It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...(part 3)

Guess I'll jump right in. Last time I talked about how God answered my prayer for more friends who were sold out for Christ. This time I will start off with something that God did that I didn't ask for, but He knew I needed. At the last Ignite meeting of last semester, some people from First Assembly came to talk about a course called Cleansing Streams. It seemed cool, and at the end of the meeting, Pastor Linda was like, "if time and money were not an issue, raise your hand if you would participate." I raised my hand because truthfully, if time and money were not an issue, I would totally do it, but thinking to myself...when are time and money not an issue?
**related sidenote: In hindsight, this is probably a lesson to me...I suppose I more frequently than I should, forget that my best friend is the master of time and created the universe. He existed and will continue to outlast all time and money**

Anyhow, we were informed that Cleansing Streams would take place on Wednesday nights, that we were not supposed to miss any classes, and we were supposed to go to a mandatory retreat at the end in April, which would cost money. I thought up all the reasons that I would not be able to do it, but I can't remember ever asking God to work it out so that I could participate. I can actually remember how cool it would be for the people that would be able to participate and saying to myself, wow, too bad I can't do it. I kind of brushed it off as something that maybe I'd be able to do someday in the future, and that was the last I heard about Cleansing streams until like late late January/early February of the next semester. At the disciplesip dessert, it was revealed to us that the Cleansing Streams course would be in lieu of normal discipleship and we'd only have to pay like half the price of the original course. This meant that I would be able to do it, b/c it would only be adding an extra hr. Actu, due to another activity that I had to drop, I guess net wise I gained an hour. I suppose it was like a praise report without the request beforehand?...That's how awesome my God is :D

There I go being long-winded again...to the point. The 2 most helpful teachings for me were about alignment and the power of words. There kind of intertwined. Learning about alignment has helped me in the fact that anytime I start having negative thoughts or I start freaking out about something (school, life...) I command my soul to align and submit to my spirit which I then command to submit to God's Holy Spirit living inside of me which contains God's truth that I am not to be anxious about anything. Which brings me to the next teaching, the power of words.

"Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat of its fruit." (Proverbs 18:21) I learned not only how, but the importance of speaking life and blessings, and rejecting curses, not only over other people, but also over myself. The Bible says to love your neighbor as yourself, and if you have no problem blessing your neighbors, that's great, but if you're constantly cursing yourself, where does that leave you? How does one reconcile loving others w/o completely loving yourself?

My mom used to always say that you can speak things into existence. For example, if I would say something like I'm not going to do well on a quiz or something, she'd say you'd better not say that because you might speak it into existence. I mean, I suppose that I got the whole idea of not going into a quiz or test or anything, really, with a defeated attitude, but I never really grasped the power of words from her saying that. I think I'm finally getting it. In a word, God spoke the universe into existence. Our salvation comes from believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths that Jesus is Lord. The Bible says that they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. From this teaching, I've learned the importance of speaking God's truth out loud so that I could hear it. Throughout the week (the one I started talking about along time ago-finals-that I almost forgot about, hehe), and really anytime I'm feeling anxious, I speak Phillipians 4:6,7,13 and 1 Peter 5:7 out loud so that I can hear them. And once again, I've decided that this is probably an appropriate place to stop because otherwise, the length of this post will be just plain ole indecent.

So until next time, may the peace of the God of the universe continue to gaurd your heart and your mind. ;)
Signing off with the other LOL