Mitä on rakkaus? Se on enemmän kuin yksisarvisten kuvia ja sydänhymiöitä. "Rakastaa" on verbi. Sen kokeminen synnyttää naurua, hymyä, laulua, iloa ja voimaa! Se on tekoja, uhraamista ja toisen itseään parempana pitämistä. Rakkaus yhdistää ja rakentaa. Se parantaa ja vahvistaa, uudistaa ja innoittaa. Jumala on rakkaus. Häneen katsoessani opin, mitä rakkaus todella on. Mun rakas, rakas ystävä ja serkku kirjoitti todella kauniisti rakkaudesta omassa blogissaan Live as one who is outrageously loved seuraavaa: We try to endlessly find it, grasp it, understand it, define it and sometimes even avoid it. It scares us, intrigues us and invites us. Love is never passive. –– It’s a powerful, vulnerable and scary, but oh-such a rewarding… choice. And our lives are wrapped around it. (Aloin itkeä liikutuksesta kun luin hänen blogitekstinsä. Joo, se oli niin hyvä!) Susanna antoi mulle joululahjaksi huulipunan. Hän sanoi: Heidi, your words are powerful. God has given you a voice. Ah, mä tiedän. Mutta koska se ei aina näytä samalta kuin muiden kohdalla, minun tekisi mieleni välillä pitää suuni vain kiinni. En tiedä kaikkea, puhun eri tavalla kuin muut, enkä voi miellyttää kaikkia. "En osaa!" Ja kuitenkin tiedän, että annan Jumalalle kaikkein suurimman kunnian ja ilon olemalla oma itseni — en väkisin koittamalla olemalla joku toinen. Hän teki minusta tälläisen, ja se miellyttää häntä. Suurin iloni on tuntea Jumala, joka tietää kaiken ja siunata hänen nimeään sillä, mitä hän on antanut minulle. Oli se mitä vain, en voi odottaa sitä päivää että "tulisin täydelliseksi". Haha, se olisi tyhmää yksinkertaisesti jo siksi, ettei sitä koskaan tule. Ja toiseksi, haluan kylvää siemenet, jotka olen saanut, jotta voisin saada sadon ja taas uusia siemeniä. Olla uskollinen pienessä. Just hyvä! Elikkä, with that all being said, tässä on mun uusin videoblogi! :) Koitin nauhoittaa sitä ehkä neljä kertaa ja tämä kyseinen oli niistä parhain. Youtubessa minulla on varmaan kolme videota, joita en koskaan laittanut esille. Hahaaa! Surprise! It doesn't always work out. Muuten, ensimmäisen kerran kun koskaan nauhoitin omaa lauluani (ehkä 2008), minulla oli suuria vaikeuksia edes kuunnella nauhalta omaa ääntäni. Kieriskelin noloudessa kun kuuntelin epävireistä kitaraani ja laulunpätkiäni. Jostain syystä en kuitenkaan antanut periksi, vaan harjoittelin, nauhoitin uudelleen ja jatkoin yrittämistä! Kuinka palkitsevaa! Nyt olen tässä ja itseasiassa tykkään äänestäni. En ehkä kirjoittaisi tätä tekstiä sinulle, jos olisin jäänyt häpeän alle, enkä olisi uskaltanut olla haavoittuvainen. Halusin jakaa tämän, koska olen huomannut kuinka ihanan vapauttavaa on nähdä, että suuresti arvostamani, (väkevät Herran voitelemat tyypit) ovat hekin kuitenkin ihmisiä. Uskon, että siellä ruudun takana on valtavasti lahjakkuutta ja potentiaalia, joka vain odottaa ulos pääsemistään! Yes, tarkoitin juuri sinua! LOTSOFOLOVE.
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My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10:27 Did you know that God speaks to you in a way that you will actually understand what He is saying? Why would He not do so? And what would ever make you even think otherwise? Our loving Father sacrificed His only Son so that we might have a relationship with Him. The fact that you think that you can't hear from God doesn't mean that you couldn't or you didn't. Anyone can hear from God! In the Old Testament God spoke to Pharaoh through dreams and he was not even "a believer"! Sure, Pharaoh couldn't understand those dreams and needed someone (that is, a man of God) to interpret them. Lectures on "How to hear God's voice" are always fully packed. Why is that? One of the reasons is that we are believing lies about God and ourselves. We are confused with our identity as the sons and daughters of God or/and hold unforgiveness in our hearts, which kind of makes it more difficult to hear Him clearly. Sometimes we haven't been cultivating our relationship with our Father and would therefore love to learn a way to fix the relationship that's been lacking intimacy for years. It's beneficial to learn the principles of hearing God's voice but we don't need to get stuck at looking at the finger (principles) that's pointing to a real Person. Intimacy and trust grow only by time. I can easily read pages of the Bible and not have my heart involved. After finishing my "time with the Lord" on those occasions — I still feel empty. We might have also made hearing from God sound a way too mysterious and difficult too. That's really sad because hearing God is at the core of discipleship and what it really means to follow* Jesus. You simply can't have intimacy without communication. Communion with God has always a positive impact in our lives, such like encouragement, certain behavior, good attitudes, joy, giving, adoration and fulfillment... Jesus is the bread of life that came down from heaven. The Bible also says that Jesus is the Word of God. Digesting God's words leads us to understand what He is like, which eventually will transform our lives! HOW AWESOME IS THAT! Jesus Himself said: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow* me.
For anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him. Hebrews 11:6 When I finished high school I was HUNGRY for God and wanted to get to know Him. I had this thought in my mind that I can't hear from God and I kind of questioned and doubted the whole idea of having a RELATIONSHIP with God. Whaaaaaaat? So, what did I do? The only thing I knew: I started to pray and fast, spend time before Him and read the Bible like never before! I decided to trust that He is who He says He is and seek His face. I told God that I didn't understand Him but that I honestly wanted to get to know Him. I asked if He would start revealing Himself to me through His Word and He did!! Why wouldn't he? One night (during my DTS) He woke me up and I heard a voice saying: "I hear your voice Heidi." WOW!! That, if anything, bleeeew my mind! God of the Universe spoke to me! Sooooo unexpected and yet it was not. OF COURSE He heard the cry of His beloved daughter and wanted to answer me! That experience began to shift my relationship with Him. I started to see myself as a daughter, not a beggar who had to somehow get God's attention. I started to see that He had already set His eyes on me and longed to have communion with me! Discerment? To sum up, when I say "God spoke to me" I mean that I discerned that the thought/impression/whatever I received was from Him. Sometimes some Bible verses jump out of the page for me, sometimes I get an impression (an inspired thought, a feeling in my body, seeing with my eyes) while talking to someone and at times I've received significant dreams where I believe God spoke to me. We must test our thoughts [the Bible encourages us to test the spirits behind the words we receive] to discern whether they were from God, from ourselves or from the enemy. And therefore, because we are not immune to the voice of the evil one, this is why we should practice hearing accountable to our community. Learning is FUN and recognizing the voice of the Holy Spirit is even more! The goal of the Book is to teach us to know God! I bless you with heavenly encounters as you start practicing and going deeper into knowing Him! "As close as I can, as close as it's possible for a man" I wrote in one of my songs. Photo 1. Photo 2. “We must look, and go on looking till we have certainly seen exactly what is there.” C.S Lewis And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” Isaiah 6:8 Ihmeellistä! Mun missiomatka tulee tänä vuonna olemaan YWAM baselle San Franciscoon. Yllätyin kun koin Jumalan läsnäolon laskeutuvan ylleni lukiessani minne lähtisin! Meillä oli tällä viikolla ensimmäinen yhteinen miitti ja aaaaaah, tuskin maltan odottaa. Tapaamisessa kirjoitimme profetaallisia sanoja kaupungille, rukoilimme, ylistimme Jumalaa ja söimme brownieita. Tiimimme tulee matkan aikana näkemään rakkautemme Jeesukseen räjähtävän ja näkyvän voimana, kunnioituksena ja ihmeinä niin kaduilla kuin San Franciscon kirkoissakin. Me tullaan ottamaan riskejä evankeliumin julistamisessa ja sairaiden parantamisessa — ja saadaan nähdä ihmisten tulevan vapaiksi! Lähetysmatkamme tavoitteena on San Franciscossa rakastaa seurakuntia, kodittomia, prostituoituja ja ohikulkijoita. Olen täällä ollessani saanut ravistella ihmispelkoa harteiltani ja uskon, että jokainen kohtaamiseni ihmisten kanssa on arvokas. Meidän ei tarvitse matkustaa kauas, jotta Jumala voisi käyttää meitä (okei, vaikka on San Fran aika kaukana Turusta). Länsimaat tarvitsevat Jeesusta. Kuka lähtee? Kaverini juuri kertoi, millaista oli nähdä San Franciscon slummit... tällä matkalla tavoitteemme on viedä valo sinne, missä on pimeää! En vielä tiedä, miltä tämä reissu tulee ihan tarkalleen näyttämään, mutta olen niiiiin valmis palvelemaan ja rakastamaan. Eräänä päivänä koulussa Jumalan rakkaus vain satoi ylleni enkä pystynyt edes seisomaan kun itkin ja nauroin samaan aikaan hänen näyttäessään minulle myötätuntonsa voiman! Hänessä ei ole YHTÄÄN toivottomuutta – näyttivät olosuhteet sitten miltä tahansa. Bethel Missions Trips -yksikön sydämellä on nähdä, että Jumalan pojat ja tyttäret heräävät Hänen hyvyydelleen ja rakkaudelleen. Taivaan kansalaisina meillä on pääsy Valtakuntaan ja voimme osoittaa Jumalan rakkautta, kirkkautta ja voimaa yhteiskunnan jokaisella alueella. Strategiamme on nostaa sukupolvi, joka muuttaa koko maailmaa. Käytämme Jumalan lahjoittamaa taivaallista perintöä tuodaksemme taivaan maan päälle. Lähetysmatkani BSSM:n kautta tukee tätä näkyä. Suurin iloni olisi, jos haluaisit tulla mukaan matkalleni ja rukoilla puolestamme: — Tiimimme keskinäinen yhteys: ilo ja rakkaus — Että Jumala avaisi oikeat ovet ja johdattaisi meitä ihmeellisesti suuressa armossaan — Parantumisia, ihmeitä ja MONIA pelastettuja sieluja!! — Että todella voisimme rohkaista, siunata ja varustaa paikallisia ja YWAM beissiä Halutessasi voit antaa rahallisen lahjan tätä matkaa varten (hinta $700): Tämän linkin kautta tehdyt lahjoitukset menevät Bethelin lähetysmatkoille. Mahdollinen ylimenevä raha annetaan eteenpäin sisarille ja veljille, jotka sitä tarvitsevat! Visa Electron käy myös! Kiitos lahjastasi ja rukouksistasi! Keep in touch, my loves!! This is amazing! My missions trip will be to YWAM base in San Franciso. The presence of God fell on me right in reading the acceptance letter, wow. We had our first meeting this week and I'm getting really excited: we prophecied over SF, prayed, worshipped and ate brownies. So sweet! During this trip our team will see our "passion for Jesus explode in power, honour and the miraculous, both on the streets and in the churches of San Francisco!" We will be taking risks sharing the gospel, healing the sick, and seeing people set free! There will also be "opportunities to love on both the church community, and the homeless, the prostitutes and general passers by." We don't have to travel far to be used by God and to be deeply moved and move others deeply (well, though San Fran is pretty far from Finland). People need Jesus NEXT DOOR. Who will reach the western world? We'll have a great amount of opportunities to be stretched out of our comfort zones in the heart of California! My friend just shared with me her experience about the slums in San Fran, huh. I don't know what we're exactly going to do there but I'm so willing to go to these places and serve and love people. One day at school God showed me His compassion: I couldn't even stay standing when His love fell and made me cry and laugh at the same time. There is no hopeless in Him – despite the circumstances. The heart and passion of the Bethel Mission Trips Department is to see the sons and daughters of God in all the nations awaken to His goodness and love. As children of Heaven, we have access to His Kingdom and demonstrate His love, glory, and power in all aspects of society. Our strategy is to raise up a generation of world changers in their own nations to begin to run with their God-given inheritance to bring heaven to earth and transform their nation. This trip, through Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry (BSSM), ultimately reflects the vision of the Bethel Mission Trips Department. My greatest joy would be if you'd feel it in your heart to pray for me and for this trip & year! — The unity of our team: joy and love — That God would open the right doors and lead us miraculously! — Healings, miracles and that MANY SOULS would be saved — That we would really be able to bless, encourage and equip the local people and YWAM base If you feel like you'd like to donate for this trip (cost is $700), it can be done through the following link: donate. All money goes to the Bethel Missions and any extra will be given to other students or/and missions trips. Even Visa Electron works! Thank you for your gift and for your prayers!
Tässä myös laulu, jonka tein, kun ymmärsin, mitä tarkoitti kun sanoin Jumalalle, että ei niin kuin minä tahdon, mutta niin kuin SINÄ tahdot. Mun oli vaikea päästää menemään, mun oli vaikea ymmärtää Jumalan suunnitelmaa ja näkökulmaa, mutta päätin uskoa: mun Jumala on hyvä. Ja minne ikinä hän minua johdattaa, on parasta, minne voin koskaan mennä. Opin rakastamaan prosessia, opin rakastamaan Jumalan Sanaa, jonka lupaukset ovat minulle tarpeeksi. Arvaa itkinkö kun kirjoitin tätä. Halusin tehdä laulun, joka on aito ja kuitenkin täynnä uskoa kaiken kivun läpi ja tässä se on! Hope you like it! Mun elämä on sun, ei se koskaan ollutkaan minun omistaa Mun sydän on sun, vaikken aina tiedä mitä se tarkoittaa Tahdon luottaa, sä oot hyvä Jumala Sanat katoaa Voin vain olla hiljaa eessä Kuninkaan Hän antaa ja ottaa Silti laulan kunniaa, kiitän sillä tiedän Kaikki on hänen vallassaan Mun on vaikee antaa mitä rakastan vaikka annoit itse kaiken Mun on vaikee käsittää hyvyytesi määrää, enkä aina sitä nää Tahdon luottaa, sä oot hyvä Jumala Mä lähden kun sä kutsut Lähden minne vaan Henki johdattaa Ja mä lähden kun sä kutsut Vastaan kutsuun iloiten I LOVE JESUS CHRIST more and more each day. His love is contagious, outrageous, relentless, unceasing, inspiring, motivating, soo wrecking yet gentle, kind, encouraging, exhorting... Amazing. What have I been learning here? TO TRUST GOD. I have encountered His love and gentleness. I have begun to see the supremacy of God and His greatness. Not that I didn't before but my perspective has been widening up and my heart has been stretched out and filled UP UP UP. This amazing God has taken up residence in me and He actually likes it. He is the most encouraging person I've ever known! What do we even study in a school called the School of Supernatural Ministry? "BSSM is committed to the truth that God loves people, gave Himself for them and has given His Church supernatural power to bring individuals and nations into wholeness. The mission of BSSM is to equip and deploy revivalists who passionately pursue world-wide transformation in their God-given spheres of influence. Students are trained to continue in the ministry style of Jesus: to enjoy the presence of God, say what He is saying, and do what He is doing." We have not yet seen a whole nation discipled but we're getting there! Our goal is to disciple the nations. Our days are built up of many kinds of lectures, classes and sessions. Kingdom Foundations is a course where we study the Bible! BOOM, Dann Farrely has such a good humor and with him we've by far explored the wonders of the gospels. In main sessions we get equipped and taught by our pastors Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Mark Brookes and visitors. For instance, Canon Andrew White is coming to speak to us at the end of October! We are 1,200 first year students in our class and we have been divided into smaller groups (revival groups), which consist of around 60–70 revivalists. We have monthly one-o-one meetings with our interns, small groups and small group meetings with our own revival group pastors. It's amazing how well everything is organized! What is more, we can choose specific Advanced Ministry Classes, which vary a LOT from prophetic arts to intercession to missions training to faith and politics to healing courses! Then we also got to apply to a weekly City Service team. My AMT choice for the first term was coaching classes. Ah, they have been really useful and are already transforming my communication styles! I've learned to believe in people, listen to their hearts and to ask great, powerful questions (yeah, just like Jesus did). And we've got some amazing testimonies in the class already! PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DEEPLY TOUCHED BY GOD through students applying the skills they learnt in the class! YES! My weekly City Service is Home Gatherings, which is a home church held in my own neighborhood starting from next week. We will be moving in the whole five-fold ministry to disciple our friends here, teaching them to know Christ and to live a life of a worshipper. Many residents in my own neighborhood have found Jesus through yielded students who have been radically loving them! AND I NOW GET TO STEP INTO THIS STORY! Please watch the testimony video at the end of this post because THAT is what I'll be doing this year. I also chose an extra AMT on Church Planting that will be held as a seminar at the beginning of November. I might also be taking a deeper course on inner healing, SOZO and counseling. SOUNDS INCREDIBLY AMAZING. Let's see what will happen. We also got to apply for a missions trip for the spring. These are the locations our revivalists are going to bless this year: I really appreciate your prayers for me and can't even describe how much they impact my life! THANK YOU! Keep me updated with what's happening in Finland and where ever you're from! MUCH LOVE xoxo Picture from Pintrest. Terveisiä täältä toiselta puolelta palloa! Kulunut viikko meni seuraavan kuvan mukaisesti. Sweet! Rakastan aurinkoa, mutta voih kaikki kasvit ja muu elollinen luonto! Vesisade tekis niin hyvää. Kiitos rukouksista! Ne on niin vastaanotettu! Tällä videolla jaan todistuksen siitä, miten koin Jumalan tulen roihahtavan mun sisällä! Tää oli kokemus, joka tapahtui hetkeä ennen kuin nukahdin. Toinen juttu, minkä jaan videolla on tarina siitä, miten sain johdattaa erään muslimimiehen Taivaan Isän luo! En ollut koskaan aikaisemmin mennyt todistuksessani näin pitkälle, mutta kyseisessä hetkessä mieleeni tulivat Marko Selkomaan sanat, että varmasti paljon suurempi osa ihmisistä tulisi uskoon JOS ME VAAN TAJUTTAISIIN KYSYÄ SITÄ! Boom. Oli todella siistiä tajuta se siinä keskustelun lomassa! Aaaah, rukoilin teidän puolesta, ja koen, että Jumala sytyttää TULEN teidän sisällä, jotka katsotte tämän videon. JUMALA RAKASTAA SINUA ja haluaa näyttää sinulle rakkautensa! Ole siunattu, ystäväni! Ja suo anteeksi, että mun pitää hiukan etsiä sanoja suomeksi, haha! Pari ekaa videota oli vielä enemmän hakemista, joten tää on jo tosi sujuva! :P Looking forward! I've been in America for almost TWO weeks now! Crazy! The first observation that I made was immediately in stepping out of the airplane: it is w-a-r-m. I was extremely blessed to stay at my cousin's place the first night. Yeah, and the second day I tried my best to use the shower but managed to first get really hot water on me and then icy cold! I also fell in love with peanut butter-avocado sandwiches (sorry boys) with a hint of salt, lemon and black pepper! Exactly what heaven on earth tastes like. (Though strongly think this experience might still be perfected with rye bread......) The most beautiful thing in this city called Redding is the presence of God. The heaven is open and the atmosphere is filled with faith here because of the prayers of the saints. (We all know that for believers there is always an open heaven! But it needs to be mentioned that even Jesus couldn't do any miracles among the people of Nazareth [except to place his hands on a few sick people and heal them] because of their unbelief! (Mark 6:5) And that's exactly why I think the atmosphere here is so remarkable!) You perhaps know the feeling that when you're praying somewhere and your prayers hit like a wall? I've felt the exact opposite here. I feel POWERFUL here! Here it feels like the Spirit of God has more room to manifest and work through believers! (–trying to find the right language to describe my amazement–) GOD gets to be Himself here! And: He is overwhelmingly good, awe-inspiring to the max, and frighteningly wonderful in every possible way! Bill Johnson The most important lesson I've learned by far is the importance of worship. I've had to encourage and tell my soul to sing to God (like David) because I actually haven't been used to that much of worship. I say this as a worship leader who has always loved to worship Jesus, but there's something in stepping out of your comfort zone even during the worship time. Believe me, I have just wanted to sit back and have a break... but still chosen to praise Him like this was my last day to live. My decision has done something in the deepest parts of me: God has strengthened my soul, extended my capacity to receive from Him and our friendship has grown deeper still. I love it. Reminded of Psalm 84: My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. PRAISING GOD renews fainting hearts! What else could I share? There are so many things that have happened that I don't even have words for. I have seen plenty of amazing miracles already (and this is just the second week??) and smelled the anointing oil in the air in the sanctuary! One day at school I counted all the students that came up to testify what Jesus healed them from. Bill Johnson got a word of knowledge during His teaching and we ended up having: 7 people got healed from ADD, 2 from learning disabilities, 4 from reading disabilities, 2 from massive headaches, 8 from dyslexia, 5 from brain drama, 3 from ADHD, and the rest 6 from all kinds of other defects, like one from the damage that a tumor in her brain had caused. Speechless. I have never in my entire life seen so much power and authority in a room! God touched people and some of them could FEEL like a steel band lifting up from their heads. It was amazing to hear a person who couldn't read aloud reciting the Bible to us! Some told how incredible it felt to finally be able to understand what they read! "God didn't design the Gospel to be lived differently during "modern times" versus "biblical times". It is still biblical times." (Bill Johnson) "If Jesus did His great miracles as God, I'm still impressed. But I'm impressed as an observer. When I discover that He did them as a man, then suddenly I am completely unsatisfied with life as I've known it. I am now compelled to follow this Jesus until the same things start happening in my life." (B. Johnson) Ahhhhhh. What will happen when we start to teach this to our children when they're born? The secret ingredient of BSSM is that there are are actually people here who will talk to us about us and who are committed to draw the gold out of us. We will be learning our identity as the sons and daughters of the most High God and to live in a culture of honor and culture of confrontation. Our prophecies will actually be judged, which doesn't happen everywhere! We'll be focusing on the Godhead this year and we will learn to study the Bible for all it's worth. Exciting times and a lot of work coming up :D! To be continued... MUCH LOVE! May God lavish His love upon you guys! I LOVE YOU and wouldn't be here without your support! I want to share you a Bible verse that has been bringing tears into my eyes lately: And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Genesis 3:8
My question is today: is it possible? Is it still possible to walk with God? Is it still possible to yield to His Spirit and follow Him? I believe it is and it changes everything. It changes the way I live my every day life! And I can't talk myself out of it — we are called to walk with God DAILY. We have been invited to fellowship with God and to know His heart! God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. I should probably copy paste here the whole Bible, but go study and find out yourself what FRIENDSHIP with God means! It will blow your mind! YES! I mean, the God of the Universe wants to call you His friend? Not just a slave or a servant... which itself would have been wonderful (like John Bevere often says)! If He had wanted to have robots, surely He would have created us that way. Instead, He gave us hearts to feel, think and freely choose whether or not to love Him. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father. John 15:15 Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. JESUS DID THAT FOR US. To sum up, I have an honor to share a beautiful dream my friend had recently. I pray it awakens IN YOU the desire to know God intimately! Be blessed! In the dream my friend was with a bunch of people who were talking about what they'd like to have written on their gravestone. They kept talking and talking and didn't let my friend have an opportunity to say what she had on her heart. But... when she finally got her chance, she said: <<My gravestone will say: "God is a friend.">> Pic 1 is my own. Pic 2. Pic 3. I love testimonies about crazy, fearless courage because they awaken something in me. A warrior. A giant killer. OHHH I can feel the lioness in me arise every time I hear people share about how brave they were in peaching the Kingdom, sharing the Gospel, fighting for justice and loving the one in front of them. Testimonies remind me of my identity. I'm really in a season of new courage in my life and have begun to see that God really comes to back me up when I take new steps in faith. I think that courage is an overflow of God's love in our hearts. Yeah, the Holy Spirit WANTS to come out! I wonder if He ever kinda gets a change if we keep on feeding and resurrecting our fleshly desires, which make & keep us empty and never full and never ready to serve and love truly. We are called to love one another like we love ourselves and like we love God. We are called to love one another in the same way that God loves us. If we never encounter the love of God and receive it for ourselves — we don't have much to share. God well of love will never run dry (unlike ours). Christmas 2012. We were praying with my dear friends and asking: "MORE OF YOU GOD. OWERFLOW!!!!! OVERFLOW! We want to be FILLED WITH YOU and fill this earth with the knowledge of You!" once again. "The waters are longing for to be walked on again." Bill Johnson So... on my way back home to Turku by train a guy sat before me and asked me about my guitar. I don't have anything to lose, I realized. What if I didn't hide who I really am? The conversation led to a point where I got to share this man (who happened to be just finishing his doctoral thesis on philosophy) about a God who LIVES and was thrilled how interested that (obviously a wise and thoughtful) guy was in my view of life and how I saw Jesus and ethics. I shared to him how God had just recently healed my back in a service where the preacher got a word of knowledge of someone's back being healed. It came up then that the man had a back problem so I suggested if I could pray for him (there were other people in that wagon with us but I can't remember how many exactly.. because I wasn't paying attention to them). I placed my hand on him and prayed... something? And the next moment the man stood up and started stretching himself and trying out his back. What happened? he asked. It felt sore this morning and the other mornings before. YEAAAAH GOD. I wrote him back a month and then a year later to ask how he was doing and got an understanding that his back is still fine. Wow, it might have been a miracle. :) The fun didn't end there. After I left that train and changed for another, the train conductor of the new train came to check my ticked, noticed my guitar (THANK GOD FOR MY GUITAR!) and asked if I could come to play to the restaurant wagon. (I had played in a train once before but then the conductor asked me to stop-- which is also a funny strory!) Hmmmmm seriously, I asked him, Does it matter if I only know gospel songs? Well, apparently it did not :D I ended up playing and singing in the restaurant wagon for the train conductor and some other people who were buying sandwiches & beer and eating them there. WOW! "Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point." C. S. Lewis This courage theme is one of the reasons I like Todd White so much. I came across a clip on Youtube where he was preaching and the following is what I wrote down from his message. You will love it! It's about the Kingdom-lifestyle. What does it mean to follow Jesus anyway? <<Jesus didn't say: "I am the way to Heaven." He also didn't say: "I am the truth about Heaven." He said: "I am the way, the truth and the life." He didn't say: "No one gets to Heaven but by me." He said: "No one comes to the Father except by me." So, Jesus is not just the "way to Heaven" but to the Father. "And this is eternal life that––!!" ..they might go to Heaven? Absolutely not. "And this is eternal life: that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." I (quoting Todd White here) think that Jesus' definition of Heaven is better than the one we've made up. We preach to people: "Get your name written to the book of life and live like hell 'til you get there." But it's not just about praying a prayer to get to Heaven! It's about putting off the old nature and taking on the brand new one. So that you can become a son again. Jesus came because you are a son who lost his identity.>> First pic is from my own instagram. Pic 2. Pic 3. We have come, as one heart As one voice To join heaven's endless song On the earth, lifting up Our adoration, towards Your throne Praises rise, songs of love Are now ascending For the King, for the Lamb Who gave His life to save us A sacrifice of living praise We bring our all for You have beckoned Us into a holy place A holy love, Your very presence And now we stand in wondrous awe A glory cry we raise to Heaven With holy hands and lifted hearts Our eyes upon our Savior Holy, Holy, Holy All of Heaven cries Worthy, Worthy, Worthy For You were crucified The living creatures call out And all the elders fall down They fall down and worship They worship, we worship We worship, we called in worship We call to worship We sing out Holy, Holy, God most Holy Worthy to receive all glory Heaven's shouting as we glorify |
Heavenly
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