Day 134

Today is the 134th Day of  The Red Shoe Project.  I am about to retire for the evening, and I am overwhelmed, in such a wonderful way, by the send off I have received from all of my dear Sarasota friends.  They have blessed me beyond anything I could ever have imagined! 


Yesterday, I had so many last minute errands to take care of before taking off, but I made it a point to attend my Monday night Bible Study in the Gospel of John.  We started off the night with testimonies to bless the soul.  My absolute favorite, is what I refer to as a "recycled" testimony.  That's when someone has a new testimony that piggy backs on someone else's past testimony.

Remember when I shared the testimony of the man who walked out the door and smelled the beautiful fragrance of the gardenia bush? ... and God said to him, "That's how I smell!"   Well last night, we had another wonderfully "wrecked"  brother, who shared how he's been talking to God about his deceased dad, and wondering if his dad is now with Him.  He happened to go by his dad's cemetery plot this weekend...  just because.  His dad was on his heart. (So many of us can relate to that situation).

What "wrecked"  him was the fact that right by his dad's site is something that he never noticed before... a beautifully overgrown, totally in bloom, and fragrant to the max, gardenia bush.  You guessed it... He remembered the other brother's testimony, and now God was using the gardenia bush to speak specifically to him.  How great is that?  What a glorious testimony! We were all a bit "wrecked."  God is  reaching into the depths of His children's hearts and pouring in His magnificent love! There's just nothing like a powerful, personal touch from God! And recycled testimonies are often doubly anointed!

At the end of the meeting, we closed in prayer, with another member in our group, re-dedicating their life to God, and preparing to be water baptized.  His sincere prayer to God was so moving.  He stated afterwards, "Oh I prayed this prayer before, because I had to, and nothing happened.  But now... ever since I've been coming around this church and these meetings, God is everywhere and all sorts of things are happening.  I'm in!"  

If that weren't enough, my co-facilitator insisted that I get in the middle of our prayer circle so that the group could lay hands on me and pray for me as I head out on this trip.  Just the fact that they did that was awesome, let alone that it was so sincere and powerful!  I felt like I was floating on air when I left.  Our Monday night group may be small,  but it's impacting lives... mine included!

My bags were packed late last night.  I was up, in RED shoes, and ready to take off by 9 a.m.  A dear friend and powerful Woman of Prayer  gave me a beautiful RED jacket that I decided to wear while I travel.  She gave it to me with such love, that when I put it on, I feel divinely protected and filled with His Spirit.  My ride arrived.  I jumped in and we were off to the Women's Bible Study and then to the airport.



After a powerful morning of ministry, the gals had me sit in the center of their prayer circle where they prayed God's blessing upon me.  Talk about the Fire of God!  I felt commissioned to go!  By the time I got to the airport, I was glowing and going!  LOL.

So, I have opened my heart and just taken in all the blessings that were poured out to me in prayer, in words of encouragement, and in gifts in these last 24 hours.  My cup is full and running over.  I say,

"THANK YOU JESUS!  

You have blessed me with many great FRIENDS." 

Traveling in RED shoes,

Gail

Day 133

This 133rd Day of  The Red Shoe Project has me running all around town, in my RED flats, taking care of last minute details.  Tomorrow I'm off to Scotland.

Yes... The Red Shoe Project will be coming to you live from the U.K. for awhile.  That should be fun!  I look forward to showing off my Ruby Reds in the country in which I was born.  Stay tuned.

I quietly slipped out of bed, early this morning, and headed to the Secret Place to meet again with Him.  Pauly was snoring up a storm when I left my room, but within minutes, he shuffled out the bedroom, jumped up on the couch and lay his head on my lap as I prayed.  He is so faithful at staying right by my side.  If I'm in the house, you can be assured that he's with me.  If something else is going on, he may get distracted for a moment, and then he's right back at my feet.  He refuses to be anywhere else.  It got me to wondering, "Am I that way with God?  Can I be found at His feet continuously. Do I follow Him from here to there and back again, just because?"   LOL.

Later in the morning, I put together a list of all the things I had to do today.  Errands to run, phone calls to make, final packing details.  That got me to thinking,

"Is this my list and should I ask 

God to come along with me? 

- OR -

"Is this God's list and He's 

asking me to go along with Him?"

I think it's great that my perspective is changing!

It's moving from seeing just my way to His as well.

I can't wait for the day that His way and my way are one in the same.

As I hopped in my car and drove off in my RED shoes, I touched base quickly with a dear friend.  She asked me if I was all ready for my trip.  I found myself hesitating in giving a joyful response.  I caught my words before they rolled off tongue, and smiled instead...  nodding my head up and down, giving her the impression that all was well, but I was busy and couldn't talk. She wished me well, and off I went.

"What was that?"  God inquired.

"You and I talked about everything 

this morning regarding your trip and

all is well.  So why did you hesitate?"

Here's why I hesitated... It's because I'm used to having a story with some sort of drama attached to it.  And just as my response was about to roll off my lips, I stopped it, because it didn't reflect what was true. With that,  God responded... 

"It's time to change your 

default setting."

The "default setting" is a pre-selected option that is reverted to, when no specific alternative is selected. Usually it's your most common response to a particular situation. Thereby, if your normal response is worry, drama, sadness or negativity, your brain just goes there automatically every time. 

But that was then and this is now.   That's not the norm anymore.  So God is telling me to reset the setting so that my new automatic response is...  

"Great...  I've talked things over with God 

and everything is right on track!"

I know it's strange that we do things a particular way because we've always done them that way,  but that's messing me up.  

It doesn't fit anymore.  And when something doesn't fit, it's time to get rid of it!  

Perfect, because tonight is trash night.  Out it goes!   First it was my shoes, 

(the ones that weren't so RED),  

and now it's my automatic responses, 

(the ones that aren't so God).  

It's all part of my new life:

Wearing RED shoes and 

doing whatever it takes to 

better reflect Him.  

Gail 

Day 132

Okay, so it's Day 132 of  The Red Shoe Project, and YES, I showed up for my morning meeting with Him.  I wasn't going to miss that for anything!   

No shoes, though... too early.  

But I was ready --  my heart  totally committed.  I purposed, in advance,  to hold onto the picture in my mind of a girl meeting her boy friend in the morning, to walk to school together.  

The last thing I want this to be is another attempt at fixing in place a religious ritual -- a daily observance that makes me feel worthy of God's love.  I know all too well that,  in and of myself,  I'm not worthy and never will be, so I'm not going to spend precious time trying to convince myself that I am.  No way!   

"worthy" means:

• virtuous 
• righteous 
• upright  
• blameless
• guiltless
• honorable 
• reputable
• noble 
•  pure

The Bible says...

"For there is no one righteous, not  even one."

Romans  3:10

Instead, I showed up to just be with the one that I love, because I know that He loves me.

"For God so loved the world,

that He gave His only son, 

that whosoever believes in Him,

will have everlasting life." 

John 3:16

It was a quiet time.  A time of saying "Good Morning!"   I sang a little song, ever so softly, that reminded me of who I was sitting with. 

For God demonstrated His own love for me in this:

While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.

Romans 5:8

 I didn't talk much.  I just sat there in His presence, focusing my mind and heart on Him.  He reminded me of something He wanted me to do later today, so I wrote it down.  And then I just sat quietly some more and listened.  Before I knew it 30 minutes had gone by. There was no hyped up calling on God.  There was no Bible reading.  There was no interceding for others.  There were just silent whispers from my soul to heaven and back.  

I got up from that place to start my day.  Moving quickly, I washed up, dressed and was out the door, in my RED shoes.  It wasn't until I got  to my seat at church that I realized there was no need to "warm up."  My heart moved immediately into worship.  I closed my eyes, raised my hands, lifted my voice, and found myself  lost in His presence.  For but a moment, I remember thinking, "Ahhhh, so this is the result of giving my first minutes of the day to God."

The day has come and gone.  The hours have flown by.  As I look down at my RED shoes, I now think of how full my heart feels.

Until tomorrow, dear friends,
Gail

Day 131

Day 131 of The Red Shoe Project was a day of continual pouring down... of God's blessings, that is!  Who can complain about that?  Not me, for sure.  A blessing here, a blessing there, and there's another one right behind it.  I'll tell you, I was in no way dodging the raindrops.  Instead, my head was lifted up and my arms were open, receiving each and every one as they fell into my arms!  So I popped on my RED canvas shoes, left the umbrella behind and headed out the door for a day with God.


Blessing #1
My eyes were barely open when I received a phone call from a dear friend.  We chatted up a storm, while glorying in the works of God.  He had spent the morning basking in God's glory.  How delightful!

Blessing #2
As our conversation continued, God began to piece things together for me about what He is doing in my life.  And to think, it all started with a scripture from God's Word.  Yup... that's all it takes!  We talked about a scripture that was part of a story from God's Book,  and it ended up being part of my story!  I love when God shows me "the big picture" because it reminds me of His Greatness.  I can't even see the fullness of what He's doing, without His help.  Another reason to Praise His Name!

Blessing #3
My friend put me on speaker phone, and our  chat went in even another direction as God began to show me things prophetically about him and his sons.  They are set apart to be soul winners for Christ. We talked about how God stirs the hearts of the unsaved around us well before they even show an interest in God.  That's when we can begin praying. And we are doing just that!
Oh! That souls might be saved! 

Blessing #4
As the afternoon rolled around, I found myself on a long drive to an appointment.  Time for a chat with God.  I found myself asking God question after question... only His response each time was the same:  "You already know the answer to that, Gail."  As I thought about it.  I did!

Throughout my Christian walk, I've noticed that when God speaks to me, He'll often confirm and reinforce so that I know, without a doubt, what He's saying.  But today, He was showing me that I no longer need that same level of continual reinforcement.   He's encouraging me to stand strong on His direction and more forward in it confidently.  Wow!  okay... I can do that.  I know that He will always be there to reinforce when necessary, but I also know that there will be times that I must be able to act quickly on his command, without hesitation.

Blessing #5 & 6
When I ran out the door earlier today, I felt a prompting from God to go over to my "favorite book table" and bring a book with me.  But which one?  As I looked at the titles, one stood out boldly:  The Hidden Life of Prayer by David M'Intyre.

Did I mention that I leave for Scotland in a few days for some family business?  M'Intyre sounded rather Scottish, so I quickly popped it in my bag for a little read later on.

Later on eventually arrived.  I stopped in a favorite lunch spot for a salad.  As I picked up in the book, where I last left off, I found myself in an "Access Point" with God.  Access Points are places where God supernaturally draws me into the Secret Place with Him.  It could be a specific song, or a video clip, a message, a movie, a scripture, a story, a place or more. I know it's an access point because He's there.  And today, I could barely get through a page of this book.  He kept calling me.  "Come spend time with me!" I know when He does that... I must go!

Besides... He was toying with me.  Right there in the restaurant, He showed me a vision of myself doing a financial victory dance.  In my mind, I could see myself dancing for joy and knew that it was in regards to God's faithful provision.  I'm not in possession of the divine gift just yet.  But God released it almost a month ago, and assured me that it would be in my hands within 30 days.  Hallelujah!  Not just that...  earlier this week, while in prayer, I saw myself catching a football and God told me that I was seeing myself catch the financial gift that He released.

It's a very good thing, 

when you see yourself, 

catching the promise!  

 

And it's a very good thing 

seeing yourself doing 

the victory dance!  

Boy, did that set me to laughing in the restaurant.  I couldn't wait to finish up, pay my bill, and get out of there, so that I could get in His Presence.

The Biggest Blessing of All!

As I left that place, I found myself eager to get home.  I couldn't wait to get in prayer.  God started speaking to me right there in the car.  He wanted to set a daily time for us to meet.  A time, first thing every day, to talk face to face. You would have thought that I was sixteen again, and agreeing to meet my high school sweetheart, first thing every morning, to walk to school together. It's official.  We're a couple!

Really?  I mean come on!  Everyone knows that you should start each day with some quiet time with God, right?   Yeah...  but this is different.  He's got my heart in His hands now.  It's not the same thing!  He loves me and I love Him.   So...  I know that He's always loved me.  Maybe I just love Him differently now -- More intimately -- More deeply -- More committed -- More everything.  RED shoes will do that!   Besides, I've changed!  And I'm going with it!  I've agreed to meet Him every morning.  I guess we'll see what comes of that.   I don't really care about the results... I just want to be with Him, at the start of my day, before the distractions begin. I want His voice to be the first voice I hear. I want to know what He wants to do.  I want to put my head against His heart and hear it beat!

Ok... so you know that these weren't the only raindrops of blessing, right?  There's just too many to tell.  But boy, do I love the rain!

No umbrellas please!
Red Shoes a must!

Gail