Getting burnt!

For a while now I have been asking God to show me what it really means to guard my heart.
'Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.' Proverbs 4:23

Then as I looked in the mirror at my sore red, peeling back, arms, nose and shoulders something began to make sense. The world is full of things that can appear to be good and are okay in small doses but if you're not careful it can lead to you getting burnt. Guarding my heart is about watching the environment I am in, putting the 'sun cream protection' on of spending private time with Daddy God and allowing him to show me and speak truth over my life. Now I did put sun cream on while I was in Guatemala, factor 30 in fact, but not enough; I wasn't continually putting it on or being careful how long I was in the sun for. I just enjoyed how the sun looked on the water, the feel of it on my skin; it appeared harmless. My burnt back reveals otherwise. I am still on a journey of learning what it means to guard your heart. I would love to hear your thoughts on the topic...:)

Revival Through Unity

I was away at a conference a couple of weeks ago that was themed on the Father's Heart. The speakers were Mark Stibbe founder of 'The Father's House Trust' and Heidi Baker founder of 'Iris Ministries'. When I was standing under an open heaven of intimacy with my Heavenly Father there was a great release of God's mercy. I saw His children in need of being bought back into the arms of their loving Daddy God and I was wrecked. Tears and more tears. Since the beautiful garden of Eden, Satan has been making orphans, he is the ultimate orphan-maker. He made orphans out of Adam and Eve and he has been in that profession of stealing, lying and destroying ever since. It's time it stopped. Both spiritual orphans that need their Heavenly Father and orphans on earth that have no parents.

A way that this could be overcome is for spiritual mothers and fathers to rise up in the church.
God speaks in Malachi 4:6 that God will 'turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.' Through God speaking to me through the book 'Jesus Culture - Living A Life That Transforms The World' by Banning Liebscher and in other ways, God has revealed His heart to me that He wants revival to come through the generations aligning themselves. Blessings fall in abundance with the power of God's ordered alignment. In Exodus 17, there is the story where Joshua was sent with some other men by Moses to fight against the Amalekites. While Joshua and the rest of the army fought courageously and skilfully, Moses was holding up the rod of God overlooking the battle. Even though Joshua and the army were well-trained, they began to loose the battle as soon as Moses' arms weakened and the rod lowered but once again they became victorious when Aaron and Hur assisted Moses in holding up the Rod of God. The victory could not have been won without each generation. Moses and Joshua were dependent on one another and in correct alignment. There was a submission to authority and there was an honouring of the elder.

There is a generation gap in the church that is quenching the Holy Spirit and stopping revival. Banning Liebscher describes two reasons for this. The first reason is that there is a spirit of independence in the generations. The younger generation has the mind-set that they can do things without the older generation and that the older generation do not understand them. Pride oozes out. Now when God was rising up this passion in me to see the generations align, it was only right that He showed me the garden of my heart which actually had the weeds of independence in it that were choking life from allowing me to see God's greatness through alignment. The seeds of independence were sown in my childhood where once the Lord set me free from the enemy using fear against me, he caught me in another way where I felt that because I had relied so much on my parents in that fearful time I had to prove myself. So once God revealed this to me, we dealt with it  together with lots of Holy Spirit weed killer. It has produced a lot joyful freedom as I re-aligned myself with my parents and He is teaching me to honour them fully.

The next reason is that the church has believed the lie that Satan has been telling them about how revival is going to come. The lie has seem to spread like wildfire that revival is only coming through the younger generation. Eck-errr! Revival is coming when the generations unite. So come on spiritual mothers and fathers! rise up! There are no lesser sons or daughters of the King. God can use anyone! You just have to position yourself to cling to the Father. Allow Him to love on you and then let that love pour out on others, on your spiritual sons and/or daughters. Who are you investing in? and who is investing in you?

You are love, Lord and Your ways testify

God's been doing some big things in me that are taking a while to process. I look forward to sharing them with you soon but in the meantime here is a song that I am really enjoying at the moment..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd22xG4_14
'You are Love' by Rend Collective Experiment

:)

We are the branches! :)

 ^'“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.' John 15:5-8


This is our Kingdom Identity. We were made to be attached to Jesus, abiding in Him and allowing His words to bring life resulting in us producing satisfying love, delicious joy, refreshing peace, sweet kindness, aromatic goodness, sustaining faithfulness, nurturing gentleness and nourishing self-control that glorifies the gardener that is our Heavenly Father. Sometimes I forget and try to do things in my own strength. Then when I get worn out and wonder why it feels harder than it should be I fall at my Heavenly Father's feet with Him gently saying 'shall we do it together?' We were made to have the amazing privilege of being co-labourers with Christ (1 Cor 3:9) for it is through Him that we can do all things (Phil 4:13). 

God's grace

As part of my teaching course I was required to go on a visit to a Sikh Gurdwara in Southgate, London as when you teach R.E you have to teach about different religions which may include a visit to a religious place of worship. Before the visit I was a little unsettled because of what spirits may try to attach themselves to me in the Gurdwara but then I remembered the bible verse 'You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.' 1 John 4:4

I would be going into this Sikh Gurdwara as a light for Jesus. 

What struck me as I sat there on the floor with a pink scarf covering my head and no shoes listening to the Sikh tour guides was how beautiful the decoration of this place of worship was but it felt pointless because it wasn't for glorifying the one true God, the God who humbled himself to come down to earth to sacrifice Himself for our sins in order to bring us back to relationship with Him and claim back our authority He had given us in the beginning that we disgustingly handed over to the enemy. They spoke about how love was in all that they do but it felt empty. 

I respected that they said that they are very much for equality and do not judge others. They said any member of any religion may come to their Gurdwara to worship their different gods. Also, that they were very hospitable. These characteristics should be of the church too as a result of living out God's will of love which I think sometimes people don't always see the first point about equality when they think of the church. Very sad!

In his book, John Ortberg describes that there are many religions that share the same principles of serving and helping but what makes Christianity stand out is God's grace. 

Curiosity

As me and my sister were going to our house group 'Radiant' yesterday, I sat at the bus stop to find this was written on the bus stop glass:

 'Give me land, lots of land
  And the starry skies above.
  Don't fence me in'


It's not the normal scribble graffiti that is displayed around London, it has depth and meaning behind it.
I couldn't help but take a photo of it as so many questions rolled around in my mind..
Who was this person?
Why did they feel the need to write this in a public place yet leave it anonymous?
What was 'fencing them in' and making them feel trapped?
What is the land and starry skies representative to them?
Did they write this or is it a quote from somewhere that they identified with?

All I can think of is the line from a Vicky Beeching song: 'where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom'.
I probably won't get those questions answered but I hope this person finds the freedom they want.

Thames Youth Walk For Charity

On Tuesday 10th April, Restore Youth and their leaders set off with big bags on a sponsored Thames walk to raise money for charities such as Water Aid, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Latin Link and my charity was Athentikos. 

Reading the map to find out which way we should go from Putney Bridge.

After a few miles...

Stopping to pray near Battersea Power Station and allowing God to speak through it.

                               
Ringing the bell for freedom in the year of Jubilee outside the Archbishop of Canterbury's gaff.

There was a series of tasks set for each 'family', telling a joke to a stranger was one of them!

Awkwardly, the man didn't speak and understand English very well.

Famous London Eye!

Praying for our government!

'I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.' 1 Timothy 2:1-4

Taking a break!

                                                     Restore Youth in Greenwich

Praying for God to rain down His spirit on London.

                  'Team Reem' (Oh dear! :P) performing their brilliant rap that was one of the tasks.

                                        My family for the walk :)

                                               
                                             Nice views!

18 miles, 6 large blisters, lots of laughs, bringing heaven on earth, money going to make a difference.

Yeah, I'd do it again.