After a full day...

I'm winding down after a FULL day!

Started it off with praying for Algeria (with Send, our missions committee), worship with my RWC family, giving prophetic words, hearing about God moving miraculously (one partial healing, another of answered declarations :D), praying for our custodian's dad who has severe diabetes, lunch-ing, meeting up with a couple of awesome ladies, praying for my roomie and seeing God heal her miraculously right there of a migraine and some other pains, I am TIRED!! My people-tank has reached my limit. :) But I feel so full on the inside!

Partnering with God is so fun and seeing Him show up and do things you wouldn't be able to do on your own is SO fun! He is so full of love for us! He so wants to heal and restore us. This is why Jesus came and died - that we may be healed and restored in our spirit/soul/body!

But at the end of my very full day of crazy God stuff and loving people (some might call this "ministry"), I just crawl back into God's arms. And I just rest there and chill with Him. A part of me thinks "hm.. maybe I should intercede even though I'm so tired." But, no... It's ok just to stay with God and just enjoy Him. This is where it's at... Loving Him is the end goal of my life. And apart from staying with Him, I can do nothing. :) (John 15:5) I LOVE HIM! <3

Faith. So cool.

We please God with our faith. (It is impossible to please Him if we don't have faith. Heb 11)

I've been meditating on this passage in Mark 11 when Jesus passes by a fig tree with no fruit and curses it. The next morning, Jesus and the disciples pass by the same fig tree again and the disciples notice that the fig tree was withered way to its roots.

Jesus then responds to their observation:

"Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

Ok, seriously though. Think about what Jesus is saying here. It's kinda crazy! He's saying that if we ask for anything (even a fig tree to be cursed or for a mountain to be thrown into the sea) in faith, it will ours.

I've experienced some cool things like this happening recently, when I declared things in faith and those things actually happened!! (i.e., Cheryl and I happened to be watching Jeremy Lin play in the last Knicks game. He wasn't doing so well in the 3rd quarter when we started watching so helped out a brother and declared that he would score 15-20 points from the end of the 3rd quarter to the end of the game. He ended up getting 17!! Praise God. :))

The children of God have eternal resources because of who their Dad is. The way to access those things is through faith. I am no longer a beggar; I am a child of the Maker of the universe! May faith arise to walk boldly as His child to access eternal resources!

I encourage y'all to declare things with faith and see how you will receive those things you declared! Double dare you. ;)

The Accuser.

Satan, the enemy of God and us, is an accuser.

He accuses God.

He accuses us.

Sometimes, we hear his accusations without knowing that it's him whispering these lies to us. Sometimes, we hear his accusations of God ("Are you sure God is good?", etc.) or accusations towards us ("You are unworthy. You are a sinner. What makes you think God'll accept you since you failed again?")

This shouldn't be surprising. His first accusation contained a very subtle implication that God was not good and that perhaps, He was holding good from us -- “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

True fact - Satan accuses us before God day and night (Revelation 12:10).

Thankfully, these accusations are but lies. Only lies come from the mouth of our accuser. But the the words that come from the mouth of God - those things are truth. And only His truth matters.

And the truth (Cliff notes version) is that:

(a) God is good. :)

(b) We are righteous. (And have become the righteousness of God in Jesus.) :)

How awesome is it that we have a sympathetic and holiest (ever) advocate who is standing before God and defending us with His blood??

Now that this tactic of the enemy is uncovered (ha), let's guard our minds against any accusations we may think or hear. May the truth of God's goodness and what HE says of us (that we are children in His household, wearing robes of righteousness, a new creation) anchor our souls.

:)

Dreams.

What are your dreams?

We have a short time here on earth. What are some dreams you have to do during your time on earth?

Currently, I have a list of around 35. I'll be adding more as I think of more.

Here is a sneak-peek into several on my list:

- To adopt children and be involved with orphanage(s) or foster home

- To swim with dolphins

- To be a crazy lover of Jesus - crazier with each year that goes by. I want to die madly in love with Him.

- To be used to bring at least 1000 into the Kingdom

- To heal every person that I pray for that has cancer

Write down your dreams! Delight yourself in the Lord. Let's be surprised by how our Daddy God fulfills these things happen in our lives! My amazing friend Cheryl told me once that a missionary from Israel told her, "If your dreams don't make people laugh, it's not big enough."

Let's dream BIG! :)

A Love that never runs out (a bottomless sea)

In the beginning you were singing

In the end you'll still be singing over me
In this moment you're right beside me
You're everywhere, you're in the air that I breathe

You are an endless ocean, a bottomless sea

In my sin you kept loving
There's no end to your forgiveness and mercy
Every morning you keep coming
The waves of your affection keep washing over me

All those angels, they are swimming
In this ocean and they still can find no shore
Day and night, night and day
They keep seeing new sides of your face

There's no end to the affection you have for me

"Follow Me."

Old Testament instance-

So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen... Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”

“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”

So Elisha left him and went back.

New Testament instance -

Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.”

[...] Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”

Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

***

See the similarity and the difference? :) Both were called and both were willing to follow, willing to leave their jobs and families.

The difference:

But the difference is that Jesus calls for even higher and more radical measures than Elijah, who was under the old covenant. Jesus called for an immediate and 100% devoted response. For example, when He called the disciples, they immediately left their nets (their livelihood) and followed Him. Jesus won't accept anything less than 100% devotion because they're "not fit for service in the Kingdom of God". Sobering, huh?

The good part:

However high the cost of following Jesus may seem, it is the highest privilege - preaching and demonstrating that the Kingdom of God is at hand; this Kingdom that many have awaited for (and many are still awaiting to experience or hear about). We are called to preach the Kingdom and demonstrate the Kingdom (healings, deliverance, etc)! And He has equipped us with His very own Spirit and power to do this very task. We are called to a greater than the ministry of Elisha who followed Elijah (and they both did some crazy things!)

If you're a follower of Jesus, you are called to high things, glorious things... You follow the One who has no beginning or no end, whose eyes blaze with fire, and whose loving sacrifice has given us full access to the throne of Dad our God. He only asks that we put our hands to the plow and follow Him, wherever He may take us, no matter how uncomfortable it may be... with eyes fixed on Him, moving forward. Jesus, who thought we were worth Him sacrificing His life for, is infinitely worth it.

An encounter with Kanye West and a homeless man

Interesting story from last Friday...

I was on my way back home after having dinner with a friend and it was EXTREMELY cold, like bitter-cold. I was passing by a homeless man all bundled up (couldn't even really see his face because he was so bundled) who was holding up a sign and a cup for cash.

Now, my natural inclination was to get to the subway station as quickly as possible because it was SO cold (and I am not a fan of cold weather). But I felt bad for the man because it was so cold outside. I traced my steps back and dropped some money into his cup. I then asked him if he wanted anything like coffee. He said that hot chocolate would be awesome. So I run (it's cold) over to Tim Horton's, buy some hot chocolate, walk back, and give it to the guy. We have a short conversation about how he ended up on the streets and I'm surprised by how "sane" he was, relative to the many homeless people I've talked with on the streets of NYC. (They say that 80% of people on the streets have some sort of "mental illness".)

Anyways, I leave to go home and on my subway ride home, I'm thinking about the man and what I could do to help him out, especially with the freezing weather and all. I think about love and Jesus' definition for love -- the story of the Samaritan who stopped for the helpless one. His act of love for this stranger was providing housing until he got better. It's so... simple. :) Love isn't religion (the priest and the Levite passed the guy right by); it's defined as caring for someone even though you know they won't pay you back. It freely gives.

So I decide to try to find him housing for the night because at least he'll keep warm for one night... I call some people up and my friend Amos picks up his phone. He agrees to meet me to help this homeless man find housing.

So, picture this:

Amos and Cadengo (our other friend) in the front with me and the homeless man (Nigel) in the back of the car, driving around NYC looking for a hotel.

We park temporarily at a street while Amos looks up hotels on his phone. I spot a hotel across the street so we drive up to it. I go into the hotel and have a hard time opening the really heavy door, only to see a cool-looking African-American man with sunglasses open the door for me from behind. I thank him and walk up to the front desk to ask if they have any availabilities. They had none so I went back to the door to leave... and all these girls push past me, screaming in high voices, "OMG!!!!!!! I can't believe he's here!!!!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!" I'm thinking, "Okay, ladies.... calm down."

I go into the car and Amos immediately asks, "Hey, is that Kanye?" I look to where Amos is pointing and he looks like the guy who opened the door for me... (still has his shades on) so I ask, "Um.. did he open the door for me from behind?" Amos, "Yeah, he was right behind you."

And then I'm like the ladies: "OMGOMGOMOGM!!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE KANYE OPENED THE DOOR FOR ME!!!!"

So random, eh?!

And all this is happening WHILE Nigel (the homeless man) is in the car. He comments, "Kanye's got good beats." :D

Now I rarely see celebrities so I couldn't help but to think that this was God's way of saying, "Good job, girl. You're serving the least of these... Here's a little treat. :)" I seriously sometimes feel the applause of heaven when we do little things in Jesus' name and in His love.

Long story short - we end up driving to Newark (near Nigel's telemarketing job) and book him a hotel for the night.

And an unnamed person ended up booking the room for him through gambling winnings they had earlier that week. *Cough*

Funny, eh?

Life is surely an adventure when you follow Jesus. Ha.