Monday, September 9, 2013

Tid Bits from Above

    Hello blog friends! I feel like I have taken a very long siesta from blogging, but I'mmm backkk!! My blogs may have a different twist to them this time around but I look forward to sharing with everyone some ways God has been speaking to my heart! Lately I have taken advantage of the "notes" app on my iPhone. This way when I have a thought or word from God I can record it not to be forgotten! Heres a sneak peak thats short and sweet!  So glad to be out of my writer's block and back to blog life!!
 
     God has a plan for each of our lives if we choose to do Gods will. The devil also has a plan for your life. A plan to destroy. What we need to do as Christians is be one step ahead of the devil, be on guard for what that plan may be... Flee it, seek God for help and you will and can conquer sin! In this, God will be glorified and your life quality will be enhanced. But you must be wise and be watching at all times. The devil wont make it obvious it will be what you least expect..But sometimes it may be something you always knew in the back of your mind. Stay in the word. Pray fervently. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Be waiting and watching for His return always!

    Yes, this is certainly some deep food for thought, but I will have a wide range of writings and some comical reads as well.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

A Journey of Prayer

Too much time has passed by since I last had the inspiration and the mental focus to sit down and display the recent trail of events taken place in our lives! In this entry I am going to attempt to unravel just a few highlighted events from the amazing prayer journey we ventured out on six months ago to seek God's perfect will for the life and future of our family.

In December Brandon and I began to feel somewhat of a release from our ministry in Miami at Wayside Baptist Church. Im really at a loss for words to explain what prompted that feeling. And why both Brandon and I both felt it simultaneously, but regardless of what it was, it put us on our knees in prayer, for the will of God to be made crystal clear as  to where we needed to be in life.

One of the first things we felt the need to do was put our house on the market. We really didn't feel it would sell, due to all of the other foreclosed homes that had been surrounding us for months but we wanted to get a head start so if the right buyer came along we would be ready and available. Well, after being on the market for only 4 days, at its appraised value, we had our first viewer, who following his visit to our home instantly wanted to buy. (Sounds funny that we would feel prompted to sell our house when we didnt even have a place to go. Had we turned in our intelligence for the looney bin or was God up to something?)This was a shocker to us as only one could imagine! We were excited, but at the same time needed a place to go depending on when this man would need to move in. Our only option would be to rent a home with short term lease agreement when that time arrived. Of course this was only if that time fell short of our time here in Miami.

We continued to witness numerous confirmations in our lives that told us our time here in Miami was nearing an end. There were other churches brought to our attention, but nothing clear and confirming from God. Today it seems so incredibly hard to make such a huge life-changing decision that requires wisdom and discernment, and waiting on the Lord. I admire Brandon for how patient he was in this process. We leaned on each other and leaned on God more than ever before. At times we became utterly frustrated and at those moments we just wanted God to drop a sign from heaven saying this is exactly what you need to do and where you need to go. I remember Brandon and I both breaking one morning before he headed into work. As we buried our heads in each others arms we fell to our knees and cried out to God a need for confirmation and clarity beyond our understanding. We didnt want to make a mistake and choose the wrong path due to our own fleshly desire but only what God desired for our lives. In other words, we didn't want "options" from God, we wanted closed doors, one direct path, and a clear answer, so clear that there was no possible way we could be making a mistake.

On May 21st Brandon received a call from the head of the search committee at FBR. It was later in the evening when he got home, the AAA's had already gone to bed. He walked in the house and told me about a call he just received from Kansas City, Missouri. He had a look of pleasant peace on his face that was so soothing to my heart as he told me, I think this is it! I listened as he shared his prior phone conversation with me. We went on line and checked out the church's website along with some views and facts about the Kansas City area. I went to bed and slept so well that night but Brandon was too intrigued to sleep. He stayed up doing further research on the church and its website and in his research he came across a picture of the church. He couldn't believe his eyes as when he recognized the picture. It was a picture he had used 6 years ago for a doctoral class at Liberty. He used it for the front cover of his Church ministry portfolio. Never knowing the name of this church or anything about it, he just happened to like the looks of it and just happened to place it as the front cover of his portfolio. He laughed at the thoughts of it. I couldn't believe he didn't come wake me up instantly to tell me this, instead he waited until morning.

Our Journey of Prayer continued only slightly different this time. God was giving us confirmation after confirmation. The peace and sovernty of God was pouring down on us like a rainstorm in Missouri after a season of drought. After our second trip to Kansas City we entered into the final process of being voted in. In a church the size of FBR it is almost unheard of to receive a unanimous vote, but God continued to give us what we wanted up until the last moment of our visit. In that moment, we were ushered out to a crowd of people to find they had voted us in unanimously to come be a part of their family at First Baptist Raytown. This was such an overwhelming feeling of conformation and completion, that I cant even begin to describe exactly how we and the search committee were feeling that night, but I know it was all from God and He answered our prayers indeed!