From Patmos Musings

Ever since seeing From Patmos on Sunday, the Lord has been stirring up some serious stuff in my heart. I know I’ve mentioned it a bunch of times on facebook already but seriously, if you haven’t seen it yet check it out (Click to Watch). It will so bless your heart and increase your love for Jesus. It was anointed and awesome when I was watching it but it wasn’t until the next day that I really realized how much it affected my heart. A big part of how it did for me was the way they showed Mary of Bethany’s story.

Mary of Bethany is probably one of my favorite things to talk about. I mean hey, that’s where the name for this blog comes from after all. It’s because of what she represents, what she did for Jesus that stirs my heart to do the same. She gave all for love and wasted all she had at His feet. There was something about seeing those scriptures being portrayed through From Patmos that made it so much more real to me. Seeing real people act it out just made the whole reality tangible. It really happened! It made my devotion to Jesus seem all the more real as well. I just keep thinking about what Mary saw in Jesus. How her heart came alive when He spoke. How when she looked at Him, she saw the most beautiful Man who was about to do the unthinkable for her so she couldn’t help but do the unthinkable for Him. She saw His worth. His value. Her act of extravagant devotion to Him was like a life declaration for her saying, “This Man is worth more than anything and I will freely give Him all I have.”

And then there’s Jesus’ response to her act of devotion.

“Assuredly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be told as a memorial to her.” (Matthew 26:13)

Stop for a second and realize how much of a big deal that is. What a statement of honor to Mary that was from Jesus. I can just sense the seriousness in His voice, the jealousy and passion behind those words. He’s telling his disciples, “I value what she’s done for me so much, that wherever you guys share the gospel and tell My story, her story is going to be shared with it in honor of her.” One day when I was reading this Mary of Bethany account that part of the verses just really struck me. At first I didn’t really get how what she did related to the gospel. So I just asked the Lord why and what He showed me is one of the coolest things ever to me. What I felt like He showed me was that Mary’s story is to be told with the gospel because her act of devotion was a demonstration of what the gospel is. Meaning, Mary was doing for Jesus what Jesus was about to do for her and all of humanity! Mary broke the alabaster flask and poured out perfume on Jesus as an act of love and devotion to Him. Jesus broke His body and poured out His blood as an act of love and devotion to us. That is so amazing to me. That’s the gospel! That Love came and gave His all for us that we might be with Him forever! She tapped into something that the bible says the disciples didn’t even understand. I also felt like the Lord showed me that Mary’s story is to be told because that is what He’s after, that’s what He desires, for that same type of voluntary love to be lavished on Him by all of humanity. He longs for our devotion and for us just to be with Him like Mary was. I feel like this statement from Jesus also just shows how much He honors our love for Him. Even with these other revelations and what not, to Jesus it’s enough for her story to be told just because of His great love for her and the value He has for the devotion human beings bring to Him. There really is no one like our God that has such affection for His people.

Since seeing From Patmos, my heart has been so touched to just give Jesus my all and waste everything upon Him like Mary did. To give Him all my love, all my affections, all my dreams, my plans, just everything. I so long to see others step into this reality of giving Jesus extravagant love and devotion. I just wanna see Jesus receive the glory, honor, and love that He’s worthy of. He is so worthy. He’s worth it. HE is worth it. His Person. We get Him. He’s our inheritance and our portion forever. Give us a greater picture of Your worth Jesus! To see you rightly and respond like Mary.

“I wanna be like Mary, sitting at Your feet, lavishing my love upon You. How I chose that one thing, I give all for love, surrendering everything for You. You are my great reward, You’re who I’m longing for. My beautiful inheritance, Jesus.” – Ashley Prior

Washington Update

Soooo it’s been forever since I’ve posted an update on here and there’ve been some pretty neat things that the Lord’s been opening up for me that I’d like to share with y’all .

Back in February I started a girls bible study with some of the girls from youth group. A couple months before that it was really on my heart to do some type of bible study with them but I just could not decide for the life of me what to do. So one day I just told the Lord how I couldn’t decide between things like Song of Solomon, the life of David, John the Beloved and when I asked Him to show me what to do He revealed to me that if I had the First Commandment as the main focus we could do ALL of those! Seriously, Jesus’ smartness makes me fall more in love with Him. That was perfect! And He basically gave me the whole first session which was so awesome. So about mid February we started and that’s been our main focus and over arching banner. My heart and prayer with this is that the Lord would use this to continue to till the soil of these precious girl’s hearts and that they would begin to build upon that foundation that can not be shaken. So far we’ve been focusing on how the Lord feels about us before getting into how we walk out loving Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The Holy Spirit reminded me that we love because He first loved us so it’d only make sense to focus on His love for us first. I think my favorite part so far is seeing how the Lord speaks to these girls and the truths that are beginning to take root in their hearts at their ages. It’s also just another testimony to how Wellspring sows those seeds into them that they do hear from the Lord and that He desires to speak with them. The Lord’s been working on my heart through this too which is always good. Doesn’t always feel good lol but it is. Basically it’s just working on me getting over my lazyiess to talk to the Lord when preparing for it and sincerely investing in these beautiful ladies. And what I’ve found is that through just doing this WITH the Lord, it really is easy and light! I don’t ever want to fall into doing things for Jesus as oppose to with Him. It makes such a difference. Another thing the Lord’s been teaching me through leading them is that the best thing that I could do is to pray for their hearts. To ask the Holy Spirit to release the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus when we meet and beyond that. I can’t change them, I can’t make revelation stick, I can’t reveal Jesus to the human heart. I’m involved and the Lord loves to use me and partner with me but it’s not in and of myself. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can do that. And how awesome is it that all we have to do is ask? I just love how the Lord’s using this as another avenue to teach me about the value of prayer and partnering with Him

Another pretty significant update is that I’m part of a worship team at church To some of you that probably seems super unexpected because I never really shared with anyone my desire to worship through song and music. I mostly didn’t because I was really self conscious about it. But the Lord has been so awesome and kind to breathe life into this desire of my heart and remove the lies of the enemy that held me back. In the past I’ve even had some pretty significant experiences with the Lord in regards to worship but in my head I never really knew how it was gonna come to pass I guess. But of course, the Lord knew just what to do in His perfect timing. I was given a guitar before I came out here and up until October-ish I was just messing around with what I could and then began guitar lessons with one of the worship leaders from church. It’s been such a blessing to have leaders who sincerely believe in and want to invest in me. Around March another one of the worship leaders had asked me about possibly joining his worship team. With that I knew that that was a door the Lord was opening for me and jumped on board. I feel like I’m still getting used to the dynamics and all that jazz so I’m just doing my best to keep my heart before the Lord with it all and to grab hold of what He wants to do in me through this. I just really love that place of encounter you find through music and song with the Lord. It’s so unique I think. I love that He made us this way.

I think that’s about it so far as major updates. I’m still babysitting during the week and that’s still going well . I’m really grateful for the mom training it’s giving me for sure. Still working with the youth in general too. In a couple weeks we’re going to a one night Jesus Culture worship thing on the west side so I’m really excited about that. And overall, I’m still enjoying my time out here in the Burg. Like I’ve told a bunch of you, I continue to see the Lord’s perfect leadership in my heart through leading me out here. Not just for the opportunities that He’s given me here, those are awesome, but even more importantly, for the things and places the Lord’s love has been able to touch in my heart. It’s like Ellensburg, and any future place I find myself in really, is just another backdrop for the Lord to cause love be cultivated in my heart.

Thank you again to all who have been praying for me here and there while I’m out here!

Till next time,

Grace and peace!