FB Status Continued

Ya know, for not being in a relationship right now, the Lord has been teaching me a bunch about them. Foreshadowing perhaps? Haha we’ll see . It probably has something to do with how I’ll get to celebrate marriage with a bunch of my really close friends this year and I just love it.  Over the past year or so the Lord has just opened my eyes to the amazing beauty of relationships and marriage when they’re walked out in purity as the Lord desires and gives the grace to do so. It’s just amazing the way He has set this whole thing up. It’s an unbelievable picture of our covenant relationship that we have with Him and I just love learning about it .

Yesterday in my facebook status I blurbed about how I love that when you’re in a relationship with someone, moving towards marriage and the whole deal, it’s not about having everything in common with them but rather how you compliment each other. You got two different beings bringing different things to the table that the other actually needs and from that place they move together as one unit. I know for me I used to think that you have to have a whole bunch of stuff in common with someone when you’re in that kind of relationship with them or else they’re not “the one” or whatever you want to call it. But the Lord’s been showing me that that’s not entirely true. Yeah there are gonna be things that you have in common and I think there actually needs to be that in some level but not in the way I used to think.

It’s kinda like when you put two puzzle pieces together:

You can’t put two puzzle pieces together if they’re the same right? The parts just won’t fit. Two different puzzle pieces are…different yeah, but made to fit into each other. Same thing. I love that. The Lord made man and woman different but not incompatible. I feel like the very fact that we are different is actually what makes us compatible. If I’m different than you, there’s something that you have that I actually need in order to function and grow and vice versa. And that’s not in an unhealthy way (though that can happen sometimes if we’ve still got some things we gotta work though) but rather just cause of the way the Lord designed us to function.

I wanted to share some stuff from Kris Vallotton’s book Purity: The New Moral Revolution where he talks about this same stuff. (I love when the Lord’s talking to you about something and then you see the same thing in a book! So cool!) Genesis 2:18  is the verse where the Lord says that it’s not good for man to be alone so He’s going to “make him a helper suitable for him.” That phrase “helper suitable” is the Hebrew phrase ezer kenegdo. We get the word “helper” from ezer but the meaning of kenegdo in the Hebrew actually is “the opposite of” or “the counterpart.” I love what Kris says as he goes on in explaining this:

“…the differences observable in the bodies of men and women are typical of distinctions that lie in the rest of their beings as well. Like our bodies, our natures as men and women were created to complement one another.(pg 123)

Remember, God made us different because we needed suitable help. The more we understand and appreciate how we are different, the better we can draw on and receive the help that we need from each other.” (pg 126)

There are things that a wife needs that only her husband could give her and vice versa.  This doesn’t mean that when you’re in a relationship with someone that it’s all about getting your needs met and what not. It actually is just the opposite. Men and women were made to need each other and grow in love through self-lessly serving and loving each other. A friend of mine worded it this way:

“Remember that love isn’t self-seeking and loving others isn’t about making ourselves feel better. At the same time, being honest about your needs is a beautiful thing. Just make sure that you aren’t manipulative in your requests and you don’t have expectations either.”

Like Kris says, true covenant love always has the heart response of “I’m in this relationship for what I can give, not what I can get.”

“You see, if you think about it, the reality is that if each person in this situation is going to get what they really want, they will have to put their needs and desires aside and work on loving the other person. This principle runs through all of life. In order to grow in love, you have to give it away. God set it up so that investing selflessly in each other is the only way that each partner can receive what he or she needs and desires.” (pg 128)

I love this so much. This whole thing. It’s so cool for me to think that there’s a guy somewhere who’s gonna be different than me, show me different sides of the Lord, all that jazz and who I actually need to be alongside. I love seeing the differences between people anyways so it’s gonna be really fun for me to see those things in whoever this guy is one day. One of my favorite things about the Lord that always makes me fall more in love with Him is how different HE is so I guess it makes sense why I love this whole counterpart thing so much. It’s fascinating and amazing and beautiful. And I can’t wait

This is rocking my artistic WORLD!

Hilarious. I don’t blog for weeks and now I can’t help but do one almost every day. I just gotta share this stuff though !

Okay so I was watching the archive of Bill Johnson speaking at IHOP during the Awakening. And number one, y’all need to get on that. I’m gonna be chewing on the stuff he said for a long time. Gotta love BillyJ 8). Anywho, He began talking about the healing rooms at Bethel and he mentioned how they have people paint while the healing rooms are going on as well as the worship and all that stuff. He was talking about releasing the power of the Holy Spirit and all that stuff too and goes on to say this…

” There’s an interesting thing about creative expression, whether it’s painting, drama, doesn’t matter what it is. Anytime your creativity functions out of an encounter with God, your creative expression can bring others into that same encounter. When it comes out of your encounter with God, something happens where there is a grace on that artistic expression that can draw the observer into the same experience. Creativity is an expression of wisdom, study Proverbs 8.”

Yeaaaah. Have fun chewin’ on that one! This is just rocking my world when I think about my art now. I sooooooo want this. As I was journaling about this with the Lord, I just typed out, “Bring me to that place of creating with You from a place of covenant communion.” Well in the words of Kris Vallotton, that’s a good word right there! For reals, the Lord’s really teaching me such cool stuff about creating. I mean, He is the Creator and all so that makes sense. But this is the way the Lord intended it to be, that’s how HE created. Everything He created was from the place of love, intimacy, and communion within the Godhead. Everything came out of that. All things were made through the One who IS love after all! John 1:1-3.

This same point is illustrated in the way a child is created too. His intention was for children to be created from a place of covenant communion between a husband and a wife. In his book Purity: A New Moral Revolution, Kris Vallotton talks about how in Genesis 4:1-2 it says that Adam “knew” Eve and that she conceived and Cain and Abel were born. Here’s an excerpt from his explanation:

“The hebrew word for “knew” is yada. It doesn’t mean that Adam had sex with Eve (the Bible assumes that you know that without being told); it means that Cain and Abel were conceived [or created] out of a deep personal relationship between Adam and Eve” (emphasis & brackets mine)

That to me is such a beautiful picture of creating with God. He desires things to be created out of covenant. I think it’s one of those “principle of the kingdom” things. Like, when there is deep communion, intimacy, yada…it’s inevitable for something to be created. Wow, it’s how things are created within us! I’m mostly talking about art right here but it’s the same process the Lord uses to create us and birth things within us! It’s from that place of intimacy that we are changed into His image after all! So cool!

Here’s my question now: “What will happen, what kind of art work and demonstrations of creativity will come forth as a generation begins to enter into that place of fellowship and communion with God in such a way that life is brought forth through the very things they create?”

I’m gonna find out

Oh! I have to tell this story that Bill shared to illustrate his point in that quote. After he says that he goes into this story of a woman who came to their healing rooms who had a stage four cancerous tumor in her brain. That day, one of their painters had just finished painting the word “HOPE.” That’s all it said. Hope. And as the lady is just looking at this painting all the sudden she starts weeping. A bunch of people come over to her right away to pray for her and she said that as she was just staring at this painting her tunnel vision left, the pressure on her brain left, and a liquid then started to flow out of her ear. She went to the doctor and was COMPLETELY HEALED! PTL!! The painting “HOPE” brought that woman into that reality, into an encounter with hope.

The Lord is just so cool 8)

Revelation 4:11 – For You created all things, and because of Your desire they existed, and were created.