I have so many rich things to share with you. You have all loved me so well and believed in me so extravagantly. I want you to know that my life is changing dramatically and I can't wait for you to be personally affected by the testimony of my life.
I am six months into my first school year at Bethel. To express what has happened in my life can be condensed to one simple sentence: All of the weights that I have ever carried in my mind, emotions, or spirit, I no longer carry because I have learned how to think, how to process emotions, and how to battle in the spirit with a victorious mentality.
The simple gospel has saved me. Jesus walked the earth to show us that God is a good father, he died so I could be free in the highest level, and his will is for life on earth to be as it is in heaven.
I have narrowed down how my life has been impacted with 14 key lessons, which I have written for you. I am sure there are more, but this is the most basic I could get! These 14 things have deeply impacted the way I do life:
1. My emotions are not evil. If I am feeling a negative emotion, I have permission to feel it, to learn why I am feeling it, and to solve the problem that is making me feel this way. This makes the process of healing go by quicker, therefore I can love others well when I am whole.
2. Not every thought I have is my own. The battleground is the mind, and when I learn the difference between heavenly thoughts and demonic thoughts, the battle becomes much easier. My beliefs shape my life. I must identify the lies that I am believing so I can find the truth God has for me. This will enable me to live from hope, joy, and peace. Not only for a moment, but for my lifetime.
3. God loves me unconditionally, so I should learn to love myself unconditionally. In my most shameful moments or my most embarrassing downfalls, I must tell myself "Hannah, you are worthy of love, even in this moment. I choose to let love in." To be the best lover of people, I must first allow myself to be loved wholly.
4. Thankfulness is the key to everything. Be thankful for blessing, but also be thankful for pain. Be thankful for hard seasons and for difficulties, because that is what makes me grow and develop character and strength, and ultimately it brings glory to God. Take time to say out loud the things that you are thankful for, both bad and good.
5. There are two types of ministry. One is to people. The other is to God, Himself. If it is possible to minister to God, I will learn to do this well and with all of me for the rest of my life. He is priority and I love him.
6. Heaven is a person, and His name is Yahweh. When I am bringing heaven to earth, ultimately I am bringing an encounter with God. To bring that kind of encounter, my inner world ( my mind, will, & emotions) have to line up. What is in my inner world will become my outer world. If I can sustain peace, joy, hope, a worshipful heart, ect... Then it will shift the outer world. This is what will be shifting the atmospheres around me.
7. Fear is not my friend. It doesn't matter what is happening in my life; to partner with worry is to be expecting my future to happen without God. Fear is never the option. I always have the option to choose hope and trust in God.
8. Intersession is not negative and it is not scary, but it is fun. I have the honor and privilege of looking at situations from the perspective of heaven. Heaven is full of the glory of God, hope (joyful expectation of good), joy, extravagant life. When I see a terrible situation, I have the exciting opportunity to look through a different set of lenses and prophecy the glorious future into existence. Instead of asking God to do something out of fear, I agree with what God wants to do, out of trust in His character.
9. Healing is real and it is easy. It doesn't take fancy prayers, but it takes faith in a good God. Which is easy to have once I've experienced Him.
10. Grace is an empowerment from God, that enables me to act out of righteousness. Therefore, everything that I do, everything I accomplish, everything I encounter, is because God is good and He empowered me to do it. So I don't have to fear being too prideful, or not accomplishing my destiny, because it is all for grace.
11. Relationships take effort, and they take brave communication. To have beautiful relationships I must learn to communicate my needs, and listen to others needs. The goal is connection: not correction.
12. The life I am living now is not for myself. It is firstly for God, and it is secondly for the generations to come. Many generations from now will look back on my life and they will see if I changed the course of their future or not. I am no longer living for the short term, but I am living to raise the standard of the quality of life for my future grandchildren's children. My limits, my ceiling must become their starting point, their floor.
13. I have a strong call on my life to bring freedom to others, and to break slavery (both physically and spiritually). To do that, I have to give myself permission to dream without boundaries. And I am doing so, with bravery and with passion. There are many lives that are going to be changed because I had the courage to dream.
14. I will never allow my bad experiences to challenge my belief in God's goodness. Rather, God's goodness will forever challenge my experiences. I do not care what happens in my life, I will always declare "God, you are good!".
In the quiet places of my life, where I used to experience depression, discouragement, anger, suicidal thoughts, frustration, agony, impatience, and loneliness - I now experience hope, peace, joy, love, patience, kindness, goodness, and life. My inner world is completely different. It is abundant and it is clean, full of clarity. I didn't know it was possible to live with so much fullness in a consistent way, but I am living it.
And you can too! It is the normal christian life.
JOY PEACE AND LOVE TO YOU
Hannah
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