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Knowing God’s Will Part 8: Lessons From Experiencing God
How has God spoken to you lately? Remember Reality 4 from last week? As we continue to study the Word, we pray for clarity from the Lord. But what happens if we ask for one thing, & God opens a different door? Blackaby says when this happens, he finds God always has more to give than he asked for! He prays for God to cancel any request that is not His will! I love Priscilla Shirer’s version of this. We will see in Reality 6, when God works differently than we expect, we must adjust to His plan. Sometimes even His silence speaks loudly. Even Jesus had silence in the garden,…
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Knowing God’s Will Part 7: Lessons From Experiencing God
How does God speak into our lives today? In the Old Testament it was through burning bushes, prophets, casting lots, loud wind & gentle whispers. In the Gospels, God spoke through Jesus. From Acts to today He began speaking through the Holy Spirit. Remember…the most important thing is not how He spoke but that He spoke! God speaks in ways we can understand so we know Him & His plan. Sometimes I miss the fact that He wants a personal love relationship with me (See Reality 2) when I’m seeking His will about something. I focus on the earthly answer more than Him! See below words from Henry Blackaby. As…
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Knowing God’s Will Part 6: Lessons From Experiencing God
When you hear God’s voice, have you ever been challenged to walk out a Truth God reveals? It’s so sweet that God not only shows us His Truth, but He invites us to follow that Truth. And He absolutely expects us, at the moment He invites, to obey that invitation! Last week I shared Reality 3 (scroll back for Parts 1-5): God invites us to become involved with Him in His work. We start with watching to see where the God is working around us in the normal course of our day. Even Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing. Another sweet thing God does, is He walks…
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Knowing God’s Will Part 5: Lessons From Experiencing God
Do you ever miss being a part of what God is doing around you? Since God is working everywhere around us (Reality 1), how do we know when we are supposed to be a part of His work? We want to serve, but where? Since this is part of a series, if you are just now reading, please check out parts 1-4 in this series, Knowing God’s Will that lead to part 5. Because God pursues a love relationship with us that is real and personal (reality 2), He desires that we become a part of His work on earth. The call to a relationship with Him is a call to…
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Knowing God’s Will Part 3: Lessons From Experiencing God
Do you ever wonder what God is doing? And when you feel led to serve Him in some way, do you wonder why? Because God is working all the time and in every place to bring His purpose into our lives. This is Reality 1 of Experiencing God: God is always at work around you. (Check out parts 1-2 to understand the direction for this series, Knowing God’s Will.) We see in the life of Moses how God worked to protect Moses’ life, show Him the slavery of His Hebrew brothers, lead him into the wilderness to shepherd sheep and then send him to Egypt to gain release for the Israelites so…
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2022 Beach Lesson
So after years of hearing from the Lord when I’m at the beach (just click the “Beach Lessons” category for evidence!), I don’t always hear “new” things, but sometimes I hear old things in a new way. This year that happened. I heard something I know, but with a fresh visual. It came to me in a variety of ways: through a couple of books I was reading, and by watching the shoreline. Life has had lots of twists and turns this year, mostly unexpected ones. Some painful. Some just a nuisance. But even as I’ve waited for resolution and healing, I’ve known that God was in control and had…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 6
Please start with the first 5 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The fifth aspect of the cost of going deep is prayer, and the time it takes to pray. Deeper for me was when our daughter walked away from our family for 8 years. And God called my husband and me to continue walking and serving faithfully when the waves we had to cross got even bigger. We continued to pray for years that the Lord would bring her back, keep her safe and draw her to Himself. Sometimes as we serve and lead, God does not answer for a long time. But He is at work even…
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The Cost of Leadership Part 5
Please start with the first 4 posts in this series if you haven’t already. The second aspect in the cost of going deep involves laying down our fears through our faith in Him. For me, the deep, was when He first called me to speak in front of my church. If you know me, you’ve heard me say, I’d never be a public speaker. Deeper was when the Lord called me to LifeWay to continue serving out the call to disciple women, this time training church leaders across the country how to effectively develop ministries for women that help them grow deep! Laying down fear takes courage. Just look through…
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Unseen Progress
Remember when you were a kid and you planted a seed in a pot and watched it eventually pop through the soil? It seemed like a long time before seeing any progress, but what you didn’t see was happening below the surface of the dirt. If you watered well and provided a sunny spot to grow, you probably got to see it produce whatever fruit it was…a plant or a flower. It took time, and it took the right environment. The Bible talks quite a lot about seeds and growing plants as related to spiritual growth. The parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13, for instance. Luke…
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Grieving God’s Heart
Don’t you love it when you hear God speak the same message through different avenues? Perhaps it is in the course of a day, or several days or weeks. But the message recurs in various ways, all leading you to the same principle. Some days, because I study and read several things at the same time, they all seem to point in a particular direction. This happened the day before I wrote this post. I was reading Genesis 6-7 as a part of my Foundations F-260 chronological reading plan. The verse that stood out was Genesis 6:6. After creation, sin entered the world. Adam and Eve were banished from the…
