ARREST IT

ARREST IT

  • Authority, JOURNEY

ARREST IT

A mom shares: “My oldest daughter (6) has been having nightmares every single night for months, and last night I used your illustration about the police officer and taking authority to tell fear to leave. Holy Spirit prompted me to tell jealousy to leave. And I saw my daughter get triggered and start to cringe. She couldn’t keep it together. I told her she could do it, and it was a long process of telling her that jealousy has been a bad friend to her since she was 3 (all from Holy Spirit!), and she just nodded in agreement but couldn’t speak it with her mouth. There were tears and frustration and agony from her. It was so deep. We ended the night with her finally repeating after me to break her friendship with jealousy and declaring that her new friend was thankfulness. It was such a powerful moment. That night, she had no nightmares and slept through the night!! My daughter is not a ‘jealous’ type of girl. One would not look at her actions and think that’s what she struggles with. She is thoughtful, sweet, and kind. But God knows what’s going on!”

LEGACY

A dad sent me this message, and it touched me so deeply.

“I wanted to send you a message to let you know how much I appreciate you! My wife and I are grateful that God put you in our lives. We have been so blessed by your teaching and the way God works through you. We would like to sponsor four families to take your course, 1 for each one of our kids. You have changed our family forever. Thank you!”

This is a gift of gratitude for what the Father has done and inviting other children to join in the same legacy. Jesus!

HE WASTES NOTHING

Hear what a mom taking our online JOURNEY class shares: “This class is so, so good. And very helpful. As I look back over the years, I’m getting so much revelation about my own family, specifically with our eldest son. Wow! So powerful. This class is helping to really connect the dots for me and also to deal with going forward. Even though I wish I had known or understood fully what you were teaching years ago, I’m choosing to rest in the truth. You have also reminded us that God is in charge of our children’s stories. And He wastes nothing.”

FEAR OF MORE

On the first day of our online parenting JOURNEY class, we talk about going deeper on our journey with Him. I ask heart questions regarding their hunger for more. Would you be surprised to learn that nearly all of the responses to this question reveal a desire for more but a FEAR? It doesn’t matter what the fear is, but fear is almost always there. What if fear was just a LIE whispered by the enemy to get YOU to forgo all of the goodness God has for you? Since the enemy has no power to stop you, what if he whispers those lies to you, which creates fear that gets you to stay where you are and forsake the MORE of God? I encourage you to break agreement with the lie and ask Father God what HIS truth is. “God, is it true that _____?”

If you are ready for more, come join our next class! Journey – ONLINE CLASS – Let the Children Fly

COMING ON VS. WITHIN

Picture walking into a friend’s house who just had a big fight with her husband. Now picture walking into a friend’s house who just got engaged. Both homes would carry an atmosphere – one would be uptight and anxious and the other full of joy. You would FEEL it before you knew the circumstances. In both situations, the atmosphere you feel is NOT YOU, but the events that just occurred. Many are feeling the ATMOSPHERE of dread, worry, anxiety, fear, and frustration, but that does not mean it is YOU. I often say to my children, “That is coming ON you. It is not coming from WITHIN you.” Why is this important? Because we can allow the atmosphere of the world to become ours when we partner with it, OR you can choose not to. Yes, we are in very uncertain times, but the weight of the world is not on you to carry. You can keep your peace, joy, and clarity even in the midst of the storm. Take a deep breath. You are going to be okay. You have what it takes to overcome. You can do this. Peace is a choice.

DO NOT ABDICATE YOUR THRONE

 In January 1936, the King of England died. Following royal protocol, his eldest son assumed the throne, becoming King Edward the Eighth. But in December of that same year, only months into his reign, King Edward stunned the nation when he formally abdicated the country’s throne and the many benefits of royalty. What is especially alarming is the phrasing of the official decree, which ended in these haunting words: “I, Edward the Eighth … renounce the Throne for Myself and for My descendants.” Imagine. With one stroke of the pen, this man sealed his fate and the fate of his children and grandchildren for generations into the future.

As parents, we, too, occupy a throne in the sense that God has given us a position of authority in our kids’ lives. We mustn’t renounce that influence. Children don’t need us to be their friends – someone telling them what they want to hear. They need a parent – an authority figure willing to speak the truth into their lives. Of course, we should listen to our children and consider their views carefully, but our kids should not be allowed to run the home. That’s our God-given responsibility. So, take the lesson of King Edward to heart. Abdicating your authority could risk your kids’ future for generations to come. 

GO PLAY

How many of you can relate to this mom in the area of PLAYING with your children? 

“The first word that came to mind that He wants me to do differently is PLAY! I am not good at playing. It’s not natural for me, but I see my kids come to life when we lighten things up and PLAY. So, Holy Spirit, come and give me a spirit of playfulness! Let me have FUN with my kids!!”

Lisa’s response: Can you sit with it and ask Him to show you what about play makes your heart so uncomfortable? This is where God uses the next generation to align and restore the current generation and what was lost. Allow Him to reveal, heal and restore the art of joyful play.

HE WORKS

A father in class shares: “This thing is working, man!! Last night our kids got into it; it ended with our daughter crying and son trying to defend himself. I asked him what had happened, and he told me everything that had happened except leaving out what he had done. Instead of continuing to question him for the truth, Holy Spirit told me to tell him to go to his room and ask Jesus what happened. Five minutes later, he came back, and this time he told me the entire story, including his portion of it! Then I asked him what did Jesus say, and he said, ‘Jesus told me to talk to her instead of pushing her and making her fall.’ Yay!”

TEACH THEM TO COME TO ME

If this testimony describes your heart’s desire, join us for the next online class to learn HOW. 

“I felt immensely inadequate. One day I just fell to the ground in tears and cried out, ‘God, I cannot do it all; I am not capable! My children need more than me; I am not enough!’ He said back to me, ‘I am enough, teach them to come to Me!’ BOOM! Right there, I realized so much of me was still working in my own efforts, and the Holy Spirit corrected me; He is what they need, not me. They needed to learn to go to Him, hear Him, and know Him. I love this lesson and the steps to guide our children to get to the source of the issue. So many times, we circle around the issues repeatedly, never getting to the root of the problem. In our own human efforts, we try to gain ground by dealing with the superficial symptoms instead of addressing the true issues, the hurt, the lie, or the offense. When we take ourselves out of the picture and teach our children to go to Daddy, He is the one that can deal with the truth of the circumstances, and He does it SO much more efficiently than I do. I hope to embed these steps more and more as I lead the hearts of my children. I hope to grow them up in a way where they are empowered. I am, again, thankful that God has led me to this class to bring more focus and direction in leading my children by the Spirit.” 

Join us here: Journey – ONLINE CLASS – Let the Children Fly

TOUGHER VS. STRONGER

Going through a crisis in and of itself does not make one stronger. In fact, in the natural, tragedy has the recipe to make one hardened, full of fear, and erect walls around their heart to keep it safe. How does a crisis make you stronger, then? By allowing God to purify those areas that are coming up while you are enduring the crisis. If we don’t allow God access to those places (the fear, poverty mindsets, lack, smallness in thinking, lack of faith, feeling unsafe, etc.), we will gain endurance in the crisis, not strength. We will be able to say, “I went through a divorce/disaster/death,” but you carry the same weight with you. Others allow God to purify them in their crisis, taking whatever is coming up to the surface to Him. They are the ones who say, “I went through a divorce/disaster/death and am a stronger person for it.” The choice in a crisis is to either medicate your flesh with things that make you feel temporarily safe (food, shopping, porn, denial, social media, avoidance, anger outbursts, etc.) or to steward the uncomfortable emotions and give God room to purify you. You may not be able to stop the crisis, but you do have a choice in either partnering with God’s redemptive work in you in the midst or resisting it. Tough has to do with endurance and how much you can go through. Strong has to do with strength. We don’t just want to say we endured hard things. We want to allow it to build our faith, emotional, relational, and spiritual muscles, which makes us stronger. Whatever the weight that is in your heart/mind is the very thing that, when given to God, makes you stronger!