Jesus Was In The Kitchen

This is a short one, but for me it shows a BIG picture of how God desires to be part of everything we do, no matter how unimportant it may seem to us.
Last monday I was browsing through the Beg Barter Buy Sell Cypress page on facebook. I was orginally looking for clothes for myself, but I didn't find any. What I did find was a really nice play kitchen that a woman had listed for $75.
Jude loves to play with his friend Lillian's play kitchen whenever we are at her house, and I figured when Mercy is old enough she would probably like it too. My mom had given me some money for my birthday/Christmas and I still had some left. So I texted the phone number on the listing and asked if she would be willing to sell it for $50, which was the max of what I had decided I was willing to pay for it - I like to make a deal on a deal (-: She said she was not willing to take less than $65 for it. I tried to tempt her to take my offer by telling her things like, "I will pick it up today!" but my deal sweetening attempts were unsuccessful. However, she did tell me that if she hadn't sold it by Friday she would get back to me.
As the day went on, I kept thinking about the play kitchen - I really wanted it for my kids! Eventually I started thinking, "its only $15 more... thats not worth losing it." "I should just pay the $65 to make sure I get it." I was wrestling with myself about it and I finally asked the Lord what I should do.

He told me to wait, that he wanted me to have it for the price I had offered. Well, okay. I asked him if there was anything he wanted me to declare about it, and I felt like he wanted me to speak out that the woman's heart was coming into alignment with what God desired for her kitchen. So I declared it out loud, then let it go...

...until Tuesday. I actually took the time to scroll down, down, down, what seemed like forever until I found that listing again so I could check the comments and see if anyone else had made an offer on it. So far no one had, which of course made me feel a little relief.
On Wednesday I went to the page to check again, but as I was scrolling the Lord asked me, "Do you not trust that I have it sorted?" I recognized that I had no control over any of the players left in the game, and that my worrying and checking up on it was not going to do anything but tempt me to disobey the Lord. He wanted me to have it for $50, I already knew that. But the woman's final decision was still in play. That is why he had me declare that her heart was aligning with His desire.

I had never really thought about it before. If I was in her position, I would probably just take the highest offer I recieved... but what if God wanted someone with a lower offer to have it. Would I be listening to hear him about it, and willing to take less? Food for thought.

So I released it completely to the Lord. I let it go, if it wasn't to be mine, then I would believe Him to bring something better around. And instead of praying that no other offers would come in like I had been hoping, I blessed the woman selling it, and asked the Lord to help her make the best decision.

I didn't check the listing again, the pull toward it left my mind after I let it go to the Lord. But on Friday morning, I was on it! Around 8:45 I texted the lady asking if she still had it.
I was so excited when I saw her response - "Yes I do, and it's yours for $50."           

  *Jude pretending to wash his hands*

You Blender Believe It!

This story gets me really excited! There were so many little lessons and helpful tid bits mixed up in this scenario, it seriously changed my life.

But really quick, here is an update on my last post 'Duct Tape & Discipline':
I think we are on week 4 since the big boy pants came off, and there has been no digging! And the last 2 nights have been onesie free!

Here is a picture of my son after reluctantly putting on the pants again so I could get a photo. How sweet is he!

 

 

On to the blender!

 

A few days after Christmas I was scrolling through facebook and saw a post from a girl I didn't really know. We had been in the same birth class together years before when we were pregnant with our firsts, but had not developed any real relationship. Her post was about her blender burning out. I didn't think twice and scrolled right past it. A few seconds later I got this really strong impression that I needed to go back to that post, so I did. When I got there, the Lord reminded me that I had an extra blender!

I had purchased a $16 blender at Target about two years ago, and in October we were finally able to get a Vitamix after wanting one for several years. I had the target blender sitting up on the top shelf in my pantry collecting dust, so I was glad to offer it, and do my good deed by paying for shipping.

 

I went on with my day, pretty excited about giving my friend this blender for some reason. So I asked the Lord if there was anything else he wanted me to give to her, and he told me I needed to write her a letter AND that he was going to give me a prophetic word for her. Well… I about flipped my lid! I have never really prophesied over anyone before and have had a serious fear issue in simply hearing God at all, so this was pretty exciting to me, and a little scary! I have always wanted to hear the Lord clearly and have battled against a stronghold of fear over my life in many areas, but this one being the worst. How can you live without being able to hear God? It’s like a one-sided relationship. It’s been stupid – I know I can hear him, but I have been so afraid that I won’t, that I never ask any questions requiring a response. Since entering into this new season I have really been going to war with this to overcome and displace the root of fear that has held me captive.

 

Later that evening as I was getting ready for bed, the Lord started speaking to me about what I was to say in the letter. As he began to unfold the prophetic word, I realized something… I found Elijah to tell him what I had heard hoping that he would say it wasn’t right, but he immediately agreed that it was God (doh!). The Lord had told me to give her the Vitamix… not the cheap target blender.

At first it was hard for me to let it go, but once I did I was overcome with joy and excitement about obeying the Lord, and about what he was saying to my friend. I didn’t sleep most of the night. It was like I was swept up in some heavenly whirlwind of craziness! God kept showing me more and more of his heart for this friend. It was overwhelming. I wrote down the word he gave me so I wouldn’t forget, and he told me to go out the next day to buy warm clothes for her kids to send with the blender. I think I fell asleep around 6 am.

 

I was on cloud 9 most of the weekend, but it didn’t take long for the enemy to come up with a plan of attack. I started seeing the scenario play out – friend receives blender and letter and thinks I am a crazy idiot psycho and rejects the whole thing, defriends me, and I didn’t really hear God after all. Blah, blah, blah. I remembered a weird dream I had a few weeks before about this friend and thought “maybe this is not a good idea after all…” I didn’t send it for several days. Finally on Thursday night Elijah said, “aren’t you going to send that? What are you waiting for?”  I DON’T KNOW! So I wrapped up the clothes, put everything in the box, taped it up and had it ready for Elijah to take to the post office on Friday.

 

I was nervous. I figured I had a couple days to calm my emotions down before the package arrived. I was trying not to fear the worst, and trying to let it go.

 

The package was mailed (regular post) on Friday afternoon, and apparently the post office at large was in a happy state because my friend received the box the next morning! I woke up on Saturday, relaxed and ready to spend the day with my little family. I made an exciting breakfast, showered and got ready for the day, checked facebook and AAAAHAHHHH! The friend had tagged me in a post (so I couldn’t miss it)!

My heart was racing, I felt like I was going to choke with anxiety. And as I read her story I was overcome… my eyes quickly flooded and out loud I began to thank and praise God for his awesomeness! I was so excited. I shared her post with Elijah and we were both overjoyed!

 

And we are still overjoyed to now have real relationship with this friend! Our families have met up and have made plans to hang out again in a few weeks. We are looking forward to sharing more life together.

 

So many things that the Lord did inside of me in this situation:

1, He helped me overcome (on a huge level) my fear of not being able to hear him.

2, He helped me release everything that I have into His ownership, to be used and given whenever, wherever, however, and to whomever he wants.

3, He took what the enemy meant for evil and turned it for my good – helped me release the end result to Him. I am only responsible for my part: to do what the Lord requires of me. But I am NOT responsible for how others respond. In any situation where we are obedient to the Lord and others are involved, their free will has its own part to play that we cannot control. A negative response does not mean we failed in hearing God.

4, Giving is way better than receiving – I felt so ALIVE!

 

5, And another huge thing that this friend is not even aware of (until now potentially) is the Lord broke me over judgment. I had a negative attitude toward this friend – I saw her need as a complaint and build up weird walls out of arrogance, and automatically bypassed her post because of it. It was God who made me go back to that post and give. And when he did, my heart broke under the weight of his compassion and love. When he showed me His heart for her, I was overcome and totally repented. Woe was me, how planky my eyes had been. It was as if he transplanted my heart to love this friend in a whole new way without even ‘knowing’ her. So glad to know her now - She is delightful! (-:

 

I am still overjoyed and overcome by all of this! And I am more excited to have relationship with God and my friend than to have a Vitamix sitting on my counter (-:

 

And every time fear tries to tell me that I can't hear God, I laugh.