What If You Believed... A Five Minute Friday post.

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After last weeks' Word Prompt and post on the Ocean, well-- we were packing last night to head for the water!

Our One Word Prompt this week is IF. This is Five Minute Friday! 
Let's go...

{GO}

I see the prompt and think, wow --that is just wide open! We could go ANYWHERE with that word!

So I stop and pray...

Because, as is always the case here, I don't really want to just share my words as much as I want to share His heart... so I slow and I still and I ask Him, "What do you want me to say?"

And I wait...

(Insert Rolling Eyes Emoji, because... All I do is wait, wait, wait no matter what...) 

At least, in this season, that is how it feels.

But I have learned to lean in and enjoy the wait... to enter into rest and to embrace PEACE as my arms and heart are opening wider to embrace Change, too!

I think of the numerous If/Then verses in the Bible but honestly each of them would take way more than five minutes to adequately dig into... so... I wait a little longer, and this is what He whispered softly to my spirit:

"What If You Just Believed

What I Say About You?"

What if, instead of allowing the enemy or our own insecure voice speak lies and half-truths over us, labeling us and binding us up and squeezing us into boxes and cages... what if --instead of all of that, we simply asked Him what HE says about us and then just take Him at His word?

I believe we are in a season where this is His desire for us... each, individually --and then, together corporately.

I believe we are in a time and place that the Spirit is gently revealing labels we wear that don't fit... that we were never meant to put on... and this is the day and hour to look them over and peel them off and align our thoughts and minds and sense of identity with what HE has to say... and not what anyone else thinks. 

Sometimes it is others who speak things over us and we can't seem to get out from under the weight or judgment of it.

Sometimes, truly, we are our own worst enemy and we come into agreement with the enemy of our souls without even being aware of it! We agree with the hateful, hurtful things that seem to come up out of nowhere and crowd our mind and shout at our fears and silence the hope that they are not true.

This reminds me of a vision I had during a time of prayer and worship a few weeks ago. I saw a flash of a woman in three different pictures.  The first one featured her bound up and covered in Labels... the second showed her taking the labels off and piling them up around her feet... the last scene was this woman, freed... naked and not ashamed, wearing only one 'label'.  It was a sash that read: "Mine!"  

(Yes, it WILL be a painting soon!)

After seeing this vision, I felt the Lord say we will be held accountable for every label we put on ourselves that contradicts what He says about us!  He said now is the time and season for* some self-examination and removing of false labels to make room for the real you to stand up!

He continued, "When I see these false labels, I don't get angry or talk down to you... it breaks My Heart because I sing Truth over you every day. But when you are covered in labels or lies, you cannot hear the Truth... so peel them off one by one and listen for the Song!"

It's a Song of Love and Freedom.

(And who doesn't want more of those two things, really?)

{STOP}

I believe we are in a season of grace to take care of this... 

I believe the hesitation is that we forget that God is good, and Love, and Grace, and that He made us on purpose... He formed and fashioned us to be one of a kind.  To stand out and not blend in.  To shine for Him in a unique way. To say things and see things and create things and love and laugh and weep and comfort in a way that no one else can.  I believe His desire is that we will grasp that and do the work of removing lies and labels... and let Him be the ONLY ONE who lays claim to us.

After all, He is our Maker... Creator... Lover and Friend!

What If You Believed
What He Says About You?

Here's the thing... 
He is loving and kind... 
He is a good, good Father
and He speaks Life.
He is always FOR you... 

So if, when you read that sentence, 
fear enters in --well, then
you are not listening
to the voice of God.  

He is tender and pure... 
righteous and holy too, yes --of course!
But His words are always words dripping with
Hope and Life and Love!

I invite you this weekend to get alone with God for even just a few minutes... and literally ask Him what He says about you... write it down... pray it through... and any label or box or lie that contradicts what He says, picture yourself peeling it off and laying it down. 

Come into agreement with what the Lover of your Soul has to say about you! Stand Tall in how He made you and who He intended you to be!

Be YOU... 
Lean in and listen and 
You just may hear
the faint sound of the Father
singing over you His Song
of Love and Freedom!

The Five Minute Friday community is the best gathering of Flash mob writers around!  We wait for the one-word prompt and we throw caution and hesitation and editing to the wind, and we let our fingers fly and our feelings feel and we just wait and see what flows out in five minutes (or so! Because, grace!) and we hit Publish without second-guessing or backspacing! 

Linking up with Kate Motaung and the #fmfparty Community today.  Five Minute Fridays give us the chance to dive right in and share what He puts on our hearts! Click HERE to read what others have to say about "IF"

The FMF lowdown: The gathering happens on Twitter on Thursday nights & then we write our hearts out & hit publish all over the interwebs on Thursday & Friday (& sometimes on Tuesdays!) It's where we encourage & uplift... where we share prayer requests & praise reports... where we talk food & friends & we find support & kindred hearts. It's where we are reminded that life is good & God is good & we're not alone... & then we all write for five minutes flat, a flash mob of wordsmiths letting our hearts & our fingers do the talking tapping & we hit publish before we can second guess it all away. We'd love to 

* - When my Five minutes were officially up!

I'm also linking up with the lovely writer communities linked below:

Crystal Twaddell for #FreshMarketFriday

Mary Geisen for #TellHisStory

Kelly Balarie for #RaRaLinkUp

Holley Gerth for #LetsHaveCoffee

LORI SCHUMAKER FOR #MOMENTSOFHOPE

KRISTIN HILL TAYLOR FOR #PORCHSTORIES