When I started filming this vlog, I had no idea that we would begin to see our dog’s health dramatically go downhill. Even after filming all the pieces of this video, our dog continued to quickly worsen, and we had to make an extremely hard decision to let her go.
If you caught some of my earlier videos recently, I had shared about the things God was teaching me about grief this year: how to process grief, how to be okay to sit in grief, and how to allow Him to heal your broken heart with a trust that it will get better in time. And how to allow grief to be a companion instead of fighting it. I have been grieving a family member this year who has advanced dementia, and I felt comfort in learning how to grieve more healthily.
But now I realize God was also preparing my heart to lose one of my best friends, Xile, our dog. God is kind in how He prepares us and walks us through even unexpected grief. He is definitely close to the brokenhearted.
There is also a huge message of doing difficult tasks that God asks us to do in this video. Sharing from my own experience with following through in obedience, something that I have fought off and on with doing.
May the processing of my own grief help you process yours. And may the Lord bring your heart such comfort and healing. Trust that in time the waves of grief that hit do lessen and hope and joy will return.
Locating and working to eliminate the root of a spiritual issue is what we need to do.
We can all relate to seeking the root of a problem in our health, our relationships, our workplaces, and in circumstances that need our attention, but many do not seek the root of a spiritual issue.
Mainly because people are unable to see that what they are struggling with is often a symptom of a bigger spiritual issue. It is hard to see these things because they are not plain and visible before us.
And being able to see the root of a spiritual problem depends highly on our relationship with the Lord and our understanding and learning of His Word.
Things are revealed within Scripture that can be applied to our lives today. We can learn from those whose narratives are shared in the Bible and who have learned themselves how to overcome a spiritual dilemma.
It takes godly wisdom, discernment, and an ear tuned in to hear the voice of God to discover the things we are seeking after.
I struggle with realizing some of these things in my own life. I forget to bridge the gap between a natural problem and a possible spiritual issue. And some issues I’ve come across never showed themselves as spiritual root issues until the Lord began to reveal them to me after several years.
What I have learned to do is simple. Or at least it sounds simple enough.I will take my rest day to do what I call “Sabbath Reflections”. This is where I give myself time to sit and write out issues I am faced with in my life currently. And since I do this on a week-to-week basis, some issues I work on repeatedly until they are resolved or until I hear the Lord about them.
Then I seek the Lord about each issue. I ask Him to show me what is the reason for each problem. And what is a solution as well. It is in these sessions with God that I will hear Him say there is a spiritual root to an issue, and it is not just a natural thing I am dealing with.
I shared in a recent video how we had a sugar ant problem that we had a few weeks back that found their way into our home. We treated the area they were coming into our home with a homemade solution that deters ants, but until my husband found where and how they were coming into our home, we were not able to stop them. We had to find them at their source.
This is how spiritual issues can be dealt with as well. If we learn to go after the root- what is causing them or what access they have been given- then we can work towards ending that struggle.
And through our relationship with the Lord, we can be shown what that spiritual root is.
Is it a curse that needs to be broken? Is it a generational thing? Is it to bring God glory when the spiritual problem is resolved? Is it a sin issue or a lack of obedience issue? Is it because we are being faithful and obedient?
The Lord can show us in His Word the answers we are looking for. He can show us in our dreams and in visions. And He can use another brother or sister in Christ to share with us what we need to hear.
When you feel Him put His peace in your heart about what you discover, then you have found the root issue. And then let Him lead you on how to go about resolving it. It is time for us to be aware that our struggles might have a deeper root to go after. Ask the Lord to reveal to you this root.
The pattern of provision by God’s hand in Scripture reveals to us that God provides at the moment it is needed and in response to our faith to ask for that provision.
James chapter four teaches us that “we have not because we ask not”, and then continues with admonishing us to ask God with the right motives.
“You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…” James 4:2b-3a, NIV
Throughout the lives of both Elijah and Elisha, we see God’s miraculous provision in the midst of a drought, a famine, and a widow needing to pay off her debt. And each time God shows up to provide for those that Elijah and Elisha are interceding for, the faith of the recipient is tested and stretched.
We need to have faith when asking God for provision.
And we need to learn what we can actually ask God for.
He desires to provide us strength to endure and become resilient. Grace and mercy are offered to us as well. It is helpful to ask for wisdom and understanding in our situations and to ask Him to intervene when no one else can. His provision goes beyond what our physical needs are. He brings us joy and enables us to choose contentment.
Reading the Bible opens us up to the things that we can seek the Lord for. He loves to provide for us.
I remember when I was a teenager and our family was struggling without a vehicle, how the Lord pressed it on my heart to ask Him to provide one for us. So there I was lying on our trampoline, looking up into the big blue sky, and asking God to give us a car.
It was no more than two days later that the head of our household drove home with a car! Our drought of not being able to get around ended quickly. God had heard and provided.
God’s provision for our family in that way and in response to my faith-filled prayer only increased my faith and trust that He would provide again.
I have asked God for some pretty big things. The greater the need, the greater our desperation for Him to help us becomes. And when He answers, the higher our hearts soar in gratitude and praise.
I have yet to go through a season in my life where my faith is not being pulled on to ask God for something only He can provide.
This reliance on Him to be our Provider is a good thing. It pleases the Lord when we look to Him for what we need.
In this fun vlog style video, I invite you to chat with me and hear about our little detour in life that actually hasn’t been so little.
This comes after I shared an encouraging word on God bringing people back from their own detours. Hoping our story brings you peace of mind and hope in God being so very sovereign over your life.
The Lord protects us from countless things that we are unaware of.
There will also be times God will reveal that protection over us. He will share with our hearts what He is doing and why He is doing it.
Remember how Joseph and Mary, told to go to Egypt through a warning in a dream, are kept safe from Herod? Herod wanted to end all the Hebrew male offspring two years old and younger. God wanted to keep His Son, Jesus, safe.
..an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”
Matthew 2:13, NIV
Remember how Lots family was being pulled out of Sodom and Gomorrah, how the angels were warning him to flee? And still Lot’s wife refused to listen and heed their warning to not look back, thus losing her life.
With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.”
Genesis 19:15, NIV
God was clear with His instructions of redirection with these two families. They needed His protection.
Yet some of that revealing of what He has protected us from will take place when we are with Him in Heaven. And at other times, He shows us after we have detoured from where we thought we belonged. This, too, is up to God to show us what He is doing.
Trusting in the promise that His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours is significant. Our belief that those higher ways and thoughts also produce the best outcomes for our good and His glory comes through when we choose to trust Him.
We may not like the detour.
We may cry out to God in anguish and with deep grieving in our souls. But after lamenting we must remember God’s constant faithfulness and goodness. He had His reason.
God sees ahead.
And He often times is directing our steps to keep us safe and unharmed.
But because we cannot see what God sees, we have a hard time with His direction. Still we have no other choice than to trust Him to lead the way with a heart choosing to believe that He does know best.
Though there are threatening obstacles all around us, being in His presence and following His voice keeps us on His safe path. God is walking ahead of us and sees the dangers that need avoiding. But we cannot see past God’s presence ahead of us, we cannot see the danger.
He makes a swift right and leads us to follow.
Danger avoided. We are safe. But we have no idea what God did for us in taking that unforeseen right turn.
We must tell our hearts that we trust that God knew what He was doing. We can thank Him for leading us well instead of complaining. We can believe that there was purpose in Him detouring us.
I have a part time role with a sending organization being a part of their Care Team. And at different times with this role, especially in these first months with it, I have felt a little overwhelmed. Mostly feeling a lack of knowing how to best serve those I am ministering to and having the confidence needed as well, even though I also know that I am fully capable for this role.
It was perfect timing, then, to find myself reading about the newly crowned King over Israel, Solomon, asking God for wisdom.
“Now, O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
1 Kings 3:7-9, NASB
When we feel inadequate for a task, or maybe even feeling the dreaded “imposter syndrome”, then the opportunity to rely on God is offered for us. And I mean to fully rely on God.
Solomon knew his need for wisdom, humbled himself to ask for it and God was pleased by this. God recognized that Solomon chose to ask Him for wisdom above asking for wealth or long life or the end of his enemies.
This reveals Solomon’s heart and his priorities. Solomon cared for the people that he reigned over. He wanted to be able to judge righteously and discern among them good and evil. Because of his heart to ask for wisdom, God chose to bless Solomon with the things he did not ask for: wealth and honor.
It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days.”
1 Kings 3:10-13, NASB
We place ourselves at risk when we think we don’t need God in our situations; having a mindset that we can handle things on our own. Or we grow too comfortable and forget our need for God and His wisdom.
But we are instructed by God through the words of Solomon to get wisdom.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
Proverbs 4:7, NIV
God wants us to search for wisdom and understanding. This search comes in asking Him for these things, and in finding ourselves fully relying on Him to do our tasks well.
Like Solomon, it is choosing to care for those we are serving that motivates our search for wisdom and discernment.
He will also provide understanding in surprising ways as well. Others with the experience we have not yet gained can be that provision. Or coming across something in a good book we are reading or in our research on the internet.
How understanding falls into our laps, I believe, is God’s provision for us. And through our relationship with the Lord, He provides the discernment we need to help us know when something we learn is to be taken up and applied or when it is not.
And consistently pouring over Scripture will provide us godly wisdom. Wisdom that comes from the Lord is to be treasured beyond anything we learn here on earth. It comes ahead of what we read in a book or learn in a classroom. It comes by the Spirit and in relationship with God.
So when we find ourselves needing to dip into our resources of godly wisdom, having already searched and asked God for it consistently, we have something to pull from within us that comes by His Spirit. This is why Jesus encouraged the disciples to trust that the Spirit would put words in their mouths to speak at the time it is needed. (Luke 12:11-12)
Ask God for wisdom and then continue daily in your search for it.
Remaining in the same lane as the last message I shared a couple weeks ago, this encouraging word is for those finding themselves unable to move along and distance themselves from toxic or abusive relationships or situations.
We will look at the dynamic between David and Saul from 1 Samuel and touch on trauma bonding.
It’s always a hard pill to swallow when you hear the Lord tell you to, “Step Aside” and allow Him to do what He plans to do.
May this message bring with it a peace from the Lord for your heart if this is what you are having to do in your life.
It’s never easy to trust the Lord with a complex situation, let alone leaving it behind altogether so He can do His work in it. There is a grieving process, a realization to some hidden truths and, hopefully, an acknowledgment that God is looking out for us and will heal our hearts.
The Lord is encouraging many of us to step into fully letting go…
letting go of the past, letting go of that relationship that’s been long gone, letting go of a situation we still don’t understand and letting go of these things in our minds and hearts.
God is saying that it is time to move on. Before we can appreciate what we have presently, and for some of us where He is leading us next, we have to release to Him what He is inviting our hearts to release.
When God delivered His people out of Egypt, even though they physically left, their hearts and minds remained. This was a huge problem for them. Let us not do the same. Let us move on.
Moses being used by God to deliver His people, who had been crying out to Him for deliverance for years, out of Egypt and slavery will be the focus of this message.
There are some of us who are at the edge of the Red Sea, others of us watching God’s hand coming against the enemy who refuses to let us go with plagues and still those of us right smack in the middle of crossing that divinely split Red Sea.. but deliverance is coming for us.
Jesus gained victory over everything that continues to entangle us and keeps us from walking in our freedom. Deliverance is a process involving gaining understanding, wisdom and growth in the Lord before we find our freedom.
It is also a hard struggle for many of us having to end unhealthy patterns we were born into, keeping them from continuing in our lives and overflowing into the next generation.
And although the enemy fights hard to keep us bound and believing his lies, God never gives up on us and He fights for us in these spiritual battles. The fight can be intense and real for a lot of us, but once God does deliver us it is not surprising that He also calls us to help others find their freedom as well.
I am not one to share my response on what is being revealed and exposed within the church at large, and believe me it is growing exhausting with each of these exposures, but this one grieved me deeply.
Mike Winger has been uncovering so much within the charismatic movement and many victims are telling their story to him. Why to him? Because he has chosen to minister to those that have been overlooked, shunned and gaslighted for crying out to those who should have cared for them.
I have some experience with the charismatic movement, not a lot, but I walked away disappointed with some of what I saw. And at the same time, I also came away with the most loving and God fearing friends who do not deserve to be treated like this.
Having recovered from certain abuses in my own life, I can see the vulnerable and hurting looking to trusted leaders to lead them well and become frustrated and hurt when the leaders chose to protect their name and ministry over the wounded. This happens more than just in the charismatic circles too. It’s a real problem that needs to be dealt with head on.
I champion the role Mike is playing in all of this. And I believe God is using him to help uproot and cut off the branches that are not bearing true fruit. And I have also been praying for him and the victims that are opening up to him for protection.
To think that God is okay with sweeping under the rug such behaviors by leaders is ridiculous. It is not in His nature to do that, but rather to bring sin into the light so that lives and souls will have opportunity to repent and change. And to offer protection more for a predator and abuser over their victims is completely backwards. May God continue to heal the hearts of the victims and restore back to them what has been taken away from them for years.
I have so much I can share on this.. but I’ll leave it for now and for you to be hopefully encouraged by this video.
The pattern of provision by God’s hand in Scripture reveals to us that God provides at the moment it is needed and in response to our faith to ask for that provision.
