I had originally kept this story to myself and a few choice friends, but have felt recently that I needed to share. So… I have a teensy weensy bit more to post about the She Speaks conference and what is still happening around here. Even though I’m back home, the Lord is still speaking. Friends, God doesn’t just speak in far off places. He speaks right to our hearts, if we would just take the time and be willing to stop and listen.
I am apologizing ahead of time for the length. This will be a two part post. I am going to post the first part today. It’s a bit long but deservedly so.
To all three of my faithful readers, hang in there, I promise you will be blessed.
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TELLING EVERYONE
While in the word a couple of days ago, I was reading Psalm 96 when a verse struck my heart. I sat there staring at the words on the page, I didn’t blink and I may have even held my breath. I knew God was speaking right to me.
Psalm 96 begins just beautifully, “Sing a new song to the Lord! Let the whole earth sing to the Lord! Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.”
Reading right along, I was feeling just great. “Yes Lord, I will sing a new song to you today!” How encouraging, right? But it was the next verse, verse three of Psalm 96 that pierced…
“Publish his glorious deeds among the nations. Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.”
You see, just the day before I had been on Renee Swope’s blog and made a comment that I was ashamed of. Something pretty amazing had happened that she knew about and I had left a comment telling her that I chose not to share it on my blog or with most of my friends and family.
Why, you ask? Because I thought that if I shared what God had spoken to me, then I would be held accountable by those that I love to follow through.
Silly, I know. You would think that just having God tell me something would be enough, but NOoooo I like to think I still have control over my life.
Stop laughing, us control freaks think we have this power.
While at the conference last month, on that last evening I was there, almost six hundred women gathered together to have dinner. As the evening progressed, we worshipped and listened to Renee give an anointed teaching on Gideon and the shadow of doubt. At the end of the evening as the worship team played “How Great Thou Art”, women came forward for prayer for their fears, their doubts, some recommitting their lives to Jesus and His calling on their lives.
It was just beautiful.
As much as I love to take advantage of any special prayer time, I didn’t feel called to go forward. Praying silently for these beautiful ladies, I sat beside my new Southern girlfriends and sang as the tears not-so-gently streamed down my face. I ‘m an awful ugly cry er, but we’ll just leave that for another post. The song, “How Great Thou Art” moves me to weep every single time I hear it. It was one of my mom’s favorites. I don’t believe it was coincidence that the last worship song played on my trip there was one of her favorites. With my mom in Heaven, whenever there is a song that I know was loved by her, it feels almost as if God has closed the gap. With my eyes closed, I can see her beautiful face and almost feel her presence. While I’m worshipping here, she’s worshipping there and for a brief moment the huge chasm of my time and her eternity is closed.
Fast forward a week later. I find out from Renee’s blog that the women who went forward that night were able to pick up a card with a shaded word and scripture just for them. There were hundreds of different card stock cards with different shaded words like, anointed, blessed, chosen, loved, forgiven. These cards had been prayed over, the heart of Renee and the other gals at She Speaks was that they would get into the right hands that evening. On her blog that next week, she was asking the ladies what word the Lord had given them and if they wouldn’t mind sharing what God had spoken to them that night.
Being the Proverbs 31 woman that I am, the inner five year old instantly came out in me. I thought to myself, “Haaarrruuummmphhh! Doesn’t that just stink. Gee Lord, why didn’t I get my butt off of that comfy chair and go forward on Saturday night?!?”
***The Lord heard that heartfelt prayer of mine and used Renee to fulfill His word for me. I can’t wait to share with you tomorrow just what happened.***
Part II tomorrow!
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