him? He became one of the highest ranking Egyptian leaders saving thousands of people from starvation. What did Joseph say to his brothers? "what you intended for evil, God intended for good." Once you get to that point. Then the healing process will be easier and easier.

So here's some tips from me.

Begin now with your relationship with God. Start listening to Him. He speaks through His Word, people, movies, prayer. Open yourself up to him, start talking to Him about your fears, failures, hurts, pain. Let Him become your best friend. And after some time you'll begin to feel much stronger than you were before. Next, start diagnosing those problems that you struggle with: relational or physical problems with parents, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, co-workers, church people whoever you have issues with. Start thinking deeply about what you might have done wrong and how you should have either trusted God or how God would have reacted to the situation. After that, begin to reconcile those issues especially with those people. Be honest, tell them either "hey I'm sorry for hurting you, its my fault, forgive me" or "hey, you hurt me with what you did, but I forgive you, just wanted to let you know." Then, the rest of the healing process will begin to become easier and easier. If you have resources, use them. Christian friends, devotionals, books about issues you have problems with. These are ways that God can tangibly speak to you and get your attention. That's how God communicates with you, so that you learn to trust Him with your heart, and not your eyes. Time heals all wounds, so don't be afraid to take your time. Healing can be a long process, or a short one. It depends on the issues and how you react to them. Either way, eventually you'll be that person that God wants you to be. Humans are always a work in progress, so the lessons you learn now will only make future issues easier to deal with. Finally, Thank your God for intervening in your life, for saving you from what could have been a disaster because your Heavenly Father knows all your needs before you did, He's always been looking out for you. Take hope in God's undying love for you, because only with it can you truly be free to be loved by Him and love others through Him. The following words are from a song entitled Healing Rain. Let them be God's words to you:

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming nearer to this old town
Rich and poor, weak and strong
It's bringing mercy, it won't be long

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming closer to the lost and found
Tears of joy, and tears of shame
Are washed forever in Jesus' name

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain.

The Truth about being Limitless

In the previous post, I mentioned Faith and how it begins with trust and ends with action. Today, I want to mention the next step to becoming limitless. And that is letting God heal you and your wounds. This world is a messed up place, but God has every desire to fix it and rebuild it to the way He originally designed it at creation. His first priority though is humans. God says in His Word that one day He will reconstruct the universe and re-create it. However, that is in the future. There is one thing He can’t wait for and that is restructuring people’s lives now. That is something God cannot put off, it pains Him too much to see people suffer. So how does He do it? How does God heal? Well first, I need you to do something for me. I need you to read Luke 8:43-48.

Read it? Good. The first step to healing is taking the initiative and by reading that passage on your own you’ve practiced taking the first step. Ok. So first off, what happens? A woman with medical issues touches Jesus and is healed. Hmm not much to explain....or is there? First off, we notice the woman is afraid to publicize her healing. She just wants to touch Jesus and run. No one will know and no one will see. But what does Jesus do? He makes a show out of it. He says “Who touched me?” The first step to healing is touching Jesus. Making that attempt to reach Him, to tap in on the shoulder and say “hey man, I need some help.” Second step is for Jesus to shine the spotlight on you and say “who are you and what have you done?” Jesus wants you to admit your problem, confess it, and then find someone so you can publicize it with because admitting the problem keeps you accountable to your sin. After you do that, then the healing can begin, and Jesus can say to you “your faith has made you well.” Now is that the end of the story? Nooo. Next is the hard part, because now I need you to read another story nearby in Luke 7:36-50. Read that story now.

So did you take it all in? Reread it if you have to. How does this story relate? Well, so far we have discovered how to begin the healing process, and now we will discover how to pursue the healing process. What happens in this story? A woman anoints Jesus, kisses his feet, washes them. How does Jesus react? First, He confronts the problem directly. He gets in Simon’s business and says “Hey, what’s your deal? Don’t you see what’s going on?” The actions of the woman are exactly the next step. Realize forgiveness. Jesus forgave you when He said “your faith has made you well.” That’s Him saying “It’s ok, what you did was wrong, it mattered to me (as in it hurt me), and I release you from it. Let’s move on.” That’s forgiveness. Think about that........let it soak in....pray if you have to............. Moving on, what happens next? What does the woman do as a result of being forgiven? Yea she does kind things to Jesus, but what is she really doing? She’s showing Him love....... thanking Him, and actively saying I appreciate all that you did for me. Forgiveness spurs one on to Love. You can’t love without being forgiven, and forgiving others. If you can’t love, then there’s a problem. Because love frees one from sin. Without love there is no freedom. You can’t be limitless without being able to love. God is love, God is truth, God is free. What did Jesus say? “The truth shall set you free.” Once you realize God’s love, the truth will free you. But most importantly, love frees you of your past sins, and lets you forgive those who hurt you or humbles you before those you hurt, and reconciles that relationship with those people, just like your relationship was reconciled with God. Of course, the opposite is true. Sin is hate, Sin is false, Sin is bondage. When you reject God’s love you deny God the opportunity for salvation. Hebrews 12:15 says ^“See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” You begin to hate and hate blinds you from the truth which puts you in bondage and thus limits you to being a slave of the devil and his purposes. Sounds rough. I don’t know any nation in the world that wants to be enslaved like in the old days. Most of the world is now independently living which is why we have over 200 different nations in this world. Living the way someone else wants you to. Doing what they say all the time without any opinion. Can you see why there are so many angry people out there and why people are afraid to love others? They don’t want to be hurt by someone else over and over again. I’d never want to live that way and neither does God. You weren’t created to live that way.

So in conclusion, this whole healing process is about reconciling your relationship to God, and reconciling your relationship to others. When you finally do that, then you can begin to live the way God intended you to..... free of pain, hurt, and fear. Then you can begin to work on your sin problems, otherwise known as a strategy for a new life. Let God help to recreate yourself into that person you’ve always wanted to be, and that person He always intended for you to be, Limitless.

What is faith?

Well I haven't been posting in what has been years....but I decided I needed a spiritual outlet as I study the scriptures and grow in Christ. Something that I have been grappling with lately is becoming fearless or basically ridding yourself of fear and discouragement in one's daily life. I realize now that this is a result of faith in God and the transformation that takes place between your soul and the Holy Spirit. So what is faith? Is faith superstitious? Is it something you perform? Is it actions? Well faith may sound like all those things but it really is just one idea and that is trust. Faith=Trust, period. When you want someone to do a job for you, you ask them which is trusting them. It doesn't matter how they do that job or when they do it, you know they will do it so you place your Faith in them. That is precisely what makes one's faith in God so real. If you have faith in God to do something for you or someone else, it doesn't matter when or how your petition is going to happen, you trust Him to come through for you. For example, I have faith that my cell phone receives text messages and phone calls. How do I know this? because I hear my phone vibrate and then I check it and it says I have a text message or that someone is calling me. That's faith, I trust my phone does what it should because I receive texts and calls. So that brings up another point. Is faith active? The answer is yes. Faith is action. You trust people by their actions and how they perform for you. So what's the difference between trusting people and trusting God? Well its simple really, what the inherent traits of people and the traits of God? Obviously through the fall people are naturally sinful, so people = evil. And by looking through the Word, one can understand that God = love, life, truth, and various other ideas. You see, what you believe about God is what will determine your faith in Him. If God is love, then you trust that God loves you all the time. If you believe that God is good, then God never sends evil in your direction. You see when you change your views about God and make your own ideas about Him that are contrary to the Bible, then you put God in a box and create a God that is limited. But if trust Him at His Word, then God is limitless and do anything that you've ever imagined. And that is when you become fearless....When you trust that your God is limitless. One of my favorite stories about the Bible is when Abraham is tested by God. Abraham is promised by God that he will have at least one son from his wife Sarah and that son is to be the chosen one that will be a part of something special. However, one day God comes to Abraham and says "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about." You see God knew that Abraham loved his son, that he was emotionally attached to him, that he would rather die than let his son die. But God wanted to show us, another side of the story. So Abraham did what God said, prepared everything, tied up his son, and was about to kill him when an angel appears and says "Do not lay a hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." Hmmm interesting. So God basically tells Abraham "you did what I asked so that means you trust Me. Thanks." But where did Abraham get this power from? Well when we read Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, one might come across this passage: "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.' Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death." Abraham believed in a limitless God, that God could do anything He wanted, whenever He wanted and so his son was saved. Abraham Trusted that God could do whatever He wanted in the blink of an eye, and that's why the angel said "now I know that you fear (trust) God." What about you? Do you believe in a limited or limitless god? Do you think that you need to have control of the situations of life, so you box up God and say "ok I'll open you when I need you." Think carefully about how God is talking to you and remember that a God without limits means miracles can happen, lives can be changed, souls saved, people can become fearless, it all depends on how much you trust in your God.