Wrong Turn – Get Back on the Right Road

C.S. Lewis – “When you make a wrong turn the wrong road never turns into the right road. To get back on the right road you have to go back to where you missed the turn.”

There are times in life when I move ahead too quickly from a challenging situation or a hurtful encounter in order to avoid confronting any pain that exists within me. I just want to get through it. I don’t like do-overs or rehashing of things. I just want to get it done with and move on.

But, that doesn’t always work with God.

When  I realize that something is still stinging in me or when a person’s name comes up or I still feel that punch to my stomach inside if I think about a particular situation,  I realize there is an open wound still present. No closure within.

Solution? I go back to that place during times of worship and intimacy with Jesus and led by Holy Spirit, I walk it out again with Him. Usually, I am quick to ask forgiveness of those whom I hurt. But I often find that in forgiving others, I don’t forgive myself. I carry the weight for a long, long time and it affects me in many ways that I am not always aware of.

I walk back to that point and deal with the pain. I go back with the Lord to release something or someone so that I keep moving forward. I have no control over others so I’m not responsible for them. I have to look at me and see why this pain? What is the root of all of this?

He always tells me. It could be a time of rejection from a parent. Or how about a betrayal by a friend? There’s many different scenarios in our less than perfect lives.

Over the years, I have learned something. To go forward often requires going back. Holy Spirit will lead the way and if He is not showing you anything, don’t look for it. But, when He does take the time to come apart, worship and listen. You will be the better for it.

In Christ,
Debra
About Me
Rivers of Eden Ministry

 

A Tiny Place of Restricted Creativity – The Mundane Middle

The Tiny Range of Motion
Seth Godin – Linchpin

“I watched author and conductor Roger Nierenberg teach a session using a symphony orchestra as an example. First, he asked the group to play the piece as well synchronized as possible. Then he had them do it again, asking each person to go to their own personal edge, engaging the music the way they wanted instead of the way the group wanted. 

To the untrained ears in the room, the two versions were difficult to tell apart. 

That’s because we teach people to stick within a tiny range. We don’t want the lows to be too low, so we limit the highs as well. The people in this orchestra couldn’t even visualize themselves racing outside the box that had been established for them. Creativity is not choosing to wear a pink shirt to an office where only blue and white are standard. That’s merely window dressing. 

We see this in organizations of all types. We ask someone to do something wacky or original and they change the tiniest surface element instead of finding the root of a creative solution. That’s no accident. That’s what we taught them to do. The opportunity is in changing the game, changing the interaction, or even changing the question.”

Oh my. So much revelation is hidden within these words. There is so much to say about this. I see so many Christians and Christianity in general stuck in the middle of the mundane. Thank God that His grace is the oil on the road that is calling us forth to forsake the mundane middle and to walk into a broad place of freedom and creativity in Christ. Thank God for that.

Limitations press us on all side. Don’t go too high or too low. Stay in the safety zone. But did Jesus do that? Of course not. I love his words above. There is a great Kingdom message whether he knows it or not.  Each of us in Christ must venture to our own personal edge of life where Jesus calls us to risk, jump, be, walk, stay, be still…….it is a personal way in Christ – creative for all of us and when we walk it there is perfect unity in the Spirit.

We settle for so much less than living the life of Christ that is within us. Jesus was radical, revolutionary and creative in all ways. His life is our  life. We walk in a broad place of revelation, creativity, adventure and journey.

Creativity does not just tweak the norm or enhance the mundane. Creativity – radical thoughts and revelation of upheaval and then penetrating the mundane middle, walking it out in faith in the Son of God

Have I always been this way? No, it’s been a bit suppressed by an internal gauge within me of trying to be everything to everybody. It feels good to be out and to call others into this broad place of freedom in Christ.

My wisdom for today – don’t stick within that tiny range of motion because of fear. Move out to discover who you are in Christ. I thought I knew but each day I am asking the Lord, “Who is Debra, Lord?” And, He is walking and talking with me as we sync it out together.

In Christ
Debra

I would love to speak at your conference, gathering, church or home group. Contact me here, on Facebook or on Twitter. Enjoy reading about Rivers of Eden and the Timeline of our Life!

Go Deep, Not Wide

Rivers of living water flow through my life. This is a promise given to me by Jesus Christ.

He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of the heart shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:38 (NKJV)

Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says. John 7:38 (Message)

What happens in those seasons when I only see trickles of water going forth, not a moving flow? Does the Word lose its reality and power? Of course not. The word is eternal, alive living. Yet, how about the manifestation in my life so that I am in sync with the word itself? Walking the Word is the way I love to say it.

I can’t force ‘flow”. Holy Spirit reveals Christ in my life. That flow is seamless and moving as my life is in sync with eternal realities in Christ. The Spirit directs the path and leads the way. It grows and I go from glory to glory.

Flow is that sweet spot, a seamless life in connection with God in Holy Spirit, living on earth with an awareness of the divine nature of Christ in me. (2 Peter 1:2) The Holy Spirit is our divine connector. (John 16:13-15) In reality, we are not moving in and out of the position. We exist in that place in Christ. We may have days where our awareness grows dim in the revelation, but that reality does not change as we are in Christ.

The awareness of the flow in Holy Spirit can be seen as mystical or supernatural and it is that. Yet I want to go beyond these words, which can immediately alienate people who feel they are neither mystical nor supernatural. Flow is life in Christ and the outworking of that life, His divine nature, is uniquely our creative expression in the earth today. I am in Christ and His life flows seamlessly through me.

I want to go deep in this revelation, deeper every day. I want to live in the midst of eternity invading my life. Rivers of living water flowing from me – my reality. The manifestation of this truth is multifaceted. Yes, there are the gifts of the Spirit in prophecy, healing, words of knowledge or wisdom – all of which sync us with heaven while on earth. Yet, I believe it goes beyond this when I contemplate the very life of Christ in me.

Paul says it like this: “…for in Him we live and move and have our being…” (Acts 17:28 NKJV)

Leonard Sweet has a great quote: “…to reveal Jesus’ incarnational beauty, truth and goodness to the world.”

To go deep? What does that mean for me? Living life out of the mix at times. Moving past updating, checking every post on my feed, keeping ahead of the latest developments so that I am trending my life in the moment. This is life living in the shallow water. Why? Because information never ceases. The Internet never shuts down and I will never get ahead of it. It will only cease to widen my life into an unrecognizable form. I want to go deep, not wide. I don’t need to know anything or follow any prescribed formulas. I follow Christ. He is the way, the truth, and the life.

Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19 NKJV)

Each of us has a journey in Christ. This diversity infuses the Body of Christ with creativity and originality. It is essential that we go deep, not wide. Too many live in the shallows right now. Journey out into the deep in Christ Jesus.

Image #1 – Flickr – Pandu Adnyana
Image #2 – Flickr – Jogendra Joshi

In Christ,
Debra

I would love to speak at your conference, gathering, church or home group. Contact me here, on Facebook or on Twitter. Enjoy reading about Rivers of Eden and the Timeline of our Life!

Walk It Out!

Walk in the reality of the Word. I determine in my heart, with a surety of belief that I am not content to sit in a passive mode concerning the Word of God. The Word is living, active and alive. The Word moves in my life, changing, bringing life, and transforming.

Image – Flickr – Steve Rotman

I read a great article on FB concerning Hollywood’s changing landscape regarding interactive movies and how we, as Christians, are called to interact in heavenly realities. You can read it by clicking here.

Interaction -I awake and  interact with the living Word of God. I am seated in heavenly places. Feeling shut down for so many years, I hid in the shadows, knowing deep inside that I am created to gaze upon His beauty and to reflect His glory in my life. How does one do that in the average church today? At times, the atmosphere can be inactive, with people passively sitting. Opportunities arise to minister through conventional means. Sometimes people don’t fit into the template of missions, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, etc. I believe and love the church. In no way am I putting it down. Just thinking of where my own life is heading and what I want as a Christian. We need an uplift, a makeover to truly reflect the glory and beauty of the King and to walk it out creatively, supernaturally.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (Ephesians 2:4-6 NKJV)

The Body of Christ needs an uplift into revelation of its inheritance in Christ. There are many seeing this right now and for that I am glad. Experience is a great word and should never be discounted or diminished in any way. It is the Word and the Holy Spirit that walk us in ever-increasing realms of glory here and now. The church is the last place that should be mundane, boring and irrelevant when the living Christ dwells in us…now.

I am seated in heavenly places. This position opens my vision to see, to look all around me as I am seated in eternal realms. I cannot nor do I wish to deny that my Christianity is truly eternal and supernatural. I manifest eternity into the earth realm. The short time that I spend on earth is only that – a short time. I need an uplift in my thinking again. A new download that takes me farther down the road and higher up into Christ in the revelation of Holy Spirit. It hit me this morning that I am not fully engaged in the reality of my Christianity in some aspects. Why? Because I lived in fear, regret and lost my eternal vision Yet, I will walk in this now. Why? I am awake now, allowing Holy Spirit to do what He will and to take me places in the Spirit He desires me to go. The Word of God does not tether me to earthly things. It teaches me to rise above for I am seated in heavenly places.

I set my mind on that. The Word and the Spirit.

1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. (Colossians 3:1-4 NKJV)

In Christ,
Debra

I would love to speak at your conference, gathering, church or home group. Contact me here, on Facebook or on Twitter. Enjoy reading about Rivers of Eden and the Timeline of our Life!