Category Archives: Holy Spirit

Aspirations, Inspirations & Inclinations

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As you are planning what you will do this year, hope to achieve, or aspire to, are your plans based on inspiration or inclination?

What do I mean by that? And why is it important?

Consider, for a moment, the definition of these 3 words:

Aspiration:

  • “A hope or ambition of achieving something”.

 Inspiration:

  • “The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”
  • “A sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea”
  • “The drawing in of breath; inhalation”

Inclination:

  • “A person’s natural tendency or urge to act or feel in a particular way; a disposition or propensity.”

If we dive headlong into our year, purposing and planning what we will do, or hope to do, based on what we are ‘inclined’ to do, we may be selling ourselves short.

We all have a tendency, or propensity, to act in a particular way, to make choices and decisions based on our nature, our environment, our feelings, and what may be going on in our lives at any one time.

And there’s nothing wrong with that, necessarily, but often it can lead to shortsightedness, selfishness, and sadly, not fulfilling our true purpose in this world.

We ‘tend’ to take the path of least resistance, we ‘tend’ to focus on our own needs and desires, we ‘tend’ to not go for the big goals or the higher vision, but rather follow our own inclinations.

Contrast this to aspiring and planning for the year based on inspiration. When we are ‘inspired’, amazing things happen in our lives and in the lives of others we interact with. We become more creative, we find timely ideas, we are more excited, more engaged, more productive, and most of all, make more of a difference in the world.

But there is a trade-off to moving in this realm. We don’t ‘plough ahead’ and quickly put our own desires into action, setting schedules and making plans to suit ourselves. Instead, we open our hearts to be inspired, which takes a discipline all of its own, and then once inspired, seek to put inspiration into action.

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Remember again that inspiration is “the process of being mentally (and I say, spiritually) stimulated to do or feel something”. To be inspired, you’ve got to slow down, and listen to your heart, and for us as Christians, more importantly, to listen to the heart of God. For, as the Bible says, our own heart can be deceitful. Our carnal flesh has tendencies that, unless checked, can lead us astray, or away from our God-given purpose.

But the awesome thing is this: if we will listen to the heart of God, He will speak. And when He does, wow, get ready for some amazing things because, as He has so rightly said, “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:9

And as Ephesians 3:20 states: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Our Father is able to blow our minds with what He can do in us, and through us, if we will simply stop, listen, and ask Him to speak to our hearts.

We do this by waiting on God in quiet time with Him, listening and not always talking. Turning off all things that would distract (and oh, how we need to do this in this ‘always-on, always connected’ world). Opening the Word of God, meditating on it, and waiting on Him in prayer. He will respond to a heart that seeks Him, and when He does, it will inspire you!

The word ‘inspire’ means to ‘breath on, or in’, and that’s what God will do, if we will let Him. “Breath on us, O God, and let us hear your voice, so that we may know the way in which we should walk.” That is my prayer for this year. How about you?

If you are ready to soar and go higher on this journey with God, move forward into this year by first listening for the voice of God, and build your aspirations on inspiration, rather than just on your inclinations. Then watch what happens!

I’d love to hear your thoughts, feel free to comment below…

Blessings,

Kim

Joy On The Journey.com

Amen

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Click to hear: “Amen” by Charity Gayle, Joshua Sherman

 

Get ready to be taken to the Throne Room of God with this amazingly beautiful worship song. Wow!

 

Thank you to Charity Gayle and Joshua Sherman.

 

Does God Speak to Us Individually?

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Have you ever heard God speaking to you? Whether you have, or you haven’t, I think you’d like to hear this amazing story…

At the recent International Convention of the Familia de Dios in Seattle, the Rev. Francisco Zuniga shared this:

Around 20 years ago, when visiting Seattle from Chile, he was struggling with a major decision.

As he visited a church where his daughter and son-in-law, my mother, and my husband and I attended, something awesome happened…Francisco-Zuniga_

During the worship service, Bro. Francisco was standing somewhere in proximity to my mother. He didn’t speak any English, and my mother, didn’t speak a lick of Spanish. However, all of a sudden, while she was worshipping, he heard her speak clearly IN PURE AND PERFECT SPANISH: “What you are thinking of, do it!”

A seasoned man of God, he knew immediately that the Lord God was speaking an answer directly to him. He made his decision, went back to Chile and put the vision that was in his heart into action. Over the next two decades through prayer, hard work, perseverance, and the blessing of God Almighty, he trained and raised up hundreds of passionate men and women, young people and adults, who have, in turn, taken the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spread the Good News to multiple nations, including Chile and the United States, but also to several others.

As this gentle servant of God looked over this international convention with tears of joy…he smiled at my elderly mother seated in the back row – a woman who had spoken the message God had given her, in a tongue she didn’t understand, 20 years ago!

This testimony, and a million others like it, verify that God speaks to mankind, and speaks to us as individuals. I know He has been so kind to speak to me so many times.

So, the question isn’t “Does God speak to us?” but “Are we listening?”

 

What God Thinks About Me Is Infinitely More Important…

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In this hyperconnected world in which so many people spend so much time in social media, do you find yourself wondering what your network thinks of you?

I think, if we’re honest, most of us would say “Hmm…yes…” to that.

The more important question, however, is “What does God think of me?

We know that God loves us. And wow, what an amazing and wonderful truth that is.

But what does God really think of the way that we live in this world? And does it matter?

The scripture says that God knows our hearts. In fact, He knows us better than we know ourselves.

He also told us that if we are to spend eternity with Him, we must return His love, with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, and with all of our strength. So, yes, it matters.

Fortunately, when you fully realize how much He loves you, what He has done for you, and the amazing plan He has for YOUR life, it’s easy to surrender to His love.

It might not be so easy, however, to fit your actions to your intentions. That is why He offers us His Spirit to lead, guide and empower us to do what we know we should do.

So here’s a couple of reflective questions to finish this thought today:

Knowing that He knows your heart, your thoughts, your attitudes, and your actions:

Would you say that your life is spent pursuing the applause of Heaven or the applause of people?

Which means more to you?

And which do you think means most to Him?

 

I think you know…

 

 

P.S. ~ Hat-tip to the person who coined the phrase: “What God thinks about me is infinitely more important than what others think about me.” If you know who they are, feel free to let me know in comments below…

 

 

Joy That Frees Your Spirit

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Remember when you were a child and something made you so happy that you started spinning around with glee? You may have jumped, you may have danced with joy, but you couldn’t keep still! So my question is, what holds us back from demonstrating such a joyful spirit as this as we grow older?

There’s an old Hebrew word for joy that suggests maybe we shouldn’t stop experiencing such joyful emotion like that. It’s the word “giyl” (pron. gheel) or “guwl” (pron. gool) and it means to find so much joy that you spin around with wild emotion! Interesting etymology, perhaps it’s where we get the word: “glee”. It is the word used for “joy” in Habakkuk 3:18 – “I will joy in the God of my salvation.” When was the last time you spun around with pure joy like this? Has it been a while, a long while?

Here’s the kicker: this kind of pure joy, in the context of this scripture, was expressed even when things weren’t going well. I’ll talk more about this in another post, but suffice it to say, you can choose joy, feel joy, and know joy, enough to spin about, regardless of circumstances. Wow. That kind of joy only comes from God.

When you experience joy like this, what others think really doesn’t matter. We know that King David exuberantly danced for joy, and may have even spun about, at the return of the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. So much so, his wife mocked him, but he didn’t care. You see, such joy frees your spirit.

Like the release of a dove to fly, when you really grasp the joy that God gives, you want to spread your wings too. You feel the freedom to show your joy back to Him with pure abandon. The norms of society, of course, have taught us to restrain ourselves from showing too much emotion, but God does not. He doesn’t tell us to button it up. Even if you don’t feel as if you could spin around with joy in public, you might want to in the privacy of your own home. Why not? Break the rules! Experience the full joy of the Lord and the joy of a little child again. It’s not childish, it’s child-like, and there’s a significant difference. Jesus said: “Unless you become like a little child, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Although in this instance He was referring to humility and faith in our Father, we have it on good authority that some child-like attributes are good, even essential for us to adopt.

So the next time you think on the absolute goodness of God and let His joy flood your soul and spirit, let yourself have the freedom to dance before Him, even jump or spin around with glee again! (Okay, be careful not to fall.) Watch what it does for your emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being.

Let your Father know how much you find joy in Him! He would be delighted in your pure and unadulterated happiness and joy. He’s like that.