GROUP HUG

GROUP HUG

  • Encountering the Father, Godhead Parenting

GROUP HUG

I was sitting with the Lord, processing something in my heart. He told me to go grab three crowns (each member of our family has a specific crown) and put them on the floor in a triangle shape. He began to show me how so often we come to Him in a line as if we are standing face to face. That is great, except it still requires a lot of us (to hear well, discern, plug in, etc.). He said to put my heart carrying that issue in the center of all three of them. I did just that and experienced an encounter so deep that it reduced me to tears. I have never felt so unbelievably insignificant in the best way possible. When God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit huddle together for a group hug with you in the middle, something is going to shift. I encourage you to allow Him to encounter your heart today in the same way.

GOD IS MY PROTECTOR!

We had just moved into our new home in California when I had the strangest dream about a yappy dog outside my patio. He wasn’t annoying me but trying to tell me something. It was so real. I woke up and sensed God telling me to turn the outside light on. I didn’t partner with fear but heard Him say, “Do not look outside. Just turn on the light.” I ended up staying up after that and never felt afraid as I knew God had my back but knew something was happening outside my patio door. It was the strangest thing. There is power in TURNING ON THE LIGHT!

MY JOURNEY

I told God, lying on my hospital bed, that I wanted to be a poster child of His power. A week later, I was supernaturally healed of both my kidney and liver failure. Twenty-seven years later, He continues to display His power throughout my life. When I am going through something, I seem to REALLY go through things. I feel, embrace, endure, process, and ponder. I just have this knowing that what God is doing IN me, He will eventually want to do THROUGH me. I sometimes laugh at the depth in which God takes me when He seems to take others faster. Part of it is through my process; He is allowing me to give language for it, along with powerful tools of heaven, knowing that I will share it with others. My life is not my own, but His for His use for His purposes.

DIFFICULT CHILD

Most of us have a child who challenges us greatly. I want to expand your thinking a wee bit about their behavior and how it affects you. God is a perfect Father and knows what YOU need. He didn’t create that child to annoy you; He created them perfectly to BLESS you. We often act like we are the wise old ones who know everything, and these little children are clueless and must be molded to OUR image, but the Word says the little ones were knit together in HIS image. I have a child who is extremely JOYFUL – like over-the-top joyful, bouncing off the walls, high-pitched voice JOYFUL. It took me a long time to figure this out, but the goal isn’t to calm her down to be ‘mature.’ God was sending her to me so that *I* could learn to walk in more joy! I have another one who is STRONG – like crazy strong and able to lead, make decisions, and determine right from wrong. She threatens me at times. But the goal isn’t to shut her down and win every argument; the goal is to partner with her to allow her leadership to blossom. Oftentimes God gives adults, who are high-strung, children who are super mellow so that they will learn patience through the child. Or a parent who is very relaxed and mellow, a child who is go, go, go so that they can learn about becoming more disciplined. Look at the child you clash with the most and ask Holy Spirit to highlight what it is that YOU are to be learning from THEM. We can still be adults while being students of our children.

NO CHURCH, KNOW CHURCH

How many of you feel lost without corporate worship, weekly gatherings, and deeper interaction? How many long to pass the Communion plate and enter His presence together? With the lack of church meetings, have you found Him on your own? Have you opened your Bible? Hosted your own worship time? Prayed? Taken Communion? Or has no church left you empty? We need to change the language from NO church to KNOW church. YOU are the church as He dwells inside of you. If we can only find His presence, hear Him, and enjoy Him in the company of others, perhaps we know church more than we know HIM! It’s time to buy your own oil by learning how to go after Him in the secret times when no one else is around. When you starve yourself, your body will eventually stop giving you hunger pangs as a way of survival. When you eat, you become hungry. It doesn’t matter if you FEEL like feeding your spirit; we do it anyway SO THAT it creates a hunger for more. We read our Bible, pray, worship, and take Communion, which increases our desire for more. If you are waiting for the hunger to kick in, you could be waiting for a long time. Dive in today and start eating. 

HERE’S THE KEY – When corporate gatherings start happening again, there will be an explosion of His Spirit because you will have oil in you to burn! Don’t wait for the church to start again so that you can enjoy someone else’s fire – get your own – today!

LET’S ASK JESUS

Call to your mind when your firstborn baby was born, and you held them in your arms for the first time. Visit that memory for a bit.

Then ask, “Jesus, will You show me a picture of how BIG Your Father is in relation to the baby?” Now picture YOU as that little newborn baby.

Next, gather as a family in the living room, in the car, at the dinner table, or at bedtime, and ask Jesus together. This is empowering for children because they witness how God communicates with you, which increases their faith, and together you get to encounter Him. Spiritual hearing is a muscle that is strengthened by worshiping and praying. The more you do it, the stronger you become at it.

CHECK YOUR BELLY

When the kids were younger and would violate one of our household rules, such as no hitting, I would say to them, “Check your belly,” which means how does your belly feel right now. Sin never feels good or brings peace. I was helping them see that it wasn’t just about their performance or obeying the law but that it does not profit them to sin. As the years have rolled on, we have zeroed in on this principle of “how does your belly feel?” as this is where we gauge our peace. If you don’t have peace, no matter the circumstance, chances are you probably shouldn’t be doing it. Peace is His presence, and we want to be in peace at all times. 

HUNGRY TOGETHER

I started out just offering the Kingdom parenting class to moms, and then He brought a slew of hungry dads to join us. Then grandmas started asking to join because they wanted to influence their grandchildren and have a better connection with their adult children. My heart leaped when grandmas and adult daughters wanted to take the class together. Then there was a season where He was bringing young married couples who had not yet become parents but wanted to align their hearts and mind with Him before they brought children into the world. I smiled when singles began to take the class, saying they wanted to heal from some of the parenting choices their parents made in raising them. Jesus is just so good. And in our relaunching of the class, He is unfolding a new theme – besties coming together to learn side by side. We have couples taking it with their best friends and small groups of girlfriends taking it simultaneously. They are learning together in the class and then intentionally connecting weekly to discuss and go deeper. 

LINGER WITH JESUS

Fight to be a Mary in this loud season. Find His feet and linger there. This affects your mind and heart and brings a calm and peace your children are desperate for at this hour. They don’t want to be doing more; they want to know the peace from a mother that has gazed upon Jesus long enough to transform her.

JESUS LOVES GAMES

My son came for some snuggles while I was having my time with Jesus. I had him ask Jesus if He wanted to spend time with him too, which He confirmed. Then I asked, “Ask Him what He wants to do with you,” and my son said, “Play on my tablet.” Of course, I didn’t NOT think that was Jesus, but guarding against being the middleman, I let it go. An hour later, as I was spiking his hair, he said he didn’t do very well playing his video game. I jokingly said, “How is that possible? I thought Jesus was playing with you,” and he said, “No, I was doing all of the driving,” and it organically turned into the sweetest conversation about letting Jesus be in the driver’s seat of our lives. Where I thought my son was more interested in his computer games than spending time with Jesus, He orchestrated the entire moment THROUGH the very thing that mattered to my son. He is so good!