RE-VIVE!
What are you doing for LENT? Try Born to Soar, Unleashing God's Word in Your Life--a 6 week prayer experience that can transform your spiritual life! ON SALE HERE --order and get started!
And...I’m so excited to announce that REVIVAL is coming in April! Need a jolt of refreshing grace for mind, body and soul? Then you need to experience RE-VIVE! Our spring “spiritual wellness” morning that Google’s #1 Stress Relief Expert Lauren Miller and I will be offering April 13 at Our Lady of Mercy with Fr. Bill Byrne and on April 14 at St. Ann with Monsignor Watkins. Please sign up for Friday or Saturday! Invite friends and bring your High School and older daughters! YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS IT!
And just to get a taste of what is to come… here is a guest blog by the awesome Lauren Miller.* God bless you as you...
Press into God, Hold Nothing Back: 2018 is the Year for Revival…Are You In?
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
“In the end times I will pour out my spirit on my people.” Acts 2:17
Revival involves an outpouring of God’s spirit into the hearts of mankind in such a profound way that repentance and conversion often occur instantaneously as was the case at Pentecost. When sin comes face to face with the weight of transformative grace as was the case with Saul on the road to Damascus lives are shifted instantly. "Revival is God's quickening visitation of his people, touching their hearts and deepening his work of grace in their lives." J. I. Packer
Now is the time for revival more than ever. To step away from the power-struggles within our life and open wide our heart to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. To put people before our positionality. To unzip the old and zip up the new (Ephesians 4, 5).
Step in and prune for growth with bold prayers tossed up with confidence to heaven with one expectation: to know that you are loved and adored by God; to live and move and have your being surrounded by the glory of God. Glory means weight beyond human capacity to stand.
Ask for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your life. His glory will fall upon you. When you ask, do not doubt that God will run to meet you in this request. For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind (James 1:6).
A deep conviction of sin rushes in when the Holy Spirit floods your castle (your interior world), which is quickly swallowed up by the force of God’s grace. When sin meets grace, conviction and transformation crash in. This is why in past revivals, people fall to the ground, and are rendered in awe of the mighty restorative power of God’s love.
Like a fish swimming through water people experiencing revival are engulfed in the weight of God’s glory and the purification of His loving grace.
Strengthen your weak knees and raise up your eyes to the heavens where your help comes from, you cannot give out to the world what you do not experience and embrace within…ask, seek and knock. Dear God I pray for revival: revival in my emotions, my sense of purpose, my identity for I have been crucified with you on the cross it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me, this life I live I live by faith alone in the Son of God who loved me and gave His life for me (Galatians 2:20). Increase my conviction to serve and love you. Pour out revival in my family, my neighborhood, my city, country and world.
At 17 years old, the Holy Spirit had me at hello. I experienced an instant revival of my emotions, mindset and actions as the Holy Spirit rushed in upon my invitation and took over my center of gravity, which was occupied by the need to be right, liked and understood, selfish ambitions and vein conceits. I was transformed by the renewing of my mind which led to a hunger and thirst for God’s will and purpose in my life.
I refer to the days before my “Saul/Paul encounter with Christ as the end of my “BC” days: Before Christ became the center of my gravity (my identity, worth and value) which instantly catapulted me into a divine calling expressed in the following prayer: “Dear Lord, use my life and my death for the sake of salvation of souls. Send me forth to the ends of the world to preach your saving love until you call me home.” This prayer still stands in the front of my intentions each year. Back in 2016 when I was diagnosed with advanced cancer one week prior to my final divorce court date I remember retracting the “death” part of that prayer. I have recently reinstated it.
Let’s give our full attention and unpack the gems contained in the following two scriptures:
· “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
· “In the end times, I will pour out my spirit on my people.” Acts 2:17
The first scripture is an invitation for revival to all of us. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession that we may declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into light (1 Peter 2:9).
What happened? After beginning with the Holy Spirit, too often we tumble into the hole of pride as we grope around endless spun by the disease to please and the drug of approval striving to attain our goals by human effort (Galatians 3:3) in an endless attempt to be seen, acknowledged and recognized, all of which gives birth to selfish ambitions and vein conceits (Philippians 2:3).
What are we to do?
· Humble ourselves
· Pray
· Seek God’s face
· Repent, pivot, turn away from our wicked ways (comparisons, envy, coveting, jealousy, judgement, power struggles, the need to be right, liked, understood, first).
What happens when we practice the above and invite the Holy Spirit into our lives to ignite our interior revival for good so that we can reclaim the power of our heritage as children of God and set aflame revival in our land that outshines the darkness?
God: “I will hear you from heaven, I will forgive your sin and heal your land…I will pour out my spirit on my people in the end times.”
2 Chronicles 7:14/Acts 2:17
Pull it Through:
· In what areas of my life have I demonstrated pride?
· What specific situations trigger me into envy? Jealousy? Judgment of others? A Power Struggle (the need to be right, liked, understood)?
· What belief have I made about myself as a result of these struggles?
· Do I accept God’s forgiveness when I repent or do I resist embracing the opportunity to pick up my mat and walk in righteousness?
· How specifically do I seek God’s face in the midst of my “to-do” list?
· What shifts in my time management will I make in the New Year to make more space in my daily life to connect with God?
Prayer:
“Dear God, you call me by name. Too often I look to the world to call my name. Pour out your glory into my sense of worth and value. Revive my identity. Forgive me for forgetting my holy heritage so quickly in the shiny objects of this world. I want revival in each room of my mind and emotional reactions to circumstances. Ignite the fire of my identity in you…your will be done, your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Help me to seek your face and turn from the serpent’s attempts to entice me into wicked ways. I want to experience your resurrected power and glory in my intonation, emotional acuity and hunger and thirst for what is good, right, true, beautiful, excellent and praiseworthy. Pour out your spirit upon us that we would turn from our wicked ways, seek your face and pray and you will heal our land. Now is the time for revival Lord, begin with me.”
* 80% of disease is stress related according to Harvard Medical. Lauren E Miller, M.Ed, certification in HRD, knows first-hand as she went through advanced cancer and divorce at the same time. Now as Google's #1 Stress Relief Expert/International Award-Winning Author/Speaker/Coach/Trainer, and Managing Partner of Grab & Go Stress Solutions and In-ViGor the Corporate Coaching Division, Maximizing Human Potential. Through product resources; mainstream media; 1:1 coaching; workshops; seminars and 30-day, 3 minute a day programs, Lauren equips thousands of people worldwide with effective, sustainable skill sets that result in sustainable behavioral shifts. Lauren empowers individuals and organizations with results based, quick win systems, which champion internal strength and creative solutions to challenging situations along with Lights-On Leadership. Explore more of Lauren’s work in the world at:
http://LaurenEMiller.com : Main Website
http://In-Vigor.biz: Corporate Coaching | Learning & Development
http://EdgeGodIn.com : Maximizing Human Potential in Christ: Join our Podcast
