Day 1 - In the Kingdom of God....

God has been doing something in me (drawing me in, capturing my attention) for quite some time now. He has used people, circumstances, and books to speak to my heart, and I am ready and listening. While I am not sure where this journey will lead, I am sure that I am ready to go, and I am more sure I am ready go deeper with my Creator. So today, I’m starting a 40-day push toward spiritual renewal. I’m reading Bill Johnson’s Supernatural Power of the Transformed Mind in order to lead and jump-start this renewal, and I’m excited that a few are coming along; I am blessed to have people in my life who would support such a journey and who would come too, if for no other reason than to keep me company. I am surrounded by good people, and for that, for you all, I am so, so grateful. I hope that God speaks to our hearts in this process, that He challenges us, refines us (even through painful processes), and transforms us into something completely new. This God I have loved, I want to love more. This life I have lived, I want to live better. I want to sleep, eat, and breathe Christ so that there is no moment, no detail, no thought that is not surrendered to Him. I want to lose myself that I can gain Christ because I have tried him and I have found him to be worth loosing everything. I believe that seeking the kingdom is worth everything I have, and I am ready, in this journey, to hold nothing of my own as sacred. If there are habits in my life that are inhibiting the Spirit’s voice and direction, I want to cut them out. If there are parts of my life that are not surrendered to Christ, I want to lay them on the altar to be consumed in a holy fire. I am ready for transformation, not as a one-time event, but as a practicable life change to be engaged for the rest of my earthly life. In today’s devotional, Johnson says that “the will of God is simpler and plainer than we have thought…The will of God is simply this: ‘On earth as it is I heaven.’” I want to look today to bring heaven to earth. Johnson prompts us in the journal section to write down some of the “works of the devil” from which Jesus has freed us, and for me, this has been a great exercise in seeing moments of interaction with Christ throughout my life. God has freed me from anger at different points in my life which encourages me to lay this before him in some of my relationships today; he has proven himself trustworthy in this. God has taken care of my physical needs several times throughout Tony and I’s marriage in ways that could only be God (exact dollar amounts that we needed being given to us by people who did not know we needed it, bills being taken care of by both named and unnamed people on different occasions, etc.). This encourages me to not rely on my own power to take care of myself and my family. Though I have the ability to care for myself right now, this ability, I am reminded, comes only from the Lord. And all of this reminds me to lay down my own ambition. Lastly, God has healed me physically on more than one occasion. This one is a tough one for me to write because I struggle daily with not feeling physically healed from this chronic illness. Though I am not seeing that healing manifest in my life today, I am sure that God can heal. In the kingdom of God, there is no sickness. My prayer is that whatever the reason (or reasonlessness) I am sick, God would use this non-kingdom event to usher in His kingdom anyway. Please feel free to jump in with your own responses to Johnson’s text or the scripture you’re reading today or to the Spirit’s leading in your heart. I’m not sure what to expect as far as responses go here. I am a writer at heart, so my posts will be lengthy, guaranteed, but I’m aware that not everyone will be blessed by this or engage in this way. Whatever way God speaks to you, I hope that your day today is blessed with renewal and growth. I am thankful for all of you today.