**This is part of a series of posts that are a more in-depth look at a lesson I recently taught to a group of women in our church. To read the additional posts, you can easily access them by clicking on the links at the bottom of the page or in the body of this text.**
If you're still hanging with me through all of these posts, then God bless you...you are a trooper! While they've almost turned into a mini-book, instead of just a series of posts, I can't help but dream of how God is going to use this to speak to someone who needs to hear this: God does have a Vision for your life...and...if you are attempting to let the Holy Spirit lead your life...you are most likely living it!
If we truly embrace, believe, seek, live out and embody this truth, what Holy Spirit power could He unleash upon your corner of the world? I said to our Bible study group, 'What if we all started chasing our dreams?'
I can only imagine the resulting beauty of lives that glorify the Creator that designed them for His specific purposes. Wow! Are you as excited at the possibilities as I am?
In last night's post, I promised to share some specific examples of how God has been living out the Vision in me since He brought together this revolutionary way of viewing His will. I know "revolutionary" is a huge word...but I am limited by words and can think of none more appropriate than one defined as "radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure, principles, etc." ( see dictionary.com)
Within five minutes of comprehending what God's Spirit was showing me on that night in early November, I took out a piece of notebook paper and made a list of how I could live like the Vision was complete. It wasn't a check list. It was a way for me to quickly put down on paper the reality and practicality of what He was teaching me.
The next morning, as Holy Spirit had instructed me to do, I woke up and said, "Thank you that the Vision You have for my life is complete. Now show me today how to live like it."
I will not deceive you into believing that every time I pray this prayer that I have an instant answer. Perhaps for the first morning though, God wanted to give me assurance that the lesson He'd shown me wasn't just my imagination. I don't know the mind of God or how He chooses to work in us, I just know that first morning when I asked, this one phrase came to mind: Google...compost!
I know...not exactly what you'd expect God to say to someone looking for divine insight. But my beautiful Abba knows me better than anyone else ever could and here's the little bit of beautiful that He wanted me to know that morning:
Last spring when I was juicing for several weeks, I hated throwing out all of that pulp day after day. Multiple times I said to myself, or out loud, "I just wish I knew someone that composted so I could give this to them." I even considered filling a bucket and then posting on Facebook that I'd deliver it to the first taker.
Next, as I spent excessive amounts of dollars buying potting soil for my patio garden, I had vowed that I would no longer dump it in the yard off the patio like I have for several summers prior. I had promised myself that I would keep it and find a way to amend it and reuse it.
That morning, when the Holy Spirit nudged me to "google compost"...it blessed me in a way that I'm not sure I can adequately express. Basically...He knew what would get my heart pumping and move me passionately one step deeper into living out this Vision.
So I immediately googled "apartment composting". [Okay, I have to chase a rabbit trail momentarily for two reasons: Number 1- I never even thought composting in an apartment would be possible, and Number 2- I have Google's new ad campaign, "Even God uses Google!" Rabbit trail...done.]
The websites that first popped up were about vermicomposting. Yes, that's where the idea for The Wormery began! Oh...but there's more!
I had attempted a worm bin in our home the last summer we were in it. But guess what...it was too cold in our garage. And yet, an apartment setting is perfect for vermicomposting. And, just the week before, I had felt compelled to purge more stuff once again. It's a fairly common occurrence when you live in a small space with six people. But here's the funny part...I had emptied out exactly four bins...and three of them fit perfectly inside one another and could now be used for the wormery.
Don't tell me God wasn't planning this lesson all along.
Ha! He amazes me!
What's more, is that over the next six weeks, I had a friend ask me to participate in Donald Miller's Storyline program which is essentially living your part of God's story. I equate this with living out His Vision for my life. I also had a friend give me a beautiful book that I mentioned as a prelude to this entire series of posts. A Million Little Ways by Emily P. Freeman is a guide to "uncover the art you were made to live." So far, she's been teaching me to trust my first thoughts, get back to becoming whom I was created to be and living out the dreams and desires God has innately planted within me. I don't think my friend could possibly have been aware how impeccably timed her gift could be.
What I quickly began to realize is that knowing God's Vision, because I know the things that I'm passionate about and make me feel alive, provides the ultimate filter for how I should spend my time, energy and resources. That's not to say that I'll never be involved in an activity that is about neither growing people nor plants. But I hope you can see that this is a very broad umbrella under which many wonderful pursuits can fall.
I have to be careful though. I could easily attempt to manipulate a "good idea" into the Vision, when it really doesn't belong. Therefore, the ultimate filter is prayer and the discernment of the Holy Spirit. I swiftly had a lesson in this as well.
I have a friend that is doing a phenomenal business with a networking product that is healthy and provides great compensation. I had been tempted repeatedly to dive in to the business venture with her. As I saw her soar, I kept thinking this would be a great way to provide income to help out our family. I went so far as to tell her I would start after the holidays as long as I could get some friends to line up parties with me before I started. All six of the people I contacted turned me down or did not reply.
I was a little stung at first, but when I went to God with it and truly understood that this wasn't in His Vision for me...even though I could have manipulated it into saying I would be "teaching" and "encouraging" others...I felt complete peace about turning down the offer. No less than 20 minutes after making that final decision, a good friend offered to let me garden at her place this year...thus, expanding my gardening possibilities. And...gardening together, so we can have our chat time around something we both enjoy doing!
Can we say, instant reward for sticking to the Vision?
I was completely stunned.
I will not promise you that there will always be instant results like this. I just know that one of the driving thoughts I had when toiling over the business opportunity was that my time for friends, family and gardening would be greatly restricted if I poured myself into it like I should. With my friend's gardening offer, I was thrilled I hadn't tied up any time into the business.
There are no less than five other examples of how living the Vision has manifested itself in ways I could not have imagined. One of them was teaching the ladies in our Bible study this very lesson last week. God is amazingly good, isn't He?
But here's the word of caution I have for you: Your Enemy doesn't want you to "get" this.
You see...if you actually believe that God has big plans for your life, even if it is in "a million little ways"...and you start living like it...I can guarantee you Satan is doing everything in his power to keep it from happening. I know for myself that fear is the biggest weapon in his arsenal.
I should dedicate a post to this all on its own, but I have at least one more planned and I think I'm pushing the limit with six already. A seventh dedicated to fear might just throw you over the edge.
So, in a nutshell, I'll share this and please know that I'm not attempting to skirt the issue: For all of January, I was highly distracted. I wasted more hours that month than in the previous six months combined. I kept blaming it on the weather, hibernation mode, telling myself it was okay because it's the first January I haven't worked in five years and many, many other excuses. But I picked up Freeman's book again on that that day in January and realized that although I'd set it aside for a month, God had it waiting for precisely when I needed it.
See...I think what had happened was that I'd had just a taste of what it meant to come alive...and my Enemy used that to scare the crap out of me.
I wasn't even fully aware that I was afraid. I think I also just needed more time to process and digest this revolutionary way of living. I'm a tad ADD and get easily overwhelmed with the "big picture" of trying to figure out every minute detail. It is completely against my nature to live day by day.
But that's precisely what God had been showing me and when I actually lived it out, His Vision was popping up all around me like daisies in the snowy hillside of my life. It sort of freaked me out because it all seemed too good to be true!
In Freeman's book, I realized that it's normal to fear because that's what we've been told all of our lives. If you had parents and families that supported your every dream...then you have been truly blessed. For most of us though, "You can't do___________", "How can you make money at that?", "Is that realistic?", and sometimes worse, "You're stupid if you think you can do____________". I don't know, maybe the worst is actually apathy that offers no response at all to your dreams. No wonder we've all believed the lie that we can't live out our passions, visions and dreams.
But see, here's something that I just realized while typing that last paragraph...we were all raised by dreamers. They simply never believed they could live them out and the thought of you doing it probably terrified them. Does that mean you have to listen and act according to the lie, too?
Absolutely not!
*****************************************
If you'll stick around for one more post that I'll publish in the next day or two, I hope to convince you that these principles apply to every desire God lays upon your heart! Don't believe me? Come back and let me try to persuade you.
Part 1: God Still Gives Visions and Dreams
Part 2: This Life As We Know It...
Part 3: God Dwells in the Fullness of Time
Part 4: The Vision is Complete
If you're still hanging with me through all of these posts, then God bless you...you are a trooper! While they've almost turned into a mini-book, instead of just a series of posts, I can't help but dream of how God is going to use this to speak to someone who needs to hear this: God does have a Vision for your life...and...if you are attempting to let the Holy Spirit lead your life...you are most likely living it!
If we truly embrace, believe, seek, live out and embody this truth, what Holy Spirit power could He unleash upon your corner of the world? I said to our Bible study group, 'What if we all started chasing our dreams?'
I can only imagine the resulting beauty of lives that glorify the Creator that designed them for His specific purposes. Wow! Are you as excited at the possibilities as I am?
In last night's post, I promised to share some specific examples of how God has been living out the Vision in me since He brought together this revolutionary way of viewing His will. I know "revolutionary" is a huge word...but I am limited by words and can think of none more appropriate than one defined as "radically new or innovative; outside or beyond established procedure, principles, etc." ( see dictionary.com)
Within five minutes of comprehending what God's Spirit was showing me on that night in early November, I took out a piece of notebook paper and made a list of how I could live like the Vision was complete. It wasn't a check list. It was a way for me to quickly put down on paper the reality and practicality of what He was teaching me.
The next morning, as Holy Spirit had instructed me to do, I woke up and said, "Thank you that the Vision You have for my life is complete. Now show me today how to live like it."
I will not deceive you into believing that every time I pray this prayer that I have an instant answer. Perhaps for the first morning though, God wanted to give me assurance that the lesson He'd shown me wasn't just my imagination. I don't know the mind of God or how He chooses to work in us, I just know that first morning when I asked, this one phrase came to mind: Google...compost!
I know...not exactly what you'd expect God to say to someone looking for divine insight. But my beautiful Abba knows me better than anyone else ever could and here's the little bit of beautiful that He wanted me to know that morning:
Last spring when I was juicing for several weeks, I hated throwing out all of that pulp day after day. Multiple times I said to myself, or out loud, "I just wish I knew someone that composted so I could give this to them." I even considered filling a bucket and then posting on Facebook that I'd deliver it to the first taker.
Next, as I spent excessive amounts of dollars buying potting soil for my patio garden, I had vowed that I would no longer dump it in the yard off the patio like I have for several summers prior. I had promised myself that I would keep it and find a way to amend it and reuse it.
That morning, when the Holy Spirit nudged me to "google compost"...it blessed me in a way that I'm not sure I can adequately express. Basically...He knew what would get my heart pumping and move me passionately one step deeper into living out this Vision.
So I immediately googled "apartment composting". [Okay, I have to chase a rabbit trail momentarily for two reasons: Number 1- I never even thought composting in an apartment would be possible, and Number 2- I have Google's new ad campaign, "Even God uses Google!" Rabbit trail...done.]
The websites that first popped up were about vermicomposting. Yes, that's where the idea for The Wormery began! Oh...but there's more!
I had attempted a worm bin in our home the last summer we were in it. But guess what...it was too cold in our garage. And yet, an apartment setting is perfect for vermicomposting. And, just the week before, I had felt compelled to purge more stuff once again. It's a fairly common occurrence when you live in a small space with six people. But here's the funny part...I had emptied out exactly four bins...and three of them fit perfectly inside one another and could now be used for the wormery.
Don't tell me God wasn't planning this lesson all along.
Ha! He amazes me!
What's more, is that over the next six weeks, I had a friend ask me to participate in Donald Miller's Storyline program which is essentially living your part of God's story. I equate this with living out His Vision for my life. I also had a friend give me a beautiful book that I mentioned as a prelude to this entire series of posts. A Million Little Ways by Emily P. Freeman is a guide to "uncover the art you were made to live." So far, she's been teaching me to trust my first thoughts, get back to becoming whom I was created to be and living out the dreams and desires God has innately planted within me. I don't think my friend could possibly have been aware how impeccably timed her gift could be.
What I quickly began to realize is that knowing God's Vision, because I know the things that I'm passionate about and make me feel alive, provides the ultimate filter for how I should spend my time, energy and resources. That's not to say that I'll never be involved in an activity that is about neither growing people nor plants. But I hope you can see that this is a very broad umbrella under which many wonderful pursuits can fall.
I have to be careful though. I could easily attempt to manipulate a "good idea" into the Vision, when it really doesn't belong. Therefore, the ultimate filter is prayer and the discernment of the Holy Spirit. I swiftly had a lesson in this as well.
I have a friend that is doing a phenomenal business with a networking product that is healthy and provides great compensation. I had been tempted repeatedly to dive in to the business venture with her. As I saw her soar, I kept thinking this would be a great way to provide income to help out our family. I went so far as to tell her I would start after the holidays as long as I could get some friends to line up parties with me before I started. All six of the people I contacted turned me down or did not reply.
I was a little stung at first, but when I went to God with it and truly understood that this wasn't in His Vision for me...even though I could have manipulated it into saying I would be "teaching" and "encouraging" others...I felt complete peace about turning down the offer. No less than 20 minutes after making that final decision, a good friend offered to let me garden at her place this year...thus, expanding my gardening possibilities. And...gardening together, so we can have our chat time around something we both enjoy doing!
Can we say, instant reward for sticking to the Vision?
I was completely stunned.
I will not promise you that there will always be instant results like this. I just know that one of the driving thoughts I had when toiling over the business opportunity was that my time for friends, family and gardening would be greatly restricted if I poured myself into it like I should. With my friend's gardening offer, I was thrilled I hadn't tied up any time into the business.
There are no less than five other examples of how living the Vision has manifested itself in ways I could not have imagined. One of them was teaching the ladies in our Bible study this very lesson last week. God is amazingly good, isn't He?
But here's the word of caution I have for you: Your Enemy doesn't want you to "get" this.
You see...if you actually believe that God has big plans for your life, even if it is in "a million little ways"...and you start living like it...I can guarantee you Satan is doing everything in his power to keep it from happening. I know for myself that fear is the biggest weapon in his arsenal.
I should dedicate a post to this all on its own, but I have at least one more planned and I think I'm pushing the limit with six already. A seventh dedicated to fear might just throw you over the edge.
So, in a nutshell, I'll share this and please know that I'm not attempting to skirt the issue: For all of January, I was highly distracted. I wasted more hours that month than in the previous six months combined. I kept blaming it on the weather, hibernation mode, telling myself it was okay because it's the first January I haven't worked in five years and many, many other excuses. But I picked up Freeman's book again on that that day in January and realized that although I'd set it aside for a month, God had it waiting for precisely when I needed it.
See...I think what had happened was that I'd had just a taste of what it meant to come alive...and my Enemy used that to scare the crap out of me.
I wasn't even fully aware that I was afraid. I think I also just needed more time to process and digest this revolutionary way of living. I'm a tad ADD and get easily overwhelmed with the "big picture" of trying to figure out every minute detail. It is completely against my nature to live day by day.
But that's precisely what God had been showing me and when I actually lived it out, His Vision was popping up all around me like daisies in the snowy hillside of my life. It sort of freaked me out because it all seemed too good to be true!
In Freeman's book, I realized that it's normal to fear because that's what we've been told all of our lives. If you had parents and families that supported your every dream...then you have been truly blessed. For most of us though, "You can't do___________", "How can you make money at that?", "Is that realistic?", and sometimes worse, "You're stupid if you think you can do____________". I don't know, maybe the worst is actually apathy that offers no response at all to your dreams. No wonder we've all believed the lie that we can't live out our passions, visions and dreams.
But see, here's something that I just realized while typing that last paragraph...we were all raised by dreamers. They simply never believed they could live them out and the thought of you doing it probably terrified them. Does that mean you have to listen and act according to the lie, too?
Absolutely not!
*****************************************
If you'll stick around for one more post that I'll publish in the next day or two, I hope to convince you that these principles apply to every desire God lays upon your heart! Don't believe me? Come back and let me try to persuade you.
Part 1: God Still Gives Visions and Dreams
Part 2: This Life As We Know It...
Part 3: God Dwells in the Fullness of Time
Part 4: The Vision is Complete
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