Father Heart of God

Week 5. Wowwwww. It's kind of strange I am already this far into my DTS. I can honestly say, that it has been what I've dreamed of. I have made some amazing friendships, gone through intense times, experienced a new side of the Lord, and really... I am feeling the words of about 5 people over this seasons of my life "you will never be the same"... they were right - I will never be the same.

John Leach (from Jubilee Fellowship Church) came to speak to us this week. His message was on the Father Heart of God. This is one of the most amazing men I've ever had the privilege to meet... and spending a week listening to his heart was... I don't even have words for it. It was an honor, and he was such a huge blessing. This week was the most powerful week thus far. I think part of the reason it was so powerful, is that you could see in the eyes of John the passion he has for this subject, and how he really lives out everything that he was speaking to us. It was beautiful to see him also be touched by our words.
He started out the week by "Jesus loves me, this I know" and how everything... EVERYTHING flows out of that. And if it doesn't we aren't living the way we were created to live. Jesus is the model for everything in life. If we have a different picture than that, we will be frustrated because our puzzle pieces are suppose to form a Jesus model, not a different picture. If we don't know Gods heart, it's hard to love the Father because we don't know Truth. It is impossible to truly submit your life to somebody you do not know. We have to KNOW God, not just know about Him.... be be living Him, be breathing Him, eating and drinking of Him. Jesus heart on earth is Gods heart revealed to us. WE are suppose to be Jesus' heart on earth, because we carry Jesus and Gods heart. John mentioned it has an 18 inch journey, which really made me laugh since A Place For The Heart is one of my dear homes... it brought me back.
A lot of this week was talked on Identity and Purpose, which is probably one of my favorite things to hear people talk on. When in Genesis it talks about us being made in the image of God... Image = Attributes/Ability. God is a creative God! And since we are created from Him, we also have that same creativity. We are the only creation with the ability to be creative. But in that in a challenge... Because the more creative we are, the more we have to guard our minds because that is where the enemy attacks us all! Another thing that we received from God is the power of our tongue. God SPOKE and it WAS. We also speak, and within that is power to create destiny, or destroy destiny. That is why it says we have the power of life and death in the tongue. I didn't understand that for a while, but now I do. Death doesn't come always in the physical. But in the spirit. And I would rather be dead in the physical then dead in my spirit. We need to begin to bless, to speak LIFE, and to speak into existence the things that we see in people. Do not point out the bad things, but speak the beauty and the abilities and the future over somebodys life. It WILL begin to come out. So, what if instead of us focusing so much on leaving an inheritance for our children/grandchildren of money... we focused on the power we have to leave our children/grandchildren an inheritance of self confidence and healthy self esteem, a revelation that God is Love.. and JESUS LOVES ME. When we start seeing bad fruit, we are eating from the wrong tree! So get rid of it. Stop speaking bad words, speak life! Speak life, and grow good fruit!
John had us go through and find 3 scriptures that we would read over ourselves every morning, and he challenged us to do it faithfully and see the word of the Lord come through it. Here are a couple of the verses I picked out:
1) "Ill give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you. I'll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that's God-willed, not self willed. I'll put my spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by commands. You'll once again live in the land I gave your ancestors." - Ezekial 36:26-28
2) "I am a new creation. The old has gone, and the new has come." -2 Corinthians 5:17
3) "I have holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations - that's what I had in mind for you." -Jeremiah 1:5
People will either build up or blow up your dreams. We have to be careful who we let in. We have to guard our eyes, because "Faith comes by hearing". We must align ourselves with Truth, not feelings.
Purpose Proceeds Productivity. Productivity doesn't happen until we have identity, until we have purpose. Purpose begins to edit out things that are not helping you. The enemy wants to keep you busy with mundane things, so we don't walk in the purpose God has for you. Identity helps you define life, know destiny... "Everyone's born an original, but seem to die a copy." "The realm of salvation is to know who Jesus is. The realm of power is when we discover purpose. And identity is when Jesus tells you who you are" Purpose is never decided, it is always discovered. We must go to the creator of who we are, and we must ask "what is your purpose for me?" We begin to discover this in a relationship with the creator.
John had us spend about 20 minutes wherever we wanted to around the building, and ask God 3 questions... Who are you God? Who am I? What am I suppose to do? It was powerful what the Lord spoke to me. Some of it I thought it was just me... but later I had the exact words spoken over me by somebody who had no idea what I heard... it was an amazing confirmation of the Lords amazing power He's wanting to spill out in my life!
At the end of the 5th day, the leadership split into groups and blessed us. They spoke words of encouragement and love over each of us individually. The leaders in my group were Paul & Susi Childers and Christian Fox. Susi and Paul both felt to bless me, as a couple, over my marriage & motherhood. That I would receive all God has for me in femininity. Also they blessed me to be a good mother, a good wife, and that I carry the example of many of a new view. They also said that I will be set apart from this generation. That I would discipline myself and be single-minded to follow Jesus. God has blessed me in who He's created me to be. They also saw God's favor (and that is what my middle name means). They said I bring a smile to Gods face and Joy to Him. They spoke that I would rise up and be the woman Gods created me to be. Christian spoke that I am one of encouragement and comfort and that God has given me the ability to bring people together. They spoke that I was unique and beautiful. I am going to bring great love and comfort as a wife and mother. God is pleased with me. And then Susi ended with breaking off my past and I am not my past anymore and the effects of it are erased. After the meeting John prayed over me, and it was right in alignment with what they said. Such confirmation :)
So today was the last day that he spoke to us. He ended with going over a lot of the same things, just to refresh us. He told us some more stories. And then He went over some of the benefits of Fasting and praying. At the end He spoke about our gifting. We have to learn to serve from our gifting (1 Peter 4:10). You can't serve with your gift if you don't know what your gift is. And if we aren't serving, we aren't obeying the commands of Jesus. We will find grace when we discover our gift and serve out of it. Gods grace is HIS strength working in us... not our strength working in the world. People will either operate out of guilt or vision... and so we find our gift so that we can operate out of vision! We ended it all by praying for John, blessing him and really pouring back into him. I was so blessed by this man. If only you could experience what I did this week, how the world would change!

Right now it's 2:30pm. In 30 minutes I am heading off to Makapala. It is a retreat center. All 49 students and all of our staff is going. It's going to be a blast!! I will make sure to put up some pictures when I get back.
God bless you all. Jesus is amazing, discover more of His heart for you this week... He is just waiting for you to let Him explode inside of you!!!
I love you all :)