I usually only post current events that are going on here, but I feel the Lord has impressed on my heart to share personal words of encouragement and testimony on here too. Hope what happened to me touches your heart and assures you that He is there for you too. <3
How wonderful it is to serve the everlasting God that is full of love, grace, peace and mercy; a God that wants so bad to bless His children but if only we'd let Him.
I am definitely guilty of finding solace, comfort and strength from other areas of life rather than from the Source of which created it all. I see now more than ever that God will allow the pain, grumblings and suffering of life to enter in order to refine, replenish and strengthen His children.
I've been struggling with some "stinking thinking" lately and to be honest it's been very hard to brush it off. It literally taunts me even in my dreams. I couldn't help but ask God, "Lord, if you already confirmed that 'that's' not part of your will, then why don't you help me get it out of my head? Why don't you completely eject it all from my heart and mind?" Throughout this time I cry out to God for strength and am constantly rebuking the thoughts that could alter my destiny and He grants me His strength, but the ache is still there and the thoughts come rumbling back a few hours later, sometimes even minutes.... and there I go again, praying, rebuking, praying, rebuking. It's scary to think that a single thought, if cultivated enough, turns into an action that can leave you reaping a destiny of failure for you and generations to come. This is what this thought is for me. Something that God has explicitly said NO to but the flesh wants to say yes to; it roars "just settle" while the Spirit whispers "no, sit tight and wait on the Lord, just a little longer"
And God is so faithful that right when you feel like you're at the point of maybe faltering, breaking or giving in, He pierces the heart with His loving whisper and speaks. He said, "You can't pour new wine into old wine-skins", and bam, just like that, a simple sentence spoke several sentences and volumes into my heart!!
Isn't that funny how God can say one little thing, one little word, and His sentence, word or fragment turns into a language that the heart understands saying MORE than what He said. The Spirit interprets it for our feeble minds and customizes it to our vernacular elaborating on the thing which was spoken.
"You can't pour new wine into old wine-skins" answered questions and spoke new things to my heart. It became clear to me that this test was my storm and God sees and knows my pain. Why is He allowing it? Because He wants to pour "new wine" into my life, but He can't if I still have on that old wine-skin of a mind. He's testing me to see if I'm still carrying the old mentality that would give into the impulse of feelings and emotions or if Romans 12:2 is what I'm truly working on. "Be not conformed to the comings and goings of this world but be ye TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING of your MIND." (Princess Bible Study Mission Statement Scripture - yay!) The word transformed in Greek means METAMORPHOSIS meaning you can undergo a complete metamorphosis, the way a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, with just the renewing of your mind! If that's not awesome I don't know what is. And if that's not a hard thing to do, I don't know what is. It definitely is not easy, it takes a training of the mind, a lot of praying and rebuking those "old" thoughts when they come, but it can be done.
The other exciting thing besides Him answering me (He always gives MORE than enough, more than what you are asking for, more than what you thought possible) is that He let me know that "new wine" is about to be poured into my life!!! aaaahhhh!!! The visions, dreams and goals that He has deposited into my heart are about to be taken to another level. He's about to pour in new blessings and I CAN'T WAIT. Who on earth needs a fortune teller or tarot cards when you have God Almighty who says He wrote out your days before one of them even came to be!! Psalm 25:14 says "the SECRET of the Lord is with those that fear Him, and He will make known to them His covenant" Now tell me if that's not a bombshell of information! So in other words God is saying "when you respect me I will tell you secrets." He will give us privileged information, cause you to understand things that you would NEVER understand and tell you what He has in store for YOU!! ::sigh:: I'm in love. He's simply amazing.
All of this can't help but bring to mind the song and scripture that says "Who am I that you are mindful of me, that you hear me when I call?" God Almighty, Creator of the Universe, Author and Finisher of Life does not have to answer me when I call but He does. I don't understand it and I don't have to, all I know is that I'm His princess and He's my Dad, the King, and that satisfies my soul unlike any other thing on the planet. If you don't have a relationship with Him or maybe you do but you haven't talked to Him in a while, I encourage you to. He patiently waits for you and watches over you all day long. He loves you. He says, "Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7