The Keys to Fresh Life

Yesterday morning I accidentally grabbed this Lion necklace by mistake that was hanging next to my other “key” necklace in my closet that says “PRAY” on it. I wear my pray necklace daily. (JESUS and PRAYING are key!)

I didn’t even realize it for a good while so even though it wasn’t the one I wear everyday, I kept it on and let it be a ‘remembrance for the day’ of what it stands for.

A very dear friend who speaks over my life gave me this necklace, a key with a Lion on it, before I took my trip to Montana to visit Fresh Life Church.

It was a reminder that “God has opened the doors” and that He goes before me and is leading me into my purpose. It reminded me that I didn’t need to do anything but WALK into the adventure and open door obediently and humbly. It most definitely was an effective reminder especially because of who it came from.

God was everywhere on that trip. He showered us with miracles everywhere we turned. We literally were so dumbfounded sometimes that we were left speechless: NO WORDS. Thunderstruck. In awe and wonder. (Can I tell you a secret? I think the KEY to that was that we prayed together numerous times throughout the course of our days there. I think God literally gave us the eyes of a lion, and a taste of what could be our everyday reality if we pray like crazy.) We saw God and felt Him so heavily that it felt surreal.

God, in His cleverness and creativity, has used Fresh Life Church and the idea of “fresh life” (a new perspective and fresh way of living intentionally for God: having the eyes of a lion) to lead me, but has also given me a vision and dream of having a Fresh Life Church here in our community. His desire is for me to be obedient in BOTH and letting HIM lead. Getting to walk with Him keeps me in a continuous state of awe.

God has been teaching me that my obedience to Him and intimacy with Him in my personal life goes hand in hand with what He is preparing me for.  He is working things out in my heart to strengthen me. It is perfectly and beautifully intertwined. If we are obedient in what He gives us, He will give us more in which to be obedient. This becomes a pattern in which He leads you in His will. In surrendering and being obedient  He is opening one door of opportunity after another and leading you into your calling. Every time I obey He leads me to the next step. Blessings always follows obedience. And I am finding that the blessings often look like favor, assurance of His presence, divine appointments, prayers answered, more opportunities and influence to point the way to Him,  many-many-many- “God winks”, and SO MUCH MORE! It is the most amazing, exhilarating, adventure of a lifetime! It looks dramatically different from the patterns this world begs us to have set in place in our lives.

The “dream” of Fresh Life here in my community one day is from Him and for Him. It was a gift. I didn’t ask for it, it was just given. It has nothing to do with me personally except that I “get to” be a part of it. And I get to journey with Him and be used by Him, and THAT is the highest honor. The dream of having a Fresh Life house here in the The Woodlands is also not my purpose. I find my purpose in being so close to Him daily that I don’t miss a whisper or a nudge to be used by Him however He deems. And the only way to stay that focused is to make a HABIT of praying in such a way that it never truly ends, and instead of just reading through Gods word, letting Gods word and the stories in it apply to your life. God wants to be personal with us. We cannot just read a positive scripture and apply it when things are grim, or read the stories and not ask Him how He wants to apply it to our lives . We have to allow God to lead us through His word and allow Him to speak it INTO our lives. We have to EAT it and DIGEST it. I open the Bible everyday with anticipation and excitement of what He might speak to me. We also have to make the most of every single day by loving, reaching out, working hard, and not let moments to do any of these pass you by. When you get into this pattern of praying and meditating on God’s Word, one of the miracles you will start to experience is that DETAILS MATTER in your life. Pastor Levi from Fresh Life Church said that every detail of our lives is infused with eternal significance. I have found this to be true and it has changed my life. Somehow through praying, and hearing God through His word you will begin to see that ALL the moments in a day have significance. Life suddenly becomes the opposite of boring or mundane. Following Jesus is the best adventure!

I’ve noticed a number of TEST disguised as trials or storms where God is testing my faithfulness to fully submit my life and ways to Him. OFTEN I will be looking at the problem and praying about it only to get to the other side and figure out that He was correcting and growing something IN ME! I was able to receive that revelation by being relentlessly obedient. Blessing always follows obedience. Being molded  and sometimes sand-papered into who God has planned for me to be is a BLESSING! I found those test and trials to be necessary. They serve a purpose if we can change the scope in which we view them!

Meanwhile I hold on lightly to the dream He planted within me, while following Him closely. Doing that,  I KNOW I’m being available to be used for His glory. I TRUST that He is making something beautiful while in the WAITING. Something I cannot “see” but trust and believe in WHOLLY. And I just keep whispering, “not my will but Yours be done, ” and I obey whatever He speaks to me. He literally leads me daily. Sometimes I hear His voice much more clearly than others, but He is always leading us on through  His Word if we have the eyes to see it, ears to hear it, and a heart open to receive it. God’s word is alive and active and just waiting to be activated in your life! You just have to say YES and STEP even though sometimes you have no idea WHERE you are going. Thats a picture of submitting. You TRUST and STEP in blind FAITH. Just a week or so ago I was struggling with something and I felt STUCK and I heard God tell me as I was trying to get through a rough day, “JUST WALK”. And by that I felt like He meant, don’t STAY stuck… just take the next step chin up and GO! I was getting too focused on the storm.

This new way of living really became activated in my life during an extremely difficult season. I asked for revelation and understanding of life at a time when I was completely void of ‘self’. I was numb to the world around me, but felt closer to God more than any other time in my life. The world around me was silent, but God’s voice was loud and clear. There is much truth to the scripture that says blessed are those who mourn. That time in my life was sacred and will be treasured. So if you find your self depleted or in grief, lean into God like never before. He will birth something beautiful from your pain. Callings are often born in times of crises. I’m thankful for those times. All pain and trials I am learning are sacred and never wasted. Seek Him in your pain! Know that from ashes He can spring forth something beautiful if you allow Him.

Immediately after pouring out my soul to Him, He gave to me the gift of a VISION. It is not the only vision He has given me in my life so I recognised it was from Him right away. Just a few days following He led me to Fresh Life Church, and a book by Levi Lusko called, Through the Eyes of a Lion.  Then about a year later deposited a dream inside of me that came just in the form of a spark that set fire to my soul. When God shows you something…when He gives you such a clear holy image of something, how could anyone not give it their ALL to be available for Him to use. Gods dream is salvation of lost souls. It’s freedom from bondage for His people who He loves SO much that He sent His son to die on a cross for us. This dream is for THAT.

Within this journey of being recklessly obedient and devoted, He has been leading me on, through His Word, moment to moment and day to day, glory to glory and miracle to miracle. Most days I’m so in awe of His goodness that I’m overtaken by this awareness of His presence. I KNOW in that painful time, God gave me the eyes, heart, and roar of a Lion. I had begged Him to show me the meaning and purpose of life and He showed me a Lion and pressed upon my heart, THIS, is the meaning and purpose of LIFE. I received it and never looked back to the ‘good Christian way’ I was living before.

During the same summer of this transformation to change the way I viewed life, I heard God tell me to TEACH. His voice was unmistakably clear. I had NO earthly idea what that was going to look like and I had no degree in teaching or any experience teaching anyone but my children. But… God does not call the prepared, He prepares the CALLED.

God had a plan even though I had NO idea what was ahead or what those plans were, I just had a STRONG inclination that I better obey. So I stepped out in faith and went to the only place that I knew to go; The Woodlands Methodist Church.

That was the beginning of a gift or passion that I didn’t even realize was in me. God deposited it or watered it because it sprung forth with force and was full of passion. Thus was birthed my passion to share and teach all I’ve learned.

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I believe that He loves us SO much and wants this ‘fresh life’ of surrender, searching, doing, and obedience, so that we can be a generation and raise a generation of  BOLD Jesus followers that are intentional about the way we choose to do life. I believe He loves us SO much that He wants to do crazy unimaginable, powerful, things THROUGH us right here right now with exactly what we have in our hands.

I have always had a soft heart for teens. Reaching them and helping them has always been a DESIRE in my heart for as long as I can remember. I would attribute this desire to my extremely trying teen years. Now as a mother of teens, a lion roars inside of me to not just ‘have a soft heart for them’ but to fight for them as they find their way through these dark and confusing times. Knowing what I know now about my Father in Heaven and His intention for our lives, It has become a personal mission of mine to turn off the dark in their world and lead them to the Light. Even if that means one sweet young soul at a time.

I pray for them a REVIVAL and I pray that revival starts with me and that God would use me and work through me in the fight against darkness in their generation.

I believe He wants to raise up and empower our youth to say YES to Jesus and be warriors that storm the gates of hell together for His kingdom all the while having His blessings bestowed upon them. He wants to fan the flame of passion in their hearts so that they will know the hope to which we are called and will no longer be hypnotized and seduced by the luring darkness of this world. He wants to plant dreams! He wants them to rise up with FREEDOM, PURPOSE and AUTHORITY! He wants to do miracles! And ultimately that He wants them to KNOW and FEEL LOVED by Him finding their worth and purpose in Him rather than in the hands of success, wealth, trophies, degrees, and titles… which I personally believe is a staggering problem in this very community.

I’m praying for a revival within our youth who abandon themselves for this “fresh life”. A MOVEMENT of young hearts leaving what they know behind and making an oath to follow Jesus with passion. A wholehearted devotion. Not looking behind but instead putting all hope into eternity. Choosing to turn off the dark in this world and ratcheting up a fire that makes them want to fight for the next. A revival where all eyes are opened to the spiritual world we live in. And a fire in hearts to long to use their gifts, talents, and lives all for His glory.

The DREAM I believe was birthed . I believe He gave me the gifts of revelation, passion, authority to teach, and a desire to SHARE…for a time such as THIS. Bearing this cross and walking this out I am finding takes much surrendering: Daily surrendering.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the teaching while at FRESH LIFE in Montana was on “suffering well”. I cried while worshiping through the entire message. I’m not sure there is a blessing greater than God giving you words that penetrate the deepest parts of my being, while literally worshipping in the Fresh Life House. -No coincidences only PROVIDENCE.- Obviously the message wasn’t JUST for me, but for everyone who follows and imitates Jesus. Anyone who is faithfully a follower of Him is going to suffer as He did. But we suffer KNOWING what lies ahead. And we learn that in suffering and pressure comes power from on high if we lean into the words He speaks to us and submit to His will and not our own. We mustn’t embrace a world that is safe; one in which we control everything, but we must embrace the suffering that Jesus said life would bring, and hold tight to His promise that He is in it and has already overcome. I have found that He makes a way EVERY SINGLE TIME. It’s amazing.

In the journey there IS SUFFERING! He tells us there WILL BE! But we are not to be afraid OR to take our eyes off Him!

My last blog post I spoke of what it means to endure the cross or your purpose daily. Endure means to SUFFER patiently. Jesus suffered patiently knowing that it would accomplish  His purpose, or the reason He was sent. For the joy set before Him… He was devoted to His Fathers will. As WE should be as well.

Once you realize that this life is NOT about you, and that God wants to use your surrendered life to do something grand for eternity, you will begin suffering by dying to yourself as you let His word work itself out through your life. Things will not seem fair and will feel extremely counter intuitive. You literally have to DIE to your flesh; what you “feel” and your “feelings” for the sake of Christ and the joy that awaits. And sometimes that process causes you to suffer. But we are called to do it! This life is not about you. Our life as harsh as it sounds is not about being happy, but about being Holy, so that we can be used for His kingdom here on this earth. But within that suffering is joy unspeakable!

In this fresh life walk there will be suffering. Just like Jesus we are called to carry out our purpose with endurance FOR the joy set before us. So His kingdom can COME. The VICTORY is ours if we cling to His promises and FIGHT to not be derailed by the storms and trials, keeping our eyes on Him. When we do we are allowed to walk on water WITH Him! We get to be a part of the miracles!

He has a better way. It feels so counterintuitive, but in it is this magical, glorious KINGDOM where God is working and WE get to be spectators of Him building His kingdom HERE in our midst. It’s a hidden GEM. A narrow road and few will find it. But if you become intentional and search for Him and His way with ALL your heart, you WILL find it. You will find THE WAY. You will find the TRUTH, and you will find the LIFE you were destined to live. A life of dreaming, risking, having blind faith, rewards, blessings, and the best…having a part in what God is doing to build His kingdom. And you will find yourself smack dab in the middle of your purpose! Not only THAT, but you will find yourself doing things you never DREAMED that you could do because you have God’s power flowing through you! He wants to USE YOU! He wants to do BIG and GLORIOUS things for His kingdom through your life!

The KEY is JESUS,  FAITH, His Word, and PRAYER.

It leads and opens doors to the purpose of our lives.

EVERY life matters. Every life has a PURPOSE beyond what we can even imagine!

The question is, will you use the key to open the door or will you cling to what you know in this world. We are not called to play it SAFE. We are called to have RADICAL FAITH, to DREAM and to Risk it all for Him!

Jesus is inviting you. Do not put off the amazing life of purpose that awaits you. Together with our keys we can live for eternity today!