New Creation

This has been one incredible week of...

-The Lord revealing the pure sweetness and gentleness of His heart to me as I have never known before...drawing me closer, showing me just how trustworthy He is and that I need never hesitate to come boldly to Him, pour out my heart, surrender all I am and all I have and receive all He is and all He has for me. It's a truly breathtaking and beautiful exchange. :)

-Fellowship with amazing, fiery women of God! I love how He has placed certain people in my life that speak forth truth and wisdom, encourage  me, challenge me, and spur me on to go deeper with Him and boldly live out my faith. Such a blessing. I'm definitely in a season of refining and stretching! So long comfort zone, it's time to run with abandon! I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store this next month! Such expectation has been rising up in my heart as I'm trusting Him for so much right now. He is growing my confidence and faith in Him and I am just enjoying the crazy yet exhilarating ride!

-Reflecting on just how far I've come in my walk with the Lord. He has been showing me some things that have absolutely floored me and inspired great rejoicing in all the ways He has grown me and the completely miraculous work He has done in making me an all new creation. I remember exactly where I was when He found me, and when I consider all that He's done and where I am today I'm just in awe of Him. He literally lifted me out of the depths, out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire (Ps. 40). He not only rescued me, but He healed me, He poured out His mercy and His grace, He comforted, protected and sustained me throughout the long and painful healing process, He wholly redeemed and cleansed me of all my sin and shame and brokenness, He took all my insecurity and hopelessness and He gave me a NEW identity, a NEW hope, a NEW life and a NEW love. He found me wandering about in the darkness and brought me out into His glorious light. He opened my blinded eyes to see Him and His truth in all its glory. He breathed life into these dry bones. He seated me with Jesus in the heavenly realms! He showed me true freedom, true joy and true peace. He captured my heart and made it His. He gave my life meaning and purpose far greater than I ever could have imagined. And He showed me unconditional, unfailing, neverending love. And I praise Him so much that I will NEVER be the same! So thankful. I have never longed so much for the moment when I will finally see Him face to face. I'm just soaking it all in and allowing God to overwhelm my heart with His love. And I just delight knowing that He rejoices with and over me as I celebrate such amazing victory through Him and His awesome power. :) All the glory to You, Lord - I acknowledge You and You alone as my all in all, my everything!

When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered,
I was senseless and ignorant; a brute beast before you.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by your right hand.
You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

Psalm 73:21-26

Overwhelmed!

Just had the most anointed day with the Lord! It was quite literally one thing after another. God totally rocked me with His presence tonight at Deeper and just revealed the beauty and sweetness of His heart to me in an all new way! Worship was off the hook. Several divine appointments and prophetic words completely shook me and stirred me up, especially because some came from completely unexpected places! How does He ordain these things? And just when I think I could not be more in awe of Him! I love how God not only exceeds our wildest expectations when He comes through for us but He works in ways that we would least expect or could never predict. Yet it's always so perfect and we wouldn't want it any other way! Just blows my mind. I love that I have a God who is so awesome and so amazing as to completely overwhelm me with each and every moment spent in His Presence. No two moments or experiences with Him are alike. It's always a totally fresh revelation of who He is! And right now I'll just admit that I'm overcome like never before with pure adoration and love for Him who loves and blesses me so extravagantly and showers me with His righteousness. Reassured in all new ways of His faithfulness, His provision and the exceptional greatness of His plans for all who trust, delight in and are devoted to Him, who seek Him wholeheartedly and set themselves and their lives apart for His Name! God so honors and rewards that! (Heb. 11:6) And just the way He so tangibly poured out His love and His joy on everyone tonight. Awesome beyond words. Because of all that He is, because His joy is my strength, it is my absolute JOY to lay down my life and live entirely for Him and for His glory! It is my joy to be poured out for Him! Freely I have received, freely I will give! I make it my foremost desire just to be close to Him, as close as I can possibly be. My heart beats to search out His heart, every fibre of my being craves intimacy with the Lover of my soul. He's all I want and all I need and in Him I have absolutely everything! I live in His glorious freedom, in the fullness of His grace! Lord Jesus, let everything I am worship You, now and forever!

I'm found in grace
In Love's embrace
My heart is overwhelmed

Sing my soul of how your love has set me free
Sing my heart of how Your mercy rescued me
Hear my cry of endless love to my Savior and to my King
My heart is overwhelmed

Hanging By A Moment

God has really been speaking to me lately, most clearly through a series of divine appointments that, taken all together, paint this picture of where God is leading me right now and what's in store. Confirmations all over the place. It's crazy amazing just to see how He works! And I don't even know the half of it! Doing the best I can just to take it all in and enjoy being in the moment with Him. That's where it's at. He works, He orchestrates, He guides and He leads...He perfects and takes care of all things concerning me....I place everything in His hands and get wholly lost in pursuit of Him. <3

Last night God laid these lyrics on my heart to speak to me. I haven't heard this song for quite a long time, probably several years, and way back when it was popular in mainstream radio and I used to listen to it, I wasn't a Christian and therefore didn't really understand its meaning. But when these lyrics "randomly" came to mind last night, when I started singing them out, I realized that God was speaking to me just where I'm at.

I'm falling even more in love with You
Letting go of all I've held onto
I'm standing here until You make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with You
I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving into
Just hanging by a moment here with You


--Lifehouse

I was amazed, because this sums me up so perfectly right now in terms of where I'm at (or where I feel like I'm at) in my relationship with the Lord. Falling in love with Him more and more is effortless, a wondrous whirlwind. Letting go of all I've held onto? I'm working on it. Sometimes I can get so caught up worrying about the future and all the what-ifs of every situation that I actually miss what God is doing in the moment. I miss that miracle because I'm waiting for future miracles. I miss just being with Him, enjoying the constant wonder and joy and peace of His presence in the here and now. Here's what we need to understand: God is here with us right now. Yes, He was with us in the past (whether we acknowledged Him or not, He has always been there), He is ahead of us taking care of everything in our future, but the relationship He is pursuing with us is happening in the here and now. The things He is speaking to us are in the here and now. He is revealing Himself to us right here and right now. And instead of our laboring and striving to take care of or gain control over every aspect of our lives (which we're blessedly unable to do anyway), He asks us to surrender all of that to Him and simply get lost in the moment with Him. We are to live fully in this moment. And it makes for an absolutely thrilling and adventurous ride - to live every moment delighting in Him and to see and experience the miracles He is constantly performing as He works in and through you. But if your mind is otherwise occupied, if it is focused on anything or anyone else, you won't see it. It's only when you're seeking that you will truly find.

So, I'll admit that most of the time I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what I'm diving into. And often times it sets me on edge. But that's okay, because God does. As long as I'm falling in love...as long as I'm continually letting go, surrendering all I am and all I have to Him...standing before Him in faith and expectation...living for Him, the only thing and only One I know...running after Him...taking the dive...I'm hanging by the moment, always by the moment...nowhere I'd rather be. :)

For in Him we live and move and have our being. - Acts 17:28

What Do I Know

There are moments when I'm just hit square in the face with the reality of a God who is so much bigger, so much greater than I could ever give Him credit for. It sounds obvious, but I'm always having to ask myself: do I really consider Him this way? My mind isn't even fit to comprehend all He is. And yet how often I approach Him as though He surely sees and understands everything as I do, as though His thoughts and His ways are just like mine, when really as the Word tells us they are as high as the heavens are above the earth (Isa. 55:8-9) Again, unfathomable.

Truly I desire to live in a constant, never-ending state of wonder and awe of Him whom, despite my best efforts, I can't contain, whom I can't begin to fathom, of whom I've only had but the slightest glimpse. What do I know? Sometimes I think I know more than I really do and try to put stock in my own wisdom. The truth? It's meaningless. Man's wisdom is foolishness in the sight of God (1 Cor. 3:19). It's the times when I come to God and forget everything I think I know that He breaks through and absolutely rocks my world.

This is one of those songs that searches out my heart, convicts me, grounds me and brings me back to that place of humility, of pure amazement at my God. And then comes the even more awesome revelation: as far beyond my being and my understanding this unspeakably great, glorious and powerful God is, as high as He is above me and above all things, my Creator and my Father is as near to me as breathing, His very Spirit lives in me, His extravagant love He has freely poured out on me, and He has made me to know Him, to glorify Him and to be with Him, now and forever. So who can say anything more in light of this mystery beyond mysteries? What do we know of His holiness? In the here and now we are only scratching the surface, and even that is enough to completely overwhelm us. Words will fail you and you'll fall to your knees as you stop and consider His wonders. (Ecc. 5:7; Job 37:14)

I've made You promises a thousand times
I tried to hear from heaven but I talked the whole time
I think I made You too small
I never feared You at all, no
If You touched my face, would I know You?
Looked into Your eyes, could I behold You?


What do I know of You who spoke me into motion
Where have I even stood but the shore along Your ocean
Are you fire, are you fury
Are you sacred, are you beautiful
So what do I know
What do I know of holy?


I guess I thought that I had figured You out
I knew all the stories and I learned to talk about how you were mighty to save
But those were only empty words on a page
Then I caught a glimpse of who you might be
The slightest hint of You brought me down to my knees


So what do I know of You who spoke me into motion
Where have I even stood but the shore along Your ocean
Are you fire, are you fury
Are you sacred, are you beautiful
So what do I know
What do I know of holy?


What do I know of holy
What do I know of wounds that will heal my shame
And a God who gave life its name
What do I know of holy
Of the one whom the angels praise?
All creation knows Your Name
On earth and heaven above
What do I know of this love?


--Addison Road

Who We Rep

Yes, I go to the coolest church ever. One of our pastors just released a Christian rap/hip-hop CD (now available on iTunes) and this is the music video for one of the songs! A bit of a contrast from the song in my last post and from worship music I typically listen to...but it seems I'm broadening my horizons. :) So awesome to hear God glorified through all different genres of music! Let's take it all back for Jesus!

We lift His Name up, we make Him famous
The world tries to stop us but they just can't tame us!

--Nick Foulks, "Who We Rep"