Holy Spirit

Just over the last couple of weeks God has really been challenging me to want more of His presence in my life, to get a hunger for Him so that nothing else in life matters. I have been reading a book called Face to Face with God and it is an awesome book which just talks about revival in your heart… getting a hunger for God... wanting an experience with God which far exceeds anything else in life… wanting to bring honour to Jesus.

I have been in church ever since I can remember and have been a pastors kid since I was about 13 years old. I have experienced the tangible presence of God in my life several times before but I want more… I want God to come and fill my cup so that it is overflowing.. . I want the power of the Holy Spirit in my life to change my life so that I can influence the lives of others because of Him.

God created us to have fellowship with Him, to spend time with Him.  Sometimes our lives can become so busy with just doing 'stuff' that we neglect to sit quietly and spend time with our God, to allow Him to come and spend time with us.

I am so thankful that I attend a church that allows the Holy Spirit to have His way in our meetings and allows time for Him just to come and meet with us.

"When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the two Tablets of The Testimony, he didn't know that the skin of his face glowed because he had been speaking with God."  Exodus 34:30

Dreams...

Last night over dinner with my husband our conversation eventually lead to us having a deep and meaningful about our future, our hopes and dreams, our desires and what we want to do in the coming years...which is one thing that we love to do. Craig and I both have some very big dreams (sometimes I wonder if they are even too big) but I don’t ever want to be one of those people who has lots of dreams and talks about them all the time but never actually does anything about it. So of course this afternoon, while I am at home alone without my lovely husband (he is working... as he does every weekend...we have a desire to change this!) I have again been thinking about our dreams and wondering how we can achieve them and what I can do to help achieve them.



The other night at our home group we were listening to a CD by a guy named Dr Dave Martin and he was discussing the differences between the way that rich people think and the way that poor people think. One of the points he brought up was that rich people believe ‘I can create my life’ but poor people think that ‘life just happens’. God has given us a mind to think and to create and to have dreams and visions... God is the creator of the whole universe, He created the world we live in, He did it all in only seven days AND we are created in the image of Him... We can create the life we desire through Jesus.


But I find myself in a quandary, as I so often do when it comes to my dreams, because I always wonder to myself... but what is God’s will?? I always ask myself the same question ‘is my dream also God’s will for my life?’ What is God’s will for my life? The problem is that I never get a straight answer... even from God. The only thing I have got to go on is God’s Word... The Bible. So I asked myself the question ‘Do my dreams line up with the Word of God?’ Well....Yes....they do!


So does that mean that all of my dreams will come true? I guess they will... if I work hard at it... if I have the right mindsets... if I trust in God for the impossible and have faith.


I remember quite a few years ago now, I believed that God was calling me to New Zealand to be a farmer’s wife. Now, for those of you who know me well, you will probably be on the floor rolling around in laughter right now!! As if I could be a farmers wife... right!!?? What was I thinking!!!??? Anyway, I was going... I had my ticket booked and paid for, my bags were almost packed until.... God stopped me. I mean He stopped me!! God gave me a word from someone who knew absolutely nothing about my situation and told me very directly to ‘wait for the green light’.... I was trying to go on a red light and God stopped me. So I listened... I didn’t go and God has blessed me with the most wonderful husband in the world!


As we start to take steps towards our future and head in the direction that we believe we should be going, the direction that our dreams are leading us, if God doesn’t stop us in our tracks... we must be on the right path. God may not always answer our questions for direction in our lives, He wants us to step out and trust Him but if we do start to go off in the wrong direction, it is wonderful and comforting to know that He will gently lead us back onto the right track.

Still Small Voice

I was putting on my make-up for work the other morning and was contemplating how God seems to speak to me at what seems to me to be the most inopportune times, like at 4.30am in the morning when I am trying to go back to sleep, or while I am putting on my make-up when I am running late for work, or at midnight after a very long day and I want to go to bed.

But you know, He can and will speak to us at any time of the day and it doesn’t matter what we are doing. He’s not limited to the times when we are quietly reading the Bible or listening to worship music waiting for Him to talk to us and tell us something profound.

The Holy Spirit is living and breathing inside of us constantly ‘waiting’ to speak to us. When we are so focussed on the matter at hand sometimes we don’t even realise what He is saying or even that He is trying to tell us something. We need to learn to ‘hear’ the Holy Spirit when He talks to us, especially if He is interrupting us in the middle of something. He’s that still small voice that tells you to do something or write something down or don’t forget that but we usually choose to ignore it and keep on with our busy lives. God wants us to make Him our central focus so that He can speak to us at anytime… even at 4.30 in the morning.

A few years ago when I was on a skiing holiday with Craig in New Zealand, I really felt that I should phone my Nana who was living in New Zealand… although not even anywhere remotely close to where we were. I didn’t end up phoning her and my reasoning was that it would cost just as much to phone her from where I was as it would from at home, therefore it didn’t make much sense or difference anyway. So we just went on our merry way and the next afternoon we arrived back to our apartment and there was a message left for me to phone my mum or my uncle…it was in that very instant that I knew. My Nana hadn’t at all been sick and was very active and fit for someone of her age but she had unexpectedly passed away that very morning. You can guess that it was like a huge kick in my stomach when obviously God was so clearly speaking to me the day before.

Even still today I greatly regret not listening to that still small voice but I admit that I learnt an extremely valuable lesson and now more than ever try to listen when I get that niggling feeling.

"And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice." 
1 Kings 19:11-12

All I Need

This morning at church we were singing a song and the last paragraph of the song says ‘you are all I need’. As I was singing this God really challenged me… is He really all that I need? Sometimes we can be singing a song during praise and worship and not even really thinking about the words we are actually singing.

I was thinking about it again this afternoon and considering how I would be if I really didn’t have anything left in my life except God? What if He took away my life as it is now…my husband, my job, my finances, my friends, my giftings, everything that I consider of value to me…how would I really feel?….would Jesus be all that I need? I would definitely like to think that I could say yes, He is all that I would ever need but I honestly don’t know.

It’s a pretty big challenge when you think about it but something that I am compelled to strive for in my life.

Spring Cleaning

DEFINITION: is the period in spring time set aside for cleaning a house, normally applied in colder climates, where the house is difficult to clean during winter.
 OR: The most common usage of spring cleaning refers to the yearly act of cleaning a house from top to bottom which would take place in the first warm days of the year typically in spring, hence the name.

MY DEFINITION: getting things more organised so that I can function without feeling ‘cluttered’ and removing all traces of dirt and dust from every corner of the house. Not sure if that is actually possible but I will definitely try my darndest!

During the week I made a list of the ‘spring cleaning’ that I wanted to achieve this weekend and decided that this great feat would take place either Saturday or Sunday afternoon...surely a few hours would be plenty!

I mean, I have prepared myself well by pre-purchasing a few storage items which will enable different areas of the house to be ‘de-cluttered’, the house isn’t actually that big and my list isn’t really that long, is it? Ok... perhaps I did bite off a little bit more than I could chew in a few short hours... but I’ll be really quick! NOT!!

I possibly could have achieved a little bit more than I actually did today but as I was sorting through piles of books to put onto the new bookshelf, I came across an old year book from Grade Nine, when I was living in Toronto, Canada. There is nothing like reminiscing of great times past and wondering where and what everyone from back then is now doing with their lives. However, looking at all of those pictures and reading messages from friends and teachers doesn’t actually help solve the mystery, so of course I had to include a few minutes on Facebook in search of them all but to my absolute amazement I had no luck at all....so now I am left still wondering! My little trip down memory lane probably cost me about an hour of my time and even though I didn’t find any new Facebook buddies to add to the list, I consider that it was worth being side-tracked for a while to reminisce about the ‘good old times’.

I then went on to complete a few other things on my list but it’s only approximately half completed and I wanted to finish it all! I wanted to feel like I had conquered this ‘spring cleaning’ thing that everyone seems to have been talking about recently, I wanted to feel like I had achieved something great, I wanted to feel like my whole life had been cleaned out.

Surprisingly enough...I am actually beginning to feel a little less ‘cluttered’ which is definately a good thing...imagine how I might feel by the time I have in fact completed the whole entire list.

Laziness...

On my way to work this morning I was contemplating the very unproductive night I had last night and how on earth, after a long day at work of sitting in front of a computer, can I get home and plop myself on the couch in front of another ‘box’ and not move for almost the entire night!?


I did cook some lovely fish for dinner before doing so and I also tidied up a little bit after that….oh and I put some washing on… but all in all I can confidently say that I did a big fat NOTHING for the rest of the evening!

Admittedly, there wasn’t anything of interest at all on the ‘box’ and the whole entire time I was sitting there saying to myself…. ‘I could get up and do this’ or ‘I should do that’ or ‘I just want to see what happens at the end and then I will get up’ or….. and it goes on.

I have a list of things that I should have been doing but for some reason the nice cushy lounge I was sitting on was so much more inviting and I did need to rest after such a long day…blah, blah, blah…

That feeling of needing to relax, switch off and do nothing for a while to get over whatever it is that I have done during the day eventually evolved into being just plain lazy and that sense of total abandonment of life, which is what being lazy is all about, feels so nice but only at the time though!

Today I am feeling deflated and unsuccessful and annoyed at myself… I know that I can change that by getting myself motivated and not doing the same thing again tonight but I know have wasted away a few hours of my life which I will never get back and that seems almost unforgivable.

I know I am the only one who can motivate myself…. someone else can try to inspire me but in the end I am the answer to my problem.

Proverbs 6:9 ‘So how long are you going to laze around doing nothing? How long before you get out of bed? A nap here, a nap there, a day off here, a day of there, sit back, take it easy – do you know what comes next? Just this: You can look forward to a dirt-poor life, poverty your permanent houseguest!’

Ok… I think that is enough to get anyone’s butt off their comfy lounge… especially me!

Dad...

Today on another Father's Day I have to say that I am very blessed to have a Dad who I consider is one of the world's best ever! Although I don't get to see my Dad everyday as I used to as a child because we don't live in the same town, I know that whenever I need him, I can call him on his mobile or at home and he will always be there more than willing to have a little chat with his eldest daughter.

I love thinking about all the good times we have shared together but one time I remember well when I was very young and appreciate my Dad very much for is when we went on a drive together in his truck in New Zealand...the truck was called Precious Pup and to me as a little girl it was sooo cool and huge! I spent the whole day with him in the cab as he drove out to pick up his load and then drop it off at the end of the day. It probably didn't seem like much at the time and perhaps even to others it may seem insignificant, but I recall having a very exciting and fun day with my Dad. Another time that I remember well was when he took me sailing on his catermaran one sunny afternoon at the lake when I was a little older and we were testing out the harness... oh what fun!

As a child my Dad was always lots of fun to be around, he always made us laugh and I always felt so secure with him there... knowing that he would look after me in any situation and would always be there for me no matter what.

But what I remember most about my Dad and which has had a huge influence on my life as both a child and an adult is that every morning he would get up early, go into his office by himself with his Bible and spend time with God. I am so very thankful that my Dad, and my Mum as well, have instilled Godly principles into my life since I was a young girl. Although at times when I was still growing up it all seemed like such a drag.... when I look back now as an adult, I appreciate that they didn't give up on me and just let me do my own thing.

My Dad has always encouraged me to number one... have a relationship with Jesus... to be who I want to be and not what others expect me to be, to be successful in whatever I want to do and to have fun doing it... I hope and pray that I can be the same great inspiration to my children when they come along.

Party time...

I actually wrote this a day ago but couldn’t upload it cause the server in NZ went down so here it is now…

I had my little party today…yay! I didn’t actually get to ski at Remarkables down that particular blue run that I was talking about previously because it hasn’t been open since we have been here BUT I skied an even steeper and longer run at Coronet Peak today and the funny thing was that I didn’t even realise it until I got to the bottom and looked up!

Sometimes fear can get the better of us if we let it and that is exactly what happened to me only two days ago when I totally froze in the middle of a run because I thought I couldn’t do it… which was absolutely ridiculous… and Craig took great pleasure in telling me that…lol. I did manage to relax with the help of a bit fat Kiwi (someone dressed up in a Kiwi suit) who skied down to me and made me laugh and then I made it safely to the bottom of the run.
It is amazing what a little bit of laughter can do…

Fear can come into our minds at anytime, anywhere and for whatever reason but we have the power through Jesus to tell it to leave. Fear is something that I often struggle with and I have noticed that the older I have become the more fearful I seem to get in certain areas. However, I do know that God has been showing me how easy it is to get over fear and get on with whatever it is that I am doing. And if I have fear…how can I have faith?