2023 The Year of Freedom

In 2016 I wrote about “Doors”. It was a season of change where God had closed doors that I didn’t think He would close and doors I didn’t want to be closed. Four years later, in 2020 many people experienced the closing of doors. In 2016 I talked about the light shifting to illuminate different directions as doors opened and closed. The last couple of years have been filled with closing doors and shifting lights. It’s not always God who closes a door and some of the doors that closed have been doors of oppression. We have an enemy that wants to kill, steal, and destroy, and the last few years he has done just that. Many of us have felt and are still feeling the oppression of those doors.

I wrote about how God will use our time in the hallway, regardless of who put us there, to prepare us for the next open door. I fully believe there have been battles in the heavens over the doors that are about to open for God’s people. As many of us have been waiting, Holy Spirit has revealed windows, illuminating things we were meant to see. Some of those things we may have knew and just needed reminded of; other things we needed to see before stepping through the next door.

As we get ready to step into a new year I have been praying for a word for the year. I don’t do resolutions, but I do seek one word from God that defines the year to come. Some of the words I have been given in the past are “restore”, “faith”, “purge”, and “stand”. This year for 2023, it’s “freedom”. As we have endured the oppression in the hallway, God has been preparing us for the “freedom” that the next door is going to bring. I believe there are things behind that door that we cannot even imagine. We are going to see personal freedoms and corporate freedoms released.

There will be freedom for our relationships: friends, spouses, children, extended family, etc. Freedom for our finances: God desires for us to live an abundant, prosperous life.

 Freedom for our ambitions: new goals will be released, new directions, new purposes, and new dreams.

Freedom with our health. New revelations are coming regarding health. With a glorified church comes healing and miracles.

Freedom for energy. As governments oppress energy sources, God has other plans. His people will not have to worry about hot or cold weather.

 Freedom for our faith; we are about to witness things from God that this world has not yet seen. God will have His glorified church and we will see His church do even greater things than Jesus did.

As we walk into the next year God is going to begin opening the doors He has been preparing us to walk through. Some may challenge us to step into an unknown but do so with boldness. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Other doors, may be doors of restoration, where He desires to restore what the enemy has tried to steal. Be careful to not put your expectations of the restoration in a box. When God restores, He doesn’t just return it to what it once was; He improves it and makes it better.

A New Journey Begins

I am on the cusp of a breakthrough when it comes to my writer’s block. I feel God telling me to write. But where and what about? 

Years ago, I started this blog and I never really pushed for readers or an audience. I thought that God would get it to those who needed to see it. I'm currently reading a book by Jen Trindale, and she writes about destiny, and how it is something me need to fight for and protect. We have an enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy. His main target is our destiny and our purpose. If he can derail us from what God planned for us, it slows down the advancement of the Kingdom. Several times over the past few years, as I struggled with writer’s block, I looked back at some of my past blogs, and I see how relevant today than they were back then. When I was writing them, many of them were directed at the church, and I felt as if I were being judgmental at the time. I would ask myself, “who am I to judge”. Much of what I wrote was written out of personal conviction as well as observation and what I was witnessing in the church. Reading some of my post in view of today, I can’t help but look at them as a warning. If the church would have seen the things I wrote about then, would things be different now? There is a great awakening occurring. For me I was awake a long time ago and I think it was because of the journey God took me on during those early years of writing my blog.

My pen has been silent for the past few years. I would try to write but nothing would come. Now I feel it releasing and God has more to say through the pen in my hand. It may mean that we revisit what He inspired in the past, only with new eyes, or He will take us on a whole new journey.

Who wants to join me on this journey?

Restoration Reboot- Restoring the Passion

 

Conviction hit me this morning as I was reading through some of my past posts, especially the reboot of “The Air I Breathe”. Putting aside the words of the post, I asked how “have I slid back so far?” As I read the words that I wrote many years ago I see a passion, yet currently, I’m not living with that passion. I have yet again, become wrapped in a blanket of complacency. Jason and I switched churches this past year and our new pastor has been preaching a lot about blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). As Jesus went through Jericho and was in the crowds Bartimaeus passionately cried out to Him, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.” When Jesus stopped, stood still, and called back to him, Bartimaeus threw off his cloak. I realized this morning that I have been wearing a cloak of complacency and I feel Jesus calling me to throw off the cloak and answer His question of what I want Him to do for me.  

There are many things I could ask Jesus to do – restore our nation, restore our finances, restore health, etc., but more than anything I want Jesus to restore my passion. I want to hear His voice more. I want to be in His presence more. I want to see a wave of His presence sweep this nation. I want His body to throw off the blankets of politics, Covid, and division, and to run to Jesus, sit at His feet, and watch Him do what He desires on this earth. I want to hear my marching orders and for Him to direct my steps.

Each year I pray for a word to define the upcoming year, and a couple of weeks ago I thought that word would have something to do with the events of the last two years. Instead, my word for 2022 is "PASSION". There have been prophetic voices calling 2022 “the year for you” and they have said it will be the “year of spoils” and reward. Those spoils only come from a passionate pursuit of God and a passionate pursuit to see His will done on earth as it is in Heaven. I pray that God not only restores my passion but the passion of His people. A passion to return to their first love, remembering all He has done for us, to rest in His embrace and to be His hands and feet to this lost and hurting world.

The Air I Breathe- Reboot

It has been a long time since I have written. I have spent the last two years pursuing my Associates Degree and in January I will be continuing on for my bachelor’s with a major in Sociology. For the past 3 months I have been feeling like something was missing and this morning when I was looking over some past blogs to get inspired, I came across one I wrote in 2013- “Making Room for God to Become the Air You Breathe.”  After reading it, I realized not only how far my writing has come, but I realize how much I have been suffocating the past few months.  I am posting a reboot to remind myself that we need to make Him the air we breathe. (Sorry I had to edit the grammar. I couldn’t believe I had published it with that many errors.) 

I have learned, that regardless of how much we go to church and pray, we can still suffocate if we don’t breathe Him in daily. This means we need to be in the Word daily and worship daily. I was spending time listening to podcasts in the car, and I would do quick, one to two verse devotions, but I wasn’t taking those deep, full breaths of Him that I needed. I invite you to reboot by taking a slow, deep breath of His goodness and mercy for all of us. 

  “Making Room for God to Become the Air You Breathe.” 

"Making room for God to do as He pleases and then cooperating with Him is the greatest thing we can do to see an increase in signs and wonders" - Bill Johnson.

The song "I Need You More" by Jesus Culture has the lyrics "I need You more... more than the air I breathe, more than the song I sing, more than my next heartbeat, more than anything.:"

God desires for us to hunger after Him. He wants us to put Him, above all else, in our lives. I have learned on my journey with Him that He MUST come first. He IS the air I breathe and the water I thirst for. Without air and water, we die. When I begin to let other things take me away from my daily time with Him, I feel like I am dying. When I look to Him as the air I breathe and the water I drink, it makes it easy for me to put aside the things of the world and spend time with Him.

 But that's not enough. We don't stop what we are doing to breathe, we breathe as we are doing. I want to be so immersed in His presence that a minute doesn't go by without Him being acknowledged. I want my actions to permeate with His love and presence.

In Luke 5:1-11 Jesus had just finished a night of miraculous signs and when He told Simon Peter, James and John to cast out their nets after not catching anything all night they obeyed. Out of their obedience, when they were tired from working all night, they themselves were granted a miraculous catch that almost sunk two boats. Jesus then gave them the invitation to leave everything and follow Him.

What is it in our lives that keeps us from dropping everything to follow Him? I believe it's the same thing that the disciples struggled with - fear and unworthiness. Jesus wouldn't call us if HE believed us to be unworthy, so are we going to call Him a liar and agree with the enemy?

2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God". If you have accepted Christ as your savior, you have become the righteousness of God, this makes you worthy of all that He has for you.

As for fear; 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of sound mind.”

It is time for the Church, the Bride of Christ, to step into our true inheritance, to lay our lives down for Christ. Invite Him to be the air you breathe, and as you go about your day breathing Him in, He will permeate your life till those around you begin to see and feel the love of God. Invite Him to partner with you in all you do; at work, at home, at school, and at play. Wherever God has placed you on this earth let Him reign there.

Complacency

 Complacency is like a gray blanket that covers us, and though it seems warm and comfortable, it keeps the joy and passion out of our lives. We get so caught up in the day-to-day, that we don't even realize when we have wrapped ourselves in this blanket. It comes into our lives like a blanket of fog, covering the landscaping and hiding the beauty.

A few years ago, I recognized how I had allowed myself to be wrapped up, and I threw off the blanket. I told myself I would not allow myself to be wrapped up in it again. However, just like you can't walk in the mud without getting muddy, you can't constantly be around complacent people without becoming complacent. I recognize, yet again, I have allowed the complacency blanket into my life. It is a daily struggle to keep it off and at times, I grow weary. I know God has us where we are supposed to be for this season, but there is a strong longing for something more. More of God and His Glory to be manifested in and through our lives.

There are so many times I want to go up to people, grab them by the shoulders, shake them, and say, "Don't you realize there is more than this!" I have written before about tasting and hungering for more and I feel as if there is a famine happening. Not that God is withholding- quite the contrary, He desires more than anything for His people to step out of the way and say,"whatever You want to do, do it."

In reality, they are covered with the blanket of complacency that deceives them into believing that this is all there is. They don't even know what they are missing. To experience God's presence so thick in a room that you can't even stand. To feel joy so overwhelming that your stomach muscles hurt for days from laughing so hard. To witness His will being carried out when people are set free, restored to health and sound mind, and relationships are restored. To rest in a "peace which surpasses all understanding". I thank God that He has given me a taste of these things and I will continue to hold on to the promises He has given and throw off the blanket of complacency. I will long for the day when these things become an everyday occurrence, not just a scattered moment.

I am convicted that it is part my responsibility. Am I walking out my daily life for the Kingdom? These things can only happen when lives are lived fully surrendered to Him. How am I doing? How are you doing? Are we allowing ourselves to be wrapped in the blanket of complacency, or are we living every moment in full surrender to Him?

Doors

God has been leading me down a new path and often times as one door opens another closes. That was what 2016 was for me; it was a season of change and challenges. 

Sometimes, it is painful when a door is shut. Doors are a lot like the obstacles in our lives;sometimes they are there because God wants them there and sometimes they are there to hinder us on our journey. Whether God has shut the door or not, He can use the circumstance to help us see in a new light. When a door is open it illuminates certain things and when that door is shut, the light shifts to illuminate other things for us to focus on. So it is with the doors in our lives.The patterns of light shifts and change around us lighting the new areas that need exploring. Would we dare venture to explore those areas if they were not illuminated for us? When a door is closed to us we no longer see the path we were on; we must move on to the new adventure and a new path. 

There are times when one door is shut, but a new one opens. There may even be more than one open and sometimes there are none at all; we are left standing in an empty room - waiting. I have learned, over the years to not rush into the next door. There are times of growth in the hallway and in the waiting that prepares us for the journey through the next door. It is also in the waiting, when there is more than one door open, that we can seek Gods will in which door to walk through. Not every door is opened by God. We must wait on Him to illuminate the way for us. 

What ever the situation, it's never easy to do new things, but it is in the challenge that we discover our strengths. It is in our weaknesses that we lean on God's strength. As I walk through these new doors I may not see the path in front of me, but I hold to the promises that God has given me and I take the next step in obedience. As I do this I get closer to the promises and closer to God. 

Restoring Justice - Olivia Noble

In my last post I talked about obstacles and one of the biggest times you may run into an obstacle is when you are moving out in what the Lord wants you to do. I have to laugh at how the enemy thinks he can actually stop what God has set in motion. I have been privileged to watch God move in and through my daughter's life. God has set things in motion in her life and I just wanted to give others the chance to partner with her and see God move the financial obstacle by allowing her to share with you a portion of what He is doing.

Justice
Has the word justice ever made you sick to your stomach? If so, you are not alone. Justice has always come across as a harsh word to me, it’s always been something that partners with punishment and the loving side of me use to cower at the sound of the word.  Until I actually realized what Justice is. Justice is the restoration of every violation of love. When true justice comes, healing follows, love invades, and the broken become better than they’ve ever been. My name is Olivia Noble and this March I get the incredible opportunity of bringing justice to Ecuador. Now, before I tell you about this awesome opportunity let me tell you a little about me. I am the daughter of this wonderful blog owner and thanks to her I have had the incredible opportunity of growing up in the church. Right after high school I was incredibly blessed with the acceptance to Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Boy has it been a life changing experience, and I am not even done with my second year. It continues to blow my mind how much there is for us to discover. God is so vast that we get to spend all of eternity seeking out his goodness and discovering his incredible nature. There is always more of him to discover and the beauty in this truth is that as you discover Him, He develops more of you.

Ever since I was little I’ve had the biggest desire to love on the broken, the forgotten, and the outcast and as I’ve discovered more of God he has revealed to me how this part of my heart is set on bringing justice. So let’s get back to the trip. In March me and a team of students will be sent out from Bethel to bring justice to Ecuador. We will be hanging out in youth prisons, walking the streets of the red light district, visiting orphanages, assisting the mentally disabled and so much more. Every day will be filled with the restoration of every violation of love. The most beautiful part about it is we will be partnering with a branch of Expression 58 that is stationed in Ecuador. Even though the team and I will only be able to love on the people for a little over the week that we are there, we get to connect them to people who have the resources to make life change sustainable. Our love won’t leave with us.

So help partner with me to bring justice to Ecuador. Every prayer counts and every donation is appreciated. Whether you’re partnering with a simple  prayer or a donation, it matters. It’s more than just partnering with travel plans, it’s partnering with a move of God, and when you are in tune with God, life is just that much more blessed.

We get to bring Justice to Ecuador. It’s more than just for one week, it’s more than just for one trip, because justice is so much more than one word.

For donations click the link below

https://trips.ibethel.org/transactions/new/14989