My beloved sisters,
I am so blessed to ring in a new year with you and to anticipate God’s goodness and faithfulness in the coming 12 months. Let’s allow 2014 to be more than the next number on a calendar. Let’s deliberately enter into a fresh season and invite Jesus to do something brand new in us and thank Him in advance for what He has planned. His ways are always right. Always fitting. Without having a clue what is ahead in 2014, you can have unshakable confidence that your God will be good to you. He holds you securely in the palm of His hand.
I am deeply thankful for you this day and all you mean to His Kingdom. You are staunch servants. Mighty, mighty women of God. I am amazed by all you do in His Name and for the beauty and creativity of His holy calling displayed and parceled among you. You sharpen me and keep me running my race at full speed toward the one and only goal worth setting: the finish line where Jesus stands, urging us forward and waiting to welcome us home.
I have a simple truth on my heart this new year but it is washing over my soul like a waterfall.
I want to obey God.
In mid-November of 2012, God dropped a word so convicting on my heart through another teacher’s lesson that my face instantly burned. You’ve had those times, too, when you look around the room sheepishly to see if everyone is glaring at you, hoping you got it so that the congregation can all move on to the next point. This was the word:
Stop sowing over and over in the exact same field.
I wasn’t looking for it. I didn’t ask for it. I was happy where I was. Like many of you, I like things to stay the same. I loved my circle of relationships and the familiar places I got to serve. I’ve never lost a passion for those places and have often wept with thanksgiving to God for the privilege of walking through some of the same doors again and again. I have a history of long relationships and staying put and that’s how I like things. But I knew God was talking to me. It burned like a branding iron.
Every single day for nearly 14 months, that same word has reverberated in my soul and troubled my feet.
I have made some strides and taken some steps. The Living Proof Live event team and I felt the urging of the Holy Spirit almost simultaneously to continue to do what we’ve been doing – calling people to worship and the Word – but to become very proactive about reaching the lost and the less-discipled. You will hear us become vocal about this initiative in the coming months leading up to our new LPL calendar year that launches in April. We are passionate to still serve women who know Christ well but we’re also hoping they will join us shoulder-to-shoulder in the accelerated outreach effort that God is blazing in our souls. We are praying earnestly that women will come bringing the lost and the searching and the broken and the untaught. A dying world surrounds us. One that Jesus loves. One that He died and rose again to redeem.
The process of change is not simple. It takes forethought and prayerful preparation. We are, for instance, deliberating on ways to make tickets available because we know that lost people aren’t prone to buy tickets to Christian events. We’re trusting God to show us what to do and how to do it. The free ebooks that we’re putting out for the first 10 days of January are part of this initiative. We’re very aware that, when it comes to reaching the unreached, free is key.
So strides have been made but they are only first steps.
I shared with you the date in 2012 that this word came to me so that, if you needed it, you’d have some assurance that I’m not knee jerking or reacting impulsively. I have had all these months to pray and study and listen to Jesus and ponder His leadership.
Fast forward 12 months exactly to the most recent November. A year after hearing from God so clearly about sowing further than the field that I’d loved and served in for so long, I had a very disturbing dream. I can count the significant dreams I’ve had through the decades on one hand so I’m not prone to look for messages in my sleep to keep from having to actually pray and read the Bible. That God can speak through dreams is clear in our own Bibles, of course, but for many of us it is unusual. I don’t feel the release right now to describe the dream though I may someday. What I do feel is a strong compelling to share with you what I knew beyond a doubt it meant. I believe that I can either be obedient to God in the faith walk He is setting before me or He will take my voice. I do not feel that it was a rebuke. I felt that it was a warning.
I was saved in childhood but I was 18 years old the first time I ever had a vivid encounter with God and it accompanied my calling. Christ has been so merciful to remain with me through harrowing ups and downs, fears and failings, and flaws and frailties. Good grief, what grace He has poured on my life. What forgiveness flows from His wounds on the cross. I’ve been so foolish at times and learned many things the hard way but I am not new to the believing walk. I don’t look to the air for my words from God. I look to the Scriptures. It is my daily bread. I want revelation any way Jesus wants to give it but I’ve been around long enough to know that, if it is unrecognizable in His Word, it is not of Him.
38 years have come and gone since that day I received my calling.
And I have rarely – if ever – received clearer orders from God.
I share this with you because I love and esteem you so much and want you to know that I haven’t lost my footing or had a dramatic change in my theology as I tread into a wider perimeter than I’ve served before. I say this to you before I have a single invitation on the docket that is out of the ordinary. I’m not manipulating you in advance of announcing some big plan to you. No such plan exists. No such invitations have yet come that I know of. But when they do, I will take them prayerfully before God and if He says go, Sister, I’m going to go. I must.
For lack of a better way to say it, I am not picking up and moving across the fence. I think this is more about dismantling a fence anyway. I’m not leaving Living Proof Ministries. I’m not departing from our mission statement of many years: to encourage people toward knowing and loving the Lord Jesus Christ through the study of His Word. I’m by no means leaving my beloved church, Bayou City Fellowship. I’m not saying goodbye to the blog or this community. On the contrary, we have an active year before us and summer Bible study right around the corner. I hope to enjoy many more years of fruitful friendship and partnership with LifeWay through in-depth Bible studies and Living Proof Live events. They have been so gracious and willing to exceed denominational boundaries. I praise God for them.
We must all be willing to exceed denominational boundaries. Revival is at stake. Nearsightedness will trip us and disunity will slay us in the perilous days to come. We can prioritize our denominations over the Scriptures if we want to but we will shrivel up and die on the vine if we do.
We who are called to teach must teach the Scriptures even if – and especially when – they differ from our long-held stance. That we will answer for.
These are days for bravery.
To avail ourselves to the Holy Spirit and a fresh work of Christ in our midst, our healthy fear of God must far exceed our fear of man. I say this with tremendous love. Those who refuse to rock the boat when Jesus is tossing the waves in their faces will never know the thrill of the water beneath their feet.
For without faith it is impossible to please Him. Hebrews 11:6
Change is on the horizon and certainly not only where I live and serve. The winds of the Holy Spirit are picking up. We can dig our feet in the ground and demand to stay right where we are. We can toil to maintain things just as they have been for years. And we can be left out of a coming awakening that could one day be recorded in the annals of Christian history.
We can throw our boundaries up at God, keep stacking our divisive bricks, and insist that He obey us.
Or we can obey Him.
God help me, that’s what I want to do. I am too old anymore to let the bullies boss me. And I am too young to quit.
Out of the stunning grace of God, I have had the joy of serving among some of the most well-discipled women in the Bible belt. Many of them take notes each week as their pastors preach. They listen to podcasts in their cars on the way to work. They serve their local congregations, feed the poor, and minister to the sick. Many of them have done every Bible study on the market by every teacher available. They keep their faces in the Scriptures. They memorize and evangelize and sacrifice. They are warriors. I’m not worthy of them but I so dearly love them. I have no words to convey how honored I am to have served among them and I deeply hope to serve among them still. But to serve them only – or even primarily – lacks stewardship. God is telling me to get my ear pressed to the ground for opportunities to serve in environments where women are less commonly studying the Bible in-depth. Some of those places may look very different from those I’ve visited before. I make this promise. I will hold tight to the Word and seek with everything in me to teach it soundly. I will hold onto Jesus as the love of my life. I will pray hard and you’ll never waste a prayer on me.
The days are short. The times, urgent. For all of us.
Need is a part of what steers a call.
I have no idea what the future holds. I have no idea where God will send me or if those places will seem different to many of you. But this I do know: if I do not tell Him wholeheartedly that I am willing to go anywhere He leads and serve anyone He says, He is going to do His good pleasure anyway. And without me.
I have to go with Jesus on this or my soul will collect an inch of dust on the lifeless, wooden altar of safety and sameness.
Thank you for your patience. You have been so gracious to bear with me through this lengthy letter. When all is said and done, I pray with my whole heart that this post will turn out to have been more than just about me. That’s so nauseating. I could have done that at home by myself and saved you the time. But maybe God wants to say something similar to someone else. Maybe it’s time for your next step, too, even if you have no idea where your foot is going to land.
Maybe you’ve been raised to keep your faith to yourself…and it’s time to start sharing it.
Maybe you’ve studied and studied for years…and it’s time for you to get up and teach.
Maybe you’ve been mentored so well that you know it all by heart…and it’s time for you to mentor others.
Maybe you’ve been the focal point of much compassionate ministry and you thank God for it…but it’s time now to pay it forward and minister to others.
Maybe you’ve been breaking free for 10 years…and it’s time for you to live free and show somebody how it’s done.
Maybe all our risk-free living is not really living.
And maybe I’ve missed it. But I am about to take that chance.
God has been teaching more and more on OBEDIENCE. He recently shared this thought with me…”Obedience is not what we do, but it is our duty, our honor, an outward reflection of our “being”. It comes from your heart. The “do” is just a reaction to what lies deep within you.” I will be praying for you, and all us “Warriors”, to stand firm in God’s word and “be” obedient as we fight this battle for the hurting and lost souls EVERYWHERE! After all, our success is determined by the measure of our obedience. Many blessings in 2014 my sister!
Amen!
I too, have sensed His desire for me to move in a different direction for over a year, but have not intentionally been asking Him “how?”, it seems too daunting! He has been comfirming this in several ways and your post was another confirmation.
Okay, I will begin a concentrated effort to follow His lead, to step out in faith, knowing He will lead, I just have to follow!
I believe you will be praying for all of us who know He is moving us toward His hurting, lonely! lost lambs…….He needs to Shepherd them thru us! Thank you for your prayers!
Be strong and courageous, our Lord goes before us in loving kindness, mercy, and truth!
Beth,
You are making me so excited! Francis Chan just issued a similar challenge to the church on a video someone sent me and my soul jumped!
I pray right now for this new season for you and a harvest on fresh soil!
NE
I can’t even tell you how fired up this gets me for what is to come. Your obedience and love and fear of God is what I love most about you. I feel like I spend too much time “blessing the blessed” and not really living the gospels. When I was at flipping through the LPL guide and saw Denver on the list I immediately started praying. My sister lives there (far from our family in FL) and she doesn’t know Jesus. She knows who he is, but doesn’t think she needs him. She has the mountains and music…that is her spirituality. I so want more for her and I have been praying for this event. I want to take her and I want her heart to be awakened. I’m just not sure she will be receptive and it would be difficult for me to travel there so I have held back. I am going to pray hard on this one.
Thank you so much for sharing this letter. It was an inspiration to me. Showing me I need to change my thought and the have the courage to make a difference to ones around me. I have a obstacle to overcome in my life. I do not know what is holding me back. I have been through worst times! Pray for me as I pray for you. May we all rely on the Holy Spirit to help us do His will.
Beth, I am so excited to hear your for Jesus. 10 years ago you were used in a mighty way to change my heart for Jesus. As I surrendered all, our God is doing mighty things here and around the world. We just had a conference down in your neck of the woods in Austin, TX. We listened under the tutorship of Ying Kai who has seen over 2.8 million baptisms in his lifetime. We are so excited to see God leading many to Christ here is Washington DC. We are dedicated to discipleship ministry and also seeing souls lost. I am so excited that a re-revolution is happening around America!! It takes each of us discipline each other and training others to do the same. T4t is the book ying Kai wrote–you would love it. I pray for you daily and I am so excited at what God is doing through you. Matthew 28:19-20 is our goal and so excited to see God use each of us like the disciples of old to reach a lost world. We are so knowledgeable in the word yet so many never live it. Oh I love love Jesus and so excited to see what God has for each of us.
Like so many others, all I can say is “Amen Beth!” God has been very gently nudging me in my own ministry of mentoring women and leading bible studies. My devotional today was on Matthew 5 and being salt and light in the world. I had a picture of a lamp with dust on it and wondered if the Lord was speaking to me again regards my ministry. When I read this blog I knew God was saying something to me as I don’t normally have time to read blogs lately. When you wrote “I have to go with Jesus on this or my soul will collect an inch of dust on the lifeless, wooden altar of safety and sameness,” I knew God was highlighting the dust on my lamp picture from my quiet time. I am now listening more intently to what He has to say and asking Him to give me strength and courage and the willingness to step out into the unknown with Him. Thank you. Your courage and boldness encourages me to do the same. Thank you for your example. Blessings with love and prayer x
I applaud the Lord for His leading and you for the coyrage to act on His calling. I was saved 15 years ago, but at the time was 7 years sober thanks to a 12 step program and a generic “God” or Higher Power was what I had in my life prior to my attending a bible teaching church. I am grateful for the foundation the program gave me but elated that I opened my heart to Jesus. I still have many unchurched friends, and wonder if you could leverage womens recovery or sober living homes to share the free tickets and reach the lost. While some of those homes house Christian women, many are following the generic God too. I have some info that could help you in tems of sober living contacts and would be happy to help. Thanks and may God bless this effort and all those inolved!
That has resonated with what God has been stirring in me. He has given me Isaiah 43:19 as my verse for this year. I have no idea what I am supposed to do besides draw closer to Him but feel a discontentment with where I am at. I know that there is a big move of the Spirit gathering and I don’t want to miss it.
Dear Beth,
Fasten your seat belts, here we go! If you don’t mind, I’m printing this off to share with our Women’s Bible Study which studies one of your series each fall-winter (Esther now). I have noticed the same changes in other ministries and how they are rooting out the “spiritual selfishness” in me. Joyce Meyer (who I also love) has been teaching & ministering more to the unreached and I’ve been tempted to change the channel when it’s about “them”, and not something for “me”(sad to admit this). Joyce has often said that we are spiritually educated beyond our level of obedience – and I believe that recently God is revealing that to all of us. I recently subscribed to Pentecostal Evangel, a weekly magazine from a denomination I formerly worshipped with and love. The magazine used to be filled with spiritual articles geared more to the ‘western’ world but now is filled with the victories & challenges of the church in unreached cultures. I’m tempted to think “nothing for me” in these issue, when that’s the very thing God wants me to see. If we’re the salt, we need to get out of the salt shaker! So we will pray for you, us, and the people who have yet to hear that God loves them and we do too.
Dear Beth,
I am so excitd about what God has done in and through you! And I am even more ecxited about what He has for you today and in the future!
Change is scary, I know that first hand, but the word obey has been showing up over and over again for me this week as well. I would love for change to be easy but I also know I would not grow if it was.
I love you dear sister & I still miss seeing your sweet face and hearing God speak through you.
I miss arobics and prayer and Bible Study. I miss my Texas family still after almost 20 years. But God has led us to serve where I never thought we’d go and in positions I only dreamed of in prayer. I continue to pray for you as you obey God’s calling.
Dear Beth,
When I was first introduced to your studies 15 years ago you inspired me and you continue to do so as God led me into full time ministry. Praying blessings on you and your ministry as you step out in faith into this new area of focus. I have no doubt that it will be challenging but that God will give you the wisdom, strength, and discernment to bring the good news to those who don’t know Him and you will impact as many unbelievers as you have believers. Thank you for being faithful to your calling and obedient to God. Glory to Him who is able to accomplish infinitely more than we can hope or imagine! Peace and Blessings, Kris
I’m so glad to hear that you are venturing out to a new audience. Recently I played a video of a lesson you did for my friend who was a brand new Christian. Since she had very little religious history, your lesson flew right over her head. She seemed even frustrated by it. I wasn’t expecting that reaction from her, but it did teach me to be more discerning. I’m so encouraged that God has put this new ministry on your heart. What a blessing!
Oh yes! I am so with you Beth! Thank you for your transparency and obedience, as usual. I feel the same winds picking up, and the mix of fear and excitement. It meant a lot to have someone like you (trusted and high-profile) confirm it in the Spirit. Aslan is on the move…
The January 1 reading from my new daily devotional “Days of Heaven on Earth” by A.B. Simpson immediately came to mind while reading your words. Wanted to share.
“Redeeming the time” (Eph. v. 16).
Two little words are found in the Greek version here. They are translated “ton kairon” in the revised version, “Buying up for yourselves the opportunity.” The two words ton kairon mean, literally, the opportunity.
They do not refer to time in general, but to a special point of time, a juncture, a crisis, a moment full of possibilities and quickly passing by, which we must seize and make the best of before it has passed away.
It is intimated that there are not many such moments of opportunity, because the days are evil; like a barren desert, in which, here and there, you find a flower, pluck it while you can; like a business opportunity which comes a few times in a life-time; buy it up while you have the chance. Be spiritually alert; be not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is. “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, buying up for your selves the opportunity.
“Sometimes it is a moment of time to be saved; sometimes a soul to be led to Christ; sometimes it is an occasion for love; sometimes for patience: sometimes for victory over temptation and sin. Let us redeem it.
Oh Gosh! This post has truly spoken to me.
Thank you so much!
I just want to say that I wept all the way thru this, it was exactly what God has been speaking to me for the past couple of months. This really just struck a match to me, and I am going to go into what God has called me to do, no matter what people think.
Thank you so much Mama Beth for speaking out your heart and for being faithful. My prayers are with you continually as you embark on this new journey. 🙂
Thank you, Beth! This is exactly where I am! I must obey where He leads and I know He’s asking me to step away from comfort. Praying for all of us!
Dear Beth,
I am sure I am not alone in saying that I will be praying for you as you desperately seek to obey our merciful King. Thank you so much for sharing your heart. I have been praying for months that God would break my heart over the things that break His that I might rid myself of things that don’t honor Him or bring Him glory. He has clearly laid it on my heart that I need to seize opportunities to share His name in boldness and in truth. People are lost and that breaks His heart. It should break mine, too. I am looking forward to where He leads and I will be praying for you as you do the same.
God bless you, Beth, for your obedience. I’m learning that when I surrender to Him in vulnerable obedience, He always shocks my socks off in the way He works in and through me. When I say “Yes” to what He is asking, but have no idea how it’s going to come to be, I am always amazed at the way He brings the opportunities to me even without me looking for them. May your journey ahead be filled with God-moments that bless you, stretch you, and confirm His call in your life.
Beth,
This is for me too! Thank you for your ministry and your heart felt desire to love and obey Jesus and for being willing to be open and honest with us concerning your walk with Him! May we have the courage to go further still in 2014. “Faithful is He that calleth you, Who also will do it.” IThessalonians 5:24
Whoa, is right! Do you notice how many posts reflect ministries to those who are hopeless, who need help, who are weak…BUT HE IS STRONG…and He has also called me to step way out of my home sowing field in 2012 and has prepared me, given me prayer partners and sent encouragement after encouragement to expand. Effective 1/01/2014 I am in charge of a non-profit that is geared to help elderly. I am a professional guardian now. I shutter to think in human reflections why on earth God has chosen me for this, but He has and here goes, and as you (Beth) so often since when? 1989? have taught me through HIS Word have once again confirmed this walk I’m on without even knowing me personally. Sow here we go!
Beth, you are speaking the same message God has been speaking to me. The words that He keeps speaking in my head are CHANGE and YIELD. Change will come, new results will come when I yield all that I am and have to God. I am sensing that it is time to go out and into the new without knowing where we are going just as Abram did as instructed by God.
It’s time for change. May you continue to be faithful in fulfilling God’s call on your life and may God do exceeding abundantly above all you could ask or imagine.
Be blessed,
Monica
Beth,
I’m excited for your new journey and can’t wait to see what He does! Thank you for listening to Him and obeying. You’ve inspired me! Love you girl.
Wow, your message just resonates so much of what I’ve been sensing for this next year, as I too am approaching it all with a new determination; all the while waiting for His clear direction and with a surrender of heart ; I pray that any boundary or limitations be lifted from your work and teaching; enlarge your territory all for His glory!! Thank you for sharing!
Beth, Bless your heart for sharing what the Lord is doing in your life. I needed to hear every word. I am one of those people who love Bible Studies and love all the familiar things and love the Lord.I have felt the Lord’s leading me to another church for the Mission abroad and ” going into the remotest part of the world to preach the gospel”. I am feeling I need to step out too. I don’t feel He is wanting to send me physically but in support of financially as well as prayerfully.It is so hard to leave friends and family and the familiar but you are so right about being called. When He calls and you don’t respond He will use someone else and you will feel so awful when you don’t obey that call. Wow I am so excited to read all these comments about how the Lord is calling us. I will be in prayer for us all to be obedient and to remember God is Not a God of confusion, He is a God of order and clarity. May we all be obedient in 2014.
Thanks to The Cosby Show episode in which Cliff “helps” to write Rudy’s history paper (and her teacher gives him write-offs), I can never hear the word “harrowing” without immediately associating it with the phrases “insurmountable obstacles”, ubiquitous melancholy”, & “downtrodden warriors”… but ending with achieving “ultimate success”.
Here’s to a 2014 full of evidence which proves that the pressing has not crushed. May it be full of palpable victory in Jesus. 🙂
Can feel your heart thru your post! God is taking my pastor husband and my self on a similar journey with our church body! God has been showing us, and the body here has been stepping out in Faith! So exciting to see how God is working in His people! Praying for you and your new journey!
I love you, my Siesta Mama! Thanks for demonstraighting and encouraging us to obedience. May God richly bless you as you step out in faith.
Beth, what a wonderful thing God is doing. You were so careful with your words, using many to ensure clarity. I appreciate that. And I understand it. You’ve taught me this over the years: you desperately seek to follow Jesus in all that you do. I’ll trust that in you because I haven’t seen differently. I look forward to seeing what God is up to and partnering in whatever way he leads. Perhaps I won’t be bringing my bible study to LPLive events but my PTA. Amen to that!
I will pray for you! This takes a lot of courage but as always, you inspire me. Thank you for sharing this. Sending not only my prayers your way from NC but also my encouragement! 🙂
Priscilla, Mesa, AZ
Thanks for sharing God’s heat and yours. He is moving and stirring and I am happy that you are going to be used even more than you already are. You have stirred my heart, as you always do when God speaks through you. I pray God will move mightily through you and that your Siesta sisters will be on the front lines with you.
I’ll proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with you Beth, and everyone else at LPM!
Ginger
Wetumpka, AL
I am so encouraged by your vision, your courage, your faith, and especially your call to embolden other women to come alongside each other for the purpose of reaching others for Jesus. Bringing the gospel to those who are hurting and desperately lost, especially women, is my deepest heart’s cry. Praise God for your faithful obedience!
Thank you Beth! I needed to hear those words.
LORD PLEASE DO NOT LET US MISSED YOU, Your Will or Way! Beth, your life seems to reflect that you haven’t missed it. You herald Jesus as KING, Sovereign, Savior and you show forth the passion of Christ in Luke 19 and seem not to want any to miss HIM! Thinking if you were in Luke 19 time, you would be with THE LORD’s people heralding CHRIST AS KING
Luke 19:38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[b]
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
and you would be doing all you can to bring His people to Him so nobody is missing! I wonder if Jesus still weeps seeing the multitudes and His own church miss Him so often and many altogether! I wonder if that is why when He was on earth bodily that there was a time JESUS mostly left the synagogues and spent much of His time with sinners on the streets and cities. As you know, Jesus did nothing on His own. O that we would do “only” what the Father shows us! May HE SHOW US and LORD help us OBEY and TRUST THE LORD!
My prayer for you and myself and others in Body, esp. as you (and I, because I believe He is calling me to the streets and shelters) move out to the land of people in such shame and disgrace, (where I once lived) may 2014, 14 being a double 7 year:
Isaiah 61:7-8 (NIV)
7 Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
8 “For I, the Lord, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
To think He would covenant with us and He came to do so! What A KING we have!!! Jesus is so Strong and LOVING! SO beyond compare; there truly is none like Him. Let us make Him famous, known and loved esp.by those that most need Him!
Excited for what THE LORD is doing! Praising HIM!
Thank you for living in such a way that causes me to want to know JESUS AND LOVE HIM MORE! Blessed double portion Inheritance Year to you and yours! May your Hebrews 11:41 be LORD pleasing, power of God living and HIS GLORY showing! All praise to the KING. May He hear the cries of all the “Esther and Mordaci minded and Abraham interceding” around the world for surely the JUDGE of all the earth WILL DO WHAT IS RIGHT! We can count on Him. Again, (twice to emphasize the double): Blessed double portion Inheritance Year to you and yours!
His Riches Blessings IN CHRIST JESUS,
Deb
As I begin 2014 there is a stirring in my heart to have a Jesus year. I thought I knew what God wanted me to do but 2013 proved to be a “learning to love God more” year for me. A new job, new church family, renewed committment and a desire to serve God and learn more than I have ever learned about Him. A passion for God that in my 57 years on this earth has only just begun to become real. Part of this journey is going back to school. Wow! that is huge for me. I thought that I would spend the remainder of my days speaking and writing, but I realized I needed more tools than just my years on this earth and my limited view and knowledge of God. So it is back to school for me, studing the Bible and striving to become all I need to be to be more effective in ministry. Thank you for sharing what God is doing. So many of us are taking this calling seriously and I love that we have a community of sisters in Christ who will commit to pray for us as we seek to do His will!
Psalms 65:11 “You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths drip with fatness.”
Oh Beth – Once again you take my breath away with your surrender…. When you hear Him and determine to follow wherever He may lead, despite your own resistance, it is beautiful! And you have a way of beckoning us all to do the same. Love you much, and prayers will be covering you as you go.
God Bless You, Beth. I’ve been walking thru five locked doors on Thursday nights to teach and share Jesus with female inmates at our local jail. Nothing about it is pleasant or easy or fun. It’s scary and my hands and tremble terribly bad. But I’m going in there sowing in the muddy field of life. And I’m trusting God for the harvest.
Dear Beth, Thank you for your openess in sharing this. As I close this message, I will drop to my knees before our precious Lord and pray for you (and for me.) You have put words to a breeze blowing over my soul (and that of my church) lately. Mysterious are God’s ways though always faithful to His Word and His character. Amen?
Excitedly terrified by the grandeur of our God,
maria
Thank you Beth, I wanted you to know that I have felt this coming within the Body of Christ. I am with you. Praying for you. God is going to do great exploits. I don’t want to miss out either. Love you Beth, thank you for listening to God and being willing to step into the future lead by the precious Holy Spirit. I am so excited
God bless you
Marney
I have been hearing a similar message from God. He placed on my heart, not one, but two words for 2014 – Surrender and Trust. I too believe that time is short and I am no longer willing to stay in my comfort zone. God has used you to confirm what I have been feeling in my spirit. Thank you for your beautiful letter.
Right on, Bethy!
(no disrespect intended, it just what I call you here at my house)
God is so good!
Susan from Greensburg:
“I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13 NIV.
My dear sister, the Lord is so good. I needed this Word from Him today. It has reached me from a couple of different places. Our family made some difficult decisions this past week that will alter the way we’ve been living dramatically. They weren’t popular decisions, but we felt called to make them. Your post confirmed in my heart that we have done what God has been calling us to do for about a year now. The second was in the end when you said, “Maybe you’ve been breaking free for 10 years…and it’s time for you to live free and show somebody how it’s done.” That’s me in a nutshell and it jumped off the screen and danced about 🙂 What a marvelous adventure we both have ahead of us! Won’t it be fun to see what God has in store… even if we don’t see the whole impact till heaven. Much love and many hugs!
This post was not wasted Beth. I haven’t been on this blog for a very long time. No real reason why. But God has been nudging me for a few months–I don’t know in what direction, but He’s present and I’ve been dragging my feet. It came on my mind to check the postings a couple of days ago, and then again today. I’m in tears. God usually convicts me in subtle ways–today, He stopped being so subtle. I don’t know where my walk is headed, but I know I have to start giving up my fears and complacency and pay better attention to Him. Thank you for your honest words from the heart.
Beth, As one of the many who have been blessed by the living water poured through your faucet, I rejoice with your obedience to launch out into God’s new territory for you. This past year, after many years of lay ministry in one area of freedom in Christ, He has moved me into a totally new area at age 66. Astonishment, awe, and excitement as well as the greatest dependency on Him I have ever experienced are my constant companions. May God continue to add to His kingdom those He is sending you to give His Word, His freedom, and our very great salvation.
Thanks for this word. It is timely, and just confirms what The Lord is saying to me. He has led my husband and I–two baptists, to serve at a Methodist church. He has given me a desire to teach the women, and call them into His word. This is where we are and He is doing a new thing.
So, thanks!
Karen
Exercising tremendous self-control here, I just want to say … Thank you Lord for what You are doing through your servant, Beth Moore. Thank you Beth for your submission and service to the King of Glory! May this be a year marked by a tremendous lack of personal trial and awash in overwhelming peace and joy, to the praise and glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.