Seeking Guidance

I know it has been several weeks since the first edition of prayer and fasting. God has been working in my life in some amazing ways….ways I needed to digest before I tried to put them or anything else into words.

Our second week of prayer and fasting revolved around guidance. In Psalm 146 The Word says “Don’t put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there. When their breathing stops, they return to the earth, and in a moment all of their plans come to an end. But happy are those that have the God of Isreal as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.”

My pastor started by saying, “We have no specific plan other than to keep our eyes on the Lord. Wouldn’t it be great if God removed man from the picture – trumped all of our wisdom – and guided our church through the miraculous.”

The irony of this statement is that our church has already been lead through the miraculous in so many ways. Four years ago when my pastor came to this tiny church set completely out of the way in Highland Village, TX, there were 168 people. Today we run 6 services in a weekend and around 3 to 4 thousand adults…We have numerous ministries that run in a place never built to hold that many ministries. We have a building that continues to stand up though there is no reason that it should. We have never done any sort of mail out inviting people to come, any campaigns trying to bring people in, and there is no way that anyone just drives by as it is so far out of the way. Yet God continues to bring in the hurting, the healing, the broken and the strong, those who have never heard and those that have been in the church since the womb. That is miraculous. We are completely understaffed yet God continues to provide the exact leadership that we need when we need it. We have been guided through the miraculous. No one can look at our church and say…”Well, they built this huge building right where everyone could see it, or well those people are constantly out and about looking for members, stealing sheep, holding campaigns, doing things that is humanly possible and their church is growing.” Rather the truth is…God has expanded faster than our staff and elders know what to do and they daily are broken and tired and in need of Him. I have a group of leaders and other members of my church that press in to Him because they don’t know what else to do. That is God guiding through the miraculous.

So we took our elders and our staff and laid hands on them and prayed for them. That God would speak to them in a definitive direction. That when God guides us that the processes created by that direction would be guided by God.

Then we prayed for ourselves. That God would deepen all of us. That those in our church who sit on the fringes…who use church as hobby, just something to do on a Sunday morning…would be drawn into the deeper part of knowing Him. And then we prayed for suffering. There is a type of suffering that Paul talks about that is a good suffering that deepens us more than anything else ever could.

In my own life I came to a realization that I was not there. I was not asking God for guidance in all things. I for sure seek Him in the big things of life, but what about the little things. God what do you want me to wear today, who do you want me to talk to, what kind of car do you want me to drive, what should my diet consist of, what friends do I need in my life. Rather than seeking the miraculous I was simply relying on my own strength (and I am not so strong) to make decisions. I kind of look at it as if I were a little pig building a house (yes I do realize I just compared myself to a pig!!). I have a great foundation - I was raised in the Word – but then I go about choosing the materials to build and then asking God to build it for me. Well, sure God could build a house with materials I provide ( I mean I He built a universe out of nothing) But how much greater would my house be if I talked with Him and asked for guidance for the right kinds of materials? Don’t you know that God would choose premium product and then offer to go ahead and provide it.

11 years

Eleven years ago today I boarded a plane and weeping felt the pull of gravity in force as the plane lifted off and took me out of Africa. There are days that pain is stronger than ever. But Praise His name.... Since that day God has moved in my life, grown me, I have grown new friends, a new life that I could never hope to deserve. A piece of Africa still fills my heart...and a part of me is still on that continent. Some days my heart longs to be there, to be back in the paradise that was my growing up years.

But I know that for this season that is not for me to have. For this season He has me in Dallas. He has me at American Heart. He has me at The Village Church. He has me living with L, and has given me fabulous friends.

I am learning that giving in to His will for my life doesn't mean I am always happy, doesn't mean the pain is not there, it doesn't mean I don't miss home, but it does mean that He is right beside me every step of the way.

I am so blessed. So thankful when I left all I knew behind He came with me.

Venture

My pastor has called us as a church body to 6 weeks of prayer and fasting to seek God's face and wisdom regarding what our next move as a church will be. We have currently seriously outgrown our current facilities, and are stretching our resources as far as is possible (farther in some cases due to His grace and mercy,)

Having grown up in the church, and among believers I had heard about fasting and even knew people that practiced it on a fairly consistent basis as they faced big decisions, or some just to simply come to a deeper knowledge of the Father.

I have only felt the call to fast one other time before, it was in the past couple of years when a burden laid so heavy on my heart that I felt that I could only find peace in the sacrifice of fasting and praying. Until that day I really had no clue what people were talking about when they talked about coming closer to God.

After seeking God regarding this 6 weeks, I decided that I really wanted to press in more and participate in this fasting. Every Wednesday those of us who have committed to this fast and then at the end of our day we come together for a prayer service and break the fast that evening with the observance of communion.

The past two wednesdays of my life have been interesting....

Our first week we began our 6 weeks by praying for God's protection....I understood this from a spiritual point of view....in Ephesians 6:12 the Word tells us that "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." (KJV)
I have experienced spiritual warfare on many levels and even in studying about fasting knew that this was something that needed to be prayed for. However, my pastor had us pray for several other areas that I found facinating...and refreshing.

First he had us pray for Truth...anyone who has attended a service at the village or heard a podcast knows that Truth is preached without apology. Often times when a church realizes that they are going to have to go through a period of expansion the first thing they do is try to keep everybody happy (so that they can keep all those potential givers to the project in the building)...when this happens the Truth, often begins to be watered down. Feel good happy semons are preached and anything that might caust feelings of angst (i.e. sin, blood, etc) are put in the background. So my pastor asked that He and other members of the teaching pastors would be protected from that temptation; that the Village would continue to be a place where the self - disclosure of God (the "kindness and the severity") is preached without apology.

Next we prayed for protection for Spirituality.
We prayed that our church would be protected from cold religion (which is full of do's and don'ts that are not in any way bibilical, but are put on the church as a measure of control and legalism over the people.)
We prayed that we would be protected from any cold, methodical dead traditions....and in the same way cling to those traditions that are healthy and right and full of life.
We prayed that we simply would be people with a Love for Jesus.

We prayed for protection for our Community.
That in our expansion and addition that we could continue to be the family of God that he has called us to be. That He would protect us from being a disjointed congregation who did not know each other and had no service other than to show up to a service and be preached too. That God would protect us from cheap, shallow relationships and show us what it looks like to be brothers and sisters.

We prayed for protection from Partiality.
Protection for our staff that they would not be swayed by the temptations of things, money and power. But that they would be humble, and be able to be just as partial to those who gave much as those that gave little (cause that is all they had to give.). Protection from wolves dressed as sheep who would seek to come in and find false favor to gain control and take over God's church.

Lastly we prayed for protection for the mission of our church.
Our mission statement is simple "We exist to bring Glory to God." We prayed that we would stop making the gospel about me and what it could do for me and what God bless us with,etc and rather make it what it is really about...His glory and His renown.

This has gotten long so my next post will be about this weeks time of prayer regarding Guidance.
I ask that you would pray with me and over me this next few weeks. Pray that God would protect me from the spiritual battles that are going on in my own life and in my family and in my friendships, etc. Pray that I would be able to simply focus on my mission of "Existing to bring Glory to God."

You are all missed....prayed for often....loved more than you know.

The blessed coolness of spring.

Since moving into my apartment in February my roommate and I have been blessed not to have to use the air or the heat. You can imagine what a blessing this is to my electric bill! We have a corner apartment, so we have lots of windows, plus a false patio door. (Meaning we have the door, but it opens to a grate not a patio). My roommate and I have swung that door and those windows open wide and let in the wonderful fresh air of spring.

The past week has been stretching it…we face the west, so the evenings have been rather warm, and we have continued to say…we are fine…we are fine…this heat is perfect, it will get worse…we don’t need air just yet.

On Monday of this week we said, ok one more night like this and we’ll turn on the air just when we go to bed, so it is comfortable as we sleep. But we decided to wait one more night. In the meantime, as I drifted off to sleep that night I asked God for just a few more weeks of the coolness of spring, not only because I want to keep my electric bill down, but because I don’t have air in my car either and don’t want to start a new car payment just yet…as I am basking in the glow of not having one!!

God was faithful once again as Tuesday morning’s weather brought a promise of rain, and a cool front that was to last at least for a week or so. I woke up this morning to a cold apartment with temps in the 40’s and highs today only to be in the 60’s…..

Oh the blessing of the coolness of spring…

Opening day!!

Its finally here folks! Baseball 2007!!

My mourning period (the short time between the super bowl and opening day baseball) is over!!

As per usual, I am following
Astros
Cardinals
Cubs

Yes I know...my choice of teams all hate each other....but my excuse...I am a girl and i love them all for different reasons!
Let's play ball!!!!!