Set Apart

"The kingdom of darkness strives through pressure on the mind and the spirit, to neutralize, lead astray, and smooth down strong personalities so that they become apathetic about what is happening around them. [The Nazirite is not to be drunk with wine.] Drunkenness is not only from alcohol, but also from, for example, excessive television watching to a consuming interest in sports. Drugs, pornography, rich music, sport and other forms of entertainment all work together to pacify and neutralize nations, particularly young people. they create politically apathetic personalities, all in accordance with the deliberate plan from the kingdom of darkness. The more and longer a personality is controlled by the Holy Spirit the wider becomes his usefulness as an instrument. Some articles, says Paul, are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 'If a man cleanses himself from the latter he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. Flee the evil desires of youth' [2 Timothy 2:21-22]. A person who gives parts of his life to the influence of the kingdom of darkness does not, it is true, limit his eternal salvation, but he does limit his usefulness for the Lord's purpose... A special mission demands a special holiness."
-The Prophetic Church
by Kjell Skoberg

The Root of Self-Hatred

If you don't already know, I'm at One Thing in Kansas City, Missouri right now. Last night a man named Allen Hood BROUGHT IT and I HAVE to share! He approached the root of self-hatred as I've never heard it approached. Let's see if I can sum this up...

"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Genesis 3:15

When man fell, God made it known that He was sending His son through a woman- through a human body. Out of a human body would come the incarnate God to CRUSH the great rebellion of Satan. Because of this, Satan HATES the human body. He hates it!! So what does he do? He defiles it with sickness, with hunger, with perversion. He loves to see us sin against our body with a poor body image, sexual immorality, self-destruction. He wants to see you hate your body like he does. And these lies have infiltrated our culture. Bathrooms have become false places of worship where Satan feeds us lies then steals our dignity. We need to stop spending so much time in front of the mirror and realize that we are letting a demon of fear speak to us about our identity and especially about our future spouse. We need to tear down alters and demonic powers from lies of the enemy. We need to renounce self-hatred in the name of Jesus and receive the blood of Jesus. It's time for us to bless our bodies. It's time to redeem our bathrooms by speaking His truth, His word and His praises that it might become a place of worship rather than of temptation. It's time to stop wearing rags and start wearing the robes of royalty!!

"The king will desire your beauty... All glorious is the princess in her chamber with robes interwoven with gold. In many colored robes she is led to the king... With joy and flatness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king." Psalm 45:11,13-15

False Identity vs True Identity

So God led me to Daniel today and right off the back something rocked my world. I wanted to share...

"Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah. And the chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego." Daniel 1:6-7

So here's the fascinating thing about this. As I read that I began wondering what the Hebrew names and the new names meant. Gods been teaching me a lot about names lately (try asking God what He is calling you right now then look up the meaning of the name. It's fuuunn). So anyway I looked up the meanings and...

i. The name Daniel (meaning God is my judge) was changed to Belteshazzar (meaning Bel’s prince).
 
ii. The name Hannaniah (meaning Beloved by the LORD) was changed to Shadrach (meaning Illumined by Sun-god).
 
iii. The name Mishael (meaning Who is as God) was changed to Meshach (meaning Who is like Venus).
 
iv. The name Azariah (meaning The LORD is my help) was changed to Abed-Nego (meaning Servant of Nego).

Here's what I found fascinating. SATAN LOVES YOU SPEAK AN IDENTITY OVER YOU THAT IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT GOD HAS. If God calls you a prophet, Satan loves to curse your dreams and make you desire to be dreamless. When God calls you Beloved, Satan says "No, you need someone else to make you happy- to illuminate you." It's time to reject the false identities Satan is speaking over the children of God. It's time to live in the light!!

Persepolis

December has been SO crazy. Buuut finals are done and break is here = ). The result is that I will be reading MUCH more. The first book(s) I present to you are Persepolis and Persepolis 2 by Marjane Satrapi. I absolutely recommend these. They are auto-biographical graphic novels from the point of view of an Iranian woman who grew up with during the Islamic Revolution. They were eye-opening and enjoyable. I had never finished a graphic novel before (the only other one I had ever started was The Watchman). I don't even really know how to describe how much perspective these gave me. Seriously just go read them... Or at the very least rent the movie. So good!!

The Robinsons

My church (Antioch Community Church Norman) has a training school called Equip. It's an incredible 10 months of well.. equipping one for a life of ministry. This year a couple with three kids decided to join. They asked me to babysit and I have had SO MUCH FUN getting to know these kids. Seriously, Monday is one of my favorite nights of the week. I love these kids with my whole stinkin' heart. I thought I'd share some of my pictures with them!


Jade and I at her 2nd grade program.


Noah wanted in on the fun hahaha


Jade giving a testimony at church with her mom about how she led someone to Christ during recess at school


Noah at his "Shark Attack" soccer game


Noah and his blue mouthwash


Carving pumpkins = )

That Time I Turned 20...

It's hard to believe I'm out of the teens and into the 20s... But it's here. I'm officially 20. I thought I'd share some pictures from my various birthday celebrations this year. Virginia, Cheesecake Factory, Ice Skating party that my roomies planned. It was a good birthday = )



First I celebrated in Virginia with the Reynolds!


Nuryia was pretty stinkin' excited I got Toy Story 3 hahaha


Birthday dinner at Cheesecake Factory with the family! (and Abbey haha)


Ashley Lynch (the girl who disciples me) and I!


Me and the roomies = ) (Koby and Rachel)




Me, Julie, Koby, and Rachel


Pretty much the whole crew = )

Laminin

"And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Colossians 1:17

When I first went to see a doctor about my depression, they told me I needed to go buy this video at Mardels and watch it. It changed my life. [Sidenote: I have been SO BLESSED with Christian doctors throughout this stage of my life. WOW.] I think about this video a lot, but today my pastor showed it as part of our series on Colossians. Please watch it and be encouraged. It's INCREDIBLE!!!

The Body of Christ

The body of Christ is beautiful. One of my favorite Bible stories has always been that of Moses having his weary arms held up by his friends Aaron and Hur. What a picture of community! When we get too weary to press on by ourselves, the body is there to help us keep going. I love it. Today at church we got together and held each other's arms up and prayed over each other. Absolutely beautiful. I felt the Spirit sweeping through the auditorium. Abba, thank you for the body of Christ...