Over the summer the Lord set me free from so much, For the first time in my life I actually feel like I know who I am and what I was created for, so coming into the FCM (Foundations in Counseling Ministry) I wasn’t sure what the Lord wanted to work on in my life. I knew He called me to do the school and I also knew He wouldn’t tell me to do it without a purpose, because of Romans 8:28 ‘that he has predestined everything to work out for our good.’ I thought I’d dealt with everything over the summer, repenting of my past and truly receiving the forgiveness and freedom from God. We all should know that He wants us to be set free, like Paul says we used to be slaves to sin but we died with Christ and now we are dead to sin. And for freedoms sake we have been set free. It’s obvious that God doesn’t want us to be bound up and be a slave to anything but righteousness. All of this lead me to wondering what else the Lord wanted to set me free from, little did I know I would find out very soon.
The first two weeks of FCM we learned about Plumb line ministry, Amos 7:7. The whole idea is that since we live and have grown up in a fallen world we’ve been raised along a false plumb line. The two false plumb lines fall under the main areas of rejection and rebellion. Everybody will always swing to rejection first and then decide to swing a rebellious plumb line, while some will stay in the rejection plumb line their whole life. The creator of this ministry is Bruce Thompson and we have had the pleasure of Bruce teaching class this week. As the creator, Bruce knows exactly how to work and direct the teaching and ministry, just like a watch maker knows how to disassemble and reassemble a watch. Bruce’s biggest dependence is on the Holy Spirit, which is where all real freedom comes from.
As the week progressed the Lord started to highlight areas of my life I thought I had repented of and given to God. But I came to realize I had only been repenting of the sin and never the root of the sin. Just like a weed, if you want to kill it you must take out the roots so it doesn’t come back. Sin is the same, you must find the root of the sin and repent of that, in essence cut off the root, and that is exactly why God has me doing this course. There were many things I thought I had broken off and was free from, but I realized I had only been cutting off the leaves of the sin and not going after the roots. After the Holy Spirit revealed these roots in my life, I fully repented and received the forgiveness Jesus gave to me and all of us 2000 years ago. Today I feel freer than I have ever felt in my life. But even more than being excited for myself, I am excited to be able to minister to others using this tool of plumb line, to bring them back to God’s original, straight plumb line.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
First Steps of 2011
Stewarding is a calling God places on our lives and should always be one of the greatest desires in our hearts. This is what the Lord has spoken to me many times over the past two weeks. How do we do this? What does stewarding look like? This is where we turn to the universes’ greatest guidance counselor, The Holy Spirit. He will be able to guide us in the correct direction for the calling that He has placed on our lives.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Over the past year God has spoken to me many times that I've been called into leadership in the body of believers. Now I'm at the same place that many of us have been at before. What do I do to steward that calling? As 2010 came to a close the Lord pressed upon me that I need to take steps toward preparing myself for this roll that He's called me into. What He led me to is a school known as FCM (Foundations for Counseling Ministry) which is based here in Kona. I continued to seek Him as to why He had lead me in this direction and He spoke to me that the best way I can ready myself for leadership in this season is to learn to counsel others with scriptural wisdom.
Recently God has highlighted identity to me and how vitally important it is for every Christian to get a firm grasp of who they are in Him. Without this identity we won’t be able to operate in all God has for us. We must come into an understanding of who we are in Jesus. To understand that we don't have to work for a single thing in this kingdom we have been given as sons and daughters. Our identity was given to us when we were created by Him and known by Him since He formed us. We must work from our identity and not for it. Through this course (FCM) I know God will help me to better grasp my own identity and in turn be able to help those I mentor to better grasp their identity.
I am in great expectancy of all the Lord is going to do in this season and what He has planned for us all.
Trip to China
As I have had time to process my outreach in China and think about how the Lord moved, I am awestruck by what He has done and what He has taught me through many stretching situations. We were blessed with the opportunity to see 50 Chinese come to the Lord during our time in China. Through that, I came into the full revelation of what it really means when people say that a salvation is the greatest miracle and why Jesus leaves the 99 and goes out after the one. Being able to personally lead a lost soul to eternal life with our savior has to be one of the biggest highlights of not just my outreach but my entire life!
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
Watching a person’s face and eyes change as they come into understanding of the One who died to save them and praying with them to be filled with the Holy Spirit was a direct blessing from God.
I also had the pleasure of leading half of the team (by myself) to the country of Hong Kong to get their visas renewed so that we could return to China and finish the work that we'd started. The Lord used this time to grow me in ways that I thought wouldn't have been possible at my age. There was definitely a special grace on me to lead alone, that, if I didn't have I wouldn't have been able to lead by myself. I grew in my dependence on God the most, seeking him in and for everything I did.
Most of our ministry was to university students and it really captivated me that most of them had read at least one book of the Bible. These students were so hungry for the Lord that they were seeking him out even without people telling them to or showing them the way. When those beautiful feet of the ones who bring good news come, there is a ripe harvest waiting around every corner!
This outreach fulfilled and exceeded every expectation that I had for my time in China and for the ways the Lord would move during our time. It gets me even more excited to lead another team next year to a brand new location and see what God is doing in a different part of our globe. He is moving everywhere, He just wants us to join in.
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