Supernatural

What’s supernatural?

Supernatural – from the Greek word super nature, means something in a realm we cannot see or understand….Well how do you begin to understand something that is defined by opinions…For more than a couple of years this subject has truly fascinated me. I guess it started when a prophet came to our church, yes that was definitely when I really started to push against the proverbial wall of what was possible and what was fanatical. The prophet knew things that I knew he couldn’t know, so that drew the line, for me it all hinged on the prophet and the light he shed with his foretelling. The way I rationalized it was this, the things he prophesied about he couldn’t have known without some supernatural connection, it was no coincidence, so if there was a possible supernatural, then for me that meant God was real and alive today, not just for when we die to judge our ways, but he was connected somehow, in this moment right now. For me this was pretty huge. Once you cross that line then where does it stop? If God is alive and aware of the goings on in my life today, that means I believe He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So the God that created the universe, that spoke the world into existence is concerned on a personal level in my life. This is a powerful thought by its self, so if God is so aware of me, he can use a regular guy, a prophet, to speak things to me that I’d never uttered to a living soul. Can I know things about him that he’s never uttered to a living soul? Now this is quickly closing in on stuff we never discussed in all my Sunday school days. Was this sacrilegious or is this cutting edge theology? Is there such a thing as cutting edge theology? I don’t know, suddenly Sunday school seems more like a day camp, then an actual school, because if you don’t learn this in school, how exactly do you learn about these things? Where do you get schooled on what seems to be opinions? Well this was my thought process, I wanted to stick to the truth and if possible avoid the fanatical, so I decided truth would be what was biblical, so where do you go to get biblical truths on supernatural things? Well I went to iTunes, it made sense to me and I searched for every podcast that had the word Revelation in the description, I figured that was the most supernatural of the books of the bible, so why not start there. As you can imagine I founds hundreds and hundreds of podcast, so I just started in alphabetical order and started downloading, what I didn’t know what this was the beginning of the best journey I’ve ever been on. At first I just listened to a couple of podcast a week, when I had time, some I barely started before I deleted them and some I listened to over and over. Of all the hours and hours and even weeks and weeks of teachings of the book of Revelation, by far the best laid plan was done by Mark Driscoll at Mars Hill Church. Mark is an excellent bible teacher, he has a gift of relaying the word of God in a very practical way. I learned so many things from these podcast, but more than anything I heard, it was what I learned about myself that was the most surprising, I was desperately curious about God, my Savior, and how the Holy Spirit fit in. What did each of these unique aspects of the Trinity specifically mean to me? I didn’t know! But I was on a quest. I wish I could tell you how many podcast I’ve listened to over the last couple of years, I’d really like to know. A year or so ago my husband tried to sync his phone to our iTunes account and the cloud tried to add over 1,600 podcast to his iphone, but the space was unavailable. To him this was a sign of ludicrous, I just chuckled to myself surprised that the preacher’s kid who once thought she’d heard it all was still listening. When I exhausted the book of Revelation, I began to wonder about the Holy Spirit, and the iTunes search began again. This led me along side more questions of the super natural, it piqued all my interests. What about how the Red Sea parted. How did Gideon prophesy to the dry bones and they became an army? How did Paul and Silas sing their way out of shackles and prison gates. How did leprosy get healed? How did the blind see, the deaf hear? Jesus told his disciples greater works will you do, in other words, because you’ll have access to the Holy Spirit, you can do all the things I’ve done and more. So where does this begin, well the only thing I’ve truly learned so far is the first step, and that’s Belief! I don’t want to limit God, I don’t know what he’s capable of, and I don’t know what I’m capable of as an extension of Him, but at this point I’d say the possibilities are limitless as the galaxies are endless. I’m still listening and I actually heard a podcast today that I really liked from Catch the Fire London, Called “The Kingdom is full of strange things”. Beyond the everyday extraordinary, I’ve only casually experienced the supernatural, I’ve seen prophets, I’ve even heard testimonies of healing’s. I’ve felt the presence of God, I’ve known his peace that passes all understanding, I’ve experienced his fullness, but I’m shy of an extraordinary mind blowing thrill ride experience. I think its possible, I think God is as real today as he ever was. I think my biggest regret in the after life will be wishing I would’ve pressed harder for the things that were right at the tips of my fingers. I won’t let the blanks I’ve drawn, be the end of my story. I’m open to all there is. I’m expecting the unrealistic, the hidden to be found and the history to be rewritten. If it’s possible, why not dream as big as it gets?<

to be perfectly honest

Have you ever had the Holy Spirit whisper something to you really loud. As I diligently pursued getting to know this teacher of the Trinity, I’m amazed by his gentleness, so its just like him to get a ferocious point across with the force of a whisper. So brief background, I had a relationship that was 99% frustrating, and I’ve been bringing this to the Father but what I realized through this learning experience was I was really treating my problems like a side dish at a pot luck, I was just sharing them and bringing them back home with me. What sorta faith is this. I was talking to a friend & every time she tried to give me advice it hit a nerve and the pain was all right at the surface, like a fresh wound that hadn’t healed at all. And let me interject this, the past couple of years I have been on my own journey to find out who God is to me and with every single discovery I’m completely desperate for more. I’m convinced my Father has given me authority I can’t even begin to imagine, yet I must begin to imagine. I am convinced the Creator of the universe, my Father, has more power than all my fears combined. Stories I’ve read and podcast I hear convince me that seeing the dead raised, the blind see and the deaf hear is more than a possibility its a commandment it’s a job description for the mighty calling on the life of every believer who dares. So these are the ground rules to what I consider the core beliefs of my secure faith, with God absolutely anything is possible. I think I believe that, but theres this relationship, a thorn in the flesh for sure, and on this day I’m in the familiar spot of hopeless & ready to jump off a sinking ship. I mean at some point thats just prudent, right? But see I know the words the Father has spoken over my life and I know the people they include and this relationship is involved, so anyways, I replay this conversation in my head as I engage the Teacher Holy Spirit & I begin to notice I have zero faith when it comes to this relationship, and the Holy Spirit reminds me that I believe God can do anything. I realize after tossing this back and forth I kinda don’t want God to fix this, almost in a humble way…like Ohh Father I got this, there’s plenty of other things that need your attention, and besides this it’s too broken, I should’ve realized that a long time ago and saved us both the trouble. And thats when the whisper comes….”but what about the fact that I make all things new?” I still hold my ground, but this would require more new than new car sent new, and that’s when I put my finger on it, deep down there was this murmur that said “No way, impossible, it can’t be done” I believe the Red Sea was parted, I believe the impossible stories I’ve heard about healings and miracles, but it boils down to idenity. God stepped in because more was at steak, was that it, was that where my faith hinged on the worthiness of me and my need. What kind’ve faith is that? Did I think God’s mercy and grace was for the multitudes but fell short when there was only an audience of 1. See when I actually say it, my heart argues with my head. I really didn’t know there was such a big part of me that was holding back, I thought I believed God could do anything, but now I knew there was part of me that wasn’t all in. This was an awakening, because when I break it down it easy the spot the lies, the crack in the foundation of your thoughts. The truth is God doesn’t need a publicity stunt, and just like I love each one of my children individually more than they could ever possibly imagine, He’s got me beat with his love for me. So if God is only as big as my faith is, no wonder my realtionship feels so hopeless, I wasn’t factoring him in to the solution at all. And this simple truth, this ferious whisper was a ground breaking revelation, that brought me in over my head in love with my Savior who’s waiting on me to invite him in. Waiting on me to line up my heart and head with the truth of who he is and the magnitude of how he loves me, he wants me to come boldly to him, but the bodly means I’m not holding back a bold request means, I’m asking for 100% backing and I know without you it’s impossible, but you make all things new. You know sometimes I thnk the Father wants to know what we want, what is it you want? Now do you believe he has time for you? Because his word says he does. Do you believe this is a problem you can fix, are you still weeding out possible solutions, because I was. I thnk the Father wants you to leave your “do it yourself, for dummies” book at home and come to him with complete abandonment, like a child, just like a child would, beacuse thats how the Father gets involved with an audience of 1 that comes to him just like child…and that changes everything…

How bad do you want revival? Part 1

How does revival begin? People have been asking this question for ages…

Does it require the Holy Spirit? Yes, I think so, that seems to be the main ingredient, waves & wave of Holy Spirit, falling fresh.

So if the Holy Spirit is the key, but we’re not sure how it begins, I say you start with what you know. First of all we know not to grieve the Holy Spirit. How exactly do you grieve the Holy Spirit? Well this is the way I consider it, you’ve got to be a good host. I’ve spent a long time considering this and exactly what that means. For so long I was really guilty of taking the Holy Spirit for granted, as if the whole relationship was a weight the Holy Spirit carried. I almost considered him like a seat belt, it came with the car, I use them when conditions are bad, when I’m driving at night, but I’ve never experience the depth of my seatbelts importance, I’ve never flipped the car & was holding on to life by my seat belt, so I treated it casually & sometimes I even argue that the seat belt could be more dangerous, I mean what if it traps me. I’m using this as a parrell more than a legitimate arguement, but the point is how do you get to the depths of the relationship with out a valley. And this thought led me back to hosting. How many times have you been to a resturant that you left saying you’d never go back, what made you feel that way? Did you feel like you were unimportant? Did your server make you feel like their other tables were more important than you? Did you feel like maybe they just didn’t sense your needs, did they leave you thirsty? Maybe they never checked back to see how you were doing, or you had to wave them down to get their attention. How do you host the Holy Spirit? Do you consider his needs? I heard Bill Johnson from Bethel Church in Redding, CA say to treat the Holy Spirit like an actual dove on your shoulder. How would that change the way you walk, even down the stairs, well you would carefully consider each step aware of the dove. I think thats half of it, you cannot host the Holy Spirit without carefully considering him like a dove on your shoulder, but the second half is that this Holy Spirit you are carefully considering is POWERFULL!!!! He is loving, he is a teacher, but that gentle dove has dunamus power, that is looking for a partner to bring the kingdom to earth with, but power without understanding is dangerous, so host this powerfull presence, get to know the dove. Sense his needs, get to know his desires, he’s a great tipper so beg to wait on him.

Jesus, Son of Saul????

What are you Chasing?
Everyone’s chasing something, we chase dreams, dogs chase their tail, some of us run fast enough that we can actually see what we’re chasing. No matter was your pace is something lies ahead that keeps you from turning around, so what is that?
What is King Saul would’ve chased after God the way he chased after David, well that would’ve change history. He was capable of the chase, because he chased, he had the time, because he used it, he had the resources because he used them. King Saul spent his life chasing David.

You can use hind sight to change your chase, history is being made every day. You are in charge of the direction of your chase. Generations from now will history look back & admire your chase or will they learn from your waste.