So. 

Here I am in Romania.

Let me just tell you that Romania is GORGEOUS.

It is one of the most picturesque places I have ever been.

Rolling hills, sheep in the plush, green meadows, awe-inducing sunrises, beautiful sunsets.

God's creation never ceases to amaze me.

Ministry here has been WORK!

I have been able to garden! WOO HOO!

I love it. 

And it is just hilarious how many lessons God is teaching me from gardening. 

I seriously do love it.

So yesterday, I was pulling up weeds. All day.

Just pulling weeds, grass, all the unnecessary things in a landscape.

It got me thinking about the gospel of Matthew and the parable Jesus tells of the weeds.

He told the story of an enemy spreading the seeds of weeds in a man's field unbeknownst to the farmer until they were growing with the grain.

One of his servants asked if he should uproot the weeds 

and the farmer said no.

He did not want the wheat to be accidentally pulled up with the weeds.

He wanted them to grow together until harvest, when he would then pull up the weeds to burn and harvest the good wheat.

Apparently, the kind of weeds Jesus was speaking about look just like the wheat when it is young.

Only later can the weeds be distinguished from the wheat. 

What an interesting picture of our walk with Christ.

The wheat, when young, looks like the weeds.

So we the wheat, while we are still young and immature in the faith, may look like the world for awhile, until we grow up a little bit.

In the same way, there are those who think themselves to be wheat when in reality, they are just young weeds, growing next to the wheat who will be found out as they too mature and grow.

Sometimes, in my past, I have confused myself. 

I knew I was wheat but I looked like the weed standing next to me.

So, wait. Was I really wheat or was I just a weed masquerading as wheat?

It was not until I began understanding my true nature as a grain of wheat that I began to grow and actually see that I was wheat.

It was not until I began to understand my position and place in Christ that I could truly see and know the difference between myself and the weeds around me. 

I was also thinking about the field being my heart.

Sometimes, weeds begin to grow without me realizing it until the thing becomes mature.

Then the thing has to be ripped out and burned away.

It hurts when that happens.

When I am not asking the Lord to come and search my heart, some pretty crappy stuff can begin to take root that should not be present at all.

Like, worry, anxiety, frustrations, distrust, lack of grace for others, etc.

You know. All the things that God never gives me.

All the things that try to steal what God gives me.

Like, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, grace, etc.

You know. All the goodness!

All the delicious fruit of the Spirit.

So basically, you should go do some gardening.

I promise that God will teach you some awesome things through it!

:)

There is really only one desire I have right now, amidst the choices and forks in the road that I know lie ahead. There's one overall desire that trumps the other stuff that my heart ponders from time to time. With this season of my life coming to a close, I am faced with the 'what's next' question at almost every turn. It's such a topic of conversation and sometimes the future can be a foreboding, ominous thought. The conclusion I have come to is something like this. You know Pinky and the Brain? They do the exact same thing, every night, "Try to take over the world!!" And that's my answer to the question,

"What are you going to do when you get home, Andrea?" 

"Same thing I do every day, Pinky. Try to take over the world with the kingdom!"

My heart's cry, my heart's desire is to know the heart of the Father in greater and deeper ways every day, and to advance His kingdom in whatever I am doing at any given point in time. I am only given one moment at a time, the same moment that every single person on the planet lives in. We're all in this moment together. Crazy, right? So what reality am I living in, in this moment? What reality am I choosing to believe, now, in this moment? I could fill these glimpses of time with so much crap. I could take this moment to think about all of my tomorrows but where would that get me? I'm only here, right now. My tomorrows have not yet been given to me.

So. My moments are few. They are fleeting. They escape me, sometimes before I even know I had them. I want to so live in them. I want to be in the here and now, all of my todays, however many I am given. 

In this moment, all of heaven is rejoicing. 

In this moment, all of heaven is for me, whatever my circumstance.

In this moment, God loves me.

In this moment, God's favor is on my life.

In this moment, I am alive!

In this moment, I am a daughter of the Living God.

In this moment, I am seated in heavenly places with Christ, at the right hand of the Father.

In this moment, the power and presence of God resides in me.

In this moment, Jesus is the victor!

In this moment, God sees me.

There could be a storm blowing around me. There could be a sickness threatening to disable me. There could be countless things going on in the natural. 

But, what reality am I allowing to dictate my moments?

Because praise in the kingdom is ceaseless. 

Life in the kingdom is never-ending.

There is wholeness in the kingdom. Perfect wholeness.

Peace rules in heaven.

Joy is abounding in the kingdom.

God is on the throne.

These are eternal realities that have happened, will happen, and are happening.

Then.

Now.

Later.

Forever. 

My heart's desire is to be such a channel, a conduit of these realities that they animate the stuff around me. 

That these realities will quicken the good stuff in and around me and obliterate the works of the enemy.

So.

That one desire of mine: to know the heart of the Father, to seek the kingdom first and His righteousness. Everything else will be added unto me.

All the details, the plans, the job, etc. will be added as I continue to seek His face and draw near. 

He'll lead me.

He'll show me.

I praise Him for now.

I praise Him for this day.

I thank God for my breath, my heartbeat.

He has my days. 

He has my future.

And I am so thankful that He does.

so over the past couple of weeks, ministry in ukraine involved working in gardens. it was sweet because lately, every time i read the Word, anything that has to do with fruit, trees, roots, plants & the like stands out to me. i.e. psalms 1, john 15, ephesians 3:17, isaiah 61 & so on.

there's something so sweet about this idea of being a tree. i mean, i think about it all the time. basically, if i could have one superpower, it would be to become a tree :)! how awesome would it be if you were planted in the house of God, drinking in living water, being rooted in His love, bearing sweet fruit in due season & all the while, living in the place His glory dwells?! but wait, that is who we are as sons & daughters! we are able and invited to enter the throne room & sit at His feet! praise God. how privileged are we?! 

ok, so i've always kind of envied people who have a gift of gardening. i talk all the time about how i want my (non-existent) garden to be full of veggies & fruits & flowers & beans & herbs!! my imaginary garden looks beautiful, is plentiful, abounding in such delicious crops. i would take such delight in the reaping of this bountiful harvest! just thinking about how satisfying it would be to actually taste the fruit of my labor…so cool! maybe one day this will be a reality :)

this causes me to recall all of the people i know with gardens. most of them take such great care & have such sweet love for their plants. seeing the way people tend, toil & work on their land is challenging. it takes many laborious hours, days & sometimes patient years to really see seeds grow & become established.

so. thinking about gardeners…how much more is God this way with us, the earth, His creation?

how much more does He care for us? 

how patient must He be, tending our hearts, weeding our souls, preparing & consistently tending our soil for more of the fullness of His very Spirit.

He takes such great care of us. 

He takes such delight in the fruits of His Spirit, manifested in us.

Jesus, the vine. We, the ingrafted branches. the Spirit, our fruit. God, the gardner. (john 15, romans 11)

how beautiful is this??

how incredible is this picture of life in Christ?

my goodness. 

we are united with Jesus, grafted in by the hands of the loving Gardner, being made ready to grow, flourish, abundantly producing the life He has planted within us, the life of Jesus. 

simply astounding

and how beautiful is this.

the beginning of life started in a garden.

& the beginning of all of the fullness of life started in a garden with an empty tomb & risen Savior.`

!!!!!

too good.

there is only life now. 

death is defeated.

i am alive to Christ

to life. 

abundantly. 

forever.

So there I was.
In Jerantut with Scott's team doing some house visits.
Our third house visit of the evening was a time when we were all quite tired and hungry and ready to just rest a little bit. House to house visits are spiritually taxing and on top of that, we hadn't eaten in quite sometime. So we figured it would be a visit just like the others, some prayer, some small talk, (not from us because I sure can't speak Tamil haha). The father of the house was experiencing pain in his legs. He was not able to walk well for quite sometime. He explained that his ailment was caused by witchcraft. So, we began to pray for this man and his legs. The Spirit was moving in big ways as we lifted up the name of Jesus. Then, a spirit began to manifest itself. He slithered out of his chair onto the ground and became very still. We began praying for deliverance, calling out the spirit and casting it out by the authority of the name Jesus Christ. Then, he went still and opened his eyes. We asked him what had happened or what he was experiencing. We asked him to get up and walk. He got up, slowly, and walked around, free of the pain, free of the thing holding his legs, his body in bondage. DELIVERANCE. HEALING. Heaven opened up and poured out over this man. Amazing. The amazing love of Jesus, the power that crushed death and tore the veil, tangibly revealed. This man received Christ after that. It was beautiful. The Lord is good! Can I get an AMEN??

A couple of hours later we thought we were done with ministry…NOPE. We went to Kumar's house, a new Christian under some crazy opposition from his family. His wife and children were confronted by neighbors and family members saying that they were not welcome in the community any longer because they are Christians. Crazy dark stuff! So we come in, exhausted, drained. But the Lord had work for us. We began praying over Kumar, over his family. A spirit began to manifest in Kumar. He struggled against us for a bit, not wanting us to touch him as we prayed for deliverance. After quite sometime, he stilled and said his insides felt like they were on fire. We continued praying, for a filling of the Spirit. He stood up abruptly and excused himself. Later, he came back and explained that during his struggle, he saw a man, a bearded man, come over him and tear something out of his body. !!!!!! JESUS. JESUS JESUS JESUS!! Gosh, I get goosebumps just thinking about that. Jesus came and ripped the evil spirit right out of Kumar's body! YESSSS. 

Dear believers of the world, WAKE UP! 

Jesus is alive! We have received life, love, grace, power through the Spirit!

He's moving. He's MOVING.

And He wants to use YOU.

He wants to use His Church.

Make yourself available. 

Let's stop putting up with the enemy and get up in his FACE.

Pray!

Pray boldly. 

You can go beyond the veil, confidently before your Father 

and ask Him to come.

We had no part in Kumar's deliverance

except for the fact that we obeyed.

We called upon the name of the Lord to do what He does, save, breathe life, renew, restore.

This is real stuff going on.

It's nothing that I can explain except that Jesus is ALIVE and His name is POWERFUL.

When His sons and daughters come to Him, not as beggars, but as children knowing the capabilities and characteristics of their perfect Father, things. get. CRAZY.

Things. get. HEAVENLY.

People get delivered.

Spirits are cast out.

Truth is revealed.

Life breaks out.

Miracles.

Heaven kisses earth and the taste that is left is freedom, life.

You are incredible, Father. 

You are beautiful.

You are victorious.

You are magnificent.

You are mighty to save.

You deliver us from the hands of our enemies.

You answer when we call. 

THANK YOU JESUS.

Thank you Jesus.

in the garden from the start, 

we were one.

You, me, he, she.

WE.

US.

TOGETHER.

HARMONY.

UNITY.

oh but he&she fell. 

they fell away. 

they chose 'i, mine' more.

more and yet so much less.

me me me instead of we three.

ashamed. alone. dead. dying.

he&she were now just two.

two broken, fractured parts attempting to equal

one

and yet falling short every time.

too fallen. too separate.

two.

a piece of the equation, 

a piece of 'we' is no more.

broken. severed. cut off.

'we' is through.

oh but my soul.

my soul longs for You.

my soul, the depths of me cries out for wholeness, unity, belonging, freedom,

YOU.

You is the piece necessary.

everything missing in him, her, me is You.

oh but where?

where are You?

how, after all that has been said&done, 

how can it be 'we' again?

Oh God.

oh God.

help me.

i cannot reach.

You and i cannot be.

for You are infinitely holy.

therefore, i cannot be with You eternally.

oh but wait!

what's this?

who's He?

who is this Jesus the Nazarene?

i hear He died on that hill, calvary.

the blood thirsty killers

nailed Him to a tree.

God…

Your Son?

You sent Him…

for me?

Oh my God…

the penalty He paid 

as He hung on the tree

was meant to set me free….

my God…

my God, You are rich in love.

You are abundant in mercy.

oh Jesus, sent to the cross

to set me free, 

defeated death 

for life eternally.

what wondrous love is this!

the Way, the Truth, the Life…

now i and You can become 'we' 

because He paid the price 

to set me free

and let me be

WHOLE.

NEW.

REDEEMED.

RIGHTEOUS.

PURE.

CLEAN.

i am His and He is mine.

till death do us meet, 

forever.