Day 238

Day 238 of The Red Shoe Project is a much needed day of REST!  Today I am still sporting my RED shoes, but I meditating on this scripture:

"Come to me, 

all you who are weary and burdened,

and I will give you rest."

Matthew 11:28

Enjoy a day of REST with me.

Gail

Day 237

As I sit here, on  Day 237 of  The Red Shoe Project, I am wearing my Ruby Reds and thinking about my dad.  Dad died seven years ago this week.  I miss him.  He was a good man, a good husband, and a good father.

While reminiscing with my mom,  she happened to mention that in all their years together,  my dad never told her "NO."  He would merely share a few thoughts for her to consider and let her make up her own mind.  After listening to my mom's story, it seems that her considerations consisted of...  Does this move me forward in the direction that my family is going?  Is it beneficial?   Will it add value to my life as an individual, wife and/or mother?

Today's Topic:

When God says "NO"

The more I think about this, the more I realize that's exactly how God is with me.  Rarely does He come straight out and say "NO."  Instead, I often find myself contemplating 1 Corinthians 10:23

"I have the right to do anything, 

but not everything is beneficial,

not everything is constructive."

All things are permissible, but are the...
    

advantageous?  helpful?    useful?    profitable?    fruitful? 

Will my decision, move me forward in the direction that God is moving me right now?  Or does it move me in the opposite direction?  Does it promote spiritual growth? or does it chip away at it?

Come to think of it... growing up, my dad never told me "NO" much either.  Perhaps that's because I never approached him with stupid thoughts that would warrant  "NO"  for an answer.  Seriously... my dad was a busy man!  Oh.... he always had time for me.  And no question was considered stupid.

But I was brought up in a day 

and time where you thought about 

what you said before you asked it.

Foolishness was unfashionable.  We were encouraged to ask intelligent, thoughtful questions.  I have found that works best with my Heavenly Father as well.  So what's my secret for knowing what God will say  "NO"  to without having to find out the hard way?

The best filter by far is the Bible... 

The Word of God.  

Dad wrote it, Himself! 

If it doesn't align with scripture, I already know not to bother asking God what He thinks... because I know what He thinks.  So that means we're all good in that area,  Right?   NOT!   This is the area that the Natural Man fights me over continuously.  When I'm strong, it's easy to beat off the Natural Man.  But when life has me in the valley, it's easy to make compromises.

Compromises are settlements or trade-offs.

It's when I settle 

for something less 

than what God has for me.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  I don't have to settle.    

God says is Psalm 23:4...

"Even though I walk through the darkest valley,

I will fear no evil,

for you are with me;

your rod and staff, they comfort me."

Over the years,  I've disciplined myself to say  "YES!" to God  and  "NO!" to the flesh.  Why?  Because every time that I've gone the way of the flesh -- EVERY SINGLE TIME! --  It's come back to bite me.  I end up remorseful! 

The voices in my head, not to mention the voices of many people around me, encouraged me!  They smiled.  They even cheered me on. They said it was okay... "Go for it!"   But when everything caved in -- when I was left sitting in my sin, discouraged and broken -- when I realized I had "settled" and that that I'd been duped...  Well, where were those people then?  They all retreated to their corners with their tails between their legs.  Not one of them could be found. 

 BUT JESUS... 

Once again, He extended His hand to me.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Romans 5:8

"The acts of the flesh are obvious:  sexual immorality ( promiscuity, fornication, homosexuality, adultery, pornography, etc.) impurity and debauchery, (corruption, depravity, immodesty, indecency, lust, immorality, sinfulness), idolatry and witchcraft ( this includes fortune telling, conjuring up spirits, and drug abuse), hatred, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions and factions and envy;  drunkenness, orgies , and the like.  I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God." 

There's one thing that I've found to be true.  No matter how I look at it...

God can't and won't bless me

when I'm dancing with the devil.

He wont put His stamp of approval on something He didn't author and advise.  

If I go with what the world has to offer -- if I settle for less -- That's my choice.

 But the door is always open for me to come Home to Him.  Yes it is!  He's always watching and waiting for me, with open arms!  

I choose His Way!

Until tomorrow,

Gail

Day 236

After six hours of preparation, the blog for Day 236 of  The Red Shoe Project was mistakenly deleted and lost due to technical difficulties at 3 a.m.  No worries... I am working on it!  A rewrite will be posted soon under today's date.  Let's push that aside and get right into to the GOOD NEWS!

Something even better happened on Day 236 anyways!  It's a real life, living illustration about Hearing the Voice of God!

Yesterday was a bit unusual.  For days, I had been preparing my heart in prayer for our monthly Bible fellowship group that meets one Friday night a month at the home of some dear friends.  Many hours have gone into putting together this Hearing from God series,  so I wasn't really worried about having material to share at the study.  There was more than enough.  But God said,

"NO" -- "Don't prepare a structured study.

I'm going to do something else!" 

Okay... sounds easy enough, right?  Wrong!  The difficulty with that is that people are coming out for a Bible study.  What will people think when I've got nothing?  Not to mention when I tell them... "No need for a study, God's going to move amongst us tonight!"  Well... it can all sound a little "Woo-Woo" if you know what I mean.  Strange?  Challenging?  Scary?  YES!  But that's besides the point.   I had every intention of doing  exactly what God wanted.

At the last minute, an invitation came to go to a special afternoon ministry event taking place at Harvest Tabernacle featuring David Wagner.  An excitement arose in my Spirit!  I could hear that little voice within me shouting, "Let's Go!"   I knew if I went I'd have little to no time to prepare further for the evening study.  "God,"  I prayed,  "Can you give me a little something here for tonight?"  I sensed in my Spirit that the people in attendance had heavy hearts and that God, personally, wanted to work on their insides.  At that moment,  He popped three scriptures in my mind.  Two of them dealt with worry, and one of them was a testimonial of God's saving power!  "Lord -- This one doesn't have anything to do with worry... Am I hearing you right?"  The Lord responded, "YES."  With that,  I quickly wrote down the three scripture references and tucked them in my Bible for later.  In my mind, I determined that I would split everyone into three groups, and give each group a scripture to discuss.   Later we'd pull back into a big group and see what people had to say.  This would allow me to get the group started, and I'd just wait and see what the Holy Spirit wanted to do.  It left lots of room for Him to move.  Off I headed, out the door in my RED shoes, to the afternoon church meeting.

What a powerfully, inspiring meeting it was!  The presence of God was intense.  What does that mean?  While I was sitting there and the minister was talking, I could feel the glory in the atmosphere.  As I listened intently to the message, I could hear the Holy Spirit praying within me in some divine language.  At times,  I felt my insides shaking!

The Spirit of God was doing something deep down in my soul --   Was He dancing in there?  Possibly.  Jumping up and down?  Maybe.  He was darn excited about something.

When the minister moved closer to where I was sitting, the Spirit within me intensified.  When He moved away, towards the other end of the room, it lessened slightly.  At one point, the minister called a girl out into the isle, who was sitting a couple rows up from me.  He prophesied over her,  (That means he gave her a message from God),  and she slowly fell backward onto the floor where she laid praying quietly to herself for about ten minutes.  She was only about six feet away from me.  When I looked at her,  I could see her hand was shaking.  It looked like electricity was going through it, making it vibrate.  The power of God was so strong, I began to leak.  Tears rolled down my face.

When the service was over, I went to the front for the minister to pray over me.  Without hearing a word from me,  He told me things that only God and I know.  Then He prayed for a release of God's anointing upon me.  When it was all over,  I had to sit down on a chair for a few minutes.  I couldn't walk.  My legs were like over-stretched rubber bands.  It was as if they had no bones in them to hold me up.  LOL.    I could feel that electricity rushing through my body.  I sat there with my face in my hands, weeping for some time,  praising God in whispers.  What had He done?  I don't know, but I loved it all the same.  Eventually, I opened my eyes and went back t my seat.  Most of the people had left the church by now.  My friend just smiled at me and we headed  home.

Time flew by and I found myself at the Home Group Fellowship.  I was one of the first to arrive.  The Host whispered to me that Charlie was coming tonight with his Dad.  Charlie was coming!  Oh my gosh!  No wonder the Holy Spirit asked me to push my agenda aside.  He had something special in mind -- even if I didn't have a clue what that exactly was!  The Host, her son, and I stood right there in the driveway and I prayed that God would have His way tonight, and that He'd use us to touch Charlie.

Things went as planned.  Everyone broke into groups and discussed their scriptures. Then they came back into one large group to discuss them further.  Throughout the entire time, I was asking God in my mind... "What is it that you want to do here God?"  I felt assured in my Spirit that He had all things in control.  Where was He though?

Finally, we came to the last person in the circle.  It was Charlie's turn to speak.  Being new, he didn't have a lot to say.  I asked him to read the scripture.  It was Psalm 40: 1-3.  (He took me out of the miry clay!)  For me... just hearing the Word of God flow off of Charlie's lips was glorious!  I had been challenged, at the afternoon meeting, to believe that God still does what The Bible says He does!  I was believing, that as Charlie spoke these words, it was prophetic! (That means that one day those words will be true for Charley, personally!)   I'm holding onto that!

I asked Charlie, since he was new to the group, if he'd like to ask a question.  He could ask anything.  He asked how long it took for God to move in a person's life for change to occur?  My friend's sons shared wonderful answers.  Then almost everyone in the group began to share.  I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  The Holy Spirit was moving in each of their lives as they testified of what God had done in them.  Okay... so let me explain.  Just minutes earlier, we went around the circle and they all shared their thoughts and ideas on the scriptures... but this was different.  The Holy Ghost had arrived to the party.  Passion was flowing from them!  Excitement was in the air.  God was moving and I'm not even sure they knew that was what was happening.  I looked at Charlie.  He was fine.  He seemed captivated with what God was doing -- just taking it all in.

At one point a gentlemen sharing a final testimony pounded his fist upon his chest as he boldly proclaimed his thoughts about God!   BOOM!  Something broke in the atmosphere.  I'm telling you, I don't know what happened in the Spirit realm, but something exploded.  Perhaps that was God breaking the chains of sin!  Who knows?  But this I do know:  It was right at that very moment, that God dropped the Word in my heart that pulled it all together.

Revelation 3:20

"Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.

If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

I will come in and eat with that person, 

and they with me."

I looked at Charlie... "It all starts, Charlie, with opening the door of your heart to God -- asking Him to reveal Himself to you.  We're going to do that tonight."  I looked at the others as we all stood holding hands in a circle.  "Let's all open our hearts wide,  for a deluge of The Father's Love to be poured in, like never before."  We prayed and God sealed all that He'd done in that little room.

Powerful!  
And it's just the beginning of what God is doing...
in Charlie's life,
in the lives of each individual in that circle,
in my life... the Girl in RED shoes.

Talk soon,
Gail

PS... I know that God planted His seed in the soil of Charlie's heart tonight, and that the Holy Spirit watered it with the testimonies and words of everyone that was present.  Believe with us, in prayer, that it's only a matter of time before Spiritual Growth becomes visible in Charlie's life!  To God be the Glory!

Day 235

It's the 235th Day of  The Red Shoe Project and I am sporting my RED shoes,  looking this way and that way for God.  Where is He today?  What is He saying to me?   Am I witnessing something awesome that He's doing right in front of me?  Is He using me to touch others?

What are YOUR ANSWERS to those questions?  

I want you to tell me.  Post a few words and let me know what's happening on your end.  I love hearing from you!

Yesterday -- in this series entitled,  Hearing God's Voice -- we talked in detail about getting all prepared to hear from God and then, hearing  "NOTHING".  

No worries... today we're going to talk about hearing SOMETHING.  God does, in fact, speak, so today and tomorrow we will focus on two common responses:  YES  and No.

PART 4:

What is it that I can I expect God to say?

and

Just how does He do that?

"Call to me and I will answer you 

and tell you great and unsearchable 

things you do not know."

Jeremiah 33:3 

1.  God sometimes says  NOTHING... (Day 234)

2.  God sometimes says  YES.............  (Day 235)

3.  God sometimes says NO...............  (Day 236)

4.  What else does God say???   (Tune in Day 237)

When I was a little girl, I remember a kid showing up at grammar school one day with a Magic 8 Ball.  "Ask me a question!"  he said, "And the Magic 8 Ball will answer you."  Someone would ask a  YES or NO question, the little boy would shake up the ball, and everyone would pull in close to view one of a handful of pre-set answers that would appear on a little screen.  "Oooooo!"  "Ahhhhh!" the children would whisper, followed by:  "Me next!" 

Okay, just so there's no misconception, I'm not here to advocate fortune-telling in any way.  It's just a story I know that many of us can relate to.  People want to know what  The God of the Universe  has to say about things.  But if you think Hearing from God is a schoolyard game, you're wrong.  It's real and it's serious stuff!  Don't be thinking that there are a bunch of pre-set answers that God gives out, because that's simply not the case.  Does He say YES and NO?  Absolutely!  But He's also known to go into great detail as well.  He gave Moses intricate instructions regarding the tabernacle.  And He was very specific on how Noah was to build the ark. (Just to name a few).

That said, there are times when I'm just looking for a simply YES or NO.  I want to make sure that I am, in fact, hearing from God about something, before I take the final leap of faith to do it.   I want a confirmation!

*God, Can I trust this person?

*Is this the way you want to go?

*Shall I do this with the money?

*Am I on the right track here?

*Are you with me on this, Lord?

*Is this what you want me to say?

*Is this what you're thinking, God?
* Is this really going to work?
* Do you want me to do this now?

The other day, while Prayer Walking in my RED sneakers, there were several things I wanted to make sure that I was hearing correctly from God.  

Question #1  Did I hear you correctly Lord? -- 

Are you really going to do this?

Like a neon sign, a big YES! flashed on in the forefront of my mind.

I was kind of taken back by the boldness of it all!  It made me chuckle.

Question #2  In regards to this particular situation, Lord --  

Is this what you want me to do?

Another bold YES! flashed in my mind.

Okay... I guess that's how God wants to do it today. 

If there's one thing I've found, God is never boring!

I proceeded to ask Question #3 and Question #4.... 

Once again -- the same thing!

"YES!"  and  "YES!"

were brightly flashing on and off in my mind!

Then came Questions #5...  "Okay... What about this Lord? --

Is this where we're going?

NOTHING!  It was like looking at a box of scrabble letters that were turned upside down so that I couldn't see them.  Nothing stood out in my mind.  It was virtually BLANK.

Ahhhhh.  4 YES  and 1 NOTHING.

Was this a joke?  Was my mind playing with me?  It was so odd, I went through the entire thing again.  I asked each question, one at a time...  and the exact same thing happened.

4 YES and 1 NOTHING.   

What's really important here, is what came along with the YESes....

PEACE!

You'll always feel a peace.  

It's a foundation of calmness with an excitement to move ahead.  There's a

 "Divine Knowing"  that's  attached, that assures you that God is speaking.   It's a hard thing to understand if you haven't experienced it, but when you do experience it, you'll totally understand it.  LOL.  So for now, let me say this... 

If there's confusion, calamity, chaos, distress, severe anxiety, disorder, or total upheaval... HOLD OFF!   Always wait for the peace!

That doesn't mean that you won't be a little anxious or concerned about what God's asking of you. Remember... God wants to work 

in partnership with you.  With that in mind, He'll often ask you

to do something that you think...

"You're talking to the wrong person, Lord.  I  can't do that!  I don't know how!"

That'll make anyone a little nervous.  In time, you'll learn to trust Him to do His part.  In fact,  often that's how you know it is God speaking, because 

His ideas are bigger and bolder 

than anything you'd ever

attempt on your own!

So the flashing neon sign on the forefront of your mind, might sound a bit dramatic, but He does sometimes do it that way -- or in some form of that way.  Here's another way He does it.

Often with me, it starts off by my feeling inclined to do something specific for God.  An idea pops into my mind, and I can't seem to shake it.  Even though I dismiss it over and over again, it keeps coming back to me.   Eventually the thought will cross my mind... "Is God trying to tell me something?"  Without fail,  later in the day, or shortly thereafter,  I'll see something -- maybe a magazine article, or a picture in a store.  Or I may hear something --
a song on the radio, or a conversation someone is having at the check-out line.  
I may even take note of something specific that someone is doing while I'm out and about town.  The key here is this: 

No matter what it is... 

It sticks out like a sore thumb!  

I'm not looking for it, either!  --  Somehow, it finds me!  

God will immediately connect, whatever that is, to the idea that I had earlier in the day.  "Isn't that funny?"  I'll think.  "God was just speaking to me about that this morning."  Hmmmm.

Then later that day or the next, I'll be reading my Bible and a verse will jump off the page.  Or I'll be sitting in a study group and the speaker will share something from God's Word. My ear will totally turn toward it, as if it's being said on a loud speaker.  Or just maybe,  I'm sitting doing a morning devotional and the little scripture at the bottom of the page, is vying for my attention.  Yup!  It just so happens to TOTALLY connect with that  "God Idea"  that's been on my mind.  

Before I know it, along comes a friend who shares some random event that he's experienced...  And once again, some tiny detail specifically stands out and connects to the idea.  Even though I've pushed that idea aside, it keeps resurfacing again and again!  "Could this be God?" I wonder.

You got it!  Right about that time, I can be found in prayer somewhere with God saying... "So Lord... Is this what you're telling me to do?"  
Where's that NEON sign now?  Cause I'm looking for it!

Keep in mind, there are literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of ways God speaks and says YES.  That's because His conversations are personal and detailed.  I could spend a whole year just talking about this alone.  Hopefully, today's blog will get you in the right mindset for hearing Him say YES to you!

Just to recap, keep these things in mind:

In response to your prayerful inquiry,
* Is God blatantly saying...
"YES -- Move Forward! -- Go ahead! -- It's time?"
* Is there a PEACE?
* Do you sense a "Divine Knowing" that God has spoken?
* Is His request Bigger and Bolder than anything you'd normally consider?
* Is it something that can only be accomplished in partnership with Him?
* Does He seem to be confirming His request/idea in multiple ways --
several times over?

* Are you finding it difficult to miss  that He's trying to tell you something?

One more thing -- and this is important!   You might be thinking, "So what?  That's just your mind playing with you.  You're making more out of this than needs to be.  I'm not so sure this is God at all."

Let me tell you what makes me so sure it is God.

The first time... Yeah... I thought that.  But after that happened a couple times, and I didn't do anything with it, I noticed, God asked someone else, who did act upon it.  The results were unbelievable.  God had my attention.  He used those times to confirm to me that I was in fact hearing His voice.

Then it moved to a new level.  As I stepped out in faith, believing God was speaking to me, I noticed that the results from my actions were total  "GOD-things."  People were getting ministered to.  God was speaking to people through me.  People were encouraged,  set free,  saved!   WOW!  

I knew, without question, that God was at the center of it.  There was no doubt that He was using me.  I was totally incapable of producing those kind of  "Divine Results"  on my own.  All the glory went to God!

As time went on... God would stretch me.  The tasks He suggested took greater steps of faith, but I followed through, knowing, deep down, I'd heard from Him.  When I didn't follow through,  I ALWAYS ended up regretting it.  Eventually, it became obvious that God had, in fact, spoken and I had missed it!  That's okay, because it only strengthened my desire to follow through the next time.

You see... He hasn't done this once, or twice, or even a few times.  I can't count how may times He's done this in my life -- hundreds perhaps???

But it all starts somewhere, and that's where we've started today in this blog.
From here on out, it's...

"One foot in front of the other.

One step at a time.  One day at a time.

That's how you do it!"

Until tomorrow,

Gail