Open the eyes of my heart Lord...

"The Lord is calling for servant lovers who will call in the outcasts, who will go into the dark corners of the world and compel them to come home. And they will come. Who will go and leave their life of comfort and call in the broken? Who will go and be a learner? Who will go amoung those who are mourning and lay their life down for Jesus? The Lord wants his house to be full. It is time for us to go to the poor, to the broken, to the homeless, to the dying, and to the lonely and call them in..." 

 -Heidi Baker (Compelled by Love)

What really is being like Jesus really about? What does it really reflect to be like him, to do what he did, to love like he loved, to walk in the purity he walked in?

I think it all begins at the bottom, when all things are stripped away, when there is nothing else to rely on but God, when there is no resource or ability to bring hype, when there is no social group to put the outcasts in, when there is no food to feed the hungry, when there is no technology to distract us, no friend that knows how to comfort your hurts properly, and no comfortable environments to sit in where life has the ability to become less than what God had intended for it.

You know God has intended so much more for everyone. He always wants us to be growing to know Him more, for our hearts to be enlargened, for us to be taking on more territory for him, for us to be in relationship with more people, to be living in the prophecies that have been prophecied over us.

I heard this awesome quote the other week, "You are either in or out, the fence belongs to the devil".

This has messed with my head! I know so many people (and have been there myself) where the fence hasn't

 necessarily been "un-decided about God" it has been more of a "un-decided about fully giving EVERYTHING to God" because when the devil has you coming to Church weekly and ticking all the boxes but not choosing to engage with the word, prayer and all of which grows your relationship with God and enables you to hear what God has for you and empowers you to carry out those special plans has for you, he has you trapped, stuck and comfortable with not giving everything...

What is everything?...well, duh it is everything! It is not just your heart, it is your plans for your future, your desires to earn heaps, desires to hurry up and find the one and get married, the list is endless...It is living each day, choosing his will over ours.

It is reflecting the life Jesus led, which takes me back to the beginning of this. Jesus lived everyday in sacrifice, humility and love and ended his life in the same way.  

And this is the life he has called us too, it is the life he has called me too. To call in the lost, to bring hope to the needy, to love on the outcasts. And it requires me to be decreasing and for enabling him to increase in me every second of the day.

So Lord, open the eyes of my heart, may I see your children the way you see them, to love them as you love them, increase in me and help me to decrease, help me to choose you and your will everyday and to believe in the promises you have for my life. In Jesus name, Amen.

The beginning of a new adventure!

Almost a month ago I went to a confrence with other leaders from my Chruch (The Rock, Wellington) where Pastor's Bill Johnson, Danny Silk, Martin Steel and Worship Leader Kim Walker-Smith gave amazing testimonies of God. Danny Silk talked about dreams and about how God our Father wants to treat us just like any other Father  would want too. And Kim Walker talked about her journey of how God had everything all planned out and it all happened in his timing and not her's.

I have spend a lot of the past 2 years wondering what was going to become of my life, I have had heaps of prophecies over me that I am going to do BIG things for a small person and at Manifest I was prophecied over that I would be someone who would bring people out of things and into new things and that I would bring messages to people that would encourage them and stir them up and that I would work with youth....
I remember when she was praying all this (she was a random from America, who didn't know me from a bar of soap I might add...) I had a couple of tears and just knodded and smiled because it was just so right and what I felt God has been leading me into and growing me for.

I got back from confrence with an opportunity to work at Zeal as a female youth worker, working with teenagers that are stuck in "crap" and need bringing into newness. (The job description pretty much fitted exactly with was prayed over me) and I felt this sence of excitement that I was stepping into something big, scary, exciting and challenging. I of course prayed about it and talked about it with a couple of trusted friends and felt to take the job. Funny thing is I was askedby  them about it about 2 months before but had kinda put any thoughts or chances of it on hold cause I had just started uni and wasn't in the head space to think about it. But God's timing is all pefect, over those 2 months he was preparing my heart for it as well, I went through some broken times which I feel has made me more compasionate towards others and will greatly help with this new role.
I felt God is going to use this role as a step into my dream to start a youth ministry in Feilding one day, don't know how it will happen, but I have learn't through all this that God does!! All I have to do is get to know him more and he will reveal things to me the more I get closer to him, kinda like two best friends sharing secrets and trusing each other with stuff :)

And to be honest, I couldn't have made this all happen in my strength, it could only have been God's!

So, if you have dreams, visions, or just want to do something huge for God, just remember we are all his vessels, it s not about us being super duper and doing awesome things, it is about serving a BIG God who wants to use us to do mighty things and the more we get to know him the more of his dreams etc he entrusts to us. Don't be afraid to dream, seek first the kingdom (kingdom being not the building of the Church, but heaven on earth, your relationship with God etc) and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Pslam 37:4 and Matt 6:33)

Have a think about the prophecies, prayers, words of encouragement you have been given and pursue them. They are more than just words :)

These Word of the Day things are freaky sometimes!

This is just what I feel I have been going through lately...   God Is Getting You Ready Written by Bob & Debby Gass Wednesday, 14 September 2011 '...first sit down and estimate the cost...' Luke 14:28 NIV Before God gives you more, He observes you with what you already have. Furthermore, when He speaks a word over your life it's like a seed; it needs time to take root and sprout. If God has planned it for you, don't be impatient; '...wait for it; because it will surely come...' (Habakkuk 2:3 KJV). Patience develops in us the ability to stand up to the pressures that accompany blessing. Look back; aren't some of the things you've been through the very things that have equipped you to handle what you have now? Had God given them to you sooner you couldn't have handled them, and He loves you too much to let that happen. Think: if you're having difficulty handling criticism from a few people, how would you cope if God made you pastor or company president? Are you ready to pay the price? And, more importantly, are you able to pay it? The more God gives you, the more He holds you responsible for. Jesus said, 'No man builds without counting the cost.' Sometimes we want things because others have them. You say you want a husband and children, for example - but are you ready to start living sacrificially? You say you need a wife, but are you ready to give yourself for her (Ephesians 5:25)? Whatever you're going through today, there's great peace in knowing that nothing the enemy does can pre-empt God's plan. So, 'Don't be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep travelling steadily along His pathway and in due season He will honour you with every blessing' (Psalm 37:34 TLB). Rejoice; God is getting you ready. SoulFood: 2 Cor 1-4, Matt 25:1-13, Ps 78:56-64, Pro 20:25