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Showing posts from 2017

Kirsty's Testimony

Kirsty Gerlach is an amazing woman who recently got diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. She shares her testimony with us and it will challenge and inspire you and lead you to Jesus. Please take the time to listen to her story.

The fires too hot!

Sometimes the things we go through we think aren't God, and whether they are or not God, God uses everything for our good, (if we allow it). And often we are tempted to walk out or walk away from God and His people in the process when  things  become too tough.  We don't know how to handle it, we think all sorts of things that don't line up with the bible, with truth, we question, we doubt, we blame, whatever it is that is being challenged in our life when it becomes too hard, we are often tempted to quit or to walk away from the situation/s that is/are causing pain.  I know I have several times spat the  dummy  so to  speak, in my marriage, in my church, with my daughter,  in relationships, when I have wanted to quit and walk away.  But thankfully the Lord holds me, I have my bad day and then something will come that will encourage me to keep going.  A word in season, someone encouraging me, a reminder of the good things, whatever it is there is often something that w

Today's complacency will lead to tomorrows captivity

While Jim & I were in bible college training to go on to the mission field, one thing we learnt was that we needed to be continual learners.  And over time I have found if I am not learning, if I am not growing in the Lord in some area of my life, then more than likely I have stepped into a place of pride without even realising it or have become 'comfortable' and content with where things are at. To be a continual learner is to position yourself that you are continually growing, being challenged in your thinking, perhaps being called to step out in something you have never done before that you know God is speaking to you about.  It's a place of questioning yourselves "why am I not seeing what I believe for yet?" in the Lord, those promises perhaps that He has already spoken about, and then stepping into them in faith trusting that God will lead the way. Samuel Rodriguez say's "Today's complacency will lead to tomorrows captivity." I

patient in affliction

This morning in prayer the words "Patient in affliction" came from the Holy Spirit. Patience is something a long time ago I asked that the Holy Spirit would teach me and the way He has seemed to have done this is through affliction, through trials and testing of my faith, through learning to love people even when rejected by them or misunderstood, or persecuted. But the joy that comes in the growth in the fruit of patience, the 'rest' and 'peace' that comes through learning to be patient in affliction, is one I am thankful for as I start to see an unshakeable faith coming as I learn to trust in the Lord to deal with the issues I can't deal with, to trust in the Lord to work things through and see His hand come into situations and circumstances. James 1:4 talks about the fruit of patience being one that we will be lacking nothing "perseverance must finish its work in us so that we may be mature and complete, not lacking anything" but that pe

Hesitation often causes accidents

The other day Jim was driving the car and began crossing an intersection then decided he couldn't do it as a car was coming toward him and so he backed back, unfortunately touching the car's number plate behind him as he too had moved forward. Many of us are stepping out and believe God has spoken, but when things start to come toward us decide to step back into what we think is the place of safety, but in so doing find things have changed and we cannot go back to the place we once were. Fear often causes us to go back instead of forward and for me in the past when we have stepped up into the new things that we believe the Lord has said, often something will come that will try to intimidate us, make us think we have made the wrong decision, that encourage us to go back the way we were going, but in the Lord we keep going from glory to glory, advancing and not retreating. It's in the hesitation that those around us may get hurt. Often when we are unsure of the way for

Soften my heart Lord....I need a miracle.

Those in Egypt who were taken and led out of slavery with Moses and crossed the Red Sea saw the miracles of God, they saw their God working in mighty ways before their very eyes and yet not long from where they saw these things take place, they come into quarrelling and times of testing and in this place they forget the miracles, they forget the bigness of their God and all he can do and has done and they harden their hearts. Many of us through times of testing, through trials, through believing for things and not yet seeing it happen, find ourselves unintentionally hardening our heart to what we have seen or know that our God can do.  We stop moving in faith in which we first did at the beginning in our relationship with the Lord and we end up living along like all those around us and accepting our states in life and no longer step out in faith on the bigger things in which the Lord has called us to.  Perhaps we have stepped out in faith before and God 'seemingly' didn

Yokes of slavery?

Pondering this morning how easily we put 'yokes' of slavery or burdens upon people in our thinking, in our demands, in our expectations and yet it is a two way giving and receiving that happens - we can place a yoke upon someone but they have to pick it up in order to receive it. We put yokes of bondages on people when we expect them to do a certain thing, behave a certain way, when we judge them in our hearts, when we decide what is right or wrong and start walking out of 'law'.  It is so easy to do with one another without even realising what we are doing. Yet on the other side we as individuals have to learn to walk in a place of freedom and like the scripture says in Gal 5 "don't let yourselves be burdened again with a yoke of slavery".  People can put things upon us, but in Christ we are set free, we are not subject any longer to yokes of slavery unless we allow it, unless we receive it. So individually we all have a part to play -  as a people t

Regret.....Pass on what you have.

This morning I had a dream of a woman who was a warrior, who was well used to going into battles and one day someone gave her a jewel case with some ancient jewels in it, a huge ruby that was set in an intricate gold setting, and other jewels that were beautiful that were being passed down to her and that had originally come from someone before her. She put them away in a safe place and went out into battle again for it only to be her last battle. In looking back her regret was that she never told anyone where the jewels were before she went out to battle that she was given and so they were going to be lost and no longer being passed on, hidden forever in history, the beauty of what she had been given lost and of no value. I believe there is a word in this dream that I saw this morning. Many of us have fought many battles in the spiritual and natural realm and in that we have received jewels from the Lord through the things we have learnt in those battles and the training

Yeah Nah

Reading 2 Cor 1:17 this morning this struck me: "When I planned this, did I do it lightly?   Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say,   “Yes, yes” and ‘No, no”? But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No”….... V20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ.”   And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God." Are we a people who are constantly making plans lightly and then when our circumstances and situations change then we change accordingly?   As a people learning to move by the wind of the spirit, what does this look like in respect to the things we say yes to and believe the Holy Spirit has spoken them, but minutes later or perhaps months later, we say the Holy Spirit is no longer in that and move on? Once upon a time our word was our bond, but these days legal contracts are being drawn up because we can no longer trust a

We are ONE in Christ. Lets LOVE those that are different to me.

Recently I had a dream and in this dream people were embarrassed by me in public and only shared at a surface level not to the level I shared, which was at the heart. And in another scenario others shut me out because I was a women and I prayed differently than they did. It broke my heart the way I was treated and I found myself in tears.  I share this because I have too often been rejected by people in the body of Christ because of various reasons such as those above.  People, we are one body, all of the same blood, all needed by the other. We may be different from others, we may not pray the same way as others, but we all love the same Jesus and if we are believing for unity in the body of Christ, we cannot afford to be ashamed of others that may be different to us because we are all Christs representatives on the earth, all showing different faucets and parts of His personality.  Please lets be a people who love one another wholeheartedly and honour others above ourselves as

Three prophetic words to the 'church'

Last night I saw three pictures that I want to share: One:  There were a gathering of men who had pulled away from the main bunch of people and were smoking. Smoking often represents offence and so I believe there are people who have pulled away from church due to offence of whatever nature, perhaps church didn't happen like you expected it to be, perhaps someone said something that hurt you, perhaps someone challenged you with something that you didn't want to address, whatever the reason offence has come into the heart and brought separation. Prov 18:19  An offended friend is harder to win back than a fortified city.  Arguments separate friends like a gate locked with bars. If you find yourself pulling back from the church, pulling away from people, you may find that there is some type of offence in your heart.  If you are sitting in an offence, you are actually sitting in unforgiveness and perhaps judgement and in this place you have forgotten the grace that you hav

Now is the time for the power of God

This morning I was woken with a picture of electricity in one room that seemed to go out but then there was electricity in another room that should not have had electricity as there was no connection and yet it was full of electricity.  I felt it was a picture of the power of God of supernatural things taking place that you could not explain. That there had been a little of it in the past to that seemed to go out but now it is about to increase.  Then the scripture Isaiah 41 was loud and clear in my heart.  So I got up and read Isaiah 41 and it is all about those who worship idols and those who put their trust in the Lord who will be protected.  He encourages his faithful ones to trust in him, with an assurance that he would take their part against their enemies, making them victorious over them, and bring a about a good change of affairs in their circumstances. In praying into this is what I believe this is what the Lord said to me. "What you have seen a little o

Can you leave the washing for someone else to do?

Something the Lord has been speaking to me about recently is leaving people to do what they have been called to do and to step into what I have been called to do. The other day I had a dream of some friends whose house I was staying at and she left me to do the washing while she went off to do something else, but as she left she felt she needed to come back to me and take over me doing the washing.  It was a control issue in her life as she just couldn't leave me to do it as I was more than capable to do it.  But in the process of her doing this, it meant she missed out on the opportunity that was in front of her. God was speaking to me to leave people to do what I have given them to do and to move into what He has called me to do.  But for many of us it is very difficult to leave others to do things that have been in your arena to do; they may not do it the same or as well as you could do, but they still can are capable to do it. Today I was reading about King Uzziah

But wait....its not commitment, but rather 'Faithfulness"

S omething we have been working through with in the body of Christ is the difficulty for people to commit to something and to continue in it no matter what comes.  We have found people will walk into something believing God has said it, and yet six months down the track, or when difficulty comes, challenges come, offence comes, it doesn't look as they expected, etc. that   commitment and belief that God spoke six months earlier is no longer there and we see people walk out of those commitments they once made believing God had spoken. So does that mean people didn't seek the Lord in the first place? Did they hear incorrectly? So does that mean people sought the Lord but now he is saying something different? So does that mean I have the right to do whatever I like based on how it feels at the time? If it feels good then I will do it type thing, but if it doesn't then I am gone? This has been a real struggle for me in leadership as I have found this on a regul

In childlike faith.... I wait

In childlike faith, I have declared what I have seen. In childlike faith, I have believed that what I have seen my Papa has no problem in doing. In childlike faith I have stepped out… but found that doors have been closed - FOR NOW..... That others around me didn’t see what I saw, That finances didn’t come to do what I believed in, That people didn’t stand with me, That for whatever reason that I blamed everyone else for the state of my heart. And so day by day in disappointment of spirit, my dream becomes less to what I see in front of me, Day by day by spirit starts to no longer believe for the ‘big’ vision that the Lord showed me, Day by day my childlike faith becomes beset by conditions, “if that happens, then I will do this”. And I find the once full of faith child is putting conditions on the steps of which she takes. And yet his word says “Those who trust in the Lord will not be put to shame”. And yet his word says “Those who wait upon the Lord will