Moved! (Part 1)

(The story is long, but the adventure is worth the read if you can hang with me awhile.  I will do this particular post in parts.  Welcome to Part 1.)

Did I mention that we moved this past year?

Yes, we did, and it was a fantastic struggle in the spiritual world.  Apparently the enemy did not want us to move from our old location to our new location.

Any person in their right physical mind would have given up and found another home.  Well, we are different.  We clung to the hopes God had given us.

Let me back up and start from the beginning.

My hubby and I have lived in our very first starter home since our 1st wedding anniversary; the past 15 years.  It was a cute home in a good location that started off in a suburban area.  Over the years that area turned into a very busy concrete jungle of a city.  This 'city' had been my country haven as a little girl growing up, but now very little of that good country feel remained.

We worked and lived in that starter house with a tiny backyard and neighbors directly next door.  We had wonderful neighbors for the first several years, and although many of them where still there when we moved, many of them had moved themselves and we lost that wonderful family feel in the neighborhood.  The new families that moved in around us kept to themselves and did not want to get to know the rest of us.

While we lived there we had friends over, Bible studies, a dog, fish and turtles, a vegetable garden and then finally 3 children of our own.  As our family grew from the inside and the city around us grew from the outside our tiny yard and beginner house began to feel more like a closet for this country girl at heart.

I had begun longing for a move to a more country location with the minimum of a large backyard in which the kids and I could escape the confines of walls and artificial lighting.  Not only that, but I connect with the Lord through nature.  I feel most at peace, and hear Him more loudly when I am surrounded by His creation.  This deep longing to move drew straight from my soul.

My husband and I began looking at houses with more land, but several years past where we were unable to find what we liked and what fell in our price range; not to mention our location parameters.  After years of looking we stopped browsing for awhile, and my heart grew more restless.

One day my husband was looking at houses online, and he found one that he thought might work.  It was a blue country home that had not been lived in for a while.  The first time I looked at it through the lens of the computer screen I wasn't so sure about it and couldn't tell if it would be a good fit for us or not.  (Spoiler Alert: this 'blue house' would be the one we move into.)  So the two of us picked a handful of homes to go look at in person to see what we thought and felt.  We decided to take the kids with us too!

That first drive we took to see these country homes felt very long, and made us unsure about the location we had chosen.  The kids were squirmy and restless in the van, and I wasn't sure if I could ever lean the back road route to get there. 

But, one thing that did happen on that drive was an overwhelming sense of peace.  The further we drove from our starter house and the closer we drew to the blue house seemed to lift all the cares and heaviness off my shoulders.  I was surrounded by peace and calm. 

We finally reached the property and the very moment it came into view I KNEW this was our home.  It felt like home. 

All three kids said, "Can we move into the blue house?  We love it!  It's going to be our new home."  This was a HUGE deal to me.  My kids are not proponents of change.  Ever since we had begun talking about moving and visiting a few prospective houses over the years before they would cry and declare that they would never move.  After years of struggle, we pull into the driveway of this blue house and all three kids immediately wanted to live here.  They hadn't even gone inside yet!

Let me give you a picture of what we saw so you can understand that this was NOT the dream picture every family wants to see.

The house had not been lived in for some months.  The grass was overgrown.  There were lawnmower tracks of mud in a low spot of the front yard.  All the flower beds were tall weed beds, and many of the the bushes were dead.  Tree branches and pine cones littered the yard, but the feeling of peace and home were overwhelming.

The swing-set in the backyard needed a lot of work to get it usable.  Broken boards, broken swings and rusted metal.  The vegetable garden was nothing but 6 foot tall briers and thistles surrounded by an old and sagging fence.  It would have to be completely ripped out and started over.  Yet I had visions of God touching and healing people on this land.  I saw a ministry where roots of bitterness were ripped out of those that stepped foot here, and hope restored.  I saw more than weeds and work...I saw a vision of life.

The realtor led us inside the house and it was covered in dust and dead bugs.  Not a pretty picture when showing a home to potential buyers.  But those dead bugs didn't stop our kids.  They ran right in, claimed their rooms and started chanting that they would be moving to the blue house.

The more I saw the more I was convinced that after years of searching I was finally home.

Over the next few weeks we looked at several more houses, but kept coming back to this blue house.  Every time I came back to visit and see if it truly was what we were looking for the more solidified it was in my mind that this is where we should be. 

I began dreaming about the blue house.  I began having visions of ministry and family there.  It became home in my heart before it became our home. 

But...my husband was not so sure. 

He crunched numbers, thought manly thoughts and simply could not decide if this actually was the home for us or if we were just being 'emotional' about the house.

'Operation Blue House' began.  The kids and I began praying daily that if we were suppose to have the blue house that God would save it for us until hubby was on board.

Then my husband announced that he would NOT be making a decision to move until his 'busy season' at work was over.  That was four months away!  That house would most definitely sell before his busy season ended.  We begged and pleaded, but he explained that trying to buy a house, sell and house and move during his busy season at work was a heart attack waiting to happen.  Too much stress.  He had to be past that time for us to have a move, and if the house was still there we would make an offer; if it was sold, well, then there were other houses out there.  (Yeah, well it took us YEARS to find this one... I was NOT ready to wait more YEARS!) 

So I simply doubled 'Operation Blue House'.  Talking to God about this alone and with the kids.  Asking Him what His will was.  Asking Him for dreams and visions about what our next step should be.  We asked him to hold that house through the busy season so it would be ready for us in the new year.

We asked...what would God do?

Surrender

Today we spoke openly about Surrender.

Each and every one of us surrenders to something; or rather someOne.

1. We either surrender to our-self; doing what we choose and consider alright within our own moral (or immoral) boundaries.

2.  We surrender to the Lord; doing what He wants us to do, and living by His standard of morality.

Oftentimes, I find it particularly easy to surrender to my Lord in certain areas of my life which can lead to me (or others) thinking I have it all together while still clinging to other areas of my life where I want to maintain my delusional modicum of control.

Surrendering only portions of myself or my life to the Lord is not surrender, but rather a pick-and-choose buffet.  Taking what I want and leaving the rest.  It is choosing what is 'comfortable' and 'easy' and leaving the other social norms to be dealt with at a later time, or simply to be swept under the rug to hopefully never surface again.  But that is just hiding sin, not submitting to the one that can break the chains that hold me down.

Galatians 5:19-21 says, "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like..."

I don't know about you, but it's pretty easy to see that adultery and murder are wrong, but 'outbursts of wrath', 'selfish ambitions', 'jealousy' and 'envy' are things that I have struggled with at least once in my past, and more-likely something that I would rather allow to harbor and stew inside of me instead of laying them down before the throne of Jesus.  Laying down those seemingly petty issues is actually an act of sacrifice that leads to freedom.  We are in essence giving God the permission to do what He may in any given situation instead of taking the judge and jury all upon ourselves and enacting limited and pitiful judgement.

I listened today as a man told of how alcoholism was his father's vice, and something that he refused to surrender to the Lord.  The consequences of his lack of surrender was a horrible and slow death where he slowly bled out of every orifice of his body until he finally perished.

Can you imagine giving up your life in that fashion where you actually chose that death?  No, he didn't want to die that way, but choosing to NOT surrender his alcoholism to the Lord was a long therm choice to die a slow and painful death.

If that is what a man's choice to continue in alcoholism can do in the flesh, in the body; then what more can that same lack of surrender do in the spirit?

Jealousies listed above in Galatians 5 can also lead to a slow and painful death.  Maybe not like the one I just mentioned, but still just as painful where the soul of the person clinging to their jealous ways becomes embittered and twisted until that is all they can see.  Where relationships are ripped apart, and even their love of the Lord can be thrown away.  All leading to a lonely and painful life where everyone else is to blame except yourself.

How many other ways can we trap ourselves by choosing what we want instead of what the Lord has for us?

Are you hemorrhaging physically or spiritually?

Who are you when you are alone?

Do your reactions to circumstances reflect the Lord, or show what is really hiding inside your heart?

The other option is to Surrender to the Lord.

This is not always an easy step, but it does get easier the more we do it, and it is the step that leads us to true lasting freedom and fulfillment.

Galatians 5 goes on to say, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..."

These things may not be easy to obtain, but once you (and I) surrender to the Lord and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit these things not only become obtainable, but flow through us with a full measure of grace and joy.

My husband had a dream the other night that I feel describes this freedom in surrender.

'A man appeared in his dream and wanted to do him harm, so he began to wrestle with this stranger.  The wrestling was long and difficult and seemed to never want to end.  The longer the two men wrestled together the stranger began oozing slime out of his very being.  That slime was thick, sticky and slippery, like a toxic sludge.  The strangers slime began to surround both men as they wrestled.  My husband wanted to give up, but felt it was important to keep going and finish the struggle that had begun even though he was now covered in this strangers trappings.  As time went on my husband won the wrestling match and the stranger was SAVED!'

Who or what are you wrestling against today?

Is it dirty and messy?

Does there seem to be no end in sight?

Don't give up!  Keep fighting and wrestling to win the fight that has begun.  Surrender All and Call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ...solicit Him to fight your battles for you and with you so that salvation from the battle, victory from the war can be won.

His plan is perfect and we can fully trust Him.

Prophetic Paintings

Those of you that know me know that I have been involved in the Prophetic Prayer ministry at our church for about 8-years now. 

It is an amazing ministry that truly pours the love of Christ out on those that come to receive. 

We leave the session changed.  Touched by God. 

It is basically a time set aside where ministers quiet themselves to hear from the Lord on behalf of someone that has come to receive from the Lord. 

There is no 'funny business', and the entire ministry is based on 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love chapter in the Bible).  Immediately after that chapter in 1 Corinthians 14:3 the Bible says that he who prophecies speaks edification, exhortation and comfort to men.  And that is EXACTLY what this ministry is about, and what the world around us needs.

Actually, did you know that the gift that the Bible says we should all have is the gift of prophecy!  Whoa!  Talk about a calling.  We are called to be the hands, feet and mouthpieces of the Lord to the hurting world around us. 

After growing and stretching in the prophetic prayer ministry for the past eight-ish years I feel like the Lord is stretching me even more.  Much farther beyond my typical knowledge, understanding or even comfort.

You see, the Lord called us to move.  My family; I mean.  We up and moved from the only town I've ever known (born and raise there) and the only house my husband, kids and I have ever lived in.  Through this move of ours (even though we didn't move far), God is doing BIG things.  Those things I eluded to in my previous post. 

One of those things is Prophetic Pour Painting. 

Now, I've never been an artist.  I can draw on an elementary level.  You could guess what I drew, but its not going to knock your socks off.  I've NEVER been able to paint.  God is calling me, my whole family actually, into a more fluid relationship with Him that causes us to pause, lean on Him and allows Him to flow through us to 'hopefully' touch the souls around us. 

My oldest daughter is actually starting to do Pour Painting with me.  She is not currently looking to do it prophetically, but rather just make something beautiful to sell.  She is 10.  Who knows what God has in store for her future?

What is Prophetic Pour Painting? 

I'm so glad you asked. 

It is a time that I set aside to sit with the Lord.  I put on some worship music, gather my supplies and head outdoors to wait for His inspiration.  He may start by giving me the colors I will use, or the name of the painting.  He will also tell me which essential oil I will add to the paint as an anointing.  Then I will mix the paints, add the oil and do the 'pour' all while praying, anointing and worshiping the Lord.  The finished product is up to Him.

After that, we let them dry and wait for the person the Lord has made the painting for.  That's it. 

I am not a healer.  These paintings are not healers.  BUT we are tools that the Lord will use to set people free, bring salvation and healing, or whatever it is that God is doing in a person's life.  These pieces of art will speak to the soul and hopefully inspire a rending in the heavenlies on behalf of that person and anyone else that looks upon His works of art.

If a person requests a prophetic painting I can do that too, but they must know that the outcome of the painting is out of my hands.  I might have one idea in my head, but it is inevitable to look completely different on canvas. 

Here are a few Prophetic Paintings that are recently completed:

'Chain Breaker' with Frankincense essential oil

Chain Breaker has black and grey that represent sin.  Red for the blood of Christ, and the yellow is the light of God bursting through to break the bonds of sin.

'Healing Rain with Fire' with Release in the Red and Yellow 'fire' paint.

'Glory' with Peace & Calm essential oil in the green paint.  

And here are a few painting that my kids and I did just for fun:

My oldest daughter made this for her brother.

 We were hoping the blues and greens would come through and the oranges and reds would just vein through is some areas, but as you see the reds really came through the most and the blues are the highlights.

My son made this for his sister.

 Her favorite colors are pink, purple, green and chocolate brown.  The green didn't come in as much in this picture, but in real life you can see it threading through the pinks and purples.

My youngest daughter made this for her Nani. (shh.  Don't tell; its a gift.)

I made this for my youngest daughter.  Her favorite colors are pink and purple. 

The pictures simply do not do these justice.  There are so many variant colors running through that are not visible through my photo lens.  Well, maybe that is because I am using my cheap phone camera?