Expectation!!! 

So I woke up with my rambling thoughts this morning, and hearing "what do you expect?"  Then the Lord started speaking to me about our (the church's) expection of Him, the Holy Spirit and why do we find it so "weird" when God shows up and show off.  I was struck with the amazement of 'that's absolutely right!"  We the body of Christ should show up and expect God to be there and do something at every service.  But somehow, we always revert back to the 'normal' stance of "that's weird, God doesn't do that, and yada yada yada."  I've heard teachings on this before and those who know, know.  They know the real.  They know the fake.  Why?  Because they have encountered the Holy Spirit before and they know when something hinky is up.  Actually every believer in Christ should have the 'hinky' meter, but we don't.  We miss it.  Either too much in our flesh or too much pizza the night before, (still flesh) or GASP!!! - DOUBT AND UNBELIEF!  

So I guess the one thought I'm trying to put in to words is:  Believe!  Believe God will show up!  We ask Him too.  He wants to and we should want Him to, and He desires to bless us.  There are so many things that can affect and factor in to Him manifesting His presence though.  People can override the Holy Spirit just by being rude and discounting Him. Yes, you can disrrupt the Holy Spirit by your cell phone going off.  By speaking to a friend just as someone gets enough courage to start letting Holy Spirit use them and giving prophecy.  By not making space or time for Him..by singing the song that you practiced and practiced for, yet another song keeps coming up and you're like...what....This is driving me crazy I can't get it out of my head, or for refusing to give up their plan/agenda and allowing God to take the service a different way than they had planned.  "Why God, what I have to say is more important than you..."  and sadly, they are very mistaken because when you give over to Holy Spirit, He can do more in 1 minute than we could in 50 minutes.  Or, OR THE VERY WORST, God you can only 20 minutes, then that's it.  Service over.  We need to allow God the time and space to do what He wants to do, when He wants to do it and how He wants to do it, and He doesn't always tell you how He's going to show Himself.  

And, AND no one, NO ONE, who is authentic in their walk with Christ wants fake.  But there are some who will fake it til you make it.  Well, let me tell you friend, You don't have to fake it!  God is true.  He is who He says He is, and He will be there.  It may just not be the way you think it should be.  We have so much offense going on in the church body and now the prophets are fighting.  Chaos and confusion are the enemy's playground.  Let me you, friend, to guard against fake.  Read your Bible.  You will know them by the Word.  If it goes against God's Word, there is your first clue - IT'S NOT GOD!  We must go back to foundation.  God's Word is truth over everything else.  As my friend, Pastor Jon Friedt said, "Jesus put His name under the authority of His Word."  Christ is not going to go back and against His Word.  The whole counsel of His Word, not just a verse here and there, nor a word here and there, but the whole Bible.  

Again, I'm going to state - You cannot buy or sell the Holy Spirit.  You cannot produce Him to manifest on a whim.  In other words, you cannot 'divinate or use divinating ways.'  If you do, I would say you are operating in the power of a familiar spirit and NOT the Holy Spirit.  People who minister to others with this kind of gift in a legitimate capacity of having the Holy Spirit use them in this manner have paid a price in their lives.  They have sacrificed the time and walk totally in manner worthy of that calling.  They stay in the Word (The Holy Bible), they meditate on it minute by minute, they laid down what they wanted to do and picked up what God wanted them to pick up and do.  They have died to themselves, their wants and desires and now desire and want to do what God would have them to for Him.  There is also one other thing that goes with this, they always tell the truth no matter the cost to them.  They have integrity that even if it is going to hurt them, they will still tell the truth.  

So I ask you to read your Bible with eyes that see how God shows up, when He shows up, and let us start letting Him show up and 'have the church service.'  We, the body (the church) will be far better off if we allow this versus the same plan, the same ole same old.  Remember, God can have someone down on the ground on their hands and knees, eating grass.  He did it to Nebuchenezzar (sp?) He can do it to you...Don't say, "God can't do that or won't do that."  He most certainly can.  But, BUT if it gets that bad, there is a very good reason why God would do that to someone.  

  

 

 Blessings in the Mundane....

I was thinking back on some favorite photographs that I have taken and shared through the years.  Suddenly, I am hearing my Savior, Jesus, speak to me how He blesses even through the mundane tasks of life.  After all, who wants to wash dishes, right???  Yet, in those quiet times where we start to feel most down, after all who wants to scrub the toilets, right?  In those quiet moments, the Lord can make us feel like the most regal person in the universe.  There is no doubt that those two tasks are very necessary and life will get really nasty quick if you do not deal with the dirty dishes and dirty toilets.  I really find it amazing how many times I have been on my way to a sinkful of dirty dishes and look out the window and life changes to - let me go get my camera or where's my phone? I need to take a picture of this - it's beautiful.  Or, a thought flits through my chaotic brain and the Lord reminds me, He's got it all under His control.  

The thought for this blog posting came yesterday, and life has just been so busy that we put off the most important one.  When we take the time and just sit down with the Lord, He blesses our socks off.  I hope you will enjoy some time with the Lord, today, right now in this moment, and that He blesses your socks off.  There is truly no one like him.  Another new song given to me as I took the time to just sit with Him in our secret place.  

Let me give you a peak in to the journey of a special place where I spend time with my Savior Jesus Christ.  No one paints like Father God and no one creates like Father God.  Thank you for the sacrifice of your son, Jesus, to save a wretch like me.  Sharing a few of my favorite pictures through the years.  

 

 

Howdy Neighbor!!!

                                               Perspective and Perseverance...

So I decided to make myself a hat....The first attempt is the one to the left in the above picture.  I followed the instructions.  I did everything the pattern said to do with the exception of  having the size of hook that the pattern stated to use and maybe the yarn was of larger size but not so large as to make the above size hat.  I actually used a smaller size hook.  I knew about halfway through that there was a problem.  This hat was going to be huge and the predator from the movie "Alien" could wear this hat and it would fit them.  My husband encouraged me to finish the project.  I was going to stop and try to put elastic in it to make it work.  So out of fun, I finished the project.  Hubby modeled it, and no I cannot share the picture LOL...but it looked like a hat for a King.  You know, one of those really big ceremonial hats that the big Kahuna wears.  If you remember Johnny Carson and the big turban style hat he would wear at times...This hat looks similar.  

I decided to try again with modifications made.  The second attempt is the hat pictured on the right side in the above picture.  When taking the above picture for size perspective to share the results with my children, the Lord started speaking to me about how you can follow the plans to perfection. You can do everything correctly and it still not turn out.  Just because you do it all correct and right, it can turn out all wrong.  But when I  redid the hat, I listened to that quiet voice that said, "Stop here, crochet more here, put this here..." etcetera, and I got a really nice hat.  Perspective and perseverance.  Don't give up, but listen to the Lord.  And by listening to Jesus, it's going to turn out and it will be better than you ever thought it could be.   Following what the Holy Spirit says to do, and it's all going to work out! 

I love the hat and I'm not a hat person.  They usually bother me, irritate me and it's so bad that I usually do not wear them.  I wore this hat all last night and even slept in it because my head had been hurting and I felt like I was just cold which was causing the pain.  The hat fits so well, and for me a no hat person, it looks better than most hats that I buy at the store.  

Perseverance and Perspective

So it's been a while since I have....well, like everyone, trying to survive.  As soon as one thing ends, some other disaster happens.  For a while now, the Lord gave me a word.  Just a word and whatever was happening, the word applied.  A lesson being learned...what Jesus was teaching me to walk through; let's just say that the last season has really been what felt like walking through the flames although I have to say I'm not burnt.  I may be a little singed, smelling of ashes but not burnt!  THANK YOU GOD!  

In this new season, it seems I have been upgraded from one word to now, there are two words resonating very loud in my thoughts.  Perseverance and Perspective.  The cute little kitty up there is our new cat, Ace.  He is a very smart little guy to be a cat.  Ace has a brother, Slim.  Slim is an orange tabby.  Weird how you can get a Tuxedo kitty and an Orange Tabby out of the same litter, right?  One of God's wonders of the universe.  So we had them neutered for, well, they're male cats, for gracious sake.  Can we say the testosterone has been flying around our house.  Currently Slim is trying to dismantle my phone charger.  Stop that!  See...See WHAT I MEAN!!!  

So somehow in caring for the patients, we do not know whether Ace bit himself, or Slim bit him in a scuffle.  The recovery was going well.  Then BAM!  Ace was not feeling so well or acting himself.  My wonderful hubby took him in to the vet and, this truly was a God thing.  The vet said that they did not see anything and Ace rolled over.  As he rolled an abscess ruptured.  Now if you have ever had an abscess you know what vile, nastiness can be in that kind of wound.  A God moment, the abscess ruptured right there in the vet's office where it could be dealt with appropriately and correctly.  "Dear God, really?  remember Missy...the enemy attacking saying "see, it's going to happen again.."  and we're shouting "Shut up, Devil!  No! It's not! and you're not touching our kitty."  

So now we are in after care of a draining, wound cleansing, drainage tube put in, and things were going great.  Ace was meeting all the milestone markers:  1.  Peeing, check. 2. Pooping, double check.  3.  Eating, Check. 4.  Drinking water, check.  Great, things were going great!  Then Bam!!!  Day Five of  after care and trying to keep kitty happy, not an easy thing to do while they are caged and collared:  Ace somehow ripped out his drainage tube instead of waiting patiently for his next visit which was three days away.  Really?  REALLY???  Gosh Ace, what were you thinking?  

So a trip back to the vet, but great news -  It was healing well.  There was no infection and things should go well except now we have another week added to keeping kitty caged.  Perseverance and perspective.  Well, the kittens are calling.  I hear litter slinging in the background as one is pitching a fit while the other one is receiving care and vice versa.  If it's not one, it's the other one.  Oy!  What were we thinking?  And I hear again perseverance and perspective.  It really is like dealing with two small toddlers who find numerous ways to get up to mischief.  But, God is faithful and as each situation arises, Holy Spirit answers me to what is the next step.  As I peruse the event that just occurred and am thinking "Now, what am I going to do?"  God is so faithful to give me a thought and a small quiet voice saying, "Try this..."  Perseverance and perspective.  Never give up!  Never give in!