Really love. Not just pretend to love.

God I want to see your Kingdom Come through my life!  Use me.  Release your Kingdom through me.  Wherever you want me to go, for whatever purpose you have.  Use me to bring your Kingdom in the land of the living.  I want to see your Kingdom come.  I want to see people meet their King.  I want to be used for your purposes.  I want to be willing God, to be a sacrifice, to be a sacrifice of love, like you.  I want to love like you.  I want to be so overwhelmed and obsessed by your love and the joy of intimately relating to you, that I am willing to suffer any cost that those in front of me can know you.  I want to see the joy set before me as you see it.  I want to know that joy more, that I would count it all joy to give my life away in the process.  

I want to be willing to give my life away today, not just in the future, in some lofty idealized time or situation.  I want to consider my life today as not my own.  To consider my life as yours.  Already yours.  That it doesn't belong to me.  And if you want to spend it on any one person in front of me, then that is your choice.  My life is yours and you can do whatever you want.  You are my King.  You are the King of my life, the King of my heart.  I don't want to be begrudging of love or stingy with things, or gifts, or time.  I repent of all the so many times that I have been withholding and held back from loving people the way that you meant for me to.  I want to trust you in deeper ways, that I am free to love.  I am free to give and to spend my life, to waste my life on love.  

I want to really love.  Not just pretend to love.

Psalm 103:13-

"The Lord is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.  

For he remembers we are only dust.  

Our days are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.  

The wind blows, and we are gone-- as though we had never been here.  

But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.  

His salvation extends to the children's children of those who are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!  

The Lord has made the heavens his throne; from there he rules over everything.  

Praise the Lord, you angels who serve him and do his will!  ( I want to be one who serves you and does your will.  I want to be one who waits for and clings to your very words and notions for direction to act.)

Praise the Lord, everything he has created, everything in all his Kingdom.  

Let all that I am praise the Lord."

God I want to respond not just to your voice, but to the inclinations of your heart.  To the tiniest whisper and the look in your eyes.  I want to be moved by you.  I want to be aware of your Spirit moving in me.  Like the creatures and the wheels, I want to move with your Spirit.  I want to be moved by you.  Where you go, send me, bring me with you God.  I want to be with you, and move with you and do what you do. 

He is With Me in the Migration!

He leads us beside awesome waters :)

Well, I am at the coffee shop to journal, and without a pen.  So probably this will be a blog, hahaha.  I guess if I bother to type it I may as well share it.  

I'm so touched by the kindness of God to speak to us.  His voice is just so kind to lead.  He loves us so much.  And I love the journey with him.  I love the mysterious way he reveals himself all the time.  After teaching about 4 times in Brazil about "hearing God", I think I am really starting to believe that he speaks to me all the time.  

I have really been encouraged by friends testimonies of all the different ways that God speaks to them.  He reminds us of his love in secret personalized code just for us.  haha.  For one he reminds through frequent sitings of ladybugs, for one its cardinals, for one its emotional breakdowns on mountaintops in various countries, for some its reoccurring numbers that we see everywhere with some kind of significance, a reminder, and encouragement.  Whatever it is, its this constant whisper, "I am with you always. I will never leave you. I AM with you."  

I am on a journey with the Lord.  I am watching for him and listening for him in the ordinary, everyday.

A few days ago, I was riding the train/bus from my friends in Fort Worth to my family in Allen.  It was my first time to be making the transfer at night at the bus stop in Dallas.  Things get a little interesting at night in public transportation in Dallas.  So I am standing there, and I notice the big number 121 lit up on the train.  And I notice it in that way, that I know is the Lord wanting me to pay attention.  So later I looked up Psalm 121, its all about the protection of the Lord. 

Ps 121:7,8 

The LORD will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

     the LORD will watch over your coming and going

     both now and forevermore.

Thank you God.  His promises are so sweet, especially when he whispers them to us and lets us know its real for us.  He is so personal.

Commissioned with love by the children Brazil

I went out of town visiting friends for the past 3 weeks.  And I felt that the Lord was going to give me some specific direction for the next steps for my life.  And I felt that it would be really fun and honoring to ask my parents to ask him for specific words about my next steps and wherever I go.  So I did.  

And this morning, one of the things God showed my mom was this revelation about how the Lord leads birds in their migration and seasons and they listen to him and follow.

Jeremiah 8:7

Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration….

And the Sunday before I left Brazil 6 weeks ago, I had been really touched by a friend prophesying over me that I was like a bird in migration, who would come and go in the right seasons…

Thank you Jesus for confirmations.  And for speaking to us as a body.  Thank you that we prophesy in part and we get to share our parts and see more of the picture.  Thank you God for speaking.  And that you are always with me!  The great I AM.

Welcomed with Mangoes!

So it was really fun to have an opportunity to adventure with God yesterday to a place where we didn't know anyone or what to expect, and to just ask him to do what he wanted to do and to connect us with whoever he wanted to.  We went to a small community on a mountainside about 30 minutes outside of Fortaleza.  They were listed on the website as an unreached people group so we went to investigate :)  A man who gave us directions at the gas station in the town nearby said, "watch out for the arrows."  Which was funny except he didn't smile or laugh when he said it... but thank God, he was joking.  The people we met were very hospitable to us.  We weren't totally sure if it was ok to enter, so we just kept asking people on the side of the road as we went, "are we there yet, is this it, how do we get there, and is it ok to drive in further to visit...".  

When we arrived, we saw a church building, and were surprised!  Weren't expecting that.  The church has about 30 members, 20 from one family, and the rest from outside the reservation.  Its planning to close soon.  A lady was there cleaning and let us come in to tell us about the community.  

Then she introduced us to a 76 year old woman, Deuzete, who had an amazing conversion story and a mango orchard :)  She had lived there her whole life.  And about 15 years ago, was dying of throat and lung cancer and tuberculosis.  Her daughter tried to convince her to come to church to get prayer, but she said, "No, I hate believers!".  But she was healed, and now her whole family are believers.  And she is fearless.  She took anointing oil and prayed around a big tree where the village preforms rituals, one day before they were going to have rituals there.  And then they were all mad at her because they couldn't connect with spirits there!  But she said, "If my God is for me, who can be against me."

She showed us around her property and we picked 5 sacks full of mangos and other Brazilian fruits that I can't spell.  And she said, next time you come you can put your tents here, and we will have so much more to give you.  She was excited that for the first time a group of missionaries might come to her community.

They told us where the chief's house was so we went to meet him.  His wife, Luisa, welcomed us in immediately.  And talked to us, mostly looking at the ground, telling us about their community.  She and the chief, Daniel, don't really have an active faith.  They both claimed to believe in God in a general sort of way.  Their native religious leader just practices macumba now. (which is an african witchcraft/ idol worship which is common in Brazil)  And she was crying because thats not even native, nor the drugs that people have brought in.  Really it sounds as if they have sort of lost their identity.  And that their is almost no witness of the living God and real relationship with him there. 

We prayed with the chief before we left, for rain so that they can plant their crops (its been a super dry year in this state).  And he welcomed us to come back anytime.  

So we will pray for heaven's strategy for these people!  And can't wait to see how God wants to introduce himself.  It seems so crazy to have this little group, that no one has really gone to, right by a huge city full of many believers and all kinds of religion.  Like this tiny little forgotten people.  But they are not forgotten!  The light of the world is coming to them.

It was a simple and wonderful beginning.  A door cracked open...  What a blessing to participate.  Love will flood that place.  Thanks for praying for us!

Andrea