Tuesday 30 September 2014

This is My Story of Love

I want to share an amazing testimony with you so that you too can feel encouraged! So here goes..
Just over 2 weeks ago my husband and I were making our way through the local mall when my eye caught sight of a wonderful window display of big flowers on long stems. The flowers resembled sunflowers but they were pink. As everyone knows Spring is floating in here in South Africa and everyone is trying to bring Spring indoors, so the window display was reflecting this. While my eye caught the display I walked on and did not give it a second thought until I got home. Then the window display started playing over and over, as though someone was nudging me and saying "hey the window display!" So the very next day I drove back over to the mall and popped in to the store and asked about the window display. The ladies in the store very candidly told me the flowers in the window were reserved for someone else. Needless to say, I hardly tasted my supper that night. As I sat across the table from my husband I told him that I had such a God- sense all of a sudden that those flowers are meant to come my way.

The reason for this is because I am organising a women abuse event for December, which will be a deep time of Holy Spirit - led ministry in to the area of abuse in the lives of women. I sensed that those flowers were needed to create a beautiful picture around the hall, interspersed with butterflies, to create hope and express the idea of freedom from abuse. When I came home that night, I laid it down in prayer - if it was Gods will for me to have those flowers, He would make it happen. The manageress of the store promised me she would call me after speaking to her head office. That night I contacted the marketing branch of the store and then I let things be. Two days later the store manageress told me - the flowers were all reserved for someones wedding but she handed me the number of the woman who made the flowers, maybe she could help. I emailed her and still left it with God.

A further two days later the lady who made the flowers mailed me back and was so blessed to be part of speaking up for abuse, she offered to give me 5 flowers which she had left over. I was over the moon, wow God how awesome are you!! Then yesterday, I got an unexpected email from the head office of the store, they want to be a part of the community and they organised with one of their stores to give me 8 flowers! These flowers are taller then me - 13 flowers, I just jumped up and down and felt God hugging me so tightly. I learned again that I need to go with my heart on things. I had such a sense that this was what God wanted and it was (and is) such a blessing to be abandoned to His will. Then today, I got another unexpected call from the head office and get this, "we have 21 flowers for you and we want you to have them, instead of the 8, we want all our flowers to be used for this event to help abused women!" Twenty six flowers, are you kidding me!!! Talk about Holy tears flowing from my eyes, literally. How much does God love us. My husband turned to me and said "you never give up, you always go for it like a real entrepeneur and God just loves that, He just blesses you." I just know that sometimes when you feel that spirit-led niggle in your being, you must never and I mean never, give up. Yes I had forgotten about the marketing department but God told me today "I just want to bless you - I just love your heart and I want prosper what you do for me."

I want to encourage you today with this short testimony with far-eaching effects, that whatever Yeshua is laying in your heart to do, big or small, don't doubt - go full steam ahead. Wait on Him for every details, be consistent and faithful and He will bring it to pass in His perfect way and will and when He does, He does it with so much Love - you are richer for having passed the test of time.
May Yeshua's Name be praised!
(I will be collecting my flowers - God willing, next month and then I will post a picture of them on the site, woohoooo!)

Wordless Wednesday Photo


So my photo this week is an expression of my heart! Just a small love note and how God loves them!
I love you Papa, what more is there to say.....

Saturday 27 September 2014

The Heroine Mulan

Tonight I watched the animated movie Mulan, for the first time. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Recently Father God has been speaking to me about women in warfare throughout the ages. Women in China often fought and led armies. Mulan's story however is based on a poem which eventually became a legendary  story of one woman's journey to save her father and her very own people.

So much about the movie really struck me, like the way women have been viewed throughout the ages. The way women were largely ignored and dishonoured. In the movie Mulan admits that perhaps she went on the journey to join the army so that she could see herself for who she truly was. Her society dictated to her who she needed to be, a silent, punctual wife with a (and I quote) small waistline. But Mulan is different, she felt it and although she tried to fit in to what others expected of her as a woman, she inevitably only succeeded in what she was created for. To be a fiery woman, who lived outside of the oppression of women, to become her own person. She was passionate, spirited, intelligent and everything in between. So many women throughout the ages, have defied their societal norms to become more then what they were told they could be, because sometimes when you face the burning inside your heart for something more, you are facing God's purpose for your life.

Still today, many theological debates rage on the issue of women and their place in society. I dont understand how these issues cna still persist because history (and subsequently the Bible) attest to the equality of both men and women and the fact that each of us are made and fashioned for a unique purpose. I believe that Deborah rode out with Barak on to the field (Judges 5). I believe that Jael did not tremble when she drove the tentpeg through Sisera's temples. I believe that Joan of Arc did not ride in to battle without the assurety of knowing that God was on her side. I believe that through the intelligence, the bravery, the honour, the courage and the guts of many women, many whose names we do not even know, the world is a changed place and that was always God's design.

Mulan joined the army of China, to save her fathers life but in the end she saved the father of the nation the Emperor, as well as the people of her nation. God is calling us as His daughters to join His army, to enlist at His command, to join His recruits and train for the war which we daily fight. Inevitably we ride out to save what our Father endevaoured to give mankind - truth, life and justice. We ride out to honour the Father of all mankind, our Emperor - Messiah Yeshua our Lord. In the final battle which will unfold in the near future Yeshua (Jesus) Himself will lead the armies of heaven and earth in one final battle, where even His clothes will be soaked in the blood of His fallen enemies. We need to daily decide, are we ready to be all He has called us to be? Are we ready to wage war to live on the side of what is right? Are we ready to be in this world but not of it and it's oppressive viewpoint of women? Are we ready to stand up for the underdog, the oppressed and the needy?
May God's voice echo in to your heart and call you to a place of complete surrender, where you can truly lead those He has called you to lead, from the depth of Father's heart!

Isaiah 63: 1 - 6

Who is this coming from Edom,
    from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendor,
    striding forward in the greatness of his strength?
“It is I, proclaiming victory,
    mighty to save.”
 Why are your garments red,
    like those of one treading the winepress?
 “I have trodden the winepress alone;
    from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
    and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
    and I stained all my clothing. It was for me the day of vengeance;
    the year for me to redeem had come. looked, but there was no one to help,
    I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me,
    and my own wrath sustained me. I trampled the nations in my anger;
    in my wrath I made them drunk
    and poured their blood on the ground.”

Friday 26 September 2014

FMF: Its okay to say

Five Minute Friday!
Start!
 
It's okay to say so, it's okay to say it's hard because somedays it is. We are not super human, we are just ordinary people - we don't need others to fix it, we just need to be real. Somedays are hard, pull up a chair and let's talk about. Because we need to. It's okay to say it's tough, even if it makes no sense, just because it is. It's okay to struggle in life, to see so many signs that one never knows which path to take. Everyone thinks they have the answers to our dilemna's but when it's hard, we dont need answers we just need to be in our space, because this is what's real. We have our ups and we have our downs, our sideways moves and our bottoms up glances, but you know what if you or I are having it abit tough, it's okay. Give yourself permission, God has no expectations of you, He knew today would come and it would not make you less loved or less liked, His love is the same even when we are in the desert place. It's okay to say it's tough, to wear it on your face because sometimes it just is and so let's let it be, just tough because it is....

Linking up with Kate M

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Emma Watson's Speech


I truly was moved to tears by Emma Watson's U.N. speech, yes she was nervous but her thoughts and heart felt issues are just as important to believers today, as it is to everyone else. 
Feminism has long been seen as a negative thing, because sometimes in all these things, people mix up the true message with the bad that they have seen. God is no respecter of people, He does not favour one gender over the other because He made us all, and all of who we are exists in Him. Yeshua spoke liberation to women in His short sojourn here on earth and even His word reflects freedom to women on an amazing scale.

I am a Biblical Feminist and I do long to see men and women fighting side by side in this battle against evil. True feminism is the belief that men and women were created equal and that they should enjoy equal opportunities and lifestyles. I believe in this wholeheartedly and in the ministry Father God has entrusted to me. I believe that God made us equal and that we are made to serve Him with everything we are and everything we have. For in these end times where we currently find ourselves, Father has promised that all of us will share in His Spirit, in prophecy, in leadership and in authority, let's be ready to receive from Him!

Joel 2: 28 - 29
 And afterward,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your old men will dream dreams,
    your young men will see visions.Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

 I’m having Coffee For Your Heart with my friend Holley Gerth

Tuesday 23 September 2014

Wordless Wednesday - Birthday!


A few weeks ago, a friend and I were browsing around in a nursery. To the one side we stumbled across these beautiful little statues that I just loved! They were really quite expensive and so after some time, we just made our way on to the other goodies that littered the store. So this weekend at my birthday celebration, she blessed me with a gift and to my surprise here was of the beautiful little statues I had admired in the store. This is not just about the gift but about the meaning behind it, it's prophetic, it's deep and it's wow! So this is my Wednesday picture!

Friday 19 September 2014

FMF Butterfly!

Five Minute Friday Post!
Start!

Hold on! wait a minute - who turned on the lights, when did this happen!
Sometimes people let life get like that, they just hit cruise control, everything is too much and too heavy and too weary and too everything!
God has been showing me beautiful pictures of butterflies recently and as I see butterflies, I think about the freedom in their wings. The beauty of the butterfly is in its wings.
Not just for its ability to fly high in to the sky but because its multi-coloured personality is etched in colourful rainbows on the canvas of its wings.

So too, are the colourful etches of our personality etched on to our canvas of our creative form when we are born. But sadly the world in its sinful state tries to make us all conform. Be one set of butterfly, look the same, fly the same height, the same distance dont forge your own way.
But God in His word says "You are my Masterpiece, My Canvas, My poem, My butterfly." (Ephesians 2)
The beauty of your heart is etched in to the freedom you give yourself to fly high, the freedom you give yourself to become all you were meant to be in God our Father and in Messiah Yeshua our beautifully free Saviour.

Our hearts have wings so come on let's fly! It doesnt matter how high, we each need to find our own sky, our own height in life, leave the ground, let your heart have wings - big wings and fly!


Stop!
Linking up with Kate Motaung

Tuesday 16 September 2014

Dads!

Tonight I was thinking about the movie entitled The king's Speech. I was thinking about one scene in particular. Where Lionel Logue, the speech therapist and his boys are sitting in his consulting room. One of the younger sons begs his dad to act out a scene from Shakespeare, Lionel is so excited about this, clearly the audience can tell he is used to doing this with his boys. The older one however is clearly bored and slightly irritated with this type of play, this is typical of teenagers, we've all been there. But the younger son is excited and enjoys the interaction with his dad.
Tonight while my husband and I were out, there was little boy bantering with his dad at the table next to us. The father was quite old but really gentle and patient with his little lisping, curly haired son. It's really cool to be that kind of dad. The kind of dad where your kid wants to enjoy your time. The kind of dad whose child is not afraid of him, the kind of dad that a kid can talk to and feel understood.

Sadly, so many children and adults never have this kind of earthly dad. Some fathers think its all about what you can buy a kid, so they work their entire lives away just to come home tired and when their children ask for some time, the father shouts in irritation. Or other fathers give time but never themselves. Whatever the case, I have known so many people who have felt the sting of an absent father, so I want to encourage all the parents out there don't waste the moments. Don't waste the moments with your children, because those silly moments of spontaneous fun those will be the moments your children remember.
I also want to share with all those reading this, that God really is a great Dad and He really does heal the broken father wounds that sit so deep within our hearts sometimes. He can heal and He can mend.
Blessings in Messiah!
I found an interesting article by Super Dad on dads and their daughters, here is the link!
Why dads should spend time with their daughters

Oh I had to add something that  I saw a few months back. My husband and I were sitting in a coffee shop waiting for someone when a couple with a little girl sat down next to us. The little girl could have been a year and half or so, because she was walking around with a big dummy in her mouth but she couldn't speak properly yet. Eventually she pulled the dummy out of her mouth and was making faces at me, I then started making funny faces back at her. At this stage her parents had their backs towards us, but she stood on the one side of her fathers leg and whenever I made a face at her, she would point her finger at her dad and look at him. As if to say "dont mess with me, do you know who my dad is!" It was so amusing that I kept pulling faces at her to see her response, and she kept pointing at her dad. I thought wow she just taught me something! Seriously, today whenever that enemy comes lurking around and pulls faces at me, I stick out my finger and point to my Heavenly Dad. Hey buster do you know who my dad is - well then stopping pulling faces at me because you about to get in some serious trouble!
Let's be bold, let's be confident as to who our Daddy is and what He is willing to do for us, because He literally moved Heaven for us when He came to earth to spread His arms and die on the tree for our lives.

Tuesday 9 September 2014

Wordless Wednesday Photo Post

In July this year, my husband and I visited Ghana for a ministry trip. While we were staying there we learned all about the local food. Ghanaians have a local dish they enjoy immensely, called Fufu. Here is a picture of them making fufu at the home where we stayed! Its basically a raw dough that is beaten smooth. It is not baked but eaten just like this - usually in a curry dish. I didn't try any!!
Ghana is a wonderful country and we miss it sometimes, so sharing a heart photo today!

Monday 8 September 2014

Are we Joining Together?



In our believing communities today the body of believers worldwide can be divided in to two main groups, these two groups are commonly known as the Free Church and the Persecuted Church. The Free Church is the body of believers who worship freely in countries of democratic leniency. The persecuted church is the body of believers who worship underground or secretly as they are being persecuted and murdered for their faith in Messiah Yeshua. Today it is sad that believers in the Western world, where religion is mostly a matter of choice, often forget about the persecuted believers worldwide.

Today, I was led to read the book of Philippians and I enjoyed it immensely. The Holy Spirit made so much real to me which I could bask in and share in the presence of Yeshua. Truly His word is a light unto our feet! In Philippians 4:21-22 Paul writes the following, “Greet all the saints in Messiah Yeshua, the brothers and sisters who are with me send greetings. All the saints send you their greetings, especially those who belong to Caesars household.”

The letter to the Philippians was written to the congregation in Philippi while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. The letter was sent to encourage the believers and to exhort them to have joy no matter what circumstances they were facing. In thess verses which I have quotes above, we can learn two things, firstly that while Paul was imprisoned he could have become depressed, sad or even discouraged. Instead of growing weart it would appear that he was sharing the gospel to all who were near him, so much so that even members and workers in Caesar’s household became believers! The social divide in Paul’s day was huge, members of upper class families or households never socialised with lower class citizens and slaves. However, the common faith in Messiah joined believers together, the class divide went out of the window, along with the social consciousness of “you are lower than me.” Which brings me to my second point, the congregation in Philippi itself, consisted of many different believers like Lydia the wealthy woman who taught others. The slave girl who became a believer and many others. Even while the members of the congregation in Philippi had never met the believers in Rome, the roman believers sent greetings of love to their brothers and sisters across the sea. There is an important lesson here for us today, the lesson is that when we are truly living in Messiah, in His Grace and in daily faith, we are connected with our spiritual brothers and sisters all over the world. We may never meet in this life but we all are connected in our wonderful Messiah. Sometimes in prayer times Father God will lead me to pray collectively for all the believers around the world, for strength in the face of hardships, for love, for daily bread, and financial need and for a gentle touch from His Hand. Yeshua wants us to pray for another, we don’t need to know each other’s names – He knows! He just wants us to take each other’s hand in the Spirit and recognise that we are one, under one God and one Messiah, Yeshua.

When Yeshua’s disciples told Him – your mother and brothers are outside, Yeshua declared “who are my mother, my brothers and sisters? Those who do the will of my Father in Heaven, these are my mother, brother and sisters.” The same goes for us today, who are our family members? Those who do the will of our Father in Heaven. With as much love as we use to pray for our physical families, let’s pray fervently for one another. For our spiritual families across the seas. It would bless me immensely to know someone is praying for me in China and it blesses me immensely to read the wonderful emails that I receive from organisations working with persecuted believers, because often all those emails say is “thank you for those praying for us here in our countries of persecution.” Prayer is one of the greatest gifts we can give one another. In the Western world I want to urge you do not forget your brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for Messiah. Let us follow the example of the believers in Caesars household and send greetings to our fellow believers throughout the world today and everyday!

Philippians 1:3 - 4 "I thank my God everytime I remember you. I all my prayers for all of you I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day you hear it until now."

Friday 5 September 2014

Five Minute Friday - When God whispers

Five Minute Friday Post!
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Whisper - one of my favourite words, one of my favourite things in the entire world. Whisper because it's the best form of prayer, just to whisper softly, deeply and from the heart. Too many people are shouting, but the beautiful silence leaves room for our tears sometimes and also always for the whisper. God whispers so deeply and my heart loves to hear His gentle whispers - His thoughts on life, on Truth and on me. So many whispers of deep love this month, not in all I can touch but in what I can feel inside, in my spirit and in my life. No things do not have to be perfect but when we clear out all the junk in the closets of our hearts, when it's empty and silent, then we can linger long enough (more then a minute or two, more then a month or two, maybe a lifetime!)  to hear Him say in His beautiful whispering way "hey I love you... Just you, only you." His whispers are also concrete, that new tea-set you were eyeing out, the one He saw you looking at but you never said anything, you only smiled at its simmer and shine and then when you weren't looking, you were just washing the dishes, in God walked and said "tadah! I bought this for you!" That's the way His whispering works, when you are so deeply in Love with Him, you open the space for His Love to be deeply whispering to you. That's my King, that my God - Yeshua the Passionate Lover of my (and our) soul. 

Stop!

Tuesday 2 September 2014

Wordless Wesdnesday - Sharing!

Thought I would share what or rather - who shares a special place in my heart! My fluffy son Pilach!
 

The Softening of a Rock



There is a wonderful Jewish story about a man named Akiva. He was a sheep herder who hated anyone who was spiritual or religious. One day while taking care of his masters sheep, he stopped along a riverbank to drink from the stream. While kneeling down to drink, something strange caught his attention in the water below. There was a large stone sticking out of the water but it appeared to have a very deep hole on the one side of it. As Akiva looked closer he noticed that a very small amount of water fell continually on the area where the large hole was. He watched this for some time until he felt a sudden burning in his own heart. Just at that moment his master’s daughter Rachel arrived and inquired about his observation. Transfixed, he told her “ this water even though it appears weaker then the stone, has made a big hold in the very hard stone because it continually flowed over it every day. Look at what it did! Do you think there is hope for me and my stony heart, if I turn to God and study his word little by little?” Rachel told him that there was always hope, the two of them later married and Akiva became one of the greatest Jewish scholars and rabbi’s of all time. He doubted his ability to do it but his wife Rachel encouraged me over and over again.
I really love this little story because it teaches us something so simple and yet so profound. It speaks to me about the very moment and very afternoon where God found my stony heart. I know that for years He had dropped His Love softly on to my heart – from a young age I felt it but there was a specific day where I had to embrace it. It was on that afternoon where God turned this stony heart around and my life would never be the same again. HalleluYah praise His Name! For many of you, your prayers have not yet been answered for those stony hearts you have been praying for. But I pray that the Holy Spirit will weaken your weary knees from its long hours of prayer and that soon His prompting and “dripping” will lead those stony hearts of family members, colleagues and friends to turn to Him. Rabbi Akiva was forty years old when he had this experience, some would call him a late bloomer, but God can do momentous things in 5 minutes for someone whose heart is completely abandoned to the call. Furthermore when we surrender completely to our Father and King, the hole in the stony heart becomes bigger! Until the stony heart is broken up and flowing freely with the waves and rapids.

Ezekiel 36: 26 – 27
 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Yahweh wants to change our hearts, causing it to be soft and abandoned to His whispers and His calls. The Holy Spirit is the One who softens hard hearts and heals wounds that cause walls to be built around our hearts. For those of you who are struggling with your own walls or with the walls of others, I pray that just like Rabbi Akiva, that you will experience the cleansing, continuous touch of the Holy Spirit on the surface of your heart. Messiah’s Love is strong enough, able enough and more than enough to reach out and touch the most hardest of hearts!

Scripture:  Hebrews 3: 15 as it has been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

How is God speaking to your heart today? What matters of hardness or heaviness is He trying to deal with? Are there wounds He is trying to clean out? How may you surrender more to God’s call in your life today? What is God saying to your heart today? Were you a late or early bloomer - reflect on the beautiful way that God saved you and let's rejoice today in all the work that He has done in us!