Just try...

Holy Spirit keeps telling me, "Just try."  It goes along with, "trust me,"  one of those really tough things to do outside of your comfort zone.  I keep hearing the Lord say, "You can do it!" Hmmmm, that's something to think about.

I am getting better at trusting the Lord although I still fall flat on my face once in a while.  I don't know if that will ever change, lol.

Yesterday a bunch of us were at a restaurant for supper and I said, "Let's pray for a word for the waitress."  I started praying and all I got was 'traveling'.  It wasn't really much to go on but I thought okay I will ask her if that means anything to her.

The next time she came around I asked her if the word 'traveling' meant anything to her because when I asked the Lord about her that's what I got.  She was excited and said, "Yes, I have always wanted to go traveling, though I don't know how I'm going to go." 

I encouraged her with what I felt the Lord was saying and prayed for a good traveling companion for her.  She left and the restaurant got really busy and I never got the chance to resume our conversation.

That used to bother me until I surrendered my personal opinions about what should and should not happen during an encounter.  Somebody once told me that I wasted my time because I didn't get the waitress saved.  I disagree.  I am supposed to obey.  The Bible says, that some plant, some water, some harvest. Who am I to disagree with God?

I left a great Gospel tract with my generous tip. This waitress now knows that God cares about her and is interested in her personally and my million dollar bill with the gospel message will get read when she is ready to read it.  I just know it.  I have seen this happen again and again.

The most important thing is to try.  Holy Spirit will show himself strong on your behalf.... just like he does for me.

I will be a fool for him everyday if it means he is using me!  I don't care what people think or say! Do you hear me?  I realized that I would never step outside of my comfort zone until I got to the place where I wanted to please Jesus more than I wanted to keep my reputation!

Here are some helpful confessions that I use to get to that place everyday.

Thank You Jesus that I love you more than anything.
Thank You Jesus that the fear of God is pure and clean enduring forever. (ref. Psalm 19:9)
Thank You Lord for setting me free from the fear of man which is a snare and a trap. (ref. Prov. 29:25)
Thank You Lord that I don't love my life or reputation more than you. (ref. Rev. 12:6)
Thank You Lord for helping me to step outside of my comfort zone.
Thank You Lord for helping me to seize the moments to bring your Kingdom down to earth.
Thank You Lord for giving me encouraging words for all the people I meet today.
Thank You Lord for showing me who to talk to today about You.
Thank You Lord that Your Spirit is mighty in prophesy and Your Spirit is flowing mightily through me.
Thank You Lord that your thoughts for us are uncountable.  Thank You for giving me one of those thoughts for each person I think about and show me what to speak or do with it. (ref. Psalm 139:17-18)

I Bless you richly.  May you have courage and great boldness to just 'try' to take God at his word today.  He's forever faithful/true because he cannot deny himself. Amen!

Big hugs,
Brenda Gale Thompson
(Photo courtesy of www.photobucket.com)

Fear Issues

You know how some times you wonder what the Lord has in mind when he tells you to go to a certain scripture?   Well I started reading  Psalm 10, "O LORD, why do you stand so far away? Why do you hide when I am in trouble? The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor. Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others. For they brag about their evil desires; they praise the greedy and curse the LORD." (vs 1-3)  


It wasn't making much sense but I felt the Lord tell me to keep reading.  Then we get to verse 11, "The wicked think, "God isn't watching us! He has closed his eyes and won't even see what we do!" Arise, O LORD! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! Why do the wicked get away with despising God? They think, "God will never call us to account."

That's more like it! No one likes to see the wicked prosper.  We all have a sense of justice and want to see  the right thing being done.  I can feel the indignation of the author as he writes these words.

"Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed. The LORD is king forever and ever! The godless nations will vanish from the land. LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless. Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them."

This last verse is the best verse of all.  "You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify them." (Psalm 10:18 NLT)  I grabbed a hold of that because because I am realizing that the major reason people don't expand the kingdom of God wherever they go is because of fear.   Yes... there can be training issues,  but even after people have taken seminars and courses they are not reaching out.

This applies to me too.  Especially when I have been doing administrative stuff and not getting out to the stores or malls I can lose my 'edge.'

The fear of man is a snare and a trap: 
In work situations...
in church situations....
in social situations....
in neighbor situations...
in family situations....

Whatever the reason we give, the fact is that we can all get better at being a witness.  Therefore I'm going to start claiming this verse.  "Thank you Lord that you hear my cry and you set me free from the fear of people in every situation."

The good thing is that it's easy to get back into the game.  I start claiming words of knowledge every day and boldness to share them and I start singing songs that will build up my spirit. Here's a link to a song I wrote about boldness. (Ps. 138:2)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOVulWtSky8

Then I invariably start leaving out tracts wherever I go and fight that tiny bit of fear.  Next I keep filling up on God's love because His love flushes out or casts out all fear.  His love is shed abroad in our hearts by Holy Spirit so whenever I encounter fear it means I have a love shortage.  Praise the Lord that is so easy to fix!  I just ask for more love!  I ask him to show me how much he loves these precious people. He's never failed me yet. (ref. Rom. 5:5, 1John. 4:18)

The best news is that what he's done for me, he will do for you!  He is no respecter of persons. (Acts. 10:34)

Then I start to imagine myself in work situations and what I will say and do. I start to daydream about sharing the good news with people or praying for the sick in the grocery store and what I will say if I get any negative feedback.  Forewarned is forearmed.  It builds your confidence when you predetermine how you are going to react and practice before hand.  And I keep reminding myself that I don't need to worry that Holy Spirit has my back. He's my defender and he'll give me the words to speak when people ask questions or make comments. (Psalm 91 and Luke 12:12)

Time and time again I have walked away from an encounter with someone and thought to myself, "I wish I could take notes of what I've said!"  I've said stuff I had no way of knowing!  It's God!  And if he'll do it for me, he'll do it for you!

You can depend on him!  Life gets so exciting when you don't know what's coming, but you know that He's gone ahead of you and preplanned it! (ref. Eph. 2:10)  The testimonies are great!  I don't share a lot of the day to day testimonies I get on this blog, because I don't want to seem like I'm bragging but I've got them!

So let me pray for you and myself, "Lord we want to be used of you today.  Open our hearts, eyes and ears to your precious words.  Thank you Lord for giving us boldness everyday and help us to walk in the fear of You, which is the beginning of wisdom and not the fear of man which is a snare and a trap.  Help us to say, "Yes Lord, how?" right away and not hesitate because of fear, when you nudge us. Thank You Lord that we walk in the anointing we have attained. Thank you Lord for an exciting day with you. Amen!"

Bless you!

Brenda Gale Thompson
ps... Here's me overcoming another fear of riding spoiled horses that haven't been ridden in 6 months and are very attached to their herd.   I am very proud to say that I did it!  I only went about 100 feet from the other horses so I wouldn't have a wreck on my hands but I rode her!

getting our bearings

Ginger's being careful because of the ice.