Just something you're good at?

Do you know that anybody can glorify God? From a little child to a elderly person, from a bagger to the hardcore businessman, from a fresh born-again believer to the strongly rooted apostle reaching thousands of souls in one evening. This means that you and I can glorify God, and in a way we already are. Let me explain…

I have glorified You down here on earth by completing the work that You gave me to do. John 17:4

…This about sums it up. These are the words Jesus spoke to His heavenly Father BEFORE He was arrested, hung on the cross, died, rose again and went home to be at the right hand of His Father forever. Jesus came as a baby to this world. His earthly father learned Him everything on becoming a carpenter, which by the way has a lot of creating in it. From a piece of wood He could create the most magnificent piece of furniture. This skill He needed in His ministry later on and He is still using it today, for we are that piece of wood. He went through the hard knock life as a human being just like you and I.

He will be eating curds and honey when He knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. Isaiah 7:15

When God created us, He already had a plan for our lives, “…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jer. 29:11b. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5. When You look at the disciple Peter, he learned fishing at sea, before Jesus made him a fisherman of people. Paul learned to build tents before he was used by God to build churches.

We all have talents and gifts that God wants to use here on earth and I believe also later on in heaven. God has given us work that He wants us to do. In Matthew 25 Jesus explains that when you have the assignment or talent, multiply it by practicing it. Grow in it, become an expert in it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Ephesians 4:11 thing (Apostles, prophet, evangelist, shepherds, teachers). Do what you are good at and multiply that. And as you are growing in it, God is going to put people on your path that you can bless with that talent. And who knows, at some point God may ask you to put that skill into a ministry for the kingdom of God. But bear in mind that we are not robots here on earth nor in heaven later on. God wants us to live. He wants us to enjoy life within a righteous and heavenly culture. We need each other’s skills to make that possible. When you pick up on what God has placed in you to do, than you are glorifying Him and He will tell you: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”Matt. 25:23. He will bless the works coming from your hands, He delights in doing that.

God revealed this to me in the morning and I thought it was very encouraging. We all can feel so discourage at times, looking at some peoples ministries, thinking: ‘I wish I could do these things for you God. I feel like I fall short on You God.’ If you find yourself thinking those thoughts, I believe that this is His reply to you.

Note to parents…

 I think it is important for us to help children find this God given gift(s) early on. Satan is very busy attacking children and their parents, making sure that they won’t find these gifts and in that process also we as parents having trouble seeing it. I have seen many looks on parent’s  faces thinking what is to become of the child. As a mother I have plenty of moments where I have those thoughts. Where I find it difficult to look at my daughter and see her God given talent (or anything God given actually). It’s good to pray and talk this out with God. Ask Him to give you His eyes to look at your child. Ask Him to show you what divine talent He placed in your child and how you can be a part of developing it. Ask for grace, LOTS of grace to parent  your child. It has helped me a lot.

For myself, even though my mother gave me everything she could give me at that moment of raising my sister and me, this part is not that well developed in my childhood. As a adult I had to figure this part out and this is not an easy process. There is not much room to move in, to practice new things, to experiment, to make mistakes. There is a responsibility now, it’s not a game anymore. It is real life. That does not mean that it is impossible, just a bit harder. But when we are doing what we feel God has put in us, it builds us up. There is this feeling of satisfaction, wholeness, happiness.

I wonder what your talents are, how you developed it. I wonder what God is going to do with it. I pray God will bless the works of your hands, that He continues to help you grow in it and that it will be a blessing to many people around you. I pray that God will use the skills you picked up in life and use them powerfully to release His Kingdom here on earth. In Jesus name, amen.

From storms of life to lessons learned- class dismissed.

When I received Christ in my life, I have had many setbacks and difficult situations that I encountered. This is not new for me, for my life consistently displayed struggle and survivals, like probably many of you. Yes, since receiving Christ in my life and being serious in my pursuit, it is different. However, to be honest with you, I was convinced  that as a Christian these difficulties would change… in my case it didn’t.

Growing up, I had a very low self-esteem. I didn’t think that I was worth anything and I would look myself in the eyes through a mirror and be filled with hate and actually say it straight into my own face. At other times I would be filled with wonder why all these horrible things and feelings would be poured out over me. I got convinced that God must really hate me and there were moments I would be in my bedroom waving my arms through the sky, jumping up and down and scream at God why He hated me so much.

As a born again believer, the rough times remained, some by being obedient to the will of God and some due to poor choices that I made. I had to deal with the consequences. Yet God told me early on that I needed to hang in there (“Hold on, hold tight” repeated about 10 times or more), for I made poor choices, but He would bless it. That “Hold on, hold tight”  part is still going on after almost 6 years and in great anticipation I am waiting for that second part to fully come to pass. In the beginning of these years of ‘faith’ I would have moments that I would burst open to God yelling at Him that He really is not there for me at all! As a response a hand would lift up my head and as I was looking at the very dark sky outside, I noticed one star that did not have the size of a star, but much bigger. Not the brightness of a star, but much brighter. Strait away I knew God just put me back into place. And to make sure that I got it, this light was still there during daylight. Every now and then I would have these kinds of moments, until a month or two ago. In a conversation with God He compared my behavior with that of a two year old. I laughed really loud, because He was so right! I was that child on the floor, screaming and kicking for not getting what I wanted.

I have been struggling with God about this ‘storm’ topic for a while now. The bible says that He has placed everything under our feet, but as I was taking this authority, nothing happened. I was confused and maybe even a bit frustrated.  Until I realized, here is something that did happen: Now, when things get to overwhelming, I am ok. My thoughts about God remain calm and the truth is still burning inside me as a bright light. When I look into the mirror I’m able to look myself in the eyes and speak the God given truth and words of life to me. So what happened? What changed? Last week God showed me the moment Peter asked Jesus to tell him to walk towards Him over water (Matthew 14:27-33). Jesus did not say: “Wait Peter, let me first take away the storm. Let me make the wind and the sea calm and everything comfortable before you step out in faith and try to do something new”. No, Jesus already had put Peter in a couple of storms to prepare him for this next step of faith. All He said was “Come”. When later on Peter started to lose grip on his focus and started to feel the strong wind, doubt entered in and faith got paralyzed and sank. After this whole thing was over and Jesus stepped on the boat with Peter, the wind and the waves stopped instantly. Lessons learned- class dismissed .

From liquid cement to solid concrete

I’m getting more and more convinced that sometimes God is sending us in storms of life, so that first we get control over our own responses in these storms. Faith is a growing word, it takes one step at the time building a solid foundation and with the experiences that over time will develop faith into this cement to build Gods Kingdom as solid concrete. Three basic things needs to happen before you have cement: 1) Cement powder. 2) Water. 3) A mill to mix the ingredients into liquid cement. This in turn will transform into concrete to build walls, roads, buildings, and so on.

1. The cement powder I consider the word of God (Just like in Matt. 14:27).
2. The water comes from the Throne room of God, given by the Holy Spirit (Just like in Matt. 14:28).
3.  The cement mill would be the storms of life to mix it into a liquid cement. Then we are ready to step out of the boat and put that cement of faith and make concrete out of it (Just like in Matt. 14:29-32). This is where I believe authority will step in, the concrete itself.

As a conclusion, I would say that the storms of life are tough times. But if we want to grow in our faith and authority, we can’t miss any part of this process. The word of God (Cement powder) and the Holy Spirit with prayer & worship (Water) put inside of us, makes the difficulties mixing it into something to help us build our faith, character and our relationship with God stronger, further and of good use.  And if there are moments when doubt kicks in and faith gets paralyzed and makes you sink, remember that you can always cry out to God “Lord, save me.” Jesus will immediately reach out His hand and take hold of you. This is called Grace, we all need it every now and then.

Raising up determination

Have you been blessed with a child that has a strong determination? Or maybe you are a leader blessed by leading people that have a strong determination breathing in them?

Personally I have a daughter that is VERY determent in many things. I don’t know about you, but quite often it doesn't feel like a blessing to me at all. It can be very challenging or even difficult for me to deal with. But the fact of the matter is that it IS a blessing to have determination in you. We need it in the simple things in life like getting up in the morning, even when we don’t feel like it. Going to work, school or appointments. But also when there are dreams that God has put in us that needs determination to make it come to pass. Many of the successful and influential people will tell you that their success did not knock at the door and there it was. No, they had to work hard and make many sacrifices and try over and over again to get to where they are now. It took determination to get there.

So, it is a very important aspect of our lifes, and we as parents or leaders have the difficult task to give these people tools to tame and train this part of their character. For instance, determination without patience will turn into frustration. Likewise is determination with no goal attached to it, a very dangerous combination. You can compare it with a forest fire; it has no focus or boundary so it will release its drive to anything it can crab a hold on. To gain control over it we have the tendency to suppress it. This is not a healthy solution because our character is who we are, it is a part of us. We feel incomplete when we cannot be who God made us to be. Fire itself can be of good use, fire out of control is dangerous.

I strongly feel that God is warning us that we have to stop trying to put the fire out of the determination. But also that it needs to be tamed, trained and go through a period of boot camp, for we are in a race and we need perseverance to get to the finish line.

“(…) and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

Our job as parents and leaders is to help the people that have a strong determination in them, to find out what their goal is. What is it that God has put in them that needs this fire to get it to the level where God has intended it to come? I believe that when we start doing this early on in children’s lifes, we will see shifts coming in their behavior and also prepare them to walk into their God given destiny.

Every time Bill Johnson took his children to bed, he said the following to them:

“Remember, you are part of a team that is here to change the world. When you go to sleep tonight, ask God if there is anything that is impossible that He wants you to do.”

God will do the impossible through us, but it needs the fire of our determination to actually get to that point…now, in this age to come, more than ever.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13

An introduction of myself as a new Blogger.

Hello reader,

My name is Judith and I am a proud mother of a beautiful daughter Alicia, and we live in the Netherlands.

For a while now I feel the Lord preparing me to start writing down and share some of my experiences and thoughts of my journey with Jesus Christ and the challenges it sometimes brings. My hope and prayer is that it may be a blessing for whoever has decided to read it. I hope it might bring inspiration and sometimes maybe even bring comfort or conformation, if you find youself in that season where you need it. I pray that the Lord God will have His words flow through my Blogs.

To be honest, many people around me think of me as being a bit radical in my Christian walk. Fortunately for me, God calls it hungry and He loves it!

I am a follower of Christ from around 2009/2010. In that time up until now, God has done so much for me! He has grasped all of my attention and I am so grateful for the sacrifices He made to offer me an eternity with Him, from the moment I have accepted and received His grace over my life.

In my following blogs I will share some of the amazing things that God is showing me and explaining to me. Quite often I find myself blown away by what He reveals and Jesus is very clear that what we receive from heaven also needs to flow through us in order to keep it flowing and in that process bless others with it as well.

We serve a living God and Jesus is very much alive and kicking in heaven right now. Be prepared for the glory of the Love from God, to be manifesting itself and poured out here on earth, on a scale never seen before!

I pray that we, the people, will have an open heart to receive it in Jesus name, amen.

Blessings from me to you,

Judith Kleinhout