Author: Freely Authentic

The Extraordinary Goodness of God

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Sitting here in in our RV at the coast in Trinidad, CA and all is quiet and peaceful. I’ve been pondering the goodness of God and how His goodness pours over into our daily lives. From the simple to the complex, the ordinary to the extraordinary, the little and the big…His goodness is always there. Like a warm blanket His goodness wraps around our lives in such a beautiful way. It’s always there, always faithful, never forsaking and absolutely never failing.

I personally have seen the goodness of God manifest in so many ways over my life, my family, my church, my city and our nation and the world. It would be so easy to constantly overlook those moments when God showed His love and mercy when there was no justification for it. But that’s just how much He loves us. He wants every person to know His goodness, not just what is seen from a distance in other people’s lives, but He wants us to see, know and experience in our personal lives more than anything.

As a child I saw His goodness and watched Him provide by multiplying food on our table, by coming home and finding bags of food on our front door step, all the way to current day and knowing around every corner His goodness manifesting in everyday life.

The goodness of God is pure, authentic and beautiful because that is who He is. He wants to do the same in each one of us. We’ve been created in His image, in His likeness…think about it…He is The Creator and He created us to be like Him. Jesus displayed this so beautifully when He was on the earth in human form. Jesus was so simple, loving, humble, giving, pure, raw and unequivocally authentic when He displayed His goodness. It’s no wonder that it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.

He wants to do extraordinary things through us and in order for Him to receive the glory for those exploits, we must know and recognize His goodness in our lives. He uses the simple things in our lives to train us for the extraordinary things we will do as His children.

So my challenge today is this: how is the goodness of God revealed in your life? How does He show up for you? How do you display His goodness in your own life and in the lives around you? Take a moment and recognize the simple goodness of God in the little and the big, in the easy times and the hard times…He’s always there, always waiting, and always loving.

Veronica

Break (ing) Through

Breakthrough is moving through the unseen barrier of our paradigms and fears, which hold us captive to our current place in God.

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How much can a person learn, change and endure in one year? It’s amazing what we, as humans can endure. 2016 was a year of learning, transition, and stepping into the new. Little did we know how much we would have to learn and dig into, in order to live effectively and wisely with what had been brought our way. Learning to manage life in a whole new way is not an easy thing to do.

Have you ever made a decision and you started moving towards that and nothing happens the way you thought it would? That was 2016 for us. We felt like we heard God speak and were supposed to move in a certain direction. The typical response when one hears God, hopefully, is to move forward with what was spoken. We did, and it turned out to be completely different. Then the questions started and we began to doubt what we thought we heard. Did we actually hear God? Were we not obedient in doing what we thought we were supposed to do? Why isn’t anything happening?

As we have stepped into 2017, a brand new year that none of us have ever experienced, we have since seen what one of my pastors, Kris Vallotton declared recently:

“Sometimes you have to participate in what you think is the end so you can see it’s not the end”.

This was our experience. We saw what we thought we were supposed to do, but in the end of this process, when nothing actually happened the way we thought it was going to, it brought us back to an original vision that had somehow gotten lost with all the activity and change around us. We learned a lot, changed a lot, and we made many mistakes along the way. It actually wasn’t the end of it, but what it did was brought our perspective back into alignment with our heart and our feet back on course. God was there every step of the way.

The Senior Pastor where I attend church, Eric Johnson once put it this way:

“God is not interested in giving us just what we need, but He desires to give us beyond what we need and give us abundance”.

When we are longing for a breakthrough and it feels like everything is chaotic and falling apart around us, then that should tell us that we ARE breaking through. Breakthrough is not just a ‘bam’ and it’s done. It’s actually a continual pushing forward and digging deeper. I’m sure you’ve heard it said, ‘when you’re going through hell, don’t stop’. Contending for the breakthrough does not mean we just sit and wait for it to come to us. It also doesn’t mean that God is teasing us with breakthrough saying ‘how badly do you want this breakthrough’?

How a person contends will be different for each one of us, but the point is that you are continually moving towards it and through it. Contending can look like fasting and prayer, daily renewing your mind with the Word. It could also be setting something aside that might be keeping you from hearing or seeing the heart of God on your matter. Maybe it’s spending more time in His presence, perhaps it could even be speaking declarations everyday. It’s going to look different for all of us. The whole point is you are breaking through; breakthrough is moving through the unseen barrier of our paradigms and fears, which hold us captive to our current place in God. Breakthrough also requires us to sacrifice something or allow something to die that we are holding on to, in order to step into the opportunity God has for us to embrace the new.

Breaking through is not easy and it won’t be by your works, it will be because you have learned to trust in His faithfulness and with each foot forward laying down those things you don’t need. Every step you take will be another step closer to the new place He is leading us toward.

Sometimes we think breakthrough means reconfiguring our circumstances, but more accurately stated; our breaking through is so we can see Him face to face in the middle of our circumstances. Remember what He has spoken to each one of us through the promises or prophetic words that we’ve received so that our eyes remain fixed on Him. Our hearts will begin to expand and increase for a greater capacity to trust. In this place, He is able to express Himself in and through us according to the dream He has made us to be…all in the process of moving towards our breakthrough.

So I would encourage you to look at your breakthrough a little differently than you used to. Look at it as an opportunity to let the old die and the new to grow and expand in the Kingdom of God: transformation. It’s not just about getting breakthrough, it’s also about growing in Him, knowing Him and hearing His heartbeat. Those around you will be able to glean from your breakthrough and it will encourage them to contend for their own. He is longing to show each one of us His faithfulness again and again!

Breaking Through…

Veronica

A Way of Escape

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482321220Standing at our back door looking out on the beautiful backyard we have, my husband and I were drinking our first hot cup of coffee and noticed movement in the back yard. We noticed it was a fawn that must have gotten separated from its family. It was frantically pacing back and forth seemingly hesitant about jumping and looking for a way to cross over the fence. This little one paced from one end of the yard to the next. As it went up into the trees, I said, ‘no, you can’t cross there, you will get caught in the thickets’. It came back to pacing and went right by a safe place to cross. After a while it seemed to notice the same safe place to jump that I saw. I said ‘yes, right there, jump, that’s the perfect place’. It looked as if he was going to jump, but he hesitated, but he backed up and went for it and successfully bounded over the fence into the next field.

Later on in the day, I briefly thought about this moment. How many times have we been in a place where it seems we have either been separated from our family or we are lost because of getting distracted, perhaps it is that we are frantically looking for a way out of our circumstances? We have all been in those times at some point, but when we are in the middle of it, how do we respond? Is our response to panic and be pacing back and forth with worry and fret and totally miss the ‘way of escape’?

Fear, fret, worry, stress, anxiety, anxiousness, impatience are all emotions we have experienced at some of our most difficult times. When these come there is a decision that has to be made. More often than not, it’s our own crazy decisions that separated us anyway and we get so wrapped up in our circumstance that we cannot see. Our fears keep us in a place of pacing back and forth looking for the answer…am I in the will of God…I need money to pay my bills…my kids are going down the wrong path…I’m a failure as a parent…I have this disease…I need a job…I need food on the table…etc. These are just examples of some of the fears that we all wrestle with at some point and time in our walk of life. Are we going to let these emotions become so overwhelming that we cannot see our way of escape?

I don’t know if you have ever heard the story about the flood that came and this man’s house began to flood. He cried out to God to rescue him. A friend came by in a truck and told him to get in. The man said, ‘no, God is going to rescue me’. Then the water kept rising, he moved to the second level of his house. A boat came by and called out for him to get in the boat. The man said, ‘no, God is going to rescue me’. Eventually he ended up on the roof of his house and a helicopter flew overhead and lowered the rescue basket for him to climb into. He said, ‘it’s ok…God is going to rescue me’. Well, eventually the man drowned and went to heaven. The man asked God, ‘why didn’t you rescue me’? God replied, ‘I sent you a truck, a boat and a helicopter and you turned them all away’.

God always provides a way of escape for us. His way of escape is not always the way we as humans would think of it as being. His way of escape opens up to us as a result of us letting go of our fears, stress, anxiety etc. and embracing His peace, hope, grace and mercy. His rescue to us might look like: someone taking your kids for the afternoon to give you some breathing room, or it might be someone offering to pay your electric bill. Perhaps it is getting that prophetic word that will bring hope to your world. How about a new drug invention that would heal the disease you might have. God will always provide a way of escape!

In the Psalms David cried out to God endlessly to be rescued from his enemies. I personally believe David believed lies sometimes that kept him in a place of always needing rescued. There are numerous scriptures that declare God is our way of escape. He is a…tower of refuge, a present help in time of trouble, a source of strength, a provider, a healer, and so much more. What is He to you? What lie are you believing that is keeping you where you are? What fear is it that keeps you from seeing the open place to jump the fence and come back into the place you belong?

Just remember…God, most of the time, uses people and tools around you to rescue you from your circumstances. Our expectation of what our rescue should look like will result in us having all kinds of rescue opportunities come our way, but we miss them all because we have in our minds what it’s going to look like.

If you are in one of these times, I encourage you to not be afraid, put hope and trust in God! He IS your rescue, but it might be through a friend, or a prophetic word or a person you don’t even know. God loves to work in mysterious ways!

~ Veronica ~

Changing of the Seasons

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images

God has been speaking to me about seasons lately. I know I’ve written briefly on this previously in the past, but this morning as I was soaking with worship music there was a specific song that I kept on repeat. The song “Seasons Change” is on the United Pursuit album…”Simple Gospel”. When I first heard this song a couple weeks ago that someone shared on Facebook, I had to buy the album. This song is about when seasons change God’s love remains the same, and is an anchor for all we are. This got me to pondering when the seasons change in the natural.

If you think about it, what happens when summer turns into fall, fall into winter, winter to spring, spring to summer? There is a cycle of death and resurrection! The fall season causes the tree to begin to metabolically slow, the leaves dry up and fall off their life source. The flowers stop blooming and the animals are all making sure they are stocked up on food for the winter. The winter season brings hibernation, dormancy and sometimes what appears to be death. But it’s during this season that the old bloom, the old leaf, the old way of living dies and begins to make way for the new life, from the smallest seed, in the darkest of places. While we think everything is dead, because it looks dead on the outside, it’s really not dead. What we don’t see is the growth and new life that is beginning to take place deep within that which we cannot see. The rains come, the snow falls, and the wind blows and still within, there is life.

Fall turns into winter and winter into spring. It’s in the spring we begin to see things turning a more brilliant green and beautiful little buds begin to pop out of what we thought was dead. The buds eventually, with the moisture it received from winter and lots of spring sunshine, begin to open and we see the beauty that was being formed within the shell of something that looked dry and finished; the beauty we behold is stunning. The amazing colors that once defined what we define as life is once again in full view. The cycle of life is too amazing and too complex for our finite minds to comprehend sometimes. In the end, the entire cycle is what defines life, not just the seasons that express the beauty we see; God sees the beauty at our core.

This all brings me to the point I wanted to make. I was looking at the 45 trees that our gardener said we have on our property. I had noticed in the fall when the leaves were falling off, the birds were having a hay day with all the little seeds or whatever it was dropping off the tree. The trees ended up being bare and looking lifeless. However, as I was listening to the song I mentioned previously, I began to think about this. The fact that even though the leaves are gone, the tree is alive. The whole tree doesn’t go away in the fall/winter season. It’s just the fruit of the tree. The fruit, or the leaves, die and fall off, but the tree remains.

In our seasons that God brings us through it is that there may be fruit, reproduction, expansion, and growth, and it is the changing seasons that accomplish the complete work: not just fruit, not just the changing of color, not just the beauty we see in the comfortable season; we still must experience the shift which causes the fruitless things to die and fall away, that there may be new life. All the while, God within us remains and sustains us through the season of change and process. His love, His strength, His grace is resting on us as we walk through it all. He keeps us grounded and rooted. Why? Because we are IN Him and He brings and gives life through every season! Who He is in us is what keeps us stable and in a place where He can bring the change, prune the branches, wipe away the moss that has grown and begins to deposit new seeds within us that will bear even greater fruit than the previous season.

So may our prayer always be…let the seasons come, let them be a time that God takes the old and deposits the new seed of thought, ministry, vision and purpose along with whatever else He desires. There is going to be such radiant beauty that comes from allowing His seed to be planted within us. Don’t fear the season, His grace and love will remain!

Though the music changes and the songs we sing

We still lift our praises to our loving God and King

Though the seasons change Your love remains

Lord You’ve been faithful to plant the seed and You will be faithful to always send your rain

Lord You’ve been faithful to plant the seed and You will be faithful to always send Your rain

You’re faithful

Though the seasons change Your love remains, Your love remains

Though the seasons change Your love remains, Your love remains

Click on the link to watch the video of United Pursuit: Seasons Change

“Closed for Renovation”

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Isn’t it amazing the vast differences in every human being? Every person contains the incredible beauty, crazy talent, brilliant minds, and all the other array of nuances that make up an individuals authentic personhood.

I happened to be taking a walk recently with my children and dogs in Redding to finally enjoy a day of sunshine after weeks of rain. We like to go to the river trail near the beautiful Sundial Bridge. This place has several types of gardens as you walk along the path. Almost at the very end it contains this whimsical children’s garden. It has little play things for small children to play on or in, it also has this beautiful mosaic art piece that serves as a seating area and has a cute little mosaic fountain. When we approached the garden a sign was posted that said, “Closed for renovation”. The fountain has plastic wrapped around it and it was empty of water. I thought, ‘why does it say closed, because it doesn’t contain a door that you can lock and there was no rope around to keep us out’? I made my way over the mosaic bench and sat down while the girls went exploring.IMG_4531As my evening progressed, I couldn’t stop thinking about that garden. “Closed for Renovation” kept coming to me. I couldn’t help but think that it sometimes seems that God puts a sign up and says, “Closed for Renovation”. I know, it’s funny, but it’s true. How many times have you had God say, “Ok, enough of that. It’s time to make some changes”. As He begins to chip away, prune, saw, hammer, clean, and finally buff you to a shine, you’re thinking the whole time…OMG He’s killing me and I’m not going to survive.

When a mosaic is formed, it is made from tiny pieces of glass that have been broken and shattered. The beauty with this is that usually, this glass came from something originally created that was beautiful. Then it gets broken into small pieces and slowly but surely the artist begins to create another beautiful masterpiece with all the small broken pieces of glass. The amazing thing about being broken is that it all ends up into pieces that are different sizes and shapes. All these stunning pieces of colored glass are then taken by the artist and placed into particular arrangements. It’s hard to see what the artist sees until it is complete and you see the stunning masterpiece that has been brought from vision to existence.

May I suggest to you that God may sometimes set aside a time or a season where you are “Closed for Renovation”. In this time, He wants to take who you are and He says, “I see you to be even more beautiful than you are now”. Then He begins to take you apart…disassemble you…dismantle you and then starts to prepare the platform of your heart once again. He slowly and lovingly begins to arrange the beautiful broken pieces that use to make up who you were. These pieces are so beautifully arranged and set into place by The Creator of the Universe. When He is done, He washes you, dries you and buffs the shine a bit and then the new masterpiece is ready to be revealed. You finally awake, look in the mirror and are in awe of the absolutely stunning and creative beauty that came from all your broken pieces. God loves to take our broken-ness and turn into something beautiful.

God doesn’t reveal our ugly to the world. He only reveals our beauty because He Is Beauty!

Embracing the Moments

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Another year has come upon us! Each year goes by so quickly it seems, and it almost feels as if the roller coaster of life has reached the top and we are running at full capacity on a down hill slope. It reminds me of the time I took my 6 year old, who is now 16, to see the Polar Express movie when it first came out. She did ok until the part where the boy and the old man were standing on top of the train. The train reached the top and all of a sudden it was going downhill at a high rate of speed. This scared my daughter so bad we had to get up and leave.

I don’t know about you, but at times, it feels as if that’s the way it is in life. We’ve had our face to the ground and have been pushing, pulling, building, declaring, and testifying all the way to the top, not even realizing we’ve made it to the top and all of a sudden there is a huge shift and it comes so quickly we don’t even know what to do with it and the feeling of free-falling starts.

I think we all go through these times that come upon us so suddenly. Then there are times when, if we stop, breathe and listen, we can sense a stirring, feel a wind in the air and if we are honest about it, we may even hesitate to embrace it. Embracing the change is what will give our hearts permission to step into it.

As I am embracing my current change or what I will call, unveiling, it’s my heart that wants to say, ‘bring it on…I can do this’. My mind says ‘no way, this is not the time’. But I find, as I embrace it and give myself over to it, things begin to shift in me and I begin to see and hear Him differently.

Psalm 139:23 says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart”. For me, when I am going through these times, my most vulnerable prayer is this scripture. How can I embrace the change, let the shift take place in me, and come out the other side changed and victorious? The only way is to become vulnerable in His presence, let your heart be examined and allow the shaping and molding to begin, then step into a new level that God has for you.

My encouragement to you today is this: keep your eyes set ahead, your heart tuned to the frequency of Heaven, and be aware of what you see and feel. When the change or the shift comes embrace it, go with it, and give yourself permission to fall into it. Let Him take you to new places in Him. Let Him do a new thing in you and let Him make the necessary adjustments to the way you think, see, and hear…which will adjust the way you speak.

Embrace these times…they are intimate moments or seasons that He is calling you closer!

Kingdom Value

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As we enter into a new year once again, I like to reflect back on the year before. I like to see where I started the year, and where I was when it ended. This last year, 2015, causes me to reflect on the goodness of God, His abundance and His provision.

As a mother, it is my desire to see my children fully satisfied, happy and enjoying life as much as possible. However, I find myself with the mindset that they are spoiled and don’t have much value for anything they have. This is very disappointing to me as I think on it. As parents we try to instill in our children the same values we have, but as my husband and I have been discussing this, this is a problem. We cannot instill the same values, they have no grid for where we came from, how we grew up, lived our lives, worked for what we have etc. I’m a bit angry at how much we have sacrificed and given to be where we are today and the laze de faire attitude that this current generation seems to have relative to these values. Just yesterday I had to repent for my bad attitude. God gave me a good spanking and said, “If you take care of you and I, then I (God) will take care of everything else”.

God’s intention is to bless each of us abundantly. He doesn’t expect us to “work” for His blessing. If God doesn’t want me to work for His blessing, then how can I expect my children to work for their blessing? I don’t want my children to grow up the way I did, where I had to earn/work for everything. I’m not saying we should not work, but what are we working for? What is the motive behind our work? God’s motive is to bless. Ours is usually so we can meet what we see as needs, and be successful.

Every year since I have been married to my husband, my father-in-law would ask for our Christmas wish list. We would all send him our wishes and for the most part, we would open those gifts at each Christmas. Now, I grew up with a poverty mindset (this is what defines what our values are) in our home and not one of abundance, although we saw moments of abundance a few times. My wish list’s seemed to always be very short, and small, not asking for much and only asking for little trivial things. A few years ago, my wish list consisted of…a rice cooker. Yes, a rice cooker. I received that rice cooker, but as I sat back and watched everyone else open their gifts they were opening, Ipads, Iphones, Laptops, TV’s, all kinds of expensive gadgets and electronics. At that moment I felt like the Holy Spirit said to me, “Veronica, this is how I want to lavish gifts upon you”. Now my mindset had always been to not ask for too much, just what I ‘needed’. Needless to say, the next year I asked for a laptop, and that is what I got.

My father-in-law passed away this last March much to everyone’s surprise. We experienced great loss with his passing, but in November we signed papers on a home that we have been dreaming of having for a very long time. When we signed the papers, I was excited beyond belief, but at the same time feelings of guilt rose up and it has been a journey to really experience and accept the fact that, I didn’t work for any of this. It wasn’t my life’s savings that got us this home. It was the fact that someone else worked for years and years just so I could have this place. Once again, God is saying to me…you don’t have to work for my blessing, all I want you to do is receive it and give it away. When God gives something to us, it’s not ours to use exclusively upon ourselves, to hoard or to hide, like the story of the ten talents in the Bible. To whom much is given, much is required. But also, to whoever gives much, more will be given to him.

The best way to teach our children to have value is for them to see us, as parents, have value for the things of the Kingdom. It all starts in our perspective of God’s law of blessing in our lives. If our children see the value we have for what God does, then they will begin to see it and their own value systems will begin to form. Having a Kingdom perspective of value will never give room for entitlement, so we won’t need to worry about our kids having an entitlement attitude, if we are declaring our own value for the Kingdom and the blessings that come with it.

God’s way is to receive His blessing, don’t work for it, value the transformation that just came (I’ve just been set free from my load), then give the life-change away that just happened as a result of His grace infused into my life.

So as we enter 2016 let’s keep our focus on Him, our hearts in a posture to receive His blessing and our motives to value what He gives! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom! His resources are limitless! His blessings are ready to be poured out on all creation!

Father, Son or Brother?

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In Luke 15:11-32 we find the beautiful story of what we know to be “The Prodigal Son”. Over the years as this story has been interpreted somehow we have made the son out to be the hero. First of all, let me point out that there were three distinct characters in this story. There was the father, the son and the brother. We also find three very different characteristics and three individuals each with a very different sets of values.

THE YOUNGER SON: The story starts out with the fact that there were two sons and the younger of the two came and demanded his father give him his portion of his inheritance. I don’t know about back then, but in today’s modern times, the estate gets distributed to the heirs upon the estate holder’s death. Let me also point out in the NIV translation it says the son said, “give me”. He didn’t ask, he basically demanded it; he was saying, “it would be better for me if you were dead.”

So what did the father do? The scripture says that the father divided his wealth between BOTH sons. It doesn’t say whether the father tried to talk sense into his son, but he did it nevertheless. I take this to say that the father divided his entire estate between both sons, which left him with nothing.

The younger son left home a few days after and lived a very loose lifestyle and spent all his money until the famine hit. When famine comes, we see what we don’t have. Famine is a poverty, pauper and orphan spirit. You will always see what everyone else has and what you don’t have. When all of his money ran out, the son ended up working in the pigpen feeding the pigs everyday and the scripture says, ‘when he came to his senses’ he saw his lack, his poverty, his selfishness and greed; he saw his sin. He became aware of how good and blessed he was while living with his father. So the son decided to make his journey back home, repent and come back into the graces of his father and his father’s house.

THE FATHER: Now let’s look at the Father. The father ungrudgingly gave all his wealth to both sons. As far as we can see, he gave them what they desired without trying to talk them out of it. I believe that once the father gave what he had and the younger son left, this father knew in his heart that his son would be back. After time had passed, it seems that his father was always on the lookout for his son’s return. It says in the bible that the father saw his son at a distance and ran out to meet him. What did he do when he met him? He didn’t get in his face and say, ‘see, I told you so. I knew you would come back broke etc.’ No, the father ran and embraced him, kissed him and said ‘welcome home son’. He covered his filth in a clean robe, gave his son the family ring, representing authority and had a huge party for the returned son. The killing of the fatted calf was reserved for very special occasions in their custom, but his son’s return was special enough to the father. He also did not exclude the brother from being part of the celebration, just like he didn’t exclude him from the inheritance.

THE BROTHER: It is my personal opinion that the older brother who stayed on the homestead and continued to serve his father was dealing with what we call the “Martha Syndrome”. He worked hard in the fields, probably doing double duty due to the absence of his younger brother. Now we can only assume what was building in the heart of the older brother the whole time his younger brother was gone. I’m sure every time he did his younger brother’s chores, thoughts of jealousy, anger, rage etc. would set in and take root in his heart. When the day came that his younger brother returned and the father gave him the best of everything and threw a big party for his return, the older brother was raging inside. He proceeded to reject the invitation to be part of the party, and told his father that for many years he served him and had never neglected a command of his. His father told him, ‘son, you have always had everything that is mine’, but we have to celebrate that your brother who was lost has been found and who was dead is alive’.

To Sum It All Up: I believe the younger son had a spirit of poverty, or an orphan spirit on him. It was so deceptive that he believed he didn’t have anything or any freedom. He was given what he asked for, he wasted it, and even returned to probably more than he left. An orphan spirit will strip you of authenticity and identity!

The older brother had a spirit of entitlement; the difference between the servant, and friend, as Jesus alluded to. He was feeling sorry for himself and having a pity party saying he had served and served faithfully for years, but never got what the other son got. Did he forget that he got half the inheritance? Did he forget that he could have made the same choice his brother did? Did he forget that he was his own person? I don’t believe the father would have forced him to stay. I believe that he felt obligated to stay with his father. I also believe that his identity as a son was attacked when his brother left. He had all kinds of time to dwell on the immaturity of his brother leaving and him having to double up on the work-load. Did he complain? I don’t know, but if he did it was most likely under is breathe and never to his father. What he forgot is that he was a son! No matter what his brother did, he was still a son. He still had a roof over his head, he still had food on the table, he still had opportunity. Entitlement will always say, ‘it’s never enough’. Entitlement causes us to have no value for anything we may have. Entitlement will always see the lack and not the abundance. Entitlement will always see the work and not the blessing. The replacement strategy for a spirit of entitlement is an attitude of gratitude.

The father was the ultimate example of our Heavenly Father. The greatest sin would never give him the opportunity to reject his flesh and blood. His love was overflowing for both of his sons. He said, you are worth the greatest party ever, and you are worth celebrating. There is always an open-arm return policy! When we return to our identity, family, values etc. we begin to live again. When the son returned his father declared that his son had been lost, but now found and was dead but has begun to live again. Being outside of what God has called us to be will strip us of our authenticity, identity and values and we will find ourselves wandering around looking for the fulfillment from other things, people, work etc.

So which one are you? The younger son, the older brother or the father?

An Authentic Momentary Lapse of Reason

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Sometimes when things get crazy…i.e., three kids, husband, homeschooling, church activities and commitments, friends, laundry, cooking, cleaning, dentist appointments, doctor appointments, being the kids chauffeur, buying a house and getting ready to move, making sure you are keeping good communication with friends, getting your quiet time with God everyday…only to sit down at the end of the day utterly exhausted and that’s only the beginning.

Then…you take a few moments to finally catch a breath and catch up on your social networking and see all the single people posting about how they are enjoying their life at the beach or traveling somewhere abroad and it’s easy to look and say, ‘man, life was much simpler when I was single…I wish I could go back to those days’. It’s easy to remember what it was like being single. I was my own boss, didn’t have to think of anyone else but myself, I could go away and close the door, I could get in the car and leave whenever I wanted etc. Single people have no idea what life is like with all that I mentioned in the beginning.

Ok…I get it…I had a momentary lapse of reason…haha!

In my momentary lapse of reason filled with jealousy and envy, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me…”never give up, it’s worth it all’. As I stopped and thought about it, He is right! Isn’t He always right? I wouldn’t have it any other way. Yes, life is enormously busy with family and any other things that get piled on top of it. But, family is the fruit of all my labors and my reward is watching them develop into the beautiful and unique people God created them to be, not what I created them to be. I’m thankful for each one of them. I’m thankful for the times I get overwhelmed because it’s just another opportunity for the Holy Spirit to come and say, “Veronica, it’s all going to be ok…it’s worth it all”.

In the end, I hope all single individuals could experience what I have experienced on a daily basis for 18 years. I wouldn’t change a thing. I experienced life growing inside of me, I have experienced living with my best friend every day and learning to work through challenges and conflict with him that could have gone the opposite way and ended in disaster. In the end, we learned how to come together for each other and strengthen our relationship on a daily basis, which allows us to watch our kids grow up into 3 beautiful, amazing and powerful young women. But most of all, I enjoy being able to partner with someone where we walk hand in hand to engage and embrace life on a daily basis. There is something uniquely powerful when two people come together and eventually find their steps coming into unity and forming a propelling stride.

So I pray for all those who are currently single and desire to be married, that you would find that person who will come along side you, arm in arm and that your steps would come into unity. I pray that you will have a bond that no force could ever break. I pray that you are faithful to keep your heart, thoughts and mouth aligned with heaven so when the day comes you are prepared to step into stride with that special someone. Your life will never be the same!

A Heart Postured for Transition: Part 2

In the midst of the unveiling, we will see who we are, but faith will cause us to see how God sees us. Intimacy (relationship), trust and faith are what give us the strength and ability to walk through the unveiling and come out on the other side with a high value for the transformation.

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Transition brings another level of transformation and unveiling! 

Do you remember when Moses came down from the mountain after being with God for several days, and his face shown with the glory so much that his face had to be covered? That glory was a glory that eventually faded away.

2 Corinthians 3:7-18 is a very powerful scripture that describes the glory that Moses had. Yes, it was a glory that, here is the key, was with him. This was a glory that faded away. But the ministry of the Spirit has even more glory than that. In verse 11 it says; For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

It goes on to say that we are not like Moses who put a veil over his face, but we have such a hope that when (this glory is IN us, and) we are IN Christ, the veil over our hearts is removed. If we live by the law of sin and death (doing, or not doing something to make us approved by God) there is a veil over our hearts and our experiences with the glory will be reduced to momentary glimpses and the glory will fade away and the veil might never be removed. When we come to Christ…that veil is lifted from our hearts. The results and benefits of the veil being lifted are deliverance into freedom, transformation, and His glory/His image. Verse 18 says, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

We are in glory, not with glory! Glory is not something you just pick up and carry and pull out of the bag anytime you need to use it or want to show it off by how anointed you are. When our hearts are postured for the transition we are being transformed into the image of God because we have chosen to become part of Him. We are in Him; therefore we embody His glory. We are His glory walking the earth today. Each day is one of transformation and freedom moving from glory to glory.

I don’t want to be like Moses, temporarily carrying the glory. Yes, He was used by God in countless, and in some of the most unbelievable ways, but…I want to be one that is walking in His glory day to day, continually being transformed from glory to glory. Each stage of glory is greater than the previous.

Sustaining the Change

FAITH: What is it you believe in? Where does your faith lie? Who does your faith lie in? Do we believe being approved by God is a result of what we do, or by being transformed into the image of His Son: the only image of true Glory 2 Co. 3:18, Ro. 8:29, 12:2.

Faith is the necessary element that we must have active in our lives to sustain change and transformation. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

Faith will always reap something in the Kingdom of God!

Several times Jesus said, in the New Testament when He healed someone…your faith has made you whole. Faith in Him invites His presence for transformation and transition, and faith in Him that He is able to do what He said He would do, sustains that change.

INTIMACY: Developing a strong relationship with God and building a history with Him will allow His Story to be built in you. – Bill Johnson

Capacity for transition grows through intimacy; intimacy opens our eyes to see, and our ears to hear, the sounds of heaven. Faith comes from hearing the living and active Word of God Ro. 10: 17.

God is trustworthy. We experience this through intimacy. What is intimacy? Intimacy is transparency and vulnerability. With transparency, there will never be anything hidden. When we are fully transparent, we are fully vulnerable, when we are fully vulnerable we experience what He is: Love. Trust is born in intimacy.

RENEWING: Romans 12:2 refers to being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Every day is a day of transformation. The renewing of the mind births value for the change that takes place in us. God is looking for people who will be unveiled and steward the unveiling well.

In the midst of the unveiling, we will see who we are, but faith will cause us to see how God sees us. Intimacy (relationship), trust and faith are what give us the strength and ability to walk through the unveiling and come out on the other side with a high value for the transformation.

2 Cor. 13:5-9 says, Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we may appear unapproved. For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong this we also pray for, that you be made complete.

We are not perfect when we emerge from having been in a stage of transformation, and it may not be the prettiest but, you are approved by God. You went through the process! Don’t minimize what you just went through. We never fail when we go through a transformation! It’s in the process that we are strengthened to sustain and carry the next phase of transformation that we are going through. His grace carries us. His grace is sufficient for us! We are made complete in Him through the transformation.

Let’s recap:

Faith: He IS able to carry you through the unveiling process.

Intimacy: Focus is a result of His amazing, powerful devotion to love us and bring us into His glorious liberty, compared to the focus being on the process, what needs to change; He has paid a high price for our deliverance into liberty Is. 61:1; 2 Co. 3:17.

Renewing: I must have the transformation to live and move and have my being in Him…..or, perhaps better stated: I must have the transformation to walk in the glory I’ve been born for.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

May your heart be blessed to embrace the unveiling and transformation process!!