Finishing Well

Oops... I missed November! 🤭😅 It was a mentally and physically exhausting month. I had many ideas, but a link in the chain from thought to typing broke 🙃 I will continue to work on those ideas, and bring them to life in the future.

Recently, I caught up with my original intercessor & prophetic mentors. One of our topics of conversation was, "Finishing Well".

I had a friend, a pastor from Texas who's blog was named, "Finishing Well". He passed away about a year ago. We never actually met in person, but he was a source of encouragement to me. He was like a wise uncle who would occasionally check in on me, and encouraged me when I needed. As a Palliative Care Chaplain, he helped me through the process of losing my parents-in-law. 

His aim in life was to Finish Well. I believe he did. 

I'm sure many of us desire to finish well. To hear those words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant" (Matthew 5:23).  

How many of us, if we're honest, question how we would respond in a life or death situation? Would we be prepared to die for our faith? To be imprisoned for following Jesus? With the way the world is going, it can be quite a sobering topic. None of us wants to die for our faith, right? But, I'm sure most of us would rather find ourselves in heaven, for being faithful, than hell, for giving in to fear.

I loved how my mentors concluded this subject.... we all need to be praying for ourselves, and our friends to finish well. 

So, if you are reading this, I pray that you have the courage and determination to finish well. To eventually hear the words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant". 🦋©️

Vision of the Potter's Lantern

 This morning at church, during worship, God showed me a vision. I saw a potter's wheel, but instead of clay, a glass ball was being created. Two hands were holding it, as if it was a crystal ball. I said, "God, I don't like this. I don't understand what it means!"

 He continued the vision. As I watched the hands working, I began to see the ball shape change. It began to stretch upwards. What began as a ball gave the appearance of a lantern. The old fashioned style oil lantern. I felt God say, "Don't accept what you first see. Things are not always as they initially appear. I AM in the details. Don't be afraid. Don't stress. Just wait. Wait for me to show you MY version. What the enemy means for evil, I turn around to GOOD". He showed me that he uses US as lights in the lantern. His light shines through us, and when we feel surrounded by darkness, we are to be His light. 

Isaiah 41:10 NIV-  So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

This resonated with me, as I've been experiencing intense spiritual warfare during the last few weeks. I'm sure I'm not the only one who needs to hear this. 🦋©️

Renew our strength, Lord

 Isaiah 40:30-31 NIV - Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.

On the eve of a new month, I'm reminded of the weary feeling... it's a battle to not "grow tired and weary" , but life doesn't always go as planned... and I'm holding on to that hope of the Lord to renew my strength. 

I have been weary this month. I'm standing on His hope. His strength. I continue to stand, even though I'm tired. 

I'm praying for all of us feeling the weariness from constant warfare, mixed with 'life'.

Tomorrow is a new day...a new month. The warfare probably won't decrease- after all it will be October... but we can continue to stand and hope in the Lord's strength to keep refreshing us, and pushing us forward.  

Let's continue to ready ourselves to soon soar on wings like Eagles! We may be tired, but we will rise, if we don't give in to the weariness 🦋

Let Nothing Move You

1 Corinthians 15:58: Let nothing move you.  (Condensed by me).

One morning, as I was walking from the train, I came towards about 30 pigeons on the ground. They were feeding in the grass. As I approached, they all flew away...except for one scruffy looking black bird. It wasn't until the others flew away, that this different bird was exposed. It just stood there looking at me. No fear. It wasn't moving for anything! It was the lone one. I also just looked at, without a care, as I continued to walk by. Just like that bird was not moving, I had no intention to stop walking.  

I thought, that is how we, and our prayers should be. We don't fly away, or run when we perceive a possible threat... we stand. We should be so secure in our faith, and in ourselves, that we are unmovable. We stay at our post. 

When evil approaches, the light within us should scare away the darkness. Evil flies away, not us!

It reminds me of the phrase, "Eagles don't fly with pigeons". 

It could have been easy for that lone bird to just follow the pigeons, and fly away. It chose to be an 'eagle'. Both times. I can confirm there was no danger for either of us, but those pigeons didn't stay to find out. Let's not be like those pigeons. We're created to be Eagles.

(I didn't take any photos that day...but a few days later, the exact experience repeated.... so then I took photos!) ©️🦋

The Story of Daisy and Lily

 This creative story was inspired around 2012. It is metaphorically based on a real friendship that was impacted by mental health issues. There are two sides to every story - this story is based on my feelings and thought processes at the time.

This is the story of two friends, Daisy & Lily. Daisy lived in a lovely house with a white verandah and white picket fence.
Sometimes her friend Lily would walk past and see Daisy sitting on her verandah. When Daisy saw Lily, she would walk down her path to her picket gate and greet Lily. They would have great chats and leave
each other’s company feeling happy.

One day, Lily walked to Daisy's house, but before she could reach the gate, Daisy walked inside. Lily knew Daisy could have days where she didn’t want to talk to people, so she kept walking that day.
The next day, the same thing happened. Lily did not know what to do, so she decided to knock on Daisy's door to see if she was ok. Daisy did not respond, so Lily continued on her way.

It seemed to Lily that Daisy was going through a rough time and did not want to talk to Lily, so Lily left notes in Daisy's mailbox to let her know she cared. Daisy did not respond.

After a few occasions of Lily walking by and not seeing Daisy, there came a day when Daisy was again sitting on her verandah. Lily saw this, and decided to walk up to the gate and say Hello. Daisy ignored Lily! So Lily continued on her way...

A few days later, Lily walked up to the gate, and Daisy was again sitting on her verandah. Again, Lily said, "Hello". This time Daisy glared at Lily, as if the friendly gesture was an offense. Lily began to find walking past Daisy's house difficult. She tried not to avoid Daisy, because they were good friends, but the rejection was becoming too much. There were times when Daisy would see Lily coming, and look towards a neighbour to begin a conversation, so as to avoid Lily completely.

Lily finally stepped aside. The constant rejection from Daisy had reached its limit. She had tried to let Daisy know she cared, but to no avail. At one point, Daisy spoke very loudly to a neighbour - as Lily was passing by - that placing notes in the mailbox was offensive and not good enough. That was the last straw for Lily. As much as she cared for Daisy, she valued her self-respect more... so she began to take a different path that did not pass Daisy's house.

Daisy had been too busy not letting others into her world, that she rejected those who cared about her. In the end, her friends felt so rejected, they could not take any more rejection. They did not allow themselves to be in situations where they could experience rejection... which made the one doing the rejecting even more angry... but that was something only one person could change.

So... even though Lily changed her route to avoid further rejection and emotional abuse, she didn’t stop caring for Daisy. She felt Daisy needed time and space to work through her issues, so gave Daisy space to do so, hoping she would be able to again walk by that gate soon. To experience an, "Hello" instead of a scowl. It took much time for the "Hello" to return... although the friendship was now fractured.

After thought:
Mental illness is very real. Please don't take your friends for granted - Their feelings and mental health are just as valued as yours. 🦋©️

Keep Going! 🔥

 This month, instead of trying to untangle the spaghetti strands of thoughts in my head, I'll leave you with this encouraging quote from Facebook 🦋

Prophetic Word 24/5/24

 

As I sat down on the train this morning, I thought, "What a beautiful sight! The sunshine breaking through the haze". God then reminded me, "That's Mount Disappointment" (you can google the story-  2 explorers were disappointed by the view). I took more photos from my destination station & outside work. I love His nature! 

I feel God is saying, Don't focus on the mountain... the men may have named that mountain, but God continues to rise above it! Keep your eyes focused on the light, and don't let the disappointments have any power! I will ALWAYS rise like the morning sun. ‭

Psalm 121:1 NIV‬ I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from?