I know it has been a while since I blogged, but life has been busy; it's been amazing, but very busy to say the least. This blog will be mostly a testimony, of what God has been doing in me recently, especially the past few weeks.
The past year has been one of the toughest I have had yet...I felt like throwing in the towel on a lot of things and almost allowed satan to deceive me into thinking the grass is greener on the other side, when we all know 9 times out of 10 it isn't. A few weeks back, our Pastor brought forth a word straight from Heaven that literally changed my life forever. He spoke on iniquity and the difference between iniquity and sin and how we need to find the root(s) of iniquity in our lives before we can actually progress in our relationship with God. Iniquity was explained as the drive or desire to sin and once we get rid of that, we will get rid of a lot of sin in our lives. I received such a revelation in that word that God just began revealing things in my own life that was allowing iniquity and sin to take over....I began to see a new Jess starting to shine through...and that was just the beginning.
A few weeks ago, I traveled to Tallahassee, FL with our youth band Judah, who was asked to play at an event called Fire on the Altar, which was 50 hours of non stop worship and meeting face to face with Jesus. Although it was a very long and tiring weekend, there was something about pushing myself and fighting the desire to sleep and worshipping God from 3-5 in the morning, that just brought more breakthrough to my life. I felt the presence of God for the first time in a very long time and experienced a side of God I never had before...which is another great thing...we will never experience every side to God on earth...we will never have enough of Him because there is just so much of Him to be revealed. Needless to say, it was a life changing weekend in His presence and there were more things in my life that God revealed to me that needed change and I began to make those changes.
It wasn't until last week at our annual youth camp in Bradenton, FL that God really revealed more to me and began healing my heart and giving me a brand new mindset of who I am created and called to be! We left Jacksonville for a week and got away from it all and got alone with God. Most of our youth camps are a lot of hype and camp high and encouraging type words but this year was so different. The focus was on building a relationship with God and creating a fear of God. And like our youth Pastor Ty Mustafa says, not to be "scared" of God, but to be "scared" of living a life without God. It was the theme through most of the week and really hit me. I formed a fear for God the last 2 days that I never had before. :) This video was played at the camp and really stuck with me and helped me to realize that I was fearing the wrong things...please take a minute to watch...
During our ladies luncheon at the camp, they spoke about the book of Hosea and how the same way the prophet Hosea married a prostitute and even though she left him over and over he still went back and repurchased her...and they went on to say how God does the same with us. Even when we want nothing to do with Him, he still desires that relationship with us, and he has already repurchased us. Once they were done speaking, they had all of the girls close our eyes and think of one word that we feel describes us that doesn't necessarily line up with the word of God and they wanted us to wait on God and get a word (or new NAME) that God gave us. As I sat there a few words came to me, but the one that stuck was REDEEMED...I have been redeemed by the grace of God and at that moment something shifted in my life. I felt redeemed, I felt different, I had a new mindset and the new Jess was being formed by God. The rest of the week, God just continued dropping things in my spirit and I began writing His opinion of me instead of my own. I want to share with all of you as well because He loves us all just the same! Below is just a small portion of some of the things God just spoke over me last week:
You have been redeemed by grace
You are the righteousness of God
You are worth it all
You do have a purpose
You are not forgotten
You are loved
You are accepted
You are beautiful
You are precious
You can say no to this world
You are strong
You are my princess
You have destiny
You are whole
You are free from your past
You were created for great things
You are created in my image
You are my diamond ring
You are my hands and feet
You will get through any attack victorious
You are a warrior
You are everything I say you are and nothing less
You are forgiven
You are important
You will not grow weary
You are healed and whole
You are an overcomer
You are radiant
I am proud to call you mine
I love you more than you can ever think or conceive
I am well pleased with you
I am your Father and I will never leave you
No matter what anyone says...know that you, my precious jewel, are a daughter of the King and you are forever changed and by my grace will never look behind you, but will keep your gaze on me. I will help you every step of the way and you WILL NOT FAIL!
This is my promise to you sweet woman of God. Don’t ever doubt one word and watch everything in your life be turned around for my good.
Run after me with all of you!!
God told me that I needed to print these out individually and post them in different places at home, work and in the car to remind myself daily of who I am in Him.
When I got home I decided I also wanted to recreate something with my new name (Redeemed) so I could print it and post it at home and work as a constant reminder as well and this is what was created:
I know that this is just the beginning of what God is doing in my life and every day He is going to continue molding me into who He wants me to be. I am growing closer to Him every day and have gotten to a point in my life where I don't want and will not tolerate any distractions. I will keep my eyes on Him and Him only. And whoever doesn't like it, peace out! And those who do, are worth keeping around!
Sorry for the story book, but I hope it was worth the reading! :) I will try to update you all more often on the adventures of the new and improved Jess...Redeemed Jess!
