God is Able - Tribute

What to read this week:

• Chapter 7 and "Finally: Tell It" of God is Able

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Isaiah 43:7 (NLT)

Bring all who claim me as their God, for I have made them for my glory. It was I who created them.

This last chapter of this book is all about "to God be the glory"!! There are many places in scripture where it is clear that we were created for God. We were created for His glory.

When you hear that, what do you think about? Do you think about praising and worshiping Him? Do you think about telling others about Him? Do you think about declaring His power to the wolrd, telling everyone of all the amazing things He has done for you?

A lot of times, I think we do. We think of all the awesome things and we want to share them with everyone!! We should!! We should declare the amazing works of the Lord to those around us!!

What about when things are hard, before the amazing comes, before the awesome?? We often times forget that even in those times that seem the darkest, our purpose in life is still unchanged. Whether times are good or bad, we are still here to give glory to God.

It is through our darkest times that God's glory is able to shine the brightest. If we were never sick, we would never need God to heal us. If we were never broke, we wouldn't need Him to provide.  If we never had relationship problems, we wouldn't need Him to restore and repair our relationships.  If we were always living in the awesome and amazing, would we even recognize God's power and ability at all?

If after you have read and applied this book and the Word to your "it" you still are bearing the weight of it, do not leave this Bible study feeling defeated or as if nothing will ever change. Please know that God is setting you up to see the fulness of His glory in your life! Know that you are in the perfect position to see His glory shine brightest! 

Ephesians 3:21 says to Him be the glory in the church... Ladies, we are the church. For those of you who are still waiting for God to show His glory in your "it", we are here to wait with you, to pray with you, to laugh and cry with you. Keep posting in our Facebook group. Keep sharing with us how God is working and how we can keep praying with you!!

Now, some of you have seen some progress during this study. Some of you have seen God show up!  We want to hear about it!! Please share!!

Some of you may have had "its" that you didn't share with our group in the beginning,  but you named them for yourself.  God has been working in those also. If that is where you are at and would like to share them, please do.

No matter where we are at, lets finish this study, giving God glory!! Don't skip this!! Even if you don't feel like anything has changed, find one thing about your situation that you can publicly give God the glory for! Let's flood our Facebook group this week with "Glory in the Church"!!!

"to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:21

God Is Able - Turbo

What to Read this Week:
Chapter 6
Ephesians...
Throughout this chapter, Priscilla refers to scripture throughout every chapter of Ephesians. Take a few minutes and skim through Ephesians. Instead of giving you a set scripture reading this week (if I did, it would be the entire book of Ephesians) when you get to a verse listed in the book, look it up and read it out of your Bible so that you can see it in context!!

Chapter 6, in my opinion, is the most important chapter in this book. The main topic in this chapter is the Holy Spirit. Wow, that's a broad topic!! More specifically, it is the Power of the Holy Spirit and the fact that we, as Christians, have full access to that power all the time! We sometimes forget that and we sometimes leave that power untapped and under wraps.

Priscilla does a fantastic job expounding on this topic, so don't skip over reading the chapter! I am only gonna speak to one of the things that she mentioned. We can discuss it all on facebook throughout the rest of the week!!

After the illustration with the Mustang, the first thing she reminds us is that we have power, if we are a believer. That Ephesians 1:13 says, "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,"...

When we accept the gift of salvation and believe, we are given a measure of the Holy Spirit! From the moment we accept Christ, we have the power of the Holy Spirit available to us, ready and waiting for us to tap into it!!

There are an infinite number of situations that come our way. A great deal of them are more than we can handle on our own. Sometimes all the things in life just pile up and we can at times become overwhelmed and weary.

One of the quotes that stood out to me this week was: "God's power doesn't negate weariness; it just enables us to press through it with an uncommon persistence. No matter how tall our challenges are, His power in us is greater still."

I am more grateful every single day to know that on those days, in those moments, when life is hard and I am weary, that His power in me is greater!

Last week we talked about the "God Boxes" that we put God in. There is a section of this chapter called Fill'er Up that reminds us again, that we can limit the work of God in our lives by how we perceive Him.

Priscilla speaks of coming to the ocean of God's measureless power. What we bring with us to hold that power determines how much of His power we walk away with.
Bring a thimble,  fill a thimble...
Bring a bucket, fill a bucket...
Bring a wheelbarrow, fill a wheelbarrow...
Bring a two-ton tanker, fill a two-ton tanker...

This reminded me of something I have heard Angelia say frequently. When it comes to God, you can always have more!! There is no limit to how much of His Spirit that you have in you and at work in your life. Even if you feel like everything is going great, you can still approach the throne of God asking for more of Him. To be filled up with even more of His Spirit!!

"The more the Spirit's power is activated in your life, the more your capacity to experience God increases. He is faithful to fill that which you bring ready to receive."

God wants to fill us up to overflowing with His Holy Spirit. He wants us to use the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He gave us the Holy Spirit and He wants us to experience it in full!!

I know that in this group of ladies, there is a variety of levels of experience with the Holy Spirit.  Whether you are a new Christian and are just beginning to experience the Holy Spirit in your life, or you are a believer who is full of the Holy Spirit, baptized in it, speaking in tongues and operating in the gifts of the Spirit,  there is always more to be had.

This week, if you do nothing else... spend a little time, just asking God to give you more!! To fill you more!! He will!!

Discussion Starters:

1. My highlighter bled all over this chapter!! What about yours?? What is something from this chapter that stood out enough to you to highlight or underline it!! What caught your attention (even if you didn't actually highlight anything).

2. Starting on page 126 of the paperback book, in the Powered Up section of the chapter, Priscilla lists changes that occur in us when the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. Which ones have you experienced? Share with us your story of that experience.

3. At the end of this chapter we are reminded that we are in a war, we are constantly at battle with the same enemy our entire lives. That with all that our enemy has against us, we still have the power to win the battle. What is the armor we have and what are the weapons we use to fight the enemy?

God is Able - Totality

What to read this week:

• Chapter 5 of God is Able
• The story of Creation in Genesis 1-2.

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This week the majority of the post is in this video. After you watch it, head on over to Facebook and join the conversation!!

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Discussion Starters:

1. Let's pretend that before God created the universe and everything in it, that we were there with Him. Let's pretend that He asked us to tell Him what it is that we wanted this world to look like; what we wanted it to be like. What would you have told God?? What would you tell Him if you knew that whatever your answer was, that was all He would create. Nothing more, and nothing less.

2. Can you identify a "God Box" that you may have put God in?? What are some things you can do to take Him out of the box??

3. Can you name something that you aren't asking God for that you should be?? What keeps you from asking Him??

God is Able - Transcendence

What to read this week:

• Chapter 4 of God is Able
• 1 Samuel 17

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This week is going to be a little different...

Chapter 4 is the chapter that focuses on "exceeding abundantly beyond". Priscilla does a wonderful job of attempting to help us grasp just how above and beyond God's power is! But, in our humanity, I don't think there are words to truly make us understand it.

Go ahead and read chapter 4 and soak it in and see if you can gain a tiny glimpse of God's way past way past abilities. Then after you do that, come back here and watch the video on this page. It is close to an hour long so do it when you have time to sit down and really listen, I promise you, it will be worth it!!

Martha Tennison was the speaker at our Women's Fall Conference in 2012. If you were at that conference, the message she is preaching is not going to surprise you. She preached the same message at conference, but there are a few things that I think are different in this one. However, even if you have heard it before, I truly feel this week that we need to be reminded of it.

Not only should we know and believe that God CAN handle our battles, we need to realize that our battles are not ours, they are HIS!! And because we KNOW that He can do exceeding and abundantly above, we need to willingly and openly trust Him to fight those battles on our behalf.

One of the reasons that I enjoyed Sister Tennison so much (and still google to find messages to listen to that she has preached) is her countless stories of God doing exceeding and abundantly above and beyond. She is a woman who still believes unrelentingly in the power of the Holy Spirit, Miracles, and Signs and Wonders.

She is a pillar of the faith that I feel blessed to know about. We still serve a miracle working God!! Let's not forget that!! 

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Discussion Starters:

This week, I am not going to post specific questions. Let's just reflect on the chapter and on Sister Tennison's message, "The Battle is the Lords".

God is Able - Truth - Part 2

After struggling through writing a post for this week on Sunday afternoon, I went to church Sunday night and knew that God was either speaking to me directly, or He was giving me more to share with you ladies! Either way, it brings us back to the WORD!!

The service started off with a word from a man who visits occasionally, and typically gives a testimony when he is there. He spoke about Ephesians 3:20!! That God is able to do exceeding and abundantly more than we could ask or think!! I thought to myself, wow, that is the Bible study we are doing right now!!

Then, a special was sung before the message. It was the song Beautiful, by Kari Jobe. One part of that song says:

Here in Your presence
I am not afraid of brokenness
To wash Your feet with humble tears
I would be poured out till nothing's left
And I just wanna wait on You, my God
I just wanna dwell on who You are

Those words were lingering with me as the message began...

The message Sunday night was (in a nut shell)... God can do anything, but sometimes He doesn't do it. Sometimes He makes us wait. Sometimes He does things differently than we hoped that He would. If you read chapter 3 of our book, then you know this sounds familiar!  "Whether or not God chooses to do something is a question of His sovereignty, not His ability. Whether or not He will do it is His business. But believing that He can - that's our business."

The scripture that was used Sunday night was the story of Lazarus in John chapter 11. Let's talk about it for a few minutes.

I have had many moments over the last year that this story has come up. It is one that God has continually kept before me. If you are like I was before God kept bringing me to this passage of scripture, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead most likely for you, was always about just that...Jesus raising him from the dead! 

At first glance this appears to be a story of exceeding and abundantly above and beyond!! I mean, who would have ever imagined that Jesus would bring a person back to life?

Mary and Martha didn't... They knew that Jesus could heal. They believed that if Jesus had come sooner, than He could have prevented death for their brother. But to them death was final.

In fact, our Youth Pastor who was preaching Sunday night, pointed out even more that I didn't realize before. Lazarus wasn't just dead, he was 4 days dead! The significance of that is that day number 4 is when a body starts to decompose after death. So, not only was he dead, but parts of him were not even in existence anymore! So YES, Jesus raising him back to life WAS an exceeding and abundantly above and beyond moment!!!

But this story is about so much more than the miracle itself. It is a story about the process of the miracle...

It's a story about the moments when Gods timing isn't our timing. When Jesus heard that Lazarus was dying, the Bible says that He stayed two more days where He was at. He wasn't in a hurry!!

It's a story about our lack of faith in the hard times. Mary and Martha said, "If only you had been here, he would not have died." They said that more than once! Jesus even told them, "I am the resurrection and the life" and they still said, "Lord, if only you had been here..."

It's a story about how much God cares about the things that hurt us. This is the story in the Bible where the shortest verse is found. Two words with a huge impact. JESUS WEPT.

Why would Jesus cry over a man who had died when He knew that he was going to raise him back to life?? He wasn't crying for Lazarus. He was crying for His friends who were hurting. Scripture specifically says, "when He heard them crying" then He wept.

It is a story that reveals our tendency to bury our issues and to try as hard as we can to keep them buried. When Jesus asked Mary and Martha to take Him to Lazarus and to roll away the stone from the tomb, their response was, "Lord, he has been dead 4 days... he stinketh!!" It is like they were saying that this situation is too much to handle. It is impossible. We have covered up how badly it stinks and if we could, can we please just keep it hidden?

It's a story that shows us that we have to be willing to bring Jesus to our problems and to do what he tells us to do. If we invite Him in and are obedient to His commands, THEN He can work miracles. Jesus didn't roll the stone away Himself... He made them do it. 

So, when you are waiting on your miracle, think about Lazarus. God's timing, our faith, our willingness to bring Jesus into our situations (even when they are decomposing and stink... especially then!!), and our willingness to obey His instructions to us will all play a role in us seeing our miracle. 

And while we wait... in the middle of the struggle, in the middle of the hurt, in the middle of our brokenness, in the wee hours of the morning when we are crying tears over what we are going through... don't forget that Jesus is weeping with you!

Let's embrace those moments as opportunities to welcome His presence into wherever we happen to be at. To bask in his presence. To open up to Him in brokenness and tears,  and to just wait in Him...

Here in Your presence
I am not afraid of brokenness
To wash Your feet with humble tears
I would be poured out till nothing's left 
And I just wanna wait on You, my God
I just wanna dwell on who You are

God is Able - Truth

What to read this week:

• Chapter 3 of God is Able

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Straight off the bat this week, it's confession time... I don't believe in being someone I am not and I think the only way any of this works is if we are all being real!! So here is my "real" this week...

The last couple of weeks have been tough for me. I have felt disconnected and I have not been looking near enough at Jesus! I have been focused way too much on the situations I have been dealing with and not nearly enough on the Lord. (Yes, I know... even though we have been talking about that very thing!!)

I have put off working on this Bible study until the very last minute because I just haven't felt like I had any knowledge or wisdom to share. I have been pretty empty...

So, here I am, at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, still trying to come up with something to post for you amazing ladies this week. My goal is to have this done by Saturdays so that when I am at church on Sunday I can use the WiFi and just get it posted and shared in a matter of minutes. Instead, I am sitting here, still thinking... still praying... feeling pretty inadequate for this task.

You know how distracted you get when you aren't sure about the thing you are working on?? Yeah, well at least I get easily distracted... So I picked up my phone, and checked my Timehop! I know, I know... not much Jesus in that!! If you don't know what Timehop is, it is an app that gathers your social media posts for the same date over the past few years. So you see each day what you posted on Facebook, Twitter, etc... on this date last year, two years ago, three years ago, etc...

Here was my Timehop for today:

I don't generally remember details, especially from several years back, but I know exactly why and when I wrote this Facebook post. I had traveled with Angelia to Conway for a Section 15 Women's Rally. The night of the rally was really one of the greatest nights of my life. It was a challenging and hard night, because me and God got real about some things that were going on in my life, but it was the beginning of me trusting God to take care of the mess that I was living, a mess that I didn't even know HOW messy it was on that night... (And it was also the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but I won't get all mushy about that today!!) :)

Angelia preached that night about seasons of life. It was a tough message to hear because of where I was, but it was also tough because it was only three months after the wreck for her. She didn't really talk about that until it got closer to the end of the service, but I knew... I cried almost the entire service. Some moments because I was really angry at my situation. I was angry with God and thought that He had brought me to that service to convince me that my life was about to drastically change in a way that I wasn't ready for. I was angry that He wasn't stepping in and fixing my situation. 

But in the middle of all of this anger and hurt... I was watching Angelia talk about how good God is. I was listening to her say that we all go through seasons in life. Some are bright and cheery, those spring and summer moments... while some are dark and dreary and there are no signs of life. All the leaves have fallen off our trees and everything seems dead like the trees in the winter. But underneath it all, down deep in the roots, there is still life there... it is just waiting for the season to change so it can come back to the surface.

In my anger and hurt (toward God at the moment) I cried for me, but I also cried for her. I thought, "God, how can this woman (who I didn't know very well yet at that time) stand up in front of all of these women, three months after loosing her son and mother in law in a car accident, and say, it's just a season, the dark and dreary is just a season and some day it is going to end... How can she sit here and say that we were created for change and it is all a part of life. It just didn't make sense to me. I knew that if I had to walk in her shoes, I wouldn't be anywhere close to being able to say those things and even if the words came out of my mouth it would be with nowhere near the same amount of grace that she had.

Well, I didn't know her very well then, but I do now. The reason that she could say that, is because she knew deep down, without a shadow of a doubt, that even though her life had drastically changed, her God had NOT!! 

Our, frail, human life goes through constant changes... but our God NEVER changes. His ability to do the impossible in our lives today is no different from His ability to part the red sea for the Israelites. His ability to go above and beyond on our behalf, is no different from His ability to heal the people that He did through Jesus all throughout the new testament. 

That night in Conway, my life changed. Not because my circumstances changed, but because God met me where I was at... in the middle of my hurt, in the middle of my anger... in the middle of my questions about what tomorrow was gonna be like for me and my family. He met me there and He reassured me that no matter what my life threw at me, He was never going to leave me. He was always going to be there for me to provide, comfort, protect, and love me. Whether any other person or thing in my life stayed consistent, He was always going to be consistent. I was never going to have to wonder if God was there. Even when I didn't feel like He was, I could rest assured, that He was there, that He cared about me and my life, and that He was for me!

For me, that season of life that I was in three years ago, I want to say has changed... but some days I feel like my life is full of Arkansas seasons... you know, where there isn't a definite end, because the weather warms up for a few days and then goes right back down into the 30's!! God did not fix all my problems, no matter how many times I cried and begged!! 3 years later, God is still working in my season... But I know that He is doing, in His time, everything that He chooses to do in my life. My season is far warmer and much brighter than it was that night three years ago... and it is only by the grace of God. 

Through it all... He never changed...

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Discussion Starters:

1. What part of this chapter in the book jumped off the page at you this week?
2. Share some of your favorite stories from the Word of God where He showed up for His people!! Share your thoughts on some of the verses or stories that Priscilla shared in this chapter.
3. Is there a time in your life where you have had to lean on the truth that God was still God and He was still working and moving on your behalf, even if you couldn't see Him in your circumstances... even if He chose not to answer your prayers the way you had hoped?

God is Able - Turning

What to read this week:

• Chapter 2 of God is Able
• Numbers 13
• John 20:11-18

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This week we are reading Chapter 2...Turning...

In this chapter there are two stories from the Bible about people who fixed their eyes on the Lord. One was from Numbers chapter 13 and the other from John 20. I do want us to read those directly from the Bible (not just the summary that is given in the book) and I do want us to discuss them in the Facebook group this week, but I am not going to comment much on those now, I will let you guys get that conversation going over on Facebook.

While I was reading this chapter, an old hymn came to my mind. Standing on the Promises... Here are the lyrics to that hymn in case you aren't familiar with it.

Standing on the Promises

Written by Russell K. Carter

Standing on the promises of Christ my King,

Through eternal ages let His praises ring,

Glory in the highest, I will shout and sing,

Standing on the promises of God.

Refrain:

Standing, standing,

Standing on the promises of God my Savior;

Standing, standing,

I’m standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises that cannot fail,

When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,

By the living Word of God I shall prevail,

Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I now can see

Perfect, present cleansing in the blood for me;

Standing in the liberty where Christ makes free,

Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord,

Bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord,

Overcoming daily with the Spirit’s sword,

Standing on the promises of God.

Standing on the promises I cannot fall,

Listening every moment to the Spirit’s call,

Resting in my Savior as my all in all,

Standing on the promises of God.

What an amazing hymn!! It is even more amazing when you know the story behind it. When Russell Carter was 30 years old, he was diagnosed with a fatal heart condition and doctors told him that he would not live much longer. He knelt down before the Lord and prayed. He told God that no matter what happened, from that moment on, whether he was healed or not, he would live the rest of his life wholeheartedly serving the Lord.

Carter had been a professing Christian most of his life, but had never until this time in his life really believed the promises of the Word of God. When diagnosed with his heart condition, he turned to Christ and leaned on the promises in His Word like never before. When he was 37 years old he wrote this hymn.

Carter lived to be 79 years old!! If you need me to do the math for you, that is about 49 years longer than doctors anticipated!!

What a testimony! What a blessing this hymn has been for so many years to so many people. I sort of wish we were all together in one room, just so we could sing it together. Here is a clip of Selah singing it (in a medley with a few other great old hymns)!!



My greatest hope for this week, as a community of believers, a community of sisters in Christ, is that we can come together to really, truly, wholeheartedly, help our fellow sisters in Christ find the promises that they need to stand on for their life.

Everyone's situation is different, and the Word of God is full of so many great promises. Sometimes we are so focused on our issues that we struggle to find the scriptures that we need to focus on instead, so let's help a sister out!!

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Discussion Starters:

1. What part of this chapter in the book or in the story in Numbers 13 or John 20 jumped off the page at you this week?
2. The Chapter talks about three places that we turn to instead of to God, to others, to ourselves, and to our "junk". What happens when we turn to these things and why is each one of them not the answer?
3. Why is turning to Jesus so important in any situation? What are practical ways that we can focus our attention on Jesus??
4. ***Group Project***
   As a group this week, I want us to come up with a good sized list of promises from the Word of God that we as believers can stand on. That we can memorize, write, post on our mirrors and refrigerator doors, to help us get through trying times. Comment here with your promises (be sure to include the scripture reference) and I will create a master list to share.