Testimony

The Power of a Word

/ Jana / Leave a comment

Each year we ask the Lord for His word for us for the year. It’s an exercise we have been doing for a long time.  My spiritual father, John Dee, started this beautiful practice and now many of us have this rich history of seeing God reveal more of His heart to us and in us. So, first things first, have you asked the Lord for your word? Second, what do you do with it when you get it?

More than a faddish thing, these words become bricks in our soul’s structure. I find each word builds on top of one another. In fact, if you haven’t recently, go back to the last 2-10 years and locate your word. It’s amazing how one brick, one deposit or revelation, had to come before the other. While you are at it, look at your memories. See how God unpacked your circumstances through the lens of the given yearly word. I can say that 2022 was a bruiser. But through the lens of His word for me, it is totally different.

Next step, share your word! Give testimony about how God revealed Himself to you.  We are all strengthened by the movement of God in each other’s lives.

Last year my word, or phrase, was “Unveiled and Seen.” I look back over my year of death and disruption, letting go and taking on the new, and I am in awe. This year has truly been an unveiling and seeing a whole new way of doing life with God, new comfort in sorrow, and even a new focus in ministry.

Okay so brace yourself. This is vulnerable. My words for 2023: Unleashing miracles.

I mean what even is that? I didn’t want to write it down. BUT. GOD.

What if Unleashing Miracles is what God wants to do give me, show me this year??
I don’t want to miss that.  So here’s my testimony.  This is me putting on my seatbelt. Tag you’re it. What’s yours?

Let’s do this.

He is worth it. He is with us.

/ Jana

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It was the best of seasons and the worst of seasons. Sounds dramatic I know, but it really does ring true. This is the season of thanksgiving. There is just so much to be thankful for. Big and small.  My friend Joanna Simeone has been asking for answered prayers and miracles and we just keep sending in testimony after testimony.  It’s Beautiful.

AND.

And, it feels like all hell is breaking loose.  Hmmmm. Just as I write those words, breaking loose, the Spirit reminds me of the passage I have been returning to this week. “No weapon formed against you will prevail,” from Isaiah 54.  What if  the more we give thanks in all circumstances, the more hell is losing its grip on us? The more hell is breaking loose from our lives?

I told my friend I am in the perfect storm, every area being shaken up, pressed down, crushed. And yet, the song of Lord keeps bringing me peace.

• He brought me an actual song,  “Another in the Fire.” It is a war cry anthem for sure.  “I can see the Light in the darkness, and the darkness bows to Him.”

• He gave me a vision in the shower of the word Confidence. Like a teacher diagramming a sentence the Lord re-wrote the word like this:

Con (meaning with, or together) + Fide (faith) + Ence (noun turned to action or result)

Confidence means With Faith.

He has said over and over again He Himself is our confidence.  We can  “with Faith” Him in the moment by moment.

• And then there is the tension of the not yet, the holding your breath, the punched in the gut I can’t breath moments where we must decide our path. This is what He continues to breath into my spirit: I am worth it. I am with you.

I told my friend Kate I am convinced that all of life, and I mean ALL of life, is God’s invitation to us to have More of Him.

So today I bless you, and myself, to have full Confidence (With Faith) in Him and to rest, breathe, believe He will be good and God to you in every circumstance. And to know that He is worth it. He is with us.

Oh Yes! This shell is what sparked the conversation. See that little shell inside? That’s me and you. Hidden within His Broken Body. Amen.

Let the Redeemed Say So

/ Jana / 1 Comment

Somebody challenged me the other day, If God is so good, and so powerful, then why do Christians sound so miserable?”

Ouch.

I had to think about it. I mean, really. And you know, a lot of Christian music IS often about lost people getting saved, desperate cries of “God are You there?” and pleas of “Help me-help me-help me.”  No offense intended. And yet. . . where are the testimonies of healing? Provision? Comfort and wisdom? Not just salvation, but everyday intervention in our lives?

Is God living and active in our lives or not? Do we see Him, acknowledge Him, give Him the credit He deserves?

Graham Cooke made this great distinction in his sermon “God is the Kindest Person I Have Ever Met.” He said that who we were Before we met God was our History. But who we are Now and what God has done in our lives Since we met is our Testimony.

And since you know how I love definitions: Testimony is defined as evidence or witness. And blow my hair back, look at what it used as examples of testimonies:

  1. a.) the tablets inscribed with the Mosaic law, the ark containing the tablets, b.) a divine decree attested in the Scriptures
  2. a.) the firsthand authentication of a fact, b.) an outward sign, c.) a solem declaration made under oath
  3. a.) an open acknowledgement, b.) a public profession of a religious experience

Can I get a Yes and Amen?!! A Holy Wow?

Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”  Acts 1:8

Lord, give us eyes, ears, and Mouths to be receive Your power and be Your witnesses of your goodness even in the middle of our circumstances.
Amen.

My Soul Sings Out “Halle-lu-jah”

/ Jana / 1 Comment

There is no one like our God.  No one.  Not just when things go like we want them, but when all of life becomes dark, gray or numb. There is no one like Him, Them.  No one who washes us out of Their glorious riches like They do. There is no one loving and leading like They do. No one who can be Father, Brother, Lover like They can. No one who sees our desperate need and reaches out to heal and restore. Not disinterested observers from afar. No, this God is right in the middle of our business. They get in there and wash, and redeem and breathe dead bones back to life.

They delight in being Our God.

Listening right now to the song “Reign in Us” by Starfield. How it makes my soul soar:

Oh great and mighty one
with one desire we come
that You would reign that You would reign in us
we’re offering up our lives
a living sacrifice
that You would reign that You would reign in us

Spirit of the living God fall fresh again
come search our hearts and purify our lives
we need Your perfect love we need Your discipline
we’re lost unless You guide us with Your light

Lord Jesus
come lead us
we’re desperate for Your touch

What are you desperate for?  Life, hope, health, friends, love, money, peace? Come to the One Who promised to meet all your needs out of His glorious abundance. He lacks no good thing.  This whole Zimbabwe trip has forever changed my life and I haven’t even left yet.  The question about God that I had to face is this:  I know You are Good. I know You are Here. I know You are Able. But are You Willing for me?

What  He revealed was that I had a lot of false props in my life.  Lots of places that I leaned on other than Him. And one by one, (and I am quite sure we are not done yet), He is showing me, He doesn’t just say, “I am the Life.”  HE MEANS:  I am the Life. I AM your life.

Every way, every day, every need, every desire. I have so many things to give testimony about to brag on Him.

God has provided all our Zimbabwe funds! You should hear the stories… Only God could have done that.

God has rescued my marriage and we celebrated 19 years on April 13.  Only God could have done that.

God came down in overwhelming extravagance at the retreat. Women were given wings to fly. Only God could have done that.

On and on.  What about you?  What will you give testimony about today?  Don’t miss the power of God that is released when we praise Him in every season, act, and issue.  “And they overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.”

Reign in Us

You thought of us before the world began to breathe
You knew our names before we came to be
You saw the very day we fall away from You
and how desperately we need to be redeemed

Lord Jesus
come lead us
we’re desperate for Your touch

Oh great and mighty one
with one desire we come
that You would reign that You would reign in us
we’re offering up our lives
a living sacrifice
that You would reign that You would reign in us

Spirit of the living God fall fresh again
come search our hearts and purify our lives
we need Your perfect love we need Your discipline
we’re lost unless You guide us with Your light

Lord Jesus
come lead us
we’re desperate for Your touch

Oh great and mighty one
with one desire we come
that You would reign that You would reign in us
we’re offering up our lives
a living sacrifice
that You would reign that You would reign in us

we cry out for Your life to revive us cry out
for Your love to define us cry out
for Your mercy to keep us
blameless until You return

oh great and mighty one
with one desire we come
that You would reign that You would reign in us
we’re offering up our lives
a living sacrifice
that You would reign that You would reign in us
[2 x]

You would reign in us

So reign please reign in us
come purify our hearts
we need Your touch
come cleanse us like a flood
and send us out
so the world may know You reign You reign in us
[3 x]