Category: Encouragement

Quarantine and Personality Type Tests

My quarantined heart has been receiving an overhaul the past two weeks!

I did finish my spring cleaning, and managed to escape my mini melt down from my last blog post.  My wheels have been spinning for about two weeks now. That restless feeling has creeped back inside my mind, that one that bullies me into starting a thousand projects because I feel like I must be doing something, anything but sitting still. So, with that being said, I have started about 4 doodle drawings, made beaded bracelets to give away, and I started what is going to be huge granny square crochet blanket. While all these creative outlets are being opened one by one, there is also this desire to write a book or really pursue my writing with my blog. Welcome to the secret life of Me! I am all over the place diving into new projects but never able to finish one. Ha, Look at this blog for example. My heart is to be consistent and really develop a voice, but I lose interest. I have learned through taking a personality type test that I am very FEELINGS driven. If I lose interest or no longer associate happiness with what I am doing, I must then move on and start something else. But I must stop this madness! I must try and attempt to be consistent and finish a project I have started! This will be one of the biggest challenges for me, as it is deeply rooted into the design of my personality type.

I would like to encourage you to at some point this quarantine to take a personality test and start to get to understand what makes you uniquely you! There are many different personality types. I went to http://www.16personalities.com and took a free test. I think these results are interesting because they have been so spot on, however with that said, I don’t believe that just because this test gives in depth information of our personalities we don’t necessarily have to continue to behave this way forever. I would just use the test results as a healthy self evaluation of yourself, and to better understand how others may perceive you. I find it fascinating that God has created us all each unique and one of a kind, and he uses every aspect of our personalities to love those who are in our lives. Think about how boring the world would be if we all looked, acted, felt, processed, thought, loved, and responded to others the same way!

For me learning that my personality type entails believing that I can make this world a better place is a huge validation to this restlessness I was talking about above, and the drive behind it all. I am just wired to always have the need to encourage, help, and fix things and people around me. I now also understand why it hurts me deeply when some people just refuse to let me help them and reject me.

If you find things about your personality type that you don’t like, you can take it to the Lord in prayer and have him walk you through changing whatever it is you don’t like. The Holy Spirit will always guide and reveal things to your heart out of love. If you have trust issues, or control issues, you can take these to the Lord and exchange them with his faith, his love, his control, his safety, his provisions, his guidance, etc.

Just know moving forward when you read my content, it is shaped through the lens of a woman who truly loves people, and truly wants to help encourage you! It is my hearts desire for you that you would be drawn to Jesus and grow deeper in your relationship with him.

❤️ Ash’Leigh Harris

Loving the Hard People

Loving those who don’t love us back, is difficult.

The Holy Spirit told me every time you love in a place of hurt and rejection a seed is planted. This seed goes deep into rich soil. The seed starts to germinate out of unselfishness and creates a spectacular botanical garden that begins to expand and flourish.

Those tears that whelp and fall, those tears that scream and cry, “ God help me this hurts and I don’t want to,” those tears of sacrifice water these seeds. These seeds can not be stolen from the enemy because these seeds are watered by obedience, sacrifice, and God’s love and grace for that particular person.

Out of this growth are the most stunning and breath taking flowers which produce the warmest, richest aromas that flow out of our hearts. He explained to me that this garden is his. He put it in each of us. This garden was not man made but God made. It’s a love garden he loves to be in because it’s pure, it’s lovely, and because those flowers and all their beauty were conceived by our obedience, faith, and trust in Him.

We must seek to understand these heart gardens are real and live inside each of us. We can plant anger, jealousy,  bitterness, and out of it gross death, decay, and stinky stench.

This illustration helps me to understand that sacrifice doesn’t just die, it only lives.

Jesus sacrificed his life so we could have eternal life for those who would call upon him to be saved.

You see even though he died, he lives!

Doing what is right will always birth love, kindness, goodness that creates a lasting ripple effect that ripples into our live, and the lives of others continually.

Doing what is wrong conceives death and destruction, this too having a rippling effect that lasts continuously which impacts us and those around us negatively.

So even when when we don’t feel like doing what is right, if we are wise, we will do what is right because each choice we make will have a ripple effect that will produce the power to love and forgive and move on, or stay in bondage to unforgiveness and strife with those around us.

The most beautiful truth is only you are in control of the outcome! 

Ash’Leigh Harris

The Good Shepherd

 

Psalm 23 TPT

David’s poetic praise to God[a]
1 The Lord is my best friend and my shepherd.[b]
I always have more than enough.
2 He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love.[c]
His tracks take me to an oasis of peace, the quiet brook of bliss.[d]
3 That’s where he restores and revives my life.[e]
He opens before me pathways to God’s pleasure
and leads me along in his footsteps of righteousness[f]
so that I can bring honor to his name.
4 Lord, even when your path takes me through
the valley of deepest darkness,
fear will never conquer me, for you already have!
You remain close to me and lead me through it all the way.
Your authority is my strength and my peace.[g]
The comfort of your love takes away my fear.
I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.
5 You become my delicious feast
even when my enemies dare to fight.
You anoint me with the fragrance of your Holy Spirit;[h]
you give me all I can drink of you until my heart overflows.
6 So why would I fear the future?
For your goodness and love pursue me all the days of my life.
Then afterward, when my life is through,
I’ll return to your glorious presence to be forever with you!

 

This Psalm resonates peace in my spirit in a time of uncertainty. Jesus our Good Shepherd, our Friend. Why Should I fear the Future? For His goodness and love pursues me all the days of my life. ALL the days of my life! Amen!

Giving Thanks to God for The Year of the Endless Possibilities 2019

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I happen to be off from work so why not blog on how much I am truly thankful to be alive in 2019?

I asked the Lord for a word for this year back in December of 2018 and he told me Endless Possibilities. My BFF, Kathleen, was kind enough to paint it on a little piece of wood so that I could keep my eyes on it for the coming months. I had big dreams, big God Dreams with my art, and I was even planning on starting a coloring book over the summer. I had so many carnal dreams and ambitions. I still long to be able to sell something I create to others. This desire has and will always be a dream of mine.

But, I believe God had better things in store for me. Things that were not in the natural so to speak. Things that can not be bought with man made money, nor sold.  In 2019 he has given me endless possibilities to know him more fully, to trust him steadily, and to seek him in all things. He has called me into a deeper love with him, and he has shaped and molded my beliefs to become more aligned with his word. He has assembled my faith so strong, and he has put me through the fires, so to speak, to teach me to sincerely trust what his word says, and to trust in his faithfulness.

The coloring book did not get a running start, nor did any art hooks ups ever come my way. I did happen to meet an Artist downtown, and I really thought hard about taking an art class. These leads just never seemed to get me walking in the right direction. I had to come into my own and stop comparing myself to others. I had to break free from some lies, self doubts, and insecurities. I had to taste true freedom in discovering my identity in Christ and become who he created me to be. The beautiful things is, I think it takes our whole lives to “become” who he originally created us to be, and that is the beauty of walking with him every day in this life.

Seasons come and seasons go, and as we learn and receive more wisdom and revelation of his love for us, we evolve; we change. I don’t ever want to stay the same, stuck in repetitive patterns of thinking that could be toxic to my soul.

I want grow in grace each year, becoming more and more like my original blue print.

I want to love deeper.

I want to express my love more willingly.

I want to share the love of christ with everyone I meet, and I want my life to be a beautiful dance of worship to the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords, JESUS.

I want to give myself to my gifts and callings, and I want to see his will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.

I want to speak the words he gives to me others eloquently and full of faith.

I want to be lead by the Holy Spirit.

I want to be a light that shines bright in a dark place.

I want to see the love of God heal broken people.

I want to see the love of God set people free from bondage.

I want to see the love of God transform people and change their whole trajectory of life.

I want to see generations rise up and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I want to see a church on fire for God.

I want to see mountains be moved in faith.

I want to see hope in the hurting, and I want to see miracles, signs, and wonders follow all of those who truly believe in Him.

There is so much to be done, with such a short time span to be here on this earth to see it come to pass.

So as I sit here and pour my heart out into this post I just sit in awe and I give thanks for all that God has done in my life. I give thanks for the seasons of the hills and the valleys, because they teach me more of how much I need dependency on God and less upon myself and others.

2019 wasn’t a walk in the park. 2019 was a hard year of loving people who do not love me back, and doing for others expecting nothing in return. It was a year of dying to myself, a year of seeking first the kingdom and what God has assigned to me for this time. I trust he will give me all the desires of my heart, until then I will give thanks for all that he has given me in the present, and I will continue to seek him, to love him more, to grow more mature in him. Thank you King Jesus, thank you for loving me, and allowing me access to you and the Father through your Holy Spirit!

Happy Thanksgiving!

-Ash’Leigh Harris

Wasting your time

Value of the present

If there is one thing I feel like God has been trying to teach me in the past year it is the value of time, but not only that, specifically the value of time in the present. Your present tense right now, not this afternoon, or next weekend, but right now, right here in this very moment. Each breath that is taken before each exhale is precious and it is purposed for this moment. Sadly most people don’t realize the importance of the present to actually spend their time wisely and earn a dynamite return on their investment if time was money.

You see when we are waiting for the big dreams to happen we put so much stockpile into savings, hoping that when the big moment happens we will cash out all we have in exchange for happiness. Meanwhile, we are hoarding what we could be given along the way. When God gives you a dream don’t you think he will supply all your needs until payday comes?

Do you feel like you are always anticipating what is on the horizon? Are you fastened in feeling that your missing your purpose today?

Ask yourself these questions:

What can I do at this moment to glorify God?

What can I do at the moment to share Christ’s love with others?

Even the cheapest thing you own, a smile, can change another’s attitude and make their day! No matter what you may believe each time you share love you are bringing the Father glory!

❤️-Ash’Leigh Harris

Standing steady

October 25, 2019

Today I feel joy, and contentment. God has been so good to me and today I chose to celebrate him and the goodness he has brought into my life.

I am still in a season of being put into the fire but I, finally in my maturity, let God just sustain me and fight my battles. It’s been amazing and I say this after his grace washed over me and gave me a new song to sing in this chapter of my life.

If I would have wrote down my thoughts a month ago I would have had to write from a place of dissatisfaction and hurt. My Words would have had thorns in them, razor sharp to the touch.

A little over a month ago I threw a fit. I yelled, and I bawled, and I expressed and confessed to God how deeply I was in pain. I couldn’t see a way out, and I felt so lost inside the hopelessness that felt like my present reality.

We don’t have to hold our feelings in all the time. Know that even if your a God’s daughter or God’s son you will still experience feelings of hurt, persecution, rejection from others, and pain. We are not super human with the ability to cast off human emotions. Don’t let pride tell you that you are not allowed to feel emotions. I have spent a long time coming to terms with this. I use to think that if I let others hurt me I wasn’t trusting God enough to heal the pain, but this was just the devils attempt to deceive me into thinking emotions were bad and a sign of doubt and weakness on my part. So what did I do? I stuffed and stuffed and stuffed some more, until I was so full of pretending all my feelings came spilling over like the rushing waters in a spill way. Tears flying galore!

We are allowed to feel but we are not allowed to let those emotions cause us to sin. Anger leads to danger extremely quick! Depression leads to isolation. Rejection and pain can make you be more inner focused which leads to being selfish and self absorbed; the victim who feeds on self pity and any attention we can get our hands on from others.

I finally made my mind up that I would wait on God and I would see the victory because I can chose to stand on his word. His word says that if he is for me, then who could be against me? His word says that the lord will fight my battles, all I have to do is be still. The lord says he will prove to be false the words that rise against me in judgement. I had read them all so many times before but never did I once just hold on and wait it out trusting him and keeping my cool.

Instead off letting the world know I was wobbly and falling apart, I went to the quiet place, and prayed and praises God for what he was doing and will do even if I can’t see it now in the natural.

My battle isn’t over but my fighting strategy is new and is still in play. This strategy of keeping my peace and being true to myself has given me a clear conscience and a mind that is free of fear, and always assuming the worst outcome.

I’m steady…. I am strong because in my weakness he is Strong, and the joy of the Lord is my strength! ❤️

Leigh Leigh

What is satan up to Today?

Four things he is trying to steal from you Today.

What is he trying to steal from me? What is he trying to steal from you?

  1. Joy
  2. Liberty
  3. Attention/ Focus
  4. Faith

Jesus came to destroy the works of hell. We learn this in Hebrews 2:14 “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the Devil.”

Each day we have a choice to co-labor with the Father through the Holy Spirit to see Heaven come down to earth. Anointed to do good works, and point others to Christ, the one who Saves. (Isaiah 61:1 NKJV) “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

Today the Lord made it very clear that not only was I engaged in a spiritual battle, but this attack was specifically to distract me. As I got in the car and rehearsed the insanity of the day, my daughter brought it to my attention that tonight she wanted to pray for a little boy that enrolled in our school. He has a voice, but can not speak. She told me we needed to pray for God to heal his vocal cords because this was very important that he would need to talk in his life. As soon as she spoke those words of love for this child she has just encountered for the first time, the thought hit me how I missed that this morning. Though I was enrolling this student, anger was boiling under my surface lingering from a hellish attack before walking into the office, and I was trying to concentrate and keep my cool, praying for others was the last on my mind, sadly. 

The enemy will come against us every singe day. We have to be prepared for that. We have to pray on the Lord’s armor, he has not left us to fend for ourselves. As we shield up and seek his face in the midst of our adversaries attacks and schemes, he is faithful to fight for us. 

He will go after our joy. Why? Because the our joy is our strength. He wants us weak.

He will go after our liberty by deceiving us with circumstances that make us believe we will never get over this, surely it will not pass soon enough, we think. We will be enslaved in a negative mind set, a defeated mindset.

He will go after our focus. Who stops to think of others and their needs when they are only focused on themselves and their momentary feelings. He is blinding us to those around us in need. 

He goes after our faith. When it feels like the Lord is silent or we aren’t rescued soon enough. When we are slandered or lied on, mocked, or ridiculed, and we don’t get our vengeance, we start to fear and slowly our faith to stand tall becomes fading. 

Tomorrow you and I will be faced with another opportunity to either fall for his tricks, or pray for wisdom and revelation of the attack that is being launched at us. I pray that we would be sensitive to say no, not today satan. You will not steal my joy, my liberty, my focus, or my faith. Prepare to set your mind on things above and during the attacks take a deep breath,  and then quickly surrender your desire to control the situation to handle it on your own. 

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still. Exodus 14:14

 

 

 

When we feel far away from the Lord

What derails us from running after Christ?

“holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith,”

‭‭1 Timothy‬ ‭1:19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Lately life has seen to have thrown some curve balls, and what seemed like amazing momentum for our art ministry quickly seemed to evaporate into thin air like drops on glistening skin on a parched sun slapped summer day. There one moment, gone the next.

You see art had become a huge part of my life for the past few years as God was taking me on a self discovery journey in him through worshiping him in my artistic abilities. Events unfolded which caused me to have to put the art supplies down and concentrate on other things at the time.

I know I was made to worship and I know deep down in my heart I am a worshipper. I got side tracked and seemed to stop worshipping and did more praying on the sly. Distraction of course was the reasoning to all of this.

Also doors were shut on our creative worship ministry with the immigrations holding facility and well people seemed to perish with our vision. I had lost my vision and my spark. I had stopped worshipping in spirit and I began to feel as though I was shrinking away.

As I was parking Dora my Ford Explore into the parking lot where I work, I began to just ask the Lord how can I be signing and dancing and have so much zeal for him one day and the next feel as flat as a week old helium filled balloon? He then reminded me of a verse I had heard once about how we please God through our faith, and then I stared to string the thoughts along ..you just…. need ….to have…. faith …..to love…. me… because… I love you. You shrink back ….in fear because you ……get side tracked, and then ……think I’m disappointed in you, but …..really I’m not disappointed. I am sad …..because I miss …..our time together.

I like this scripture in Timothy because I believe it is a clear answer to the question of why we feel flat or dry or in lack with our relationship with Christ. We are missing the element of faith and being deceived that God is mad at us, or has turned his back on us because we have neglected our desire for him. Let’s be honest for a second when you start listening to those lies that are being launched at you that just because you didn’t read scripture today, you have done lost your salvation. Then what happens is by the end of the day you are so derailed and so side swiped by entertaining lie after lie you find yourself straying for some of your disciplines, and you start making choices that violate your conscience. Slowly and slowly with each careless choice you make you feel more isolated and buried in your own pile of mess, ever so far from where you were with Christ.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired of feeling ship wrecked and exhausted form trying to swim myself back to the shore.

The life safety vest is being grounded in faith holding tight to it even when you feel like you are drowning. Hold on so tight to your faith and even when you don’t feel like it continue to hold fast to your beliefs and let your moral compass lead your way. God is not going to leave you, he is not going to give up on you because you feel at the moment that you are ready to give up on him. Press in, and endure each season, each storm. It’s so cliche but there really is a rainbow that is glorious and on bright display once the dark clouds have rolled away and the rain drops have all fallen into the thirsty soil.

We should never stop thirsting for more of him because he promises to always quench our desires for more of him.

So stand tall, dust the fear off and wake your sleepy faith back up.

We must never forget we are His key holders to his Kingdom here on earth!

Your Compliments Are Desperately Needed

Sunday December 2, 2018

Listen up!

Your words, they have power!

Your words can break through lies and deception.

Life these days are busy, hectic, anxiety filled, and short.

We are stuck in the rat race trying to mark our check lists off and get things accomplished so we feel like we living up to the worlds standards of success. In the mean time we are forgetting to slow down and love one another with our words.

I experienced the beauty of honesty and the power of lies being broken in a record time of 4 seconds.

My nine year old daughter has a knack for being impulsive and speaking her mind at any given moment. When she was a toddler this could leave me mortified as to what was about to escape those precious tiny lips. However today she teaches me the beauty of simplicity in a word that has become infested with man made complications.

Last week we had to take her in to see a doctor because her body was fighting a virus hence her elevated body temperature. Our regular family physician was booked up and I was desperate to get her seen that day so we went with a doctor she has never seen before.

During the exam the lady doctor was very graciously answering all of her worried nine year old questions about what all was going on on inside of her little body, when aburtly out of no where her impulsive colorful words filled the room as she said as honestly as can be, “You are so beautiful!”

The doctor gasped in these vibrant color words in shock as she covered her mouth as to keep them safe inside, then she paused for a moment almost as if she were about to cry as she said, “It has been close to 30 years since I have been told that.” She collected herself, smiled and resumed the exam.

I was frozen in my chair in amazement of the fact that this beautiful woman who had dedicated her life to helping others has not heard the words every woman loves to hear, needs to hear, should be entitled to hear in 30 years!

Her reaction made me feel the emptiness she must have been feeling up until the words were spoken to her from my big hearted daughter.

In this moment she paused long enough to let some love come in. She felt a little lighter I am sure and I pray she will remember those words when the days beat her up and she is glaring at her reflection in the mirror believing anything less.

I was then convicted in the harsh truth that I could have been one of those daring voices that could have spread beauty and color into others who have needed to hear it, too many God given opportunities in the span of my life, but never did out of fear of sounding silly or fake.

We need to slow down and we need to appreciate the privilege we have to share love with our words and not waste moments being to busy and so self consumed to compliment each other.

I am going to do it, the next time the opportunity presents itself to me. I am going to just blurt it out for all to hear the color words of compliments out of love to others.

My new slogan I’m adopting for 2019 is this: Don’t Hurry, be Happy!

Slow down and appreciate and acknowledge the beautiful people in your life along the way. 💖

Ash’Leigh Harris

Commissioned to do Great Works

Hello there!

Man! I am super pumped and super excited to write this blog post this morning. I legit feel like I just drank 2 Red Bull’s and if you know me personally, I can only handle about half a tiny can of any sort of energy drink such as that. So I am HYPER!

I am so excited because I am about to share what the Lord has been speaking and confirming to me. I have been searching my heart and going to him in prayer about what this blog will be a reflection of.

So how did this new season begin, and you might be wondering, hey Ash why now? You have had this whole blog for three years why are you taking it seriously now? Well, when you get direct orders you must obey. I can’t really even believe what I am about to say because my brain is trying to keep up with my spirit and my heart but the Holy Spirit loves to speak to me in word form in the wee morning hours, usually always on the weekend right before I come to and wake up for the day. It started about a month ago, I woke up and heard the word spoken over me, “Order.” I was thinking hmmm, Order? I remembered I attended a teaching not too long ago that explained Godly order and how we have to align our lives to God first. I thought well maybe I need to go check out those notes for more insight. I have learned that the Holy Spirit likes to reveal to us little by little until we discover the meat and potatoes of what he wants us to know. Kinda like a small appetizer before the main course! I know I should have been more obedient to diving into what he was trying to communicate with me but I didn’t, sad to say. I will share more on this topic at a later day.

The next week at the same exact time he spoke over me, “Commission.” I knew he was taking me straight to The Great Commission in Matthew 28:18. If you are new to the Great Commission I can educate you real quickly. So this is where Jesus is about to leave to ascend into heaven and he gets his disciples together and he tells them now “Go–With all authority in heaven and on earth that was Given to him (because he defeated sin and death on the cross after he died and rose again, he went down to hell and took back the keys of authority here on earth Adam handed over to Satan in the Garden, my own insert) to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that he commanded them, and then he promised them he would be with them always, to the end of the age.”

As born again believers in Christ we all have a part in this commission by Jesus himself, and when you listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit he will guide you into the way you should go with your commission.

I don’t speak of these things often because we live in a world with people who’s hearts are harden, and they have scales over their eyes to believe. These scales are their marks of pride. The Bible teaches us that God will remove this pride when we surrender what we think we know to him, when we allow him to give us a new heart as we confess that Jesus is our savior, repenting asking for forgiveness of our sins, and dying to our old self thus putting on our new self who we are/ our identity in Christ Jesus.

Since we are placed into such an environment of disbelief when we speak of these things, we literally sound like aliens or “religious nuts,” but the truth of the matter is we sound so foreign because we are speaking light and truth in a dark and deceived world. People who want to live in the freedom of believing they can make their own truth have a very hard time when you tell them there is only one truth and they are being deceived in their freedom of thinking the way they want.

John 1 teaches us that “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. He was the beginning with God. ALL THINGS were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not over come it. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become child of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the WORD became flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:1-18)

With all this said, we having Christ in us, who comes and makes his home in us at the conception of salvation, are the light carriers in this dark unredeemed place.

The Lord has put it on my heart to LET IT BE KNOWN! He is calling us to stand up, be bold and courageous, and speak HIS TRUTH every where we go.

Now do you have to be some weirdo that acts weird and has no friends and alienates their self to this weird religious bubble who everyone avoids from their weirdness?

🤪HECKS NO😵

Jesus is a “sneaky Jesus” as Steven Furtick would put him. He sneaks his truth in to others and his favorite way to do this is to use YOU AND ME to do his Fathers will! #GOD!

His sneaking his truth in can be LOUD by words or it can be soundless by our actions, but we are all called to do the works he predestined for us before the earth was formed! All we must do, is be obedient in the call.

So now you can understand why this blog will be so important to my walk, because it will be an outward reflection of my obedience to the call.

I woke up and I asked the Lord, “What do you want me to write about today Lord?” I then proceeded to get on Pinterest and search life style blogging for beginners because I am a nerd 🤓 about learning all the small details.

I began to reflect on my week and what he was teaching me, PRIDE that is in our hearts that come out in our words, but that will have to be another blog post, because as I was reading the scriptures I searched on pride Holy Spirit just dropped Exodus 4:5 into my thoughts. I thought to myself, okay lets go see what that says.

I have learned in my faith walk that the Lord does reveal things to me through scriptures, but I always read the content before and after to get the whole picture. Sometimes he speaks in a word, a one liner, a chapter, or a whole book!

What I need to insert here is that I have a prophetic gift where the Lord will just download words into my mind and they will be instructions or encouragement, whatever he decides to share with me. The words of knowledge can be to edify me, teach me, or to encourage or give wisdom and counsel to others whom he desires. I can’t write it all here because it is so long, but to summarize it up, two Sundays ago before church he just started talking and he didn’t let up. He told me, “LET IT BE KNOWN that he is the God who saves. Let it be known that he sets the captives free, that he heals,” and so on and so forth. Reflecting now it was like he was telling me to let it be known what all we are commissioned to do in Christ.

So back to Exodus 4:5. Let’s start with the beginning of the chapter shall we? You are going to love this. “Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, “The Lord did not appear to you.” We then see a dialogue between Moses and the Lord. The Lord is instructing him to activate his faith through a material thing, the staff which turns into a serpent. Moses runs from it, but then the Lord says take it by the tail and as Moses obeys the serpent turns back into the staff. He his giving Moses the ability to express himself through tangible evidence he can show the people so they would believe he is following the one true God. But verse 10 is where my heart sank and I could relate to Moses, and maybe you can too! “But Moses said to the Lord;”Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth?Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind?” Is it not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”

Exodus 4:5- “That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, appeared to you.”

Why speak? SO THEY WILL BELIEVE!

Why are we commissioned?

Why are we to share the good news?

Why?

Because we are surrounded by unbelievers who don’t believe, and how can they have faith to believe?

Faith comes from what is heard and what is heard comes from the message about Christ. Romans 10:17.

Why?

Because we are here to share the love of God with EVERYONE, and what is his heart for EVERYONE?

2 PETER 3:9 ” The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting ANYONE to perish, but everyone to come to repentance!”

His heart is that no man shall perish, but have ever lasting life through his Son, Jesus.

Why are we commissioned?

Because Christ wants us to be his hands and feet to share the gospel, the good news, that the only truth is HIM, the only FREEDOM is through him, and the only Healing is through him!

John 3:15 “That whosoever believe in him shall not persist, but have eternal life.”

“Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

So how is the Lord Commissioning you to be apart of the beautiful love story of his love and grace for his people?

How will you respond to the call?

Have you asked him to prepare your heart to leave a life that glorifies him?

Why not do it today?

Be still and wait, wait for him to disrupt your safe way of living for yourself.

Then sit back and hold on because you will be on the ride of your life!

Remember you don’t have to do anything out of your own strength, just out of your obedience to Christ.

-Ash’Leigh Harris