Father Heart of God

Its been so long since i've blogged! I feel like there is so much to share :) so bear with me..theres probably going to be like 10 new entries today, but hopefully you'll be able to take something out of my thoughts and processing and stories and such :)
Last week was the father heart of God week. John Leach was our speaker, he is a father of 5 and a pastor from out in colorado. He was a true representation of the father heart of God. Such a good and funny speaker...reminded me alittle of the guy from princess bride who plays the cup game and tries to poison them..a mix of that guy and John Travolta :) haha
SO many good things were said this week i don't even know where to start. I feel so inadequate when it comes to writing blogs :/ i'll just start off with the simple phrase that he started with.. Jesus love me..this I know :) A cool image that touched my heart during this week was when John said "that if we dont know God's heart than it is difficult to love Jesus because Jesus is Gods heart" that may sounds like duh. but think about it.. Jesus is the purest example of the Lords heart to us. He sent us this piece of him..this piece of the Lord, his HEART. Jesus. Jesus is our model, if we have the wrong image of him then we can never be like him. Its like building a lego house with the wrong intstructions/picture to look at.
The Lord created us and only the creator can name what he has created. Think of all the different labels and names and destiny's people have put on us. We learned how much meaning is behind a name using the example of Rachel and Benjamin. Rachel was killed in child birth and names her son Ben-oni meaning " the one who killed me" Jacob didnt want him grow up under that name and label so he changed his name to Benjamin, meaning " the son of the right hand" ..the right hand was the hand that was used for blessing..so Benjamin is the son of blessing. We were challenged to look at the label and lies people have put on us and then go to the scripture and find verses that repudiate thoes labels.. find what God says about you..how you are his child and he cares for you. He is desiring a companionship with you. In the biginning of Genesis it talk about how "they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" How cool!! to hear God walking with them..i wonder what that would have sounded like.. like thunder or just huge THUMP, THUMP, THUMP haha. The bible says God is reconciling us to himself. (2 Corinthians 5) Concile means "to be in right relationship together" the prefix re means again, back. He is bringing us back to the way it was suppose to be. His original intent was that we would walk with him and talk with him and know him. Reconciling us to himself so that we are comfortable in the presence of him..we dont need to cover up and hide from him. as John said, "Drop the fig leaves!" :)
Most people are either living for (performing) the approval of God, or living from (you have it and can move in it) your fathers approval. We AlREADY have his approval!! and thats the beautiful thing...we need to live from the smile of God and not FOR the smile of God..always striving and performing and trying to impress...we have his approval..we have his smile..now we need to be confident in that and walk into the person hes created us to be and calling he has for us. Hs is the same yesterday, today , and tomorrow. His love NEVER changes. how cool is that? no matter what we do, his love for us is always the same..so much grace there. John also spoke a little bit on identity and what it gives you. Identity determines your purpose, lets you know your destinty, defines your life, give you great boldness and permission. Most people spend their lives trying to "fit in" rather than figure out. "Most people are born and original, but die a copy (of someone else)"
On of the last topics we talked about was blessing. When we speak blessing over someone we are creating and atmosphere, a belief, a possibility, fertility. He told about how we blesses each of his children before they go out the door and this and that, and how in order to give a blessing you must have a blessing. "You can not give what you do not have." So on the last day of the week each of the staff prayed over us and gave us a blessing :) it was an awesome week and I have pages of notes but I will spare you all since I have already pretty much written a novel haha. thanks for reading!

















“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.”
-Albert Einstein